Graduating

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Back by popular demand

So just after exams I started my job with Sealife Experience. I'm working Fridays to Mondays. I did my first weekend just observing and trying to learn. The office stuff was ok, like taking bookings and doing credit transactions. But the boat posed a bit of a challenge. You see, I found out not only would I be a guide, but because it's a small business, I'd be deckhand as well! Yikes. I didn't know much about boats and was certain I'd fall in the water before too long. It was inevitable.

So I did my training weekend, not falling in the water, and then did my first weekend taking tours (this weekend just gone). My first day was ok.. a few "deckhanding" issues, because I hadn't been shown a few things like mooring the boat, and I was just learning what all the ropes were for. But my commentary went ok. It's quite a long tour, 3 and a half hours, but really good value for what you pay. And it's an awesome piece of coastline we cover, with lots of seacaves you can take the boat right inside.

I've taken 3 tours now, where I've been doing the commentary. Here's what's REALLY cool though. I've had this fascination since a really young age (maybe 7 or 8) with whales and dolphins, which was more like an obsession, as my family would tell you. But I'd never actually SEEN a whale, even when I was out with the Sealife guys doing training. But on my first tour, we saw two humpback whales, a mother and calf. They were so beautiful, cruising along, maybe 200m from the boat. We cut the engine and the sea was so calm, so all you could hear was the waves slapping against the hull and no sound at all as the whales surfaced, until they'd blow. Quite awesome.

On my second tour, we saw a pod of common dolphins. On my third, we had the best day of whale sightings so far this season.. eight whales! There was a bull, cow and calf in Munro Bight, just cruising along. Then down at Cape Pillar, a calf was breaching, right out of the water! It had swam up to a fishing boat and was breaching right next to it.. the fishermen said over the radio, they thought it was going to jump into the boat. Would've made an awesome photo, the calf breaching with the huge cliffs of Cape Pillar in the background. We saw the calf and its mother again at Tasman Island, breaching again. Then on the way back, we saw three whales, slapping their tails on the water and just cruising along. We stayed and watched them for ages.

So God definitely blessed me hugely. I have been massively tired and it's been really hard getting used to this job for some reason, but I think I'll get into it soon. But seeing whales on my first day was awesome. Part of the reason I decided to study tourism (I once wanted to do marine biology) was that the idea of showing people God's creation appealed to me. And there was something awesome about how when we were watching the whales, we were all just standing at the side of the boat in silence, watching them, and no-one could've denied how impressed they were. Whether they knew it or not, they were looking at just one part of God's creation, and just the tiniest display of his power. If people can be inspired and excited by enormous whales splashing around in the ocean, how much more should they acknowledge God, who made them. Creation is inspiring but it's not great and powerful.. God the creator is.

So here are some photos! All are from Google, I'm afraid. Only the first is an official Sealife photo, the others are from who knows where. Oh and guess what else.. I haven't fallen in the water yet. Emphasis on "yet" :)

Here is our boat:


This is sort of what the calf looked like when it was breaching:


And this is a bit like what we could see of the adult whales:

Europa

I booked and paid for (in full, yikes, I'm broke) my tickets to Europe this morning. The plan is to leave in late April, flying Hobart - Sydney -Beijing - Frankfurt - Copenhagen. It was quite expensive to fly into Copenhagen, but that's where I'm meeting my friend. I think we'll go to Bornholm (island, part of Denmark, off the coast of Sweden) straight away for the weekend, so I'll be dead. Then we'll probably spend a few days together in Copenhagen where she lives. Next I'll leave her and travel around Denmark and then to Berlin. I'm doing a loop of northern Europe with Busabout starting early May in Berlin. That'll take me to Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Paris, Bruges and Amsterdam. Then I'm training from Berlin to Lucerne (Switzerland) and on to Nice in France, which I'm more looking forward to more than anywhere else. Then to Milan (Italy) where I'll fly to Athens and then straight on to Santorini. Then home via Athens, Frankfurt and Beijing again, getting back late in June.

Got that? Good, cos I haven't! I'm super excited about it all but there's lots of planning and asking for people's advice. I've never been overseas before so hopefully it goes smoothly.. well smoothly is unlikely :P so hopefully nothing too tragic happens. What do you think, anyone who's been these places before or have thought about it? Where would you go/not go?

