brighter days

here goes
Directions:1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?--- something beautiful

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?--- my glorious...lol

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?--- 50 mission cap....uhhh

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?--- you ain't seen nothing yet (haha)

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?--- summertime - haha ok

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?--- black betty (ah no)

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?--- original prankster (i doubt that)

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?--- foreverandever etc

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?--- magic carpet ride (bwahahaha)

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?--- she's not there

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR EX?--- favourite things (what? no)

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- whats my age again (pfffft, lol)

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?--- shout unto God (hm, cool)

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?--- blessed be your name (that doesnt make sense)

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- diverse city???no

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?--- your so damn hot (haha i dont think so)

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?--- st. anger (errr no)

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?--- out of me

19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?--- accross the earth (God is not a secret)

20..WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?--- sweetness (haha perfect)

Now press Next one more time and use it as your title.

update...ish

ok so its saturday night here in calgary. aaaaand im bored. hmm.
so an update
i got a job at nexen, doing mostly stuff for the finance department like excel macros and accounting type things. ive worked one week full time and im working with a bunch of people that i worked with before i left. (before i left for aus, i worked at nexen) so that has been great. im thinking my fall will be pretty busy though. working part time 3 afternoons a week, 5 days of classes (5 core classes), soccer one night a week, and youth on fridays and sundays, plus time for friends etc in between, its going to be a little busy. oh well, ill manage, with God's help of course.
as the aussies say, "no worries mate".
i was organizing stuff in my room that i left when i went to australia, and found like $100 in change....wow, awesomeness. that doesnt change the fact that im going to have to borrow money from my parents to pay for school though, unfortunatly.

as far as pictures go, my flickr account has reached its max, so if you want to see more pics, i have more on facebook!( and on my computer of course).

ive been listening to more random music lately, which has been good. right now i am listening to MXPX, always good. my top 3 artists on last.fm in the last week are Sanctus real, switchfoot and mxpx. for more check out my charts on the right side and click on one to to go my profile page on last.fm (and get last.fm if you dont have it).

hmm i think thats all for now. im super pumped for the labour day game on monday, get to see some friends tomorrow at church that i havent seen in a long time and have the first youth sponsor meeting of the year on friday!
sweet deal
alright
bye for now and thanks for reading
Adam

home and randoms

hello everybody

so right now, im waiting on a call from Nexen to find out if I have a job. ive been waiting a week, they said on tuesday they would call me on Monday. so hopefully there is a job available, if not, I need to do some job hunting, or go back to Marks work wearhouse. I need a job to pay for my tuition and textbooks for the fall at the University of Calgary. school starts on the 8th, so i do have a little time.

so I've been home a week and a half and have caught up with a bunch of people, which has been great. spending time with friends and family and somehow filling up a week where i only worked on morning (helping move a fridge) and obviously didnt have school, with random things. it was actually pretty cool, but i do need to start making a little money.
went and saw Hulk on Saturday with Caleb, Matthias and Justin, that was a good movie, better than the first in my opinion. I saw it at the cheap seats which is always good and then we hung out at Timmys til they kicked us out. I went for wings on wednesday with Kevin, Josh and Justin, that was a good time, we went to Kevo's after and played Halo. the wednesday tradition lives on.

on friday I went and took pictures downtown with Jake, more good times. hung out at the mall with Rachel last saturday and went for coffee this week. watched a movie with Shawn and Chelsea last week and we went to Boston pizza. so yea its been a week of random stuff like that.
Jake and I went biking on saturday from Bonavista up the Bow river pathway to Prince's Island park, that was fun, then we rushed to center street church and met up with Bart.

on sunday the guest speaker at bonavista church talked about community and how we treat others. it was a good topic, we can never fully understand how much we affect other people when we do or say little things, but if we let the Holy Spirit work in us and we act in love than friendships and that sort of thing always go better.
yea this post is kinda random.

the last 7 months i really got into Switchfoot. they just have such good songs with awesome lyrics. like "Gone". it clicked for me on a saturday as I walked around in Perth, it said "today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone, like saturday is gone.....dont spend today away" basically dont waste the day, once its gone its gone. so many songs with great sound and great lyrics. ive been listening to alot of sanctus real, thousand foot krutch and jack johnson lately.

thats all for now, maybe I'll go play with my niece or something.
thanks for reading

Adam

looking back at travels in aus

Hi everybody,

Alright so here is a little summary of my thoughts on the time between the end of Capernwray and arriving home in Calgary.

