'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.