Week Three Down Under

News news news! I have somewhere to stay in Sydney! God is SO GOOD. I have a penpal, Eliza, who I started writing to last year through a site on tumblr. She lives in Sydney, is a Christian, and we seem pretty similar personality-wise. We’ve both had hugely busy years so have only written about three letters each way, so when I was in Sydney we were going to meet (I mean, you wouldn’t pass up the opportunity, would you?).  The family I was originally going to be staying with in Sydney can no longer have me, and so I was thinking I would be staying in hostels. However, my faith is definitely increasing, because instead of being gutted about not having somewhere to stay, I just thought, well, God’s closed one door to bring something better along. And so He did! Eliza sent me a message on facebook saying that her family are totally happy for me to come and stay with her while I’m there! Now, just take this in. You could see it as coincidence, that out of all the people I could have started writing to, I picked Eliza, that this family could no longer have me, and that she is cool having a girl she barely knows come live with her for ten days. I don’t believe in coincidences though – “we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) WOW!

The other piece of news I have is that as of Monday I am going to be volunteering at the Dolphin Discovery Centre here in Bunbury! It’s a big tourist attraction, where wild dolphins swim into the bay and you can go out into the water with them. There’s also a small aquarium there with turtles they’re rehabilitating and other sea creatures. I can also train to go on swim tours – going out on a boat and helping manage people swimming with the dolphins. They have volunteers from all around the world – while I was there I met someone from Canada and from Belgium! I’m pretty excited!

Gorgeous view

At the weekend, I went out on a day trip down south with Mandy and Andrew. We went round the Cape, where sharks instantly feature on the ‘what you can fish for in this area’ map! There are sharks round here too, just not as many as out in the more open sea. Andrew even saw a snake (which I missed), and I saw a lizard chilling on the rocks. We went to Smiths beach, which was SO gorgeous – white sand and clear blue water. I didn’t want to leave the sea! We visited Happs Pottery where I tried (more!) wine, and then onto Simmo’s, an ice cream place. Their banana choc chip is like heaven in a cone. There was also an emu there! On the way back we were diverted and stuck in traffic for ages because the main road had been closed off due to a bush fire. It’s been very very hot here – high 30’s – so there was another, bigger bush fire last night. It’s quite surreal, but feels very Australian!

At the beach

Last night we had a bbq for Greg’s birthday, with lots of family. Mandy and I shared a bottle of rose and I also had Baileys on ice (made me think of Felix). Meat and wine = a very good 

evening!

Today I awoke to a parcel from Joe. A card for Valentine’s Day, and magazines! I’d been moaning about how expensive they are here, and how they only have a few, so he’d posted me some from England!

Parcel from Joe! (and morning hair)

Haven’t got too much planned for the rest of this week – possibly going out for one of Bec’s friends birthdays on Saturday night, and then we have a ‘mystery tour’ on Sunday for Greg’s birthday. Mandy won’t tell any of us what it is, but we know it involves bringing our swim stuff, and also food?! I feel both excited and nervous! Any guesses? I’ll bring the winner back a koala!

Amazing steak sandwich

Australia Week Two

I cannot believe that I have been here for two weeks already! Only 12 more to go now!

On Friday, I went to the beach with Rebecca and four of her friends, which was so good – they’re all really lovely and we got on well. We stayed in the sea until Bronte felt a jellyfish, and then we went and got lunch at a café, where I had an iced tea – I have been missing those! On Saturday I went into town in the morning and bought a rug – I know, why did I do that? – but it is so beautiful! And the best part is, it was only $2.99?! I nearly bought a coat yesterday from a charity shop – at this rate I’m going to have to invest in another suitcase to come home! Mandy and I drove to Donnybrook in the afternoon for the Food and Wine festival there. She tried to educate me on wine, as when asked what I usually drank in England, I said “Whatever’s cheapest”, which is apparently not the right answer. I tried Port, too, which was disgusting. I’ve been teaching Rebecca and Andrew some card games (they said it sounded awesome at my college, which is where I picked a lot of them up), but I did refuse to teach them any drinking games, despite their persistent begging! I went back to the same church on Sunday morning, and spoke to a lot of people there. Their youth group works very differently to Fusion, in that they have people from the ages of 12 up to 25. I suppose with a smaller church, they don’t have enough youth to support two groups. I cycled back from church and had a horrible experience where I nearly passed out – I’m guessing from the heat. I just collapsed underneath this tree and my ears had this really heavy pressure on them, and my vision was all blurry. After a while I felt okay again, but it wasn’t very fun!