I went to many places in Australia, saw some of the things I wanted to see, hung out with friends, met random people and had random discussions.

In Coolangatta (6 nights), I hung out with 12 of my friends from Capernwray, mostly with my buds Tyler C, Daralynne, Adam H and Colton. It was great to hang out with them and relax, also celebrating my 21st birthday in Australia!

On the Queensland mission trip(11 nights), I went camping, went 4x4ing on Fraser Island with friends and a few people from the area. Fraser Island is the largest sand based island in the world, and has a 75mile beach that you can drive down. It has forests, a shipwreck and beautiful lakes, including Mackenzie lake, which has water so calm and clean you can drink it (Sean and I drank some, it was like bottled water haha). That included the funny experience of getting stuck on the island because we missed the barge, we had to stay overnight even tho none of us had anything with us to stay overnight. Then we drove up the coast to Mackay and did some work up there a few times, staying at billets places, and we got to spend a day with Barb, who was a student, that was cool. We then trekked down the coast to Surfers paradise and ran a church service. We drove another long way and made it back to school.

After repacking I made it to Sydney(6 nights) and got to do the Hillsong Conference, which was amazing. Great speakers, great worship, great sessions and hung out with 2 girls from Capers in New Zealand staying at my billets place there in some community in Sydney (Toongabbie). Hillsong was great, thanks Rachel for pointing it out to me early on. I also got to see the outside of the Hillsong – Hills church (the conference was at Olympic park, not the church).

Next up I went to Melbourne(4 nights), where Missy ( a girl that joined us for the Queensland trip) hooked me up to stay at her parents place way out in the suburbs, which was really cool. We went to the Eureka skydeck and the next day we drove out to Phillip island to see the koala sanctuary, the seal lookout and the penguin parade, a great day. In my time in Melbourne I also checked out the downtown (or CBD) area which was really nice and did a tour of the great ocean road, which was pretty nice. I also took a tour of the MCG stadium which can hold up to 101,000 people for a game, woulda liked to see a rugby game there. Also I went to the Melbourne acquarium, which was good, I’m not really an acquarium type of guy but I wanted to see one in Aus, to see the sharks, jellyfish and stingray type of stuff.

After not getting the hostel I wanted in Perth(4 nights), I kinda went on a booking spree of booking everything in advance as I made it to Perth. The hostel actually worked out well that I stayed at and it got my attention to book a bit in advance. Also had some really nice dormmates, my first dorm experience in Aus with people other than friends from Capers. So in Perth I saw the swan bells, checked out the big shops area in the CBD, went to Fremantle and biked on Rottnest island, which was pretty cool. Perth was a nice city to hang out in, and they had Dome coffee, which was awesome.

From Perth I had to fly overnight to get to the Whitsundays(4 nights) and it was rainy there. But after a cancelled sailing tour I got on a tour and it was awesome. My hostels there were ok and actually had a great conversation with a guy from Israel for almost 2 hours in one of the hostels. The sailing tour was amazing, met some cool people there and had another conversation about God and faith with a nice girl from Israel. Made some friends on the boat and I got to do snorkelling twice (including seeing reef and beautiful fish around the island) and went to famous Whithaven beach, which was great.

Brisbane(2 nights) was mostly a stop so that I could see the Aus zoo, Aus zoo was pretty cool, saw all the aussie animals I had wanted to see, including the crocs. I had some interesting dormmates there, the zoo was cool and i did checkout Brisbane CBD, walked along the river.

Surfers paradise (2 nights) was a cool place, probably really good for surfing, but it had one main area that was nice but it was pretty touristy. My hostel was good though, tv in the rooms with movies always going, nice dormmates, and I went to dreamworld with 4 girls from my room, which was great, a fun day. Also I went up the Q1 building, which is a huge residential building, at night, great sights (apparently you can see all the way to Byron bay and all the way to Brisbane)

In Byron(2 nights) I just kinda chilled there and hung out with one of the guys from my room. I heard it was a relaxed place and it was true. The hostel I stayed at (arts factory lodge) was really cool, and I spent a day walking up to the lighthouse (quite a walk).

