Hmm it´s been a while since ive last written, I dont know where to begin!
So in the last week or so there has been a lot of change and traveling. I have been to Antigua twice in the past week, the first to send off Alex my fellow LTV and friend back to the states with a blast and second to send off four University of Virgina friends that I met here. Both times were ridiculously fun and refreshing, a little break from working with volunteer groups was very much needed. At the same time it was very sad to say goodbye to such amazing people, strangers that had become the closest friends I´ve had here. It was kind of a time where I was not looking forward to returning to San Lucas alone, but also just really thankful for the friendships that I was able to make here. I would have never had the chance to make these connections otherwise so I am beyond greatful for that!
Nonetheless I returned to San Lucas with, in all honestly, a bad attitude. Meeting new people every day can sometimes get to be draining and having closer friends was a really comforting way to rejuvinate from the day. The mission was once again packed upon my return, which was a little overwhealming at first but now in retrospect I wouldnt want it any other way. Ive been able to meet some really amazing people in just the past few days and make some friendships that feel like Ive known them forever. Ive also met some super encouraging adults who have just confirmed and refuled my desire and passion to be in this place. It is just simply amazing what God has done through some of the volunteers here that have encouraged me far more than they know. I feel like God wanted me to go through that feeling of loneliness to rely on him more and believe in his plan he has for me. I think Ive had about four different people on different occasions tell me that I am supposed to be right here right now and that God has made a plan that is perfect for me. I think God really wanted to drive that pont down this week!
I´ve only about a week and a half left in this place so I just ask that you would pray for more passion, energy, humility and openness as I finish strong here! I am excited to go home, but I want to fully take advantage of this opportunity and remember to embrace every minute!
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Numbers
Things I will miss greatly about San Lucas:
1. friendly people and children
2. greeting everyone you see on the streets
3. lake atitlan and the gorgeous boat ride across it
4. fresh squeezed orange juice
5. the panadaria (the bakery)
6. not doing my hair or shaving haha
7. our neighbors of whome weve named bear
8. being surrounded my mountains and volcanoes
9. not having a cell phone or computer
10. barganing down prices
11. the wonderfulo people ive been blessed to meet and know through the mission
12. clear blue skys and stars i can see
13. going with the flow everyday, never planning anything
14. fiestas in the community and also on our roof top
15. real coca cola in a glass bottle
16. no worries or responsibilities apart from being in this place
17. learning fun new games with people
18. perfect weather in the mornings
19. walking everywhere and never driving
20. hotel toliman (a gorgeous place to eat)
21. random new adventures
22. tuk tuks
23. getting plenty of sleep every night
24. cheap beer and food
25. working at the projects
26. funny spanglish converstaions
27. fresh fruit and amazing guac
Things I will not miss about San Lucas:
1. barking scary mangy dogs
2. roosters that start to crow at 3 am every morning
3. our neighboring goose that honks alll the time
4. the water and having amebeoas (i currently have them, my second time...)
5. poop all over the streets
6. not knowing the language (ive told people thank you for hugging me in spanish, instead of thank you for teaching me a few times this past week, found that out after i had said it bahaha)
7. lack of hugs. i miss hugs
8. washing all my laundry by hand and waiting for them to dry (its the rainy season so this is about a three day process)
9. the dress code
10. dealing with volunteers who are... interesting
11. crazy rains that pour at inconvienent times
12. not being about to do my hair
13. the smellls of fish in the market
14. eating meat of the bone
15. carrying everything with me in a backpack all the time
16. the 9pm curfew and zero night life in town
17. the keyboards, i still dont understand the one im using now hence the lack of punctuation and capatilization haha
1. friendly people and children
2. greeting everyone you see on the streets
3. lake atitlan and the gorgeous boat ride across it
4. fresh squeezed orange juice
5. the panadaria (the bakery)
6. not doing my hair or shaving haha
7. our neighbors of whome weve named bear
8. being surrounded my mountains and volcanoes
9. not having a cell phone or computer
10. barganing down prices
11. the wonderfulo people ive been blessed to meet and know through the mission
12. clear blue skys and stars i can see
13. going with the flow everyday, never planning anything
14. fiestas in the community and also on our roof top
15. real coca cola in a glass bottle
16. no worries or responsibilities apart from being in this place
17. learning fun new games with people
18. perfect weather in the mornings
19. walking everywhere and never driving
20. hotel toliman (a gorgeous place to eat)
21. random new adventures
22. tuk tuks
23. getting plenty of sleep every night
24. cheap beer and food
25. working at the projects
26. funny spanglish converstaions
27. fresh fruit and amazing guac
Things I will not miss about San Lucas:
1. barking scary mangy dogs
2. roosters that start to crow at 3 am every morning
3. our neighboring goose that honks alll the time
4. the water and having amebeoas (i currently have them, my second time...)
