Saint Michael's World Youth Day

2008-07-22T11:18:00.000-04:00

Good Morning! It was our last day here and we tried to cram a thousand last things into our day. We got up really early, ate breakfast, and caught the bus to the Wharf. We walked a couple of blocks and caught the 9:30 tour of the Opera House. (Erich and Pam walked to the rocks instead to do some shopping and scope out where the teens might like to go after their tour.)

The tour was awesome! Our tour guide, Toni was a lot of fun. She said that the Opera Theatre was going to be closed for an all day rehearsal starting at 10am, so she took us in there first. The theatre is one of five different venues housed in the Opera House. It holds 1,547 people and rotates 5 different operas at any given time. They never have the same opera two days in a row! This means that they have to change sets up to three times in a 24 hour period depending on the show times. Because the Opera House is on a peninsula, it doesn’t have the backstage room on either side of the main stage like most. They solve this problem by having huge lifts above and below the main stage, that literally raises or lowers the sets as needed. The entire inside of the building is made up of Australian Timber wood, to help with acoustics. This hall also boasts a Wagnerian Orchestra pit, which just means that it is located under the main stage instead of out in front of it.

The next hall we went into was the Concert Hall. We were lucky because the Sydney Orchestra was rehearsing and let us come in and take a listen. The sound was wonderful. Toni explained that the plastic rings that were hanging from the ceiling were put there to bounce the sound back down to the musicians (so they can hear what they are playing) along with letting the sound through, to the ceiling, so that it follows the curves in the wall for the audience to hear. This hall holds 2, 690 people and is only used for classical music. The lower seats in this venue are called stalls. The upper seats are called the dress circle, and the side seats are box seats. The organ in this room is outstanding! It has over 10,500 pipes! It was massive.

We learned a lot about the history of the building and saw some audio visuals to help with the telling of the story. There is a lot to hear, but one of the biggest things I remember is that it took 16 years (13 more than projected) and 102 million dollars to make it! That is some perseverance by the Australian government to make this happen! Ask your teens more about it. If they don’t remember, ask me.

After the tour we went to the Rocks and went shopping for souvenirs. (We walked a lot, but really didn’t mind.) We took the bus back to the hotel and all went our separate ways for lunch. Most of us rushed back to the hotel afterwards to change into our suits and go swimming in the ocean!

The Bombies were wicked! We caught multiple 20 footers and the rip was ferocious! We stayed between the flags and had a bitchin’ time. (Translation: The waves were huge. They were easily 20 feet high, and the rip tide was strong. We swam between the life guards flags and had a great time….just so you get a taste of the lingo. )

After the swim (where the water temperature was 64 while outside temperature was in the high 50’s) we either took hot showers or got in the hot tub. (See the theme here?) It was a really relaxing afternoon, and I think everyone had a great time. We went as a group to a restaurant called “Hurricanes” for dinner and then hit the IGA to get some Tim Tams for home.

Andrew, Emily, Maria, Carolyn, Audrey, Cathy, Patrick, and I decided we wanted to go the Harbour one last time. We caught the bus to Circular Quay (pronounced key) and walked around a while. We saw the Opera House lit up at night, the Sydney Harbour bridge, and a lot of neat artwork. (They had sculptures all around the city, and when we couldn’t find one to take our picture in front of, we made our own art. It was silly but lots of fun.) We finally decided we had enough, stopped to get some ice cream and drinks and caught the bus back to the hotel. Now we are frantically trying to cram all of our stuff into our suitcases in order to come home. (It’s not working so well…..)

Please continue to pray for our safe return. We can’t wait to see you and tell you all of our fun stories! Lots of love…..

The Taronga Zoo

2008-07-21T07:42:00.003-04:00

Good Morning ! We started our day out by getting up early and getting ready for the zoo! We took our friend, the 333 bus, and were on our way. The bus got stopped by a police brigade that was blocking the street. This was really odd since we hadn't seen a single accident, etc all trip. Then, as were waiting to go, we saw it! The police presence was huge because they were leading the Pope's motorcade! The first three white Mercedes were full of cardinals and support staff, and then came the black limo/van! How do we continue to luck out with the Pope sightings?! (Thanks Holy Spirit!)

The ferry ride cost $4.20 for a one way trip across the Harbour to the Taronga Zoo dock. It was a short trip, but lots and lots of fun. The views were gorgeous from the ferry and we got a lot of great pictures of the city! (I can't wait to get home and go boating!) At the boat dock, we took a bus up the hill to the gates. We wanted to ride the Sky Cam, but because it was so windy, they closed it. (I don't think this upset Mary Jo very much. jk)

We walked all around the zoo and saw a lot of animals native to Australia. We passed out a lot of leftover swaps to the kids there on 'holiday'. It was fun until Eric got accosted by 30 kids at once.

We stopped at the Taronga Food Market for lunch~although a lot of the teens packed peanut butter and jelly from breakfast. We rested our feet for a few minutes (Why are all the zoos on hills?) and we were off again. We saw a really cute seal show and watched them feed the koala's. (The keeper told us that basically Koalas do three things: eat, sleep, and breed.) They are very cute, but kind of stinky. (They only eat Eucalyptus leaves, so they tend to smell like Vic's Vapor Rub. jk) We were disappointed that it is illegal to hold or pet Koalas in New South Wales, so we took a big group picture next to a stuffed one. (Silly, but great fun!) At the end of the day, we walked to the wharf to catch the ferry back to the city, along with about 400 other people. The crush to get on the ferries was kind of scary. I kept having visions of someone going overboard. Thankfully that didn't happen and we got back safely.

At the bus stop, three different buses passed us that we could have gotten on to get back to the hotel. Poor Patrick was starting to get a complex because they weren't stopping for him. One of them finally did, and away we went again. A very nice English man sat next to me on the bus and talked about what it was like to move to Sydney on his work visa. He had only been here for around 7 months, but loves it! He asked about my family, and if we were homesick yet. He was really sweet. When he was getting off the bus, he shook my hand, asked my name, and then said, "I'm Hans. It was nice to meet you." We got off at the next stop, and I had to run to tell the girls. You see, they had made up my foreign soul mate and that was his name. It was to funny!

We split up at the bus stop and all went to get some dinner. Andrew, Cathy, Christine, Emily, and I went down to a restaurant called Bondi Fresh. It was yummy pasta. . . .until Emily ruined it by telling me it was lamb meat. (Jk, Em!) Now most of the teens are playing cards and hanging out in the lobby, while Erich and I are trying to get the game plan down for tomorrow! We are going to try and see the inside of the Opera House, get some shopping time in, and let them swim on the beach. We'll see what happens.

I am excited that we have had another great day. I've been thinking about the past week, and how much we have relied on Saint Anthony. At some point, we have left plane tickets and a passport on the plane, a book bag on the ferry, lost a wallet, lost a camera bag, and lost a credit card. Every single thing we lost/misplaced was found after prayers. (I bet St. Anthony will be thrilled when we get back home. hehe)

We miss and love you all lots and lots. See you in a couple of days!
P.S. Matt, Did you find the checkbook? We are all dying to be in the know. hehe

2008-07-21T06:08:00.007-04:00

The outside of the Taronga Zoo. We took the ferry there this morning and spent the day there.

You can't come to Australia and not see a kangaroo!!!

We watched the seal show - it was a "trial run" for one of the new seals Micah. It remembered all but one of the tricks and was very enjoyable.

We got to see the Koala's get fed. It was amazing to see them active on the trees (they are sooo cute)

This one is just for you, Taylor :)

For those who don't know, this is a meerkat (Timon from the Lion King). They were a favorite of most of our group and we could have watched them for hours.

This is our great looking group at the Zoo. We know that you all love to see our faces every once in a while :)

2008-07-20T08:50:00.002-04:00

Thinking of you Dad. :)
Brandon and Patrick giving away swaps to the Bishops as they walked by.

Pictures

2008-07-20T08:48:00.001-04:00

Hi Gang! I finally got some of the earlier pictures to post also, but you have to go back to July 16th on the blog to see them. (Not sure why, but at least they are there!) Have a great night!

