Adjusting to a new land

      This is a simple brief over-view of my first week and a half in Brisbane!

I said my goodbyes to friends and family in the Portland airport and awaited my flight.  As I boarded the Virgin America plane to LA for my first lay over, I was welcomed by airline background music, purple and pink lights all around, faux leather seats and television screens in front of each seat.  It was the perfect start of a sure adventure!!  The plane food was actually not bad, might I add…

I peaked out the window as the plane flew over Australia, my first glimpse.  Wow, I’m flying over my home for at least the next six months, I thought!  I arrived safely at the Brisbane airport after 3 long flights and a crazy layover in Melbourne in which I hardly made it to my next flight, arriving in a sweat as the passengers were boarding.  But alas, my first time flying internationally alone was a sweet success.  I was welcomed by YWAM staff holding a sign at my baggage claim to find me.  Australia! YWAM! I’m finally here!

Getting in the van to head to base, I had to do a double-take as the driver was on the opposite side of the car from America, and we drove on the left side of the road,  I quickly remembered I was in Australia before freaking out too much.

It is so wonderful to live with such an awesome community of people who are always here and available.  I love living close enough to town, shops and malls to be able to walk to them, and close enough to a train to ride into the middle of the city.  It’s so different from life back at home where I would have to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere!  Both ways of life have their perks, but I’m really enjoying getting used to this nice change.

I got some tours of the base on day one, and settled in a bit.  The following day, a lot of us students on base took the train into the middle Brisbane and walked through this gorgeous park, and got sushi.  While we were crossing the bridge, the floodgates of the sky opened up and poured wind and rain on us! I was the only lucky one who thought to bring my umbrella, but everyone got soaked. I felt kind of bad about it and wished I had enough umbrellas for everyone… Twas adventure number one.  Brisbane weather has been quite rainy, I’ve actually hardly seen any sun at all so far.  I count it a blessing though, it’s a nice way to gradually transition from my rainy state of Washington to Australia.  The city is so beautiful! I honestly would not mind calling it my home longer than six months.  We also went and crashed what seemed to be the biggest Valentine date hot spot in Brisbane.  It was an over-look of the city lights up on a hill.  We went in the evening on Valentines day, what a romantic place! We definitely made it less romantic with our numbers though, poor couples..
Friday night I believe we did a "bonding" activity with MAD, where we prepared a lip-syncing song in groups to perform infront of fake judges.  It was embarrassing  but a good way to break down ice barriers relationally, and a good time to laugh together.

Through the week we had orientation and get-to-know-you sorts of gigs.  We as a MAD (Music Art Dance) group all went to Redcliffe over the weekend, stayed in a mission house and shared testimonies with each other, played games, and went to the beach.  I also ate my first bit of kangaroo meat.  We weren’t even told it was kangaroo at first, I simply thought it was funny beef or some strange seasoning in the sauce (It was in spaghetti sauce.)  Then we were all told it was kangaroo, I was incredibly excited, as it was one of my goals before I left, haha! It’s actually quite delicious, and lean. We played and sang a lot of music, and danced freely quite a bit.  I’ve never been around so many people with my similar artistic mind at once! It’s a wonderful feeling, and we all meld together so beautifully, even though we all come from various backgrounds and cultures.  Speaking of which, all the different accents are beautiful! We all fail miserably at mocking one another, but hey it makes for a good mock and laugh.

Let me tell you, the food here is amazing! They’re so kind to keep separate gluten and dairy free things for those of us with special dietary needs.  It’s so healthy, we eat lots greens, lean meats and fruit everyday.  I’m so incredibly happy to be in a place where health is considered important.
As for wildlife, I haven't seen much.  I've eaten a kangaroo before seeing one, and only saw one very large garden spider in the city which wasn't poisonous apparently.  No poisonous snakes, spiders, crocodiles, or anything.  We'd have to be in the outback, or middle of Australia for that apparently, not the city.  I did see one jelly fish washed up on the beach though, which was neat-o.

Yesterday (Monday) we started our lectures. This week we’re discussing the character and nature of God. Today we’ll have our first “creative encounters” where we’ll come together as musicians, dancers, artists and create together. Yay. So excited to see how all of our talents come together to make something great (hopefully, haha!)

I know that God’s got great things in store for all of us here, and after this 6 months.  I am constantly reminding myself that this DTS is not the end of anything, only the beginning.

XOXO, many blessings,

~Lilly of Ozland