Week 2

As I write, I can hear the horses across the street at Royal Randwick Racecoarse. Fig Tree is such a cool place to live.

The Future Music Festival was great! From my balcony, and from the rooftop, I heard Pharrell sing Happy, Macklemore sing Thrift Shop, and loads of other performances throughout the day. The main stages faced away from our building, so you couldn't quite see the performances. But hearing the music live was enough.

Yesterday I tried church at a new place, much closer to campus. I love Hillsong, but the commute is still quite a ways, even at the nearest location. Yesterday I hitched a ride with some other Christians on campus. I didn't know exactly where we were going except that it was a "church in Sydney." We picked up five other guys and hit the road. Ten minutes later, we arrived at a military base. So here I am, with five people I've never met and one guy I met a week ago, being driven into a military base. I thought it was some kind of initiation or hazing or something...

Apparently, this "church" they go to is hosted at a community center that used to be a military base, so it's not a church at all. It was a really welcoming place, but the ambiance struck me as just a bit strange. Everyone sang with such vigor, for instance, which is great to see, but everyone sang in unison to a tune that sounded somewhat chant-like and gave it a bizarre cult-y feel. Additionally, I was one of two or three white people at the service, where the rest were Asian. So while it was very Jesus-centered, it did make me a bit uncomfortable.

Classes are quite relaxed so far. I've heard word of others receiving assignments (what they call homework here, I think), but I've not received any yet. The lectures themselves I find much easier than back home as well. Admittedly, it's the beginning of the second week of classes and things haven't exactly ramped up yet. But nonetheless, the course I anticipated the most difficulty in, Fluid and Particle Mechanics, has been a real breeze so far. We'll have to give it another week or so and see what I have to say I suppose...

That's all for now. An enjoyable relaxing weekend.

#photo