Aluminium and Jelly Jam

aluminum is aluminium (æljʊˈmɪnɪəm, with the emphasis on the MIN)
jelly (like pb&j) is jam.
jello is jelly

Its been a pretty eventful past few days. we went to Hillsong tonight. It reminded me a lot of C3 San Diego. Hillsong is like a mixture between the Rock and C3. Its a little smaller than the Rock, but it still has that "mega church" feeling, but the sermon and worship and everything definitely feels like C3. Anyays, it was great I loved it. I still like C3 San Diego better, though :]

Mardi Gras was hilarious. We didn't go to the after party or anything so there wasn't anything super intense, but we got to watch the parade with all the floats and people in speedos and drag queens and everything. the whole lot. you can look at my facebook album if you want to see pictures from it :] We met these people we (Katrina and I, we got separated from the group somehow) were standing next to. They were super nice and let us share one of their umbrellas and one of there stool things. They invited us back to their apartment for a drink and as tempting as it was haha we declined. All in all, it was a pretty funny night I don't think I'd want to go again, but it was worth going once.

What I'm eating.
mostly everything is pretty normal. They do have a lot of meat pies here that I don't think we have in the states. the best one is the potato pie. its like a little chicken pot pie, but with mashed potato filling with a little bit of meat at the bottom. SO good.

How I talk.
I have now adopted a few words into my vocabulary including: Mackers (McDonalds), chips (french fries), and some others which I can't think of right now...

Who I am living with.
The people at Flo are awesome. Everyone is really nice and theres usually always something going on that I can do. Tonight a group of us went to Hillsong and the to Mackers afterwards. just little things like that. Theres nothing too exciting. Maybe I'll attach a picture of my room to the bottom of this page. Yes, I've made friends. One of the benefits of living at Flo is that I've been able to make friends with Australians, whereas the people in homestays can only really socialize with people from Wesley since when they're at home, they're with their family and not other Australians our age.

My address.
I'm not 100% positive if this is it, but I'm pretty sure it is:
Paul Gaetke
11 The Boulevarde
Lewisham NSW 2049

What Its like
Its amazing is what its like. The style of Sydney is very European with the old brick building tending to be the common style as well as that Victorian look. Its really great. The city itself is a bit dirty, but its not a big deal. I've pretty much mastered public transportation. I've looked at so many maps, I know the city better than most of the people at Flo haha. I actually really like public transportation (minus how long it can take to get anywhere). But its been nice not driving and stuff and since our bus passes were paid as part of the program, its been "free" for me to go anywhere which is really really nice.

How the weather is.
the weather has been pretty good so far. I swear every time I wear a tank-top it rains, and every time I wear jeans its 1000 degrees though. Its actually kind of frustrating. But I guess its not that big of a deal. Soon it'll be autumn and I'll be wearing sweatshirts and then eventually jackets! :D Its supposed to be really sunny on Tuesday though, I'm out of school at noon and a group of us ASCers are planning a beach trip. And then on Saturday, Flo has a harbor cruise planned and its supposed to be thunderstorming. Someone needs to let God know to give Sydney's weather some pills so it can get over his bipolar personality.

How school is.
School has been great. My classes are really fun and exciting. Most of them are art classes which is fun for me since I haven't taken art since high school. And all the people in my classes are super nice. My favorite class by far is Hip Hop. its so great and our professor is this little spunky guy he's hilarious and really really good. He always shows off (which I'm not opposed to). And our class is all ASC kids so its not as embarrassing as it would be if we were in with the Wesley Dance students. haha oh no that's be awful haha I wish you could watch our class. Its hilarious.

My classes.
This semester I'm taking: Hip Hop, Photography, Image Making, Visual Communication in Culture, Life Drawing, The View From Australia, and Indigenous Cultures and Identity. My professors are really great. They're all really really nice and super great. I don't really know much about them yet since I've only had once week of classes which means I've only had each professor once.

Surprisingly, I haven't become too homesick yet. But Its only been a week. I can definitely see the things I will be most homesick for though. Mainly San Diego's beachy feeling. I miss beachy and am not a huge fan of city. Also C3 and all the awesome people there. I miss being plugged into a church and since we have this assignment that we have to go to different denominated churches, I can't go visit C3 until like the 6th week I'm here. super lame. i think I'm gonna try to do one of the assigned churches in the morning and then C3 at night one Sunday.

oh and to call me you have to dial 0011 - Australia's country code (with no zeros before the number) - 0403941356. i think. its free for me if you call (but not for you), but too expensive for me to call you :[