USA DAY and Friends! And other deep stuff.

Thus commenced my first strictly American holiday outside of America. As I am not a hugely patriotic person, I wasn't expecting to really miss Independence Day. But as the 4th grew closer, I started feeling a little down in the dumps about missing out on the traditional barbeques, fireworks, and wonderful family get-togethers. Lucky for me, I have awesome friends!

 

What's more American than freshly baked apple pie? Anything? No, I thought not! And it was even better than it would have been back in the States because we weren't eating it in 100 degree heat! So ha! In fact, apple pie is best on rainy, winter evenings, watching movies! I know this now from experience. 

Besides this delicious pie, on Saturday I went to a BBQ (hosted by some other Americans. Go us!) with genuine American hot dogs and buns, chili, sparklers, and not one, but two USA flag cakes! Aaaand we sang "Happy Birthday" to America. Yup. I'm sure the other people at the park thought we were weird. But oh well.

Today (Sunday), the weekend finished strong with a friend's birthday party, dozens of new faces to become acquainted with, and, wouldn't you know it, MORE YUMMY CAKE! Wow. I'm only realizing this now, how much sugary stuff I ate this weekend. I think I'm going to have to diet next week. But it was worth it! Anyhow, I sat at a table in this bar (never been in a real bar, but have to say, I think Aussie ones are a lot nicer than American ones. It was pretty much a restaurant that just served more drinks than food.) and talked with a few different people for a good fours hours. The time flew by, and I listened and chatted and delved into several deep-ish topics of future careers, spiritual warfare, God's will, and faith in general. Super conversations with super people. I have come to realize that the friends I have made here have only known me, what, 3-4 months, and they already know me better than probably most of the people back home. I just connect so easily, and find it so easy to talk about myself and my feelings and fears and hopes and dreams. It could be (well, I pretty much know it is) because I basically forced myself to leave behind everyone and everything familiar, and in the chasm of my empty social life, my Aussie friends have filled the gap. I'm going to be so very sad to say goodbye in a mere three months, but am excited to go home and actually start taking advantage of the wonderful relationships I left behind. I have recently realized that I hardly put any value on relationships in the past. That is going to change, people back home! We are going to be so freakin' social you all won't know what time of day it is! 

There you go, my weekend in a nutshell! And a bit more from my soul. :) Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth, and that summer is not to terrible... 

... yeah, like that could happen. 