2008-07-20T07:00:00.002-04:00

2008-07-20T06:29:00.005-04:00

This is a powerful shot of the stations - definately worth the cold night to witness it.

This is a view of the Sydney Opera House from the bridge as we crossed on our pilgrimage walk

Sydney has NEVER closed this bridge down before, so we felt privileged that they closed it down for us (and 300,000 other pilgrims) to walk across.

This is some of our gang settling in for the overnight Vigil. The sun was down but the temperature hadn't really plummeted (yet). It got VERY cold overnight so not much sleep was had and bad hot chocolate was a premium just to keep your hands warm.

Somehow we managed to luck into seats 15 feet away from the Pope TWICE!!!!. While we were a little disappointed at how fast he passed us at the Opera House, he drove around the track slowly before the closing mass and somehow we were only 15 feet away again. This is a much better picture than before.

All Night Vigil & Closing Mass

2008-07-20T06:14:00.004-04:00

Welcome back to our adventures down under! It is now 8pm in Sydney on Sunday, and so much has happened. We left Saturday morning early so the teens could get to Paddy's market for souvenirs. The Encore Rep told us it was a five minute walk from the bus stop. Apparently 5 minutes in Australia is 40 minutes back home. hehe (I wouldn't know because Erich, Mary Jo, Christine, and Andrew took them while Pam and I stayed back to do laundry. For just the essentials for 19 of us, it was over $40. Yikes!) The teens loved the market and since they only had 15 minutes to shop, we told them we would come back.

When we returned to the hotel from doing laundry, I finally got to talk to my family! Hooray! (Happy Birthday to both Aunt Sue's!) I miss you all lots and lots! Everyone sounds like they are doing fine without us, but that is a good thing. (I guess. jk) After the phone call, Pam and I walked the beach eating gelato. (Not a bad life if you can get it.) Once the group returned from Paddy's we left for our 10 kilometer pilgrim walk. Our liturgy guide had prayers for multiple stops throughout the city along with stops at "power stations." Each one of us, if we wanted to, took a turn leading prayer at the stops. We started our beginning prayer at the bus stop outside of our hotel. It was a neat experience praying with each other throughout the day. I think my very favorite stop was in the middle of the bridge. The locals told us that they have never closed the bridge for anything, and a lot of Sydneysiders who live in the high rises around the bridge were on their balconies yelling and cheering. (KJ~It reminded me a lot of the Flying Pig Race, except that I didn't have to run. hehe) We stopped directly under the Sydney Flag in the middle of the bridge to say our second prayer stop prayer. It was amazing to see the throngs of people praying and praising God with no fear of how they looked or what other people would think. It was truly inspiring.

This isn't to say that there weren't protesters and evangelizers from other religions around. The Catholics around us just dealt with it peacefully and non-confrontationally! Let me give you an example: At one of the corners there was a man passing out "Aids Awareness" ribbons wrapped around condoms. About 10 feet away you started to see them on the ground and around rubbish cans. One of our boys saw a girl from another country picking them up off the ground and asked her what she was doing. She replied without hesitation that she was picking them up to throw them away at the end of the route because "true love is worth more than 25 cents." It stopped our guys for a minute, and then they started to pick them up to throw them away also.

The last part of our walk was straight up a big hill. By this time, our backs and feet were hurting and we just wanted to get there. We even missed the power station stops at the end because they were on flags way up in the air, and all of the other signs were on big yellow placards. We didn't skip our prayers though. We found a really cool gum tree to rest under and say our ending (and power station) prayers.

The line to get into Randwick Racetrack was the most organized of the week. We picked up our last three 'green bag' meals and went to find our spot. We were assigned a section in J, but when we got there, it was full. The volunteer told us to find a spot in the public section of K and to move back for mass in the morning. At this point, we didn't care. We just wanted to drop our gear and rest. We ended up in K3, right in the front, by the circle track. (Randwick is a horse race venue.) All 19 of us were together, and that was all I cared about. We spent some time blowing up our rafts (I blew up four of them for others, but we all know that I have more hot air than most. hehe) and then we got settled in for the vigil with the Pope. There were concerts leading up to the vigil, and some of our girls got up to dance.

During the prayer walk, we stopped at Darling Harbour for lunch. (It was nice to eat by our favorite fountain, and the Aussies are very affectionate.) By now we were set up at Randwick, and hungry. We opened our packs to find. . .say it with me. . .tuna or salmon! A lot of us just skipped the meal.

The vigil started and the music and prayers were very moving. This was a very good thing because it was the coldest I have ever been. Most of us had on multiple shirts, sweatshirts, pants, and socks; and we still froze! The teens were told that they could go explore as long as they stayed in groups of three and checked in every hour. They had all night adoration in four different tents, prayer stops, and snack/hot chocolate booths. There was a lot to see. The songs and group chants went on all night.

At 2am I had pretty much given up on the idea of sleep, and it was much warmer walking around anyways, so Pam, Christine, and I walked down to the gas station (called petrol stations here) to get a paper and a real hot chocolate. (Did I mention it was cold?!) They routed you around the whole race track at the beginning, but the police officers took pity on us and let us hop the fence. (Always, always be nice to police officers! hehe) We walked back to our section and checked on everyone there. In our backpacks, we were given "thermal blankets" that look like a sheet of 5 by 5 foot pieces of aluminum foil. (Pardon me! Here it is pronounced
AL-U-MIN-E-UM.) Looking over our section reminded me of a bunch of Chipotle Burritos snuggled together. (Ok, maybe I do need a little more to eat.)

At 8am, after staying up staring at the Southern Cross before the clouds covered it up, we started Morning Prayers. After scraping our frozen bodies off of our plastic rafts, we went to toilet, brushed our teeth, and got ready for the Closing mass. (Some of us ate our hard dinner rolls for breakfast, but again, most of us skipped it and just drank more bad hot chocolate.)

We got out our Liturgy guides and decided to stay in section K for mass because we had a better view of the jumbo screens, BUT that wasn't all we had a better view of! The Pope drove around the track, this time slowly, and we had front row seats again! He waved to our group and smiled.
I got an awesome shot of him that we posted below. See how the Holy Spirit blesses us! What are the odds that we would get front row seats for the Pope twice??? It was awesome!

During mass this morning, the Aborigines brought the Gospel up to the altar in a beautiful dance to tribal music. Then after the homily and renewal of our baptismal promises. Pope Benedict confirmed 24 people! Can you imagine being confirmed in front of millions of people by the POPE??? The Holy Spirit is definitely present today.

The mass took three hours and ended with the announcement of WYD '11 being held in Madrid, Spain. The Spaniards went crazy! There excitement was catching!

The walk back to the bus stop was supposed to be a long one. (300,000 people trying to get on the same buses.) One of the locals took pity on us though, and told Erich how to get to a rarely used bus stop. It was a bit of a walk, but well worth it. The bus wasn't crowded and it took us all the way back to our hotel.

We got back to our hotel around three and had some free time until our 'nice dinner' started at 6:30pm. Some of us took naps, got showers, shopped in the stores on the strip, and Erich and I did another load of laundry. (It feels like home. jk) We decided to dress up for dinner this evening and the group really cleaned up well.

The meal was great too! We had three types of salad, mostaciolli with olives, chicken breasts, pork steaks, fruits and vegetables, and a cheese and cracker tray. It was a real meal, inside a warm building, and all of it was identifiable. AWESOME!!!! After dinner, some of the group went to get gelato, and some went to take a walk on the beach, and I came to blog so I could be in bed by midnight! (YAHOO!!!)

We love and miss you lots, and can't wait to come home and tell you all about our personal stories. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We promise to do the same!

P.S. Please remember that it takes about 10 minutes each time we post a single picture, and another 40 to do a video, so if we don't have a lot of what you'd like to see, I'm sorry. We promise to show you more when we get home!

2008-07-18T10:39:00.003-04:00

Here is the Pope driving by in his "Pope-mobile". Even though he was going kinda fast we all got a good look at him. He was less than 15 feet away!! It was very exciting!!!!

