stuffs

i leave tomorrow!!!!

yay!

that's mostly all i wanted to say.

except that i don't think i'll get much (or any) internet access for the first 2 weeks (france) so i probably won't be blogging. so this may be my last before i leave. and i linked my flickr account so when i get the chance to put up photos they'll be on there. and i may blog to let you know ;)

adios!

If i stayed up for another 4 hrs 45 mins I'd have been up for a full 24 hours. eek. but today was oh so much fun. well it actually started last night at oneYouth and continued today at oneYouth conference.

so i'm not gonna say what we did... although most of you won't know what oneYouth is. basically it's the five youth groups of turramurra combining for youth on friday night, and this time they decided to have oneYouth conference, which ran all day today (saturday).

So this morning we had worship and seminars and then headed out to tuzza high to fix it up. basically gardening, landscaping, cleaning and painting chairs and tables and whatever they needed.

But what I really wanted to write about is what impacted me about the day. it was so awesome everyone coming out to do something for the community, and not just that, but the sense of community between everyone that was there was so tangible. you could go talk to anyone, or ask anyone to do anything, and guaranteed they'd be happy to speak to you and help you out with whatever you needed for the task you were doing. and it didn't matter that we were all from different youths and churches - it just made it all the more fun. so many new people to meet and interact and work with, and half the time you didn't even introduce yourself; it just felt like you already knew eachother and were already friends. God's kingdom - the ultimate community. nothing awkward, just friendly, beautiful people who are all in for loving others with their actions.

even though tuzza high has gone through a pretty good transformation in some parts (although there's still a lot left to do - next year?) it's not the end result of what we can see that made it worth it, but seeing the youth of this area giving up their saturday to come together to enjoy the day with eachother, and ultimately to worship God by serving others - not so that they could get the credit and praise, but so that other may know the love of Jesus that is not just a warm, fuzzy feeling that makes you feel all nice inside; but love that is so passionate and real, that it gets its hands dirty doing things for others, and desires deeply to see others' lives transformed. I hope that the youth go away from today with a desire to continue to serve others, to show love through the way they live their lives in the everyday. We don't need our youth leaders to organise special days to give us the chance to serve - we should be looking (and praying) for the opportunites everyday to show the world the amazing love and hope we have. And it doesn't take something big.

I like this quote, and I think it sums it up pretty well:-

"We can do not great things, only small things with great love. It is not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it."Mother Teresa

And in the end, that's what it's all about.

the countdown continues...

ONE WEEK!!!

phone just rang... we've been 'randomly selected to receive a florida holiday' said the recorded voice. funny, i remember being 'randomly selected' for the same thing last week.

oh, and

you know what sucks? knowing you've hurt someone. but not being about to do anything about it. but wanting to but the only way to make them not-hurt is by doing something that would inevitably hurt them more in the end. and would be stupid and unwise. just have to hope they get over it. 'tis really the only answer. apologising only goes so far. but is all you can do :(

leaving

it's fun when you're going away. people tell you how much they love and appreciate you and pray for you and give you stuff. it's all very warm and encouraging. though some stuff can be challenging. but in a good way. like in an 'i know you can do it, step out and give it a shot, because everyone wants you to' kinda way. and then you get to go and have fun in other places! sucks when you're the one being left behind though. but finally it's my turn :D though i will miss people here at home. and definitely will miss the church fam and homegroup buddies. but i'll be back soon :) this is making me miss them already. doesn't help that i'm listening to 'if your gone' by matchbox 20 :P feeling an anticipatory excited/nervousness. but mostly excited.

8 days! yay.

picture this...

3 indecisive females in a cafe that is known for primarily selling chocolate stuff.

that was me, ree and mum in max brenner on saturday. dad sat down after not much time. took us much longer to decide on what we wanted :P oh but so good.

8 days and counting...

because i can...

16 days til i leave!!! yay. excitement. although according to my facebook countdown it's actually 15 days and 13 hours (til my flight leaves).

except that i realised that i've got a bit to do before i leave... hm should make a list. to add to all the other lists i've made... hm.

was thinking about it tonight. the past few weeks seem to have gone really quickly, so i've been kinda just assuming that the time overseas will go quickly too. but thinking about all the stuff that i'll be doing (at least for the france bit) and not knowing what a lot of that is, and knowing that the un-sightseeing (and downtime) stuff is probably going to be somewhat out of my comfort-zone stuff it could potentially seem like a long time, especially for the first time going overseas without family. and then there's my tendancy to get homesick. which hasn't really been a problem in the past few years but i haven't travelled that far away for this long before. shall be interesting. i think i'm fine as long as the people i'm with are good friends who i'm close to and can talk deep stuff with and who know me and can pick up on how i'm feeling... that last one will probably not happen so much (seeing as my family tend to be the ones that do that bit well) but is annoyingly probably the most important in not being so homesick. i think i need to work on communicating better...

