Aussie Expats Update – I’m on Uni Break!

HAPPY FRIDAY WORLD!

(It’s a holiday here, hence the energetic greeting). I have finally pulled myself together and written an update about our lives in recent times!

To be fair, I did do one a month ago… And have since been persuading myself that nothing enough had happened for me to warrant me putting the energy into writing another, which isn’t a hard thing to do when your days have felt as though they are being measured in ‘words to write’ for university assignments. That being said, I am now finished with uni for Trimester 1! I’ve written and submitted 5000 words in the past week (comprising two exams and one assignment), and in all honesty, the last thing I really want to do at the moment is go anywhere near the keyboard or another essay of any description! Thankfully, I’m not due back at uni until the 26th of June: I expect I’ll be fully recovered from my trauma by then, and you can expect to see more consistent blog posts coming out of here in the future.

It was a massive shock for us (though a relatively pleasant one) upon our triumphant return to Oklahoma at the end of March to see the encroaching waves of greenery that were conquering the landscape. Since that time, we’ve been effecting the gradual—and somewhat strangely inconstant—slide into summer feelings, which, less prettily put, means that the long days are coming (or, really, are already here), and it is reaching the point where it is impossible to leave the house without immediately feeling a light sheen of sweat spring to attention all over your body. Despite being a native of thickly-humid Brisbane summers, I’m not a fan of this. It also means the advent of intense and wild summer storms, which I’m hoping to find the time/space/skill to capture on my camera… Although since I still haven’t sorted out the method for getting those images off the camera and available to the rest of the world, it seems like somewhat of a moot point.

Anyway! We head to DC early tomorrow morning for the ADF annual ‘Army Week’ and it promises to be a thrilling culinary and sightseeing adventure: James has been to DC in the past, but it’s completely new to me, and now that uni is done with, I’m ridiculously excited about burying myself in some museums. Also finding some freak shakes and awesome burgers (I’m a simple woman) because we are SO pumped about the DC eating opportunities!! That being said, I signed up recently for a MOOC [Disclaimer: James had to explain ‘MOOC’ to me, so for the good of us all, I’ll share my new found knowledge. MOOC = Massive O Online Course.] and thus far have barely scratched the surface of the orientation week (oops)… So I’m planning to look over that at some point in the coming week when my feet are too tired to take any more sightseeing.

I’ve also been slaying the reading lately, despite the pressures of uni: not quite sure how that’s happened, but I’m finally working through my very, very, ridiculously too-long ‘to read’ list and starting to cross things off. I’ve recently read Du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel, and Emma Donoghue’s Room and The Wonder. As any obsessive reader and list-maker will tell you, crossing things off and moving them to the ‘2017 Books’ list is a good feeling! I have another nineteen to read for Trimester Two, and just put in the order for those yesterday: meaning there should be new reading material on our doorstep when we get back (hopefully!). My plans for uni break are, of course, overly optimistic, but my novel is getting edited, my novellas are getting plotted and I’m going to do some writing! I wrote a 30 minute piece the other day with a character called Thaddeus… If that doesn’t get you all excited, what will?

I’m looking forward to putting up a blog post next week that’s full of amazing things we’ve seen, done and eaten: a bit of change from recently!

— Ana.