Down the Yellow Brick Road

Germany

2008-04-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

haircut

2007-08-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

i cut my own hair, and i thought you might want to see what it looks like. voila!

Sylvan Lake

2007-07-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read this and don't live somewhere generally cold like Canada, this picture may scar you for life. This is a place called Sylvan lake and many people go to it to go swimming and play in the water. There are no waves or saltiness to it. quite sad really. SAD DAY! but it was still fun to go there with the family even if it didnt really compare to the other beaches ive been to now. ..actually the water was so high that most of the "beach" part was filled up with water. haha. oh well!

kitty

2007-07-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last week

2007-07-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

This past week was such a good one! Jennylynn came up on Saturday night... or should i say early Sunday morning? Then after church i went to the ledge with my sisters and people from church to play sport. and was it ever hot!! we played a soccer game to 5 points and by the end i was so done! as you can see in the pictures, my face is very red, and thats after cooling down in the wading pool. Then we headed to my aunt and uncles for my grandpa's 78th birthday party. then the following day Jennylynn and i headed to west ed and we rode the coaster woo!! and my glasses were finally fixed from when i broke them in Aus. Then we went out for some Sam Wok with Tim and walked around whyte for a while. The following day Jennylynn cut my hair for me and we met up with one of her friends who turns out lived in my area. we looked at the amazing houses (mansions!!) around sher. pk and ate at earls. John (her friend) knew of this amazing water hole nearby my house so Jennylynn and i thought it would be smart to find it in the nighttime, didnt happen. all that happened is we went up and down a steep hill and walked around in the dark with things moving in the trees. then we went to wednesday night worship and i shared about my trip, which i think went pretty well. after we went to fargos for wings and i ended up seeing my sister there. small world hey? anyway, Jennylynn has now moved on and i am sad to have her gone. Jennylynn if you read this, thanks for all the good times!

2007-07-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, Jennylynn from capers is coming for a visit this weekend. i am really looking forward to seeing her and catching up on the month or so we haven't seen each other. I am also going to a family get together this weekend where i will be showing photos from my trip. how do i only choose a few to bring?? my scrapbook is going well, im done all of first sem. whew! took me a while, but thats good now. anyway, im off to work once again.

Sunny Days in Hickville

2007-07-05T19:28:00.001-07:00

So these past few days have been really exciting. i found out that my friend is engaged and to be married in the very near future. i am so looking forward to these next months of planning and preparation. i may even be living with sarah for a couple months while she waits for a new and improved roommate ;) so these photos were taken on the 38 degrees hott day. it was hotter than hott out there and with no ocean to go for a dip in. oh, and i want you all to check out this singer, Hayley Sales at http://www.hayleysales.com/ she is absolutely incredible and

perfect for hot summer days. but thats all from me for today. i had a great day off! but it all has to come to an end i suppose.

Natalie's Graduation

2007-06-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

My little Sister is all grown up now. How time flies. She was so beautiful and i think that she really enjoyed the evening. We're all done!!

Emo Pics

2007-06-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

So i got a little carried away one night and i took some crazy photos of what goes on in my mind. it would take too long to explain all of what these photos represent, but heck, no one reads this blog anyway now that im home and facebook has taken over the world and i refuse to conform. but i just needed to pretend that maybe someone out there wanted to see these. so for that someone, enjoy!

My New Room!

2007-06-20T08:40:00.001-07:00

So this is my new room, i love the beanbag chair, and the lamp with the little glass table halfway up the pole. neat hey? i missed my jean doona cover so much while i was away. but now i can enojy it.

2007-05-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

Oh how i miss this view in the morning!

This one's for you who are in the land of OZ

2007-05-28T21:46:00.001-07:00

Just thought i would dump some photos here so that you can enjoy them as much as i do. While i wait for them to upload i will fill you in on the very exciting details of life here in canukville. I've taken my room apart and i'm getting the walls prepared for painting. we're at the fill-in-all-the-holes-jeanette's-put-in-the-walls stage of the process. i wear my aussie county worker shirt to remind me of the good ol days. Yesterday i went to night church in millwoods and it was really nice to be back there again. after the service we went to my sister's place and had ice coffees. sitting there in the basement suit made me long for my own freedom and place to live. don't tell the parents, but i am kinda hoping to move out soon...even though im just now re-doing my room...my parents alreay got me to work at the Farmer's Market to sell our Menno's Sausage (woop! woop!)it wasnt so bad, and i really need the money anyway. The market is held on whyte ave, for those of you who aren't from edmonton area, thats the ave of town where all the pubs and homeless and shops are, its the place to be apparently. so i was walking to the parking lot and on my way there i saw some mormons talking to people, the one guy wasnt talking to anyone when i walked by and so i stopped to talk. he asked me what i knew about the book of mormon and i stumbled through saying something about joseph smith and something else that was pretty lame. so then he went on to educate me on the book of mormon. and it was really interesting to listen to it because they have this circular thinking. they start with proving the book of mormon is true (no!?), then because the book is true then joseph smith must have been inspired by God, therefore whatever else he said is true, therefore this is true and so on an so on. so if we can bring down the book of mormon, they have nothing left to stand on. so that was a little bit frustrating for me to have been stumped so early in my being released from the bubble, but it has only made me more interested in finding out how i can show them they are believing a lie. i have a book of mormon now, he gave one to me, and he wanted my phone number and wanted to come to my house. is this a ministry or a way of getting girl's numbers? juuuuuuuuuuust kidding. ok, well, i am getting a little sleepy and i have many appointments to go to tomorrow to do with my mouth. haha. i have 3 appointments in the next 2 days. i love you all and miss you so much, please feel free to ring here, but not in the middle of the night. i am 8 hours ahead of aus. talk to you later!!

welcome home flowers

2007-05-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I just thought i would drop in a photo that i took of some flowers that my mother bought for me to welcome me home. i think that i need to do it again though because the background isnt as dark as i hoped it would be, but enjoy the beginnings of a lovely shot.

I'M HOME!! (at my usual home)

2007-05-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

hey guys!! im home once again and wow does it ever feel strange. for all the 2007 capers people, i wore the crown all the way from sydney to edmonton only to take it off once when i slept and it slipped off and other times to take of my jumper. i wore it with great pride and made many friends because of it. i will post more when ive got the time, but i am looking forward to what God has in store for me here.

coming home

2007-05-08T23:22:00.000-07:00

well guys, i thought the day would never come, i guess kinda hoping that i might not happen that i would have to leave this haven here in moss vale NSW Australia. I've only got a mere 9 days left at the school. it kinda just hit me today that i will be leaving so soon. i haven't started packing yet, but i did do a load of wash...does that count? I am just in denial i suppose. but anyway, so when i return i am hoping to have a welcome home party on holiday monday the 22nd at around 2 and then go until whenever, but probably not very late because i will be wiped. just want to see all your faces for a while. its been so long! but only a few more days. i hope you can make it. let others know about it too, i dont have everone's contacts. if you need directions or anything, just email me @ jeanette_janzen@hotmail.com

Pictures from 2 week break

2007-04-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! I am now back at the school and doing well! Over the break i took nearly 400 photos. crazy hey? so i just thought that i might share a few of those with you and walk you through the trip of my life. To begin i will introduce you to my travel-mates. in this photo from L-R it is Julianne (american), Elin (swedish), Damaris (german),Me (canuck eh), and Monica (canuck). this photo was from whitehaven beach in the whitsundays. but that's later on in the story. first stop was procerpine where we got off the airplane straight onto the tarmac like famous people do, and it was so hot and humid! then we took a shuttle to airlie beach where we settled into our cabin-like hostel. each dorm share was a cabin and it looked like we were living in the jungle. we couldn't swim in the ocean because of the stingers, so we had to swim in the man made lagoon which was kinda lame considering we could have been in the ocean, but it was swimming nonetheless. we stayed there for a couple of days, found an amazingly crazy travel agent named chris who helped us set up the remainder of our holiday after our sail boat trip. We sailed out on our boat named pegasus with a couple irish people, swedes, german, pommes, and a south african. it was quite the mixture and made for an interesting trip. we went sailing through the whitsunday islands hit whitehaven beach, hook island, and a few other ripe places. we did some snorkelling and beach-bumming. i couldnt take advantage of the free scuba dive because of my fainting spells. boo hoo. i didnt get sick on the boat thank goodness, and sleeping on the boat was the most relaxing thing i have ever experienced. i was rocking back and forth while i was standing still for a few days after the trip though. my balance was all out of whack. our next stop was back to airlie beach for a couple nights to finalize things for the rest of our trip. Then we flew to brisbane and picked up our beautiful corolla rental car and set off for noosa, a little town where there really isn't too much to do, but we really only slept there and then got picked up for our fraser island tour. it was 3 days and two night deal where we 4WDed around the island and walked through rainforests and swam in freshwater lakes, teatree oil lakes and waded down little rivers. it was such an amazing experience and i am so glad that we did it after all. We spent one more night in noosa after our trip and then drove to byron bay where our first night was spent at a caravan park, 3 in the cabin meant for 2 people and 2 of us sleeping in the car. at least Julianne and i (in the car) got a bed-bug free sleep) we stayed with the sweetest little ladies ever. we stayed in their granny suit and we got to do laundry for free!! wowee. thats more valuable then you might realize. Byron Bay is the hippie place and it was really funny just to watch all the poeple on the street go by. We went and saw a gorgeous waterfall, but to get to the base it was a 4.5 hike one way to get there. so we said stuff it and we just peeked over the edge instead. after cozy byron bay we said goodbye to our car at the gold coast airport and flew back to sydney. we then went to the paddy's markets which is where they sell many souveneirs for cheap-o. then we took the long and tiresome train-ride back to the school. and now here we are, all back home and loving not living out of a backpack. today i have a month and 2 days left before i get back home. i am getting really excited to be back, but i reckon it will be harder than i think to leave this place and get back into the real living. Anyway. i hope this was not too boring. there are many many stories that i really dont have time to tell here from the trip and they're probably more funny to tell in person, but just one more thing to look forward to! talk to you all soon.

