! AUSTRALIA DAY !

...Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free..

So Australia Day has passed, and my goodness, did we have a blast! At church everything was decorated with flags, australia towels and other native stuff, and people went all out to dress up fully Aussie! We also had our fare share of the celebration yesterday in our College orientation day where Hillsong United (youth for young adults) entroduced the newies to Australian culture by an Aussie quiz on the stage, and surprise surprise I found myself on the stage for secod a time in this specific event. For those of you who do not know, whilst in Australia for the first year, in the SummerRetreat 2007 I stood on the stage for the very same reason to represent Finland's knowledge of Aussieslang and prove my physical Australian citizenship through Australian chocholate called Vegemite.. What a Dejá Vu! However, it was heaps of fun :)

Of course if you know me at all you'd know that I love dress ups and am ready to go all out for the fun of it! Not to even mention that Australia is close to my heart, so dressing up in Australian flag colours, brading the same colours with ribbons in my hair and painting Australian flags to my cheecks would seem nearly normal to you! :) I was lucky to have a few others who were - using my friend Jason's words - "way too patriotically dressed to consider I was not an Aussie" by my side! :D

We took the gang downtown to check out Hyde Park, Circular Quay and Darling Harbour. There ought to be a Hawk & Hornet flyover show and some Red Beretts (parachooters with aussie flags) jumping out of the planes, but unfortunately because of the overcast weather clouds were too low and the show was cancelled. We still had awesome time chilling out in the park with all true Aussies, even when it started to rain! :D We got soaked, especially Ashton and I since we were too lazy to move out of the way but at least we got to enjoy some Aussie humour and music!

It was really just a day to enjoy many people's company and rejoice - as said - with Australians on this special day! We ended up leaving home since the rain fell quite some time, and we expected the Australia Day spectacle and fireworks to be cancelled since you could no longer see half of the skycrapers, but apparently the show was on, so we missed out on that too! However it was an awesome Australia Day no matter the fact we missed out on all the special treats!

So we went home and the guys came down to our pool to play Marco Polo - it was a perfect ending for the day!

I would have so much more to write, but I need to rush to finnish my packing and get out of the door in half an hour, so first days of school will be covered in my next update! For now, it's SUMMER RETREAT TIME! I have signed up to help out with the Set-up team to make the experience awesome to others and just serve people, since that's what this year is all about!

We're all looking forward to it and expectant for God to move powerfully in people's lives within the next three days!

Lots of Love,
-P

Friendships for life

Hey everyone!

Its been an AMAZING week here, we've broke the records for this summer since Friday it was +42 here!! Cooking hot I must say, but with a cool breeze running through my hair while sitting under the shade of a palm tree, I still enjoyed hours of reading in the park!

I have officially found my long lost twin - Ashton (I may have entroduced him to you before as Ian from Utah, but he's now going with his middle name so to all of you who wonder who is Ashton, that's Ian!) and I met up and immidiately just clicked perfectly. We are so alike and we have so so much fun together, we just laugh until our ribs are sore and we can talk about anything! I feel like I've known him all my life! We instantly created such an unique bond that I know this is one of those friendships for life! I am so blessed to have found such a friend!! Ashton was supposed to study at Hills campus but when we met here in the city campus he decided to transfer and now lives here in the Meritons too! It's awesome, coz I really enjoy hanging out with him!

I felt so sick yesterday morning, since I have been taking medication to prevent whooping couch (my host dad was diagnosed with it after our holiday together so everyone has to take the medication as a preventative precaution) and the side effects were really getting me. But Ashton came over, and so we prayed and man, after like 5 minutes I felt a lot better and within an hour I was totally well again! God is just so capable to sooth our pain and bring relief in our discomfort! Praise the Lord!

I really needed to burn out some extra energy last night - I went jogging for a good hour and a half, ran all the way down to Bondi and then back! We went to the park with Ashton after that to just share our life stories and get to know each other a little better, and we talked for hours until we realized it was 2a.m and really time to go to bed if we did want to go to sleep before sunrise! It’s just so easy to talk to him and we really enjoy each others company, so I am just really blessed to have found such a friend here! I believe our chats really build us up a lot, and that’s what it’s all about anyway.

I am seriously way too energized here during nights - one night we watched a movie with the blokes and after the movie had finished and guys gone to bed I got this prime idea to get ridd of all the ice that had stored up in our freezer for the past few years… So there I was, chopping huge stacks of ice with a knife from our freezer at one o’clock in the morning! And the craziest thing is no matter what time I go to bed, I still wake up by 8a.m all by myself!

