greetings from australia (down under, shrimp on the barby, and so many other false colloquialisms)

skip a few months and you're caught up with where i'm at. we visited scotland, travelled back across the ocean, went to providence and boston for various speaking engagements, saw a new president elected, celebrated a few holidays, and are now across the pacific, not only in a different hemisphere, but most of the time on a different day. 17 hours ahead of most of my friends, and some of my family is a little weird.

we've been here about a week now, and some stark differences have popped up. according to the wildlife world information, most of australia's fauna are nocturnal. thus, going into hyde

 park across from our hotel at night runs you into this guy:

the beaches here are nice, too, though no one told me tops were optional. i found myself looking at the sand, or simply closing my eyes and lying on my towel.

work here is pretty simple. as you can imagine, there aren't many ancient greek manuscripts in australia. but, some manage to get here, and with the goal of taking photos of every single page of handwritten greek new testaments, it has to get done. it certainly doesn't hurt that a donor offered up his flying miles to get us here, either.

so, we're in sydney through saturday, then off to melbourne for a few days, then auckland, new zealand for eight days or so, then back home. we're still waiting to hear back from brazil and japan, but if those come through, it will be a short time back at home. if we don't hear from them, or they say no, then the next trip is to greece on the 23rd of february for seven weeks.