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.