Loves! xoxo

The Long Weekend That Made Me Want To Stay

This weekend was special. Of all the fun times I have had in Perth since I arrived, there was something about this weekend is the one that made me wish I could just live here forever. I am thinking about all the close friends I have made, a lot of them closer to my heart than I ever would have dreamt possibly in a mere four months. My host family is currently away on a 5-day trip (Saturday to Wednesday) down south with their extended family, and the time without them also makes me realize that I will miss them dearly when I return to America.
I was slightly apprehensive about this long weekend. Excited but apprehensive. I could just picture myself laying around the house for five days, staring like a zombie at the TV or my computer screen, more of less going insane from boredom and lack of human contact. I could not have been further from the truth! In fact, I spent more time out with friends than I did at home! So, a brief (I will try to be brief) rundown...
Saturday: Got up and saw off my host family at around 8:45. Then at noon, the excitement began. I picked up a friend, Ivy, who lived nearby, and drove to another friend, Cherith's, house. Monopoly ensued, pulling us into an intense, three and a half hour game. At around 4 we starting thinking about dinner, and instead of eating out, we decided to run to the grocery store and buy a few things to make enchiladas! We had a nice adventure making those, then sat and watched Miss Congeniality, listening to the rain hammer down outside. It was really comin' down that day. We left at around 9:30, and I got home around 10, and pretty much went straight to bed.
Sunday: Now, here goes the crazy bit. I woke up, got ready for the day, and went to church (awesome service and baptisms this weekend!). After the service, I went out to lunch with an awesome group of about 9 (9?) people, including myself. Food was great, and convos were ever more fun. We actually sat at the table talking/singing/laughing/quoting various things until 3:00. As the group started to split up, I went with my friend, Connie, to Cottesloe beach, where we wandered, searching for a venue for an upcoming birthday party for an hour or so, then were joined by Jess and Ivy. We wandered a bit more. I love wandering. At around 5:00, Jess, Ivy, and I headed back to Jess's house, then back out to pick up food for dinner, and a movie! It was a semi-scary thiller, not too gory or anything, but films with serial killers in them will always make your skin crawl. We watched the movie, then hung around, snuggled under blankets, for quite a while. It was close to freezing that night, so we went to great lengths to stay covered as long as possible. Long story short, neither Ivy or I felt like driving home at 11:00 at night in the freezing cold after watching a scary movie. So we camped out on Jess's living room floor.
Monday: In the morning, we woke up, ate a yummy breakfast, then drove back home to shower and change into fresh clothes. Then we (Connie, Jess, Cherith, Ivy, and I) went back out to watch How To Train Your Dragon 2 in cinemas! Awesome movie, by the way! Afterward, we wandered (again, more wandering) around the shopping center, which was sort of like a big American mall, got some drinks, and sat around to chat a bit.  Then I drove back home, got changed, and went back to Jess's house for a supercool workout session! I feel like I'm going be sore tomorrow, but it was well worth it. We ate dinner, then just relaxed and were joined by Cherith and Ivy a while later in the night. Then I came home... phew. I can say without a moment of hesitation that I am excited to go to bed tonight.
The weekend has felt so wonderful to me, both because of the fact that I am pretty much completely independent and have nothing to do, but mostly because I am just bursting with gratitude for all of my wonderful friends! I feel so utterly loved and accepted, and it is amazing. I have no doubt that I will have a very difficult time saying goodbye to them all in October. Tears probably will be shed. But it's so amazing! Being away from family and friends has taught me to value them so much more, and I appreciate every moment that I get to spend with them. They are part of my family now, my lovely sisters and brothers in Christ. I hope to keep in close contact with them for the remainder of my life.

The Finally Blogged-About Weekend!

It seems I am constantly waiting for something eventful to happen so that I can write about it. Then something eventful happens, and I end up so caught up in it that I hardly have time to sit down and think about writing! Oh, the woes of being a writer. Can't I have time and inspiration simultaneously! Oh well. I guess I will have to settle for typing up my adventures a week or so after the fact.
So, here it is!
Last weekend I went with the Young Adult group from my church to State Youth Games, an annual event in which 20 or so churches met up and competed in sports! I don't know why the US doesn't hold events like this (well, they might, but none that I have heard of) but, it was probably the best time I have had all year! Granted, I played the easier sports, tennis, ping pong, dodgeball... and also netball, which I hadn't played before, the it seemed simple enough when people described it. Nope. It was more like basketball than anything I'd ever done. But it was good fun, and most of us walked away from the weekend massaging our sore muscles but with big smiles. Because, out of 20 other churches, our team won the entire competition! The fellowship experienced during this weekend was fantastic and everyone was very welcoming and inclusive, and I met several people that I didn't know previously. Saturday night was a worship service with all of the churches, featuring a guest speaker from the UK and a musician from Los Angeles (go Californians!). It was a fantastic weekend!

On my way home from SYG, I heard from my host family that Sarah had to be admitted into the hospital because a fever was giving her multiple seizures that morning. At the moment she was fine, but the doctors wanted to make sure that she was okay before sending her home. Lucky they did, because she had another seizure that night and a high fever the next afternoon. After over two days, she was very happy to come home and is 100% back to her normal self. Thank you everyone who follows me on facebook and prayed for her and the family during that time.
Fast-forward a couple days, and we are already on the weekend again! I went hiking with a few wonderful people at John Forrest National Park, about 30 minutes away from Perth. We hiked/climbed rocks for about 3 hours, going about 8 km, then went and got a coffee and relaxed for a while.

 A tavern next to the hiking trail had a whole herd of kangaroos sitting out on the back porch area! That was random and totally fun!

 Wonderful Australian scenery!

Well, now I'm back to my regular routine! I'm a bit sad that State Youth Games is over... I had been anticipating that weekend pretty much sense I came to Perth, and now I'm kind of just anticipating my next bit adventure (roadtripping!!!) which won't happen until the end of September. And then, on to New Zealand! Okay, so I've got fun things to look forward to. What an amazing year this is turning out to be!

Love to everyone back home! xoxo