Pac Rim Weekend

This past weekend, the Pac Rim group from Oklahoma Christian was here on the coast. We had such a great time! We picked them up from the airport on Thursday night and then headed back to Gosford. We woke up to a rainy and cold Friday, but we still were able to go to the Australian Reptile Park near Gosford. It was fun to watch all of the students experience kangaroos and koalas and a few creepy, crawly creatures as well. (Ok, I was excited too.) We watched a show where one of the park employees "milked" a poisonous snake right in front of us! I hate snakes! (Milking a snake is when they get the snake to bite on a jar to extract some of its venom in order to make anti-venom. It saves lives!)

On Saturday, we had my first real beach day here in Australia! We took the Pac Rim group to Pearl Beach where we sun-tanned (or burned), had a barbeque and played ultimate frisbee. We were there for several hours, so we all got pretty fried. After the beach, everyone went back to Kev and Deb Brown's house for dinner and a devotional. The singing was so great! I loved it!

We rounded out the weekend with a sausage sizzle on Sunday and then most of the students came to a Central Coast Mariner's soccer game with us on Sunday afternoon. It was a very busy weekend, but I loved getting to hang out with the students from OC. I felt so old, though! Ha. A few of them knew of my brother, Ben, and several were friends with my cousin, Todd, who is a sophomore at OC.

"Milking" the snake!

Me feeding a kangaroo!

Me and Steven (Pac Rim) at the soccer game.

Halloween 2010

Although Halloween is not a typical holiday here in Australia, we were able to have an Area-Wide Young Adult's Halloween party this year. It was a blast! Everyone came dressed in a costume and we ate pizza, carved pumpkins, played Halloween bingo and had a costume contest. Some people had never carved a pumpkin before! The Americans will be shocked at this, but I paid $56 for 4 pumpkins to carve!! Aussies enjoy pumpkin, but it is a different kind of pumpkin. Mostly, they use pumpkin as a vegetable. You can have roast pumpkin or even pumpkin soup! I actually really enjoy it.

This year, Jenny, Amber, Amanda and I went dressed as the ninja turtles. (I've been trying to get someone to be a ninja turtle with me for years.) We had a Queen of Hearts, Aladdin and Jasmine, Gene Simmons (KISS), and a multitude of others! We had about 20 people total, so it was a great success!

For a pumpkin soup recipe, go here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5175/pumpkin+soup

Losing a Tire

So, this past weekend was our Gosford Family Camp. It was a great weekend, but on the way, we had an interesting experience.

Jenny and I had gone shopping for all of the groceries for camp on Wednesday. We had to take the church bus because there was so much food, it wouldn't have fit in the boots of our cars. The "bus" is really just a 14 passenger van and in Australia, you have to have a special license to drive them. Since I still have my American license, I am eligible to drive the bus. Anyway, we loaded up on Friday afternoon, with all of the food and our luggage to head off to camp early. The groceries partly included 18 kilos of beef mince, 10 kilos of pork mince, and a TON of milk! It only takes about 45 minutes to get to camp, so we didn't think we needed coolers or anything, because everything would go right back in the fridge. What we didn't expect is that we would get a flat tire on the way!

I would like to take this time to thank everyone in my life who has told me how to react if a tire blows while driving. I remained calm, kept the wheel steady and pulled off to the side of the road. First of all, we were on the highway (going at least 100 km/hr-about 75mph), I was in the passing lane and it took me a second to figure out what happened. I heard a noise, then smelt something burning and then we realized that the tire had blown. And when I say blown, that is really what I mean. This wasn't just a flat tire, there was nothing left! Luckly, the church has NRMA (like roadside assistance), so we were able to get the tire changed fairly quickly. Quite an adventure! I've never had a flat tire while I was driving before!

October Already??!!

