Classes, Cyclones, and Sickness

Hey everybody, it's been a while! I just wanted to give you all a super quick update on how life in Australia has been lately! Sorry if this post isn't interesting, but here it goes...

So, in my visual arts class we are doing this big project throughout the year where we take take ten photographs and turn them into another form of media like painting or drawing or something. Our photos are actually going to be in an art festival in May which is super exciting! In order to get these pictures, we had to go all the way out to Nightcliff and take a bunch of pictures and pick out one for each of the ten 'directions' that the instructor gave us. The ten words were near view, distant view, stare, scan, text, what's at my feet, texture, sky detail, view from another angle, and stylistic variation. The instructor also encouraged us to have a sort of theme for our pictures, but I really had no idea what I wanted mine to be. When we first got there, I just started taking random pictures hoping that something would come to me. Then, as we went along the shore, I started to notice a lot of trash and things that didn't exactly belong on the beach and there were a lot of fences to keep people away from the edge of the cliffs. The further we went along, the more I saw how much people had affected the area. I ultimately decided that that would be my topic. I took a lot of photos of trash, tree tags, tables left around, benches, the pier, etc. I was able to get some really good shots surprisingly and I'm kind of excited to do this project.

I'm absolutely loving my Chinese class! We've already learned so much and it's only been four weeks. I can count to 999 (I don't know the word for 1,000 yet) and I can ask you how you are, say the date, ask you how your parents/boyfriend/girlfriend/older brother/little brother are doing, and a bunch more. It's a lot easier than I thought it was going to be! There's just a ton that I have to memorize and the characters are a bit difficult to remember because you have to draw them in a certain order and they are pretty specific, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. We just had our first quiz in class on Thursday (Wednesday in America) on Pinyin which is sort of how you write in Chinese, but it's more like the phonetic way to write words so you don't use characters. A lot of the pinyin combinations are very similar so sometimes that can be really tricky.

In piano we started doing two on one lessons instead of working with the whole class so I'm learning a lot more in there now. I've been getting pretty good at it and I can actually read the music while I play now. I've always known how to read music, but when I played the flute and when I was in choir it was all really mindless. I never really had to think of what the note was, I just kind of memorized which spot matched with which sound/fingering. When I originally was trying to learn how to play the piano I was teaching myself and I would really struggle trying to read the music because I would have to think of what the note was and then figure out what key that was and I never really learned where all the notes were. So far, we've learned how to play major and chromatic scales, all of the variations of the C major chord, the variations of the G major chord, G7, F major, and a couple of songs. I am so glad that I took this class! I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but my family could never afford to put me in lessons.

Outside of school, life has been kind of boring lately. Don't get me wrong, it's so fun being here, and I am so grateful that I was able to come here, I just have very little money and Devyn and I have pretty much done everything that there is to do in Darwin. Well, actually, we've done pretty much all there is to do in the Northern Territory. When wet season is over, there are a lot of sunset markets on the beaches so that should be pretty exciting and this weekend we are going to the Territory Wildlife Park. We haven't gotten tired of the beach yet though. We're constantly at the beach and I LOVE it out there.

This past weekend there was a cyclone so everybody was out at the beach. Apparently, that's the best time to go surfing. The waves were huge! So huge in fact, that we didn't really have to worry about crocs. Besides, there were so many people out in the water that if a croc were willing to put up with the waves and chill in the water, somebody would have already been eaten. So, we decided that it was safe for us to swim! That was the happiest I have been in a LONG time. I felt so free being in the water. It was just what I needed too, I had been really homesick for a couple days, but that cheered me up. It took a little while for me to actually get into the water though. We had been told so many times to stay away from it that I was just a bit nervous to go in. I am so glad I did! There were dogs running around, surfers all around us, the place was packed and everyone was having so much fun. The waves were really strong. Devyn and I kept getting knocked around and we had to jump up to not get hit in the face with the waves. The water was SO salty too, and warm which was weird. The water at the beach is salty, but nowhere near as salty as this and the water is always cold. It was soooooo nice out there.

Other than that, I really haven't done anything. Sunday morning I woke up feeling suuuuuper sick. I couldn't eat or drink anything all say and I couldn't get out of bed either. I felt so sick I almost just went to the emergency room. I didn't do anything or eat until Tuesday and all I could get down was soup and toast. I had to miss Chinese that day because I was still so sick. I was feeling a bit better on Wednesday so I was able to go to class that morning and on Thursday as well. Besides that, I was pretty much chained to my bed. Until Wednesday I was able to eat some ramen and finally on Thursday I was able to eat real food again. I am feeling fine now, but it was a pretty rough week. Being sick all the way out here really made me miss my family and I wanted to go home so many times. I stuck it out though and I only had to call home about a thousand times. I was able to get a lot of Netflix watching done though, so that was really nice.

Well, that's it for this post! Thanks so much for reading!