The long awaited update

Sunday, March 7,

I went to Boronia Park Uniting Church with Greg and Natalie. The church is right down Higginbotham road from my house. The Uniting Church in Australia is comprised of Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist denominations. They are trying to overcome divisions in the church and strive for unity in the Body of Christ, “One Church, One Congregation.” How effective they are at achieving this goal I really can’t say, but it does sound like a cause that more churches should embrace. Boronia Park is a small church it has only around 30 people, most of who were in there older years. The minister of the church is Reverend Annette Hawken. She didn’t preach because a guest speaker, Steve Estherby, from Family Voice Australia came. It was a very different church experience than I am used to. One cool characteristic of the church was that it embraced kids as kids. In the middle of the service they had a short sermon for the children, and instead of sending them off to another place in the church they set up a coloring table in the corner of the sanctuary. In many ways I think I liked Boronia Park over Hillsong, but they are absolute polar opposites of each other.

After church we went and tried to find lunch. As a group we were very indecisive so it took us a long time to pick a place to eat. At first we thought that Mexican sounded good, but the place that we thought was a Mexican restaurant was really an Italian restaurant. As a side note Mexican food is really hard to find in Sydney. Next we debated having Chinese but that was also ruled out because we had all had it too recently. We ended up deciding on going to Hungry Macs, which is small burger and chicken place. It was actually really good. When we finished lunch we headed home and putts around. Eventually Greg decided to go to Bondi Beach and I went down town to go to the NSW Library to do some homework. I never actually made it to the library but ended up sitting in a park. It was a great park with interesting trees and birds. While I was in the part I worked on my lines for the Easter show and people watched.

I had to be home by five because Ross needed help with his lawn mower. It had broken down at the bottom of the hill out back and he was having people come over and pull it back up so that he could get it fixed. Pulling it up was quite the project but it went really fast. Once everyone who had helped left, Ross made diner. He taught me how to make rice. Apparently, if you rinse the starch out of the rice it makes it better. I had never done that before, but it was pretty good. After we had finished with dinner and cleaned up, Vatali and Ilya asked Greg and I to go and see Alice in Wonderland. I don’t know that it was the right decision, but I ended up staying home and finishing up some homework. The constant battle of being responsible verses being social.

Monday, March 8^th

I am so far behind on my blog. I’m sorry to everyone who has been trying to keep up with what I’ve been up to. It was a really humid day. The weather here tends to be that way it seems. Most homes in Australia don’t have air conditioning so I’m starting to realize how spoiled we are to have central heat and air in the U.S. It’s funny how in winter when it is cold outside we make it hot inside and when it hot outside we make it cold inside. I’ve really enjoyed the warm weather here and it is going to be sad to see it go.

I started my day off by going to do my service placement. I have tended to get there like an hour early so I sit out on a bench and listen to music and try and prepare my self for the day. On this particular day, the big wooden gate that separates the waiting room from where the patients live prompted a lot of thought. The gate serves as both protector and oppressor. It keeps the patients safe so that they don’t wander away and get lost or hurt. At the same time it acts as a prison wall keeping them physically confined. So many time people ask to get out because they want to go home. What’s worse than being stuck behind the wooden gate is the prospect of being locked into the cage of your own mind. Dementia. It’s really hard to watch people struggling with confusion. There isn’t anything you can do for them at least nothing you can do to take the problem away from them. I’m getting to know sister Mary more. She keeps talking about her birthday and how she hopes that she’ll live long enough to get the queens letter. I’m also getting to know a man named James. He recently moved into the nursing home and he doesn’t quite understand what is going on. Working at the nursing home has been really interesting.

In the afternoon I had rehearsal. I think it went pretty well. I need to smile less as Jake. The director is really pushing us all to develop our characters. I feel like I’m learning heaps. After rehearsal I went out with Judy, the director, Vanessa, the stage manager, Martha who goes by Marty, she is one of the actors, and Herman, the theatre department head. This was the first time that had invited me to go out with them so I was excited that I was finally starting to fit in. It was interesting to interact with them outside of rehearsal. I’m looking forward to getting to know them more.