2008-07-18T10:33:00.002-04:00

***I almost forgot!!!! Don't expect a post from us tomorrow morning, because we will be at the all night vigil, and I can't blog from there! Sorry. We'll be praying for you with the POPE!!! :) ***

The Stations of the Cross

2008-07-18T08:52:00.002-04:00

Good Morning! (Well, it is actually 11pm here, but for you it is morning.) We had a very eventful day and we can't wait to share it with you. As usual, we got up at 5:30, ate breakfast,(with real apple juice this time, not the warm baby Motrin that is usually served) and got on the bus to the train station. (Now that we know about the trains, our transportation has been much, much easier!) We rode into the Leichardt Station and it was only about a 20 minute walk to our catechises from there. (And we were only about 15 minutes late, which is wonderful since we made all of the earliest transfers.)

We walked into the church, and Bob & Maggie McCarty were doing the opening exercises and introduction of the Bishop. (They are very high up in our NFCYM.) It was so nice to see them! Before they introduced Bishop Daniel Bowen from Sasskatoo, Saskatchewan(sp?); they called on their music ministry to play the opening song. Guess who it was????? Jesse Manibusen! We were so excited. Remind us when we get home and we will teach you the "Come and Follow Me" song and hand motions. (Everyone did them and had a great time, so don't let the boys tell you different. jk)

Bishop Bowen got up to give us his insights on today's theme, 'Using the Holy Spirit to help you in your lives'. He started with a funny story about one of the pilgrims coming up to him and introducing himself. When Bishop Bowen introduced himself and said where he was from (Saskatchewan), the pilgrim smiled and walked away. Bishop Dan thought this was kind of odd, and then overheard one of his friends ask where the Bishop was from. He smiled and answered, "I don't know. They don't speak English." (It was very cute.)

After that, he gave us some great thoughts to ponder. He reminded us that God continues to tell us how good and wonderful we all are. How can we not be when we are made in his image! He went on to tell us that Jesus didn't make the church for our salvation. He made the church to spread the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth, and we were baptised for the salvation of the world. This is a huge responsibility, but one that we can not overlook. You are never to young, or to old to spread the message of God's truth. To witness is to testify the truth as you know it through God's revelation to us. It will be scary and hard sometimes, but definitely worth it. This was such a great message to hear, and our teens definitely heeded the meaning.

We ate lunch at the catechises sight (tuna again. . .so most of us just ate potato chips, the bun, and lamingtons.) and after we cleaned up, we taught the little girls who were there from the parish how to dance the cotton eyed joe. They had so much fun, and their giggles made my day. As we were hiking down the road to catch our bus/train the kids were showing their new found dancing skills to their Moms/Grandmas in the parking lot. (See, the teens were sharing their gifts already!) (I'm looking forward to dancing with my own diva's when I get home. Maybe I can keep up with them now. nah!)

We took the bus into town and started our walk to Barrangaroo for the Stations of the Cross. Along the path, we found a really neat swap meet that had some fun souvenirs in it. We didn't have time to stop, but promised that we would return tomorrow.

The stations of the Cross for WYD08 were all taken from the New Testament scriptural version of the Via Crucis that was approved by Pope John Paul II for use during the Jubilee Year. The Scriptural texts were taken from the Jerusalem Bible as modified for use in the Australian Catholic Lectionary. It was so interesting to see the differences.

We were all excited because we were stationed to be seated in Section 1 A 5. (This just meant that we were right in between both of the stages that the last 6 stations were going to be presented at.) It was a bit of a struggle to get there, because the volunteers kept giving people conflicting messages. We ended up praying the first station on the way in. Once we got to our area, there was a big screen TV set up to show us the stations not at our location. Each station was acted out with music and prayers that we could follow along with in our pilgrim guide. Station One, 'The Last Supper, was held at St. Mary's Cathedral. Station Two, 'The Agony of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane' was at the Domain. Station Three, 'Jesus Before the Sanhedrin' was at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Stations Four, Five, and Six; 'Jesus Before Pilate' , 'Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns, and 'Jesus takes up His Cross were all at the Sydney Opera House. Station Seven, 'Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to Carry his Cross, was held at Darling Harbour, and of course, Stations 8-13 were with us at Barangaroo. (Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem, Jesus is stripped of his garments and nailed to the Cross, Jesus Promises Paradise to the Good Thief, Jesus Entrusts Mary and John to each other, Jesus Dies on the Cross, and The Body of Jesus is brought down from the Cross.)

It was such a moving and powerful experience. The weather was super cold, but not one teen or adult complained. When 'Jesus' walked through the city, he walked right past us. Many of us were crying. I think the thing that struck me personally was the fact that we were watching this reenactment with all 300,000 of us as the crowd. There were people who were talking and not paying attention, national flags waving everywhere, people visibly moved by the experience, and people who were paid to be there for security. The Sydney police lined the route. . .I'm sure for the actors protection, but when you looked around you could feel what Jesus saw and felt when he lived it. Can't you just imagine the people who were working in the city that just glanced at the spectacle as it went by, and then went back to their busy jobs? Or seeing Mary, Veronica, and Mary Magdalene wailing in the streets for their son/friend while people jeered at them. It was hard to realize that we did this to Jesus, and yet he still died to save us because he loves us that much. It was an unforgettable, life changing experience.

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately, this one did too. It was super cold and no one wanted to stay to eat our meals outside. (And, it was day 4 of the stew/soup. . .) One of our adult leaders had a serious migraine at this point, and so we sent him home in a cab with two others to save him the pain of the cheers, bells, and chants that are heard everywhere from every group. He is sleeping it off as we speak.

We took the bus/train back to our hotel, ordered in pizza, (well, it is youth ministry you know), and sorted laundry. Pam and I are going to get up early and take it around the corner to the self-serve laundromat. (Like 19 bright pink shirts we need for the ride home. hehe)

Thanks for continuing to keep us in your prayers. We are living in the moment and praising God for you at home.

P.S. I almost forgot! We found a couple more fun word stories. A car rental agency is called a "car for hire" and a singlet is a tube top. More fun words to come later. . . .

Father Stan

2008-07-18T08:47:00.004-04:00

This was the first concert we saw. He was a jazz playing, rapping Franciscan.

2008-07-17T10:14:00.005-04:00

This is the center of the spiral fountain at Darling Harbor. The young man praying on the center rock was from New York. It was nice to take off our shoes and soak our tired feet for a minute.

This is the outside of the Sydney Opera House as we approached for the Papal arrival.

This is the Pope's boat - see how close it came to our seats and the view we had!!!!

This is the view we had of the Pope on the big screen TV at our site. It was amazing to watch him lead the prayer service in larger-than-life size on the screen. A picture of the Pope driving by us (15 feet away) is forthcoming but we need to download it from a different camera.

2008-07-17T09:43:00.005-04:00

Jessie Manbusan in concert - an incredibly moving experience of "Church" through community and music (complete with a room full of people doing silly hand motions)

They seem to be big on sky-writing here in Sydney... in addition to this fish, we have seen a cross, and the words Jesus and Welcome. It takes a lot of talent to draw in the clouds

This is the WYD banner. It is a giant paint-by-number that all the gathered youth have the opportunity to help paint. We all took turns adding a bit of color to the mural. We will post the completed mural later in the week.

The Pope Has Arrived! (Take 2)

2008-07-17T06:14:00.003-04:00

Hi Gang! I feel like there is so much to tell you that I don't even know where to begin. Every time that we go on mission or even a trip like this, you are bound to have a very bad, no good, wrotten day. Unfortunately, that would be how most of us would have described yesterday. (Christine did a great job relaying the events that we saw and did, but we purposefully left out the tears, hurt feelings, etc.) I wouldn't mention it now, but in order to understand the full impact the Holy Spirit had on us today, you needed to know that yesterday just stunk.

We got up this morning at our normal 5:30am and met for breakfast at 6:30. We were trying to leave by seven for the two hour bus ride to Coogie. (That is the name of a town. There are some fun ones here!) St. Columba, where our catechises meets, is on Elswick Street there. A couple people over slept and ended up forgetting their pilgrim passports and had to go back to their rooms for them, so we left at 7:15. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but we caught the first bus, had three different people give us different bus routes to take for the second leg of the trip, missed the bus, and finally got so frustrated at the bus station that we gave up even trying to get there. (A lot of that decision was because if we went to our normal site, we probably wouldn't be back to the Opera House for our assigned venue to see the Pope.) It felt like it was going to be another one of those days.

