Delta Blues is the Winner!

"The Race that Stops a Nation"

I can officially say that I have watched my first horse race! And, even better, I have bet on who will win! And, even better than that, I have won!!!! (well, 2nd place still counts!)

We had heard of Melbourne Cup day, and that, supposedly, all of Australia stops to watch this race. Until November 7, I thought they were exaggerating! All commerce in Australia literally stopped for the 3 minute race, and the 20 minute commentary and recap afterward!

This is the Rotary meeting from the night before the race. I was asked to help draw the horse owners (I still don't really understand how it all works!) . Anyway, I banked about $60 from sweepstakes tickets -- not too bad for a day's work! ;)

On the move....

Hi everyone!
Cristin and I will be moving soon. We are going to move in with a Rotarian couple, Lloyd and Pam Markwell....see pictures of Lloyd from our boat outings. We are both excited. However, we will be returning many of the items we have collected from Rotartians for our apartment. So we will be calling soon!

NSLF and Rotary District Conference

September was highlighted by two conferences – the National Student Leadership Forum and the Rotary District 9750 conference.

The forum was held in Canberra, about 2 1/2 hours from Sydney. The idea of the forum was to examine leadership with Jesus as the primary example. Students came to the forum from all over Australia and some from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The group was very diverse not only geographically but there were many religions, cultures and backgrounds represented. The very diverse group was very significant to the effectiveness of discussion that really brought many different views to the table.

We also had the opportunity to hear from the top Australian politicians. The list included the Prime Minister John Howard (above), the Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, MP’s Bruce Baird and Anthony Byrne. We were very impressed by the speakers, plus, excited that we could actually here from the top 2 politicians in Australia.Cristin and I were small group facilitators at the forum. Here is our group outside of Parliament, with the old Parliament House in the distance. Believe it or not…our group was a force on the volleyball court. That probably had something to do with Cristin. I’m pretty sure every team we beat (3 total) was quite surprised, but no one more surprised than Cristin and I.

Our group was quite fun. We’ve already met with a few of them from around Sydney twice since the forum. We invited them to our house for Mexican food. We figured that was a safe bet, seeing how they were from all over the world…..except Mexico!

I thought this was quite interesting…The Aboriginal Tent Embassy (above) is a controversial semi-permanent assemblage claiming to represent the political rights of Australian Aborigines. It is made of a large group of activists, signs, and tents that reside on the lawn of Old Parliament House in Canberra, the Australian capital. It is not considered an official embassy by the Australian government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy).
On the last night, we had a real Aussie Bush Dance. I knew it was authentic when the band members took a break to walk outside to check the Aussie rules football scores. It was held in an old shearing shed. All the songs had dances that the band members taught while they were singing. I think the only one we had ever seen was the Hokie Pokie and it was the Hokie Pokie that I knew

I can’t believe I’m putting this picture on the Internet!

We went to the district conference on last Saturday. It was a good chance for us to talk to Rotarians from across the district, many of them who we met at the first conference. The speakers at this conference were very entertaining. The theme was “Health and You.”

Some of the things we learned from a cardiologist:
· Instant coffee is poison
· A couple of cups of real coffee is good for you
· Soft drinks are poison – it strips your bones of calcium
· It’s ok to eat steak
· It’s ok to eat the yolk
· Burn your pantry….if it’s in a box and has writing on it don’t buy it
· It’s ok to eat non-organic fruit and vegetables, just eat more fruit and vegetables

Our Home is Girt by Sea

All of our “blog worthy” activity…

Eskimo Joes
I have funny story from Uni. This week, I wandered into the wrong office, as I was looking to do a survey for extra credit (which I need!!). I noticed on the secretary’s desk that she had printed driving directions for Stillwater, Oklahoma (not from Australia though and for the Australians – my old uni is in Stillwater). Apparently, a marketing professor is headed to Stillwater in the next week or so to do a case study for a text book on Eskimo Joes (a bar in Stillwater…that sells lots of T-shirts). So I gave him some advice about Stillwater and told him how to fit in with the locals….I told him to say "Go Pokes" and “water” instead of “waduh.” He should be fine.

