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