Hi!
I know I haven't kept my blog up to date at ALL but I hope you've had fun reading about some of my experiences. This will be the last blog entry in this series, because, well....I'm back! I enjoyed Australia very much! I learned a lot, and that means more than just the normal tourist. I became what ASC calls a pilgrim. Not just a person that takes information and leaves, but a person that really gets involved in their new community and dependent on it! I chose to live in a home-stay, for example, and it really taught me dependence and trust.
Right now I am kind-of having trouble adjusting. It's just a general thing, so don't even try to figure out how to fix me. I don't even know.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
25 Days and Counting
Wow I've really been slacking on keeping up-to-date on my own blog! Well I'm sure there's much more important stuff to be pondered about. Anyway,
Australia's been good to me. I'm down to 25 days or so left until I arrive back in MN, and it is 18 days until we go to NZ. I'm really missing home but I'm not "checked out" in my mind--I'm trying to keep it that way so I can experience as much as I can while I'm here. I'm starting to make a small list of things I have yet to do...I've done so much already! :)
For example this past Sunday I went on a (free) tour of the Sydney Opera House! It was really fun. We got to see places like the changing rooms and practice studios that people don't normally see. It was a self-guided tour. My favorite part was watching some acrobats perform in the Studio. Afterwards we wandered and found our way to the restaurant Pancakes on the Rocks. No, this does not mean pancakes with ice. I've been to this place before but it is very good. Later my friend Tricia and I walked around the city until we wandered to Darling Harbour. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Chinta Ria. It was very good...but we were still full from pancakes! So we had to take it to go....haha
So, I've only got a few weeks left! In class today we're discussing what to do with all that we've learned. It's crazy talk! But it opened it up for a great discussion involving all of the readings and experiences we've all been doing.
Australia's been good to me. I'm down to 25 days or so left until I arrive back in MN, and it is 18 days until we go to NZ. I'm really missing home but I'm not "checked out" in my mind--I'm trying to keep it that way so I can experience as much as I can while I'm here. I'm starting to make a small list of things I have yet to do...I've done so much already! :)
For example this past Sunday I went on a (free) tour of the Sydney Opera House! It was really fun. We got to see places like the changing rooms and practice studios that people don't normally see. It was a self-guided tour. My favorite part was watching some acrobats perform in the Studio. Afterwards we wandered and found our way to the restaurant Pancakes on the Rocks. No, this does not mean pancakes with ice. I've been to this place before but it is very good. Later my friend Tricia and I walked around the city until we wandered to Darling Harbour. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Chinta Ria. It was very good...but we were still full from pancakes! So we had to take it to go....haha
So, I've only got a few weeks left! In class today we're discussing what to do with all that we've learned. It's crazy talk! But it opened it up for a great discussion involving all of the readings and experiences we've all been doing.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Stressful Based Camping Bland Ministry Lousy Field Experience
So, Adventure Based Camping Ministry Field Experience (as it should NOT be called) ended this past Friday. It was one of the most difficult experiences I have ever had. There was so much going on and bad communication was everywhere. However bad this experience was I'm going to try to just lay out the facts instead of winging (wining) about everything I could.
We arrived at the camp on Tuesday night. Now, I don't know how they assumed everything would be alright to have a few students leave the school during a regular school week with classes going still on. As maybe you don't know, Tuesday is my busiest day of the week: I have The View from Australia in the morning from 8:45-12, Faith and the Contemporary Artist from 2-4pm, and Video Production from 6-9pm. Then, right after that, I was on my way to Vision Valley, where the camp is held.
Tiffany, Andrew and I had to catch a bus from Drummoyne, where school is, to Burwood train station. From there we got on a train to Epping and had to get off and switch rails to continue all the way up to Hornsby. (Look it up on the Sydney City Rail network if you're interested). We then took a taxi to the camp. We got there about 11pm, maybe later. Granted, all of that went relatively smoothly...it was after a very long day. And we were all supposed to be ready for the kids to arrive in the morning.
Wednesday morning, the first day of the camp, came as a surprise. I'm not sure how ready we were for a normal camp, let alone the camp we were about to lead. A few campers came early and we did not have enough time to go over some paperwork. This camp was for about 23 primary school age kids (school years 4-6, aged 8-12) and most of them came because they were sponsored.
