on my way up.
i'm now i guess half way up the east coast(on the gold coast).
i'm staying with a girl who i met on my travels and she said i can stay with her as long as i please.
i may stay here for longer than expected because the weather is beautiful and i can just relax!! i can take up surfing more because i had my 'beginners' lesson in sydney with one of my new friends!!
i had heaps of fun in sydney...seeing fireworks over the harbour bridge and opera house, going to a german pub, having filthy kebabs, making lots of friends whilst eating dirty babs, eating the most glorious chicken burger ever at oportos, with extra chilli(chilli pepper, not chili..chili...), going to toronga zoo and making friends with giraffes, & experiencing a service at HILLSONG church!
i truly love sydney. i am invited to a wedding next year in michigan!! random!
yyea...so life is good. australia is my 2nd fave continent on this earth.
God bless you all.
travelling is weird. seeing new stuff and being excited about it is fun.
melbourne was a really cool city...but by the time i knew my way around and saw what i wanted to see...i was like...NEXT CITY please.
playing at playgrounds by yourself if exhilirating.
i'm now in sydney. i'm staying with a friend of a friend who is now my friend! her name is eloise.
its raining outside. i want to go into the city...but i'm comfortable where i am.
i met this bloke at planetshakers city church on sunday and we hung out all day on monday. it was really cool. he ended up driving me to the airport and that was nice.
i feel like i dont want to tell a bunch about what i'm doing so that i'll have heaps of stories when i come home to share..with photos to illustrate. it should be fun.
it will be fun.
i dont like thinking of titles.
this past week has been way too busy for words, but every moment was precious.
easter was on my birthday this year and it was wonderful. the fact that i wasnt at home for my 21st kinda hit me hard when it got up to the day...but my 'family' here treated me well and made me feel as special as they possibly could. we had a day at the beach for a friend, sophie's, baptism, and then we had the best ever cake (caramel mud cake) for my bday. we chilled out in the afternoon and then went to the drive ins for some good fun. we played pictionary and friends and family called from home which was very lovely.
this week consisted of:
- sand boarding down sand dunes
- learning how to bake aussie desserts
- shopping (what week doesnt consist of that?)
- having a sleep over at nikki's place and watching depressing - world trade centre
- last day at pronto's
- being prepared for an organized food fight after friday night church, but that being cancelled
- being so pumped for skydiving and then God didnt want us to go b/c it was too windy, so we just all hung out
- planning to have our bday party at the beach today (in an hour), but it is raining a whole lot, so we're having it at the cottrell's, which is good, too.
- making our cake right now, julie's making the icing and says it tastes too buttery, so she put vanilla vodka in it...and now it tastes great..haha.
our main tasks for tomorrow:
- trying to fit our doubled wardrobe into all the same luggage that we brought
- having a celebration of yaagerbombs later in the evening
what i learned this week is that, GOd's plan is better than our plan, even in the little things. so dont stress, dont be disappointed, just delight yourself in the Lord, our God.
if anyone wants to get a hold of me on my travels...you can literally call anytime...b/c time differences get way too confusing...the number to call is...
00 111 +61 435 028 684
rotto.
oh dear.
we had our 'weekend' away at rottnest island....from thursday morning til friday afternoon...
let me list some interesting events...
- decided on taking the "jump on, jump off bus" instead of hiring bikes...(good move)
- explored many o' beaches around the island
- found this one deserted cove and just hung out til it started to rain
- got some real good coffee at dome
- watched a great sunset
- had quokkas invade the boys 3 man tent, which resulted in a bad
smelling tent, which led us to all 5 of us sleeping in a 2 person tent....oh what fun...
- got up nice and early after an awful sleep to watch the sunrise
- had fun at the beach and had a good sand fight before heading off the island to perth
- yay for a very memorable getaway...
- happy easter.
a week ..in the life of jillian leah friesen.
OH before i forget, techinically this is LAST week, nikki (from work) took me to a footy game (first ever!) and it was a hoot & hollerin' time...besides the men behind us that were cursing at the players...it was lovely....haha.
(to the left, is myself and nikki...at the game...way too excited, maybe?...nah!)
we went to a small group at tim & nerida's house this past tuesday and it was wonderful. the people in our small group are genuinely great. tim & nerida are the leaders of the small group...the have kids of their own and the rest of us in the group range from ages 18-28 (i think). anyways, their dog had puppies! maltese/shih tzu mix...3 of them. it was the cutest, ever. (to the right, is Blaire, holding a pup).
i went for a little shopping trip on wednesday at my favourite store here, supre. i got 2 tops, some skinny leg jeans and a sun dress! here are some photos:
on wednesday night we were invited over to a couple from church's house for dinner. Chris and i were picked up and brought to their house (Mike & Julie is what they were called) and we had a nice dinner on their patio with their 2 sons and daughter. there were really great and the conversation was all good...and chris and i got on well with their 2 sons.
thursday we went to a bbq to our friend eva's. we had some lovely lamb chops and sausage with some salads...and the company there was nice. (hah, short, but sweet response.)
friday we had our church and whatnot and then we had some people over to watch "robin hood - men in tights" unfortunately i fell asleepabout 20 minutes into it...but i had a laugh prior to that.
on saturday(st pattys day! & jayjay day), julie and i intended on going to see these things called the pinnacles in Nambung national park...but it is 250 kms up north and we cant rent a car and our friend who told us we could probably use his car, sold it...so that didnt end up working out...instead...we went shopping at Karrinyup mall and oh what a joy it was!
we went to...big W which is the equivalent to our walmart...i have no clue why they chose to change the name..but keep the slogan?
later that night it got semi-eventful when we went skating at 'skaters on ice' and it was our friend, scott's 2nd time EVEr going...poor guy...he fell and ended up with a concussion. i actually havent heard from him today, but i'm trusting that he's doing okay. we took him to the hospital last night and left him in the care of the doctors and his brother.
and now the week is done! another week is beginning...(this is a dumb blog, im thinking...but i'mnot going to apologize...b/c if you werent interested, you could have stopped reading...easy enough.) OK. i'm done.
blah blah blllaahhhh. i talked to my step mom and dad today and it was nice! yessssss!
blah.
its really simple..
God revealed this simplicity to me today:
"if a Man died for you...
would you not want to honour Him, and live your life, everyday, for Him?"
i do.
Lila.
a couple days ago, i did my bi-daily walk around the building, giving away the bread i get from work and i went up to unit 312 and a malaysian lady, probably mid-60's comes to the door, who is so so little and she has really bad reumatoid arthritis. i give her the bread and she is so thankful...and invites me in...so i go in...and hang out with her for a little bit. she asks me which unit i live in and i tell her i live in unit 12, on the ground floor underneath her. she asks me about our bbq and how come she never smells any meat being bbq'd? i tell her that meat is expensive...and ya...
and she said, well, i'll shout you a round of meat.
and i said no no no no thankyou but no.
after me trying to refuse mulitple more times she says that she is doing this from her heart and that when i can afford it, i can do something similar for someone.
she gave me 20 dollars to buy meat, and then i ended up just chatting with her for about an hour. i left her my mobile number and told her if she needed anything ever, to call me.
so she made my whole life. she was the sweetest little thing.
this is what came of lila's generosity:
mmmm good eatin'.
today i got a lot of good emails from good people. it was nice.