5. poop all over the streets
6. not knowing the language (ive told people thank you for hugging me in spanish, instead of thank you for teaching me a few times this past week, found that out after i had said it bahaha)
7. lack of hugs. i miss hugs
8. washing all my laundry by hand and waiting for them to dry (its the rainy season so this is about a three day process)
9. the dress code
10. dealing with volunteers who are... interesting
11. crazy rains that pour at inconvienent times
12. not being about to do my hair
13. the smellls of fish in the market
14. eating meat of the bone
15. carrying everything with me in a backpack all the time
16. the 9pm curfew and zero night life in town
17. the keyboards, i still dont understand the one im using now hence the lack of punctuation and capatilization haha
Friday, June 28, 2013
San Lucas Toliman
Overview: I am currently in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala volunteering for the San Lucas Mission. I one of orignally four long term volunteers but now it is down to just two for the rest of the summer. The mission has a number of projects that we bring groups to to do work. The main projects are reforrestation, coffee, construction, the womens center and building brick stoves. Every week there are different groups of Americans that come down and as LTV's (long term vollunteers) we take them to various sites show them how work is done and do the work with them. Typically a group will do one project in the morning and another in the afternoon. I am living in a house with the other LTV's and the vollunteer coordinator and we all happen to be from Minnesota! It's nice to have a piece of home here with me! I have noe been here for two weeks and will be here for a total of two months.
Before heading out on this adventure I wasn't really sure what I was doing or why. I just knew that God wanted me to go and so I was excited scared and had no idea of what to expect. I guess upon arrival I was kind of looking for a sign or a reason as to why I was here, it wasn't intentinal and I didn't even know that I was searching for a purpose untl one of the group leaders had pulled me aside. She told me that the members of her group had really appreciated me and that simply my presence, even when I wasn't speaking was enough to make them all feel at home. Boom. Purpous. I guess I had wanted something ´´greater´´ from God but at that exact point in time I realized that I had to learn to just rely on him and let His presence within me be simply enough. This is a hard thing for a busy bee such as myself to grasp. So far it has been so wonderful. There is a lot of down time between working and meals so I have had some time to just chill out. I've already read three books in my time here and normally I never have time to sit down and read for enjoyment! San Lucas is also on lake Atitlan which is seriously the most beautiful lake I have seen in my entire life. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, this lake is SO beautiful to go across! There are a few touristy towns across the lake which take about half an hour to get to by boat, the boat ride alone is worth the trip! God is just doing a lot through the people here who have already blessed me so much, I am simply in awe.
My favorite project as of now would be working in Reforrestation. There is something about filling dirt bags for new trees and weeding gardens that is just so refreshing to the soul. The Guatemalans who work there are also refreshing to the soul. The main worker Don Tribio is so amazing, I feel like I just gain wisdom simply by being in his presence! They've also taught me how to use a machete so I've started carving a fork from wood which I am very excited about!
Pray for:
-Two of the four LTV's are no longer here/working and we have a massive amount of groups coming this next week, there is going to be a total of 80 people and we're only used to about 45 people with four vollunteers. So just pray for extra energy for me and my fellow LTV Alex to tackle the groups!
-The continuation of deeper relationships with the Gutemalans here and for God to really bless my Spanish becuase I'm currently not very good at it
-That God would just openen the eyes of the groups that are here for a short period of time.
<3
Before heading out on this adventure I wasn't really sure what I was doing or why. I just knew that God wanted me to go and so I was excited scared and had no idea of what to expect. I guess upon arrival I was kind of looking for a sign or a reason as to why I was here, it wasn't intentinal and I didn't even know that I was searching for a purpose untl one of the group leaders had pulled me aside. She told me that the members of her group had really appreciated me and that simply my presence, even when I wasn't speaking was enough to make them all feel at home. Boom. Purpous. I guess I had wanted something ´´greater´´ from God but at that exact point in time I realized that I had to learn to just rely on him and let His presence within me be simply enough. This is a hard thing for a busy bee such as myself to grasp. So far it has been so wonderful. There is a lot of down time between working and meals so I have had some time to just chill out. I've already read three books in my time here and normally I never have time to sit down and read for enjoyment! San Lucas is also on lake Atitlan which is seriously the most beautiful lake I have seen in my entire life. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, this lake is SO beautiful to go across! There are a few touristy towns across the lake which take about half an hour to get to by boat, the boat ride alone is worth the trip! God is just doing a lot through the people here who have already blessed me so much, I am simply in awe.