quick one here

2007-04-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

hey guys. we are in byron bay now. its a little hippie town that makes me feel like ive stepped into a time warp back into the 70's. really cute though. we have been cramming in the sight-seeing and beaching so much so that i am starting to feel tired...that might have to do with the night i slept in the car...but anyways. well once again my time is up on the internet. ciao!!

2 week break

2007-04-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

hey guys, just a quick update here. we've been out on the boat for 3 days, and done fraser island in 3 days. now we are in noosa chillin' before we head off to byron bay for a few days, and then back to the gold coast airport to head back to sydney. the boat trip was absolutely hilarious with a german diving instructor who said wooo!! at the end of every scentence "don't stop breathing when you are scuba diving or you will die... woo!!" lol. and we had some drunken irish people aswell. i think thats my new favorite accent. ok, well my time on the internet is up, talk to you all soon!!

2 week break

2007-03-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

hello hello. 2 week break plans are beginning to come together, we might be going out on a boat for a couple days and doing a bunch of snorkeling and beaching. the swimming pool closes in just three days. (tear) ive been getting better, and im really sad that it is coming to an end so quickly. i dont have really too much to share, there is going to be a bushdance this wednesday. it was so funny, when it was announced one of the mennonites (theres heaps here) said but im mennonite!! it was soo funny. then the principal was like there will be no touching. haha. oh those mennonites. anyway, ciao

family group outing

2007-03-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a while ay? last night our family group went to wollongong to the beach to have a good ol aussie barbie. we had kangaroo steaks, sausages and rissoles (burgers). It was all so yummy, and the water was incredibly warm. After that we went to Hangdog, an indoor climbing wall and bummed around there for an hour or so. it was great fun and reminded me so much of jason and tim. When we got back the stars were incredible and the sky was so clear so i thought i woul dplay around with my camera and see if i could get some good shots of the night sky. i hope you guys enjoy the photos!!

2007-02-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I am so pumped at the moment. in about a months time i will be soaking up the rays in the Whitsunday islands. I am going with three other students; Damaris from germany, Elin from Sweeden and Monica from canada. We have our flights booked already and i am so excited for this! the photos are obviously not mine, but i will be there soon, snorkeling and beach-bumming. woo!!Im leaving the 31st of march and will be gone for 2 weeks, count 'em two weeks!! if you want you can look up some more photos on the internet. there are something like 74 islands that you can check out and sleep on. they're probably pricey, but maybe we will splurge one night. then we are heading south to the gold coast, surfer's paradise to meet up with a bunch of students there. oh man, i'm making myself sick with excitement! and this weekend is travel weekend and i am going to renees beach house with a few other students. Tomorrow is family night and we're going to Julannes house to make her a meal because she just went and had surgery done on her knee. today was quiet day and it was really nice to just relax for the arvo (afternoon.) im going to come home and you guys won't have a clue what i'm saying with all these aussie words. anyway, its almost time for dinner, i should go up. talk to you all soon.

2007-02-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, its been a while. I've been pretty busy with work in the kitchen and going to classes, but i just thought i would share some photos with yous. so the white car is the one that i share with three other students. it is a bit of a clunker, but wow, does it ever feel good to have some independence. the photo of my room was hard to take because its so tiny
but there is a side table, and for a desk i have two milk crates stacked on each other and a record cover on top to make it smooth. lol. i also nicked a chair from the ig bins of lounges and desks. teehee. i also love my pinup board. there are photos of people from home and from school. its starting to feel more like a room than a walk-in pantry. (its really small!!) anyway, im feeling pretty happy now that sunday and monday are over. these are the days where im in the kitchen by myself, so its a little stressfull. well i hope you all are doing well. please write me letters or something, i really enjoy getting mail. i promise that if you write me i will write back. im so desperate for contact from home. ta

Capers Revisited

2007-02-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Wow, you would not believe how strange it is to be back at the school...but with different people. and the people are so different. our class was much quieter and less outgoing than these people. maybe because there are so many people you are bound to find someone who you get along with well. working in the kitchen has been going well. its fun at times, and tiring at times. i am also taking classes and doing a few assignments. i believe i will be coming home straight after prac week which is about the 25th of may. im really looking forward to seeing you alll again and getting back into "normal" life. i dont really have a whole heap of time here in town and it's really hot today and i rode my bikei nto town, so i don't want to leave too late or i will get roasted. now im off to buy an ice coffee to keep me cool. miss ya all!

fun times

2007-01-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

just thought i would give you guys a few more photos to get a feeling for the weather and landscape. we went to a few beaches and looked at rock pools which was really neat, it was like snorkelling, but you're standing on rocks looking into the little pool of water for creatures. there is a photo of a large starfish. it was about 30 cm wide, and stuck to that rock without water, so nicola saved it and put it in one of the pools. and then keith and i found a little white starfish, it was relly cute. at the moment i am still in new zealand, but i was supposed to have flown out this morning to sydney (i really miss that city, its such a wonderful place). but because my visa is taking longer than expected i am flying out on the 26th instead. so that only gives me a day before school starts to get settled and all ready to go. but i can do it i know i can. oh, and the bad weather has followed me all the way here. as you can see in the photos, it just doesnt make for super sunbaking weather and my tan is quickly fading away :( that last photo is of me in my capers jumper, and my pants are absolutely amazing. i found them on the roadtrip with sarah. i needed new jeans because one of my last remaing pants that fit me ripped in the rear. but the amaizng thing about them is that they were only 15 dollars and they are long enough that sometimes i even have to ROLL THEM UP!! how exciting! you have no idea. i dont think that i have ever owned jeans that i needed to roll up, or that dragged on the ground if i wear small shoes. sigh* its a dream come true. they're rolled up a little much in the photo because we were puddle jumping and i didnt want to get them wet.

2007-01-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. the day came that was bound to happen but i wasnt really looking forward to; sarah and i parted ways. its the first time in about 7 months that we havent been in the same city together. it was a pretty hard flight over to melbourne and then to auckland NZ. on the way from melbourne to aucklan there were very few people on the plane because it was a pretty late flight which meant i was able to have the whole row to myself to sit and have a good cry. it was also the first time in 7 months that i was alone. werid ay? But now here i am in NZ with Nicola, Keith and Liz. they all came to the airport to pick me up and then we had a late drive to Hamilton which took about and hour and a half. their house is so cute (its the red one in the photo)and they have a cat that looks just like oreo. we went to go to a cave yesterday and it was really cool because there were glow worms in the cave and it looked like there were constellations up on the ceiling. but those are the extent of my adventures as of yet. we are going to the beach today and im looking forward to soaking in some rays again. ps the pretty sunset pics are from albany. we went out to look at the wind farm on my last night and it was realy cool.

2007-01-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update with other aspects of my f life here. My toe is healing up nicely and the skin flap that was stitched down is now cut off because it was all dead. so really there was no need for those nine nasty stitches and hefty medical bill which i will hopefully get a refund for. mmm yep. then there is a photo of sarah on her dad's motorbike. it looks beautiful and he keeps it looking that way. then theres a random photo of me behind their little cottage out in the back. i really liked the colors of the wall, and for those of you who know that i like to take photos, i thought it was ag reat photo oportunity. im really happy with it. ahhh, and the swing photo. i really really like this photo and i almost want to make it into a poster or something. i dont know what it is about it, but i really love it. oh, and so i'll be flying out to new zealand on tuesday the 16th, and then once my working holiday visa goes through i will be heading back to sydney on the 22nd. so i have pretty much 5 days in New Zealand. not a whole lot but enough to say that ive been there. i hope you are all doing well back home.

