Brisbane, also known as Brissy and Brisvegas

From February 4th until Feb 9th we attended Aboriginal Cultural Camp on K'gari, aka Fraser Island.  We had a wonderful week with amazing Aunties and Uncles on a beautiful sand island-the largest in the world!  I'll be glad to share in person about this special week.

From February 9th until March 10th, we've been based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  The students are throughout the city, living with homestay families.  Erik and I are in South Bank, near West End at Parkview apartments.  We have a very nice apartment with Air Con and a kitchen and washer and dryer.  It's very close to the GED office and lecture location and we have really enjoyed this part of town.  We've cooked 2-3 meals / day, but often go out for a lunch or dinner. We've tried Malaysian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Mexican and of course seafood! Erik's enjoying spanner car and I'm enjoying Oatmeal Prawns at a Malaysian cafe, in a pic below.  We've enjoyed shopping at op shops, riding the Brisbane Wheel, watching movies, walking along the river and being with friends.  We're grateful for all the church friends we've been able to see.  Our friends from Tiona and the Brisbane congregation have treated us to dinners, picnics, tiki tours (driving around the city), pickle ball and lots of great visiting!

We've had many excellent lectures each morning.  Here are just a few of the titles:  Songlines into Brisbane, The Australian health care system, Australian families, Crime and violence, The Australian electoral and party systems and Australian multiculturalism.  We also went on a few field trips:  The Queensland Museum, Queensland Parliament House, a Rugby Union game, the Gold Coast,

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and Stradbroke Island (more on Straddy later.)  Erik and I hosted the students at our home for lunch.  We had them come over in three different groups, for food and games.  And we celebrated Jackson's birthday here. 

It was very fun to have them here.  They are awesome!    Recently, they all gave presentations on their individual research for their Contemporary Australia class.  Very interesting to hear what they learned.  We head out on Sunday for our last 5 weeks, concentrating on Marine and Terrestrial Biology.   We won't have much wifi so I doubt I'll be able to update this until we get back to Portland.  Speaking of Portland, we're grateful for skype and Snapchat, but we're sure looking forward to seeing our family and friends.