Jeremy has been hard at work at our house, ripping up carpets and hosing things down. From the sounds of it, most of our stuff was saved but the house is a pretty big mess. Sadly, I missed him on the radio. So it's all fairly uncertain at the moment - will we stay in Fairfield? Will the owner just want to tear the house down after the damage? If so...where the hell do we go??? As you can imagine, the rental market in Brisbane is now pretty much non-existent. I'm crossing my finers we can just stay where we are, but honestly, who knows. Looks like J has more than enough amazing helpers so even though I feel bad about not being there, there are lots of people willing to pitch in and lend a hand.

In other news for a minute, I just moved house and now am living in Pt Chevalier, Auckland. I took a walk to my new placement this morning for fun and it's only 15 minutes away. My housemate has a bike and I might see if I can steal that off of her, if she's not using it. Her name is Jo, I would guess that she's fairly close to my age, she's British and seems pretty fun. Last night she went out and so did I - I met up with some Massey Uni girls just for about an hour and a half. They are so so so sooooo lovely. My placement at Massey started off kinda iffy, but it turned into a fantastic experience and I'm really happy I did it. I ended up feeling like part of the group, because everyone was so friendly and welcoming (students, staff and clients). Last Sunday I went out for dinner with Linda, one of the students. Yesterday, as I said, spent some time with a few of the other students. Either today or tomorrow, Janet is going to pick me up and show me the West Coast beaches. I also made a date with a girl named Laureen for bubble tea and a movie sometime in the next week or two. So as you can see, they're just fabulous. Yvonne, my clinical educator, is pretty much the best ever. She is so positive, encouraging, and wonderful - I kind of want to steal her and bring her back to UQ!!

Monday I start my placement at Rehab Plus. I think that the couple of weeks at Massey was a good introduction and now I'll be working with a more varied group of patients. I'm sure it will be challenging, but I think I can do it. 4 more weeks, and then back to Brisbane. My poor Brisbane. Such a beautiful city in such ruins at the moment. It's amazing to hear all the stories about how people are so willing to volunteer and help other people out. Thanks to everyone who has helped and is continuing to help Jeremy (and me, indirectly!)