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!
Friday, July 1, 2011
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!! :)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Nothin but a Flighter
This past week I've had a ton of "study" time and quite a bit of alone time too, which I have enjoyed quite a bit :) So there's not a ton to blog about honestly. I can't even remember what I've done this past week. But I'm going to try....
Last Thursday I spent the majority of the day just chillin, this is when I legit started studying for Exams. Most organized stuff and listened to missed lectures and such. That night I headed over the Justine's house for a lovely little Bible study// dinner with some ladies from church. She lives in Marrackville which is just one suburb over so it wasn't a long trek to get there. She has the cutest little house! It was like perfectly warm and she lit candles and it was probably the most fun Bible study I've ever been to in my entire life! There were about six of us total ranging from 21-28 years old (I was the youngest :) ) haha We started off the evening just chatting about life and catching up on particular love lives while eating a delicious lentil soup that Justine made herself. Other people brought chips, dips, pita bread, chocolates, cookies and delicious wine. Let's just say it was a bit of a feast :) After we had laughs over dinner we preceded to make Cake in a mug! Yes, it's possible to make cake in the microwave in a mug! We all got our mugs and added our ingredients and popped them in the microwave and watched the batter rise! They were actually terribly delicious cakes and we topped it off with some ice cream! After that we read a Bible passage and Justine lead the study, it was really interesting and laid back. We all just sipped wine together and talked about Jesus and his promises. Not just like Sunday school answers but in relation to real life, with real emotions. It was just so laid back and relaxing and encouraging. I loved it!
Friday & Saturday were chill study days. It rained the majority of those days, in fact the majority of this entire week. I miss the warmth of the sun! Although it has been amazing falling asleep to heavy rain every night! On Friday I wrote and entire final essay for my Love in Different Languages course. It was actually pretty awkward and difficult to write because it was on the transformation of gay/lesbian definitions of love into society. My professor is also a lesbian so it was hard making sure nothing I said would offend her, seeing how she would be the one grading my paper but at the same time I didn't want to sound super supportive of that life style. It was a hard medium to portray, but it's done. I am grateful for that!
On Saturday Church was having a 24 hours of prayer event going on and I signed up with my mate Hayley to pray for one of the hours. It was really awesome, I don't know Hayley all that personally so it was nice to just talk through life and pray for eachother. We were the only people in the room the whole time so it was just relaxing and chill.
Sunday, went to church. It was an awesome church day, I'm honestly going to miss this church and these people so much when I leave! It's crazy how much I've gotten so much closer to them in just the past two weeks! On the way to church I listened to Explosions in the Sky. I. Love. Them. It was just so relaxing and honestly just purifying. It was also raining and I love walking in the rain so it was a perfect morning. After church I lingered as long as possible, seeing how I didn't want to go get my study on. A handful of us just stuck around church for like an hour and just chatted and ate brownies. 'Twas a good time! After that they all went out for Thai food but seeing how I'm broke and really should study I decided to go with my better judgement and head home. I spent the rest of the day listening to more lectures and creating a study guide for my History of Psychology and Philosophy class.
Today is Monday and it is the queen's birthday. I appreciate the day off but I seriously think it is the dumbest excuse for a holiday, I mean really? A birthday? Haha I'm basically just frustrated that everything is closed and I'm out of food... haha I've been doing a lot more procrastinating today (hence the writing of this blog) because I need to finish the Philosophy side of my study guide and it's confusing so I'm ignoring the fear I have that I will never understand it and then fail this course. Philosophy's never been my thing... and I'm horrible at tests so the fact that it's worth 60% of my grade scares me even more. So fight or flight? I'm definitely a flighter. But I shall build up the mental confidence to conquer this Exam tomorrow morning! (prayers would be very appreciated...)
Last Thursday I spent the majority of the day just chillin, this is when I legit started studying for Exams. Most organized stuff and listened to missed lectures and such. That night I headed over the Justine's house for a lovely little Bible study// dinner with some ladies from church. She lives in Marrackville which is just one suburb over so it wasn't a long trek to get there. She has the cutest little house! It was like perfectly warm and she lit candles and it was probably the most fun Bible study I've ever been to in my entire life! There were about six of us total ranging from 21-28 years old (I was the youngest :) ) haha We started off the evening just chatting about life and catching up on particular love lives while eating a delicious lentil soup that Justine made herself. Other people brought chips, dips, pita bread, chocolates, cookies and delicious wine. Let's just say it was a bit of a feast :) After we had laughs over dinner we preceded to make Cake in a mug! Yes, it's possible to make cake in the microwave in a mug! We all got our mugs and added our ingredients and popped them in the microwave and watched the batter rise! They were actually terribly delicious cakes and we topped it off with some ice cream! After that we read a Bible passage and Justine lead the study, it was really interesting and laid back. We all just sipped wine together and talked about Jesus and his promises. Not just like Sunday school answers but in relation to real life, with real emotions. It was just so laid back and relaxing and encouraging. I loved it!
Friday & Saturday were chill study days. It rained the majority of those days, in fact the majority of this entire week. I miss the warmth of the sun! Although it has been amazing falling asleep to heavy rain every night! On Friday I wrote and entire final essay for my Love in Different Languages course. It was actually pretty awkward and difficult to write because it was on the transformation of gay/lesbian definitions of love into society. My professor is also a lesbian so it was hard making sure nothing I said would offend her, seeing how she would be the one grading my paper but at the same time I didn't want to sound super supportive of that life style. It was a hard medium to portray, but it's done. I am grateful for that!
On Saturday Church was having a 24 hours of prayer event going on and I signed up with my mate Hayley to pray for one of the hours. It was really awesome, I don't know Hayley all that personally so it was nice to just talk through life and pray for eachother. We were the only people in the room the whole time so it was just relaxing and chill.
Sunday, went to church. It was an awesome church day, I'm honestly going to miss this church and these people so much when I leave! It's crazy how much I've gotten so much closer to them in just the past two weeks! On the way to church I listened to Explosions in the Sky. I. Love. Them. It was just so relaxing and honestly just purifying. It was also raining and I love walking in the rain so it was a perfect morning. After church I lingered as long as possible, seeing how I didn't want to go get my study on. A handful of us just stuck around church for like an hour and just chatted and ate brownies. 'Twas a good time! After that they all went out for Thai food but seeing how I'm broke and really should study I decided to go with my better judgement and head home. I spent the rest of the day listening to more lectures and creating a study guide for my History of Psychology and Philosophy class.
Today is Monday and it is the queen's birthday. I appreciate the day off but I seriously think it is the dumbest excuse for a holiday, I mean really? A birthday? Haha I'm basically just frustrated that everything is closed and I'm out of food... haha I've been doing a lot more procrastinating today (hence the writing of this blog) because I need to finish the Philosophy side of my study guide and it's confusing so I'm ignoring the fear I have that I will never understand it and then fail this course. Philosophy's never been my thing... and I'm horrible at tests so the fact that it's worth 60% of my grade scares me even more. So fight or flight? I'm definitely a flighter. But I shall build up the mental confidence to conquer this Exam tomorrow morning! (prayers would be very appreciated...)
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
City Lights & Sunrise
This week is already going way to fast! I feel like these next two weeks are going to be gone before I know it, there's just so much to do in the mean time!
On Monday we had a little Spiritual Birthday party with Student life at AJ and Kyrin's place. They have a roof top with an awesome view of the city, it kinda looks like this:
Of course it was more amazing in real life, but that's just a snap shot! :)
Anyways the party was really cool, I had no idea what to expect because well I had never been to a spiritual birthday party before! Basically there was tons of food and treats and we were celebrating 6 different people from 4 different campuses who have given their lives to Christ through Student Life. What a cool idea! We got to hear each of their testimonies and they were given devo books, chocolate and cards that everyone signed. I volunteered to bake a cake... :)
It was a fun night to catch up with friends from other campuses that I haven't gotten to see since Connexions a few months ago. I'm so excited that I actually get to see them again when I go to the Mid-Year Conference! yay!
I woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning and caught a bus at 5:40 AM to head to Coogee beach to watch the sunrise! I took my journal, Bible and Ipod and it was all I needed! I climbed to the top of some rocks and sat there for a little over an hour just journaling, listening to worship and reading me Biblia. It was so refreshing, not to mention beautiful!! I have never actually gotten up to watch the sunrise on a beach before. It was perfect :)
Then I stopped by a cafe and had some french toast cuz it's my fav. and I've grown quite accustomed to sitting down and having a cup of coffee or a meal someplace random all by my self. I used to feel so awkward going out basically anywhere by myself and now I love it!
Then I took a wee nap and spen the arvo doing a bit of deep cleaning& studying.
Around dinner time I headed over to Erin & Jess' place and Marlon joined us, we did some groceries and made and devoured a delicious meal. After dinner we just hung out listening to music and working on a certain little surprise for a certain friend of ours :)
Today's been a chill day. I've organized everyday for the next two weeks:
It is color coded and all. The purple highlights fun things I get to do and the yellow is all Uni work. Not much fun in my future! haha
Well off to write an Essay now!
On Monday we had a little Spiritual Birthday party with Student life at AJ and Kyrin's place. They have a roof top with an awesome view of the city, it kinda looks like this:
Anyways the party was really cool, I had no idea what to expect because well I had never been to a spiritual birthday party before! Basically there was tons of food and treats and we were celebrating 6 different people from 4 different campuses who have given their lives to Christ through Student Life. What a cool idea! We got to hear each of their testimonies and they were given devo books, chocolate and cards that everyone signed. I volunteered to bake a cake... :)
I woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning and caught a bus at 5:40 AM to head to Coogee beach to watch the sunrise! I took my journal, Bible and Ipod and it was all I needed! I climbed to the top of some rocks and sat there for a little over an hour just journaling, listening to worship and reading me Biblia. It was so refreshing, not to mention beautiful!! I have never actually gotten up to watch the sunrise on a beach before. It was perfect :)
Then I stopped by a cafe and had some french toast cuz it's my fav. and I've grown quite accustomed to sitting down and having a cup of coffee or a meal someplace random all by my self. I used to feel so awkward going out basically anywhere by myself and now I love it!
Then I took a wee nap and spen the arvo doing a bit of deep cleaning& studying.
Around dinner time I headed over to Erin & Jess' place and Marlon joined us, we did some groceries and made and devoured a delicious meal. After dinner we just hung out listening to music and working on a certain little surprise for a certain friend of ours :)
Today's been a chill day. I've organized everyday for the next two weeks:
Well off to write an Essay now!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Life is Vivid
Survived the rainy season! yay!
This week's been pretty low key. It was the last week of lectures and tutorials. This next week is our Student Vacation before we have 2 weeks of finals. I only have 3 finals and one final Essay to write. I'm not too stressed about them seeing how I only need to pass my classes. Plus I'm a procrastinator at heart so come this time next week I may indeed feel differently... but until then I shall enjoy my happiness!
The best word to describe this week would just be fun! Tuesday night I headed over the Erin & Jess' apt and Hayley came over and we made a delicious homemade chicken soup and olive and mint bread. I felt pretty legit cooking an entire meal from scratch... even if Jess was the only one who really knew what she was doing ahah. Then we all headed over to church for prayer night, which is always refreshing!
Wednesday I ended up skyping my mother for a good 3 hours which was pretty amazing. That woman is such an inspiration to me. Words literally cannot describe how honored I am to be her daughter. Seriously. I just love talking about her to people here too, so people can actually understand how amazing my mother is! The phrase "she is my hero" is so generic but that's how I feel. That and so much more! So that was really encouraging. Then I headed to work for the rest of the day/night.
Thursday was my very last day of classes! yay! After wards we had our very last Student Life meeting & dinner. It felt so weird just knowing that it was going to be the last! I feel like it was just yesterday that I walked into the first meeting all nervous and now I'm the one welcoming strangers! It was the perfect way to end to semester regardless, we just had time to share what God's doing in us and just take time to encourage and pray for one another. I seriously love my Student Life family! Then I went over to Jenny's appartment for a lil sleep over! Hung out with some of her flat mates, played some old skool N64 Mario Kart, oh yea! haha
Friday I stayed at Jenny's till about noon, then I headed home. I decided to go on a little adventure into Marrackville to find this shop called Supre. I was in a shopping mood but I wasn't in a big city mood so I headed to the suburbs! It was about 30 min out on a bus. It was a pretty dodgy area but I had hope! I eventually found this like factory outlet supre store where everything was ridiculously cheep, right from the factory! They had like dresses & tanks & sweaters for as low as $1!! I kinda went crazy there... haha then I headed home lugging two large bags. I got weird looks on the bus haha. After that I headed over to Zach's apartment & Mikul, Gavin Jenny and I learned how to make homemade pizzas! They actually turned out ridiculously good, like I would say one it was in the top 5 best pizza's I've ever eaten in my entire life. That good! After that I headed to work the night away!
Jenny stayed the night at my place and we spent the morning together again, it was nice to have a roommate again! :) Then I got ready to go see... Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE at the Sydney Opera House!
:D My friend Dave was kind enough to go with me so I wouldn't appear to be so weird going alone haha. It was actually really fun seeing it live! My dream has come true! haha
Then wen headed to Luna Park (the entrance looks like the pic above... it was horrifying...) which is this amusement park on the North side of Sydney Harbour. We hung out there until it was time for the Vivid Festival to begin which has been like this 3 week festival in Sydney with different artists (Yo Gabba Gabba was a part of the festival) and art instilations all around the general theme of Vivid colours and bringing colour to Sydney! So we caught the train back to the Harbour. We got to watch this HUGE projector light up the entire half of the Opera House, it was SO COOL! It was really hard to capture because we were standing really far away for the best view... but this is kinda what it looked like...
The festival also had many other buildings lite up and had different designs that moved and became 3D, the coolest was the building that would like change exterior colors, it was the most 3D design of them all.. so cool to watch!
Then we headed into the city for some good ol' pub food!
Today is Sunday! Went to church this morning, which is always a blessing. I love the fact that I have to walk to church. It is just the perfect amount of time to like clear my head/heart for church. I've probably said this before, but it's just great! Especially when like the sermon was exactly what I was thinking about the entire way to church!! We had some new Aboriginal women who came to church, I got to talk to one of the quite a bit. They were really nice and they're planning on coming back so I'm pumped to get to know them better! I've been learning so much about the Aboriginal history more through both sides of the looking glass. It's really interesting and to be honest so heart breaking. There's so much that even Australians don't know or understand about it. It really makes me realize how much potential this country has. Like there's just so much in store for it I can literally feel the anticipation, and not just on a spiritual level. Anywho after church I went out to thai with some church mates!
I love it here. All of my friends that were once studying abroad are now at home with their families. At first I was expecting this to make me miss and want to be home even more, but it's honestly just making me love this place even more than before. Just thinking about saying goodbye to all the amazing friends I've made here brings tears to my eyes, even though I still have 2 months left here I just feel like 2 months is not enough time!! haha Oh well, I'm just going to pray that God brings me back here... sooner rather than later.... :)
This week's been pretty low key. It was the last week of lectures and tutorials. This next week is our Student Vacation before we have 2 weeks of finals. I only have 3 finals and one final Essay to write. I'm not too stressed about them seeing how I only need to pass my classes. Plus I'm a procrastinator at heart so come this time next week I may indeed feel differently... but until then I shall enjoy my happiness!
The best word to describe this week would just be fun! Tuesday night I headed over the Erin & Jess' apt and Hayley came over and we made a delicious homemade chicken soup and olive and mint bread. I felt pretty legit cooking an entire meal from scratch... even if Jess was the only one who really knew what she was doing ahah. Then we all headed over to church for prayer night, which is always refreshing!
Wednesday I ended up skyping my mother for a good 3 hours which was pretty amazing. That woman is such an inspiration to me. Words literally cannot describe how honored I am to be her daughter. Seriously. I just love talking about her to people here too, so people can actually understand how amazing my mother is! The phrase "she is my hero" is so generic but that's how I feel. That and so much more! So that was really encouraging. Then I headed to work for the rest of the day/night.