My favorite project as of now would be working in Reforrestation. There is something about filling dirt bags for new trees and weeding gardens that is just so refreshing to the soul. The Guatemalans who work there are also refreshing to the soul. The main worker Don Tribio is so amazing, I feel like I just gain wisdom simply by being in his presence! They've also taught me how to use a machete so I've started carving a fork from wood which I am very excited about!
Pray for:
-Two of the four LTV's are no longer here/working and we have a massive amount of groups coming this next week, there is going to be a total of 80 people and we're only used to about 45 people with four vollunteers. So just pray for extra energy for me and my fellow LTV Alex to tackle the groups!
-The continuation of deeper relationships with the Gutemalans here and for God to really bless my Spanish becuase I'm currently not very good at it
-That God would just openen the eyes of the groups that are here for a short period of time.
<3
Friday, July 1, 2011
Dooo Yooouuuu Speaaak Loooveee?
I didn't end up going wine tasting in Hunter Valley on Wednesday ... car stuff was just too hard. I was okay with that, we just rescheduled to next Wednesday and hopefully we can figure it all out by then! Instead Katrina came over and we decided to do a little baking. We made the most delicious peanut butter cookies I have ever had in my entire life, the secret is to add a bit of lemon, to really bring out the pb flavor! While those were in the oven I decided to try out a recipe I had discovered for making homemade oreos! They were basically two cookies with the same oreo filling in between them. It was surprisingly easy to make! The secret we discovered is to keep the choc cookes smaller because they tend to expand quite a bit while in the oven. I also discovered that they do not have vegetable shortening/Crisco in AU! I went all over the shops looking for it and asking people for it and no one knew what I was talking about. They have a different substance called Copha which is like a harder version, which I discovered once I got home and my handy flatmate did some Aussie-American translation for me to understand! So instead of shortening I used butter, which worked pretty good... we just had a light yellow creme instead of the usual white oreo creme, but it tasted the same! After our cooking adventures I decided to start reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe which is the sequel to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe. I really enjoy this book although it takes a lot of mental effort to read. I was looking for a lighter read but it's kinda nice to have to be paying such close attention to what I'm reading. It's written in the same way as the first book/movie so there are a lot of nonsense words and definitions to learn, but it's great!
On Thursday I had lunch with Jess & Hayley in the city. We chilled in Starbucks of which I haven't had since America! It actually felt like I was drinking a little taste of MN, even though Starbucks is an international company I guess I just associate it with Grand Ave. Then I met up with Kaz in Newtown for some good ol' Max Brenners. I'm really going to miss being within walking distance of a chocolatier!! Thursday night ended up being pretty chill. Headed home for a lateish dinner and just spent the arvo hanging with Jess and reading. We got inot a convo about Love Languages which really got me thinking. I decided to start reading a book of hers called Love Languages for Singles so I can get a better view of Love Languages, I mean I know the generally but not really specifically or how to actually apply them to the relationships around me.
Friday morning was really relaxing. Slept in, spent like a good hour reading the Bible. I love doing one on one time with God but I generally tend to enjoy praying or worshiping or pretty much anything else other than reading the Bible. Don't get me wrong I love the Bible but I tent to generate towards verses I want to hear rather than letting God speak to me through whatever passage I am reading. But this morning was different. I read Ephesians and Phillipians, which are AMAZING books! I mean I know key verses bu this time I decided to read them as actual letters written to like me, to the people of this generation and of today. It was so encouraging. If you get the chance I strongly encourage you to just sit down and read the entire book of Ephesians as a letter. It will change your world. Then I delved into reading more of the Love Language book. That also continues to CHANGE my world! I read about the love languages of Words of Affirmation, Gifts and Acts of Service. I had no idea how prevalent these things are in our life! I had never really considered myself to be a words of affirmation person, Jess had tagged me as one the day before when we had our conversation so I decided to really read into it and see how it applied to me. It totally did. I pretty much sat there crying while reading the entire chapter of it because it was my life, and the story that they used to illustrate it was just so beautiful. That is most definitely my most prominent love language. I think my second love language is Acts of Service. I never really realized how often I do acts of service for other people because that is what feeds into my words of affirmation and into others doing acts of service in return! Like that explains why I love cleaning for other people so much, and like doing anything I can to make peoples lives just a little bit easier. It was interesting because the book was talking a lot about how people tend to get hurt by their parents because they don't always know how to speak the love language of their children, but I feel like my mother and I have the exact same love languages which is why I find it so easy to have her as my best friend! See since she's pretty busy I've always loved doing little things such as cooking dinner or cleaning for her or anything that would make it so she would have one less thing on her to-do list and she would often love cleaning my room or my car or just doing stuff for me too. Here's where things get interesting in my dissection of my love languages... My mom always have given me praise on specific things that I do around the house and she always speaks to my personality and how it is reflected in the kind things that I do. That is exactly the type of love language I need! But I don't think that I've mastered how to love others with my language as much as would be beneficiary. I also have no idea how to love with gifts. Although we need all of the languages spoken into our lives, gifts is the one I identify the least with! I mean now I can definitely see how I've had strong gift givers in my life, that I've loved and appreciated... but have never really given as many gifts back. I'm still in the process of wrapping the concept of having like an object represent love so strongly. I'm going to be intentional in improving in that aspect and loving in that way! I seriously cannot wait to finish this book and apply these things to my life. Usually I'm really bad at reading these types of 'self-help' books but this one has a lot of psychology and a good integration of Christian perspective too so it's really fascinating.
