Birthday Weekend!!!!

SARAH’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!  Megan and I have been doing a little planning… we tried to combine all the things that Sarah has been wanting to do and wanted to surprise her. We showed up at her house around noon to wake her up and make banana chocolate chip pancakes (which they don’t have here in Australia… long story but she’s been a little bitter about it).  Then we met up with about 17 of us and went to the Sydney Olympic Park (on her bucket list).  Of course we got very lost getting there thanks to me and Megan’s directional skills.  ALL PART OF THE ADVENTURE RIGHT?!!?!?!  Eventually we made it to the park, which was beautiful and HUGE! We played mini golf (one of her favorite pass times) at the Golf Centre. But here it’s called Putt Putt.  It was an epic Putt Putt game… oh and by the way, I killed everybody with a total of 44 and 2 hole-in-ones… no big deal ;P It must run in the family since Momma Bear is a national champ (not to brag or anything..)

We missed church thanks to Sydney’s wonderful public transportation.  But we chilled at Flo (the student housing place) for dinner and movie… The Lion King.

Sunday, I spent my day serving pastries and lattes at the BakeHouse.  Once again, customers LOVE to make fun of my accent and ask, “Canada?”… close enough eh?

After work we went to this HUGE indoor rock climbing gym right outside of Sydney.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  It was so much fun.  We spent about 2 hours there,  interspersed with Foosball comps so that our forearms could take a break from shaking…  and then… MEXICAN FOOD!  Which is almost unheard of here in Australia.  There’s heaps of Thai, Asian and Greek food here but try to find a Mexican place to eat… so hard. But Mad Mex called our names and we said…mmm yes please.  And to add to the Australian Adventure, of course we had to get lost on the way home.  Good times, once you embrace it :P

.... only 6 weeks left here... where has the time gone???!!!!!

True Aussies

Michael, my host Dad had knee surgery the other afternoon so I offered to cook dinner.  You’d think that I had made a 5 star meal… they were so cute!  They loved it and it was really fun to cook again finally!  But what really blessed me was the fact that the whole night was full of friends, church members and family visiting and calling the family asking about how he is doing and offering prayers.  They are so loved! 

Yesterday was Anzac Day (kind of like our Veteran’s Day) and we had the day off of school.  I slept over some friends’ house and then we got up early for a trek to the Blue Mountains!!!!  There were about 10 of us Americans and we met up with my friend, James, from one of my classes.  He lives up there and he and two of his friends wanted to be our tour guides :)  

We had a truly authentic Aussie experience!  We hiked through the rainforests, rocks and landslides in the mountains from about 10am to 5am… probably about 12 miles or so.  We went out to a “Ruined Castle” (rock cliffs on the top of a mountain where we rock climbed at the top and almost got blown off by the incredibly strong gusts that were constant!  It was an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and crisp fall air (the leaves were changing too… I didn’t even know that happened out here!).  The Aussies made us a makeshift fire in a cave at the top and we cooked toast over it!  It was pretty hilarious actually.  After the long hike, which we all completely successfully… Thank God… they had us over to James’ house for a Barbie!  They even got us apple pie for us Americans! 

Pretty much none of us had experienced such hospitality that was so generous by new Aussie friends.  We laughed all day so hard and had an amazing and long day.  After hours on the train too, we got home exhausted and so satisfied with our day off :P 

This day will not be forgotten by any of us… so much fun!  

Outback Trip!

This week our ASC group left for our long awaited Outback Trip!!!  The 37 of us students, 3 leaders and Ian (our Aussie bus driver) left for Mount Verathumble (at least that’s what it sounded like…).  We took off on a 12 hour bus trip to the middle of nowhere, it was so much fun!  The Outback was dry, red and so amazing.  I’ve never seen anything close to that before.  The farm we went to for our retreat was owned by a brother of one of the home stay families.  They owned 45,000 acres of land where they harvested crops, farmed sheep, cattle and horses.  We were housed in the old sheep shearers’ courters across from the “haunted” sheep shearers shack. However, a few of us never even stayed in the bunk rooms, instead we “slept” under the stars in the back of the yard.  The stars were absolutely incredible.  Never have I seen (nor will I probably ever again see) so many stars shining so brightly!  So many shooting stars, a clear view of the Milky Way and the Southern Cross bid me goodnight each night :)  Although the last night at around 3 am, Bandit and Mo (two of the farm dogs) decided to riverdance on my head for about ten minutes.  Since I couldn’t stop laughing they couldn’t get enough of it…  It was too funny yet so awkward and annoying at the same time.

Highlights of the weekend:  Kangaroo safaris on the back of Utes (Jeeps with back beds that we all stood on), Kangaroo night safaris, swimming in the freezing and nasty creek by our camp (we were going for a no-shower-week), watching Joe try to chase a bunny at night and Ronnie running after a herd of sheep, laughing so hard at stupid board games and star tripping, life stories by the campfire and jamming to acoustic worship music in front of an amazing Outback sunset. 

There really is no explanation that can do this trip justice.  It was incredible.  The red dirt was caked on each of us so thick by the end (or even the first day) I think I’ll be finding it on my for a week!  Oh, another fun aspect was that the host couple that brought us are both chefs so the food was SO GOOD! 

