Amidst the craziness that has been the last two wees, I have finally found some time to send an update toward the foreign land they so often refer to as simply "America" over here. I often add "...the beautiful" :)
I'll start with a question: how IS life in the United States? Any and all parts? Emails and messages are usually the only way I stay up to date, can I also ask for some updates to be sent my way? (*ahem* MOM and DAD! hint, hint :)
Here, life is just rolling along. Last week felt pretty busy with not too much downtime, but I made sure I took the weekend off from the world so that the next week it wouldn't run me over again! ...except that I spent the whole weekend pouring through files for ministry, and didn't actually get much accomplished - personally or for the team! It was quite frustrating. Whoever said there aren't enough hours in the day didn't know how right they were. This week was only slightly slower, so I made sure I penciled in some personal time so I don't go insane!
As for what started the busy times, two mondays ago, March 5, was the first Theology on Tap!, an event they have every first Monday of the month at a local pub in Sydney. A speaker of note gives a talk on a Catholic issue (yes, in the pub) and young adults, 18-30 (remember the lower drinking age here! haha) come along to socialize, hear the talk, and ask questions. It started for the first time ever in Sydney last August (I was privileged to be at the first one and also am privileged to be good friends with the guy who started it!), and it has been growing ever since. This past one probably drew a crowd of over 300! The pub was hazardously packed. Should be exciting to see how the event continues to take off!
That Tuesday, March 6, we had a retreat with year 10 (sophomore) of an all-boys school. The guys were so wonderful! Most of them were such gentlemen, and the retreat overall was a success. I was so happy to have a good retreat! Afterwards we went and had a drink at the largest Westfield shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere. This mall was BIG! Two food courts...
Wednesday we were paid a visit by a man named Anthony Cleary, a big name in the Catholic Education Office here in Sydney. He's a very generous man, giving of his time, and also treating us to a nice lunch down by the beach. He also brought us each our own Catholic Youth Bible, the International edition! haha not that that matters...It was a lovely afternoon with him.
That night we had team bonding, and decided to play sardines!!! haha *anyone who doesn't know, sardines (as the Brassie side of the family will tell you, as we played it many times) is a game where all gather in one area, and one person, whoever is "it," is given two minutes to hide. The aim of the game is to find that person and hide with them, so at the end when everyone has found "it" you're packed in like sardines! The last one to find the group is "it" next. Could you call it reverse hide and seek? It is usually quite a hoot! I did, however, have to face my irrational fear of the dark - we played in pitch black, with only the light of the moon to guide us! After a while I got over it though. Phew! We decided that next time we play, we're going to go over to a nearby graveyard...not sure how I feel about that one!
Thursday we just had a work day and then Rachel, Ana, Leoni (our team manager) and I represented CYS at the Eastern Deanery's regional Mass - basically lots of teachers, mostly female, crammed into a non-air-conditioned church for a long Mass celebrated by the Cardinal. If Leoni hadn't bought us dinner after, I'm not sure if would have been worth it. We made the best of it though, and Leoni taught us the 4 "BE's"of social functions: BE seen, BE heard, if possible BE photographed, and BE gone. Aside from being photographed, we covered all bases! When we left the church, the Cardinal was standing there mindlessly greeting the many teachers streaming out. When we shook his hand, his face lit up - we've seen him quite a bit over the last several weeks. He said, "I always run into you people in churches!" What a funny man, that Cardinal.
The cuisine of choice at dinner that evening was Mexican. Guess who picked that?! I was really missing it!!! The food was alright - I had tacos. However, the CHIPS were wonderful, and hot, i might add, and THAT, my friends, is how I define a good Mexican restaurant. :)
March 7, Friday, we had a retreat, and I was simply pooped by the time we got home. I spent that night attending to my nails, which had been neglected for some time. When that's the highlight of the evening, you know it was a lame one. Saturday wasn't much better, as my highlight was the 2 hours I spent trying to redeem the bathroom in its cleanliness. The people in this house, especially the boys, are so dirty and smelly!!
