kia ora!

that means "hello" in maori. i learned it today, because i'm in NEW ZEALAND!
i'm chillin in an internet cafe right now... haha. all i can say is.... i am DEFINITELY coming back here. i've been here about 24 hours, and i LOVE it already. it's absolutely gorgeous! i had a window seat on the flight in, and i was seriously in awe of how green and beautiful it is here. it's just like in the movies. and even right outside the city it's beautiful and hilly and GREEN! so different to sydney... SO different. i probably won't write anything else about it on here before i leave, because i don't want to get on the internet anymore, but i figured i'd just give that little update :)
SEE YOU ALL SOOOONNN!!!!

saying goodbye...

man, it's amazing the things you can cram into 6 days. i feel like this week has been a non-stop string of last minute adventures and goodbyes. monday was spent sorting. i went through everything i have accumulated and tried to decide what i need to pack, and what i could sacrifice in order to avoid the overweight luggage fees at 3 different airports. i'm not sure if i was successful, but we'll see i guess...
tuesday was the last day of class! the asc got an introduction to maori culture before we go to new zealand... it made me even more excited to go!
the last few days i've spent with elle hanging out in the city and getting stuff done. we explored sydney uni (where we were gonna watch the election, but then didn't), went to manly beach, got some shopping done, rode lots of ferries... you know. wednesday night i did my LAST assignment for the semester, a take home theology final, which was a HUGE relief! i'm officially done with school for the semester! woohoo!!!
yesterday (thursday) i hung out with elle again and we went back into the city to get a gift for our host parents, then we went and got lunch at this delicious sandwich place. after that, we came back to get ready for the end of the year dinner, which is a thing wesley puts on every year. this year's theme was "swing the night away," so there was a live swing band (all wesley students... i'm telling you man, these kids got talent!) esther sang, too! she was great. the dance was SO much fun. the place was gorgeous... it looked like a wedding reception! and everyone was all decked out, and dinner was super classy. i ate calamari... it was actually really good! and guess what was for dessert... haha :) after dinner we all just danced and everyone was really into it, which always makes it a lot more fun. it was really bittersweet, though, because it was so fun, but i also knew it was the last time i will probably ever see most of my wesley friends! it was sad saying goodbye at the end of the night...
but after the dance about 8 of us asc'ers went into the city to have an ALL NIGHTER! we went out dancing to kill some time and keep ourselves awake, then afterwards we went to pancakes one last time :) then we went up on the overseas passenger terminal at circular quay to watch the sunrise over the opera house. it was beautiful... until a giant cruise ship came and docked right in front of us so we couldn't see it anymore. haha... it was actually really funny. it was a fun night though, and a good way to say goodbye to the city.
it's so weird thinking that i won't be in sydney anymore! it's gotten past the point of being exciting and become just a place that i live... but every time i pull into circular quay and see the opera house and bridge, i get excited all over again! it's gonna be weird not doing that anymore... and not going into class on monday, not hanging out with the townsends, not waiting for buses and trains all the freakin time...
i don't think it'll hit me really until i'm gone.
which is SOON!

egads!

this was a good weekend :) friday was the wonderful halloween party, which was awesome. saturday i went with elle, rachel, and missy to glebe (gah i love it!), paddy's (meh... it's alright), and OLYMPIC PARK. that's right... where the 2000 olympics were held. it was totally underwhelming. there was no one there... and we couldn't even go in any of the stadiums or anything. so it was just like a giant street full of empty buildings... lame as. it's actually about a 5-10 minute drive from my house, but we took a ferry from circular quay, so it took about 1 1/2 hours to get there. the ferry ride was fun... i love ferries! today we had a roommate lunch at this place called george's cafe that's right by the bus stop we go to every day... it was good! then this afternoon elle and i went to darling harbour because hillsong was having their 25th anniversary celebration there. there were heaps of people, and it was pretty sweet. we didn't stay very long though, so it actually wasn't that exciting because not a lot happened while we were there. we had to leave though because we went and had dinner with the people from newtown mission! i can't remember if i talked about newtown mission before, but it's where elle's service placement was and i started going with her a few weeks ago. i wish i had been going all semester... it was absolutely wonderful. the dinner was delicious, and the company was great :) it was just a really good time... now we're back getting ready to watch summer heights high (haha... so funny! don't worry... i'm bringing it home with me).
i'll be home in 2 weeks! in one week i will be leaving australia. 7 days. i can't believe it. i am really not sure how i feel about that. on the one hand, i'm SO EXCITED!!! i cannot wait to see everyone at home and be with the people i love the most in the whole world. i can't wait for Christmas time and snow and being together and cuddling up in warm blankets and not having any school work! i can't wait for MEXICAN FOOD! i can't wait to hold missy (it's true... i freakin miss my cat!) i can't wait to see the mountains! i can't wait to be on campus, and i can't wait to be at home! there are so many things that i miss so much, and i'm so excited to have them again. i know that there's so much more that i don't even realize i'm missing... but i'm stoked to remember it!
but i am also bummed about leaving. i feel like there are so many relationships i haven't formed, so many things i haven't done, so many places i haven't seen. i really think that one of the biggest lessons i've learned here is how to just be content. honestly, even though i feel like i could have, and maybe should have, done a lot more to make the most of my experience here, i am content with the experience that i've had. i know that God brought me to australia for a reason, and i have learned so much about Him and myself and the world and people. i can honestly say that i could leave australia tomorrow with no regrets, and that is a big deal for me. so, even though i'm still trying to cram in all the things i still haven't done before i leave, i am okay if i don't get it all done. the saddest part about leaving for me is the people. i don't even want to think about the fact that i have to say goodbye to the townsends. they are seriously just wonderful... i can't even imagine my time here without them. it's even harder saying goodbye to people here because, most likely, i won't see them again. so it's kinda just like, "hey, have a nice life! nice knowing you!" seriously?! that sucks! i'm just thankful that the chances of seeing my asc friends are higher because they're all in the states. i'm gonna miss them though!
it's just crazy to think of how fast my time here has gone and how soon i'll be looking back and remembering it.
but right now i'm still living it! so i'll embrace that while i can...

halloween!

so... we had a halloween party! they don't really celebrate halloween here... a lot of the aussies actually didn't know what day it was. but we had a party because... well... we're american, and we like halloween. plus we live in a sweet flat that just needs to be partied in. heaps more people showed up than i was expecting and it was fun as.
i was pretty excited about my costume. elle was a bee... and i was...

that's right... old school. yeeeeaaaaaa!

far out!

haha... the most random thing ever happened to me today. let me just tell you a little background information first...
so when we went to featherdale (the wildlife park where i pet kangaroos and koalas), they had this contest going on where you could name a baby koala. you were supposed to give a donation so you could get an entry form, but the kid just gave me one even though i didn't pay. you had to put all your information, including your age and where you were from, plus a girl name and a boy name. naturally, for the girl's name i put kailey (i think it's a good name for a koala! kailey koala... sounds good, hey?) but then i had to come up with a boy name, and nothing was coming to me. well, elle and i have this thing (i'm not really sure how it started... it was pretty much from the beginning though...) she calls me little jelly bean and i call her little peanut, so i told her that i would name a boy koala after her. this was all completely as a joke... i really just wanted them to have a koala named kailey.
so today i get home and kieran says "there's a letter for you" and it's this huge envelope from featherdale! by this time i had forgotten about the contest, so i was seriously confused. but, as you have probably already guessed... i won! haha... so now there's a little boy koala there named peanut (they took off the "little" so it would still work when he's older). i got a certificate of sponsorship and a koala fact sheet and a family pass to featherdale too! it's for 2 adults and 4 kids... so really it's only good for 2 people because i dont' have any children under the age of 15 (unless braedon wants to go...).
i was dying laughing. i can only imagine what they probably thought when they saw some 20-year-old american had put in a dumb name like "little peanut." but... sucks to be them! haha.

totally blog-worthy

tonight i came home from a long day of gift-buying and group project-doing to find heaps of profiteroles chillin in the kitchen!

needless to say... it was a good night.

