a week in New Zealand and now I'm home!

It feels good to be home after all my traveling. I left Australia on the 14th of June. It was so sad to leave but from there we went to New Zealand for a week to learn about the indigenous Maori culture and I was pretty excited for that. The culture and feel of New Zealand is very different from Australia and it helped with the transition back home to the states.

above: looking out over Davenport and the city of Auckland

below: a view of the countryside through the bus window

New Zealand is GORGEOUS!!! The countryside and beaches make you feel like you are in the middle of a movie set! Maori culture is also extremely interesting. We learned a lot about it in the short time we had on the island. All our time was spent on the north island, starting and ending in Auckland- NZ's biggest city. Auckland was kinda cool and I got to go bungee jumping off their harbour bridge, but I much preferred the country.

Our trip included staying one night with an actual Maori community, experiencing a traditional hangi meal, having a couple lectures, going to a Maori cultural show, visiting museums, touring villages, going to see geothermal geysers, hiking around ancient volcanoes that are now grassy mountains... you get the picture.

Well that was last week, and now this week I'm home and enjoying the warmth of summer once again! (It was getting really cold by the time I left Australia and New Zealand was absolutely freezing most of the week!). Culture shock hasn't been too bad (although I did have some issues walking along the wrong side of the sidewalk) and jet-lag is just starting to set in.

While I was in Australia I tried not to spend too much time at my computer so I really didn't do a very complete job of explaining all I did and learned. Now that I have more time, I plan on filling in a bit of the details and sharing more pictures and stories. So stay tuned- this isn't the last post!

It's my last day in Australia. The past week has been one of the best! Last weekend I went up to one of my friend's houses in Woy Woy (on the central coast). We went exploring caves by the ocean, whale watching, beach walking, and fishing in the ocean. It was so relaxing I didn't want to come back to Sydney.

I love Sydney too, though! This week was a tourist week for me. On Tuesday I climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was so crazy! We got all harnessed in and suited up and climbed all the way to the top. We did the climb at night and the city lights were so beautiful from the top up there and the wind was soo cold! 

Last saturday I went surfing. Surfing at Manly Beach has become one of my favorite things! I love taking the ferry over there and feeling the breeze coming off the ocean and seeing the opera house across the water. It's all so beautiful! Surfing out in the ocean with the sun shining down on you and the waves crashing is so amazing!

I've been spending as much time as possible with my Australian friends. I have made some really great friends and I am going to miss them heaps! YesderWe had a goodbye party last night and it was so sad saying goodbye and realizing that I may never see them again. 

Well... I leave for New Zealand in the morning. My luggage got picked up this morning. I'm really excited about that! But in the meantime... I'm going to enjoy my last day down under!
I can't wait to see you all again! I'll post more pictures and things on here when I get home.

Accomplishments.

It's been a long time since I've updated. Too long to be able to even tell you the stories of all that I've done so I'll just list the highlights of things I've accomplished in the last month:

1. Went to the outback (the Back O'Bourke)

2. Been in the Opera House (for the Aboriginal Film Festival)

3. Fished for yabbies and ate them

4. Seen heaps of kangaroos

5. Eaten kangaroo (not in the outback... I ate a big kangaroo burger today after surfing at Manly Beach, it was good!)

6. Learned to surf

7. Been to an AFL game at Sydney Olympic Park (Australian Football League is way better than American football and the Sydney Swans won!!! It was a good game)

8. Waded through the famous Hyde Park fountain

9. Swam in mud

10. Trained with host brother's soccer team

11. Had a Tim Tam slam

12. Ran in a race (it was my very first race and I ran 8k in 37:52 and placed 5th)

13. Went to the Blue Mountains

14. Explored more of the Botanical Gardens

15. Milked a cow

16. Learned how to play rugby from aboriginal kids (I think they made up the rules as they went)

I'm sure I've left off important things but oh well. I've been doing too many things and exploring so many different places. There's a month before I head back towards the states and still so much I want to see and do. It'll get done.

Adventures Down Under

I said that I would tell you more about my trip so here goes my attempt. I could just tell you that I saw a lot of really cool things and had a great time and that would be the truth. However, my two week Easter break trip involved a whole lot more than seeing things and having a good time. The greatest part of the trip wasn’t all the stunning natural beauty (although that was cool to see) and it wasn’t the coolness of exploring a place some people only dream of seeing, it was learning about the culture and experiencing the blessings of friendship and hospitality. There are some things that pictures just can’t capture and the problem is that this sort of thing is really hard to explain. Like I said, I’ll do my best.

Ok, here is a story that will hopefully help you understand what I mean about hospitality. (Mom, I debated about telling you this part of our trip now or waiting until I got home because I don’t want you to worry, but it turned out really good so make sure you read the story all the way to the end). 

It was a dark and stormy night half way through our trip (it wasn’t actually stormy, but it was dark). Heather, Sarah, Ben, Jenna and I were standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus so we could go exploring around the surfer town of Noosa. There were these four drunk/drugged-up teenage boys across the street acting like typical drunk Australian teenage punks. Well, they decide to come over to our side of the street and ask about bus times… or so we thought. What ended up happening is one dude started beating up Ben while the other guys circled around us girls. Ben got a bit beat up but he somehow managed to protect his camera and dodge punches all at the same time! We got away pretty quick and ran to a nearby grocery store where we borrowed a phone and called the cops. It was fortunate that the store was open because most shops in Australia close at 5pm. The cops came after a while and told us we should probably find a different area to camp. Being a holiday weekend there weren’t any vacancies left anywhere. So there we are, five scared college kids with a bunch of luggage, a couple tents, and nowhere to go. 

