The Adventures of Susan DeTroy

Hello dear friends, fans (yes I have fans :P ) and family,
the past month has been quite exciting and also adventurous (as the title says). As some may know, I was in Cambodia for 2 weeks and in Vietnam for 1 week and in the following there will be many pictures (and a few stories) that will hopefully give you a small picture of how my time was.

Cambodia:

The Program:
I went to Cambodia with the organisation I'm working for (and if you don't know which organisation that is, shame on you...it's Metamorphic...check it out: www.metamorphic.org.au).
Our program there trained 24 local pastors in 4 different categories: churchplanting, community development, business development and personal development. These programs are basically the reason Metamorphic exists, they are the main thing we do. All the admin stuff I've been doing in the past months is basically to facilitate those programs. So it was really cool to be able finally see the result of all my work. (Not that I have really directly been working towards the programs, but more indirectly).
After being part of the program I can only say again that the work that Metamorphic is doing is really amazing and is really changing the world.
This is the first program where we're using our revised and revamped curriculum. This had one day where the goal was to challenge the students, push them outside of their comfort zone and open their eyes to creativity. These all being very important things if they want to be effective leaders in their communities. This was the second day of the program and my first full day in Cambodia. And their first assignment was to go out in 2 groups and film different random things (i.e. get someone to act like a chicken). I went out with one of the groups that had the only english speaking student and it was heaps of fun. Also slightly overwhelming, since it was hot and humid and I had basically just gotten there. Not to mention that they mostly spoke Kmai so I didn't understand a word. However it was a great opportunity to see a lot of Siem Reap and get a bit immersed in the culture.
Most of the Meta team was there, however not for the whole time. Linds (the CEO of Metamorphic) was there only for 1,5 days. Dan (the person I mostly work with) was there for a bit over a week. And Marty and I were there for the whole program. Then there were also our two Kmai staff members, Ra and Phealy. I got along really well with them and hope that I will make it back to Cambodia some time in the next few years.


Anything else:
Since I was in Siem Reap I of course had to visit Angkor Wat. It was cool. However I don't know if it was the masses of tourists, the heat, or the combination of both, but somehow I just wasn't so impressed by it. I know, I know, it's on the Unesco World Heritage List, but somehow it just failed to impress me. Maybe my expectation were too high.
All in all my time in Cambodia was great (minus me feeling sick to my stomach the whole time) and I definitely would like to go back there some time.
Oh and I love tuk-tuks.


Here are some pictures:

In a tuk-tuk with Marty and Ra

In the church with Phealy 

The class

Some cute kids that were often at the church, they got aggressive though once I stopped taking pictures of them...barely made it out alive

The rainy season just started when we were there

Angkor Wat

And more of Angor Wat

And more...I think you will be able to guess what the following pictures are from even without a caption

Vietnam:

In Vietnam I visited a friend of mine. And I also had a really great time. The first two day I had a bit of a culture shock. I'm not really sure why, but I think a few factors were me feeling horridly sick to my stomach and me being in a very busy, big city like as well as me not staying in as nice as an area as I did in Siem Reap. However after I recovered from my slight shock I also really enjoyed Vietnam.
The people there are just amazing. They are so friendly and welcoming.
On Wednesday evening I went out with 3 other Vietnamese girls to a bar that had live music. In the beginning I was the only foreigner and since I was also in the front row I immediately was picked out by the singer (who I think was also a foreigner, however she's been in Vietnam long enough to be able to speak a little bit). She asked me a few questions in between songs and in the end that led to me going up front and singing "Set fire to the rain" with her. I'm not going to lie, I kind of hoped that I would be able to sing with her on the stage from the very beginning. However I never thought that she would let me. It was awesome :D
Now I know the quality of the video isn't so good, but I thought I'd still post it just to give you guys a feeling of what it was like.


Vietnam from Susan DeTroy on Vimeo.

