Ramble On: By The Amazing Grace

Welcome back one and all!!! Let the show begin!!

Ok so first off Tuesday was a good day. I didn't start packing until Monday night so I spent most of the morning Tuesday finishing up. Putting little things in my bag and things I suddenly realized I'd need, like my box of contact lens. Ya know, stuff you don't normally take with you when you travel because normally you don't travel somewhere for six months. Don't cry Aunt Tara, I'll be back in a flash :) That flash will have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, a couple of family birthdays including my own, and maybe Easter, but hey, that's no reason to cry ;)

My mom took me to Pirate O's where not only was she scared by the same electronic snake twice but we also picked up gifts for our travels. My mom and daddyo are on their way to Washington to visit Lisa and Marisa. Have a safe flight mom and dad!! I picked up some novelty Utah things, truffels, honey, chipolte sauce, and salt which I gave to my host mum and dad to say thanks for letting me stay with them. Later my dad, mom, Tristan, and myself went to the Olive Garden for a quick lunch. It was good. Then my parents dropped me off at the airport and I agree with Tristan thirty seconds of goodbye hardly does a six month absence any justice.

If you haven't heard of it you should check out Australian football. It's pretty fast paced and cool.

I caught all my flights on time and had a blast waiting and waiting during my long layovers. My really long flight from San Francisco to Auckland was really comfy, well as comfy as a plane ride can be. I was able to sleep most of the time which was awesome. When I got to New Zealand I re-read an email I had received earlier last week from Maureen. Originally I thought it had said that she was going to pick me up from the airport. She had asked for my itinerary and said she had gotten the day off but it said that she would be waiting at the house for me. As hard as I tried not to I started panicking and freaking out because I had no clue what I was going to do. I finally broke down and paid for 45 mins of wifi and talked to my mom and asked her what I should do. Taking a public transportation was ruled out because of it's 6 transfers and walking to other bus stations in Brisbane. Then I was thinking that taking a taxi would be a good idea but sure it would cost a lot because it was about a 61 mile drive. My mom told me to ask the information desk how much it'd be to take a taxi so I could know how much cash to take out. When I got to Brisbane, my nerves were on edge, and when I asked the lady at the currency exchange office if she knew about how much it'd be to take a taxi to Mooloolaba I lost it. She was very nice but keep telling me to toughen up and not to worry.

OOOOOO! My first Australian rain storm!! I just heard thunder!! So cool! I'm thinking I'll take a nap :)

So it turns out that alarm doesn't work. Note to self, DON'T USE THAT FOR SUNDAY NIGHT!!!

Now for some reason my internet isn’t working :( You know tho that if you’re reading this I got it fixed. Hopefully that happens tonight.

I asked the girls at the information desk how much a taxi would be and she said over $100 because it was so far away so they bought be a shuttle ticket which took be all the way to my destination nice and easy for half the money. They were all really friendly which was nice since I was such a big baby about the whole thing. Throughout my super long day of traveling I was only called a man twice! That’s a new record! Once by a flight stewardess and once by one of the dudes that check your passport. I don’t know how long the flight attendant had been sitting there saying sir but I eventually realized that she was asking me what I wanted to drink. The passport guy asked how sir err he meant ma’am was doing today.

My first day here went by without any big crazy things. I met both Andrew and Maureen. They are both really nice people. Maureen is about 60 and Andrew is 52. They don’t have any kids just a toy poodle name Bunnie that is 14 years old. They are both really nice people and I think I’m going to like them a lot. This morning when I got up I got a bowl of cornflakes and when I went to clean the bowl and put it back Maureen(the host mum) was up. She saw i had already eaten she said, “Oh you already ate. Good. I just put the spaghetti away. I wasn’t sure if you wanted some spaghetti on toast.” Now, I’ve heard of a lot of weird things people eat but that was just pure random. Who would think of that? And how does spaghetti become a breakfast food? Is it because it’s on toast? When did toast become a magical transformers of foods?!

After breakfast she took me around to the vet office and the pharmacy to pick up pills for her and her dog, then we stopped at Underwater World for her piece of mind that they knew I was starting Monday. I had told her that I had recently emailed the supervisor Katie but she still wanted to go which is all good. After we came back to the house, but I didn’t stay long. I walked to the store and picked up a few things I needed, and forgot other stuff that I still need. After that I walked down to the beach where I was amazed that I live by the ocean. THE ocean!! It mind boggles me. It’s so cool!! I stood in it and tried to de-boggle my mind about the whole thing. So cool!!

After that not much has happened. I started writing this, got jet lag, took an accidentally hour nap, ate dinner and that leaves to right now! So sorry Kelcie I haven’t had a good solid cry since I left but I have had tears leak out while freaking out. But everything is good and I know this only the start of a crazy life changing adventure. Tomorrow Andrew said he’d take me to the plaza, which sounds like the equivalent to a mall, to get a phone. I don’t know what else will go on tomorrow. I’ll probably spend more time at the beach since I’m sure they had their stuff they like to do over the weekend. I looked up where the closest LDS ward is to this house and it’s about 2 . 5 miles away which would be a about an hour walk. There are no busses that I saw that go to near it. I’ll let you know how that all goes.

Grandpa, I have some disappointing news regarding the toilets here. I’m very sad to report that the toilets I have used so far do not swirl when you flush. They just roar and gurgle in a loud kind of way and somehow the do-do goes away. It just looks like everything is getting tossed around to me but apparently not as it’s gone in the end.

Kelcie and Deidre outside of this house it smells, I don’t know, the first word that comes to mind is semi-tropical. But when I was down in the ocean it smelled salty just like oceans do. The air is definitely thicker here and is heavy to breath. Maureen thinks it’s dry tho so I’m curious to see what humid air to here is like.

For those of you who wanted my address, this is it:

3/110 Amarina Ave.

Mooloolaba QLD 4557, Australia

On a last final note, a big shout out to my mom and dad, I could have never done this without you!! Thank you so much!! Cya later!