Here We Go~


"A friend loves at all times,

    and a brother is born for adversity."

-Proverbs 17:17

Yikes classes are starting tomorrow! I just spent the past three hours doing readings, watching videos, and reviewing notes. The past four weeks have been all too amazing, and I’m not quite ready to be back in school mode. I just read my Post-Navajo Reflection entry again; it’s being shared during English service tomorrow, and I really don’t want this semester to be like the last. I have 14 contact hours this semester (versus the 27.5 hrs Spring Quarter. WOW only half as many?!) for my 4 units (classes), and no classes on Friday 😃 I’ll have time to practice piano, swim, cook, talk to people, hangout, and explore more! But of course I’ll also study and go to classes. After all, this is a study abroad… 
My Units

One of the classes I’m taking is called, “Smash the Act - Indigenous Australian Politics.” I just watched this video, and it created an ugly mix of emotions, kind of like that when I read Animal Farm. Something about the selfishness and pride of human nature punched me in the stomach: the story of the Australian Aborigines felt like it was plagiarised from the African-American slaves' and Native Americans’ stories combined. At first it was curiosity and an attempt to understand each other. Then it was survival, competition, and violation of ownership. Poor/no communication led to violence and bloodshed. The use of alcohol to control the people. It blows my mind that the settlers did the same exact thing on two different continents, one hundred years apart. Human nature is so consistent. The Indigenous are no better. There’s always outrage and revenge, which only led to more violence and deaths. But what made the settlers think that the Natives were barbarians, savages, less than human? What did they have that the Aborigines didn’t? They had clothes. They had knowledge. They had goals. Goals for something bigger and better. That sounds like me. And that’s scary. I don’t want to be someone who has goals, knowledge, and clothes, yet tramples on everyone who is different from me, who stands in the way of me and my goals. I want to be like the one settler who made the effort to learn the language of the Aborigines and prevented the death of his family. He took time to understand them and learn from them, and that takes patience and humility. I want to be like that when I grow up. #goals

But enough of the stuff going on in my head. I attended QMuSo (QUT Music Society)’s String Theory’s open rehearsal today, and the conductor is really funny! The music isn’t hard and the group is about as average as SCU’s orchestra, but I liked Jackie’s viola enough to play it every week, so I may join. I also walked through the Noodle Night Market that Brisbane has going on this week, but I have too much food in the fridge I went home and made dinner. It kinda sucks to cook for one person. I want to cook a lot, but then I'll get stuck eating the same thing all week, but then cooking a little of everything means washing a lot of dishes. Spoiled me. 

Keiko also convinced me to join the Dragon Boat Regatta event in August, and we trained (read: learned how to row) Saturday morning. 18-20 people work together to row the boat, and it takes a lot of teamwork and coordination for everyone to be rowing at exactly the same time. The river is actually quite dirty and salty! But I figured that I might as well do something on the river since I live so close to it. After training, we went to the Farmer’s Market together and bought five boxes of strawberries for $15 after haggling with the Chinese owner in Mandarin hehe… I was reminded how great friends are and why God didn’t create us to be loners ^_^ 
Dragon Boat Training

And thank you for praying! Friday’s Christian event with Pink went really well. There were quite a few Malaysian people in the group (everyone was so friendly and funny!) who connected with her, and both of us had a great time. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard that I cried. So thankful that Laura invited me on Tuesday, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next meeting. It’s time for bed now. Excited and nervous for the first day of Aussie uni tmrw!  Goodnight!


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