If only the 40-hour day could have been with friends instead of on an airplane!

When Katie and I woke up we went down to breakfast even though it wasn't supposed to start yet. There were still a lot of people there, though. Breakfast was kind of like musical chairs because every time someone got up, someone else would sit in their chair. It didn't matter if you left something at your chair, either. It was funny though because then we got to sit by quite a few people since it was our last day. After breakfast the principal, David Cook (no, unfortunately not the singer) said a prayer. We were then on our own for the day. Katie and I were kinda standing there for a while figuring out what we could do in the few hours we had before we had to pick up her bags and get to the airport for our flights. During that time Steve gave me a book about the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. He said he 'used to be Catholic but then in his 20s became a  Christian.' I really don't understand why people don't think that Catholics are Christians. As a Catholic person, I find this insulting.

Anyway, we went to the city with a bunch of people. We all walked to the train station together. When I got my ticket, the person asked my age. I probably could have saved a few bucks if I wasn't so darn honest! We then all got on the bus, except a few people didn't get their tickets on time and had to wait for the next train. Most people got off a few stops ahead of where we were going, but since it was Katie's first time in Sydney we wanted to go to Sydney Harbour and see the Opera House. It was Katie, Monica, Ruby, Amber, Nathalie, Tom, Rohan, and myself. We got off the train and started walking toward the Sydney Opera House and Rohan had to stop at his favourite gelato place because he has to go there every time he is in Sydney. He bought Katie and me some gelato. We then walked up to the opera house, but a lot of it was closed off. Oprah was in Australia and they were setting up for her show. I left just in time because her show was the next day.

Photo courtesy of Katie

Didgeridoo players

Photo courtesy of Katie

Me, Nathalie, and Katie in front
 of Sydney Harbour Bridge
Photo courtesy of Katie

Octavius at Sydney Harbour

Octavius and the Sydney 'Oprah' house

Oprah was everywhere!

Oprah's stage

Katie and I still had to pick up our luggage from SMBC, get her luggage that was delivered to Sydney, and make it to the airport for our flights at 3-3:30, so we headed out. We said goodbye to everyone except Rohan because he went with us since he has been to Sydney many times anyway. We took the train back to SMBC to get our luggage and then had found someone there to help us call a taxi. Since Katie didn't really know where the place was that she had to pick up her luggage, it was easier to take a taxi. We saw Liz, Caitlin, and Amanda, so we said goodbye to them before our taxi came. We went to pick up Katie's luggage. (it's a long story how it finally got to Sydney) We had to have some of her stuff in the back seat with us since it wouldn't all fit in the trunk.

We then went to the airport. We separated to check in, and then we met back up. Katie had to repack her suitcases because they were over weight, so Rohan came to get me at our meeting spot and I went back and watched. It was actually quite funny, although I probably should have been helping. I had no idea how to help, though. After she finally got her luggage checked, we said goodbye to Rohan and went to security. After security we went to our terminals, which were of course at opposite ends of the airport. Katie and I said goodbye. It was so sad but we are roadtrip buddies, not airplane buddies. I still can't believe I didn't cry at all, but then I remember that I can't really cry anyway. (Not that I'm a heartless person, although some people may say so, I just have an emotional block from years of depression)

At the airport, I had to use up my bank account because it wouldn't work in America. I had to buy a present for my mom's Goddaughter because she had asked me to and I just took a bunch of money out of a machine that converted it to USD. I still had about $20 so I ended up buying a stuffed koala that is holding a didgeridoo and when you press its hand it plays the didgeridoo. I then boarded the plane from Sydney to Los Angeles. It is a 14 hour flight, and I was hoping to sleep like when I came over. No such luck! I was in the middle seat and only took a nap. It wasn't a bad flight and it actually seemed pretty short after being on a bus for 60 hours.

The next leg of my flight was LA to Chicago. I was really rushing through the airport because my plane didn't land in LA until 10 minutes after I was supposed to be boarding my flight! Luckily, I made it. I had the window seat this time and could sleep for a bit of it. It was only a few hours, though. There was a cute baby next to me, too. The baby was nursing, though, which I find disturbing. I don't care if you nurse your baby, just don't do it in the seat next to me! When I got off the plane was my first experience of being in the snow again. There was some freezing wind blowing in the passage thing between the plane and the airport.

