Reality? Check.

I clicked over to Blogger with nothing in particular to post on, but then I made something up to go on about.... which means only one thing:  I am majorly procrastinating.  

I have been in Australia for a while, now... we are in week five of classes, which means I have been around for... six and a half weeks?  Long enough to start having a decent amount of work to start piling up.  I have no exams while I am here, but plenty of papers and projects to keep me busier than I prefer.  I am currently putting off working on a 500-word paper about the Question Time experience I previously posted about, creating a mock-up of a web site in Photoshop and wrapping my mind around how to attack a 2,000-word paper on the ethics of war.

This all just meshes together to mean that reality is beginning to crash down, and I'm having to learn how to balance being super excited about being in Australia and actually accomplishing great things with my school work, something I am not a pro at even on a good day back home.  

More points about reality:  Being off on an awesome adventure does not mean you have an immune system of steel.  Last Thursday night I came down with what I am going to call the worst fever of my life, made a bit more complicated by being stuck with iffy balance, dreading climbing down a precarious bunk-bed ladder in the middle of the night and all of my medicine being stashed in the back of my closet.  On top of that, Charlie reciprocated last weeks visit by coming to Canberra this weekend.... so sickness had not really been on the itinerary.  Now that it is Tuesday, I am mostly well, just still catching up on sleep and my body is trying to figure out how to be normal again.  

Another thing is that however wonderful the Land Down Under may be, there are plenty comforts of home that have left a gaping hole in my heart... like American cheese.  All I wanted while I was sick was a grilled cheese sandwich, but I would not have been able to bear the disappointment of normal cheese.  A few odd, unquenchable cravings like this are springing up, like red velvet cake, good fake Mexican food, sweet tea, Kool-ade, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and cornbread.  

I've been here long enough that when I watch movies, it takes a minute to figure out what side of the road people should be driving on and I may have started pronouncing "tomato" as "tom-ah-to" much to the joy of my housemates.  I am no longer excited when I see a cockatoo after having them wake me up MANY a morning, but I think kangaroos will always make my heart flutter.  

It's all good, though.  I'm in Australia :)