A few of them came early. This meant we didn't have time to go over some paperwork just before they came and we had to push that till later. So as more started arriving Andrew and I were sent to play with the ones that had been registered to keep them busy until all of them had arrived. We were given some balls and sent to the green lawn. One kid grabbed a football-on-a-tail thing and a few other kids grabbed whatever else we were given. Soon, of course, it got out of hand and we couldn't control them. As they were all sent to us we headed to where we made name tags. Soon after this, we went back to the lawn and arranged ourselves in a circle to learn each others' names. We passed a ball around and whoever had the ball said their name and if they had a choice which veggie they would be. Somehow we didn't get rid of the other balls and some kids wandered off. Some wrestled. Some just started chatting to themselves. Obviously cooperation, respect, and listening were not characteristics of this group.
We had some time to get to know the leaders and the staff of Vision Valley. Then, after morning tea we went to do some rock climbing. After that we had lunch, then archery, dinner, watched a movie, and had supper. Way later we got to bed. First day in a nutshell.
Second day: wake up, breakfast, input time, morning tea, canoeing, waterslide, lunch, messy games, free time/showers, dinner,
Final day. wake up, breakfast, input time, morning tea, waterslide, lunch, fill out paperwork, go home.
The waterslide was definitely the highlight for this camp. Everyone seemed to cooperate and most importantly have fun. It was even more fun when two people went at the same time because they went faster. I heard that canoeing was pretty fun too, but at the time I was resting. Archery was fun, but it was not very exciting because everyone only had two arrows to shoot and not everyone got the hang of it and actually hit the target. Then you had to wait till everyone was done shooting until you could retrieve your arrows. This meant that even if you misfired your arrow and it landed just a few feet in front of you, you could not cross the line to retrieve it. Rock climbing was the worst, but not totally bad. Lots of kids made it to the top and overcame some fears going up high and abseiling. Although, it was hard to deal with the kids who were not climbing. They kept running around, left their beleying post, and repeatedly disobeyed the leaders keeping everyone behind the climbing line or close to the group. I was about to climb but the leader said that we had to cut it short because kids would not behave. I could live with that. O and messy games were a blast. The kids definitely know how to get yucky! We had a few different games involving bananas, eggs, pancake batter, shaving cream, and canned tomatoes. At the end we were hosed off, and the water was freezing!
All in all the activities were ok. The hardest part was keeping them under control when we did not have an activity and to seperate kids from fighting...which happened a lot with the boys. And I'm not talking about just wrestling, sometimes these kids would lash out at each other. We had to physically seperate them, which is not looked greatly upon in Australia--leaders are rarely allowed to interfere with campers' actions because of some laws that keep kids safe from leaders. Several times we had to really calm them down, by which I mean a sonic boom. (Side note, it was actually kinda funny how our leader Jerry said "oy" really really loud sometimes, because he's an Aussie). Now the really upsetting news: in total, 6 kids left or had to leave the camp. None of us would say we wished they would leave but all of us knew that this camp would not survive if they stayed. They would just not cooperate. There were tons of name calling, unheard of amounts of swearing (coming from these little mouths!), and door slamming.
There were some good moments:
One of the boys, Damien, probably wasn't ready for this camp. He's a great kid and did really well on archery and rock climbing. But at the end of the day he really missed his mom and wanted nothing more than to be back home with her. He eventually left and everyone encouraged and loved on him. While he was having a rough first night away from mom the other boys rearranged their beds so they would be closer to him.
After some troublesome kids had left we all got a break. There were still a few feuds but they were way lower grade. We could actually talk to kids not even about anything interesting, but meals thereafter were a lot easier.
The girls had a good time. They were nowhere near the frustration as the boys (considering there were about 5 or 6 of them and about 15 boys). Still, they were sometimes bratty and a little weird. And another good point: I think that the boys behaved themselves and only harrassed one another and did not bring any trouble to the girls!
I've already covered a lot. There's so much that happened. I'm actually scarred and I know that I don't want to work with or see a kid that old for a while...I just can't handle the immaturity. But it also taught me a lot about myself. I thought I could handle them but looking back I did not really talk to them at their own level. I just hope that I wasn't seen as a meanie but that Jesus shown through me somehow.