A day 'til freedom

I'm finding that after writing entries with pictures on here, any without pictures look boring. But I don't have any for this one, so hopefully it'll be exciting enough with it's content... ;)

Well I have one more exam to go, which is tomorrow at 9am. Postcolonial Fictions. My mind is more on what comes after that though - celebratory shopping. I really want to see (as do a few others I know!) Across the Universe, a new movie that's not in Tassie yet, I don't think. So there's a few things to look forward to.

I'm still planning Europe adventures! I'm getting myself all excited the more I find out about each place. I have an appointment this Sunday with Flight Centre, so hopefully I can book flights. The plan thus far is to fly to Copenhagen and see Denmark, then do a loop of northern Europe with Busabout. Then I'll have 2 weeks to spare before flying home, which I haven't yet decided on. My latest fantasy is Nice, in the French Riviera. In fact, France is interesting me more and more lately. Could've been because I watched Moulin Rouge again last night..

All in all I'm hoping to be gone for 2 months, beginning about 15th April. My sister's wedding is the 30th June, so I'll be back for that. All of this is if God wills it of course. If these plans aren't meant to happen I'll let them go, even if it means forsaking the French Riviera and the Moulin Rouge ;)

Aaah I have an exam tomorrow.. have to stop playing Scrabulous and writing on my blog, and START studying!

You Need to Know About...

Adrian's short-term mission trip to South America.

In 2008, I will embark on a big adventure, which will take me to Cochabamba, Bolivia and Quito, Ecuador. I will use this page to summarise the trip, the mission field I will be working in, and up-to-date prayer points.

This is a sample from his blog, which is well-maintained and gorgeously designed. To see it, click here.

To read about his mission trip, click here.

To learn about Bolivia, go here.

To learn about Ecuador, go here.

This blog provides regular updates on Adrian's preparation, information on South America, articles on issues such as poverty, and prayer points. Get involved in mission in South America by committing to read Adrian's blog and supporting this mission through prayer.

Birthday

Recently I turned 21. I usually hate my birthday, so it was a nice surprise that this one was in actual fact quite awesome! Aside from getting lots of fantastic presents, my lovely friends cooked me dinner on the day of my birthday, then that weekend my sisters made it down to Hobart, so a group of us went out for dinner at Annapurna followed by drinks at the casino. Lots of things made the whole week really cool. Thankyou everyone.. I might decide to like birthdays now! xx

Stories

I was just remembering today some things I heard when I was growing up that have stuck in my memory and which I often recall. My family went to a small baptist church up north for about 13 years, and among other things, they'd sometimes have a time in the service where the person leading would say "turn to someone and welcome them" and everyone would get up and hug practically everyone else and start chatting away, with the poor person up the front having to try and get everyone sitting down again. It was that kind of welcoming place. Anyway, most of the people who led the services were middle-aged farmers and they all made a habit of sharing stories. I can remember three, and they're really good! So here they are.

There was a flood coming and the town had to be evacuated. Eventually, everyone reluctantly left, except for one guy who said "I have faith in God and he will rescue me." So the water rose, until his house was flooded. A rescue squad came to get him, but he wouldn't leave, repeating the same thing. The water kept rising and a rescue boat came for him, but he'd moved up to the roof and refused to leave, saying "God will rescue me." When the water rose higher, a helicopter came to save him, but he refused to leave, saying "God will rescue me." Eventually, he drowned. He got to Heaven and asked God, "what's going on? Why didn't you save me?" And God replied, "I send you two rescue crews and a helicopter, but you didn't seem to notice."

A guy drove a schoolbus packed full of kids everyday. One day as he was driving the bus down a hill, the brakes failed. He knew that if he kept going straight ahead, the bus would plough into the ocean and the children most likely would be killed. But his own house was approaching on the left, and he knew that if he turned sharply into his own driveway, the bus would come to a stop and the kids and himself would be saved. He decided on this course of action. As he got closer he remembered that his son waited everyday at the end of the driveway to wave to him. This guy was a Christian and he knew that his son was too. If he turned sharply into his driveway, his own son would be killed. If he kept going, his son would live but the whole busload of children would die. If they weren't saved, he would be condemning them. At the bottom of the hill, he turned into his driveway.

A man, his son and one of his son's mates were fishing out at sea. A storm came up and a wave threw the son and his friend into the sea. The man grabbed hold of the life ring. Both cried out for him to save them. He thought to himself.. he knew his son was saved, but his friend wasn't. By throwing the life ring to his son, he could hold onto him for several more decades. But by throwing it to his son's friend, he could offer him another chance at eternity. Life is precious, but not for the reasons some people think; family, friends, happiness. There is a choice to be made. The man and his son were assured eternity, but the son's friend wouldn't be, unless he was given one more chance.

