tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82641636887387438752024-02-18T19:14:07.848-08:00Shalyse is in Australia, say wha...?Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-7399550622016890702011-06-29T00:08:00.000-07:002011-06-29T00:09:38.226-07:00Tomorrow I'll be home<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I cannot believe that I’ve been in Australia for 5 months, and tomorrow, that time will come to an end.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So this is my last post on this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I thought I’d take this blog as a an opportunity to share some new experiences I’ve had (both good and not so good) and some stuff I’ve learned.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned about myself that I live a very unintentionally sheltered life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In some ways that’s good, but in other ways it’s not.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned what and how to play netball (and that I’m a pretty good goal keeper <span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">J</span></span>)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s something I’m definitely going to miss.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Both the game and the girls on my team</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Courier New""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">o<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned how to define a British Commonwealth state: the presence of netball and cricket, and that there are a lot of them.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned that a wallaby has 3 vaginas and 2 cervixes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And it doesn’t really have a uterus, but it manages to have 2 uterine horns.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They can also be pregnant at 2 different stages at the same time, sort of…ask me for further info if you’re interested.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>OK, so I learned some pretty interesting stuff about marsupials and monotremes (like platypuses secrete milk from their oil glands in their skin) and I could go on, but this is not the time or the place.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For more interesting (somewhat gross to some people) reproduction animal facts, check out 2 of my previous posts: “What have I been up to” and “They do what, how?!?!?”</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned how to live on a tight budget, but that there is still great value in giving.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I experienced God opening “up the windows of heaven and pouring out blessings that I didn’t even have room enough to receive (Malachi 3:10).”</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Courier New""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">o<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->God opened up my eyes to see how faithful He is.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I led a Bible study for the first time.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Being here was the first time that I was ever around a drunk person.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I made sushi for the first time.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I did kick-boxing for the first time.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->God showed me that I am not as loving and patient as I thought I was, but that I truly need to rely on Him to love and care for others.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned that I still have a lot of growing to do.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned to appreciate the wisdom of my parents</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Courier New""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">o<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned a new way to scam someone through the use of sketchy checks and the wiring of money<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">ß</span></span>that was an interesting one.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned that I am capable of not being afraid of people.</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I learned that I am terrible at goodbyes! </p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Courier New""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">o<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Granted, I probably should’ve known this one already, as it takes Mo and I like 10 minutes to actually get off of skype after initially saying goodbye.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">It’s such a bittersweet time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As much as I’ll miss it here, the surreal scenery (probably due to the cleanness of the air), the people I’ve met, pouring hot custard over desserts and having British style pudding, I miss home.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I miss my family, my friends, my food, my country (my unlimited internet and cell phone service! Lol <span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">ß</span></span>I realize that’s spoiled).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve made friends here and met some wonderful people, all of whom I’ll miss dearly.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I almost feel like my life at this moment, even as I type this, is like that of the series finale of a tv show.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately, it’s not over…this is just the close of another chapter of my life, and even more fortunately, the author of this story has a plan to prosper my life, plans for a hope and a future (Jer 29:11).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m soooo looking forward to see what He has next.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I guess in this case, since Shalyse is no longer in Australia after tomorrow, say wha...?, then I’ll be signing off in this chapter.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading. Feel free to check out my other blog: <a href="http://therealshalyse.blogspot.com/">http://therealshalyse.blogspot.com/</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses </p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-89814135540625448182011-06-13T04:58:00.000-07:002011-06-13T05:58:54.749-07:00Weekend with the Prides<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgic5o9DjWUQt5TksUs868iR7W5Kkf7Wis2GlcWa921WA4v_T9P4XOUTK_BLDU3aAx9zWmGtq8L_4TBckKkkJ_GHeP9SiqE6TwIUkLZltwfle8NAGbs618dAMwEK-RYJCZWkPO1YMHChb5x/s1600/IMG00066-20110611-1412.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgic5o9DjWUQt5TksUs868iR7W5Kkf7Wis2GlcWa921WA4v_T9P4XOUTK_BLDU3aAx9zWmGtq8L_4TBckKkkJ_GHeP9SiqE6TwIUkLZltwfle8NAGbs618dAMwEK-RYJCZWkPO1YMHChb5x/s320/IMG00066-20110611-1412.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617684078102393154" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUE6g10VVRD7B_oM-R7gOUnBbusgg2EC6siCswfrFyjgfdfCHsRGHKIqyp7EIvFhfLP6GGM-Q5ozC6lYo1FGS3Wxqd6yjDkOr5zGBUgjYXhMtYpQCdOfAgMnTbNr-63FCwAdsBtc9fUYnj/s1600/IMG00065-20110611-1409.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUE6g10VVRD7B_oM-R7gOUnBbusgg2EC6siCswfrFyjgfdfCHsRGHKIqyp7EIvFhfLP6GGM-Q5ozC6lYo1FGS3Wxqd6yjDkOr5zGBUgjYXhMtYpQCdOfAgMnTbNr-63FCwAdsBtc9fUYnj/s320/IMG00065-20110611-1409.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617679671445290402" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKuU-0H5349nCaOX6ElGyVr-yw4U_KxcvTkVglwjIXyHGST7irF0PlNBD1My4bYhmezRnqxqhTndMW8bnNhsVkpmouzWXBga5VvU_lE6FE6n_bQ0FaipNxqAbi67BN0oXOojytEj8lX1s/s1600/IMG00078-20110611-1529.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKuU-0H5349nCaOX6ElGyVr-yw4U_KxcvTkVglwjIXyHGST7irF0PlNBD1My4bYhmezRnqxqhTndMW8bnNhsVkpmouzWXBga5VvU_lE6FE6n_bQ0FaipNxqAbi67BN0oXOojytEj8lX1s/s320/IMG00078-20110611-1529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617679665614630194" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90dkQmX_fnwQzrqnBOcq2H024lCpnCAuURx6hTz1tX3bhYEYaXwU7wMJoiaJssXovYQwyPbj5CUqmTR4L6LNDCkd0A2AFTJM2TsRyqgBh6zaeqE0BBUzBwzKogDxldWadiWP7mqPxPLD0/s1600/IMG00073-20110611-1436.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90dkQmX_fnwQzrqnBOcq2H024lCpnCAuURx6hTz1tX3bhYEYaXwU7wMJoiaJssXovYQwyPbj5CUqmTR4L6LNDCkd0A2AFTJM2TsRyqgBh6zaeqE0BBUzBwzKogDxldWadiWP7mqPxPLD0/s320/IMG00073-20110611-1436.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617673352094279266" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-z2MG1ErVdzDgueevrXGtQJels3jYY0d14aPC8HTW1Mk0v7PIZF02PwElvzNhH2TamL-6Xg6f3si4yqggeknkvEP4H7hRPmW0Qfm0ghuAdj4E5xuHNHRmY-fWQ_lSOpZb9ybD3KY6NhR/s1600/IMG00082-20110611-1615.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-z2MG1ErVdzDgueevrXGtQJels3jYY0d14aPC8HTW1Mk0v7PIZF02PwElvzNhH2TamL-6Xg6f3si4yqggeknkvEP4H7hRPmW0Qfm0ghuAdj4E5xuHNHRmY-fWQ_lSOpZb9ybD3KY6NhR/s320/IMG00082-20110611-1615.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617673346415112290" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">So I spent the weekend with a lovely couple from my church.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Since I’ve been here, they’ve been kind of like my unofficial host family.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This weekend, I didn’t have netball, so my schedule was freed up, and Monday was a public holiday (Queen’s birthday…happy birthday Queen Elizabeth); Australia is known as the land of the long weekend, but I, as usual, digress.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>On Saturday we went to a footy game (Australia-rules football [AFL]).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I didn’t know all of what was going on except that the crows were getting whooped by the eagles (as would be proper in nature if a crow tried to take on an eagle I suppose),but yeah, Adelaide lost. <span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">L</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was still pretty fun though.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The teams colors are black, red, and yellow and since it’s a winter sport everyone was decked out in their black, yellow, and red scarves and knitted caps.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The crowd wasn’t nearly as loud as I would have expected (comparing it to our uni’s football games), but I suppose that’s because the crows had already lost 3 games in a row (this was their fourth) so not as many supporters were out to cheer them on.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So you’re probably wondering what the difference is between AFL and NFL.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, looking at the picture above, you can see they don’t have the grid-iron gear, so your follow-up might be, well what’s the difference between AFL and rugby?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My answer would be *shrug* because I don’t know the rules to rugby either.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I do know that this one time, at band camp, no, this one time, in my house, when I was in Australia, I thought I was watching AFL on TV, but then it turns out the TV guide was completely wrong, as it often is here, and I was actually watching rugby, so I can say that there is a difference, because what I saw on Saturday was not what I saw on TV that day. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But let’s start at the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Adelaide has 2 teams of which there is much rivalry between, from what I’ve heard.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s the Adelaide Crows, and Port power.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Port power doesn’t play much of a role in this story though, as the Crows were playing the West Coast Eagles, as mentioned earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyway, as goes tradition, and common sense, everyone takes the footy express busses to the games.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I say everyone, I mean a majority of the people, because those who don’t get stuck in the traffic of the people driving because they didn’t take the bus, and then it’s hard to find a parking spot once you get there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The bus from the stop we were taking was scheduled to start at 12:35 and come every 10 minutes until 1:05.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We got there at about 12:37 I imagine because we saw the 12:35 bus leaving.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So we went to the bus stop and began waiting with this other couple that was there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And we waited…and waited…and waited some more.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then, the guy that was there went to the bus website to find out why it was now 12:50 and the next bus had not yet arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then we discovered that the apparently all the bus schedules had been changed to a half hour earlier, and so the 12:35 bus had become the last instead of the first.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then we found ourselves stuck in that traffic caused by those people who didn’t take the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It took quite a while to get there for that reason, and as we rolled in the crawling traffic, we felt even sorrier that we’d missed the bus as we saw the footy expresses cruise past us effortlessly in the bus only lanes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We were only a few minutes late though, so I didn’t miss much.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The crows started off playing awesomely, and they were even winning by the end of the first quarter! And then we discovered that they had this unspoken rule that they were only allowed to play well when their goal was on the right side of the field, because the second and last quarters, when they were forced to switch, they pretty much forgot how to play.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Or they were just really tired.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, from what I gathered, it’s like a combo of football, basketball, and just some random aussieness.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are 4 goal sticks, pictured above, and you score 1 point by hitting one, or getting the ball through one of the side ones, but you get 6 points for getting it through the center.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you score 1 point, the other team gets the ball.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you score 6 points it goes back to the center, where there is like a toss up (really more of a bounce up) and the players just basically run up and jump (in the epic moments they can jump off of another teammate…I’ve heard they sometimes get up to like 1.5 meters of the ground, that’s like 5 feet).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You also have to really be in shape to a referee (called umpire here for every sport) because you’re running just as much, and when the ball goes out of bounds, it’s your job to do this weird backward over the head bending backwards throw in.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s all very complicated you see.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Oh, and there are 4 30 minute quarters, but instead of a timer, there’s a stopwatch, so most of the quarters went over 30 minutes and seemed to just end at random times.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But it was fun. Oh, and I had a footy pie. <span style="font-family: Wingdings;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-char-type: symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type:symbol; mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">J</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I realize as always, that I have written much too much, so I’ll just say that the next day I went to Mount Lofty (the highest point in Adelaide) and Hahndorf, which is this German village, I had Turkish delight there for the first time, to add to my list of random experiences that are not necessarily Australian that I’ve had since being in Australia, and then today (Monday), I went down south to Port Elliot, then further south to the Prides’ farmland to see their goats (love goats!), and then even further south to Antarctica!