1) This is one country WalMart has yet to invade, there are Big-W's (which apparently is the
equivalent) but they are not very common and I have yet to see one.
2) Lemonade here, is not what you'd think, it's like what we call sprite, which they have sprite
here too, but they don't' have what we in the states call lemonade here.
3) They have no idea what granola bars are, or what granola is for that matter, they call them museli bars.
4) Most Australians love Obama
5) Certain bad words in the states aren't really bad here, so they are heard ALL the time
6) Topless bathing on the beaches is okay
7) Gas stations are called Servos
8) Lollie is just a general terms for all candy
9) Fair dinkum is their expression for "that's true"
10) Popsicles are called ice blocks
11) McDonalds is referred to as Maccas
12) They don't have what we call biscuits here, what they call biscuits, is like what we call cookies
and crackers
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Man From Snowy River
I had to write this blog for my ASC class.
The idea for this movie came from a poem that had been written years earlier by a man named Banjo Paterson. It is only loosely based on the poem, however, several elements have been added, expanded on, or changed. For example, there were no women mentioned in the poem, but in the movie, some of the main conflicts that arise have to do with women.
This movie starts with a father and son living in the Snowy Mountain Region of Australia. Right away, the dad gets into a logging accident and dies, leaving the son to fend for himself. In order to keep living on the family farm, the boy, Jim, has to go down from the mountains to earn money. He works on the farm of his friend, Spur’s, brother, Mr. Harrison. Jim has no idea at the time that his friend and Mr. Harrison are brothers; he does not find this out until later in the movie. While there, he falls in love with the daughter, Jessica. However, Jim’s friend and his brother have not talked for 20 years and when they meet up again, tempers flare. Jim and Jessica are caught in the middle of this feud and are told they cannot be together and that Jim needs to leave. Meanwhile, some of the other farm hands do not like Jim very much and are constantly trying to get him in trouble. Jim does not let this faze him, though, he keeps pressing on, trying to prove that he is an honest man and that he is capable of doing any job asked of him. In the end, Mr. Harrison tells Jessica that she and Jim cannot be together, but Jim tells him that he’ll be back to claim what is his and looks at Jessica while saying this. That is where the movie ends.
One of the common themes throughout the movie is horses. At the time of the dad’s accident, Jim also loses one of his horses to a wild herd of brumbies. He is determined to get back his horse and to capture the rest of the wild brumbies. Several times throughout the movie, Jim encounters the wild horses, but fails to catch any of them. The other station hands release one of Mr. Harrison’s prize colts and try to frame Jim; this colt soon joins up with the wild brumbies. This results in a group of men heading out to find the brumbies and bring back the colt. Jim, despite much objection, joins the group and ends up being the one and only person from the group to not only bring back the colt, but all the brumbies as well—every single one of them.
Jim demonstrates strong Australian characteristics throughout this movie. First, when his father dies, he could have decided to simply give up the farm and move to the low lands, but instead he chooses to find a way to get the farm back up and running again. Second, when he gets to the Harrison farm, he is the underdog, an outsider, but he doesn’t let that stop him or get him down, he keeps trying to show what he can do and works extra hard. Third, despite the odds against him, he never gives up; no matter what is thrown his way, he perseveres through it and continues in his work. There was one point when Mr. Harrison was going to fire Jim, but Jim finished the job he had started despite the fact he knew he would be fired as soon as he was through. Fourth, Jim shows the typical Australian attitude of not wanting to rise above the group and stand out as the best; he was not trying to be a hero, nor was he looking for recognition. Jim had a reason for each action. At one point in the movie, he is seen as a hero for rescuing Jessica from a cliff side, but he was not doing it to be noticed, he did it because he cared about Jessica and did not want her to die. Another example is when he captures the brumby herd and Mr. Harrison’s colt at the end of the movie, he was seen as a hero, but he only did it to clear his name, to get his horse back that he had lost earlier and to have a group of wild horses to train and use on his farm.
Sources used for this blog:
1) http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/movies/manfromsnowyriver.html
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It Would Happen To Me!
Sorry I haven't posted lately, I have been super busy. Last week was a blur. Wednesday night we had a St. Patrick's Day party at the guys house, that was super fun! One of the guys DJed and may I say he is an excellent DJ. Not only did a bunch of ASCers come, but several Aussie's came to, so it was fun to hang out with them.