THE MYER FIRE

It seems it's the most talked about piece of news at the moment and everyone with a blog is posting up the latest fiery inferno pictures, so I thought I would too. The Myer fire is quite an odd piece of news. No-one was physically hurt (although some emotionally no doubt - all those designer labels, what will some women do?) Not to forget the managers and people who worked there, who it'd be a good thing to pray for. So it's not really on the whole devastating, or shocking.. just a bit weird. It seems everyone's a bit weirded out by it. There'll be a big hole in the streetscape and lots more people going to Eastlands' department stores. But those things aren't really that unsettling. I think it was just the sight of the middle of our city going up in flames.

A trip to the "far south", job interviews and girly chats

It's been awhile. I haven't written here since becoming addicted to Facebook, plus I have mountains of assignments coming up in the beginning of October. Since the last post, Adrian and I have been on a weekend trip to Dover, which was simply for the purpose of having a holiday. Good enough reason, I say! Yes, the residents of Dover are proud of where they're from (see above). It really is a beautiful place though.

I may have a job. I had 3 interviews in one week. The first I didn't get, the second I got an offer but didn't accept, and the third (dream job) I got an unofficial offer from and I'm just praying they don't change their mind! Keep you posted on that one.

Tonight was fruit and veg night at Christine's, a get-together for the Focus girls. We had a really good chat and made healthy drinks. It was a great night.

It's too cold for a picnic

Been neglecting the blog on account of having joined Facebook. So here's the latest.. Allie, Simon, Andrea and I went to the beach for a picnic last weekend to make the most of that bit of sunny weather. But it really was still freezing.. I don't recommend having a beach picnic until maybe mid-October, unless you plan on sitting in the car to keep warm. But we had a great time, and will no doubt do it again soon! (Just wear more clothes or bring a portable heater!!)

The long and winding road

It's funny.. I went up north to visit my family this weekend and missed a few classes to get back later today. It was a nice long 4-5 hour (not sure, can't remember) trip, but I went up there with Adrian, whose parents also live up on the coast, so I didn't actually have to drive.

Funny thing is (I mentioned it was funny) that home up there doesn't feel at all like home anymore! At the beginning of uni I used to get a buzz going that final leg of the journey up north, driving up the hill to the house, thinking I was going home, but now the buzz is (believe it or not) driving back over that hill on the Brooker coming into Hobart, where you see the city and river and mountain all of a sudden. It was a definite realisation, this time round.

On an unrelated note, I've been going back to this video a lot lately, to watch it again and again. (Don't know how to post youtube videos yet). Oh and the topic of this post? Well we drove a long way today on a long (maybe not so winding) road.. Oh the joys of the Midlands! Sheep. Tree. Hill. Sheep. Ned Kelly. Tree. Hedge animal. Sheep..

Blogs I read..

Sitting around waiting to go somewhere, but it's not quite long enough to actually do anything substantial.. so I'm gonna tell you about some other people's blogs that are worthy of your attention.

Mine.. You're here already, so that's a great start!

Adrian.. This main page is his blog. Go there, then follow the link called "My Mission". Adrian is going to Bolivia and Ecuador next year. Here you can find out more about those countries and what you can do to pray for him in the lead up to next year, as well as how you can pray for Bolivia and Ecuador. It would do you well to read this! You can also find some thought-provoking stuff on poverty and who we are as Christians.

Mike.. is one of our AFES staff workers at FOCUS. This one's always interesting and regularly updated too!

Christine.. is Mike's wife and I've been reading her blog for quite awhile now. She has a lot of wise things to say. I've learnt and been provoked to think about a lot of things from reading her blog. She writes about heaps of issues including ministry, women and life in general. Very awesome.. read it.

Jerome.. is also a guy from FOCUS. This blog is updated very regularly so you'll always have something new to read. He's off on a bit of a tangent at the moment with some new and creative posts about.. something.

IBM.. now has a blog, so here you can find out what it is and what we do!

That's all I can think of for now. More later maybe :)

My technological advances!