mum and dad (and me kinda) are watching 'under the greenwood tree' on the abc at the moment (series based on the thomas hardy book - i tried reading it last year for extension english wide reading but gave up because i didn't have that much time and the language was ridiculously old school). but really all i was going to say is that one of the characters is rather good looking :P seen him on something before... watching it makes me start thinking of all the paradigms and stuff from last year... oh the fun we had disecting everything and over-analysing :P

anywho. twisted plot - everyone likes the one lady (miss day)... she likes the lower class guy (but of course can't be with him 'cause he's under her and can't support her). he's also the good-looking one. and now this other guy thinks she likes him (and proposed) 'cause of what the other guy (who also likes her) said in drunken stupor 'cause she turned him down and saw her talk to this other guy and assumed the person she loved was him. confused? hehe.
oh and the plot just got more twisty. speaking of food i've eaten rather too much this weekend.

that's all. oh and i'm working at dh tomorrow. and really hoping i get more work than just one day.

oh night of many funs...

well. last night was definitely a well-spent evening!

on monday afternoon i found out that jon (foreman, of switchfoot) decided to do a spur of the moment live gig somewhere in bondi either that day or the next. later on he said that it would be tuesday, and details would be put up that day (tuesday, i.e. yesterday) so i concluded to check his blog the next day. except that i was on the internet chatting until early tuesday morning, and not long before i decided to go to bed i checked myspace and lo and behold, jon had blogged and put up details for the gig.

so last night at about 7pm, cheree, mum, matt and I drove out to bb's bar at bondi to see jon play. we managed to find a park about 2 streets away ('cause we missed the street we wanted and turned down another street and decided to park there 'cause there was space to) and we walked to the bar through the wind and spitting rain. it was cold! but we made it and sat down and it was about 10 to 8, and jon wasn't due to come on til 8.30pm. early for once! yay for us.

so we listened to the end of the trivia comp that was going, and pointed out to eachother when another member of switchfoot arrived.

and then jon came on and played. so good. he played songs that are his (and not switchfoot songs) so none of them have been released on records yet, but i knew them 'cause i downloaded them from various recordings at other shows that people have done. so it was really cool to hear them live. he also played 'dare you to move' and 'only hope' ('cause someone requested it).

the other songs he played were 'war in my blood', 'betrayal' (which he wrote with sean watkins from nickel creek), 'cure for the pain' (love that song), 'moon is a magnet', 'lord, save me from myself', 'learning how to die' and 'southbound train'.

many funs came after, however, when we went and talked to the guys. matt had this thing about getting one of them to sign his nipple, and he'd asked chad while he was buying a drink earlier (and chad had remembered him from exo day :D) but he wouldn't do it, so i told matt that if any of them would, it would be drew. so we squished our way past people and went and talked to drew. matt was getting to sign ree's book when i went over, and it was hilarious 'cause matt was spelling out cheree's name, and trying to get drew to do the acute on the 'e', but drew didn't know what it was, so first he did an umlaut (two dots) and then a circumflex on top of that (hat thing) and then he did a line under the 'e'. hehehe.

and mum got him to sign her book too, and i told him that she was my mum and mum said she was old, so drew signed the book and wrote underneath 'you're not old'. hehe. funny guy.

so anyways, matt asked drew to sign his nipple, so i gave him my sharpie and matt lifted up his shirt and drew so looked like he was about to, but then he just circled it instead :P hehe.

so next we talked to jerome. he's a pretty cool guy. (small sidetrack) when tim had walked in earlier, mum had seen how short he was and told me how he was so small and cute and she wanted to squeeze him and put him on top of her cupboard where she keeps all her soft toys and bears.

so when we were talked to jerome i mentioned that mum wanted to hug tim 'cause he looked so little and cute and matt heard this, so when we went to talk to tim, (which involved matt including himself in the conversation tim was having with andy the photographer and another girl) matt told tim that mum wanted to hug him, so he did :P and me and matt got hugs too :P hehehe.

and matt tried to get tim and jerome to sign his nipple but they would only do his arms. and tim said he was quite scared to :P and andy said he liked matt's rat's tail. ew. and the girl who they were talking to (can't remember her name, although i remember that she was american and was on holidays) said that her and her friend from work (also called elise) had a thing about rat's tails 'cause they're disgusting(!) so she asked if she could get a photo of me (elise) and matt with the tail to show her friend from work :P

a bit later we went outside to find jon and chad walked past and matt asked him again if he wanted to sign his nipple 'cause drew had been brave and had at least circled it. but chad still didn't want to.

