Sigh no more

This past week has been our break, and seeing as were traveling all over  last week, we decided to stay home-side for these past few days for the sake of finances.

Started running more. I discovered the route to a park with a track that loops around its perimeter. It's a bittersweet feeling running again,  especially when considering the 12 miles I was running this time last year with no problem...now it's about six laps before I head home.

I have also taken up prayer walking. Prayer has usually been something I have done off the cuff when I thought about it, most of the time when driving. But lately I have found sacrificing a few minutes unplugged from my ipod and with God to be worth it. I was inspired after running into a girl from school "prayer walking" on the side walk. She asked me if I needed her to pray for anything for me. It really stuck with me, so now I prayer walk too.

I did some job hunting over the break. I asked around in a knife shop, but the owner told me he was barely making means end as it was. Plus, even though I knew just as much as he did about a lot of the knives in the shop, he wanted someone with more selling experience. The next place I tried was an outfitter's shop (like an Australian REI), they told me to come back in June. That's defiantly a job I would LOVE to have. 

Yesterday, we had our first official camera class at noon. Most of it was spent showing us how to do things I already knew how to do, like setting up tripods. But our teacher is the best in the industry over here,  we consider it a real honor to be learning under him.

We had another moment of patriotic pride when we heard that bin Ladin had finally met his demise. I have to say though,  it was a struggle for me to keep from out bursting at a few of my international peers who were against the celebrating of the taking of another's life. I was actually shocked at the amount of disapproval of my country's handling of the ordeal.  However, most of them aren't the ones who have lived in a country that has been so viciously attacked as mine. Half my life time, my country has been trying bring him to justice, it's such a relief that it's over now.  I think once most of my international friends realize we aren't  blood drunk celebration of the killing of another one of God's children, but that justice has finally been served to monster who had been terrorizing the world for far too long.

By the way, sorry these entries are so scarce now a days. Our schedule is under construction and we have a handful of big assessments looming over us that take some time to work out.

I don't know if I have posted this song before...but it's this live version.

Mountains, trains, surf boards and pancakes.

Before I dive into and unpack the latest news and happening, there's some housekeeping that need to be done. First off, in regards to my last log summarizing my day, that was just an example of my MONDAYS (hence why the entry was titled "Monday"). Not everyday is as laid back as that one seems,  though it I said I had only one class, that class 3 hours long (4:15-7:15). Most week days we are actually going between classes and field work from around 8am-6pm.  However, the load here isn't overbearing at all, when considering the down time over the weekend and the amount of time we have to work on assessments. Now, onto the good stuff...


We have had a pretty eventful week showing our friend Schwartz around Australia this week.

Thursday: we took him into the city to show him the works: Sydney Opera House,  Coat hanger Bridge, and a diner at Pancakes On The Rocks.

Friday: We took him to see the Blue Mountains (always a pleasure for me). On the train ride there we ran into one of Australian friends from TV Media who offered to show us a "faster" way of  getting there. We ended up full out sprinting through the train station to catch our mountain bound train Bearden,  our Aussie friend and myself were the only ones able to get on as we watched the doors close on Josh and Schwartz dejected faces. We meet up with them later at Penerith, where we scarfed down some train station chicken burgers (it was Good Friday so everything else was closed), which actually wasn't too bad for chicken patties that was boiled with fries in the fry baskets. Here's a rough video I put together with what shots I could get with Stephan's camera, the SD card is messed up and only lets me film a few minutes worth at a time. Plus the quality on YouTube isn't as good as I had hoped. I'll do better in the future, promise.

Saturday, we went surfing. It was cold, rainy, and the swell wasn't the best, but what type of friends would we be if we didn't give Schwartsy the bragging rights to say he's been surfing in Australia? He managed to get up a few times on his big board he was using, which is more than I can say for myself who was thrashed around time and time again on my little six footer. I'm seriously considering selling it for either for something bigger, or squirrel the money away for safe keeping.

Monday

Someone has asked me to write an outline of my days...so here's one.

Morning-Woke up, worked out, ate coco pebbles, skyped some folks and took a shower.

Afternoon-Went to the school to work out some (equipment) booking. I also picked up my hard drive from my director who had loaded it down with the footage for me to edit. I then went back home and made some horrible Asian food.

Evening-Went back to the school for editing class. We didn't we really do anything in the actual class today. There was a few times I had to duck out to log more equipment in and out for people working on their short films.  I took the majority of the class time to polish up my Church News assessment that's due on Thursday.

Now- Just got done watching some Dexter. Once I get done typing out this entry I'm going to do one of two things. A.) Sleep. B.) Workout again...I'm leaning more towards the latter.