MMMMMMM!

where has time gone?

so... i've been very busy the last few weeks. VERY busy. hence the lack of postage...
so here's a bullet point version of what i've been up to recently:

• the wesley choir (which includes ALL the musos) put on mozart's requiem. it was long... but good!
• a new lady came to the nursing home... evelyn. she is absolutely wonderful. she has all kinds of great stories, and she loves to talk :)
• i found out that oomera, my aborigine teacher, is even cooler than i thought!
• i went and watched a soccer game at a pub with kieran and friends :)
• i went to elle's service with her at a place called newtown mission. it's in this old church that has the largest painting in the southern hemisphere on the ceiling. basically they do a short church service, then serve food to the homeless. i got to help out, and i also got to just sit and talk to people. it was absolutely wonderful, and i met some phenomenal people. i'm going back tonight :)
• i went on the coast walk from bondi to coogee beach with a bunch of the asc girls. it was a lot longer than i expected. but it was fun.
• i went back up to alex's last weekend. it was way different than last time, but SUPER fun. we went fishing and i learned how to kneeboard! it was sweet :)
• monday was my last official day of service :( i'm going back next week, though. i'm really sad about leaving st. mary's! it has turned out to be so much more of a blessing than i ever thought it would.
• i have written 4 papers in the last 3 weeks. i have 2 more papers, 2 presentations, and 1 exam left. eek!
• GRAND FINALE: last night i went and saw la boheme at the sydney opera house!!! it was so awesome! seriously... going to an opera at the opera house was at the top of my list of things i wanted to do while i was here. and the fact that it was la boheme just made it even better!

it's been a busy, exciting, ridiculously up and down last few weeks. my emotions are going nuts... i'm not really sure how i feel about the fact that i'm leaving in just 17 DAYS...

think on this...

it's 1 am and i just finished writing a paper on propitiation. love the topic... hate writing papers. but check out this quote that i used from Leon Morris' book The Atonement:

"It is because He loves us that He is so opposed to the evil in us, that evil that makes us so much less than we ought to be and cuts us off from so much blessing. The wrath of God is not a reaction born of pique at being slighted. It is God’s strong opposition to that which cuts us off from the best that we can be. God’s love is not a mindless sentimentality. It is a purifying fire, a force in the strongest opposition to everything that mars those whom God loves.”

think about it. awesome.

i'm going to bed now... goodnight :)

random thoughts while i procrastinate...

this morning i got to go to the markets with michelle and braedon. it was absolutely insane! there were so many people yelling and trying to sell their fresh veggies and people were slamming their trolleys into everyone... it was so entertaining. and it was great to hang out with michelle and see her in action. that woman is fierce! she just wove in and out of everyone like it was her job... braedon and i had a hard time keeping up. even though i had to get up ridiculously early it was fully worth it. hopefully i'll be able to go again before i leave... it was so fun!
i can't even describe the range of emotions i've been going through lately. i heard before i came that, when you study abroad, your highs are really high and your lows are super low. i don't know that i've experienced that necessarily. but i have found that i can go from really high to really low in about 4 seconds, and there is no apparent reason behind it. perfect example: the other day i was having a really really good day. nothing in particular... i just was really happy and excited about everything, even though nothing especially exciting was happening. then all of a sudden i just didn't want to be where i was. i didn't want to be around anyone, i didn't want to do anything, all i wanted to do was talk to my parents, and i knew they were out of town, so i couldn't. but, God is GOOD! during that moment i locked myself in the closet (the only place in my flat the internet works...) and got on facebook and who just happened to be on? my MOM! it was probably 3 or 4 am where she was, and she just happened to not be able to sleep at that time when i wanted to talk to her more than anything.
it never ceases to amaze me how God is always right there when we need Him most. every day He'll give me some little thing that just brightens my day. it's amazing the way the smallest things can make such a difference. just things like the bus coming on time, or someone giving me a random hug, or a funny billboard at the train station, or a random email from someone i haven't heard from in a while (or someone i have... those are always good!)
i think that is one of the biggest things that being here has taught me... the little things count! even when i don't always feel close to God (and... to be perfectly honest, that's how it's been most of the time...), i know that He's still there.
i was talking to my friend rachel yesterday about God. the asc is putting on the gathering (like chapel) next week, and our theme is "God as King." she was saying how she hates that phrase, because she doesn't like feeling like God is just controlling her life and she's just like a puppet. i was thinking about it and, while i don't think that is really how it is, i actually love that. i love that God is completely in control. i love that i don't have to worry because He is in charge, and He will take care of me. i've been learning so much about the world and social justice and how God cares about the whole world. i've been really challenged about how i live and how i can help those who need it, and i've been so focused on how much God loves all these people in the world and i need to love them that i've almost forgotten that He cares about me too! He doesn't love me more, but He does love me and He cares about ME! i guess sometimes i just feel like i am over here, and the rest of the world is over there, and that is where God is focused, and i need to shift my attention there if i want to be closer to Him. but God meets me where i'm at! i do need to care about the world and i do need to love and i do need to do my part, but none of that will bring me closer to God. i need to seek Him where i am, right now. because He's here... i just haven't been looking.
that was really random and long... sorry!

gettin my fun on...

o man! the last week has been crazy as!
sunday night i finally went to this little church i've been hearing about called small boat big sea. it was alright... interesting--not what i was expecting and slightly disappointing. but it was ok. it was funny because i went by myself (i spent all day sunday by myself... it was AWESOME!). but then all of a sudden i felt someone hugging me and my friend bekah was there with my other friend matt and his parents! (they came to visit him during the break... hehe) it was super random, but cool!
monday was a completely lazy day with my host brother, which was beautiful.
tuesday i hung out with brittany all day. we got coffee with a guy that she was meeting with to talk about architecture (i promise that girl gets me into the most random situations. ask me about being the awkward 3rd wheel on her date... haha, i'm not even kidding!) anyways, he ended up being really cool and i was glad i went. after that we went to a dinner thing at some lady's house that she met at church on sunday. we met lots of people our age, but i doubt i'll ever talk to any of them again. they were cool, though.
early wednesday morning brittany, esther, and i caught the train up to the central coast to hang out with our friend alex from wesley. he lives on a bay and really close to the beach, so we hung out at the beach all day then went back to his house and just hung out there. it was a beautiful area, and he actually lives in woywoy (which is where the bush trip was)! it was fun to just chill and get away from the city without the entire group. so we came back from his house on thursday, then friday morning we got the same train back up to the same place for the bush trip!
it was SO FUN! i don't think it was as good as the outback, but it was really awesome. the first day i was in a TERRIBLE mood and it was hot and miserable and i was not excited about the trip at all. but after a good night's rest the weekend just went uphill. over the whole time we learned all about aboriginals and connection to country and stuff. we got broken up into totem groups for the weekend. mine was wallumbang (kangaroo). we made a totem symbol for ourselves, and we learned an awesome aboriginal song (i will sing it for you when i get home!) and we made a dance to it then danced around the fire! i also learned how to throw a boomerang (not one of my spiritual gifts...) and play the didgeridoo (also not so good...).
hahaha... this is an actual quote from the guy that taught us how to throw the boomerangs (he said it right after my first throw): "I've never seen a boomerang fly like that before!" haha... it was pretty bad.
anyways... my totem group had an awesome time together and we got into all kinds of innocent mischief. it was just an awesome, educational, relaxing time. i am soo not ready to go back to school yet.
fact: i have 4 weeks left of class, then 1 week of stuvac (a time to make up missed classes, and i'll probably have to take a test during that week), then i'm off to new zealand for a week, then i'm home! it is unbelievable how quickly my time here has gone. i can't believe it's almost over.
i can't focus on that right now though... i have too much homework and exploring to do!