Friday all the ASC students had to be at the school at 6am so we could get an early start to Canberra, which was about a 3 hour drive away. There were enough seats on the bus for everyone to have their own seat if they wanted it, however, some people chose to share. We stopped at McDonalds about half-way and I got a 30 cent ice cream cone! It's never to early for ice cream.
Once we arrived in Canberra, we went straight to New Parliament House (this one was just built recently, there is an old Parliament House too, but it cost money to go in and see it). The plan was to be free to explore, but we found out that the Senate was debating a piece of legislation and they don't usually sit on Fridays, so this was a rare opportunity. We went and watched them for a while, their meetings are very different from the US, I think, from what I've heard about the US ones. The US Senate tends to be more formal, when one person is talking, people listen, it's rude to interrupt. But in the Australian meeting, people would interject with comments at random and were on the phone while someone else was talking or they were talking with someone else in the room. For example, a lady from the Liberal Party (here in Australia, the Liberal Party is most like our Republican Party and
the Labor Party is most like our Democratic Party) was stating her opposition to a measure the Labor Party was trying to pass. She mentioned that she didn't know if it's just that they have a good federal Labor Party and a bad state one or what and one guy yelled out "they're both bad!" It was fairly entertaining. After watching them, we went up on the roof where there is a grassy area and some of the group made a pyramid. After that we went to the British High Commission (in Australia, if a country is part of the Commonwealth, then their buildings are called Commissions, whereas if a country is not part of the Commonwealth, their building is referred 
to as an Embassy). We listened to a Scottish man talk about Britain's relationship with Australia. We weren't allowed to take pictures at the British High Commission, but at the Indonesian Embassy, we were free to take as many as we wanted, so the pictures to the left are of the Indonesian Embassy. Then, we moved on to th
e Indonesian Embassy. This Embassy was gorgeous, created in a style that reflected Indonesian culture. However, when the guy was talking to us, I had trouble following what he was saying because of his thick accent, so I hope I understood the important points.
After this, we went to the Youth Hostel we'd be staying in overnight and settled in, then went straight into processing group. Processing group entailed all of us going into the leaders room and discussing what we've seen, cultural things we've experienced, etc.
Finally, to end the day, we were free to do whatever we wanted. The hostel had a "pool" if you could call it that, it was tiny and only about waist deep. I ended up playing several games of Egyptian War with a few people. We were getting pretty competitive.
Saturday, we woke up bright and early. We started off by visiting the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. We got to talk to an Aborigine and see how they felt about the government and h
ow they treated the Aborigines. It is appaling to me to see how the government feels they can treat these people, they treat and have treated them is more like animals than people. The government has offered an official apology to the Stolen Generations, but the Aborigine we talked to felt that so far, it was just words and that's it, that it was more for show than anything. The picture to the right is the Aboriginal flag. The red stands for the red land and the black stands for the Aboriginal people.
After that, we headed to the National Portrait Gallery and had a look around. There were some beautiful pieces of art in there. Then, we went to the National Museum. This place was super cool! There were so many hands on exhibits and it was just very interesting. They had a booth set up with all kinds of money that people had donated over the years: Indonesian money, Persian money, American
money, etc.
From there we went to the National Gallery, which was another art museum. There was some interesting works of art in here as well. Finally, our last stop of the day was the National War Memorial. This was my favorite place out of all the other ones we'd been to. I love history and being able to build a story and learn how different countries were involved with other countries. In all the history classes I've taken in the US, I don't remember talking about how many Australian lives were lost in wars, so it was cool to be able to see Australia brought in the picture for WWI and II and other wars. The picture to the left is of a wall at the war memorial that lists the soldiers names who died in war. People have put up poppies to commemorate these soldiers.
That concluded our weekend, and it was back to Syndey.
When we got back to school, we all headed home, some people were picked up, but some of us had to catch a bus. Well, the next bus didn't come for another like 40 minutes, so me and two other ASCers went to the local Servo (gas station) and bought some sparklers. Well, we soon realized that we had no way to light said sparklers, so we proceeded to ask everyone we saw if they had a lighter. We finally found a lady who did and lit a few sparklers, then kept lighting more sparklers using the ones already lit. It was tons of fun!