Thursday was my very last day of classes! yay! After wards we had our very last Student Life meeting & dinner. It felt so weird just knowing that it was going to be the last! I feel like it was just yesterday that I walked into the first meeting all nervous and now I'm the one welcoming strangers! It was the perfect way to end to semester regardless, we just had time to share what God's doing in us and just take time to encourage and pray for one another. I seriously love my Student Life family! Then I went over to Jenny's appartment for a lil sleep over! Hung out with some of her flat mates, played some old skool N64 Mario Kart, oh yea! haha
Friday I stayed at Jenny's till about noon, then I headed home. I decided to go on a little adventure into Marrackville to find this shop called Supre. I was in a shopping mood but I wasn't in a big city mood so I headed to the suburbs! It was about 30 min out on a bus. It was a pretty dodgy area but I had hope! I eventually found this like factory outlet supre store where everything was ridiculously cheep, right from the factory! They had like dresses & tanks & sweaters for as low as $1!! I kinda went crazy there... haha then I headed home lugging two large bags. I got weird looks on the bus haha. After that I headed over to Zach's apartment & Mikul, Gavin Jenny and I learned how to make homemade pizzas! They actually turned out ridiculously good, like I would say one it was in the top 5 best pizza's I've ever eaten in my entire life. That good! After that I headed to work the night away!
Jenny stayed the night at my place and we spent the morning together again, it was nice to have a roommate again! :) Then I got ready to go see... Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE at the Sydney Opera House!
:D My friend Dave was kind enough to go with me so I wouldn't appear to be so weird going alone haha. It was actually really fun seeing it live! My dream has come true! haha
Then wen headed to Luna Park (the entrance looks like the pic above... it was horrifying...) which is this amusement park on the North side of Sydney Harbour. We hung out there until it was time for the Vivid Festival to begin which has been like this 3 week festival in Sydney with different artists (Yo Gabba Gabba was a part of the festival) and art instilations all around the general theme of Vivid colours and bringing colour to Sydney! So we caught the train back to the Harbour. We got to watch this HUGE projector light up the entire half of the Opera House, it was SO COOL! It was really hard to capture because we were standing really far away for the best view... but this is kinda what it looked like...
The festival also had many other buildings lite up and had different designs that moved and became 3D, the coolest was the building that would like change exterior colors, it was the most 3D design of them all.. so cool to watch!
Then we headed into the city for some good ol' pub food!
Today is Sunday! Went to church this morning, which is always a blessing. I love the fact that I have to walk to church. It is just the perfect amount of time to like clear my head/heart for church. I've probably said this before, but it's just great! Especially when like the sermon was exactly what I was thinking about the entire way to church!! We had some new Aboriginal women who came to church, I got to talk to one of the quite a bit. They were really nice and they're planning on coming back so I'm pumped to get to know them better! I've been learning so much about the Aboriginal history more through both sides of the looking glass. It's really interesting and to be honest so heart breaking. There's so much that even Australians don't know or understand about it. It really makes me realize how much potential this country has. Like there's just so much in store for it I can literally feel the anticipation, and not just on a spiritual level. Anywho after church I went out to thai with some church mates!
I love it here. All of my friends that were once studying abroad are now at home with their families. At first I was expecting this to make me miss and want to be home even more, but it's honestly just making me love this place even more than before. Just thinking about saying goodbye to all the amazing friends I've made here brings tears to my eyes, even though I still have 2 months left here I just feel like 2 months is not enough time!! haha Oh well, I'm just going to pray that God brings me back here... sooner rather than later.... :)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A Heavy Ration of Rain
So, I know you're all so curious as to what our adventure was attempting to discover last Saturday...
We started out at a beautiful lookout about an hour or so out of the city, it was cloudy but it was still a pretty sweet look out over Sydney. Then we made our way to Dee Why Beach where we planned to explore the land to discover where this treasure might lay.
We looked high and low, in the ocean, across the sands and even through the near by bush but alas there was no hope. What is this treasure you might ask? Ok so it's not really treasure... well kinda but not really. So Erin and Jess have been watching AU Master Chef and one of the contestants are rather good looking....
He works as a life guard at Dee Why beach and we were hoping to find him there... hahah I know we're stalkers but it gave us a really entertaining laugh to attempt to actually find him!
After that we made our way up the northern beaches, to Whale Beach, Palm Bach and a few others. Basically spent the whole day walking on beaches, watching sailors and finding hiking trails. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (apart from the clouds) ! We even stuck our fingers in sea anemone's, it feels soo weird!!
We ended the day with going out for steaks (except for I don't like steaks so I just got veggies & mash). I discovered that I finally like green beans!! I have never liked them EVER but now I do! yay!
Sunday I went to church, the worked. Kinda a boring day... Then I finally caved in a got new tea...
Vanilla and Rooibos = love.
Today I went to lectures & tutorials. It's the last week of classes! Whoo!
It has been cloudy for like 5 days now. I miss the sun. It's be POURING rain for about 24 hrs now. The streets and side walks are literally rivers. I walked down to my gelato shop for some hot chocolate and my greek gelato mama gave me more gelato and cookies and gelato... I told her she was making me fat... her reasoning for making me fat is that now when I go back to America I won't be blown away in all the tornadoes! hahaha I love her.
Now I'm off to check out an African Eatery with David!
Let's hope I don't drown in the side walk! haha
We started out at a beautiful lookout about an hour or so out of the city, it was cloudy but it was still a pretty sweet look out over Sydney. Then we made our way to Dee Why Beach where we planned to explore the land to discover where this treasure might lay.
We looked high and low, in the ocean, across the sands and even through the near by bush but alas there was no hope. What is this treasure you might ask? Ok so it's not really treasure... well kinda but not really. So Erin and Jess have been watching AU Master Chef and one of the contestants are rather good looking....
He works as a life guard at Dee Why beach and we were hoping to find him there... hahah I know we're stalkers but it gave us a really entertaining laugh to attempt to actually find him!
After that we made our way up the northern beaches, to Whale Beach, Palm Bach and a few others. Basically spent the whole day walking on beaches, watching sailors and finding hiking trails. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (apart from the clouds) ! We even stuck our fingers in sea anemone's, it feels soo weird!!
Sunday I went to church, the worked. Kinda a boring day... Then I finally caved in a got new tea...
Vanilla and Rooibos = love.
Today I went to lectures & tutorials. It's the last week of classes! Whoo!
It has been cloudy for like 5 days now. I miss the sun. It's be POURING rain for about 24 hrs now. The streets and side walks are literally rivers. I walked down to my gelato shop for some hot chocolate and my greek gelato mama gave me more gelato and cookies and gelato... I told her she was making me fat... her reasoning for making me fat is that now when I go back to America I won't be blown away in all the tornadoes! hahaha I love her.
Now I'm off to check out an African Eatery with David!
Let's hope I don't drown in the side walk! haha
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Surprises & Melbourne
So glad to report that I successfully survived all of my homework assignments!! Unfortunatly that was indeed ages ago so I have a lot to write about!
So my birthday was on the 12th of May and little did I know that it was about to honestly be the best birthday that I've ever had in my entire life! In the beginning of the month I was a bit sad that I was going to have my 21st away from home, family and friends so I had just planned on getting together with a few friends for a little Mexican dinner then going salsa dancing with whoever else wanted to come along (this is basically what I do for all of my birthdays.... lets be honest, it's the only time I can get people to actually try salsa dancing!). The day of my actual birthday was quite stressful because I had a presentation I had to do alone in one of my classes, but it ended up going really well so I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day! That night Carrie came back to Sydney and planned on staying for week and a half! That Friday night Carrie and I were able to go on a cruise, basically for free using my student credit so we danced the night away under the Sydney Harbour lights, it was amazing! The next day we had planned on going to the beach but knowing our indecisive selves we ended up just have a lazy day at my place. That night we headed over to Erin's place where I had planned on having dinner with a few close friends. When we go there I could smell the food from down the stairs so I had assumed that they had started cooking without me... little did I know that Erin was going to lead me into a dark room, wher upon turning on the lights a ton of people screamed "suprise" at me! I was so ridiculously overwhealmed I had no idea what to do with myself! Erin and Carrie had planned an entire surpise party without my knowledge! I still to this day don't understand how this was even possible! Anywho Erin's roommate (my future housemate) even made me a koala cake!
After the party came to a close some of us went out to a salsa dancing club! It wasn't the same as good ol' Famous Daves or The Loring Pasta Bar... no one knows how to salsa like Minneapolis! Well ok... maybe South America, but other than that... haha
The next morning I woke up & headed to church then Pancakes on the rocks with my Canberra buddies, then spent the arvo chilling in the harbour, then worked at night!