I headed to the beach on Tuesday, and felt like I was breaking every rule I’ve ever been taught about swimming in the sea. I was on my own, there was nobody around – I could have been swept out or eaten by a shark and nobody would ever know! The waves here are crazy – it’s less swimming, more just trying to stay afloat. When I got out of the sea, a woman had appeared on the beach, so I said Hi, and she replied with “Je ne parle pas Anglais!” I was like, “Je parle un peu de francais!” – and it went from there! Turns out she can’t speak any English at all, which meant all the pressure was on me to keep up my French so we could have a conversation! I explained that I hadn’t used my French since college, but she said it was really good, and it did all come flooding back. We spoke for a few hours – it was such a bizarre experience – fancy my A-Level French coming in useful in Australia!

Beach with Bec's friends

Yesterday I walked into town (around an hour and a half’s walk) and exploited Rebecca’s library card. When I got home I had letters from my parents and Josh, and I skyped Dad, too. Also, I booked my flights to Sydney tonight! I’m flying overnight on the 31^st March, and am going to be there until the 10^th of April – I’m so excited! At the moment it looks like I’m going to be hostel-ing it, although you never know…

Spending the day today replying to letters, and filling out my application to start volunteering at the Dolphin Discovery Centre here in Bunbury.

Thanks for reading! Love, Beth

Australia Week 1

Australia Day!

So, as I left England a week ago, I think it’s time for an update on life Down Under! If I could sum up Week One in one word, it’d be: HOT. I read that if you come from a cooler climate (snow, so yes), then it takes two weeks for your body to adapt to the hot weather. Two weeks cannot come quickly enough! And the worst part of it is, everyone is saying that this is actually fairly cool weather, and that February is only going to get hotter!

Snow in London!

The flights over here were mixed. The first, Gatwick to Dubai, was pretty good, although there was an hour’s delay at Gatwick as they de-iced the plane and put our luggage into the hold. This meant that the connection at Dubai for my flight to Perth was pretty tight – we ended up getting off the first plane at 9.15pm, and the next flight was due for 9.45. If you’ve been to Duabi airport, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the smallest of places! We took a train – an actual train – inside the airport to reach the Departure Gate. Turned out they’d delayed the flight till 11pm, meaning more waiting around. Our flight didn’t actually leave until nearly midnight, as there was a lot of drama with people who didn’t have seats etc., as they’d been shoved on this plane due to delays elsewhere in the world of aviation. I tried to sleep but couldn’t really, the food was disgusting, and my body had no idea what time it was. Eleven hours later, I arrived at Perth. All I wanted was a shower, a change of clothes, and a bed. However, when I heard my name over the tannoy, I was pretty sure things weren’t getting better. Turns out my luggage was lost somewhere! They couldn’t tell me if it was in Dubai or London, and just said they’d hope to deliver it to me tomorrow (Friday). Brilliant. I met Mandy, Greg and Rebecca, and went out to get a few bits of clothing, and then we drove back to their house. I Skyped Joe in the evening which was probably not the best thing to do when I was feeling so tired and emotional – I cried quite a bit. Spent a fairly lazy day on Friday and went for iced coffee at the Dome (yep, I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time there) with Mandy and Rebecca, and saw dolphins! Saturday was Australia Day, which was so awesome! I wore all my ‘I heart Oz’-type stuff, and no one even knew I was a tourist! We went to Busselton and had a swim in the Indian Ocean, and also had a wander through the town. Back to Bunbury (where I’m staying) and Rebecca and I headed down to the Australia Day celebrations, where there was a live band and loads of stalls and things. We watched fireworks over the water which were amazing and went on for nearly half an hour! Also, I saw kangeroo’s!! Just hopping along in the wild, right behind all the houses! It’s crazy here, I thought there’d be a big divide between the houses and the wilderness, but there’s really not – you can just step from one into the other. I went to a church on Sunday morning, and if you pray, would really appreciate some prayer over this as I feel unsure as to whether I should be there or not. The people were really friendly though, and I even got invited to a film night! Sunday was also the day that my favourite pair of sunglasses melted. Yes, they melted on my walk to church. Waah.