Sunday morning, I went to Hillsong again, then went home with a friend to do homework. We, well, I didn't end up getting much done!
Today, I got off the bus at school and just really didn't feel good, I felt sick to my stomcah and my stomach was cramping really bad. I figured it'd just pass and I'd make it through class. Well, I was miserable all through the first half of class, but I kept telling myself to just make it to break. So, when break time came, I booked it out of there to go talk to Kimberly and see if it was okay to ask my professor if I could leave early. She said it was fine and then gave me a ride home. It's a good thing I left when I did, because shortly after arriving home, I got sick. I would be the one to get the stomach flu while in Australia. So, today has consisted of me sleeping pretty much all day.
At the National Museum, outside, they had a giant map of Australia, and one of the things on it was the Simpson Desert, so here's a picture of me "at" Simpson.
And here is a picture of the front of my school.
Friday all the ASC students had to be at the school at 6am so we could get an early start to Canberra, which was about a 3 hour drive away. There were enough seats on the bus for everyone to have their own seat if they wanted it, however, some people chose to share. We stopped at McDonalds about half-way and I got a 30 cent ice cream cone! It's never to early for ice cream.
Once we arrived in Canberra, we went straight to New Parliament House (this one was just built recently, there is an old Parliament House too, but it cost money to go in and see it). The plan was to be free to explore, but we found out that the Senate was debating a piece of legislation and they don't usually sit on Fridays, so this was a rare opportunity. We went and watched them for a while, their meetings are very different from the US, I think, from what I've heard about the US ones. The US Senate tends to be more formal, when one person is talking, people listen, it's rude to interrupt. But in the Australian meeting, people would interject with comments at random and were on the phone while someone else was talking or they were talking with someone else in the room. For example, a lady from the Liberal Party (here in Australia, the Liberal Party is most like our Republican Party and
the Labor Party is most like our Democratic Party) was stating her opposition to a measure the Labor Party was trying to pass. She mentioned that she didn't know if it's just that they have a good federal Labor Party and a bad state one or what and one guy yelled out "they're both bad!" It was fairly entertaining. After watching them, we went up on the roof where there is a grassy area and some of the group made a pyramid. After that we went to the British High Commission (in Australia, if a country is part of the Commonwealth, then their buildings are called Commissions, whereas if a country is not part of the Commonwealth, their building is referred 
to as an Embassy). We listened to a Scottish man talk about Britain's relationship with Australia. We weren't allowed to take pictures at the British High Commission, but at the Indonesian Embassy, we were free to take as many as we wanted, so the pictures to the left are of the Indonesian Embassy. Then, we moved on to th
e Indonesian Embassy. This Embassy was gorgeous, created in a style that reflected Indonesian culture. However, when the guy was talking to us, I had trouble following what he was saying because of his thick accent, so I hope I understood the important points.After this, we went to the Youth Hostel we'd be staying in overnight and settled in, then went straight into processing group. Processing group entailed all of us going into the leaders room and discussing what we've seen, cultural things we've experienced, etc.
Finally, to end the day, we were free to do whatever we wanted. The hostel had a "pool" if you could call it that, it was tiny and only about waist deep. I ended up playing several games of Egyptian War with a few people. We were getting pretty competitive.
Saturday, we woke up bright and early. We started off by visiting the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. We got to talk to an Aborigine and see how they felt about the government and h
ow they treated the Aborigines. It is appaling to me to see how the government feels they can treat these people, they treat and have treated them is more like animals than people. The government has offered an official apology to the Stolen Generations, but the Aborigine we talked to felt that so far, it was just words and that's it, that it was more for show than anything. The picture to the right is the Aboriginal flag. The red stands for the red land and the black stands for the Aboriginal people.After that, we headed to the National Portrait Gallery and had a look around. There were some beautiful pieces of art in there. Then, we went to the National Museum. This place was super cool! There were so many hands on exhibits and it was just very interesting. They had a booth set up with all kinds of money that people had donated over the years: Indonesian money, Persian money, American
money, etc. From there we went to the National Gallery, which was another art museum. There was some interesting works of art in here as well. Finally, our last stop of the day was the National War Memorial. This was my favorite place out of all the other ones we'd been to. I love history and being able to build a story and learn how different countries were involved with other countries. In all the history classes I've taken in the US, I don't remember talking about how many Australian lives were lost in wars, so it was cool to be able to see Australia brought in the picture for WWI and II and other wars. The picture to the left is of a wall at the war memorial that lists the soldiers names who died in war. People have put up poppies to commemorate these soldiers.
