The people of First Congregational Church congratulate the Thomas family on the baptism of their daughter Janeen. May the joy of the Lord be your strength, now and always. God bless you all.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Jessica Sloan studying in Australia
As most all of you know, Jessica Sloan is studying Down Under. I'll just bet she is bored stiff and having absolutely no fun at all. Yeah! Right! If anyone would like to "cheer" her up a bit with a note from home, Jacki provided us with her address, so here goes:
Jessica Sloan
Abbywood
4/6 Mosbri Cresent
Newcastle, NSW 2300
Australia
I'm sure she would appreciate hearing from someone from home.
Also, here is an email of the first week of her adventures getting to know the area and getting settled in a new lifestyle in Australia even if for a short time.
February 20, 2012
Hello everyone!
I am sure all of you are excited to
hear how I have been doing in the Land Down Under so I wanted to
update you with this email and tell you about all about the exciting
adventures I have been having this last week. So far I have been
doing pretty well and I am simply ecstatic to be here. Classes have
yet to start so I have been busy getting settled and having fun
before the work begins.
As many of you know this trip is my
first time out of the States and my first time to fly, so I want to
share with you my experience on a plane. I was nervous to go through
security because it was the first moment I was really on my own since
mom and I just said goodbye to each other. Security really wasn’t
as bad as I thought it would be. Takeoff was by far the best part of
the trip. I had a window seat and I thoroughly enjoyed watching
everything shrink below me. The houses and cars looked like they
were part of a children’s play set and I loved watching the clouds
dance from above. After many hours (all together with waiting and
layover was 28 hours) of sleeping upright in a cramped seat I got to
watch the sun rise over the Pacific and have a spectacular view of
Sydney on our descent. Customs was easy and then all I had to do was
to wait for the rest of my group at the airport.
Because my program is through the
University of Wisconsin-Platteville I am part of a group of students
just like me who will take classes at the University of Newcastle and
share accommodations with me. I am one of eight students and once we
all arrived at the airport we traveled to Newcastle. Newcastle is
the fifth largest city in Australia and lies about two hours north of
Sydney along the coast. The shuttle bus taking us from Sydney to
Newcastle dropped us off at our accommodations arranged by the
University. We live in off campus apartment buildings located within
a good walking distance to many of the hotspots in Newcastle like its
beaches, the train station, Darby Street which has many quaint shops
and cafés, and the night clubs.
I share an
apartment with two other girls, Nicole and Shiana, from the program.
They are both really nice and down to earth because they come from
the Midwest, Wisconsin specifically. We share common living areas,
kitchen, and bathroom. I share a room with Nicole which has been
going well so far. We are responsible for our own meals here so we
share tasks that need to be done like dishes, getting groceries, and
cleaning. The others in my group include Amanda, Kelly and Melissa,
who share an apartment above us, and Paul and Cory who share the
adjacent apartment. We all really get along and we like to do things
all together.
Shiana is
center and Nicole is on the end.
Here is the
whole gang. From left to right is Me, Nicole, Shiana, Amanda,
Melissa, Kelly, Paul, and Cory.
Ok, so
enough about the living situation, I want to share with you some of
the fun things I have done.
On
Wednesday, the day we arrived, we all decided to go out for drinks to
celebrate our efforts making it to Australia. Don’t worry the
drinking age here is 18 so I am perfectly legal.
The next
morning, on Thursday, I awoke to such strange sounds and exotic
smells that I really knew I was no longer at home. There were many
bird cries, one of which sounds like a monkey. I relished the warm
moist breeze coming through the window which carries the scent of
palm trees and flowers in bloom.
After
everyone was ready we headed out with our Newcastle coordinator
Melanie Ball for a walking tour of the city. It was so beautiful
that words cannot come close to how the ocean and sky really looked
and neither do my pictures give it justice.
This is one
of the cool buildings in Newcastle and it has palm trees in front!
Later in
the day we went to the beach and it was my first time in the ocean!
The water was colder than I expected but I became accustomed to it
after a while. It was the saltiness and the pull of the waves that I
couldn’t get over. I really knew I wasn’t in the Mississippi
river especially when I felt so sticky after I dried off. Even
though it was different, I still liked the ocean and I want to learn
how to surf.
On Friday
all eight of us went on a bus tour of Newcastle to see more of the
beaches and the layout of the city. We went to visit one of the cool
land features of the Newcastle area. We hiked to the top of Mt.
