I Love a Sunburnt Country...

How can you be homesick for somewhere you only lived for 12 months of your life?

How can a few people teach you so much about your heart and your life?

I debated whether to write this post.  In the first place, it makes me very vulnerable.  Second, I know there are a few people in my life who do not understand, they don't get it at all.  Like many things in life, I can't base the way I live on a few peoples thoughts or dislikes, it's a waste of time and energy.

So here goes my love story....with a land and it's people.

Dorothea Keller wrote a poem my host mother, Barb, would recite at random times.  I keep it in my heart like a little package I'm ready to open on Christmas morning...although it's not Christmas.  Some of the poem (it's most popular stanza) goes like this:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
 

If you've been to Australia, you immediately know the imagery she is creating.  When I read this I can envision the majesty of Kings Canyon, the cloud-soaked hills of the Blue Mountains and the cyan-blue ocean.

 This love story began in 2000.  July 19th.  I arrived to a cold Sydney and my exchange student counselor and his daughter met me at the airport.  One of the first questions was, "so did you pack your thongs?"  My 16-yr old mind wrapped around how I would answer this one, "why was he asking about my underwear options I thought?"  No, this was just the start of the slang game we Americans have to play with the Aussies.  What he wondered was had I brought my flip flops.

When I signed up to be an exchange student with Rotary International, I immediately picked Australia.  I can vividly remember sitting in the back of my parents minivan reading the list of available countries as they drove me to my interview in Alliance.  Turkey?  "NO!"  My mom would say.  After she'd negated 10-15 that were "over my dead body" options I was left with Australia and the UK as my top two choices.  It really wasn't because I wanted the easy way out of not learning the language- it was because those were two places I wanted to travel.  After my interview, I spoke with a Rotarian that assured me that I needed, above all else, to learn a foreign language.  I grudgingly changed my first two choices.  I would now pick 1. Argentina 2. Chile and 3. Australia.

Around February or March of 2000, a letter came in the mail, "You have been selected to go to Australia."  I was ecstatic.  (Ok, I was slightly worried I'd never make it in life since I wouldn't know a 2nd language, but kangaroos and shrimp on the barbie seemed like a happy alternative)!

So off I went...and much of my heart is still there.

While there I met this girl:

While this may be the worst photo of us ever taken, I'm keeping it real with how much our friendship can/has survived! 

Ms. Briony (said Brian-ee) was the lucky winner who got to show me around on my first day of school in Australia.  She loves to tell the story of this quiet/shy girl that she was forced to hang around until one day when I opened my mouth (and haven't shut up since).  You know how there are people in life of whom you're quite sure you had to be separated at birth or at one time share a brain--- well that's Briony.  Sometimes we're so much alike that when my mom is around she forgets which one is her daughter.  It's frightening really. 

We spent that entire year together.  We created our own cassette tape (can you believe we were still using those in the year 2000) of Aussie songs and tales of our time together.  We have a video documenting the 35 pounds I gained overseas, while Briony tastes American peanut butter and gags.  It's high-quality stuff people.  :)  Our travels have taken us to Great Britain (2010) the Great Ocean Road, Australia (2006).  Short of giving you any more mushy stuff, you can check out a little more of our background here.

Then there are these people:

The Varleys having pumpkin pie at my mom and dad's house when they visited in September 2009.

If you've never been blessed enough to meet Barb and Trevor Varley, let me paint you a picture:  imagine two big hearts walking around.  People so full of love and kindness that you feel like you won the lottery because you got to spend a day with them. Barb and Trev were my first host parents after arriving "Down Under" and I was also blessed to stay with them my last 3 months.  They not only opened their home (and their hearts) then, they have allowed Brian and my mom and dad stay there on our return visits in 2006 and 2008.  Barb is a fantastic cook (see aforementioned 35 pounds), she puts Julia Childs to shame.  Trevor is great at telling bad jokes. :)  When I gave my farewell speech to the Rotary Club back in 2001, I said that someday I hoped to replicate their marriage.  I hope Brian and I are doing them justice.  I smile when I think of them, then I almost burst into tears because I miss them so much.  I feel as though their family is my family and I am so blessed to have them in my life.

There are many other people that make up this story.  My host brother, Mugsy.  Ron and Judy.  Gary and Ann.  Jonno and Kylie. Lots of other girl friends that still keep in touch!  Arthur and Freda.  The list could go on and on.

And then there is the scenery!  These are just a few of the places I will never tire of:

Moreton Island, Queensland

The Blue Mountains, NSW

Daintree Rainforest, Queensland

Nelson Bay area, NSW

Nelson Bay area, NSW

Famous Sydney Harbour

The Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria

Kangaroo in the Vineyards, Hunter Valley, NSW

There's a famous Australian, Peter Allen, that sang a song called, "I Still Call Australia Home."  Australia's airline, Qantas, used the song for one of their ads.

The last chorus goes:

Someday we'll all be together once more
When all of the ships come back to the shore
I'll realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home

While Australia may not be my home, it is always in the back of my mind.  Brian and I hope that we'll be able to travel there with our children and allow them to love the country and it's people (and Tim Tams and sweet chili sauce....) as much as we do.  I believe that everything happens for a reason and while back at the tender age of 16 I could have never seen God's purpose in sending me to Australia - it's all very clear to me now.