We went down to Bronte beach the other day and it was so much fun – the boys have bought boogie boards and we also brought along an American footy, which me, Ashton and Keith played heaps! Colby also bought a second hand surf board, which I hope to have a go on SummerRetreat! Seriously the best part of going down to the beach with the boys is that they don’t just lay down on their towels but we swim and play around, which Im all about! That’s the way to go :)

Something really scary happened there too – I was about to get out of the ocean and right on the breaking point for the waves, I got a massive cramp on my right calf and just dropped down. I got damped pretty bad and I couldn’t get up, so I tried to cry out to Jason who was only a few feet away from me, but got just damped over and over again. Lucky enough my friends soon realized something was not right and dragged me to the beach, where Ashton gave a somewhat of a sportsmassage to my calf until the pain eased. It was scary, since for a while down there I thought I was not gonna make it…

Im really excited for the night – we are going to celebrate Australia day tonight at church! The real thing is actually on tomorrow, but we’re gonna jump the gun at church which is awesome! So I’ve just had an awesome picnic with Ashton and Keith and then I went down to pick up some facepaint and other materials to get ready for tonight and tomorrow… You’ll see at the next update how it all turned out!

So it’s going to be an awesome week – tomorrow celebrating Australia day and also Chinise New Year, and Tuesday the kick off for College! So after orientation on Tuesday and Wednsday we’re gonna hit Central Coast on Thursday! Sunday we have Vision night, where our Senior Pastor Brian Houston is going to share his vision for the church this year! So Im trying hard to update before we leave for the Retreat, since that will defenitely be another great chapter in itself! Im so excted!!


I wish you all a great week and will be updating soon again!

Lots of love,
-P

FLAT 65!

FINALLY

I have got all my stuff in so much order that I can proudly present our flat to you all :) We had a ridiculous stuggle with our home delivery company for our Ikea furniture, and ended up having to have pick up our stuff ourselves.. Oh it was horrible but God really blessed my day by sending my host mother to drive our stuff here. Am I so so thankful she did that!!

I enjoyed putting the stuff together - I think I am a bit of Ikea addict by now! But it is just so convenient and amazing how one tiny box can build up into a whole drawer! I helped my friend Jonathan to put his stuff together - American's just don't have a clue what it's all about :D So now finally I have a spot to work on assignments and all that once school starts :)

The Reeds family donated kindly some stuff to me which I am so blessed by, like bed linen, beach towels, a chair, reading light etc etc. I hadn't realized how little money I had reserved for January living and am right now making it barely through. I hope it get's easier once my student benefits (which are an amazing blessing to me, I have come to understand since meeting people from all around the world and seeing that they have nothing like that!). I really really want to buy a bike to save up with travelling expences but I don't have the finances right now. I hope I will find a cheap old dodgy bike from a garage sale or something with $100 or so.. Im sure God can figure something out :) I mean God knows exactly what I really need and He has already shown such kind care for me! The other night I was hanging out with some College students and they just gave me a microwave for free! But I have to say that I am so thankful for God placing me to live with the people I do - I could have never afforded to come here having to buy everything from a washing machine and fridge to beds and sofas etc.. that's what most of my new friends came to. I am so so priviledged to live in flat 65.

So here are some pictures of our flat so you can create a little picture in your minds of what it looks like here. It is of course very student like since most of the stuff we have here we have got for free, so nothing matches and it's old - but it works all the same! Please do not compare it to my previous flat with Mari-Anne, since that was not a student flat at all!! :)

This is our wardrobe - we have awesome glass sliding doors and we write stuff on the doors we need to rememeber - extremely handy! We write with white board markers elsewhere too - on bathroom mirror, kitchen tiles and so on! It gooood, and after you've finished you just wipe it off! We're saving paper doing this as well :) No more "Post-It's!" :)

This is what our (Lisette's & my) bedroom looks like from the door. The first messy table is hers, mine is on the back facing the window. We sleep in a bunkbed which reminds me of the days of my childhood :) I sleep on the bottom and she sleeps on the top bed!(I bet you could have told anyway since my bed is made and her's is not!:D)

So this is my sleepy corner - I have sheets that the twins used to use in their beds, and I can stare at some of my best friends while going to sleep, since they gave me an adorable calendar that I have hung above my bed. Its extremely handy too since the pages are laminated, so I can mark all kinds of dates there (e.g when rent is due) and erase them as I wish without leaving the calendar messy! Good on ya girls ;)

My "work department" - everything ready for school!

Our bathroom - Jill and Rachelle (my other two roomie whom I have't yet met) have their own too and we also have a bathtub in theirs!!

