20 days!

A few exciting things have happened here in OZ (Australia) since my last blog.

Hillsong had its 25th Anniversary as a church! We all celebrated in the city at Darling Harbour! There was a stage that floated on the water, and they had some old worship songs like, "Shout to the Lord". What an opportunity I had to be able to see Darlene Zscech lead Hillsong church in this song, after so many years of not singing it - and at Darling Harbour, at that. They showed footage from when they first started out as a church...it was so weird! I got to see Pastor Brian's funny haircuts and mustache from years ago. I quickly came to the realization that Hillsong had small beginnings. What started out as an "ordinary" church, now impacts the world! God has really had His hand on Hillsong. This is what results from faithful people. What a historic event that night was! To top the night off, there were fireworks straight after the celebration service. It was awesome! I have some pictures on my slideshow of the service. I also re-ordered the pictures, so you should be able to see some of the newer ones first in the slideshow(I added more pictures - not just from the 25th Anniversary). P.S., the picture of me with a flower is actually a flower that I got from my tutorial class for my birthday..bright pink daisies!

I FINALLY went to the beach the other day! It's ridiculous, I know. I have lived here for 4 and 1/2 months now, and I just went to the beach last week. Oh well. I went on Monday to Bondi Beach (pronounced Bond-I, not Bond-ee), which is probably the most famous beach in Australia. It was beautiful. Everyone says there are nicer beaches than Bondi (such as Manly Beach), but I really liked Bondi. I guess maybe because it was just so much nicer than our beaches back in Charleston. The water is blue and when I went out pretty deep, it was clear - I could actually see what was beneath me.

So by the time me and my friend got out there, it was like 3:30pm. We had to take a bus and two trains (I think, or maybe just one), and then another bus. It took so long. Haha. That's public transport for ya. We then met up with our two other friends. We'd been in class earlier, so by the time I got there, I was beat. I just laid out and fell asleep. Yes, I put on sunscreen...I don't want to get burnt here. The sun is really powerful. And I didn't get burnt - just a nice sunkissed look! :)

After I laid out, I went in the water, and me and my friend body-surfed a couple of times before the lifeguard called everyone in. He's supposed to do this before he goes home by law, but you can go back in if you want. We didn't know this, so I only got to swim a little. The water was freezing, though, when I first got in. It seriously felt like mountain water. I went to the beach with some guys, and so they were all like "Oh the water feels soooo good.", and they meant it too. Me and my female self did not agree with that statement so much, but it's okay...I actually got used to it after a little while and I couldn't tell it was cold anymore.

When we got done at the beach, we decided to go walk this path up a cliff. It's cool, because at Bondi (and I think most of the beaches here...not sure) they have cliffs surrounding the beach. You can see one of the cliffs in the first picture on my slideshow. So we walked up this path to the cliff. It was beautiful. It was such an adventure. I realized during that walk that my spirit REALLY craves adventure! And I REALLY wished I had my camera with me at the time, but I didn't. I was itching the whole time for my camera. The best thing I had was my phone camera. I took a couple pictures of Bondi on it, which you can see here on my slideshow as well.

Well, I come home in 20 days! I am so excited! Dad has already made ski reservations! I am excited to celebrate Christmas with my family! It's getting so hot here, and it's really hard to think that Christmas is coming up, so I have been trying to convince myself it is by just buying little Christmas decorations for my room (i.e. a mini Christmas tree, and lights), but I will admit, it's not the same as back home. I know it doesn't even get very cold (if at all, really) on Christmas day in Charleston, but there is just something magical about Christmas with my family, something very special! It's a feeling that I couldn't find outside of family. I can't wait to see you all!

Reminder: I come home December 5th. I'll send out an email when it gets a little closer to the time! AHHH, I CAN'T WAIT! :)

Love you all! :)