"His 50th entry"

This one is a more of a "just checking in"  kind of post.
This week was the first week of the new semester. We met the new intake for TV on Tuesday. It feels completely bizarre to see them filling out their "Past Experience Forms" the same ones I filled out 7 months ago. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!  The new intake is pretty massive as well. We were told just under 30 new students would be coming in...it will be the largest class the TV/Media stream has ever had (we were the biggest when we came in at only 18). It was also in this meeting that our new fieldwork was decided (where we would be serving in the church). They asked me if I wanted to stay on booking, and I told them I would rather be working in a more involved position. To my surprise, they moved me to work in Hillsong TV (Which is broadcasted internationally). It might not turn out to be that big of a deal, but I'm excited about none the less.

This semester is going to be pretty hectic. They told me my new fieldwork would be one of heavy responsibility (even though I'm not even sure what I will be doing yet), but besides that, we also only have four months to write, shoot, and produce our short films. So this week, I have made writing the first draft of my script my top priority. Next week I'm gonna work on casting my characters and making revisions.  We also have twice as many exams to do this semester as we enter into the studying the New Testament.
In other new, Bearden and I helped shoot a video for Sunday Night Live next week. It feels really good to be actually working on videos again...especially ones that will get put up on the big screen. Even if all I do is stand there holding a mic stand, it's heaps better to be involved than on the outside looking in.

"The One He Wrote About Going To Melbourne."

Well, the end of the appreciated break is coming to an end. Class intensives start back Tuesday and we start a new chapter here at Hillsong. We are no longer the same bewildered students wandering around in hallways trying to find classes, but a more mature and knowledgeable group that knows a little bit more of what to expect in the months to come. The only thing is, we only have four months to write, shoot and edit our short films. We will also have twice as many test and exams on top of being active in positions of higher responsibility.

Ok, so to recap the break....

The first week I took off to just recover from conference. I slept in and ran in the morning and in the later afternoon I would go visit and spend time with some friends. At one point we went to the city and we decided to take the ferry back but we ended up in the middle in boonies around midnight with a  45 minute walk to the nearest train station.

This week I had planned a road trip to Melbourne ( 539 miles south from Sydney in the state of Victoria). However, part of the plan fell through when one of the drivers bailed t the last minute, so a friend and I had to make a quick call to take a train there instead and meeting up with the rest of our friends (who had a car) when we got to the city. All these plans were hastily researched and put together at a party the night before. I had just enough time to go home throw some clothes in my backpack, get about two hours of sleep and meet my friend at the bus stop. When we got to train station we were told that most people book the tickets in advance and we were probably not going to get on. We found the ticket register and asked anyway and turned out there were two seats unclaimed. We bought the tickets with only minutes to spare before departure. It wasn't long after I sat down that I pulled my cap over my eyes and slept away the first few hours of the 11 hour train ride.

I fell asleep in a concrete jungle and woke up to this.

When we met up with the rest of our gang in Melbourne took some time to stroll around and get a feel for the city. I found it was a city that appreciates and incorporates more art into it's streets than Sydney does. Every where we went there was a sculpture here, some abstract art there. An entire back alley was completely devoted to showcasing local street art.

  A friend of ours from college, who lived 45 minutes outside downtown,  had opened up her house to us while we were in town. This came as a relief not only because it was going to help out with our funds, but I had made no plans (or even looked at) any places to stay while I was there.

 The next day was spent doing more exploring around the city. We went to a museum,  an ancient cathedral, a massive library,  and a few shops here and there. That night we went bowling at a strange club/arcade place. It reminded me the time my dad took me to Dave & Busters when I was a kid. When we returned to the bus stop, we found it completely locked down and abandoned by everyone except a handful of janitors who laughed and told us the trains had stopped running an hours ago and wouldn't be running again till 5am the next morning. At a lost for what to do, we huddled together and shot ideas back and forth. A security guard felt sorry for us and told us we could hide out in a nearby open lounge as long as we didn't fall asleep. However, we managed to make a deal with some cab drives to take us home on a flat rate.

