okay hiatus is over

Hi babe!
well we've both been quiet for awhile but I decided it was time to get the ball rolling again! I can't remember what exactly I have told you already, so I'll just fill you in on what I have been doing for the past week or so.
Last week all three cousins were sick...all week. It was a doozy and a half, let me tell you. They were all home from school all the time, and fighting just as much as usual but there were hacking coughs interjected into the arguments. I was glad when that was over. On Friday I went to the primary school, and hung out with the fourth and fifth graders, whom I am really starting to like, even though it is slightly weird that all the people I hang out with every day are grammar school aged or younger...that's what you get coming to another country for a babysitting job, I guess. Then Friday night Katie and I went to this overnight thingie with the youth group that we'd been going to. we assumed it would be more or less an extended version of the group meetings, which are basically bonding time with a few minutes of religious instraction thrown in here and there, during which we bide our time and twiddle our thumbs. but we get there and they put us on a bus with a bunch of other youth
groups so now there are like 50 kids, of whom i know exactly 2. we take off for this "mystery location" and right away they start blasting praise music and yelling out, "OH YES, GOD! YOU ARE GOOD! YES, YES, JESUS" quite orgasmically. then they all start speaking in tongues and physically convulsing as K and I watch somewhat bemusedly. so this goes on nonstop for 2 HOURS, until we get to the mystery location, which is a parking lot in Devonport, where we have to get off the bus and sing praise as all these sketchy characters who are hanging out smoking in the parking lot first laught at us for awhile and then get on to the bus and make friends with the bus driver. and after ten minutes, we have to get back on the bus and go the whole way back (a pointless expenditure of fuel oil if I ever saw one), to more prayers and praising and tongues. and it's 2 am by the time we get
back to the church and K and i are so totally disgusted with praise at this point, and annoyed by this group of people, that we feel the utter need to scream out something like, "SHIT! FUCK! FREE LOVE! GAY RIGHTS! SAVE THE TREES!". then we had to endure a baptism invitation and about 90000 choruses of "our god is an awesome god"
before we could sleep. so yeah. Have definitely decided to avoid future similar situations, and also the footie coach thing is more or less settled (although he wasn't there) in favor of my staying FAR FAR AWAY! :)
Katie and I went shopping in Launceston on Saturday, which was fun, although it meant that I was not able to claim my copy of Harry Potter until Monday morning, since the scottsdale newsagency where I had secured a copy closed at noon on Saturday...so I set out and collected it Monday morning, and was finished with it by about 9:00 that night (any guesses as to what I did that day? :) ). as you can see from the email I sent, i don't quite know what to think...let me know as soon as you're done so we can discuss it. I'm really looking forward to seeing you...only about 2 weeks left! I'm going to have an empty house for 2 days so you can come and keep me company and we can form our master plan for extricating ourselves from the fringes of society! what fun! i woulod really like to work out like every day too, for the last few weeks...there's not really a gym here and it's a lot harder to make yourself go running or something torturous like that.
and the last couple of days, just more babysitting and primary school work, old news. what have you been up to? you went down to LA already right? I am so sorry to have missed that, and I hope you will accept my heartfelt apologies and offer for a rain check. But anyway, fill me in. I can't wait to hear from you!

Love you TONS,
Nora