Paddy's Day

Yesterday was St Patrick's Day. We went to Shawn's place for dinner and games. Shawn is Robin's grad student. Robin was there, along with 3 other of Shawn's friends. It was a pot luck dinner, so Llew made Guinness pie, Shawn made lasagne, there were home made dumplings, apple pie and Robin brought beer. After eating we played Fluxx. If you have never heard of this game, you can get it in Brisbane and I would recommend it. It is more fun after a few beers. Then we played Clue, the delux version and it took forever. We left at midnight, jolly with beer, food and fun.

It was good to get out with people. I have been a little closed off here, with only going to the shops. I have things lined up, but they start next week. I will be volunteering for the Tippecanoe Humane Society starting Tuesday, talking to a Purdue person about K-12 on Monday, and applying for a work permit this week. That can take up to 3 months, but the international support office at Purdue will help me because I am a dependent of an international staff member. Hopefully then I can do something. It is also a little cold to do natury things like walks in the woods, or even step outside, so I will get into that eventually. All the festivals start in mid-April, so that may help with the out and abouts. I guess it's just that we don't have many friends here and everything is so different. Those of you from YFU would say that we are going through culture shock. Absolutely. At least we recognise it.

The town is actually starting to feel like our home town. We are familiar with all the streets, shops and places of interest. We know how to get everywhere without a map, and we know where the good eats places are. It is a very small town remember, and a college town, so lots of fast food and malls. A few good places. Our apartment, on the other hand, doesn't really feel like home. There isn't really anything here from home. It still feels more like a motel. I guess as we accumulate things that will change.

Anyway, will keep this updated and as spring comes around it should keep being interesting.