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Ok, so I didn’t quite go to Antarctica because the whale we hired didn’t show up to ferry us.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Not at all…I went to the mouth of the Murray River.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Murray River is this river that travels the entire length of the eastern side of Australia (I think). At least it goes from South Australia to Queensland, which is far.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But the irony of it is that compared to the size of the river, the opening to the ocean is quite small.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And as Robert and I stood there looking at it, he points out into the ocean and is like, this is as far south as you can go here.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is the south ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you go that way, you’ll reach Antarctica.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But that was my weekend and it was quite fun.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I guess I skipped Friday, but that was me finishing my breeding program on breeding guinea pigs for milk to make cheese (guinorino).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And you wouldn’t want to hear about that…or would you?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until next time, have a laugh: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1JRZJh7d0M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1JRZJh7d0M</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-27386899174847487462011-05-22T05:56:00.000-07:002011-05-22T05:57:57.100-07:00Showering with the millipedes<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">This is just a bit about the wildlife that seems so intent on staying in my house, and as a result, the subsequent adventures we seem to have.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Since I gave them the title, I suppose I’ll start with the millipedes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Also known as crunchies here, these little black skinny bugs are probably the most harmless and least annoying of them all.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They just kind of inch along until you touch them and as soon as you do, they swoop themselves into a curly little ball.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If your mean and still stomp on it, or if you happen to not see it, or they’re littered all over a path so that you can’t avoid stepping on them, they make a crunch sound (hence the nickname).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The most annoying thing is that you find these little buggers (no pun intended, ok, maybe just a bit) pretty much everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve been fortunate enough to not find any in the pots in my house, but I’ve seen them in other people’s.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The most unfortunate, for them I suppose, place that they do have a tendency to be is in the shower with me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Through a combination of showering with them, and seeing their dead bodies infest the pool, I can say with much certainty that millipedes can’t swim.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They do however put a quite a fight when trying to avoid the water (and the steam) in the shower.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The first time this happened, the millipede was doing quite an impressive job of avoiding the flow of the water.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Unfortunately for him(/her?), I was taking an exceptionally long shower that day, and so it, like all of his predecessors, suffered the same fate…the DRAIN!!! I guess I don’t know heaps about millipedes (or drainage systems), but I suppose they could somehow survive that…maybe.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The next bug that plagued my house initially, but not so much anymore as the weather is getting quite chilly, is one of my arch nemeses, the MOSQUITO.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Evil little things, and these, I know to be female, cause they were eating me alive.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At one point I was even convinced that I might have been bit by a spider (suppose that can’t be a hundred percent ruled out as I don’t really know what a spider bite looks like) but they were seemingly biting me in the same place over and over again, and at one point, my calf muscle was so swollen and sore, I couldn’t even shave my legs.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, that was definitely the most annoying which is what brings me to the pets that I had in my room.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">They were two daddy long-leg spiders, which I neglected to name until this moment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They shall now be called and forever remembered as The Enforcer and Julia (that’s a soft J sound btw).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Enforcer was in the corner of my room above the door, while Julia resided in the opposite corner near the head of my bed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I generally have a fear of spiders (even though daddy long-legs are said to be harmless), but I honestly don’t mind them as long as they stay in their corners and don’t come down to Shalyse can touch you level.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Plus, I figured they could make a nice addendum to my mosquito repellent that was so epically failing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We chilled harmoniously together for about a week if not more, and then, to my dismay (my nerve-wracking dismay) I lost them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One day, I had to pet spiders and the next day they were gone. Hopefully I didn’t eat them in my sleep, but to this day, I haven’t the foggiest of what happened to The Enforcer and Julia (remember,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>soft J).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Speaking of spiders, I’d be remiss if I left out the spider wars that I fight each week with the ones that insist on making webs on my clothesline.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I take a stick from the mulch a hack away at webs so I can hang my clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The next week I go to hang clothes again, and there seems to be double the amount of web.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At some points its getting in my face, annoying, and web is always all over the clothespins.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They’re ridiculously persistent little creatures, but the war most go on…until I leave, cause I’m pretty sure both of my housemates do their laundry at home on the weekends.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I think that’s it for the wildlife in my house; thankfully we’re free of the mice that are present in the halls, and everywhere else, including the cafeteria…gross!!! We even have a mouse that seems to be regularly attending the the Bible study each week. I assume he lives in the chapel.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are also the ginormous spiders all around the rest of the campus, and the stray cats and foxes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I saw a couple of bats flying around one night, and I finally saw a possum. Just an fyi, Aussie possums are a lot cuter than the American ones…and not all of them are in the form of road kill.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This one I saw was chillin in a tree snacking on some leaves.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Oh, and lastly, the tree bugs, or at least that’s what I call them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I suppose that these fit in the category of still in my house and getting on my nerves, or IMHaGOMN (pronounce Im-hag-omen) bugs.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They’re these little black bugs that somehow fit through the screen, and in smaller amounts manage to get into the house at night even when the windows are shut.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They’re just annoying cause they fly around and die on stuff, and land on food, and just annoy you.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>No one wants involuntary black spotted wallpaper that gives the illusion of crawling…oh wait that’s no illusion, but yeah, they’re kind of gross.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I am once again thankful though, for the house in which I live because I’ve seen others that are much worse.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And lastly, to end, I thank God that we don’t have bedbugs.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The End</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>PS: I'd like to give a personal shout-out to Jada-poo! </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until next time, be thankful in all things and find humor in the annoying ones.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses </p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-72812608324902716542011-05-06T08:22:00.000-07:002011-05-06T08:36:23.798-07:00Driving a stick in Australia<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1i_WCLDkfPu2qgWzpa0up0cBnd1lzymn8aIGJ2Xz9eAxJP-qqo3ihG-CqmxgxhqQc8ndQhcrIoyTk4RJof6LJAKR_Grdk9ve5umP1FBeBXxbnbh27zzETLD6VAJasH1wJlEPCAQqC0b4G/s1600/227042_223847634297923_100000180634783_1059960_2510978_n.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1i_WCLDkfPu2qgWzpa0up0cBnd1lzymn8aIGJ2Xz9eAxJP-qqo3ihG-CqmxgxhqQc8ndQhcrIoyTk4RJof6LJAKR_Grdk9ve5umP1FBeBXxbnbh27zzETLD6VAJasH1wJlEPCAQqC0b4G/s320/227042_223847634297923_100000180634783_1059960_2510978_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603627190066975762" /></a>!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTjHQ7HDlvosY0JC9kxjgfaaM8vLGdrTcmQEyw4rjvSAlT8BS5y9a2o0lIrh1XspKj_-2kg_2ocEMsYyuTw6B1LviIGmX5_oIcB6OClWgCgMujjfefqyjgcCBzcszxt3PCYbt1rLNd8wjJ/s1600/230376_223847777631242_100000180634783_1059961_7645857_n.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTjHQ7HDlvosY0JC9kxjgfaaM8vLGdrTcmQEyw4rjvSAlT8BS5y9a2o0lIrh1XspKj_-2kg_2ocEMsYyuTw6B1LviIGmX5_oIcB6OClWgCgMujjfefqyjgcCBzcszxt3PCYbt1rLNd8wjJ/s320/230376_223847777631242_100000180634783_1059961_7645857_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603627188629355810" /></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Down under you can drive hands free!<br />Did you know that no matter what side of the road you drive on in Australia, you're driving on the right side of the road? If you're driving on the left side of the road, that's the right (correct side to drive on, but if you're driving on the right side, although that is incorrect, and likely to increase your chances of an accident, you're still right.<div><br /></div><div>I guess the weirdest parts were remembering to turn onto the correct side of the road, and the gear changing (manual transmission...in case you didn't know what a stick is). The turning I suppose is a bit self explanatory in the fact that it's obviously just different, but the gear changing was by far the weirdest. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car which is opposite, but the funny thing is that the ignition is still on the right side of the steering wheel, so it's only half opposite. However, the gear shift is still in the same place and the gears are in the same directions. So now, instead of 1st gear being forward and toward me, it is forward and away from me, so with relation to me, which is how I generally remember the gear directions, 1, 2, 5, and reverse are opposite. 3 and 4 are still the same. Oh, and to top that, I'm switching gears with my left hand. Good thing I'm semi-ambidextrous. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's it for this post...have I lost my long-windedness?!? No worries, it'll be back.</div><div><br /></div><div>Shalomses</div>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-77355072657182177792011-05-01T03:37:00.001-07:002011-05-01T03:37:51.008-07:00Life Lessons from Netty<p class="MsoNormal">Be surprised! This is actually going to be a normal length, if not fairly short post.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, anything in comparison to my last post short of a novel would be considered short…unless I wrote a 5 or 6 page post I guess.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But anyhow, let me stop rambling and get on with the story.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know some of you are wondering who Netty is, and what kind of name that is.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, it’s not a name or a person, so now you are probably wondering why I capitalized it, as it’s not even a proper noun.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I am actually wondering that as well, but it’s been done now, so I guess we’ll just deal with it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, I had my first netball game on yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Like many things in Australia, people shorten words, and netball proves to be no different.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Football=footy, netball=netty, sunglasses=sunnies, and Waldo (the guy in the red and white striped shirt that no one can ever find)=Wally.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, this blog is about my first netball game.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">First, I realize that people from America generally don’t know what netball is because we don’t play it in our country.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’d never heard of it, but with the shrink in campus size, I can’t use my walk to class as sufficient exercise, so I thought I’d join a sport, and this one sounded fun.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Basically, it’s kind of like basketball minus the dribbling and backboard.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Once you have the ball, you have to pass it before you can run again, and there’s less contact than basketball.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now, for you basketball lovers, you’re probably like, that doesn’t sound like much fun, but really it’s a lot of fun…and it’s quite a different game from basketball, that was just the easiest familiar sport to liken it to. It’d be like trying to describe volleyball to someone who only knows how to play badminton.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“It’s like badminton, without the racket and you replace the racket with a ball.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That doesn’t do much justice to either game.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So, watch this link, and see what netball is.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuxsRnU50A&feature=fvwrel">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuxsRnU50A&feature=fvwrel</a> (rules)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--2xiWEgrSo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--2xiWEgrSo</a><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(part of a game)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As you may or may not be able to tell, it requires a completely different skill set than basketball.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It takes a lot of self-control to not contact someone.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That was the first of the two lessons that playing my first game taught me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Going from someone who frequently filed other players in basketball where contact is allowed to an extent, not throwing my hands up to block a pass (which was very instinctive) is a hard thing not to do, as you must be 3 feet away from the person that you’re defending before putting your hands up.