First Impressions

You'd think that Australia is a hot desert-like landscape with kangaroo's hopping around randomly, right? Well, that's false. I entered Australia in short sleeves and flip-flops (known as thongs here) but came to a rude awakening as I walked outside to find it cold and windy. It was like Canberra was saying "take that!" to my stereotype. The aussies around say that the day we arrived is a day that is going to marked down in history because we arrived on the day of the dust storm. Moriah was talking of clear blue skys, mountains, and amazing looking birds when all we could see is a cloud of red dust outside the windows. O, and I have yet to see a kangaroo.

Speaking of first impressions, everyone here is rather nice and generous. I'm getting quite good at introducing myself. "Hi, my name is Ashley Milburn. I'm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania (It's on the east coast of the US)" and then continue on about how I got here. It's really hard to explain about what I was doing before I came here. See, I would have to talk about school and for Aussies- Kindergarden (or Kindie) to 6th grade is primary, 7th thru 10th is high school and 11th & 12th is College and then it's university (or uni as they call it). So when I explain what I was doing before I came into missions I say "I graduated college and started working with adults with intellectual disabilities and took a year off to come here." It gets confusing sometimes. When Aussies show their appreciation/excitement for us being here, they tend to be very generous. This past Sunday I was wearing thongs (flip flops :) ) to church and it was very cold. Someone saw this and was like "arn't your feet cold!?! I said "yeah, but I don't have dress shoes to wear and this is what I have." Well then I heard later that they asked if they could buy me some shoes! Going along with the cold thing, a couple of people asked if we needed heaters and that they would get us some if we needed them. Aussies are just so giving!! They also think that we are poor, when in reality we are just choosing to live simply, however, I really appriciate the offer, it shows that they care! So thoughtful! Anyways, I could go on, but this is kinda getting long.