On Thursday morning the same girl that had invited me also showed me around the city a bit and we had a great time. It really is quite exciting riding on the back of a moto in a busy asian city. There are two simple rules:
1. Trust the driver with your life, because, lets face it, you basically have to
2. Don't pay attention to the traffic, cause if you do, you'll notice that there are 20000 situations where an accident could happen and you'll freak out
If you keep to those 2 rules you'll have a great time :)

This was on a trip to the Meikong river the day after I had arrived. It suffices to say that I felt horrid the whole day and did not really enjoy the time

At the War Museum

Oldest church in Ho Chi Minh City

Out at the bar with some girls I met there

At an Elderly Home. The woman I'm sitting next to spoke a mix out of English, French and Vietnamese. 

One girl that I had just met a few days ago spent most of Thursday showing me around and doing all kids of touristy things :)

Back home:

As much fun as I did have abroad, I am very happy to be back in Australia. I'm happy that I don't have to worry about getting sick, or getting my stuff stolen anymore. And I'm happy I can brush my teeth with tap water again :D
The only downside about being back is that it's quite cold in Australia (especially in comparison with the 90% humidity and 35 degrees celsius in Cambodia and Vietnam).
However I finally have a space heater, a angora sweater and rubber boots. So I'm outfitted for the weather now :)
My time in Australia is coming to an end, slowly but surely. Just have a bit over 8 weeks left and I know those will pass quickly. So to all my Aussie readers: I'm leaving soon, so you better be nice to me in the last few weeks. And to all my German readers: see you soon
(And to everyone else: have a nice day)

Cheers,
Susan

The Life of Susan

Hey, so I know that I haven't written a blog for ages, but that's because one side I've really busy and on the other side I haven't really done anything worth mentioning. I've just been living my life (reference to a song) the past few months. However I got the brilliant idea that I could just write about my everyday normal/boring/busy life. So here it is: the Life of Pi...eh...I mean Susan (btw The Life of Pi is a really good movie)

The Life of Susan:

Monday:
-Wake up at 7:30, take shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, make lunch, quickly walk to bus at 8:27
-Wait for bus (that's basically always late), take bus to the Sunshine University, ask bus driver if he's changing into the bus I have to take next, hear him say "Yes", stay on bus
-Read on bus, get car sick, get out at right bus stop (hopefully), stagger the 900m to work (still feeling slightly carsick)
-Get to work, make coffee, recover from carsickness (or should I call it bus sickness?)
-Do work (usually typing up sermons or data entry), water plant, eat lunch, make fun of Dan (the main person I work with/for)
-Leave work at 3:45, walk 900m back to bus stop, take bus at 4:05 back to Uni, get out, wait, take bus to Buderim and get out 1 stop before my house
-Go to grocery store, get food for the whole week, either walk the 600m home or get picked up
-Get home at 5:00, put away groceries, do any cleaning tasks that are left, eat dinner, relax/clean up mess of a room
-Hang out with flatmates
-Go to bed

Tuesday:
-Wake up 30 minutes later, otherwise similar to Monday
-Get picked up by colleague, Melissa, at 9:00
-Take notes at staff meeting and write minutes
-Normal office work
-Leave work at 3:45 and get home at 4:35
-Chill for a bit, then cook for my flatmates
-After eating and digesting a bit, go to gym at 8:00 that's a 5 minute walk from my house
-Get back from gym at 9:30, chill with flatmates a bit
-Go to bed

Wednesday:
-Wake up at 7:30, take bus
-Work till 4:00
-Go to Dan and Ines' house for dinner (orphan night)
-Get picked up by Liza from church for Waca (=Worship And Creative Arts) at 6:50
-Be at Waca till 8:30 (I'm in the choir)
-Get home
-Hang with flatmates
-Go to bed

Thursday:
-Wake up at 7:30, take bus
-Work till 3:45
-Get out a stop earlier
-Go to gym till 6:00
-Get home
-Eat dinner and get ready
-Go to a connect group from church till 9:30
-Get home and chill
-Go to bed