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The other thing that’s quite difficult is catching the ball while running or jumping through the air, and then stopping…? I got called for stepping so many times.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Along with some other broken rules, and that brings me to my other life lesson.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s quite humbling to play a game where you don’t know all the rules.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Half the time the whistle was blown, I had no clue why, what was happening, who was supposed to have the ball, and where I was supposed to be.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I was even getting called on stuff I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to do.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They coach you to hold your opposing player away from where you don’t want them…but apparently, you’re not allowed to physically touch them, even if they don’t have the ball.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I found that out when I got called for contact for holding my opponent off with my forearm, as you’d do in basketball when someone’s all up in your space.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Old habits die hard, I suppose.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It also didn’t help that one of our umpires (same as a referee) was hoarse, the courts were outside next to the train tracks so trains were occasionally passing, there were like 10 other games happening simultaneously, and there were a crap load of corellas (cockatoo-like birds) chirping over head that made it impossible for me to hear a good number of the calls.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But it was all good.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Although we got slaughtered (56-21 I think?) it was heaps fun, and I’m just thankful that by the time the game started it had stopped raining, cause the courts are outside, and if you know me well enough, you’ll know that I don’t like getting wet in most circumstances.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Well, that’s all for this one.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Not short, but reasonable. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">May you find ways to grow from life’s random lessons.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-74452673338722779382011-04-26T21:40:00.000-07:002011-04-26T21:42:41.128-07:00Into the Real Middle of Nowhere<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">I will preface this by saying this is by far the longest post I’ve ever written. It made it to 4 pages in Word)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Way back in the day in England there was a tradition of what a family did when they had three sons.<span style=""> </span>The first son was the heir of the estate, the second went into the military, and the third became a clergyman.<span style=""> </span>So you’re probably wondering, what happened if a family had four or more sons?<span style=""> </span>Well apparently, they were just like, we don’t really have anything to do with you, so usually they moved to either America or Australia.<span style=""> </span>One such family had a fourth son who moved to South Australia and was in the Flinders ranges when he was drowned in a flash flood.<span style=""> </span>His sister then thought him important enough to take a tombstone and travel a bunch of miles and take the tombstone to be placed at the place where her brother was killed (which was essentially the middle of no one).<span style=""> </span>Where was I going with this? Why I am telling this story? Oh yes, travelling.<span style=""> </span>With regards to the wildlife camp that I went on, there were a few people who weren’t from Australia.<span style=""> </span>One came from Hong Kong, which really isn’t that far away. There’s an abundance of Asians in Australia.<span style=""> </span>There was one from California, but essentially, all she did was cross an ocean.<span style=""> </span>There was one from northern Virginia, which was pretty far, but me, I took the cake. I travelled the furthest distance (the absolute other side of the world) to go to essentially… nowhere.<span style=""> </span>Yeah, the outback is pretty much the most of nowhere I’ve been.<span style=""> </span>It’s just desert and some shrubs.<span style=""> </span>This story was told by our professor at the end of camp (very much in that manner with him forgetting why he was telling the story, lol) and I won a mini kit-kat bar for the award for travelling the furthest distance. Yay Jersey!!!<span style=""> </span>Anyhow, now that I’ve told you the end of the story, I suppose we should rewind a bit and start at the beginning. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So I got to have another adventure, and as a result, another chance to grow personally.<span style=""> </span>The courses here are a lot less flexible as to when you can take them here, which is a big difference to my university where you can take pretty much anything in any order after your first year, and definitely after your second (with a few exceptions).<span style=""> </span>Anyhow, I say that to say that most of the people in each year, know one another.<span style=""> </span>The way my courses are set up is that I’m taking two 3<sup>rd</sup> year courses and two 2<sup>nd</sup> year courses.<span style=""> </span>The two 2<sup>nd</sup> year courses that I’m taking are biochemistry and wildlife management, the latter of the two is what this field camp (into the outback) was for.<span style=""> </span>Biochemistry, however, is taught to both the animal sciences and pre-veterinary students and all the friends that I’ve made in that class just happen to be pre-vet, with the exception of one, and because the camp was split into two groups, she went on the first one, and I went on the second.<span style=""> </span>So I was walking into this camp, knowing absolutely no one, and going, once again, to a new place with the preconception that everyone knew each other, or at least knew someone else already…it was like first arriving in Australia all over again.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I boarded the bus, but surprisingly, I was hoping that no one would sit next to me at that point because although it would have been a seemingly easy way to meet someone, I was very tired from having had little sleep the night before, and frankly I was also somewhat emotionally drained from something that I was dealing with in my personal life.<span style=""> </span>Fortunately, the bus was large enough with few enough people that most people could afford their own seats.<span style=""> </span>So I popped in my headphones and very shortly I was in the state of <span style="font-size: 8pt;">z</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">z</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">z</span>zZ.<span style=""> </span>It was about a 3-3.5 hour ride to Calperum station which was the location of our field camp.<span style=""> </span>I slept for most of the trip, but it still wasn’t quite enough, and in fact, that entire four days was just me digging a deeper hole of sleep deprivation.<span style=""> </span>We had to be ready to leave at 6 am each morning and so for me that meant waking up at 4:30 each morning (only by God’s grace did that happen).<span style=""> </span>To add to that sleep deprivation was people boisterously gallivanting throughout the halls until like 1 am.<span style=""> </span>However, I had a blast, and learned a few things, both about wildlife and people.<span style=""> </span>First I’ll talk about the people, because they’re a lot less interesting and not nearly as exciting.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>The main thing I learned about people, which I’ve seen in many to other circumstances as well, is that we’re too hard to please.<span style=""> </span>If you know me, next time I’m complaining around you, call me out on it, and just straight out tell me to get over it! I was so sick of people’s griping and complaining. “We have to wake up too early…” “There’s too much free time…” “It’s (the weather) too hot.” “It’s too cold.” “Blah blah blah blah blah”<span style=""> </span>I felt like I was stuck in the wilderness with the Israelites (I was halfway there with the wilderness part).<span style=""> </span>Don’t get me wrong, not everyone was complaining, but there were quite a few.<span style=""> </span>They just couldn’t enjoy themselves because they weren’t constantly being catered to every moment of the day. But now on to the exciting.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I thought the camp was awesome! Firstly, I got to go to the outback!! So I’ll give you the rundown of what we did.<span style=""> </span>When we first got there, we had to go pick a room, there were rooms that had 3 beds, and some that had 4.<span style=""> </span>Completely by chance, I walk into a room where two other girls were and asked if there was room for me. I introduced myself and asked them what they were studying.<span style=""> </span>One girl was studying biochemistry; she was an exchange student from the University of California.<span style=""> </span>The other was a biology major from (yes Nicole if you’re reading this) William & Mary.<span style=""> </span>(just a sidenote: I feel like there are like 32 people here from W&M, so Nicole, I’ve decided that at some point, you need to visit Adelaide since you didn’t come here when you were a student there, lol)<span style=""> </span>What are the odds that I ended up sharing a room with the only other 2 exchange students on the trip? So I’ll admit it was somewhat likely, since as I mentioned with my preconception of everyone knowing everyone, although it wasn’t completely correct, most of the people there were second year animal science students and did know one another.<span style=""> </span>The only two other people who I’m sure weren’t animal science students were guys, so I wasn’t going to be rooming with them.<span style=""> </span>Anyhow, after finding our rooms and stuff, we had a lecture by the ecologist that worked there, which I pretty much completely slept through (told you I was tired…and frankly, he was pretty boring).<span style=""> </span>After his lecture which felt like hours, we were somehow ahead of schedule or something so our professor, we’ll call him Phil (cause that’s his name), decided to move the lecture planned for the next night, to right then, and I slept through parts of that one as well.<span style=""> </span>I am so thankful that he moved it though, cause had it been the next night, I would have missed the whole thing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>That evening we went out to our field site. We got to ride in 4 wheel drive vehicles that were kind of like army bunkers (where you sit on benches facing one another in the back of the truck).<span style=""> </span>We rode through sand to get to the “main road” which was only paved right at the entrance of the station, and unpaved everywhere else (apparently this was a “highway” that led to Sydney).<span style=""> </span>We then turned off the road onto more sand and there was a fence blocking off the area we were going into with a sign basically saying that “unauthorized visitors would most likely receive no help if something happened to them.” Thought that was pretty funny…and they were serious.<span style=""> </span>Anyhow, the program went as follows: There were two types of traps we were using.<span style=""> </span>The first was called a pitfall trap which was a bucket buried in the ground forming a hole for animals to just fall into.<span style=""> </span>This was used for catching reptiles (hopefully not snakes) and small land mammals.<span style=""> </span>The second was an Elliot box trap which was baited and used only for the small land mammals.<span style=""> </span>So before going out to check the traps for the first time (which were in the bush) we were briefed on the different dangers present.<span style=""> </span>Basically the things to look out for were spider webs (which were more of an annoyance and would be a freak out moment if you walked into one more than a danger), my new arch nemesis spinofex grass, and snakes.<span style=""> </span>The two snakes of the area were brown snakes (which are also present on the campus) which are venomous but have very shallow fangs, and death adders…’nuff said.<span style=""> </span>Ok, I’ll say a bit more.<span style=""> </span>Apparently they bury themselves in the sand and poke their tails out like a little worm to bait birds and other prey.<span style=""> </span>They move slow, but strike fast, and they were the ones to most likely be hidden in a pitfall trap.<span style=""> </span>In the case of coming across a brown snake, we were to make noise (stomping=vibrations to get the snake to leave) and inform our team of the snake’s presence.<span style=""> </span>If the snake was right in front of us, we were to stay still and just wait for the snake to leave.<span style=""> </span>We were instructed to always check the pitfalls with a snake hook for death adders before reaching into it with our hands to take something out.<span style=""> </span>Any questions?<span style=""> </span>Ummm yeah, of course you had me to ask the question which seemed very much obvious but no one else was asking: “What if we find a death adder in the trap?” (personal growth point) <span style=""> </span>You know I’m not getting near it if there was.<span style=""> </span>We were to call Phil or the other dude who’s name I don’t remember, to get the snake out, because they’ve had snake handling experience in the past.<span style=""> </span>So that first evening, we placed our 50 Elliot traps (about 10 meters apart from each other) in a line and 15 meters away on either side of our pitfalls traps which ran in a straight line down the middle. (so there were 25 on each side of the line of pitfalls)<span style=""> </span>There were 4 groups based on direction, I was in the northwest group.<span style=""> </span>Our first night, we found one lizard, and I don’t remember what it was, but I do remember that it was a bit difficult to identify because many lizards are quite minute creatures and you need a microscope to look at many of the features that are in the key for identifying them.<span style=""> </span>To add to that, the guide in the book often had things written like “spots usually (or sometimes) present on the tail” or even better, “eyelids transparent or not transparent.” <span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="">ß</span></span>those 2 are exact opposites if you didn’t notice (cause the writers of the book clearly didn’t.<span style=""> </span>Anyway, that took a while, and then my group went spotlighting.<span style=""> </span>Before going on the trip, I didn’t know what that meant, so I realize that some of my readers may not be familiar with the term.<span style=""> </span>My advice to you if you are that reader, is to Google it.<span style=""> </span>I’m totally kidding!<span style=""> </span>We got in the truck and had these 3 giant lights that we pointed out of the window to look for larger wildlife.<span style=""> </span>You could also do this on foot with a flashlight, but we were covering a larger area of land, so a vehicle was much more useful in this situation.<span style=""> </span>We saw about 8 or 9 kangaroos, a rabbit, some moths and some spider webs.<span style=""> </span>The kangaroos were cool.<span style=""> </span>Most were red kangaroos (which are ironically mostly grey in color and white at the bottom…I think) and there was the western-grey kangaroo (which was red and dark at the bottom).<span style=""> </span>Apparently in past years, there had been a season of drought, so the kangaroos would be highly concentrated in one area.