A quciky.

I know...it's been awhile, forgive me...

Well, no adventures this weekend. I had a TV media party last night, which was good to have some new faces over again and get to know some people we normally don't hang out with.

Speaking of TV media, I met with my director to write up deadlines for the short film we are supposed to turn in this semester. I haven't received the footage  I'm supposed to edit yet, but it's supposed to a documentary which should be pretty easy. It's also good because I feel my ministry is to make Christian based documentaries and short films (maybe a full length feature film one day). Media is such a massive and powerful tool of influence and the Christian community really isn't utilizing it like they should. Most Christian films are such poor quality that they make the audience feel like they just went back 15 years. No one today wants to watch something that looks like it's being played off an old VHS tape. I want to make films with some bite to them. Show an audience (Christian and secular alike) something that will open their minds of convict them in some way. Something that can't just be turned off and forgotten about, but something that will keep people will think about long after the credits have rolled.

We have a break coming up, and I desperately want to gather a group of my more out going friends (there's a lot of them here. Not surprising seeing most of them traveled across the globe to get here) to go on a camping trip in either the Blue Mountains or some lone beach up north somewhere so we can spend our days surfing and nights around a camp fire or in our hammocks gazing up at the star studded skies.  I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I know one thing for certain; if I spend my entire break pacing around my house, I'm going to go lose it. A free spirited beast like myself should never be held captive in this cage of dry-wall for too long.

Katoomba...

Finally, a day worth my readers' time!

Bearden and I went to early service this morning so we could have time to go to the Blue mountains today. After church, we went home and  hastily threw some gear together and hopped on a bus. From the bus, grabbed a train which we rode for about thirty minutes NW till we came to Penrith. We had some time to spare and were both starving so crossed the street to a shopping center and after getting searching the whole mall over we finally found the Oporto's (a Brazilian chicken burger joint) we were craving.

We only had enough time to grab the food, cross the street to the station and hop on another mountain bound train. We rode for about an 45 minutes till we rolled into a train station that made me feel like I had just sent back 60 years. The doors were wooden and manual to open and we had to literally jump from train to platform to make the two foot gap. It was raining as we walked through the quaint town of Katoomba. The miniature mountain metropolis was made up of dozens of outdoor  shops full of every piece of gear anyone would need.  As a gear junkie, I was proud to see that most of the stores' offerings was gear that I either had or was  looking at getting. I even bought a brimmed beanie with some money my mam maw sent me, she always like me in hats so it seemed fitting.  The village's populace seemed to be made up of hostel dwelling backpackers, ramblers and vagabonds...I felt right at home.

This is a corner of a mural at the town's train station. Bearden took the pic, and he'll probably put the full scale one up on his blog sometime in the next few day. But I just like this part cause it has the guy jumping the canyon on his horse.

The more we walked through the icy rain and blind-siding blast of chilling northern winds, the more I thought back to my water/wind proof element jacket hanging up at home across the back of a dinning room chair. I remember making a mental note to roll it up as tight as I could and to pack it down into my camelbak, but in the rush it was left behind. It didn't help that we were both in shorts and tee shirts. We only had to hike to the edge of the town to find the trail heads that lead over crest of the mountain. Bearden and I just barely touched on them when the rain started picking up and we decided to turn back. We did get to see some awesome sights, even with the fog.

Yes. I am wearing 3/4 length pants. I'm in Australia, it's the cool thing to do.

On the train ride home I sat next to the most delightful group of Asian people. They had a giant chocolate bar they were passing amongst them and they gave me a corner of it. One thing I have learned here is NEVER turn down free stuff... it doesn't come around often.

We got off at Penrith, only to realize that the train we just exited was supposed to take us all the way home and the next one didn't leave again for another hour. We walked back into the mall we had eaten at hours before. All the stores were closed so we just took advantage of the hand warmers to dry our clothes. Twenty minutes later, I'm carving up an orange with a buck knife while we shelter from the rain on a bus stop bench. Finally,  Sofie came and saved the day in her little black hatch back.

Later, when I got home,  I tried out the jet bath...it didn't work. Which means I sat in a tub of luke-warm water like an old person for nothing.

Also, I gathered some milk crates for a to make a bed frame...tad-ah (yes, that is the mattress I found on the side of the road).

                                                               

            Song, but no dance.

