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We have returned. We are all safe and sound and truly looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. Thank you to the many people from St. Walter's who have prayed for us along our journey. A special thank you to the families who supported us financially with meals. We look forward to sharing our experience with the parish. We also look forward to the parish fest in order to begin helping the next group of teens heading to World Youth Day in 2011 in Madrid, Spain. If you would like to contact me via email, my address is: hollatz1@att.net. God Bless You.

Always,

Tom Hollatz

Day Twelve:
We started out the day with the usual breakfast and then jumped on the coach for a one hour ride to the aboriginal village. Deb, our tour guide, gave us a great deal of information and ‘commentary’ about the history of Sydney, its major sites and how it was discovered and built. We went over this cool looking bridge, not the Sydney Harbor Bridge, that had two tall spires and hundreds of cables coming down in a sort of circular fashion. The Aussie nickname of this bridge is Madonna’s Bra. We traveled through the countryside and wound our way toward the Blue Mountains to the aboriginal village. There we were divided into two groups. Our group went down to the boomerang field first. We all tried to throw a boomerang. It was very fun. Everyone tried it. This, of course, is a sales job to get us all to buy boomerangs. Well, it worked. When the second group came down the hill, Bishop Kaffer delighted us all by walking out and giving the boomerang a go. Check out my action shot of a Bishop throwing a boomerang. We even got Deb to give it a go. Our group then headed up the hill and into the Cultural Center where we listened to a talk by two young aboriginals. They gave us the history of the aborigine peoples and explained the diversity within their culture. They showed us tools, weapons and didjery-doos. I am not sure how to correctly spell it, but a didjery-doo is an aboriginal musical instrument. It is made from a hollowed out tree limb and then sanded and painted. It is not really much of what we think of as a musical instrument. It is definitely a very nature type of instrument. They imitate sounds of different animals, I think for hunting, but I’m not sure. Only bought a small one, because the larger ones cost upwards of 200 dollars. The two young boys did a phenomenal job of passing some history down to us. I can say that I now have a better appreciation of their culture. They also showed us how they made skin paint and gave anyone a go of face painting. We hung around the village for a while and then were served lunch – kangaroo, beef and emu. It was delicious. They were all grilled and were simply fantastic. There was plenty to eat and time for the gift shop. We then headed back to Sydney to the hotel. We landed there about 2:30 and had to meet in the lobby at 4:15 so our St. Walter group could go to St. Mary’s Cathedral for mass. We wanted to hit that gift shop, but found out later that it closed at 4:30. There were HUGE crowds in front of the Cathedral. We found out that is was the Italian mass. The entire mass was said in Italian. George Cardinal Pell, from Australia, said the mass in fluent Italian. It was kind of weird at first, but once we got into the actual mass, we were all surprised just how easy it was to follow along. With my knowledge of Spanish, I was able to pick up a few phrases here and there – enough to figure out that the reading was about finding the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. The prayers were mostly all in the same place and the mass was beautiful. As we were heading out, there was this magnificent painting of Madonna and Child. Check out my picture. We had to pay for dinner ourselves and went to a fire baked pizza place. Very delicious, but nothing like pizza in the U.S. Also, very expensive. The 9 inch pizzas were about 20 dollars each. After dinner, most of us headed back to the hotel and I did some blogging and picture downloading. I walked down to the internet café and posted by trip details. There is another person on our trip that took great care of me while here and that is Omah, the guy from Gloria Jean’s Coffee Shop. It is connected to the internet café. I paid my last visit to Omah and had another flat white – decaf. Check out the designer picture at the end of the album. Each day I posted, I was amazed at the different designs that Omah created for me while here. I dropped him a large tip, which they are not too accustomed to here. Thanks Omah for giving me my cup of solace each night. Tomorrow is our last day here and sounds to be a busy one. A wildlife refuge, the Blue Mountains – stopping for lunch in a small village and a cable car trip down into the valley. Goodnight all…….