and then we talked to jon for a bit and then decided to head home. all in all a rather tops night.
yay.
now to see relient k :P

exo day!

ok so it's time to blog about exo day.

lots of fun!

got to sydney showground around 12 as the gates were opening and parked, but had to wait for youth group people to get there before we went in so we could group and get the extra ticket we needed. there was me, ree, laura, liz, jemimah, jess and matt in our crew, and kato, ty and harves came with the youth lot. ended up getting in close to 1pm and we decided on a meeting point and then split up. our crew walked around a bit and watched some of the motorcross and then went and saw playjerise play (really good!) and danced around a bit on the grass after (to the exo day radio which involved some evermore and other things) while we decided what to do next.

can't really remember what happened then but i think we went to the ampitheatre to see the nubian gents 'cause danielle who we met with at playjerise wanted to see them and jess wanted to go with her so we went, but then we decided to grab lunch instead, 'cause some people were hungry. so we went back to the grassy area and bought food and sat and ate. fun times.

a bit after 3 we met jess at another tent thing to see freedom one play (acoustic) but there was no space in the tent so we kinda hung around outside and talked for a bit. then after they were done (around 3.45 'cause they came on late) a stack of people left so we quickly got in and found some space on the floor to sit, and a bit after 4pm switchfoot came for a q&a session. was really cool. seeing them in person was a little odd, but quickly got over it. after that we followed them down to the signing area 'cause we weren't sure where it was, and on the way i turned around and matt was talking to chad (drummer) so i said hi, and laura came over and got a photo with ree, matt, chad and me :)

and then we got to the signing place and there was a huge queue. Laura found some of her friends in it so we joined them :P and i got matt to buy me a poster and some buttons (badges?) while we were there. and then he asked to borrow $5 and i found out later he bought his own poster and had found a friend further up in the line than us, so he pushed in there and got his signed before us :P typical matt.

so i got my poster signed by all of them and drew and jon signed the back of my shirt :)

by that point it was a bit after 5pm and we said we were going to meet the others (youth) near the front gates (at the centaur) at 5 so we rushed back there and found that half of them weren't even there yet (or were buying dinner).

so we hung around and ate food and then sent matt and jemimah off to get in the queue for the floor and joined them later, and found it was more of a blob than a queue. so me and laura squished in next to them.

while we were waiting for the doors to open andrew called to see where we were so i turned around and saw that there was a bunch of people behind me who were looking at me and one of them had a camera out. and i heard a 'dang, she turned around'. so i turned back around. and then turned around again just to be sure. and they asked me to turn back, 'cause they were trying to take a photo of my hair. (i bleached and dyed the ends green).

and then they opened the doors and we proceeded to get quite squashed as everyone pushed to get it.

so lecrae was on when we got in there... rap kinda stuff. was ok, but i'm not really into that sort of music. then pillar was on. they were good, actually realised i knew about 3 of the songs they played which was fun. then the exo day band came on and there was a bit of worship and then reggie dabbs spoke and that was interesting.

and then....

oh yes...

switchfoot! and they were really good. got separated in the moshing from ree and laura and andrew who i was with, 'cause i was getting pushed backwards, but turned around and saw matt behind me, so we stuck together around the middle for a bit, before we decided to get closer to the front. and then laura found us a bit after that so the three of us spent the rest of the time together, moshing and singing and dancing and having fun :) and during 'on fire' i conviced matt to lift me on his shoulders (thanks to laura 'cause she said she'd lift me too). and that was fun! and at that point jon had gone off the stage and run around the back to the stands and i turned around and saw masses of people running after him. quite funny.

can't remember what the order of songs was, but i know they started with 'oh! gravity' and ended with 'meant to live' and in between was 'stars', 'american dream', 'awakening', 'we are one tonight' (with the beginning of 'the shadow proves the sunshine' thrown in), 'ammunition', 'on fire', 'gone' and 'this is your life'.

was really good. had heaps of fun. but the night didn't end there! after we dropped jess home, ree, laura, jemimah, matt and I went to thornleigh maccas (and found a whole bunch of buses from exo day there, so it was a little crowded) and had lots of laughs and food (and ate eachothers food) and more squashing of people and in-jokes (included matt's 10 year old wife and 14 year old daughter, and the photo laura now has of matt in her wallet) and throwing of ice and climbing under tables and sharing secrets with laura in the queue and more trying to pull out matt's rat's tail (and laughing at the terrible mix-up of words which caused him to say something rather bad but hilarious :P)

oh the fun. and photos are on my flickr if you wanna see :D

go here --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/8093613@N07/sets/72157601838983541/

so that's the story.