We arrived at the camp on Tuesday night. Now, I don't know how they assumed everything would be alright to have a few students leave the school during a regular school week with classes going still on. As maybe you don't know, Tuesday is my busiest day of the week: I have The View from Australia in the morning from 8:45-12, Faith and the Contemporary Artist from 2-4pm, and Video Production from 6-9pm. Then, right after that, I was on my way to Vision Valley, where the camp is held.
Tiffany, Andrew and I had to catch a bus from Drummoyne, where school is, to Burwood train station. From there we got on a train to Epping and had to get off and switch rails to continue all the way up to Hornsby. (Look it up on the Sydney City Rail network if you're interested). We then took a taxi to the camp. We got there about 11pm, maybe later. Granted, all of that went relatively smoothly...it was after a very long day. And we were all supposed to be ready for the kids to arrive in the morning.
Wednesday morning, the first day of the camp, came as a surprise. I'm not sure how ready we were for a normal camp, let alone the camp we were about to lead. A few campers came early and we did not have enough time to go over some paperwork. This camp was for about 23 primary school age kids (school years 4-6, aged 8-12) and most of them came because they were sponsored.
A few of them came early. This meant we didn't have time to go over some paperwork just before they came and we had to push that till later. So as more started arriving Andrew and I were sent to play with the ones that had been registered to keep them busy until all of them had arrived. We were given some balls and sent to the green lawn. One kid grabbed a football-on-a-tail thing and a few other kids grabbed whatever else we were given. Soon, of course, it got out of hand and we couldn't control them. As they were all sent to us we headed to where we made name tags. Soon after this, we went back to the lawn and arranged ourselves in a circle to learn each others' names. We passed a ball around and whoever had the ball said their name and if they had a choice which veggie they would be. Somehow we didn't get rid of the other balls and some kids wandered off. Some wrestled. Some just started chatting to themselves. Obviously cooperation, respect, and listening were not characteristics of this group.
We had some time to get to know the leaders and the staff of Vision Valley. Then, after morning tea we went to do some rock climbing. After that we had lunch, then archery, dinner, watched a movie, and had supper. Way later we got to bed. First day in a nutshell.
Second day: wake up, breakfast, input time, morning tea, canoeing, waterslide, lunch, messy games, free time/showers, dinner,
Final day. wake up, breakfast, input time, morning tea, waterslide, lunch, fill out paperwork, go home.
The waterslide was definitely the highlight for this camp. Everyone seemed to cooperate and most importantly have fun. It was even more fun when two people went at the same time because they went faster. I heard that canoeing was pretty fun too, but at the time I was resting. Archery was fun, but it was not very exciting because everyone only had two arrows to shoot and not everyone got the hang of it and actually hit the target. Then you had to wait till everyone was done shooting until you could retrieve your arrows. This meant that even if you misfired your arrow and it landed just a few feet in front of you, you could not cross the line to retrieve it. Rock climbing was the worst, but not totally bad. Lots of kids made it to the top and overcame some fears going up high and abseiling. Although, it was hard to deal with the kids who were not climbing. They kept running around, left their beleying post, and repeatedly disobeyed the leaders keeping everyone behind the climbing line or close to the group. I was about to climb but the leader said that we had to cut it short because kids would not behave. I could live with that. O and messy games were a blast. The kids definitely know how to get yucky! We had a few different games involving bananas, eggs, pancake batter, shaving cream, and canned tomatoes. At the end we were hosed off, and the water was freezing!
All in all the activities were ok. The hardest part was keeping them under control when we did not have an activity and to seperate kids from fighting...which happened a lot with the boys. And I'm not talking about just wrestling, sometimes these kids would lash out at each other. We had to physically seperate them, which is not looked greatly upon in Australia--leaders are rarely allowed to interfere with campers' actions because of some laws that keep kids safe from leaders. Several times we had to really calm them down, by which I mean a sonic boom. (Side note, it was actually kinda funny how our leader Jerry said "oy" really really loud sometimes, because he's an Aussie). Now the really upsetting news: in total, 6 kids left or had to leave the camp. None of us would say we wished they would leave but all of us knew that this camp would not survive if they stayed. They would just not cooperate. There were tons of name calling, unheard of amounts of swearing (coming from these little mouths!), and door slamming.
There were some good moments:
One of the boys, Damien, probably wasn't ready for this camp. He's a great kid and did really well on archery and rock climbing. But at the end of the day he really missed his mom and wanted nothing more than to be back home with her. He eventually left and everyone encouraged and loved on him. While he was having a rough first night away from mom the other boys rearranged their beds so they would be closer to him.