mucking around

i'm in my favorite coffee shop in sydney attempting to do homework right now... but i'm sick of it so now i'm procrastinating.
today on the bus i passed this place that sells christmas trees (obviously there were none there yet, but the signs were up.). this is what the sign said: "real and artificial xmas trees--drive thru." really?? drive thru christmas trees? what the heck?! how does that even work? and why would you ever want that?! picking out the tree is one of the best parts of christmas! they just do not know how to do christmas right here in oz. fact: christmas day is the biggest beach day of the whole year here.
instead of baking cookies and cuddling, they go out on boats and drink beer and fire up the barbie (they really do call it that. but the whole "put another shrimp on the barbie" thing is a load of crap. they call shrimp prawns.)
anyways... i met this nice kid from china named seven. that's right... seven. he was on the bus.
ok... i guess i'll do homework now. ew ew ew. lame as!

k is the best letter :)

this week was heaps good! tuesday i hung out with elle and this girl from her service who used to be in the asc. we went to this place called newtown, which is a really cool town with lots of op-shops. it's also kinda the gay district of sydney... so it's really cool and funky. it was a good time.

wednesday we had TACOS! there really isn't mexican food here. i mean... there is, but it's not very popular, and it's not as good. (o yea... last week i made fajitas with the mix my parents sent... they were a hit.) anyways... that was very exciting.


yesterday (friday) we went to featherdale wildlife park!! i got to pet koalas and play with kangaroos and emus and WHITE peacocks!! it was seriously so much fun... koalas are so stinkin cute! i want one for a pet... but the kid there told me they're not fun to take care of. o well... haha. it was such a good time...


then today we went up in the sydney tower. it was so much cooler than i was expecting! i got a 360 view of the city and got to see all the places that i go all the time and where they actually are. it was awesome :)


we're on holiday right now (spring break... weird, huh?) most people from my group are going to (or are already at) the great barrier reef. i didn't go... i'm planning on coming back to oz and doing all the things i can't do this time (uluru, melbourne, western australia, tasmania, etc.), so i'll go to the reef during that trip. i know it probably won't be for like 10 years, but i will do it...


i'm excited about break though. for the last few days we're going on our bush trip to learn about aborigones... it should be pretty fun. we're going to a place called woywoy. haha.
ok... here are some pictures of me with various animals.

cockatoo... kept trying to bite me.

ok... there are better ones of me with a different koala, but they're on someone else's camera. this kid was really nice and got down young ones for us because they are softer. he was telling us lots of stories... it was sweet.

ah yes... spooning with a kangaroo.

haha... they had guinea pigs. i got excited.

ok seriously... how cool is that?!

there you have it... me with some aussie animals. now i just need to hug a sloth.

how could i forget this???

i have no idea how, but i completely forgot to mention friday night in telling about my awesome weekend! friday night i finally got to go to LUNA PARK! that's the amusement park with the creepy face for a gate that's right under the harbour bridge. i'm not even kidding--i was more excited about seeing that before i came than almost anything else. so a bunch of us went there on friday night and got this unlimited pass and rode rides all night! it was so fun!! it's just so cool and old-fashioned and it was probably the most fun i've ever had at an amusement park. and neil told me some romantic stories about it... i'll save those for home :)

quite the eventful week!

o man... this week was quite eventful!

on thursday we went salsa dancing!! it was so exciting. it was at this place that's right in circular quay across the water from the opera house... prime location! it was gorgeous, and so much fun! there were so many people that actually knew what they were doing, and they were so fun to watch because they were so good! basically, long story short, i ended up meeting this argentinian guy who barely spoke english. all i got out of our conversation was that he was in the navy, they were having a party on their ship (he gave me an invitation--ladies only. haha...), and his friend thought my friend was "very nice." one of the girls i was with lived in ecuador for 5 months and is fluent in spanish, and another one is cuban and can speak way better spanish than me, so i took the guys over to them and they ended up coming to pancakes on the rocks with us! haha... it was funny. their party was last night (saturday). i didn't go because i was camping, but a bunch of the other asc girls went i think, so i'm excited to find out how it was. hahaha... it was just so random!
camping was so fun! it was ridiculous, and my mom and ann will be so proud of me. so... 2 other girls were going and i kinda just invited myself along, so there ended up being 4 of us that went. they were told that it was a 15 minute walk from the train station to the campsite, and the campsite was an hour trainride away from katoomba, where all the sites are, so we were going to camp out on saturday night, then head up the rest of the way to katoomba and do everything there today (sunday). so we get to glenbrook (where the campground is) and realize that we really don't know where we're going, but we follow this sign that points to the national park entrance. turns out it's a 15 minute walk to the park... but an HOUR hike to the campsite! so we walked DOWN the steepest road i've ever freakin been on, then UP a bunch of hiking trails, then back DOWN some more hills (keep in mind we were gonna have to come back this exact way in the morning. so you can imagine what i was thinking the whole time...). We finally got to the campground, which was the weirdest campground i've ever been in, but it was still pretty. by then we were all exhausted from hiking with all our gear, so we were ready for bed at like 7:30. so we slept, then in the morning we realized that if we could pack up and leave within 20 minutes then haul through all the trails, we could make the train we needed and not have to wait an hour for the next one. so we rushed through, and i was in front so i got lots of spider webs on my face. it was awesome. then we got to the steepest road ever and i thought i was gonna die, and by the time we got up to the gate, we had about 20 minutes to catch our train, and we still had to make it to the station. so we got a ride with a nice man named andrew and we made it on time! then we got to katoomba and learned it was like a 30 minute walk to echo point, which is basically where all the sights are (three sisters is the main one.) so we walked there, then hiked around to the scenic railway (the steepest railway in the world), then we rode down that. then we hiked further down another trail to the base of the giant steps. they start at the base of the three sisters and lead back up to the first sister, then there's a trail back up to echo point. there are supposedly a thousand of them (i counted 868... that's right: i was counting). it was miserable. and i was sweaty. haha... but it's okay because now i can say i've done it and i will never ever do it again. so then we went back through katoomba, which kinda reminds me of estes but not as cute. then we went back to the train and rode 2 hours back, and now i'm home and insanely tired an sore.
it was a good weekend though! here are some pictures...

this is our campsite... that's rachel, missy, and brenna making a fire in the pit

the three sisters... they're pretty famous. this is the view from echo point.

the bottom of the giant stairway

and the top... hahayes... that is sweat. eww!!

it was a good time :) i can't wait to get home and tell you people for real what it was like... i can't describe it on a blog. you will be proud though!

also... my host mom michelle's mom just died like 2 days ago, so they're all out near the farm for her funeral. she's pretty strong, but it's definitely been hard for her. so keep her in your prayers if you remember!