Tuesday, 9^th March

Today for our ASC class we talked to a panel of Australians. We covered a large range of topics Australian politics, culture, and history just to name a few. Quintessential was the word of the day. Jo, one of the acting profs and Wesley, kept using it so it ended up sticking. It was really interesting to hear what they had to say. One of the topics that the panel talked about was how Australians and Americans have different speaking patterns. When Americans talk their tone drops and the end of a sentence and when Australians talk their tone goes up at the end of a sentence. This can lead to misunderstandings because Australians take the American speech rhythm of dropping pitch at the end of a sentence to mean that their opinion is final and an American could mistake an Australian raising their tone at the end of a sentence to mean that they are unsure or asking a question. I’m glad that we learned this early on so that I could attempt to be aware of this. Talking to the panel made class go by so fast and made class interesting.

For lunch I had a noodle bowl. I haven’t really eaten many Ramen noodles since New York. I don’t think the association of the two will ever become separated in my mind. The weather was really nice again so all the ASCers at outside. After lunch was over I had rehearsal. We just keep plugging along with our scenes. I have so much work to do on Jake. He is such a complicated character and I really need to flesh out his back-story. I’m really glad that Katy told me about character journals because it has been super helpful to keep one for Jake. I feel like I tend to think about his character a bunch especially when I’m on the bus. Public transport gives you tons of time to think.

Wednesday, March 10^th

Even thought I didn’t have anything until 1pm a decided to get up and do my laundry. I looked like it might rain, but thankfully when I got home they were dry. Its funny how doing laundry seems to be a much bigger process here. I’m really glad we don’t have to use washboards and ringers any more. I went to school and worked on my New Testament homework in the library. I had lunch with Eddie at Fish Outta Water. It supposed to have the best fish and chips in the universe. They are actually pretty good. Every time I walk past there I can help but think of Elf and running in there and yelling: “Congratulations you did it. Best fish and chips in the universe.” Having lunch with Eddie was fun he seems like a good guy.

After lunch, I went to the Gathering. Hannah Harriman spoke about imagination and how she came up with the idea for the script of here IP. It was really interesting to hear how she came up with her show. Once the Gathering was over I head to New Testament class. Mark is a great prof and I feel that I am learning a lot for him. I didn’t know anything about Biblical exegesis when the class started but I feel a lot more comfortable with the subject not. I will be interesting to see how leaning about it will apply to my life later on.

Once class was over, I went out with people from the Easter Show. I feel like I’m starting to fit into the theatre department at Wesley. I know that I’ll never be fully connected with the people in the theatre department, but I am getting to know some people pretty well. I went home and chilled out for a while until Ross came home. We ended up driving up to Lyons road and we picked up Greg. Then Ross took Greg and I to the bowling club and we had dinner and played a few rounds of pool. It was a really fun time. Ross is really good at pool tho so I didn’t stand a chance. I need to work on my pool skills.

Thursday, March 11^th

Today was supposed to be super rehearsal day, however; the director was really stressed out because of scheduling issues with Wesley Mission so we ended up having the morning off to work on our characters. Working on Jake has been a lot of fun. Lisa, the theatre secretary, helped me find some really good character questions to try and answer so I’ve been working my way through them. I went to my table on the balcony outside of the library and worked. I love sitting there it’s a great spot to work on homework. Our afternoon rehearsal went by pretty quickly. All in all it was a good day. For dinner I went over to Carrie’s house and we had ham steak sandwiches. They were pretty good, but I’m not sure they were my favorite. After dinner, we watched the Blindside. It was the first time I had seen it so I didn’t know what to expect. It was such a great movie! I enjoyed the story and felt challenged by it. We have been talking a lot about belief and how it should cost you something. Our actions are what demonstrate what we believe not our words. I think that the Blindside really resonated this truth.

Friday, March 12^th

I got to sleep in today. It was really nice to get the extra rest. I feel like time is moving so fast on this trip. I really hope I don’t look back on this trip and feel like I’ve wasted a bunch of time. I left for Wesley about 11am and I ended up meeting Courtney and Natalie on the bus. We walked down to the servo together and than we went to school. Our Indigenous Cultures class was really interesting today. We learned how the clans or tribes of the aboriginals were organized. The way in which people inherited their animal totems was cool to learn about. It’s actually a really complex system that helps to bring balance to the family. Jennifer, our aboriginal teacher, is great at telling stories so it really easy to listen to her talk.

