Ok. So its been awhile. By awhile I mean about 2 months. I'll try to hit some of the highlights.
Max Brenners Chocolate Bar. It is the most amazing chocolate I have had on the face of this earth. The italian thick hot chocolate is like drinking pure amazing chocolate. There are 2 in the states. I would suggest revolving an entire trip around this place to go. You won't regret it. Everything you eat comes with a little cup of melted chocolate to dip it in. It's incredible. The other day I got chocolate cookie ice cream sandwich. Also amazing. I am hoping to have everything on the menu before I leave. It's very possible. I haven't had anything I don't like yet.
The visit. Callie cane and visited me for a weekend in May. We had so much fun just sort of living Sydney life. We went up to the Blue Mountains and climbed about 800,000 steps. I might be over exaggerating.. but it was a ton! It was so worth it though. The Blue Mountains are beautiful and hiking around them was a blast. After the Blue Mountains we went to Pancakes on the Rocks. Pancakes on the Rocks is about the only place that is open 24 hours here. They serve ice cream on the pancakes..which seems to be pretty popular. Mine were incredible. After that we just walked around the Sydney Opera House. I never get sick of seeing it at night time. Its so beautiful with all the lights. I also killed her at rummy. Finally.
School. June 16th I finished my last final. I am finally done with Australian school thank goodness. The exam was intense. They have proctor's walking up and down the aisles and don't let you bring absolutely anything in. They even check pencil cases and coin purses for phones. This one kid brought a phone in and when they found it they escorted him out. I found it slightly ridiculous and distracting. At least I only had one! Finishing that last final also meant I was done with my undergrad. Assuming I passed one class here I officially have a Bachelor in Accounting. Score.
Hunter Valley. My roommate, Candace, and I went on the Hunter Valley wine tour yesterday. It was beautiful and so so good to get out of the city. I also discovered that I think red wine is like drinking something musty and that I really like white wine. I also had a wine that I like to describe as liquid pop rocks. It was very fizzy. Anyway. It was so good to see the beautiful wine country. I also finally saw my first kangaroo in the wild! It was cool to see him hopping about. Australia has the best animals.
Royal National Park. Today Candace and I went to Royal National Park. It is the second oldest national park behind Yellowstone. Once we finally actually found the park it was beautiful. I'm amazed by all the untouched land that is in Australia. Which is saying something considering I come from Eastern Washington. Its all so green and there is so much vegetation. We hiked around the park for awhile and also found a little river. You could rent these things called "aqua bikes". Basically its like a giant tricycle in the water. It was pretty cool. My legs got a little tired though. I would definitely suggest it over a paddle boat though.
Other than that a lot of my time has been spent just spending time with people. Two of my friends from church, Lauren and Caroline, invited me to a party they had that was "Christmas in June". It was such a fun time. I was on sugar cookie duty and I had a stomachache for about 2 days after all the sugar I ate. It was so cool to meet some different people at Hillsong and have some fun celebrating American Christmas traditions. Especially since it feels like Christmas since it is getting cold! I have also been beating Candace at many games of cribbage. I even studied quite a bit in there somewhere. It has been a very eventful and fun 2 months. If I think of more highlights I may post them.
The decision. I also thought I would post a bit about my decision to stay in Australia. In the next week I will be moving out to Hills, which is about 30 min away from where I am now, and moving into a house with three other girls. In July I will start attending Hillsong International Leadership College. The first semester ends in December and I will be home for December and January and then most likely come back to Australia for another 6 months to finish out the first year. The College can be anywhere from 1-3 years. I haven't decided if I want to do more than a year yet. I will try to keep everyone updated on this. I'm hoping to have a better idea once the first semester starts. Contrary to popular belief I am not just trying to procrastinate the plane flight. Haha :). Hillsong is something I have really fell in love with. I have chosen to do pastoral leadership..mostly because I don't sing or dance and those are my other two options. Haha. Just kidding..kind of..but I am very excited about it. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. The first reason is I feel that I am going to learn leadership qualities here that I can't get anywhere else. Hillsong is really focused on serving and this will put me in many situations that I have to reach out of my comfort zone and take leadership in. This will prepare me for whatever position I am in when I have a job in the future. I truly think I will be a better leader and hopefully boss someday because of this experience. I also very much believe in Hillsong and what they are doing and I want to be a part of it. If I can take just a bit of Hillsong with me back to the states I feel that this experience will be worth it. I think this experience as a whole will benefit me in the future through how I grow as a person and by pursuing a dream I didn't know I had. I hope this maybe might explain it a little more. I just wish I could fly everyone here to experience it so you could understand what I am talking about!
Ok. So thats my update on my life. I will try to make it sooner than 2 months before I post again. I can't make any promises though.