That concluded our weekend, and it was back to Syndey.
When we got back to school, we all headed home, some people were picked up, but some of us had to catch a bus. Well, the next bus didn't come for another like 40 minutes, so me and two other ASCers went to the local Servo (gas station) and bought some sparklers. Well, we soon realized that we had no way to light said sparklers, so we proceeded to ask everyone we saw if they had a lighter. We finally found a lady who did and lit a few sparklers, then kept lighting more sparklers using the ones already lit. It was tons of fun!
Sunday morning, I went to Hillsong again, then went home with a friend to do homework. We, well, I didn't end up getting much done!
Today, I got off the bus at school and just really didn't feel good, I felt sick to my stomcah and my stomach was cramping really bad. I figured it'd just pass and I'd make it through class. Well, I was miserable all through the first half of class, but I kept telling myself to just make it to break. So, when break time came, I booked it out of there to go talk to Kimberly and see if it was okay to ask my professor if I could leave early. She said it was fine and then gave me a ride home. It's a good thing I left when I did, because shortly after arriving home, I got sick. I would be the one to get the stomach flu while in Australia. So, today has consisted of me sleeping pretty much all day.
At the National Museum, outside, they had a giant map of Australia, and one of the things on it was the Simpson Desert, so here's a picture of me "at" Simpson.
And here is a picture of the front of my school.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Third Week Down Under
Sunday I woke up early and Amy made us omelets for brekky (Aussie slang for breakfast) and then we made guacamole. After filling ourselves with the guacamole and chips, we headed down to Westfield (the Burwood shopping center). I was in search of a water bottle and Tim Tams. Tim Tams are the most amazing thing ever invented and I can't believe the United States doesn't sell them. Anyways, I found the Tim Tams for a pretty good price and I also found a nice water bottle for only $4 AUD! A very successful trip. Sunday night I was going to go to Hillsong and participate in their live recording for their next cd, but something I ate (the guacamole, I'm sure of it) made me feel very sick to my stomach, so I pretty much laid around the rest of the day and did homework and such, nothing too exciting. I was bummed to miss out on the Hillsong thing though.
Monday was the start of the third week of classes! Time has gone so fast, but so slow at the same time, if that makes any sense. For ASC class we watched a movie called Gallipoli. It's an Australian movie about the Battle of Gallipoli over in Turkey. Mel Gibson is in it when he was younger. It was a very depressing movie, good, but sad. The Australian's don't "sugar coat" their movies like America does. American war movies typically end with at least one main character reuniting with their loved ones, or at least a little message that say "they lost this battle, but..." Gallipoli had no such ending. I will not spoil it on here by telling how it ends, you'll just have to go watch it for yourselves. For photography class, we took a fi
eld trip down to the Bay that's just down the road from the school and took some pics. 
We were messing around with different shutter speeds for this class.
Tuesday we had a very inetersting discussion in my theology class. The lecturer talked about how we are asking the wrong question. We shouldn't be asking why God doesn't reveal himself to everybody or why everyone doesn't have access to the Word, we should be asking why God reveals himself to anybody, why does anybody have access to the Word? We do not deserve anything, but through God's grace and great love for us, He provided a way for us to live with Him for eternity. Wow, praise God for that!
Friday for ASC class we took a field trip to the Parliament House in Sydney. We were shown around by the Honorable Reverand Doctor Gordon Moyes. We got to sit in on a session too, nothing too exciting was happening, just some dedications and such for the bush fire victims, but it was cool to get a glimpse of how their government works. The ceiling in one of the rooms was absolutely gorgeous, there was a huge panel of stained glass in the middle.
Friday night, a couple other ASCers came over and we had cookies and ice cream and then watched part of Finding Nemo, but didn't finish it because they had to go home.
