Two Yanks In Oz

We've been living in our house in Sydney for a week and a half, and sometimes I feel like I'm only visiting. Other times I feel like I actually live here. Sometimes I forget that I'm not in America and sometimes it's very much in the foreground of my thoughts. It's not hard to get used to the culture here; the similarities are very numerous. The things that are different are small and fun to joke about. I've been pretty content, but then I'm reminded that I haven't had to deal with very many stressful things yet. Things like keeping up with course work.. or paying the massive bills at the end of each month...which I don't really have the money to do. Those are the times when I remember that I'm on the complete other side of the world from my family and if something happened, they really couldn't help me. And although I do know in my head that since God told me to come here He isn't going to abandon me, my stomach doesn't seem to get the message.

We've been into the city of Sydney down by the harbor and saw the opera house and drove over the bridge. We've had all sorts of local food and been walking around the shops. I've been to an art gallery (free admission of course!) and learned a little bit more about Australian history. But the thing that really struck me happened when we were at Bondi beach yesterday afternoon. When a person stands on their own coast line, they feel small and they can look into what seems like a distance forever long, but it is a familiar distance. The sky looks one way and the horizon line looks one way and even though that person is literally on the edge of their continent, they know where they are. When I was standing on the coastline yesterday, I saw a horizon whose shape and distance was so much longer and farther reaching than what I see in the gulf of Mexico at home. I saw water a completely different color and the sky looked like it had expanded. It may seem like two beaches would look the same, but the view is completely different. This coast is completely unfamiliar to me. It's so much wilder and more vast than our gulf. And when I remembered that standing on the beach meant that I was standing on the edge of Australia, I felt like I was just standing on the end of the world or something. I mean my feet aren't safely planted on the sand of my home anymore. I feel so far away and looking out over the water, the distance between myself and my home seems unbearably far. Australia is pretty much the farthest I can physically get from America without coming around the other side of the planet. It's sort of paradoxical because this country is like ours in many ways and like I said, sometimes it's easy to forget how far away we are.

That is why I am glad I live in the house that I do. There are seven people that will live here, and 4 of us are American. It was five Americans, but one of our roommates who just arrived last week has decided this isn't the right place for her and she is going back to America on Friday. It's a complicated situation and I won't explain it on this blog, but she feels like God is calling her back immediately. So now we have an empty room, but I know God will fill it with someone who will bless us.

The people that are here for sure will certainly be a blessing to us...it's already been amazing to hear about some of their life stories and the similarities to us they have. We have two roommates like I said, from America- Michele from Oklahoma and Julie from South Carolina. Both of them lost their fathers at age 11, and when they found out Robin had just lost her own father, they all formed an immediate bond I think. Both of them are our age and got their bachelor degrees at home before coming here. Michele is very calm and seems so steadfast in her faith. She has been the one to talk to me about God's plan and faithfulness to us and has been very reassuring when I allow the nerves to creep in. Julie kind of takes care of people physically..she feeds the boys in our brother house a lot it seems...or maybe I'm just seeing a lot of it because we are on break from school right now. :) She's very laid back and laughs a lot. She also has never ending patience when I ask questions about school life, since the school always waits until the last minute to tell us anything.

The other roommate I've gotten to know is Silje from Norway. She's 19 but she's really mature ( everyone here tells me Europeans gro up faster than Americans...actually, pretty much everyone grows up faster than Americans apparently) and she has a beautiful singing voice. She's been hanging out with Robin and I a lot because we're the newbies. I think she and I are similar in a lot of ways. Neither of us is incredibly social, but we've been making our best effort. :)

We have another roommate, Ilona, who is from The Netherlands. She's on holiday in Melbourne though so we haven't had the chance to get to know her.

We do have a "brother house" and those guys have either been over here or we've been over there what seems like almost every night since I've been here. I don't know how the tradition got started, but when we got here they told us they were adopting us since we now lived in the Kiss of Heaven house (yes...our house is named Kiss of Heaven. The house next door is also college housing and it's callled "Blessed") and that if we needed anything they would help out. They seem like good guys, even if the Aussies do make fun of Americans...it's all in good fun though.

We have been keeping busy over here, moving in and Skyping with people back home and seeing the sights. We've been at church twice and let me tell you...it's HUGE. Just last Sunday, we saw 29 people get baptized. It was amazing. Tomorrow we have orientation and our auditions for the worship stream. Yes that's right...I have to sing a Hillsong song in front of Hillsong worship trainers....it does make me a little nervous, but it's just to place us in the correct tutorial with other people who are at the same skill level. They keep emphasizing that it's very low pressure. However, I still want to give them all I've got! And we are also taking a music theory test, but I'm not worried about that. I'll put that OCU music education degree to use. :)

Even though I do sometimes feel keenly how far I am from home and I do miss it, I know that the Lord is with me. I feel a swell of peace wash over me to combat my nervous moments and I know that my family is alive and well somewhere on this earth 10,000 miles away and that I can contact them if I really need them. But still, it's hard to be 10,000 miles away..hopefully I will eventually get used to it here and feel that this place is my home for a while.

Please continue to pray for me as this journey of growth and change continues. Pray that the means to be able to live here will present themselves and that I will become equipped for whatever service the Lord is calling me into.

Blessings,
Aislinn