time has flown right by and i can't believe my trip is almost over.. but enough about that for now.. we'll cross that bridge when we come to (thoughts on leaving AUS)it.
what ive been doing since my last post.. went to 2 weddings, did the Coogee to Bondi walk, went to New Zealand, Vivian came to visit from Brisbane, went to one of the night sessions at Hillsong Conference, visited Manly Beach, watched movies (Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Transformers), work and picked up a few indo words along the way.
i'll expand on each of the things i jus mentioned above.. go ahead and scroll down to read the ones u are interested in or if ur keen.. read the whole post.. lol. anyway here we go....
kevin and mariah's/tim and anna's wedding
i met kevin durin my NTE trip in Dec. To jog ur memories of what NTE is.. it's basically a national week long conference for christian university students held every year consisting of 2 parts.. the first part, held in canberra (capital of australia) is basically a conference with sermons, seminars and electives about the God stuff. The second part, was when we took a bit of what we learned and applied it in the form of a short term mission trip. Kevin was part of my mission team. Apparently, this was enough to secure an invite to his wedding. Kevin, if you're readin this.. thank you very much for the invite, i hope u have a long and blessed wedding! The wedding was held early June at a small local church jus down the street of where i live. The wedding had all the standard wedding stuff. reception was pretty nice.. they had these really nice fruit tart thingys. at the end of it all, there was the traditional tossing of the bouquet by the bride.. the girl who caught it was the maid of honour. was this fixed?? u be the judge.. lol
the next wedding was tim and anna's. i also met tim and anna at NTE. their wedding was held on june 30 (which is the end of financial year in Australia.. useless fact) Their wedding was larger and in a really traditional church. And when i say traditional, i mean it had high ceilings, stained glass windows, brick walls, wooden pews, pipe organ, the works. the wedding was so packed that some guests had to stand the entire time. one of the notable guests in attendance (who had a seat) was Phillip Jensen. From what i've heard, this guy is quite big in Christian circles around Sydney because of his sound systematic Bible teaching. I've heard the dude speak and he reminds me of one, Ravi Zacharias.. so gummi if ur reading this.. i suggest checkin him out.. lol
This wedding was also a reunion of sorts for the NTE team as well. Tim, being the resourceful guy he is, recruited us to have a hands-on part in the wedding. The job was simple, it was to assemble some (read: couple hundred) gourmet sandwiches for the reception. So, for the nominal fee of some haute cuisine cupcakes, we obliged. Even though we had to get up at the crack of dawn to make these sandwiches, i had a great time with heaps of laughs and some sneaky eating thrown in. me dropping some haute cuisine cupcake frosting on the ground and the girls giving me a hard time..
the team (minus rusmin (best man), cindy, vic, feri, kevin and plus some random auntie who i have no clue who she was)
To cap off the wedding, there was also the traditional tossing of the bouquet. However, instead of tossing a bouquet, Anna decided to toss a stuffed cow. After this was done, Tim then comes up to the stage and calls out all the men, married or not. Once all the men come out he tells a story of how he was talkin to a buddy of his and how his buddy mentioned that there should be an equivalent of tossing the bouquet for men. So they get to talking and conclude that steaks should be tossed out. So this is when he brings out a white box and tells the crowd that he will toss out a box of free steaks! this is what transpires..
after not realizing that blogging takes soooo long (read: ~2-3 hrs jus for the above) i now realize i was too ambitious at tryin to update everything ive been doin for the past few months so i decided i will continue the rest at a later date.. :P lol
after many pleas and requests, i'm finally givin in and updatin my blog again..
FOCUS Church Camp (aka Easter Long Weekend Retreat) first of all, australia's great.. they give us a 4 day easter long weekend.. (this would never happen in canada unless u worked for a bank, the gov't or called in sick on monday.. lol) i spent the long weekend at Church Camp.. we went to a place called shoalhaven.. it's about 3 hrs south of sydney.. we took this really ramshackle old coach bus which would slow down vastly goin uphill and the windshield wipers would conk out every couple minutes. thankfully, we made it there in one piece. my first reaction to the place was wow.. the place was very expansive, lots of space, had very lush greenery, a soccer field, an outdoor pool, a lake and cows. it reminded me a bit like the le geant course in tremblant actually. i'll find some pictures of the camp later..
anyway.. so about the camp.. the theme was "Love is..." it was very similar to what we do back home.. we had sermons, bible studies, free time, group prep/presentation, q&a.. the only thing different is that we also had workshops and a missionary sharing night
some interesting things i learnt from the sermons.. God's conditional love.. u must be thinkin what?? I learnt that once you become his follower His love becomes conditional.. u are expected to obey His commands and stay in his love.. if you become a Christian, understood what it meant, fell away and ultimately decided to reject Him altogether He will let you go. While He still loves you and it hurts Him to see that you rejected Him he will let you go. In response to this, we as Christians, should not dwell on how we can fall out of God's love but instead focus on how we can keep following and loving God.
