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!