From March to May: The catch up post

From Other in April

Dear Everyone, Eden called the blog boring on my facebook status. As a result, he is not allowed to make any comments on this entry. Now, let's begin.

Life in Australia has been so busy. I’ve followed behind in the blogging of my adventures. Unfortunately, the only way I will ever be able to catch up is to sum up the last two months. So here we go.

March:

On the 16^th, we went to Cobra Starship, Owl City, and Amy Meredith. The concert was amazing and so much fun.

That weekend was the liaison weekend. We went up to Nelson’s Bay. While we were up there, we went on a dolphin cruise. Before the cruise, we saw penguins, real penguins, swimming in the ocean. THEY WERE SOOOO COOL!!! We also went sand boarding on the sand dunes (wow, that’s redundant). Sand boarding is like sledding except it’s on sand so it isn’t as cold. It’s also more tiring because sand is really hard to walk up. (For those of you who don’t know, when you try to climb up sand, it slides out from underneath you, tries to bury you, and it burns.) That being said, it is also a great workout. If you’re reading this Ed, I propose the entire rugby team flies to Australia. We can get a great workout by learning how to surf, running up sand hills, and immerse ourselves in a community that doesn’t think of rugby as “football without the pads.” Plus, it’s Australia, duh.

On the 23^rd, we met up with the others on the exchange for the third time in two weeks (that’s a new record) to do the Sydney Bridge Climb. The climb was, of course, brilliant. The views from the top of the bridge are breathtaking. On the way down, we got to watch the sunset. This was amazing. There was just enough cloud to make the sunset glow. Unfortunately, cameras aren’t allowed on this amazing climb so I only have the pictures I bought for $50 (totally worth it). But, because I bought them, I am going to take credit for them. So there.

That weekend, we went to Ashley and Ashleigh's birthday parties as well as the pairing breakfast for next years group. My first Aussie parties were lots of fun. The new group's pairing breakfast was so exciting. It reminded me of this time last year when we did our pairings. I remember the excitement, the shock, the nerve-racking first phone call. So many memories I'll never forget started with that night. (Oh my goodness, that sounds cheesy. I'm going to stop now before I get reminiscent and you all have to suffer.)

The next week was uneventful. Term was ending so all of the large projects were due. (This is something that doesn’t change even if I am across the world. I don’t know why teachers insist on giving themselves things to grade over breaks.) On April 2^nd, (good Friday) I went to the Easter Show with Tara, Nicole, Cairene, and Sylvia. We rode a rollercoaster, looked at the animals, ate (a lot), cheered on the United States in wood chopping (or at least I did, we got second, damn Canada) and watched the night show from the field with a better view then we would have gotten in the stadium. Somewhere during all of that, I managed to spend more money then I had, lost at a bubble gun war (in my defense, I didn’t have a gun and they ganged up on me), and got wacked in the head with a plastic light saber. On Easter Sunday, we went into the city. We did a ferry ride and went to the Rocks. I just cannot get over what a beautiful city this is. On Easter Monday, we went to Eden’s uncle’s for homemade pizza.

April:

From Other in April

Tuesday, we headed off to Campone. The entire experience was amazing. There were 200 kids there and they are all just from Eden’s church and in 9^th to 12^th grade. We spent six hours a day eating. During the rest of the day, we did various things, from writing Emily’s family history (long story) to making our own deck of cards. We found out ten minutes after we did this that one of the girls in the next room over had a deck. On the first day, Emily, Brittany, and I decided for no particular reason that our door was off limits. We made this clear to everyone by posting a simple warning that read: DANGER OF FALLING INTO THE FIFTH DIMENSION. For some reason, this made them want to go through our door even more. On the other side, a sign read OUT OF ORDER, PLEASE USE OTHER DOOR. We found that people respected an out of order sign more then they respected a warning sign. It may have had something to do with the fact that the door was locked from the inside. Camp went by quickly and before we knew it, it was Saturday. On Saturday, Alissa was baptized. It was very cool, she gave her testimony, we prayed for her, and we went down to the river, where Steve dunked her under the water.

The second week of the holidays, we went to Coffs Harbour. It is a cute fishing town. On the first day there, Eden, Heath, and I walked out to a rock island about 20 yards out into the ocean. (Ok, it wasn’t that far but it was pretty darn far and the waves are stronger than me). The next day, we went to the porpoise pool. This place was awesome. There is a dolphin kissing and a seal kissing. After that, you can feed this gigantic seal. It was huge and rather scary. After the seal feeding, there was a show. Heath got to feed a dolphin, IT WAS SO COOL!!!! We then got to pet the dolphins. After that, we went to look at the penguins. Then, we went to a skywalk over a rainforest. The view was stunning. After the skywalk, we went on a walk through the rainforest. The next day, we went to the Big Banana. It is really neat. We got to see the banana plantations. After that, we went to the candy shop and watched them make awesome hard candies. Not to mention the free samples. Then we went to an old jail. The jail was neat and historical looking. That night, because it was my birthday we decided to go out to dinner. I decided that I wanted pizza. Not just any pizza, good pizza. We spent an hour looking for pizza in the town we were staying at. Finally, we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions to the nearest pizza place. The people told us there wasn’t one in town. We settled for the cute looking Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, it was about $30 a plate. We didn’t go there. So then we tried the Mexican restaurant. But, it was about $30 a plate. (See a theme) So we spent another thirty minutes looking for a good restaurant. We finally found a little Italian restaurant with reasonable prices. Yum!!! After that, everyone surprised me with cake and some ice cream. The next day, we went to a Koala Hospital. The koalas were so cute. When we finished that, we headed home, tired from our trip.

The rest of April passed by quickly. Sylvia’s birthday was on the 18^th and we had a McDonalds Happy Meal picnic. On the 25^th, we had Alissa’s surprise party. It was a lot of fun, aside from the fact, that all the guys want to talk about politics with me. We went to the Crunulla sunrise Anzac Day service. It would have been amazing except the sun forgot to rise (it was really cloudy).

So lovely people, that is what happened to me all of March and April. Enjoy. Look at the amazing pictures I’ve taken (with the help of many others) and comment on this entry to make me happy.