It took all day but I made it to Sydney(2 nights) and stayed in a hostel that was nice, but way to expensive. I went to Paddys markets in the morning, then up the centerpoint tower, then to Circ. Quay and the Rocks, then across by the Opera house, the bay, then the parks, Botanic gardens, the Dominion and Hyde park in a full day of exploring and more picture taking. The next day I tried to get to Hillsong church but that didn’t work out, then went to Bondi beach (had to see Bondi, and it was awesome) and took a bus back to school.

After arriving at school(2 nights) and seeing all my buds again(11 second sems from my semester) and meeting the 1st sems (5 new ones), I repacked my bags and got ready to head home, after spending a day catching up, walking and then watching a movie and catching the sunrise my last morning at Capernwray. It was a crazy short time back at Capers.

I flew to Singapore and on the plane it hit me I was leaving Aus. The eyes were watering. My Aus journey was officially over. The friends, the sights, the nervous excitement, the new people, the experiences, God blessing me with all those sunny, hot days in places it wasn’t supposed to be sunny or very warm (and things working out somehow for the best when it wasn’t sunny), the freedom, the learning so many things to miss, after all, it was 7 months of my life that I will never forget.

So in Singapore (2 nights – a bit of a pattern eh), it was hot, 28 and humid 11pm at night. Singapore was nice, went on a bus tour, had a relaxing quiet time in the botanic gardens, paying too much for internet and checking out the harbour front.

My flights home were not amazing, but alright. I flew on a packed plane to Tokyo stuck between 2 people, but the plus was that I got talking to the guy next to me from India for an hour near the end. From Tokyo (a 2 hour stopover) we had a 10 hour flight to LA, that was also packed (and I once again had a middle seat), and the food was pretty pathetic, but I talked to the guy from India for over an hour again, and a bit to the girl beside me from Tokyo (well, a student in LA). Interesting to hear stories from the Indian guy and talk a bit about God, parents, school, culture and travelling. I got to LA and had a 4 hour layover, with heaps of security then a 3 hour flight home to Calgary as the sunset with tons of legroom (emergency exit window seat, sweet).

After getting my luggage, my dad picked me up from the airport, good to see him. Got home and saw Nat and Ryan, and watched the Stampeders hold on for a win on our new big screen TV.
So my travels were great, lots of experiences and I spent a ton of money. Travelling alone was an experience like no other. At times it did get a little lonely as you’d expect, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone, having total control of my trip, and it forced me to meet new people. If I was with friends already, I wouldn’t make that effort to interact with others. And I wouldn’t have the freedom to decide at the moment, what I wanted to do. I could do what I wanted.

It was a little weird being home, but after coming home to a house full of love, friends that I missed, and the same sort of setting that I left in January (aside from the awesome heat!), the adjustment wasn’t too hard. The jet lag wasn’t that bad either. Though I still am in need of a job and money to pay for Uni (my 3rd year of a bachelor of Commerce degree) and more time to spend with everyone haha. It has been almost 2 weeks since I left Aus, and I do miss it (and all the awesome friends I made there), but that was to be expected.

Ok so here are a few of the things I would do if I went back to Aus and had some more money and time to burn (and possibly a travel buddy):
Broome (donkey rides)
Darwin (different city and kakadu national park)
Tasmania (great place to hike and beautiful apparently, but solo would prob be boring)
Ayers rock ( a big rock, but a famous big rock, this is not at the top of the list, maybe someday with family or something, camp out at the rock?)
Snowy mountains (go skiing or snowboarding in Aus, my buddy Mark did just that)
Experience more of the little towns in western aus and Victoria.
Scuba diving in the reef would be cool (but expensive, just to say i did it i guess, but i did snorkel already...)
See the top end rainforesty area and islands.
New Zealand (of course gotta see new Zealand, apparently really beautiful, home of Lord of the Rings and another place to Ski/snowboard)
other places in the area (island countries)
drive in the outback.
and im sure there are others to see that would be cool, also doing most of the things i did again would be good.