Birthday parties
We’ve also been busy going to birthday parties. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Cathy Mason’s 50th. The party was 70’s themed. My favourite part was that the party was at the local Lawn Bowling Club. I had been wanting to try this. Phil told us it was an “old man’s sport, for people too old for golfing.” No offence Cathy…..he told us that long before the party. They usually dress in all white and bowl all day. You are even supposed to rest your free hand on your knee while bowling. I guess so you don’t break a hip??? Haha We had a lot of fun and only wished we could bowl longer. The party was also very fun, with a live band and lots of good food. She said her best present was a bunch of bananas because bananas now cost $12 a kilo and only the rich can afford them. Needless to say we haven’t had a banana in months!

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of my uni friends. There were about 20 people there, mainly Germans - since Sebastian is German, but a nice mix of internationals. There was also another person from Oklahoma (another Ambassadorial scholar from OU).

New job
Cathy offered Cristin and I a new part time job. We will soon be helping with her website company. Hopefully, I last longer on this job. For the record, I had 3 days of work as a waiter and my boss has never called me back. After 2 months, I think I’ve officially been sacked.

Rotary activity
I also gave my 5th speech to the Como-Jannali Rotoract club. Rotoract is a club for young adults based on the same principals of Rotary. It was a small club only about 10 members total. I also have my 6th engagement set for next week with the Gymea Rotary club. I am going to give them an update on my bee project and school.

My parents are coming!!
It’s now official that my parent’s will be here for two weeks in November. We have tickets to go to Brisbane, Cairns and Ayer’s Rock. Then they will spend about a week with us in Sydney. We can’t wait!

National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra
Tomorrow, we will leave for the NSLF. There will be people aged 18-26 from all over Australia and even a few from New Zealand, Fiji and other pacific islands at the 4 day forum. The forum is about servant leadership and uses Jesus of Nazareth as the example. Our role will be small group facilitators. John Howard, the Prime Minister and several other key politicians in Australia are scheduled to talk to us at the forum. As you can expect, we real excited about this and will post more about it next week.

Almost Summertime!!

Hello Friends and Family!!

It has been so long since we have posted any updates... sorry!! :) We haven't really been too exciting lately - I keep waiting for something brilliant to happen so that I can write about it! Well, I am not sure if what I am going to write could be classified as "brilliant" but at least we are finally getting some new pics up!! :)

After Bill’s adventure in the outback, he promptly spoke to our host Rotary club in Caringbah. His speech was very interesting and very well received! All the Rotarians agreed that it was a very special trip and a great memory! We are hoping to get a chance to go out there again and continue on with the project. In the picture with Bill is Lloyd Markwell. I think they were doing some sort of “brotherly” handshake! The Markwells have been so kind and generous to us… remember Bill’s fishing adventure and our whale watching adventure? All thanks to the Markwells! Thank you!


These two pictures highlight our two latest “major purchases!” The first required “minor assembly”… and the second required “MAJOR CLEANING!” :)

So, Bill and I decided that since we live about 2 miles away from Cronulla beach (arguably the BEST beach in Sydney!) we should get bikes so we can easily ride to the beach whenever we want! This was such a great idea… until we actually did it the first time! I think that was last week, and I refuse to plan my next bike outing. I think I might just stick to riding around the block next time! ;) Seriously though, it was Tough! There are a few hills that make the trip pretty challenging! Ok, now for you Sydneysiders… I don’t want to hear A WORD until you show me how easily you can do it! Hahahaha… I just know that I am going to hear about this one from our friends! J Maybe in a few weeks I will be able to brag about how easy the trip is now… I’ll keep you posted!

Doesn’t that car just fit Bill to a “T?!!” This is our new car – isn’t she a Beaut! Nothing like driving a car that is 3 years older than my (almost) 14 year old brother Johno! We bought a 1989 Toyota Corolla last week from a lovely Chinese lady who is moving to the States! While it isn’t exactly luxury (or even close to it, for that matter!) the only important thing is that IT RUNS!! Oh, and the air conditioning works like a charm! We aren’t going to get too attached to the car… we will be selling it in just 6 months! :)
Just this past Sunday, Pam and Lloyd invited us out for a trip on their boat again! We always love being out on the ocean! They had recently bought a new "toy" at the Sydney boat show and Bill and I got to be one of the first to try it out! Sorry it is a little bit far - I thought that my lack of tan might blind you all! Better to see it from a distance! ;) The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful!

