Sunny Rainy Beach Day!

Monday June 8, 2009

Happy Queen’s birthday! I was really excited for today because we got to go to the beach! I didn’t know if I would get there because there are so many other things I want to do while I am here. I must say that Jeff and Rosemary feel kinda like grandparents. They are just wonderful people. I feel very comfortable living with them.

They left this morning to spend time with family on this holiday. Suzanne Ashton, a student minister at the church, picked me up at 10:30. We first drove to her house to pick up her camera. We visited with her mother and step father and then headed to the beach in St. Kilda. It was rainy and cold, but we did well. The morning and afternoon past really fast. We were going to eat at a specialty shop on one of the more popular streets, but a quick look through the menu told me differently. To have an appetizer is about $8. The main course is around $15-$25. That is crazy. Tonight while I was talking to Rosemary, she said that is normal for eating out in most places. There is no way I am able to afford that! So instead, Suzanne and I went to Subway for lunch. I had a veggie sandwich which only cost me $3.00.

After sitting outside in the cold to eat lunch, we walked to a chocolate shop where I ordered an espresso with white chocolate ice cream. The portion was way too small, but the actual drink was SO good! I could definitely get use to drinking those all the time! Way too expensive though. Suzanne got some hot chocolate made with chilies. She said it was pretty spicy, and she couldn’t finish the drink.

On the same rode there were about 4 cake shops. I just had to go into one. Jeff and Rosemary seemed jealous of me going to cake shops, so I wanted to treat them to some sweets. I bought myself a brandy snap and two macadamia almond tarts for my hosts. We went to the pier and walked around a bit. I even went on the beach and picked up sea shells. The beach in winter! Fun stuff! Afterwards we headed to the mall where we went window shopping. I can’t believe how big it is! It is three stories high and even goes over the highway on a bridge. I have hardly explored it, but I look forward to figuring it all out! Probably some Friday when I get the hang of public transportation.

I came home at 4:30ish and talked with Rosemary and Jeff about my time at the beach. I wrote some stuff and then read before dinner. I got so cold I wrapped a blanket around myself. Dinner included salad and chicken sausage rolls. The sausage rolls were basically a soft chicken hotdog the size of a bratwurst incased in puff pastry. It was good, but probably really bad for you. During and after dinner we watched the news and then a show that is the equivalent of junk yard wars. The snap and tarts I bought were consumed for dessert and I think they went over vey well.

Update: I am now sharing a hairdryer with Rosemary and it works very well. This morning I ate vegemite on my toast and it wasn’t too bad. Very salty, but that is about it. I would much rather have cream cheese, peanut butter, or jelly on my bread though. David, just so you know, I have no idea which way the toilet flushes. It sprays up and the goes out. It doesn’t flush either clockwise or counter clockwise. It just goes down. I gave a daddy long leg spider a bath last night and it drown in the bathtub. Why is it that I always get spiders in my bathrooms? That happened in Thailand too. I have been warned for the brown Huntington spider because they are popular here and about the size of a tarantula and very fuzzy. Yikes. I hope I never have to come in contact with one. Last night I got so cold in bed that I had to cover up with four blankets and yet I am still cold!

Tomorrow is my first day of work at the church and I’ll get a better feel for what I will be doing on a daily basis. What is cool is that I work Monday – Thursday and then go to church all day on Sunday. My Saturdays will be mostly full of tourist stuff, and my Fridays will most likely be exploring and shopping. I hope to find a internet café so that I can log on during the weekends. Its interesting that I have only been here for four days and I have experienced so much, and I still have so much more to experience and try out! This internship is much better structured than my internship last summer, both in my tourism and church work aspects. I think that my nursing home internship probably had more work attached to it than this internship will have, but its all going to be just great!

I guess that is it for now. I try and keep my writing simple, but there is just too much stuff going on, and I want to tell you all about it!