wombat!

Hello,
This week has been really good. We talked about clear conscience which was crazy but good. Friday night we went down to Flinders street which is the clubbing area of town and just hung out with people who wanted to talk. It was good. Yesterday we had Youth Street all day so I got to go swimming, which was good in the heinous son. Working with youth is fun so I liked it. Today we went to the billabong which is a big animal sanctuary/zoo thing over by here. It was wicked awesome. I got to see kangaroos and wallabies and I got to hold a koala, a wombat, a baby crocodile and a big snake. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon. Anyway that's about all for now.

Caitlin

Walabi

So it is now week two. Awesome. Saturday was my first youth street and it was lots of fun. Youth Street is the youth program run out of RTO on Saturdays. During the day we have youth street teams which is like different activities that the kids can be a part of. There are music, sports, dance and skate teams. I get to hang out with the sports team. We played soccer, so I liked it, but it was hot. Saturday night is Youth Street Live which is more like the youth groups I am used to. We had a concert and it was fun but I miss my youth kids from home. I did find out that there is a Chris Martens in Australia his name is Shamos. Yesterday I went to the beach and swam in the ocean and ate ice cream. It was great, I'm a little burnt today. This week we are learning about Clear Conscience. Here is my mailing adress for those who would like to send me a letter (which I would appreciate):
Caitlin Jantzen
c/o Reef To Outback
PO Box 6221
Townsville, QLD
Australia 4810

Koala

So I have been here for about a week now and in many ways it feels like much longer. I'm getting used to the lifestyle and the people and everything so it's good. I'll give you a little rundown of my schedule for most days:
5:30 wake up
6:00 excercise
6:30-8:00 breakfast/devotions/getting ready time
8:00-9:00 worship or intercession
9:00-10:30 lectures
10:30-11:00 morning tea (greatest Australian institution ever)
11:00-12:30 lectures
12:30-1:00 lunch
1:00-5:00 free time/work duties
Evening is something different every night
My work duty is house cleaning aka intro to wifedom. I'm not very good at it yet. Yesterday Ashley and I bought hair dye, she had blonde hair and now it's red, I got red streaks but they didn't work very well. Lots of people here don't know what perogies/vereneke are. It's ridiculous. Did I mention there is a pool in my backyard? It's quite fantastic.
I know these next months and lectures will be challenging but essentially good. I appreciate all the prayer I know I am receiving. Thank you all for your support. If you have any questions let me know.
I have yet to see a koala.

Writing titles is the hardest thing

I apologize if this is short but this keyboard is really slow and delayed aka uber-annoying. So I've been here threeish days now so I am a little bit more settled now. I am enjoying my time here more every day. It gets better as I have started to actually form relationships with some of the people here. Everyone is really nice, I think I have a fantastic group. There are about 12 girls and 7 boys in my dts group I think. We've just about finished orientation and will be starting lectures and stuff soon. Tonight we learn about Youth Street, which is the youth program that we will be involved in. They have a skateboarding team, maybe I will learn. I do remember what happened last time, but even so. It has been raining a lot so far. I think the boys flat is slightly flooded. There are no Starbucks in Townsville and few in Australia. I have to get more creative to feed my caffeine addiction. I have yet to see a koala, a kangaroo or any other creature indigenous to this territory. I have learnt how to do the tim tam slam. It involves a cookie type thing called a tim tam and a warm chocolate beverage known as Milo. I will teach people when I get home. For now, that is all. I love hearing from people, feel free to contact me.

Arrival to Townsville

So my adventures in Sydney are over now. The last couple of days there were pretty good. We were supposed to go on the bridge climb Friday night but we got our times mixed up and missed it so we had to do it yesterday morning which actually worked out better. So Friday night we got ice cream and walked around the Opera House. It was fun, and the view over there is gorgeous especially at night. I had coffee ice cream which was fantastic since I haven't had coffee for like a decade, and by that I mean like two or three days. The bridge climb was fun but there's not a lot to say about it, we walked along the path of the harbour bridge, it had a nice view of Sydney. After that I took a train and a bus to the airport then flew to Brisbane and then to Townsville. The climate here makes your skin feel really nice. Townsville seems like a really nice city. It's a little bit smaller than Saskatoon. The girls here are really nice and I haven't met the boys yet. It feels kind of like camp. I have a top bunk, which is weird because there are no ladders to get up so it's really difficult. Anyway, I don't know much about it here yet. Today I'm going to the store to buy a pillow and sheets then I have orientation at 3. It'll be sweet.
Things I miss (discluding family and friends):
Apples
Perfume
Drinking cold water from my water cooler.

First Day Down Under

So I have officially been in Australia about twenty four hours now and I'm starting to get adjusted. I'm staying at a hostel for the first two days and hanging around Sydney with Carson and Chad and I leave to go to Townsville tomorrow. The hostel that I'm at is really nice actually. It's clean and I'm staying with three German girls who are nice and more importantly have not stolen any of my things. Sweet. Sydney is a very good looking place but I miss cute little Saskatoon. We did a lot of walking yesterday. We take busses part of the way and then usually walk another half an hour to get anywhere. Yesterday we went to Bondi beach for a while, which took us like two hours of walking, and then we over by the Sydney harbour and the Opera House to have supper. I think we mostly payed for the view but it was very nice. On the way to the harbour we went through the botanical gardens, which was very beautiful. All kinds of trees and plantlife. In fact, I'm confident that they stole and replanted the evil tree from Ferngully because I saw a tree that looked just like it...minus the big red X. Also through one part there were about a bajillion flying foxes (large bats) flying around. One tree was encompassed by like a hundred, I felt like we had walked into the bat cave. It was awesome. Otherwise I'm just really excited to get to school and get settled down. That's all for now.

In Sydney

So right now I'm sitting in the Sydney airport waiting for someone to come get me and take me to the Hostel. Travel was long but altogether not so bad. My writing will likely be choppy because there are people waiting right now and I feel pressured to be quick. Anyway, flying makes me feel sick but it's really beautiful here, I can tell already. From Calgary to Vancover I sat beside this nice old man, I will call him travelman because he was fully equipped with all of my travel needs, and he helped me out a lot. His son lives in Australia and his wife works on the set of Smallville. Thanks to him I am the proud new owner of an aeroplan...plan? Redundant? Perhaps. But yes, I'm in Sydney and now the adventure begins but I have to go so I will hopefully post something more exciting soon.