Friday, July 18th

Hey people of Illinois! (and others)

Sydney, Australia has been such a hit with us! I absolutely love it!

This morning, Taylor and I woke up early to go to Patty's Market. This is very similar to the flea market we went to in Hawaii. Only this place was not as junky, and a little bit more expensive. We found a lot of cool stuff here, and I'm almost done buying all of my souvenirs! I know David went back again today to find more stuff. He seems to enjoy the shopping almost as much as the girls! :) I really liked all of the cool purses and clothing they had. I even found a pair of jeans here. I tried them on in a dressing room covered by some sort of curtain. But it did the job! We also saw Melissa, Devynn, Julia, and Barb here. I know Melissa found something very cute for her boyfriend. Well, I don't know about cute, but very cool for a guy! Oh, and I forgot to mention that Taylor and I had a little trouble finding the place. It was inside of a brick building that was four stories high. I was looking for something that was outside, like in Hawaii, but I was wrong. We stopped and asked some locals where it was. But we eventually found it! This place was so big. We spent 2 hours on the first floor before we had to leave. I plan of viewing the other 3 levels sometime soon.

At 11:30 we met in Fr. Chris' room for Mass. We discussed what we'd be doing regarding Stations of the Cross today. We had to choice of staying at Darling Harbour or walking back to Barangaroo (spelling is way wrong!). Only a few wanted to make the trec back, so we all stayed at Darling Harbour which is right next to our hotel. How convenient? The Stations of the Cross were to be acted out by real people all over the city. They began at St. Mary's Cathedral with the Pope. They slowly made their way over to Harbourside where the 7th station was portrayed. We watched all of the other stations on a big screen TV. I got Barb's opinion on what she thought of the Stations. She thought it was more effective on her whenever she was in her room watching it on TV. There were many distractions with people milling around and talking. But she thought the re-enactment was done very well, but not too gory. I think we all appreciated that. One thing that was interesting, was that when "Jesus" was scouraged, he was first scouraged right side up, and then hung upside down and scouraged again. I had never seen it portrayed like that.

After stations, we all met for a night prayer meeting at 8:15. We discussed everything about camping out tomorrow night. We will have a long day and probably will not get much sleep Saturday night. Well, I don't plan on sleeping! So we have all got packed up and ready for the campout. Taylor, Greg, and Jordan went and got food for tomorrow. They left me here at the mall to finish the blog. But, hopefully they pick out some good food! I know Fr. Daren suggested cheese and bread. He claims the cheese will not spoil. I sure hope he is right!

Well, that is all for now. I need to get a good nights sleep if I'm going to be up for the next 48 hours! Thanks for all your prayers and comments! They have definitely been helping!

I want to say a special thanks to Karmen's Oma for her letter! It was so nice to see something handwritten. You are in my prayers!

Aloha!