Time is Flying!

I can't believe it's been another week already, it's crazy that I've been here for nearly a month now, and that I've been out of the hospital for 3 weeks!  I have really enjoyed emailing and skyping with several of you this past week, but I've been a little thrown off since you had daylight savings and we didnt.  On a random note, one different thing I've noticed about Freo is that there is no twilight.  It goes from light to dark with very little transition and I think it is why most of us are getting tired earlier. Weird.
    The highlight of my week was definitely our field trips to Caversham park and to Penguin and Seal Islands.  We left Saturday morning for Caversham and it was really hot.  Both days this weekend reached over 40 degrees C, about 104 degrees F!  It was pretty miserable at times, but being able to see the awesome wildlife definitely made up for it.  There was two parts to our tour at Caversham, during the first part we got to feed and pet so kangaroos and joeys(kangaroo babies), we got to see and pet a wambat and several koalas!  It was so cool.  The animals were pretty domesticated, which was slightly unfortunate, but I doubt we would of been able to pet them if they weren't.  Also on the first tour, we saw some other native Australian mammals such as Dingo's, Emu's, and a variety of colorful and loud birds.  We couldn't pet these animals because they were not as tame and they would of loved to nibble on our fingers.  During the second part of the tour, we sat in a barn and watched the Australian sheep dogs bring in the sheep, which was the coolest thing ever.  The dogs are born with natural skills and instincts and they only take about 6 months of training to master it.  After the dogs rounded up the sheep, we watched as one of the guides sheered a sheep.  It was all a really fun experience and despite the ridiculous heat, we all had a great time.  The next day however, was even better.  We had to get up early, again, but this time we headed down south for about an hour to a beautiful bay, which I am forgetting the name of.  After unloading the vans and getting brief lessons on kayaking and safety, we paddled our way over to seal island, where as its name suggests, there are lots of seals chilling on the beach.  We weren't allowed to land on the beach, but since we were in kayaks we were able to get pretty close.  From there we cruised over to Penguin island, where also as the name suggest there are normally little penguins hanging out.  However, due to the extreme heat, they hid in their cool (temperature) homes.  We did get to see a couple of domesticated ones as they were being fed, so that was nice.  While on penguin island we went snorkeling, a first for myself, and unfortunately my high expectations were not met.  I was expecting to see some amazing colors and exotic fish, but none were to be found.  I did see some cool Nemo-like fish, so that was fortunate.  Overall, it was an amazing trip and I was so thankful that we were in the water all day.
    Other than that, nothing much has been going on.  I filled out my bracket for march madness, I did a couple of homework assignments, and explored a bit of Fremantle.  Actually, I did go golfing at one of the public courses and that was pretty fun.  It was a really narrow course and the greens weren't too well kept, but for only $12 it was great, and I'm planning on going back tomorrow.  Well I think that's about it, I would love to hear from more of you, so please feel free to email me or skype me.  Thanks again, for the support, I really appreciate it.

Philip

To The Beach!

Greetings from Down Under,

                Another week and a half has gone by and believe it or not, I still enjoy it here! J  Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support; the recovery is going great and I have been at full strength for the last couple of days.  Congratulations to the Hawks for winning state!  I was able to stream the game from over here and it was so fun cheering along with all the fans.  Unfortunately I can’t watch any U.S. sports and I have been going through NBA and NCAA withdrawals; I don’t know how I am going to survive without March Madness and the NBA Finals. 

The first week of classes went well and despite the unusual schedule, I should have plenty of free time to explore Fremantle and the surrounding cities and beaches.  Mondays and Tuesdays are great because I don’t have class until the afternoon and so I’ve been able to visit places while it’s still relatively cool.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are more filled up for me, but there are still nice gaps where I can head to the beach for a quick cool off. 

                I was able to go exploring a bit this last week and it was great.  I visited Kings Park in Perth, WA, which is the largest park, within city limits, in the world!  There is a fantastic war memorial as well as many kilometres of paths, showing off the colourful and numerous plants and animals that are unique to Australia.  I would have to say that my favourite place that I have been thus far is definitely Cottesloe.  It’s only a 10 minute train ride from Fremantle and the beaches and water are amazing.  It is a very popular beach because it is the beach that Heath Ledger grew up at and where his ashes were spread.  It is by far my favourite beach and I have been there several times already, including a trip earlier today. 

                The next several weeks should be rather busy, with organised trips to Caversham, Penguin Island, and Rottnest Island filling up the weekends.  I am really excited because we are going to be able to see a bunch of wildlife and we get to go snorkelling!  In less than a month our group is travelling up north to Broome, where we will be staying in the outback with Aborigines, learning about their culture and history.  I have only heard amazing things about this trip and I can hardly wait.