Road trip!!

2007-01-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

Sarah and i have mostly completed our roadtrip of the south west of Australia. it's been
a really fun time and we've done some interesting things along the way. We went to the valley of the giants for the tree top walk, went to some caves in margaret river, went to a beautiful winery, shopped in Perth, fed a lot of birds, did some mild offraoding in the 4WD, checked out some beaches, went to the drive-in cinema, and all this while living out of the back of the 4WD. it was so cool. we had our bed all set up in the back, had a fridge, surfboard (which we didnt actually get a chance to use unfortunately), stove, you name it, we had it. the weather really didnt cooperate until this afternoon in Perth so we finally got to do some sunbaking on our holiday. I got to be the navigator with the big maps and directories. i didnt even have to turn the maps around like us women are known for doing at every corner we turn haha. but it's been a really good time and im so glad that we were able to get a chance to hang out before i head off to NZ because we really dont know if or when we will see each other again. im hoping it will be a when issue, not an if, but we will see what God has planned. And for one of our last things we had planned for our road trip was to see Ela, one of the students who is living in Perth as an Aupair for a while. it was really good to see her again and have a good chat with her. i miss all the accents from school. but wow, next semester is going to be even more choc bloc filled with accents. im really looking forward to it. So now we are heading back to albany bright and early in the morning and then we will dye sarahs hair and put some streaks in it, who knows, i might do some streaks too now that im not shaving my head! wooo.

Camping with the Wilsons

2007-01-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

This is a little late in coming but its been pretty busy over here so i hadn't had a cahnce to update it with photos and a little blurb on our camping funtimes. I think that we discovered that if you ever want it to rain you just have to plan a camping expedition and it will pour. Sarah and i lived in our massive tent for 3 nights, two were spent wet and windy. it started off alright with the weather and such, but the next day it was just cloudy and rainy and windy. We went for a walk in a gorge where it was a little less windy and more enjoyable. the brown mass that brad, sarah's brother is holding up is grasshoppers. they were all over the beach. at first we just thought it was seaweed but then we looked closer and they were all dead locusts. and it stank so bad. then we listened to the weather reports on the radio and they were advising all campers who were near the ocean to evacuate (sarah and i were pretty much sleeping right on the beach in our little tent.) we were unsure if we would stay on the third night, but in the end we did stay and it was so windy! That day we went on some 4WDing trails and it was so much fun. its like quading but fun in a different way. we hardly got any sleep at all and at some points the wind blew the tent so hard that it would lay out flat on top of me! then the fly (cover) came off the tent at about 6 am and so we went out to take the tent down in the rain and wind and we were just so miserable to have been woken up so harshly. but we played lots of kitty poker in those few days of camping which is a really fun game. it was great bonding time with the family and fun to see another side of australia. maybe one that i hope i dont see too often.

Photos for my Mum's Sake :)

2006-12-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

Well mother, here they are, finally some photos of the school property. the one up top is of the girls dorms. I stayed in the very far left one, and the one on it's right. the next photo down is of the path that we travelled so many times a day. we really should have taken an average because it must have been so many times! but it had a great view so it wasnt so bad. The next one is of the Hilton, which is the name of the Boy's dorms for our semseter. i dont know much about that place, things went on in there that the girls dont know about. Then its a photo of the main lounge where we would meet before meals, have devotions, chat and hangout. Then there is the Library where many hours were spent preparing bible studies... or trying to prepare bible studies while other people talked to you. some really good conversations were had in that library, and it's also the roof that i climbed to get Flo with a pail of water but it didnt work. Next is a wide picture of the conference hall on the left and the girl's dorms on the right. they were connected which was handy. Then its the main house from the front, and then the main house from the rear. we ate lunch outside when the weather was nice and a whole lot of water fights were battled there. pretty much each and every lunch we had outside ended in a water fight, especially on work days. Then theres a photo of the conference hall from the side door which is where we liked to hang out during morning tea inbetween lectures. it's actually quite the classic shot because Joel is telling a story, girls are eating icecream and the others are just sitting in the sun. the last one is of the foyer. the tele is in the far right corner, you cant really see it, but for those of you who i talked to on the phone, thats where it took place.

beach scene

2006-12-29T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well now that christmas holidays are over it's back to the old grindstone... oh wait, not really. yesterday sarah and i went to the beach to meet up with some of her friends and they went swimming, i couldn't because of my silly toe. notice in the picture where i'm leaning back i have only one of my shoes on because i needed to protect the bandage from getting dirty. then we headed back to sarah's place for a BBQ and waffles. mmm oh the heavenly waffles!

war wounds

2006-12-26T23:14:00.000-08:00

so this is what i did when i was sandboarding on boxing day. this is my left big toe after i stepped on something, possibly glass. it happened right after my run down the hill, so i really have no idea what i cut it on, but whatever it was it was sharp! i really didnt want to look at it in case i fainted, but i didnt!! hooray! so we went to the hospital and they put about four needles in my toe to numb it. it was so painful!! but to make things worse, the bed next to us (separated by just a curtain) was occupied by this man who was throwing up and making disgusting hacking noises. i thought that i might be sick, but i made it through. so then she cleaned out the wound of all the sand and dried blood and stitched it up with 8 stitches. it was actually pretty disgusting with all the sand and stuff, but its all better now and the stitches come out in a week. the last photo is of me with my sympathy icecream. we went into hungry jacks (which is like burger king) and the guy gave me a huge icecream!! so then i was content and the pain was a lot less.

Merry Christmas!!

2006-12-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

hey guys! how have all of your holidays been? mine have been really good and hot...wow, today its really hot. these are some photos from the holidays. the one of me in a box is the costume that sarah and i made for her sister's christmas party. we both went into it, but we didnt wear it for too long because we felt pretty funny and it was hard to walk in and sit...and all the other things you do at a party. but we put a lot of work into it and we had fun which is all that really matters. so what we did for the holidays is this; we had a family dinner on christmas eve out in the shed, which is where aussies like to party. ;) and then we opened gifts inside. sarah's brother, brad gave us each a beanie. kind of ironic, but they're cute and will come in handy when things cool down. i also got an aussie towel from her sister and brother inlaw. and her parents gave us each an amazing hamper filled with goodies and vouchers so that we can have some fun times camping the the 4WD. then on christmas we went to the beach to have lunch with the rellies. we had a swim and played some beach games. good times. then in the evening we had dinner at mumma and pops (grandma and grandpa) with a lot of neighbors and other rellies. on boxing day we went to another beach and took the 4WD right onto the beach which was fun because it reminded me of driving in the snow. where we parked on the beach was a great spot because people kept getting stuck there and we would watch them for a while struggling and letting air out of their tyres. then after a few minutes tom, sarah's dad would help them out and all would be good. then we went sandboarding. it was a really good time but i dont really feel quite like it's christmas because theres no snow. have a good rest of the holidays!!

SHOES!!

2006-12-21T23:24:00.000-08:00

these are my shoes. im devoting an entire blog to them because they are so amazing. they were only $19.95 and they are white. there is a beautiful buckle on the side and lovely seams all along the top. i bought them 2 days ago in albany from a store called spend less. its a lot like payless. they have payless shoes as well, but then another one called spend less. i absolutely love them, and they are very flat so they wont take up too much room in my bag. they are so lovely.

albany photos

2006-12-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Alroighty. (thats aussie for alrighty hehe) so the first photo is of a natural bridge in albany. sarah was my tour guide and took me to see all there is to see in albany. the bridge is huge and actually pretty cool to see. as we were walking along the rocks one of them creaked(ps we didn't walk along the bridge, just along the side) so we made jokes about us breaking the bridge. then there is the photo of sarah and i before we went to her cousin's wedding. i've already got to wear my dress three times! how great is that? and the last one is of our beach that we named the foot because of the rocks there that look like feet. how awesome!

