Saltwater Heart

When I flew to Melbourne a few weeks ago, I found a magazine in the back of the seat in front of me. It was the JetStar equivalent of any airline's Airline Magazine, and it gave advice on things to do while you're in Australia (not just in Melbourne, Sydney, etc. but in Australia as a whole). To my surprise, one of those things was to swim in the magnificent saltwater pool on the south side of Coogee Beach - the beach only 25 minutes by foot from where I live! The pool is somewhat hidden and not so popular, so it's no wonder it is elevated to a "hidden gem" by the JetStar magazine. I had the opportunity to go down and swim in the saltwater pool today, and it was excellent! Apart from the 150-year-old tan skeletons who were doing laps with me, the bottom of the pool is a comfortable sand, the sides of the pool are rock and moss, waves crash against the northern outer wall, the sun pours down, and you can breathe in the fresh air. It's a mighty privilege to live near that secret local pleasure for sure. As Switchfoot puts it in their song Saltwater Heart, I can feel the ocean.

On my way to the beach, I saw a hybrid between a Siberian Husky and a weiner dog, which looked awesome and super weird at the same time - I'd never seen anything like it in a dog. Then some gent offered me a free gym membership for a week (a typical promotion that gyms will run to rope in customers). I wasn't interested, since I've paid for a membership to the gym on campus, but it was nice to physically have made the cut as worthy of the promotion (as he seemed somewhat selective in who he was handing out the temporary membership to).

Tomorrow is the Sydney Opera House tour. Believe it or not, I have yet to set foot inside the Opera House - I've made several visits to the site of the Opera House, but have never had a reason to go in until now. Later this semester, I'll also attend an opera (Rigolletto), which conveniently falls exactly during the period where I have a final per day for three days in a row. I'm quite excited for that opera - to see an opera in the Sydney Opera House? How cool is that?!

And today would mark but a few weeks until Josh shows up! Just a day over two weeks at this point. But alas, there's commencement and Mexico to go before that.

To anyone who's reading now, thank you very much for all of your love and support. I have a lot of time here in Australia that I don't have in the U.S., particularly during the school year. And with that time, it's much easier to see how supported and loved I am. And with that support and love, it's much easier to support and love others - which is one of the main points after all, isn't it? I think the 2.25 years with Sandra, as well as all of my mom's lessons over the years, have together given me a pretty good ability to forgo judgment. I've noticed that if you stick around with someone who might seem to put others off by being "too cool" or "too unfriendly" in general, you find there's a reason and a story behind it. And I feel pretty lucky to have the chance to see that reason or story behind some of my fellow students here (although, I should say, none of them are "too unfriendly"). So hopefully I can be some kind of positive influence in their lives before I head home in about a month and a half.

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