After some troublesome kids had left we all got a break. There were still a few feuds but they were way lower grade. We could actually talk to kids not even about anything interesting, but meals thereafter were a lot easier.
The girls had a good time. They were nowhere near the frustration as the boys (considering there were about 5 or 6 of them and about 15 boys). Still, they were sometimes bratty and a little weird. And another good point: I think that the boys behaved themselves and only harrassed one another and did not bring any trouble to the girls!
I've already covered a lot. There's so much that happened. I'm actually scarred and I know that I don't want to work with or see a kid that old for a while...I just can't handle the immaturity. But it also taught me a lot about myself. I thought I could handle them but looking back I did not really talk to them at their own level. I just hope that I wasn't seen as a meanie but that Jesus shown through me somehow.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Quick Post Before Class
Hi. I just want to give you some quick information about me before I go. These past few days have been really stressful for me and I'd appreciate some prayer. What's done is done so you can't pray now that it would have happened any better, but tonight I leave for my upcoming class: Adventure Based Camping.
The camp is from this Wed to Fri at Vision Valley Camp about an hour and a half north of Sydney. I'll be a camp leader in charge of 5 little boys and I'll be with them for 3 fun days. It is a Christian camp but not a lot of the kids that will go have heard about Jesus. So, I will have a great influence on them by the way I live and profess to live about Him. We will have some time to discuss important topics and I would really like to know I'm being supported with prayer.
Also, I have become ill over the last few days and I don't want that to distract me from being a great leader to these kids! I've been so busy with trying to work ahead with my other classes that I haven't had time to go out and buy cough medicine or see a doctor. Pray that I get through these days!
The camp is from this Wed to Fri at Vision Valley Camp about an hour and a half north of Sydney. I'll be a camp leader in charge of 5 little boys and I'll be with them for 3 fun days. It is a Christian camp but not a lot of the kids that will go have heard about Jesus. So, I will have a great influence on them by the way I live and profess to live about Him. We will have some time to discuss important topics and I would really like to know I'm being supported with prayer.
Also, I have become ill over the last few days and I don't want that to distract me from being a great leader to these kids! I've been so busy with trying to work ahead with my other classes that I haven't had time to go out and buy cough medicine or see a doctor. Pray that I get through these days!
Outback!
Hey! So I'm finally getting to writing this entry. I know it's been a long time since my last blog and where I left off with what I was talking about. So here's the scoop on visiting the outback!!
First off, I want to clarify. There isn't "THE outback" like it may seem. It's a general term for the area of land that's beyond the busy and congested city/suberb life. It took a long bus ride out there--we stayed at a hotel on the way down, but we got to our destination. It took us about a day and a half to get there.
The whole ASC group went and stayed at Trillby Station, which is a sheep farm--they harvest the wool and/or the meat. The place is huge!! We're talking about tens of thousands of acres and about 800,000 sheep. They have 3 stations spread out across the land where they shear the sheep because it's so big. They use modern equipment to herd the sheep, such as helicopters/planes in the air and motorbikes on the ground. They also have chickens or "chooks" that lay eggs, goats for milk or meat (and along with chickens they eat food waste), and they have dogs (of a breed that I can't remember) to help with herding sheep. And, of course, they have native animals such as kangaroos.
The girls stayed in some shacks that they used for when they had workers, while the men stayed in a house. It was very well accomodated. However, there was always a group that slept outside for the night. I did that the first night but was very annoyed with how cold and wet it was in the morning...so I decided to sleep in a real bed the rest of the trip. We had heaps of time to venture around so we all did a good job of that. I brought my boomerangs that I bought at Vinnies and got to try them out. We figured out that it takes a little bit of wind to bring it back to you; if you have too much then it flies past you, and if you have too little it will keep flying ahead of you.
We had some great discussions around the campfire. It was like a central meeting place for someone who was stumped and didn't know where to go. It was going pretty much the whole time we were there. Each night we ended up there after the evening meal and shared "life storys." Kimberly had three rocks for us to take and share 3 events in our life that really shaped us or 3 things you want people to know about yourself, or a mixture of all that. People shared some really life changing things and we all got to know each other on a deeper level. It was a great highlight of the outback and certainly a highlight of our time in Australia.