We took a vote, and decided to go to venerate the cross that Pope John Paul II gave to the youth at the very first WYD. After that we were going to go to Darling Harbour to crash the end of the catechises session held there, and celebrate daily mass. So, we got back on the bus and left for Hyde Park. (This is the part of Sydney that the WYD cross is housed at.) It is in a tent that is right outside of St. Mary's Cathedral. The bus drops us off and we hike the steps to the tent and find that the cross is not there. They weren't sure where the cross was since it was scheduled to arrive 40 minutes earlier! (The very nice priest who was there signing his books told us that it was late yesterday also, due to the caretaker of the crypt (where the cross is stored at night) oversleeping.) All I could think of was, (insert sarcasm here), Great!

We went into the tent anyways, and sat in plastic white chairs to wait for a few minutes. During this time, all I could think about was getting my attitude in the right place so that everyone else might feed off of me. I opened my liturgy guide for the week, and voila!, morning prayer was listed in there. So, being my shy self, I popped right up and asked Father, who I didn't know, if he would like to lead us in morning prayer. He said that he would bloody love to. (Yes, those were his exact words!)

So we get everyone together, and Father starts the prayers. We do a morning offering, read the daily psalm, hear a reading from Corinthians, and then Father did the most wonderful thing. He gave us a homily totally off of the top of his head. He said that even though we are all here to celebrate WYD, there are going to be times of trouble, and that is part of the pilgrimage. We need to lift those up to God and have him take away the pain and leave the blessings for us to share with others. After his homily, which was a total Holy Spirit moment, we said our intercessions, prayed our closing prayer, and then Father had us share the Sign of Peace with each other. It wasn't part of the daily prayer, but afterwards when I went to thank him, he told me that he felt called to have us share peace with other by God. It wasn't something he would normally add. I told him that we needed it, and he had saved the morning for us. Sometimes, in the midst of a change, God sees what we need and gives it to us. (Even if it is in the form of a missed bus, and a missing cross.)

We left morning prayer and went to the WYD merchandise shop on the way to the harbour. (The girls said they needed the retail therapy. jk) They had a lot of fun looking at all of the merchandise, and even got a couple of things to wear for the day. (It was very chilly this morning.)

The walk to the harbour was nice, but we never ended up finding the catechises site. We spent some time meeting new friends at the harbour, and watched the endless security details being checked on the water for the Pope's arrival later. (The boat police ride jet skis here. Pretty sneaky.) Keep watching the news because we were stopped three times today and put on TV. (We think they liked the Ohio flag because it was special and unique. . .like us!) One of the shots that they took for tv was all of us in the fountain on the harbour. It has water that flows in strips on a circular path. It was fun to watch the water go counter clockwise.

Shortly after the fountain, we left for the Sydney Opera House. The seats were first come, first served, and we wanted to make sure we could see the Pope. Eric Weit and I stopped by the convention center to try and call home, but there was only one phone, and it was out of order. (BTW Rob & Bernadette, we can't get the sat phone to work so if there is an emergency, please call the hotel.) We decided to take the train for the first time to get to the Opera House! We should have done this all week. It was so nice and fast. (And a lot less confusing than their bus system here.)

We got off at the right station and went to the forecourt tent to sign in. We were only the second group in line! While we were waiting for them to open the gates, a volunteer came down and told us that once we went inside, we wouldn't be able to get our lunch due to limited access. We all immediately said that we didn't care, getting seats close to the Pope was more important to us. They opened the gates, and we got front row seats on the back steps to the Opera House. We could see the Harbour on both sides of us (although with only limited sight lines). They had a big (and I mean huge!) TV screen for us to watch what was going on at the other sites.

We were all really excited to be there, and the excitement continued to build. One of the volunteers came over to us and told us to get our lunch tickets ready and she would take us to the catering center. We didn't argue! jk. Emily, Pam, & I went to get lunch, and they had us go under the steps we were sitting on to get back. This became problematic when they had the other side gated off and weren't letting anyone else in at the time. We kissed up to a police officer, and they let us cut across the street. (Always pays to be nice!) We passed out the lunch (although it wasn't very good: Tuna in oil mixed with corn or baked beans were your choices. But at least we ate the lamingtons, chips, and buns.) and sat down to eat our "Pre-Papal Parade Picnic." (Did I mention we had a lot of time on our hands.??!!)

As we were finishing up, we noticed these big double decker white vans at the end of the street in front of the steps we were sitting on. The doors opened and all of these cardinals and bishops started to unload. WE WERE ON THE ENTRANCE RAMP TO THE POPE'S BOAT!!! It was so exciting to get to wave and cheer for the clergy as they came by. Brandon and Patrick M got out a pen and had all of us sign some of our beach balls and they handed them out with hackey-sacks to the clergy as they walked by. (I am not going to lie. . . .I thought I was going to be bailing one of them out of jail.) The clergy took them and told us that they would do their best to get it to the Pope. (We can try right?!) It was so funny.

Our hearts were in our throats as the "Flotilla" of boats began. The Pope was escorted onto the ship(not by us though, darn it) and the ride around the harbor began. It was so awesome! The fire ship led the parade with full spouts blowing, and around 150 other boats were in the water to greet him too. We could see all of it on the big screen, but looking down the street at the harbor was perfect. The announcers were telling us that they had a helicopter standing by in case the water was rough, because B16 is not a sailor. (Isn't that a funny nickname for the Pope?! The teens from Italia call him that, and the media has picked it up.)

The Pope's Harbour cruise came to an end at Barrangaroo and the cardinals and bishops were escorted off first. One of the bishops was tossing up our Hackey Sac on TV! We went nuts! (Well, ok, we were screaming and cheering anyway, but that threw us over the top.) The Pope was then escorted to the stage by a group of Aborigines doing a tribal welcome dance. (Or, as some in our group feel, they weren't aborigines, they were super secret ninjas protecting the Pope. Of course, this is the same group that came up with the idea of dressing up and impersonating cardinals in order to get on the boat with the Pope in three years. Again, did I mention we had a lot of time on our hands to think this stuff up?!)

The crowds were electric. I wish you could have seen for yourself the thousands of flags dancing in the air, and the tears of joy that people felt. The youth of today want that leadership, and want to feel the connection to the Vicar of Christ. Your whole body shook with the power of the Holy Spirit's presence. It was amazing!

The Holy Father began with prayer, and then welcomed the groups from around the world to World Youth Day festivities. His homily was wonderful, and he continued to call out the youth of the world to make a difference in all areas of their life. After the opening prayer service, he got into his bullet proof Mercedes Pope mobile, and drove around a predetermined route. Exceeding his 5 kilometer per mile limit, he flew around the city. When it was our turn to see him, the flashes from the cameras were blinding. Out of all of us, only 2 got pictures because he was going so fast, but all of us got to see him 15 feet away from us. It sounds crazy, but just being there you felt like you were blessed. What an amazing night!

After he left our area, we were going to be fed by WYD again. (For the past two nights, we had a soup/stew type combination that we all ate because we were cheap and didn't want to waste the meals that came with our registration. Not because it was good.) We just couldn't face a third night of this, so we opted to hang around and play Australian football, talk to new friends, or even rest for a few minutes. We took the trains back to Bondi, dropped our gear, and went down the street to McDonalds for dinner. Sadly enough, everyone really enjoyed it.

Most of the group came back and got ready for bed. (It was around 9pm, but they were wiped!) Erich, Andrew, and I took some of the teens out to the beach to play in the ocean. (Yes, it was freezing, but they played in it anyway.) We chased the waves, walked a little, and then came back. We even found the Southern Cross constellation! It was too overcast to get a good picture of it though. We stopped and got some gellato and now it's to the laptop to blog. We are trying to get some more pictures up, but the internet is very shaky, and it takes about 10 minutes for each picture, so bear with us.

