Australia: Day 14

I can't believe I've been here for 14 days already, I feel like I just got here! I know I still have four whole months, but I'm afraid my time here is going to pass by so quickly and I'll miss out on a lot of experiences. Right now a bunch of us are looking into air fare so we can fly to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkling. How sweet is that? We also might go to Tazmania! This weekend we are going to "The Outback." Really, we're going about 8 hours out of the city to camp and chase kangaroos and learn more about the Aboriginal culture. It's going to be a lot of fun and we'll be there for 4 days, but it's going to be dirty and hot. So here is what's gone on since my last update....

Friday:
We went to two different libraries in the city for class Friday. They wanted to us to learn how to use the resources around us since the library here at school is pretty small. On the way to the library in the morning we met some interesting people, namely the Owl and Koala who tried to convince us of the dangers of global warming. And then yelled at us for drinking coffee. We thought they were funny.


After class we went to Olympic park for the Bob Dylan tribute concert. Apparently a lot of the artists there were famous Aussie singes, but we didn't know any of them. Here is a picture of us on our picnic blanket.

Saturday:
Saturday was pretty fun. It started to rain, which I've been craving! It has been so hot and humid here. Jon, Sarah, and I went down to The Rocks which is a historical district on the water. We wondered around and found a lot of cool shops, cafes, museums, bridges, and basically a lot of things to take pictures of. Here are a few of my favorites :)

Sunday:

Sunday was wonderful! Sarah and I sat on the couch all day and watched movies/talked/ate and did a whole lot of nothing. Sunday night we went to church at Wesley Mission (which is the church that founded the school I'm at) but besides that, we relaxed. I know it wasn't the most exciting day but I have been so busy since I got here! Wesley Mission was a pretty intersting church, it's seriously in the MIDDLE of the city. I think the bulletin said they have about 50 different services there each week in 5 different languages. It's a Uniting/Methodist church, which I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'll figure it out.

Yesterday was my ASC class and we had an interesting speaker named Keith. He's a crazy english man. I'll have to write more about him later. I have a feeling he's going to inspire a lot of funny things to write on here. Anyways, classes are going to be hard this week. Today I have Old Testament, Theological Foundations and Video Production. woo woo.

Love,

Kristin

Update

I'm so proud of myself for updating this so soon! It's Friday here and horribly hot and humid outside, so I'm sitting on the living room floor wrapped in a wet towel, trying to cool off.

Yesterday I went to my service project for the first time. It's at a place called Newtown Mission, and it's similar to a soup kitchen, but much more Christian. My evening went a little something like this: I arrived at Newtown around 4:30 and went straight to the kitchen. I helped prepare the meal and around 5:30 all the volunteers got together to break into their "teams." Each time has a different job (like serving food, cleaning, prayer, etc). I was in the prayer group. So from 6:00 to 6:30 there was a church service for the people who come to Newtown (for food) and during the service the prayer team sits above the chapel (in a little room) and prays for the whole 30 min. It was a really cool experience. After chapel the prayer team goes and sits with the people who come for the food and just visit with them and connect. I talked to this amazing woman named Jayne, who had a pretty incredible story. After the kitchen closes and everyone has gone, the volunteers get together and pray for the people we talked to and just debrief about the night. I feel so good about this place. I really feel like I'm supposed to be there and God has something to teach me through these people.

After volunteering I went downtown with some of my new friends and we grabbed some food and listened to live music. It was a fantastic night, but I stayed out way too late. This morning I had to catch a 7:00 bus downtown with my roommates to meet up with the ASC kids for a library tour. Woo hoo.

Anyways, tonight I'm going to a Bob Dylan tribute concert. I'll try and take more pictures, I haven't been very good about that.

Also, my Aunt died yesterday, so if you could really just pray for my family, especially my mom, that would mean a lot to me.

Love,
Kristin

Settling Down

Well, as of yesterday it has been a week since I first set foot on Aussie soil. I feel like I've already been here a lifetime, and yet at the same, I already know how hard it will be to leave.




Here is a group shot of the pasty white Americans (pre-sunburn) at Manly Beach. These are some of my new friends, although only about 1/2 of the ASC kids went to the beach. I'm sure I'll get a picture of EVERYONE soon enough.


So, I think the last update I had was over the weekend. So, let me tell you about my first week of classes. It was REALLY hard to get back into the swing of things, and to be honest, I have tons of reading that I really should be doing and keep putting it off until the weekend. I haven't had classes since the very beginning of December, so it's a big adjustment getting used to school again.
The Australia school system is totally different though. It's required by law to have 80% attendance, so teachers take it at the beginning of every class and submit their attendance records to the registrar's office at the end of every day. Assignments are submitted through the registrars office as well, not directly to the teacher. Most classes only have 1 or 2 assignments due throughout the entire semester, typically just papers. I think only one of my classes has a test. But moving on to my actual classes....

