First Post....Driving

Hello Everyone!

I have been down here in Australia for about 12 days now and life is gooooood. My apologies for not posting anything yet. It's not that things haven't been interesting...I just haven't had the motivation to put something up. Today, however, that changed. I had my first experience driving on the left (not wrong, as I often catch myself saying) side of the road. Now I have been practicing by trying to jog on the left side of the path over the last few weeks and I am getting really good at remembering after almost getting plowed over by a gentleman much much older than me going about three times as fast as me. Behind the wheel is just a bit different from jogging though. First of all you can't imagine how awkward it feels to shift (just an automatic mind you) with your left hand. Not to mention how many times I started to turn on the windshield wipers instead of my turn signal. All in all I believe it was a success. I didn't hit anything at least. Sitting on the right side of the car is a good constant reminder that I need to be on the left side of the road. It will be quite a while until I am completely comfortable driving.

Besides driving (which now we did yesterday, because it is now Tuesday and I just didn't post that yesterday) we have been doing some other great things.
My flights were so great! I was on three and I had my own row for each one so I was able to spread out and lay down and I ended up sleeping for most of every flight. Which was really great because I got in at 6:30am and had to stay up the whole day to get used to the time difference. I was shooting for 10pm but fell asleep at about 7:30pm during a Bible study that we do every Thursday with some Japanese students. The first night I stayed with Bob and Lynne Marks, the full time workers here. They have a gorgeous apartment that overlooks the beach. Sammie arrived the next day and we moved to a different house where we have been since. This home has been so great! Jeannette is our house mother, she is a member of the church, and she and her husband usually keep foreign students studying English here. She makes the most delicious dinners and I was thinking yesterday about how long it has been since I lived somewhere someone made me dinner every night. I really like it :) Sadly, we are moving out this Thursday and back in with the Marks. Which will be good but I will miss Jeanette's meals.
Anyway, so far we have mainly been participating in things already going on with the church. Which, for being a church of just 20-30 members is quite a few things! We attended service on Sunday and instead of having class we spent some time introducing ourselves. Then they presented us with a laundry basket with a few staples in it: a stuffed koala bear, some Vegemite, a package of Anzac cookies, a box of Weet-Bix, some Cherry Ripe, and some Time Outs. If you don't know what some of that is you'll just have to come visit to find out. Sunday night was Youth and Young at Heart, it was great to meet some of the youth in the area! Mondays will eventually be our day off but we got last Tuesday off instead and spent a chilly day at the beach having a picnic. Then, later on Tuesday we had mid-week service which was a small group of about 8 but it was good to be together. Wednesday was playgroup in the morning for kids up to age four. After playgroup we went back to the church in the afternoon and cleaned up the playgroup closet so Sammie and I could know what is in there when we take over in October. Wednesday evening we had dinner and a Bible study with some Chinese girls, which we do every Wednesday. They are great and speak English very well so we have a lot of fun! Thursday Sammie and I cooked dinner for the Bible study with the Japanese students. We made spaghetti (my favorite) and it was a big hit! We finished the study early and played a few rounds of chicken scratch (basically chicken foot). I love games so I really enjoyed that! Friday we spent the afternoon making attempts to clean out the church office. We got some of the main stuff cleaned out but it will take more before I am comfortable working in there. Saturday was a bus trip to Canberra, the capital of Australia. That was a lot of fun! We had about 50 people on a charter bus. It was a four hour drive down. While we were there we visited the War Memorial Museum, the Parliament house, had a picnic lunch and drove up Mt. Ansley to see the whole town. It was very pretty! It was a pretty relaxing trip for me, I enjoy sitting on a bus. Sunday was another great Lord's day, and it was also Father's Day here! Monday we visited two elderly ladies at their different homes and had our first driving experience. And today was going to be our day off but we helped at a Ladies group this morning by watching the kids. Which was a lot of fun! Then had a picnic on the beach. But it was cold and we only stayed out about an hour.
Our schedule will fill in as time goes on. There are a lot of exciting things coming up. We are waiting on a few things, like volunteering in the schools etc, until our Religious Worker Visas go through. Apparently it looks funny or something if people here on Visitor Visas volunteer. So we don't want to do anything that looks funny until we have permission to stay for two years. Pray for our visas to come quickly!
This Thursday Sammie and I are moving back in with the Marks. We will stay there about six weeks because they are going to the states for the month of October. After that we will start looking for our own apartment.
Thank you all for your prayers, love and support for me here!

Prayer list:
Religious Worker Visas
continued positive transition
good choices as we begin to fill our schedules
FUNDRAISING!

speaking of fundraising...if you happen to find yourself ahead this month, or ever, feel free to send any amount to:
Memorial Road Church of Christ
Attn: HIM Program
2221 E Memorial Road
Edmond, OK 73013
(and note that it's for me)

OR. if that isn't convenient enough, you can donate using paypal! my email address for that is xjamiex@msn.com

Thanks so much! Hopefully my posts will be more frequent from now on :)