one month.

It's been a month since I hoped on a plane and headed into the unknown of a new and wonderful place. Today it's sunny and perhaps an solid 82 degrees... This is what I thought of when I was preparing for my semester abroad. Sunny skies and tank tops with shorts in the middle of March. What a beautiful thing.

I am happy to be here. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow as an individual and discover myself and Australia, it's people and culture. Sometimes I get caught up by how blessed I am to be here, living in a place I've wanted to come to for a very long time. I've done and seen a lot of things that are fun and and awesome and met some cool people.

But it's not easy, nor should it be.

This month has brought a roller coaster of emotions for me. Here, things are so similar to home. So many things look the same when you are observing from the distance, but when you look close up, you realize that they aren't the same at all. Food is similar, but the vital parts of my diet like Reeses and Mt. Dew have vanished out of thin air. The campus looks quite like one found on a sunny day in Michigan, but the relationships between student and professor is slightly off. Chapel gatherings four times a week became a quest to find ONE church on Sunday to attend to be in fellowship with believers.

One might say, Chels, that's just growing up. Life isn't like Hope College in West Michigan.

I know. But sometimes I wish.

I have found that listing to the podcasts (http://grow.hope.edu/gathering/index.html) from Hope has linked me back to my home and has given me encouragement. Some words of Tryge on Jan. 24th were "remember who you are, Who's you are." These words have resonated within me and have given me some peace in a time where I desperately need it.

I am finding peace in Him.