Adventures in Life

So far things have been going ok. My Macbook stopped working, and so all my pictures are temporarily unavailable. Our group also got hit pretty hard with the stomach flu. I caught it as well, and was sick for a few days. :( We have been doing more free bbqs, free ice cream, and meeting new people. Four girls (our of our nine) left for New Zealand a few days ago, it's been a little lonely without them, but we will be seeing them on the flight back to Hawaii! Today we made cookies and we're going to give them out to people tomorrow. Kari, our school leader is coming today to spend a few days with us, so that should be great too. There is another group of ywamers (who are debriefing now) and they did a surfers dts. So it's pretty nice to spend time getting to meet more people from all over the world doing similar things that we are doing. There's a small town called Nimbin that we've been to twice now, and it's basically a small weed town where all the stores are focused on selling drugs and the police only do a big drug bust a year. Well, Kari had almost arrived, so I have make this short. I miss you all!

Cheers,
Taylor

Posted by Amy at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well after 12 hours on a bus, we made it to Byron Bay - a small, hippy -style town. The weather is nice and the beaches are HUGE...in fact, I don't think it ever ends. In my last post I mentioned no spiders bugging me. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. There are some spiders as big as the palm of my hand, and just plain scary! We've visited the Arts Factory to give away bread to some people, and I've never smelled like weed so bad in my life! There are a lot of drugs and alcohol around, which is quite sad to see. Lots of people do have questions about God, but most people already have made up their mind about God and who He is (or isn't). I get to talk to people on trains, buses, ferries, in the parks, at hostels etc. about God and what their beliefs are. I'm only in Australia for 5 more weeks, and already I can say that I would love to live here one day. It's just fantastic (minus the huge spiders and the hole in the ozone layer).

Cheers,
Amy

Posted by Amy at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments

After a flight over 9 hours long, and being awake for almost 24 hours)we made it to Australia on Christmas Eve! So we celebrated Christmas and New Years, have been exploring by trains, buses, and ferries. For New Years we went to Sydney downtown to watch the fireworks - which are apparently world famous. Since there were over 1 million people there all filling the streets, it was too crowded for my taste. As for the fireworks...they were fantastic! Catching the ferry back to Manly was a little scary - being crushed by the crowd was not ideal for starting the new year! Australians are so nice and friendly, and the weather just a *bit* more chilly than Hawaii. The beaches are incredibly beautiful, and so far I haven't been bothered by any crazy spiders or snakes. On Sunday morning I helped feed the homeless in Sydney, and later went to Hillsongs Church for the evening service (the music is as great as their cds). This upcoming week we will be staying in hostels and possibly hiking around a bit. The adventure has just begun.

Cheers,
Amy

Posted by Amy at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments