Sorry for the delay....

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So, I said I would not make any promises and here I am a little over three weeks later, feels like much longer. I spent the following few days doing the cultural touristy stuff since I was on my own, I hit the State Library, The Botanical Gardens, Museum of South Australia and Aboriginal Art Museum, some definitely more interesting than others but each definitely worth a look, some fascinating art. The Botanical Gardens were beautiful and I found myself there almost every afternoon until the rest of the crew arrived. I had the chance to spend some time with people from all over the world, with roommates from Hong Kong, Germany, Sweden and France. I spent most of my time with two guys from England one who was a worker at the hostel and one who was just passing through.

With Tanya and Amber still in Tasmania the rest of the crew arrived from the states on 11/01, Katie, Doran, Sabina and Ossian. I was very excited to see them and had not realized I had gotten a bit lonely. (notice the date; this is how they do it here!) We all had dinner together that night and they complimented me on the hostel of choice. After dinner we headed to the hostel bar where we purchased a box of Coolabah Wine, for $12 AUD, cheap price, bad sign. We had a great time that evening, two more guys came in from Manchester, Mike & Jason with their guitars and a big group of us spent the night listening to them play and having some not so harmonious but none the less fun sing-alongs! We have been hanging with them quite a bit since. The next day fighting quite possibly the worst hangover of my life, Amber & Tanya arrived and we all began to search for flats. This turned out to be no easy feat, for some reason we were told by the school, who offered no assistance, that it would be no problem to find housing, all lies!!! After a week or so it all finally worked out…Ossian found a place through his work with some locals, Amber, Tanya & I found a place in the East End of the city, great location, it’s all happening here! Katie, Doran & Sabina in North Adelaide but kept looking and just moved to a place a block away from us this week. So it all worked out in the end.

We moved on 17/01 and most of us began work that day as well. I went in not knowing what to expect and met Belinda who is not my direct supervisor but whom I will be working under most of the time, she is the Program Manager of the emergency accommodation where I will spend most of my time. I spent the first day or so reading up on the policy, history etc…and by the third day or so was onto full case management duties. The group at Catherine House is great, I have to admit I was a bit nervous about working around “the sisters”, I assumed they would not be to fond of my tats, hair, nose piercing etc…Could not have been more wrong this is the sweetest most welcoming, non-judgmental group of women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I also have to say that having a great sense of humor seems to be a job requirement, which makes this kind of work so much easier. There is never a dull moment at CH; I’ve already dealt with quite a few client incidents since starting. I finally had the chance to meet with Helen, my actual supervisor last week, like everyone else in the country and at CH she could not have been more friendly, helpful or eager to make my experience a pleasant one. We also spoke about my possible interest in remaining in Oz for work, she said from what she had been hearing if there was a position open it would be mine, very pre-mature but an exciting prospect.

Oh, also have to throw this in, we found the coolest little dive bar called the Grace Emily, the guys played on open mic night and we had a blast. I was shocked to hear the first band start singing “Fulsom Prison Blues”,nothing like a little Johnny Cash down under!!!

I decided to throw a little dinner party on Thursday 20/01 to celebrate our first week of work, apartments etc…there ended up being ten of us in total the U.S crew along with Mike, Jason & Craig from Manchester. Thanks for the pepperoni chicken Dad! We made our way around town over the weekend and had a great time together. The group of us is pretty diverse. There are bound to be some bumps along the way but overall I think we will have a great time together and develop some lifelong friendships.

Sabina’s birthday was on 24/1 and we went out to a great family owned Chinese place for dinner, only to celebrate again the next night by hitting a few of the local hotspots. Yes, it was a week night but its okay because 26/1 is a public holiday, Australia Day!!! We were invited by an American med student who works with Amber to a Barbie at his place but as is tradition were expected to bring our own meat and drink, so we picked up some Cooper’s Sparkling and some snags(sausages) and headed to Hove beach, gorgeous of course! Most in attendance were American and Canadian, maybe two Aussies.

The boys from Manchester were back in town this weekend, so being the entertaining duo that they are, we spent some time with them out in the city and chilled a bit as well. This brings me up to date just work this week so far, and again I will try to be more consistent I know this is lacking details…I’m working on it. We just got internet access, give a girl a break. Hope all is wonderful in each of your worlds keep me posted!

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