Something Witty

Hello my dear followers!

So.. Byron Bay! The hippy capital of the world I think.. I wrote most of you about the first week spent there. The second week was pretty similar to the first, but it seemed a lot better and not as nerve wracking. I got much more used to talk to strangers and striking up coversations. I met all kinds of people, of all ages and from a lot of different places. Some normal, and some not so normal. Not so normal, I had one hippy looking young man come up to me when I was handing out chai tea and he was telling me about his magical healing rock. Also, not to mention he looked extremely high. It was pretty cool to see though, because Rebs told him about how Jesus wants to replace that rock and heal him with His own love! Oh! I have now developed a strong love for chai tea. They like drinking tea a lot in Australia and I do NOT like it at all. Lucky for me, I was convinced to try some chai and I decided to step out and try it. It is lovely! I've been drinking it almost non stop. Hot chai tea, chai lattes, chai frappes.. I love it all! We also had a second international beach volleyball tournament the day before we left. Heather, Kristal and I formed a team and we also invited a random girl that we met on the beach to play on our team. Turns out we're not too shabby at volleyball! We won three out of our four games, but we didn't make it to the finals. The girl we met was named Shardai and she was about sixteen or seventeen and she liked hanging out with us so much that she showed up with her mom at our final free BBQ in the park that night. We hung out and talked about music and life and we actually wound up talking about God! She had some questions for me, but she was very respectful of what I had to say. She also told me that she had always believed in life after death. It was so awesome and I loved chatting to her. She was one of my favorite people that we met and we actually might see her again when we go to Newcastle for the ship tour.

After that, it was off to Sydney! Thank goodness it was only about nine hours to travel there.. Much shorter than some of our previous road trips. The Sydney Island Breeze base is alright. It's a huge base; it's about three stories high, but it reminded me of a prison for some reason. Probably because they had minimal furniture and bars on the windows and very strict rules regarding everything. This included how much television and movies we watched, what kind of television and movies we watched, and how long we could be on the internet. If we were using their internet, we were only allowed to be on the computer for fifteen minutes for the whole day. Definitely made me appreciate our base so much more. Not to mention it was VERY hot and humid the whole week we were there. One day it made it up to about plus forty five with maximum humidity. I had a shower and five minutes later I was sweating already. Those were the days I was dreaming of Canada and snow and minus thirty five haha. Our speaker for the week was really awesome and he spoke on the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. I wasn't very familiar with Spiritual gifts, but they are healing, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, discernment, and prophecy. They are pretty hard to explain through email. Actually, I think it would probably be hard to explain in person too. Healing is the only one I can properly explain. He actually demonstrated healing through prayer. For example, Heather had a short leg and I've seen it before and she showed it to all of us. He had her sit on the floor with her legs extended and he touched her ankles and prayed and her short leg grew! It was crazy. You could see it grow longer and she said she could feel it grow. I always used to think that healing was something that was set up between crazy televangelists and actors or something. It really changed my thinking about it. He was also a really friendly guy and it was cool to talk to him and get to know him over the week.

On the weekend, we finally got to go sight seeing, which was what we were all waiting for. Oh, and we got to visit one of the only Starbucks in Australia! I know, I know what you're thinking.. over priced and over hyped. But still SO good! We had to take an hour long train into the city and we had to walk everything in the city during the day. We went to the Opera House first, and it was even bigger than I had imagined it would be. And it was much cleaner than I expected it to be as well! Lots of people on our team, including me, decided to lick the side of the Opera House. I mean, so many people can claim than they've seen and touched it, but how many people can say that they've actually licked it? Next, we walked to Harbor Bridge. The Harbor Bridge was pretty interesting, though there wasn't much to do but walk across it. For an extra two hundred or three hundred dollars, you can walk across the very top of the bridge, but I didn't have the money and I'm also pretty afraid of heights. We walked around the streets some more and looked at the building structures. It's a very fancy looking city and many of the buildings in Sydney were designed by an American. Another thing I noticed about the city was that it was very clean. No matter where we went during the day, we hardly ever saw any garbage on the streets. Our last stop of the day before catching the train home was the Sydney Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely gorgeous, green grass and beautiful flowers everywhere. I could have stayed there a lot longer than we did. There was also a wedding being performed in the park when we were there. All in all, I really liked Sydney, even though it was an absolutely HUGE city.