The final part of my flight was from Chicago to Detroit. I had to run to make my flight again. I can think of a few people that would probably pay to see that. When I did get on, my seat was taken so I had to sit in the emergency exit row. The flight was less than an hour, so it wasn't a bad flight at all. After we landed, we had to stay in the plane for a while because the door wouldn't open. It had frozen shut or something and they had to call the mechanic. I kept texting my parents to let them know, and my mom was taunting me with the fact that she made me scotcheroos! I finally got off the plane and to my parents. They had brought my winter coat, new boots, scarf, and kangaroo hat for me so I wouldn't freeze on the walk to the car. My suitcase ended up not making the last flight with me and was stuck in Chicago. We had it delivered the next day. When I got home Buddy would not leave my side! I could tell that he missed me!

Yup, I'm a nerd!

I brought home a plush plague, but a real cold!

I did not sleep well at all last night. I was woke up for at least half of the night. I was pretty sick. We had to wake up and be at the church by 8. When I woke up, Bec had already left to catch a flight home for a wedding. When we got to the church we had to put some chairs and other things for the pageant in the car and go to the park.

The pageant was sort of a variety of things. They told the Christmas story through a pageant and had singing, the Girls' Brigade did a dance, and our group performed a puppet show to show the true meaning of Christmas. The puppet show was about a girl who didn't know the true meaning of Christmas and when she went to bed her stuffed animals came to life and tried to find it for her. Our group also did a skit around Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. In the skit, the group started singing, but they were interrupted by Frank and then Steve explained the lyrics to him. I didn't participate because I could barely talk, let alone sing. Afterward, we helped clean up then went to our billets for lunch. I just drank some "ensure" again. I also took a short nap before listening to Nathalie practice her testimony for church that evening. I got to sit in their massage chair while she practiced, and it was great.

Andrea in the puppet show

Erica was the narrator 

Girls' Brigade

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing skit

At 4ish, Jon and James came to pick us up for church since Rodney and Vanessa weren't home. Church was a 5:00 service and they have a very small church. There was probably about 20 people there that weren't part of our mission team. We sang, then Catherine gave a bus trip report, Nathalie gave her testimony, we had a skit, a pray, bible readings by Katie and Jo, and Steve talked about the reading. The skit that our group performed was one where Erica gave Jack a present and was really excited, but then he just smashed it up. I never would have understood it without the meaning being explained to me. It is supposed to represent Jesus giving us the present of forgiveness and most of humanity just destroying and not taking care of it.

After church, Vanessa was nice enough to take me back to her house to pick up my stuffed dog that I had left there. I got it for a present from my sister's friends in college when I was in the hospital for my brain surgery. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost it!

Next they had their youth group, which consisted of mostly middle school aged kids. When Vanessa and I got back, they were having a sausage sizzle. I don't like sausage, but I did eat some bread and they had neapolitan ice cream, so I ate that. After dinner, everyone went in to the common area of the church. Our group performed a skit where Jack was a superhero, but Katie and Erica played two girls that didn't need saving. It was supposed to represent people neglecting Jesus as their saviour. After the skit, Frank gave a talk.

We then cleaned up the church and had a group discussion of what had happened over mission. It was pretty emotional, although I don't cry. Everyone started looking at Katie when she was talking about how it affected her, and it brought her to tears. We then packed up the bus that we were borrowing and drove to Sydney. We didn't end up leaving until after 10 and they told us that it would take 2 hours to get there. It ended up only being 1 1/2 hours.

In Sydney, we were staying at Sydney Missionary & Bible College (SMBC) since they were nice enough to let us stay there. We had to wait for someone to tell us where we were staying, so Katie and I walked around for a bit. We saw some people watching a movie upstairs, but then we just went to wait by our luggage again. We ended up staying in the same single room and Katie just slept on the floor. After we dropped our stuff off, we went outside since we weren't really tired. We saw this giant slug on the grass. I guess it probably wasn't that big in Aussie standards, but it was big to Katie and me! We then met up with Nathalie and decided to walk around the campus a bit. On the other side of campus, we saw Rohan so we started talking and then Jae, Jon, and Scott came out too. The original plan was to stay up all night since it was the last night that Katie and I would be in Australia, but everyone else was tired and I was sick so we went back to our room after a while. Katie and I ended up talking for a while. Suddenly I just see this look on her face, like she had just seen death or something. I slowly turned around and saw this cockroach that was at least a few inches long! It was huge! (Again, by our standards, not Aussie standards...) We just watched as it did laps along the ceiling. Katie then asked if they could fly, and I wasn't sure. A few seconds later it starts to fly and she let out quite a loud high pitched scream. Nathalie heard her and came to see what was going on. We then were trying to get it, but we had no idea what we were doing. Nathalie went to go get help, and found Mark. I took a video of him killing it, and it is hilarious. He will want to kill me he sees this, but I feel pretty safe that he won't come to Michigan and track me down to do it!