The Ocean

We were going to go down south but the sea here in Bunbury was so beautiful that we stayed here instead – I used some goggles and swam over a reef and saw loads of fish! Also, as I’m sure nobody is surprised to hear, I am pretty sunburnt, despite using a ton of suncream. Today everyone was out, so I walked into town. I swear, I felt like I was going to die out there, it was just so hot and I drank a litre of water just on my walk into town. I’m going to write a few of my legendary lists tomorrow of things that I want to achieve while I’m here/reasons I’ve come, as I did feel a bit strange today.

So, if you pray: Pray for me to make friends whilst I’m here, to feel at peace with the Church I’m in, and to feel God’s guidance and purpose as to what to do next.

Thanks for reading! I’ll try to be more concise next time ;)

Wish you were here!

Goodbye - London

This was hard – brilliant, but hard. Joe managed to get the time off work, so he came to London with me, mum, dad and Josh on the Monday morning before I went on the Wednesday.

On Monday, we travelled down to London, and then checked in to out Travelodge and headed into the centre of London. We went past Buckingham Palace, and then Joe and I caught the tube to Southwark to meet Felix and Emily. It was pretty surreal, just going for Starbucks in London like that! Emily took us back to her flat building, where you can go up on to the roof and see right across London; the view was amazing! We dropped a few snowballs too – from such a height, it was difficult to aim on the people below… We left them and went to meet my family again, and we went to a Canadian Bar! Hell yes! It was pretty darn awesome, we had moose beer and everything was maple-leafed.. Man. (my next big trip has to be Canada!) Maxwells for tea, and then back to the travelodge. The Tuesday was spent at my Grandparents’ in Farnham, where we also made a seven-foot snowman, and ate the best millionnaire’s shortbread around. By this time, I was properly freaking out about going away. I had no idea what I was doing, and was dreading saying goodbye. I kept crying! We got up early on Wednesday, and I felt so sick. Said goodbye to everyone, and man, was I crying. May seemed like an eternity away.

Au revoir to Chubbs

This post is dedicated mainly to one wonderful person, so I’ll try to keep it short!

When I decided on taking a year out, and knew I’d be in Worcester until January, I was worried about not having many friends. At this point, I didn’t know if Joe would be off at uni or not, and the idea of everyone I was close to off at university while I was ‘stuck’ in Worcester was difficult. Then, out popped Emma Wilcox! We’ve been learning French together for two years now, and are both Christians. It was in the second year of college that we became much closer, and I can’t tell you how good it was to know that she would be in the same position as me! Working in Worcester through until January, when she would be leaving to go abroad. We joked about how we’d be meeting up all the time – and this turned out to be true. There was one fortnight where we met up about 5 times! We grew to be pretty close, and it was exciting sharing our plans with each other – we were both going off to do amazing things! Currently, Emma is in Switzerland with YWAM, looking for a husband. I JOKE! She’s on a Discipleship Training School, and after three months there she’s headed to Africa to work amongst communities there! I know, I’m very proud of her! You can find Emma’s blog at http://emma-wilcox.blogspot.com.

Harry Salisbury is my other friend off around the world. He’s in Rwanda with Tearfund, helping the community and planting pineapple trees! Keep praying for him and Emma please!