The next stop on our Australian tour was.. drum roll please.. CANBERRA! Or as they pronounce it in Australia, "Can-bra!" Although it's the country capital, it seems like a fairly small and laid back little city. It was also very spread out and there was a lot of scenery around. We saw a lot of kangaroos on the side of the roads near and in Canberra. The YWAM base is about ten minutes out of town and it is also very large. Their base was even bigger than the base we stayed at in Sydney. Unfortunately, they still didn't have room for us to sleep inside the building, since there were over 700 people in attendance of the 50th celebration of YWAM. We did manage to pitch our tents in the courtyard right beside the school. I shared a tent with Heather and Kristal for the week. The first two days we were there, it got pretty cold for Australia. The temperature actually dipped down to about plus five for those days. There were a lot of people claiming they were freezing, but I thought it was very similar to Canadian spring weather. It was a nice change from hot, muggy and humid, and it made me think of home sweet home. :) Our team and about fifteen other YWAM teams got to meet and hear the founder of YWAM and his wife talk about the organization. They were a very cute older couple and they had a lot of wisdom to impart. Loren and Darlene Cunningham were their names and Loren reminded me a lot of my Uncle Stan and my Grandpa in his mannerisms and the way he talked. They were both about 75 or close to 80, but they still had their sense of humor and their joy. Once again, it made me think of family and being back home. Some of the sessions were very interesting, but as the days grew hotter, it was harder to stay awake during the talks. I did fall asleep through a whole session talking about the ship tour, but according to the more conscious members of the team, I didn't miss much. Oh, I was also very tired by the end of the week because our base was assigned to breakfast duty. We had to wake up at six o'clock in the morning and prepare breakfast for all those people. I was in charge of making toast, so I got to spend two hours every morning talking to strangers and popping bread in the toaster. It was pretty entertaining most of the time, but some people are very anal about their toast and their condiments. I had an older woman come and deliver a five minute speech to me about how there were two plastic knives in the jam and how it was only proper to have one in each jar. Blah, blah, blah.. Other people were much kinder and much more appreciative of my toasting skills. There were two Korean bases there, including the ones we met in Sydney and they were always very polite and thankful. Unfortunately, they didn't speak enough English for me to be able to communicate that the vegemite was not chocolate! Poor Koreans.. There were so many of them mistakenly eating vegemite with things like jam and peanut butter because they thought it was chocolate. All in all, it was a fairly good week, minus the early mornings and hot days, but we got to meet a lot of important people in YWAM and we heard more about the history of YWAM.

Our trip home took almost all day, travelling from a bit after one o'clock in the afternoon and arriving back in Adelaide at around five in the morning. It was a fairly uneventful ride, except that I was already beginning to feel slightly sick and our van began to have problems revving too high around one in the morning. Luckily, everything worked out and we made it home safely, with the van now in the shop. The weekend was so blissful and I was happy to finally be able to relax and catch up on my sleep. This week, our speaker was our base director, Pablo Nunez. Our topic this week was Identity, Dreams, and Calling. In other words, we talked about our future and what we want to do with it. I've been thinking about this a lot and I realized that I don't want to get into photography as my career. I've also thought about joining the police force, but I don't think that's what I want to do. I know I've always said that I didn't want to get involved in a career involving children and youth, but I realized this week that that is what I have a passion for. I still don't know what I want to do though. All I know is that I don't want to be a teacher! Haha. I'm definitely going to be thinking about my next step a lot in the next few months.

Well, I think that's all I have to say for now! Don't stop believing! :)

Stop! Hammer Time!