The outback itself was pretty much like you would imagine: red and flat. However, this year it was very green. So much so that it is the greenest it has been in the last 40 years! I was partially disapointed to see life in the desert because it destroyed my visions of it. But I know now that this is a great season for the land because it is very fruitful. One thing to also note about this mysterious land is that this event may not happen for another 40 years or whatever: it's changing a lot and unpredictable.
First off, I want to clarify. There isn't "THE outback" like it may seem. It's a general term for the area of land that's beyond the busy and congested city/suberb life. It took a long bus ride out there--we stayed at a hotel on the way down, but we got to our destination. It took us about a day and a half to get there.
The whole ASC group went and stayed at Trillby Station, which is a sheep farm--they harvest the wool and/or the meat. The place is huge!! We're talking about tens of thousands of acres and about 800,000 sheep. They have 3 stations spread out across the land where they shear the sheep because it's so big. They use modern equipment to herd the sheep, such as helicopters/planes in the air and motorbikes on the ground. They also have chickens or "chooks" that lay eggs, goats for milk or meat (and along with chickens they eat food waste), and they have dogs (of a breed that I can't remember) to help with herding sheep. And, of course, they have native animals such as kangaroos.
The girls stayed in some shacks that they used for when they had workers, while the men stayed in a house. It was very well accomodated. However, there was always a group that slept outside for the night. I did that the first night but was very annoyed with how cold and wet it was in the morning...so I decided to sleep in a real bed the rest of the trip. We had heaps of time to venture around so we all did a good job of that. I brought my boomerangs that I bought at Vinnies and got to try them out. We figured out that it takes a little bit of wind to bring it back to you; if you have too much then it flies past you, and if you have too little it will keep flying ahead of you.
We had some great discussions around the campfire. It was like a central meeting place for someone who was stumped and didn't know where to go. It was going pretty much the whole time we were there. Each night we ended up there after the evening meal and shared "life storys." Kimberly had three rocks for us to take and share 3 events in our life that really shaped us or 3 things you want people to know about yourself, or a mixture of all that. People shared some really life changing things and we all got to know each other on a deeper level. It was a great highlight of the outback and certainly a highlight of our time in Australia.
The outback itself was pretty much like you would imagine: red and flat. However, this year it was very green. So much so that it is the greenest it has been in the last 40 years! I was partially disapointed to see life in the desert because it destroyed my visions of it. But I know now that this is a great season for the land because it is very fruitful. One thing to also note about this mysterious land is that this event may not happen for another 40 years or whatever: it's changing a lot and unpredictable.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Holiday
Hey! So here i'll try to explain where I went over my holiday.
First, I went to Cairns. The first day we did a tour of the rainforest. It's called the Daintree. It was a very fun tour! It was so green and later it rained...in the rainforest! :)
The second day we went to the Great Barrier Reef. It was so great! We couldn't go SCUBA diving because we had a flight the next day and there would be problems with the difference in atmospheric pressure for our bodies. So we just went snorkeling! It was very fun. We did two tours and had a lunch break inbetween. I got so close to the reef! I actually got so close that I clipped my flipper on the top of it. Our guides were really fun and talked to us a lot. Our favorite was a very experienced diver named Tazzy! He explained how all of the gear worked and how we were supposed to breathe correctly and all that.
The weather was really nice and warm. I would have liked to stay longer. We stayed at a party hostel! I got unlimited internet and a T-shirt for paying $10. The party group went bar hopping and got crazy. I just got free internet and a t-shirt that I want everyone (and I mean everyone) to sign!
The second trip we went to Melbourne. After a crazy couple of fun days in Cairns we just wanted to relax. No set plans. After we slept in and got our bearings, Tricia and I decided to go on a self-guided graffiti tour and around the marketplace. After that we toured the city at night and experienced the night life. It was very European and there were a lot of cafes. Fun times.
The next day we went to the beach and it was really nice. We laid down on a grassy hill and just watched the sun go down. We got some cheap food and got a few souveniers. We ate lunch at this neat Mexican place called Taco Bill's and after enjoying a fun conversation with out waitress she came out with sombrero hats for us! We wore them around the city. We also had a small bottle of bubbles so people probably thought we were weird. But we brought some smiles out of people!
