Lets go home.

Monday July 13, 2009

So this is going to be a weird long journal because my Monday keeps going on and on and on!

I left this morning at 6:45 from the house. I didn’t hardly sleep at all! I don’t know how many hours I got, but not very many. Actually as I went to bed last night I was shaking both out of excitement and being nervous. I asked God to wrap his arms around me and hold me close because I was shaking so much and for God to put me to sleep!

We arrived at the airport at 7:30 and got in line. We got through the line pretty quickly. At the check in counter, I don’t remember a word that the lady said. I was SO concerned about my luggage. We started weighing everything. One of my bags was underweight. That was good. One of my bags was WAY overweight. I can have two checked bags that are 50 pounds or less, but anything above that, but below 70 pounds would be fined excess baggage. So one of my suitcases was 45 pounds. The other one was 72 pounds. The ticket lady wouldn’t give it to me. So I laid out all my suitcases right there at the ticket counter and put clothes from one bag to the next. Oh it made me so stressed out! So I ended up carrying two sweaters in my carryon bag and a flashlight, some souvenirs, and a shirt in my laptop bag. Oh it was a mess. I was just going crazy and not thinking. We finally got my large bag down to 70 pounds, but they wouldn’t issue me a boarding pass because I had to pay a fine. So I went to the paying counter and paid my $50 fine and got my boarding pass.

Jeff invited me to have a coffee with him and Rosemary before I left, but I was just a wreck that I needed to catch my head before I caught my plane. I declined and left for security. I got in line for security and noticed that I didn’t have the correct paperwork! Nobody told me that I needed to fill out this form to go through security! So I got out of line and went to get this paperwork, filled it out, and I got through security with no problem.

My boarding pass did not say what gate I was suppose to be at and there were no signs that showed gate numbers for flight numbers anywhere just outside the security point. So I walked around and walked around and walked around. I am still pretty stressed out, but I guess that comes easily for me. After walking past the food court, I found my gate number. I sat down for a few minutes and reorganized my bags. I put my laptop in my carryon luggage and pulled my purse out of my laptop bag. I then went to change into my sweat pants for a more comfortable flight. I then went back to the food court to buy a water bottle. All that stressing out made me thirsty!

There was no sign by the gate number that told what the next flight was. I had an hour, so I just sat around and couldn’t read, so I people watched. It would have been a lot more fun to do if I had someone with me to people watch with me. As it got closer to the departure time, a lady came and sat by me. She was headed to Flordia. She had talked to a representative and I was indeed……. In the right location! So I didn’t need to move or anything.

We boarded the plane and found our seats. I sat by a very nice man named Peter! Hee Hee! As I think of that now its kinda funny! Not because he was a funny guy, but because of my experience with Peters in Australia.

For lunch I didn’t enjoy the chicken, so I ate the mashed potatoes, half of the salad, a slice of cheese in a roll and an ice cream. I did have some small snacks between lunch and breakfast, but I mostly watched TV. I think I watched like 5 movies or something. I was actually getting bored watching movies after about the third consecutive one in a row. I tried falling asleep, but the flight attendants going up and down the walk way and people always needing to use the bathroom, I think I only slept for a total of an hour and a half. Maybe?

For breakfast, right before we got off the plane, I had cereal, fruit, and part of a roll. My stomach hasn’t been feeling too good. Probably stress. But I did manage to eat something. We landed at 7:30 in the morning. It seems weird to say that I left Australia at 10 AM Monday morning and arrived in America at 7:30 in the morning. I have been to the future!

I wanted to make sure and make my next flight so I rushed down the corridors to the customs and immigration stands. I got through without any problem. It took me about 30 minutes or so to collect all my luggage though!

I then went up the walkway to put my luggage on the American connecting flight. I was then told to go up to level three on the building next door. Well that’s what I did and I ended up in this international check-in place. Oh, I just get so mixed up sometimes! So I asked for directions, and I had to go one more building over! I didn’t think I would have to go through security again, but once I got to the right spot, I had to go through security. So once again I kneeled down to unpack and reorganize my bags down to two bags again with my laptop in its bag instead of in my carry-on.

I got through security and found my gate then again reorganized my luggage. You are probably thinking I am strange for doing that, but I didn’t want to carry my heavy laptop on my shoulder all over and I didn’t want to leave my wallet and passport in my laptop bag. I wanted to have it in my purse! AAAAAHHHHHH!