<span style=""> </span>However, since there has been heaps of rain lately (relative to Australia’s aridness…so it really hasn’t been that much) but as a result, there’s more food available, so they were more spread out.<span style=""> </span>I was fortunate to be in the first group so we got back around 10 and Yay! Bed!<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, my classmates thought it’d be fun to get completely trashed and be extremely loud while I attempted to sleep (sidenote: since I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that I live quite an unintentionally sheltered life…I miss that). I finally got to sleep probably around midnight, and woke up around 5 to one of my roommate’s alarm, since my 4:30 one failed to go off.<span style=""> </span>She snoozed; I went to the disgusting ant infested bathroom.<span style=""> </span>I still can’t figure out why they were attracted to swarming in there; I didn’t take a proper shower the entire time I was there.<span style=""> </span>Anyway, we were gathered to leave at 6 and the staff was quite unhappy about the shenanigans that took place the night before.<span style=""> </span>Phil threatened to send people home if it happened again.<span style=""> </span>We got to our trap site and to our surprise, we caught 12 mammals!<span style=""> </span>At that time we also closed our Elliot traps because they were made of metal and so we didn’t use those to catch lizards during the day because it would be too hot.<span style=""> </span>I guess I should pause here to say that we collected the small mammals in the morning because they are nocturnal, and the lizards in the evening because they would be active and get caught in the traps during the day.<span style=""> </span>We had to identify the animals so within our group we broke down into pairs and triplets to try and get the identifying done quicker.<span style=""> </span>There were three mammals in the area.<span style=""> </span>The house mouse, the Bolam’s mouse, and a carnivorous marsupial called mallee ningaui (I don’t know if I spelled that right, but it’s pronounced mal-lee nin-gow-ee, or at least that’s how we were pronouncing it).<span style=""> </span>The house mice were pains because they smelled bad, they were super hyper and constantly trying to escape by jumping out of the bucket, they refused to be still, and one bit my finger.<span style=""> </span>The bolam’s mouse was super cute and calm. The carnivorous marsupial was somewhat in between behavior-wise but it was cool because it wasn’t a mouse and they were rare to catch; the house mouse of course was always the most commonly caught.<span style=""> </span>We marked their tails with a dry erase marker to avoid double counting them.<span style=""> </span>We measured different features to determine whether there were juveniles present in the population to determine whether there was reproduction occurring.<span style=""> </span>Later that day, we did a habitat assessment, which was basically measuring the density of shrubs and grasses and bare ground, surrounding our pitfalls to determine what type of habitat each animal was most likely to reside in.<span style=""> </span>That evening, after releasing our mammals and collecting our reptiles (we only ever caught reptiles in our 10th pitfall trap for some reason), my group learned how to use the GPS units so that we could record the locations of our Elliot traps.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>It was evening and it was morning, the 2<sup>nd</sup> day.<span style=""> </span>On the 3<sup>rd</sup> day, we were fortunate enough to only catch 5 animals (at each trap we were hoping not to have something, because 12 took way too long the day before).<span style=""> </span>This morning was bizarre.<span style=""> </span>As we were identifying the small mammals, one of the guys in my group was handling one of the mice and he wasn’t over the bucket and the mouse got dropped and escaped.<span style=""> </span>Then there was me and the girl, Kim who I was working with.<span style=""> </span>She was holding the carnivorous marsupial and I was trying to sex it (determine whether it was male or female), so I was attempting to move its fur and the little bugger bit my finger.<span style=""> </span>As a natural reflex, I jerked my finger away, however, little to my knowledge, it was holding on with its teeth and as a result, I pretty much threw it across the room.<span style=""> </span>Bye-bye little mallee ningaui. So we captured 5 and returned 3.<span style=""> </span>However, we weren’t the only group dropping mice (well, I guess I threw mine, but that was beside the point).<span style=""> </span>Every time you looked around, someone was chasing a mouse across the room or out the door.<span style=""> </span>Some were caught, others escaped.<span style=""> </span>Because it had rained earlier that morning, we had to switch the morning and afternoon activities.<span style=""> </span>We were originally meant to do sand transects in the morning which basically involves smoothing the sand out so that you can see what animals cross the road and whether larger animals, such as foxes, use the road as an easier path than walking through the bush.<span style=""> </span>The purpose was to see whether the road was an interruption of the animals’ habitat or whether they would be willing to cross it.<span style=""> </span>Because the sand was wet in the morning, it would have made for an extremely taxing task, so we waited until the afternoon for the sand to dry out.<span style=""> </span>So in the morning, instead of the sand transect, my group went bird watching which was really cool. I think I might pick that up as a hobby someday.<span style=""> </span>We had a bonfire that night, which I stood by for a few moments, but then someone came and lit a cigarette, and I was tired anyway, so I just went to bed.<span style=""> </span>Finally, on the last day, we released the animals we’d caught the night before as per usual (although that night, we’d caught a bearded dragon and a mallee dragon, the mallee dragon was absolutely adorable), and I don’t know how many we caught but we managed to get 2 mice in one Elliot, and other groups were using our bags I think, so we ended up with like 9 or 10 to identify (one guy was convinced one of the mice he’d found was dead so he stuck it in a plastic bag, but it turned out to be alive…glad it didn’t suffocate),<span style=""> </span>and we had dish duty that morning.<span style=""> </span>So three of the guys stayed behind to do the dishes so we could get a jumpstart on identifying, and we still finished last.<span style=""> </span>We then went and re-released them, and assessed our sand transects.<span style=""> </span>We collected all the traps, and after having lunch, and gathering our things, 4 pages later, we finally return to the beginning of this post.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I thought the camp was a great experience and I had quite a bit of fun, despite my lack of sleep.<span style=""> </span>I slept on the return trip as well. I’ve already mentioned the blissfully sheltered life that I live, and I suppose that may come up at another time in more detail.<span style=""> </span>But the other thing I’ve learned is that I am less afraid to talk to people now.<span style=""> </span>I think I’ve gotten better at more easily finding common ground or topics to talk about, or I’ve just gotten less afraid to do it. The positive is that I’m growing! Until next time,</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you (Phil 4:13)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Grow…Be <b style="">BOLD</b>!! (2011)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-16524022894680202572011-04-15T21:28:00.000-07:002011-04-15T21:39:46.916-07:00A new adventureA new adventure is coming my way<div>Guess I should prepare</div><div>Another adventure? again you say?</div><div>I thought I was already there</div><div><br /></div><div>After all I reason, I took a big step</div><div>I jumped across the Pacific</div><div>To the other side of the world I traveled</div><div>Was that not brave enough?</div><div><br /></div><div>In an unknown land</div><div>A stranger to all</div><div>I stepped out of my zone of comfort</div><div>For the sake of making new friends</div><div><br /></div><div>But now I suppose</div><div>I've found that place again</div><div>Normalcy has set in</div><div><br /></div><div>But did I come all the way to the other side of the world for normalcy?</div><div>Uhhh, I don't think so, nope, that's a definite NO!</div><div><br /></div><div>So I guess it's time to stretch again</div><div>Meet more new people</div><div>See more new places</div><div>Into an unknown place</div><div>With unknown people</div><div><br /></div><div>Here we go</div><div>Pray</div>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-39143731150291061502011-03-27T01:48:00.000-07:002011-03-27T01:49:36.959-07:00What have I been up to?<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">First, some more random, but interesting stuff I learned in repro class.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(If science/animals gross you out, or you were completely grossed out by the bedbug thing in the last post, skip to the next paragraph)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When artificially inseminating an elephant, (cause you never know when you may be put up to the challenge, you could just be walking along and then Whoah! There’s an elephant and I need to AI it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When that happens, you’ll be glad you read this) you should know that it’s gonna be quite hard to do…because yeah, it’s an elephant.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s about a 1.5 meter journey to the cervix where you need to insert the semen, and there’s like this random 45° angle turn that you have to make in order to get to the cervix.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And once you get there, there’s 3 tiny mm sized holes that you have to choose from, one is the correct one and the other two are dead ends.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Still with me? Well, the initial opening that you’d enter through is on the underside of the elephant, so I’m still trying to figure out how they actually mate…no wonder they’re endangered.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Was that difficult enough?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, let’s rewind a bit, because before you AI the girl, you’ve gotta get the semen out of the boy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is where, once again, it gets weird.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In order to get the male to ejaculate, you’ve gotta stimulate the prostate gland. This is NOT how it’s done for most animals, so I’m sitting there trying to figure out, “Who in the WORLD figured this out????<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Oh, the normal ways we use for getting an animal to ejaculate isn’t working on this elephant.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Maybe I’ll try sticking my arm into the rectum (yes, this is how one accesses the prostate gland) and…well you get the idea.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As interesting as I find conservation of endangered species, I’m getting the idea that finding new AI methods for animals such as the elephant or the rhinoceros is possibly not the field I want to get into as a vet or animal scientist, but I suppose we shall see what the future holds.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(If that bit of info interested you, check out the documentary “An elephant’s guide to sex”)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>But yeah, I’m thinking that this is going to be quite a hodgepodge/random collection if tidbits from my life…so if you’re interested, read on.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Today, my church had a picnic and it was quite fun, not to mention that the weather was pretty near perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Not too cold, not too hot and the sun was warm but not scalding.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, the reason I put this in here (well, I guess my church here is pretty cool, and I suppose that is one thing that I’ve been up to) was to tell you about the bathroom adventure that me and two friends had.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We got up and started walking to the bathroom, but none of us actually knew where the bathroom was.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We saw this building off in the distance that we decided the bathroom was probably in, but as we got closer, it was looking more like a shack and we were hoping that this was not where the bathroom was located.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When we got to the building we realized there was a small fire burning, and there were a group of people sitting by.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They were like “Hi! This is our campsite!” It was a bit odd, but they were quite friendly, and pointed the bathroom out to us.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was of course in the direction that we had come from so we went completely out of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, we took a nice scenic tour around the park to get to the bathroom, so I guess it wasn’t so bad.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When we got to the bathroom, there was a line, and no exaggeration, this is probably the weirdest public toilet I’ve ever seen.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Firstly, there was no handle on the door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It slid open like an elevator, and it actually looked like the door to an elevator.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You had to push a button to open it. (sidenote: interesting fact, the doors on the trains don’t open automatically, you either have to push a button or slide it open manually with a handle)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, when you went in, despite the fact that it was kinda gross, being a public toilet in a park and all, it almost seemed like a bathroom from the future. I almost wish I’d taken pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, I felt a bit ridiculous as the various signs on the wall pretty much walked me through the process.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>First, you had to push a button to have the toilet paper dispensed to you.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In hindsight, this was quite gross.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you think about it, if someone needed a second helping of TP, they had to push that button again after wiping….GROSS!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, the next step was to try and figure out how to flush the toilet.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Sign: Toilet will flush automatically upon washing hands or opening door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(Could hand-washing not have been compulsory at this point?)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I go to the 3 part sink.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Section 1: Automatic soap dispenser. (shift hands to the right to)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Section 2: Automatic water. (shift hands again to the right to) Section 3: automatic hand dryer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Finally, you push the exit button to open the door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When the 3 of us finally got back to the group, 2 of my other friends were like, what took you guys so long, so I proceeded to tell them this story.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They then told me that if I wanted a simple public toilet that I could go visit China because there are no doors on the stalls.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One friend said she used an umbrella as a door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I mentioned earlier how I have a tendency to go the wrong way to find stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If I haven’t told you my dentist in Chinatown story, ask me about it, but it pretty much happened all over again here when I was trying to get to the FEDEX store.