A note of thanks.

I don't know if it's because I'll be leaving this place in just over a week.

Maybe it's because this crazy, wonderful, and new experience will be over before I know it. Maybe it's because I've been going through the pictures and things I've accumulated here lately. 

But today at church we heard a message on this verse:

"A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven" John 3:27

And sang these lyrics:

"Hallelujah, for all you've done" 

And I was overwhelmed with so much thanks and gratitude to my God, my Father in heaven who provides.  

Several times during this trip I got to feeling lucky. Lucky to be in such a beautiful place as Australia. Lucky for the chance to travel. Lucky for the good weather on all of my trips. Lucky for having been matched up with the most loving and caring host family. Lucky to have found community here. Lucky to have met all the wonderful people that I've known here. Lucky to have great friends and family back home who show their love and support for me. 

But then I stop, and remind myself that none of these things are luck. They are God-given. For as John says, I have not received one thing that is not from heaven. I have seen God's loving and guiding hand throughout my travels. And today, as I should be everyday, I am floored. 

It's been an unforgettable semester full of growth and discovery, and I will be sad when this era of my life becomes just another memory. But I also look forward to going on in faith, to test His good and perfect will for me. Wherever that may lead me.

There is no denying it:

My God is so good.
He is so good to me. 

The Adventures of Flat Jin and Eunice

If you have no idea who flat Jin and Eunice are you can read all about them here. 

I'm going to tell you guys the story of how flat Jin and Eunice almost drowned in New Zealand.

As some of you may know, I went to New Zealand over my Easter Break.  I probably shouldn't try to do New Zealand justice with words because simply put, I have no such talent in writing.  The lyrics to Starfield's "Filled with Your Glory," however, is probably the closest expression of what I saw and felt in New Zealand. Secretly, this is where they wrote the song. So secret that Tim and Jon Neufeld don't even know. :P

Anyways, so back to flat Jin and Eunice.

I introduced my flat friends to my travel buddies Iana, Sara, and Courtney for the first time on this trip. Initially I was pretty nervous about bringing them out of my bag for fear of ostracism and judgment, but the moment to explain came when flat Jin and Eunice defiantly popped out of my bag while we were unpacking in our first hostel.

"Linda.... what is that?" I heard. And in my mind I was thinking, "Alright. Well, this is it. The moment of truth. I can explain this. I can explain this and still pass as normal!" hahaha. But honestly, I had nothing to worry about in the first place. My new friends and old friends got along swimmingly :)

We stopped by many places in the South Island of New Zealand via the "Kiwi Experience" hop on hop off tour bus. One of the towns we stopped by was called Lake Wanaka. It was a small town with a beautiful blue lake set against the backdrop of many mountains. My friend Iana took an amazing panoramic photo that I'm using right now as a timeline cover. Go check it out :)

Lake Wanaka

As we were taking in the picturesque scenery on the docks, I spied ducks bobbing up and down with the current of the water.  It reminded me of my friend Eunice because she. loves. ducks. So naturally, I took out flat Jin and Eunice and attempted to take a decent photo of it and the ducks in the background

One of many attempts.

As I was passionately engaged in my new project, I felt the popsicle stick handle slowly slip out of my hand as the wind suddenly picked up. It was a very slow motion "noooooooooooooo" or "thissss wouldddd happeennnn tooooo meeee" moment.

Flat Jin and Eunice went overboard and were now also bobbing up and down with the ducks, face up. It was quite a sight to see-- to see your friends' faces just surfing the waves of a famous tourist attraction. If I weren't in so much shock and panic, I would have stopped to take a photo.

But by this point, I was pretty distressed and panicked.

This was my panicked train of thought: "What have I doneeeee? What do I doooo?" "I have to jump in, don't I?" "It's not that deep, it's not that cold" "Wait, but I do have another set at home" "Agggh, but Eunice made these for me." "those freaking ducks!!"

I began to roll up my pants and started mentally preparing myself for a little dip in the cold water until Iana, the voice of reason, pointed out that flat Jin and Eunice would probably wash up on shore again pretty soon. And that they did.

So with no thanks due to drama queen panicky Linda and with a little common sense provided by Iana, flat Jin and Eunice were rescued :)

ta-da!