I got my tickets exchanged and all fixed up then grabbed a bottle of water for $4.50 and some pastries for a snack later on the plane. I then called my family and Jake. It was SO good to hear from them. Just a few more hours and I would be with them.

We boarded the plane and I was surprised that I was going to sit by an obese woman. She was very friendly and kind and we conversed a lot together, but she took up like ½ of my seat. We were also touching throughout the whole flight. I mean, it was fine, but I do like my personal space!

So as we started backing out of the terminal area, the captian through the intercom told us that there was something wrong with one of the engines and that they had called the engineers to come and look at it. About 30 minutes later he came on again and told us that there were going to have to do something to the engine to fix it. The shortest procedure would take 45 minutes and the longest procedure would take 1 hour and 30 minutes. Oh boy…. Just the whipped cream on my pavlova! I talked with the woman next to me and overheard a lady behind me say that she was from Australia. We conversed a lot through our long wait. It was nice to have friends on the plane! I was constantly praying during our long wait. They wouldn’t let us off the plane. At one point they said that we could leave the plane, but had to take everything with us. They also gave us the invitation to get off the plane and find an alternative route or stay on this plane and they would take care of getting us an alternative route. There were 105 connecting flights on my plane and all of them were going to miss their connecting flight.

So the plane boarded at 9:10 and we didn’t leave until 12:45. So we were on the plane for such a long long long long long time. My stomach hurt a lot. Probably stress, but also that I hadn’t slept very well in the last day I guess. I continuously texted and called my parents and Jake just so they knew what was happening.

Thankfully my dad contacted my travel agent and we got a flight all lined up for my connecting when I finally arrived in Chicago. So when I landed, I went to this gate and they gave me my boarding pass. No questions asked and no hardships. It was super easy. Thank you Gene Ballard! Originally my flight would have left at 4:15 (we didn’t get to Chicago until 5:30) and I would have been home by 5:30 or 5:45. Now my flight leaves at 9:40 PM and I’ll get home at 10:45 or 11:00 PM.

I felt sticky and gross so after getting my boarding pass and calling my family and Jake, I went to the bathroom and changed my clothes and cleansed myself as well as you can do in a public bathroom. I walked around a little bit, and decided it was time to feed my body again, even though I REALLY wasn’t hungry. I stopped at a bagel shop and got a meat sandwich with chips and a banana. It cost me $10.00. That in itself made me sick! I ate what I could, but I think I was more dehydrated than I was hungry, because I didn’t eat very much. I didn’t eat much at all today!

So since I have such a long wait, I have been texting and calling my family. I decided to sit down and write this blog entry because by the time I get home I will be so exhausted and at the same time excited that I won’t want to write. So now I am about to head down to my gate to wait for the boarding call which will be in a little over an hour! My nerves are fried, my back is squished, my muscles are tired, my stomach doesn’t feel good, but I am almost home, and that keeps a smile on my face. I’ll let you know how the rest of my evening and night plays out, probably tomorrow!

Continuation of Monday:

I left the bagel spot and headed over to my gate. I looked at the departure gate list and saw that my gate had moved. So I went to my new gate to await my departure. At 9:15 we boarded the airplane and we were off. The pilot, I think, loved speed because we got to Peoria in 20 minutes which would usually take 50 minutes. We landed and I got off as fast as I could. I was excited to see my family.

And there they were, waiting for me. We hugged and smiled and talked. I went to the baggage claim and got my bags then we were off to go home. We got back home around 11:45. I was tired, but my happiness for being home overwhelmed my sleepiness. So I started throwing bags all over my room. I had a mess. But I got to the souvenirs and handed them out.

Jake and I then went downstairs to talk for a while and say prayers in person together! Its so great to be home.

I finally went to bed around 2:30 AM and slept the whole night. I woke up Tuesday morning at 11AM from a wake up call from Jake. The only two silly things that have happened since being home is that I started driving on the wrong side of the road on the way out of my house, but I got that corrected pretty fast. Jake and I went for a night time drive and as we were getting in the car, I walked around the driver’s side of the car and told Jake that I could get my own door opened. He was driving and I was the passenger. Then lastly, as I flushed the toilet I went to press a button on top of the toilet, but there was none to be found. I had to flip the lever instead.

I am blessed with this journey that God has provided in my life. I met new people, tried new things, and experienced a culture and enjoyed it immensely. I now look forward to where God will lead me next.

