Britty Leigh
I live to love
you should give it a try
you should give it a try
Well well well, it would appear that the ocean and sunshine have been more of a deference to my blogging than a facilitator. I thought that I would blog everything about Australia on an almost daily basis but, well, you see that I was clearly wrong. I really don’t even know where to start.
I left home August 30th at about noon. My mom, Emma, me, and my bags all squeezed into my moms pick-up and made our way to the airport. Saying that goodbye was difficult to do would be an understatement. In fact, we tried once, decided we weren’t ready, went to get food, and said goodbye again. If you know me, then you can understand how hard it was to say goodbye to them, the two people who know and love me more than anyone in this world ever has and likely ever will. Although, as my brother so wisely put it, “I mean, you’re gone for what, 4 months? Its not like your leaving for Iraq”, thank you Jeff, for putting it into perspective.
Yes, I am only here for a semester, even so, I have never missed anyone so much, and it hasn’t even been a month yet.
The flight was long, but it was bearable, and we landed in Sydney, where we spent the first, um, 5 days… I think?
I LOVE SYDNEY. The end. Honestly, if I was going to come back here to study or live for any extended period of time Sydney is where I would do it.
Sydney is like a cross breed of London and New York with nicer people. I love the city, always have, always will, so Sydney was totally my element. The architecture, the history, the artistic vibe, the buzz, it was brilliant. We are planning on going back there for a weekend, well, lets be honest, we are planning on going there for the primere of the final Harry Potter movie, so we can see it on the largest IMAX screen in the world. Be jealous America, im always a day ahead of you, meaning I will be seeing it before you do, yeah, im a brat rubbing it in like that, its whatever. Also, we are going all out, yes, we WILL be “those” people who dress up like the characters, naturally I will be Cho Chang, I mean, who else can honestly pull off an Asian person? It is what it is I suppose.
Now, on to the Gold Coast, AKA, home for 4 months.
Well, I live in a serviced apartment/hotel that is 2 blocks from the beach, it really is rough…no, not at all. Running on the beach is amazing, it really is, the tan lines from running on the beach, however, not so amazing. My University, Bond University is wonderful, although it quite possibly may be the farthest from the Bethel lifestyle that I could be. I feel like this is a good thing, for now at least. I love Bethel and I will always love it, however, I am at a place in my life where I need to stop having my hand held. I needed to get away and grow up so to speak. So I did, in fact, I think I am the farthest from home as humanly possible, I literally am on the other side of the world, and that realization makes me feel so free.
So, the Bond lifestyle, well, Australians like to have fun, a lot of it. It is really interesting to me, they are SO smart, well, most of them. Honestly, I have had some of the most deep, theological, intellectual conversations that I have ever had here. I love it because they challenge me. A lot of them disagree with the things I believe, yet they are more intrigued than defensive and they have a genuine interest in understanding WHY I believe what I believe and why I live the way I live.
What I love most is that, while they are brilliant and studying things like law and medicine, they know how to rage.
I suppose, work hard play hard right? They play hard. There is a bar on campus, yes, again, THIS IS NOT BETHEL. There is ALWAYS some sort of social function being promoted and run by the different faculties. The law students had a pub crawl and booze cruise, and there is an all you can drink semi formal put on tomorrow night by the business association, oh, you know I’m going. Semi-formal, an excuse to dress up, of course I’m going.
Well, I will write more later, but, this is a good start I think
America, I do miss you
I have about 8 friends that I miss like crazy but im not going to name them for fear that you are not one of them…whoops, but, you probably know who you are. I love you
xx
~B
