since you asked...

Here's my hair (since Andrew cut it). And a funny face. :)
(This means we got our engagement photos back! I'll post our favorites soon.)

I got a sparkly

How cute is this? I just cut myself right out of the photo. :)
May in Seattle...we'll be the Mr. and Mrs. Apparently I was destined for a multi-continental life! :)

things that make you go hmm...

hi

It's been a packed week, already. I did manage to take my suitcase in over the weekend; Andrew drove me by the place (the guy knows every nook and cranny of this city!) one night so I knew where to go the next day. No bank yet because I only have a car a couple days a week, so I'll do that later in the week. Ok.

That's all for now. It's been an eventful week, which I may get around to posting about someday. I just didn't want to leave that woe-is-me post below as a lasting indication of my well-being in Australia. :)

Here is a picture of Andrew, my brother Travis and I on top of the Space Needle for your enjoyment.

it's a boy! :)

We found out a few months ago that I'm going to be an aunty! Well, ok, it's really all about Lindy and Nate, who are due sometime at the beginning of June (she's wearing a 7 month fake belly at a maternity store in the photo). :) Yesterday we got the news that it's a healthy boy! I have my "nephew-in-law" to practice on here until I can lay my hands on my very own nephew next time I make it home. Very excited! :)

Lots of cuteness

A couple weeks before we left for the States, Andrew's sister Adele had her first baby, Hunter. We went to visit last night. George, the proud daddy, loves to capture every moment! :)

From 100 degrees to...

We had a few 100+ degree days this week. It's not fair - I just had this in Greece! :) It's ok, though, I've had a good mild spring and plenty of rain here. Today we had a sudden downpour and some flash flooding, very exciting! It really reminded me of Greece where the downpours turn the streets into raging rivers. Ah, memories.
Today it dropped from 32 degrees (about 90F) to 22 (about 70F) in an hour, and the torrential storm hit quite rapidly. We had to take several detours to get home because of flooded roads. Even though summer started December 1, I guess it's not quite ready to make its appearance yet!

What is it?

I sometimes use it in regular speech

This is my favorite sign in Adelaide. It's on the window of a shop owned by a (very lovely) Chinese family a couple doors down from Andrew's shop, so I see it regularly. It makes perfect sense when you say it out loud - as I do, every single time I pass by. Try it!

I've found my calling

It's to save the Australians from eternal grammatical condemnation.I am manning a booth and doing a workshop at a missons conference in Canberra today ... get a proof reader, people!!!

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...

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!)

family

My sister and mom................miss them. It was fun in California. I am back in Athens now......

Another first...

In the bowels of the Woodfield Mall

Got to hang out with Suzie again last night. We went to a nearby mall (hallelujah for American shopping malls!!), one of the biggest in the state of Illinois. Coming out of a department store, we noticed all the shops were closed. It was only 6pm, so I asked a shop owner what was going on.

"There's a tornado," she said.

Fabulous! What do you do in a huge mall when there's a tornado coming? Why, evacuate, of course. So that's what we did. All the stores were required to close, and everyone was herded down below, in the thick cement bowels of the mall under all the stores. Suzie and I and 500 of our closest friends.I think that last picture is hilarious. Please excuse the mod makeup; we were accosted at the Dior counter in Nordstrom, had free makeovers "forced" upon us, and my guy went a little overboard with the eye makeup. It was pretty hot though. ;)

aren't I cute

They took our photos today, pointing at where we're going on the big ITeams globe. Cheese.

Welcome to Athens

my corner of the world...

My new office space at ... the office. Not sure quite what to do with it yet - I'm so used to working from home that I got nothing done today when I went in! Well, lots of chatting, a little Skype and some Facebook.

recovering...

My least bad owie. You can see it's faded quite a bit; two days ago it was twice as big as my palm. I don't know how I got a puncture wound on (and possibly destroyed the inside of) my left knee, had both knees swollen like golf balls and all scraped up, AND managed to do this to my right thigh. And all through my pants - which have no holes! Talent.