We miss and love you all. Hope everything is great at home!

2008-07-16T11:30:00.003-04:00

Here we are with some new friends from around the globe!

Here is our gorgeous group in front of St. Mary's Cathedral!

2008-07-16T11:16:00.001-04:00

Our first Aussie friend! (One of many more to come!)

Some More Comments

2008-07-16T10:58:00.002-04:00

Ok, I just read the comments from you, and here are a few answers. The weather reminds us a lot of Cincinnati in the fall. It starts at around 60 and then the sun comes up and it turns to the low 70's. You would think that this would be chilly, but it really isn't. The sun down here is very strong, and you feel a lot warmer than it is. Then, when the sun goes down behind the mountains (usually around 7ish) the temperature drops 25 degrees and you are needing your sweatshirt again. It does make it nice to have our backpacks to put our 'jumpers' in. :)

KJ~I actually got to see a little of the Homerun Derby! (Well, ok, we saw reruns of the homerun derby on the news, but still!) I haven't heard who won the ASG though, but don't tell me because I DVR'd it at home. :)

They are really big on Australian Football here (for obvious reasons) and it is really brutal! The guys working the desk in the middle of the night at the hotel are used to seeing me, and we got to talking about some of the rules. It sounds like a cross between football and rugby. (Without pads!) When I brought up the idea of a little protection, they looked at me like I had three heads and told me that our players 'in the states' were 'a bit of wimps'. Someone else is telling T.J. Whosyourmama that one. Yikes! :)

I will try to get some more pictures up in a little while. (I am just to sleepy to do many more now.) I am excited that you are following along. It helps us to stay connected to our special church at home. All our love!

The Beginning of the Journey

2008-07-16T10:25:00.008-04:00

Our First Look at Sydney!

The Blue Mountains from the Airplane

Seriously. . .they need a sign for this? Oh wait, I forgot who I was with. jk.

Making silly faces while waiting in an endless line.

Our United Flights!

Blessing & Sending Forth from St. Michaels

Our First Full Day of WYD Festivities

2008-07-16T10:18:00.002-04:00

Tonight’s blog is brought to you by Christine! (I am still trying to get the pictures uploaded!) Before I turn you over to her, I have a few announcements. :)
1. We love and miss all of you so much! It is great reading your blog comments over breakfast.
2. Kristi, we are going to get Brad to call yet. :)
3. Matt, We miss you too! XOXO. The check book could be 1. In my purse, 2. On the desk/counter (somewhere in the kitchen), or 3. In a drawer in my desk. Love ya! MJ
Ok: on to Christine:

Well here we are again after another busy day, Our day started with breakfast at 7am with the same choices as yesterday but today nobody choose the vegemite….hmmmmm I wonder why? Everyone was also very much on time so I guess the threat of having to eat it if you were late worked.

We left the hotel about 7:40 for our first catechesis session. According to the directions we were given it should take about an hour and 15 minutes to get there on the city buses. Well about an hour and 45 minutes later we finally arrived. We were happy to note though that we were not the only late group and not the last ones there. We did arrive in time to hear a very nice talk by Archbishop Langly with additional commentary provided by Archbishop Al who were both from London and made fun of their accents.

The topic today was on the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ life. The part that probably stood out the most was a story told by Archbishop Langly. In the story he talked about a time that he celebrated confirmation in a parish on the West side of London and after the mass was over one of the newly confirmed young men asked him if he could ask a question. The Bishop of course said yes and the young man asked him where he got his “bling”? The Bishop then asked back questioningly “bling?”, because he had no idea what the young man was talking about. The young man then pointed to the cross the Bishop was wearing and the Bishop understood what he was talking about. He responded with an “ohhhh” and informed him that “the “bling” was from the Pope”. He also informed us that we each have a “God sized hole” in our bodies that we need God to help us fill.

We then had time for a question and answer session with them on various topics. When that portion of the morning was over we all celebrated mass together. This will be the basic routine for the next 3 days and we will be with the same people for those 3 day (those people being from Minnesota, Canada, New Foundland, Texas, and others from Ohio….Columbus to be exact). We unfortunately did not have time to sit down and eat with them as we took our lunch to go because we had reservations to see Father Stan the jazz playing, rapping Franciscan extraordinaire and didn’t want to be late…..which we, of course, were anyway. I am seeing a pattern in our day. Anyway, Father Stan was very flamboyant and eccentric but had a very good message which was that we are all called to activ8 God’s love.

After Father Stan’s concert we immediately got back in line in the cue (spelled queue but pronounced cue) to see Jesse Manubusan who was absolutely amazing. He did an awesome job of getting everyone involved and energized. It didn’t hurt that he was very funny and sang an entire song about Spam. The teens really seemed to get involved and he sang songs that they knew.

From there came the challenge of finding dinner, as it was not actually being served where they said it was. Because of this we decided not to go to our last scheduled concert but take the bus back into the city to find food (Jesse also talked a lot about food in his concert so we were all a little hungry). We finally got settled with dinner down at Darling Harbor right outside of where another concert was going on, so we were not completely at a loss for a later night concert and listened to it while we ate.

After dinner we all decided to head back to the hotel since tomorrow will be another early morning and busy day especially since the Pope is arriving. We had to walk through the city to where our bus route goes and decided that the State of Ohio flag was a great idea because it helped keep all of us together. Not to mention it was a huge hit with the other pilgrims because most of them had never seen it before.

Well since it is once again very late and tomorrow is going to be another busy day I am going to finally go to bed. We all hope that things are going well at home and that you aren’t missing us too much. Keep the comments coming, we love reading them!

WYD Opening Mass!

2008-07-15T11:31:00.002-04:00

Ok, I just read the blog from yesterday, and I realized that I didn’t even mention the flight from Melbourne to Sydney. (I think I am a little more jet lagged than I thought I was.) It was fun because most of the plane was filled with WYD goers. The excitement is catching!
We got up this morning at 6am and met for breakfast at 7am. It was a really nice private breakfast that Encore Tours put on for us. I think that the wait staff thinks we are crazy though, because we all tried Vegemite for the first time and have made jokes about it ever since. Their faces were priceless! It’s now a running joke that if you are late for anything, you have to eat an entire piece of bread with Vegemite spread on it. I’m pretty sure that no one is going to be late. It was awful!

The other two groups that Encore had staying here were both delayed because of bad weather, and their flights aren’t scheduled to arrive until later this night. I feel really bad for them, because tonight was the official opening of WYD and the beginning mass. We were really lucky with all of our flights, etc.

At 9am we met in the lobby and read all of your blog comments. (Thanks for praying for us!) We then left for our pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Cathedral. We figured out the bus system and were off. In order to get to the cathedral, you have to walk through this gorgeous park. In the park were thousands of young people from around the world. We met groups from 6 different continents today! (We are just waiting for Antarctica!) The teens were having a lot of fun swapping their hackey-sacks and beach balls and talking, talking, talking. . .we had to keep reminding them to stay with the group and not wonder off. (I can’t help it. It’s the Mom in me.)

In the park leading up to the Cathedral steps was a huge paint by number mural of the earth covered with people of all races. Each one of us got a turn to paint part of the mural. When it is finished, they will text a picture of it to anyone who wants one. It was fun to see them talking with all of the volunteers about their colors, etc. It should be really neat when done.
We finally drag the teens away from their swapping and go to the gates of the Cathedral, only to have them tell us that they let people in without reservations, and now they have to turn us away. (The police threatened to shut them down because so many people were in the building at one time.) So Erich and I went to the reservation tent and got it all straightened out. They were going to reopen at 7pm and stay open until 10pm for the pilgrims who had reservations that day who got closed out. I was upset, but it ended up being a blessing later.

At this time it was right around 12:30 and the Opening ceremonies and Mass began at 3:00, and we still had to get lunch. We decided to walk down to Barangaroo; the site of the Opening mass; and get lunch from there. (They have six different sites around the city for us to get our meals from, but it was first come, first seated for mass, and I didn’t want to take the chance of getting closed out of that too.) We ended up walking about 2 miles, but no one complained because the day was gorgeous! I stopped the group before we went into the gates and reminded them to stay with the group because they were going to give out seating assignments, and I wanted all of us to sit together. Unfortunately, they forgot, and two of them went into the wrong line and we had to go back and switch their tickets. It worked out though. We ended up sitting about half way back and to the right of the sanctuary.