Livingroom

Kitchen

Balcony <3

Colby has become one of my best best friends here in very short time. He is so much fun to be around but we can also share what God has placed in our hearts.
I've also again met a whole bunch of new people - to my delight also some girls who are starting to study in pastoral stream! Vanessa and Sarah come from the States, Fafa from France and Cecilia from FINLAND! She will be taking the kids stream just like I am, so we'll hang out heaps and heaps! We seem to really click with Cecilia so you'll hear more of her for sure! I've also met Stewart whose just finished with College, Jeremy from India, Erik from Sweden, William from France, Alex and David from the States and Jason from Canada. Im sure you won't be able to keep up with all my new friends, since even I can't! I have started to write down their flat numbers and names of the people who live there, since they're all so awesome and I don't want to miss out a single person!

Here are some of the core team down at Coogee - from left upper row: Simeon (Switzerland),William (France),David, Alex & Jonathan (States). Colby (States) lying down in the middle and next to me on the lower row is Erik (Sweden).

We've been going down to the closest beaches - Bondi, Coogee and Maroubra have been conquered (they are all 30minutes from where we live) and I can tell that we have so much fun there - altought Im a little scared for all the crazy Americans since they don't seem to have the respect for the waves... However it's been so much fun, and school hasn't even started yet! We are all so excited for Powerhouse Retreat next weekend at Central Coast...!!! It's going to be life changing three days!

That's all for now - I want to get out to the beautiful sunshine so Im going to a park just around the corner to have my devotional time and just spend some time with God thanking Him for everything here and praying for people back at home - especially for my home church and the Treehouse. Thank you so so much for all your prayers for me - I have been blessed beyond measure!

'Till soon!
With much Love,
-P

One night in the city

Australia sends it's love!

I know I promised to write about my flat and all that, but before I do that I want to entroduce some of my new friends here! All my friends so far are guys exept for my roomie Lisette! She is the sweetest thing ever. We were hanging out with her on Maroubra beach the other day, it was so good! This is Lisette :)

right, so meet the guys! :)This picture is from our favourite restaurant downtown at the harbour, called Pancakes on the Rocks! Im sure some of you know what Im talking about here..! we basically go just to eat pancakes for dinner since they have the towns best pancake menu ever!

left front: Jonathan from South Carolina, me and Colby from Texas
right front: Mo from Germany, Filipe from Brazil and Toast (Sean)

These guys are crazy and we have had so much fun together so far! We went to hang out at the harbour and weird things happened.. You could have spotted a human pyramid in front of the Opera House that night!

Anyhow, new people come in everyday and it's awesome to meet so many Christ-focused young people at the same time! I got a call from a long waitedfriend today: Ian from Utah has arrived safely from Hawaiji, and we're going to meet next week. Im so excited!! People come from all around the world but I've realized about 80% of student come from America, so I've learned to see that Im very special in the eyes of many since I come from Finland, which is so funny! :D

I'll add pics about the flat very soon, stay tuned and updated!!

Love you and miss you all,
-P

Holiday house at Forster

CRAZY!

I've just arrived back to Sydney, surprisingly well-rested and somewhat sound!
It has been a relaxed week at Forster, a beautiful little place four hours up north from Sydney.My old host-family here in Sydney had rented a MASSIVE holiday house there with huge surroundings for their four kids to run around. The place was sooooo beautiful!! I loved the old country style it was reflecting but how they had mixed modern elements in without making it tacky!

When EJ and Harrison (the two older boys) saw me, they simply flew across the room to hugg me and were so excited they could have wet themselves! I was so happy to see them too, and unbelievable but true - even the twins remembered me! The dog licked me like crazy and of course the parents hugged me till I was short on breath! It was a happy reunion :)



The twins have changed though - grown to be such big boys and very naughty ones too.. Goodness I nearly lost my mind with them!I don't think I really want to babysit them, I'll rather go just visiting them every once in a while :) That way I remain sane and can still hang out with them. EJ and Harrison are pretty much the same than when I left, so that was a relief! The family has had some really bad luck with their aupairs recently so they aren't taking another one now.



As said, the house was big and beautiful and surroundings big enough for us to feel peaceful while having four kids running around! I personally loved the hammock on the back yard porch!! my room was also beautiful - on top of the garage to ensure I got to sleep in every morning and have my devotional time before kids would torture me :D It was really great since my bed was queen size (read: MASSIVE!)! We also had chickens, so we got fresh egg every mornig for brekky! One thing we did not know beforehand was that we also had a holiday dog included in the package! :D Well, not really, but the neighbours lovely shepherd visited us every morning to have a play with the kids, which was just lovely. She was the most adorable and friendliest dog I've ever met!



