CALM before the STORM

Saturday January 9, 2010
CALM before the STORM!

I’m going to try to keep this one brief!!

For those who don’t already know, or haven’t already figured out; the next chapter of my life has recently begun:

The much anticipated month of December brought my good friend and housemate from Australia, Mel (anie)!! We had an awesome month of adventures spanning from Niagara Falls to Washington DC!!

About a week before Christmas, I was sitting at Baltimore’s inner harbor (harbour) with Mel sharing the American experience of a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream cone and pointing out the flag on Ft. McHenry when my phone rang. A day or two before, I had left a phone message to check in on my application status at Southern Adventist University so when I saw (Tennessee) appear on the screen of my phone I was pretty confident I knew whose voice I would hear on the other end.

Sure enough, it was Mike Hills, who I had been in contact with about my application to the Outdoor Education Master’s program as well as a position as a Graduate Assistant.

Okay – lets speed things up here . . .
*I was accepted into the program as well as offered a graduate assistantship (which covers tuition!!)

*I was asked to arrive by January 4th and was given the number of a girl who lives in an apartment on campus with other female GAs

*December 30th took Mel to the airport in the morning :( (really starting to dislike airports)

*Dec 30th – Jan 1st – packing and New Year’s Eve partay at our house!

*Jan 2nd - Three days after hugging Mel goodbye at the airport, Dad and I were climbing into our fully loaded cars and headed South-bound, ten hours down to Collegedale Tennessee, near Chattanooga!

*Jan 3rd – arrived in Collegedale (after spending the night with a lovely couple from church who has retired in Knoxville, TN and graciously let us stay with them) moved into the apartment and met two of my three new housemates . . . Here we go again folks!

Okay, I’ll admit it, I am sort of getting tired of starting over and might possibly, probably, likely, be ready to settle down, somewhere , after grad school, but yeah it’s still exciting to be different places and meet different people. I think I’m going to like it down here . . . once it warms up!! I expected it to be warmer since I was coming south but it has been just as cold as Maryland and we even had a dusting of snow (and ice) this week! It was kind of amusing to see the south’s reaction to snow. The schools closed early pretty much as first sight of snow, the university was closed the next day, bread and milk were flying off the shelves at the store, and sadly, there were many accidents due to people not knowing how to drive in these types of conditions.

"Student Park Cave" on campus! "Managed by the Outdoor Leadership Program"

The apartment is nice: Laundry room, nice kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. If you have paid attention and done the math here you will have just come to the realization that this means four girls sharing one bathroom and two in each bedroom. Yes, this is a bit of a step backwards as I have been spoiled the past year and a half (besides summer camp) and gotten used to my own room and bathroom, however it has worked out just fine so far; no fights over the bathroom and my roommate is really nice!

Spaghetti dinner with Christina (roommate) and Heather!
None of us are overly into cooking but we try once in a while!

Dessert provided by undergrad Tyler! From Left: Tyler, Heather, Christina, and Lauren (Ren)

You may also have picked up on the name of the school: Southern Adventist. Before any assumptions are made: I have not converted to Seventh Day Adventist (apparently correctly pronounced with the emphasis on the “AD” instead of the “VEN” and often referred to as ”SDA”). In looking into doing a master’s program I was looking for a school that offered Outdoor Education from a Christian perspective and offered graduate assistantship that covered tuition. This school was just about the only one that covered all of those criteria!!

Things have been pretty slow so far but I know they are all going to pick up at once and soon so I’m trying to make the most of this time while I have it! We have a 10 day intensive where much of our course work is covered which runs January 17th – 26th. Part of the intensive this semester will be spent in Atlanta, GA (about 2 hours away). Our theme this intensive is "using nature as a learning tool". We will be exploring curriculum from a variety of outdoor organizations and visiting places like the aquarium, the zoo, schools with strong environmental programs and lots of outdoor centers (centres). I’m pretty excited! And might have to blog about it when I get back!

After this intensive is when the three of us new GAs will sit down with our uhhh supervisor? person and discuss, determine our roles. There are three positions open, or opening, at the moment. One involves working with SOAP Southern Outdoor Adventure Program, which coordinates, organizes, advertizes, and run activities for students on campus. Another is working with outside groups who we run activities for: low ropes, high ropes, team building, some on our site some on theirs. And the third is a unique and new position working with the Chattanooga Boys and Girls club getting an outdoor ed component going for their four sites in the area.

So that’s sort of an overview of life at the moment. Not sure how much time I am going to have once things get rolling here so wanted to at least get one post up before things get busy!
Hope all is well with everyone; that you all had a wonderful Christmas and are off to a great start to 2010!! :)

P.S. I'm thinking I should change the name of my blog to Messin' Around Down South :-P

A Chance to Breathe at Black Rock

Sunday August 23, 2009
A Chance to Breathe at Black Rock

I enjoy keeping busy but it comes to a point where it’s like “okay, I’m ready for a rest!” And today, Sunday (fitting really), I am finally getting a rest after what has been a busy, full–of-fun adventures and awesome people summer!