WWF has nothing to do with wrestling or pandas

When I woke up today my voice was about two octaves lower than it usually is. I was just glad that I hadn't lost it. We had a meeting in the morning and then we had free time while the people in the puppet show practiced for tomorrow. After free time we went to another nursing home. I felt really sick and like I was going to lose my voice, but I sang anyway. The testimony was given by Bec and the bible verse by James again. After we sang, a cat came in that they have there for therapy. This nursing home was in between the other two as far as the coherency of the people in it. Some were not there mentally at all, but some seemed very mentally stable.

After the nursing home, we went back to the church for lunch. Since I was still feeling sick, I just drank another one of my fake ensure things. We then had free time in the afternoon where we went to Wentworth Falls, as in the actual waterfalls. It was abbreviated WWF a few places and it made me laugh because when I hear WWF I think of World Wrestling Federation. (yes, I know it is WWE now) I was debating not going, but Steve told me that we could go slow if I felt sick. I was glad that I went because it was beautiful. I only made it about 1/2 way down before I had twisted my ankle. Jack wrapped it up with some extra socks that Jo had in her bag. Jo was nice enough to stay back with me and then walk back up. My ankle still hurts if I step on it funny, but I think it will probably hurt forever in that sense. My sister said hers still hurts from cheerleading in high school and she graduated in 2002. 

The Americans at WWF
Me, Katie, and Nathalie

When everyone got back to the top, we went shopping in Katoomba. First we went to a cafe for afternoon tea and I just got a Sprite. Then Nathalie, Bec, and I went looking for a present for our billets. It was after 5 by the time we started looking, so almost everything was closed. We found a Kmart that was open, so we bought them a fondue set and a card.

fake ensure

Next we went to dinner at the church. I ate some real food in the form of a potato thing but I also drank some "ensure." I had my ankle on ice all during dinner and afterwards because it was hurting. I then sat around while everyone prepared for tomorrow. I was supposed to do a reading at church tomorrow evening, but since I was sick and thought I may lose my voice, Jo took over for me. Then Vanessa took me home when she went before everyone else because I was sick and wanted more rest.

On a side note, my Survivor audition tape is online... http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/casting_call/video_player.php?vid=14326&playvid=yes

Toothpaste Clouds

Nathalie and Bec decided to let me sleep in a little later since they knew I was sick. It was a good thing too because, despite trying to go to bed earlier, I was awake almost all night. I guess the late nap was to blame. That and I couldn't breathe through my nose at all.

We went to Katoomaba High School. The high schools in Australia are a lot different than the ones in America. First off, they are grades 7-12. They also have uniforms, despite being public schools. Each school has their own uniforms and it is funny if you are out when they get out from school and see all of the different uniforms. Thirdly, there isn't the same separation of church and state. They have scripture classes. A student can opt out of it, but otherwise they go to scripture class. We helped out with the scripture classes for 8th grade and then 7th grade. We were in a sort of auditorium classroom and when the students came in we divided them into six groups. I was partnered with Frank for a group of the 8th graders. James was the 'MC,'  Steve talked about the bible, and Amber gave her testimony. In the groups we did an exercise where the kids had to rank the importance of different things for their life. There were things like video games and also forgiveness and God. Steve gave his talk and Amber her testimony after this exercise and then we went through some discussion questions before they left. The seventh graders came next, but we switched so I just watched.

Photo courtesy of Bec Shaw

We stopped at the chemist on the way back to the church because someone had to get something. I decided to get a few of this drink mix that was like ensure. I wasn't sure if I'd like it because it was white chocolate flavoured, but it tasted really good. For lunch, they had frankfurts, so I just ate part of a bun and the drink I had bought at the chemist. After lunch, I tried to take a nap in the nursery, but Steve had kicked me out because he and Frank wanted to talk in there. He showed me another room that I could go to, though. I laid down and took a bit of a nap, but then just relaxed and played with my zune. Then Jon came in and played AudioSurf on my zune. I then went out to the gathering area and talked to everyone else before dinner.