From Karen: You want to know what I learned today? Can you recall seeing Indians dancing – and why they were – there were clouds of dust for the stomping of the feet? Well, that’s because they were connecting with the earth by bring the dust up in their ceremonial dance. And, Dave – my dear husband, that tree with the ants in it in the backyard – we can make a didjery-doo out of some of those branches and I’ll show you how!! With only an hour to spare, a couple of us walked over to the Parliament House down the road. I had a ton of questions and they couldn’t answer some of them about architecture because it is very similar to New Orleans and The Keys – so the next thing I knew, the gave me a gift of a great Parliamentary History Book. It is cool and loaded with lots of pictures and history. Love to all and Tom promises to put up the ‘special’ pictures I had taken. It seems as though he has forgotten them during our trip. You’ll all see what I mean when he puts up my folder. See you all in two days

From Bridget: I’m kind of excited to be going home. I am not…I repeat not excited for the plane ride however. It is going to be really long. I hope I don’t get stuck next to Prenger….more for Prenger’s sake than mine…lol! So…we saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabies today and some dingos and koalas. They were all very cute and cuddly…just like I imagined!!! The emu that I fed was kind of aggressive but he really liked me and I had a lot of fun. I ate this huge piece of lasagna and a wonderful chocolate cake….no longer eating pilgrim food YAY!!! I can’t wait to see everyone and share all of my pictures (which are not the same as my dad’s) = ) I love you all and I hope you love me too!!!! See most of you within the next week!!!

From Kristin:
ARIANA FASO I SAW A GAJILLION KANGAROOS, WALLABEES, AND JOEYS TODAY!!!! I HAVE PICTURES… on Friday after I sleep, we need to go to Portillos because I some America food (the hotdogs in this country are telefunken (long joke will tell later) awful). Ok it is Estaban’s turn to write… tomorrow we leave, but tonight we get to eat at I Am Angus (that’s what she said)!! Okey dokey then, I’ll see you all Friday… heeeere’s White Boy…

From Steve:
I saw and experienced a lot these last few weeks. It was a great experience, and I’m thankful for the time that I was able to spend in Sydney. I got to pet a kangaroo, and a koala bear, and I also got to see a dingo and the real tazmanian devil. The Pope was awesome. His words spoke so loudly in my head, and I won’t forget what he said. See you all at home…

Day Eleven

Today is a day of leisure for us. (that word is pronounced lezhur) The plan for the morning was breakfast, followed by shopping of which I chose not to participate. Don’t worry too much though. I sent Bridget out shopping with my credit card to get tasteful souvenirs. Before the group headed out, we saw a newspaper which had great photos of Randwick and many stories about the Vigil. I offered to go to the news agency and collect papers for the group. I was intending on taking a nap, but I headed upstairs for my shoes, came down to the lobby and stood around with the group waiting for the rest of the shoppers to arrive. I looked out the lobby doors and there was the beginning of a motorcade. I ran outside to see the Pope’s motorcade coming by right in front of our hotel. Since we saw the Pope and his motorcade outside of St. Aloysius, I knew which limo was his. I stepped down off of the curb and took a few steps out into the street. I started to wave and caught the eye of the Pope!! He waved back and looked me right in the eye. I got my own personal wave from the Pope! You should have seen me. I was jumping up and down and acting totally like a kid in a candy store. We were all high-fiving, shouting, hooting, hollering. Yet another unexpected treat from World Youth Day. The last of the shoppers finally arrived and the rest of the group headed off to shop. I walked down the street, kind of on cloud nine, and headed for the news agency to get seven papers. When I got there, I also found that they had these poster kind of things that the news agent can place in an easel to advertise the current edition of the paper. I asked the news agent about that and he offered all of them to me. I got nine different posters from World Youth Day to share with our group. They are cool! I came back to the hotel and thought I would grab a nap, but I couldn’t. I blogged for a while and headed down to the internet café to post pictures. After about an hour, I came back and managed to get about a half hour nap. We all met in the lobby at 12:00 to head out for Circular Quay (pronounced Key). There we would all catch the ferry to Manly Beach. What a ride. Out in Sydney Harbour during the daylight hours. We really started to have more fun today. Afterall, we are now on vacation – no longer on a pilgrimage. Mrs. Wojcicki prceeded to sit on the boat in the section that was labeled ‘for handicapped or less mobile passengers.’ Her feet didn’t quite hit the ground. She kind of looked like the Edith Ann – the character created by Lily Tomlin. It was very funny. We got made it over to Manly and deboated. In the ferry terminal we ran across Prenger’s new profession. – the bald chocolateer. See the picture. Back tracking. I made everyone get up out of their seats to go outside for a group shot. It was here that I discovered that I was able to read Prenger’s mind. I knew exactly what he was telling me to do with my camera just be looking at his eyes. Back to Manly Wharf. We headed down the Corso toward the beach. It was kind of like Lake Geneva and Wisconsin Dells rolled into one. It was beautiful. I could have stayed there for days upon end. We walked down to the beach and headed in to wade in the water. All except Brad, Steve and Prenger. They apparently brought bathing suits and went swimming in the ocean. Full body under water. It was freezing. Only the pictures can describe the details. Everyone had a wonderful time at the beach. The adults took a walk along the beach for about half and hour. Pure heaven. I few of us broke off and walked around Manly for a bit. We shopped, ate and just had a great time. Brad and Tim each had a great time trying on different hats. The girls bought a hairnet for Prenger. Why, I’m not sure. We met back up at the gate to the beach at 4:30 where Roberta and Prenger had selected a great seaside restaurant for us to eat dinner. It was sort of a pub type place where you had to order you meal at the bar. There they handed you a beeper. When the beeper went off, you picked up your meal at the food counter. The first beeper to go off gave us all a bit of a fright. They were loud and obnoxious – but effective. I order fish pie. Was it awesome. Not healthy at all…. Cream sauce, cheeses with fish and a bread middle. People said the fish was great, the burgers were great – but huge – and made with chopped onion which made Brad go hungry. We headed back to the wharf and headed back to Sydney. We had a great ferry ride with a beautiful view of the skyline. I’m sure Chicago’s skyline is better, but unfortunately it has been many years since I have seen it from a boat late at night. There were some WYD posters reflected onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Cool. The kids headed to the hot tub on the roof of the hotel. What a view from there. Wow. Got to bed kind of late and had to get up early to go to the aboriginal village the next day…… More later…. Always…Tom

