October 12-22, 2006

Sorry I haven’t been updating regularly. A lot has been going on recently and a combination of me alternately being busy and lazy has kept me from updating my blog.

Lately it’s been getting a lot warmer, with most days at least into the 70s, but a fair number of days with temperatures into the 80s. It’s been sunny and warm most of the time and I’ve definitely enjoyed it. While I’ve been running several times a week still, I’ve seen recently a family of Australian black ducks, as well as a family of black swans. One day when I was running, in a field where I had previously seen as many as 16 kangaroos, I noticed scattered mobs and individual kangaroos numbering at least 100! I’ve never seen so many kangaroos before… I guess that field must have lots of food for them!

Spring is definitely well underway here in Australia. It’s interesting to notice that although the grass started getting greener and growing faster in many places as winter turned into spring, recently much of the grass that had greened up and grown for a brief period, has once again turned brown. I guess Australia is just naturally dry and therefore this brownness is somewhat normal, although I’m sure the fact that much of Australia is still currently experiencing a drought has had an influence. It’s such a difference compared to the lush, extremely fast growing grasses that I’m used to seeing in the spring and throughout most of the summer back home.

Many of you may not know that my dad has been battling some health problems since last semester, and until this semester he seemed to be doing pretty well, considering. Some time after I arrived in Australia I learned in my phone calls home that he was no longer doing so well. I’ve been praying a lot that he would get better, but that ultimately God’s will be done. Sadly, on October 12th, my dad passed away. I must admit that this was one of the reasons why I did not feel like updating my blog in any spare time. It’s been somewhat difficult coming to the realization that he will not be there when I return home in November, and it was hard to not go home to be with family right after he died. Phone conversations over the past few weeks and months have sort of prepared me for the fact that his remaining days were numbered, but it was still hard for me to get the news. I had never really thought seriously about him dying in the near future before I left… but when Dad took me to the airport, we talked a lot, and one thing he mentioned was that if anything were to happen to him, and if he were to die, he did not want me to come home – he wanted me to continue doing everything that I had planned to do in Australia, and he assured me that my brother and sister would be there for my mom. I really didn’t know how to take it when he said this to me, and I didn’t really respond too much except to say “ok”. I realized on my flight out here that he must have known he was close to dying, although it didn’t seem like it to me or anyone else at the time. I’m glad that he told me to stay here though, because it made the difficult decision of “what to do now” much easier, although I really wanted to be with my family.

Since my dad passed away I have had a lot of time to grasp the reality and realize that it’s all in God’s plan for me and my family. Previous to this trip, I had never been away from home for more than a month, and I have never been so far away. I almost studied abroad last year, but I missed the deadlines for all the paperwork and decided to wait until this year. I’ve concluded that for some reason, God must have wanted it to happen this way. Although I have accepted that my dad is in heaven and won’t be at home when I go back, in many ways I don’t think it will completely hit me until I am back in the U.S., back home. Although I know he’s gone, I’m still on the other side of the world, and although things have changed at home, things in Australia are still very much the same. Only when I go home will I realize the differences that result from him not being there. If anyone out there reading this believes in God, please pray for my family in the time being. Also pray for me when I go home. To the rest of my family back home, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there through all of this, but I have been praying lots for everyone, and I’ve been doing ok over here.

Oh, for those of you who don't know, he died of lung cancer.

Soon after my dad passed away, I talked a bit to one of the other American exchange students and decided to still go on my planned learn-to-surf trip with about 20 other exchange students. The 2-day surf trip ended up being a lot of fun, and I often thought about how my dad would want me to be on that trip, since he told me to do everything I had planned to do, no matter what. Over the weekend I had four 2-hour surfing lessons/sessions, and by the end of the trip I was able to stand up on a surfboard and ride the waves in, and I was just starting to be able to turn my surfboard in the waves. I’m glad I went, and it was enjoyable hanging out with students from around the world, including a Finnish girl, three Germans, 3 Mexicans, an Italian, 2 Canadians, and a dozen or so odd Americans from the UC study abroad/student exchange program.

I had an interesting assignment in my literary studies tutorial this week. The assignment was to bring in an image or a picture and a description of something that is Australian and represents Australianness. I almost skipped class because I thought it was a really trivial assignment, and it was a waste of time. However, because I thought it was so trivial and a waste of time, I ended up deciding to go just so I could tell people about how trivial it was. I took a calendar that I got here in Australia, where the cover photo is of a group of kangaroos. I explained to the lecturer and the class how it represents Australia and Australianness because when you mention Australia in almost any context in the U.S., the image people almost immediately think of is kangaroos. The lecturer agreed that it was a good, very Australian image, and after discussing it for a few seconds or so, moved on to the next person. It was kind of interesting hearing about what other students brought in, but in the end I concluded that it was an extremely trivial class and I didn’t learn anything that was necessary for my education. It was my last formal tutorial for this class, so I figured I’d make the most of it. :)