more photos

2006-12-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

so these are back from school. its fun to look back and see these photos. there is a photo of my church group at the church with the pastor in the center. and then there is one of nicola and i out at the house that is built into the side of the hill (its underground, how cool is that?) and they have roos jumping around in their backyard. then there is a random one of Flo and I sitting on the fence. we spent so much time together, but dont really have any photos of us, so enjoy this one because its pretty rare. then there is one of Joy in the hole that we dug. we then planted her in the hole and she twisted around and i was on the
floor laughing so hard! and then theres a random beach scene. its called the farm and its where lots of surfers go. i got to surf for a long time there, got a really bad rash on my leg, and a super really bad burn on my uppper legs...yeah... it was all girls so i didnt wear my boardies, just my bather bottoms which is a part of my legs that never see the sun. so to say the least putting on pants was extremely painful and to sit was a chore. anyway. these are my random photos!

grad photos

2006-12-21T19:16:00.000-08:00

well guys here are some long awaited for grad photos. the first one is from the grad ceremony. flo thought it would be fun to pose with some flowers. cute photo though. There are also photos of all the canadians, all the germans, sarah and i, sale and i (we were taking a family group photo, and flo thought it would be cool to zoom in on the both of us) and then a few of us girls. it was so fun to get all dressed up and act like we were all fancy and stuff when we knew that really not many of us were cut out for the high class, proper kind of lifestyle. So our dinner was amazing and it was all very magical and fun. we were assigned seats and sarah, sale, flo and i were at a table. it was really cold near the end of the evening and we were sitting outside eating icecream balls and chocolates. it was a really good end to the semester. oh, and about my dress. when we went to campbelltown to go shopping, the first store we went into was really nice and they had a sale rack, so i just went to browse, andi found this amazing dress. it was only $30.00! how could i refuse. then we went to go look for some matching shoes. sarah and i both had our dresses with us, but to really see what the shoes would look like we wanted to put our dresses on. so we hopped into target, sliped on our dresses and then walked around the mall in our fancy dresses with little sneakers on. it looked hilarious. so i found some shoes for 20 bucks. bargain! and a necklace for about 10. so in total it cost me about 60 dollars. and i thought about it later, the man who gave me that 60 dollar tip at BP's that one time told me to spend it on something in my time in Oz, and so it came out almost exactly to that amount! so with this really generous man's money i got a grad outfit that i absolutely love. neat hey?

sydney, albany and heaps of fun

2006-12-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. sorry that i missed out on filling you all in for a long time. school is all over and we had a few days in sydney as a group of students. we stayed in a hostel in colloroy, a suburb of sydney. there were 17 of us the first night and then we were down to four the second. then the rest of the days were spent in our group of sarah, sale flo and i. we had a lot of fun at manly beach, shopping, other beaches and hanging out at the hostel. on wednesday night, the very last night with the guys we broke off and sarah and sale went to some restaurant together and then Flo and i went to a thai restaurant overlooking darling harbour. it was a pretty flash place and overall it was a really good evening. then we went to the airport the next morning to send the guys off to germany. but unbeknownst to us, their flight had been changed and the airline had no way of contacting them, so the flight didnt even exist. they ended up catching a non-stop flight to frankfurt instead of a flight to taipai and then a 12 hour layover and then to germany, AND they were able to take more luggage (because it was a different airline) AND we had 5 more hours with them at the airport. How amazing is God? So once they were gone sarah and i took a teary shuttle bus to the marriot where one of the students, steph, was staying. we spent the night there and then took a train to the airport which is where we headed off for perth. once we got there sarahs sister, karlene picked us up and we didnt get to albany till 2 in the morning or something like that. the house is amazing and sarah and i are sharing a room (how could we not). sarah and sale are really serious, and she's probably moving to germany as soon as she's got the money. so things here are pretty temporary. im still in contact with the director at school to see what i need to do in order to be able to work there. so at the moment we are doing odd jobs for people here to earn some cash, hitting up the beaches at 6:30 in the morning, learning german and whatever else girls do in their free time. just keeping busy, trying to get fit because of the post-capernwray syndrome (gaining a couple kilos) ech. ~ta

Some shocking news

2006-12-04T19:24:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how to tell all of you this, but i didn't want to do the whole mass email thing. word travels really fast back home anyway, so i don't have to be too worried about people finding out about this. I might be staying on for next semester here as a staff member in the kitchen. It's not written in stone yet because in order to get my work visa i need to be out of the country, so i may have to fly to new zealand in order to get it. terrible i know. I'll most likely be a cooks assistant and possibly an RA (resident's assistant) to live with the female students. I'm really excited about it, the staff are really excited and the students who are staying on for a second semester are really excited, and believe that God is excited about this too. So thats what is new. Last night i slept outside with just my sleeping bag and a sponge. it was really good, but super dewy in the morning, the bag was drenched, then This morning Flo and i went for our final tuesday morning run. we went at 5 in the morning so that we could see the sunrise and we ended up seeing a kangaroo too!! my first one close-up. then our family group had a lovely brekky outside this morning. we went to a national park and had a barbie with eggs, pancakes, bacon, crussants and youghurt. it was so great. it was on a cliff overlooking the most amazing view of "mountains" which to us are more like big hills. and there i saw my very first aussie snake. it was really big and phil tried to run it over because he hates them so much. things are coming to a close here, and its pretty sad. but on saturday night 17 of us students will be staying at a hostel somewhere in sydney near a beach so that we can all hang out before people take off for real. mm not sure what else to write. i should really eb packing instead of in town, but i am trying to put it off for as long as possible. ~ta

final week of school

2006-11-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

wow, can you believe that it is already the last week of school? i for sure can't. it went by so fast! things are starting to wind down. i wrote my final bible study outline and finished up my second-last assignment of the semester. now my biggest worries are about finding a cheap dress for grad, and how to stop from eating too much ice-cream. The other sunday night i was soooo bored becuase there was no sn@c that night and nothing was planned. so i found a couple of other girls who were feeling the same as me and we went to go cow tipping. then we went through an old house near our school property that is really creepy because its all empty and old and yeah, just really creepy. then we hit up the sn@c cupboard full of dress-up clothes and we each dressed up really funny-like. it was a blast! then we almost got caught for being out past curfew, but since we were dressed up the principle didnt know who we were. hehe. not much else is new, just thought i would give you all an update on life here. but i might possibly be staying longer... i need to talk to the director and see about possibilities, nothing is in concrete or at all for sure, so it might even mean that i come home earlier. whatever God is leading me to do i will do, but at the moment i dont know what that is. keep praying for me that i see clearly what i am meant to do. love you all~

Prac week

2006-11-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

so this past week our team consisting of Nicola, Mike, Keith, Ela, Christo, Ashley, Liz, Joel, Flo, Woodsey, and Dianne went to sydney to work with the salvation army. it was quite the experience and wow, where do i begin with this past week?Ii guess I'll start with saturday, which is the day we left school to come to Sydney. I made some waffles and white sauce (hello amazing!) and we had german pancakes too. Then once we were all filled to the brim we set off for Sydney. When we arrived we set up our beds in our rooms. Funny story because they actually didn't have any beds for us a week or so before we arrived and so we prayed for a large donation of beds so that we would have something to sleep on for the week. and now down where we are sleeping are about 30 or so bases and mattresses. they are up to the rafters in beds from a hotel as well as other individuals so there is a running joke that we prayed too hard and got way too many beds. on sunday we went to church and then went to bondi beach and walked along the path that goes around the beaches. there was a sculpture show going on so we got to see some australian art. on monday we were scheduled to go to Brett's place and clean it out, but he didnt show. so we kinda did random jobs around the salvation army. on tuesday Flo and i went for a run in the morning and did a couple of other mornings too. we did a couple runs throughout the week including going around the opera house and botanical gardens and halfway across the harbor bridge (we are hoping to go all the way across tomorrow). then on wednesday we finally got into bretts flat and were able to clear out a lot of stuff. his story is that he's been on ice, a really powerful, cheap and addictive drug that's really taken off in sydney. one of the side effects is that he collects things. T.V's, umbrellas, dvd players, shoes, clothes, sleeping bags, jewllery, luggage, tables, hats, anything, he's got it at his place. His flat was so full of stuff that he was a street sleeper because there was no room for him to sleep. the back rooms were like going to the tip, you had to climb a mountain of stuff to get to the other end. when i stood at the very top i could easily touch the ceiling. so we ran stuff down the elevator to the rubbish bins. we had to get a rubbish truck to come and pick some of it up. it was a 5 tonne truck and we filled it to the top with about only 1/3 of his stuff. It was the most unbelievable thing i had ever experienced. but he was so apoligetic, and then so grateful once we had got a lot of it out. that took up most of the day. then in the evening flo and i went out with Ben to walk the streets of sydney to get a little background on street people and their way of life. it was a really rewarding 2 hours out there in kings cross (the worst part of sydney for prostitution). we saw brett again and he was going around telling everyone that we were the ones who cleaned out his flat for him. and he was telling people that we had spent 6,7,8 hours working with no breaks when it had really only been about 2.5 and we had a tea break at the end. but he was so excited about it and said that this had totally changed his life and he would never let it happen again. and one of his buddies was going to spend the night out on the street and it was a pretty cold night, so he told him he could stay at his place now that he has room. how great is that? so keep brett in your prayers. he needs it really bad. on thursday we did random jobs. I got to organise some shelves and work in the food market a little. it was really interesting to see what the people spent their money vouchers on. it wasnt generally the staples like veggies, pasta, rice or bread, but pop, chips, lollies, and biscuits. on friday we made some tuna bake and scones with Carmen to teach her some basic baking skills. in the evening we had friday night church and meal. it went really well and it was really good to make connections with people again. their church is really cool because they have dinner, then sing, then have care and share which is when they can come up to the front and share whats been going on in their week or things they've learned or just any random things, then they sing again and then they have a message and maybe a song again. heaps of singing. but they are so good to one another and are pretty much a family, a lot of them know each other and encourage one another through the hard times. we have a lot to learn from these guys. then today was our day off so we went to the cinemas to watch a movie and do a little shopping around pitt street. it was a relaxing day in sydney. now we are enjoying our last evening at the salvation army as a team. maybe have some icecream and lollies. sooo much food here, its ridiculous. anyway, flo is mocking how much i am writing so i will finish it up. talk to you all anytime if you want to email me or call me.