We went to the house of one of the couples at the church for dinner. They had a really nice house with a beautiful view of the mountains. I ate a pasta thing, some crisps, and watermelon for dinner. We went outside to watch the sunset and there were these strange blueish clouds that looked like toothpaste, but there's no picture of them. After we were outside for a bit, we went in and had a group discussion about what happened that day and what was going to happen tomorrow. We then all went back to our billets.

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

Puttin' on the Ritz

I woke up around 7:20 and had a sore throat. We then ate breakfast at our billets' house and Rodney was home, so we met him. He then drove us to the church and we found out that he is the Assistant Pastor at the church, Holy Trinity Anglican Church. We had a meeting with our mission team, the pastor, and Rodney at 8:30 to go over our schedule. We then had a little break before heading over to a nursing home at 10 to sing Christmas carols. During break I listened to Bec practicing her testimony in front of me, Andrea, and Kat because she had to give it at the nursing home. A bunch of us were then sitting around the nativity scene just talking and I noticed that there was a lion at the nativity scene on top of the baby Jesus! We then made a joke about it being Aslan, from Narnia.

We then got to the first nursing home, called the Ritz. It was a much more extreme version of a nursing home than I had been. Almost all of the people there had some form of dementia or mental disability associated with age. We sang Christmas carols, including Aussie jingle bells, Bec gave her testimony, and James talked about a bible verse. Bec and James kept getting disrupted by the people at the nursing home. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for them.

Aussie jingle bells lyrics

After the nursing home, we went back to the church to eat lunch. I still wasn't feeling very good, so I just drank some apple juice and ate a leftover blueberry muffin from NTE. We then discussed the first nursing home because we had another one that afternoon. It was James first time going to a nursing home at all, and the first time a few of us, myself included, have been to one that was that extreme, where all of the people had some form of mental illness.

We then went to a second nursing home called Bodington, which was Roman Catholic. This one was polar opposite and a lot more like the nursing home I have been to before. The people were coherent, just old and probably couldn't live by themselves anymore. It was more of a physical deterioration than a mental one. We sang the same songs, but this time Catherine gave her testimony and Kat talked about a bible verse.

Bodington nursing home
Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

Next, we went back to the church. Since I was sick and tired, I took a nap in the nursery area. Bec and Katie took a nap too, so I wasn't the only lazy one. :P I easily fell asleep for a few hours and actually slept well enough to dream, although I didn't remember it. Katie had to wake me up when it was time to go, and I was completely out of it. It was one of those naps that when you wake up you feel like you just rose from the dead!

We went back to Rodney and Vanessa's house after that. Sebastian had a Christmas pageant that they had to go to, so they left Bec, Nathalie, and me at their house. We went up to their side room comfortable tv room and watched Persuasion. I actually don't really remember the movie at all, except that I thought it was funny that one of the characters had the name Wentworth and we were in Wentworth Falls. Rodney and Vanessa got home before it had finished and so we took a break to eat dinner. I think they had some sort of curry, which I don't like. I just ate some white rice, and told myself that I was preparing for Survivor. haha! After dinner, I decided to skip the rest of the movie and just go to bed early because I was getting pretty sick.

"'Are you tired, roof?' 'No, I'm gonna kick your butt!'" - Sebastian

I woke up really tired, but I had to repack everything and be out of my room by 8:30. I didn't eat breakfast and we didn't end up getting everything packed and leave on time, so we got to EPIC after 9. When we got there, we had our strand groups. We each had to give our presentations of what we had learned over the week. I thought they would be extremely boring and repetitive since there was about 10 girls giving talks on the same part of the bible. It wasn't as repetitive as I though it would be. Since I didn't have much time to prepare my talk, due to the Prayer Walk and wanting to spend time with people at Nathalie's party and because it was my last night with everyone before leaving, I only prepared an outline for what I wanted to say. It was alright because some other girls just had outlines too. I had the audience of my talk as Christians that are returning to faith. One girl gave me feedback about my talk and said that I seemed good to do that kind of talk because I seemed very caring. I had been thinking about my audition for Survivor and how people's initial perception of me is completely different than I actually am, so this made me laugh a lot (in my head, of course). We then took a group picture, but one girl had to leave before today so the leaders had taken her picture to photoshop in. They took our emails to send the picture, but I never got it...

