A Rainforest and a Beach

September 23rd, 2006 Bridgewater Apartments, Brisbane, Australia
I’ve found myself feeling pretty tired this weekend. I’ve been staying up late, working on projects and studying and reading. It can make a person feel sleepy.
I feel a little unsure about what I did on Wednesday (the 20th). I feel fairly confident we had class. I’m good there. I do know I skipped my run, because I needed a little recuperation. We had a worship service and devotional with some members of the Cleveland church. It was a good time, though I unfortunately felt like I needed to be doing something else, like working on a paper. I did end up doing that for some time, as well as talking to my parents over the Internet. It was good to talk about some things with them, since it’s hard to communicate regularly with the time difference and being tired all the time.
Thursday (the 21st) seems just as blurred in my memory. I know I read a lot and went to classes. I did run, and I felt healthy afterwards. I spent part of the evening preparing for a Sociology test the next day. Even though we only had Rich’s classes, we decided to take some time to take the test because otherwise we would have had four tests on Monday. Not good, so I liked the decision to take it earlier.
Friday (the 22nd) we had Rich’s classes and then the test. I felt pretty good about it. I then spoke in chapel. I spoke about unity, grace, and love. It’s something that means a lot to me, and I think I sounded a bit scatterbrained. I know I forgot to mention a few things that I wanted to talk about, but I covered quite a bit. I told the story of the All-School Devo last semester in which disunity led to my deciding to drop out so as not to hurt the other guys’ reputations. I then read some verses from the Bible, citing them as “true doctrine” to me: Matthew 5-7 (the Sermon on the Mount), Galatians 5 (the fruits of the Spririt), and James 1 (faith plus deeds). In Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane he prays that his followers will be unified so the world will know that he sent them. My granddad says, “The cost of a divided church is a lost world.” Out of faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is doctrine……..oh shoot, my bad. I got confused. The greatest of these is Love! Richard Baxter, a 17th century British theologian, said, “In necessary things, unity; in (questionable) things, liberty; in all things, charity.” I was very careful not to specify which things I thought were necessary or questionable, because that may have turned off quite a few people to what I would later say. I was simply giving principles that I am trying to follow and live by. I hope someone got something out of it.
I ran and then read for quite awhile, so I wouldn’t have to do it over the weekend. I then took a nap for about an hour. O! the glories of restful slumber in midday! Will and I walked to Tuppies’, which is a sort of grocery store just around the corner. They had fish and chips. And they were good. And I was happy. Sitting in a café setting eating fish and chips is a very relaxing setting. That night, we watched Troy and The Village. Beautiful movies in different ways. I love them. Derek and I surfed the web for awhile. We looked at AFI’s (American Film Institute) 100 Greatest Heroes and Villains. Derek was disgusted to find that Atticus Finch was number one and George Bailey was on the list. He said they don’t classify as heroes. That made me mad: if they aren’t heroes than who is?!! You don’t have to wield a sword or a gun and kill people to be a hero. That’s such a distorted American point of view in my opinion. Indiana Jones was number two, and he’s a different kind of hero than they are, but they are all heroes. If James Bond can be number three, than Jimmy Stewart deserves to be on there!
This morning we boarded the bus at 8. Our destination was two hours away, and I slept. As we got closer, a video about our destination was put on. Let me explain…..no, there is too much; let me sum up: we were going to the O’Reilly Rainforest. In 1937, a plane flying from Brisbane to Sydney crashed in the forest, killing three of the six passengers. The three who lived were stranded there. One went looking for help and died on the way. The other two, after nine days of not eating, were finally found by Bernard O’Reilly. It was a pretty amazing story.
A bunch of us had signed up (and paid) to go on a zip line, so we boarded a bus and drove to a clearing down the mountain. The zip line wasn’t exactly huge, but it was going to be fun. Each of us had three turns, and since someone didn’t take their last turn, I went four times. I strapped on the harness and grabbed a helmet and ran up the side of the mountain. I was hooked up and then ran down a wooden platform and leapt into the air, shooting across the valley. Each time, I did stupid things, like pretending as if I was running, hanging upside down without holding on, sitting in a meditative state (eg. Rafiki in The Lion King), etc. It was a rush in a safe and not-as-dangerous-as-I-would-have-liked kind of way.

September 24th, 2006 Bridgewater Apartments, Brisbane, Australia
After our turns had expired, we returned to the lodge, where we had some time to look around. I thought it would be a good place to get a souvenir or maybe a gift or two, but the prices on the objects quickly changed my mind. It was ridiculous.
Lunch was buffet-style in the lodge, and it was delicious. As soon as the meal was ended, a few of us bolted out for some hiking trails. One led to a treetop trail: a bunch of rope bridges suspended near the tallest branches. I absolutely loved that! It reminded me of Lothlorien (in case you are unaware or what this name refers to, it is an elven city in The Lord of the Rings). The path turned left at a junction which cornered at a massive tree. Iron stairs had been bolted into the trunk leading up to observation decks high above. I quickly scaled the ladder arriving at the summit of this tree with a commanding view of the valley and hills. I wouldn’t mind having a home among the trees. I happen to think that would be quite pleasant. If the Swiss Family Robinson could do it, maybe I can too.
We descended from the glorious leaf-filled sky and continued once more upon our previous path. It led us (by us I mean Derek and I; we left the others behind) to the Botanical Gardens, which held a beautiful array of paths and flowers. We then headed back to the lodge and sat in some wooden chairs, conversing about something which probably wasn’t too important. Eventually we headed back down the mountain and drove to an alpaca (a sort of llama) farm. The head guy was an American named Dan from New Mexico. He gave us the rundown on alpacas and how their fur is competing with the wool industry. It was a beautiful property, overlooking a gorgeous valley. I talked with Dan a little while later. He had been a water engineer and was sent to Australia to work four years ago. He got involved with girl and left his job to take over this farm for her parents, who were retiring. He has no plans on going back to America. This guy has it made.
We drove the few hours back to Brisbane. I heated up some soup and did some reading and watched National Treasure before going to bed.

This morning church was at Cleveland. As soon as it ended, we headed to the bus and drove to the coast where we boarded a ferry for Stradbroke Island. It took about forty minutes to get there and we went to a beach where someone had fixed an amazing barbecue for us. I took Annie, Shelby, and William down by the beach to a little stream where we caught tadpoles. Our cook told us French intelligence had just released a statement saying Bin Laden was dead from typhoid fever. Those reports haven’t been confirmed, but I really don’t think it would change much. It would only mean President Bush wouldn’t have to say, “We’re searching for Bin Laden” anymore. I’m sure the guy has successors just as bad as he was.
We were advised to drive to another beach because of the amount of jellyfish at this particular one. So, we packed up and went to another one. It was great location. On one side a large outcropping of rock stretched into the water, which was cold. It was good to splash around for awhile. I took William out into the waves and we hopped over the little ones and got crushed by the big ones. I swam around the outcropping to another little beach. I wouldn’t mind having my tree house on top of that stuff. We were at the beach for quite awhile for time to head out. I got some fish and chips at a little café before we went back to the ferry.
I have two tests tomorrow and am continuing to work on the many projects and papers I have. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say I can’t wait until classes are over. I’m feeling stressed out by some of it, especially when I don’t have enough time to get things done. As much as I love traveling and seeing things, the weekends are times that I need to get things done. I don’t have a ton of time after classes, because it’s already 5:30. I haven’t slept much this week. I have studying to do now so I can get a little bit, because my eyelids are flapping a little bit.