God has a way a providing. Ian, one of the two cops that came to rescue us, decided that we should all go spend the night at his house. They called a taxi and off we went to Ian’s house to meet his family and settle down for the night. We ended up staying there the whole weekend and it was a blast! Tracy-Lee made up beds for each of us, let us all take showers and told us to make ourselves at home. Ian made us some super amazing pasta, the kids shared their Easter candy with us, they let us use their computer and eat their food, they let their kids go hiking in the national park with us and show us around town, they drove us to church for Easter (even though they didn’t go themselves), showed us family pictures, watched movies with us, taught us Australian phrases… they were the most hospitable family I have ever met in my life! It was so good spending Easter with a family. Easter is my favorite holiday and I was missing my family a lot. I don’t think I will soon forget this Easter. We now call Ian, Tracy-lee, Cheyenne, and Shiloh our “Australian family”. Ian sent us an email the other day saying he wished we could’ve stayed with them longer so they could’ve taken us surfing and had an Australian barbeque with “prawns on the barbie" for us.

That is only one of our encounters with Australian hospitality. The people here are so open and friendly (except maybe the teenage surf punks which we stayed far away from the rest of our trip)! All five of us were amazed how God provided for us and blessed us throughout the trip and we all have a newfound appreciation for backpackers and a new view on hospitality. It was an amazing adventure and I think that pretty well sums up my trip for you. 

The picture below is our Easter family minus Shiloh... we wore him out hiking so he was still sleeping. The top picture is the five of us at Cape Tribulation (left to right: me, Sarah, Heather, Ben, and Jenna) and the beach picture is a view of the Noosa coast.

out in the wild!

Here are a couple pictures from my two week break trip. It was so much fun and I saw so many amazing things! I will write more about it later but I just thought I'd get a few pictures up.

(our campsite in Port Douglas- the ocean is just beyond the palm trees)

(the "blue hole" in the middle of the Daintree Rainforest)

(some huge rocks in the ocean)

(the view from our tent one morning)

(momma and baby koala in the wild on magnetic island)

another typical week...

This week has been full of homework, hanging out with friends, exploring, riding ferries and busses and trains and stuff like that. It's been good. On Saturday I went to the Glebe Markets. Glebe is a part of Sydney that is very alternative and hippy-ish. That was fun! After shopping around there I went to Manly beach and explored the nearby cliffs with Ty. I love exploring! The scenery was AMAZING and it felt like I was in the middle of the movie set for the Chronicles of Narnia.

Monday morning I had to give a group presentation on the Australian stimulus package. It was really interesting to learn about. The most recent package was $42bn aimed at getting the Australian economy from going down-hill so quickly. Much of what happens over in the States effects life over here- especially in the area of the economy. Being in another country I'm realizing how much the world really is effected by globalization.

Speaking of global... for lunch today I went to a Thai restaurant that's about a minutes walk from school with my Australian friend Emma, my French friend Florence, and two of my American friends Becca and Jess. There are tons of Thai restaurants all over Sydney! Australia doesn't really have a national food, they just have a mixture of ethnic foods. My favorite foods at the moment are sushi, Greek salad, gelato, and dried Iranian figs. 

I'm leaving for my two week break trip this Friday so I might not be able to post for a while. After I come back, though, I'll be sure to post all the pictures I took of the Australian rainforests, the great barrier reef, and the northern beaches.

one of those weeks

This week has been kinda rough. Today was a long day. I left my house at 7:30 this morning and just got back home again at 11pm. It was very hard not to fall asleep during my Romans class this afternoon. It's such a good class but it's 3 hours long and whenever I sit in one spot for too long my eyes start drooping.

While I was in Canberra last weekend I found out that my grandpa died. It's been difficult not being able to be at home for my family. On top of that, today my roommate it sick, yesterday my host mom was sick, and one of my host brother's friends is dying of cancer. I'm realizing that life is one of those things you can't control. You take it as it comes and enjoy each moment for what it is.

We talked about the concept of Kairos in one of my classes. It basically means "a unique moment in time" and it's more formal definition is, "The hour [which] is the God-given moment of destiny not to be shrunk from but seized with decisiveness, the floodtide of opportunity and demand in which the unseen waters of the future surge down to the present." Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. One of my favorite quotes is by Fanny Crosby, "Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering!"

Anyway... this week has also had plenty of good moments too! Last night Heather and I went to our friend Ish's house to make dinner. Ish is from Zimbabwe and goes to our uni. I love how there are so many people from so many places. There's a guy in my Romans class who's Irish and he has the coolest Aussie/Irish accent ever! He shared his Moroccan pizza with me tonight. 

God has blessed me with some super great American friends here too. I am with the 26 other American exchange students so much between being in class with them, traveling, working on assignments and presentations together, and that sort of thing. There is a group of five of us that have become pretty close. Tonight we had a Bible study together and it was so good after a long day. For our "fall" break the five of us are going to spend 16 days exploring the eastern coast of Queensland together. We'll be hiking through rainforests, camping, exploring some islands, snorkeling on the reef, stopping at towns along the coast, going to different beaches, and who knows what else! We fly up to Cairns April 3rd and I can't wait!

Sorry this got kinda long. I was typing while I was waiting for my pictures to upload and they are taking a long time so I just keep typing. I'll stop now and add more pictures later because I need to sleep.