Saturday I had my service project with Hillsong again. This time I went out to a women's refugee house to help repaint it. It was fun, I met a lot of new people and painting is something I love to do. There was a communication problem between me and the leader about getting back to the church. I was under the impression that he was going to take me back with him when he went to go debrief the other teams because the rest of the ASCers with Hillsong would be waiting at the church. Well, come 12:30, I found out he'd already left so I didn't know what to do, so I asked one of the other leaders what I should do and he found someone who was going back to the church and said I should just go with him. So he dropped me off at the church and left. Well, the only people in the church were the guy at the front desk and a few people washing windows. Not only did I not know the area, but I didn't know where the ASC people were or what I should do. Long story short, my leader had driven the 5 other ASCers over to the house because he thought I was still there, so I ended up going home with a Hillsong student to their apartment and hanging out until the rest of my group finished up and came back to the church. The girl who's apartment I went to is from Germany. She was very sweet and it was interesting to talk about how things differ between the States, Germany, and Australia.
Sunday, I got up really early to get ready to go to Palm Beach. Amy, me and another
ASCer (Becca) caught the 8:30 train and then caught a bus that would take us to the beach. Altogether it was a two hour trip, but it was so worth it! We got off the bus a few stops before the beach and hiked this trail called Stairway to Heaven and it went up over a ridge type thing a
nd then down a road until we hit the beach. It was about a 30-40 minute walk and it was gorgeous, but my goodness there were a lot of stairs! I am in love with
beaches and the ocean, I love swimming in the ocean! While we were at the beach there was a shark siting and so everyone had to evacuate the water while the lifeguards went out in their boats with harpoons and looked for the shark. They didn't find it so the water was opened up again and it was back to swimming. Palm Beach has definitely become my new favorite beach!
Monday was the start of the third week of classes! Time has gone so fast, but so slow at the same time, if that makes any sense. For ASC class we watched a movie called Gallipoli. It's an Australian movie about the Battle of Gallipoli over in Turkey. Mel Gibson is in it when he was younger. It was a very depressing movie, good, but sad. The Australian's don't "sugar coat" their movies like America does. American war movies typically end with at least one main character reuniting with their loved ones, or at least a little message that say "they lost this battle, but..." Gallipoli had no such ending. I will not spoil it on here by telling how it ends, you'll just have to go watch it for yourselves. For photography class, we took a fi
eld trip down to the Bay that's just down the road from the school and took some pics. 
We were messing around with different shutter speeds for this class.Tuesday we had a very inetersting discussion in my theology class. The lecturer talked about how we are asking the wrong question. We shouldn't be asking why God doesn't reveal himself to everybody or why everyone doesn't have access to the Word, we should be asking why God reveals himself to anybody, why does anybody have access to the Word? We do not deserve anything, but through God's grace and great love for us, He provided a way for us to live with Him for eternity. Wow, praise God for that!
Friday for ASC class we took a field trip to the Parliament House in Sydney. We were shown around by the Honorable Reverand Doctor Gordon Moyes. We got to sit in on a session too, nothing too exciting was happening, just some dedications and such for the bush fire victims, but it was cool to get a glimpse of how their government works. The ceiling in one of the rooms was absolutely gorgeous, there was a huge panel of stained glass in the middle.
Friday night, a couple other ASCers came over and we had cookies and ice cream and then watched part of Finding Nemo, but didn't finish it because they had to go home.
Saturday I had my service project with Hillsong again. This time I went out to a women's refugee house to help repaint it. It was fun, I met a lot of new people and painting is something I love to do. There was a communication problem between me and the leader about getting back to the church. I was under the impression that he was going to take me back with him when he went to go debrief the other teams because the rest of the ASCers with Hillsong would be waiting at the church. Well, come 12:30, I found out he'd already left so I didn't know what to do, so I asked one of the other leaders what I should do and he found someone who was going back to the church and said I should just go with him. So he dropped me off at the church and left. Well, the only people in the church were the guy at the front desk and a few people washing windows. Not only did I not know the area, but I didn't know where the ASC people were or what I should do. Long story short, my leader had driven the 5 other ASCers over to the house because he thought I was still there, so I ended up going home with a Hillsong student to their apartment and hanging out until the rest of my group finished up and came back to the church. The girl who's apartment I went to is from Germany. She was very sweet and it was interesting to talk about how things differ between the States, Germany, and Australia.
