Bored Yet?

Many of you may know by now, but for those of you who I haven't been able to contact yet, this upcoming semester I will be studying abroad, through University of Portland, in Fremantle, Australia.  Several of my friends have also had the opportunity to study abroad, and to keep people updated they maintained a blog while travelling.  It was really fun following along on their many adventures and it was a stress free way to stay updated.  So for the next five months, this will be my goal, to keep you sufficiently updated on my travels, not having to spend many hours responding to emails and Facebook messages.  However, that is not to say that you should not send me emails or Facebook messages, but for general information on my time over here, I'm hoping that this will be the site where I can answer many of your questions.  


For the last month and a half, I have been living in Hood River, working part time at Safeway, and have been getting more and more excited about Australia.  Since midway through January, when nearly all of my brothers went back to school, most of my friends left, and the weather turned for the worse, it has been pretty slow here around the house.  That's not to say I haven't been doing anything; it has been fun playing handball with my brother Michael, watching high school basketball games, and visiting friends around the state, but I've never had so much free time in my life and it feels weird saying this, but I want to be back in school.  


The fact that I will be spending the next chunk of my life in a foreign country away from my family and friends hasn't quite hit me yet, but I'm sure when I'm giving my last good bye hugs and walking through the checkpoints in the airport, I will be freaking out.  I have never done anything like this before and I'm nervous, but I'm also really excited for the fun times and the challenges that I will face.  God has blessed me with this opportunity to serve him in another country and I'm looking forward to making the most of it.  Please be patient with me as I am new to blogging, but I will try my best to keep you all updated during my travels.  


In His Grip,


Philip