Okay, so the title has absolutely no relevance to this entry at all. Well.. Maybe the Stop! part.

So Australia definitely seems closer and closer this side of summer. During summer, it was like, "Meh. I still have over two months until I leave." After summer, when the cold chill set in, it was like, "OHMYGOODNESS I LEAVE IN TWO MONTHS!" It can be a bit of a scary thought at times. Not only am I moving out, but in one fell swoop, I am leaving Canada for the first time. Sometimes I am sure that I wouldn't have the courage to do it without Heather. Having one of the most beautiful and supportive friends in Australia with me will be like taking a piece of home with me.

Back to the present, I have officially put in my two weeks notice at my part time job at the CL Theater. Cue huge sigh of relief. Recently, I've grown more and more frustrated with the way things are run at work and at times I can barely bring myself to go. By frustrations I'm referring to the late nights, my lack of counting skills, how nothing ever seems to stay clean, and how I always seem to screw up my stock numbers. It's taken awhile, but working two jobs is finally hitting me hard. My parents sat me down a few weeks ago with an offer.. I quit the theater at the end of September, and they pay me what I would have made for the month of October. By doing so, I'm free to spend more time at home with them and finally get to enjoy a home cooked meal! It left me stunned and feeling very blessed. They told me to think it over for a few days, but really, there was no contest. Although I will miss many of my co workers and our entertaining nights, I am finished on the twenty nineth of September. So y'all best come to your last free movie with me soon! Jokes!

Hanging around with my friends lately is getting pretty crazy. When I'm with them, sometimes my mind wanders to how much I will miss them and what I will miss in their lives while I'm gone. Sometimes I'm stuck with this sad feeling in the bottom of my heart, like it's been dropped down an elevator shaft or something. But it always passes. And deep down I know that they will be there for me now, when I'm gone, and when I get back. Which definitely is an encouraging thought to me!

Well, I will keep on keeping on and I'm keeping my eyes to the sky! I'm off to prepare myself for a night at work. :)

In The Quiet Place.

There seems to be something just absolutely beautiful about today. Why? I have no idea why. There is just beauty in the quiet and the simplicity. I'm so used to being busy and surrounded by people all the time that it's good to sit back and enjoy the peace. Thanks for today Jesus! :)

New Beginnings?

First blog post! Ee! I'd love to have something witty to say, but I'm not that quick witted.

In a few short minutes, I shall be departing for Edmonton, meeting my brutha from the same mutha along the way. By this time tomorrow, I'll be boarding a plane for the first time in a zillion years. Wish me luck, I don't remember if I like plane rides or not. So hopefully they won't have to drug me or tether me down or anything like that. Winnipeg bound. The very same city that Winnie The Pooh was named after. Not that I was a huge fan of his, he was far too depressing I found. Or maybe I was just too ADD as a child. Once we touch down, familytimefamilytime and MORE family time. I'm excited. I love seeing family. :)

Seems like I'll be doing a whole lot of travelling this year, so I figured I should have a place to slam down my thoughts. Especially because I have the tendancy to lose half of the important possessions that I lay my hands on. Perfect example: 4 birthday watches and 5 library cards. Not the best track record. Besides, blogging makes me feel like an important journalist or business person. Don't ask why, I couldn't tell you.

Anyways, Heather and I have recently been accepted to be a part of YWAM in South Australia. Adelaide, Australia, to be exact. Oh! To clarify, YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission. It's a Christian organization that has Discipleship Training Schools set up around the world. So I'll be jetting overseas in November to be a part of this. Wish us luck and maybe shoot up some prayer for us too! It still feels so surreal. I don't know how long this will take to sink in, but I'm both moving out and travelling the world at the same time. A bit of a weird combination, but hey, I'm excited for it. I love challenges. Bring em on!

Well, I'm rambling, so I'll wrap this up. Keep on reading my blogs if you're interested. They will range from serious to (hopefully) funny to random and anything in between. Later days!