the long lost alex

Hello world!

I am so so so so so sorry for not updating this in such a long time.

Well, i'm officially half way through my semester, which means it's spring break (aka spring break 2006 part two - totally weird). This is definitely a good thing since i had officially reached the my-brain-is-fried-and-i-need-some-time-to-stop-thinking point. :-)

Life is going pretty well. I have officially made some amazing friends which is wonderful. I can seriously not imagine if i has chosen to stay here for only a semester, definitely know that being here for a year was a good decision.

A few weeks ago i went on a "farm stay" which was such a wonderful experience to say the least. It was nice to get away from the city for a few days.

here is a picture of my amazing host family:


Their farm is called "Dairy Park", though the cows they have are not dairy cows - which a bit misleading. Their farm is also HUGE. i wish i could remember exactly how many acres is, but alas i do not remember. The amount of work this family does it unbelievable - Grant and his wife (Liz) and occasionally, and one helping hand, do all the work. It really really made me miss Little Prairie Dairy (if you are a relative, you know what that means). :-)

Here are some pictures of their BEAUTIFUL land:





and here is a picture of me being dramatic in front of the BEAUTIFUL land:


seriously, amazing. I took like a billion pictures - but unfortunately i could only put up a few of them. It takes FOREVER to put pictures up online here, which is really really furstrating... but oh well.

Anywho. The farm was a little outside Bathurst, which is about 3 or 4 hours outside of Sydney. I met up with a bunch of other Butler students and we all got on a giant bus. While half the kids went on farmstays like me (there were about 5 different families [4 kids per home] ), the other set went on something called "The Adventure Weekend", which was in The Blue Mountains. Those kids went rock climbing, went for a long bush walk, and (according to some people i talked to) ate food that reminded them of their time at "sports camp".... right. meanwhile....

i played with lambs!



and chickens!



and... and... and...

EMUS!



haha, todo, where not in the midwest anymore. :-) I don't know if you have ever encountered an Emu (and if so i would love to hear the story), but they make th FUNNIEST sound ever. It almost sounds like an incredibly long low burp. So strange. They also peck bird seed out of your hands in an intense way. haha. so cool!

Anywho. the first night we got there we are all kind of sitting awkwardly around the living room talking - our host parents were asking where we were from and such. As the conversation continued i kind of absent mindedly picked up this little kid puzzle (obviously one of their kid's) and started playing with it. I then made some random comment about it... and before i knew it we were all involved in a SERIOUS competition.

there were 5 puzzles. it started as a race to see who could do it them the fastest.

then.. it was blindness got involved.... so who could do the puzzle the fastest with their eyes closed:



then it became a group activity where we put all the pieces in the middle and we had to figure out (with our eyes close). chaos. pure chaos. :-)

but yeah, it was a lot of fun.

the next day we got to go with farmer dad and search for new calves because their ears needed to be "tagged":



this poor little guy was only a few hours old and it decided to run as we road by..... this picture was taken before it ran smack dab into the fence. awww poor little guy. He was ok though and his mom came and brought him back to the rest of the group. :-)



but yeah it was a lot of fun, and i'm so glad i decided to do the farm stay (as opposed to the adventure weekend).

here are a couple more pictures:





amanda loves horses:



sorry, this one is sideways... but you get the idea. it was taken under this AMAZING tree right in the middle of a random huge field on their property:



~~~~~~


Life here in sydney is going well also (as mentioned before). I can't stand one of my housemates... but whatever... it happens. right? yes.

oh oh oh oh! i've started cooking for myself.

I would like to introduce you to a very important dish:


MEAT, RICE, AND PEAS!! it's a dish my grandmother used to make when i was little and is basically the most delicious thing ever. I've made it twice already, and it's turned out really really good! Amanda keeps asking me to make it for her again and again and again. :-) Thanks again Gran!

so proud!



YUM!!!


that's all for now. more to come soon (i promise).

love you all!!!


-me