That night we all went out to celebrate the birthday of one of the guys who lives in the house. It was his 25th, and he had arranged for 50 of his closest friends to eat out at a nearby restaurant. Which made us wait for an hour to be seated, and then wait another hour before we got our food. But that's ok, because the entree (what they call the appetizer) of BREAD and the salads, served AFTER our meal came out, were free. Never going back to that place! A few of us left and grabbed some ice cream, then came back and watched a movie.
Sunday was pretty relaxed, just working on things for team around the house and then meeting to plan the retreats for Monday and Tuesday - we had back to back to back retreats (Fri, Mon, Tues!) so it was hectic. My "relaxing" weekend ended up on a very unrelaxed note, so the week had a shaky start.
Monday morning, we had to LEAVE the house for the retreat at 6:15am. That is WAY too early. However, despite the fact that the retreat went crappy for me and the group was rowdy and didn't really care what we had to say (year 8 students), it was a wonderful day because for the first time, I saw WILD KANGAROOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SO exciting!! We even saw them hopping around! They reminded me of hoppy deer - they were just in a little pack of 10 or so, eating the grass in this wooded area. Then they just hopped away! It was beautiful!! I also saw my first huntsman spider. Now, for those of you who are not aware, I have an irrational fear of bugs, ESPECIALLY spiders. Huntsman spiders, friendly as people say they are, are HUGE. like the size of my hand huge. I'm not ok with one of them crawling around the ceiling all during a retreat! Yet, I had to just bite my lip and pray it didn't suddenly spin a web down to my head.
The way Monday and Tuesday worked was we did the same retreat for this year 8 class, but split up on two different days, because the class is so big. So the first day was crap. The second WAY made up for the first. The group was SO enthusiastic and SO much fun to work with! I would say it was probably my best retreat so far - I had such a great time!! That night, we came home and got the house ready for Bishop Julian Porteous, who came over for dinner with the team and WYD people who live with us. It was a nice evening - much more proper than anything seen around these parts in my time here! However, can I just say that it was not as nice to clean up afterwards. Especially since the (dirty, smelly) boys didn't help either. *sigh* Is this what motherhood will be like?
Wednesday was quite relaxed after all the intensity! We just had a casual work day around the house and then that night I went to the weekly holy hour at the Cathedral (which, by the way is a huge mess with construction! I don't think they're going to clean it up for Easter, either...) Following that I grabbed some dinner with a few friends. Nothing too exciting!Thursday, though, WAS exciting - we had a FREE DAY!!!!!! Which of course means I ran around the city seeing as many people as I could! haha Rachel came with, and we met a friend for lunch, visited the Catholic headquarters (the office building where everyone who is anyone in the Church in Sydney has their office, and where WYD has set up headquarters), grabbed Jovina (who works there) for a quick yoghurt (and chat of course!), met another friend, Elise, for a coffee in the park, headed to Mass, then headed to Notre Dame to meet another friend, Katarina, for dinner - the day ended with many friends meeting for dessert, in celebration of Katarina's birthday, which is next Tuesday. Yes it was busy, yes it was exciting, and yes it was so needed! It almost felt like old times (of course that's all I used to do last semester while I was here and free as a bird :)
Friday was back to reality working at the house for the events of this coming week. Now here's what I'm wondering. In Australia, maybe just among Sydney's Catholics? they moved St. Patrick's Day to Friday, March 14, since obviously the traditional date of St. Patty's falls during Holy Week. So we all decked ourselves in green, and I was making sure anyone not in green was thoroughly pinched. However, the rest of Sydney didn't seem to have gotten the memo. Very few people were wearing green in the city, when we went down to the Catholic HQ (called the Polding Centre). I'm certainly feeling confused, but not without reason? So, HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY, whenever you decide to celebrate it.