Day Ten – The Vigil

After our long trek to Randwick, we had to negotiate to find the location of our camping area. They had the whole place divided up and each group of pilgrims had a specific area assigned to them. This took us about 45 minutes to find our spot. Once we got to F7, we had to find a spot. Most of the places were already taken. We divided off from the diocese group since we were only eleven. We found a spot and started to settle in. We laid out our tarps, sleeping bags and some of us laid down for a quick nap. There was music going on throughout the entire afternoon. Different performers came along and sang or simply told their story. Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we entered, we each got a green bag that contained our food for the next 24 hours. Rolls, chicken or salmon, fruit, cookie bars, brownie bites, water and flavored sparkling water. OK – we are getting ready for the vigil again. The Pope arrived and gave a talk, but most of us were very tired and didn’t have much ability to concentrate on his words. There was presentation of each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A person would come up and give a personal witness in their native language and then the Pope would offer an intercession to the Holy Spirit to grant the pilgrims each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For all of us who have forgotten (me included) they are: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, courage, piety and awe. After each intercession, the choir and the masses would sing the chorus to Receive the Power, which was the theme song for World Youth Day. Every pilgrim was given a candle. Imagine. It is dark. There are a few lights lighting the field. There are witness talks going on and intercessions followed by 500,000 candles being raised into the air swaying back and forth to the music. I took a few pictures, but I am sure they don’t capture the beautiful scene. I just don’t think digital cameras have that night time capability. Besides I would have needed a tripod and I just didn’t have room for one in my suitcase. The Gifts presentation was followed by adoration and an international rosary. The Pope was on his knees for about ten minutes before the Blessed Sacrament and each decade of the Joyous Mysteries were said in a different language. It was very cool, but by this time I had crawled into my sleeping bag and was drifting off to sleep……… I woke up many, many times during the night, but managed to drift back to sleep. Sleeping on the hard ground is just not something I do well. I woke up at 5:00 and Mrs. Borrino and I headed out in search of coffee. None to be found. We settled for a bathroom and hot chocolate. To use Prenger’s words, the conditions of the restroom facilities are seriously beginning to break down. There was a morning prayer service at 8:00 with music sung by the Seminary of the Good Shepherd Choir. By the time we figured out what was going on, we were on the intercessions and saying the Lord’s Prayer. We were tired, tired travelers. We waited until about 9:30 when the Pope arrived again at Randwick via helicopter. He circled twice and landed, getting into the Popemobile to make his way up to the stage/altar. He circled the track twice, stopping along the way to kiss and bless several babies. He was close, but we had already seen him on a much closer level on two previous occasions. He finally made it to the altar and mass began. Right about here, my brain sort of shut down. I can only hope that they will offer a DVD of the WYD experience so that I can actually comprehend what the Pope’s message was during mass. I know that he talked to the masses about vocations, religious and secular. He talked about taking the message of the universal church and bringing it back home. I just couldn’t imagine how they were going to handle communion. I couldn’t figure how they would get the bishops and priests from the altar area to the massive numbers of people. You see, there were many, many thousands who came out just for the mass. It turns out they had lay people stationed around the arena ready to distribute communion from wherever they were. I saw one Eucharistic minister whip out a chalice from his backpack, unzip a ziplock baggie and start administering communion. Somehow I lost something here. I’m not sure what, but it just didn’t seem to be what I thought it was going to be especially after the U.S. mass the day before. We concluded and made our way back down the Anzac Parade toward Hyde Park. We made the walk, stopped at Hungry Jack’s (Burger King), ate lunch, returned to the hotel for a nap and a shower. It was now about 2:00 on Sunday and we had to meet in the lobby for a dinner cruise on Sydney Harbor. It turned out that we would be dining on the same ship that Pope Benedict used to greet pilgrims when he entered Barangaroo several days previous. We met in the lobby at 6:00 and headed down to Darling Harbor for our cruise. It was a pretty cloudy night and beginning to get cold. The food was great. Beef (not in the stew form), pasta, salads and dessert. We had real table linen and proper cutlery. It was such a great treat for us after four days of nothing but pilgrim food. The cruise was very relaxing and enjoyable. See a picture of me with Deb, our tour guide. She has a great deal of knowledge about touring the city which has been very helpful to us. She and I have met for breakfast along with Fr. Peter for the past week. It is sort of our own club. The early risers, you know. I took a few photos outside, but I am not sure they are the greatest quality. We headed back up to Hyde Park and back to the hotel for another night’s rest. Sydney is such a beautiful place. Tomorrow is a day of leisure. (you get a bit of a hint what we did by reading Karen and Kristin’s messages. Yes, we went to the beach at Manly, but I will write more about that for my next entry) Always….. Tom

