Across the Bridge

Oz word of the day- Dingo!

Apparently, besides the bushwalking, aboriginal befriending dog that we think of, dingo is apparently also a term that can mean "loser"- which is interesting because I think the dog dingo is pretty cool!

I haven't posted an entry in a while, and that's just because there hasn't been anything very interesting and new lately. This month, however, will bring me to a few pretty cool places which I can't wait to write about!

I did, however, want to let everyone know that I met the group which I will be doing my internship with today! I traveled across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to the northern city suburbs for the first time today and spent the afternoon with Parkinson New South Wales! The women that I will be working with are a small, intimate group who work with people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and they specialize in rehabilitation and therapeutic initiatives which will help those who have been diagnosed to cope with everyday life. I made my own lunch with them and sat in on a meeting of with a group patients who had been recently diagnosed with the disease. It was all very interesting, everyone was very nice and esctatic to meet me, and I'm very excited to work with them! I'm actually going to go on an excursion weekend with them in a few weeks, which will be full of fun activities like kareoke and swimming, along with a few more informative lessons, including seminars about dealing with Parkinson's disease.

It has been sweltering here for the past few days, which I'm sure sounds nice compared to the blizzards that I've heard are blanketing home. Today it was 92 degrees and the humidity was stifling- Thankfully I was in the office for most of today, so it didn't really fluster me, however I heard from some of the women at the office that there had been bushfires near their houses the previous night! It's so strange to think that February is their hottest time of year...

Another fun thing about today was actually my ride home in the evening! Julie, one of the younger women in the office, offered to give me a ride back to Sydney Center around Town Hall, which is only about a 15 minute walk back to my dormitory. I rode in a car for the first time here, and we talked a lot about the differences between our cultures. Just the car ride itself was fun and yet nerve wracking. Not only do they drive on the opposite side of the road that I'm used to, but the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car. Their driving is just a mirror image of ours! She also had to stop to "get petrol" or gas up. I felt like such a tourist looking at the gas pump as if it should belong in a museum, but I'm just so interested at the simple things that make our ends of the world different. "Petrol" is pumped in litres, and the signs showing gas prices are shown in cents, which really weirds me out because if you were seeing the sign in the States, you would think it said a gallon of gas cost $133. So really, it's 133 cents, or $1.33 for a litre of gas, or the equivalent of about $5 per gallon.

Overall, it was a great day to be immersed in a normal, Australian workplace and culture- it was actually the first time that I was the only American in a large group! I'm very excited for more days like it!

Love you all!

p.s. I got your card Grandma- Miss you tons and I hope you got my post card! I hope Eddie has been able to get a haircut despite the snow! :)