After class was over I went to Lashings, which is a chicken shop on Lyons road, with Carissa, Hannah, Courtney, and Natalie. Carissa and I shared an order of wedges. Australians eat their potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. They are absolutely amazing! We sat and talked for almost two hours. It was really funny to sit and listen to people stories. We left Lashings to go and catch a bus because we were going to Kim’s house for Family Dinner. She lives in an apartment on the other side of the harbor bridge. We had Mexican for dinner, which was great. We had chips and salsa, guacamole, and burritos. I miss Mexican food so much. I was the only boy at family dinner. This seems to happen a lot on a trip with 30 girls and 7 guys. We had some pretty interesting conversations, about movies, cockroaches, and bucket pants. The quote of the day came from Hannah when we were walking to Kim’s house. We say something on the ground so I said: “what’s that?” in reply Hanna looks down and says: “Oh God, it’s a carcass!” I’m sure that it’s one of those things you’d have to have been there for but it was the highlight of my day.

Saturday Adventure

Saturday, March 6^th is where our story continues. It was a laid back day and the weather was really nice, which made it even better. I worked on my character profile for Jake for most of the morning. I went through the gospels and tried to find information on Judas. There really isn’t much about him, but I did find some very interesting things out about him. In Luke 22:3 it says: “Then Satan entered Judas” and in John 13:2 it says: “the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.” The verses made me start to think about whether Judas had a choice in whether or not he betrayed Jesus? Was it freewill or predestination? Was Judas really that bad of a guy? I’m sure that one of my more theological friends has a better answer, but it just made me realize how we need to guard our hearts because all sorts of stuff can slip in. Judas opened himself up to greed and eventually it brought him to suicide.

After working on homework, I decided to head up to Wesley and I got on the Internet while I waited for it to be time for Hannah’s show. I met up with three ASCers, Carissa, Andrea, and Kristen who also came to see the show. Hannah is one of the third year drama students at Wesley. She wrote, directed, and designed her show. It was really good. It’s called “Absorbed in Quirktorium” and it’s about two elementary girls who get lost in a museum and go on an adventure through the different exhibits. It was meant for children, but the show was still heaps of fun for older people. The crazy colors of the set and lighting really added to the zany characters in the show. The actors were all so into their characters, which also made it fun to watch. I was really impressed by the production.

Once the show was over, I went to the Rocks with Carissa, Andrea, and Kristen. We went to the Hero of Waterloo, which is in one of the oldest buildings in Sydney. It was really impressive to see the stones that the building was made out of and then think about how convicts had carved each of them with hand tools. We all ordered Hero burgers. They were great! One difference between American and Australian hamburgers is that they put beets on hamburgers in Australia. After experiencing some Australian history we decided to go on a walk across the Harbor Bridge. I’m glad that we did. Seeing the city at night from the bridge was a cool experience. It was funny because we would sop every 10 steps it seemed to take pictures. The Harbor Bridge is a very impressive structure, and I can see why it’s a national symbol. On the other side of the bridge we went and walk around part of Luna Park, which is a famous Australian amusement park. I think there was a wedding reception going on because there were tons of people dressed up. Exploring was fun there is so much here to see. One my way back home I went through Circular Quay to catch a bus and ended up running into my roommate, Greg, and the girls that live at the homestay right by my house. Its weird that even though I’m in this big city you still can run into people you know on a frequent basis.

Sydney Harbour

Week 2

Wow, I haven’t posted anything in a long time. On Tuesday (March 2), I had View from Australia in the morning. We were supposed to watch a movie, but the DVD player decided not to work. We then tried to use several laptops to play the movie. Unfortunately, were foiled once again, because the regions set on American laptops is different than the regions of Australian DVDs. In the end we gave up hope of watching the movie and instead had discussion over our reading guide.

We talked about National Myths and how they have influence society. Australia’s national myth is that of their convict past, which as we learned has had a huge impact on Australian culture. Speaking in generalities Australians tend to be fatalistic in there world view and have a much more egalitarian view of society than Americans do. I learned about the myth of the convict past in an article called “The Fatal Shore” by Robert Hughes if anyone wants to try and find it and read it. After The View, I had lunch and headed to rehearsal. I honestly don’t remember what all we did, but the show is moving along really well. I still wasn’t able to get my clothes off the line because it decided to rain again.

