Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell

I had changed my checkout time to today because we wanted to go on the Aussie Extravaganza tomorrow. I woke up early to pack because I was out last night. I quickly packed everything up so that I could check out at 11:45am. The place was a mess, but luckily Brendan told Willie, the man in charge of checking me out of the village, that the mess was his fault. Willie also saw how clean my room was compared to the others and wasn't going to charge me for cleaning. My parents were there and we took my stuff to their flat in Freo.

We then took the train to Perth in the afternoon. We went to King's Park to find the DNA staircase. The way to get to the park from where the bus dropped us off was a long staircase called 'Jacob's ladder.' It had 242 steps to the top. We almost died climbing up. The park is huge, apparently it's bigger than Central Park in NYC. We ended up getting lost along all of the paths. There was a big concert thing going on, and we ended up asking some security guy how to get to the DNA staircase. My mom and I being the nerds that we are, had my dad take a lot of pictures of us on it.

We then went through Perth to find somewhere to eat dinner. We ended up going to a Korean barbecue restaurant called Arirang. It is a place where you cook your own food at your table in this thing in the center. I ordered the chili soy sauce beef and my dad got the same sauce on calamari. My mom was feeling sick and didn't order any food. My mom and I did get this drink called 'Fire Engine,' which was sprite and a strawberry juice thing. (I think but I don't really remember and when trying to google it I just found some alcoholic drinks.) I felt like I was going to be sick for the first time in months, but I ended up going outside and I was fine.

Since it is Thanksgiving, I decided to list some things I am thankful for this year:

o       My time in Australia and being born in a time and to a family that I was able to do that

o       Friends: both in America and abroad

o       Family: their support and love is everything

o       That my parents were able to visit me

o       Brain surgery: that it was successful, the tumour has not come back, and that I had a brain tumour because it helped me find my life’s purpose

o       MCU and Hope College for enhancing my faith

o       WYD and now NTE/ God bringing me to Sydney

o       Struggles that God has given me that weren’t too much but allowed me to grow as a person

o       CIEE and Paul that were helpful when studying abroad

o       Harry Potter because it has shaped both my youth and life currently; helped with leadership by Hope Quidditch

o       Sociology and realizing that I didn’t like Biology before I was stuck in that major and career path

o       Maturity gained from studying abroad