So this is the story of how Jin and Eunice, you guys swam with the ducks in Lake Wanaka in spirit. All thanks and credit should be addressed to my clumsiness.

I am counting down the days until I get to see real Jin and Eunice. They are definitely harder to throw into a lake. That's what I like about them <3

Welp.

I finally got my graph theory final over with today, and void of feeling any joy or excitement I am just numb with fatigue. My poor, aching, and aging body can't handle all-nighters anymore.

I came home right after finals planning to take a nap, but I couldn't fall asleep. In the evening, I went back into the city to have a farewell dinner for one of my friends leaving for America this week (My life right now is a less scandalous version of And Then There Were None. All my friends are leaving me one by one :/). She chose a restaurant in the Greek precinct for us to try, which was perfect because I had been meaning to try the food there. I had the most delicious baklava for dessert. But, my friends ordered something even better. It was called a galaktoboureko. Try to pronounce it! Here's a hint: Initially, I thought I heard "galactical burrito".

I could blame it on my lack of sleep... I could.

It's one thing to walk around bryn mawr campus looking like a crazy scary stress monster after having pulled an all-nighter, but it's something else roaming the city of Melbourne as one. The system here is so strange. They asked us to go to the Royal Exhibition Building which isn't even on campus. It's a world heritage site-listed building located ten to fifteen minutes east of our school.

I walked into the giant hall in a sleepy daze, and I thought I was dreaming.  It literally looked like I had come to take my N.E.W.T.s at Hogwarts. Just rows and rows of at least 2,000 desks and chairs all waiting to be filled by students through seat assignments. I was number 890. In hindsight, I guess it was pretty cool taking my exam in a historic site. It'd be the equivalent of taking my finals at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Anyways, I'll feel a bit more free and ecstatic after I sleep this off. Yawwwwwwwnnn. (<- reporting my yawns to you all in real time). Onto Chinese, Education, and African Drum and Dance it is!

I envy all of you on summer break. It is a cold and dreary winter here in Melbourne.

Oh how the tables have turned! Permission to point and laugh/cackle granted. :'(

NOT bored and NOT procrastinating.

A friend recently told me he noticed that I was blogging more frequently. He said that I must either be bored or procrastinating. What an annoying assumption! I don't have to be bored or procrastinating to want to share my Australian life with the internet!!!

But actually yea, haha that's exactly what it is.

Let's compare my Google calendars from March & April to May:

March!

April!

May...

Please ignore the writing in the blue. No, I did not religiously attend the Turf Club and the Perseverance 90's Night every Monday and Friday night. My actual schedule is written in in red. The blue is just MUSEX's (Melbourne Uni Students on Exchange. Their motto is "go hard before you go home") way of reminding me of just how anti-social I am :(

There were only 3 places I wanted to travel to before I got to Australia: Sydney, Carins (Great Barrier Reef), and New Zealand. Now that I've had my fill of traveling, I am ready to settle down in Melbourne, ace my exams (alert: false confidence! false confidence!), and write blog posts about my adventures :)

I have a new resolution. It is to be extremely stingy with my promises because being a flaky, promise-breaker is not an aspiration of mine. So here are some totally realistic and doable goals for my last month here:

• For the love of Timtams, upload your pictures onto facebook.
• Get pictures from Iana on a flashdrive.
• Do a post on the following trips:
• Sydney
• New Zealand
• Great Barrier Reef 
• Mountaineering club intro trip
• The Great Ocean Road
• Melbourne Night Markets
• Moomba Festival
• Go to a Footy (Australian Rules Football) game.
• Go to the Victoria market at least one more time.
• Study in the state library.

They're not promises, but I hope I accomplish these goals. I write in this blog so that I can read back on my adventures 10 years from now as a grumpy 30-year-old teacher, and say to myself: See? Life was good once.

haha jk. God-willing life will be good then too :) (Don't shake my head at me, 30-year-old Linda. I'm not naive!)

Did I just have a conversation with my future self?

yes.

And that is why I don't publicize certain entries.