Anyways,

Thanks for reading,

Adam

one journey ends, but that only means a new one is beginning

Hello everybody,

Alright so my journey to Australia and back is essentially over, I’m in Singapore right now, the night before I fly home, sitting in my hotel relaxing and listening to some Hillsong and Leeland. Here is the recap of the last few days

So on August 2nd I had my last full day to enjoy Sydney. In the morning I went to paddy’s markets, and above, cool. After that I walked to circular Quay and got a starbucks. I was tired of walking, but wanted to make use of my last day. I walked into the rocks (not actual rocks) and explored the first settlement of Sydney. Checked out the bridge, the markets in the rocks, and walked back to the opera house. I walked along the edge of the harbour/bay along the parks for quite a while. After getting some nice pics, I relaxed on a bench in the botanic gardens. After that I walked through the dominion (and the art gallery) and Hyde park. Did some internet, had to pull some cash out to pay for dinner. Ok quick rant, Aus is so annoying with places not accepting credit/debit, even central station, you have to spend $21 to use credit! Heck what the!? This happened in many places, but it was really annoying this weekend cuz I didn’t have anymore cash, just planned on using credit, so I ended up pulling out money a few times in the few days, probably paying sick fees on my debit. Ok so I went to the rugby game at Olympic park in ANZ stadium between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the New Zealand Warriors. It was a really good game, I enjoyed it, only 9400 fans though. Anyways afterwards I caught up on some internet.

On Aug 3rd I woke up and checked out, planning to get to HIllsong church, and possibly Bondi beach if I could. Going to Hillsong would be way cool. I took the train to Paramatta station to catch a bus to the church. the website said where the bus would be and what time it left, I didn’t realize how many platforms are at Paramatta, and the website didnt say a bus number and I couldn’t find where it said the bus would leave from. I looked for a like a half hour (I purposely got there a bit early), but I couldn’t find it. Sigh. So I didn’t get to hillsong church, but I did see it from the outside a month earlier, so no biggie. I got to Bondi beach and spent a little time there (and paid way too much for ordinary fish and chips). Bondi was a beautiful beach, and it was pretty busy, it was a sunny, hot day. I went back to Central and had to use cash once again to buy a ticket to Bowral. I took the bus to Bowral, and I missed dinner so I went to subway, of course I had to go to the atm again cuz Subway is behind the times. Stacia, Colton and Julie picked me up. We caught up and rented some movies while in Bowral. Got back to the school and saw my other friends from Capers (the ones there for a second semester) Mark, Barb, Kim, Sam, Carla, Jenn and Grahame. It was so good to see all of them again. And I met the new first sems (the ones my age anyways) Jessica, Marina and Angel. We had snac, then I talked to Jessica for a bit, then we played the invisible ball game. It was wierd being there and everyone played the one game. Later I spent some good time with Marky and Colton and stayed up late.

On Monday the 4th I went to brekkie, then went to classes (2nd Timothy) with Dave, it was good. Before lunch I did some laundry and repacked my bags, that was an adventure haha. Then I went to lunch at the Moss Vale services club with Jessica, Stacia, Colton, Jenn and Debbie (and her 2 kids). Afterwards the 5 of us students (not Debbie) went to Bowral and did a little shopping. After we got back the 2nd sems had a breakthru meeting. I hung out with Jessica and we went for a walk before dinner. After the evening lecture (my last at capers!) I watched a movie with Jessica, Kim, Marky, Jenn, Stacia and Colton.
We played some uno afterwards, then I hung out with Colton and Mark and finalized my packing.

On Tuesday after devos it was quiet day so I said bye to everybody (sad, goodbyes suck) and Niel drove me to the train station. I took the train to the airport, talked to my mom and my dad and got on an 8 hour flight to Singapore. Lots of time to think on that flight. Also I watched a movie called “Son of Rambow” and it was really good, I was impressed. I got to Singapore and took a taxi to my hotel. It was hot, 28 degrees and humid, at 11pm! Wow. Then my hotel was really nice, I had a room on the 13th level and it is pretty central. Thanks so much to my mom and stepdad for organizing that for me.

On Wednesday I got up and after meeting with a guy named Ron from Nexen Singapore for coffee, I explored Singapore. I got on a hop-on hop-off bus and stopped a few times and walked around the river. Then I went to botanic gardens and chilled there, having a great quiet/prayer time for an hour in the sun and heat. I was sweating all day. Then I took the bus to Orchard street and explored the big street and all the shops etc along the way. I walked back to my hotel, then to the bay and explored that area. Had a disappointing meal at burger king (shouldn’t be surprised) then went back to my hotel room and did some internet, which brings me up to now. I leave tomorrow for Canada. Crazy, its over. But thats just one journey in my life that has come to an end. The next few years should be interesting, and I imagine I will have even more great experiences and joys and difficulties in the time to come. As long as the changes in me over the last 6 months (whatever those are I’m not exactly sure, but I think they were good) don’t disappear, as long as I keep progressing and growing in my relationship with God, and knowing who I am, and all that sort of stuff, I’m looking forward to it, while remembering all the things that have happened since I last stepped foot in Calgary.