I also learnt that if you are Christian, he gave you the faith and chose you to be in his family. We, who are Christians are chosen by God. Sadly, not everyone will be a Christian. Basically, hell will not be empty.. scary thought there. This would bring up the question of fairness. It wouldn't be fair for the people he didn't choose. To this, the pastor gave this illustration. In the States, at the end of a presidential term, the outgoing president is able to grant a pardon to a handful of convicted felons. Now he can pick and choose as he pleases, but ultimately all the cons wouldn't deserve the pardon because of their convicted crimes. The same goes for us humans, none of us deserve to be with Him. Those of us who are Christians are chosen by Him. For those of us who are Christians, we should be very grateful and be askin why he chose us.
some pretty heavy stuff.. ok, onto some lighter stuff.. saturday night of the camp we had a dance competition.. basically all the fellowship groups split up and did their thing.. we had some really nice choreographed stuff, some boy band stuff, some biblical drama and then there was our group.. 30 mins before the competition we were frantically tryin to think up somethin to do.. we were runnin thru tons of songs from one of the group member's mp3 player, tryin to come up with a song for our routine..we then settled for the YMCA.. quick and easy.. we came up with a routine, practiced it a couple times and went to congregate in the hall. when our turn came, we did the routine and blew the roof off the place.. lol.. it was quite the spectacle.. it was mainly due to the 2 dudes (my housemates btw.. lol) that were leadin our group. they did their thing, shakin parts that aren't meant to be shaken, we did our thing and we ended up winning.. lol.. im sure theres a video floatin around out there.. i'll dig it up and post it later
at the end of the camp, we took a huge church photo.. after the photo, some of the organizers of the camp got the traditional throwin into the pool.. i think a record number of ppl got thrown in this camp.. must of been like close to 10 ppl.
300 all i can say was wow.. it was pretty explicit.. in every sense of the word. gore, sex, violence.. it had it all. the cinematography and editing was put together real well.. story was ok.. ive read some of frank miller's stuff before (ie. sin city) and i think the movie has the same edginess.. it pulls no punches in terms of blatant violence. jus one very important question.. weren't those dudes cold at all? all they wore were capes and wrestling attire
music new linkin park! sounds more rock-y and less yellin but it's distinctively still linkin park.. one thing i noticed from the video.. scenes of poverty/pollution.. seems the trend nowadays is to do be more socially/environmentally aware.. pretty cool
silverchair - straight lines.. apparently they are australian (which i had no idea) this song is all over the radio here and i think it's pretty good.. have a go.. *i hear u snickerin, beej.. heh*
the lead singer is all grown up now.. last i heard of him he was that skinny teenage kid who sang "anthem for the year 2k"..
something funny i never expected so i was at work last week flattenin some boxes outside the warehouse and this indian dude comes up to me and asks, in his thick indian accent, if he could come in and use the washroom.. he then goes on and rambles about how he has a job interview next door and needed to go to the bathroom really badly.. i was like ok, ok.. come on in.. after he does his business he leaves and he says (in his thick indian accent) thanks, mate.. i almost burst out laughin.. it sounded pretty hilarious.. in all fairness, it does make sense though.. u come to a new country.. u adopt their language/slang.. it was jus unexpected and sounded funny
this wasnt actually the first time.. ive heard some fobs here use "mate" too.. and it jus sounds really strange to me.. haha
im out like bj ryan.. (crap.. gotta find a closer for my fantasy team now..)
so after working for 3 weeks, my boss sms's me to say that he doesnt have enough work for me to do so he has to cut me loose for now.. now goin into the job, i knew it was casual and this could have happened.. i jus didnt think it was goin to happen.. so at first it caught me off guard.. i was like crap.. what am i goin to do now.. so i did the first thing that came to mind.. i questioned God.. why is this happening? i had it all planned out.. i was gonna work at the job until june.. by that time i would have enough cash to go to new zealand for a couple of weeks.. then come back and continue workin for a couple months and then go travelling again.. but this unexpected change of events really threw me off track.. what am i goin to do now? so after strugglin and questionin for a bit.. i decided not to wait for my boss and started to look for other jobs.. which brings me to where i am now.. so far, ive applied to some jobs but havent heard back yet.. even while goin through this, i believe this is all part of God's plan and by God's grace, something will come up. i have experienced his abundance before and i dont doubt it now. which brings me to one of my favourite verses..