Bill and I are having a great time and very much looking forward to Spring! It is still officially winter here (even though some days are about 75 degrees!) so I can just imagine Spring in Sydney is just perfect! Bill has two Accounting classes, one Marketing and one Entrepreneurship class this term, so he is always busy! I am getting to conduct some training sessions in the city for my work and I am having a great time learning to do new things! :) Can you believe that we have almost reached the official "6 Months in Australia" date! Its amazing how fast time flies! While it hasn't always been easy, we have completely enjoyed our time here and wouldn't trade it for anything! We are continually amazed by how the Lord provides for us - we are in good hands! :) Thank youfor your continued thoughts, prayers, and emails! We love hearing from you! I hope you have a great day!

Love Bill and Cristin

Pictures from the Northern Territory

A paddock outside the community.....They told us that we may be the only white people to ever set foot on that land.
Same paddock....very rocky with lots of scrub bush

View of Alice Springs from Anzac Hill

Termite mound....they were everywhere!

sacred wild donkeys

The community had several wild donkeys that just hung out on the outskirts of the town. The donkeys were there for two reasons 1) the aboriginals never kill an animal that they don't eat and 2) the missionaries taught them that Jesus rode donkeys. Therefore, they consider them sacred. They also point out that the donkey has a cross on its back.

Even though they are sacred they said we could still ride them!! My international friends were a little hesitant so I had to show them that it was ok. We were prepared for a real rodeo, but we could hardly get the donkeys to move!

If there is a next time, I think we will probably tie an apple to the end of of a string on a stick. I'm confident that will work.

Football training

Everyday at 3 o'clock about 20 guys met out at the football oval for training. This was definitely their favorite part of the day. These guys eat, breathe and sleep Aussie Rules Football. One of the first questions they asked us was "which team do you barrack (support) for?" So as foreigners we usually said a different team each time they asked.
They let us kick the ball around with them before they started the real training. The ball is passed by either a kick ( what we call a punt) or a hand punch (like an underhand volleyball serve), but never thrown. I would have to say that the time at the football oval was probably my favorite part of the trip also. It was good to see what really gets them going. I thought this picture was funny. You think these two guys are just spectators, but they are the coaches. They didn't ever say a word to the guys while they were training.

This is the community bus used to get the team into town for their games. As you can see they are the Canteen Creek Blues. They said that this 22 seat bus usually takes about 50 people to the game each week! Not to mention that they travel down 180km (108 miles) of rough, dusty gravel road. One window was missing and many of the seats were torn. The book on the dash is an old bible.

From left to right - Martin from Sweden, Joel Mick (eldest son of eldest son or soon to be president of community and also a "love song" fan, especially Michael Bolton and Celine Dion), Bill, Kenneth, Janet from China

The guys are holding one of the hives we made. The hives are just a box cut in half with a small whole for the bee to enter. That being said we only made 3 of them during our stay. We had a hard time communicating with the guys. We couldn't tell if they wanted to work or not.

While the guys were making the hives, the ladies were doing paintings. The paintings are going to be used in developing a logo for the honey. We will most likely use a name from their native language.

The kids are going to paint some of the hives.
This is my favorite picture. The kids liked it when I took their picture and then showed it to them.

Here is a picture of the community from atop their water tower at sunset. The mixture of colors made this definitely the best time of the day. No, I didn't profess my love for Cristin in spray paint while on the water tower.

Collecting honey

Graham (vice president of community), Janet (sydney uni student), Kathy (community assistant and our host). This is the group making our way into the bush - looking for the bees.