Free stuff is the best kind of stuff

I was hoping to have the video ready for my next post, but after putting a rough cut together, I have realized I don't have enough footage to make something I would want to put my name on. I'm going to wait till I have gathered enough footage to make a something better.
I have been doing a lot of camera work lately. Yesterday I worked camera 1 assist (the camera behind the drums) for sisterhood.  My job originally was to walk behind the camera man  holding cord that is plugged in feeding power to the camera. However, he let me shoot the first two songs so I could get a taste for it. The trickiest part was traveling over the spaghetti of wires that covered the floor while trying to look through a 2 inch view finder of the metal cased 40 pound camera. Then later that night, I was called in to work another camera in C.C. (Conference Center) for Team Night. I'm also working camera 3 again for Wildlife tonight.

Last Tuesday we had forgotten to take the trash down,  so for the past week trash has been piling up in the garage and on the kitchen counters. So when the time came to take the trash down, we were face with the dilemma of having more trash than what would fit in the wimpy little can. But, we have become masters of adaptation. So in the cover of darkness, Bearden and I walked the streets, loaded trash bags in hand, tossing them in our neighbor's half empty cans....Problem solved.

I woke up this morning in a sleeping bag with bandanna around my eyes and ear plugs logged deep in my skull. First I'll explain the sleeping bag. Reason 1.) The other day we found a full mattress abandoned on the side of the road...so of course we had to take it. I'm trying it out right now (we moved my twin in the guest room for when our friends come) and seeing as we don't have any sheets bigger enough to fit it, I'm using a sleeping bag.  Reason 2.) I miss camping...and I needed to try out the sleeping bag I got for Christmas. Reason 3.) Bearden can't sleep without the fan going and i get cold. As for the bandanna, it's to cover my eyes when the sun comes up. The earplugs I had used for working cameras behind the drums, and i figured I'd wear them to sleep in. I remembered the first time I ever used them was at a monster truck rally and my dad showed me how to roll them up and pack them into my ears. I'm remembering a lot of little stuff like that now, which is strange, I thought I would be forgetting memories.
As for this weekend, I'm aching for the mountains. I have talking to heaps of people about them and they all say it's the bee's knees. So I'm going to try going there, even if I have to go alone. It would be good to scout out the area before we plan a camping trip anyway.


 Courage and integrity have been a running theme lately around Hillsong. It makes me glad I got tattooed what I did and when I did. Having the word Integrity embedded in my skin defiantly has been a way of keeping me honest. Which was the reason I got it, to hold me accountable.

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” -W. Clement Stone 

Easy-Breezy.

Well, this weekend is wrapping up, so I guess I should give a run down on what's happened.

Friday- We had our inspection...and we rocked it. You could have eaten off any surface in this house over the weekend. It was obvious that the owners and Realtor were surprised that a group of male, American college students could keep their house in such impeccable shape.

I got a much needed haircut. For the past two years (since Africa) I have been keeping my hair cut in a short faux/military style by getting my sister to trim it every other month. I had gotten Leanne's (Canadian) hair dressing sister to cut my hair for half price. It feels great now. 

After the haircut, I had to go to the school library and finish printing off my papers to submit my video assessment, which is actually the first physical assignment we have had to turn in due to Hillsong being a paperless college. If it weren't for my pen pals, I would probably have forgotten how to write. When I finished and dropped off the folder with all my paper work and DVD for the assessment I went home and got myself some sleep before heading back to the church to work cameras for youth. I operated camera 2, the main cam that follows the speaker. I felt like I screwed up a lot, in fact I had dreams later that night that I kept falling asleep for chunks of the service and the director was screaming at me over the coms.

Saturday- I woke up and had the house to myself. I just kind of tried to relax the first part of the day, but I just couldn't take it after a few hours.  I became overwhelmed with restlessness and tired of sitting around at home. I found myself pacing around the house like a tiger in a cage, phone in hand texting everyone I knew to see if the wanted to go out and do something. Finally, the rest of the gang showed up and I talked them into going to get to Pancakes on the Rocks in the city. Everyone had been telling me was the bee's knees, it's kind of like an ihop meets the Varsity. The pancakes here aren't like America, they have alot more substance meat to them..and ice cream. After our diner, we explored the city for some photo ops. Stephan let me use his old camera, so I practiced for filming. I'll put a video up when I get a chance.
 

Sunday (today)- I was supposed to work this morning at church this morning at 7:15, I woke up and my clock said 7. Walking, it takes us around 10-11 minutes to walk to Hillsong...I got there in 3. I got to the control room and there was no body there. I flashed back to what Sophie told me last night "Don't forget to set your clock back an hour!" I jogged back home, poured a tall bowl of cereal, crawled back in bed and tried to laugh at the situation.






If there was one song that I could listen to before I die and leave this earth...this would be it.