????

so my view from australia class is officially over. i turned in my ridiculous reader guide and everything, and we've started our second half of the semester, which is a class called indiginous cultures, history, and identity (i think). it's all about the aborigones (haha dana). our teacher is an aborigone woman named oomera. she seems really cool and i'm actually really excited for the class! oomera's not a christian, and on tuesday in our first class she was talking about sortof the basic beliefs about creation and nature that the aborigones have. actually, there are over 600 different aboriginal countries in australia, and they all have a bit different story, but she was telling us about hers. then all of a sudden she was just like "tell me about God. who is He?" seriously, everyone just stared at her for a good 10 seconds before someone finally attempted an answer.
i've been asked to describe God before, but it's always with a bunch of other Christians. i've never thought about how i would describe God to someone who doesn't know Him. how do you explain God? seriously? and how do you explain Jesus and why He came and how He lives in you and the fact that He is God? while people were trying to explain it all to oomera, i realized how it actually does sound kindof ridiculous. i mean, it didn't make me doubt or anything, but i just realized how it just doesn't sound possible. it sounds like another one of those old legends that we hear and say "well that's a nice story. interesting." i just can't explain how i can believe something with my whole heart, and the beauty of it is that it doesn't seem possible! why would God want a relationship with the world so badly that He would die? i guess i was just hit with how great God is. and now i need to figure out how to explain Him... i honestly don't think it's possible though.
and there is the insanely shortened version of what i've been thinking about for the last couple of days.

some pictures i reckon...

friday night we had this thing called family night where some of the ascers go to kimberly's and have dinner and just hang out. we had some delicious chicken tacos and guacamole. it was awesome! then we watched a couple episodes of arrested development, which is really funny! it was a good night just hanging out with the program directors outside of class...


yesterday was one of the asc girls' birthday, so we went out to darling harbour to celebrate. we got some delicious japanese food then we were walking along the harbour and they had a fireworks show! it was very exciting. then we got some ice cream at this place called the french riviera. they have this one called "the rainbow" that says it feeds 2-3 people. we got that one and split it between 5 of us and barely finished. it was great :)


here are some pictures from the outback:

I think this picture does a good job of showing just how huge and flat the outback (actually the bush) is. check out the cars then check out all the land behind them... yea.

the sunsets were pretty. i still think colorado ones are better though.

we chased emus! i got to be in the front of the front ute. it was a good view :) this is me shearing a sheep. it was so soft!

that's really not a lot of pictures at all... but it's some.

blokey bloke

o man... the last week and a half has been so incredibly long and amazing :) friday through monday i was in the middle of the outback and i've been pretty busy since we got back, so that's why i haven't written anything. it was seriously so freakin wonderful! most definitely my favorite thing i've done in australia, and i was bummed that we had to come back to civilization when we did. let me just preface by saying that i remember back on the first day i got here during orientation when we were looking at a calendar of the semester. i was so excited about the outback trip, but i was bummed because it was so far away. and now we've already gone! i can't believe how fast time has gone... basically that trip was the halfway point of the semester. crazy!
anyways... let me just tell you about it. prepare for a loooonnnggg post :)
so, technically we didn't actually go to the real outback. we were more on the edge of the bush, because the real outback is literally nothing but red dirt. we took an 8 hour bus ride out just past this town called condobolin to a 35,000 acre farm. it was awesome because the guys who own the farm, kevin and murray, are michelle (my host mom)'s brothers! (actually, i think just murray is and kevin is her brother-in-law, but i'm not positive. either way, they're related.) so neil and michelle came out with us and cooked for the group all weekend. it was sweet because we totally got the hookups for having them as host parents. that comes later though... so we left friday morning with the intention of stopping at a few places like the blue mountains and stuff, but it was super rainy and foggy, so we couldn't see anything. *sidenote: we did end up eating lunch at a mall right in front of the colorado store (that's right... there's a brand called colorado). probably about 15 people pointed it out to me, as though i couldn't see it right there. haha...* anyways, we got to the farm around 5:30 pm and just hung out around the fire and had some dinner. then when it got dark the whole group all sat around the fire and started sharing our life stories. i'm a big dork who loves that kind of stuff, so it was great. then they took some groups out to go roo spotting, which basically involves driving a big van around with a spotlight trying to find kangaroos in the fields. we saw quite a few, and some of the people with me got out and tried to chase them, but they are fast little buggers! plus apparently they're vicious if they feel threatened... so then on friday night we got to sleep outside under the stars, which was awesome because i haven't really seen a lot of stars the whole time i've been here! you could see the milky way out there :) i got to use murray's really warm sleeping bag, so it was great. saturday morning we took the utes out and drove around the property (not all of it. it's 35,000 acres, which kevin told me is about 20 x 25 km). i got to be in the front of the first ute that kevin was driving, which was great because he spotted some emus and just took of through this field and starting chasing them while everyone in the back was screaming and had no idea why we were driving so fast! it was pretty awesome... emus are funny. then we got to this hill and the asc directors gave us some paper to write letters to ourselves, which was actually really cool. being on top of the hill and seeing the hugeness of the outback was really quite humbling. after that, we went and saw the old homestead on the farm and the rock quarry, then we went back to the camp for lunch and my group presentation on australian land and environment. i think it went pretty well (hopefully!). then we just hung out some more and had dinner and had processing groups, then we went roo spotting again when it got dark. then we slept outside again, except this time elle and i got to share murray's swag, which is basically this padded thing with a tarp and a net over it. it was so warm and cozy. michelle laughed when we said we didn't use it the night before, even though we could have. but we thought you had to set it up and we didn't know how. turns out you just lay it on the ground... but it was great because i felt like the swagman in waltzing matilda, and i had the song in my head all night! sunday was even more laid back. we woke up and had a discussion about this book we read called can you drink the cup? it's pretty good... not the best ever. after that we had more free time, and kevin and murray and some other guys helping them on the farm rounded up the sheep and separated them to be sheared the next day. it was actually really fun to watch. sheep seriously are the dumbest animals! then we had lunch followed by some worship around the fire, which was awesome because we sang how he loves! most people hadn't heard it before, but i was very very excited about it. after that we walked back to the old homestead and took some pictures, then came back for dinner which was johnny cakes! they're these little bread things that you put on the fire and they puff up. they were so good! and filling! i had one and was so full! then we had more free time. then some guys who had come in to shear the sheep came and told us a little bit about their jobs and the wool business. i think that i could be a sheep shearer. it's freakin sweet. after that we had some more stories, which were still great, then we all just hung out. i slept inside on sunday because it looked like rain, and i was hoping that it would (australia is in a drought right now... i'll tell more about that in a sec).
monday morning was the best ever! we got to go watch the sheep shearers at work and see how they all work together. seriously... the sheep are so funny. they just sit there because their wool weighs too much for them to move! i got to try it myself, which was so fun. they are so soft! it was merino wool, which is really soft and expensive. seriously, i probably could have sat there all day and watched them. it was great. we also got to watch a flyblown sheep, which was really gross and sad (no, they did not kill it), but i'm not gonna write about it on here. i'll tell whoever wants to know when i get home. after that we got on the bus for the 8 hour ride home! the best part was that i didn't shower the whole time we were there (only like 4 people did), and there were no mirrors! i think i could live like that all the time. it was great. the bus smelled so awful... haha.
so... kevin was telling me about the drought and about how hard it is. basically, if it doesn't rain within the next few weeks, they won't have any crops this year. they will probably have to sell the farm if that happens. so keep them in your prayers! but i asked kevin if all of the hard stuff was worth it, and he said it was. he didn't seem like he regretted living in the outback. he was definitely very australian in that he basically has the attitude that whatever happens happens. you can only do so much yourself, but the rest you just have to trust will happen. i think that's so cool. i really really hope it rains though, because those guys deserve it!
i was so bummed to leave when we did. but another perk of having michelle and neil for host parents: they said if timing works out, we can go out to the farm again! i would love that... especially to be able to do the things we weren't allowed to do because of liability stuff. i really hope that works out, because that would be wonderful!
basically it was the best weekend ever. it was so great to relax and not worry about homework or life and just get to know people and be around a fire. but now i'm back in reality... but it's okay because i found my new favorite part of sydney yesterday, and i'm stoked to go hang out there lots! woohoo!

my monday...

today i had to go visit the art gallery and this town called ashfield as part of an assignment for my view from australia class. i used it as an excuse to walk around and take some pictures of what i see every day! here you go...

this is in the park right by my house... it's a giant chess board! all these old men are there every single day playing... as soon as i have time i'm gonna go learn how to play chess with them :)
this is a sweet arch right at the edge of the park... it say's "thanks be unto God who gives us the victory" and i get that song in my head every time i see it. notice the tiny child pushing a stroller underneath... hehe
this is a fountain on this street/square thing called martin place downtown. apparently this fountain is in the matrix... the part with the woman in the red dress i guess? i don't know... it's cool though.
this is the hospital! look how cool it is! and behind it there's a sweet courtyard and some awesome buildings.