We then had the final main session. I couldn't find Katie, Rohan, or Tom before it started, so I sat with Nathalie and Monica because I had found them. Richard Chin was the speaker and the theme of his talk was to go make disciples. On the way out I had found Katie, Rohan, and Tom. We all went to eat lunch, but where the WA group was supposed to eat was outside and it was raining. We all ended up going to the race track at EPIC and ate in the bleachers under the cover thing. We had sandwiches, and I had gotten the meat thinking it was turkey... it was ham, so I just ate the bread. (the colouring looked like turkey!) I also ate some watermelon. We then got a group picture of the WA group and a picture of the eight of us from the Tinney's house.

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan.
(I'm near the top right)

Eddie, Ben, Nathan, Chris
Monica, Katie, me, Nathalie
Photo courtesy of Katie

After lunch, we broke into our mission groups so that we could travel there. My mission group took Gemma to the train station in Sydney. We then found that one Erica's luggage had gotten on the wrong bus. Erica, Frank, and Jack waited behind for Henry (the other bus) to come and drop it off. The rest of us took the train to Wentworth Falls. There were some beautiful sights from the train. The train was also double decker, which was cool. Katie and I mostly listened to our ipod/zune, but we also talked to some of the others on our mission. Our mission team consisted mostly of Murdoch students, but we had a few others from different Unis that didn't have enough people for their own mission. At one point, Jon Wan said that AFES really stood for Australia's Fastest Engagement Service instead of Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. I don't remember what brought this up, but it made me laugh. I guess there's something about getting a bunch of Christians together, since the same could be said about Hope. (Ring by Spring, anyone?) Kat pointed out that it worked for her since next month she is marrying someone that she started dating around NTE time last year.

Photo courtesy of Katie

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

double decker train

Rocking out on the train
Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

When we got to the train station in Wentworth Falls, Steve, Jo, and someone else picked us all up and took us to the church. We had pizza and garlic bread for dinner. They also told us what Billets we were staying with. I was with Nathalie and Bec. Sadly Katie wasn't with us. We stayed with Vanessa and Rodney who had a 4 1/2 year old son named Sebastian. Rodney wasn't home that night, though. Sebastian was hilarious and the title comes from him. At one point on the way there he asked each of us if we were tired. He forgot he had asked Bec and asked her twice. He then started asking inanimate objects if they were tired, and then they would answer saying, 'No, I'm gonna kick your butt!'

Photo of Nathalie and Sebastian I
took from Bec's facebook

It was very eventful when we got to their house... the key broke! Vanessa had put the key in the door and started to turn it, but it snapped in half! She called Rodney to see what to do, but there was nothing he could do because he was gone for the night. Vanessa then checked the other doors around the house to see if there was another way to get in to unlock the door. She then ended up calling someone that helped her break into her house. Their front door has a multi-panelled glass thing, so they broke one and unlocked the door. The whole time Sebastian kept worrying about getting in and it was so funny. The sleeping arrangements were a double bed with a bathroom in a room downstairs and a single room upstairs. Since Nathalie wanted it and she was the oldest, she got the single room upstairs and Bec and I shared the room downstairs. They also had a cute little dog named Maybelle.

'I can't wait to go to heaven so I can meet Pascal!'

I slept in late, but quickly ate some Rice Bubbles. (aka Rice Krispies, they just have a different name) They also had little packets of vegemite, so I got two for people at home. When we got to NTE we had our strand groups and we split into two groups. Each group prepared a flow chart of the passage of the bible we were studying to help us in preparation for our talks. Afterward we had our break/reflection time and I sat in the singing corner with Katie. We then had our Gospel thinking track but I was too tired and hungry to pay attention.

Lunch was a Caesar chicken thing. Today Katie and I decided to actually sit where we were supposed to sit. They have people with signs saying to sit there so that they can fill the vacant seats. We always just sat where we wanted or by people we knew, though. Since we actually sat with new people, we met two guys, Evan and Ian. Ian was taking photos of everyone doing a thumbs up... I have no idea what he was going to do with those! They were from the Sydney area so we talked to them about what we should do during our half day in Sydney. Then Rohan and Jon Wan came over to our table. Jon got the attention of NTE tv and so they came over. Then Rohan decided to point at Katie and me saying that we were Americans. I felt like killing both of them at that point because then NTEtv decided to interview us. They always show those interviews during the main sessions. I was worried about it all day!

