April Showers...

...bring May flowers! In the United States at least... So far it's just bringing grass back to life and making leaves fall faster. It's been a while since I last posted, but the last week or so has been uneventful. I'm falling into the lull of school as the first round of major assignments comes up. The next couple of weeks will be more exciting, so stay tuned!

Last Thursday, Nina, Daniel, and I took advantage of one of the last beautiful and hot days to go to the beach! Nina skipped class, Daniel and I skipped homework and studying, and it was totally worth it. We took a Flexicar down to Torquay's Front Beach and had a bunch of the beach to ourselves! For those who don't know (assuming everyone), Flexicar is a car sharing rental service here. There are cars parked around campus and in Melbourne that are available for booking as long as no one else has booked them. You go online, pay $10/hr, and get to take the car wherever you want for however long you booked it. Which means, yes. I drove for the first time, on the left side of the road!!! Over the last six years of driving I have never been as concentrated as I was last week. Not only are you on the "wrong" side of the road, but you're sitting on the "wrong" side of the car and the wipers and turning signals are switched. Multiple times I went to signal and suddenly the windshield wipers would go. All in all it was a super great day!

Plus a video of me seeing if seagulls would take dried apricots (spoiler alert, they didn't like it.)

The next few days were rough and not too interesting, but then Sunday came!

A couple weeks ago, an older couple at the church I've been going to invited me to lunch for this past weekend after church. The thing I've discovered about study abroad is, always say yes. Unless there are already legitimate plans, always say yes (unless it's an unsafe situation of course). So I rode to their house with them, and we were eventually joined by six other young adults (a few of whom I recognized!). Sallee and her husband made all of us coffee/tea and we sat around and chatted for about an hour. We then all ate some amazing Dutch soup Sallee had prepared, along with homemade bread. All nine of us sat around the table perfectly, and it was almost like something out of a movie. We stayed over for about an hour or two after lunch, again just talking. John and Sallee often have people over for lunch after church, and I love love love the strong community I've been lucky enough to stumble upon for my short duration here.

On Monday, I had a breakthrough in the kitchen. As some of you may have seen on Twitter, I realized last week that I hadn't yet bought vegetables from the grocery store. In the past seven weeks, I had somehow forgotten to buy vegetables! I also quickly realized I had never cooked chicken by myself before, so I called in some help. My wonderful cousin Sam is a junior in high school and has been cooking since she was tall enough to put things on and off the stove. With Sam on FaceTime coaching me through the process, I made chicken and rice with mushrooms and brussels sprouts and it was SO much better than the spaghetti and tacos I'd been subsisting on previously. Sam is my savior and I can promise you and her I'll be calling again.

Tuesday was filled with homework, class, and paper writing.

Yesterday was Waurn Pond's pride celebration. Nina, Jarryd, and I headed towards central campus for some free sandwiches, write an inspirational message, and listen to some live music. FUN FACT: Jarryd was wearing a UNI sweatshirt (which I immediately interrogated him about) because his younger brother was an exchange student at Algona High School last year. What a small world!

Today was a big day. Nina, Jarryd, Matilda, and I left Waurn Ponds at 9:25 this morning to get to the Deakin Burwood campus on the other side of Melbourne. We left at 9:25 this morning and arrived to Burwood at 12:45. That's about/over three hours of public transportation. It felt a little bit like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles which I realize has become the story of my life in a country where I don't have a car. We all made the trek to Burwood today for the Study Abroad Fair put on for Deakin students thinking about studying abroad. Nina and I represented our respective universities and tried to convince as many students as we could to study abroad! I'm going to press pause for a hot second to say this to any students reading: if there is even a little mustard seed of an idea to study abroad, plant it. Take it and go. The harsh reality of life is this: there is no better time to drop everything and live in another country for four months with no real consequence than there is right now. You have the rest of your life to work. Take four months to throw your world upside down. You'll learn so much about yourself and grow in ways you never could've imagined. I'm not going to lie it won't always be easy. At times it will be very, very hard. But I'm one week away from hitting my halfway point and the jury has already decided: I hope and pray that everyone I know and love gets to have an experience similar to this at some point in their lives. Not necessarily studying abroad because not everyone is in a financial or academic position to do so, but something. My favorite person in the world and boyfriend Matt is working at the Grand Canyon this summer and it's those kinds of experiences that I encourage you to take. If you have any questions about it, I want to discuss it with you. Ok back on track. We headed to a mall that made Jordan Creek Mall look like an out of date strip mall. It was huge with every single brand name you could imagine, and then some. At some places it was four stories tall! We then made the long trek back to Waurn Ponds, where I sit here and write. Exhausted from such a big day.

(Nina passed out on the shuttle from the mall to Melbourne's CBD)

A pretty boring week. Eh. Next week will be exciting! My papers will be turned in, it's Nina's birthday (which means karaoke!), a 70s themed party, and an overnight Great Ocean Road trip. I'll do my best to make sure those events will be split up into two posts so it isn't a huge long one! Have a great end of your week!

BONUS FOOTAGE:

I had to call in the native Australian to kill some spiders. Thanks, Em!

After the beach we definitely needed McDonalds (or Maccas, as the locals call it) and while Nina was in the bathroom Daniel tried breaking into her FaceID phone.