"No worries"

It's hard to believe that I've been here for a month now. I guess it's finally starting to feel like home. My first month has been filled with themed parties, making friends and a little bit of school work ;). I have been able to experience several different areas of Canberra itself, including Civic (the downtown area) during the day and of course at night where the real fun begins. The differences and new experiences still continue to amuse me.

Last weekend I went to a music, wine, food, etc festival called TumbaFest in the small town of Tumbarumba about 3 hours outside of Canberra. It was interesting to get to see a completely different side of Australia and enter the small town atmosphere. It reminded me of the weekends at the lake where everyone knows everyone and they're all just having a good time. We listened to live bands, tried wine from local wineries and enjoyed the warm weather while it still lasts. I have barely heard any country music since I've been here so it was a little bit of a shock to hear the crowd singing the words to "Sweet Home Alabama".

This weekend we'll be headed to Surf Camp outside of Sydney for a 2-night stay on the beach and hopefully a littler surfing action as well. It might be a miracle if the instructors can get an uncoordinated Kansas girl up on a surfboard. At the end of the month for our "midterm break" I'll be traveling to New Zealand to get a broader prospective of the Southern Hemisphere. A group of 8 international students has planned to rent campervans and road trip around the southern island of New Zealand. Even though New Zealand is supposed to have the best and the highest bungee jumping in the world, I don't think anything would convince me to strap a piece of rope to my ankles and jump off a cliff... No thank you.

Even though I am having the best adventure of my life, there are still things that I miss/crave from back home:
- Mexican food- apparently they are too far away from the country itself to have decent Mexican food.
- Home cooked meals- My cooking skills are very limited and eating pasta every day is getting very old... and full of carbs. Mom, can you send me some real food? :)
- Dr. Pepper- Only very select stores sell this delicious carbonated drink and it is a rare find. Amber, you might not survive here.
- Wireless internet- being plugged into a wall gets very annoying... and inhibits me from lying in bed with my computer- one of my favorite activities.
- My bed- speaking of lying in bed, I miss my comfy temperpedic mattress topper...

Now I will leave you with some Aussie phrases and American translations:
"I'm keen to".... "I'm down to"
"No worries"... "No problem"
"Cheers" ... "Thanks"
"How you going?" ... "What's going on?"
"Fairdinkum"... "for real"
"Skull it!" ... "Chug it!"

Still getting used to all the slang and lingo but starting to catch on. Maybe I'll come home with a revamped vocabulary ;)