Friday:
-Wake up at 8:00 and get picked up at 9:00
-Leave work at 3:00 for massage
-Take bus at 4:05
-Go to bank and shops
-Get home at 5:00
-Eat dinner and chill at home/gulp down dinner and go somewhere/don't eat any dinner and go somewhere/combination of all of the above

Saturday:
-If lucky sleep longer than 9:00
-Do laundry, clean, put away clothes, chill
-Perhaps hang out with someone
-Go to gym
-Go to flatmate's parent's house for dinner (the dinner is always amazing)
-Get home
-Maybe skype with someone
-Chill with flatmates
-Go to bed

Sunday:
-Get up either at 7:30, 6:45 or 6:15 depending if I am just going to the service, if I'm on welcome team (which means I stand at one of the doors, smile and say welcome, etc) or if I'm singing in the service
-Get home at 11:30
-Eat lunch
-Finish laundry, cleaning, etc
-Go to gym
-Leave either at 3:30 or 5:00 depending on if I am singing in the evening service or am just going to the service
-Eat dinner at Arvo Sesh (stands for afternoon session and is a free dinner for the young adults from church)
-Go to Gloria Jeans at 8:30 (coffee shop similar to Starbucks in Mooloolaba that the Young Adults always hang out at after the evening service)
-Get home at around 10:00
-Go to bed and start from the beginning

So as some of you may see, I am rather busy the whole week.

And for all who want to see how I get to work, here's a video (the quality isn't that good, I know) :


From Home to the Office 2 from Susan DeTroy on Vimeo.



Easter Fest:
I did however do something worth mentioning in the past few months. Most of you have probably already heard about it. I was at....Easter Fest!

Now for all that don't know, Easter fest is a really big christian music festival in Toowoomba, which is a 3 hour drive south-west from where I live.
I ended up going there all by myself, the main reason being that I really wanted to go to see some of my favourite artists, even if I did have to go by myself. The first day (Friday) turned out to be my Easter Fest nightmare. I was all by myself and was hating it. I really have noticed that I just don't like being somewhere new all by myself. I just don't feel relaxed. There were also some other complications (my accommodation being 5 km away and my cellphone battery dying) that just made the day very unhappy. Anyways I was staying in a boarding school that was renting out it's rooms for Easter Fest and there were two other girls (or better said young women) in my room. I met them on Saturday morning and we hung out for the rest of the weekend. I got along really well with them and we're going to try to meet up at least a few times before I leave for Germany, so that was a real blessing. We also randomly met a guy there as well and he kind of joined our little "group".
The music part of the festival was AMAZING! Peter Furler performed with Phil Joel and Paul Colman and 3/4 of the songs they played were from Newsboys. It was so cool to be able to see the REAL Newsboys again, especially since I never thought I would ever be able to again.
Also since I had a Premium Ticket I was able to go to signings and special smaller concerts. Another band that really blew me away was United Pursuit Band. One of the Premium Events was a 1 hour worship session with them in this old church and it truly was amazing. The church was packed and you could really notice that everyone that was there really wanted to experience God's presence. It was one of the most amazing praise and worship sessions I've ever had.
On Sunday it rained from 10am to 5pm, thus producing a very cold, wet, muddy and unhappy Susan. I survived though and in the end I was happy that they didn't cancel the Sunday evening, since I was able to see this hilarious and very talented Aussie christian band called Compliment of Gus. It turns out Newsboys is the butt of most jokes in the christian music scene :D
So all in all I am soooo happy that I went to Easter Fest (even if it wasn't great the whole time).

This is my picture with Peter Furler

This was on the last day, since I didn't have an umbrella I bought a rain poncho for $3, the best $3 I've ever spent :D
(Oh and those are the two girls I meat at Easterfest)

I've been going to the gym regularly in the past 2 months and I've been really enjoying it. I can notice that my muscles are getting better and stronger each week and that's really encouraging.

