Hi all,
I have several google albums of photos from our trip. Click and view if interested. (Copy and paste)
January 2019
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TEEm7pNFQibtoKZM8
Videos of swimming and jumping at Jenolan Caves
https://photos.app.goo.gl/c2HeV2LmbynwJMFN6
Australia, Erik and Carla Dec 26th-Jan 4th
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZbbTiGgUzYq6fLh67
I'll add more albums as the trip goes on. I'm also working on 2 digital albums of the trip and a journal/album using photos that I print with my new HP Sprocket. Fun!! This trip will be well documented.
Carla
Sunday, January 20, 2019
We thank and honour the Aboriginal People of this Land
I wanted to share a quote that is in the front of our handbook. It is by Nginitja, Elder, Pitjantjatjara Anangu.
"We ask that when you walk on the hills and beaches and through the forests of this Land, you remember, respect and honour the thousands of generations of the Old People who walked upon, cared for and nurtured this Land so that it in turn would care for and nurture the generations that followed them. When you meet their descendants during your stay here, remember that they are the descendants and traditional custodians of the Land, and thank and honour them for sharing It and their knowledge with you."
"When you walk and sit down in this Country, remember that wherever you walk, and wherever you sit, someone has walked and sat there before you."
Blue Mountains
Cronulla Beach
Aunty Margret (Muughi) Campbell, from Dunghutti Country and Yuin Country
She founded and runs a Cultural Tourism business called Dreamtime Southern X and shares her knowledge with many.
"We ask that when you walk on the hills and beaches and through the forests of this Land, you remember, respect and honour the thousands of generations of the Old People who walked upon, cared for and nurtured this Land so that it in turn would care for and nurture the generations that followed them. When you meet their descendants during your stay here, remember that they are the descendants and traditional custodians of the Land, and thank and honour them for sharing It and their knowledge with you."
"When you walk and sit down in this Country, remember that wherever you walk, and wherever you sit, someone has walked and sat there before you."
She founded and runs a Cultural Tourism business called Dreamtime Southern X and shares her knowledge with many.
The students are here, the students are here!
Erik and I returned to Sydney on January 2nd. A friend from Tiona, David Drake, drove us to Newcastle, where we caught the train to Central Station. Thanks David, that was super sweet of you! He and Erik had bonded earlier when performing a duet of sorts to "Satisfaction" for the talent show. We brought an uber to International House, which is a dormitory/college of the University of Sydney. Erik and I have a room with a mini fridge and a bathroom. Sweet! It was about 90 degrees when we arrived and our room was a sauna. Thankfully they found us a fan and we bought a second one.
A friend, Julian, from Tiona, had recommended Camp Cove at Watson's Bay so we went there on the 3rd. It was a gorgeous walk on the South Head of the bay. We shared some fish and chips. On the 4th, Nat and her family arrived. Nat is our wonderful leader. She works for GED, Global Education Design, and has organized all of the details for this trip. We loved seeing her again! Her husband, Ken and 7 year old daughter, Mira, and Ken's Mum, Chris were with Nat. They invited us to dinner on Glebe Street. We ate at a Japanese Ramen restaurant and it was yummy! So great to visit with them!
January 5th-all the students arrived, either on flights at the airport, or at International House if they'd come to Sydney a day or two early. All of the flights were on time and everyone got their luggage. Erik and Nat went to meet them. It's great to be all together.
After settling into their rooms we had an orientation meeting. It's tricky because they are so tired from traveling and there is heaps of new information, but all went well. Then Nat led us down to the Shopping Centre where we could all buy food for lunches. Erik and I also purchased laundry soap and sunscreen and aloe for the students to use. (LC pays for those kinds of items, which are greatly appreciated.)
Sunday, we headed out on a bus tour of Sydney with Moshe. We stopped at several places to look around: The Opera House, Mrs. Macquarie's Chair and Bondi Beach. We actually stayed at Bondi Beach long enough for a swim, if wanted. Unfortunately it was about 70 degrees and a bit rainy so only a handful of students played in the ocean. Erik and I walked around town and went to a market, similar to Saturday Market in Portland, ate our sandwiches and then went to the beach. The rain had stopped by then. During the afternoon/evening, Erik and Nat met with each student to talk to them about the individual research projects that they will do as part of their "Contemporary Australia" course.
Twenty-three students are on the trip with us and they are wonderful people. We are looking forward to spending the next 3+ months with them.
I'd forgotten that the Opera House is made up of many, many tiles. Fun to see it close up.
Hanging out at Bondi Beach, where the first surf lifesaving club started in 1907. The lifeguards are volunteers. They place flags at the parts of the beach which are safest from rip tides and patrol for sharks too.
Our Home away from Home for the next 3 weeks, a very nice location.
OZ 2019 - Lewis and Clark Overseas program
Evan on Mrs. Macquarie's chair, looking onto the harbour.
