sydney tidings

Rhonda has been an awesome tour guide. Since arriving on Tuesday morning, after catching up on the 2 hour jet lag, sleep deprivation from the flight, and settling into my brother's apartment 3 minutes away from Central station... I've been playing the tourist.

For all the HK people coming over to Sydney, Rhonda and I have found KRISPY KREME in the city! I think you can actually check Rhonda's site for the evidence. It's been tried and tested by ourselves and my brother and his flatmates... the verdict - APPROVED!

The main places I've visited:
- Bondi Junction
- Bondi Beach
- Chinatown
- Museum of Contemporary Art
- Krispy Kreme
- Boost Juice (various locations)
- Manly Beach
- Art Gallery of NSW
- Centrepoint aka Sydney Tower
- Coogee Beach
- My brother's uni (University of Technology Sydney)

I didn't get to spend much time with my brother cuz he left early Thursday morning to go back to Hong Kong to spend time with his friends and to help mom and Sarah with the house packing. But it was nice to spend the little time I had with him. And it's also really sweet of him to let me stay in his room while he's away. His flatmates are awesome too. And it was because of one of his flatemates, I got to go up to the Centrepoint with Rhonda on Thursday evening for free, just as the sun was starting to set. It was such an amazing sight to see... the Sydney landscape by day, and the nightlights when it got darker. It was such a blessing to be able to have seen it... if it wasn't for Rafael, I doubt I personally would have splurged and bought a ticket to see the wonderful view.

Anyway, tonight was even more fantastic. Rhonda and I met up with Flic at Central, and we went to the Hillsong church in the city. They have a program for the 18-25s called Powerhouse. We dropped our bags off in the auditorium and hung out in the foyer for a bit, and when we returned to our bags, guess who we found next to them?... MATT SNELGROVE! We were all shocked! Powerhouse was really wonderful and I felt really encouraged and excited by seeing over 400 youths hanging out together on a Friday night at church. We also got to meet Pastor John Snelgrove, his wife Sandra and Granddad at the end of the night. It was really thrilling seeing people I hadn't seen in months (Just a glimpse of what it will be like on Monday when the HK gang come over to join us for Hillsong)

I'm now very fired up to meet up with everyone from HK, and really looking forward to an energised week and a bit!

Oh, I better sign off now, but before I do, I just wanted to say I'm currently using my brother's flatmate's laptop. It was really nice of Jae to let me use it, cuz I was just going to go downstairs to the internet cafes and check my mail. This boy has been going to church with my brother occassionally. And tonight he asked if I wanted to go with him to church on Sunday cuz he hasn't gone in a while.... how awesome is that! I'll keep you posted.