this is a laughing kookaburra!

i actually got to see one!!!

the song makes sense now. australians call their wildlife/nature "bush" (at least, that what im assuming since they called our hike bush walking). and when we were talking to an australian i asked him what types of trees they had down there and they have a bunch of different gum trees!! he said some you could take gum off and chew it like bubblegum! didnt see any of those. but now i can say i know and understand the kookaburra song!

Kookaburra

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh!
Kookaburra Laugh!
Kookaburra gay your life must be.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Eatin all the gum drops he can see
Stop!
Kookaburra Stop!
Kookaburra leave some there for me.

I miss australia

i really really want to go back to australia. maybe this has to do with reality being here and there is pretty surreal, but i love it there. they are so nice there. everyone is genuinely friendly. no one seems to rush like they do here. someone told me "it's like their attitudes, technology, everything is 20 years behind us" it's true. people take their time there. they care. they make friends. i mean they have internet and computers, but they don't seem as dependent as we are.

i want to see more of the country. i barely saw anything. i wasn't even able to see the stars at night. north america looked into 1/4 of the milky way galaxy, australia looks into 3/4. i cannot even imagine seeing that many stars. beside the milky way, there are 2 other galaxies you can see with the naked eye.

i want more tim tams.

one day, im going to live in australia.

The End

the last full day we were in australia we went sandboarding and dolphin watching.

we would climb up HUGE sand dunes and sit on what looked like a wooded snowboard and sled down the dune. it was so much fun. the walk back up, not so much fun. but thats ok. i was named sandboarding champ!!! :) i went the farthest!

dolphin watching was ok. the weather was bad so i got a little sea sick, so we ended up playing with my camera. we were playing with the setting where you pick a color and when you take a picture, everything but that color is in black and white. its actually pretty cool.

then when we got back me megan andy and mr healy went to find a religious article store. walking forever in the rain. it was fun though. we found out the store didn't open til 9am the next morning.

we checked in our flight online and then i went to pack. didn't go to bed til like 2-3 am.

the next morning i got up at 630 to go to breakfast at 7 to leave for the religious article store at 8. we got there early and the woman opened it like 10 min early for us. she was really nice. everything there was really expensive. but i got my rosary and mr. healy got the crucifix he promised someone.

that started the longest day of my life.

we calculated. thurs july 24 was 39 hrs long for me. it just wouldnt end.

lunch at airport

fell asleep before takeoff, slept through hour of turbulence

dinner on plane

drama on plane

standing in the back of the plane for 4-5 hrs out of spite, and talking

switch seats

lunch-ish snack plane

breakfast on plane

sleep

mr healy's luggage still in sydney

almost miss connection

frisked and bag searched

barely made connection

slept

ate lunch (again!)

slept

landed

millers drove to transfig

brother has a gf

home

souveniers and pictures

food

bed

Bush Walking

continuing our tour of the beautiful blue mountains.

we drove 2 hours to the blue mountains to go bush walking. and by bush walking they mean hiking. and by hiking they mean going down into a canyon on stairs made in the 1800's in 32 degree weather and coming back up on stairs that are twice the height of normal stairs. but it was incredible. absolutely spectacular. it was awesome to from a eucalyptus (sp?) forest into a rainforest. to see parrots and magpies. mountains where the trees don't lose their leaves in the winter, they lose their bark. to see creation completely different from anything ive ever seen.

then out to dinner. mr. healy, anne, andy, megan, me and rowan came. so much fun. laughing with the waiter about how to pronounce tomato. laughing about any random family road trip, church, moving, random story that could come up. we didn't scar rowan at dinner supprisingly. but i think me and anne scarred him when we dragged him into the ice cream store to get ice cream. he tried to tell us that he didn't want any. we didn't believe him.

timtams. delicious. gonna bring them to the U.S. in bulk.

fruit tingles. really cool.

australian tea. believe it or not, hard to find.

cherry ripes. tried once from an aussie. loved them. bought them myself.

oatmeal coconut cookies we had while hiking. one of the most delicious cookies ive ever had. i want the recepie.