Sunday, I got up really early to get ready to go to Palm Beach. Amy, me and another
ASCer (Becca) caught the 8:30 train and then caught a bus that would take us to the beach. Altogether it was a two hour trip, but it was so worth it! We got off the bus a few stops before the beach and hiked this trail called Stairway to Heaven and it went up over a ridge type thing a
nd then down a road until we hit the beach. It was about a 30-40 minute walk and it was gorgeous, but my goodness there were a lot of stairs! I am in love with
beaches and the ocean, I love swimming in the ocean! While we were at the beach there was a shark siting and so everyone had to evacuate the water while the lifeguards went out in their boats with harpoons and looked for the shark. They didn't find it so the water was opened up again and it was back to swimming. Palm Beach has definitely become my new favorite beach!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Hooray!
Again, something that has nothing to do with Australia, but is an important aspect of my life.....
As many of you know, I applied to be an RA next year at Simpson. I had my interview online via skype because I was not at Simpson during interviews due to the fact that I was getting ready to leave for Australia. Well, I felt that my interview was super dooper awkward because the skype was glitching and they had to call me, but they left the webcam on so it was them watching me answer their questions over the phone and me watching them pass the phone around asking questions. I also felt that some of my answers came out sounding a bit cheesey. But despite all these feelings that I felt, I got the job!! I am going to be an RA on third floor Irwin (the freshman dorm, for those non-Simpsonites reading this blog) and my co-RA will be a girl named Emily. I will probably be in the same room I was in this year (haha). I am super excited to work with Emily and just to be an RA in general.
As many of you know, I applied to be an RA next year at Simpson. I had my interview online via skype because I was not at Simpson during interviews due to the fact that I was getting ready to leave for Australia. Well, I felt that my interview was super dooper awkward because the skype was glitching and they had to call me, but they left the webcam on so it was them watching me answer their questions over the phone and me watching them pass the phone around asking questions. I also felt that some of my answers came out sounding a bit cheesey. But despite all these feelings that I felt, I got the job!! I am going to be an RA on third floor Irwin (the freshman dorm, for those non-Simpsonites reading this blog) and my co-RA will be a girl named Emily. I will probably be in the same room I was in this year (haha). I am super excited to work with Emily and just to be an RA in general.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Second Week Down Under
Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week this semester because I have no classes, no obligations, I'm completely free to explore. This week me and a few others went to a place called Paddy's Market. It is a HUGE market that has all kinds of stuff, lots of so
uveniry type stuff for pretty cheap. After that we went to Bondi Beach. I actually went swimming in the ocean this time! It was so much fun, the ocean here is so different from back home. I can't wait to go again! After the beach we went to mov
ie night at Wesley and watched an Australian movie called The Dish. It was about the satellite that was used to aide in Neil Armstrong's mission to the moon and something I didn't know, the pictures that were shown on tv of the first walk on the moon came from this satellite in Australia, not the American one.
Friday I had my ASC class again and this time we had three lecturers from the college come and talk to us about Australian culture, what they think of Americans, how they view American politics, etc. It was a very interesting discussion. One point that was brought up that I found especially ineteresting was that sometimes Americans have a way of offended Australians by the way we end our sentences. Americans usually end sentences with a downward intonation, while Australians end their sentences with an upward intonation. So when an American does that, Australians may take it as authoritative, or final and they don't like that. Another thing that I've found interesting, not just from this discussion, but something I've noticed about Australians, a lot of them know quite a bit about American politics, often more than I know. Also, Obama is very popular here, Bush is not. Friday night, I went over to another host families house and hung out with a few of the other ASC students. We watched Bridget Jones Diary.
Saturday I started my service project with Hillsong. We met at Hillsong church, the city campus in Waterloo, and were split up into teams. I was on a team with 4 other people and we went to what they called The Towers. It was an apartement complex type thing. We started on the 16th floor and went door to door knocking and asking if the people needed help with anything, if they were okay. There were a lot of doors where no one answered, but we did get several responses. The first door we knocked at was answered by an elderly women who let us in. Her husband had just got back from the hospital the day before from having a hip replacem
ent. He had also had both his knees replaced within the last couple of years. Neither
one of them could get around very well, so we are coming back next week to help clean up their place a bit. They were a very nice couple. We got one door slammed in our face, but for the most part, even if the person wasn't interested or didn't need anything, they were fairly polite about it. 
There was also quite a few that didn't speak any English. After that I went with a couple other ASCers to the Sydney Aquarium. I didn't expect too much going into it, but the place was huge! We spent like 3-4 hours there. There were all kind of exhibits and several places where you could walk through under water tunnels.
