Coming to the end...

It's really been starting to hit me in the last couple days that I only have 2 weeks left here. I've been starting to panic and wonder, "what haven't I done that I really want to?" As a result I've been trying to take a more firm approach to my daily activities.

Tuesday I went to Hahndorf with Hilary and Estee, a girl we met at the church service on Sunday. She is a Jewelry Artist and had to take some of her stuff to the gallery there. We walked around the art gallery while she did her business and wandered around the town for a while. Hilary had a chance to buy Uggs, which are Australian for anyone who didn't know. The really nice thing is that they sell here for 1/3 of the price. They still cost a bit of money though. There were pairs from 75-100 Australian Dollars. We also went to a shop that had all kinds of toiletries made from natural bee products. We went to Stirling to have lunch with Estee and a friend of hers. It was such a beautiful drive because the leaves are starting to change and some of the colors were just incredible. After lunch Estee decided that she really needed to get home to visit with her Grandma. We had hoped to have a chance to go to Hans Heysen's house, but becuase of this it didn't quite work out. We hope to get to do it another time. Hans Heysen is a very famous local artist. He has done some really amazing paintings of Australian landscapes.
http://www.hansheysen.com.au/

Estee dropped Hilary and I off at Burnside shopping centre while she went to see her Grandma. We walked all around the shop and actually were a bit frustrated. There weren't really all that many stores, and those that were there were VERY expensive. Burnside is a very well-to-do and wealthy suburb. After about an hour Estee picked us up and brought us the rest of the way home. Jess invited me over to her place for the evening so I grabbed a bus and headed to her place. We had pizza and just hung out and talked. I really enjoy Jess' company and am so excited for her and her recent employment opportunity. She gets to work at the Snow (as they call it) for 2 months, which is like working at Ski Resorts. How cool is that, well except that I'm not a huge fan of snow. But for her, it should really be amazing. She drove me home at the end of the night.

On Wednesday I headed out to Calvary for an all day training by QuitSA which is the Government program to help encourage people to quit smoking. I got some really interesting resources from it. The presenter brought along samples of all kinds of NRTs (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) and I even got a cool stress ball. The most useful part of the training, though, was a section that talked on Motivational Interviewing. It was all about how to talk to someone so and get information from them in a supportive and effective manner. At the end of the day I caught the train home. Its very different now that we've had Day light savings and its beginning to get dark way earlier. Practically speaking its challenging because it makes it difficult to see the stops along the bus route and I really have to know where I am going.

On Wednesday night we watched a film called Ten Canoes which is about an aboriginal story. Its actually quite strange and hard to stay interested in. I'm proud to say I made it through the whole film though.

Another exciting thing that happened on Wednesday was that I successfully got booked into a tour going to Kangaroo Island next week Monday-Wednesday. Its really quite exciting.

Thursday (today) has been spent at the Calvary office. There hasn't been much to do. I helped type up minutes from a staff meeting earlier in the week and went along to visit a client. Its still been a good day though.