The next week Carrie and I went on multiple adventures! On that Tuesday we took a day trip to Katoomba where the Blue Mountains are located. We did a 4 hour hike through the mountains and got fantastic views of the Katoomba falls and The Three Sisters, here are some pix:
Here's my nerdy tourist picture with the Three Sisters:
here's a photo of the falls after 2 hrs:
The hike was pretty intense... we had to go up 47948394853489 stairs and down 4857398437 stairs. Our calves hurt for a good 4 days after this hike! After the day we were pretty tired, slept on the train home and all. We went to bed early becase Carrie had a big day ahead of her....
The next day Carrie went sky diving! Our friend Michael (aka Zebra Cakes) came up from Canberra to go sky diving with Carrie, I'm saving up my money for bungee jumping when I get to New Zealand so I decided to sit this one out. I got to be their personal photographer for the day, which was actually pretty fun! It was so pretty to watch them fall from the sky (that sounds horrible... but look, it's pretty!)
Then afterwards we headed to Zebra Cake's house! His family is from El Salvador and his mother made us some delicious food, it was sooooo good! We hung out there for a bit and took a look at Carrie & Zebra Cakes sky diving videos!
On Thursday I acutally had to go to my lectures & tuts so I did so, after that Carrie & I headed to the Student Life meeting & dinner. Carrie had to say her goodbyes to everyone there because that was the last time she would be able to see them! After dinner we did some final packing then we were off to Melbourne! It was quite hectic at the airport... we decided to fly really cheap... but unfortunatly with cheap flying comes cheap service...the flight before us was cancelled so by the time Carrie and I got there, there were many upset customrs, it was like a mini angry mob... and we were scared that our flight was going to be cancelled too... luckily it wasn't! We got on our flight at 10:30pm and landed at about 11:30. The family we stayed with were kind enough to come and pick us up at such a late hour, even though they live a good hour away from the airport!
This family was honestly one of the best parts about being in Melbourne. They are friends with one of Carrie's aunts and didn't even know us but they were kind enough to invite us into their home and so much more! We had an A-maz-ing bed to sleep in and our very own room! Rob & Lynn basically became our parents for the weekend. They made sure we had a homecooked meal or some sort of food for every meal and even bought us tonsss of snacks throughout the entire weekend! On Friday Carrie I caught the train into the city and just spent the day exploring and looking around. We checked out Federation square and the many allyways filled with packed coffee shops. I even introduced Carrie to Macaroons, my new all time love. I'm straight up hooooooked! Then we just had a lazy Friday night snuggled up in bed watching movies. It felt really good just to snuggle in a bed in a house hold with hot chocolate! The next day Rob & Lynn filled the car with snacks and took us down the Great Ocean Road! I think we drove for about 7 or 8 hours total the entire day, but we stopped often to take pictues and stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch on the shore. Here are some pics from the drive!
After the long drive we headed back home where all of Rob & Lynn's children had prepared a meal for us! On Sunday we headed to church, then after church we hit up the Rose Street Markets where there are tons of local artists who sell photography, clothes and much more! We spent some time just walking around the area and checking out all the cheque and indie stores. After that we headed back to church for a youth service and ended the night getting gyros and just chillin. I was pretty tired by the end of Sunday!
Our flight wsa on Monday morning so we were able to say our goodbyes to some of the family in the moring, then Lynn drove us to the airport. We got back to Sydney around 1ish and we were both so tired! Carrie did some final packing, then we headed to Central Station so she could catch her bus back to Canberra! I said goodbye to her at the station... I won't see here for another two months now! That is the longest we will have ever been apart! I know it sounds pathetic but its going to be really wierd....
The rest of this week has been pretty usual, on Wednesday there were really bad winds and raid so I decided to take a personal day. I literally stayed in my room and just relaxed and skyped home allll day. It was really rejuvinating and just what I needed! I feel like my time here is honestly turning me into an introvert. I legit enjoyed staying in a room by myself for an entire day! So unlike me, but I really really loved it! Last night after the Student Life meeting about 10 of us headed to the movies! Normally movie tickets are about $22 but we got some super student discount thing through Sydney Uni so we were able to go for $9!! We decided to see Pirates of the Carrabean 4. Seeing a movie in Oz was one of the things I get to cross of my Oz bucket list yay! Then four of us girls headed over to Jenn's appartment and had a little sleepover, silly dancing, movie making, giggling and all! It was really nice to be able to get to know some of these girls better! :)
This morning we all got up and made oments and tea together, some of the girls had to leave pretty early but I was able to just chill with Jenney for most of the morning. Then I caught the bus back to Newtown, gave my roome a thourough cleaning then headed over to Erins, where I am currently! We're going to spend the arvo together and head out to town for dinner! Then my friend Kathryn from church is having a birthday party out at Sydney Harbour so I'm gonna get a pretty and hit up the city! :)
Tomorrow Erin Jess & I are planning on doing a massive hike on the coast line a few hours from Sydney... we're on a hunt for something... I'll tell you what it is next time... gotta leave you waiting with something to look forward to! :D
So my birthday was on the 12th of May and little did I know that it was about to honestly be the best birthday that I've ever had in my entire life! In the beginning of the month I was a bit sad that I was going to have my 21st away from home, family and friends so I had just planned on getting together with a few friends for a little Mexican dinner then going salsa dancing with whoever else wanted to come along (this is basically what I do for all of my birthdays.... lets be honest, it's the only time I can get people to actually try salsa dancing!). The day of my actual birthday was quite stressful because I had a presentation I had to do alone in one of my classes, but it ended up going really well so I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day! That night Carrie came back to Sydney and planned on staying for week and a half! That Friday night Carrie and I were able to go on a cruise, basically for free using my student credit so we danced the night away under the Sydney Harbour lights, it was amazing! The next day we had planned on going to the beach but knowing our indecisive selves we ended up just have a lazy day at my place. That night we headed over to Erin's place where I had planned on having dinner with a few close friends. When we go there I could smell the food from down the stairs so I had assumed that they had started cooking without me... little did I know that Erin was going to lead me into a dark room, wher upon turning on the lights a ton of people screamed "suprise" at me! I was so ridiculously overwhealmed I had no idea what to do with myself! Erin and Carrie had planned an entire surpise party without my knowledge! I still to this day don't understand how this was even possible! Anywho Erin's roommate (my future housemate) even made me a koala cake!
I was physically like shaking the entier night because I couldn't believe my eyes! There were friends from Uni, Church, SUV (where I live) and even some friends from other Uni's too! They prepared and entire taco meal that we ate, followed by cake and ice cream! Then Erin announced another surprise and ushered everyone into the sanctuary (Erin, Jess and Ricardo live in the appt in the chruch so we had access to the whole space). We all sat down and I nervously awaited what was going to happen. Then the screen lit up and there were videos from all of my friends and family at home! Some of them were hillarious (part of what was so funny was that everyone was watching my crazy friends to weird things that no one understood but Carrie and I! haah) but some of them were extreemly touching. I was basically either crying or laughing through the entire thing. Still in shock that not only everyone around me here in Oz knew about this party but also everyone at home! I felt truly universally loved! After the videos were over a few of my aussie friends, Carrie & Erin gave speeches about me! I could not handel the love! It was so encouraging, words cannot explain how amazing this entire night was! Then we took a group picture, here's the majority of the poeople that were present:
Then some friends from Canberra came up, even they knew about the surprise! After that we all just hung out and talked... and even made a fool of ourselves... all in great fun....
The next morning I woke up & headed to church then Pancakes on the rocks with my Canberra buddies, then spent the arvo chilling in the harbour, then worked at night!
The next week Carrie and I went on multiple adventures! On that Tuesday we took a day trip to Katoomba where the Blue Mountains are located. We did a 4 hour hike through the mountains and got fantastic views of the Katoomba falls and The Three Sisters, here are some pix:
Here's my nerdy tourist picture with the Three Sisters:
The next day Carrie went sky diving! Our friend Michael (aka Zebra Cakes) came up from Canberra to go sky diving with Carrie, I'm saving up my money for bungee jumping when I get to New Zealand so I decided to sit this one out. I got to be their personal photographer for the day, which was actually pretty fun! It was so pretty to watch them fall from the sky (that sounds horrible... but look, it's pretty!)