One thing also worth mentioning is that I've started singing in the praise and worship band at church. I've only been on twice but both times have been heaps of fun. It's nice to finally be able to just concentrate on singing and not having to play piano as well (in the youth praise and worship band in Germany I played piano and sang).

doesn't the stage look awesome?? (Not to mention me...) ;)

Also on this Sunday I will be flying to Cambodia with Metamorphic for the 2 week CP program and then on to Vietnam to visit a friend. I'm really looking forward to it :)

See some of you in Germany in 3 months :)
Susan DeTroy

December: The Month of Christmas Fear

So December, well to summarize: the worst month so far. The reasons: Christmas, third month, physical condition. Further explanation: to follow.

Third month:

Well it's always said that the first 3 months are the "tourist phase" and that homesickness usually comes after those first 3 phases once you've kind of gotten past the phase where you find everything interesting and exciting and new. It's just normal and you start to notice that some parts of it bother you. I can't really say that stuff bothers me much more than it has before, but I definitely am homesick. It started in December and doesn't seem to really go away, even though Christmas is over. But I'm sure the phase will end sooner or later. I mean I'm not crying the whole time, but I definitely notice a difference to when I first got here. I think of my family more and am really missing them for the first time. And I miss Wuerzburg as well. It's a nice city that I spent a lot of my time in (I went to school and to church there) and I definitely miss it a little bit. However no matter what I wouldn't want to go back to Germany right now, I just wish my family could come here. I love the heat here (even though the humidity is a bit unpleasant some times) but I still prefer it to the coldness and chilly dampness of Germany.

Christmas:
I love Christmas and it's always a really big deal at home. So not being home for Christmas is really, really hard for me. I tried to get into the "Christmas spirit" but it just didn't really work out so in the end my strategy was just to survive. Christmas Eve I spent with my flatmate Matt and our neighbor Jordan. I cooked this soup that I have with my family every Christmas Eve and Matt made some lamb (which he always cooks in a lovely way) and we ate it all on the porch of Jordan's house (which has an even better view than my porch) so it was a really great evening. We then played monopoly and ate christmas cookies and they drank for the first time German Christmas tea.

Czech Sauerkraut soup 

Jordan (our neighbor) and me

The next day we (Jordan, Matt and I) went over to Matt's parent's house which is around a 20 minute drive away. His grandparents, his other grandmother and his brother were also there and we had a great time. There was soooo much food. We started out with prawns and oysters, then we moved on to turkey, mashed potatoes, etc and ended with dessert, which consisted of a Christmas pudding, trifle and cheesecake. After that eating marathon I didn't eat anything for 5 hours. And when I did it was just a few cookies. The evening was spent watching Love Actually and munching on some Christmas cookies.

in front of Jordan's tree (that I helped her decorate)

Altogther Christmas wasn't that bad in the end (even though I spent most of Christmas Eve crying because of a few different conflicts that had come up), but I'm happy it's over with now. I finally got my family's package a week after Christmas, which wasn't too bad, because if I had opened it on Christmas I probably would have cried even more. This way it was just like a package with presents, not especially a Christmas package. The same way Christmas was just a special day with nice food and not really Christmas.

Our tree...and yes it's fake, but real Christmas trees are
really hard to get and reeeeeally expensive.