University

University, eh. Well, I had planned on applying last year (for 2012 entry). I know, shocker! Yes, I had always wanted to take a Gap Year. The big change to this came when I went to college, specifically, Sixth Form College. Although I don’t think they meant to do it, the focus there was always on university. I was academic, I got good grades, so naturally, I would be going to uni too. I just got swept along with the crowd, I wrote a personal statement, I went to Open Days. I remember the day I told my mum that I wasn’t taking a Gap Year any more, I was going straight to university instead.. It felt like I was coming out! Y’know, “Mum, I know I always said I was taking a Gap Year, but the thing is…” etc.

So, what changed from that to bring me to the wonderful adventure I am now on? Well, the short answer is that I got a D in my History AS. Nobody, literally nobody, could believe this – if it had been in French, maybe I wouldn’t have been so surprised, but the fact that it was History… It had always been what I was best at – seriously, I went the whole year getting straight A’s on all the essays I did, and then a D?! I could re-sit, I could fix it, but any uni’s I applied to would see my D and laugh at my application to study History. I was heartbroken – I cried for a whole day when I realised that I couldn’t go to university straight away.

BUT – (and here’s where the long story comes in) I am now so grateful for that D! Honestly, I can’t thank God enough for it. If I had got an A, as expected, right now I would be at university, maybe enjoying it, but probably regretting completely not taking my year out, and hating myself for just being swept along with the crowd. Instead, as I write this, I am in Western Australia! It took a D to steer me off the path I thought I wanted, and back onto the path that was really for me. Christians always tell you that God uses even the bad for His perfect plan, and it’s one of those things you smile and nod along with. I can tell you that it’s true, entirely true. The things that to you just look like horrible storms, or doors slamming in your face… one day you will look back and see the bigger purpose.

I re-sat, and jumped from just over 50% to 100% in one exam, leaving me with my A. So, just before Christmas, I applied to university! I still wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted, or where I was supposed to be, but I applied to keep the doors open. I got accepted at Liverpool, Nottingham, Cardiff and Sheffield. These offers are unconditional, something I wouldn’t have had if I had applied whilst still at college (yet another bonus!) meaning that there is no pressure on me to achieve any grades or do anything – I get to just sit back and decide where I want to go! It’s looking like Sheffield at the moment, I just feel drawn there, so prayers would be much appreciated as to making the right decision. All in all, God pulled me through this situation without me even realising! 

Leaving Homesense

I feel almost as sad writing this post as I did writing the one about leaving Fusion. Despite being at Homesense for only four months, I made some really great friends, and completely loved the job. TJX were a pretty great company to work for (it must sound like I’m being paid to say this!) For example, in the run-up to Christmas, the management were told to spent £20 from the store’s money on food for everyone to eat in the staff room. We took a random 10 minutes each and stuffed our faces with sausage rolls, doughnuts, and fizzy drinks. And we were being paid to do this. Yeah. On our stock take night, when we were expected to work until around midnight, they ordered £240-worth of pizza for everyone to dig in to. Who else can say they work somewhere like that? Everyone working there was incredible, really brilliant people, and I actually liked the job, too! Telling them I was leaving was something I was dreading, but it turned out to be totally fine! Everyone was really excited for me, and my manager told me to come back in when I returned to see if she had any summer hours she could give me!

Leaving Fusion

As most people know, I am (or should I say, was) a youth leader at Fusion, my Church youth group. I’ve been going to Fusion on and off since the age or around thirteen, and was asked to stay on as a youth leader after I became too old to count as ‘youth’!

I have absolutely loved my time with Fusion. The group is made up of 12-17 year olds, and a team of fantastic youth leaders. There are social nights with games, bouncy castles, laser tag, football and pool, craft sessions, worship led by the youth, Bible studies, and also small group times. Each small group is made up of around 5 youth, and then 1 or 2 leaders. They’re completely relaxed and informal, and designed to chat over the part of the Bible read that evening, or a topic talked about, or just their day-to-day lives. I loved being with these girls and listening to their questions and answers about big issues, and what was going on in their lives. We never gave them an answer (half the time because we might not know ourselves!) but let them consider things for themselves. Why would God let people suffer? By giving an ‘answer’, you’re not helping them with their faith at all. The idea was to suggest things, guide them, and work with them to puzzle things out. Things are much more meaningful if you believe something in your heart, rather than just repeating what you’ve been told.

