Leaving it Behind

Wednesday, August 6
RIght now I'm sitting at Leah's house waiting for her to get off her hour shift of work. I'm almost caught up, so I'll write about yesterday.

Leah and Al both had to work early, so I slept until 10 (which was later than I intended) and got to lounge a bit. Al got home around 11:30, so we hung around and talked a little. Then Linda asked me to play a song of mine so I did. I played Clinging first, then they asked for more so I played my newest and What is Life. It was funny because I had to put a disclaimer on every song.

Eventually Leah got home and had some lunch and we headed off to see some beaches. They took me to their High School and Avalon beach. We went to the Bible gardens, which is basically a house with an amazing view and a plaque about the Bible. We went to some cliffs as well where there was an AMAZING view, and after we got high enough you could see the city off in the distance. I was totally taken with the view and could have stayed there for ages just starring at it. We had to go though so we made the trek down the hill. Leah and I ran about 2/3 of it which was great fun.

Once we got home Leah cooked some stir fry that was absolutely amazing. It was so nice to have something home cooked. After dinner we all watched The Princess Bride ("truely you have a dizzying intellect"). Al and I talked politics after the movie while Leah showered. It was interesting to get an Aussie perspective. We all stayed up and talked a bit more until about 12, then went to bed. I wasn't tired at all because of sleeping in, and Leah was in pretty good shape so we stayed up talking for quite a while...

Thursday, August 7
After about 2 hours of sleep (maybe more but it felt like about 2) Leah and I got up to go to her house. She dropped me off there and set up the net for me then went to work for an hour training. She got back about 15 minutes early, so we grabbed our stuff and walked down to the ferry. The ferry ride was gorgeous (again) and I got some sweet photos of the harbour. Leah took me around the harbour to the Opera House and to the Botanical Gardens which are past it. They must be unbelievable during the spring and summer, because it was still really nice even without all the flowers in bloom.

After walking around there for a while she took me to a place to eat at the harbour. We ate ouside, and I had a clear view of the bridge from my seat. Leah had the weirdest salad ever. There were massive chunks of pumpkin, beetroot, potato, eggplant, and bell pepper. Aussies are totally into pumpkin, it's weird. After lunch we walked across the quay (pron. "key") to Starbucks for a Chai. Once again I got the crappiest drink ever, but didn't realize it until we had walked a good distance from the place. In America...

Leah had to leave for work after lunch, so she walked me down by the opera house and showed me where Al would pick me up in an hour. I walked her back to the ferry, then set out across the quay into the city to explore and kill time. Obviously I have no idea how to get anywhere in Sydney, so my exploration was pretty uneventful. Mainly I tried to keep track of which direction the quay was from my current location...

The time passed quickly and I got back to the quay and met up with Al. She took me to The Rocks, which is the oldest section of Sydney and has a lot of historical buildings. Unfortunately every single one of them is a shop now. We were expecting to find some sort of museum that talked about convicts, but there was none. So we walked around a bit but by that time I was pretty tired from walking so we headed back toward the car park. We watched most of the sunset behind the bridge from the Opera House, then took off to get a few things from her work before grabbing a bite to eat and heading to Hills city church.

Al works at a homeless hostel in a not so great section of Sydney. After hearing so much about the place it was cool to go there and see it for myself... It was really cool to see Al in her work environment and see her interactions with the people there. I'm pretty sure her main job there is to find housing for people trying to leave the hostel... After Al finished up some business there she gave me a small tour, then we walked a couple blocks and got a salad so we wouldn't starve at Hills... After we finished we drove out to Hills and waiting for Leah and Mel to show up. They got there just before 7:30, and Darlene started things off shortly after.

Darlene has the best speaking voice ever. It's gentle, but doesn't make you want to fall asleep. It makes you think "I'll listen to whatever you say. Will you be my friend?" (Joan suggested that she's the anti-Christ. I disagree.) She was fully down to earth as well, which I remembered Mel saying on many occasions. After Darlene talked a few people told stories about conference, then Robert Ferguson got up to give his message. It was AMAZING. Totally convicting and heavy and thought provoking...

Leah and I talked a bit on the way home, but not much since we (though mostly I) were in thinking moods. I popped in Passion One Day and tried to let the words sink in...