australian sunsets are the best in the world.

i think i could live here. as in, if i met an australian i would maybe possibly choose to stay here. the people are so warm, everyone is chill, but they care deeply about their environment and will do everything in their power to protect it. they have more kangaroos than people, have numerous coffee/tea breaks per day, and all live fairly near the beach. sure they'll tell you how the feel straight up, but if we're all thinking it, why not just say it?

yesterday was intense. rode a camel, petted kangaroos, wombats, alpacas, goats, and deer, saw a sunset on the beach, had my first meat pie, fish and chips, and stamp from a pub, and had some eye opening experiences. today i fell in love with the people at the church, had my second dose of fish and chips, walked around fremantle, which is one of the first settlements in australia, and had some awesome snickers gelato.

tomorrow we're heading to banksia, which is the detention center, and i think we're going to be there for 6 hours both monday and tuesday. i think both of these days are going to be pretty exhausting but i am praying i make it through this week and the next two with heightened stamina and renewed energy.

cell phones are ridiculous.

australia is weird. there i said it.

not sure i'm sold on whether i like it better than europe, it's just a completely different experience. not that i expected it to be similar since this is a mission trip, but we've hardly seen anything perth related besides downtown and so many things are similar i'm having a hard time believing we're actually in a)the southern hemisphere, b)outside of the US, and c)on the other side of the world. i can understand everyone, food is the same but blander, and it looks (but definitely doesn't feel) like phoenix.

but they drive on the other side of the road, their toilets are in a different room than their showers and sinks, they call math "maths" and are confused when you call it plain math, and they actually don't care that much for soccer. we also have to fill out some form to work with kids at the end of the month because it's past a two week limit of being in the states (even though it won't be processed before we leave...), continuously search for outlets because there seems to be a shortage and then remember that you have to flip a switch to actually get power, and um i think our house has ONE trash can. weird.

but, i LOVE the people. the people at the church are fantastic and even playing with the kids tonight completely warmed my heart. sure they were cussing at us and hating us because we were dominating them in a game but kids say the darnedest things. "she's a girl! you'll break her nails!" can't wait for more of that.

tomorrow we're going to the primary school to do skits and what not. could get pretty interesting! tomorrow night we're going to see toy story 3 and eat at hans (i think that's what it's called...) Saturday we're going to go ride camels!! I feel like that is something I won't ever do in my life again.

man australian commercials are weird...

no worries mate.

wooowee I am tired! If it's 8:11 am at home it means I've almost been up for two straight days. I did get some sleep here and there but I will be snoozing well tonight! It's currently 9:11 PM here which means Perth is 13 hours ahead of us! We completely missed out on Sunday!!

It's weird, I thought it would all obviously be Australian but I'm feeling more like it's home than anywhere I've ever travelled before. Probably because there's not a language barrier (even though some accents on words get me confused, ie. the cat's name is mocha but i keep hearing it as marka) and everything is relatively the same "class wise". Similar cars, similar eateries, similar radio. But they drive on the left side and have awesome accents.

Anywho, just wanted to let you know we all arrived safely. Not too many adventures yet, though our credit/debit cards keep getting declined, the dog gets very happy very fast, and we might have a booking to go ride camels this weekend! It's already pretty chilly here, I wore jeans, a long sleeved tshirt and my lipscomb hoodie and was still freezing. Oh well, I'm enjoying the nice respite from the 98 degrees at home. (give me just one night, una noche....) ;P

Tomorrow is a briefing and basically a time to just go through everything we're doing. fun?

strange.

it's weird. i'm packed and ready to go to australia but i'm not nervous or anxious, it's like it's just another trip. yeah it's just a mission trip, and yes it's just a month unlike the last time i went across the world, but i think i should be a little jittery!

surely i'm missing something but i'm a safe distance away from 50 pounds and i think i'm well equipped for any occasion for a month. it's also not a third world country, if i'm missing anything serious i can get it.

eeeeeeep i'm so excited!!! it's AUSTRALIA!!!!!

toy story 3 tonight with the family and emily! :D

this is my temporary home.

yikes. what a strange couple of days.

i was going to go in late to work on thursday because my mom was staying home, and while i was getting ready i was reading tweets on my phone. i come across some saying things along the line of "robert you will be missed." my heart stops. only one robert comes to mind. i anxiously texted my friends and my thoughts were confirmed. robert moss had in fact died.

i cannot pretend that we were amazing friends or anything, but he would always have been cemented in my list of people that made high school for me. he was close to many of my close friends even to this day. i will always remember him as my homecoming partner, the attractive drummer with a permanent smile on his face, a kind funny fellow that always offered me hugs. surely this doesn't come as a surprise, but i had a huge crush on him (yes even after he started dating amy). who wouldn't? he was a superb human being.

i'm ashamed to say that i've lost touch with several of my friends since high school, i'm ashamed that i didn't even know he was feeling so depressed. all i know is that he is in such a better place now. God is filling him with the peace and joy that he didn't find here. he's pain free.

monday is the visitation from 4-8 at woodfins, with the funeral being held at 10 on tuesday at first united methodist on thompson lane. i am not looking forward to either. this is one of the times where i hate that i'm so emotional. however, if funerals are good for anything at all, they're good for bringing friends together again. i wish i were seeing everyone i know i'll run into in better circumstances, but it will be good to see them again, however hard it's going to be for each and every one of us.

my prayers are still going out the Moss, Jordan, and Knox families.

"this is my temporary home

it's not where i belong

windows and rooms that i'm just passin' through

this is just a stop, on the way to where i'm going

i'm not afraid because i know this is my

temporary home."

16 days til my next adventure starts!! I will hopefully be keeping up with this blog while I'm there as well. We calculated the travel time... I think we will be traveling for more than a day... about 26 hours. So crazy that it takes so long to get to the other side of the world, but then again, it is the other side of the world...

So have you been keeping up with Glee? Isn't it fabulous? We're about 5 days away from the season finale. I'm not even sure when it's supposed to be coming back in the fall or if they're going to wait until after the Super Bowl to start. My 80 Glee songs on my iPod will have to wait that long I guess.

I'm getting really excited about so many things. But there's always so many things to be excited about. :)

i'm so sick of feeling this way. it's not healthy and it's foolish of me, but i can't help it. i hate feeling alone when i'm surrounded by people. i'm too young for this.