My third amazing summer at the Marsh came to a bit of a pre-mature end in order to begin training for my next (and fourth in a row!) “Christian camp job” at Black Rock Retreat up near Lancaster, PA. My last day at the Marsh ended on a great note with a Thursday late night cook out! I’m not sure how it all got started but after our usual meal of Marsh Stew and S’mores some of the girls began asking for more stew. However, not with the purpose of eating it, but with the idea of flicking it using their forks. Being the end of summer we allowed this to happen but told the girls to take it into the woods. Before we knew it all of the girls were off in the woods flicking each other with stew using forks. When about the fifth girl returned to get more stew out of the pot, my curiosity was peaked and I couldn’t resist the urge to join in the fun! Without fully thinking it through, before I knew it I had filled a cup with stew and was heading into the trees, plastic fork in hand. I must say, there was something satisfying about flicking stew off a plastic fork! But of course, as soon as word got out that “Chief Laura” had joined the fun, I had just about every girl running after me with forks full of tomato-sauce based stew; great idea Laura! I ran for cover back to the pot, where my fellow “Chiefs” stood chatting clean and stew-free. I don’t remember if I decided to give up and join the fun full force or if it was decided for me. What I do know is that I turned my back to run from the chaos only to feel someone reach from behind me and smear a handful of globby, luke-warm tomato sauce, ground beef, cheese, onion concoction across my face. I turned ready to retaliate only to find my boss behind me with stew – covered hands. I thought briefly but really saw no other option, so using my cup of stew, retaliated with little hesitation. Now I pause here to ask you . . . What other job is there in the world where you can smear the previously mentioned concoction on your bosses face and at the end of the day she is still asking you to return the next year?? I challenge you, really, to find another job out there. Now I’m not suggesting by any means that you should attempt this at your work place but I’m just saying perhaps this is something to consider!

So yeah, my last day at the Marsh was definitely a memorable one and a great way to end another “Toad-ally Awesome” summer!

I won’t go into too much detail about Black Rock now as there are many things I’d like to do with this day of rest. I will, however, say that I have yet again found myself feeling so very blessed and so very sure that I am where God wants me right now. I have two great bosses here, two lovely house mates, and three awesome guys who I will be working with over the next twoish months.

I almost feel like I should be getting tired of this whole camp scene thing but really each of the three camps I have spent time at have provided a different experience, through which I can and have grown and learnt / learned.

I hope this fall / autumn / spring (If anyone from Aus is reading this) finds all of you content and confident in how God is working in your life. 

A Place to get Connected

June 29, 2009
A Place to Get Connected . . .

Music of choice at the moment:
Mercy Me – I can Only Imagine, Homesick, Here with Me
Missy Higgins
Damien Leith


Although you can’t always rely on Sandy Cove for a wireless internet connection, sometimes when that fails you can find yourself getting connected to something or someone even better and more deserving of our connection. Someone who can often get pushed aside, forgotten, or even replaced by the connection of the internet . . .

So tonight as I sat outside in frustration while the Sandy Cove wireless failed me for about the sixth time today, I eventually gave in, closed the lid on my laptop and sat in awe of the amazing view laying before me. Almost as if it had been gift-wrapped and placed in the sky for my viewing and enjoyment alone. However, looking just a few meters in front of me sat couples on the benches, and others on the Adirondack chairs, youth throwing a football, and families poking their heads out to catch a glimpse and take a photo. Behind me, on the other side of the glass windows, sat an elderly couple enjoying the gift from comfy armchairs in the air-conditioning. No, the gift can’t be just for me . . . it is for anyone who is willing to take the time to come, sit, stand . . . and connect with the giver of the gift that is there for all to enjoy if only they accept it.


So if you haven’t figured it out yet I’m back at Sandy Cove for the summer, where I often find myself getting caught up and carried away in my writing – especially when sitting in front of a Sandy Cove sunset. :-P

Sandy Cove is amazing as always – families are beginning to fill the lodge and you can just feel the happy (for lack of a better word) vibes of families coming together for an awesome time of fun and fellowship with old friends and new.

Realizing this is the first time I have been here and not known for sure what is next in my life . . . the first year it was college, last year I had already figured out I would be going to Australia. But this year no set in stone plans yet. I have Black Rock in the works and think that will be the next step but yeah still not definite and even then it’s only short term. This isn’t a bad place to be though when you don’t know what’s next. A good place for reflection and thinking . . . .

