Birthday!

What a wonderful week I am having!

It's been a different birthday than normal... it's not really California May weather. However, it was still nice, with a light sprinkling a few times yesterday.
I spent some of the day housecleaning (normal Wednesday activities) but Skype with my family for an hour or so before hand, where I learned some very exciting news! On my way home from Australia in Sept/Oct, I'm planning on stopping in New Zealand and meeting my parents for some awesome traveling and touring of a beautiful country! YAAAAAY! It took me a few minutes to process this information, but after Skyping, I was giggling/crying and hopping around the house like a crazy person. I really needed to clean something. I also received a wonderful  package of goodies and gifts from family!
That evening, I went to my bible study, where my group had a lil celebration for me. Cake and all! It was marvelous!
Tomorrow, I am leaving for the long weekend with the young adult ministry from church for a sports retreat! Yes, sports! Of course, I signed up for things like... well... dodgeball! That will be a blast! The sport center we are staying at is 2-3 hours drive south of us. I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend!
So, I think it's safe to say that I had a lovely day!
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I feel very loved and supported from everyone back home, as well as everyone here in Australia!

A World Of People

Current mood: joy-filled! Also current mood: Oh my, I am going to miss all of these wonderful people!
Apologies for being so lazy in updating this blog. I kept waiting for something extra exciting to happen for me to write about... as if just being here isn't enough. (It is, by the way. Thus, I am now writing.)
This month of May has been the best so far, since I left home nearly 3 months ago! 3 months! Yikes! I don't know if I ever officially posted this, but I'm planning on coming home in August. Which is 6 months in total, which means that I am about halfway through my travels.
The time has flown by so quickly. I'm equally excited and sad; I can't wait to be home and see everyone I am missing, but at the same time, I'm already dreading missing everyone I have come to know and love here in Perth. And that seems to be a pretty long list. I'm definitely going to have to plan a reunion trip in a couple years.
My relationship with my host family has grown, I feel, over the last month, probably because I feel more comfortable and am opening up, and really love spending time with them. I no longer find it difficult to communicate, and feel completely able to speak my mind about anything and everything. I love Sarah! This little girl is hilarious, sweet, and so much fun! She's been really getting attached to me recently (calling "Emily, Emily, Emily" all the time) and I've had fun taking her to the duck pond, playground, music class, etc. I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to her.
Something that I've noticed about Perth, no scratch that, something that I've noticed about Modesto... we are so stinkin' un-diverse that it's ridonculus! As limited as I am from places I have lived in my life (at this point, two), I really don't know how diverse other cities are in relation to this one, but I have met so many different people from different cultures and countries and backgrounds in the short time I have been here! And each time I do meet someone new, and not from Perth (there's a lot), I suddenly feel a sense of connection to that distant place, like I could go there and be able to find some sort of community within it. I hold a knowledge that I could somehow travel to Singapore, Korea, Germany, China, South Africa, France, and several places in the US and Australia, and be okay. Not that I will, I mean, that's a lot of traveling. But I know people who have lived there or grew up there, at that makes it really feel like it could be a home, not for me to live in, but possibly to visit.
All this diversity makes me aware of how minute cultural differences are in the big scheme of things. Humanity is all in this together. County allegiances don't matter. Culture doesn't matter. Language doesn't matter. All that matters is that we are all human, and all marvelous creations, made in the very image of God, and He has set all of our lives in motion, giving us the very breath in our lungs. This may not be a very patriotic thing to say... oh well... I'm not that patriotic of a person anyways. I do love my country, but I also love other countries! I love this whole, giant planet of people!
We are all connected (in the great circle of life)!

Hah, sorry. I wasn't planning to write that last part, but my fingers were faster than my brain, apparently. Three cheers for Disney references!

Caversham Wildlife Park

I haven't posted anything on my blog since just after Easter. Whoops. Sorry guys! The last couple of weeks just flew by so quickly that I really didn't have time to think up anything interesting or fun or exciting to write about. But you are in luck, dear bloggies of mine, because yesterday I did something. Something interesting, fun, and exciting. Something that made me feel like I had officially arrived in Australia.

 

This is Caversham Wildlife Park! I came here yesterday, a Saturday, with a couple of friends.The park was about 30-45 minutes away from my house, and nestled in a beautiful, green foresty area. There were LOTS of birds...

 This is a cassowary! And it made me feel like I was in Jurassic Park, for some reason.

 There were lots of owls...

 

 A GIANT ostrich. I really didn't realize how big these birds are. They are HUGE!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

merry merry king of the bushels, he

laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra

gay your life must be.

And a whole bunch of parroty-type birds... seriously, they were all over the place! They also are flying around in the wild here, which is really really neat to see. The birds here are all so colorful! And I loved seeing them up close and personal at the park. But this was not my favorite part...

 

 Apart from all the wonderful birds, I also had the joy to pet this cute little possum! Not opossum. Possum. Big difference. Opossums are ugly and scary. Possums are cute and fluffy. However, I have heard that they are kind of pesky and can do quite a bit of damage if they get in the roofing of a house. But at least they are cute!

 Wallabies... (didgeridoo... Hugh Jackman)

There were several different varieties of wallabies, hopping all over the park. They were really like little kangaroos, but I think I liked the kangaroos more. (We will get to that later. Can't wait!)

Flying foxes! These were very fun to watch. I like this picture a lot though. This particular bat is named Dracula.

(I don't actually know that, but he reminded me of Dracula.)






Aaaaand Australian Dingos! They really looked just like Aussie cattle dogs or heelers. I doubt they would be as cuddly, though. I didn't really get good pictures of them, but they were very pretty.

Now comes the good part!


The koalas! They were very cute and soft! We were able to go up to them and pet them gently with the back of our hand. And they were the best at posing for pictures.

  So basically, the park had about 30-40 kangaroos, just hanging out, laying around, and we were able to walk right up and pet them! It was amazing! Now kids, don't do this in the wild. You will get kicked. But at Caversham, they must be handled from birth. All the kangaroos were very gentle, even friendly! Food was provided to give to them, and they would hop up to you and put their little hands up and take to nibbles very lightly from your hands!

 Lookit that face! Super adorable!

  

And yes, this is, in fact, a picture of me holding a joey wrapped in a blanket! I was very excited! This just may have been the highlight of the trip!

So, the lessons learned, if anyone is ever in Western Australia, go to Caversham Wildlife Park! The experience is easily worth the $25 entry fee! The memories will last forever!