A friend, Julian, from Tiona, had recommended Camp Cove at Watson's Bay so we went there on the 3rd. It was a gorgeous walk on the South Head of the bay. We shared some fish and chips. On the 4th, Nat and her family arrived. Nat is our wonderful leader. She works for GED, Global Education Design, and has organized all of the details for this trip. We loved seeing her again! Her husband, Ken and 7 year old daughter, Mira, and Ken's Mum, Chris were with Nat. They invited us to dinner on Glebe Street. We ate at a Japanese Ramen restaurant and it was yummy! So great to visit with them!
January 5th-all the students arrived, either on flights at the airport, or at International House if they'd come to Sydney a day or two early. All of the flights were on time and everyone got their luggage. Erik and Nat went to meet them. It's great to be all together.
After settling into their rooms we had an orientation meeting. It's tricky because they are so tired from traveling and there is heaps of new information, but all went well. Then Nat led us down to the Shopping Centre where we could all buy food for lunches. Erik and I also purchased laundry soap and sunscreen and aloe for the students to use. (LC pays for those kinds of items, which are greatly appreciated.)
Sunday, we headed out on a bus tour of Sydney with Moshe. We stopped at several places to look around: The Opera House, Mrs. Macquarie's Chair and Bondi Beach. We actually stayed at Bondi Beach long enough for a swim, if wanted. Unfortunately it was about 70 degrees and a bit rainy so only a handful of students played in the ocean. Erik and I walked around town and went to a market, similar to Saturday Market in Portland, ate our sandwiches and then went to the beach. The rain had stopped by then. During the afternoon/evening, Erik and Nat met with each student to talk to them about the individual research projects that they will do as part of their "Contemporary Australia" course.
Twenty-three students are on the trip with us and they are wonderful people. We are looking forward to spending the next 3+ months with them.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Tiona Reunion
From Dec 27th - Jan 2nd we spent a wonderful week with wonderful people. Even though we're across the world, we felt welcomed and at home at Tiona. There were over 200 people registered for the church reunion and we tried to meet as many of them as we could. I think we met about 80% of those attending. It's awesome how many of the songs and skits and testimonies were similar to what we know in Oregon, but of course there were some awesome differences to a reunion at Lewis River campground too.
The first thing is the location. Erik and I got up early one morning to see the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean. Gorgeous! There are many rip tides along the beach so we only dipped our feet in the water, which was quite cold this year. We saw the sunset over the lake every evening because one of the worship services is called Sunset Reflections. This is held in the Green Cathedral, which is an outdoor chapel surrounded by palm trees and overlooking the lake. Sunset Reflections is a worship service that is the highpoint for many at Tiona, no one misses it! There was always beautiful music, readings, prayers or testimonies and at the end a chance to go to the edge of the lake to watch the sun set. One afternoon two youth were baptized there.
Another difference is that the campgrounds are owned by the church, but it's a caravan park and during the week there are other people there tent camping as well. So it's tricky to know who's part of reunion and who's not.
We all fixed our own breakfasts, but then a caterer fixed morning tea (banana bread and carrot cake etc), lunch, dinner and supper (evening snacks). Yum! We had a New Years Eve concert (talent show) where Erik and I taught the Llama song and May the Longtime Sun Shine on You. Another fun event was the annual Beach Carnival. There was great participation from all ages. Erik and I got 4th or 5th in the Egg Toss. A funny race was the Yelling Race. A person started yelling and then ran as far as they could on one breath. The winners were two women who went about 300 yards, both are singers! There was a sandcastle building competition, the theme was prehistoric. Erik was buried as part of one of the creations as he was the most "prehistoric" of those watching. The finale was the Booti Booti Run. Runners would race down the sand to the mountain/hill at the end of the beach and back. It was over a mile, in loose sand on a hot day. I was impressed that over 30 people of all ages ran. One was a boy about 4 years old and a girl about 6 and the oldest was a man in his late 70s. Impressive!
We met so many wonderful friends, got to hear about their vision of building a permanent chapel, sang lots of songs and learned many new Aussie sayings! We were so impressed with the large number of youth and young adults and the leadership they brought. It seemed like everyone there was very talented at singing or playing instruments or art or ..... Thanks for a great week.
I didn't take this photo of the sun coming thru the trees, although I wish I had. I got it from the Tiona fb site. Great photo whomever took it.
Every morning Sam and Emily hosted the "I love Tiona" morning show, here is Abby from Oregon (Cool, huh?!) being interviewed.
You can see Booti Booti in the distance where many ran to.
From Dec 27th - Jan 2nd we spent a wonderful week with wonderful people. Even though we're across the world, we felt welcomed and at home at Tiona. There were over 200 people registered for the church reunion and we tried to meet as many of them as we could. I think we met about 80% of those attending. It's awesome how many of the songs and skits and testimonies were similar to what we know in Oregon, but of course there were some awesome differences to a reunion at Lewis River campground too.