Then afterwards we headed to Zebra Cake's house! His family is from El Salvador and his mother made us some delicious food, it was sooooo good! We hung out there for a bit and took a look at Carrie & Zebra Cakes sky diving videos!
On Thursday I acutally had to go to my lectures & tuts so I did so, after that Carrie & I headed to the Student Life meeting & dinner. Carrie had to say her goodbyes to everyone there because that was the last time she would be able to see them! After dinner we did some final packing then we were off to Melbourne! It was quite hectic at the airport... we decided to fly really cheap... but unfortunatly with cheap flying comes cheap service...the flight before us was cancelled so by the time Carrie and I got there, there were many upset customrs, it was like a mini angry mob... and we were scared that our flight was going to be cancelled too... luckily it wasn't! We got on our flight at 10:30pm and landed at about 11:30. The family we stayed with were kind enough to come and pick us up at such a late hour, even though they live a good hour away from the airport!
This family was honestly one of the best parts about being in Melbourne. They are friends with one of Carrie's aunts and didn't even know us but they were kind enough to invite us into their home and so much more! We had an A-maz-ing bed to sleep in and our very own room! Rob & Lynn basically became our parents for the weekend. They made sure we had a homecooked meal or some sort of food for every meal and even bought us tonsss of snacks throughout the entire weekend! On Friday Carrie I caught the train into the city and just spent the day exploring and looking around. We checked out Federation square and the many allyways filled with packed coffee shops. I even introduced Carrie to Macaroons, my new all time love. I'm straight up hooooooked! Then we just had a lazy Friday night snuggled up in bed watching movies. It felt really good just to snuggle in a bed in a house hold with hot chocolate! The next day Rob & Lynn filled the car with snacks and took us down the Great Ocean Road! I think we drove for about 7 or 8 hours total the entire day, but we stopped often to take pictues and stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch on the shore. Here are some pics from the drive!
We even did some planking..... for those who do not know here is the definition of planking:
Planking is the act of lying face down with arms to the sides of the body, in unusual public spaces and photographing it.... look it up... it's hillarious...
Our flight wsa on Monday morning so we were able to say our goodbyes to some of the family in the moring, then Lynn drove us to the airport. We got back to Sydney around 1ish and we were both so tired! Carrie did some final packing, then we headed to Central Station so she could catch her bus back to Canberra! I said goodbye to her at the station... I won't see here for another two months now! That is the longest we will have ever been apart! I know it sounds pathetic but its going to be really wierd....
The rest of this week has been pretty usual, on Wednesday there were really bad winds and raid so I decided to take a personal day. I literally stayed in my room and just relaxed and skyped home allll day. It was really rejuvinating and just what I needed! I feel like my time here is honestly turning me into an introvert. I legit enjoyed staying in a room by myself for an entire day! So unlike me, but I really really loved it! Last night after the Student Life meeting about 10 of us headed to the movies! Normally movie tickets are about $22 but we got some super student discount thing through Sydney Uni so we were able to go for $9!! We decided to see Pirates of the Carrabean 4. Seeing a movie in Oz was one of the things I get to cross of my Oz bucket list yay! Then four of us girls headed over to Jenn's appartment and had a little sleepover, silly dancing, movie making, giggling and all! It was really nice to be able to get to know some of these girls better! :)
This morning we all got up and made oments and tea together, some of the girls had to leave pretty early but I was able to just chill with Jenney for most of the morning. Then I caught the bus back to Newtown, gave my roome a thourough cleaning then headed over to Erins, where I am currently! We're going to spend the arvo together and head out to town for dinner! Then my friend Kathryn from church is having a birthday party out at Sydney Harbour so I'm gonna get a pretty and hit up the city! :)
Tomorrow Erin Jess & I are planning on doing a massive hike on the coast line a few hours from Sydney... we're on a hunt for something... I'll tell you what it is next time... gotta leave you waiting with something to look forward to! :D
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Oh my Peach Pie!
Yesterday was the day of turn around for me!
Started off the day with getting out of bed late but I'm glad that I did because I had perfect timing for walking to church! On the way to church I pass this park and every week there are families with their young ones have a breaky picnic (which is apparently pretty common here). This week I could hear a kid singing at the top of his voice so I looked around trying to find out which kid was singing, it took me about half a block of looking before I realized that he was in the tree right in front of me singing directly at me and his parents were watching and laughing from afar! It seriously made my day it was so funny! It also got me thinking about how fun it would be to sit in a tree and just sing to the people who pass you by. How lovely! :) It also made me really want to have a family of my own one day.
Church was really good this week. It was a bit overwhelming during the service, oddly enough the subject of focus was blessings on marriages so during worship I was just praying about my future husband and just clarity as far as relationships go as I'm coming to the end of my fasting time (I've been fasting from romantic relationships for a almost a year and a half now). All of a sudden at the end of one of the songs the pastors wife gets up and grabs the mic and looks right at me and says, "as I was worshiping I looked back and saw Dinnah and just saw anointing oi just flowing over her head as she was worshiping and I think that we should just pray for the renewal and new chapter that God is bringing to her life" !!! She asked the people around me to lay hands and the entire church prayed for me right in the middle of the service! I was so blown away I like didn't even know what to do! It was pretty cool just to receive that encouragement... from the entire church ahah
After church there was a shared lunch so we all ate together. We sat and talked for a good 2 hours, it was so lovely & refreshing after spending so many days alone in my room! Afterwards Jess (who lives in the apartment attached to the church) gave me a ride home and insisted that I took some pie home with me. I agreed and about five minutes later she pulls it out of the oven. I had no idea that she had just baked it! It was really delicious... it didn't even make it back to my room... I ate it within the 5 min car ride home haha I forgot how amazing peach pie truly is!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library doing research, then headed back to my place for dinner and writing. After about 3 hours of consistent writing I got soooo unmotivated... around midnight I decided to nap, then wake up at 3am to finish my assignments...accidentally set the wrong alarm and woke up at 6 instead... :/ So I was able to finish one assignment but the other is just going to have to be handed in late...
I was able to skype my whole family, including cousins/aunts/uncles all at the same time this morning! :) It was mothers day at home and they all were celebrating at my house so I was able to see them. It was so fun, and quite enjoyably hectic skyping so many people all at the same time!! haha
Tonight: Work till 11 then finish paper #2!
Started off the day with getting out of bed late but I'm glad that I did because I had perfect timing for walking to church! On the way to church I pass this park and every week there are families with their young ones have a breaky picnic (which is apparently pretty common here). This week I could hear a kid singing at the top of his voice so I looked around trying to find out which kid was singing, it took me about half a block of looking before I realized that he was in the tree right in front of me singing directly at me and his parents were watching and laughing from afar! It seriously made my day it was so funny! It also got me thinking about how fun it would be to sit in a tree and just sing to the people who pass you by. How lovely! :) It also made me really want to have a family of my own one day.
Church was really good this week. It was a bit overwhelming during the service, oddly enough the subject of focus was blessings on marriages so during worship I was just praying about my future husband and just clarity as far as relationships go as I'm coming to the end of my fasting time (I've been fasting from romantic relationships for a almost a year and a half now). All of a sudden at the end of one of the songs the pastors wife gets up and grabs the mic and looks right at me and says, "as I was worshiping I looked back and saw Dinnah and just saw anointing oi just flowing over her head as she was worshiping and I think that we should just pray for the renewal and new chapter that God is bringing to her life" !!! She asked the people around me to lay hands and the entire church prayed for me right in the middle of the service! I was so blown away I like didn't even know what to do! It was pretty cool just to receive that encouragement... from the entire church ahah
After church there was a shared lunch so we all ate together. We sat and talked for a good 2 hours, it was so lovely & refreshing after spending so many days alone in my room! Afterwards Jess (who lives in the apartment attached to the church) gave me a ride home and insisted that I took some pie home with me. I agreed and about five minutes later she pulls it out of the oven. I had no idea that she had just baked it! It was really delicious... it didn't even make it back to my room... I ate it within the 5 min car ride home haha I forgot how amazing peach pie truly is!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library doing research, then headed back to my place for dinner and writing. After about 3 hours of consistent writing I got soooo unmotivated... around midnight I decided to nap, then wake up at 3am to finish my assignments...accidentally set the wrong alarm and woke up at 6 instead... :/ So I was able to finish one assignment but the other is just going to have to be handed in late...