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan

I don't know how, but the topic of Survivor came up during break. I really don't know how since I'm the only one of us that watches it. I think it's because I talked about how one of the things on my bucket list is to go to every country that Survivor has ever been to. I was talking to Rohan and Katie about how I would like to be on it and how I think I could get picked. I definitely have the quirks! One of the things going on during break was missions around the world. Rohan went to the one about Japan while Katie wanted to go to the one about Fiji. I didn't care, so I just went with Katie. They did a cool Fijian dance for us. All I could think about was Survivor, though, since they have been to Fiji, which means that one day I'll have to go there. I decided during that talk that I would audition. (They currently have a casting call competition going on and I submitted a video, so wish me luck!)

We then had a half hour before Katie and I went to the Prayer Walk. Rohan had already gone before the conference had started because he went to the day before the conference meeting for people on Christian Union committees. Katie and I ended up just going to the Prayer Walk early. It was a room with ten different prayer sections. Each section had a different theme, like family, your uni, everyone at NTE, your community, etc. There was also a map of Australia and you were supposed to put stickers for places that you are praying for. I wanted to put one on Meekatharra because I think it has a hilarious name and we went there on the Northwest/Outback Excursion and had a drag queen competition. There was actually already a sticker there, but I think I put one there anyway. I also put one in Karijini national park. I just realized that those were the two places that I was sickest on my trip too. There was also a map of the world to put prayers for other parts of the world. Of course I put one in Michigan. It was the only one over there.

We were supposed to be in our strand groups at the point that Katie and I went to the Prayer Walk, but my leaders said that we were just writing our talks, so we didn't have to go to our area in Quokka. I just sat in the singing corner and kind of worked on it until Katie came. She left her group early because she had a headache. We then went to dinner. Surprise, surprise: I didn't like it. I just ate some rolls and potatoes. Katie, Rohan, Tom, and I then went to our singing corner and found Amanda there.

We then had the main session. I was really nervous that I would be up on the screen. Luckily, they didn't show my interview!!! I was so happy! They showed Katie's, but only my sleeve showed and they didn't show mine. I'm glad because I probably sounded stupid. They asked me what my favourite part of NTE was so far and I have no idea what I said. At some point during the main session someone said the quote that I am using as my title and I thought it was hilarious, so I wrote it down.

When we got back, we had Nathalie's birthday party. Katie walked home with Nathalie so that Monica could tell everyone on the bus what was going on and we would get there first. Nathalie never suspected anything, which is surprising because the only thing more suspicious than Katie wanting to walk back is me wanting to walk. Not everything went according to plan and Nathalie wanted to go to maccas but we couldn't let that happen! Somehow news hadn't gotten to the guys (meaning the four that stayed at the Tinneys with us) and so she wanted to go to maccas with Chris to work on their talks. We definitely had to try and rearrange our plans.

We decided that instead of trying to lure her in to one of the common areas, we would just all meet her in the middle of Lyneham. I had Katie texting me when they got close and Tom and someone else were on Nathalie look out so we knew when to light the candles on her cake. It was so funny to see Monica with the matches... although I'm not sure funny is the right word, it was kind of scary! She had a hard time trying to get the matches to light and then to get the candles to light. The candles also kept blowing out because of the wind. We had to hide behind a car to get them to light and try to shield them from the wind when bringing the cake to her.

'N' for Nathalie

Birthday girl

Nathalie was really surprised, but she was happy. We then moved the party into the guys' common area and all ate cake. There were some left overs, so Katie and I went to give them out. We took it up to Tim Thorburn's room and he took a piece. Then we came across a common area with a bunch of guys but they didn't really seem to want it. Eventually they did take it, though.

Katie and I were about to go to bed, but she decided that she wanted to play Martian Fluxx with Rohan and Tom, so I went with her. I had to write in my journal anyway. There were a bunch of other guys in the common area that were doing this weird thing where they started on top of the table and then climbed under and back on top without touching the floor. I have no idea what started that, but Tom ended up doing it! The group playing Martian Fluxx consisted of Katie, Rohan, Tom, Jack, Ruby (for a few games), and Evan, who we had just met at lunch that day. We ended up staying up until around 2:30.

Ginga Ninja

Happy St. Nick's Day!

I woke up and ate some cornflakes with sugar for breakfast. (Katie made me eat!) I sat with Katie, Nathalie, Monica, and Rohan. The table cloth had jelly beans on it, and Rohan was playing with the tablecloth. All of the sudden, Monica just hits his arm and all of us jumped. She then told him not to play with his food. It probably isn't funny to anyone that wasn't there, but it cracked me up so I wanted to put it in here so I'd remember it.