much to tell

2006-10-29T19:35:00.000-08:00

wow, it's been so long I don't even know where to begin. on tuesday it was quiet day again and it went alright i guess. i learned heaps, but it was a painful experience. I went for a walk along the 4.5 km path with only thongs on my feet, my little pack on my back, my 1L water bottle and rug (blanket) in my arms. i walked for roughly 3 hours in the blazing sun. I was hungry, hot sweaty, tired, had to pee and my feet were getting blisters. by the time i got back it was lunchtime so i ate and went to a tree to continue my quiet day. I hopped up into it and got comfortable because i was so exhausted. I read my book, "how to live a christian life" and by the last chapter things were coming together for me. i set out that day to have God show me what path to take once i was done at school here. in the last chapter it outlined that there are gifts that each of us are born with. everyone has at least one of them, some have several, but you have one for sure. mine is serving, i love to serve others and do the jobs that maybe others don't want to do, but i like to do them in my own time and do a really good job when i'm motivated by myself. then it outlined what kinds of jobs are suited for those kinds of gifts. working in an orphanage wasn't one listed, but i still felt like working in one would be an amzing chance to serve others and i have this desire to work with kids now, don't ask me where it came from because i might just give you a sermon on "don't tell god you won't ever do something because he'll place in you the desire to do it." when i left home i didnt want to get married, didnt like kids, and i belched a lot. what do those have in common? well, i threw in the last one just because i'm trying to quit...i got the patch. lol. But the other two were things that i was scared of because i thought that i was incapable of overcoming the hardships involved. marriage is hard, dealing with kids is really hard, and not burping is a daily struggle. ;). but God has been doing some amazing things in me and i'm not one to try and stop him. so when/if i come home i want to go to school to take some courses that will help me get a job at an orphanage and that will make me good at my job, maybe learn german (ahh!!), and take a photography course. if all of those are at all possible to take at once, i want to do it! anyway, on to other matters. I gave my bible study presentation on prayer on wednesday and there was so much discussion that I had to cut out a lot of it, but it went really well and on the manuscript i got an A+. woo! i was so excited. We had a family night get-together at the beach. it was freezing cold but Liz and i went swimming and attempted surfing anyway. then we went into this pool that was kinda made right into the ocean so that you can swim in it in the dark since it's not very safe to swim in the ocean at night with all the big fishes and such. And i also gave my testimony on Friday and that went really well too. But it was only because i put a lot of prayer into it all because i was just so tired, i didn't really feel like writing it up, but i had to. Then on saturday we had breakthru at the school which is an afternoon setup for the kids in the community. The second semesters set it up and then we just help out on the day of. there were activities like stacking crates as high as you could, bungee running, pushing a car around a field, obsticle course, riding bikes that powered a electric car track, spinning game, water ballon catching, wheelbarrow races, waterslide (but it was pretty cold so not many people did it) and i think thats mostly all. Sarah and i manned the bungee running station and cheered on the kids when we didnt have anyone at the station. i think that i had more fun than the kids cheering them on. and a really exciting thing that happened was that i actually talked to the kids there. for those of you who know me at all know that i am not comfortable going out on my own, sitting down with a group of unknown teenagers and chatting about stuff to make them feel welcome. i just dont ever do it! but i did and i loved it and it made me wonder why i held back before. Then we has sausages and a speaker spoke a really powerful message. then there were a few songs and the kids headed off for home. I was a really great night for all and i think the second sems are relieved that it is over and it went well. Today we had a prac week meeting at woodsey's and it almost felt like marriage couselling because we all sat in our pairs (can't remember if i already posted this, but flo and i are partners) and talked about a bunch of things. But we do need to get to know each other well before we can work smoothly as a team. the funny thing is that flo and i dont really need a whole heap of help in that department, but they ask us questions that we don't always think to ask each other. at the end of the day flo and i pray for prac week and anything else in our lives that need prayer. (woodsey suggested it!) There was a gorgeous sunset last night, the sun was so huge and red, but i didnt manage to get a good photo of it. cameras can't always capture things like that. still playing some v-ball when i get a chance. and now you are up to date! talk to ya'll lada

spring has sprung

2006-10-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

wow, the weather here is really picking up. yesterday it was 33 and we went to the cliffs to do some cliff jumping to cool off. It was really refreshing and such a thrill to jump off of cliffs. I'd never done it before so i was pretty nervous about it, but it all worked out to be pretty incredible.
This term has been really amazing so far. Things feel so much different already and it's only been a week. groups are inter-mingling and it's been really good to get to know people other than the group i usually hang out with. My new roomie, Joy is really great. we've been getting along so far really well and have had some pretty interesting conversations. The only problem is that i'm an early riser and she likes to sleep up until the last minute. I'm usually not too bad with waking up early, but i decided that this term i am going to be really disciplined with my devotions and i found the best time to do it was in the morning before brekky. so that means waking up at 6 every morning, usualy waking joy up in the process no matter how hard i try and be quiet. i've already learned a lot in those morning times, almost more than in the classroom.
Sarah tore her achilles tendon while we were playing volleyball so she is hobbling around on crutches and got to have brekky in bed for a few days. it is really hard for her because she can't play sport for 2 months and sport is who she is. but its been fun taking care of her.
Here's a web adress of a photo of the kind of spider we have hangin garound the school. it's called a huntsman and fairly harmless, but it looks pretty scary. http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/images/huntsman.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/huntsman_spiders.htm&h=190&w=250&sz=7&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=zGn27KHiayfzQM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhuntsman%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
ta for now

students

2006-10-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here's Rike from Germany. She is a fun-loving girl who likes to laugh lots. This is her on work day with some hot coveralls on

This is Christo on the left. Bad angle, but he's one of the guys at the cabin with us. he's from south africa mainly, but has lived in AU for a few years and is completely fluent in aussie (thats hard you know) on his right is mike who you will learn about later.

This is Drew, or Andrew, from ontario canada. He is the guy who i met in Sydney and travelled with on the trains to the school on the very first day. He's an interesting guy who likes to have fun and analyze life. many interesting conversations have been had with him.

This is Mike. He is from Ontario Canada. He's got some texter on his face in this photo, but he's usually not one for facial hair. He is one of the guys staying with us for two week break, and like me is trying to learn how to surf.

This is Ela from Germany. She is a lot of fun to hang out with and it's always fun to talk about German stuff and exchange words in our different languages.

This is Lesley from Canada. She is one of the older girls who us youngin's look up to and she gives wonderful head massages.

Here's Nicola the kiwi or New Zealander(her hair usually isn't this unruly). Where to start with her? She reminds me so much of vanessa; she paints, is artistic, laughs loudly, says what is on her mind, loves life and is just a blast to be with.

This is Joel during 50's night with Lesley. He is an Aussie and is like a brother to many of us girls, especailly sarah. maybe it has to do with the fact that they share their nationality. who knows.

Joy is on the left. she is my new roomie and she is from Calgary. She has an amazing voice and can cut hair! woot. i'm very excited to get to know her over the next couple of months.

Jared is on the right and he is from canada. he is quite the character. he loves taking photos of himself, has a flat iron and loves playing guitar and posing for photo shoots.

This is Sale (sal-eh)from Germany. He came here with Flo and they are good buddies. He likes to ride pink bikes around campus, down stairs and up stairs too.