On Wednesday, I got to sleep in a little. I don’t have to be at school until 1, so I had some extra time and was finally able to get my clothes off the line. I know the epic tale of the laundry must be a thrilling one, but I figured that I had committed to it this far so I might as well finish the tale. I got to school in time to have lunch before The Gathering. The speaker was a dancer and choreographer. She had created some form of meditative movement to Bible verses. There were a lot of technical difficulties with the movie clips that she wanted to show. Overall it was an awkward chapel to sit through. Although, it was nowhere near as bad as The Singer of Israel chapel from freshman year.

After the Gathering, I went to New Testament class. We finished talking about our first lecture notes on historical context, and then we moved on to talking about literary context. Learning about exegesis is really interesting, because I feel like I’m leaning to read the Bible better. I was intimidated after the first week of class, but after the second week I felt much more confident about the class. Mark Stephens, the professor of the class, is a great lecturer.

Once NT was over, I had a 30-minute break before Theatre Secondment. I thought that Theatre Secondment was going to be puppetry for television; however, it turns out that it is with a one man or I guess I should say one-woman company called The Pupperoos. My teacher’s name is Kay Yasugi. Kay studied at the London School of Puppetry and now works doing solo puppetry projects. For class we are helping Kay workshop a story for the Wentworth Gallery, which is an aboriginal museum in Sydney. For our first day of class we got to play around a lot. We got to work with shadow puppets and see how different light sources affected the images. We also got to make some of our own simple shadow puppets out of cereal boxes. I’m excited to work on the project and I can’t wait to see how the story begins to come together.

Thursday is Easter show rehearsal day. I don’t really have much to report about the show. I’m in the process of learning my lines and working on characterization. I’m getting to know my character Jake more, but there is still so much more to discover. Wesley’s drama program is super focused on acting so it has been a really good experience to work with the students in the show. After rehearsal, I went out to the Thai restaurant by school and had dinner with a big group of people. We were staying around school because it was movie night. Once a month they organize a movie night for us so that we can watch Australian movies. We watch Ned Kelly, which had Orlando Bloom and Christian Bale in it. Ned Kelly is Australia’s most famous outlaw and is praised as being a hero. The movie was really interesting and was defiantly worth watching.

Let see, on Friday we had Indigenous Culture class. We began our day by going over our syllabi for our two ASC classes. Kimberly had gone to the states after orientation was over for a conference so we never got to talk about them. Once we finished talking about the syllabi we had a discussion over our reading of Volf’s “Oppression and Justice”. Volf is a professor at Yale Divinity School so his writing was very academic. It was an incredibly dense article to read, but it was interesting once I understood what was going on. My favorite quote from the reading was “There is a profound “injustice” about the God of the biblical traditions. It is called grace.” I found it to be an incredibly challenging statement, because it reminded me that God did not execute justice on us, but rather He chose to show grace. What would the world look like if we pursued grace? Anyways, after our Volf discussion we had lunch and we met our Indigenous teacher, Jennifer Newman. Jennifer is a great storyteller. I’m still trying to figure out why, but I think it partly has to do with how she uses her hand to act out things as she is talking about them. Our introduction to aboriginal culture went really fast. I was thankful for that because I was really tired and was ready to go home. It was raining and we didn’t feel like going out so I ended up staying at home with Greg and Ross.

The Honeymoon Phase

I’m sorry that this is going to be the longest blog post of life (And to my English Major friends I’m sorry for the missing commas). What follows is a weeks worth of updating. It’s a little disorganized so I hope that its still fun to read. My fellow ASC-ers and I are still in what is called the honeymoon stage of our trip. Everything is still new and exciting. There is so much of the city that I haven’t gotten to explore. I wonder what the next phase of the trip will be like? I can’t believe that I’ve only been here for two weeks. Everyday is so full of stuff to do. But I guess that’s what college is all about.