After we found our section, we collected lunch tickets and Pam, Erich, Christine, and I went to get them. (You had to have 6 tickets turned in at once, so we kept having to find a group who needed one ticket so we could go up together.) The lines were crazy busy, but all of the Sydney-siders (which is what the locals are called) were so nice. We carried our meat pies, tangerines, jam filled cookie, and carbonated Passion fruit juice back to the section and ate together. After that, we walked around doing more swaps and meeting more people. Most groups had their national flag with them. It was so cool to see all of them waving in the breeze. We stopped some people just to learn what country their flag was from. (The Aussies all had a cheer that let you know they were around. By the end of the day, every group was singing along.) There really weren’t any strangers.

I wish you could have felt the excitement and the presence of the Holy Spirit that was in that park for mass. It was amazing! Hearing the song, “Receive the Power” sung by thousands of people praising God together gave us chills. Prior to the mass, a procession of the WYD Cross and Icon and the flags of the world moved throughout the crowd. Once the procession reached the sanctuary, young Catholic representatives of the Indigenous communities in Australia extended a traditional welcome dance for us. It was great. They played the diggeredo, and were dressed in their traditional tribal garb. The music was moving and they glorified God with all of their movements. It was totally mesmerizing!

After their dance, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd welcomed us to Sydney. He called a lot of different countries out, and then the young people would cheer for their nations. He skipped the U.S. We kept waiting for it, but it never came. After the Prime Minister welcomed us, Archbishop Pell stepped up and did the same. He made a huge point of welcoming the pilgrims from the U.S. and went so far as to say that we were Australia’s most important Allies. (Does anyone else think this is odd? The political leader doesn’t mention us, but the church leader did. . .hmmm)

Anyway, the liturgy of the word was done in multiple languages. We heard readings in French, Spanish, and Italian. The intercessions were done in English, Korean, Samoan, Tagalog, and Portuguese. Each of us have a Liturgy guide with all of the readings, prayers, etc typed out in English. It definitely helped the teens and I follow along. (Obviously we knew where we were in mass, but it was neat to hear parts of the mass done so everyone felt included.)

The liturgy of the Eucharist was definitely an experience. We stood, kneeled, and sat at the same times as at home, but never again will any of us complain about the kneelers being hard. We were on a parking lot (called car parks here) that needed resurfacing badly. When it came time for communion, people were pushing and shoving to get to the priests to receive Jesus. (Crazy!) When we got up to go to communion, we took all of our stuff with us and realized that my camera bag was missing. We looked for a few minutes and then got in line. I was worried, but wanted Jesus more. The weirdest thing happened. We walked two gates away to get to the priest, and right after I received Jesus, I looked down, and my bag was just sitting there waiting for me. (Thank you Holy Spirit!) When I mentioned it to the group after mass, a couple of the leaders said that they were praying to Saint Anthony for it to be found. (So maybe I should be saying Thank you St. Anthony!)

Another little cool tidbit about mass was the Paschal candle. It was made from candles brought from throughout the world. The nuns of the Benedictine Abbey at Jamberoo, NSW crafted it. (Very cool!)

After mass they served dinner and then started an evening concert. Pam, Christine, and I made our way to the catering line like a can of sardines. It was awful. I kept thinking that someone was going to get hurt. We made our way through, and got back to our group. We had some soup/stew, rolls, and a caramel slice with water to drink.

After dinner we danced a little to the bands and then left for a 2 mile walk back to the Cathedral. It was open and hardly anyone was there! It was awesome! They have a brand new painting of “Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians”, and they offered a Plenary Indulgence if you said the prayer on the back of her prayer card, receive Holy Communion, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and pray for the Pope’s intentions soon after. They also had all night adoration. We stopped and prayed and then took pictures. The only blessed that Australia has is Mary McKillop. She is on track to become the first Saint from Down Under. Her relics and a really neat display on her life is in the East Transept. In the West Transept was Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. He is a blessed from Italy. They flew his body all the way here for WYD. The teens were amazed that he is interred in a simple wooden box. When we asked the nun about his life, she said that he was in a simple box because that was his wishes. He died from Polio that they think he caught when he was leading his secret life of helping the poorest of the poor. He died at the age of 24. At his funeral, his family was amazed because thousands of people showed up that they had never met. All of the people Pier had served in some way or another. The story really is fascinating.

We then took the bus back to our hotel and the teens all crashed. I think they were feeling the jet lag also. Before I close, here are a few more fun stories about today:

Carolyn met Hammish. Now we only have to get Audrey to meet Furio and the circle will be complete. (Actually, Maria the boy magnet, met him and introduced him to Carolyn. Jk)

When doing swapping with some of the girls, we came across a group from New Zealand who had little Kiwi dolls. When I handed her my swap, I mentioned that we ate kiwi’s at home. (meaning the fruit.) All three of them literally stopped what they were doing, dropped their mouths to the floor, and stared at me. I had to back peddle fast and explain that it was a fruit, not their national bird. Luckily, we all got a good laugh out of it.

Ok, it is now 2am here, and I am going to crash. We prayed for all of you this morning, and will continue to do so. God’s Blessings on your day!

Traveling to the Hotel by way of Darling Harbor

2008-07-14T19:06:00.002-04:00

We made it from LAX to Melbourne, and it was a wonderful flight on Qantas. The plane was the biggest I have ever seen, and even in economy class we were treated royally. It started off a little shaky because they only called the back of the plane over the loud speakers and then expect you to fall in line behind them. We were sitting waiting for them to call our section like all of the other airports, and luckily, a very nice flight attendant came up to us and asked us if we were going to board. (Our pink shirts saved us again!) We scrambled on board, and took off.

We were in the middle section of the plane, and I had the honor of sitting next to an Australian Sheep Farmer and her Granddaughter. (Her granddaughter lived in the states and was going to visit her Dad for six weeks; like she does every summer.) She was so cute and really excited to see her family. (I couldn’t help but think about my family, and especially the sheep farmer who wanted to trade his livestock for my Mom when my parents visited Australia. Thank goodness that didn’t happen.)

They were very nice and asked a lot of questions about World Youth Day. In turn, they got asked a lot of questions about Australia, and it made the first two hours of the trip fly by. At this point, we had been awake for over 24 hours, and had to force ourselves to stay awake for another 4. This way, when we did fall asleep, we would be on Australian time and able to start the day off running. (Or sleep walking, depending on which one of us you talked to.)
When we got on board, they had Qantas magazines in each of our seats for us to take home that had a special “World Youth Day” section in it. They also gave us an itinerary for the flight. (Departure time, Comfort Kit: which included an eye mask, socks, etc.), our ‘arrival’ documents, Menu for dinner, Snack on Q, Duty Free shopping time, Hot towels, Menu for Breakfast, and our arrival.

The meals were salad, chicken cacciatore with orzo pasta or seared salmon with caper butter and sugar snaps, chocolate Brownie, and your drink. They had the best Hot chocolate ever! (It was Cadbury milk chocolate with huge marshmallows!) The meals were ok, but our service was excellent! Our breakfast was our choice of fruit juice, seasonal fresh fruit, blueberry muffin, cereal, or a hot breakfast of the above plus a mushroom and herb frittata with sausage and sautéed spinach. (Again the meals were ok, the service excellent!!)

Our flight attendant’s name was Bonita, and she told me that she liked our group the best and gave us all Qantas playing cards. She said that she didn’t have enough for the whole plane, so not to tell the other passengers. (I think she just enjoyed us because we kept joking around with her and didn’t make her do anything.) She even checked her schedule to see if she could be on our return flight. It would be great to see her again!

