A Glimpse of Home

Aussie term of the day...

“Hey” - They say this all the time.  No joke and it's not just in the context of like "Hey, what time was that underwater basket weaving class today?" No, it's more like it's used as the most reasonable way to end a sentence ever.  "You had that under water basket weaving class today hey.  How was that?" Or "This American lemonade tastes like lemon cordial hey." Almost like you are asking a question and stating a fact at the same time so just to make sure it's clear, you end the sentence with hey. Makes perfect sense hey. 

Another fantastic Townsville sunset.  How are these always so darn beautiful?!

            So apparently there is a part of Townsville that is still considered Townsville but is pretty much as far as you can get away from people and still be in Townsville.  That very last stretch of road before you reach the end is just this one row of houses right on the road and then a wide expanse of wilderness before it encompasses you completely. You reach that bit of road that just seems to change and the only thing you can think about is that long country drive with nothing around you but creation.  The kind that makes you want to just roll your windows down and blast that guilty pleasure music you can sing your heart out to. That’s what I thought about anyways. Except the rolling the windows down part, because I'm the weirdest person ever and absolutely hate it when people do that... But that's beside the point. And in case you were wondering, that area is Ross River Dam. 

            I finally got to meet up with the other Julia again after several weeks of business on both our parts and for a change of scenery we decided to give it a look.  And boy is it pretty! They have this open picnic area with several stone picnic tables placed scenically under a group of large over arching trees and a couple informational signs plopped on the tree line giving you a short blurb about the areas history. A family homestead originally. It was here that we decided to make out our little afternoon “picnic,” that is if you consider a packet of caramel chocolate slice and a good read through the book of Job a picnic.  A good one for the heart and mind whatever it was J.  And can I just tell you how much I love afternoons like that??  Seriously the best medicine after a stressful week of uni and the most uplifting way to start off the week. 

 

The view of one side of Ross River Dam

            It was more of the same in terms of uni work this week.  A group project here, a meeting there, working on writing that big paper some more over here.  Pretty exciting stuff.  A couple weeks back I finally got that package from home I was told would be coming and I finally did something with those thirteen letters I got (other than read them all of course!) and made a bit of a cork board collage above my desk. Definitely an encouraging sight to look up to whenever I get frustrated with school work and the going ons' of life. What have I done to be so blessed with so many awesome friends??

            Speaking of which, I finally got a Skype call in to several friends from home! We have been planning out the darn "get together" for several weeks now and we finally got the time conversion all figured out and a set time to sit down and call each other.  Or so we thought.  Turns out they got the times an hour off and while I was in the process of closing down my computer to catch an early ride to uni with a housemate got a Skpye message saying "Call you in a minute!" Wait, what?! My suddenly frantic mind quickly typed out a confused jumble of words more or less expressing my confusion before a call from my friend awaiting me outside prompted me to just shoot a message simply saying "Going to uni. Call you in 20" before slamming my computer shut and running out the door.  Good thing I have some rather forgiving friends and no 20 minutes later we were finally on that long awaited Skype call. 

A rather fuzzy photo but not bad considering the 7,500 mile distance.  Still can't believe I have known this awesome group of gals since our days in high school!

            As Friday is the day all the boys are out for the evening, the rest of us girls finally made good on that promise to have an all out "girly" night.  We made it complete with nail painting, face masks, and a screening of the movie Frozen which we sang ALL the songs to of course.  I painted my finger nails red for the first time in the history of... ever.  Not sure how I feel about them... it's just weird looking down and thinking "What the...? Wait... it's just my nails.  Nobody panic!"

            I finally cultured my housemates a little more this week and made the American version of lemonade! It went over quite well I think but now I have a crud load of lemons sitting in my fridge that I need to do something with.... Michelle's sister's mother-in-law (not a confusing relation at all) lives in town and insisted Michelle come to her if she ever find herself in need of lemons as they posses one insanely productive tree. The recipe I  had called for 4 to 6 lemons and with the hospitality of Michelle mother-in-law-in-law (is that even a thing?) I ended up walking away with 12.  Turns out these lemons are GIGANTIC and produce like 1/2 a cup of juice each so I only needed 4 lemons to make a solid 2 batches.  Lemons for daaaaays...

            I also had that first day this week that I genuinely had NOTHING to do.  I was in a stuck spot with my group projects as I needed to meet with my groups before doing anything else and I was waiting to converse with another group about project results before working any more on that big paper.  And lucky me NO ONE was out and about at the lodge.  I live with 11 other people so to walk around the lodge and encounter not a soul for a good couple hours is quite a feat.  I think I finally rooted one out of hiding in the cavernous recesses of their room and convinced them to watch the Pink Panther 2 with me.  I think I did bribe with brownies. Yeah, I'm a good influence...