Big Bow of Australian Sun

I am currently sitting in a roast-y basement with a burning and full belly, completely satisfied and exhausted. Let me explain:

I don't know where to begin! I guess I'll tell you about yesterday first!

Youth street was great, I'm definitely going to miss all of the kids. But, after youth street was the BEST part!!! So, I was just sitting on the computer minding my own business about to write a blog when a group of people started getting their shoes on and getting ready to leave. At first I was kind of bummed that I didn't get invited but then I convinced myself that I had better things to do... :) But then LaChelle grabbed me and told me to put on some shoes and put a blind fold on...?!

Then all of a sudden I found myself being led by my ENTIRE school on this wild goose chase of twists and turns where I tripped over a million things (my guide wasn't very good at warning me of things BEFORE I ran into them...), stepped on a few cockroaches without knowing it, had to be carried over "water", and walked almost a half mile BLIND-FOLDED!!! It was crazy!

And then finally we got to our destination and I took off my blindfold to see my ENTIRE school stuffed into Macca's with chocolate cake, and of course, my favorite ice cream Sunday! They had all decided that my 18th birthday was too special to be overshadowed by the boy's special dinner the night before, so for the past two weeks they had all been planning a SURPRISE birthday party!!!! :)

Seriously, I couldn't express how happy and thankful I was! I wanted to throw all of THEM a surprise party just so they could feel how special I felt...well, I guess it would defeat the purpose of making them feel special if they all got a party...but still, that's what I wanted to do... :)

No one else in my entire school has had a party like this - why me? It seriously touched my heart more than they could ever know! It was so sweet that they all planned it, that they all walked that far for me, and that they were so excited about celebrating ME! It felt so absolutely un-deserved but so incredibly wonderful! I can't even describe to you the feeling in my heart right now!! It's like my heart is jumping, and bubbling, and totally warm! Well...that warmness is probably from my sunburn. Speaking of sunburn, let me tell you about my day today!!

So, I didn't get to bed until past 1 o'clock because our lights were still on...and then I woke up at 6:45 to skype with my dad and talk to kev for a quick second before I headed off for a full day!

A big group of my friends all decided that we wanted to spend our last free day in Australia, where else? THE BEACH! So, we all headed out at 8:00 and embarked on a day FULL of sun! We walked to the train station to get some breakfast at an over-priced waffle store, but I didn't want to spend that much money so I went bargain shopping for fruit. By the time I actually got on the train I had 3 donuts, 1/2 a grapefruit, a mango, and 1/2 a watermelon in my backpack... :) And all of that was under $8!!

Of course, the train tracks were being worked on so we had to take one train to another train station, get off there and take a bus to another station and walk to a ferry, and catch a ferry to the beach. After all that walking in the incredibly hot Australian sun we were SO ready to dive into the freezing water! Then I laid out, listened to my ipod and fell asleep. It was WONDERFUL! Then I got up, got some ice cream, looked around the local market, and laid back out to read "Gone with the Wind" (I promised my grandmother I'd try to read it while I was here, I am LOVING it so far!)

By about 6:00 we were all ready to head home. So we made the long trek from the ferry to the train station, from that train station to another one, from that station to a bus, from that bus to another train station, from that train station to another train station, and from that station we walked about 2 1/2 miles home and straight into the showers. :)

Upon exiting the shower I discovered that I was burnt!!! We all thought that I was the ONLY one of the group that somehow escaped the burning Australian sun without getting toasted - I thought I had just picked up a nice tan. But, once I got out of the shower I realized that I had forgotten to put any sunscreen on my stomach, and while I was sleeping my tankini showed about an inch of my stomach (scandalous, I know). So, now I have a large red mark about an inch wide across my stomach...yes, in this case modest was not hottest. :)

By the time we were all clean and toasting with our sunburns it was time for us to devour about 5 pounds of spaghetti and meat sauce! And now we are all walking around like zombies getting ready for bed. :)

So, that explains the burning and full belly, the completely satisfied and exhausted part - and as for the roast-y room...we live in a brick building in Sydney Australia which at the moment is going through spring time, which is equivalent to an INCREDIBLY hot day in the middle of summer in Texas - and, we HAVE air conditioning...but we're not allowed to use it. We just open up the windows (which does absolutely no good considering there's no breeze) and turn on a few fans - yeah, it's ROAST-Y!!! Okay, I'm probably exaggerating a lot, but it is hot. However, we're allowed to use the air conditioning in our rooms so it is deliciously cool in there at the moment.

Well, I think I have started to ramble, which means I am thoroughly exhausted and ready for bed. Normally Mondays are our day off, but tomorrow we have lectures at 10:30 - but, nothing before then so I'll get to sleep in for the first time in about 4 weeks!!! And then, LaChelle and I are only going to sit through an hour of lectures and then we're getting picked up by Mika and taken to a Hillsong College chapel! :) Hillsong College is definitely an option for me so I'm really excited about checking it out! It's my first college visit...and it's in Australia!!! HOW COOL!?

After our chapel we're going to go grab a cuppa and chat some more - I seriously love Mika SO much! She's been one of the biggest surprises and blessings of all!! But, I'll tell you more about her tomorrow! :)

I love you all! Please pray that this sunburn goes away QUICKLY so that when I get home I can run up and jump into my family's arms...without being in pain. :)

I can now say a very anticipated G'NIGHT with a delicious sigh of contentment from the wonderful day that God specially wrapped up and gave me - with a big bow of Australian sun on top!