Lets see I need to start on Tuesday the 23^rd of February. I had class all day starting at 8:45. We had a guest speaker for our View from Australia class. She taught us about the history of Australia. I kind of felt like I was catching up on all the stuff kids learn in elementary school. After class, I had a 2 hour break and than I had rehearsal. It’s so weird to have rehearsal during the middle of the day. I feel like my brain can actually function. Bethel should look into daytime rehearsals. The Easter show is going to be really interesting. Wesley’s approach to teaching acting is so different than Bethel’s approach. They tend to do a lot more improv exercises, which has I am still getting used to doing. Being in the show is going to be a very stretching and growing experience.

On Wednesday Abby, Charlene, and I went to our service placement to meet with our supervisor, Judy. Working at St. Joseph’s is going to be really interesting, and probably really hard. Most of the people who there are highly disabled and don’t have much mobility. The meeting went really well and I found out that I was going to be doing my hours on Mondays. After our meeting we headed toward school and explored some of the stores by school. One of them is called the Ski Barn. I really wasn’t expecting to see a ski store in the middle of Sydney, but there it was. We got on campus in time to go have lunch and go to The Gathering, which is Wesley’s weekly chapel. When The Gathering was over, I headed to my 3 hour long New Testament class. I’m somewhat intimidated by it right now.

Thursday is the big rehearsal day for the Easter show. We start at 8:30 and run until 11:00 than we have a break until 2 and go until 5. I really can’t remember much about Thursday beyond the fact that I had rehearsal. I know that we went over to Carrie’s house. We had meat pies for dinner, which are supposed to be a very Australian food. They reminded me of a pasty without vegetables on the inside.

On Friday, we had our first Indigenous culture and history class. We started off by playing a game called Bafa Bafa. It was this culture assimilation game, one group was the Alphas and the other group was the Beta. Each group had it own customs and traditions, which it followed and we had to try and carry them out as well as we could. The point of the game was to show that one has to use observation in order to understand other culture, but that it is dangerous to make value judgments of another culture. Mel told us that just like an ice burg there is more of the unseen part of a culture than there is to the part that is actually seen.

After lunch we went to the Customs House where Mel gave us a lecture on the Rocks so that we would have some background information when we eventually made our way there. After the lecture we went to the Library of New South Wales to get our library cards. It was a very interesting trip. 2 of the librarians that work in the indigenous culture area gave us a presentation on what the library offered. Then they took us on a tour. It was really neat to get to go behind the scenes and see the stacks of books in the Library. The NSW library does not rent books out, but rather you have to ask the librarians to bring you the books. It was like going to the Library of Congress. Once we were finished with the library, we had to go to the Rocks, which is the historic district of Sydney. We were given a list of historic sites to find. It was really neat to get to see all the different places and to have an idea of what they represented historically. Once we were finished with the assignment we went to a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks. Dinner was pretty good, but I’m not sure I would go back right away. One interesting difference about dinning out here is that you don’t have to leave a tip at restaurants in Australia. In general you don’t tip here. When Greg and I tried to tip our taxi cab driver he wouldn’t accept it, which was an awkward experience.

On Saturday, I ended up waking up early. I always seem to wake up early here. Between the birds that sound like their being killed and the ones that sound like small children crying it can be hard to sleep in past 8:00. I went on a journey to find the one Christian bookstore in Sydney, name Koorong. It turned out that it wasn’t a very difficult place to get to. I walked up to Cressy road and took it to Victoria Road where I was able to catch a bus to West Ryde, which is where the book store is located. I needed to buy a book for my New Testament class. I was very fortunate because the store was having a sale so I got my book 20 percent off. After I acquired my book, I went to Wesley to do some home work and try and help work on a set. At Wesley they call it bump in, not load in. I was really glad that I went because I got to help paint.

Sunday I ended up getting up and doing homework. I did my laundry in the morning and hung it up to dry. Greg and I walked to a café and sat and talked for a while. Eventually we moved to McDonald’s because it is one of the few places that offer free Internet in Australia. We ended up running into Emily and Caitlin. We sat for a couple hours and did homework. I was able to finish a lot of my homework for my View from Australia. While we were sitting there it had to start raining, which meant that by the time I got home my clothes were all wet.

