Life gets crazy sometimes. In the past couple months, I’ve been running nonstop – with the holidays and family visits and an infinite number of changes in my plans. I haven’t had time to keep in touch with my friends and family, to write, to sleep, eat, or breathe (at least that’s what it’s felt like). So much has been happening, and I want to send an update to you all!

First off, I moved. To make a long story short, things didn’t work out with my host family. As much as I love Christian and Tea, there had been tension and discomfort in the house for a while, and when I returned from my holiday travels, it was made very clear to me that I wasn’t welcome in the family anymore. It has been such a whirlwind of emotions – I was just getting back from almost a month on the road, desperate for time to recuperate, and instead I spent the rest of my time off of work crashing at friends’ houses and attempting to find a new home. I learned a couple of things about myself in the last couple of weeks. The first is that I’ve made some really incredible friends in my seven months here in Brisbane, friends who will go completely out of their way, drop everything, just to make sure I don’t have a mental breakdown. And the second is that I can keep my cool through almost any situation life throws at me.

So now I find myself with the Newcombs. It’s a funny story, actually. When I applied to be an au pair in Australia back in May, the Newcombs were the first family I spoke to. I loved them. Unfortunately for me, the family decided to go ahead and not hire an au pair right away, but I kept in touch with the mother Dana when I ended up in Brissy. A couple weeks ago, I sent her an email – and just as quickly as I had lost my job/home/family, I fell into a new one! I’m living with two adorable boys – Harry (5) and Oli (7) – in Paddington, a cute, quirky suburb of Brisbane, filled with little shops and cafes, and only a short bus ride into the city. It’s so different than what I had before, but I’m honestly really excited that my plans have changed.

Sweet view of the city from my new home

One of my favorite writers, Brian Andreas, once wrote, “Most people don’t know that there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.” I think those angels have been following me around lately, shaking things up a bit to make my life a little more interesting. And you know what? I think that’s exactly what I needed.

Almost immediately after moving in, my new host family headed off to the Sunshine Coast for the long weekend, and I had several days jam-packed with Australia Day festivities. Australia Day is the official national day of Australia, and it reminded me a lot of the 4^th of July back at home. Everyone partied all weekend long in their red, white, and blue. On Sunday, my friends and I went to the annual Cockroach Races, which sounds really weird but was actually a big deal (especially among the touristy population of Brisbane). You could buy a cockroach to race for $5, or you could bring your own, and the winners got prizes and their cockroach named in the Hall of Fame. Men dressed in kilts played their bagpipes, we drank beer, and cocky races ran all day. Later, we headed into the city and watched the fireworks over the river at Southbank. In the morning, we headed to Mermaid Beach – even though storm clouds hovered above us all day, Australia Day weekend wouldn’t have been complete without an Aussie barbie on the beach.

Aussie Day cocky races

It was a good weekend spent with good people. Now I'm ready to sit back, relax, get some sleep, and finally fall back into a routine. This time I'll just have to make sure I don't get too comfortable!