Perculator-again

friday night father steve our spiritual leader asked us to think about all the moments we have had this trip. he then said to let them perculate and be ready to tell the group when we felt the Holy Spirit and why.

hearing the song Do Not Be Afraid at catechesis

watching a Mexican group perform the Lifehouse Everything skit incredibly

seeing Mary hold her son Jesus at the foot of His cross at the re-enactment of stations

getting amazing advice from priests during confession

singing in the streets with hundreds of thousands of other catholics

seeing the pope when he drove by

seeing the pope again for the all night vigil

the all night vigil with candles and bendiction and freezing restless sleep

seeing the pope again when he said mass for us

listening to everyone in the group share their own expiriences

making new friends

beign able to randomly go up to someone and ask them where they are from and have a conversation

hearing hundreds of thousands of people sing the theme song

hearing just our group sing the theme song

laughing hysterically at dinner with friends

hearing the pope laugh

being at a concert in an entertainment center rocking out and then having a bishop walk in with the Blessed Sacrament and seeing thousands drop to their knees

waiting. all the time. even for two hours just to get off a street. but no one complains (too much)

seeing all the beautiful sights and creation that is here.

koalas.

kangaroos.

emus.

really puffy chickens.

Blue Mountains.

this is awesome.

AUSTRALIA ROCKS

well the flight kinda sucked to get here-all 13 hours of it, but at least i got to sleep a lot. it took us 30 hrs door to door to get here. but thats ok, IM IN AUSTRALIA!!!

we saw a kid fishing
"are you all catholic"
"yep"
"wow, thats a lot"

there were about 20 of us.

watched the sunrise in australia-that was awesome

saw the opera house that was awesome i cant believe i actually got to see it!

wecolming ceremonies. so incredible. met people from all over. snuck onto the stage. that was cool.

g'day from down under.

vegemite.

go into a kangaroo's pouch.

rubbish tin.

beef pie.

cockatus waking us up.

Work

"You have a great job. you get to play with kids all day, AND you get paid for it"

"Yeah, i really do like my job"

even when they are terrors and wont listen
even when they make me rip worms apart for them
even when the boys talk about farts and boogers and poop
even when the girls get into their drama
even when i need to go in early or stay late

especially because of "Hi Miss Anusia!"
especially because i get to eat lunch with them on the floor
especially because of Anusia Sea Hag
especially because their eyes light up when i tell them i'm Stay and Play
especially because i get to play kick ball and capture the flag
especially because they are all good kids
especially because for some of them it's where they feel most cared about

one in particular. they all come from different backgrounds and situations. some heartbreaking. i want to be there especially because of those kids.

Perculator?

i feel good about what i did yesterday. i actually got some things done.

1. woke up before 10 am

2. went shopping for australia. spent a lot of money, but found what i needed (and maybe some things just for fun). but i am still looking for warm sweatpants. very hard to find during the summer. but ill be fine, what i have is good.

3. did laundry. my moms outta town. my poor dad and brother need help in this department.

4. partied it up at alyssa's cotillion. traded food cards with someone who doesnt like salmon. i dont mind salmon. wore a strangers jacket because it was so cold in there. danced. or at least pretended to. i really wish i could dance better. but i guess it doesnt matter. i wont be seeing most of those people again unless they happen to be in saint louis and recognize me. and my friends who i do plan on seeing again should know i cant dance. one song kept saying something about moving like a perculator. and then patrick heard perculator again. dont perculators make coffee?

when i worked in a hot dog stand i had to make coffee in a perculator. i didnt know how to work it. there wasnt any coffee that day.

The First

Yes, i have decided to jump on the blog bandwaggon! I thought it might be kinda cool for when im in australia (7 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!) so im starting now.

i think i need to explain my title.

for the essays we wrote in english class i would flip through the book the essay was about and find a phrase that sounded good as a title. so i grabbed a book off my shelf (Edgar Allen Poe Selected Works) and flipped through. i didn't even read the sentence, just the phrase "assembly of phantasms" popped out at me (from the story The Masque of Red Death). I looked up the word phatasm and most definitions are about appartions or ghosts, but i did like these two definitions.

a creation of the imagination or fancy; fantasy
In Platonic philosophy, objective reality as perceived and distorted by the five senses

im not sure what i will end up putting/writing up here, but i think it will fall under the categories of creation of imagination and perception of objective reality.

plus i really like the way "assembly of phantasms" sounds.

Happy Fourth!