The first thing we had at NTE was strand group again. Our group went overtime which cut into our reflection time. I went back to our corner. Katie and I decided to rename it the Singing Corner because we would often just sit/lay there and sing along with our own music. Rohan came and sat with us for a while but then left. After break we had the Gospel thinking track, the science one, again. He talked about these four men who call themselves 'The Four Horsemen' and are anti-Christianity. After the talk Monica tried to tell Jae about what happened at breakfast, but she was cracking up at it and it was so funny! Monica's laughter was actually funny than the actual story!

Next we had lunch. It said that the sandwich was roast beef, but really I think that's debatable. It didn't really look or taste much like roast beef. Then Katie, Rohan, Tom, and I went to the singing corner until we had campus time. Campus time was a time designated for your uni to get together to discuss some more about mission and get last minute details figured out. All of WA was by each other, even though we came from a few different unis. Tom and a few others were actually doing mission with other unis, so they were somewhere else. We first all talked and prayed altogether. Then we split into our mission teams to go over last minute details.

When we were done talking, a bunch of WA students started a game of 'Thong Cricket.' (Thong meaning flip flop, of course.) After a while Katie and I went outside of that building and had a new 'singing corner' even though it wasn't really a corner. Sadly, I had sat in some tree sap and got it all over the back of my pants. :( Rohan had joined us when he realised that we were outside. He doesn't like being in the sun, so he kept moving where ever the shade was. After a while we went inside and joined the rest of the group. They had brought mattresses from Gemma in and were mostly laying on them.

Monica playing Thong Cricket

Nathalie and Shibs playing Thong Cricket

Katie and I chillin' with Octavius

Dinner was after that, and since we were kinda bored, we went early. We were the first ones there except for Kat. Kat, James, Jae, Amanda, Rohan, Katie, and I were all sitting at one table and somehow the topic of budgets/money came up. There was a very heated debate between Kat and Rohan because he has a video game section in his budget. She just couldn't find justification for it. After dinner, we had another main session with Don Carson.

When we got back to Lyneham, we decided to walk to woollies (Woolworths) and maccas (McDonalds). We wanted to go to Woollies so that we could get a birthday cake for Nathalie. Her birthday was the 13th, but that was the day that Katie and I were leaving and we wanted to all be together to celebrate and tomorrow's the last night before mission. We went to woollies first and Katie and Monica bought some cakes for the celebration tomorrow. We then went to maccas. There were a lot of people from NTE there. It was full! We had to be all secretive about Nathalie's cake and birthday celebration because she didn't want anyone to know it was her birthday because she is about 4 years older than everyone else. We gave the cake to Monica to put in her room because she was in a different room and Nathalie would know something was up if it was in our room.

The title is a nickname that Katie gave Rohan. He said that I was a ninja as we were leaving the main session yesterday night because I was weaving in and out of the crowd. We kept joking about my ninja skills throughout the day and when we were leaving maccas he hid by the sign to hide from Monica. Her perkiness scares him. Katie then called him a Ginga Ninja since he has red hair and it rhymes.

'There are only around 1 million possibilities, she'll eventually get it!'

I woke up around 7:15 and went to breakfast with Katie. We then sat with Rohan and Tom. After breakfast we watched Rohan, Tom, and Jason play Martian Fluxx before the bus left to go to EPIC at 8:30ish.

Our grassy corner

The first thing we had was strand group, then we had reflection and pray time before our break. We were supposed to reflect on what we've learned so that we don't get too overwhelmed. It was freezing in the room where my strand group was, so I decided to go lay in sun on the grass by a nearby building. I just laid in the grass and listened to Hope College worship band on my Zune. Katie found me and then Tom joined us later. Tom is obsessed with Rubik's cubes. (I think he had like 5 with him; everything from 2 sided to 5 sided) Katie started trying the 2 sided Rubik's cube. She didn't know the trick though and was determined to figure it out without being told how to solve it.


After break was the Gospel thinking tracks. The three of us were all in the one called 'The Gospel, Reason, and Science.' The speaker talked about what science is and how it cannot confirm nor deny God. Some of the talks from NTE, including the Gospel, Reason, and Science, can be found here.