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I knew it was near the airport, so I went to the Metro place and asked which bus to take.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He told me the bus number and pointed in the direction of the nearest stop which was V2.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Unfortunately, when people point to stuff from inside a building, once I walk outside, I get confused.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>V2 happened to be only a few meters away down the street, but of course, I went the wrong way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I found V1, but V2 and V1 aren’t that close to each other.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I ended up walking around a major chunk of the city, and ended up going back to the main campus of the university because I knew there was a stop near there (but it was completely out of the way).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I finally got the bus, and it was about a half hour trip.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I got off at the stop before the airport b/c that’s where FEDEX is.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, when trying to go back, I found out as the bus passed me twice, that it doesn’t stop there unless someone on the bus needs to get off there, because the stop is off the main road and the bus driver can’t see if anyone’s there (and no, they don’t bother checking).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Another bus came, and he told me that I probably wouldn’t get picked up there anytime soon, so he took me to the airport stop.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Because of this long excursion, I ended up missing the bus back to my campus, as well as the train that gets me to the town close to campus in time for the afternoon shuttle from town to the campus. So, I got on the train anyway and just decided that I could hang out in town for like 3 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That wouldn’t have been happy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately, one of my friends has a car and she got out of class early so she came and got me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But yeah, I’m still up to my normal travel mishaps.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Lastly, I guess I’ll tell you about my random uni stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I started a bible study, and it’s been going pretty well by God’s grace.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I also joined the netball club.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve never played or heard of netball before I came here, but I’ve been told that I’m doing pretty well at it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve been playing wing defense which I think is an alright position for me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For those who don’t know what netball is, which for all I know, plenty of people could and I could have just been living in the dark (but I think it’s primarily an Australian sport), it’s like a combination of handball and basketball I guess.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The hoop doesn’t have a backboard, and only two people are allowed to shoot, and you have to be right next to the basket.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Also, whoever’s trying to block the shooter has to stand 3 feet away.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s also no dribbling allowed, and once you catch the ball, you can’t move (well you can pivot, but you can’t run with it).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s pretty fun, and it’s giving me exercise which is good, cause this campus isn’t nearly as big as Purdue so I can’t use walking to class as my daily physical activity.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I guess that’s it for now.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Oh, one last thing: I tried Vegemite…and hated it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until next time, try something new.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-88843442888862758762011-03-15T05:26:00.000-07:002011-03-15T05:44:02.404-07:00They Do What, How?!?!?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvzIwmlxP25iQYAIBK4vnJpAVY6mP3ifx6mqufqVoXmV4P453Mo0L0WF8Vk05s7OotZDV1hrSZPtB5CoNJEV1VE1eD0R9gjYPpl8my5WmlShF16oAYDTntCM9_Mudr5RjfnFJnJpUC9cKL/s1600/Australia+080.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvzIwmlxP25iQYAIBK4vnJpAVY6mP3ifx6mqufqVoXmV4P453Mo0L0WF8Vk05s7OotZDV1hrSZPtB5CoNJEV1VE1eD0R9gjYPpl8my5WmlShF16oAYDTntCM9_Mudr5RjfnFJnJpUC9cKL/s320/Australia+080.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584285607242158546" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">me with a basket on my head</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSR_gs7NWjfu7JiF1MYCaPjheCG4O73CQ3Vq_lc1HmEr75LWzfjteAX8LVPC20Mk3AXB-C42S4p8A0XLSltNus7NRQBjyPq-Q28qzM0hpW81GJSBeAUS5Oe0V4fskT6zVsbyAYtSjaW6fI/s1600/boat+made+from+tree%252C+clay+pit+for+fire.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSR_gs7NWjfu7JiF1MYCaPjheCG4O73CQ3Vq_lc1HmEr75LWzfjteAX8LVPC20Mk3AXB-C42S4p8A0XLSltNus7NRQBjyPq-Q28qzM0hpW81GJSBeAUS5Oe0V4fskT6zVsbyAYtSjaW6fI/s320/boat+made+from+tree%252C+clay+pit+for+fire.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584285603525892114" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">boat with clay pit, it's kinda hard to see</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAcBuEt4PKzoyPMCHkKzGRfLHEHPw_pDl1i3ergcusjf8bYkvnmZGCjupKaphOxet3HScGzIJkJVvjROuo6toxhdc9WgVEUYfknNOKsLwrEzglzbJVVxLJSBOOus66JrvbXoW07FsihEY/s1600/water+and+baby+carrier.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHAcBuEt4PKzoyPMCHkKzGRfLHEHPw_pDl1i3ergcusjf8bYkvnmZGCjupKaphOxet3HScGzIJkJVvjROuo6toxhdc9WgVEUYfknNOKsLwrEzglzbJVVxLJSBOOus66JrvbXoW07FsihEY/s320/water+and+baby+carrier.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584285600573651058" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">water/baby carrier</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRD5AfSZJL_m_NnV_wYNNAIwm88ExW2r8kMmV2y4jhz82PJ4hgbLjpKKsKrVeDez1gGIGJC7tMidl_8ulsGk1RqzAobh8E8sOFQeAKEau5WfXoOkAEbqqJMkAL4Bh51Y5um4pSSOFKBk9/s1600/shield+and+map.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRD5AfSZJL_m_NnV_wYNNAIwm88ExW2r8kMmV2y4jhz82PJ4hgbLjpKKsKrVeDez1gGIGJC7tMidl_8ulsGk1RqzAobh8E8sOFQeAKEau5WfXoOkAEbqqJMkAL4Bh51Y5um4pSSOFKBk9/s320/shield+and+map.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584285594313834386" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">shield map</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKMf70icgtYYO7-dzrmGxJPkF3HwQg39p3xFn8UfgESxIUlQNarZXJOBAiDu6ZRCLJXxAfkns2Su42TcjtjviBFdc-CwGPLexyLPi2yKVQqI56b9AZNMmx139f6tAeln9dBUCsMUcJ8Mi/s1600/boomerang+and+shield%252C+also+used+for+starting+fires.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKMf70icgtYYO7-dzrmGxJPkF3HwQg39p3xFn8UfgESxIUlQNarZXJOBAiDu6ZRCLJXxAfkns2Su42TcjtjviBFdc-CwGPLexyLPi2yKVQqI56b9AZNMmx139f6tAeln9dBUCsMUcJ8Mi/s320/boomerang+and+shield%252C+also+used+for+starting+fires.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584283721655936210" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">boomerang and shield</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHptcCLg2qUCDFKADJpp6X9Ai26XgnYPaLDal4nFi4nXWrBL5wUFuEcmoZABcKOewV7Td6QuGcxTmuSDOYT8avjXahH4gXa17jz5naJgaC9THJGoQ9_ZGUKCo5hOPhso7XL9aRdWKZFmf/s1600/bird+net.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHptcCLg2qUCDFKADJpp6X9Ai26XgnYPaLDal4nFi4nXWrBL5wUFuEcmoZABcKOewV7Td6QuGcxTmuSDOYT8avjXahH4gXa17jz5naJgaC9THJGoQ9_ZGUKCo5hOPhso7XL9aRdWKZFmf/s320/bird+net.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584283713239397378" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">bird net</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tG3t6cglZDUUhQuvf9CQPZGJD0K5KeMHBSwzcQNhv9lqg7GWyEordUevAJghNk7A_WvTxqSqpImDTgaEzpDRYZZr0tiWHviBXvhtYalKAHvO0sKO7yuo1VIACbPycc0sODvacSWfPu_t/s1600/giant+boomerang%252C+used+in+ceremonies.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tG3t6cglZDUUhQuvf9CQPZGJD0K5KeMHBSwzcQNhv9lqg7GWyEordUevAJghNk7A_WvTxqSqpImDTgaEzpDRYZZr0tiWHviBXvhtYalKAHvO0sKO7yuo1VIACbPycc0sODvacSWfPu_t/s320/giant+boomerang%252C+used+in+ceremonies.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584283711265672418" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">giant boomerang (used for ceremonies not hunting...could you imagine throwing that thing?)</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWuPpoBGTStB34FUwhSrEkPKChJjwfy51NzHe0PQywi6FJr3XvnG66B0xe3KqhK3ZAl-us-8yEphyphenhyphentJ5BpLzNfWSFZ4jy-PyTpdUWjnFpi8vSN6eug895Etstx6Fi3n6zoWKe9isNufgH/s1600/spear+thrower+and+scraper.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWuPpoBGTStB34FUwhSrEkPKChJjwfy51NzHe0PQywi6FJr3XvnG66B0xe3KqhK3ZAl-us-8yEphyphenhyphentJ5BpLzNfWSFZ4jy-PyTpdUWjnFpi8vSN6eug895Etstx6Fi3n6zoWKe9isNufgH/s320/spear+thrower+and+scraper.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584283699733590594" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">spear throwers</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTvcncsjim2nBIxLG0_HrdNAWhGvfkyKpFQkw5G2c9F4kpLyGjHaBMnK2Q7Y6uSYM91zbChUXhmP-BXG8pVkiXsFDG-mg8rFByTRf4nc1GZGH8USzs6H20DHfU2XPsLt_SEn3WLIJfIEr/s1600/Australia+069.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTvcncsjim2nBIxLG0_HrdNAWhGvfkyKpFQkw5G2c9F4kpLyGjHaBMnK2Q7Y6uSYM91zbChUXhmP-BXG8pVkiXsFDG-mg8rFByTRf4nc1GZGH8USzs6H20DHfU2XPsLt_SEn3WLIJfIEr/s320/Australia+069.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584283690567308866" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">demonstration of spear throwing</div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">So, you can ignore the pictures above for now, for the sole purpose of the fact that I can’t figure out how to make them go beneath the text, but I will talk about them later.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In fact, if we’re friends on fb, you may have already seen them, but they will be a nice aid to go with when I talk about the things I learned about the Aboriginal culture when I took a tour at the museum.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The title of this post would I suppose more accurately be named “Some random stuff I’ve learned so far” but that’s not nearly as exciting as the current title, and I promise you it is completely relevant.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Before I talk about what I learned about the Aboriginals, I thought I talk about something completely irrelevant to Australia that I learned in Animal Reproduction: Bed Bug Mating</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is probably one of the weirdest things that I’ve ever heard, and I warn you now this may be a bit gross to some, or a bit in appropriate, but I’ll try to make it as un-awkward as possible even though it’s a totally awkward and weird topic.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But yes, last week we went on a field trip for Animal Reproduction (where I got to artificially inseminate a sheep btw!!!) and as part of the trip, we watched a video on how different animals mate.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>An interesting fact that I learned is that with some species of bird, and I suppose some other animals may be able to do this as well, if an unwanted partner mates with them, they can push the unwanted sperm from their body.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>An odder fact is that dragonflies have a spiked penis that they use to scrape sperm from the reproductive tract of the female.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, the female repro tract is formed in a way that there are ridges behind where the sperm can hide.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As strange as the previous two have seemed, there was no comparison to the bed bug.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was by far the weirdest.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The male bed bug can penetrate the female in any part of her body and it injects sperm into her bloodstream.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>People always say that the sperm has a long journey from the entryway of the vagina to the oviducts in humans; however that doesn’t even compare to the journey the sperm of the bedbug take.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The bedbug’s sperm must travel through the females bloodstream until it finds its way to the egg.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Weird enough for you yet? Nope, it gets sooo much weirder.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Not only can the male penetrate the female in any part of the body, males can penetrate other males, including while one male is mating with another female.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If a male penetrates another male, his sperm journey is to travel through the blood stream until it reaches the testes, where it can then be transferred to another female.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So not even the male bedbug can ensure its paternity to the female it mates with.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So that’s something I’ve learned that was quite interesting since I’ve been here.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now on to the Aboriginals.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are estimated to have been around 600 different aboriginal nations, all speaking different languages.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The ones that inhabited the area of Adelaide were called the Kaurna (pronounced almost like Ghana, at least with an Australian accent) people.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They’re society was led by a group of elders and they delegated decisions, discussions, and tasks as male business and female business.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was very much a hunter-gatherer society, and because they couldn’t be bogged down with having to carry a bunch of tools, many of their tools were dual purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They usually followed the wildlife which was part of their source of food; however, they didn’t go too far out distance-wise so they generally stayed in the same territory.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But back to the dual purpose tools.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The first picture (from the bottom going up) is of the spear thrower which doubled as a scraper.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was pretty cool in how advanced it was for the time period in which it was used.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The design allowed for a further distance thrown as well as enhanced accuracy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then there was the boomerang.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Contrary to common belief, not all boomerangs returned to you.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Some were actually quite club shaped in their design.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Also contrary to common belief, they didn’t throw the boomerangs into the air and knock the birds from the air.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That would be extremely difficult, as well as quite inefficient because on the occasion that you happened to hit a bird, you’ve only got one after heaps of effort.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What they did in fact do with the boomerangs was throw them at the birds to get them to fly into the direction of the bird net that they had set up in a nearby tree.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The boomerang could also be used to start fires by rubbing it against a groove that was in their shields.