It appears I will find out on monday if I got into the english program, the test was rather difficult...haha. conjunctive, prepositions..adverbs...its been quite some time, but I feel pretty good about it actually, so we will see... so while that is on hold....my roommate has returned to oz. She is 82, and as i've said we did an apartment swap. Lilly is a Holocaust survivor, and a very intriguing woman. She feels I am a hippie and I need to learn to be domesticated. So on her return, she showed me around sydney, showed me all her organization skills inside the apartment, and wanted me to take notes...so that when i am ready to be "domesticated" I will have the tools...truthfully, I don't mind it at all, in fact I kind of like it. Learning from elders is always interesting. I went to Manly Beach yesterday, and they have this cafe there that is all italian...you can identify this by a few things...first the coffee, which is amazing, second the motorcycles outside the place, thirdly...the people. I was very impressed with myself because each day they put up a saying in italian...and if you translate correctly you get a free coffee. yesterday's quote was.."Il mio cuore e vuoto senza di te" which means..."my heart is empty without you"...I won the free coffee, but more than that...I thought about the real meaning behind that...what it means, and who can you say that too, and most of all when are you ready to really mean that statement. I sat and ate fake gelatto, made me feel good. I miss Italy.

Monday I step outside my comfort zone, leave most of my stuff at Lilly's and go for this 21 day tour up the coast. I have discovered I am not a backpacker....like I thought I was..So I have refined my journey to meet my needs. I look around and I see a lot of people drinking and partying, I didn't come here for that, so maybe this makes my blog less interesting?? But, I came for more a spiritual journey to find myself and what I want...which in my huumble opinion can't be clouded by beer. Tomorrow I will be a bandit in the "city to surf" race, I couldn't get a bib, they were full, but I've been running more the past week then I have in months, so i'm ready to race a bit...

Last year nearly killed me doing the marathon, my coach nearly killed me as well, emotionally and physically. My good friend Bondroff gave me great advice one night during our talks, he said....go back to the reason you started running, and make it fun again. I have had to find this for myself. This means taking off the watch, not doing speed work, or hills, but just going out and running to enjoy it. I have stayed injury free since the marathon. I have found that state of inner peace again with it, the lesson here is...again...when you step outside of something and look in, you can see the value, but you have to be willing to stop the pattern, turn off your mind, or you will never change it....