Up until a month or two ago I had a clunky old computer with a big heavy monitor sitting on this wobbly little desk in the loungeroom. I'm not much of a nerd, so these things just didn't bother me. But a month or two ago I got an LCD screen and relocated the computer to a proper desk in my room. I also was given an optical mouse (for free!) to replace my old roller one which was so broken it required a huge effort to get the cursor from the top of the screen to the Start button. And NOW, as of yesterday, we have broadband! This is very exciting. So I downloaded Skype and with much convincing from Adrian changed to Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. (It's so much better.. I didn't want it to begin with cos I'd used it on the Macs at uni and those things are so hard to use, but it really knows how to do so much more than Internet Explorer). So there you have it. LCD monitor, optical mouse, broadband, Skype and Firefox, and didn't pay that much for any of them, except the monitor. I sound like a nerd, but really I'm not! Just excited to be leaving the stone age :)

Europe

I wasn't actually going to bother writing about this on here, but I was talking to some friends about it last night and they actually had lots of travel tips to give, so maybe I will! At the moment the plans are (if God wills it of course!) to go to Europe next year, about May. I'm finishing my degree this year and I'm aiming to spend the summer and 2008 building up the industry experience that I don't really have, especially for someone studying tourism. I haven't traveled overseas before so I know I'm gonna come back and wish I'd done several things differently, but hey, that's the point of the first trip. And after a month or two at most in Europe I'll try to get seasonal work for the rest of the year in the area that I'm particularly interested in (marine ecotourism). Hopefully by 2009 I'll be equipped for a permanent graduate job, having finally traveled and having had some variety of experience.

Here are the places I'd like to go: Denmark first, starting at Copenhagen, then to an island called Bornholm, then Esbjerg in the holiday region. I have a friend in Denmark I can stay with. After this I'd be on my own. Busabout have these things they call "loops" and I'd like to do the northern one. It does a loop of these cities, but you do it all in your own time and independently: Berlin, Dresden (Germany), Prague, Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic), Vienna, Salzburg (Austria), Munich, Stuttgart (Germany), Paris (France.. duh), Bruges (Belgium) and Amsterdam (Netherlands). It's still very much in the planning stage.

Images: Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam.

What's been happenin' lately

FOCUS WORLDVIEW SURVEY - our mission. This is gonna be interesting. People can answer questions to get an indication of what their worldview is, eg Deist, Theist, Existentialist, Nihilist.. I wonder what you have to answer to get Nihilist??

UNI.. my last semester! My timetable is ok, only one clash, and not too many classes. But there's a ridiculously large amount of readings to do each week!

IBM (international bible meetings) - it was great tonight. We had a question time at the end and it was just such a good, open, honest time. I know I felt enriched, so maybe others were too!

LOST SEASON FINALE, also tonight. I was less shocked than I thought I'd be! But they shouldn't have killed off Charlie. He's been my favourite since the start. Lost needed a smiley little hobbity creature with an accent.

LAINE'S 21ST, also today! Happy birthday!! Not that you read my blog..

BUTTERFLY EFFECT - I saw this movie recently. It was very scary on a number of levels, but compelling and fairly thought-provoking too. One of the weirdest movies I've seen in awhile! But definitely a good one. If you haven't seen it (you probably all have) get to it.

FOOTBALL - Go Hawthorn.

NEXT YEAR - Trying to work out what I'm gonna do!

SIMPSONS MOVIE.. I don't even watch the Simpsons! Don't even really like the idea of it. But the few times I have watched it, it was funny as. So this should be super-funny.

SUMMER is nearly here! Not too many months now til the air is warm, and smells like mown grass and flower pollen, and you can go swimming in the sea without dying, and all that summery stuff. Only 4 months away! Have to think positive..

OK.. that's all!

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

The Famous MYC

MYC (Focus Mid-Year Conference) 2007 has been and gone! There's no easy way to summarise it, so...

Highlights :)

Romans bible studies - we did Romans 9-14. I learnt that God is in complete control, and this is a very good thing for us.

Prophesying groups - sharing our thoughts on different issues in each other's lives, and talking about bits of the Bible that would help.

Seminars - Discussion could've gone all day.. we got thinking about such big issues and there just wasn't enough time in a seminar, let alone a day!

Electives - I went to TEAR, marriage and children (by far the most popular, it was packed out by guys and girls!) and the Bible Society.

Talks - the best bit of MYC! We learnt stacks and not just that, but I think we got a lot of application out of these. Like how to look at suffering. These talks gave no easy comforting answers. A lot of it was challenging and hard to accept. Like how hard is it to accept that the bad things in life come from God. We also looked at how Jesus described his own suffering as "sorrow to the point of death." Man. Sorrow to the point of death.. But Jesus accepted his lot from God. He prayed and continued to obey, and never pretended it was easy.

