Thank you, Sydney, for not letting me get killed.

Very helpful crosswalks here! :)

***
Well, I wish I had more to tell you ... I went to an interesting social justice conference here this weekend, attending workshops on the sexualization of culture and how that affects young girls, and one about counseling with sexually diverse clients (working with gay/lesbian/bisexual clients). Both of those were so interesting they had me thinking and talking about them for a long time after.

I don't know what's happening here as far as work with ITeams...need to think and pray more, meet more people, and keep talking about it. There is a lot happening here as far as anti-trafficking (a lot more than Greece, anyway), and IT is looking at where the community needs are and where they might fit in. It will be a several month process, involving other organizations and exploration with them too. I guess what I need to know is if I'm going to embark on that process with them.

We've got a couple more days in Sydney and then back to Adelaide for another week. Then back to Greece, potentially to pack up my life and leave a month later. It would seem providentially and circumstantially that life is leading me to work in Australia, however the details have yet to be filled in...

Cinque Terre: Vernazza

There are five little villages along the Italian Riviera called the Cinque Terre (there are more, but these five are famous for some reason). :) After consulting with our friend Rick Steves we elected to stay in Vernazza, the fourth village. We were not disappointed; this and Riomaggiore (#1) were my favorite. During the day the tourists pour into these villages, especially in August, so upon our arrival we found many, many people in our "quiet" little town: There was a bit of rain one morning, which kept all the people away!After about 5pm it quieted down every day, and we really enjoyed our little village. We hiked to a cemetery above it one evening for some great views.Really, it's just a beautiful setting and such a charming town! It was fun to see the locals and say hello and watch the old people sitting at their windows watching everything going on below.These guys own a pastry shop & restaurant at the top of Vernazza. They're quite well known, thanks to Rick, and because of their fun service and great pastries and food! The one on the right is a pastry chef. I think we ate here at least once per day:

One of my new favorite places! Another post coming with our hikes to and photos from the other four villages...

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on Monday morning. I hadn't really felt like I was in Australia at all yet until we walked down to the harbor and saw the harbor bridge and the opera house. :) There it was, and ok, I'm really in another country. (I think it helped that I touched my first Aussie money yesterday, too. Haha. Foreign currency generally equals presence in a foreign country.) Yesterday we saw the Opera House & Harbor Bridge again with blue sky (Monday was overcast and the opera house blended right into the sky) and took a ferry to Manly (below). We're having a great time seeing the city and I am being well taken care of. :)
Tomorrow I meet with Janice, the IT Australia president, for lunch, and more meetings with others. This whole week feels a bit weird...it's a big city and I can't even imagine myself here. Not because I don't like it, but just because I have no idea where I would live or what life would even look like. Hopefully tomorrow will give me a better idea. Things are very expensive, and rent will cost me about half my current monthly salary (and that's in a far out suburb). Anyway, meetings tomorrow (and conference Fri/Sat), prayers appreciated, updates will come at some point.

In the meantime, I'll upload some more Italy pics to post tomorrow. :)

I'm here...down "undah"

And I'm even eating a Tim Tam. How very Australian.

So...I arrived, here in the country/continent of my possible future residence. Freak me out. It's winter, and I'm freezing all the time. When you leave 100 degree temps you pack the coats and sweaters but forget about little things like scarves, gloves, etc. So we've spent a couple days getting me all set up with the misc. items I didn't bring, meeting people, and wandering around Adelaide.

It's funny to look at people and realize they are all speaking English. Just a bit differently. But I can understand them! I am still getting used to throwing my toilet paper in the toilet, and I continue to try to enter the car on the wrong side (and look the wrong way before crossing the street). I feel a bit backwards and upside down, but in many ways it feels like home (in the USA sense of the word).

We leave for Sydney on Monday. I'll spend a day with Janice, the IT Australia president, and together we'll have several meetings with prospective coworkers and others who have expressed interest in working with the anti-trafficking ministry. The two following days I'll go to a social justice conference with her, put on by the Salvation Army (the "Salvos" - Australian abbreviations for everything, coming in another post!!). That will be good for meeting a lot of people and networking. Andrew is working five days in Sydney so I'll have some time to explore and be with Janice and others. It will be interesting being there, as that is the city that I would be living in and the people I'd be working with...so hopefully next week I'll be able to get a good feel for it and a sense as to whether it could feel like home.

Knowing my world could be (literally) upside down as soon as October still feels like a foreign concept. It's a lot of change to process all at once, so I think my brain is just avoiding it at the moment! .....

Hi from Abu Dhabi

Oh, a bit confused, are we? Sorry ... while I am not actually typing this post from Abu Dhabi, I am in fact IN Abu Dhabi as it is being posted. You see, a nice boy bought me a ticket to Australia a few months back, and so yesterday I got home, unpacked, laundered, repacked, and headed out once again to a completely new region of the world. Abu Dhabi is my layover en route to Oz. I actually wish I had more time here; this would be a great city to explore!