THE INSIDE OF THE LIBRARY!!! this picture really does not do it justice. it's HUGE... i don't think i'm supposed to take pictures though so i was trying to be sneaky and this is the only one i got.

this is the art gallery of NSW... check out the rock in the tree :)

haha... it was a good day. and on the way home from class i fed a possum with elle and tim! those pictures are on facebook... it was great.

go the swans!

last night we got to go to an afl game. now, on the surface afl (australian football league) seems like rugby. but apparently it's not. i guess the ball is a little bit longer or something and there are some slightly different rules. if you call it rugby in front of an aussie you will get at least 5 minutes worth of lecturing on the differences. basically, this is how it works: there are 3 different things--afl, rugby league, and rugby union (also they will say football, or soccer, which isn't even the same sport so i don't know why they include it in there). in new south whales (where sydney is), they call afl aerial ping pong because apparently it's not as hardcore as the others. but in victoria it is the big one, and everyone likes it more. if you refer to "footie," you could be referring either rugby league or afl (depending on where you are or where you're from. in victoria afl is footie, but in sydney it's rugby league). rugby union is just "rugby." and gridiron is american football. it's all very confusing... but i think i'm getting the hang of it.

anyway... it was heaps of fun. here are some pictures from the game:

esther, me, and elle in front of the stadium. check out the red and white... we have team spirit :)

so... we were going for the sydney swans (i know... very intimidating mascot). we didn't have any swans gear so we drew some on our face. turns out people don't really do that here... haha.

haha... we were cheering hardcore. actually, at this point we were just practicing. hehe

some things you should notice in this picture: 1-look at the swans' awesome socks! 2-look how freakin short those shorts are! 3-they are wearing NO protection. and i mean NONE. rumour has it they aren't even allowed to wear underwear.

i would have to say that rugby (my bad... afl) might be my new favorite sport to watch. it never really stops and they are hardcore and all over the place. it's a toss up between this and soccer... but i will say that afl players are in the best shape of any athletes i've ever seen. hands down.

now i have something more serious to write about...

last wednesday mark driscoll from mars hill church in seattle was here for this thing called "burn your plastic jesus," which i really wanted to go to but didn't really realize that it was going on until the last minute and it was sold out. actually some kids in one of my classes had an extra ticket, but scott just did a series that seems like the exact same thing at flatirons which i listened to online, so brittany went instead. anyways... today i found out that he was gonna be speaking at this little baptist church that some of the asc'ers go to, so i decided to go check it out. i get kinda cynical about famous pastors, so i didn't really have high expectations, but i went anyway. i'm so glad i did. seriously, there is a reason he's so well-known. we went early because even though it was kept pretty much on the DL that he was gonna be there, they expected a lot of people. this church was super tiny, so they had us all cram on the pews. i ended up in the front row (literally directly in front of him. like 3 feet away. like spit zone close. it was somewhat uncomfortable, but no one else wanted to sit there so a couple of the other girls and i took one for the team.) anyways... he was freakin awesome. i guess usually he's really funny and energetic, but the topic tonight was pretty serious, plus i think he was tired (he's doing like 30 talks in 11 days or something crazy like that). but he was still good.

he talked about the doctrine of propitiation. sounds super lame and boring, but it was actually one of the best sermons i've ever heard. i took like 4 pages of notes, but i'll try to make this short. basically, it was about sin and how God is holy, and we are not, so we are basically His enemies. people always focus on God's love, but they ignore His wrath and the fact that it is because He loves us that He gets angry when we sin against Him. sin breaks relationships, and because of our sinful nature our relationship with Him is flawed, and He hates sin for that. but just because God is capable of being angry doesn't mean that He just flies off and shows His wrath. God is perfect, and therefore His anger is perfect. His anger is slow to come and it's often delayed. it can be turned away, like it has been in all kinds of Bible stories. also God's wrath is shown in 2 ways: active and passive. most people think of the active side, like Him smiting people and stuff, but the passive side is what happens more. that's when He hands us over to sin and lets us do what we want. that's when stuff gets really screwed up, and that's when people try to blame God for their own decisions. so it all sounds angry and crappy, but that's where the doctrine of propitiation comes in. it basically means this: we are all guilty sinners, and God's wrath is on all of us, which we deserve. but He sent Jesus to become our sin and God poured out all His wrath on Jesus so that we can live. it's pretty much the basic gospel message, but it's so much deeper than just that. he talked about exactly what the crucifixion looked like and what it meant. it was seriously so powerful. i'm still just overwhelmed and in awe of what a huge deal it is!

one thing that he talked about that really made me think and that i want to look at more is the whole "love the sinner, hate the sin" thing. do you know where that phrase came from? Ghandi! that is not actually biblical at all... it's from a hindu man (i'm not dissing ghandi... i'm just saying he was not so much a theologian). the bible actually mentions multiple times that God hates sinners. so where is the line between us being sinners that God hates and being sinners saved by grace because He loves us? i wish that i could have talked to mark driscoll and picked his brain about that, but i'm definitely gonna look into it more. anyways... it was pretty great. i'm glad that i went :)

o jeez

it is incredibly overwhelming and frustrating being a christian. today in the view from australia we talked about our last reading (and by reading, i mean skimming... hehe), which was about economics and consumer behavior. then we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about consumer behavior in australia and around the world, as well as how to deal with finances as a christian. i feel like i've heard more about economics and justice and consumerism and everything that goes along with all that so much in the last year. i guess a big part of it has to do with the fact that i've just been learning so much more about the world in that time. one of the first things we talked about was this thing called "affluenza." apparently in australia, one of the richest nations in the world, there is this thing where people never feel like they have enough. now, i already knew that australians as a nation tend to feel like they have somehow been given the shaft in the world--like they are the little brother that everyone kinda just tolerates. but i didn't really realize how much that extends down to individuals, and how, although they put on this carefree front, most australians feel like they don't have enough. and i know it's obviously not just australians (seriously... america is the most consumer-driven nation ever. and i'm pretty sure the whole world wishes they could have more). but i guess it just opened my eyes to the fact that it is not just america. after that we talked about our role as christians in the world's economics. how much is too much? how much of what we have should we be giving away? is it wrong to spend money on yourself when you know that there is someone in the world who doesn't have enough to even survive? these are all questions that i've wrestled with over and over and over again. and to be perfectly honest, i don't know. but the speaker was actually incredible and he talked about "God's economics." he used examples of how God had the people set up societies in the Bible. one of the central and most important aspects was justice. He made sure that the poor were provided for (with the whole saving the edge of the crops thing.). He provided for the widows. He allowed for some shifting in the distribution of wealth, but He also made a time where all debt was forgiven and everything was given back. i wonder how the world got so far from this model of justice? how have we gotten to the point where we buy so much into what advertisers tell us that we forget about the rest of the world? i guess it just really made me think. do i want to sell all my possessions now and live on the streets? no... and i don't think that's what i'm meant to do. but i do think i need to be more aware, and to start taking the smaller steps that i can toward justice. i don't think anyone can ever really have it just right. but i definitely think there are things that, as Christians, we definitely can and should do to try and help the world.
this post really doesn't even come close to describing how i feel exactly, and it probably doesn't make much sense at all. but it's just me pouring out some of my thoughts from today...