I headed off to work after my huge morning of revelations happier than a clam! :) After work I was in a super happy energetic mode, so what did I do? Love my housemates by giving the bathroom & kitchen a thorough cleaning!! Jess and I were going to head out for some adventures but she was pretty tired at the end of her long day so we decided to go get some pizza and I had brought home some good ol' rum & raisin gelato so we had a little feast! We're also having another Student Life misso stay with us this weekend so he joined us as well!
Today Jess and I headed to the shops and picked up everything we needed for a little dinner party! Erins mom and sister have been here in AU visiting and they're coming over along with some close friends of hers (and ours) to just show her family some Christian community (her family aren't Christians). Jess is a freaking amazing cook so she's been teaching me a lot! She's making a roast for tonight along with this beautiful crumble dessert with a side of Ice Cream (made from scratch!). SHe taught me how to make ice cream today! We made 4 different smaller containers; added blue food coloring and blueberries to one, red food coloring and rasberries and strawberries to the other, left one a plain white, and swirled in color to the last one. If you haven't caught on the colors are red, white and blue! We are most def having a 4th of July party, with hot dogs and alllll! Gonna show these Aussies how to celebrate America (said in a joking way.. haha).
So yeah we're expecting about 10 people total for the dinner tonight. Unfortunately I have to work at 8 so I'll have to probs leave before desert :( but I'm still gald I'm at least able to be there for a little bit!
On Thursday I had lunch with Jess & Hayley in the city. We chilled in Starbucks of which I haven't had since America! It actually felt like I was drinking a little taste of MN, even though Starbucks is an international company I guess I just associate it with Grand Ave. Then I met up with Kaz in Newtown for some good ol' Max Brenners. I'm really going to miss being within walking distance of a chocolatier!! Thursday night ended up being pretty chill. Headed home for a lateish dinner and just spent the arvo hanging with Jess and reading. We got inot a convo about Love Languages which really got me thinking. I decided to start reading a book of hers called Love Languages for Singles so I can get a better view of Love Languages, I mean I know the generally but not really specifically or how to actually apply them to the relationships around me.