On Monday, I woke up at 6:30 to get ready for my service placement. My service placement is with the Sister’s of St. Joseph. They run a nursing home, which takes care of aging nuns as well as other elderly people. I ended up getting there really early. So I sat and read for an hour on a bench outside. I was really nervous to start working at the nursing home. The first two people I tried to talk to ended up getting up and walking away from me so I was quickly losing confidence in myself. On Mondays they hold Mass for the residents so I attended the service since I was failing at getting talking to be people. After mass Sister Pat and I started getting ready for the art project. I got to help a resident named Sister Mary paint. She is 94 years old and she used to study music. Working with Mary went really well, which was good since my first attempts of talking to people went so badly. I really enjoyed my time there, but I know that it’s going to be hard to work there some days.

At noon I left St. Joseph’s and I hopped on a bus to go to school. I had rehearsal from 2 to 5. We worked the scenes I was in a lot. I’m really that the director is pushing me. I think it going to be a really great opportunity to work with the cast. I’m really looking forward to getting to know them. The slogan of “I can’t. I have rehearsal” is just as true here as it is at Bethel. Of course it had to be a rainy day again so my clothes are still wet. Maybe I’ll be able to take them off the line on Tuesday.

An American in Sydney

I wanted to try and do a mid week update so that it wouldn’t be a daunting task to write about a whole week. I know that I’m only beginning to understand Australian culture, but I feel like I’m starting to catch on to all the differences and similarities. There is definitely a lot that I can learn from the people I’ve met so far. I’m really excited to get to know people more. Coming here is kind of like reliving freshman year. Except I feel that I’m bit more mature in some ways.

Last Saturday, I came to school so that I could make sure I could make my way here by myself. On my way I stop at a newsstand and bought a newspaper. It was the biggest paper I’d ever seen. They have a different standard size for paper here. Just one small cultural difference that I’ve learned about since I’ve been here. This is a side note on a difference in Australia. In Australia people have to pay for their Internet by the MB. Which means that access to it is much more limited. So if it takes me a while to responds I’m sorry. Anyways, I made my way successfully to campus and sat around for a while reading my paper and writing my previous post. Eventually I ended up helping a Hannah, an Australian student, with the show she is directing. I got to help make “You Know” playing cards. It was a lot of fun to get to meet some of the drama students here at Wesley. I hope that I’ll be able to make it to see her show. I left school to go to Ross’s daughter’s 21^st birthday part. It was a “fancy dress” party, which meant that everyone had to wear a costume. Greg and I not having brought a costume with us went dressed in Hawaiian shirts. I guess that’s where the old adage comes from “Don’t leave home without a costume”. It was really interesting to experience to see an Australian party. It was a lot more formal than an American 21^st would have been. It is their passage into adult hood and they get the key to the house. The party was more based on hanging out and socializing than playing games, which I feel is more of an American thing to do.

On Sunday Greg and I went into the city to meet Katie, Abby, Krista, and Charlene. Greg and I waited for a while to meet them so we walked around a bit and went to 7/11 and Starbuck. Yes, I know very Australian places to go. The girls met us at Starbucks and we went to a target like place called Cole’s. After that we left the city to head to Parramatta so that we could take the bus to Hillsong. Once there, we killed some time by walking around the bus/train station, which had a mall under it. The bus was absolutely packed. I’d say that my Hillsong experience was so so. There was a lot of cool things about it but overall I really don’t like churches that are that big. Worship was like a big rock show with big LCD panels behind the band and people jumping around. It reminded me a lot of GCC. I’m glad that I went and experienced it but I don’t think I’d want to call it my home church.

On the way home I ended up talking to a guy named Josh from Cairns. He had come to Sydney to study as missions. Originally he had been studying engineering but after going on a missions trip to China he changed his major. It was nice to meet and Australian that was new to Sydney too. When we got off the bus at the Parramatta stop we got onto the L20. We ended up getting off at the wrong stop and proceeded to wander around for 2 hours before we gave up and called a taxi. We were so close to being home. When we paid our taxi fare it was only 9.70 it was like a 5 minute ride home. Getting lost was actually good because we got to explore an area that we might not have other wise.

