It was so nice to be home and have a real bed!! If anyone remembers I had a small cockroach problem and had set a bunch of traps out before I left. When we got there we found about 6 or 7 dead cockroaches all over the kitchen floor...glad the traps worked.
I was really nervous what Matt would think of the place and the furniture and stuff that I got, but he liked it! He said it reminded him of his New Mexico mission. In my mind that's not a good thing, but I'll take what I can get.
Unfortunately the following two days I had to spend at uni for a class. One of my bio classes last semester requires you to attend a conference which was the two days after Matt and I got back. I didn't actually have much jet lag but I was still kind of tired as we sat for four hours listening to lectures. The topics were interesting at least, but not really in my area of expertise. The second half is more discussion with smaller groups about a project you would create to answer a question. My group was really interesting as we discussed using robotics and a sensory suit to understand how animals perceive the world.
Before I left I had given my phone to Matt so he could use my GPS and go places. When I had gotten home Matt had been able to go to the shopping centre in Parramatta and get his phone setup as well as explore all five floors of it. Although I felt bad I couldn't be with him to help him organize stuff he did fine figuring things out.
My second day of the conference I had to leave early and lose points because our internet was being set up that day. Even though Matt was going to be home, I realized they might need me there since I set up the account. I'm glad I did because right when I got home they called me to make sure I was there. If I had stayed I wouldn't have been able to answer my phone and the company would have charged us for missing the appointment! It all worked out and now we have unlimited internet!
Thursday I was finally free from seminars and it turned out my friend Kaytlin was available to take us shopping for some much needed items. It was a fun day and we finished it off hanging out with Brock and Kaytlin at their apartment. The highlight was how Kaytlin was just telling us that day how they rarely got cockroaches and we found a giant one at their place! Naturally we killed it.
Saturday we went to the Taronga zoo and Matt got to experience all of Sydney's public transportation systems (bus, train and ferry) in the process. It was a great trip through the city and then to explore the zoo. Since we have annual passes we took our time and only finished about half of it before they were closing. I love zoos!
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| This is right before the bird bit him |
Sunday we got to go to our new Oatlands ward at 9 am for the first time. I was shocked at how small it was! Apparently there are only 60 or so regular members. Everyone was very excited to see newcomers and especially another young couple. Lachie Mackie I knew from when I studied abroad in Australia and the last activity we had together he had thrown a 50 cent coin into the pool that hit me square between the eyes. That coin has jagged edges making me bleed and needless to say Lachie was not my favorite person at the time. Since then he got married to an American from Montana/Utah and is no longer throwing coins into pools (I think). I have a feeling we'll all be good friends!
We met with the bishop after the church and he was so excited to have new people for callings! He was excited that I'm musically talented although I explained my skills are much out of practice and I'm not amazing. It seems they have been lacking a chorister and pianist for a while. Bishop Cox also said not to be surprised if we may get multiple callings. I think it will be fun to be in such a small ward where it's like a big family and everyone works as a team to make things happen. They are all really nice, and there are even some other YSA in the ward I already knew!
This last week I had my first week of classes which really only consists of a couple days of actual classes. Most of my work is out of class reading research papers and writing reviews. I think its going to be quite difficult to have all reading and writing. Overall though I'm pretty excited about the topics and I think it will be a good semester.
One of my classes got cancelled so I replaced it with a similar ethics course in Philosophy. I am the only non-Philosophy Masters student in it, but I'm hoping I will be able to keep up and have valuable things to contribute to discussions.
Quite a bit of other stuff happened this last week. Matt started work with Sam Sung (yes that's actually his name) who is an LDS member of my last ward. He's really enjoying it so far and is learning all the differences from painting houses here versus the US. Sam Sung is thinking of making Matt a supervisor which will be awesome!
Matt and I still don't have a DVD player so we have been relaxing at night watching some TV and got hooked into Australia's Big Brother and the Japanese channel Ninja Warrior. It's actually been really nice and I'm enjoying finally having someone else to respond to the comments I make at the TV!
Also, some classmates are going diving with some sharks and invited me to go with if I could get certified. It's expensive but another classmate mentioned a groupon that is a killer deal! Matt and I decided to get the Groupon, but unfortunately there was no way to get certified in time. We signed up to do the course in September and I'm sure my friends will go out many more times that we will be able to accompany them. I'm just glad I'm not required to take some of the diving courses my classmates take because it's way over $1000 for all the extra diving courses.
Another even this last week....we bought a car! It was a cheap $2500 Honda Accord, but we decided it would be best to get something without having to finance and that we wouldn't be too upset if it got in an accident. It's got a lot of miles/km but should still last us a few years at least. It turns out Sam Sung might give Matt a van to use for work so it might not be as much of a necessity as we originally thought, but it will be nice to be able to visit people and buy stuff at stores without having to carry it on the bus.
After my last meeting with the Bishop Matt and I agreed if we could find a cheap piano/keyboard to practice on we would get it. My only requirement for a keyboard is that it had to have a full set of keys so I could practice other songs that take up a lot of keys as well. It turns out keyboards are pricey!!! I kept checking on Gumtree (same thing as Craigslist) and found a free upright piano! I made sure all the keys worked and just had to pay for it to be delivered. It's pretty out of tune, but it's perfect for practicing!! It is a very old piano, but the walnut it's made out of is beautiful and it fits perfectly under our stairs!
We have definitely had many blessings in making this move here! Matt is still learning to adjust to the differences, but I think he likes it. I'm sad he's not a big fan of the great indian, thai, chinese, and japanese food here. Perhaps he'll develop a taste for it over time.
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