So we did heaps of fun stuff together - played cricket, soccer, climbed in the treehouses, went to the beaches and bowling, saw the tallest tree in NSW,went to the pictures, had a roadtrip, played in the parks, went shopping and other fun stuff :)



We visited a church called Greens Cathedral - it was a beautiful opendoors Christian church where I would have loved to listen to the service too!



The beaches there were incredible - there were beaches like Nine mile beach and Seven mile beach which were actually that long! I loved to swim in the ocean again and catch waves - I seriously need to get a surfboard as soon as possible! The sand squeeked under your feet because there are no pollutions in the beaches up there! I thought it was funny because no matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop squeeking!



We also had a trip to the local hospital - Deakin tripped over and had a hole through his chin! They took him to the hospital by ambulance to glue the wound and he was really brave.. Bevan kept saying "Dad, I want my T-shirt cut off too..!" :D:D:D silly billy!



but some things never change.. They're still adorable while sleeping! :)



On our last day we went to the sand dunes and got the kids to run up and down.. man it was really hard work I have to day! Had the exercise for the whole week with that.. :p some guys were going down the dune with boogie boards, looked heaps of fun! I might need to try that one day :)



all in all, it was a great holiday and I was really happy to be there - no matter that the kids have no manners anymore. They're still speciall to my heart and as long as I am not responsible of their behaviour I can endure it.. Makes me to miss the Darlingtons and Stuckers kids heaps though!!



I'll be soon writing about my flat and roomie and stuff like that, but for now I need to get to bed, Im tired after fighting the cockaroaches in our kichen! I have washed all the cupboards and washed the floods with eucalyptus oil to get ridd of them.. Let's see if my hard work will bear any fruit!

Lots of Love,
P

N.Y.E -08 Sydney, Australia

Well Well Well,

I took off from Helsinki escorted by a group of wonderful people that have chaged my life for good. Thank you all for making the effort to come, I love you and you remain in my hart forever and ever!

Flight to Brussels was awful - I sat next a lady who just wouldn't stop talking, and all I wanted to do during the flight was to have a big fat sleep to keep me going for the flight to Abu Dhabi! 5 hours in Brussels went all fine and a wonderful surprise waited me once boarding my flight -

I HAD BEEN UPGRADED TO BUSINESS CLASS!
So this flight was probably the most luxureous one ever! I was also blessed to be seated right next to a young aussie bloke named Matt, so I had some nice company to stay awake! We enjoyed all the awesome service full on - You know they bring you a drink straight after you sat down during the economy is boarding! I had a fresh stwarberry drink, then good wine, cappucino's and latte's etc etc!! Food was incedible - I had two sets of entrés (which were absolutely lovely), beautiful sammon for main and fresh fruits for dessert! GOSH!!it was all served as Alá Carte with poslin dishes.. gosh it was sooooooo good! seats were so spacious and soft, and we could lay down like in a bed!!! I enjoyed many desserts while others slept, and it was just GREAT!! I'm so gratefull God wanted to treat me a little spoiled :)
In Abu Dhabi we chilled out at Diners Club lounge which was fancy, and then economy until Sydney, but was fine since I only slept. Lucky I had boardie shorts and thongs on my carry on bag, since it was +32 when we arived in Sydney at 7.30 a.m!!

and then.. I finally got to take the train to the city just like I had dreamed for so long to do. Man it's good to be back!

it was a big hassle for me to find my roommate but once I did - it was all good ever since. She is a good girl, Lisette we're talking about here. She had everything ready for me here - and it was not all empty since all my three roommates are 2nd or 3rd year students! I have a bed and Lisette has washed fresh bed linen and towels for me! We went shopping for groceries together and she invited me to come with her and all her friends to downtown to see the fireworks. Man God has blessed me with this roomie, she is so awesome!

And N.Y.E was just incredible - I was quite jetlacked but still managed to connect with many people during the night. We went under the Harbour Bridge to camp and see the fireworks, here are sneakpeaks for you from the 12 o'clok! it was absolutely mind blowing...

,

So it's all good here and I have been enjoying the day with my roommate Lisette and my new friends Johannes and Brett. I have unpacked and slept in badly (woke up at four o'clok in the afternoon) and it's all great. I am so so happy. It's going to be a year to remember.

For now, I sign out and will be writing soon again! A very Hapy New Year to you all!

With Love,
Päivi / Pepe