I thought I'd get you started with a few Italy photos during my 25 hour journey!! (I already posted many on Facebook so if you're my friend you can look there.)Our first stop was Venice. We flew in and took a long boat ride into the city. As I mentioned previously, there were SO MANY tourists there. Our hotel guy said that 50 years ago there were 250,000 Venetians living here; now there are 55,000, and there are 17 million tourists each year. That's almost 50,000 a day, and of course this is August, the busiest month of the year... yeesh.St. Mark's square (or San Marco Piazza, if you want to get Italian on me), is a bustling place to hang out, swarming with pigeons, vendors, and gelato lickers. There are cafes all around the perimeters, and many of them have full orchestras that play back and forth. It's fun to sit and enjoy a drink or dessert and listen to the battle of the bands!We went to the Doge's Palace. (I don't know how to say it either. We just called it the Doggy Palace; we're classy that way.) Got in a bit of trouble...Then of course there are the canals. We spent most of our time (a day and a half) wandering the alleys and crossing bridges and taking pictures.And eating. I have essentially eaten my way through the country. How do people eat like this? Pizza, pasta, not a vegetable to be seen! At the train station in Venice I bought a bag of fruit - grapes, peach, apple, 4 apricots, and some kind of plummy thing, and ate it all on the way to our next destination. I needed the effects of all that fruit to counteract the effects of all those carbs!!! (TMI?)Venice is really beautiful, and Holly and I were glad we got to see it. Along with 50,000 of our closest friends. If we were to go back though, we'd go a different time of year. Food was great, views were great, theme park environment was tolerable. I may have even seen one or two authentic Italians. :)

Signing off from the United Arab Emirates ... ! حتى في المرة القادمة

Venice

...is like a theme park. I've never seen so many tourists in one place in my entire life. Italian Disneyland!

And here are the rides:

Dear Supporters,

It has been a really busy year! It's now national vacation time, and as you know, Italy is very close geographically to Greece. Look at your map, they are practically right next to each other. Like an hour flight. So, it follows that it's a pretty cheap flight. Also, if you book really early, you can get all the good Rick Steves' recommendations for the cheapest accommodations in places like Venice and the Cinque Terre.

My point is, THANK YOU for your support, and while you may think that I am taking your money and running off to exotic locations, really I am just taking a (much needed) summer break in Italy for five really cheap days. I know I am a missionary and supposed to live a hard, rustic life, taking days off by going to the local park and bringing my own sandwich, but, I never claimed to be a very good missionary.

Thanks for understanding, and not feeling weird when I post photos later. I've never been to Italy, and thought it might be a good opportunity while I live so close! I have hardly even been to the beach at all this summer, anyway.

:) xo

What I'd miss* about Athens... the Periptero!!!

*Potentially, possibly, if, when, etc. etc. etc. Don't freak out.

It's really hot. I bought all these cute fall clothes while I was in the States, none of which I have worn, as it's 9 million degrees. Today I was sitting in the post office waiting my turn and felt the sweat trickling down my back. My face is a continual shining beacon, lighting the way for lost travelers.

Anyway, I am thinking of all these great things that I'll miss about this place if I end up leaving. There are many, so I'll dive right in.

#1- the corner periptero, or kiosk.

These little structures are on any and every street corner. I pass three on my three minute walk to my neighborhood metro station. Here you can buy newspapers and magazines ... water, soda, juice, beer, milk & yogurt (if you're lucky) ... bus & metro tickets ... cigarettes, pain killers, gum ... candy, chips, cookies ... phone cards, postcards ... ice cream ... batteries ...Some really decked out ones have sunglasses (where do you think my fabulous shades below came from?!), T-shirts, watches, backpacks, magnets, suitcases.....

So many times I have run out to the kiosk to pick something up or stopped on the way to a destination to arrive with a snack or drink in hand. Oh so convenient, oh so quick. A Moldovan friend who lives in Greece was in the States once and they needed some ibuprofen and she said, "Can we just go out to the kiosk?" Of course, they looked at her strangely. This is one thing that Greece has on the US! It's brilliant, really.

the other side of Athens

This is an all-too-common sight for us in the area we work in, which is full of drug addicts (and dealers), women in prostitution, refugees, and general riff-raff (my new favorite word). I have seen more people shooting up here than ever in my lifetime combined, in all areas of the body.

The drug of choice in Athens is heroin, leaving many people to suffer the effects of this illegal drug, like this girl on a bench just outside our office. The heroin is usually mixed with something cheap like ground up concrete, to make it go farther and sell cheaper. So many people are so far gone that they are just a shell, lying in a doorway, or leaning over precariously as they have lost their equilibrium, staring out of unseeing eyes.

This sight is so common that I barely notice anymore, let alone stop to look. This was taken by Kelly, one of our summer interns.

Boo

Um, what? You know you wish you had bug eye glasses. :)

new shades

I lost my sunglasses last week, and just haven't had the time to go out and get some new ones yet. A couple days ago the sun (and resulting squinting) was getting to me so much that I stopped at a corner kiosk, grabbed a pair of 5 euro shades and put them on. Relief! I carried on with my day, feeling much better.

When I got home I tried them on in the mirror. Gales of laughter ensued as I not only saw what I looked like, but realized I had spent my day walking around Athens like this:
(Thanks Janell for taking the photo on Skype, haha. Peekaboo!)