The third and last stop was Hobart, Tasmania. It is a very overlooked state across the Tasman Sea. Once again we were exhausted and decided to sleep in. At this point I had spent all of my money and had to borrow some from Tricia...I apologize!! After we got all rested up we decided to go to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Bianca and Jen decided to go in the morning so we thought we'd go as well. It was late in the day, however, and we didn't get there in time. We actually missed our bus stop and then took a nice tour of the upper suberbs of Hobart in the hills. That was enough of an adventure. Anyway, we prepared our next and last day of Hobart and our holiday all together.
We started off by going to the Bonorong wildlife reserve park. It was a lot of fun! They have all sorts of animals like in a zoo but they have park rangers looking after them and giving guided tours around the park. Lots of them have been rescued and can no longer return to the wild. Some have been rescued from their mothers who were killed somehow and they are nurturing them back to health and then plan to send them out into the wild again. The animals we saw were: kangaroos, wallabies, different types of tropical birds, Tasmanian devils, a peacock, wombats, and geese.
Then we decided to go to Mt. Nelson and eat our pack lunches. Tricia felt like getting out of the wind so she stayed in the lookout point while I walked for a bit through the woods. We returned to the hostel to watch a movie: the Lion King. It was a classic for sure, but not a lot of the other guests liked it. Australia isn't Africa, but it definitely wasn't Kansas! Plus I haven't seen it in a long time so it was good to watch it again.
That was my week! The day after we got back to Sydney we headed out for the OUTBACK!! That will be my next blog...
First, I went to Cairns. The first day we did a tour of the rainforest. It's called the Daintree. It was a very fun tour! It was so green and later it rained...in the rainforest! :)
The second day we went to the Great Barrier Reef. It was so great! We couldn't go SCUBA diving because we had a flight the next day and there would be problems with the difference in atmospheric pressure for our bodies. So we just went snorkeling! It was very fun. We did two tours and had a lunch break inbetween. I got so close to the reef! I actually got so close that I clipped my flipper on the top of it. Our guides were really fun and talked to us a lot. Our favorite was a very experienced diver named Tazzy! He explained how all of the gear worked and how we were supposed to breathe correctly and all that.
The weather was really nice and warm. I would have liked to stay longer. We stayed at a party hostel! I got unlimited internet and a T-shirt for paying $10. The party group went bar hopping and got crazy. I just got free internet and a t-shirt that I want everyone (and I mean everyone) to sign!
The second trip we went to Melbourne. After a crazy couple of fun days in Cairns we just wanted to relax. No set plans. After we slept in and got our bearings, Tricia and I decided to go on a self-guided graffiti tour and around the marketplace. After that we toured the city at night and experienced the night life. It was very European and there were a lot of cafes. Fun times.
The next day we went to the beach and it was really nice. We laid down on a grassy hill and just watched the sun go down. We got some cheap food and got a few souveniers. We ate lunch at this neat Mexican place called Taco Bill's and after enjoying a fun conversation with out waitress she came out with sombrero hats for us! We wore them around the city. We also had a small bottle of bubbles so people probably thought we were weird. But we brought some smiles out of people!
The third and last stop was Hobart, Tasmania. It is a very overlooked state across the Tasman Sea. Once again we were exhausted and decided to sleep in. At this point I had spent all of my money and had to borrow some from Tricia...I apologize!! After we got all rested up we decided to go to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Bianca and Jen decided to go in the morning so we thought we'd go as well. It was late in the day, however, and we didn't get there in time. We actually missed our bus stop and then took a nice tour of the upper suberbs of Hobart in the hills. That was enough of an adventure. Anyway, we prepared our next and last day of Hobart and our holiday all together.
We started off by going to the Bonorong wildlife reserve park. It was a lot of fun! They have all sorts of animals like in a zoo but they have park rangers looking after them and giving guided tours around the park. Lots of them have been rescued and can no longer return to the wild. Some have been rescued from their mothers who were killed somehow and they are nurturing them back to health and then plan to send them out into the wild again. The animals we saw were: kangaroos, wallabies, different types of tropical birds, Tasmanian devils, a peacock, wombats, and geese.
Then we decided to go to Mt. Nelson and eat our pack lunches. Tricia felt like getting out of the wind so she stayed in the lookout point while I walked for a bit through the woods. We returned to the hostel to watch a movie: the Lion King. It was a classic for sure, but not a lot of the other guests liked it. Australia isn't Africa, but it definitely wasn't Kansas! Plus I haven't seen it in a long time so it was good to watch it again.
