Trip into Bowral

So, two posts in one day....pretty great! Miriam, Olivia and I were planning on biking into Bowral but the bike shed key was misplaced so instead we got a ride in with Woodsy and told him that we would walk back since it's SO nice out. (Its rained for three days in a row, first nice day in awhile). First we went to a bike shop for a map of the trail to get back. The cute guy at the till printed us out one but it was only a half of the map..... He was really nice, asked if we were just here for the weekend, so miriam told him where we were going to school. Apparently he thought that all Canadians know each other because he asked if we knew Allie from a few semesters ago haha. Miriam wanted to skype so she went to a cafe for free wifi. Olivia and I just wandered around, looking at all the goodlooking guys.... We went to a place called Cotton On where they have lots of 5$ deals. The change rooms are just a round circle with a button up curtain around which was a little sketchy.... I didn't find anything I liked . It is really nice that there are bank machines on every corner! Afterwards we went into the coles supermarket because I wanted orange juice... So I found a cute little carton for 1$ and bought it. I tried a sip....and realized that either Australians don't have real orange juice or that I bought the wrong thing. "Orange fruit drink" was what it was labeled and on the side it said "concentrated, add 2L of water" Oops! Well we picked up Miriam at the cafe and after a little bit of shopping we headed to the start of the bike path, and this worked for awhile until the bike path pointed us to follow a road with no more bike path signs.... grrrr. We ended up walking on the side of the main road, someone beeped their horn at us once and then someone else held their horn down and a guy popped his head out of the window and yelled "WHOOOO". Not sure why but it was entertaining, we were about 3/4 of the way back to school when one of the school buses drove by us and stopped on the side of the road to give us a ride back to school....that was nice :). My first day doing laundry at the school, I'm really hoping nothing gets wrecked...

More updates...:)

So this week so far has been great! We had two assignments due today that i finished yesterday so my whole day is free! I set up a bank account and have to go into town to get my bank card and to tell them that my last name is Tauber not TAUBNER!!!! I'm not sure how they managed to do that since they had a photocopy of my passport with my name on it.... The Hong Kong meeting is on monday so I'm going to go to that and see if after the meeting I'm still set on going :). A bunch of people are heading into sydney today but since I spent the majority of my cash on a ticket to the sydney opera, I don't have 20$ to pay for transportation. I'll definitely have another chance to go so it's not a big deal. Last night we had a girls night at Kim's house. Her house is built so differently... Its one floor. There is a pool outside and in from that is covered courtyard where we stayed the whole time. Her parents live in a room off the courtyard while her family live in the house. We got manicures and facials while the boys stayed back at the school to watch a movie and roll in the mud...apparently. It was alot of fun and all the staff/volunteers brought their young daughters to join in the festivities. Pretty much everyone is starting to call me Bree which is nice and sounds neat in their accent although they keep reminding us that we are the ones that have the accent. SN @ C is quickly approaching and our topic is filling our life with God. We have to have a full practice tomorrow before it actually starts to make sure we have enough stuff to fill 35 minutes or more. I got my ministry last night and I am going to be going to a church sunday nights to pretty much do whatever they need in areas of help, such as set-up, running sunday school, writing curiculum.... It should be quite interesting! I just realized as I was writing this that I probably wont be able to go to church  tomorrow since I need to practice for SN @ C.. hmmm, I ll have to talk to someone about that. We ve also been encouraged to choose a mentor that we can talk to about whatever we need to during this semester or term. Last thing I can think of to write is that they use some different phrases or words that are kind of odd. My favorite is that a speedo is called a budgie smuggler haha.

Wednesday in Australia

So Australia has been great so far! There is a path through the woods by the river that leads to a park and it is absolutely beautiful.... The scenery and animals all around are amazing. Today we had workday and learned all about Occupational Health and Safety. We learned how to operate a whipper-snipper, and that we have to wear safety glasses and earplugs. Later we went bowling in Bowral and I got a strike on my first turn! We went to McDonalds after and had a .50 cent ice cream, then back to the school and my group practiced for SN @ C. This stands for Sunday Night at Capernwray, and we as a group put together a program for the locals. We are the first group to do this and do not have as much time as the other groups will have, but I think its going to go well with Gods direction :).

Church and other stuff

So church was very different then what I m used to. We actually broke the bread for communion and stood for the whole thing. Before that we had morning tea with the church.  We went for a nice drive yesterday and saw more of the countryside which was really nice, then we had afternoon tea at a Canadians house (homemade oreos :) ) Right now Im sitting in an internet cafè in Bowral prounouced Barrel. I find that everyone wears different kind of clothes.... like some guys are still wearing short shorts :P, and the womens clothing seems so outdated..... I mean I would have to really look for clothes that I would like to buy. I bought "washing powder" though and some chocolate milk for teatime haha. I usually like drinking coffee and tea at home but since its so warm here I don't feel like it at all. There are 29 students this semester. Two from Australia, One from New Zealand , I think Four from the States, a family from Australia and pretty much the rest from Canada :).