Even though they speak English here, the culture is very different. The words for things don’t necessarily mean the same as they do in the states. Here are some examples: the trunk of a car is called the boot, the hood is it’s bonnet. A mall is called an arcade, and the hallways are called lanes. A sweater is a jumper, and the restrooms are called toilets. (And they don’t use the preposition ‘the’. It is just “I’m going to toilet.”) The elevator is called a lift, your muffins are biscuits, and if you want to get your meal to go, it is called take-away.

When we got off of the plane, our Encore Tour guide, Helen, was waiting for us. She took us right to our luggage (which all showed up!) and then walked us to our bus. She said that most of the city was shut down to buses because of WYD, so she took us straight to Darling Harbour. It was awesome! Our bus driver even stopped the bus at an overlook so we could get some pictures. (I promise to post them later, but I have to be ready to go in a little while, and don’t have time to download them right now.) Our shirts drew us a lot of attention, which allowed us to meet groups from all over the world right away. When we were getting on the bus, we even met a group from the Diocese of Cleveland. (They started the O-H-I-O chant, and we yelled back. Fun!)

We drove past a lot of ‘private’ schools, which cost in the amount of $18,000 to $25,000 a year to send your children to primary school there! (And I thought some of the schools at home were bad!) The average cost of a house here (even in the ghetto) is $500,000. Nicole Kidman is selling hers for 20 million if you know any takers.

The bus ride was fun because it was just the 19 of us, the driver, and Helen. We got to ask any questions we wanted, and drive on the wrong side of the road! (Ok, the bus driver didn’t really drive on the wrong side of the road for here, it just took a few minutes to get used to.) It’s also a lot like driving in the bus at home. Nobody pays any attention, and they like to cut us off. (A little frightening!) Even the road culture is different. The signs on the road say “No Overtaking” instead of no passing. They have fun white diagonal lines to warn drivers to slow down for pedestrians, but it never happens. Helen told us that we were to never ever cross against the light, because pedestrians don’t have the right of way here. Speaking of right of way, the signs don’t say Yield, they say “Give Way.” It’s been fun learning these little things.

Finally, we drove around the corner and saw our hotel. The screams of joy on the bus were so fun to hear. It truly is a nice area. (I’m not sure they cared though, I think all of us just wanted to shower.)

We checked in, went to our rooms, and unpacked. The leaders and I went downstairs to get our WYD backpacks and gear. Then the teens all met so we could go over the itinerary for the week. It was fun to look through our goodies. We left for dinner around the corner, and realized that they were not kidding when they said that Australia was expensive. The 6 adults ate 2 large pizzas and water, and it came to $60. (And this was one of the cheaper spots on the strip.) We are sooooo glad that our food is included at WYD festivities.

After dinner we stopped at a local drug store (they don’t have Walgreens here. What is up with that???) and many people picked up postcards. It was $2.30 to buy and send each card. (Again, very different than in the states.) We stopped to get ice cream even though it was freezing and then walked back to our hotel. (See KJ, B, Peepers, and Goose. . .they did have ice cream here!)

A lot of the teens went right to bed, but some of them took advantage of the rooftop pool and hot tub. (Although the pool is literally only 3 feet deep the entire length, and the hot tub is about 2 ½.) I was wondering why, until I remembered them telling me on the plane that they are in the middle of a bad drought.

We took turns checking on the teens, and I went downstairs to try and blog a little. We plugged my brand new voltage converter into the wall, plugged in the lap top, and started writing. It was Erich’s turn to walk the roof, so I was by myself in front of the fire. All of a sudden we hear this big pop, and I glance at the outlet and my converter is melting. All I could think of was to save the laptop, so I reached down and grabbed it out of the wall. (Not to smart!) The laptop is fine, but my hand is a little tender. J Apparently, the laptop has a built in converter, and it messed up the voltage converter in the outlet. Nothing like coming around the world to learn that little tidbit.At 11, Erich and I checked on all of the kids, taped the doors, and went to bed ourselves. I actually fell asleep pretty quickly, but have been up since about 4:45am. (Apparently it is going to take a couple of days to get used to being on the other side of the world.) I’ll try to get online later and update you about today too. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We love and miss you all.

WE ARE HERE!!!!

2008-07-14T06:52:00.001-04:00

Oh where, Oh where did our Sunday go? Oh where, Oh where can it be?

Ok, so we are a little late updating the blog, but it is kind of like New Orleans all over again! I am exhausted but wanted to let you know that we arrived safely, and of course; we can’t blog from our room. (Guess what Kristi & Mike~ I am seriously sitting outside of McDonalds while I am writing this! It really is déjà vue!) Please know that we love and miss all of you reading this blog, and I will write more in the morning!

Los Angeles Layover

2008-07-14T06:50:00.000-04:00

Ok, we are in Los Angeles, but we can’t post this because of the internet access being ‘pay to surf’. (And it is way too expensive or else I would.) So you are reading this a little late. J The flight from Chicago to LA was ok. They put every one of us on an aisle seat, so we joked that if they needed to use the emergency lights that are located on the ground, they could just look for our bright pink shirts instead. A couple of us changed seats for other passengers who wanted to sit by their families and they were split up because of getting on the flight at the last minute. (With that being said, Mary Jo got to play hang man with an eight year old on the plane who used words that I didn’t even know!!!)
Thank God for our four hour lay-over at LAX. (Do you believe I just wrote that!) This airport is humongous and not very friendly. We got off the plane and headed towards baggage claim where we were told to catch the shuttle to the other side of the airport. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us to go outside, or to look for a shuttle on the other side of the street. Once we finally got the shuttle bus, we were dropped off at the wrong spot. Luckily there was no one in line, so they told us how to get to the correct one. (We should have known this wasn’t right, because when we got to where we were supposed to go, the line was out of the Queue.) We waited for an hour and a half just to get our boarding passes. This was after we walked for a half an hour more. Not the best experience. With that being said, we have now found our gate, saw our awesome plane, got a snack, and are getting to stretch our legs before the 15 hour flight commences.
We have met more and more groups going to WYD the farther west we get. Everyone is way excited, but exhausted. This is the hard part of the trip because we have to stay up for another 6 hours to get ourselves on Sydney time. (This means we will be going to bed at 8am Cincy time, so we essentially are pulling an all nighter.)
We have had a lot of funny stories, but the best has to be Maria’s. Maria truly met Federico from Argentina. NO JOKE!!! She is not even kidding! We even got a picture to prove it! It truly proves that the Holy Spirit has a sense of humor. Now if we could only meet Hammish and Furio their predictions will come true!
We are getting ready to board. We’ll let you know more later……Thanks for continuing to keep us in your prayers.

Chicago's Layover

2008-07-14T06:46:00.001-04:00

Greetings from the Windy City! We are; you guessed it; sitting at the gate and waiting. Our first flight was good. After all of the hoopla they told us we would be flying into, it was a really smooth flight. (Thanks United Pilots!) They took some of our carry-ons and stowed them under the plane and had them waiting for us when we got off. . .of course, some of us forgot to get them and had to go back out to the tarmac. (No worries though, we have all of our gear.) Apparently it is the teens jobs to scare me. One of them couldn’t find their passport last night, and another one left there’s on the plane and we had to run back and get it. (Now we know why Lori Anne is collecting them from now on. hehe).
We are keeping busy playing cards, coloring in our coloring books (seriously! Quit laughing), reading, playing bible trivia, walking the hallways, and napping. (The people watching is fun too!)
We’ve seen another group of college aged students who are going to World Youth Day also. They recognized us by our bright pink T-shirts. (Thanks Julie!!!) We also stopped to thank some of our servicemen who were waiting for a flight at Dayton. (The teens initiated this! You can be really proud of them!)
We are having a great time bonding and I will let you know more when we get to Los Angeles…..

On Our Way!!!

2008-07-12T12:36:00.001-04:00

We are sitting at Dayton Airport waiting for our 1:09 flight, and I thought I would get a jump start on tonight's blog.

This morning started with a wonderful prayer service and sending forth at St. Michaels. It was so nice to see our family and friends before we left. Father John led us in prayer and we were given blessed medals of Pope Benedict and Our Lady of Guadeloupe. We then departed for Dayton.

