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.