konichiwa

hey, hey, how's things back home?

Would really love to know how everyone's doing so make sure you write me emails and let me know....or better still send me letters....and CHOCOLATE! Am getting a bit nervous as have almost run down meager supply of easter eggs I brought with me! Have managed to find some bread for vegemite sammies though, so life's not so bad huh :)

Actually it's really cool! Did manage to fit life into 29kgs after all that (thanks Bernie I love you!)....well 31 to be exact, but I'm so glad I bought my snuggly robe coz it's freezing! o.k. maybe am exaggerating just a leetle, freezing would be winter when it snows and this is spring...which I've found is quite nice now, but the day I arrived the fog was grey and thick as pea soup and then it rained and i felt stranded in my tiny (literally!) apartment coz i was afraid if I left I wouldn't be able to find my way home!

Seriously, it was all slightly overwhelming coming out of the train station with absolutely no sense of direction into what seems like one of those china town (wrong country I know) scenes you see in movies with higgedly piggedly shops jumbled all together down a street lined with garish lights and signs in writing you can't read and filled with people and bicycles.

Honestly, it was like Harry Potters platform number 91/2 I tell you coz no sooner had we come out of the station than I looked back down the street and I swear I couldn't see the entrance for the life of me and wondered how I would ever find it again.

Then it was down a similarily wibbly wobbly series of twists and turns to my apartment, where I was left, by self without anyone home looking out on a sea of other ugly apartment buildings, with no phone or clothes as I waited for my bags to be delivered....

and waited.....and waited....

That was 1.oopm, they'd told me I had to be home for delivery....they arrived at 5 to 8 at night during which time I'd been asking myself what on earth I'd done and why I'd come to this terrible hovel of an apartment which I was afraid leave, in a city where no one spoke my language and everything was different and all I wanted in the world was to get to a phone to call home.

...and I'd also had time to answer myself by remembering that when I was at home I'd always wondered what the world was like....I had a good job, great place to live and the worlds most loving friends and family....why did I come here? Because I wanted to know...and even if I hated it, knowing that is better than not knowing at all.

I could have stayed at home, I could have continued to potter on with my life in a safe existentence without ever pushing myself outside of my comfort zones.

But if I did that, well I don't know if I'd ever really have felt I'd lived. Because I wouldn't have ever known how strong I could be. So that's why I did it. For the challenge. And the personal growth and perspective I'd gain from it.

Which I kinda think isn't something you can just buy at any old corner store, so it's definitely worth it. Every experience. good or bad, you ALWAYS learn something from it huh.

And you know what? Every day since has been better and better and better than the last.

My flatmate arrived home not long after my bags did, she's so cool and been sooo helpful and every day has been an adventure for me....but i'll have to tell you about that in the next BLOG.

Love, BIG hugs, and smiles to everyone at home,
Fernleaf