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This was possible due to the fact that one was made of soft wood and the other of hard.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Paintings on their shields also could be used as maps based on the colorings and patterns.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m pretty sure there was a container that they used to carry water in that doubled as a baby carrier as well.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Unfortunately I took the tour the first week I was here, but failed to write about it until now, so that’s pretty much all the detail that I can remember.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m pretty sure that’s it, which means this has made to be one of my shorter posts.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until next time, never stop learning! After all, “knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” (Proverbs 2:10b)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p><p></p></div>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-63623786766391283392011-03-03T04:37:00.000-08:002011-03-03T04:38:25.464-08:00One down, 11 to go<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">So that countdown is referring to the number of weeks of classes here.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve successfully survived my first week of classes, and it’s a bit different.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Firstly, there’s only 12 weeks!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I was talking to my good friend Bekah today before Skype rudely dropped the call and she was asking me about how the classes were different.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I suppose I will write about that in this blog, since I never got to answer here.<br /><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Firstly, I will note that when I got here, during international student orientation, they constantly stressed how punctuality is a major Australian value, and I’m like ok, we share a value.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Although I sometimes operate on CP time, I really do like to be on time to stuff, and I make an honest effort to be for the most part.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s something I can say I have actually seen myself grow in since beginning college.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So since my schedule said 9 am on Tuesday for the start of my biochemistry class, I show up at like 5 before 9, and there’s barely anyone there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>People slowly trickle in, including the professor, and finally at like 9:15 class started.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m thinking to myself, “this is interesting. Punctuality, huh?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Maybe starting on time is how they roll at the main campus, however at the Ag one, not so much.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Second difference: (also exclusive to the ag campus) the lectures are in 3 hour time blocks, so I have one class each day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the morning is the 3 hour lecture, and in the afternoon is 3 hours of lab, tutorial, or a combination or alteration of the two.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I say alteration because in biochemistry, we have a lab one week, and the next week a tutorial (which is like a discussion based recitation).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>3 hour lecture? That is a bit long, but it’s not so bad.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The biochemists have worked it out so that we get a 10 min break after the first hour, and lunch after the second hour before the 3<sup>rd</sup>, because anyone could guess that 3 hours straight of biochem would be enough to cause someone’s brain to liquefy and just simply run out of their ears.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, these breaks seem to be at the prof’s disgression, but they do all seem to be in agreement that a break is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My second day was in animal breeding and genetics, and the prof went for like an hour and a half, and was just randomly like, ok, let’s take a 25 minute break.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Today, was animal reproduction, which so far, I find the most interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is going to be a MAJOR nerd moment, but I was so engaged that I could’ve gone without the break.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Or at least when she gave us one, I wasn’t necessarily ready for one yet, but in all honesty, I probably would have gotten restless if I had to sit for 3 straight hours.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The next difference is that the learning seems to be a lot more hands on.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Today in repro I dissected the reproduction tract of a boar and goat.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then we got to design the stages of sperm development within the seminiferous tubule out of play-doh.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mine was done in pen though, cause it took until the end of the class period of the teacher explaining it to me until I understood it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, I get it now (hopefully).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yesterday, my first day of breeding and genetics involved a trip to the cattle yards.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And there are other similar things planned throughout the semester including trips to zoos, research centers, and my wildlife management course has a four day field trip.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Am I at number 4? Well, that’s what we’re going with.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The professors generally go by their first names.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And number 5, cause that’s a good number I think.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I was preparing to come here, everyone was like, it’s really hard to do well because your grade is only based off of the final exam and a paper.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately, I’ve learned not to really listen to other people when their advice is even in the least bit discouraging.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even if something is difficult, I’m not going to go into with an attitude of defeat. I’m more than a conqueror!! (HS just gave that to me just now :]) I’m going to go into it expecting and working toward success! <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Anyhow, I got here, and maybe some classes are like that, but mine aren’t.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The heaviest weighted exam is in my repro class and that’s 45%.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The other two non-online classes have 2 exams and all of them have lab grades and other assessments.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The learning style is still a bit more independent than at Purdue, and I’ll have to be sure to interact with each subject more than just that one day each week, but that should be a good growth experience, and hopefully it will help to improve my study skills.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, that’s all I can think of for now. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until next time…Be MORE than a CONQUEROR!! (Rom 8:37)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-31930292232045985332011-03-01T04:37:00.001-08:002011-03-01T04:37:38.389-08:00Quick postHere's a music video that shows some of Adelaide at night time. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j--ckIIdIc&NR=1">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j--ckIIdIc&NR=1</a>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-47906325410745685202011-02-27T20:24:00.001-08:002011-02-27T20:26:56.685-08:00To the Middle of Nowhere<p class="MsoNormal">I stepped off the bus as tumbleweed rolled past.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Shalyse, what have you gotten yourself into this time?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>You may remember from the last post that I mentioned that I would be moving to the animal sciences campus, and I was told it was in the middle of nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The closest town in fact is 12 km away (~7 mi?)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For the first time since I’ve been alive, this is really the first time I’ve legitimately seen tumbleweed, but that’s not all I’ve seen since I’ve been here.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>First of all, I just need to mention that God’s always doing more than I can even ask or imagine…I signed up to live in the campus housing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I didn’t even know there was an option other than the residence halls, but I am living in a 5 person house with only 3 people (myself included in that 3).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This house, fully furnished, also came with all the kitchenware needed to cook, and I get 5 meals/week provided.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That’s just great in my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I wouldn’t have minded living in the residence hall, but I would have had to share a kitchen with the whole building, and I would not have had a mini fridge, so I would’ve had to put stuff in the main fridge/freezer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Only sharing a kitchen/bathroom with 2 other people is not bad at all.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The campus also has a swimming pool, gym (that I won’t be using cause I’d have to pay for a membership), and it’s just altogether pretty.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s a shuttle that takes you to town a few times throughout the day during the week, but if you need to get to town at a time that the shuttle isn’t running, such as on the weekend, or earlier than the shuttle goes (like me on this past Friday), the university will call and pay a taxi for you, which is totally sweet.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The provided meals have been good thusfar.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s the only time I drink juice, however I’m considering buying some.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The server in the dining room is very nice and quite funny.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She usually piles way more food on my plate than I could ever eat in one sitting, and then she asks me if that’s enough or if I want more.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I say that’s enough, and she’s like, “ya sure? Ok, well if you want more just come up and ask for seconds.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If I finish all that is on my plate, it’s a barely.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>On the day I arrived to the campus, I took a walk around just to explore, and I got a glimpse of the beauty of God’s creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I saw so many different birds of different sizes, shapes, colors, and sounds and it was amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I saw a few of these same birds at the wildlife park, so I’m guessing they’re not so common in the city.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One cool one was this bird that looks like a pink cockatoo.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I think it’s called a galah…I’m probably spelling that wrong, but nevertheless, they’re pretty cool.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I stopped and watch these swarms of ants, mostly at first because there were so many I was afraid to cross the path, but as I watched, I was just in awe.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>An ant can carry like 20 (or 40, can’t quite remember) times its own weight.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That’s absolutely insane; it’d be like me carrying close to 3000 pounds! But, as I often am, I’m completely going off on a tangent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I rather like it here so far, and I’ve yet to share two of my favorite parts.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The first has to do with more personal growth points.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I believe 2 of the reasons I’m here are two grow personally, and to experience what it’s like to be an international student so that I can better relate.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, since I’m doing the latter every moment by just existing here, I have to be more intentional about recognizing the former.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you know me well, you may or may not know that I don’t really like asking questions, especially if they’re of the nature of me needing help.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I prefer to be rather independent and try to figure things out or do them on my own.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, my time being here will rather force me to interact with security but fortunately, they’re quite friendly.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And don’t worry; this is relevant to my first favorite part.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A few of the buildings that are on campus for student use remain locked if they don’t have set hours like say, the library.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Two of those buildings include the gym and the chapel.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The chapel is open on Thursdays when the chaplain comes to visit, but any other time, it’s locked.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I first moved in, after my Welcome presentation, I was asked if I had any questions.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Many times, when asked this, even if I have a question, I usually say no, because I decide that my question isn’t important enough to ask, and I could just figure it out, but this time I actually decided to go for the plunge.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I asked if there was a piano on campus.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“I don’t know, there might be one in the chapel, but I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You can just ask security to open it.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So later on I just walked up to the security office and asked them to open the chapel for me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>PSHH! Yeah right.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I have to always make stuff more difficult and excruciating then it is in real life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Remember the swarm of ants? This is where I encountered the first bunch.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I walked up to the building which seemed like it was probably the chapel because it sort of fit the map location, and it looked “churchy”, but it wasn’t labeled.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I ran past the ants, to the door, to see if maybe it was unlocked.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>No such luck, so I tried the back door only to come to the same conclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“I think now would be a good time to go exploring.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s funny how I avoid things.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I could have just walked up to the security office, which is literally like right next to the chapel and ask them to open the door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But there were just too many unknowns.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Firstly, what if that wasn’t the chapel.