Picture count =5470. Well that’s how many I got. That number may shrink by a hundred or two after I edit a little. Heaps of pictures, heaps upon heaps.

Well I spent my money, I saw beautiful places, I met wonderful, awesome, uplifting, challenging, joyous, loving, caring, interesting people. I learnt things, I saw new perspectives on things, I was challenged, I made new friendships, I discovered a bit more about who I am, I grew in ways I can’t put into words, I overcame, I served, I worshipped, I photographed, I ventured out on my own and I had unforgettable experiences...with God at my side.

Boom

Thanks for reading.

From the closest capital city to the equator on earth, Singapore,

Adam

Live one last time from Sydney...Adam with an update

August 1, 2008

Hello everybody,

Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.

So I took the train and then a bus to Surfers Paradise on the 28th. I got to the bus terminal and tried to call the hostel, but the number didn’t work, so I went inside and as soon as I walked in I saw the backpackers info desk and they had my name down already and called the hostel so they could pick me up. Cool. I got to my hostel (not a huge hostel) and got a little tour, it had a nice atmosphere to it. Once in my room, I met some of the girls in the room. I ended up having 4 girls (2 from Ontario) and a couple from Alberta with me in the packed little room. They were all really nice. I went and wandered around Surfers (first priority was finding food) and went up the Qdeck, which is a huge residential building (77 stories). I walked around the main shops area and bought a hoodie. That night we watched movies in our room in the hostel (all the rooms had tvs with connection to the main tv which could play dvds from the hostel’s 300+ dvd collection.

On the 29th after realizing two of the girls, Marie and Rianne, were going to dreamworld, I decided to go with them (since I wanted to go there anyways) then Ashley and Julia decided to come to. Cool, always more fun with people, and good people to talk to at that. so after grabbing some food we took the half hour bus ride and started doing rides soon as we got there. There weren’t huge lineups so we got plenty of rides done in the morning. The best ride was wipeout in my opinion(the only one we did twice). In the afternoon we did some more rides (like the big drop) and checked out the big brother house (not my idea haha) and went to the wildlife experience and fed some kangaroos). We came back and chilled in the hostel for awhile afterwards. At 8 Marie, Rianna and I went for $10 all you can eat pizza across the street. We watched some more movies afterwards. Oh it was sunny and warm all day, beautiful.

On Wednesday the 30th I said bye and checked out of my hostel. Jumped on a train to Brisbane to catch a bus to Byron(kinda backwards but it worked). I made it to little Byron Bay and got a shuttle to my hostel. I stayed at the arts factory lodge, which is a really big place that is pretty cool. I wandered into Byron and walked along the main street, then the beach and saw the sunset. I walked back to my hostel (10 minute walk from the main street) and met a few of my roommates. Ended up talking to Andy from Melbourne and we hung out, went to the Buddha bar, played some pool, then we went to a fire on the beach with a bunch of people from our hostel.

On the 31 I slept in and relaxed. Had some $4 banana pancakes from the cafe in the hostel and then walked into town and hung out for a bit, then walked all the way up to the lighthouse, which was way farther than I expected and it was super warm and sunny. My backpack was wet from the sweat when I got to it. It was a nice view, and now I have been to the most easterly point on the mainland. I walked back down and saw the sunset at the beach and had a steak sandwich.

Today (August 1) I got up at 7am and caught a shuttle, then a bus then a train, that got me to Sydney at 10pm. And checked into YHA Sydney central.

Picture count =5100 ....that is a ton..too easy. And about 400 videos. Im going to have to go through and delete a few when I get home...maybe haha.
So I’m in Sydney for my last weekend in Australia. Tomorrow I'll explore Sydney again and possibly go to a Rugby game, On Sunday the 3rd I’ll head to the school (hopefully after going to Hillsong church)and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights on the 5th. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.

Thats about it, getting excited to head home, while seeing the last few things and spending the little money I have left.

Thanks for reading.

One last time From Down Under,

Adam