I realise I’ve gone on about Fusion for a while here, and I apologise! I suppose it helps you see what being a part of it meant to me, though. I left Fusion at a tricky time – the group had just moved onto a Friday night, we had a lot of people leaving as well as joining, and some other leaders were dropping out because of the change of night. Also, some exciting things were happening! I was being asked to lead more sessions and also do the Bible study more often. So I hope you can see how hard it was for me to say goodbye!

My leaving card and present

I got a card signed from all the youth as well as 30 Australian dollars as a leaving present. I didn’t cry (surprises all round!) but it has been hard! I miss being a part of the group, and I’ve accepted that this is sort of ‘it’ for me now – when I get back from Australia I’m off round Europe, and then I’m going to university.. So, farewell to the wonderful Fusion! (I’m tearing up now!)

Seeing uni friends at Christmas

Obviously I was incredibly excited to see all my friends again after not having been all together since September! I think none of us were entirely sure how it would work – we all hoped we’d just slip back into the same friendship we’d had before, but there was no way of knowing for sure. After all, people had moved away from home for the first time, been living independently, and had made new friends. For Joe and me things had changed too, we’d got used to being just the two of us a lot of the time, and both had jobs which kept us busy.

However, it was crazy how easy everything felt when we were all back together. We were sharing our own news, but nobody was trying to ‘one-up’ anyone else or prove they’d made the most new friends. I should have known really – my best friends are nothing like that, and a few months apart couldn’t change how we were together.

The big change I did find hard was things with Em, my best friend. Things had been difficult for us both whilst she was away at uni, and although I’d hoped we’d be back to normal over Christmas, things didn’t improve. We’ve spoken since, and it’s not as though we’ve stopped our friendship, but things are definitely different. Who can say if it’s university that was the change - being apart so long, both of us making new friends, growing apart maybe – or if things would have changed anyway, but it has been difficult.

Don’t let anyone tell you that everyone will come back from uni different, and that you won’t be friends in the same way, but also don’t convince yourself that nothing will change – people do change, and that’s how life works. Someone once said to consider your life in ten years’ time. Do you want it to be exactly as it is now? Chances are, probably not. Change is inevitable; try not to be afraid of it.

Starting work at Homesense

I wrote this at the time ready to publish when I'd updated everything previously!

So, today I started my second job in two months! Haha. Got all my uniform, logged into the system with information on a post-it note I just know I'm going to lose. Have a locker all of my own! Very snazzy. I was only working four hours today, in fact, I think most of my shifts are going to be four hours, which is nice because it means I get a lot of the day, but does split up days a lot. Was on the tills straight away which wasn't too bad, I'm sure I'll pick things up quickly. Also went on the shop floor tidying etc. Felt a bit useless if customers asked for help but everyone that shops there is very friendly, I guess it goes with the homewares territory really. I finished at 6 and then had Bible Study tonight which I was leading. 
I prepared a talk/study on 'Making your life count' - it was a bit bitty (haha) rather than flowing smoothly but I don't think it was too bad! A few quotes were: 
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West
"Only when we're brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light." - Brene Brown
Pretty sure I have an unhealthy obsession with quotes.. 

And this is more recent:
So, working at Homesense has been pretty cool! All my shifts have been 4 or 6 and a half hours, and the people there are fantastic. Everyone is so friendly, and really make you feel welcome, and willing to help if you need it. You have to find the balance between asking for help when you need it, because you don't want to make mistakes and mess up, but also using your initiative and not just going to a manager every four minutes. I like learning new things, so it's been a good experience. And I'm not gonna lie - the money has come in handy!