Friday morning was really relaxing. Slept in, spent like a good hour reading the Bible. I love doing one on one time with God but I generally tend to enjoy praying or worshiping or pretty much anything else other than reading the Bible. Don't get me wrong I love the Bible but I tent to generate towards verses I want to hear rather than letting God speak to me through whatever passage I am reading. But this morning was different. I read Ephesians and Phillipians, which are AMAZING books! I mean I know key verses bu this time I decided to read them as actual letters written to like me, to the people of this generation and of today. It was so encouraging. If you get the chance I strongly encourage you to just sit down and read the entire book of Ephesians as a letter. It will change your world. Then I delved into reading more of the Love Language book. That also continues to CHANGE my world! I read about the love languages of Words of Affirmation, Gifts and Acts of Service. I had no idea how prevalent these things are in our life! I had never really considered myself to be a words of affirmation person, Jess had tagged me as one the day before when we had our conversation so I decided to really read into it and see how it applied to me. It totally did. I pretty much sat there crying while reading the entire chapter of it because it was my life, and the story that they used to illustrate it was just so beautiful. That is most definitely my most prominent love language. I think my second love language is Acts of Service. I never really realized how often I do acts of service for other people because that is what feeds into my words of affirmation and into others doing acts of service in return! Like that explains why I love cleaning for other people so much, and like doing anything I can to make peoples lives just a little bit easier. It was interesting because the book was talking a lot about how people tend to get hurt by their parents because they don't always know how to speak the love language of their children, but I feel like my mother and I have the exact same love languages which is why I find it so easy to have her as my best friend! See since she's pretty busy I've always loved doing little things such as cooking dinner or cleaning for her or anything that would make it so she would have one less thing on her to-do list and she would often love cleaning my room or my car or just doing stuff for me too. Here's where things get interesting in my dissection of my love languages... My mom always have given me praise on specific things that I do around the house and she always speaks to my personality and how it is reflected in the kind things that I do. That is exactly the type of love language I need! But I don't think that I've mastered how to love others with my language as much as would be beneficiary. I also have no idea how to love with gifts. Although we need all of the languages spoken into our lives, gifts is the one I identify the least with! I mean now I can definitely see how I've had strong gift givers in my life, that I've loved and appreciated... but have never really given as many gifts back. I'm still in the process of wrapping the concept of having like an object represent love so strongly. I'm going to be intentional in improving in that aspect and loving in that way! I seriously cannot wait to finish this book and apply these things to my life. Usually I'm really bad at reading these types of 'self-help' books but this one has a lot of psychology and a good integration of Christian perspective too so it's really fascinating.
I headed off to work after my huge morning of revelations happier than a clam! :) After work I was in a super happy energetic mode, so what did I do? Love my housemates by giving the bathroom & kitchen a thorough cleaning!! Jess and I were going to head out for some adventures but she was pretty tired at the end of her long day so we decided to go get some pizza and I had brought home some good ol' rum & raisin gelato so we had a little feast! We're also having another Student Life misso stay with us this weekend so he joined us as well!
Today Jess and I headed to the shops and picked up everything we needed for a little dinner party! Erins mom and sister have been here in AU visiting and they're coming over along with some close friends of hers (and ours) to just show her family some Christian community (her family aren't Christians). Jess is a freaking amazing cook so she's been teaching me a lot! She's making a roast for tonight along with this beautiful crumble dessert with a side of Ice Cream (made from scratch!). SHe taught me how to make ice cream today! We made 4 different smaller containers; added blue food coloring and blueberries to one, red food coloring and rasberries and strawberries to the other, left one a plain white, and swirled in color to the last one. If you haven't caught on the colors are red, white and blue! We are most def having a 4th of July party, with hot dogs and alllll! Gonna show these Aussies how to celebrate America (said in a joking way.. haha).
So yeah we're expecting about 10 people total for the dinner tonight. Unfortunately I have to work at 8 so I'll have to probs leave before desert :( but I'm still gald I'm at least able to be there for a little bit!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
New Home, Sunshine & Dragons
It's funny how once Uni was all done I still have remained busier than I had expected! On Saturday morning I packed up everything and did a wee bit of cleaning. In the arvo I headed into town to participate in this 'conversation' thing that I was selected to do (they promised they'd compensate with money so I was game!). It was actually a really cool experience! For the past few weeks I've been filling out questionnaires and surveys to be apart of this 'conversation' even though I really had no idea what it was about, all I knew was that they wanted international students and I could get money so I was game! I got to the business office and discovered that I had been one of seven that were selected to participate in a government procedure to creating effective advertising for studying abroad students as well as building AU careers in North America. Pretty cool stuff! It was a video recorded and audio recorded session where they would show us various advertisements and we would give our opinions and thoughts on it. I also met another Minnesotan there! He had studied abroad there, then moved to AU to get his masters and further his work experience. I ended up chatting with him a little over an hour after the meeting... he gave me a really clear view on what moving to AU is really like and the processes he had gone through and all that jazz... which may or may not have been a good thing to hear... haha
Saturday night Ricardo & Marlon hopped on over (more like drove) to SUV & helped me move all my stuff to my new place! This is where I am living this month: :)
I was pretty tired at the end of the day so I didn't unpack anything. Instead we all just watched some Human Planet, then went to bed!
Sunday I went to church, then down the the Buller Center for lunch and some neighborhood outreach. I got to go door to door with this guy called Paul who was visiting our church. He's a worship leader at a church in North Sydney, but he moved here not too long ago from London! Considering London is my fav place on earth I had plenty of questions. Probs talked the poor guys ear off! Nevertheless it is still cool to be super accepting of people who dont know anyone. If Sydney has taught me anything, it's taught me that even simple conversations in an unknown place can really mean a lot to someone! After that I headed off to work the night away!