From Karen:
I have discovered that I am not the best blogger in the world. I talk about you all the time. Bought boomerangs for all……. With instructions to not throw it like a Frisbee or in the house. Fun, fun day… took a ferry across to Manly Beach, yes Manly. It is a lot like Lake Geneva but with palm trees. The beaches are fantastic, the water is cold for the South Pacific – which was a surprise. Certainly would love to come here as a family if that were ever possible because there is something for everyone. Love and kisses a ton to all!!!

From Kristin:
Hello…. Right now it is 9:36pm on Monday… we are going cafeing at Gloria Jeans down the street. Today was a chicken schnitzel day… no more narsty beef stew for me. Tomorrow Ari I might see a real, live kangaroo!!! Hmmmm... well, my brain has turned off, I am on vacation… the pilgrimage is over (we’re out of here or Barangaroo rather… we saw it from the Manly (lol) Ferry today for the last time). Kenny, just a little FYI for you, BDK was awesome… just because we saw it here in Australia, although it was like $13 with a student ID (lame). I read some H. Pott after the closing mass yesterday with Tim… ZAH MAHZERLAND… (Benny talks like that with the zah german accent). Ariana, Tim loves how you say asian and Anna, I saw a ginger today in a kilt playing the bag pipes in Hyde Park. Okey dokey then… I shall see you all in like 4 days (Australia time because we have two Thursdays… also lame)… I’m SOOOOOOOO excited to go see kangaroos, but I am going to try it again (JEEBUS). Peace.

PS
Tom forgot to mention that on the dinner cruise had a “dance”… it brought back bad memories of middle school dances!! It was scary, but I was so excited to eat real food and not S.I.B (“stuff” in a bag) or other various forms of pilgrim food that it canceled out the scary factor of the dance.
PPS
What do call a boomerang that doesn’t come back?

Answer: A stick (the jewelry store guy told us this as we were leaving).