Katie was obsessed with the cube
 and I like play-doh

Lunch was after and I ate part of my chicken sandwich and I kept my crisps and muffin for later because I wasn't feeling very good. We had some freetime after lunch, so Katie, Tom, Rohan, and I went to the same spot on the grass that we were at earlier. Katie was still determined to work on that Rubik's cube. Rohan and Tom were making fun of her, and they were doing some mental math on how many configurations of a 2 sided Rubik's cube there were, which is where the title's quote came from. I don't remember which of them said it, though. We also took the bus back to Lyneham during the break and I took a nap while Katie still tried to do the Rubik's cube.

When we got back, we went to the Gospel electives. Katie and I had both signed up for 'God at work at Unis around the world.' It was a complete coincidence that we signed up for the same Gospel thinking track and same Gospel elective. The man that gave the talk was from Africa and he talked about the beginnings of IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), the organization in charge of NTE, and how it is doing in other countries. He mostly talked about countries in Africa. He kept talking about running out of time, but I guess he didn't realize what time we were supposed to be done since he let us out about a half hour early.

Katie and I then went to dinner. It was curry, which I do not like at all, so I just ate some rolls. Since we were there so early, we finished early and went to our part of the grass from earlier. Rohan and Tom joined us when they were done eating and Katie continued to work on the Rubik's cube. We then went to the main session and Don Carson was the speaker again.

'Instead of an Australian accent, you're just speaking German!' - Rohan

We were told that we were going to be picked up between 8:30 and 8:45. I woke up around 7:45, but they ended up picking us up at 8:15. They were mad that we weren't ready in time, but that was really their fault. Actually, I was ready, but it took some of the eight of us until 8:30... (On the bus, Nathalie was again practicing saying no in an Australian accent, and Rohan said the title of this post. Apparently she was saying 9 in German) We had to leave early so that we could get to EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra) and register for NTE (National Training Event) in the morning. After signing in, I went to get my shirt. When I told the guy that my last name was Roth he said that he could say a Roth joke, but I've probably heard them all. I had no idea what this meant until Rohan said something a couple days later that about wrath being pronounced as the same as Roth in Australia.

They had funny signs on the grass, things
like 'lawn-gerie'

After we all registered, we met up in another building and had a WA group prayer. We then went to the first main session. Richard Chin was the speaker. The main sessions were similar to chapel at Hope College with songs and a main speaker, only they were longer and there was more people. There was approximately 1500 people at NTE.

After the main session was our first strand group meeting. My group was supposed to be in the room next door, but apparently they had written the wrong name on the back of the IDs. It was in Quokka 41, not Parkes 41. I found someone else looking for the group, so we found it together. We mostly played get to know you games. We played this game called Parcel Parcel, which I had never heard of before. It is sort of like hot potato in that you pass the parcel around until the music stops. The person holding the parcel when the music stops then has to rip off the first layer and there is a question to answer and some lollies or a prize. My group was all girls, but there were some mixed groups since Katie and Rohan were in the same group.

Next was lunch. Since I was separated from people that I knew, there were no WA people in my strand, I ate lunch alone. (Well, people sat at my table, but I don't remember if we actually talked or not.) My lunch ended up being this nasty chicken stuff but I don't remember what it was called. I just ate the plain crisps and pear that were also in it. I tried the yoghurt bar, but since I'm so picky I didn't like it. After lunch, I had found Katie.

The lunchroom

After lunch, we had break, which was a time to go check in to where we were staying. We stayed at Lyneham Motor Inn. There were about 10 beds in each room. The 9 Murdoch girls (Nathalie, Andrea, Amber, Lizzy, Kat, Bec, Amanda, Katie, and I) were all in one room. Katie and I got all of our stuff and put it in the room. Then we decided to walk around and see where other people were before we headed back to EPIC.

We then had our strand groups again. Since it was my first NTE, I was in Strand 1. Over the course of NTE, Strand 1 talked about 1 Peter 2:21-25. We then had to write a 5 minute talk at the end, but I'll get to that later. After strand we had dinner. It was pasta so I ate that and a roll. After dinner I had found Katie, Rohan, and Tom, so we went to the main session #2 together.

Don Carson was the speaker for the night-time main sessions. I hadn't heard of him before, but apparently he is a big deal. He was a really good speaker, although I don't really remember what he talked about. I do know that his talks throughout NTE had to do with 2 Timothy, though.

Main Session

After the main session, we went back to Lyneham for the night. Each room only had one key, so Kat had ours. Our room also had a faulty fan. It made this noise that sounded like a cow dying from being stung by bees! It was incredibly annoying, but somehow it broke or something by the morning.