let me just tell you about these conversations...

this morning bekah and i had a breakfast date. it was great :)

then i had my service. i hung out with jim the ladies man most of the time. he spent about an hour telling me all these stories from when he was in the army. then he looked over at joe, who had fallen asleep (he does that a lot) and this is how the conversation went:
jim: "he's sick of listening to all this baloney i'm telling you."
me: "you mean none of that stuff is true?"
jim: "nope. it's all lies. i've been making it up as i go."
then he started laughing a lot! what the heck... little turd :)

then jim left and i was talking to joe. i asked him about how he met his wife. this is how it went down:
he had a friend that owned a clothing factory, and joe stopped by to say hi to him at work. he pointed over at this girl and said, "hey, who's that brunette over there?" and his friend said, "that's my sister, mary." so joe went over and talked to her, then 2 weeks later they were married! i asked him how that happened and he goes, "i said to her: 'you're lonely. i'm lonely. and i have a house.'" haha... how funny is that!

it was a pretty good day... now i have to sit through 3 hours of class during dinner time.

aquarium and pictures!

i'm using the internet in the house today, so it's easier to upload pictures. these are super random... i need to get some of my flat and stuff. but for now...

today we had mandatory roommate day, and we went to the aquarium! it was very fun.

these are just some of the asc girls a couple weeks ago... we're standing in front of the real world house! i want to go back and get pictures in the day... it's very exciting.

this is the coolest guy ever. his name is steve and he works at the aquarium... he showed us all the coolest starfish and let us hold them, then he took us around and showed us some secrets of the aquarium. i can't write them on here... he said we can't tell anyone. but he also told us a funny story about a koala. ask me when i get home and i'll tell you.

2 of the roomies and me by a shark... haha, hippy steve took it.

the tunnel of awesomeness! seriously... there were so many sharks. and there was a giant stingray! it was sweet.

haha... this is my host brother keiran. he's a big dork... but i like him :)

things that being abroad has taught me so far...

-getting mail has the power to make my day *hint hint*
-not having a phone is glorious!
-not having a phone also makes life a little more difficult...
-no matter how great an accent is, being around it all the time makes it not quite so exciting.
-time flies. seriously.
-sometimes first impressions are exactly right.
-sometimes they are not.
-walking to my pigeon hole and seeing a letter makes me happy *more hinting*
-praise the Lord for public transportation.
-sometimes it would be nice to have a car.
-most of the time it's great not having a car.
-it's a lot more expensive to send stuff from australia than from the states *seriously*
-not being able to talk to your closest friends whenever you want sucks.
-but it's also a blessing in disguise.
-God is good (already knew that one... but He reaffirms that every day.)

...

sometime i just really don't feel like writing. that's how i've been the last few days. and it's crazy because i've had so much on my mind...
on tuesday in my view from australia class we had a speaker come in and talk about christianity in australia. then we broke into our processing groups and talked about what he had to say and also our church visits. one of the topics of discussion was finding a church that keeps you awake and entertained but doesn't just focus on that. hillsong was mentioned a lot and how they have such great worship and all this great media, which is great. but they focus a lot on the "health and wealth" or "prosperity doctrine," which says that if you trust in God He will bless you financially and physically. everyone in the group agreed that is really not okay. one of the girls asked: "how do i find a church that i don't fall asleep at, but that still agrees with my doctrine?" everyone in the group seemed to think that it's almost impossible to find a church that uses expensive media to help their message, but doesn't try to tell people that they will automatically be rich if they have enough faith in God. i guess i've just been so spoiled with flatirons, because i think they do an awesome job of finding that balance. that conversation made me really miss flatirons. even though hillsong is great, it definitely does have that "health and wealth" air about it. i'm trying to keep a good attitude about church here, though, because really i'm only gonna be here 3 more months.
one of the things that has been the hardest for me here is just staying in the moment. it's so hard not to focus on what's going on at home and what i miss. it's not even so much that i'm homesick (even though i miss everyone heaps). i just can't wait to share the things i've experienced. i'm so excited to get home and see everyone again and tell stories and make food and just be together. but i don't want to spend my time here just looking forward to that. i want to be here, in the moment, soaking up everything that's going on. it's so easy for me to just put things off, thinking i have plenty of time to do them. but i don't! i've already been here over a month, and i've hardly done anything on my list.
i did finally go to the beach though! i went to bondi on tuesday after class with brittany and cameron. before that we went to pancakes on the rocks. let me just tell you about pancakes: i have heard about this place from day 1 and how i have to go there. i love breakfast and especially pancakes, so i was pretty excited. o. my. gosh. it was so wonderful. and i would not consider it a breakfast place. almost all of their pancakes have ice cream on them, and they have all different kinds. i got some with grilled bananas, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. it was freakin good, but i think next time i won't get ones with chocolate. they were so rich! but seriously... so delicious. the beach was amazing too! bondi is world famous and i've seen tons of pictures and stuff, but i was actually really surprised at how small it is. it's probably the length of 3 football fields and crescent shaped, with cliffs on either end. but it was gorgeous and there were tons of surfers even though it was freezing and the sand was so soft! i will be at the beach a lot from now on.

ace!

yesterday was such a good day! seriously... relaxing, good conversations, good church, good people. wonderful. i basically got to sleep in, then i just hung out all day. then last night i went to hillsong, which was awesome. i've been getting somewhat frustrated lately because i haven't really gotten to separate from the group a whole lot, and i've been praying for an opportunity to find something like a small group or Bible study or anything outside of the asc or wesley to get involved in. so i was at hillsong right before service started and i was trying to find a bathroom before worship. i walked out and thought i was going the wrong way, so i turned around to go the other direction, and i saw a friend that i haven't seen since middle school! i knew she was here, and we've actually talked some on facebook and stuff, but i was fully not expecting to see her, so it was very exciting. it was funny because i had literally just been praying and telling God that i was not gonna try to force anything and that i would just trust Him to give me an opportunity to branch out, and then i ran into her. it's crazy how God works... so i'm really excited because hopefully we'll get to hang out a lot while i'm here. after that i was all pumped, so worship was awesome, and the service was great. it was going along with the echoes theme (like how last week was about secondhand experiences and how they are just echoes of the real thing...), and this week was about intimacy and how our desire for love and companionship comes from God and his desire for the same thing, and He shows His love for us often times through people. then... the most exciting part... they sang "how He loves!" i seriously freaked out and i was singing along and probably annoying the people around me, but i don't even care. it was a good night...
today i had my service (last week i didn't get to go because there were a lot of sickies and so the place was basically on lockdown so it wouldn't spread anymore). they're still stuck in their rooms because a few people are still sick, so i just got to go hang out with them, which was good. there is one lady, rosie, who is having a really hard time being forced to stay in her room, so i was asked to go hang out with her for a little while. they said i just needed to stay with her for a half hour or so, and i ended up being in there for 3. she is so lovely... we basically just talked about everything and she showed me pictures and stuff. it was really hard, though, because she's really lonely. i just don't really know how to handle situations like that, but i did all i know to do, which is just be with her and listen and show her i love her. towards the end of my time i noticed she had a little christmas pillow, and i asked her if she likes christmas. she seriously lit up! she started talking about how it's her favorite time of year and it beats any other day or night by a long shot. and then she goes: "i love christmas, and i can sum up why in one word: Jesus." then she went on and on about how great Jesus is. it was seriously so precious, and it was awesome because it just opened more doors to more conversations. i love when stuff like that happens :)

indonesia, china, america, and australia... all in one day!