Day Nine

The usual breakfast, which is getting quite old, and off to the Domain for the United States Mass. We have been asked to help out with the distribution of communion during the mass. All 80 of the teens from Joliet will each accompany one of the priests to a specified area within the Domain for communion. We arrived at the Domain a bit late because they have reconfigured the road closures. They are very quick to close roads and redirect traffic. Instead of heading straight to the Domain, we had to go through Hyde Park and around the Cathedral to get in. Those of you who know Paul Mach know that he is a stickler for time. He was alright, but we felt bad about getting their a bit late. We saw Tony Melendez again and he graciously met with our teens for a few minutes. Steve Angrisano was also there helping with music ministry. Steve Suffredin and I went up to the stage to meet Steve Angrisano. He was so nice and personable. He was busy doing a sound check, but when I waved him over, he dropped what he was doing to come over and talk with us. What a nice, genuine man he is. The mass began with a very lengthy entrance of all of the American priests and bishops. Cardinal George was the presider. Deacon Dwayne from our diocese also participated in the mass. The music was awesome, the message of Cardinal George was right on. He gave a wonderful homily that spoke of vocation. He spoke of religious vocation and also spoke of life vocation. That being married and being a parent is also a calling from God. He truly made a proper, clear message about vocation to our American teens. This was the time that was just for me – my God time during this pilgrimage. Tears began to flow – not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. There was no sobbing, but tears just flowing from my eyes in thanksgiving and joy. Just as communion was underway, I looked up and Nicole was walking toward us, leading Fr. Dennis to his spot. Surely, he couldn’t be near us when there were tens of thousands there for mass. Nicole stopped and Fr. Dennis administered communion to our area. Tears streaming down my face, I received the Body Of Christ. I knelt and prayed in thanksgiving for family, for friends, for life for youth and for death. Then, another sort of surprise happened musically. Although not in the program, Steve Angrisano sang ‘Sacred Silence.’ This is a deeply moving song for me. Think about the concept of silence that is sacred. The tears fell harder again. Long about this time, Brad came back from his ministering. He came up and offered the sign of peace. Well, I gave Brad the biggest, probably unexpected, hug and held on tight. It might have freaked Brad out a bit, but it just added to the perfection I was feeling about the mass and our journey. As with all good things, the mass came to an end and we packed up and left the Domain to return to our hotel and prepare for our journey to Randwick for the pilgrimage. On our way back, we stopped at a memorial that is right near our hotel. It is the ANZAC memorial which is a combined Australia/New Zealand war memorial. It was beautiful and the domed ceiling there has one million stars on top in honor of those who have fallen in battle over the history of Australia. There is an eternal flame and several sculptures there as a wonderful war memorial. After packing our gear for the over night stay at the Randwick racecourse, we met in the lobby at 12:30 to head over to the vigil. The walk was about 4 miles or so, much of it uphill. We walked from our hotel and zig-zagged through the city until we made our way up to Anzac Parade. While merging onto the Parade (which is an Aussie word for street), I could not help from thinking that we were much like Nemo navigating his way onto the EAC from the movie Finding Nemo. We walked and I had a wonderful time talking to Bridget about my family, my early life and Chriss’ family. We spent about 30 minutes just talking about things she never knew about my life, family and early careers. She is such a remarkable child. I just cannot tell you how proud I am of her. She is independent, mature and wise for her years. She is just perfect. I cannot help but be thankful to all of the people in her life who have helped form that perfection – especially Chriss who has given her such fine gifts of loving kindness, appreciation of beauty and a spirit of giving.
We walked with scores of thousands of others toward Randwick for the vigil. That is all for now. I will include the details of the vigil in tomorrow’s blog. I cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers, emails and messages while we are away on this trip. I miss my family, miss my home and look forward to returning to Roselle to catch up with all of you. God Bless

Day Eight –
This is Friday here – I am a couple of days behind in blogging because we were out at Randwick ( a local horse racing track where the Youth Day Closing Mass was held) for the past few days. I am hopeful to get caught up tonight. Day Eight started with our usual breakfast at Hyde Park. We then headed off to St. Aloysius for our last catechetical session. We started off our time at St. A’s with Steve Angrisano and Tony Melendez and some praise and worship. Our teens went up on stage and helped out with the motions for “Lean On Me” which is a favorite of St. Walter Youth Ministry. They were awesome and Steve taught us all a new song, although I can’t remember the name of it. I know there is an ‘O’ in it made with hand motions like our ‘standing O.’ There was another song where a member of the audience gave a name to Tony and we all sang a version of I Love You to that person. Tim got the microphone and gave Tony the name of Paul Mach. We all sang I Love You to Paul Mach and surrounded him with hugs, etc. It was cool – albeit a wee bit embarrassing for Paul – I think he liked it nonetheless. We then went into our session. We met Bishop O’Kelly from Australia. What a genuine man. He talked right to the teens and was able to capture their attention and hold it. He had a great message and really took some time to answer some rather difficult questions from the audience. Everything from respecting life to animal rights was on the docket. He answered straight away and said ‘I don’t know’ rather than making up some answer. He connected twice with Brad and so Brad and I went to meet him after mass hence the three pictures of Brad and the Bishop. We then went out to the hill at St. A’s to have our boxed lunch. Tuna – again. The kids are starting to get a bit hungry. We invited some of the boys from St. A’s to join us for lunch. Jason was the only one who was able to join us. It was great to talk with him and he gave us some real insight to what life is like for an Australian teen. He finished at St. A’s a couple of years ago and is now an “old boy” which means alumnus. It was a real pleasure getting a better flavour of the community. Leaving the St. Aloysius area, we headed back across the bridge on the rail and went to Circular Quay which is an area near the harbor where bus, train and rail all meet near the Opera House. We met up again with Karen and Steve, since they were resting their respective back and ankle. We met them at the steps where we saw the Jesus skywriter earlier in the week. We were a bit late and found them and off to Barangaroo for the Stations of the Cross. Now imagine the eagerness on the part of the kids getting ready for Stations that are scheduled to last three hours. Well, it was really cool. They re-enactment started out at St. Mary’s Cathedral and was started by the Pope. We only saw that part on jumbotron. The actors who portrayed the different roles were excellent. Eventually the group made their way to Barangaroo for the last seven stations. Christ carrying the cross came back to our area. What a powerful scene. Check out the pictures and see why we were moved. There were many, many distractions but it was certainly worth the effort we made to get there. With the Stations over we made our way back to Hyde Park. Prenger had to stop by the Karaoke Café. He chose Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” as his song of choice – no I’m just kidding we only took a picture outside. We did go back to the Italian place we started our first night with. Salvo and Gil set us up with several platters of pasta and two types of bread. What a way to end the night. Thank you again to the fine donors of St. Walters who helped sponsor a few of our meals.