The next day we decided to take the car into town so as not to get left behind again by the trains. We spent a few hours driving around just looking for parking. The going rate was $20.00 and hour in most places. Ironically, the best parking we could find was in one of the city's larger casinos. On the way back, the iphone we were using to guide us back died, so we were forced to use our boyscout skills and buy a map at a gas station.  After many turn arounds and mix ups, we finally made it back to the ous in wee hours of the morning.

Once again, I got a few hours of sleep, (over the past few weeks, I have gotten pretty good at waking up quickly and getting on the go)  rolled my clothes into tight little bundles and stuffed them back in back pack. Once again we found ourselves at the ticket office of the train station, only this time we had booked our tickets, we just had to pick them up. As he handed us our tickets, the clerk looked up at the clock and told us we had 4 minutes to board the train on platform 1...the only thing was I had no idea where platform 1 was and this particular station had multiple crowed levels. After doing a brisk running through the station we manged to find our train and be the last travelers to board as they shut the doors behind us. The train sluggishly lurched forward before we even made it to our seats.

                                          Band of Horses makes great train riding music....

"The One He Wrote About Conference."

Well, Hillsong Conference finished up yesterday. My has it been a crazy week.  I'm still trying believe such a mammoth event is over now and my first semester of college is officially completed.

Monday was an 11 hour rehearsal at the Sydney Entertainment Center. I was allocated to be the camera 1 assist (the one on stage behind the drums) for the entire conference. Basically, it was my job  to make sure the person working camera never had to worry about tripping on his cable. It wasn't required that I be there on Monday, but I went anyway just to help out for a few hour and ended up staying the entire day. It ended up being a good thing though because I got a chance to learn my way around ahead of all the other assists that came in the next day.

The days went as followed: We would wake up around 5:30am and be at the Hillsong campus by 6:15 to get on the bus. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to the Entertainment center in down town Sydney. We would have a rehearsal for about an hour and half, then have maybe a 20 minute break before meeting back out on camera and start the opening session. During a transitional video between praise and worship we would dismount of the stage and I would be given the camera. I then would go under the stage and hand off the camera to a operator on the other side. The first time I did this I tried crawling on my hands and knees like I normally would. I then tried cradling the camera in my elbows like I had seen solders do in trenches under barbwire. Eventually, I was just laying on my back and squeezing the camera between my thighs as I used the crossbeams under the floor of the stage to pull myself across. After the camera was handed off, I had an hour to myself to sleep while the pastor preached on the stage above me. There were three sermons a day with rehearsals in between, so us folks on camera rarely even left the auditorium to see daylight. Most of our meals were ran to us while we hid behind monitors back stage. There were many occasions were I had sandwich in one hand and a  coil of cable in the other. I defiantly feel like I have gain more dexterity in my hands over the past few weeks. We normally finished around 10:30pm, then get on a bus, go home, shower, sleep and start the day over again.

There were a few highlights however. One time, during an opening song I got to ride the stage lift (the had it set up to make it so drums could rise up out from under the stage. It made me feel like a rock star even though I was dressed completely in black, crouching down and trying my best not to be seen. It was just an honor to be on stage with bands like Hillsong United and Jesus Culture. In fact, the hallways back stage were filled with Hillsong celebrities. One time I was walking down a crowed ramp when some dropped their water bottle and I swooped down and picked it up as I walked by. I spun around and slapped it in the open hand that had dropped it, as I looked up I was faced with none other than Brian Houston...I shouldn't have been shocked seeing as I see him every Sunday, but I was a tad star struck regardless. Also, all the openers were pretty awesome. Although I didn't get to fully see all of them because I was on stage, it was cool to see some of the videos I had helped film up on the jumbo-tron.

One of the biggest struggles for me this week would probably be trying to keep a cheerful attitude. The communication (or lack of) is astonishing to me here. Maybe it's the culture I was raised in or perhaps it's just my personality, I want things to be concrete and know what's going on. Unfortunately, that's not how they run things here. I don't want to vent heaps about it, but it was something I had pray for patience and that God would help me get over myself by giving me a good attitude.