Bits of my notes from Sam's talk say "in these situations there is a struggle to remain faithful. In struggles, your true nature comes out. Proverbs says if a man fails in times of difficulty, how small is his strength. Consider it joy, not because it's easy - it's not. But because God uses it. We're shaped by perseverance through trials. Look back and you'll see you've changed."

Here is a section of the notes I took on Sam's 3rd talk (not sure if it's quoted from him or if I paraphrased, but you get the picture):

"Imagine if you were suffering and God was not sovereign or in complete control. Imagine praying to that God. It would be depressing. But our God is sovereign."

Bushdancing - How much fun was this!! Everyone got very much into the country theme. Not the just fashion but the lingo too, with lots of Bobby-Joe's and Betty-Sue's, not to mention the inevitable Brokeback Mountain jokes ;) It looked and sounded more like an American barndance by the end of it! But we thoroughly enjoyed our lil' shindig.

So try and come next year if you wanna learn heaps about our great God, hang out with awesome people and have a pretty memorable time!

Last Summer at Port Arthur

This has been on my mind since last Summer, so it's time to write about it!

Over Summer I worked as a guide down at Port Arthur, taking day tours and ghost tours. If I look back, there's maybe 2 or 3 events in my life which taught me heaps and changed me, and during which I didn't even see what God was doing. This is one.

It was just another job, but in some ways it wasn't. To keep it short as I can, this experience was pivotal in 3 main ways:

One: the supernatural. I'm terrified by anything about ghosts, aliens, you name it. Don't watch Signs or the Sixth Sense with me, I will be a trembling, hysterical mess by the end of it! Seriously though, these things have always scared me. I never wanted to take ghost tours but they asked me to and I strangely said yes.. it was going to be an enormous challenge for someone mortally afraid of the idea of ghosts!

During training I started hearing stories that made me feel sick, because these guides seemed so convinced of everything they'd experienced, which was some pretty unnerving stuff. (And yes, down there, the word "experience" is embedded in their vocabulary; it stands for anything ghosty!) The other guides seemed to classify people as either "believers" or "non-believers". And I was of course a "non-believer". (Hang on, shouldn't the question be whether or not we believe in God? Isn't that more important than whether we believe in ghosts?) They kept saying to me, "wait til something happens to you, you'll see".

So I started taking tours and made sure my script was along the lines of "be careful what you wish for.. this isn't exciting and cool, but quite dangerous to get caught up in" (not in those words of course!) And I was super scared in those dark houses and prisons! Especially knowing the stories. More and more, I'd hear first-hand stories that chilled me but I'd keep pushing them out of head. Inevitably though, I came to a point of questioning my own faith. Not drastically, but for the first time I can think of, I experienced doubt.

To cut it short, I eventually realised through talking to people and praying (and I don't know how I didn't realise it sooner.. maybe cos I didn't talk and pray) that it was simple: trust God. There are lots of traps and things that are so convincing and which can manipulate your thoughts.. where you think you have no option but to believe it. And you completely forget to trust. So here's what I learnt: Satan is very real. I think everyone comes to that hard realisation at some stage, and I'm glad my initial realisation is over! It wasn't fun.

Once I figured this out, I could walk through these dark buildings alone and I'd still be nervous, but I wouldn't be afraid. I knew that no matter what, God is above it. And with his power behind me, I was above it. What an awesome way to learn the greatest truth!

Ok, two: I learnt that the people down there, none (or maybe 1) of whom were Christians (that I knew of), were so easy to make close friends with. I lived at the hostel there for a bit and got to know the girls, and they are some of the most awesome individuals I've met. Time with them was incredibly fun and most of us are still in touch. They don't know God but they are such great people and I can thank God for the opportunity of knowing them.

And three: You can go through a frustratingly confusing time where you don't see that a solution is possible, but God always guides you out of it and never fails you. Every time, you can look back and see his patient, never-changing love throughout it all. It's cool, cos it makes you realise how much we're nothing without him. The end!

Sydney Harbour Bridge - most evocative quote from Ruth Park's "A Power of Roses"

"But soon she forgot to whimper, her mouth open, staring at the great Bridge which filled the sky. For there was nothing between Miriam and the Bridge, nothing to break its stupendous outline, or deflect its solemn, terrible roar ...

'I'm not afraid of you,' said Miriam, sticking her tongue out. But she was. Even when she turned her face away from the Bridge, to the city, she could feel it still looking at her, sentient in every rivet, alive, vibrating, ready to lash its tail and stalk away over the North Shore."