Sunday, 22 June 2008

Capernwray is....done

Hello everybody,
Well, Capernwray Australia is done. Now I’m off on the next part of my journey in Australia!
Ok a quick update on what happened in the last 3 weeks!

Everybody got back from the other 2 prac week teams the weekend of the 1st and told of their stories. It was cool. I started working on my devo for the Thursday and found out from Steph G that I had bought a ticket a few months earlier (totally had forgotten about it) to see Hamlet at the Sydney Opera house with her, Heather and Lisa, on that upcoming Friday. Wow, coolness.

I did a devo on God’s faithfulness on Thursday (got an A), it was cool.

On that Friday (June 6 I think) Lisa drove us to Campbelltown and we took the train into Sydney. Steph, Lisa and I went to Paddy’s markets for a few hours and Heather went swimming. I bought some more souveniers there. Then we met with Heather and walked to Darling Harbour, we had coffee and hung out there for awhile, then went to a fancy McDonalds before racing to the Opera House for a 7:30 show. We got our bags checked then went into the little drama theatre(not the main hall unfortunately). It was a cool cozy theatre with a nice stage. The show was pretty good, I am not a big Shakespear fan but I definitely enjoyed it and actually understood what was going on. the show went longer then we expected (over 3 hours) so we raced to the train station, but had plenty of time, we just got back to school late thats all, at about 2am.

On Saturday I pretty much worked on my bible study presentation most of the day, went and saw Narnia that night with a Forgie, Mark, Cheryl and lynden. It was a great movie.

On Monday I worked on my bible study some more, same deal Tuesday, also worked on the dvd

Wednesday we had guys brekkie, with bacon, eggs, toast, beans, sausage and coffee, before workday. On workday i worked on the semester dvd. Wednesday night I had my bible study, it went great, even though I had a small group (5 including myself). Got an A

On Thursday I had my last funhouse, it was pretty fun. worked on the dvd a bit more.

On Friday we had a school outing. We drove an hour to a place near Campbelltown called teen ranch camp. We got split into 3 groups and did a big swing drop thing, high ropes and archery. It was a fun day. Friday night I worked on Snac with the snac team and worked on the dvd.

Saturday I worked on snac for 3 and a half hours, then the semester dvd, then we went to an AFL game. Almost 30 of us got on 2 busses and drove into Sydney to see the Sydney Swans play the St. Kilda Saints. The game started at 7 and we were the life of the party. It was sold out (25,000??) but the crowd wasn’t as lively as I expected. Some of us got dressed up, and it took a little while to understand the rules (Aussie football is a different game), but I got it and it was an entertaining game, lots of kicking, not quite as much tackling. The field is circular and you have to kick to score (either 7, 1 or none). Sydney won 95-65. We got back to school around 12:30am.

On Sunday we had our last church service. The few of us that go to Bowral Baptist went for lunch at a guys house afterwards, then I worked on snac. That night Steph G, Tyler F, Mark, Julie and I presented snac, it went great and we got an A. We did it on the great commission.

On Monday i finished up the semester DVD and started getting it copied, after running into several brick walls on the project. Monday night I created the final version before heading to bed.

On Tuesday I cleaned a van for workday and cleared up some rubbish. In the afternoon I finished copying the Semester DVD and the covers. Tuesday night we has our Grad dinner. I got a haircut from Carla and then dressed up nice for pictures then dinner. It was a cool night, lots of pictures and the conference hall was all transformed to look like a totally different place, great for a grad dinner. The dinner was good, not amazing but good.

On Wednesday we did a run through of the grad service at the church of Christ in Bowral with everyone, then had the afternoon to pack. I worked on getting everyone their semester dvd’s and watched it full length with some people in the retro room. Later I started packing up my room. Sad day. It was hard to pack stuff and to decide what to keep and what to chuck. I went through alot of paper and got rid of some shirts and pants. Wednesday night we got our yearbooks and did a mass signing, and I worked on the talent night DVD.

Thursday was the last full day. We had packing in the morning and had to have our rooms clean before we could leave campus. Eventually our room got clean and I also got the talent night DVD done and about 30 of us went to Briars for the last coffee. It was cool to do it one last time. Thursday night we had grad ceremony, which was really good, and we had heaps of snacks afterwards. After the ceremony, everyone stayed up, people left the school and tears were shed. I tried and failed once again to get online, signed a ton of books and hung out with everyone one last time. Slowly people trickled out to bed, there was no curfew so heaps of us stayed up. I ended up staying in the hall til 3 am. I needed some sleep. Many more went to bed around 5ish and alot actually stayed up all night. Crazy.

Friday June 20 was the last day of school, or as it says on the school calendar, feelers Friday. I woke up just before 9am, missed saying bye to the Saskatchewan boys who left on the 8 bus, sadness. Got down to the conference hall at 9 and said bye to the people leaving on the 9:15 bus. Continued to say bye to people and eventually I left on the bus with Tyler C, Daralynne and Kiwi at 10:15. It was sad to say bye to people, but it was weird, it felt like I would see them after not long, but who knows when I’ll see some of them again. Of course I will still see alot of them this week in Brisbane (12 of us) then on the mission trip in Queensland the week after (Sean, Kim, Cheryl, Lisa, Mark, Maxy) and will see the second sems when i come back in August to stay a few nights before heading home. We got on the train and i read a bit of my yearbook with the signatures in it, doing that got to me a bit, so many great people that I spent the last 5 months with, gone. Onto the next journey. Kiwi stayed on the train to meet his family and Tyler C, Daralynne and I went to Bowral and got coffee, we saw Merideth and Dorthe there! Crazy, good byes again as the 3 of us left and got back on a train. We made it to the airport, after talking about memories, staff, students, future and sad moments. We wandered around the airport, checked our bags about 6 hours before departure and managed to kill 6 hours at the airport, eating, shopping, reading, sleeping (Daralynne) and sitting around talking.
Now I am in a resort in on the Gold Coast with 11 other Capers students and relaxing. Capernwray is done, its on to a nice long vaction!
Picture count is at over 3100 for capers plus like 1000 pics from others.
Thnks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam

Saturday, 31 May 2008

June 1!!