Monday I was up early and hopped on a train for 30min to meet my mate David just west of Sydney. We went on a little road trip down to the southern beaches, they are so ridiculously gorgeous!
It was the perfect day outside! WAY warmer than it has been these last few weeks, I was even outside in just a t-shirt! We climbed on rocks and even got to watch a few whales! There was this cute old man that was showing us where the whales were and how to follow them. Knowing me and how much I absolutely adore sweet old men, I loved how much he was telling us about them! Then we headed to Wollongong to see a Rugby game! David is like a huge Illawara Dragons fan so he provided me with the adequate gear for the game. haha
It was fun to finally get to see rugby live and it was actually a really really good game! After the game it was pretty late so we headed home. Traffic was horrible so it ended taking us a good 3.5 hours to get back to Sydney... but it was still totally worth it!
I finally got a bit of a sleep in today and unpacking. I've just been cleaning and reading and kinda bumming around today but it's a good bumming around. I'm off to work in a bit here, then hopefully off to wine tasting with Katrina in Hunter Valley which is a couple hours north of Sydney tomorrow... if we can find a car to take that is...
Saturday night Ricardo & Marlon hopped on over (more like drove) to SUV & helped me move all my stuff to my new place! This is where I am living this month: :)
I was pretty tired at the end of the day so I didn't unpack anything. Instead we all just watched some Human Planet, then went to bed!
Sunday I went to church, then down the the Buller Center for lunch and some neighborhood outreach. I got to go door to door with this guy called Paul who was visiting our church. He's a worship leader at a church in North Sydney, but he moved here not too long ago from London! Considering London is my fav place on earth I had plenty of questions. Probs talked the poor guys ear off! Nevertheless it is still cool to be super accepting of people who dont know anyone. If Sydney has taught me anything, it's taught me that even simple conversations in an unknown place can really mean a lot to someone! After that I headed off to work the night away!
Monday I was up early and hopped on a train for 30min to meet my mate David just west of Sydney. We went on a little road trip down to the southern beaches, they are so ridiculously gorgeous!
It was the perfect day outside! WAY warmer than it has been these last few weeks, I was even outside in just a t-shirt! We climbed on rocks and even got to watch a few whales! There was this cute old man that was showing us where the whales were and how to follow them. Knowing me and how much I absolutely adore sweet old men, I loved how much he was telling us about them! Then we headed to Wollongong to see a Rugby game! David is like a huge Illawara Dragons fan so he provided me with the adequate gear for the game. haha
It was fun to finally get to see rugby live and it was actually a really really good game! After the game it was pretty late so we headed home. Traffic was horrible so it ended taking us a good 3.5 hours to get back to Sydney... but it was still totally worth it!
I finally got a bit of a sleep in today and unpacking. I've just been cleaning and reading and kinda bumming around today but it's a good bumming around. I'm off to work in a bit here, then hopefully off to wine tasting with Katrina in Hunter Valley which is a couple hours north of Sydney tomorrow... if we can find a car to take that is...
Monday, June 27, 2011
Life in Death
I went on a walk today, it was so relaxing! I thought of a fun photography project and decided that taking my camera on a walk was the perfect way to start it off. I decided to just wander around new town and found some really gorgeous doorways and garages (I know that sounds weird, but trust me they were old and beautiful!).
I decided to go off of King Street because it had become so familiar to me. In my travels I discovered the Camoerdown Memorial Rest Park. I thought, "amazing, a whole park just to rest" It was a really wide open space and with the sun shining perfectly it looked as if everyone laying or reading in the park was truly resting. Little did I know that that wasn't the reasoning behind the name of the park. On the far side of the park there was a long brick wall fully graffitied,
ever single inch of it. I decided to wander around it to see if I could figure out why there was this massive squared off section of the park. I walked pretty much around the entire thing and finally found this gate way that led to this little locked up shut down church,
but behind the church there was a huge grave yard. Now normally grave yards really freak me out. Ever since my third grade teacher died the year I was in her class, I still remember going her funeral and going to the graveyard to bury her. Ever since then they've just freaked me out, not necessarily in the zombie-ghost way, but there just seems to be something wrong with knowing that there are decaying bodies underneath the ground you walk on. That's what freaks me out. This yard was so different though.