Our living room decorated christmasy (all done by me)

Physical Condition:
Now for everyone who doesn't know about my condition if you want details please email or write me a fb message. The short of it is that 3,5 years ago I was diagnosed with Juvenile Polyarthritis and 7 months ago I was diagnosed with Polymyositis and Systematic Scleroderma. Now you can gladly look up the more detailed description of the conditions on wiki, but in short: my immune system is attacking my joints causing them to be stiff, my muscles cause them to be inflamed and feel like I had maaaaaaassively sore muscles and my skin causing it to harden and be sensitive and less flexible. Anyways since especially the scleroderma has been getting worse in the past few months I decided with the recommendation of my doctor here to do a harsher treatment. This treatment had me go to the hospital twice with two weeks in between. The medication was given to me via IV and theoretically it takes 4 hours (5,5 with getting there and waiting an hour afterwards before you can leave) but the first time I was in for 10,5 hours and the second time 6,5 hours. The first time took so long because I had an allergic reaction. It wasn't bad, I just started to have 3 red, itchy dots on my face, but since it's a rather serious treatment it took a while till I could continue the treatment. Now this all may sound all good, but December was filled with me trying to decide what treatment to take. On the one side there's the risk of the possible side effects of any of the new treatments I had to choose of, not to mention the fact that the doctor can't guarantee that any of the treatments will work. On the other hand I could have stayed with my current medication and waited to see if that kicked in, however with the danger of my condition getting worse while I was waiting, and yet again without knowing if the medication would kick in. Being away from home when you're not feeling well and have a very important decision is a very hard decision, not only for me, but also for my family. In some ways I think they were doing worse than I was, knowing that I needed them and that they couldn't be there for me as much as they would want to. However I have to mention at this point that God really carried me through that time. No matter what I knew that God had a good plan for me and that he was with me at all times and that gave me so much strength. In the end I went for the treatment/medication called rituximab. I still haven't noticed any improvement but it can take a while before I notice a difference, so it's normal.

January:

I started writing this blog during December but now it's already January and I've been here for 4 months. Only 6,5 months to go. I can't believe it and am started to get worried about the time passing so quickly. I'll have to start looking into colleges soon. I am so not looking forward to it, because one of the reasons I went abroad was because I didn't know what to study. Well now I'm going to have to start the decision process...

New Year's Eve:
Over here you aren't allowed to have your own fireworks (you can in Germany) but different suburbs have their own fireworks. Since our house overlooks the whole valley and a few of the suburbs we had a party at our place (or to be more exact at our neighbor, Jordan's place). She lives with this rather wealthy family and the house is amazing. The porch is really big and has pool and everything, very nice :)
Around 20 people came and it was a great, chilled party. On the next day I got up at 4am to go watch the first sunrise of the year at the beach and it was amazing! Such a beautiful sunrise. And here are some pictures:

the sky before the sun had risen

amazing pink clouds, the camera however didn't even
capture how bright the colors were

"Holidays"
Over Christmas I had 2 weeks of vacation, which were mostly filled with sleeping, watching Downton Abbey and playing board games. BUT I did actually leave the house once in a while. Here are a few of the things I did:
(Oh and I wrote holidays instead of vacation, because I've actually gotten used to saying that. I know it's sad, but if I say vacation everyone here looks at me weirdly so I've adapted :D )

Ice-skating:
So who would've have guessed that I would be in Australia when I ice-skated for the first time in 2 years?? The ice-skating rink was really small and the ice was quite cut up. Added to that I was one of the best skaters, which was a surprise to me, since whenever I went skating in Germany I was usually in the lower middle area. But I guess people just don't skate much over here (which makes sense). The temperature difference wasn't actually that weird. It definitely was warmer in the rink than in the ones in Germany, but it was cold enough that when I first started out skating I had a fleece jacket on. Altogether it was a lot of fun. Especially since it had music playing the whole time and the lights were always changing.

My Claim to Fame:
So at church every service there's a video shown called "God is Good". Basically it's a testimony by someone describing how God has changed them, touched them, helped them in their life. Well the guy in charge of Media asked me if I would like to do a video and I said yes. Well here's the result:



GodIsGoodSUSAN 301212 from CalvaryMedia on Vimeo.