Here's sarah from AU on the left. she has been my roomie for the past couple months and we are basically sisters now. we are "joined at the hip" as drew likes to say. There are so many stories with her that i don't know where to start. she wants to be married in a few months (she doesn't have a BF yet but...) and have 7 kids. I love her to death.

Beside her is Steph from Washinton state. She loves to share clothes, and she got the best dressed award at the 50's night dance, which is where this photo was taken.

L-R Liz from BC. she is a blast to hang out with. she loves wearing gum boots in the paddok and climbing trees.
Ashley from Canada. we like to read kiddie books outloud together inbetween classes.
Alayna from USA. Her laugh is so contagious and when she tells stories you are in stitches by the time its done, no matter how funny it really is.

The infamous German Flo. Again, really bad photo. He is like the brother I never had. We have icecream sessions quite frequently, volleyball sessions almost every day now, chats in the retro roomon weekends, chats in the library when we should be working on assignments, water fights on work day, towel snapping wars during chores, and many more fun and exciting adventures. He is very inspirational to me and he's been the biggest influence on my stay here aside from sarah and of course God himself.

This is Keith from Arkensaw USA. He's a really cool guy who likes to play guitar and take crazy photos on his apple computer. He's in my church group and going out for lunch with him is never dull.

This is Julie-Jet (yulie-yet) from AU. She doen't have much of an accent for being from AU but i still love her ;). She cleaned sarah and my room once during work day even though she didnt have to . she was probably just so disgusted by us that she couldnt take it anymore.

Now you will know what all of the students look like. Hooray! mind you these are all really bad photos of everyone and they will probably hate me for putting them on here, but oh well! tee hee.

more photos

2006-10-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

ok, so these are kinda random photos that i thought i'd give to ya. There's a photo of my clean room and my messy room, our classroom, the church that i've been placed in in moss vale, the waterfall, me inside a tree, and sarah and i being silly. enjoy!

two week break

2006-10-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

alright guys, it's the moment you've all been waiting for, photos! so i'll start off with recent ones, like from 2 week break and then i'll put on some others so you can put faces to names. first, the girl with me in the photo where im wearing my pack is sarah, my aussie roommate. and the house is the house where we spent our first week of two week break at with sale, flo and keith. the dark and poor photo is keith, sale, flo,sarah and me eating breakfast outside. The one of just me is when i woke up one morning and the whole side of my face had inflamed to disgusting proportions. i had to get an anti-inflammatory to get it to settle down, but i'm still working on getting to the root of the problem. The picture of the tents is where we stayed for the first part of the second week. there were 6 of us on one site. Sarah, (L-R) christo,mike,drew,jared and i. it was ridiculous and expensive, so we opted for a cabin in the same park. its far better and good for the overcast mornings. i'm learning to surf from my persistent coach sarah. we are out there for hours everyday. i love it so much! anyway, im going to get some more photos on here. cheers.

two week break

2006-09-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. THings are looking up here. the sun is shining, birds are chirping and the river is warming up. I'm starting to get my pictures organized onto a disk so that i can send it home to a few people and they can send the disk around if they want to share with other people to see. then you can put faces to names and you'll feel more connected to what goes on over here. So two week break is coming up soon, and plans are beginning to form. Sarah and i will be staying with a couple people at a house in one of the nearby towns for the first week, just chilling and cooking for the boys ;) and then the second week we'll be going to Nelson Bay, and tenting at a place called one mile beach just on the coast. we are starting to get really excited for our times on the beach and in the sun.
Just yesterday we finally got Flo back for all the times he has doused us with water. we made the most disgusting concoction of flour, water and eggs on wednesday and didn't use it till friday so it was pretty gross. I dumped it onto his head and he didn't even know what hit him. just thought i should letcha know that us girls are holding our own here.

travel weekend

2006-08-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry that it's been so long since i last posted something up for you guys. I've just been so busy with life here that its hard to connect with people back home. if you would like me to send you a letter please email me your address. This past weekend me and my roommate went camping in the backyard of the campus. we cooked a lot of our food on the fire which was assisted with our friend turpentine. Amoungst our adventures we went swimming in the freezing river in our gum-boots and bathers, we practised shooting with our bow and arrow that Sale made for us, (i almost got a possum), cooked kangaroo in the coals as well as eggs and english muffins, Watched a scary movie with the guys and then read scary stories around the fire during the really really foggy night. It was really a lot of fun, more fun than going to Canberra like some of the other students... nah just kidding. We had a 50's night at the school and we had a ... gasp! a dance! haha my dad is going to fall off his chair when he finds out. it was so much fun, we went to the Salvation Army to get outfits and then went back to the school to get all dolled up. Everyone looked great and we jived the night away. One of the days here is called quiet day. i think we will have two while we are here. No one can talk or listen to music or chat on the phone. it was just a day to be quiet, reflect, read, write, pray, sleep. you name it. it was the most relaxing day of my life. I read the book of Hosea out loud in an Aussie accent. I was sitting next to a waterfall so not only was it peaceful but no one else could hear me and mock my accent. I'm working on it, no worries I will be a Fair Dinkum Aussie by the time i return. If you don't know what Fair Dinkum means, thats alright because everyone here has their own meaning, you can put it into conversation anywhere you liek and you won't sound too foolish. so during this time of quietness I decided to give up to God my vow to never get married. I've placed it into his hands and I am at peace with whether or not I get married, but i have not shut that door on him, and already he is working more in my life now that ive given him control. But cheryl you have not yet won the bet because im not married. i have to get married in order for you to win, who knows God may choose to leave the door shut and i will win in the end. haha. anyway, life here is dandy and so far no bouts of homesickness. in fact this is starting to feel so much like home, i feel like this is the only home i've ever had. thats not to say that you guys back home mean nothing at all to me, but right now God is just working so largely in my life and this group of 21 students has really jelled together. i don't ever want to leave this bubble that we've created. ok, well off to go do some things in town so i will post a littel bit more later (pronounced ley-dah) ;)

Excersize

2006-08-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, when you get into post-secondary schooling you tend to gain weight. I've probably already mentioned this, so my roommate and I have been running with some of the guys, which is something I've never done before. I would always run with Lindsay, Natalie, Hidi or myself. So they like to push a lot harder. we've ran for about 7 ks for a couple days early morning. It's been really enjoyable and its been getting brighter sooner which is nice to not have to run in the dark. Travel weekend is coming up at the end of the month, and we are still trying to figure out where we are going to go and what we are going to do. Also, I havent talked to my parents yet, but ive been invited to my roommates home in western australia for christmas. That will be really nice to not have to spend christmas all alone, or even with other people but not in a home. it just wouldnt be the same. My roommate and i are getting really close and many things are very comfortable around each other...maybe a little too comfortable. and even with the guys. They have apparently never been around girls who can (or admit to) belching. anyone who knows me knows that i am quite comfortable with it and thats something these guys arent sure how to take. For my parents who are probably cringing at this, just think, this way no guy will have any thoughts of wanting to date me hahahaha. tonight we are watching a movie i think. theres an aussie movie, that if you can get back home you have to watch, its called the nugget. watch it. its like the canadian version of strange brew/mackenzie brothers. stupid, but it keeps you laughing.

towel snapping

2006-08-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

So today inbetween lectures we had a bit of a war with some of the guys-snapping towels. it was great fun. I have a large welt on my arm to add to all the bruises i gained from the table crawing over and around game. I am organizing a sunday night at capers (sn@c) with two other guys and so far things are looking good. we are going to film some skits about functional and dysfunctional families and then show them with some "heaven" (the trinity talking amoungst themselves) blurbs inbetween. it will bring me back to my highschool days and all the movies we made and all the ones i got to watch from the boys. i can't remember what their group was called, i am terrible. We had family night out on wednesday and we went for an hour drive down to the ocean to have fish and chips and then we went to look at the blowhole and had ice cream. It was a good bonding experience. We went shopping last saturday and i got an amazing jacket i love it! anyway, i have to go and buy some yougurt and possibly a cheap coffee maker. all they use here is instant. ech! its just not the same.

oh the water!

