Australia

I decided to fill you in a little on the bugs here in Australia. Probably the biggest thing I have had to get used to is people just live with the bugs here. They are everywhere. It is something you just have to get used to here. They are huge! the cockroaches are as big as a bite size candy bar! I have had a few encounters with the bugs and small animals here. SomeI have already written about.

The first major encounter I have had was at the softball field on our first game. On our way to the game we were coincidentally talking about spiders, and our friend Brewster had mentioned that there is an extremely rare white spider here that bites you and the poison kills of the skin cells around the bite. It's a pretty nasty spider bite because it just keeps killing off the skin. So we get out to go play softball and after the game I grab my bag and a few other things so my hands are completely full. I'm walking by a ton of people, some from our club, some not and I see a spider on my hand! So I scream bloody murder, throw everything off my arms, and start into a sprint that would have won most olympic races. Once I got everyone's attention I stopped and said sorry there was a spider on my hand. A friend of mine decideds it's a good time to let everyone know that I'm American. So I walked back over grabbed my stuff and continued on my way. I just wanted to make an impression on the people at the field so they wouldn't forget me.

Another encounter I had was at home. I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at the counter when this gigantic spider came running after me. (This was probably the biggest spider I have ever seen. It was probably the size of a peanut butter lid.) The spider was about a foot away from me so by the time I realized it was there and running faster than the wind I had to jump over it to get out of the kitchen. I swear once I was out it started chasing me. It kept coming towards me and I was screaming and telling Meribeth to kill it. so she grabbed a shoe and killed it! She's my hero! 10 minutes later I caught my breath and things went back to normal. After that I did not feel very safe in my home because I screamed for a good 2 minutes and not one of my neighbors came to check on us.

I was at work when I got to meet one of the giant cockroaches. There was a girl that worked with us but she was off duty and she spotted a cockroach making it's way into the restaraunt. She says go kill it before anyone sees it. I looked at her for a second like is she really talking to me? I decided I would give it a try, or give it a go as they would say here. I casually walked over to it so I wouldn't bring attention to it and picked my foot up, then the thing decides to move a little and I turned around and yelled I can't do it I can't do it! So by then I managed to get the attention of the whole restaraunt and I turned back around to see what happened and it dissapeared so I started yelling where did it go? so the girl that originally saw it jumped up and ran after it to kill it. It was pretty embarassing but hey I tried.

Probably the worst one for me so far is when I was sitting at my desk on the computer. I had pants on and I felt a tickle on my toe, so I leaned over to pull my pants up a little and a cockroach ran out. It was on my foot!! I screamed and did laps around the house. then Meribeth came to my rescue again and tracked it down and killed it. I felt like I had a cockroach on my toe for the rest of the night. that type of thing haunts you.

I will spare you the rest of my stories, but these bugs are everywhere. They're not just everywhere, they are on steroids. It is one thing I will not miss when I leave.

One of the biggest differences here in Australia is the weather. It is so unpredictable. About a week ago, it was one of the hottest and humid days I have ever exprienced in my life. It is so uncomfortable and you just sweat. It's so humid you practically sweat in the shower. The house we live in is very old so there is no air conditioning and the house next to us is so close that it blocks any wind coming in from the windows. So Meribeth and I were sitting around the house with a fan in our face all day long. Well later that night it stormed for about 10 minutes. Apparently, when it gets that hot and humid rain rolls in to cool it down.
So the next day after that the day was horrible, it was windy and overcast and actually really cold. It was a nice break from the heat but not so great when you dress for 100 degree weather.
On Sunday, it was very hot and humid again and then we went to work and it stormed even harder. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks it rained so hard. Some people also mentioned that there was a possibiltiiy it could hail. Now, how it hails in 100 degree weather I have no idea, but they seem to think it is possible. I have yet to see it, but apparently it hails like golf balls sometimes.
No matter how hard it rains here, there is always someone there to say, "oh that was nothing." Well I don't know what is something then because these last couple of storms have almost knocked out our power and the wind is hard enough to knock over the barristers that we have around the restaraunt.
So the weather is out of control and very unpredictable. This country is in a major drought, but so far since I've been here it has rained about twice as much as I have seen all year in San diego. so they need to reset their water systems or something.
The storms usually only last about 15-30 minutes and they are absolutely amazing to watch and hear. The thunder strikes sooo hard and it is right above us usually. After the storms the sky is absolutely amazing. The way the clouds look over the sun or moon is just indescribable. I'm not sure if I pay more attention over here or the sky just doesn't change the way it does here, but the sky is just beautiful to look at here during the storms.
The weather is really cool and I enjoy it but it is so unpredictable that it is hard to plan things, especially when you don't have a car.