this weekend the asc took us on a trip to canberra (the capital of australia... just in case you didn't know). quick lesson: in the early 1900s, there was a disagreement between sydney and melbourne over which should be the capital city (melbourne was at the time, but sydney was bigger and wanted to be the capital or something.). there was lots of arguing until finally they decided to pick a spot right in the middle, and canberra was born. it was literally built to be the capital, so the whole city is designed around all the government buildings and such.
i was pretty excited about this trip because i'm a huge nerd and like museums, but i knew that it was going to be a long 2 days. yesterday (friday) we left from wesley at 6 am to make the 3-hour drive down to canberra. everyone kept saying that it was going to be freezing and that they had just gotten snow, so i was surprised to find that it was not really that cold at all, and it was really sunny. friday was a day of embassy visits, starting with indonesia. i found out that australia and indonesia actually have a really important relationship, and indonesia is sort of leading southeast asia in becoming more democratic. that visit was fun because we got to play with all kinds of indonesian instruments and puppets and stuff that they had there for the little kids that visit.
after indonesia we got to go visit the chinese embassy, which i guess is a huge deal because we're americans and they're not usually too keen on letting americans visit. turns out they were really nice though, and they had a pretty garden. the last embassy we visited was the united states! it was funny because that one was the most strict on us, even though we're american. fun fact: all the buildings in the american embassy are made out of brick in the colonial williamsburg style. the brick was to represent america's permanent presence and dedication to australia. also, the fact that they styled it after american architecture set a trend for all the embassies to be styled after their countries' architecture, so the chinese and indonesian ones were really cool (belgium was actually my favorite... it looks like a pretty country mansion). after all the embassy visits we just went to the YMCA where we stayed for the night and had discussions and played games, which was good because i did NOT feel good at all. bleh...
day 2, saturday (today), we had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. we started out at the old parliament house, which was not exciting at all except for the funny tour guide. after that we went to the national museum, which was really cool, but we only had a little over an hour, so it was pretty rushed. but they had this sweet thing where you could record a fake radio program, which provided lots of entertainment. after the national museum we got to go to the national gallery, which was freakin sweet because i love art museums. i got to see a real jackson pollock, which was huge and awesome. apparently it was a big controversy when they got it because some prime minister bought it for something like $2 million, which was a lot of money. except now it's worth over $100 million, so i'd say it was a good move. i also got to see a monet and some gauguin and cezan and lots of others... we didn't get to spend much time in there, either, which was a bummer, but it was still really cool. our last stop was the war memorial, which i was not excited about but was actually really really cool. it was huge! and we got to see all kinds of sweet old planes and stuff that dad and papa and hayden would enjoy... and they had this sweet discovery center where you could play and take pictures. i promise i'm like an 8 year old child...
after a few hours at the war memorial, we got on the bus for another long ride home. but it was very exciting because guess what i saw... KANGAROOS! seriously, picture driving into estes park and seeing all the elk. now make the scenery a little flatter with different trees and turn all those elk into kangaroos. that's what it was like. there were tons of them! we were passing huge groups of them for a good 20 minutes. kimberly, the director, said she's never seen so many at once, especially not on the way to or from canberra. so it was very exciting. i have yet to get close enough to get a picture though...
basically canberra was really fun and educational, and i'm glad to be back :) i didn't take my camera (sorry mom...), but i know that all my friends took heaps of pictures, so i'll try to get some on here.

sweet as...

i know i say this a lot... but i LOVE going to an art school. seriously... i can't even describe it. you might think i'm exaggerating, but i'm really not! people are always playing instruments and singing and dancing and practicing plays all over the place... it's seriously awesome. my favorite day of the week is thursday, because on thursdays they have concert practice. i have my theological foundations class on thursdays, which is miserable because it's so hard and overwhelming. but right after it i get to go watch concert practice and it brightens my day! basically for 2 1/2 hours every thursday all the music students have this class where they just put on performances. they'll put together a band of other students, or they'll just go by themselves and show what they can do. seriously, the talent here is incredible. it's so fun to just sit in on the class and see people doing what they love to do.
i think my favorite part about it all, though, is not necessarily the fact that i get to hear awesome musicians all the time (which, trust me, is glorious), but it's the fact that none of them are snotty about their talent. they know that they are good at what they do, but they just do it because they love it. and no one walks around talking about how great they are... they let their music (or acting or dancing or drawing...) do the talking. and they all collaborate! seriously, one person will start singing or drumming on a table and soon there are 5 or 6 people all harmonizing. it's like a freakin movie... and it's awesome. another thing i love about this school is the fact that, even though all these people are super cool and artsy and trendy and talented, they don't look down on other people who aren't (namely: me--completely talentless). i was seriously intimidated for the first week or so thinking that everyone would question what i'm doing here... but after getting to know some awesome people, there is no part of me that feels like i don't belong (even though, really, i guess i should not be at an art school).
today during concert practice i realized just how much i love this. there's this kid here who is wonderful: james. he's this crazy outgoing, super tight pants-wearing, funky hair, loud, funny kid who is just out there. today was his day to perform, and he played the piano. he was all fidgety and funny up until his turn to play. he got up to the piano and it was like an instant transformation. he played a medley of 4 hymns, and it was absolutely beautiful. you could just tell by watching how much he loves to play, and he was fully worshipping God with the whole thing.
it's just so awesome to me to see so many incredibly talented people who really have every right to be cocky just using their talents for God's glory. there is no comparison or competition--they all just lift eachother up and help eachother out and glorify God with the things they are passionate about. it's really just so encouraging to be around, and it really challenges me to think about what i'm passionate about and how i can use it for Him.
you should think about that too... :)
ps: so, sometimes aussies will say something like "cool as" or "cold as" or whatever to describe something. for example, we're going to canberra tomorrow and one of the leaders said "it will be cold as!" you don't say "cold as [whatever]." you just say "as" and people know that it's really cold or really good or really cool or whatever. so during concert practice there was this girl and she was really good, and this guy was like "that was really good! sweet as!" and i thought he said "sweet ass." it was funny... haha

pictures!

they're boring, but hey, this is what i see every day:

there's a huge bush of these in my front yard. aren't they pretty?! they're everywhere...

And these are everywhere too... I LOVE them. This is the view that I saw the other day when I was on my way to the library on campus. Basically the campus is a big square of buildings around a courtyard, and this is off of one of the second-story balconies. This picture really doesn't do it justice. I don't know if you can tell, but that line in the middle between the trees is the Sydney tower. I'm such a fan of being near the city!

I'm gonna start trying to put more pictures on here, but the internet is quite dodgy so usually they don't upload. I'll try to put some up of my campus too so you can see it in all its tiny glory :)

