We have so much to catch everybody up on, it's not even remotely funny. Get ready for an annoyingly long blog. I promise to make it less bumpy than our ride in Pedr's truck on the sand dunes. :)
Speaking of Pedr, his family invited all of us over to their house for dinner last week. It was so delightful! Mrs. Rooney made us a chicken and chick pea curry dinner that was probably one of the best things I have had since I've been here. Don't worry people, I made sure to get the recipe! We offered to bring dessert so from the bottom of our NUSA Veggie Crates, we made yet another delectable apple crisp. We spent the evening chatting with his family, laughing about random things, and getting to know some of their other friends from the church who also came.
On another one of our weekdays of no school, (I think this was Friday) we roadtripped up to Nelson Bay to see the beach there. We had heard that it was pretty, and we definitely were not disappointed. The weather was perfect, we sang our lungs out in the car, and enjoyed snorkeling with lots of fish.
And now onto my favorite happening of the trip so far: camping out on Stockton Beach's sand dunes! Pedr, Dan, their friend Jamie, Trenton, Chris, Brian, and all of us girls drove out to Stockton Beach, about an hour away, to hit the sand dunes for a camp out on Saturday night. As we are all practically native Australians now, (ha) we picked up sausages to bbq on the way and also seized the opportunity to introduce s'mores to the real Australians. They had never even heard of them. Or graham crackers. After scouring the grocery store, we came up with the most similar ingredients possible and began another awesome drive.
It's not even really fair to try to describe the sand dunes with words, but I guess we all understand the limitations of language. The thing is: I have never seen such an open, beautiful mass of sand anywhere, not even in pictures. We set up camp in the middle of the sand and settled in for the evening. I got lucky enough to cook the sausages, Brian whipped out his guitar and we had a pretty poor sing-a-long, and then we hit the s'mores. They caught on pretty fast and we were happy to have reversed the roles of culture introductions, if only for a few minutes. At about 9 PM, we all got tired and went to bed. Just kidding. Although we would have if we hadn't felt so lame about going to bed so early. We managed to squeak out a few more hours and then we passed out on the sand. Lindsey, Cam, and Caitlin snuggled themselves into a two man tent. Needless to say, Caitlin was out of there in about twenty minutes.
There is something rejuvenating about sleeping outside next to a smoky bonfire in the middle of nowhere, even if you do wake up to a dewey face and sleeping bag. Before we headed home, we trekked to the top of a dune and had a nice session of sand boarding....
For those of you who have never heard of it, picture sledding on sand. The boys took to sand surfing, I preferred the run-and-slide-on-your-stomach method, and Lindsey and Cameron dominated the two man sit. Bug Lindsey to let you see the video. It will make you laugh, I guarantee it.
As if you couldn't tell, we had a blast on that trip and look forward to doing it as soon as our backs recover from the hard sand. As for everyday life, we spend our time at the hub doing homework, at the beach soaking it up, playing Bananagrams as often as possible, and figuring out other shenanigans to get ourselves into.
On a more personal side note, I feel compelled to share with EVERYONE that God worked two miracles in my life over the past week. I made my first two speeches in 4 years!! To everyone who prayed for me, thank you so much. Jesus has been revealing Himself in so many ways and His faithfulness is consuming me. He has taught me how to trust and I am learning more and more everyday.
Whew! What an amazing life we have. It is going even faster than we thought that it would. We are already about to enter April, which absolutely blows my mind. The girls and Trenton and Chris are planning their Easter break trip to New Zealand, and Elyse and I are working on our June trip to NZ. She and I will be exploring Australia on our own for Easter break. This weekend we all are going to be up in Sydney for the Good Friday service at Hillsong. After that, all of them fly out for the week. Elyse and I will get to go to Hillsong for Easter, and then we are planning on heading over to Ulla Dulla for some exploring, and maybe going up to the lake with some friends.
Well, I think that about does it for today! Time to go pack our eskys for uni in the arvo. (pack our lunches for school in the afternoon) Let's be honest, I just said that so I could sound native :)
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