I haven't been writing lately because there are no major things going on for us right to write about.
I realize now though that every day is a major even or great experience. I experience something new everyday and I always forget to write about it because I take so muchf ro granted here. So I am just going to write about random things that I can think of. This will probably be very unorganized and random so be prepared.

[/b]Ashes[b]
Meribeth and I both had a night off so we decided to go out on the town on a Thursday night. Well this one particular Thursday was special because it was he beginning of Ashes. Ashes is an event that happens I think every year. It is a 5 day cricket match. ya I don't get it either, who in their right mind would want to play cricket, let alone for 5 days! If you have never watched cricket, you aren't really missing much. So anyways, Ashses is a special game, Australia versus England. Well, we decided to go to a bar that we heard was pretty popular. The place was packed and it was retty much all guys. So we met a few old guys first and he told me that ashes began hundreds of years ago when England and Australia were playing against each other and a wife of the Australian captain stuck an urn into some ashes and said here play for this. Well funny thing is I just looked it up on the internet because I wanted to make sure I had the facts straight before I wrote about it and that is not what happened at all! The internet says that in 1882 England lost at home and the local newspaper wrote a mock obituary saying that the England Cricket team has died and their ashes can be viewed at a certain place. This became the "ashes" they were playing for. so all in all I have no idea whatsoever the truth. haha. It was a very fun night and there were all kinds of people out and many of them were from England. Apparently, this is a huge event and a ton of people come over from England to watch. We will have to get out and see a cricket game just to say we went.
As for going out after the game there were guys everywhere, in every bar, so it was great fun. =)

Pumpkin in a Can? Marshmellows on Sweet potatoes? Australians eat pumpkin everything, but putting it in a can, well that's just crazy. I explained to them that eating the pulpy stringy stuff that you try to get rid of when carving a pumpkin, is just not going to happen. So I'm still not convinced about pumpkin, but we managed to make them fall in love with candied yams.
Prior to the day we decided to have Thanksgiving, Meribeth and I planned out all the dishes we would make. Little did we know that Australia doesn't carry have the ingredients needed to make a Thanksgiving dinner.
Meribeth and our friend Louie went grocery shopping for the event and they had spent about 2 hours trying to find all the ingredients needed to make the meals. Everything is different. Marshmellows are kind of flat and very surgery. As mentioned before pumpkin pie was out because they don't have it in a can. Mayonaise that actually tasted like mayonaise was very hard to find. They didn't have banana pudding for a banana cream pie. Their turkeys are not over 8lbs. The Aussies were shocked when we told them that we have turkeys that are about 25 lbs.
After the shopping we had set to work to make the dinner. We made mashed potatoes, candied yams, ham, turkey, broccoli salad, corn and green been casserole, deviled eggs, fruit salad, rolls, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and we bought apple pie.
We worked from 10 am in the morning until about 5 pm. It turned out great. We had about 15 people altogether.
After everyone arrived and the food was ready we had everyone in the kitchen and Meribeth said thank you to everyone for everything they have done for us. The speech ended in tears and it was a very touching moment.
We all helped ourselves and dug in. Overall it was a very great event, and if anything we left footprints in the Aussies tummies, and they will never forget Thanksgiving in November again. I think we may have started a new tradition here. I am very excited to make some dishes for our family Thanksgiving next year.

Well these last two weeks have been pretty crazy. it's been very hard being away from home when something like this happens. I think most people that read this know that my grandfather passed away. Prior to going I had taken it into consideration that it could happen, but there was no way to prepare for myself when it actually did.
To hear about my grandpa while he was at home was heartbreaking. Wondering what is happening, how he is doing, how he is feeling, is there really anything I can do if I was there. Dealing with losing someone so close to you is the hardest thing in the world, actually being on a different part of the planet when someting like that does happen is the absolute worst.
I am so grateful for this experience and being in another country for 6 months. I am experiencing things that I probably never will again. It is truly amazing. But there is no substitute for family and being there in times of need. Dealing with the guilt of not being there for my grandpa and the rest of the family is soo hard. But I will work through it just like everyone else dealing with losing grandpa. He truly was amazing and touched everyone that he came across.