First off it was ridiculously old. I don't think anyone had been buried there in over a hundred years. Second, it was the most natural graveyard I had ever seen. Like most graveyards are perfectly kept, perfectly cut green grass, fresh flowers at tombstones and the such. This one didn't have any fresh flowers (most likely because of how old it is) and it wasn't really kept at all. There were broken tomb stones, trees that grew wildly, grass was tamed but wild in other areas and little pathways around it.
On one side of the yard you could look over the wall and see the city far off in the distance. It just felt like I was in a mini sanctuary in the middle of such a huge city. The beauty of the naturally growing plants and the combination of the graveyard just painted a perfect picture of life in the midst of death.
It was a tranquil peaceful walk. I think the weather also contributed to the gorgeousness of this place. It was the perfect fall day, the air was crisp and the sun was bright enough to warm the soul. This little adventure has inspired me to do a little photo project with a chapter of Psalms that I've started to work on too. Mmm mmm good :)
<actually written on friday 24/6>
I decided to go off of King Street because it had become so familiar to me. In my travels I discovered the Camoerdown Memorial Rest Park. I thought, "amazing, a whole park just to rest" It was a really wide open space and with the sun shining perfectly it looked as if everyone laying or reading in the park was truly resting. Little did I know that that wasn't the reasoning behind the name of the park. On the far side of the park there was a long brick wall fully graffitied,
ever single inch of it. I decided to wander around it to see if I could figure out why there was this massive squared off section of the park. I walked pretty much around the entire thing and finally found this gate way that led to this little locked up shut down church,
but behind the church there was a huge grave yard. Now normally grave yards really freak me out. Ever since my third grade teacher died the year I was in her class, I still remember going her funeral and going to the graveyard to bury her. Ever since then they've just freaked me out, not necessarily in the zombie-ghost way, but there just seems to be something wrong with knowing that there are decaying bodies underneath the ground you walk on. That's what freaks me out. This yard was so different though.
First off it was ridiculously old. I don't think anyone had been buried there in over a hundred years. Second, it was the most natural graveyard I had ever seen. Like most graveyards are perfectly kept, perfectly cut green grass, fresh flowers at tombstones and the such. This one didn't have any fresh flowers (most likely because of how old it is) and it wasn't really kept at all. There were broken tomb stones, trees that grew wildly, grass was tamed but wild in other areas and little pathways around it.
It was a tranquil peaceful walk. I think the weather also contributed to the gorgeousness of this place. It was the perfect fall day, the air was crisp and the sun was bright enough to warm the soul. This little adventure has inspired me to do a little photo project with a chapter of Psalms that I've started to work on too. Mmm mmm good :)
<actually written on friday 24/6>
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tea? Check.
SO last week was quite the stressful week. I had one final essay and three exams to do. I pulled a total of 3 all nighters in like 5 days! haha I took a break midway through the week to watch the 2nd Origin footy game with David & a bunch of his mates (it's a series of 3 games New South Wales vs. Queensland and it's a HUGE deal. Basically it's like the all-star players of each state against each other and it's like the superbowl(s) of the National Rugby League). It was a super intense game and the perfect study break! I worked most of last weekend. On Friday my buddy Micheal from Canberra was on his way home and stopped by Sydney to spend the day with me. It was really fun to catch up with him and just be stupid together haha. Then on Saturday night it was my friend Jess's 21st birthday party which was hippie themed so I gathered all of my hippie clothes and threw them on. I love being a hippie. Probs fav thing ever! Here's a photo of a few of us:
The I went to church & work on Sunday, pulled another all nighter studying, took my last exam on Monday morning and slept literally alll day on Monday! By Tuesday I just didn't feel like really doing anything so I basically just bummed around, skyped some family & friends and did some cleaning to my already OCD room. On Tuesday night I headed over to Erins/Jess's/Ricardo(who just got home from his Navy duties yay!!) for dinner, then hopped next door for some prayer :)
Wednesday was another chill day I slept in then had lunch with Erin. She is seriously such a blessing to me, every moment I'm with her I am just so encouraged not only by her words but by who she is as well. After lunch I was feeling creative so I took my camera on a long walk, kinda working on a mini project that I'll tell you about more on a later date. I also found the most gorgeous cemetery I've ever seen en my entire life of which you will also hear more about later!
After that I met up with Katrina from church for a tea date. We're both huge chai tea fans (the chai tea here beats American chai tea by like 50 million points, that's the only way I can justify spending money on it! haha). We split a piece of some amazing chocolate cake (the desserts here also beat American desserts but only by about 45 million, but they still win). It was a lovely date, we just chatted about life for a good three hours. So relaxing. Then we both headed over to the church, I helped her come up with some creative ideas for the Sunday morning announcement slides! Then she had to head to dance, then Erin and Ricardo got home just in time! We hung out, made dinner, ate dinner, and counted all of Ricardo's change haha such a good time :) I spent the night there & had some legit pillow talk with Erin. I love pillow talk and sleepovers. I know, I'm such a girl, but it's the truth. How can you not like it?!