That was my week! The day after we got back to Sydney we headed out for the OUTBACK!! That will be my next blog...
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Long Overdue (apologies)... Australia=heaps cool
Wow, I haven't written in a while! I'm sorry if you've been wondering where I've been. I'll try to fill you in on what's been going on the last few weeks.
Firstly, the ASCers went on a splendid tour of Sydney Harbor with some Aboriginals. The ferry we took was meant to look like some Aborigines made it. It was largely made of wood and had designs in the inside cabin. The tour guide explained that Aborigines had different names for the sites of some famous Australian landmarks, such as the Sydney Opera House. He spat of tons of names and I didn't understand and thus can't remember any of them. Honestly most of their language is understandable to me and sounds like random nonsense. We visited an island where the tour guide pointed out some plants and things and told us their Aboriginal name and how Aboriginals would use it for many different purposes. For example, he showed us a plant by the name of Nut Grass and explained that it could be used 5 ways: physical barrier for snakes, the grass could be gathered to make baskets, the liquid found at the base of the grass could be used as toothpaste, (it's been awhile now so I don't remember the other 2). Near the end of the tour he and his brother entertained us by showing us some Aboriginal dancing and didgeridoo playing.
One night we (Terry, Bee Hoon, Wei-Li, David and I) visited Yang-En and her husband Jeff in their apartment. We played a game (I have at home) called Killer Bunnies. It takes way too long to explain, has a secret objective, and of course, kills bunnies. Ridiculous. But that was one of the best nights of my life. I knew how to play and Jeff and everyone but Bee Hoon and Terry caught on pretty quick. For the most part, Terry kept in the background and got his bunnies killed in the first round and never got anymore. Bee Hoon was simply hilarious and her evil side came out. She warned us not to kill her bunnies or something would come after us. She always had something up her sleeve. Also, at one time, she wanted to didn't understand the rules of a card despite repeat objections by everyone else. She is feisty.
Another evening a bunch of students, both Australian and American, went to see the movie Inception in theaters. I liked it, and thought that even though it can be a very confusing and complex film genre, I was impressed.
One Thursday and Friday the Americans from ASC and some Australians from Wesley went to a spiritual emphasis camp, or SPIRO camp for short/Australian. They do this every year and some years it has been really fun, and others it has been not so fun. But camp is what you make it! This year we had a lot of fun and I heard from the ASC director, Kimberly, that the Australians thought this was a very good group of ASCers! The camp's focus was on "ensemble" meaning doing life with others instead of for yourself. I'm sure we all learned a lot and can take away some good life lessons. One of the highlights of the camp was Friday night. We were split up into groups and had to perform a skit to the theme of a certain ensemble. Some of the group's themes turned out to be: The Toy Maker, A Wedding Featuring Steve Irwin and Julia Gillard...and some others that I can't remember. Our group, a movie company that specializes in making sequels (named Second Best Film Studios) ended up winning and we each received a chocolate candy bar for our hugely impulsive and crazy skit.
One of the most recent things we've done is visit the Australian capital of Canberra. We packed in seeing some embassies, art galleries, and a WWI memorial in just 2 days. We visited the United States and Indonesian embassies and the New Zealand High Commission. Don't ask my why it wasn't an "embassy." We also toured the "neighborhood" and saw many other countries' embassies on the bus, such as Greece, Belgium, China, and the Philippines. We stayed Friday night in a youth hostel and had a lot of fun. For supper we had some good Domino's pizza and pop. They had a pool and a sauna and later we played card games and Settlers of Cataan.
I had some papers due this week. One had to be written on a significant Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander and the other of a deconstruction of a certain film and its genre. I picked Artie Beetson, one of Australia's best rugby league players ever, and my favorite film, Ocean's 11 (with George Clooney). I had barely written anything on the Aboriginal one and I was scraping the barrel for ideas on the film one. They had to be 1500 and 1000 words respectively. I finished them both on time by the great help of my gracious God with the prayers of friends and family.
In general, my home stay family is continuing to be amazing and a great family to come home to. I regret not spending heaps of time with them because I am too busy doing school or adventuring. Although, my "home mom" has recently caught my bad side. Sometimes I can let things slide and get disorganized or lazy. I was lightly scolded one time when I forgot to replace my towel in the bathroom and used my "home bro's" instead.
