Half Way Point :(

     Today marks the midpoint of my time here in Australia.  I arrived just under 3 months ago and am leaving in just under 3 months.  It is a sad moment thinking about leaving.  Yes, I miss home and I miss my family (I stalked my own pictures looking at our great fam vacations and times just to enjoy those good family moments), of course I do.  Yet my time here has been fabulous and I can't imagine leaving.  Sydney has become a place of comfort for me and I'm doing things frequently enough that I'm known as a loyal customer in some places- mainly just the place I play pool twice a week.  A lot of the people here are taking next semester off and staying in Sydney because they love it here so much.  If I didn't have to graduate in May, I definitely would stay on longer.  Anyone who ever gets a chance to go to Sydney, take up the offer because its one of the best cities in the world.  I've met some great great people in my house and friends of people in my house.  Even with 27 people, we have never even had more than five minutes of drama in the last 2.5 months.  I can't even say that about my house the last few years with 10 girls for even a weeks time let alone a few months.  The people are stellar here and everyone in the city is nice as well.  I would move back here any day fo sho (fo sho= for sure for those of you who are trying to learn the lingo and be hip again **cough**Dad**cough**).
     Now had I actually said that out loud, most likely the coughs would have been in there unintentionally because unfortunately I still have this dreadful cough.  It's been two months now since I got it and it hasn't really gotten better.  I cough less but when I do cough it is worse.  I still wake up due to coughing, the kid in the room below me hears me coughing through the night (sorry Daniel!!).  I cough so much sometimes that I can't breathe and sometimes I even throw up because I'm coughing so hard.  I know my classmates and housemates are completely sick of hearing me cough.  In fact, I'm even sick of hearing me cough and I'm even more tired of people saying "You should probably get that cough checked out."  You think?!  I only go on to inform them that I've taken two antibiotics, one lab test, one steroid, and had one chest x-ray.  With everything including cough medicines and such this stupid cough has cost me about $250.  The good slash bad news is that I think I know what it is.  I got tested for whooping cough and was negative but after doing some of my own research after seeing that whooping cough is the most active its been in 55 years, I learned that the tests normally only work within the first three weeks of getting it.  My test was done in week five which would explain it.  Also, the antibiotics I took for the whooping cough actually don't do anything for the cough itself or any other symptoms it only just makes you not contagious.  The uplifting but again tragic part is that it seems that I am in stage two out of the tree stages.  Each stage is three to four weeks long which means that hopefully I only have about a month left.  Maybe I'll be better by the time Christmas roles around!  Oh dear.  Well please pray that it goes away quickly.
     Since I've been so coughy (yes I did make up that word) lately, I haven't been able to really go to church because I have coughing fits that sometimes last five minutes and end in me ralphing (a much cooler word for vomiting).  However today I woke up and felt much better than I normally do so I went to Hillsong Church which is associated with the big Christian band Hillsong United.  I've seen them play twice- once at Wave Church and a few times at the Passion Conference that I went to in Atlanta in January of last year.  The church is huge but I was able to stay afterward and talk to some people and I signed up to be in a Bible study that actually meets on my uni (what everyone here calls university) campus.  It meets on Tuesdays so I plan on going to that; I also want to attend the college-aged group that meets on Wednesdays in attempts to meet more Christians my age.  It was great to be in community with other Christians today and have worship again in addition to my own daily devotions.

     I was so caught up in all my Fiji stuff that last week I forgot to mention one of my favorite things I've done so far here in Sydney.  I went and saw a man/group named Bare Soundz (Savion Glover) which is the best tap dancer in the world.  It was literally one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.  This man could move his feet so so so very fast.  At one point, one of the guys did what I call "quick feet" like the drill in basketball that you do where you squat a little and move back and forth on your toes as quickly as you can.  This is basically what it looked like but it also looked like he was being electrocuted.  His whole body moved and his feet were moving so fast it sounded like someone was rolling Rs on their tongue.  This sounds cliche but I found my jaw dropped so many times and I got goosebumps throughout the whole 1.5 hour of straight tap dancing.  Also it was a fun night because it was a nice chance to get dressed up and be out at the Harbour at nighttime (picture above) with one of my dear friends from England, Katie (best friends with the English girl Ellena in my house who I have mentioned before).  I encourage you all to watch a short portion of this video (watch from 30 seconds to 2:40 seconds).  Trust me when I say it was even better in person if that is even possible.
      Well I hope all of you are enjoying your time back at school with a whole semester left ahead of you.  Ha I am five weeks away from SUMMER BREAK!!!!! Be jealous.  And then its almost two months of me traveling through Australia and New Zealand.  And so the saga continues.....