A correction offered by Deb, our tour guide. Tasmania is spelled without a Z. I thought we spelled it with a Z, but my spell checker just told me that I was wrong. We do spell it with an S. Tomorrow The Vigil begins which will start off with the American Mass in The Domain and culminate on Sunday with the final mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

Day Seven and a half….

After our brush with Greatness, we all shared our stories and pictures. We hung out on the street for a bit and then headed back into St. Aloysius for mass. In these catechetical days, whichever bishop gives us our talk also says mass. We have Tony Melendez and Steve Angrisano leading us in music, so our praise and worship is very strong. We are hearing from around at other sites, the music is not so strong and that the youth are walking away with less of an experience. We are grateful. Having mass ended, Tim and I went up to the courtyard to get our boxed lunches. We always wonder what sort of treat they are going to throw at us each day. Today was quite a surprise. Tuna (satay style - whatever that means), cold beans and weakly flavored carbonated water. Bridget and I are among the few who, fortunately, like tuna. So, we opened our cans, slathered it on the bread and gobbled it down. They did also offer chips and some dessert. Let me just say their desserts here are quite flavorless. I would liken them to Little Debbie snacks, but without much flavor – coconut does seem to be big here. Not bad, just different. After the lunch session, we broke off into two groups. Karen and Steve headed back to the hotel via train. Karen’s back and Steve’s ankle were causing great problems. Dennis, our resident EMT from Joliet, looked at both of them and suggested rest. The balance of the group went back to Barangaroo (rhymes with kangaroo – and Prenger’s new nickname is Parangaroo.) There is a great sense of global community being developed here. Kids are singing together, walking together and really getting into the sharing of it all. The one picture which looks like we are all walking into a short tunnel is the Argyle Cut. That is the entrance to Barangaroo. As I said before, they have flush toilets and running water. You will see a picture of Mrs. Wojcicki washing her hands in the wooden trough sink – don’t tell anyone, but that was just after she come out of that open door there which is really one of the men’s toilets – shhh…. We have met some unbelievable people here. I met a group from Iraq. Three men who escaped and now live in New Zealand. They explained how it is actually worse to be Christian now in Iraq that under the regime of Saddam. Christian are being persecuted by the Muslims – houses burned, families killed, churches destroyed. Under Saddam, there was slight toleration for Christians – although they were closely watched and limited in numbers. Now the entire Christian population has gone underground and are in hiding. We are so lucky and blessed to be Americans. We set up camp and waited for the Papal arrival. The teens went around meeting people and trading pins, buttons, etc. We were all caught up in the moment, waiting patiently for the Pope to join us. He came in by ship and docked at Darling Harbor which is very near Barangaroo. After a long, long time, he docked and got into the Popemobile and came to the stage. He greeted us in about seven languages and gave a homily about being the Universal Church. People were going nuts. Flags were waving, people screaming, singing, etc. It was awesome. After his welcome he left the stage and headed down toward our end of Barangaroo. We moved to the edge of our little area so that we could get a better look see. Sure enough, the same amount of police presence and security detail was headed our way. So, I walked up and found these two guys, one tall, one short – with the short guy on top of the tall guy’s shoulders. So, I asked the short guy if he was coming. The tall guy said – give him your camera straight away and let him get a good shot. So, I gave this guy my camera without even thinking. We are at World Youth Day. The love and trust is pretty automatic here. In a couple of moments the Popemobile made its way past and I looked the Pope right in the eye. The short guy, meanwhile took three great pictures with my camera. Check the pics, they are nice. You will also see a pic of me, the tall guy and the short guy. Sorry boys if you are reading this, I forgot your names – but heaps of thanks!! Tom Quinlan from the Diocese joined our group and offered to go and get our meals for all of us. You see, you need to be in groups of six to get meals and we have eleven. Tom joins us and we now have twelve and can get two meal packets. Well, you guessed it…… STEW!! We simply had enough and couldn’t stew anymore. Although, I rather like the stuff. So, we went out to dinner for pizza with the donations from our generous parishioners. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wasn’t what we are accustomed to in a pizza pie, but a very welcome change!! See the pizza pie pic. Also, note the pic of the stew. Yummy!! During our whole trip, Brad has been fascinated by the wildlife here. This night on our walk home, we encountered an Australian squirrel type critter. I am not sure what type of animal this is, but I will find out before we come home. Brad had a banana – well actually I think Prenger had the banana and he hand fed this creature. It is obviously quite used to human contact because people from all around – including me- were flashing their cameras all over and this critter didn’t even flinch. Made it back to the hotel and headed up for rest. Tomorrow morning we are due early at mass to help out with the distribution of the Eucharist.