There's so much more that I can list picking from my brain. Some random stuff will probably come back at random times when I return...
Firstly, the ASCers went on a splendid tour of Sydney Harbor with some Aboriginals. The ferry we took was meant to look like some Aborigines made it. It was largely made of wood and had designs in the inside cabin. The tour guide explained that Aborigines had different names for the sites of some famous Australian landmarks, such as the Sydney Opera House. He spat of tons of names and I didn't understand and thus can't remember any of them. Honestly most of their language is understandable to me and sounds like random nonsense. We visited an island where the tour guide pointed out some plants and things and told us their Aboriginal name and how Aboriginals would use it for many different purposes. For example, he showed us a plant by the name of Nut Grass and explained that it could be used 5 ways: physical barrier for snakes, the grass could be gathered to make baskets, the liquid found at the base of the grass could be used as toothpaste, (it's been awhile now so I don't remember the other 2). Near the end of the tour he and his brother entertained us by showing us some Aboriginal dancing and didgeridoo playing.
One night we (Terry, Bee Hoon, Wei-Li, David and I) visited Yang-En and her husband Jeff in their apartment. We played a game (I have at home) called Killer Bunnies. It takes way too long to explain, has a secret objective, and of course, kills bunnies. Ridiculous. But that was one of the best nights of my life. I knew how to play and Jeff and everyone but Bee Hoon and Terry caught on pretty quick. For the most part, Terry kept in the background and got his bunnies killed in the first round and never got anymore. Bee Hoon was simply hilarious and her evil side came out. She warned us not to kill her bunnies or something would come after us. She always had something up her sleeve. Also, at one time, she wanted to didn't understand the rules of a card despite repeat objections by everyone else. She is feisty.
Another evening a bunch of students, both Australian and American, went to see the movie Inception in theaters. I liked it, and thought that even though it can be a very confusing and complex film genre, I was impressed.
One Thursday and Friday the Americans from ASC and some Australians from Wesley went to a spiritual emphasis camp, or SPIRO camp for short/Australian. They do this every year and some years it has been really fun, and others it has been not so fun. But camp is what you make it! This year we had a lot of fun and I heard from the ASC director, Kimberly, that the Australians thought this was a very good group of ASCers! The camp's focus was on "ensemble" meaning doing life with others instead of for yourself. I'm sure we all learned a lot and can take away some good life lessons. One of the highlights of the camp was Friday night. We were split up into groups and had to perform a skit to the theme of a certain ensemble. Some of the group's themes turned out to be: The Toy Maker, A Wedding Featuring Steve Irwin and Julia Gillard...and some others that I can't remember. Our group, a movie company that specializes in making sequels (named Second Best Film Studios) ended up winning and we each received a chocolate candy bar for our hugely impulsive and crazy skit.
One of the most recent things we've done is visit the Australian capital of Canberra. We packed in seeing some embassies, art galleries, and a WWI memorial in just 2 days. We visited the United States and Indonesian embassies and the New Zealand High Commission. Don't ask my why it wasn't an "embassy." We also toured the "neighborhood" and saw many other countries' embassies on the bus, such as Greece, Belgium, China, and the Philippines. We stayed Friday night in a youth hostel and had a lot of fun. For supper we had some good Domino's pizza and pop. They had a pool and a sauna and later we played card games and Settlers of Cataan.
I had some papers due this week. One had to be written on a significant Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander and the other of a deconstruction of a certain film and its genre. I picked Artie Beetson, one of Australia's best rugby league players ever, and my favorite film, Ocean's 11 (with George Clooney). I had barely written anything on the Aboriginal one and I was scraping the barrel for ideas on the film one. They had to be 1500 and 1000 words respectively. I finished them both on time by the great help of my gracious God with the prayers of friends and family.
In general, my home stay family is continuing to be amazing and a great family to come home to. I regret not spending heaps of time with them because I am too busy doing school or adventuring. Although, my "home mom" has recently caught my bad side. Sometimes I can let things slide and get disorganized or lazy. I was lightly scolded one time when I forgot to replace my towel in the bathroom and used my "home bro's" instead.
There's so much more that I can list picking from my brain. Some random stuff will probably come back at random times when I return...
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