I was able to skype my whole family, including cousins/aunts/uncles all at the same time this morning! :) It was mothers day at home and they all were celebrating at my house so I was able to see them. It was so fun, and quite enjoyably hectic skyping so many people all at the same time!! haha
Tonight: Work till 11 then finish paper #2!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Defeated
I was sooo keen on pulling so many all nighters this week and and DEFEATING school, when in reality I just ended up getting sick and therefor completely defeated by sickness and school. Double whammy.
I was able to totally murder my Pych 1001 essay but the day after I turned it in I woke up feeling horrible. I've spent the majority of the last three days in bed, drinking tea, eating oats and attempting to gather up some brain energy to work on my other major papers due this week but it's mostly been a fail.... there's just too much sinus pressure in my head. It basically hurts to move my body or my head and my throat's soar so eating & breathing hurts too. I just keep telling myself that in exactly one week all of my assignments will be done, turned in and presented, I will be feeling all better, Carrie will be back to visit and it shall be my birthday! So much happiness in one weekend, it's overwhelming to think about it! :)
Until then it's back to bed & more reading & writing. This is the first weekend in a longggg time where I literally have absolutely nothing planned (not including one shift at work). It's peace and rest time.
I was able to totally murder my Pych 1001 essay but the day after I turned it in I woke up feeling horrible. I've spent the majority of the last three days in bed, drinking tea, eating oats and attempting to gather up some brain energy to work on my other major papers due this week but it's mostly been a fail.... there's just too much sinus pressure in my head. It basically hurts to move my body or my head and my throat's soar so eating & breathing hurts too. I just keep telling myself that in exactly one week all of my assignments will be done, turned in and presented, I will be feeling all better, Carrie will be back to visit and it shall be my birthday! So much happiness in one weekend, it's overwhelming to think about it! :)
Until then it's back to bed & more reading & writing. This is the first weekend in a longggg time where I literally have absolutely nothing planned (not including one shift at work). It's peace and rest time.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Beauty & Tea
Am I beautiful because you love me, or do you love me because I am beautiful?
This was the subject matter of an essay I had to write for my Love In Different Languages class a few weeks ago. Although I've already turned the paper in, every time I think of beauty this question comes to my mind again. Just somethin to think about...
Today was one of those, "I feel pretty" days. I got up early, and intentionally put together an out fit, unfortunately SUV was yet again having hot water issues so no shower for me. Regardless I wasn't going to let that ruin my pretty day. I've devoted this day to studying and writing two huge papers that I have due at the end of this week, both of which I haven't really started until today. It's just easier to do homework when you look pretty. So I set out on a cafe hop. I sat at one cafe between 2-3 hours before moving on to the next, ordering a different type of tea at every one (since tea's the cheapest & most delicious drink!). Throughout the day I had a total of 5 random strangers on the street or in these various coffee shops stop to tell me that I looked beautiful and they loved my outfit/skirt/eyes. Let's just say it was a very self esteem boosting day. It's crazy how much such a little compliment from a complete stranger can mean so much more than just looking in the mirror and thinking, 'i look pretty today'. I really need to compliment others more often, especially those I don't even know. To top off my pretty day my favorite fashion blog, that happens to be written by my best friend featured me today :)
Check it: http://colourmelange.blogspot.com/
It was really fun to be able to go cafe hopping. I discovered my favorite spot on King St. It's at the Buzzbar Cafe just past Enmore and it has a little back room that is filled with plants and Christmas lights. It is just quiet enough to get work done yet there's the buzz of conversations from the next room accompanied by the sounds of the busy road to keep the mind at a perfect level of distraction. It was perfect.
Now I'm off to dinner at Erins, both of her housemates are gone so I'm going to keep her company... and pray that I have enough self control to get all of my work done.
Day 1 of Homework Death Week has not overcome me yet!
This was the subject matter of an essay I had to write for my Love In Different Languages class a few weeks ago. Although I've already turned the paper in, every time I think of beauty this question comes to my mind again. Just somethin to think about...
Today was one of those, "I feel pretty" days. I got up early, and intentionally put together an out fit, unfortunately SUV was yet again having hot water issues so no shower for me. Regardless I wasn't going to let that ruin my pretty day. I've devoted this day to studying and writing two huge papers that I have due at the end of this week, both of which I haven't really started until today. It's just easier to do homework when you look pretty. So I set out on a cafe hop. I sat at one cafe between 2-3 hours before moving on to the next, ordering a different type of tea at every one (since tea's the cheapest & most delicious drink!). Throughout the day I had a total of 5 random strangers on the street or in these various coffee shops stop to tell me that I looked beautiful and they loved my outfit/skirt/eyes. Let's just say it was a very self esteem boosting day. It's crazy how much such a little compliment from a complete stranger can mean so much more than just looking in the mirror and thinking, 'i look pretty today'. I really need to compliment others more often, especially those I don't even know. To top off my pretty day my favorite fashion blog, that happens to be written by my best friend featured me today :)
Check it: http://colourmelange.blogspot.com/
It was really fun to be able to go cafe hopping. I discovered my favorite spot on King St. It's at the Buzzbar Cafe just past Enmore and it has a little back room that is filled with plants and Christmas lights. It is just quiet enough to get work done yet there's the buzz of conversations from the next room accompanied by the sounds of the busy road to keep the mind at a perfect level of distraction. It was perfect.
Now I'm off to dinner at Erins, both of her housemates are gone so I'm going to keep her company... and pray that I have enough self control to get all of my work done.
Day 1 of Homework Death Week has not overcome me yet!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
It's been a long time...
I literally do not remember the last time I write anything in this blog or anything of my own. Things here have really picked up the pace! Its crazy how when you have a ton of time on your hands its so much easier to take note of that time where as when your busy time doesn’t become something we even think of! A lot has happened in this past month!
At the end of March Carrie came and stayed with me for two weeks, which is always a good time! She came to all of my lectures and had to hang out in my room during my tutorials and when I had to work. It was such a refreshing time to have a roomie again! :) We walked from Boni Beach to Coogoo Beach along the coast line, there is a path all along the coast line for hikers, you can literally hike and camp for days! The walk took about an hour and a half, then we just spent some time hanging out at Coogee for a while, took a nap in the sun! One of the coolest things that we saw were these pools that were made of rocks that allowed the ocean water to fill the pool without there being waves so people could swim laps and smaller kids could enjoy a safer ocean!
Here’s some pix from the walk!
We also had the opportunity to hear Shane Claiborne speak for free! He came to Sydney University and spoke on the power of prayer and had a Q&A after his talk. It was realy impactful and put things into perspective for me. One of the things he’s said that has been echoing in my head was, “we pray to God asking him to send someone to do something, and God is answering our prayers saying, “I did, I sent you!”’ Just speaking on the active part of prayer that we so often forget.
The next weekend was pretty fun packed! On Saturday a few close friends of mine were having a Hip Hop Housewarming party! So Carrie and I got dressed up all gansta’ (yes I had a fro) and rocked on over there!
We looked like this:
They had built a half pipe themselves for people to skate on and hung a ton of glow sticks from the ceiling, they even got a smoke machine and strobe lights! It was hoppin, but we couldn’t stay too long because we had another party to go to! Haha My friend Joel was turning 21 so we headed over to his part afterwards. I seriously love 21st birthday parties here! They are so sentimental, like they are truly celebrating that person with songs, poems, hand made book stories and more! Every 21st party I’ve been to has been so touching!
Then Carrie left :(
The next weekend I went on a retreat to Heathcote, which is about an hour out of the city for a retreat with Student Life! The theme was White Hot Faith! We stayed in cabins in rooms of four and had speaker and activity filled days! We also had small group worshops on how to make a greater impact on our campus. The small groups are what convicted me the most. I’ve been a Christian my whole life, I go to Bethel University and I’ve takena course in Christian Apologetics, but none of that has actually taught me how to evangelize with my friends in everyday life. How to answer their questions in a way they will understand and how truly important evangelism actually is. One thing that we get to do in student life is go out surveying people. It’s a short survey with pretty deep questions that pave the way for opening up casual conversation about Christianity. We literally just walk up to students on campus and start talking to them. It is absolutely amazing as to how many people legitimately have no idea about Jesus. They may have heard of Christianity but when I ask them who they think Jesus is they say, “I don’t know, no ones ever told me!” It’s really opened my eyes to how this world really hasn’t heard the news!