Martin, Sydney Uni student from Sweden, is listening to the bees inside the tree.The stingless bees are quite small!! Apparently, there are several species of stingless bees in Australia and we happen to be working with the smallest kind. They are about the size of an ant. This is one reason why this honey is going to bee so expensive!!!
Adrian Mick (community president b/c he's the eldest son of the community founder) swinging away at the gum tree. Once we have enough hives started we will not have to chop into the trees, but can just split the boxed hives once per year to grow the business.

That's the nest!

Melbourne

This is the beautiful city of Melbourne. The downtown area is very artsy and is known for its great architecture. Bill and I wandered around the city all day for our first day. There are beautiful parks, large sport arenas (the MCG), and fantastic shopping! Bill experienced his first Tiffanys, Louis Vuitton and Prada stores!! :) Of course, we were just looking - not buying! I'm sure he enjoyed it as much as I did! ;)



We went to a fantastic Picasso exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria. It really was fascinating. I thought the sign was pretty cool, too!
Monday night we went to a Coldplay concert and had a great time! We had seats in the 2nd row!! It was amazing - I definitely lost my voice that night! Chris Martin was very entertaining to watch, and is very talented!


This is just a brief glance of what the Great Ocean Road looks like. Imagine that times 4 hours! It was VERY windy - we never knew what to expect around the next turn! Tuesday we spent most of the day driving to the West of Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road. It is a definite must if you are visiting Melbourne!

Below is a picture of the 12 Apostles. It was an absolutely amazing view - well worth the drive! This trip to Melbourne was so much fun. While we were in Melbourne, we stayed with a fantastic couple - Trevor and Jillian Keetley. They were terrific and we were so appreciative to make some great friends during our trip!

Quick Update: Bill's trip to the Aboriginal village of Canteen Creek has been postponed for 1 week. He will leave on the 17th of July. I can't wait to see his pictures - it will be an amazing experience, I'm sure!

Thanks for your prayers and emails, Bill and I are having a great time! We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures! :)

Trip to Melbourne

We made our first Australian road trip last weekend! We drove down to Melbourne from Sydney. We decided to take the coastal route which takes about 12 hours! Sounds like fun, huh!! :) Actually, we had a great time and learned alot about Australia! The pictures below are all from stops we made on the way.

Pelicans for Glenis! This was taken at our first stop - a town called Bateman's Bay. This is only a few hours outside of Sydney - many Sydneysiders go there for weekend holidays. It was a very neat little town with a beautiful bay area. One thing - Australia is a lot like Oklahoma in the sense that the names are not very easy to pronounce. We have lots of Indian names, Australians have lots of Aboriginal names. We entertained ourselves by trying to read the signs as we passed them. It wasn't easy!!! Cristin wrote down a few that were particularly interesting: Ulladulla, Wandandian, Wallagaragh, Mallacoota, Bermagui, Croajinglong, Koo Wee Rup, and Dandenong. I still don't know how to pronounce some of them!One of our big stops was at the Bega cheese factory in Bega (go figure!). We toured the factory and then, at the end, we tasted all the cheeses. The milk comes from hundreds of surrounding dairy farms. The Bega brand is one of the most recognizable cheese brands in Sydney. Kangaroos on the golf course! This was just off the highway in a small town. It reminds me of Caddy Shack. We are such tourists... we had to stop and take pictures! :)
Here's Cristin at the Killer Whale museum in Eden. The story behind this museum is that a killer whale named Tom, helped the local whaling industry in the early 1900's. Tom would herd other species of whales to the whalers so they could kill them and give Tom the lips and tongues (gross). He often slapped his tail on the water to wake up the whalers. The whalers would jump in their boats and Tom would lead them to the whale. It is a pretty interesting little story, but the town is built around the (now terminated) whaling industry.

When we were leaving we asked a lady working there how far it was to Lake's Entrance (the town where we were staying the night). She told us about 3 hours. But, she was very concerned that we get through the mountains before dusk. This was so we could get to our destination before the kangaroos and wombats would be out. So its sort of dangerous to be driving through these country towns around sunset. We thought this was interesting her advice was not to watch out for kangaroos and wombats but to get off the road because of kangaroos and wombats!
This picture is for J.C. back home. I think his all time favorite movie is "The Man from Snowy River." We made it to our hostel in Lake's Entrance just after dark. The trip felt like we were driving down Route 66. We didn't need a map, we just followed the same road as it lead us through every small town between Sydney and Melbourne.