On the way to the Aquarium, we had stopped in the park to eat lunch and we looked near the bench next to us and there was this lizard!
uveniry type stuff for pretty cheap. After that we went to Bondi Beach. I actually went swimming in the ocean this time! It was so much fun, the ocean here is so different from back home. I can't wait to go again! After the beach we went to mov
ie night at Wesley and watched an Australian movie called The Dish. It was about the satellite that was used to aide in Neil Armstrong's mission to the moon and something I didn't know, the pictures that were shown on tv of the first walk on the moon came from this satellite in Australia, not the American one.Friday I had my ASC class again and this time we had three lecturers from the college come and talk to us about Australian culture, what they think of Americans, how they view American politics, etc. It was a very interesting discussion. One point that was brought up that I found especially ineteresting was that sometimes Americans have a way of offended Australians by the way we end our sentences. Americans usually end sentences with a downward intonation, while Australians end their sentences with an upward intonation. So when an American does that, Australians may take it as authoritative, or final and they don't like that. Another thing that I've found interesting, not just from this discussion, but something I've noticed about Australians, a lot of them know quite a bit about American politics, often more than I know. Also, Obama is very popular here, Bush is not. Friday night, I went over to another host families house and hung out with a few of the other ASC students. We watched Bridget Jones Diary.
Saturday I started my service project with Hillsong. We met at Hillsong church, the city campus in Waterloo, and were split up into teams. I was on a team with 4 other people and we went to what they called The Towers. It was an apartement complex type thing. We started on the 16th floor and went door to door knocking and asking if the people needed help with anything, if they were okay. There were a lot of doors where no one answered, but we did get several responses. The first door we knocked at was answered by an elderly women who let us in. Her husband had just got back from the hospital the day before from having a hip replacem
ent. He had also had both his knees replaced within the last couple of years. Neither
one of them could get around very well, so we are coming back next week to help clean up their place a bit. They were a very nice couple. We got one door slammed in our face, but for the most part, even if the person wasn't interested or didn't need anything, they were fairly polite about it. 
There was also quite a few that didn't speak any English. After that I went with a couple other ASCers to the Sydney Aquarium. I didn't expect too much going into it, but the place was huge! We spent like 3-4 hours there. There were all kind of exhibits and several places where you could walk through under water tunnels.On the way to the Aquarium, we had stopped in the park to eat lunch and we looked near the bench next to us and there was this lizard!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A Bit of Rambling......
Monday night Amy, my roommate, and I went over to some other ASCers house to chill and watch a movie. They have their own little house in the back of the host families house, it's pretty sweet! We watched the movie "Footloose". During the movie the guys got this chocolate dessert thingy out and it was SOOOOO good! It was chocolate, marshmallows, fruit, minty flavor, and maybe something else, I'm not sure, but it tasted delicious!
Tuesday after class I went on a coffee date with Melanie, one of the leaders for the ASC program at Wesley. We went to Angela Jaynes and I got an iced coffee. An iced coffee here is different than the iced coffee in the states. In the states it generally means ice in coffee maybe with milk. Here it is coffee, ice, lots of milk, and a big scoop of ice cream plopped in. It is SOOOOO good!! We then went to the park and ate lunch, drank coffee and just talked. Went I got back home after this I walked to a little park about 10 minutes from my house and walked around it and did some homework. I have been doing so much walking since I've been here, besides buses/trains, I've pretty much been walking everywhere.
Today, after class I went with a group of us ASCers to the Art Museum for art after hours. We got to hear the latest Australian idol, Wes Carr, sing and play his guitar. It was quite interesting, although there were hardly any people there and in the US, it seems like if an American idol was playing somewhere the place would be packed. After the show, we had the option to walk around, but me and a few others decided to go to Pancakes on the Rocks, an amazing pancake place in The Rocks. They have tons of different kinds of pancakes there, chocolate ones, ones with ice cream on top, etc. I just got a shake because I'd eaten earlier, but I tried a few peoples pancakes and they were amazing! After that we decided to go to a pub and just chill. Most of them danced, but I declined. The lead singer from the band came down on the dance floor a couple times and let the group sing into the microphone and then one of the guitarist came down and was playing on the dance floor.