We arrived safely, and then stood in line forever. OK, maybe not forever, but it did take a while. The poor guy at the counter was new, and he made sure he took his time to get everything right. The only little mishaps at the counter was when they forgot to put the sticker tags on Karen’s luggage, (Sure hope it makes it), and when they tried to put Caitlin and Daniel in the same seat. . .(wouldn’t that have been a comfortable ride.)
We made it through security with only one little bump, which we were expecting. (Poor Brandon.) Now we are just waiting. The group ate Cinnabon and/or Pizza for a snack/lunch, and now are double checking their boarding passes.
Talk to You in Chicago…..

T minus 4 Days and Counting

2008-07-08T21:16:00.002-04:00

It's the last few days before we leave for 'down under', and lots of fun things have taken place. First and foremost, we received our itinerary from the World Youth Day registration team. This was a huge relief to me because (understandably) they were running behind and I wanted to have it before we left for Sydney.

We registered for some of the World Youth Day festival events that have limited seating and are happy to have the opportunity to celebrate mass with the pilgrims from the US in a gathering just for us. It is even rumored that The Holy Father will make an appearance there! The itinerary has us running from morning (5:30am) to late at night. We will have to be very careful about getting enough rest so none of us get sick. (Ok, so I don't sleep, but most everyone else does. :)

The picture above is of Australian money. It is very colorful (as you can see) and the sizes of each denomination are different. (The 20 is bigger than the 10, which is bigger than the 5, and so on.) Each time we do something else to get ready to leave, it seems surreal!

I received an email from my friend, Sister Kathleen Pittman. Many of you will remember her and Father Doug from our mission trip last year to St. Gabe's Parish in New Orleans. Her parish has sent us cards of encouragement and blessings for our trip, along with the promise to pray for us every day while we are gone. Some of the parishioners have even taken our individual names to keep us in their prayers at home! With the support we have at home, coupled with the support from St. Gabe's, we are sure to have a Happy, Holy, Trip!

I'm going to close for now. . . lots of packing left to do! May God continue to bless you every day in every way!

12 Days to Go!

2008-06-30T11:32:00.003-04:00

Only 12 days to go, and of course, like in all things youth ministry, we are going to have a few snags in the road. (JK) Truthfully, the WYD itinerary was supposed to be mailed out the week of the 16th thru the 21st of June, and it is now the 30th with no itinerary in hand. (Erich and I have called Australia and they confirmed that we were registered and paid in full, so we aren't sure what is going on.) We will call again tonight and see if we can get this straightened out.

Speaking of getting things straightened out, last Tuesday I received an email from our travel agent advising us that our flight times had changed. Our Quantas flight into Melbourne is still the same, but our domestic flights have all been moved up. I retyped the 'parent pages' and was able to give the WYD team the updated info at the meeting that night. (It really didn't change to much, just a half an hour here and there.) Because of this, Father John will now be doing the Blessing and Sending Forth at 9am instead of 9:30. (This gives us a little extra time to get to the airport before our 1:09 first flight.) We sincerely hope that if you are in the area, you will come and join us!

Mr. David Eck, the editor of the Catholic Telegraph newspaper, called and interviewed a few of us over the phone for an article that they are doing for the July 4th edition of their paper. It was fun to review our three year journey and talk about what we are looking forward to. Sometimes it is nice to sit back in the thick of the journey and take stock of where you have been. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped us be able to go. This is truly a trip of a lifetime, and we are very excited!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers for a safe, happy, and Holy trip to Australia! Till the next post, God's Blessings on Your Day!!!

22 Days to Go!

2008-06-20T11:04:00.003-04:00

G'Day Mates! I am sorry I haven't blogged in forever, but things have been crazy hectic around here! Only 22 days until we leave for down-under now, and the last minute preparations are outrageous!

I know that I have given you a brief overview of everything that we will be doing, but here is a little more information. Every participant at world youth day brings something to 'swap' with all of the other teens from around the world. We decided on hackey-sacks and small beach balls that have World Youth Day: St. Michael-Sharonville OH: USA~ printed on them. (Tom Theis from Adsco helped us design them and he did a great job!) Our tour company, Uni-tours, sent all of us backpacks that we can use as our carry-on. Pam and I have since stuffed them with the swaps and a journal that each teen can use to record their experiences of WYD.

We have received our tickets, and I have to tell you, holding them in my little hands made it seem so much more real. We are really leaving for the other side of the world! (OK, for all of you who know me well, you understand how anal I can be about making sure everything that can be accounted for, is. So this is a big deal to me :)

At our last meeting, the group decided on the 'top 3' things that we would like to see or do besides going to the WYD festivities. We agreed on the Taronga Zoo, the Blue Mountains, and the tour of the Sydney Opera house. Although we might have time for more than this, we didn't want to plan to much so our hopes wouldn't get busted. :) I keep reminding them that over 1 million people will be there, and they are all going to want to do the same things that we want to do, so we have to have PATIENCE!!!! (They seem to be doing much better at that than I am though.)

We have another meeting this week and hopefully I will have the WYD itinerary to share with them. For those of you who live around the Sharonville area, we will be having a 'sending forth' pilgrimage blessing on July 12th at 9:30am at St. Michael's. Please come if you can, and give the teens your blessings for a safe and Holy trip!

Thanks for all of your support over the past three years! We wouldn't be able to go without it!
That's all for now, I'll write more next week. God's Blessings on Your Day!

181 Days To Go!

2008-01-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

That's right! Only 181 days to go. I know that this sounds like a long time away, but we have been fundraising for this trip for over 2 years now, and all of us are getting excited to be on our way. I wanted to let you know a little about what World Youth Day is, and who is going on our pilgrimage. This way, you can follow along as we ready ourselves for this awesome adventure!

The U.S. Bishops explain WYD this way: "World Youth Day is an unbelievable weeklong spiritual journey where pilgrims from all over the world unite to share their faith. The week includes prayer, song, concerts, drama, sharing, liturgy, catechesis, and an unforgettable vigil and closing mass with The Holy Father." World Youth Day is celebrated annually in our parishes, and every 2-3 years on an international level.

We will be traveling to Sydney on July 12th, by way of 4 different planes, with the major one being on Quantas Airlines from LAX to Melbourne, Australia. This flight will take approximately 15 hours and 15 minutes. (Good thing I love to fly.) From there, we will catch a flight to Sydney. Once we arrive, we will have a charter bus pick us up for an orientation tour of the city. Hopefully we will get to see where the harbour, beaches, cultural centers, sporting arenas, and the entertainment district is. (Sydney Opera House anyone?) After the tour, we will be dropped off at our hotel, the Swiss Grand Resort & Spa on Bondi Beach. (Believe it or not, it was the cheapest one offered! Here is a link if you'd like to know more: www.swissgrand.com.au) It really looks nice! We will have three people to a room. (Once again, for cost effectivenss. The teens didn't mind having more than three to a room, but the hotel doesn't allow it.)

The World Youth Day Celebrations start the next evening with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for Olympic Stadium. Each day after that is filled with catechetical sessions with participating Bishops in the morning, and a youth festival with shows, music, prayer, and reconciliation opportunities in the afternoon and evenings. On Friday night, there is a Dramatic recreation of the Stations of the Cross. This takes us to Saturday when we have the pilgrim walk to the site of the Evening Vigil, sleeping out under the stars, and finally the Closing Mass with Pope Benedict.

Due to the large numbers of pilgrims descending on Sydney, we were told we couldn't get a flight out until the 23rd. This gives us two days to "explore" the area. With only 19 of us going, we shouldn't have any problem getting in wherever we want at the same time.

Our participants are Karen A, Brandon C, Pam E, Audrey E, Carolyn E, Mary Jo E, Erich G,
Brad G, Cathy H, Christine H, Emily J, Patrick J, Caitlin K, Daniel K, Andrew M, Patrick M,
Eric W, Maria Z, and myself! (We have 6 chaperones and 13 teens. . . Sounds like a good ratio to me. jk)

I know that this is a ton of information, but if you keep watching the blog, I'll try to post updates as we get them. Please know that we are grateful for all of your support, and will keep you in our prayers also.