Day Seven:
TWICE!!!! We were all within five meters of His Holiness on two separate occasions today. What a fantastic day that far superceded our expectations. Our day started out rather normally. Breakfast at Hyde Park and then boarding the subway to head out to St. Aloysius College for our catechetical session at We heard another Bishop speak on being Catholic. A pretty droll guy also. Hard for the kids to get the message. After his session, Paul Mach came out and told us that the Pontiff would be passing by in less than thirty minutes. We all moved out of the Hall and headed outside. At first there was very little going on and I thought there was some sort of mistake. Then, the helicopters started circling. The police came down the hill and from out of nowhere there were police and security detail everywhere. They took total control of the situation. It was unbelievable. After a short wait, the motorcade came down. Headed off with dozens of motorcycles and squads, a few SUV’s and then the Pope’s limo. Followed by more police and SUV’s and finally an ambulance. It happened quick and I chose to shoot video instead of pictures. When I get the chance, I will throw the video up on YouTube. It was so cool. I mean – really moving. I can’t put it into words, but it was really exceptional.
You know, it is getting late and I will write more about our Papal encounter and post it up after we return from the vigil. I am going to be out of communication for a couple of days because we are going to head out to Randwick for vigil and the final Papal mass. I will post more when I get back. No worries…… Love to all…….

Day Six –

Okay to be truthful this is going to be pretty brief. I am a day behind and I am trying to catch up. We started our day with a fabulous breakfast at the hotel. Although we are starting to get sick of the same old breakfast. It is good, but I would love something a little different. The kids ate with Bishop Kaffer. He is so cool and really can understand the teens. So, on the way back up to my room to get my liturgical booklet, I ran into this guy who had the best lamp in his hands. He lives in the hotel and was bringing the Marx Brothers lamp from his parents house. When I got back to lobby, Prenger and I were being twins. We are really soul brothers separated at birth. I just want to be like Prenger, well not really, but it sounds good. We headed out through Hyde Park and headed to the subway depot. Boarding at St. James Place, we found the subway very easy to navigate. Tim took the lead here and helped us out on our travels. We transferred subways and ended up at Milson’s Point. We walked to our catechetical session at St. Aloysius College. The college is really a high school, but they call college the university. What a neat place. Kind of Potteresque. We heard from this Bishop from India. What a wild thing to think of a Catholic Priest from India. He gave a talk, which was very hard to understand, but the gist of it is…. Sin is not a spot to be rubbed out. I cannot be washed off of you with cleanser or anything else. The spot can only be expunged by the light. The light of Christ. There is more to it, but that is all I can handle at this time. We grabbed our box lunch and headed for the harbor, which was only a few meters away. What a view from the college!! We headed down to the dock where Bridget and Kristin re-enacted the Titanic scene, Brad was Superman with the American flag cape and we met this girl from Canada and her mom. Neat family to talk to . She is disabled and still was so positive about her journey. This place is not too ADA compliant. No ramps, etc. Our next task was to head to back to the Opera House for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I know this is sounding droll, but reconciliation, adoration and meeting the nuns was awesome! I am probably doing a bad job a expressing it because it is so late, but I cannot tell you how fulfilling this experience truly was. If you’ve done YLC or Steubenville, you might start to get it. A quick stop for gelato at the base of the Opera House – thank you people who donated to us!!! It was good – check out the pictures. Headed through the Botanical Gardens – cool but closed. We had to head back out the way we came it. We did see about 100 bats per tree during one section. These bats are huge. Their wingspan is almost 3 feet!!. Back to The Domain for more stew dinner. – Okay we are getting a little sick of stew. Not ungrateful, but would just rather have something else. More stew to follow. We sat down to eat and were entertained by this group called the Altar Boys. They were trying to be the Catholic Jo Bros, but it didn’t work. We all laughed. Tim and Prenger are going to join their fan club. If you don’t know what to get either one of them for Christmas – consider an Altar Boys CD. Back through Hyde Park. Brad decided that in order to make up for spilling his soda on Prenger he would succumb to Prenger’s wishes and try to feed a bat. He stood still for about ten minutes holding up a banana. We laughed until we cried. This Aussie woman was freaking, sure that Brad was going to get attacked by a rabid bat. We made it back to the hotel and crashed! Tomorrow we see the Pope as he enters the city. It was really a spiritual day today, so it was hard to be so funny. There were moments, but all in all a pretty seriously spiritual day. Okay, one more thing about adoration. There was a re-enactment of Mother Theresa’s discernment. She was speaking to God and He to her. It was really interesting to hear God with and Aussie accent. Think about it. Another final note about toilets. We were at Barangaroo for the opening mass. There they had 240,000 people and temporary flushing toilets and running water for all. We need to adapt this for Bears and Cubs games. Hmmmm… Good Night all…