On a more random note, I don't know how many of you reading this know, but I have disliked bananas for who knows how long, probably like 10 years or so. Anyway, I had one the other morning for breakfast and actually didn't mind it too bad. I think I might eat more of them while I'm here. Something else I had recently that I haven't really liked in the past is fish. I was going straight from class to the art exhibit and so me, Amy and fellow ASCer Ty went to a fish and chips place and I got some sort of perch (I think) fried with french fries. I sprinkled lemon juice over the top of it, and it was very yummy!
Tuesday after class I went on a coffee date with Melanie, one of the leaders for the ASC program at Wesley. We went to Angela Jaynes and I got an iced coffee. An iced coffee here is different than the iced coffee in the states. In the states it generally means ice in coffee maybe with milk. Here it is coffee, ice, lots of milk, and a big scoop of ice cream plopped in. It is SOOOOO good!! We then went to the park and ate lunch, drank coffee and just talked. Went I got back home after this I walked to a little park about 10 minutes from my house and walked around it and did some homework. I have been doing so much walking since I've been here, besides buses/trains, I've pretty much been walking everywhere.
Today, after class I went with a group of us ASCers to the Art Museum for art after hours. We got to hear the latest Australian idol, Wes Carr, sing and play his guitar. It was quite interesting, although there were hardly any people there and in the US, it seems like if an American idol was playing somewhere the place would be packed. After the show, we had the option to walk around, but me and a few others decided to go to Pancakes on the Rocks, an amazing pancake place in The Rocks. They have tons of different kinds of pancakes there, chocolate ones, ones with ice cream on top, etc. I just got a shake because I'd eaten earlier, but I tried a few peoples pancakes and they were amazing! After that we decided to go to a pub and just chill. Most of them danced, but I declined. The lead singer from the band came down on the dance floor a couple times and let the group sing into the microphone and then one of the guitarist came down and was playing on the dance floor.
On a more random note, I don't know how many of you reading this know, but I have disliked bananas for who knows how long, probably like 10 years or so. Anyway, I had one the other morning for breakfast and actually didn't mind it too bad. I think I might eat more of them while I'm here. Something else I had recently that I haven't really liked in the past is fish. I was going straight from class to the art exhibit and so me, Amy and fellow ASCer Ty went to a fish and chips place and I got some sort of perch (I think) fried with french fries. I sprinkled lemon juice over the top of it, and it was very yummy!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Here and There
This Sunday I went to Hillsong church again, but this time the service was held at the city campus where it is normally held, rather than that one Sunday where it was held in a special location. The city campus is inside of a huge warehouse. I liked the service, but I think I liked the first week I went a tad bit better, but the sermons were amazing, I like the songs they sing and the people there, for the most part, are very welcoming. Sunday night there was a service at the Wesley mission in town for all Wesley students and it was just a time to pray for the Wesley students and there was a sermon too. It was interesting, different, but interesting. The songs they sang were older ones that I don't hear too much anymore and I liked that.
Today was the start of my second week of classes. In my ASC class there w
as a guest speaker, someone involved in Australian politics, and he talked about the history of Australia and touched briefly on how their political system works. It was very ineteresting, and it is also quite different from the United States. Then I had my photography class and we worked on the concept of deep depth of field and shallow depth of field and got to go around taking pictures to illustrate the concept. It was tons of fun! To the right is one of the pics I took.
And, here's a picture of the house I am staying in (well, the outside anyway) sorry it took so long to get it posted.
Today was the start of my second week of classes. In my ASC class there w
as a guest speaker, someone involved in Australian politics, and he talked about the history of Australia and touched briefly on how their political system works. It was very ineteresting, and it is also quite different from the United States. Then I had my photography class and we worked on the concept of deep depth of field and shallow depth of field and got to go around taking pictures to illustrate the concept. It was tons of fun! To the right is one of the pics I took.And, here's a picture of the house I am staying in (well, the outside anyway) sorry it took so long to get it posted.
From the Inside Out
This post has nothing to do with Australia, but the words of this song really sum up what's been on my heart lately and I would just encourage whoever is reading this blog to read the words of this song by Hillsong, it is so encouraging to be reminded that it doesn't matter how many times we mess up or how far we stray away from God, He's always there, waiting with open arms of love to welcome us back.
"A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out"
"A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out"
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