Idealistic? Just thinking about how this is such a great place for families to come connect with each other and their maker but then I think of those who don’t have solid families and those who don’t even know of their maker and wonder . . . . This is great but is it reaching those who already have solid connections? Is there enough or anything out there for those who could really benefit but are lacking that connection. . . . hummmm I guess we get a mix of campers; pulic school, private, chirsitan, non-chrisitan, solid families, broken ones . . .

Now this is becoming very Laura – like; stream of consciousness, little blips of my thoughts :-P

I should probably get back to filling out this Black Rock application. Praying God will lead me where he wants me next, enjoying the Marsh, and still . . . really, really, really missing Australia; the job, the people, the place (not necessarily in that order).

So this is actually a photo from two years ago, tonights sunset was heaps nicer but I didn't have my camera on me.

Sweet and Sour

So I suppose there is still a month before I fly out of Aus but I know that month is going to FLY.

May 9 – 16 – South Island of New Zealand with Mel & Leanne
May 16 – 24 – North Island of New Zealand with Mel, Leanne , & ELLEN!
May 24 – 25 – Sydney with Ellen
May 25 – 26 – Blue Mountains with Ellen & Phil
May 26 – 30 – Nowra / Shoalhaven J
May 31 – June 5 – Alice Springs / Uluru / Ayers Rock with Ellen and Julie
June 6 - Fly Home

Soooo Excited to come home and sooooooo sad to leave . . . .
(In No particular order!)

Super Excited To . . .
-See family
-Reunite with friends
-Have my car / freedom back
-sunroof!
-The Marsh
- old campers and new campers
-old counselors and new counselors
-day trips
-circle time at he end of the day
-It’s gonna be another great summer at the Marsh!!
-Wheat bread, pasta . . . Healty food!
-Dishwasher!!!!!!!!
-Not having to wear a hat outside for work
-Allowing my hair to get blonde and my face to get tan :-P
-My third summer in a row – woot!
-A bit of water skiing (hopefully)
-Cruise (still can’t believe we are going on a cruise – wow – fun!)
-Panera, Chik-fil-a. Fudruckers
-Mom’s pre-made, big yellow bowl of salad in the fridge J
-Ice cream at night
-Runs in the am before camp
-Reading the bible in the morning before camp


Really Really Going To Miss . . .
-Housemates, friends, co-workers
-The job that I love
-Milo
-Half flush button on the toilet
-Fun Aussie names; Wollongong, Banksia . . .
-The Accent
-Different words (wiper snipper, porridge . . .)
-“Ta”
-Monday morning breakky
-Starting each workday with devos and prayer with my co-workers
-caving, abseling . . . .
-The Shoalhaven river
-canoeing on it
-seeing it outside my kitchen window
-Driving on the left side of the road (usually :-P accept when I forget and scare the ppl in the car half to death – sorry Phil, and Mel, and Chelle – hehe)
-Driving lessons in a manual – thank you Phil and Chelle and Mel and Julz and I think Steve once and Dan once . . .
-Work Utes – Uncle Lewis, Big Bro, Little Bro
-The looooooong, windy, bumpy dirt road into work / home
-Wombats (under and around our house, and of course the poor, sick, mangy ones at work), kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, the one bilby I saw!
-Out trips
-Trangia, Spundonicals (not sure how to spell but oh so fun to say!)
-My / Julz mobile (nicer than my one at home) :-P
-Church at All Saints Anglican, Nowra
-Christian Discovery
-Small group discussions
-Pinky prayers (introduced to me by a group of year 4 girls!)
-Briefings and Debriefings (yes, I really will miss these)
-Ending each activity with a prayer
-Singing on canoe trips “There once was a moose . . .”
-Real fruit smoothies – Boost
-Cadbury chocolate – Yes, we have it but not in as many variations
-Colourful money!
-$1 and $2 coins
-Fun animals on the money
-Beautiful beaches
-Princes highway
But most of all . . .
-The really awesome, amazing group of people I have been working with and working for and living with and playing with and traveling with – I’m gonna miss everyone like crazzzy

Relay for Life!!

So next Saturday I will be taking part in my first ever Relay for Life!!
I've always wanted to participate in Relay for Life but always seemed to have something else going on.
So if you would like to support me and help raise money for cancer you can visit:
http://www.relay.cancercouncil.com.au/?2009/shoalhaven_2009/all_saints_nowra/150147

ELLEN IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!

So excited!!!!
So new arrival home day is the 6th of June and I'll be flying home with Ellen!!
Mel, Leanne and I are going to New Zealand on May 9th - exploring the South Island, Meeting Ellen, exploring the North Island, then flying back to Ausralia where we will have two more weeks of travel and showing Ellen around!!!!!!! Really excited!! But also sad since I know this will mark the end of my time here :( Sweet and sour, sweet and sour

A Sleepover!!