2006-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the funniest thing happened the other night. we were all looking for something to do and our only options were watching a movie or sleeping, so some of us girls are like, well we want to actually do something so we told some people that we wanted to play capture the flag or some other game that was fun in the dark. The germans, Sale and Flo got us playing the game where you put your forehead on a pole (like the relay game when you out your head on a baseball bat and then spin around it) and then we ran around a garbage bag and back. it was a relay and it was so hard! we spun around the pole 20 times and then tried running. that was no easy task. i fell within 2 steps. Then we went back to the main room and did other such things like carzy german things. ONe was laying down on a table and then going uinderneath the table like a bat (hanging) and then somehow getting back onto the top. so you're winding around this table. (none of these games are probably making sense, but at the time were hilarious). Then we played the drinking game (with water sillys, what were you thinking) where you each have a cup in the middle of the table, surrounding a large cup all filled with water. you have a coin and you each take turns flipping it into the center, trying to either get it in someones cup or to get it into the big one in the very middle. if you get it into someones cup they have to drink their glass, but if you get it into the middle one everyone has to drink their cup as fast as possible and the last one done has to drink the one in the middle too. needless to say a lot of water was consumed. we filled the water urn (the thing used to heat up the water for tea time, its pretty big) 4 or 5 times for about 6 people. it went on for a little more than an hour. People drop out when they have to pee so bad that they can't play anymore. so it was down to me and sale at the end and i flet so sick! I went back to my room to go to bed, and i was like no, i just have to puke and get it out of me, ive never induced throwing up before so i had no idea what i was doing. nevertheless i made it to the bathroom just in time and i didnt even have to induce it lol. i think i went to the washroom every hour that night it was the worst thing ever, and i woke up with a headache and i just felt disgusting. but hey, it was worth it. i beat one of the germans (one of them went to the toilet near the end not really realizing that you weren't allowed). Other than that it's been lots of lectures and learning. haha. Today at lunch one of the killer magpies went to atteck drew's head but it ran into the window, it was hilarious. the magpies here attack peoples heads when they get to close to their nests. and this is no small bird we are talking about. anyway, people are waiting to get back to the school.

Mittens, scones and fog

2006-07-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! Last night we had our first family group Bible study. each student has to present 2 bible studies throughout the semester and yesterday was the first presentation. It was really neat because it was about angels and their relationship to God. We had great discussions and thought through some things i've never considered. After, we had supper (not to be confused with dinner. Supper is evening tea time) which consisted of scones with strawberry jam and whipping cream. oh so good! people here are starting to catch on to the fact that i love food. When people see me walking down the hallway with a spoon in my mouth know that it must be either nutella, ice cream or occasionally yogurt. I eat yogurt by the pail-full. its so yummy here! This morning the fog was so intense. its so pretty when you can see the sunbeams streaming through the tree branches and the fog. i love it. I've also heard some pretty funny stories about people catching possoms and how mean they can be. This one guy, phil who is my family group "dad", went to catch a possum and he had a pair of leather gloves and welding gloves one. he went to grab it and he bit through the 2 gloves and phil's just spinning his arm around like a windmill trying to shake it off and it ended up flying into a brick wall. You'd think that would do it in, but he managed to escape. I've also seen a real-live wombat. They are so big! I've heard that their back is so strong and hard that if you run over it with your car it can do some serious damage, not unlike a kangaroo. This afternoon we sat outside for lunch for the first time and it was lovely. it's been so cold lately so i made a pair of mittens to keep my finger's warm when i go for walks. Miss you all, and if you're into text-messaging i would love to keep in touch that way. i used to be all against it, but now that i can, it makes sense (for me anyway). To make a phone call is so expensive, but to write a little note only costs 25 cents no matter where im sending it to. so yeah, give me a dingle, the number is in one of my previous blogs. ta ta!

relationships

2006-07-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

so just to update you on a few things, actually this is going back to the second day. we went out to fitzroy falls and as we were taking the hike i was walking with one of the boys, Jared. we somehow got on the topic of marriage and i told him i dont want to get married. then he's like, "ok onto the next girl" and starts walking with another girl. it was great, and ever since then he gives me the funny look when we discuss relationships in lectures. people here arent very accepting of my idea, but i did get a good idea from jared and others as we brainstormed over lunch. i told them that i wouldnt date because the point of dating is to get married. at first they didnt really agree, but then they agreed once i told them that it would be cruel for me to date a guy with no intentions of marriage. so now what ive been told i can do is find a boy who feels the same way as me and we could just date forever. isnt that great? i never thought of that idea yet. lol, so any of you boys out there interested in just dating forever let me know. there is probably not a single one on the face of the planet unless he is missing a vital part of maleness, but heck i can always hope. for about 10 more lectures we are discussing relationships so im expecting a lot of dirty looks. other than that not too much is going on. On friday i am doing an oral which is where i just talk for 10 minutes about anything and then somehow relate it back to God. so i am doing it on being a server and i'll be doing skits about customers who have really stuck out to me. it should be great.

PJ party

2006-07-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last night was hilariously funny. us girls had a pj party in the main house while the boys went out into the cold to go for a camping trip. we had appetizers while we were all lounging around in the lounge area, and then we had a candlelit dinner where we had pumpkin soup, yep pumpkin soup. it was actually not bad. then we did the gift exchange game where you can steal or choose to unwrap a gift, im sure a lot of you have played it at some point. then we had tim tam slams, which if you have never had, you have to! i will bring boxes of tim tams home with me. they are the australian oreo pretty much. we have oreos a lot, and the aussies love their tim tams. a tim tam slam is where you bite off two corners of the cookie, one at each end and then suck a hot drink through the cookie. mmm its heaven. the theory of bible school is that the girls gain weight and the boys gain weight. its only been a week, but i already feel like im ballooning. anyway, then we watched a movie while we ate candy. it was your classic girls night and it was a great experience. the boys on the other hand were outside eating roadkill, steak and bacon around a campfire. one of the guys on the way out there hit a kangaroo and so they ate it. dont ask questions, but it happened. they are boys, you dont need to know anymore than that. i tried to figure out how to work around the libraries system to get pics on here, but so far no luck but i will keep trying.

Capers!

2006-07-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just a quick line, i dont have too much time here. so the class this semester is really small. there are 20 of us, about 5 of which are candadian, 3 american, 4 german, maybe 4 aussies. i am flatting with sarah, and aussie, and i am practising my accent. We have't had too many classes so far, its mostly been orientation and that sort of thing. i love the school itself and the food here is amazing. I got a cell phone, and i have free incoming calls so give me a dingle. im not sure if this is a safe thing to do or whatever, if it isnt let me know and i'll take it off. my number is 011-61-4-104-69895. long i know, but thats what it takes to get a hold of me. love you all, talk to you again soon. cheers!

Oh the Malls

2006-07-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, so i forgot to put on a picture of the mall that i found on the same day as when i went to the aquarium. It had four floors, and pictures can't really show how beautiful this place was. There were stores selling dresses for like $700.00 and there are lots of jewelry stores selling opals, apparently thats what australia is known for. There was a store called Georg Jensen. i thought it was pretty awesome, my dads pretty much famous. haha. One thing I did this morning was in my search of an ATM i bought a chocolate bar called picnic. it was delicious. chocolate bars are things i like to try in other countries. But it just makes me crave them when i get back home, and Oh Henry's don't always curb the cravings.

Heading out for the school

2006-07-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well guys, this will probably be the last blog for a while as i will be heading out for the school today and im unsure of how much time i will have to spend on the internet. I woke up nice and early so that i would have lots of time to write and be ready for when Andrew comes to travel to the school with me. for those of you who dont know who andrew is, join the club. lol. just kidding, he's another student from the school im going to, and we've been in contact for a little while and we decided to take the train ride together. So it'll be nice to have someone to talk to during the really long train ride. Anyway, last night the evening event at the hostel was wine and cheese testing. keeping in line with what my parents have taught me my whole life. . . i was adventurous and tried some hahaha. it was only a little bit, if they are reading this. it was nasty as predicted, but it was still fun. About the picture, I found this really amazing guy whose name is Bill, no really it is, and we hit it off. I've never met anyone like him before and he proposed, what could i say? no? heck no. haha. Naw, I mostly just wanted to freak out random people who may be reading this, there is no Bill, but i did find the ring at a cute jewelrey place near the hostel, and i couldnt resist. Maybe I'm just running out of things to write about, so i have to make things up. Anyway, I will check ya'll later.

Sydney Aquarium

2006-07-14T02:26:00.000-07:00

Well guys, I feel very much like a little kid here. I go to the zoo, have fun on the ferrys and go to the aquarium. It was actually really fun there, and to be around little kids who get really excited about the fish, or sometimes to listen to the parents try and make the kids excited about it.
the picture of the shark has the best story behind it. There is this tunnel that goes through the aquarium and you feel like you are right there with the sharks. It can be really creepy when they are swimming right towards you. There was one point where i was looking at a stinkray and i felt like i was talking to it with my eyes. haha. I think im spending too much time by myself, i will go to anything for contact of some sort. My favorite picture is the one of the red jelly fish, I was so pleased at how well it turned out. Another quirk of mine is that i sit on the train and i listen to the conversations around me and try to say the words back to myself in my head trying to catch on to the accent. Im such a dork. I'm getting pretty excited about my trip out to the school tomorrow, and i can't wait to meet my roomies and classmates!

