Gold Coast

We left off with me arriving at school and quickly running away to the Gold Coast in search of rescue from a friend of mine.

Let me begin with a story:

Around 10 years ago I was sitting at Beth's computer in a Hanson chat room... yes... Hanson... laugh all you want, but the story gets better. It was in that Hanson chat room where I met Becky - a girl from Gold Coast, Australia. We exchanged email addresses after sharing each others' love for the long-haired brother band. We kept in contact by email, instant messenger, real mail, and even a voice chat once. 10 years later we still keep in touch. And 2 days ago we met for the very first time!! It was fantastic. She knew I was going to be attending Griffith. In fact, she was the reason I even knew about Griffith. Sunday, the day after I flew into town, she came by the school and picked me up. It was crazy to be able to hug the girl that I've known for 10 years and to actually see that she is a REAL person. Bec kept poking me the entire ride down to the Gold Coast repeating over and over "You're real! You're real!". It's amazing that we've kept in touch for this long, but what's even better is the fact that we got along sooooo well. I got to the house and it was as if I've met the family before. It was SUCH a blessing to be able to be around family for 2 days. It was much needed after having to be away from mine. It was great to have a home-cooked meal and to have someone that lives in Australia cart me around and show me how they live. I know that being able to be around their family has really helped me in my transition.


In addition to being around family, we were able to attend church Sunday evening as well. It was great. Bec's church - Metro Church - meets in a cinema (movie theatre). Interesting establishment that worked quite well. Not only was I able to be around Bec's family, but I was able to join in worship with the Christian family. Every person that I spoke with following the service was absolutely encouraging and inviting. I'm thinking about going down to the Gold Coast every once and awhile to attend services. Bec's mom had mentioned a church in Brisbane that she thought would be a good option for me as a home church, so I'm going to check it out. After church on Sunday a bunch of the young adults went out for dinner. Following dinner, Bec, her sister Amy, Tim (from Germany, previous International Student to an Australian High School, friends with Bec's family) and Chris (friend from Metro Church) went to Starbucks (YES, Starbucks) to get some hot chocolate. We then went to the coast to watch shooting stars and see Gold Coast at night. Beautiful.



Yesterday Bec took me out to go shopping for some school and dorm supplies and we were able to go down to the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous.


Today we drove back up to Brisbane and went grocery shopping. SO I HAVE FOOD NOW!!! During our entire trip to the grocery store, Bec and I were trying to mimick each others' accents. She was actually quite good at the American accent and she even said that I did well at the Australian accent. Good fun.

I made my first dinner tonight. :) It was actually more like a snack. Only cheese, crackers and apple. Just like home. :)

Tonight I'll hopefully get a good, FULL night's sleep (haven't been sleeping very well since I got here) and then tomorrow morning I have my first orientation. Not fully sure what it entails, but I'm sure it will be benificial. Wasn't able to get a walk around campus because of a late departure from Gold Coast, but I'm planning on doing that tomorrow as well. And my roommate Eddie has invited me to go with him to Garden City (our closest shopping center - or mall) on Friday so that I'll know how to get there. I'll hopefully be able to find a place that's hiring.

My remaining flat mates have arrived. Ariel from China and Tomo from Japan in addition to Eddie from Thailand (I thought it was Taiwan, but was wrong). I will definitely be learing a lot of the Asian culture this semester.

That is all for this evening.
Today was a good day.