First Blog From Down Under...

My trip here was unforgettable…literally. I thought a week in Africa without luggage was inconvenient and frustrating (and it was), but that was nothing compared to the experience getting here. I have to say beforehand, that even only in my first 4 days here, it was well, well, worth it.

So I left for Sydney from Houston on Saturday, January 16th, and arrived in Sydney Wednesday, January 20th. Yes, you read that right, 5 day trip. Houston to Denver was fine. I changed some of my cash over to Australian dollars which I was excited about, it started making it feel more real and less of just another trip. The delays started in Denver. When they went to shut the door of the plane the exit light didn’t come on automatically like its supposed to so they had to call maintenance to come onto the plane and fix it. I wasn’t concerned because I had a layover in San Francisco for about 5 hours so I had time to waste anyway. Dad was very thoughtful and bought me a one day pass into United’s red carpet club so I could have a nice place to relax, eat, get online etc. I made a bunch of phone calls, using my iPhone (which I have missed TERRIBLY) for the last time and then headed over to my gate a little early. I was interested to see what kind of people were going to Sydney, and I’m always up for some good airport people watching…

Once my butt hit the seat at the gate, they made an announcement. They said that there was “severe weather” between San Fran and Australia and they would not be able to take everybody because they needed the plane to be as light as possible to make it through the weather. They were offering $600 plane vouchers and a night at the Hilton to anyone willing to give up their seats and get their luggage off the plane. Since I wasn’t in an incredible rush to get to Sydney (other than I had waited over a year to go ☺) and that my family would love to be able to come see me and it is super expensive, I jumped up and was 2nd in line to talk to the guys about the possibility of staying over. They were not only willing to give me the $600 voucher but also make my original ticket open ended which saves me a few more hundred dollars being that I would have had to pay change fees whenever I decided I was going home (if I ever do ☺). So it quickly became an offer I couldn’t turn down, not to mention a 20 hour flight sounded pretty dreadful even WITHOUT a severe storm, so I was happy to get off the plane. By this time I had been traveling all day and up since 5:00 so a bed in the Hilton sounded PERFECT.

While I was waiting to reclaim my bags I met 2 Aussies and 1 Kiwi turned American that quickly became my much appreciated and super fun new friends that would make the rest of the trip a total blast in the midst of what could have been incredibly lonely and sad. We went to the hotel crashed, and made plans to get up for a nice breakfast on our hotel vouchers and spend the day in San Francisco. The plan was to be nice and tired so that we could sleep the majority of the long flight over. We had a wonderful day in the city and then went back to the airport. We had a 1 hour flight to L.A and then boarded our plane for Sydney. The time had finally arrived! I was headed down under, or so I thought. Long story short, we sat in the plane, that never moved for 3 HOURS!?!?!?!? THREE HOURS!!!!! They only made 2 announcements the entire time, the flight attendants disappeared about 45 minutes into the fiaso. The reasoning? Basically they couldn’t figure out how much fuel they had before the refueling process began. Needless to say LA over WATER to Sydney is not a flight where you want to be unsure of how much fuel you have. They finally let us off the plane at 1:00 AM, by the time we got our new hotel vouchers and got to our hotel it was 3:00 AM. We were told to be back at the airport at 9:30 Am since we just had to go through security (we didn’t get our bags back and were going to use our original boarding passes they said our flight would be at 11:00 am the next morning. The next morning we got up for another nice breakfast, this time at the Marriot on our hotel vouchers. Even though we still had the same clothes on, it was nice to feel clean from a good long shower. At breakfast an Aussie at the table next to ours let us know that our flight had been CANCELLED. We never were told why. Most people had already gone to the airport, we were so grateful that we stayed. They gave us our hotels for the rest of the day and more vouchers to eat with. We went back upstairs and slept for a while and then met back in the lobby to figure out what we were going to do in L.A. The weather was pretty crappy so we ended up taking a taxi to go buy bathing suits and spending the afternoon in the hotel hot tub that was on the roof.

We showered up, enjoyed another nice hotel meal and headed over to the airport to try, for the 3rd time to get off the ground and headed to Sydney. It was a success ☺ By this time I was SO worn out that I fell asleep probably 10 minutes after take off and I slept for about 10 hours of the flight. The flight was actually shorter from L.A than it was from San Fran, only about 14 ½ hours which sounds horrible but was actually shorter than my flight from Houston to Dubai which was 17. We received another $250 voucher, bringing my grand total to $850 and the free adjustment on my original ticket.

Landing was actually bittersweet because as much as I was excited to start my time here in Australia, I was sad to say bye to my new friends. Such beautiful people on the inside and out. I can't wait to hang with them again. Sydney is nothing short of spectactular, I will expand on that in the next blog and in all of the blogs to come I am sure :)

This is already way too long, I just wanted to give some sort of update. My internet access is limited and my iPhone is locked here. I am going to buy a blackberry tomorrow and get set up so I can text with those of you that have blackberry messenger and also have better access to email and facebook.

How Did I End Up Here??