Sugarloaf, which is really just a big hill, and from the outlook I
could see all of Newcastle sprawled below with the beautiful ocean
just beyond. It was a little hazy at the time so the pictures didn’t
turn out quite as nice as I’d like. We continued to hike around
Mt. Sugarloaf and we unfortunately got attacked by leeches. The
leeches here don’t live just in swampy areas apparently, but also
on the brush in dense moist vegetation. They usually are not such a
problem but this summer (yes it is summer here) Australia’s Western
coast has been experiencing unusual weather called El Niño,
which means rainy or monsoon weather and with all the extra moisture
creepy crawlies are out in force.
This is the
view from Mt. Sugarloaf with Nicole and me in the frame.
Vegetation
around Mt. Sugarloaf
After that
the group decided to go to the beach. We had a fun time splashing in
the waves, but then we chose to go exploring along the shore toward
some rocky areas. There were some neat formations and mostly we had
fun goofing around. Hopefully you can appreciate the beauty in the
pictures I am providing.
The first
picture is of Paul and Corey settling down to get some sun.
The second
picture is of my group getting ready to make the plunge because the
water was really cold that day. Left to Right: Nicole, Paul, Cory,
Amanda, Kelly, Shiana, and Melissa
Here all of
the ladies are posing for a photo. Left to right: Kelly, Melissa,
Shiana, Nicole, Me, and Amanda
The second
picture is of the cliff and rocks we were exploring.
We thought
it would be fun to go out on this structure.
Here I am
taking a picture of myself with a pretty background.
Shiana and
Nicole being silly and having fun!
Later that
night we decided to go out to a place called the King Street Hotel.
Here in Australia a hotel has several meanings. One is the
traditional sense of a hotel, another meaning is a bar, and the last
is a club. Where we were going was a club and I had another
completely new experience. The music was loud as is typical, but the
style of dance is slightly altered from that which I am used to.
Here people tend to have more space between them and they keep most
of their movements’ vertical with side stepping. It is not that
much different except for the fact that the guys actually dance here
whereas they don’t usually in the Midwest. I had a good time with
my friends.
On Saturday
we had a tour of campus, which is ginormous. It used to be two
schools that eventually combined somewhere in the last thirty years,
and its mascot is a seahorse. It is certainly a beautiful campus but
it is easy to get lost because the vegetation is so dense it feels
like you are in a jungle. You can’t see many of the buildings in
one spot so it is hard to orient yourself. I am hoping it won’t
take long for me to get the hang of directions while I am there. The
other thing about campus is that I have to take a train to get there.
The train station is located about a ten minute walk from our
apartment and then the ride is another ten minutes. Walking to
campus from the train stop is about three to five minutes and then to
cross campus takes another twenty minutes. So all in all I am going
to be doing a lot of walking here whether it is to my class, the
beach, a club, or to get groceries.
See all of
the trees! Yeah that is pretty much all you see on this campus.
That night
we decided to go out again but to a different club called Finnegan’s
Irish Pub. It was really packed but I had another good night of
dancing with friends. At this point with all of the walking during
the day and dancing at night my feet were mostly blisters and in so
much pain I limped all of the way home. I am still nursing my feet
back to health but it is hard to find rest when my only real mode of
transportation is walking.
Sunday was
our free day and we decided to go to a new beach, the famous Nobby
beach with the light house built on what used to be an island but is
now connected to the mainland. Again it was pretty but this beach
had more people than Barr beach. Also the water was full of seaweed;
however with the larger waves I had fun swimming anyway. Pretty much
everyone in the group got sunburned except for me and only on my
nose. I am using sunscreen religiously because Australia does have
the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. My scalp did get
burned from all of our outdoor excursions, so at the street fair we
went to next I bought a sun hat. This fair was really cool because
they closed down a street and many vendors were out selling their
wares. There was so much to look at and everyone is so nice and
upbeat I just really enjoyed myself.
Nobby
beach and the lighthouse.
That is it
for fun and exciting things so far because today was our official
orientation which was not much fun. I hope you found this email from
me informative as to what I am up to and descriptive enough so you
can picture my new world. Thank you all so much for your support and
well wishes because without it, I never would have gotten here. I do
miss home but for right now I am having a blast and I hope it doesn’t
make you too jealous. Thank you again and I will try to make weekly
postings.
With the
thrill of adventure,
Jessica
See! I told you she was bored and miserable. lol ;~)
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