Kondalilla Falls:
This is a waterfall in the bush (and yes Aussies really say that when they talk about any forest/"wilderness"/area where not a lot of people live/etc) up in a more hilly region called the Hinterland. We had to walk around 1,5 km through the bush to get there and actually in the end we found out that we hadn't walked all the way to the actual falls, but just to a little waterhole. But the actual falls were 1 extra km away so we were happy with our waterhole. Especially since the water was the perfect temperature. Not too cold and not too warm. Plus there was a rope hanging from a tree that you could use to jump into the water. It was pretty cool :) And here are some pics:

by the waterhole 

a few of the Hinterland

Well that's finally it from me. Sorry that the blog post was so long and that I haven't written for 2 months. But well it's been a busy two months.

Peace and Love,
Susan

Month Number Two

So I've kind of noticed that I haven't written in a month or more actually. Sorry about that but I think that fact already says more about my past month more than 10 posts could (and no: "my last month was boring and I didn't do anything worth mentioning" is NOT the right answer). The right answer is that I was so busy I didn't have time to write a blog.
Once I finally had time to sit down and write a blog I had the joy of trying to figure out what I've actually been doing the past month. I know I have been doing something (me being busy and all) but I just couldn't remember when I did what. The past month has just been a blur of events. But after extensive research of facebook statuses, facebook messages, emails, my last blog post, text messages and the calender on my phone I was finally able to piece my last month together, and here are some of the memorable moments:

La Bolsa Park (27.10.)
So actually this isn't that memorable, but it's one of the few things that I took pictures of in the last month, thus it has to be on the blog (cause what is a blog post without pictures???) ;)
The park is very nice and consists of beach, with awesome rock formations and rock pools, a cliffy-thing that leads down to the beach and on top of the hill a lighthouse (even though that isn't actually really nice, since it's a modern lighthouse. It's actually really ugly). All around that there are trees and fields and paths and it's altogether a very nice place and definitely somewhere that I want to go to again (even though that could be a bit harder now, since I now live farther away from it).
And here are said pictures:

I just found the formation of the rocks amazing

some may already know this picture, but I thought I'd put it on for all those that don't have facebook :)

me walking to the "perfect picture place" :P

another picture place (and if you're asking yourself why there are so many picture of me walking to the places where I actually wanted my picture to be taken, that's because of my dear friend and photographer who thought it would be funny to take 1000 picture of me walking to the place I told him to take a picture of and then only take 1-2 pictures when I actually get there...)

After being in the park I went to my first Aussie pub

We got chips (=french fries)

And another Aussie experience: I tried my first meat pie and I love it :D

Of course with tomato sauce

Thanksgiving (8.11.)
So I know that Thanksgiving was actually on the 22.11. but since Calvary Young Adults was kind of busy in the second half of November they decided to celebrate Thanksgiving earlier. I maybe should add that Aussies usually don't celebrate Thanksgiving, they actually have no clue what it is about (besides the being thankful part :P ), but since there are (or used to be) 5 Americans (me included) in the Young Adults group they decided to celebrate it anyways.
The food was so good and I had a great time. So weird that the first proper Thanksgiving dinner that I've had in ages would be in Australia, who would have thought that? :D

my first plate (I got seconds and dessert) :D

mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, had never eaten that combination before but it was lovely :D 

a very happy Susan with lovely food :)