The first thing is the location. Erik and I got up early one morning to see the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean. Gorgeous! There are many rip tides along the beach so we only dipped our feet in the water, which was quite cold this year. We saw the sunset over the lake every evening because one of the worship services is called Sunset Reflections. This is held in the Green Cathedral, which is an outdoor chapel surrounded by palm trees and overlooking the lake. Sunset Reflections is a worship service that is the highpoint for many at Tiona, no one misses it! There was always beautiful music, readings, prayers or testimonies and at the end a chance to go to the edge of the lake to watch the sun set. One afternoon two youth were baptized there.
Another difference is that the campgrounds are owned by the church, but it's a caravan park and during the week there are other people there tent camping as well. So it's tricky to know who's part of reunion and who's not.
We all fixed our own breakfasts, but then a caterer fixed morning tea (banana bread and carrot cake etc), lunch, dinner and supper (evening snacks). Yum! We had a New Years Eve concert (talent show) where Erik and I taught the Llama song and May the Longtime Sun Shine on You. Another fun event was the annual Beach Carnival. There was great participation from all ages. Erik and I got 4th or 5th in the Egg Toss. A funny race was the Yelling Race. A person started yelling and then ran as far as they could on one breath. The winners were two women who went about 300 yards, both are singers! There was a sandcastle building competition, the theme was prehistoric. Erik was buried as part of one of the creations as he was the most "prehistoric" of those watching. The finale was the Booti Booti Run. Runners would race down the sand to the mountain/hill at the end of the beach and back. It was over a mile, in loose sand on a hot day. I was impressed that over 30 people of all ages ran. One was a boy about 4 years old and a girl about 6 and the oldest was a man in his late 70s. Impressive!
We met so many wonderful friends, got to hear about their vision of building a permanent chapel, sang lots of songs and learned many new Aussie sayings! We were so impressed with the large number of youth and young adults and the leadership they brought. It seemed like everyone there was very talented at singing or playing instruments or art or ..... Thanks for a great week.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
We arrive in Australia
We arrived in Sydney about 8 a.m. on Dec 26th. We left Portland on Christmas eve about 4 p.m. and flew to LAX and then skipped right over Christmas. Thankfully we had spent a wonderful Christmas Eve on Sunday the 23rd. It was wonderful being there for Finley's first Christmas.
We had no troubles with our flights and it didn't seem unbearably long, although the flight to Australia was 14+ hours from LAX. Uffda. We watched a few movies and slept a bit. Erik was planning to use his new CPAP machine, but it was so crowded and our outlet didn't work very well. The plane's so noisy no one heard him snoring!
We went to our hotel near the airport, napped for a few hours and then took the train to the iconic Sydney Harbour for a walk and some crepes.
The next morning, the 27th, we took an uber to Central Station, since we have so many bags-7 all total! Wouldn't you know it, the driver and Erik started talking all about Human Computer Interaction, etc. This man had worked for Xerox in the early days before he moved to OZ and he and Erik knew some of the same scientists. It was great. It was only his 7th drive ever and he didn't even know if he was allowed to take Erik's tip!
We took a 2.5 hour ride north on the train and then another 3 hours on a bus before we arrived at Tiona, our church campgrounds. It is a few miles south of Forster (Aussies pronounce it Foster). It's a gorgeous place between the Pacific Ocean and a salt water lake, called Wallis Lake. Our church has been having camps there for 95 years.
I'll tell you more about camp in the next post.
Here are a few photos of our first day in Australia.
We had no troubles with our flights and it didn't seem unbearably long, although the flight to Australia was 14+ hours from LAX. Uffda. We watched a few movies and slept a bit. Erik was planning to use his new CPAP machine, but it was so crowded and our outlet didn't work very well. The plane's so noisy no one heard him snoring!
We went to our hotel near the airport, napped for a few hours and then took the train to the iconic Sydney Harbour for a walk and some crepes.
The next morning, the 27th, we took an uber to Central Station, since we have so many bags-7 all total! Wouldn't you know it, the driver and Erik started talking all about Human Computer Interaction, etc. This man had worked for Xerox in the early days before he moved to OZ and he and Erik knew some of the same scientists. It was great. It was only his 7th drive ever and he didn't even know if he was allowed to take Erik's tip!
We took a 2.5 hour ride north on the train and then another 3 hours on a bus before we arrived at Tiona, our church campgrounds. It is a few miles south of Forster (Aussies pronounce it Foster). It's a gorgeous place between the Pacific Ocean and a salt water lake, called Wallis Lake. Our church has been having camps there for 95 years.
I'll tell you more about camp in the next post.
Here are a few photos of our first day in Australia.
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