Goodbye, Farewell, Until we meet again!

Saturday July 12, 2009

Today was a bitter sweet day. I was glad to leave to go home, but I also knew that I would miss the friends that I had made.

I had a hard time sleeping. I tossed and turned all night. I worried about my flight, if my bags were overweight, and on and on and on.

So we went to church in the morning. I had a special farewell given to be by David during the service. The service went well. After first service there was this huge reception in the entry way. A church family was leaving as well to move to another part of Australia so we were saying goodbye to them as well as to me. I talked to so many people. I had people standing in line to say goodbye to me. I was given a few gifts and cards. From the church I received some money, a boomerang, two Australian maps, some coasters, and a cartoon book with prayers to God. It was really thoughtful and kind of them to do for me. I talked to people through half of second service, then went to join worship. I talked to a few people after second service and then went home.

For lunch I had soup and toast then went to packing my bags. I am still worried that they might be over weight! I am scared that not everything will fit! I keep praying to God that I can have an easy day tomorrow and not to worry and not to stress out but to trust him! I know he answers prayers in his timing and in his will, so I’ll keep on praying!

We had an early dinner of meat pies and salad. 6:30 service was VERY small tonight. There were only 13 worshipers. After worship there was another reception for me. What’s funny is that they called the reception supper, but they call the evening meal tea. Sometimes I get so confused!

During the reception Peter, the slower man who dresses in women’s clothing, asked me to send him a picture of an American Snake. He wondered if there were snakes in America. He even gave me his address. Latter I found out from Jeff that Peter kept asking Jeff if there was enough room in the car taking me to the airport. I guess Peter wanted to come to the airport to see me off! It was very thoughtful of him and it made me think of Keith Mundsted in our church.

So we came home and watched Miss Marple – a British Mystery TV show. It was good and it got my mind off of my flight tomorrow. I am SO excited, and I am also very nervous.

Getting Ready!

Saturday July 11, 2009

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I think I am really excited to be going home that I couldn’t sleep.

Throughout the night I had dream after dream after dream. I woke up after each dream too. Outside the wind was blowing everywhere and it was raining. It was some sort of morning!

After my shower, Rosemary asked me if I wanted to go to an outlet mall with her and Jeff since the weather was bad outside. I had originally planned to go down to Hochiman city to do some looking around and such, but that wasn’t going to be the case because of the weather. So I agreed to go along. After I had breakfast we left.

We first went into a shop that is like Wal-Mart, but kinda not. There were so many thing that I wanted to buy! As I walked through the store, I thought about my first house and living on my own and what it will be like! I restrained myself because I didn’t need those things right now, but also because I wouldn’t have any room in my suitcase to fit it in. I’m worried about it as it is right now!

We then went into a retail outlet store. I walked around a looked inside a few shops, but nothing small and cheap caught my eye. Most of the stores were clothing stores, but none were my style or a style that I could pull off. I was heading too a coffee shop to get something to drink, when I met up with Jeff and Rosemary. We left the shopping center and headed home. On the way we stopped at a Chemist (pharmacy) to buy some medicine and then to get some lunch at a fish and chips shop.

I had fish and French fries and a potato cake and this weird bundle of chewiness and I have no idea what it is called and would probably not like to have one again.

I then worked on my laundry and sorting my bags and cleaning my room. There was only so much that I could do because some of my clothing was still wet from the wash! So I laid down to watch a movie. I watched the Beverly Hill Billies first and then I watched A Walk To Remember. Both were great and helped take up time this afternoon! Its great to think that tomorrow is my last day here! I am really looking forward to it, just because I am so excited to go home, but it will be sad to leave the friends that I have made here. Tomorrow will go by fast because it is a church day, but in a way I wish it would go some what slowly so I can enjoy my life.

This evening I had a chicken roll for dinner and watched some TV with Jeff and Rosemary. I did some reading too and packed the clothing when it dried up. I also called and talked to my family which was great. I miss them a lot. I can’t wait to see them at the bottom of the escalator when I get into Peoria. Tomorrow here I come!

FISH all day! Blah…

Friday July 10, 2009

I slept in till 8:30 this morning then got a quick shower. Rosemary and Jeff left at 10 to pick up Jeff’s dad for a day trip. I was leaving at 11 with some church members. I ate breakfast and then watched the news.