The other aspect of Connexions I really enjoyed was just the community. There were about 4 other Student Life groups from other universities so it was a pretty big group. I made it a point to be sure to talk to people from other uni’s so it wasn’t a hug clicky event. It was so fun! Everyone there were just genuinely amazing people! I’ve got plans to meet up with a ton of them before I leave and a few of them might even come to the stated later on this year so I might get to see them at home!
Here’s a picture of the whole group!:
The next week a few Canadian girls came into the Gelato Shop and we got to talking. They apparently worked for this family with two autistic girls and were looking for another person to work for them! I told them I would gladly do it! So it was a pretty busy week for me! There was some schedule mix up at the shop so I just picked up all the extra shifts, I worked 5 days that week! On Friday I went for training with the autistic girls, then after that work I had to go to the Gelato shop so I ended up working a 14 hour day! It was absolutely insane! After a lot of consideration and prayer I decided not to take on the 2nd job. I figured I could rearrange my schedule to incorporate both but it was too much of a bother and I don’t need the money that badly. The next day I spent with Erin (she’s a missionary from the US who’s working with Student Life, she’s become my closest friend here and has been a HUGE encouragement to me!!). Then I went to Jess’ 21st birthday party! On the way there I accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop so I ended up walking like 2k in the rain… hahah but I made it there and it was a load of fun!
Last week was pretty busy mostly with activities and such. On Wednesday I had bought my bus ticket to Canberra to leave on Thursday at 3pm. I went over to Erins on Weds for dinner & board games & to do my laundry (she lets me use her facilities for free!). I spent the night there then headed home on Thurs morning. As I was packing and trying to figure out what homework I needed to bring to Canberra with me (all of my major assignments worth like 20-45% of my grade are due in the next two weeks!) I discovered that I had a 2500 workd paper for my Love in Different Languages Class due at 4pm. That. Day. Worth 45% of my final grade. OF which I had not started or had finished the readings because I thought it was due the next week… I sat at my computer and speed read/wrote while my hands were literally shaking I was so nervous! I stopped myself at 1:30 to just turn in what I had because otherwise I would have missed my buss and I hadn’t even packed yet! The paper was about 1700 words long…. I’m just praying that the professor will have mercy on me, although considering I’m going to Sydney Uni, the hardest Uni in all of Australia I feel like that is highly unlikely :( Nonetheless I got on the buss to Canberra just in time!
It was a 3 hr buss ride and it felt like heaven after such a high stress day! When I got to Canberra I was welcomed by Carrie and her friend Ashley. They took me to a Mexican restaurant that actually tasted like Mexican food! Aussies just can’t do Mexican food right like anywhere else. I miss Chipotle!!! Haha Then we headed over to someones house for a LOTR move marathon. Carrie and I were soooo hyper so we didn’t last too long in the silence haha.
Our Easter Sunday was kind of a fail. Haha We wanted to get to church that morning so we got up and walked to the church we had looked up online and had walked past the day before. It was all closed up, no church there…. So we ended up just going grocery shopping because we had no food left. It felt so weird grocery shopping on Easter morning! Then we decided to make some lunch and discovered how to make No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies! The ended up being piles of goop that never really hardened… but we ate them anyways! Haha That night we got a ride to another Church service. IT was a really good Easter sermon. I really missed my family all day. I couldn’t imagine spending another holiday without them!!
Monday was Anzac day which is like a day in honor of the Australian and New Zealand Armies. They had a few events going on but it was like impossible for us to get there via bus so we didn’t. We ended up visiting th Old Parliament house which was really cool, it was a really interactive museum so we had a lot of fun! Then we had a mini picnic in the Parliament rose gardens. The sun was starting to set so it was the most beautiful sight, and smell just to sit and eat there! We spent the rest of the night just watching movies and chillin with a few friends
Last night Carrie’s friend Zoro took drove us to the top of Mount Ainsley which is this mountain that overlooks the entire city. It was absolutely gorgeous at night with all of the lights! The mount is in direct view of the old/new parliament house and you can see the beautiful structure of the city beautifully from up there! An American called Griffith designed Canberra so it’s extremely symmetrical and really pretty to look at! I think it’s pretty funny that an American designed the Capitol of Australia… haha
I’ve been in Canberra for almost a week now! It’s been hard to really do anything because the bus services have been on a weird schedule because of Easter & Anzac day… so we’ve had a TON of just chill time. Today is when classes begin again so I’m planning on working on my mega assignments while she’s in classes. I have a lot to catch up on as far as school goes… I’ve pretty much not done anyschool work thus far to be honest! It’s hard to be motivated to do good when I know that the grades aren’t going to transfer back to Bethel anyways.. it’s a pass/fail status that I’ll get, so as long as I pass the class I’ll be good to go! (and you only need a 50% to pass a class here hahhaha).
It still blows my mind how much God has truly provided for me here. He proves his faithfulness SO MUCH! I just feel so blessed to even have this opportunity to be here. Every person I have met has been such an encouragement to me relationally and spiritually, weather they’re Christian or not. I love this place more than words!
Shout out to alla my prayer warriors out there, it would be awesome if ya’ll could lift me up! I’ve been really struggling with a decision this past week. I have the opportunity to stay here an extra month, with a place to stay for free and I get to keep my job. It sounds like the perfect set up, but I’m really struggling to decided weather I should just return home and work as planned and catch up with everyone I miss so much and rest before starting my position as an RA and possibly my Psychology Internship next semester. It’s going to be a hectic one next year…. But staying here is honestly an opportunity of a life time! So if you could just pray that God would just tell me what to do that would be amazing! :)
Well I must get back to actually doing my school work now!
To all who are reading this: I MISS YOU!!!! And thanks for caring! :)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
I'm a Liar
Consistency in my blogging abilities haven't changed... hahaha On to more summaries, this weeks been a crazy one!
Tuesday (15th): Alicia and Gina, two girls who go to Substance Church back in MN arrived today! They were supposed to arrive in the morning but their flight was majorly delayed, then they got lost in Sydney so I spent most of the day worried about them. They got to my place safely eventually and all was well! Then I was off to a Prayer meeting at Eternity.
Wednesday (16th): Gina &Alica took me out to breakfast as a 'thank-you' for letting them stay with me. It was absolutely delicious. Biggest breakfast I've had in my entire life. Hands down. Then I had class, Prayer meeting on campus, Bible study, work. Exciting I know. haha
Thursday (17th): Class, Student Life meeting and dinner afterward. I met these three other unit students that are from the East Coast USA (Gavin, Michael and Zach) that are here for the semester as well and they live only two buildings over from me! I also met another Psych student who is in one of my classes. Although I've never seen here and probably will never see her in class because our class is massive... but at least I know her!
Friday (17th): No class day, yay! I wasn't really able to sleep in because Alicia & Gina were up early, they're going to the Colour Conference at Hillsong this weekend so they were up pretty early most mornings. Went to work (accidentally cut myself... I've shed a lot of blood this week haha). Then Gavin, Micheal & Zach invited me over for dinner. They made me a fabulous chicken Parmesan with veggies, garlic toast and all! It was fun to hang out and get to know them better. They are really great people. Then they introduced me to Liz & Xavier, two of their other friends. Xavier was going to a Dub Step concert and invited us along so Zach and I decided to join them!
We got to the concert at about 10pm and the line was ridiculously long. We waited for about an hour but the club was at full capacity so they sent us all away. I was really looking forward to just dancing. So we all decided to hop on over to a pub (most pubs here are pubs&clubs so they have dj's and dancing) that way we were all able to get our dance fix! Got home around 3ish
Saturday (18th): Up at 7:30! Had planned on hiking in the Blue Mountains but it was really cold and rainy out so we decided not to go there. Instead Erin, Tamisha, Ricardo and I (all church buddies) decided to go to a different National Park about an hour south of Sydney. We were attacked by leeches pretty much the ENTIRE time we were hiking. It was war and we were loosing badly. Since it was super rainy and damp they were allllll coming out. We had to stop for leech checks every 5 steps literally. After awhile we lost our temper with the leeches and decided to run the rest of the way back. Got my work out in! After that we went out to lunch down by Coogee beach!