22, February 2009

So this Saturday was moving day. After a little over three years of working for Youthworks, one of my beloved house mates, Julie, has taken a new job up in Sydney to work for a private school up there as one of their outdoor educators. Yes, this school has its own outdoor educators!! She will be organizing stuff from the school but spending at least a third of the year out on trips with students! Cycling New Zealand, Canoeing down the Murray, a 20 day hiking trip . . . you get the idea! It’s an amazing job opportunity and she will be fantastic for it but it’s quite sad to see her go :(

On Friday (two weeks ago now) I was asked to go up to Blue Gum (another youthworks campsite up in the Blue Mountains near Sydney) for the week since they were going to be short on staff. I was excited to go help out and experience a new site but also a bit bummed that I’d be missing out on Julie’s last week living with us :(

Luckily though we had planned a sort of girl’s farewell sleepover!! We borrowed mattresses from work, which we loaded up with pillows and blankets and dunas (like a comforter) to cover our lounge room floor!! Six of us youthworks girls were there (plus Jess who phoned in from England!) and five spent the night. It was such your typical girls sleepover – lol. We made cookies; Julie had bought little men cookie cutters from Germany and I wanted to make some heart ones for V-day! Nomes (former youthworks chic now married to my boss, the one from America, and soon to be mother of two!) brought rice paper rolls for dinner. You stick this hard flat crispy thing in hot water and it gets all soft and flimsy and slimyish. Then you add salad, chicken, and sauce, wrap it up and there you have it! I’ll have to take a close up photo next time we have them – they are a frequent dinner at our house! We watched movies and ate ice cream and stayed up late! Mel made us crepes with fruit and ice cream for breakky and we had a slow start to the day! Too much fun! I truly live with and work with a wonderful group of girls! :) (And boys too) :-P

So a flour fight broke out while making cookies. . . Julie clearly started it :-P

Mel got dragged into the flour fight!

Dinner on the floor - rice paper rolls! yumm

From Left: Mel, Leanne, Nomes, Al, Julz, Me

On Saturday I ended up going dragon boating with Alison and Dave, who are part of a club. It was fun and hard work; made me miss rowing although it is quite a bit different.

Monday morning I was off on the near 3 hour drive up to Blue Gum Lodge for a hectic start to the week with a group of year three boys with very little attention span; a challenge but an experience all the same. We finished the week off with a coed year 7 group. And in between them I managed to take my final exam for the Intro to the Bible course I’d been taking by distance education through Moore Theological College!! The exam went okay – good enough I hope! I think the essay worth 25% went fairly well. There were definitely questions I knew and definitely ones I didn’t know and a few I knew I should know but couldn’t recall!! There was A LOT of information covered in the course and you’re not sure what they are going to ask. A bit more study time may have helped but I think its one of those you can never know it all kind of things. I really enjoyed taking the course and learned a lot from it but I am glad to have the test behind me!

So Blue Gum! It is the smallest of the three youthworks sites so it has a smaller staff: three guys (plus the one in charge) and two girls. Since they are smaller they are a bit more laid back. They have breakky together with the teachers every morning before heading off for devos and setting up for the day. Some of the activities they run are a bit different from ours. No canoeing but they do hike mountain biking, a climbing wall, and a bike ed activity. Unfortunately Youthworks initially only trains you in the activities you need for your site so I was running a lot of archery and initiatives and low ropes this week! I also did abseiling twice at their off-site cliffs – which was pretty cool – it had an awesome view! Blue Gum tends to get mostly younger groups and therefore doesn’t do too many out tips. The year seven group did cook on trangias and sleep out in tents one night but they were just set up onsite.

It was neat and fun to get a chance to experience a different site but I will say that by the end of the week I was missing good Old Shoalhaven and the team. It’s good to go to other sites cause it makes you appreciate what you have and get new ideas!

I got home on Friday close to 6 for a house dinner at the Indian restaurant, where we went for my birthday. Then Saturday was the big moving day. I went home with Julz for the rest of the weekend and for a luau themed 21st birthday party – much fun! We spent today driving around Sydney looking at living options – lots of time in the car but neat too. Have I said I’m sad she’s leaving?? :-P :(

Tomorrow I head out for a four day hike / canoe with year 10 students. It is a coed group so I’m headed out with another male leader, Tom, and then Mel will join us for the canoeing bit to be our safety / power boat driver. Should be fun! The most days I’ve been out though – soo gonna be ready for a shower by the end!

Nearly back to good ole Nowra – caught the train down so Julz wouldn’t have to drive down then back up to her parent’s house.
Hope all is well back in the US of A :)
Miss you all.
<3 <3