My move out (10.11.)
So as some may have heard, read, seen, noticed: I am now living somewhere else! Up to then I was living with the Watts family (good friends of the family), but it was never planned to be a long term thing and from the beginning I was looking to move into a shared accommodation  The search was a bit hard (or better said me choosing), but in the end I chose to move into a house with 3 other people living in it. The two main people who are there the whole time are Ben and Matt. I know them both from church (Matt I've known since I've been in Australia and Ben I just got to know when I moved in). The other person in Monnie. I actually haven't met her yet, since she's moving in this weekend. She'll also only be living here during the week, since she works on the sunshine coast. Right next door (and basically also a flatmate) is Jordan. She's also from church and as mentioned she's basically also part of the shared accommodation since she's always over. I get along really well with everybody and really feel at home and welcome. We're going to start cooking together regularly and both flatmates are quite clean and most important: they are very considerate and can put up with my occasional bossiness :D Oh and my nickname is Doctor Su, I'm kind of the "in-house" psychologist...don't know how that happened :P
My room still isn't fully furnished (still waiting on a bed I'll be getting from a friend (correction: I have the bed now! :D )) but otherwise I have everything I need and the coolest thing is that most of what I have I got for free from friends (the pros of being part of God's big family).
For all who don't know, this is the first time I'm living independently so it's kind of a big step. Up to now it's been quite good, just definitely a lot more work. What makes it harder is that fact that I'm not doing so well physically, so grocery shopping is always a challenge. But I'm managing well with the help of my friends ("I get by with a little help from friends, yah, I get ... with a little help from my friends" :P ) No, not really, my friends are very decent :D

Black Tie Arvo Sesh (25.11.)
So many (or actually most) probably don't even know what a "Arvo Sesh" is. So here's the explanation: it stands for afternoon session (arvo being the aussie slang for afternoon, and well session was too long so, as with most words in their vocabulary, they decided to also shorten that). It is a free dinner for the Young Adults group of Calvary an hour before the evening service starts and since the semester is done (and most young adults are students) the last arvo sesh for the year was a special, fancy party and everyone was supposed to come dressed all fancy. I don't really have any good pictures from the night yet. The only one I have is where I'm making a weird face since I had food in my mouth, but I'll put it up anyways, just don't judge :P

My friend also had food in his mouth, thus his weird expression :D

Nerf gun battle (27.11.)

Every week there's connect group on Tuesday which is, in short, a group of young adults from church that meet up once a week to either hang out or to do bible study. Well with the semester being done we also had a last meeting for the year and it was legen...wait for it...wait for it...DARY (and I mean Barney would even agree with me). We had a nerf gun battle (for all those that don't know what a nerf gun is: it's a plastic gun that shoots little foam darts) in UV light with glow-in-the-dark-paint. In short it was AWESOME and exactly what I needed since I hadn't had a good day. Only bad thing about it: I ruined my white tank top, but it was worth it :)

me posing with my little gun (there were only a few big ones and the guys grabbed them in the beginning)

Work:
So in my past blog posts I have written a lot about my different social activities, but haven't really written anything about the real reason I am in Australia (which would be to volunteer for Metamorphic International). So I think I'll take some time to do so now.
One reason I actually haven't written much yet is because my work week has only really been regular since last week. A few reasons why it wasn't regular before hand was because our boss, Lindsay Clarke, was overseas. Alos Dan, the person I'll be working together with the most, was also overseas and added to that all the office was just opened around 1,5 months ago and was still in the process of being set up.
Up to now the things I've done have been: data entry (this has been my main job, but it should be changing into something I'll just do 1-2 hours a day), admin stuff, writing progress reports and project proposals (I'm actually just starting this and still have looooots to learn) and managing the social media (also something I still have to get in to). Plus I'm always the one who answers the phone with a very happy and cheerful sounding "Metamorphic International, Susan DeTroy speaking". One thing that isn't my job though is making coffee (even though if you are visiting I will gladly make you one), but I successfully got out of being the "coffee-girl" on the first day through showing my three other (male) collegues how to use the mashine :D
All joking aside: I have great collegues and am really blessed to be able to work in such an awesome and visionary organisation like Metamorphic. :)

Summary:
I'm still doing really well over here. I've of course had a few bad days (or a also a bad week) but altogether I know this is so right and am thankful God led me here instead of letting me follow my original plan of staying in Germany and starting to study right away. :)
I actually like it so much that right now I would love to stay here forever. Of course that could very well change (who knows how I'll feel about Australia in a few days/weeks/months) but right now I'm loving it here.

Love,
Susan