On Monday I came to school to help Hannah with her show and to meet with a drama prof about Theatre Secondment. I met Melanie and she told me that Hannah had left me a not in her pigeon hole that said that she didn’t need my help because she was able to finish the project. So I went to go and talk to a Drama prof. I got to see Lisa again who is a former drama student who works kind of as a secretary. I forget her exact title. Anyways, I met with Herman who is the head of the drama department here. He told me about my class. It sounds like is going to be really interesting. I’m going to be working with a Japanese lady who works for a company called the Puperoos. (I think that’s how its spelled.) Then he took me over to an audition that was happening for the Easter show. I really wasn’t expecting to go to an audition at all. When I got there they had already started reading the script. So they had me jump in. The auditions were improv scenes, which was the first time that I had done that. I don’t think that I did really well at them. But as theatre normally goes there were only 3 guys including me trying out. That meant that I ended up getting cast in the show as Jake/Judas. I’m really thankful that I was able to get a part. I know that it was prolly only because I was a boy but I’m going to do my best and work hard at it. I’m the only American in the cast so my accent stands out.

I wish my computer would stop dyeing while I’m typing but oh well. This post is long enough anyways.

No Furbies Allowed

I've never written a blog before so I'm not really sure where to begin. Ever since Jeanne and I watched Julia and Julia I have felt slightly inspired to begin writing a blog. I know that mine wont be turned into a movie but that's ok. I'm really excited to get to start writing now that I'm finally here in Australia.

I suppose the title of this post needs some explanation. So much has happened over the past three days that I had a hard time picking what this post should be. I considered 'Twinkle Twinkle" because I listened to that song being sung to a baby for 4 hours on my plane ride for Detroit to L.A. I also considered "The Great Wait" because of the almost 2 days that I spent in the airport before getting to Australia. 14.5 hours on a plane is a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I'm know I'm glad I don't have to do make a trip like that again anytime soon. "No Furbies Allowed" comes from the safety card on the plane. Among the banned electronic on the plane were Furbies. It seems a little out of date. I cant remember the last time I've seen anyone running around with a Furby, but I suppose it's possible.

Sydney in the summer is a beautiful place. It has been so warm here since we arrived. Thankfully it seems that we missed the super humidity that the have been having here the past couple of weeks. The first day off the plane they kept us really busy to help us get over our jet lag. They took us on a tour of the Wesley. It isn't very big, but its a wonderful campus. There are only about 400 students here so its going to be a close community. After we finished our first day of orientation we went to our home stay. My hosts' name is Ross Fraser. I'm really looking forward to getting to know him. His house boarders a national park. Its so weird waking up in the morning and looking out and seeing parrots instead of pigeons.

On the second day they took us into down town Sydney. We got to do a photo scavenger hunt with the first year Wesley students. There were all sorts of crazy things on the list such has building a human pyramid that looked like the Opera House, ask someone for a stamp, trade a clothing item with a stranger, and ask someone to buy you an ice cream cone from McDonald's. It was a lot of fun to run around down my the wharf. We got to see so many really interesting things like the customs house, the museum of contemporary art, and the opera house.

After we finished the scavenger hunt we boarded onto cruise and we got to go around the harbor and see the city from the water. It was such a great trip. Its one of my favorite things that I've done so far. It was a lot of fun to get to talk to the Australian students and get to know them a little bit. I was really surprised by how many of them were commuting from an hour away. I don't know why i was seeing that this is a commuter school. The end of our trip was quite eventful a man fell into the water who was standing by the opera house. One of the servers jumped in to assist him and the harbor patrol came and pulled them both out. I'm really glad that it ended well. It was a somber end to a really fun day.

The third day of orientation wasn't as exciting has the second day. We went through a bunch of policy type stuff. Nothing particularly eventful happened during our day at the school. After Greg and i went back to our home stay we waited for Ross to come home. (oh yes, my house mate from the ASC his name is Greg Hartnett. I've decided that it must be fate that my roommate's name this year was supposed to be Greg) After he got home he took us over to Carrie's house, which is another home stay close to where I live, and we got hang out with the girls who were staying there for a bit. After we left Carrie's we went to the local and had 5 dollar steaks. They were really good. Greg and I had arranged to meet another home stay group at their house but since we were running a bit late they had already left for the bus stop. Thankfully we found them. We went downtown for a while and walked around. There where so many people walking around. It was kind of like being in New York but the weather is far supirior and the people are much friendlier. We just made the last bus home, and I'm really glad that we did.

Well my computer battery is dieing so i guess that all for today.