Shopping!

2006-07-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

You all have to try kangaroo sometime very soon. it is amazing! they had the BBQ last night, and thats what they were serving. delicious! Then this morning after my oh so healthy breakfast consisting of a jaffle which is like a grilled cheese, but with bacon inside, and they squish the 2 pieces of bread together. it was actually really yummy. I think I might head off to the Aquarium today as my adventures start to come to a close. I'll try and post some more pics.

Exploring Sydney

2006-07-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

This is beautiful Sydney In the evening. Actually, this is how dark it is at like 5:30pm. It gets really dark really fast here. I spent most of the day here after finding my way to the harbour all by myself via train. Woo! I was pretty proud of myself for it. I also spent a large part of the day at the zoo. It was your average zoo, but with a twist, it was on a hill and you had to take a ferry and a gondola to get to it. so awesome. But anyways, theres a BBQ going on here, so i think i'll go get myself a kangaroo burger or something. hehe. who knows?
Cheers!

Im finally here!

2006-07-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

WOW, its happened at last. All those pictures I looked at are finally real to me and i am typing on the computer that i only saw in pictures before this. Yesterday was really nice. A lady my mom set me up with picked me up from the airport and we took the train to the hostel. you know how we had like 1 "train" or LRT in edmonton, well here there are like 8 trains and they are really cool because they have two levels. Once i got to the hostel I took a much needed shower, and wow, this place is so nice, its really really clean and well kept. so after my shower, i realized how hunger i had become now that i was steady and on the ground instead of up in the air floating for hours on end. so i stepped out into the great unknown of sydney, and what did i find, but a McDonalds just across the street. and me being the lame person i am, i bought mcdonalds for my first meal in australia. As i ate my chicken burger i walked down the street and i came across some really cute shops. I also came across the University of Syndney, and wow the campus is so beautiful. I'll try to add some pictures, no promises though. After that i found this mall (im a girl what can i say, i have a sense for these things) it was really neat. instead of escalators they had these things that were like escalators, but more like slanted moving sidewalks. then i got a massage and headed to the hostel were i went to bed at 6 pm, and didnt wake up until 3 am this morning. then i didnt get out of bed until 7:30. lol. now here i am ready for the day ahead. talk to you soon!!

Hongcouver

2006-07-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Thought i would drop a line now that i have a little bit of time. At the moment i am in hong kong and having a blast. i feel a little sick, but the frequent trips to the "toilets" as they label them here (as opposed to washrooms) help a lot. On the Flight from Edmonton to Vancouver was short and quick, and Georges Larauque was sitting just two rows in front of me! I was listening and watching my ipod from some gorgeous girl named hott sarah. It passed the time really well. On the flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong was like 18 hours. it was a killer stint. It was really uncomfortable too. the guy next to me figured out that the middle armrest could flip up and act as a headrest too. that helped, and i got a few zeds that way. this airport here is huge! You take a little lrt type dealy to take you to departures from arrivals. can you imagine walking all that way?? anyway, i think the toilet is calling my name, and so are the many shops. drop me a line!!

Bill the Bug

2006-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

So last weekend there was a great-fun party at my house and this little guy on the left, Bill, was the center of attention. After lassoing him with Shelley's dental floss we went and took him to an ant infestested patch of dirt to see who would eat who. As it turned out, the ants attacked Bill. They were biting his legs and his crazy-long antannae, but we saved him and everyone went home happy.

Jeanette the Bartender

2006-06-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

So tonight I did something that I have never done before. I bartended. woo! It was quite a lot more work than I thought it would be. There was one customer though who really stuck out at me. All he was having was glasses of Rickard's Red, and he was one of my first "customers". It was from him that i learned a major lesson about bartending tasks. I think that to him, the most important task was to interact with the people. I was content to just buzz around washing dishes and making drinks that i didnt take the time to talk to any of the people in front of me. He'd call me over from the dishwasher and said... " where's you're smile??...oh! wait, there it is, i can see it coming out now..."and he would watch every single move i made. if i did something that looked clumsy and i hoped that no one saw, i could count on the fact that the guy had seen it. we got to talking about what a "brilliant looking girl" like me was doing next year. when i told him that i would be going to australia in a month, he got excited. i think he started telling stories about dead koala bears and kangaroos at this point, but i don't really remember because i was intent on making drinks. he asked me how much a day in Australia would cost, and i told him i had no idea, trying to brush the question off, but he was insistent with this one question. i told him that i woul dbe hostelling it, so thats about 20 bucks a night, and then food and entertainment, so i estimated 60 bucks. basically a number pulled out of thin air just to get him to stop asking me. when he gave me back his credit card slip, he told me, "when you're in australia think "who the f**k was that guy?"" i laughed and slipped the paper in my billfold not really looking at it. but when i went to take payment for it, i saw that the tip amount was 60.00 and in the margin was a little note which read, "I day down under" which is probably "a day down under" after a few beers. I can't wait to spend that 60 bucks in australia, and i will think of him as i spend it. The friendly guy who taught me the most important part of bartending.

customers who make me laugh

2006-05-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

The other night at Millwoods Pentacostal the speaker asked each of us to tag all of our material possessions with red stickers and to tag the people we come into contact with each day with green stickers. As i was running around in my mind tagging things, I realized that as a server i come into contact with so many people! if i had 30 tables with an average of four people at each table, i would have had either a positive or negative impact on 120 people, and thats only the customers. What about co-workers, the people in the car next to me, the cashier at Superstore, my family and friends, and the list goes on. Think of how many peoples' days you could either brighten or darken. And then i got to thinking how strange some people can be. Like the father who talks to you like you're one of his kids *(in an energetic tone)*"Thanks buddy!","Oh wow, you're the greatest!","That's awesome! Nice work". Or the table who pretends that you don't even exist. You could ask to take the menus away from them five times and they just keep on talking, and then when you bring the food out they tell you to get the menus out of their way. Or how about the table who leaves you five dollars on the table for a tip and then when they come up to the front to pay cash wants their 60 cents back? Then theres the lady who wants her salad ingredients all in seperate ramkins...so that she can...mix them at the table herself?? My favorite are the people who ask to sit at a table that's dirty, and you tell them you'll clean it for them. But before you do, they seat themselves. Then when you go over to talk to them they rudely say "Excuse me! could you wipe this table for us? it's filty!" Or the people who want to get their leftover pop packed up to go...? Kids are the best though. I once had the most hilarious boys at a table. they must have been 8 years old or something close to that. When the one asked for his drink, he said "um.... can i please have a grape pop rocks...and um.... you're really pretty!" the dad just covered his eyes in embarrasment, and i blushed like nothing else. Then later that evening another server went over to talk to the boys because they were so funny. We found out that they were celebrating getting the next level of belt in tykwondo. He then proceded to practise his moves on the server. the parents protested "no! not the self defence moves!" but before you knew it the server was on her knees with her arm twisted behind her. For dessert i brought them to the back to make their own sundaes. everything was going well until i brought out the whipped cream. The boys thought it was really neat, i thought it was a bad idea for them to touch anything as unstable as a whipping cream canister. So i put it to the side, but the boy got a hold of it and squeezed so hard the whipping cream hit not only the ceiling, but the customer on the other side of the wall. She was seething! it got in her hair, on her purse and on her clothes. How do you apoligize to a woman who is obviously furious (and still has a few chunks of whipping cream in her hair) when you just saw a cloud of whipping cream float through the air? Its those kinds of tables that i can't wait to serve, and put a smile on my face for the rest of the night. Thats the kind of impact i want to have on people. I want to be remembered for my smile and the way i brightened someone's day.

2006-05-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Alright, so here I am 47 days beore I leave! I have pretty much everything I need for the trip. It's starting to hit me that I'm actually leaving my secure little world and doing something all by myself that will take me way out of my comfort zone.
I'll be leaving on the 10th of July in the afternoon, and then flying to Vancouver. From there I go to Hong Kong (yeah i thought it was weird too) where I will be for about 4 hours. Then I go to Sydney Australia!! I will be staying in Sydney for a few days at a Hostel. where I will either be sleeping lots, or touring the city. Then on the 15th, I travel for a few hours by train down to a little town called Moss Vale, which is where the school is. And that is where my real trip begins.

Feel free to check out the hostel and the school where I will be staying:
school http://www.torchbearers.com.au/pages/bibleschool.php
hostel http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/details.cfm?hostelid=215