Thursday morning I slept in a bit then headed home for a short bit. Then I met up with three girls from Student Life to celebrate the end of the semester. We had a thai lunch and had a good chat. I headed back to my room and chillaxed for a bit then headed over the Max Brenners Choclatier Bar for a little chocolatey fix with my mate Kaz from church. It was so good to just spend time with her actually talking about life. Like I see her at church every Sunday but actually knowing someone for who they are is so much better! We ended up staying there chatting for a really long time. Then Marlon came wandering in with a few of his friends. Kaz had gotten in contact with two other girls and the five of us decided to have a thai dinner together! It was such a fun and spontaneous night! Such great people, such great laughs and more hang outs planned for the future! By the time I got home I was so exhausted (Erin doesn't have the best bed so I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before).
Today is Friday, Friday, lets get down on Friday! Actually I did the exact opposite. haha I had pretty bad night terrors so I woke up extremely exhausted and didn't really feel like doing anything today. I ended up packing about half of my belongings... and there's def not enough room in my luggage for the other half of my stuff... this shall be interesting. I got to skype Justin and Liz which was good to catch up with those cool cats! Went grocery shopping & had another tea date. (can you tell tea dates are seriously my favorite!?). I plan on spending the rest of tonight chillin and watching movies & hopefully catching up on some legitimate sleep. Tomorrow I get to move out of SUV. I am VERY excited about that. I get to have flatmates again! Living alone has really taught me a lot about myself... but I'm ready to be done with this lesson and live with people again!! :)
Wednesday was another chill day I slept in then had lunch with Erin. She is seriously such a blessing to me, every moment I'm with her I am just so encouraged not only by her words but by who she is as well. After lunch I was feeling creative so I took my camera on a long walk, kinda working on a mini project that I'll tell you about more on a later date. I also found the most gorgeous cemetery I've ever seen en my entire life of which you will also hear more about later!
After that I met up with Katrina from church for a tea date. We're both huge chai tea fans (the chai tea here beats American chai tea by like 50 million points, that's the only way I can justify spending money on it! haha). We split a piece of some amazing chocolate cake (the desserts here also beat American desserts but only by about 45 million, but they still win). It was a lovely date, we just chatted about life for a good three hours. So relaxing. Then we both headed over to the church, I helped her come up with some creative ideas for the Sunday morning announcement slides! Then she had to head to dance, then Erin and Ricardo got home just in time! We hung out, made dinner, ate dinner, and counted all of Ricardo's change haha such a good time :) I spent the night there & had some legit pillow talk with Erin. I love pillow talk and sleepovers. I know, I'm such a girl, but it's the truth. How can you not like it?!
Thursday morning I slept in a bit then headed home for a short bit. Then I met up with three girls from Student Life to celebrate the end of the semester. We had a thai lunch and had a good chat. I headed back to my room and chillaxed for a bit then headed over the Max Brenners Choclatier Bar for a little chocolatey fix with my mate Kaz from church. It was so good to just spend time with her actually talking about life. Like I see her at church every Sunday but actually knowing someone for who they are is so much better! We ended up staying there chatting for a really long time. Then Marlon came wandering in with a few of his friends. Kaz had gotten in contact with two other girls and the five of us decided to have a thai dinner together! It was such a fun and spontaneous night! Such great people, such great laughs and more hang outs planned for the future! By the time I got home I was so exhausted (Erin doesn't have the best bed so I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before).
Today is Friday, Friday, lets get down on Friday! Actually I did the exact opposite. haha I had pretty bad night terrors so I woke up extremely exhausted and didn't really feel like doing anything today. I ended up packing about half of my belongings... and there's def not enough room in my luggage for the other half of my stuff... this shall be interesting. I got to skype Justin and Liz which was good to catch up with those cool cats! Went grocery shopping & had another tea date. (can you tell tea dates are seriously my favorite!?). I plan on spending the rest of tonight chillin and watching movies & hopefully catching up on some legitimate sleep. Tomorrow I get to move out of SUV. I am VERY excited about that. I get to have flatmates again! Living alone has really taught me a lot about myself... but I'm ready to be done with this lesson and live with people again!! :)
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