Work and Play

    Hello long lost blog, it’s been awhile. What have I been up to since we last talked? Good question…. Despite the deceiving pics on my facebook, I’ve actually been wasting away in a library for the most part. School has decided to pick up the pace (which I guess makes sense seeing that I’ve been here for over five weeks now). Last weekend, for our “Indigenous Cultures, History & Identity” class, they packed the American students into a bus and we headed to the South Coast, our destination- Booderee National Park. It was about a three hour bus ride to get to the campsite; we then proceeded to set up our tents, and then make our way to the botanical gardens. The Aboriginal community own and operate the park and they gave us a tour and taught us many things about the various plants, animals (including trying to get a python to come out of hiding, I made sure to back up several feet but thankfully they were unsuccessful), as well as many things about their culture. That night at camp after dinner, several of them showed us some of their traditional aboriginal dances. We then ended the night with smores (with Australia’s flavored marshmallows), stargazing on the beach, and playing card games. Unfortunately it rained that night while we slept so many people woke up in puddles (my tent stayed dry for the most part thankfully). The next morning the rain moved away and we proceeded to pack up our mud caked stuff. We had to head back to the city pretty quickly but not before stopping at “Summer Cloud Bay” where I got my first view of dolphins and learned a little more history of the area. On the way back we stopped in the town of Kiama to eat lunch, we enjoyed watching their famous blow hole spew water into the air as well as climbing on the rocks to get some amazing views. That was an eventful weekend but the days before and since has been spent preparing for a presentation, writing papers, reading, etc. It’s now Friday and I’m looking forward to my service placement, visiting churches, and maybe even… the beach? Hmm… don’t really have anything to complain about there. J

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

    Have you ever had a day when nothing went as planned? Yesterday was one of those days, and it’s carried into today. One thing after another, small things but they don’t have to be big to disappoint. This is the beginning of week four, the week that we were told would be one of the hardest because we would start to feel the pressures of school as well as begin to miss home even more. I have to say that I didn’t really believe that it would be that big of a deal. After all I’m in Australia! That should mean that I’m happy to be here all the time right? The saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side” never means so much until you leave home for an extended amount of time. It’s the same way every time I drive eight hours to school, from Nashville, TN to Chicago, IL. I like school but after awhile it starts to feel like a prison and I just want to escape.  See, what I’m learning is there’s never just one hard thing you have to deal with at a time. When I was kid, I remember being so upset at one particular thing: maybe a toy broke or I had a fight with one of my siblings. Those things loomed large in my mind. But now that I’m an adult, there always seems to be so many things coming at me at once, tearing my focus from where it needs to be. You, the reader are probably wondering why I’m being such a downer but I told you in my previous update that I wanted to go deeper with this blog than just the surface level, fun things that I’m doing here. Amidst some of the struggles, here are some of the beautiful things God is teaching me at the moment:

    I mentioned in my last blog that I was able to go with a group of people to the Blue Mountains last weekend. It was a gorgeous place and I was glad I got to go. However, it was one of the hardest physical things I had ever done. I am not, and have never been, athletic. The most I do to work out is go on long walks or ride a bike, I’ve never been a runner and as much as I like hiking, I had never done a very long, strenuous one like we did last week. We started at the very top of these cliffs, climbed down a ton of stairs, walked on some flatter trails for a little while and then proceeded to climb up the other side of the cliffs. I decided afterwards that it would be ok if I never saw a set of stairs again after that. The point of this story is that my pride was stamped to the ground that day. I wanted so bad to keep up with the other people in my group. I did not want to be the straggler that struggled to take each step and sounded like I needed an inhaler. But that’s what happened. It’s been my unmentioned goal in life to not be in vulnerable situations. I like to believe that I’m a strong person mentally, emotionally, and physically. I’m not. And my Heavenly Father is breaking my walls down in this area. It hurts, but this is what I asked for. I’ve been in a spiritual ditch for quite some time now. I’ve never stopped trying to have a relationship with God but that was the whole point all along. It was my prideful thinking that I could do something to fix my own heart. This is not to say that I now have it all figured out now, but I am in the midst of learning to surrender. I didn’t have to travel to the other side of the world to learn these things, but God is using this time away from home in a powerful way and I’m grateful for it.

Week Three

     So I’ve been keeping up with both of my sisters blogs and they’re so insightful and deep! I’m going to attempt to put some thoughts together about some stuff I’m learning about God, myself, and culture…. but not right now. J This past weekend was packed full but a lot of fun. Friday was another field trip into the city to visit the “Hyde Park Barracks” where we learned a lot about Australia’s history and saw the places that some of the convicts stayed in when they first came to this land. Saturday was an early morning start as my service placement at Hillsong started. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it’s an organized program where groups of “street teams” go to houses or apartments of various people (a lot of elderly for the most part) and either help them clean, or do something else to help out, or just sit and visit with them. I really enjoyed it and am excited to be a part of the program while I’m here. Saturday afternoon was spent walking around Sydney, seeing just a small part of the botanical gardens (I will be going back soon to explore them for sure!) and then visiting a church across the Harbor Bridge Saturday evening. Sunday was another early morning as large group of us students caught an early train to visit the Blue Mountains. It was about a two hour train ride and it was sooo nice to be out of the city for a little while! We even saw some wildlife including a Goanna (large lizard), some kind of bird (not sure exactly what it was) and then I saw two kangaroos on the train ride back! Well that’s all for now… thanks for reading!

Two Weeks

          Today (Wednesday, March 7^th, 2012) is the two week mark since I arrived in Sydney, Australia. A lot has happened in those two weeks! I won’t go into detail about everything but I’ve definitely stayed busy! School here is set up differently: instead of having classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then Tuesday, Thursday, each class is once a week and is three hours long. At first I wasn’t sure how I would like that but they give you breaks during class and it’s nice to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Monday’s I have two photography classes and then I have one class a day for the rest of the week (excluding Saturdays and Sundays of course). Another part of my program here is to do 35 hours in a service placement, I’m not yet sure what I will be doing because they’re in the process of switching me to a different placement.

         This weekend was full of fun, new adventures with the other American students: Friday night some of us went out and had Kangaroo burgers (it was pretty good but we all decided we’d rather have normal hamburgers). Saturday I found my way into the city by myself for the first time and met up with a couple of people to attend the Hillsong evening service (not the main church but one of their other campuses). After the service we went to a place called “Pancakes on the Rocks” (“The Rocks” is a place within the city, near the Opera House). Sunday we spent most of the day at Cronulla Beach, with the intention of watching a Surf competition (wasn’t as exciting as we imagined), and for the most part just soaked up the sun and watched people brave the intense waves. Monday was a full day of classes and then yesterday, our whole class (there’s 37 of us) went into the city and got to explore a lot of the historic parts of Sydney.

     I think that about covers my adventures of the past few days… here’s a collage of some of my favorite pictures I’ve taken so far (I haven’t taken a whole lot yet but don’t worry- I will!):