Cultural Banquet

This morning Suzie and I went to the Salvation Army for a Cultural Banquet. Suzie plays in the band for the 'Salvos' and that is how I got the invitation for this occasion. It ended up being really cool. Each person/ family brought a cultural dish from their native lands. Suzie made some type of Belgian meatball bake. Even though she was born and raised in Western Australia she did a youth exchange through Rotary to Belgium for a year. I planned on making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cutting them into triangles. Yes I realize there are other classier American foods that I could have made but I didn't know about it until last night and PB&J sandwiches are cheap. I was getting ready to make them 20 minutes before we had to leave when Suzie came rushing in and said that she read the website for the bus wrong and that we needed to leave right away. So I didn't get to bring anything. I got to hear lots of Christian songs in other languages and even see some dancing from other cultures. All of the food was delicious!!! I got to meet aborigines, a lady from Lebanon, a lady from Wales who got to see Princess Di's wedding when she was 8, people from Italy, Samoa, China, and a Canadian gentleman who said he came to Australia for a visit and has lived here for 47 years. The picture shows Suzie, the only a fraction of the food there, and a few people socializing in the background. Suzie and I were 2 of 3 college students there. There was also a boy from China. Near the end some of the older ladies gave us disposable tupperware and told us to load up. So we did. We now have dinner all set to go for every night this week. It was quite a cultural learning experience and I really enjoyed myself.

After that I did laundry and watched a movie. I discovered while doing laundry that my ID card I have to swipe to get into EVERYTHING was suddenly sometimes working at our front door. Suzie's card wouldn't work either. It would read the card give a green light and then NOT unlock the front door. I reported it to the front office and they said that happens and to try 10 minutes later. 10 minutes is so long outside your own house in 98 F heat, directly in the sun because there is no shade. Tomorrow I will go talk to the Supervisor of this place. It sounded like that student working the front desk was just being lazy and didn't want to fix it.