Buhbye! :)

All Aboard

Lately, I find myself frequenting this blog just wanting to jot things down, even the most mundane aspects of my life here in Australia :)

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have my Graph Theory class at 9am.  I live out in a northwestern suburb of Melbourne called Strathmore so that means I should be on the train by 8am-ish. Give or take 15 minutes depending on how sleepy I am. So yea, basically 8:15 haha.

8am is peak rush hour here so by the time I get on the train there are no seats left for me, which is fine. I'm always thankful for even being able to get on the train. As the train moves from one station to the next, my fellow standing commuters and I, we begin to play our silent game of human Tetris. It's not a very fun game, but everyone always participates!

I thought packing people into trains/buses like sardines was an Asian thing. But I was wrong. It's more of a overpopulated metropolis thing haha. One time, one very sleepy morning, I fell asleep standing up on the train because it gets to that point where you can't even fall over. That is, if you had such a talent like mine where you can fall asleep at any place, any time, anywhere. (yes, by talent I do mean sleeping disorder : /)

As we get closer and closer to the CBD (stands for Central Business District or what would be known as center city in the states), we pull up to stations full of people who peer hopefully into the train windows only to find us sardines packed to the max. The effect that the train pulling into these latter stations has is kinda funny. Smiles are wiped off people's faces instantly and they all begin to simultaneously roll their eyes or frown. I feel for them. My condolences to the people of Kensington and Newmarket station!

Tomorrow is my last day of class so it'll also be my last morning peak hour commute! Despite all of the unpleasantness described above, I will miss commuting. I'll miss playing tetris with the business men and women, the high school students, and fellow Uni students of Melbourne.

I think it's one of the most interesting places to be in any city, on trains.

Flinder's Street Station

More peaceful evening commutes :)

Upside Down Inside Out

I have discovered, via facebook stalking, that a lot of my friends here have travel blogs. As I was browsing through them, I found a quote in my friend Christine's blog from this book:

"I wouldn't want anybody here in Sydney to hear me say this, for fear of execution, but I think Melbourne's better than Sydney. Streets ahead of it. Sydney's all flash and glamour, like the beautiful younger sister. She catches your attention first and you're beguiled, seduced in a moment. But then your attention slowly starts to wane and suddenly you notice Melbourne. The quieter, more demure sister, on the surface. Until you discover that still waters run deep and Melbourne's the one you really fall in love with"

Now, I'm not saying that this quote reflects how I feel about Melbourne vs. Sydney for fear of execution by Christine Yi or Amy Chang (the only "Sydney people" I know). But here I am posting it, because all unrealistic fears aside, I think the author summed it up perfectly =]

Maybe I'll read the whole book. The annoying thing is, I lost my student ID so I can't check out any more books from my favorite library on campus for a while. So sad, I just twiddle my thumbs all the way home on the train now. 

Life is Downton Abbey

Every Sunday night, I join my host family for dinner and we watch Australia's Dancing with the Stars together. Guess what Scary Spice from the Spice Girls is up to nowadays? Yup, she is now hosting Australia's Dancing with the Stars. Haha so random. 

I've noticed that all the shows on Australian TV are either American shows, Australian versions of American shows, or Downton Abbey.

Dancing with the Stars is an interesting one. I've never really watched it before, and I can't say that I'm too into it now. My reality dance show of choice is So You Think You Can Dance. 

But I saw something amazing on Dancing with the Stars this past Sunday Night-- a Viennese Waltz to celebrate the return of Downton Abbey. And as I have many friends who are Downton Abbey fans I thought I would share:

While I was traveling in New Zealand, I met an English police lady who I happened to be sitting next to on our tour bus, the "Kiwi Experience".  She was telling me about how she had been an extra in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Bridget Jones Diary 2 in her college years. "I'm the woman behind the mother when Charlie comes back to say goodbye to his family," she said. I'll let you know if it's true once I get around to watching it haha. Anyways, I asked her about Downton Abbey and according to her, it's a guilty pleasure show that everyone watches back in England.

A guilty pleasure?  My standards for a guilty pleasure are apparently much much lower than the average English person.  Who can resist Mary and Math-yew? Haha I can't wait for the newest season. Does anybody know when it comes out?

I love the soundtrack to this show as well, so it goes without saying I very much enjoyed this performance =)