I can't believe that it's already October!! Where did 2010 even go? Things are moving along here in Australia, and as I've mentioned before, it is starting to get warmer here. We've had some really nice Spring days along with some really rainy Spring days. I am hearing good things about October and November. The weird thing will be having a HOT Christmas and New Year's!

One thing that I'm really missing about Oklahoma is football season. It seems that the past few years I have really been into watching all the games, reading the stats and then discussing them with all of the guys at work. Football (or gridiron, as Aussies call it) is just not popular here, so it is hard to keep up. Luckily, I was able to go over to some friend's house on Sunday morning to watch the OU/TX game. Boomer Sooner! We had daylight savings here on Saturday night, so it was on at 6:30 am (2:30 pm Central time in the US), rather than 5:30 am. I must be a dedicated fan! Here is a pic of me with my OU doll (courtesy of the Runyons) and my OU football schedule:

Birthday

With the coming of September came my 27th birthday! AHHHH!! As you can tell from some of the pictures, I went through a "AHHH!! I'm old!" phase and put a couple of pink streaks in my hair. Ha. Overall, I had a great birthday! On the actual day, the ministry team went out to lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant. It is a small, family-owned business, so the same people are at work every time we're in there. The girl who always waits on us gave me a hug and told me happy birthday! Ha!

In the evening, Jenny, Amber, Amanda and Tiffany came over for a spaghetti dinner, complete with a Dr. Pepper from the international food store at one of the malls here. After dinner, we went and saw a movie, then came back to my place for chocolate fondue dessert! Yummmm!!!! The girls and I had a great time.

On the night following, a group of adults/young adults went out to dinner at one of the only Mexican restaurants in town! The food was good, just a sweeter type Mexican than I'm used to. Jenny made a birthday cake that was delicious as well! See below for some fun pics...

Spring

One of the most exciting things that has happened in the past month is that it is getting warmer! We are in the Spring of things here. After basically going from winter to winter, it has been a nice change to have warmer weather. It will really be weird to have a hot Christmas!

The past month has been filled with activities and business, as usual. One thing in particular is that I have been to 2 Central Coast Mariner's games. This is soccer. (Actual soccer as American's see soccer). It has been fun to get involved in cheering for the "home" team.

Another exciting event is that Joe and Tiffany Buck, my fellow HIM workers, arrived in Australia on the 31st of August! I am so excited for them to be here! They will be working with the SouthWest Church of Christ in Campbelltown, which is about an hour and a half away from Gosford. I was able to go down to Campbelltown for a couple of days to help the Buck's (and their two little boys, Jude and Pax) get settled in. They thought me driving around so easily on the other side of the road was crazy, but from what I hear, they have been doing their fair share of driving now. It is going to be a real blessing to have them here in Australia. I know they will do great!

Warmth

So I'm not very good at this blog thing. It seems that I've completely forgotten that I even had a blog this past month. Luckily, some good things have happened lately...

The Gosford youth camp, MAD Camp, took place on the last weekend in July and it was very successful. We had around 60 full-time campers and it seemed that the weekend went off without a hitch! The theme of camp was "Pay it Forward." I really think that the kids learned a lot and are hopfully applying what they learned at camp to their everyday lives at home, school and in the community.

Here is a pic of my friend, Amanda, and I at camp:

The day after camp, a few of us met up in Sydney to eat at Pancakes on the Rocks and walk around in the harbour. It was the first time that I'd made it to downtown Sydney in the daytime, so I was able to get a good look at the opera house and the harbour bridge. Here is a pic of me and the opera house:

This past week, I found a place to live! It is very exciting. I am going to be living in a one-bedroom flat that is fully furnished. It is great! I move in this next Monday, the 23rd of August. I am really looking forward to having a place of my own and it is so nice that it comes with everything included in the price. I already have some ideas of how I am going to decorate. I will upload pics once I have some.

That is pretty much what has been happening the past month. I am keeping busy for sure! I really am learning to love Australia and it is so great to be doing what I have dreamed about for so long. I will try not to take a month to update this thing next time!