The reason we went to the Polding Centre as a team was to meet with the man who owns the company designing and selling the WYD merchandise. He wanted to run some ideas and designs by us and get our approval, since our age group is the targeted market. Well, let me tell you, this man has done this before! I was very impressed with the amount of angles he had approached the event from, and all the different factors that were going into the products he was trying to create for sale. It got us all excited, anyway, hearing him talk about the huge amount of merchandise that will be manufactured for WYD, and the thousands of places around the city it will be sold. The designs were very nifty as well! I keep getting more and more excited - that event is going to be something so phenomenal! I feel so blessed to be able to have such an active role for it!
Friday night I just relaxed, did my chores and laundry, and watched some of a Rugby League game on TV. I completely did not understand it. At all. I can only tell you that the Australian men who play rugby are extremely massive.
Today (Saturday, March 15) was a wonderful day! I woke up early (strange) and one of the old housemates came over. His name is Lam and he is American! Just a few days after I arrived he moved out to go back to work and live with his parents, so I didn't have a chance to get to know him too well. However, I can tell you, he has been living in Australia since he was 18, and his whole family lives here (except for his sister who is a Marine stationed in San Diego.) This is the craziest part - they said he was from Chicago, but he's actually from DANVILLE, ILLINOIS! Which, I pass on the way to Millikin!! What a small world, eh? Anyway, he comes around every now and then, just to stay in touch, and this weekend, he came over bearing treasures - two baseball gloves and a ball! We played catch for a while, but that turned into pitching lessons - he used to play baseball in a league and had taught pitching as well. I'm getting better, but I realize I haven't really been throwing properly my whole life! Not that it really matters...I'm not exactly headed for Majors. It was so exciting though!
Then I went down to the beach and took a nap in the sun. It's been extremely warm here lately - like warmer than it was ALL summer. And it's autumn. Eh, I'm not really complaining!
Tomorrow, Palm Sunday, is a big day. We have a major event in preparation for WYD at the Cathedral, and most of Catholic Sydney will probably be there. There is a concert with several acts, including the guy who helped write the WYD song, 'Receive the Power.' There will be speakers and the whole event concludes with Sunday Mass at 6, I'm assuming celebrated by the Cardinal. Wanna know what my job for the day is? VIP liason! Which means I am the person who gets to hang out with the Cardinal and the bishops all day, providing them with their every need, making sure they have anything their heart desires...this is glorified waitressing, I'm sure of it! I'm quite excited - hopefully I don't muck something up too terribly!
Should be busy this coming week with it being Holy Week and all, and of course I'll be a bit homesick, since Easter is coming and I cannot spend it with family. However, I will probably be staying with Jovina, who is the closest thing to family I have over here, so I'm sure it will be fine!
I thank you if you've read this far - I know I am long-winded and a lot is going on, but I'm happy to share it with you and I hope you enjoy reading it! Again, PLEASE let me know if there are questions, if I didn't explain something enough, what you think of it all, and most importantly, how things are going for you!!
I'll conclude by saying that the closer WYD gets, the crazier the schedule gets, and the more enthusastic and alive the city becomes. This event will be just as big, if not BIGGER, than the Olympics 8 years ago here were! The man who was showing us his merchandise the other day confirmed that, and he would know - he provided much of the apparel for the Olympics! I especially can't wait to see the thousands of Americans that make the journey down under!! AT the moment there are 38,000 registered...it should prove to be one of the largest groups represented. WOO HOO! go USA!
One of the items he showed us was something called a WYDGET, a little charm that fits on a bracelet, and there will be hundreds of varieties that can be traded with people from all over the world. He had print-outs of what some of the WYDGETs will look like, an I have to tell you my favorite one was this: an American flag filling in an outline of Australia. Some of the Australians were a bit offended, I think, but the man explained there would be a different charm for each country attending, of course with their flag filling the outline. I assured him I approved of the idea - it so perfectly illustrates me!
Gosh, I miss the land of the free and home of the brave.
Until I write again, may God bless you!