The coolest part, I think, was how much our group really bonded and grew together as a family.  We had the best time and even our leaders were saying that is has been such a blessing to have this group (it’s unusual for it to be going so smoothly and fun!).  We all are really great friends and love spending time with each other.  

It’s good to be back and showered and in a real bed but I will NEVER forget that experience and I would love to go back some day.  We all had a hard time leaving and thought about just turning around and driving the 12 hours right back to Mt. Verathumble but unfortunately… exams and midterm papers are due this week.  dun dun dun….

New Start

This has been quite a whirlwind of a week!  So long story short (because I don’t want to give details publically), I had to switch home stays this week.  It all happened really quickly but it was for the better.  I wasn’t being treated very well in the other home but now I’m in a wonderful Greek family’s house in Burwood Heights!  When I say Greek, picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding… literally, it’s hilarious.  The couple is in their upper 70’s and they are complete opposites from the other family I was staying with.  They are so sweet and loving!  Michael, the father, is a Baptist pastor at the nearby Greek church (services are only in Greek).  He also used to teach Greek school!  Marina is the most adorable little Greek lady who feeds all people like it’s her job.  She has three sons who are all grown and four grandchildren.  I made instant buddies with Anna, the three year old, only grand-daughter, who is so spoiled but adorable!  I brought them some Hot Cross Buns from the Bake House when I arrived yesterday and they were happy :)  They also are acting like they’re saving me from the family from hell… haha.

I’m really thankful for this switch.  It’s been a rough 6 weeks at the other home.  Thankfully, I am surrounded by an amazing community of friends at Wesley that this has still been an amazing experience so far and I love it here!  I am a little tired and stressed from all the drama but it can only get better from here on. 

Thinking about it, I am in Australia but surrounded by Greeks at home, Italians at work and a loving Egyptian “grandmother” who has adopted me as her daughter at my service placement.  And they call America the “Melting Pot.”  It’s been so fun to meet and love all these different people! Not to mention the incredible Aussies that are here and know how to have a good time :) 

Easter weekend is here and we’re out of school for a week and a half!!!!


Last night I was invited to a Passover meal by one of the Wesley students.  His family and their friends from church have a traditional service/dinner together every Passover.  There was a Jewish “rabbi” from South Africa who spoke along with my friend’s parents.  We sung Jewish songs, had traditional Passover food and danced around before the feast.  They were in no hurry so dinner started around 9 pm.  After that my friend, Daniel, his sister and I went over to their brother’s birthday party at his house.  This party was incredible!  They had hired all kinds of lighting, a smoke machine, bouncers and 3 or 4 DJ’s!  It was so much fun and I met some really fun people from their group of friends, most of whom were from Hillsong Church.  It was such a fun time!  One thing people in Sydney know how to do is have fun :)

Chocolate Fix

Thursday was quite the adventure. My friend Sarah had been feeling a bit down for a while so Megan and I decided to cheer her up.  We went to the park and attempted (being the key word) to throw a few boomerangs.  We soon found out it’s a LOT harder than it seems and unless you want to pay a good amount for a legit one, the pretty ones you buy at tourist gift shops don’t come back… The afternoon also involved climbing trees and statues, playing soccer and then going to Sarah’s home stay to go swimming and then jam out with Sarah on her guitar.  We had a blast!  That night I “ushered” for a play that was going on at Wesley so I got to watch it for free!  It was a strange play…

After the play a group of us all met up and went into the city to the famous chocolate bar, Max Brenners.  This place had been talked up quite a bit so I had pretty high expectations…  it was AMAZING!  Everything chocolate you can imagine!  Chocolate pipes ran through the restaurant where the chocolate flowed through to the kitchen.  We all got different desserts and tried each others.  I got the cookieshake (white chocolate, cookies and praline milkshake), which made me think I died and went to Heaven.  Seriously, this place was amazing!  We all talked and joked and laughed so hard all night, I think we all had a chocolate high J 

Friday after our noon class we went to Watson’s Bay, a beach walk / lighthouse coastal area that we’ve been hearing a lot about.  It was so beautiful.  Besides the fact that we had to walk past a nude beach (which was known to be home to a lot of old men who should be ashamed of their bodies but their not…) to get there, it was so much fun! 

A Saturday night tradition that we are creating consists of going to Church by the Bridge (a small church that’s right at the foot of the Harbor Bridge) then have a picnic dinner down by the bay when the starts are out. Definitely a highlight each week. 

Palm Sunday some of us woke up early and took a 2 hour bus ride to Palm Beach (we thought it’d be fitting).  It was a really gorgeous and remote beach north of Sydney.  It was nice to get away from the really touristy beaches near the city.  There were a ton of rocky coasts to explore and the beach sand was so soft and almost red.  The undertow was extremely strong so our time in the water never lasted long.  We did play a round of baseball in the shallow water, using a big stick of bamboo for a bat and a tennis ball.  Not sure who won but it got more exciting the smaller the chunk of bamboo broke into.  We all got burnt and had an amazing time J