I have asked myself that exact question COUNTLESS times over the past 6 months. Where is here you ask? Here is Houston, Texas, living with my parents, working 3 part time jobs. It has been the most unexpected, weird, humbling, scary, exciting, boring, 6 months. I knew that it would be a unique time thats for sure, but NEVER imagined it would be like this. I didn't expect to be leaving a boyfriend behind, I didn't expect to struggle so much with my identity outside of being a teacher when I didn't have a class of my own to invest in, I didn't think I would love being with my parents as much as I have, and the list continues. The part I love? He knew. He knew all along. God is funny like that, I love Him all the more for it. It all started about this time, last year when the wheels started turning dreaming about where I would like to "end up". This dreaming led to the realization that most jobs that I would eventually like to have require a masters degree. I had always been open to the idea of grad school, if I found a program that I just couldn't pass up. I don't even remember how I found it, I wish I did, it would help when trying to convince people that I am not crazy, irresponsible, flaky or all of the above for picking up my life and moving across the world (literally) to Sydney, Australia. Anyway, one thing led to another, I was accepted and the rest is history. I will be getting my masters degree in the social development of refugees and forced migration from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. It sounds weird, lots of words, but if you know me & my heart it makes sense. I will learning how to design and implement non profit programs for refugees/immigrants, programs that will assist in their adjustment to their new country of resettlement. So here I am, ready or not, to start life in a new hemisphere in a few weeks. I really do hope that I am able to write often, and use this as a way to update people on life and what life looks like for me in Sydney. It isn't the fanciest blog in the world but I do promise lots of pictures :) I leave January 16th. The next few weeks will involve lots of quality time with people I love, some really strategic packing, and some not so fun goodbyes.

3rd Grade Team Memories

This is a picture of the third grade team from this year, or last year I guess. The 2008-2009 year. Whatever. It makes me so sad that this is the only picture I have of us. It was taken at the beginning of the year...before a lot of the memories were made, and friendships were formed. There are a lot of things that I am going to miss about being at Woodview next year, but these people are one of the main things I will miss. If you know any of us, or all of us for that matter. You can testify that each of us is SO incredibly different. It worked though. It worked very well. My team mates are some of the most hard working people that I know. It was a blessing to work with people that would do whatever it takes, literally, for the best interest of our kids, and I believed that it showed, not only in our test scores but in the kids themselves. I will miss our meetings which consisted of a lot of laughter, a lot of sarcasm, a lot of discussions about politics, religion and other things that probably shouldn't be discussed at work. Let me introduce you to them (from left to right)...

Rob...oh Rob. He's one of a kind. Rob was a lawyer in his former life. He has a giant heart and is the type of guy that would do anything for you...well anything that the principal OK's first. My favorite memory concerning Rob is laughing so hard that I cried when he shared with us in a team meeting that one of his more unique students managed to overflow the toilet that is inside the bathroom INSIDE of his classroom. Upon doing so she just stood there. The only way they knew it happened is because mid lesson he saw water seeping out of the bathroom into his classroom. They had to go in and pull her out. Hilarious. The mention of this story always brightened a more challenging day at school for us.

Maria. Maria has the most gentle spirit. She is also one of the most intelligent people I have called a friend. We lucked out big time when we landed her as a long time sub my first year at Woodview and she agreed to stay on full time. Whenever the Bible references being meek as a godly characteristic I always feel like overwhelming...well I am out of luck on that one, cause that is so far from the person I am. Maria is what I think of when I think of the word meek. Not weak, meek. And very strong. Her students love her and so do I. She was so patient to deal with all of our babble and ridiculous conversations. She balanced out those of us that can't keep our mouth shut when we should. I hope we keep in touch and I also hope I can visit her family where she was born, the Canary Islands!

Ashley. I was THRILLED when I met Ashley at school. The year before had been such a struggle as far as female teammates. I really wanted a girl to have fun with on my team. God went above and beyond bringing her. She made everything this year so much fun having someone to do it with. I wasn't the only one wanting to do "cute" stuff. :) We had so much fun talking about boys, fashion, the kids of course, and everything in between. I will miss our almost daily trips to HEB for lunch, but know that we will still be friends. Besides being a great friend, Ashley has a remarkable gift for teaching and she is just getting started!

Last but not least, Ruben. Where to start. My crazy Honduran friend. I think our first meeting about sums up our friendship. I showed up to Woodview SO nervous for my interview in the summer and the first person I met was Ruben. He so gently said, so YOU are the one interviewing? you better be good, they made me go all the way home, I had to iron this shirt and put on a tie just for you! I was like who is this guy? The guy that would become my best friend at school. Our rooms were connected so we just left the doors open during the day so our kids would go back and forth. We had polar opposite approaches to how we went about teaching but our hearts are the same in the sense that we are not just there for a job from 7:00-3:00. Whatever it takes, inside or outside of school. He grew up just like the majority of our students did, and made it. He challenges me a lot on my theology, and I secretly love it, even though I hate not having all of the answers and him appearing to be "right". I will miss our discussions about anything and everything, but look forward to a lot of good laughs in the future as I have gotten to know his sweet family as well.

I know none of you will read this, but it truly was an honor to work with you this year. Thank you for all of the great memories...