                Well that’s about it for now, if you have any questions please feel free to email me or message me on Facebook.  Thanks again for all of your prayers and support, I’m looking forward to talking with you soon.

Philip

Toilets and Theatres

Dear readers,

        This last week has been crazy!  I got off to a good start by making my flight to L.A. by myself.  It was a pretty small plane, just two rows of seating on each side, but the flight didn’t take too long so that was good.  The next flight was a bit miserable though; it took about 15 hours from L.A. to Sydney and I got about 3 hours of sleep.  I was sitting just in front of one of the flight attendants areas, so there was a lot of traffic preventing me from getting some solid sleep.  I was sitting next to an Australian guy who was returning to Sydney from being in Kentucky for 3 months visiting friends and he seemed most excited to be returning home for the Australian beer.  He kept making fun of Bud Light saying that we were trying to make more money by watering it down so much.  He was a nice guy to sit by and he didn’t have to use the toilet (bathroom) to much, so that was nice.  I was the only student from University of Portland to be on the flight, so that was a bit strange and lonely, it would have been nice to see a friendly face, but when I landed I was able to meet up with the two guys from Sacred Heart University and it was great having them to keep me company.  On our connecting flight to Perth we were running a tad late and so we had to sprint through airport to our gate only to find that they bumped back the boarding time, so we were actually 5 minutes early.  Once we got to Perth it was fantastic.  There were no more worries about missed flights and I was able to relax while waiting for the other Portland students, so we could all catch the shuttle together.  The weather here is so nice, it has been so hot, and it gets very warm early, like at 9 in the morning, so I’m going to have to plan my running for earlier in the mornings.  However, as I learned today, I won’t be able to run for the next couple of weeks.  

       Disaster struck my Tuesday evening about 6 o’clock, which is about 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning for most of you, when I started to feel really queezy and my stomach was churning a lot. At about 9 on Tuesday evening was the first time I vomited and throughout the night, I counted 14 trips I made to the toilet, all about 30 minutes apart.  I tried taking some tums and Pepto-Bismol, but neither did the trick and I was in pain all night and morning.  During the morning, in the wee hours, I started noticing an isolated pain in my lower right abdominal area, but it wasn’t too major so I kind of just ignored it.  However, as my vomiting began to decrease, the pain became more prominent.  I attempted to sit through one of my orientation meetings that Wednesday morning but the pain was too great.  At that point I met with my hall supervisor and residential supervisor and we decided to go to the hospital, just in case.  After struggling to fill a urine pot (pee capsule) and vomiting in the hospital toilet, I met with the doctor and they were pretty certain that I had appendicitis and that I would have to have it removed, a process in Australia called appendisectomy, not appendectomy.  They were hoping to have me in to theatre (surgery) by last night, but a couple of emergency cases came up so I got pushed back to this morning.  I feel much better now than I did last night, and I’m really looking forward to the next several months here.  The people are all so friendly and they are making it so easy for me.  I’ve had the chance to visit a couple of beaches and I’ll be posting the pictures on Facebook soon.  I start classes this upcoming Monday, so hopefully I’ll be recovered by then so I don’t fall behind. 

Thank you all for your support, I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Philip

Just A Little Excited

Dear Readers,

With take off just a couple of days away, I wanted to update you once more on the latest news.  In response to several peoples questions, while abroad this next semester I will be taking  classes, unfortunate, I know, but it will be nice to get some of the core classes out of the way.  I am not quite sure on my class schedule yet, but they will most likely include Australian history, Ethics, Philosophy, Theology, and Pathology.  There is going to be a lot of readings, which is definitely not my forte, but I suppose I can always just head down to the beach and read for a couple of hours!

It is still pretty quite here around the house, but  I'm not quite as bored.  I just returned from a trip up to Spokane, where I had a great time hanging out with friends, but now I have to start collecting paperwork and finish packing.  Hopefully after today I should have most of it done, so I can relax for the next couple of days before the long flight.  The flight form LA to Sydney is 15 hours long and its going to suck.  In preparation, I've been loading music on my Ipod and I'm just hoping it doesn't run out of battery.  The flight leaves at 10:30 pm which is good because hopefully I can sleep for part of it.  I'm a bit scared because I can still here Dr. Van Hoomissen warning us that you can get varicose veins on long flights if you don't move around much.

I'm not going to have internet capabilites for about the first week, but I'll try to update you as soon as possible. Here are a few ways that you can contact me:

Facebook
Email: philip.stenberg@gmail.com
Skype:  pstenz91
Mail:  Philip Stenberg
         University of Portland Study Abroad
         University of Notre Dame Australia
         Hotel Cleopatra
         19 Mouat Street
         Fremantle, Western Australia 6160
         Australia

Thank you all for your love and prayers,

Philip

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