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’d look awfully foolish.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve decided (just now as I am typing this) that I need to get over the fear of looking foolish, because if you never take that chance, you never learn.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But what if I trouble the security officers to open the door and there is no piano? I’d be wasting their time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’d be such a hassle after all for them to walk all the way next door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s funny how silly the excuses we make to ourselves to stop us from doing something beneficial look when we write them on paper.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I after I took my really long walk, I had a decision to make.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I could go ask security to open the door or I could wait for Thursday. (This was Monday by the way)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In hindsight, I don’t know if I really just missed the piano or if I was afraid that waiting until Thursday would render me an audience of the chaplain.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Whichever it was, probably most of one, but a pinch of 2, I finally asked security to open the door.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There was a piano!!!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s terribly out of tune, but on Thursday, the chaplain informed me that it will be getting tuned.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, there was an electric organ.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I just have to play on two levels of keys.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That made my day even sunnier than it already was.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The second favorite thing is the train.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, there’s a couple of funny stories surrounding this one, but I’ll come out and say right up front that I get to stay at the church that I went to on the first Sunday I was here!!! Unlike in Jersey where the train costs a different amount depending on where you’re going, here it’s a flat rate of only 1.40 off peak, and I’m one of the furthest stops.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, I accidentally stole a ride I found out.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s funny, stuff like the train and bus are on the honor system for paying.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I was at the train station and you need to use your ticket to get through the turnstile, I assumed that was the equivalent of paying and the ticket machines that were on the train were for people getting on the train at later stations that did not have turnstiles (b/c many don’t).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I found out I’m supposed to swipe my ticket at both when I came back to that station and I needed swipe the ticket to exit the turnstile as well.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is when I decided that this must not be charging me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Whoops.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My suspicions were confirmed when I asked a friend I met at church.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Guess I’ll have to swipe twice next time I ride.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Second funny story has to do with that friend and another, Claire and Winnie.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They’re quite hilarious, and awesome people, as they decided to drive me all the way home to the middle of nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’ve only actually taken the bus from the city once and it was daytime, and so I didn’t really know how to get there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately, I was actually paying attention when we came, so I knew there were signs that told which way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But this time, it was pitch black and there were no street lights because, well, it’s the middle of nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Why would you need streetlights?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Lol<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That was a fun night.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After me finding out from Claire that I’m not really American (Later I found out that she’s not really Australian), a bit of wrong side of the road driving, and being misled by a sign that had the name of the campus written really large and 500m on the left really tiny underneath, we finally made it to my house.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And I was informed by my new friends yesterday that after they dropped me off, they couldn’t find their way out of the campus.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Fortunately, security found them and directed them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Well, this post has been ridiculously longer than it should’ve been, but as we’ve established, I’m long-winded.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Thanks for reading.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Until next time, “may He do more than all you ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shalomses</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-49097776140914875022011-02-18T23:46:00.000-08:002011-02-19T00:14:44.956-08:00These adventures, I call them lifeSo, I blatantly stole the title of this post from the title of my friend Rebekah's blog, but I replaced the question mark with a comma, so now it's original...right? But in all seriousness, I have a valid reason (in my mind) for choosing that title. In my life, everyday adventures and unexpected things just seem to happen, which is fine by me, cause any other way, I think my life would be just dull. Anyhow, I met with the advisor for animal science students, for the Uni where I'm studying and she basically tells me that the campus for animal science is in the middle of nowhere, it's a farm, and the closest town is 12 km away. Come again? Yup, I'm going to be living on a farm. Coming from being raised in a city, and then living in a rural NON-farming area while still maintaining much contact with the city, I thought to myself, "well this should be a new experience." And that's when the phrase popped into my mind: "these adventures, I call them life." I've only met one other international student that studies there, and it's her second year here, so she's not new. However, I did come to Australia to learn about the culture, and I wanted to meet Australian's so I'm guessing that's definately going to happen. I've been told that the school is very well known for animal sciences, so many Australian's from around the country go there, and unlike in the city, many don't just commute to and from school, so this should be some experience. An adventure. I rather like adventures. So on Monday, here we go. I'll keep you informed. But until next time, May you recognize and embrace the small things, that make your life an adventure.<br /><br />ShalomsesShalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-43064483884969589082011-02-17T20:52:00.000-08:002011-03-06T20:27:27.170-08:00Motivational Gifts and the Body of Christ P2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKeTm1KRzzHfR31d33ZqnmmyN8cVy5CEr8AZ3EOQv1xiLR1eKMHykJvhydZdC7jB6RwIN1lL5_vLPxnu75a5_0C91kiY-dwxZg56ZHLM8hn0YsbdbFUWeIt4oNkfcwJ9trobQC0tLink5/s1600/wok+in+a+box.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKeTm1KRzzHfR31d33ZqnmmyN8cVy5CEr8AZ3EOQv1xiLR1eKMHykJvhydZdC7jB6RwIN1lL5_vLPxnu75a5_0C91kiY-dwxZg56ZHLM8hn0YsbdbFUWeIt4oNkfcwJ9trobQC0tLink5/s320/wok+in+a+box.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581176410914967474" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN6fDM7PPgD96afbA-fBtTjuTqz_rNYPlzvRMU4b8UTEClhv0jilU3XoxvHDFNH9XqgAIOrGRTlWOGK1RFVFhju96y0x9nJVd04ot8Bv4VmHhXxoauE44a6YYgGyHQEgPX8fDSWcVxExSh/s1600/Australia+021.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN6fDM7PPgD96afbA-fBtTjuTqz_rNYPlzvRMU4b8UTEClhv0jilU3XoxvHDFNH9XqgAIOrGRTlWOGK1RFVFhju96y0x9nJVd04ot8Bv4VmHhXxoauE44a6YYgGyHQEgPX8fDSWcVxExSh/s320/Australia+021.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581176409935050274" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrx9or51Rq_bIDr7BS5xpp49o9nMD0C5PX_1-TIwRtjPMeuAGF0Vl3kbMJVDSCXuXoR_jE0dXIaHyzs1JAgzsJLUX0IEAGTMwA5VCyCe-rvYEYCa8zkBhHGhKFjtDm_Fwj7qSYYm-QXEJ/s1600/Australia+020.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrx9or51Rq_bIDr7BS5xpp49o9nMD0C5PX_1-TIwRtjPMeuAGF0Vl3kbMJVDSCXuXoR_jE0dXIaHyzs1JAgzsJLUX0IEAGTMwA5VCyCe-rvYEYCa8zkBhHGhKFjtDm_Fwj7qSYYm-QXEJ/s320/Australia+020.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581176402407689202" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqjuYRFYw7yQCPRn2aKJOXvw84_r1bFR9Yf-Qfxw7iz4M1YVQLXuIaAZn7xWjmZ2Avinc6UcZd2XgE-mTJ8l8IfpM-D7fM0yqJbSMIT3FH2QPp6mUd7xNdsN9Kekabf28Nqv60w4YOpCo/s1600/Australia+017.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqjuYRFYw7yQCPRn2aKJOXvw84_r1bFR9Yf-Qfxw7iz4M1YVQLXuIaAZn7xWjmZ2Avinc6UcZd2XgE-mTJ8l8IfpM-D7fM0yqJbSMIT3FH2QPp6mUd7xNdsN9Kekabf28Nqv60w4YOpCo/s320/Australia+017.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581176398620677138" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7m9ZVz6QghUz8fSCgihilEaa1ioUq-uWIvRe5JzLWYugLVV8JYxhX0YS6f1j04Eo8N01DxE8CeTRvYD4KemMbD9dFR00uZtb3_nFe5IfTZ11SvlUpFALemYHP-3Ny98GmBSs9UhRhxWDQ/s1600/Australia+011.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7m9ZVz6QghUz8fSCgihilEaa1ioUq-uWIvRe5JzLWYugLVV8JYxhX0YS6f1j04Eo8N01DxE8CeTRvYD4KemMbD9dFR00uZtb3_nFe5IfTZ11SvlUpFALemYHP-3Ny98GmBSs9UhRhxWDQ/s320/Australia+011.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581176393355167746" /></a>Toward the end of the last post I said that God always has stuff planned out perfectly. Well, I’m going to go into a bit more detail. Earlier that day (Saturday) I was on my way back to my room from the library, and the hospital chapel happens to be right next to the residential wing of the hospital. For some reason, I decided to just stop by, and up to this point I can only attribute that to the leading of the Holy Spirit, because I really didn’t have a reason. But when I walked up to the door, there was a little paper posted that had a listing of churches in the area. (There’s a sidenote needed here: One of the nicknames of Adelaide is the City of Churches because it used to have so many but apparently many have been closed and turned into other things unfortunately, but there are still quite a few. However, anytime I look at a listing of churches, there’s only like 5-7 listed, and different lists have different churches…the more famous ones like St. Peter’s which is this humongous Catholic church is on most of the lists, but the smaller ones seem to be scattered) Anyhow, on this particular list…which by far was the most helpful of them all because it listed the church, phone number, location and service times, had the words Assemblies of God: Edge church 9am and 11am And so I decide I’ll go to one of those services tomorrow. I looked the street up on the map of the city and it seemed to be not so bad of a walk, so that was good. Now we go back to my dinner drama, fast forward a few hours. After 2 unsuccessful dinner invites, one saying no and the other having no answer, I decided to just go to dinner alone…which I don’t mind so much…I just hate sitting in my room alone with nothing to do and no one to talk to. So I go off to look at the city some. Since I was by myself, I decided, “hey, why don’t I go look for that church just to make sure that I can find it, and I can see relatively how long it will take.” So I did just that, and am so fortunate that I did, because when I went there, I discovered that in the summer, they condense to one service at 10 am. If I had not known that, I might’ve missed what happened the next day. And the other bonus was, I found 4$ pizza in a place where everything seems to be quite expensive. Yay :)<br />But on to the motivational gifts that I keep seeming to talk about in the title but nowhere else. I suppose since it is the title, I should at least mention it. First, I suppose I will start by saying that I’m an exhorter/prophet, or encourager/perceiver. What this means specifically for me is that I’m quite good at encouraging people who I’m comfortable around and I’ve grown in being welcoming to the outsider in the group, but for me, many things are very black and white, and I’m ok with being a loner, for a while. I’m kind of an introverted extravert because I can be very shy, but being around people, once I get to know them, energizes me. And for most people, it can take up to a year or longer for me to warm up to them. Anyhow, I got to the church on that Sunday around 9:30 because I grossly overestimated the amount of time it would take to get there, but for me, that’s for the best cause I can be bad about time. There weren’t many people there yet, but a woman who was doing the parking validation offered me some tea or coffee and chatted with me for a bit, and told me that she would introduce me to a woman named Zahara. The first impression I got of her was wow she’s rockin’ those heels… I’m pretty sure they were at least 6 inches, lol. She was an absolutely lovely woman and definitely an exhorter …she reminded me a lot of my friend DWoods, because she was everyone’s friend and it took us like 15 minutes to make it up to the second level of the church where the sanctuary was (it used to be a movie a theatre so that was pretty cool) because she kept stopping to talk to people. She was a very cool person. She’s one of the people that helped me get out of that “I made a terrible mistake by coming here alone” mindset because she encouraged me and she didn’t even know that I needed encouragement. She affirmed me and told me how brave I was by coming to a country on the other side of the world, to a city where I didn’t know anyone at all, and then I just walked right into a church to meet people because I had seen it on a list of churches. It’s funny how we are our own worst critics, and I suppose it does take some guts to leave the comforts of home to go to an unknown land. The service was great, and it’s a church whose main goal is to reach the community with the message of Hope, Truth, and Love. Afterward, they had a time of fellowship where they serve snacks and coffee or hot chocolate. The snacks were sushi and these little brownie type cakes…I just thought that was interesting. During this time is when I met Denise and Robert Pride. They’re an older couple, and they were also very nice. I would guess them to be more the giver type. I first met Denise, and she told me about her family, (some of which live in CA) her husband and then they’re goats and alpaca. It’s a good thing I love goats, because she talked about them for a while, and alpacas are just entertaining animals. I think I’d have only been more amused if she’d told me they owned an emu, because those are just hilarious. Anyhow, after talking with them both for a while, they offered to take me around a show me the city which was very kind of them. I will post the pictures on fb, and as soon as I figure out how to post pictures to blogspot, I’ll add a few (if anyone knows, feel free to post a comment and tell me). I told them that I would be living away from the city, and they even offered me a place at their home over the weekends if I still wanted to attend their church. I think I’ve gained a new appreciation for the body of Christ. I realize now that no matter where I go, home to Jersey, Purdue, and even Australia, if the body of Christ is there, I’ll always have family, because with the body of Christ is love. Also, with the Holy Spirit, I’m never alone. If it weren’t for him afterall, leading me to that chapel, I probably would not have found that church. One final note: “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” (Romans 12:6a) Jesus said “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much…” (Luke 16:10a) I’ve realized that I haven’t been using the gifts God has given me to maximum potential, so one of my new prayers is that I will be trustworthy with the little He’s given me, and by His grace that I would use that to the max. I sincerely hope that if you’ve not experienced the love of Christ that you will seek it out, because not much compares.