June 1

Hello everybody,

Welcome to June!!

It is now the 3rd last week of school here at capers. Crazyness. This week the other 2 prac week teams are back from Sydney and Macai and we are learning about the life of David.

Lets run through the last week and half.

On Thursday we had funhouse and there was a teacher strike, so only 3 kids showed up. There were more of us then kids, but it was a cool afternoon. I had a mission meeting for the trip to Queensland during the semester break and for guys night we went to coliseum for pizza.

On Friday I did my oral on the CFL! It was cool, I wasn’t really nervous and I got a B+. In the afternoon i had a little quiet time with God and nap, it was great. That night 12 of us from school went into Bowral and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. It had some good parts, moreso near the beginning, but was pretty unrealistic. It was alright. Afterwards Daralynne, Tyler C, Kim, Kaitlyn D and I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, which was a weird but good movie.

On Saturday (the 23rd ) I slept in and it was great, i needed a good sleep-in. I biked into Moss Vale to get some medicine for my chest cough. It was a Loong bike, longer then I expected, but not incredibly horrible. Everything here closes early on Saturdays. So I got to a pharmacist at 1:45 and it closed at 1, I went to a place to drop off some pants to be fixed but they closed just as I got there at 2!! Arghh, I was a little annoyed. I found another pharmacist but they were closed too, so I went to the IGA and got some stuff there. In the afternoon I worked on the semester DVD for awhile and got more pics from people for it. After dinner I went for coffee with Tyler C and we had a great chat. Later 8 of us watched Kung Pow: enter the fist at the units, which was really funny.

On Sunday we had church, a bunch of people left for prac week on Friday so it was only me and Julie that went to our church. It was kind of a disappointing. They brought in a choir to sing the whole time, the choir was great. we sat and listened to them sing for over an hour of the hour and 15 minute service. A maybe 2 minute message and 2 worship songs that we got up to sing. Not my idea of church. afterwards a few of us tried to catch game 1 of the Stanley cup final on tv at the briars but it wasn’t on. I did powerpoint for snac worship that night.

On Monday I still had the annoying cough. We did Old Testament review and had our book review discussion for lectures, and I bought some different cough medicine while in town.

On Tuesday we had quiet day! Yay! Quiet day is a good day. I got a blanket and brought my bible and my mp3 and lay out on the field. I read a verse that said “Be still and know that I am God.” I lay there and read in Psalms, drifting in and out of naps all morning, then listening to worship music and drifting in and out of naps under the hot Australian sun. I also prayed for a good half hour. It was a beautiful morning. In the afternoon I sat by the dock for a bit listening to worship music and then wandered around to various places in the park, still reading from Psalms. It was a great day.

On Wednesday we had work day. Graham, Tyler C, Kiwi, Andrea, Kim and I pulled about 10 trees out of the ground in the paddock. It was a good work day. Wednesday night I went to Thai food in Bowral with my family group, the ones that were here (Graham, Margaret, Kaitlyn P, Ben, Dianne and I).

On Thursday we had book review again. After having a great timeout with God for an hour, I went to funhouse in the afternoon. It was a good funhouse day. We made pizza and the kids were alright.

On Friday Debbie (a staffer) drove me into Moss Vale to see a doctor because my cough was still bugging me and it was something that needed to be checked after 2 weeks. They said to take benydryl, $60 for a little peace of mind and some advice. Friday night I got on the net and then I watched Parent Trap with Tyler C, Daralynne, Kim and Katelyn D.

Yesterday. I slept in til 10, talked to my mom and skype for a while, then hung out in the Hilton and worked on my assignment for book review on the Indwelling life of Christ. I watched Orange County with Adam H and Tyler F before dinner, then worked on the sem dvd. After dinner we took photos of our moustaches for moustache mayhem and then I watched ruthless people with Adam H. After writing this blog and finishing up my assignment. We watched Elizabeth.

Picture count =

Got to 2 cards from people back home. Got one from Merle who I helped lead the junior high boys with in the youth group back home. Thanks for the card and I am still enjoying myself here for sure. I opened the card on Caleb’s birthday, so happy birthday again Caleb. The other card was from Chris on the 29th. I have had some cool experiences for sure: kangaroo hunting, surfing, mission trip to Hong Kong, feeding the homeless, giving oral presentations and devotions, hanging out with lots of different people, going on a ferry to Manly beach, seeing the sights of Sydney, staying in hostels...and on and on it goes, there will be many more in the next few months I think. As I go looking around in Australia in a few weeks (not very long now) I will see Fraser Island, hopefully the Sydney Zoo and crocodile zoo, Whitsunday Islands, Brisbane, Melbourne, possibly Cairns, possibly go scuba diving, road trip in Queensland and go to the Hillsong conference. Top that off with a full day (2 nights) in Singapore at a hotel to finish the journey. See you in a few months buddy, God bless.

Thats about it, having good times here (other than being sick), spending time with friends, making the most out of my opportunities and learning more each day.

Thanks for reading.

From Down Under,

Adam

Monday, 26 May 2008

sidebar post

ok, just to let you readers know, i have updated the sidebar of my page, as you scroll down on the right side, after the last fm stuff, i have a link to my youtube videos where you can find a video i made from hong kong, and a slideshow of pics below that.
thats all for now
from down under
Adam