At 11 Bev picked me up and we drove to pick up her husband Roy. He was helping to create a hurdling teaching video. I met some of the hurdlers and watched them perform. At 12:30 we left to go to the Botanic Gardens.

We ate at a tea shop, but I wasn’t really impressed. The only things they offered was soup, a wrap, a sandwich, and fish and chips. Good offers, but I really wasn’t hungry for any of it. I did spot a veggie wrap and thought that would be good enough with some potato chips. I had a cappuccino to go along with it. I started eating my wrap and tasted something really different. I had thought that my veggie wrap had cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, and onion in it, but the tomato turned out to be salmon! So I pulled out all the salmon and continued to eat the wrap. It wasn’t a very exciting lunch!

Bev and I then went to look at the store near the tea house. I really didn’t need anything, but Bev insisted that I buy something. So I settled on a see through mesh bag. I do think I can put that to good use at school or something! I am very grateful for her thoughtfulness.

I came back home, but was craving a coffee of some kind. So I walked down to McDonalds and bought myself a cappuccino. It was SO good and really hit the spot!

At 6:30 Jenny Bishop came to pick me up to go to the young adult dinner. The young adults were really nice, but very strange. There were two boys, one girl, myself, and Jenny. For dinner I had a milk shake and some pizza. It was a pizza that had four different types of pizza on all the slices. I thought that would be good because I would get a variety. One slice was pepperoni, one slice was ham and pineapple, one slice was cheese, and one slice was olive. I started eating it and it was pretty good. Once I got to the olive pizza I noticed that the pizza not only had super sour olives, but that it also had anchovies on it! Eww, it didn’t taste good. I only had the ham and pineapple slice and the cheese slice. I was too full and grossed out to eat the other two slices.

I came home at about 9:45 and decided to call Jake. I have missed talking to him so much. I woke him up because it was 10 at night here and about 7 in the morning there. But it was so good to hear his voice! I can’t wait to be home so that I can actually talk to him in person

Last day of work!

Thursday July 9, 2009

This morning I woke up at 6:30 because the fire alarm was going off. It didn’t go off for a long time, it just beeped a few times and then stopped. I got up and got ready for the day and while I was in the shower the fire alarm went off again! I was a little worried that I would need to jump out of the shower and put something on to run outside, but the beeping stopped. We don’t know why it went off and it didn’t do that the rest of the day!

I got to work at 8:15 and worked on my e-mails and blogs. At about 9:45 we had a staff meeting until 12. We were served coffee and chocolate cake. At 1 we left to go out to eat at a tea house called Ricket’s Point. Its sitting right on the beach and you can see the beach from where we were sitting. I had a chicken avocado sandwich with a side salad. We came back to church and had pavlova that Jenny Bishop had made for me. I also received some wagon wheels from the community center and a box of chocolates from Tom. While we were eating pavlova, the staff passed a card around that they signed and then gave it to me. It was funny because I was sitting right there when they were signing my card!

David then brought over a bag that had a Collingwood Magpie blanket in it. For all my traveling, I have brought home a blanket, but I couldn’t find a blanket here that I could afford. So now I have one! I just need to work on how to pack it!

At 4:30 I got all ready to go and cleaned out the office. It was a sad moment. I took pictures of the office before closing the door for the last time! We came home and I started rearranging my suite case. I actually got everything in there and I still have room for a few more things! For dinner we had lamb in a sauce poured over rice. I have been eating and eating so much today that I haven’t really been hungry. I gave Jeff and Rosemary their Eureka mugs and money. I think they liked it.

Then I worked on the time capsule. I really wanted to get it done at work today, but just copying the whole thing onto a disk before even burning it took forever! So I worked on that all evening. I also did some more packing and sorting. Tomorrow I am going to the Botanical Gardens in the morning then in the evening I am hanging out with some young adults. Saturday will be a relaxing day – finish packing stuff and hang out around the house. Saturday for dinner we are grabbing fish and chips to eat on the beach as we watch the sun go down. Sunday is church church all day then I leave bright and early on Monday. It will be great!

Party day!

Wednesday July 8, 2009

Last night I put lotion on my hands before taking off my robe, so lotion got on my robe. At some point in the night I pulled on or over the robe and got lotion all over me. I didn’t know it until the morning when my robe had these orange spots on it. Hee Hee!

Today was Party Day with the School Holiday Program. I got to church at 8 and checked my e-mail and worked for a tiny bit on the internet. Again its slow. It probably will be for the rest of the month and the rest of the time I am here. Thankfully it works though!