The next morning we started our trip again to finally reach Melbourne. We made a couple of little stops along the way, but were pretty anxious to get into the city. But, the Australian countryside is very pretty and the drive along the coast was very relaxing! We highly recommend it for anyone who has the time!

Oranges, Whales, and Finals!

Hello Sydney Markets! Bill and I decided to venture out to the MASSIVE markets out at Flemington. As you can see... it is rather large and VERY loud!! All the vendors yell out their prices, trying to differentiate their products from their neighbors! We left with quite a nice bounty... almost 1 kilo of cherries (a taste of summer for us!), some strawberries, and 16 kilos of oranges!!! Yes, that's right... 35.2 pounds of orange goodness! We hope Phil likes oranges because we gave him half of the box (about 30 oranges) for his birthday present!! :)

Canteloupes = Rock Melons = "Rockies" (Australians shorten EVERYTHING!)

This was a great adventure! Lloyd took a group, including Bill and myself, out Whale Watching in his boat! It was so much fun! And... guess what... we saw Whales!! I almost had a hard time believing what I saw... Luckily I had my camera to prove it! We saw about 8 or 10 whales and had a great time driving around searching for them! The best part was when a whale jumped out of the water - it was almost like we were at SeaWorld! The whale did a perfect spin out of the water - it was amazing! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture all of those spectular instants... All I have to prove of our sightings is this little tail! Oh well, its still proof!

Bill finally finished his finals for the semester! He will be taking a winter course, so he doesn't get too much of a holiday before the next big round of classes. He finished his classes well and feels he learned very practical information! Always a plus!! :)

Tomorrow we are off to Melbourne for a 5 day holiday. It will be a whirlwind trip and we plan on seeing a great deal! We are so excited... we are getting to go see Coldplay while we are there!! Anyway, we are driving, so keep us in your prayers.... its a long 14 hour drive on the coastal route! Don't worry, we are staying the night at Lakes Entrance along the way! :)

We will update next week with pictures of Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road!

Oklahoma friend #2!!

This week we had our second visitor from Oklahoma. My friend, Mike Albert, from Beaver, Oklahoma stayed with us for 3 days. He just graduated from OSU and accepted a job as a Landscape Architect in Aspen, Colorado. Sydney was the first stop on 21 day holiday to Australia and New Zealand, countries 21 and 22 for Mike in total!!

Below is a picture from Centre Point Tower overlooking Darling Harbour. Nice view, huh? I was able to take him exploring the city on Tuesday capped off with an Australian BBQ hosted by Julie and Rohan.

Wednesday was when the trip really started to get interesting! I took Albert driving along the coast line to explore the famous beaches of Sydney. Well we ended the trip at the South Head, near Watsons Bay. The following picture is from the South Head. We knew there was something weird going on when we saw police cars and a police rescue truck at the bottom. When we got to the top it was just as Phil had warned Cristin and I earlier this year- a suicide. Apparently the Gap is known for being a place where lots of suicides happen. Mike and I saw the rescuers repel down the cliff to retrieve the body (luckily we couldn't see it!).

We were able to see a few whales as they were migrating for the winter! There were about 3 or 4 whales in the distance. We needed binoculars to get a good view, but we could definitely see the water they were blowing out just no big jumps like you see in the commercials!! How's that a suicide and whales all in one spot??? Crazy.

Here's the token kangaroo picture. We were afraid he might not see one on the rest of his trip so we took him to the local zoo. We need to work on a discount that's our 3rd trip since we've been here and surely not our last!
Thursday night we went to see the movie Cars. It felt like we were back in Oklahoma because the whole movie is set off of Route 66 and Interstate 40. Plus, there were lots of country songs that reminded us of Oklahoma. But after the movie we walked out to the beach and took lots of pictures.

We had a great time with Mike. It was great to catch up. We wish him well with the rest of his trip and new job!!! Cristin is already planning our trip to Aspen!