On Monday I have an Australian culture class taught by Kimberly who is the head of the ASC (if you're still wondering what that is, it's Australia Studies Center). All the American exchange students are in that class, and I can already tell it's going to be wonderful. And a lot of hard work.

On Tuesday I have Old Testament and Theological Foundations, both of which have amazing teachers or "lecturers" as they call them here. I had orignally signed up for two dance classes and I went to them and they were really fun. But, I decided that since a big part of my reason for coming to Australia was to learn more about God, I should pursue that completly in and out of the classroom. So hopefully between my two theology classes, I'll come away from this place with a deeper understanding of Scripture and the God that lives in those pages. I also have Video Production on Tuesday night, which is taugh by an English woman called Chloe. I think this class is going to be way too easy, but it will be fun none the less.

On Wednesday I have a class called "The Creative Christian" which is basically a Christian culture class about art and the community. Much like UCORE 1000. I think this class is going to be a little edgier and dive a bit deeper into the issues that surround modern day Christianity. The same teacher that I have for Old Testament is teaching this class, he is called Grenville Kent. Cool name eh?

And that's it. I don't have any classes on Thursday, just volunteering from 5-8 and on Fridays we take field trips with the ASC group. Tomorrow we are going to check out the different libraries in the area, and get a library card. Woo! Tomorrow night there is another free outdoor concert at Olympic Park, this time it's a Bob Dylan tribute and people like winners from Australian Idol are coming to sing. It will be fun, I hope.

I guess that's about all I have to write about currently. I'll write more about the people I'm meeting and that kind of thing once I get to know them a little better.


I love you all and if you ever want me to call, just send me an e-mail/facebook message/comment on my blog. I have a phone card, so I'm not completly disconnected (that goes for you too Ciara.)


Until my next update,
Kristin

Day 4

Welcome to Day 4.

This past week has been information overload. We've had orientation for classes every day since we got here, and to be honest, most of it has been fairly useless. It will be really interesting getting used to writing papers here though. Most classes don't have tests, just papers, and Australian writing styles are 100% different from American.

On Thursday we went on a cruise of Sydney Harbor and saw the Opera house and thousands of sailboats! It was so beautiful outside. Here are a couple pictures from that, but my camera card was filled up, so I didn't get to take very many.



Here is the Opera House - look how close we were!



Corrie and I by the Harbor Bridge - if you look closely, you can see people climbing it.


Roommate Sarah and I on the boat


So...
Friday we actually had class, but again it was more informational and less academic. We meet with our service project groups, and got to know more about where we will be working. I'm serving at a place called Newtown Mission - which is a soup kitchen type thing for homeless/mentally ill/etc. They have a church service and then serve food once a week, and then 3 other times a week it's just a drop in lunch. I think it's going to be good. Then on Friday night I went to an outdoor Opera with my roommate Sarah and Gail (our Aussie Mum). It was AMAZING! Tiff, if you're reading this, I promise I'll come watch Marcus when I get back in the states.





Yesterday I went to Manly Beach with about 13 ASC kids. It was so beautiful and fun! We spent most of the time in the ocean jumping waves. I'm so used to the Pacific Ocean but swimming here was really different. The waves are huge and there is a really strong undertow, so it takes a lot of effort. We all had buddies :) I had to leave the beach early with 2 other ASC kids so we could go down to Newtown for a volunteer meetings. We got a little lost on the way home, so we ended up having to take a cab back to our houses. Apparently cab drivers in this area don't really know the streets either. We got down to Newtown and met the pastor and quite of few of the other volunteers. The church there is wonderful and I'm actually going to their service this morning. It's pretty small, very missional, and a lot of the homeless people from the mission actually come to servies there. I think it will be a good place to get plugged in to. After our volunteer thing, New Friend Jon and New Friend Michelle and I decided to wonder around the Newtown (it's similar to Hawthorne in Portland or Capitol Hill in Seattle). We found a good thai place (there is TONS of thai food here, I am so happy!) and then took a bus into the city. Once in the city we walked to Darling Harbor for some nightlife. We ended up just laying on a dock looking at the stars, and then BOOM - there was a giant fireworks show right in the harbor! We were seriously 50 feet from this barge, it was amazing! After that we went into a bar to check out the "local scene," it was loud and not very exciting. We had water and this thing called "lemon-lime and bitters," which is a fancy non-alcoholic drink. Much like a Shirley Temple, but not cherry flavored. Anyways, we caught the train home around midnight and got home safe and sound.