<br />I’ll be continuing to live this adventure, and hopefully I’ll keep growing. A look into the future of this blog, I’ve learned some interesting things about the history and culture, and probably before that, I’ll be writing about the next phase of this journey…moving to Roseworthy.<br />May you always live to your full potential!<br /><br />Until next time,<br />ShalomsesShalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-21852810972130855612011-02-17T20:51:00.000-08:002011-02-19T14:21:43.788-08:00Motivational Gifts and the Body of ChristHello all! I hope all is going well for you. I suppose this is sort of like the 2nd part of the last post that I made, although they aren’t really interdependent at all, which is why this one has a separate title. I suppose another consequence of stream of consciousness (SOC) is that (at least in my case), it’s much unplanned. I mean, I have an idea of what I will write about which is how I come up with titles (in the case of titles that I come up with before I write the post), but even if I don’t know the title first, I have a vague idea to begin. For instance, in this post, I titled it before writing it; however in the previous post, I came up with (what I’ve decided to be quite clever) the title after writing the post. But I suppose that all that’s irrelevant. If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering what I’ve learned about myself, amongst other things, if you read the last post, since that is what I said I would write about.<br /> I suppose saying that I learned something about myself, is a bit of a non-truth, I already knew it, it was just reconfirmed, and now I guess I’m going to publicly share it. If you know me well enough, you might already know this, but you might not, and that is that I’m afraid of people, in a sense.<br />It’s funny really, because I’m only afraid of people in the context of relationship, and that doesn’t really make much sense the way I’m explaining it, so I will use an example. I’m in this group called XA (Chi Alpha) and we do different things for evangelism, one being surveys, and another being praying for people. I have no problem walking up to someone and saying “hey have you taken our survey?” or “hey, do you have any prayer requests?” If they say no, they say no, and I just move on. No problem being rejected there. HOWever, last Saturday, I decided a good way to meet some people (since I didn’t really know anyone) was to just nonchalantly walk up to a fellow new student and ask them if they wanted to go get some food and explore the city a bit. No problem right? WRONG! Picture this: I was standing in my room, literally trembling, and having that argument in my mind that you have when you’re trying to get yourself to do something that you don’t want to do. I looked at my hand, and since it wasn’t noticeably shaking, I figured I must not be that worried. SO, I walked across the hall and knocked on the door of a girl named Rica who I had just happened to meet because we checked into the hospital at the same time (btw, just a sidenote: living in a hospital is weird to Australians, too…not a normal thing). She wasn’t there, so I just went and asked someone else. That’s at least, what I would have done if I were a more logical person…instead I went back into my room to psych myself out some more. “Just go ask someone else, what are you so afraid of? Everyone is new here and no one knows anyone” “Not true. Rica, for example, has a friend here from her university. The two girls I met at the airport were both from W&M…what was I thinking coming here alone? That wasn’t a good idea” (another sidenote: It’s funny. Fast forward to Monday and the lady who did the first orientation session talked about how when you go to a new place you go through phases of being really excited about the new city, and then really unexcited and homesick, and regretting the choice of coming, and then happy you came again. I’m pretty sure I went through most of that on Saturday and got back to the happy to be here phase by Sunday, and the reason for that will come up shortly) “Just go ask someone else! What’s the worst that could happen? They say no, so you move on!” That’s the fear that can break you. REJECTION!!! (oh no) Now that I am 6 whole days wiser (not much) I can say that the fear of rejection stems from the lie that you have nothing to offer. Everyone (including me) has something to offer. (Psalm 139:14) I’ve started talking to people now, although I haven’t initiated many conversations. I have started a few, and I’ve been consciously not finding a corner to sit alone in when there’s a big group of people. Even if you’re afraid to talk to someone outright, if you go up and ask them if you can sit with them, they’ll usually start the conversation if you don’t. I know when that happens to me I do, cause it’s awkward to just have someone sit with you and just look at one another without saying anything. In fact, that’s more uncomfortable than putting yourself out there and possibly having an awkward conversation. I realize this post has gotten a lot longer than I thought it would be, so there truly will be a part 2 to this one, because otherwise, the title just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. But, before I end this, you’re probably wondering two things: what happened with the whole asking people to dinner thing, and two, what happened on Sunday to change my downcast mood. Well, I finally worked up enough nerve to go and ask someone else so I’m like “hey, I’m going to go look around the city and find some dinner. Wanna come?” and they were like “No, sorry” and that was it. I’m absolutely crushed right? No, not really. That’s the other somewhat peculiar thing about me…I have this dreadful fear of being rejected, but when it happens, I don’t really mind so much. This is why fear is irrational. The consequences aren’t usually as bad as what you imagine them to be. This is of course referring to social fears, not healthy ones such as not sticking a knife in a socket for the fear of being electrocuted. But anyhow, I went and ate dinner by myself which turned out to be for the best because God always has stuff planned out really perfectly. And the second thing is the whole Sunday thing…well, that, as you can probably guess, is where the title comes from, and is what you will have to read about in the next post…if you feel so inclined. But fortunately, I’m posting them at the same time, cause I’m tired of postponing writing about it, but if I put them together that would make this too long post even longer, so feel free to just read on. In conclusion, I’m long-winded.<br /><br />May His truth be your delight! :)Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-66677328754470974882011-02-14T01:11:00.000-08:002011-02-14T01:18:15.948-08:00Left side of the road and rice krispies<!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> 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Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I’ve been in the city for about 4 days now (btw, I just realized this website is on American time, so just add a day whenever I reference days), and I’ve learned a few things about it, as well as about life in general, and about myself. (this will be in 2 parts, the 2<sup>nd</sup> part being more personal)<span style=""> </span>So first, a few things about the city, and I guess Australia in general.<span style=""> </span>Well, I’ve only got one thing about Australia in general, so I’ll say that one first.<span style=""> </span>Oh, erase that, two things: Did you know that Australia is the continent closest to the whole in the ozone layer? Bet ya didn’t. I should probably find some sunscreen.<span style=""> </span>The second is just a new slang word I learned: snag=sausage. So you can throw a snag on the barbie…which I will be having at the international student bbq on wed.<span style=""> </span>Ok, so I’ve just decided this is going to be a non-numbered list, because when you write in stream of consciousness, things just come to mind.<span style=""> </span>Even though Australians drive on the left side of the road, you are NOT allowed to make a left turn on red.<span style=""> </span>I was riding in a car yesterday with an absolutely lovely couple (they’ll come up in more detail in the next post) and it was the one question I was dying to ask, so I did. (Personal growth points!<span style=""> </span>I’m always shy about asking questions) It was actually quite funny because one of their sons lives in the US and when they came to visit him, they were freaking out because he turned right on a red light.<span style=""> </span>Just a note, it doesn’t bother me that they drive on the left side of the road (not so sure how I’d fare with it), but 2 things I never thought of until yesterday.<span style=""> </span>The more minor is just an observation: people tend to gravitate in walking on the same side of a path that they drive.<span style=""> </span>Most people here walk to the left side of the path, while my gravitation toward the right can cause collision, so I just think about it now to avoid that.<span style=""> </span>However the other thing is a bit more substantial.<span style=""> </span>It’s one of those things that are common sense if you stop to think about it, but you wouldn’t stop to think about it unless you’re me about to get hit by a car.<span style=""> </span>Since they drive on the other side of the road, I need to look in the opposite direction of what I’m used to.<span style=""> </span>I almost stepped off the curb to meet an oncoming car yesterday, but by the grace of God I didn’t.<span style=""> </span>But I digress (often), so we’ll go back to the few things about the city.<span style=""> </span>The city of Adelaide was a planned city, so it’s very organized, and very hard to get lost in. I can attest to that because I have yet to get lost in the city, however anytime I try to get to the residential wing of the hospital from the main entrance, without fail I get lost and 1 of 2 things happens: I end up having to go outside to find my way, or someone notices me looking lost and they direct me.<span style=""> </span>Anyhow, the city center is surrounded at each corner by a giant park and the main street (King William) goes down the center with streets branching off of it. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style=""><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SHALYS%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.jpg" width="288" height="198" /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is what I picture it in my head to look like mapically(not sure if you can see that). Of course there are more than 4 streets, however, I purposefully named them 1, 2, 3, and 4 because they are different depending on what side of King William you are on.<span style=""> </span>The other interesting thing is that, unlike other major cities in Australia, Adelaide was not a city for Britain’s prisoners.<span style=""> </span>It was actually planned to be a nice place to live, and from what I can see, it is.<span style=""> </span>It’s also the most affordable city in Australia, which means that I unintentially picked an ideal place for me. They have this great deal at Subway, 7$ footlongs!<span style=""> </span>(sarcasm noted) However compared to the rest of Australia, is it is more affordable from what I’ve been told.<span style=""> </span>The city is very diverse and as a result it’s hard to tell who’s not an Australian, and I’m not really sure what would be considered Australian cuisine, with the exception of kangaroo meat, which I’ve yet to try!<span style=""> </span>However, I did have the WORST chicken burrito of my life that I payed close to 10 bucks for. And I’m pretty sure the lady forgot the chicken. Bright side: the guacamole was good. Note: when in Australia, pizza’s fine, asian food’s fine, fast food is fine, just don’t get Mexican.<span style=""> </span>Something I learned about America, we have a very pretty and colorful passport.<span style=""> </span>“Leave it to the Yanks to be so flashy!” one woman jokingly said.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A few more things about Adelaide/Australia that I’ve found funny/interesting (I’ll be keeping a written log of these in the awesome scrapbook my friend mo gave me, but here are a few):<span style=""> </span>The stores close extremely early! 9pm is the late night, and 7 pm are the extended summer hours.<span style=""> </span>Target closes at 5 pm on most nights, and is strictly a clothing store from what I can tell.<span style=""> </span>Burger King is called Hungry Jacks and they have the equivalent of the McFlurry called the Storm.<span style=""> </span>(the reason I know it’s still Burger King is 3 fold: 1) they have the whopper, 2) the logo is the same, it just says hungry jack’s instead of bk, and 3) even here they had to steal something from mickey d’s…at home it’s the mcmuffin, here it’s the mcflurry, lol)<span style=""> </span>I accidentally bought cranberry juice that was sweetened with splenda (that has nothing to do with Australia whatsoever, cause I’ve totally done that back home too, I just thought I’d mention that it’s just as gross here) The elevator in the residential wing looks like it’s as old as the ones in Lilly Hall, but somehow, it moves like it’s the elevator from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.<span style=""> </span>By the time I blink, I’m at the 10<sup>th</sup> floor.<span style=""> </span>But finally, I had to save the best for last: Rice Krispies= Rice Bubbles!!! Snap, crackle and pop</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Thanks for reading, hope you had a smile. May you have joy unconditionally <span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="">J</span></span></p>Shalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8264163688738743875.post-69090234849929459422011-02-11T19:59:00.000-08:002011-02-11T20:15:57.910-08:00Post number 1Creative title huh? Hi everybody! This is the blog that I will keep to log my adventures in this new land. As I have previously done in my other blog, which I have been so diligent in not updating since August, I'll be writing in stream of consciousness, b/c that's how I roll. So, if you're interested, read on, and if not, my bad.<br /><br /> I made it to Adelaide yesterday. And because of the 13.5 hour time difference, it was necessary for me to sleep exactly 13.5 hours. That's kinda weird seeing as that was completely unplanned, but for real, I accidentally fell asleep around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and woke up at 4:30 this morning. So today, I decided I needed to find free wifi, and I ventured to the library. I hope to see more of the city soon, but so far from what I've seen, it's quite pretty. Although it's summer here, the weather isn't too hot, unless you're directly in the sun. As I walked, the city kind of reminded me of a less crowded, more diverse version of Rome in a way. The buildings are very artistic, although they look a lot less ancient :) (pictures to come soon). The food, from the 1.5 meals I've had thusfar, isn't much different. And something that I didn't know, until Ben told me, is that they, like England, drive on the left side of the road, which I suppose would give an advantage to all the lefties, unlike our vehicles, which favor the right-handed.<br />Anyhow, (I get sidetracked easily). Orientation is next week, so that should be cool. Oh, and I'm staying in a hospital for the week until I go to my accommodation at the ag campus. I've never been to a hospital where there's a residential area for people to just live in, but there's a first for everything. I guess since I haven't done much besides sleep so far, I don't have much more to say, but I'll be updating this again so until then, May the peace of Christ guard your heart and mind :)<br /><br />ShalomsesShalysehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17072496994637426169noreply@blogger.com0