choc tops and hillsong

so... today was a good day. i went to hillsong! let me start with yesterday though...
i got to sleep in and didn't wake up til 12:30 (the latest i've slept in since i've been here... i couldn't believe i slept in that late). all my roommates were gone, so i basically got the day to hang out by myself. i got to call home, get some stuff done, and spend some much-needed quality time with Jesus, which was awesome! then elle came home and we went out again with some other girls from the program. we walked around a lot and couldn't get into a lot of clubs because the girls didn't have their ids (they had their isic cards, which don't really work even though they are technically ids and have your birthday on them...) but then this one place let them in, which was awesome because it's my new favorite. it's called 3 wise monkeys, and it has 3 floors. the first is like a pub, the second is just a bar and hangout, and the third has live music and dancing. it was awesome! there was a really good band that was doing all covers, but they were super talented and fun. then during their breaks there was dancing, which was fun. i think i like this club the best mainly because i love live shows, but also because i can only stand so much dancing before i get sick of it, and that's not the only thing to do there. so that was pretty exciting. o, and also i saw the real world house! woohoo! i'm gonna go back during the day and get pictures... it's very exciting.
today i went to the last of the 4 required churches: the uniting church. the first thing that struck me was that the pastor was a woman. and not like a young woman... she was probably in her 70s. i'm not really sure what my opinion of having a woman as the head of a church is, but i still thought it was impressive mainly because she's so old. but the biggest thing that i liked about it was the fact that everyone was so incredibly nice. i'm not even lying: every single person came and greeted us during the peace time or whatever (like in a catholic church where you shake hands and say "peace be with you." they did that.) and then they all invited us to come have tea and talked to us more there. it was nothing too impressive or challenging, but the people were really cool.
after church and some lunch elle, esther, and i went and found paddy's market downtown. i had heard about it from everyone, but it's one of those things you have to experience. it's not quite as cool and funky as glebe or paddington, but everything is SO cheap and there's a lot of fun stuff to take home to people. i was pretty excited about it.
from there we hopped the train to go to hillsong (the hills). all i knew about getting there was that we had to go to this place called parramatta (which, turns out, is not part of our cityrail pass, but somehow we got through without paying extra), and from there a hillsong bus would pick us up. but we didn't know exactly where the bus would be, and we couldn't find the signs or any big crowds waiting for a bus, so we asked around. no one seemed to know for sure where it would be, so we walked around trying to find it. we were walking back to this one stop where we knew there would be a bus to the right area when all of a sudden the hillsong bus passed us going right in the direction we had come from! so we turned around and ran after it, but we couldn't keep up and lost it. so we're standing around super confused, when there goes the hillsong bus right back the direction it had come from! so we turn around again and start booking it trying to keep up, and elle's waving trying to flag it down while still running and screaming. we ran probably about 2 blocks and saw it pull over right where we had been waiting in the first place. so we're huffing and puffing and the bus driver is laughing at us, and i asked if he had seen us. he goes (all laid back), "yea, but no worries. i would have waited for you." gotta love the aussies. so after that exciting adventure, we rode the bus for about 15 minutes to the church. it was absolutely huge! which was not surprising, but still.
i wasn't really sure what to expect, but i was somewhat skeptical about hillsong, just because it is so big and well-known. we walked into the sanctuary from the bottom level, which was cool because it has like stadium seating, so i could look up at all the people. it was packed! we ended up getting seats way in the top corner because we got there right as it was starting, but i didn't mind. i was excited about worship because, well, it's hillsong. but i was super excited when worship actually started. my favorite thing was the fact that there were no spotlights on the worship team. at ccu chapels they never have lights on the worship band because they want worship to be about God, and not the people leading it. so the fact that this huge band that would still have a following even if they did put the spotlight on themselves didn't have one was very impressive to me. the worship was awesome, and i love that everyone was not afraid to get into it. people were jumping and raising their hands and just going crazy worshipping God. it was definitely flashy and had enormous screens and everything, but it didn't feel fake, which i was worried about. the speaker was this guy who's name i can't remember, and his message was really good. he talked about how a lot of times people will just live their lives through other people, and all their beliefs and experiences will be based off of second-hand accounts instead of first-hand encounters. he said that we need to seek those first-hand encounters because our beliefs won't be true unless we have those experiences for ourselves. he also tied it into worship and how sometimes people will do things like raise their hands or jump around not because they are feeling the presence of God, but because everyone around them is doing it. i was glad that he said that, because i think it is so easy to get caught up in the moment and the fun of going crazy during worship, and we forget that it is all about God.
basically i was very impressed with hillsong, and i definitely want to go back. even though it is massive, i still felt like it is true to what it claims, and i really think that they just love the Lord there.
also, everyone was so freakin trendy. seriously, i don't think i saw one person that wasn't dressed all cute and trendy. but that's kinda how i feel about australia in general...
ps: choc tops are chocolate dipped cones at hungry jacks (burger king) for a dollar. you can also just get a regular cone for 50 cents, but the choc top is way better. mmmm

big fat pony...

every fall (spring here...) wesley puts on this thing called spiro (spiritual emphasis) camp. it's basically just a 2-day thing where everyone goes up to the blue mountains (which are not that mountainy. maybe we were not really in the blue mountains...) and we have lots of sessions and games and eating and hanging out. it's a really good chance to get to know people, especially because wesley is a commuter campus. so basically here's how it went:
yesterday (thursday) we left wesley at 7:00 am (which means we left the house at 6... ew) to get up to merroo (the name of the place it was at) and be ready to start by 9. we played some games and then had some morning tea before our first session, followed by lunch, then another session, then a break and afternoon tea, then another session, then supper (after dinner tea basically. and when i say "tea" i mean tea and coffee and cake and cookies and fruit. they definitely don't let you starve down here...) then we had some more free time to just hang out and get to know eachother. then today was basically the same thing except only half a day. it was so fun. i LOVE going to an arts school just because i am surrouned by so many incredibly talented people. if you were to walk into the huge room that it was held in during any free time, you would see: people playing all kinds of instruments, people dancing (good, legit dancing), people playing games, a random group of guys doing handstands and weird body tricks (it was hilarious but actually very impressive), people playing cricket or footie (rugby), people singing... i could go on. it was sweet. when i first got to wesley and actually up until spiro, it was super intimidating and hard to get to know people. it was like there were the asc'ers and the wesleyans, and they didn't really mix (except for a select few...). but up at spiro it was like we were all just students having so much fun and getting to know eachother and worshipping together. we had this speaker named richard allen farmer (who's from texas... go figure). he would play the piano and sing before every session, which was awesome, but his teaching didn't really blow me away. there was nothing that really challenged me or even really encouraged me. but i think i still managed to get a lot out of those 2 days. it just felt right being there, and it made me so excited to grow closer to these people who just love the Lord and aren't afraid to express it in whatever way they can. i can't wait to see what God has in store for the rest of my time here, and i'm so thankful that these are the people i get to share it with.
o yea... and we played this fun game called big fat pony up there.

just like the real world...

saturday night a bunch of us decided to check out some of the clubs around darling harbour (where the real world house was... so they probably went to these clubs. haha)
here are the reasons why clubbing in australia is a million times better than clubbing in america:
1-it's free! (i don't think all of them are but we went to 2 different ones that both were... and people said most of the other ones are too)
2-they're not filled with sketchy creepers. of course there are a few (it wouldn't be a club without them...), but even the creepers will leave you alone if you tell them to.
3-the girls here basically don't dance, and when they do it's pretty much just bobbing up and down or swaying a little bit. so you don't have all the sick grinding and exchanging of body odor that you would find in any US club.
4-they are actually just a bar with a dance floor as opposed to the other way around. so there are places to just sit and hang out...
5 (this is my favorite)- in the middle of the dance floor of this pretty classy club there are 2 TVs. one is showing rugby, and the other is showing cricket. hahahaha... these aussies love their sport!

on sunday i finally got to check out hillsong (if you don't know what hillsong is, you can assume that probably at least 50% of the worship music you sing at your church originated there. it's a pretty big deal church...) they actually have 3 campuses: the hills (which is the original and biggest), the city (which i went to) and they just opened another at bondi junction (in a movie theater right by the famous bondi beach). i still definitely want to go to the hills one, but the city one was cool. it actually reminded me a lot of flatirons and made me miss it. the message was really good (it was about faith and good deeds and how we should do good deeds because of our faith and not because we have to.) and the worship was definitely worth going there for. then on sunday night we went to this tiny anglican church, where everyone was super nice and cool. i will most likely be going back there at least next week, if not more.
yesterday i got to go work at st. mary's again, and it was fun hanging out with all the old people some more!
that's pretty much it for now...