By the time we got back to Erin's place we all just wanted to shower so I headed home and did so. I was going to go back over there for dinner but I ended up taking a nap that lasted four hours.... going on a hike when one is already extremely lacking in sleep is purely tiring!! So I didn't end up going back there. Instead I headed over to Zach/Gavin/Michal's because their roommate was throwing an Iranian New Years Eve Party! It was truly a beautiful experience. There were people from all over the world present USA, Africa, Mexico, England, France, AU, China and Sri Lanka (from what I know of). It was just so cool to sit around a dinner table with the world and just chat. After a while we played some pool, then like three different card games and ended the night with a movie. It is such a blessing to finally know people who live closer to me! So far most of my friends are Aussies who all live quite awhile away so it's hard to just hang. But now I have hanging friends!
Sunday (20th): Zach decided to come to church with me which was awesome! Gavin & Michael are planning on coming to church next week too. Love church buddies! After church Zach and I headed to a Refugee Detention Center called Villawood which was a little over an hour away by train. Zach had gone the week before with a group of people he had met and we met up with them this week too. It was an amazing experience. We mostly just hung out and played games with them. The majority of the people I spoke to were from Sri Lanka and have been in the Detention Center for 1-3 years, Never leaving the grounds. The AU gov. system is one of the hardest in the world to gain residency to. These detention centers are like jails for innocent people. It was heart breaking. I spoke to grown men who sit and cut themselves to feel alive. One guy had even said it was just so easy to commit suicide and it would probably be better than staying at the center. There are tons of people who commit suicide in these centers every year. It was so heart breaking. Most of the people there didn't speak english but there was a Sri Lankan girl in the group that was able to translate for us. It was just cool to be able to play cards and have a random dance party with them. I could tell it meant the world to them just to have a new face around, someone new to talk to and someone to just do something with them. I'm hoping to go there more often. Often time visitors will bring them Coke, Cereal, cookies and some basics. Next time I go I'm definitely bringing them presents!
By the end of the day I was completely emotionally and physically exhausted. We got back home around 7:30 and I just showered and relaxed for a bit. Alicia and Gina were at a nearby restaurant and had ordered a dessert pizza they wanted to share with me, so I headed down there to hang out with them for a bit. It's been really nice having them as roommates, they've been a huge blessing to me!
Monday (today): Had classes & did readings. I'm still really tired. Almost fell asleep in the majority of my classes today. Pretty sure a kid sitting behind me got a kick out of my "nodding" head as I was struggling to stay awake. Alicia and Gina are leaving today, in a couple hours. I am really looking forward to sleeping on a bed again. It's raining right now. It's been raining for about three days straight and the forecast says it's going to rain every day this week. I love rain :)
Now I'm just going to have a chill night. I need to catch up on some "me" time and some cleaning and some homework and some sleep. A lot of sleep. haah
Tuesday (15th): Alicia and Gina, two girls who go to Substance Church back in MN arrived today! They were supposed to arrive in the morning but their flight was majorly delayed, then they got lost in Sydney so I spent most of the day worried about them. They got to my place safely eventually and all was well! Then I was off to a Prayer meeting at Eternity.
Wednesday (16th): Gina &Alica took me out to breakfast as a 'thank-you' for letting them stay with me. It was absolutely delicious. Biggest breakfast I've had in my entire life. Hands down. Then I had class, Prayer meeting on campus, Bible study, work. Exciting I know. haha
Thursday (17th): Class, Student Life meeting and dinner afterward. I met these three other unit students that are from the East Coast USA (Gavin, Michael and Zach) that are here for the semester as well and they live only two buildings over from me! I also met another Psych student who is in one of my classes. Although I've never seen here and probably will never see her in class because our class is massive... but at least I know her!
Friday (17th): No class day, yay! I wasn't really able to sleep in because Alicia & Gina were up early, they're going to the Colour Conference at Hillsong this weekend so they were up pretty early most mornings. Went to work (accidentally cut myself... I've shed a lot of blood this week haha). Then Gavin, Micheal & Zach invited me over for dinner. They made me a fabulous chicken Parmesan with veggies, garlic toast and all! It was fun to hang out and get to know them better. They are really great people. Then they introduced me to Liz & Xavier, two of their other friends. Xavier was going to a Dub Step concert and invited us along so Zach and I decided to join them!
We got to the concert at about 10pm and the line was ridiculously long. We waited for about an hour but the club was at full capacity so they sent us all away. I was really looking forward to just dancing. So we all decided to hop on over to a pub (most pubs here are pubs&clubs so they have dj's and dancing) that way we were all able to get our dance fix! Got home around 3ish
Saturday (18th): Up at 7:30! Had planned on hiking in the Blue Mountains but it was really cold and rainy out so we decided not to go there. Instead Erin, Tamisha, Ricardo and I (all church buddies) decided to go to a different National Park about an hour south of Sydney. We were attacked by leeches pretty much the ENTIRE time we were hiking. It was war and we were loosing badly. Since it was super rainy and damp they were allllll coming out. We had to stop for leech checks every 5 steps literally. After awhile we lost our temper with the leeches and decided to run the rest of the way back. Got my work out in! After that we went out to lunch down by Coogee beach!
By the time we got back to Erin's place we all just wanted to shower so I headed home and did so. I was going to go back over there for dinner but I ended up taking a nap that lasted four hours.... going on a hike when one is already extremely lacking in sleep is purely tiring!! So I didn't end up going back there. Instead I headed over to Zach/Gavin/Michal's because their roommate was throwing an Iranian New Years Eve Party! It was truly a beautiful experience. There were people from all over the world present USA, Africa, Mexico, England, France, AU, China and Sri Lanka (from what I know of). It was just so cool to sit around a dinner table with the world and just chat. After a while we played some pool, then like three different card games and ended the night with a movie. It is such a blessing to finally know people who live closer to me! So far most of my friends are Aussies who all live quite awhile away so it's hard to just hang. But now I have hanging friends!
Sunday (20th): Zach decided to come to church with me which was awesome! Gavin & Michael are planning on coming to church next week too. Love church buddies! After church Zach and I headed to a Refugee Detention Center called Villawood which was a little over an hour away by train. Zach had gone the week before with a group of people he had met and we met up with them this week too. It was an amazing experience. We mostly just hung out and played games with them. The majority of the people I spoke to were from Sri Lanka and have been in the Detention Center for 1-3 years, Never leaving the grounds. The AU gov. system is one of the hardest in the world to gain residency to. These detention centers are like jails for innocent people. It was heart breaking. I spoke to grown men who sit and cut themselves to feel alive. One guy had even said it was just so easy to commit suicide and it would probably be better than staying at the center. There are tons of people who commit suicide in these centers every year. It was so heart breaking. Most of the people there didn't speak english but there was a Sri Lankan girl in the group that was able to translate for us. It was just cool to be able to play cards and have a random dance party with them. I could tell it meant the world to them just to have a new face around, someone new to talk to and someone to just do something with them. I'm hoping to go there more often. Often time visitors will bring them Coke, Cereal, cookies and some basics. Next time I go I'm definitely bringing them presents!
By the end of the day I was completely emotionally and physically exhausted. We got back home around 7:30 and I just showered and relaxed for a bit. Alicia and Gina were at a nearby restaurant and had ordered a dessert pizza they wanted to share with me, so I headed down there to hang out with them for a bit. It's been really nice having them as roommates, they've been a huge blessing to me!
Monday (today): Had classes & did readings. I'm still really tired. Almost fell asleep in the majority of my classes today. Pretty sure a kid sitting behind me got a kick out of my "nodding" head as I was struggling to stay awake. Alicia and Gina are leaving today, in a couple hours. I am really looking forward to sleeping on a bed again. It's raining right now. It's been raining for about three days straight and the forecast says it's going to rain every day this week. I love rain :)
Now I'm just going to have a chill night. I need to catch up on some "me" time and some cleaning and some homework and some sleep. A lot of sleep. haah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)