At 9:15 I went over to the Community Center to work with the children. We played lots of games and I got to help in the kitchen! That’s what I really enjoyed. We made sausage rolls, chocolate crackles, cup cakes, jelly cups (Jello cups), fairy bread (bread with butter and sprinkles) and that’s it. I helped the kids with making their foods, but then did lots of dishes. I did dishes all day. We played some more games and I even had a chance to swat at a piñata. I got to take home chocolate chip scones, hotdogs, butter, and sliced bread.

I came home at 4:30 and I had a headache. I shouldn’t have had a headache because we only had 24 kids. I laid down for a while and took some Tylenol. For dinner we had a veggie casserole and a potato. For dessert I had a chocolate chip scone. YUM!

At 7:45 Rula, a church visitor, picked me up and we went to the McCafe (a café at McDonalds) and bought a coffee. I also bought a lamington. I was prepared to buy my own, but Rula wanted to treat me (or “shout” as in Australian terms). We laughed a lot about Australian slang. She was fun to talk to and hang out with. She brought me home at 9:30 and I decided to write. Tomorrow is Thursday can you believe it! I am coming home on Monday! I am hoping to have the internet on Saturday just enough to check my e-mail… we’ll see. So I won’t post anything after this post until I get home. That’s fun to think about. But yes, I will post everything else after I arrive home.

MOVIES

Tuesday July 7, 2009

Today was a regular day of work. The internet was slow though. The internet in Australia has something called a download cap. With whatever internet option you choose, you are only allowed to download a certain amount of stuff. Once you reach your limit, the internet provider puts a cap on the extra amounts of download for internet usage. So the church has reached its download limit and the computers are downloading so extremely slow.

I worked on the internet and did some interviews and burned some CDs. For lunch I had a vegemite roll. I would describe it as being a cinnamon roll, but without cinnamon. Instead it was filled with vegemite and cheese. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t something I would want to eat all the time. It mostly made me really thirsty! Vegemite is really really really salty.

Today Virginia made me some Anzac cookies. Anzac stands for Australian And New Zealand Army Core. The story behind the cookies is that women would make the cookies for army men. The cookies are slow to go bad, so they were good for the army!

During the morning a man named Tom came by. He told me he was planning his funeral with pastor David. He is a 93 year old man, and I think I have mentioned him before. He has told me that he is going to cry when I leave. He also told me that when he heard me preach, he wasn’t sure of all I said, but he did like listening to my accent. Another thing he told me was that if Jake didn’t hurry up and purpose, he would do that himself. So Tom came by and we chatted for a while. We then took a picture together. He is a really neat man!

I made a few balloon things for the staff at the church. My favorite balloon thing to make is kissing love birds in a heart, so I made that for Virginia and David. I am also going to make one for Jeff and Rosemary later this week.

At 4:30 I was grateful for Jeff for taking my laptop back home while I went out to the movies with Jenny and Cathy Bishop. We met at the mall and decided on a movie. For dinner we ate at T.G.I. Fridays and I ordered Quesadillas. Jenny treated me to the meal since I paid for my movie ticket, but I felt bad because the Quesadillas cost $24 for 5 triangles! There were no side dishes of rice and beans or a salad or anything. If I had gotten Quesadillas with chicken and bacon it would have cost $27. For dessert we had apple pie – left over from American July Fourth. We were also offered rootbeer floats and dr. pepper. These three things you can’t find in Australia. Jenny and Cathy said that they rarely eat apple pie.

During dinner we had a great time talking about life and experiences. I was asked about my purity ring and got to share with them my desires to wait for marriage—and give myself only to one person. I was told that the emphasis to remain abstinent is not really important or talked about in Australia. They told me that at one point the church did a series on sexuality and they left the service with the knowledge that its ok to spend the night with anyone if they are a good person, instead of waiting for marriage and a very committed relationship.

After dinner we headed to the movie theater. We saw Ice Age 3. I was really looking forward to going to see a movie. The theater had assigned seats—which was different because I am so used to choosing where I would like to sit, but I guess it’s a good idea so that everyone can get a seat with their family. The movie was good and very funny, but I prefer Pixar because they don’t do as much bodily humor or adult humor. I prefer clean humor.

After the movie, Jenny brought me home and I am going to “flake.” I am going to crash. I can’t believe tomorrow is Wednesday. This week is going by so fast.