James 1:2-6
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
some other things i've been doing.. 1) ive been takin this course at the church i go to called growth groups. it's basically a course on how to lead bible studies. for some reason, recently, i've been more interested in gettin to know the bible more and i thought this would be a good way to feed that interest.. it's been good. it's lead by one of the pastors of the church and theres about 6-7 ppl in the group.. (all girls except me.. lol.. reminds me of baptism class.. haha) how the class works is each week one of us writes a bible study and leads it to the group.. 1/2 the group participates and the other 1/2 sits out and watches.. at the end, the pastor and the group critiques the leader.. pretty practical concept i must say.. instant feedback. so this week, it's my turn and since i've had this extra time i've been able to dive in and focus on it.. while it is my first study and im sure theres tons to improve, i think it should go alright. 2) one of my church buddies lent me a couple ds games, Phoenix Wright 2 and Hotel Dusk.. i jus finished phoenix wright 2.. with help from gamefaqs.. lol.. there were jus some parts that were too ambiguous and theres like no way u could figure it out without tryin every possible combination.. patience i didnt have.. lol. there was a twist to the ending but i think it was a bit drawn out.. and i think i can safely say there will be a 3rd Phoenix Wright game.. Next up, Hotel Dusk! 3) we had a hot pot party last saturday night. it was pretty funny.. the guys in charge of buyin the food only bought shrimp, tofu, veggies and a ton of jap instant noodles.. no meat! so some of the guys had to go out and buy some meat. anyway, so after the meal, we cleaned up everything.. everything except one of the actual hotpot bowls.. the next day, we discovered the unclean pot.. luckily there was cover on and when we opened it.. man was it rancid!! it was one of THE most foul things i have ever smelt.. soo, naturally.. we made a video to document the disposal of this toxic bio hazard.. (notes: i was the one filmin it and it was edited by my man, dan, the small guy in the video) enjoy!
4) the young and dangerous series.. one of my hk friends from work lent me a couple of these classic hk vcds.. and needless to say.. i was hooked.. i think im a sucker for all things mafia-related.. whether it be the Godfather, Scarface or that Michael Franzese book
thats my update.. im out like minh's team in fantasy hockey.. lol
i started my job today. my job title is (self-appointed title) hardware testing technician. i test old returned computers for a computer leasing company called General Trading House. They lease desktops, laptops, printers, macs, powerbooks, ibooks, office telephones, photocopiers, atms, those arcade games with "the claw" where the arm comes down and grabs a prize, dvd players, tandberg video conferencin systems, plasma tvs... just about anything electronic.
my first impression is that this place is a really really relaxed working environment.. work is supposed to start at 8:30.. but ppl dont come in till around 8:45-9.. u can have a break anytime u want.. lunch is supposed to be 1/2 hr at 12:30pm.. but it ended being like an hr at least.. haha.. and when 4:30 rolled around.. everybody pretty much rushed out the door. lol
ok, now onto the actual work part.. the job itself is super easy.. today, i was to help out donald test 13 laptops that came in.. these laptops were pretty old. our tests consisted of wiping the drives and inserting this CD that does a couple tests (HDD, keyboard, mouse, sound, and video). After setting up the laptops, (read: plugged them in.. haha) we inserted the first disc to wipe them.. this was no problem cuz pretty much all of them came back wiped already.. we then inserted the testing disc and ran the hard drive test.. this is the funny part; the time remaining on the test said: 6hrs. so i ask donald what should we do next while the test runs. hes like.. this is all we have to do today. i looked at my watch. it said 10:15am.. oh boy.. haha.. sooo the rest of the day, we pretty much ended up makin work for ourselves: we stared into space, cleaned up a bit, daydreamed, chatted, sat around, packed some boxes, drank some water and helped the others in the office (theres only 1 girl in the office btw.. haha and she does the same thing as us) the hard drive test finally finished at around 4:10-15.. we then ran the other tests and ended up finishing right at 4:30 when everyone was rushing out the door.. so that was my first day.. can't wait until tomorrow! haha
wednesday, i went to melbourne for the australian open. i had a ticket to the night session. gates opened at 5:00pm, so i went early to walk around and watch some games before the real match started.. nadal vs. gonzalez.. lol. the first match i saw was canada's own, daniel nestor, playin in a mixed doubles match. as u can see, not too many ppl were interested.. haha.. the game was actually pretty good. no real contest.. 6-1,6-4 nestor is actually pretty good at doubles.. top 5 in the world i think.. too bad he went to haig.. lol.. jus kidding
after this game, i watched the end of the haas vs. davydenko game on one of the many flat panels.. it was really good.. there was a tie break in the 5th set.. but haas pulled it out.. gutsy performance
after that was the time for the match of the night: nadal vs. gonzalez.. goin in i knew gonzalez was good (he had beaten hewitt and blake) but i wasnt prepared to witness how good he really was. dude played simply amazing.. well nadal helped out by playin pretty badly.. he had a lot of unforced errors.. but gonzalez was simply overpowering.. nadal wasnt in it at all.. gonzalez ended up winning 6-2,6-4,6-3.. i felt bad for nadal.. i think he was jus havin an off day or somethin.. anyway heres match point..
i was sittin in the last row so its pretty blurry..lol
Final thoughts: -gonzalez is no joke.. he jus smoked tommy haas to reach the finals vs. federer.. this open may be his comin out party -the roddick-federer match jus showed how nobody is even close to touchin federer.. it was unreal.. federer picked him apart.. i felt sick watchin it cuz roddick is my fav player.. but all the while knowin that i was witnessin greatness
it sounded pretty hilarious.. in all fairness, it does make sense though.. u come to a new country.. u adopt their language/slang.. it was jus unexpected and sounded funny
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