Today I'm going to church and then to the Burwood Mall - hopefully to find a few staples I forgot when I came here. Thanks for reading my update! Once I get a computer here I will be able to write more often! I love you all and thank you for your continued prayers.

Love,
Kristin

I'm HERE!

Well... I'm HERE!

I feel horrible because it took me so long to get a post up here, but the past day has been so crazy! So, let me start from the beginning so you know what my trip has been like thus far!

I arrived at LAX at about 2pm on Monday. Over the next 2 and a half hours the rest of the ASC kids slowly filtered into the airport and we all started our awkward first meetings. Of course, most of these kids had already been traveling all day - so everyone was exhausted. We got on the plane at about 7pm and it took us almost 2 hours to actually leave the runway! I guess there was just a lot of traffic - but we almost missed our connecting flight from Auckland to Sydney! They held the plane for us since there were 25 of us missing. We ran through customs and made it onto the plane about 2 min before the scheduled departure time. There was a very angry man sitting in front of me who yelled at me for being late...

Once we got to Sydney, we hopped on a bus that took us to campus. We spent the ENTIRE day (at this point we'd been up for over 24 hours) playing games, going to teas, and having little class sessions about the library, homestays, etc. Finally around 5pm our host mother, Gail, picked us up and took us to her apartment. By us I mean me and my three roommates - Laura, Sarah, and Jess.

We met Gail, had pizza for dinner, went swimming, found our bus stops, and passed out in bed around 8:30pm our time.

Now it's 7 am and I'm using Laura's computer (mine crashed the day before I left!) and I believe she wants to use it now :)

I'll make sure to update as soon as I can! But know that I'm safe and sunburned and it's beautiful here!

Love,
Kristin

Housing and Service Placements!

Well, I leave for California on Friday morning... which means I have 2 days left to pack. Currently, I have two empty bags and a room full of dirty laundry, reminder notes, piles of things to pack, and a huge stack of those packing bags that are supposed to compress everything.

As of about 20 min ago I found out where I am living! I am living in a suburb of Sydney called Concord with 3 other ASC girls and a single woman named Gail. Gail is in the medical profession and has been a host parent since the program started 3 years ago, so it sounds like she knows what's going on.
I think this will be a good fit. At least I'm praying it will be. I know a lot of thought went in to where each and every one of us were placed, and I know there is a reason I was put where I was.

I also got my service placement today. I'll be working at a homeless shelter (I think) called Newton Mission as a kitchen slave, or making coffee or something along those lines. At least I'll be a little bit at home there.

Anyways, these next few days are going to fly by. I've been putting together the itinerary for California and I'm so excited! We're going to Disneyland. Sadly, my favorite ride (Splash Mountain) is closed for repairs. But I'm sure I'll be there again soon. Perhaps I'll stop there on my way back from Australia!

Your continued prayers are appriciated and I promise to keep everyone updated as much as I can! I won't have tons of access to a phone, but I will have internet access.

With Love,
Kristin

P.S - My mailing address is... so if you want to send me a letter now so it will be waiting for me when I get there, I'll have no objections :)

Regular mail
Kristin Kirk
ASC – Wesley Institute
P.O. Box 534
Drummoyne, NSW 1470 AUSTRALIA

Packages
Kristin Kirk
ASC – Wesley Institute
5 Mary Street
Drummoyne, NSW 2047 AUSTRALIA

Waiting

I still don't know who I'll be living with... I'm starting to get nervous/impatient.
I'm leaving on Friday.

Homestays

Well, it's official... I'm staying with a host family.

I'm a little freaked out about this whole host family thing. I have to go live in someone else's house, use their bathroom, eat their food, do chores, participate in family outings... the whole shebang.

Here are things I am worried about -
a.) I hope they don't have pets. I am allergic and I can't remember if I listed that as an allergy.
b.) I hope they don't have young children. Kids tend to love me and attach on to me like leeches and then I have to take them everywhere and they seduce me with their innocent eyes and then before I know it I find myself volunteering to babysit and make them dinner and suddenly I'm trapped in someones house playing super mom while the parents are out partying in the city I came to see! (eek).
c.) I also hope they don't have teenage boys. They are gross and smelly.

Ideally... my host family would be a workaholic married couple with no kids. Amen.

I'll find out more about THEM in a few days. Wish me luck!

And just so you know... I'm boarding a plane headed to Sydney in 11 days. 11 DAYS. That's less than 2 weeks! I am freaking out.

Love,
Kristin