Ayr, Australia

So, here is the introduction to my life for the next two months. I am living in a town called Ayr which I have been told is pronounced air (but you don’t really say the r). If you look for it on a map, just find Townsville (in Northern Queensland) and go south a little ways. Before I talk about the town I should probably mention how I ended up here. It’s rather simple, I told Biola that I wanted to teach in England and they said, “No” so I then found the only other country that spoke English that wasn’t the US and that was Australia and New Zealand. So I ask for a place in either of those countries and they sent back saying we found you this place and I said great, when should I get there.

Ok, so Ayr is a tiny town (and town is a generous word) and is about an hour away from the biggest city, which, without the military base would be nothing more than a town itself. Picture with me (at least until I get around to taking actual pictures) a town in more rural Florida. However, it is not like it is a hick town, they have electricity and running water, the streets are paved with what seems to be tar with rocks thrown on top of it and some of them are newly paved. The main feature of this area is the sugar cane fields; these fields surround the area where people live and then are sprinkled throughout the neighborhoods.

So, there is one main street, it’s about 6ish blocks long and the best way to describe it is they have taken a whole city and squished it into one street. Everything from the court house and the police station to the super market and the Country Target are found along this street, everything but the schools. Other than that, nothing is really distinctive, which makes it especially hard to get my bearings.

I am staying with a nice family, The Brocks, who live about a 6 minute walk from school and who are fairly close to the center of town, but like I've said before, I have no idea where that is. The family is mom, dad, 14 year old son and 11 year old daughter. They are really great people and I am very grateful to them for letting me stay with them.

The only downside so far is that I have to share the one ethernet cable with a 14 year old boy, meaning I never get on. Plus, to use it I have to sit in the family room with my back to the family room, in the middle of everything, so I feel wierd if I ever want to use the internet, but not be super productive.

I think that will be all for now, especially since I don't have any pictures yet. I will write about school later, but here's a small preview...I am the school's new toy, my gosh do these kids need some discipline and wow are there a lot of little ones in one class.

So long for now! (14 year old is waiting)