Day Five:

Well, I think that I am one day off with my blogging and my picture posting. So, I am going to call both writings and pictures from today ‘day five’ We started off today with another great breakfast. We took our time, made a plan and headed off for our day. We started off at the Cathedral for a tour. I was able to use my ‘magical skills’ and got us in straight away to the Cathedral. I might need to go to confession after the tale that I told the volunteer docent. The Cathedral was simply magnificent. There were thousands of pilgrims inside. Some viewing, some praying, some taking pictures. There was adoration, candles to be lit, rosaries and more pilgrims to meet. I met this guy from Tazmania. He was very nice. Got me the literature about Pier Giorgio Frasseti. He is a guy who has been beatified and was quite a man. He is someone that I want to research about when I return. We then wound our way Hyde Park down to Barangaroo. Barangaroo is a section of Sydney that is down by the harbor around from the Opera House. They had an area all set up for the mass by putting the altar out on the harbor. There were 4000 priests here and about 240,000 people for mass. It was great, but a bit distracting. Great music, great people. Many parts of the mass were in different languages, which was very cool. There was an opening done by aboriginal people. Very cool. We thought we might paint Prenger up with some red and gray stripes, put an earring our two in him and have him entertain at the Parish Fest. Might scare away the crowds though. We do want the Fest to be profitable. Anyhow, they fed all of the pilgrims this meat pie for lunch. It was quite good. Something like a beef pot pie only better. There were dozens and dozens of microwaves there and they heated everyone’s food. There was fruit, drinks and dessert. We hung around for three hours, talking to people and just having a global time. The kids met hundreds of kids from scores of countries. We met some great people from Canada, who were our northern neighbors at the mass. (Hmmm). They began the opening ceremonies with the skywriter from two days ago writing “welcome” across the sky. It was neat. Oh, for those of you who attended NCYC… We have run into Tony Melendez twice so far. See the pic of Tony and me. We sang and prayed and sang some more. They have given us a booklet for all of the services so that we know what is being said, no matter what language it is being said in. After mass, there was a huge concert, but we chose to walk back to our hotel which is about 3 miles away. We got most of the way back and then found out that our meal site was back about a mile or so. So, we turned around and walked back to the Domain for dinner. Dinner was Beef Stew in a bag. Actually quite good, but most of the kids couldn’t get past the thought. I enjoyed it immensely, but I like dipping bread into sloppy food. We stopped off at the gift shop tent they have set up in Hyde Park and purchased a few more souvenirs and shirts. We made it back to the hotel and then Roberta and I headed off to internet café to try to cancel our phone order. We still haven’t gotten those phones. I posted up yesterday’s blog and pictures. Then headed back for a good solid six hours of sleep before getting ready for our next day of catechesis.
Now a couple of words on some issues about Australia. First of all, toilets. No, they do not swirl the other way. In fact, they just sort of flood out of the tank and flow downstream, if you know what I mean. There are two buttons on the top of the toilet. One will flush the whole tank down and the other will only send half of the water flowing down. I guess it depends upon the type of job you have to do. Secondly, we have had some really wonderful people taking care of us. Our tour guide Deb has been awesome. She and I meet for breakfast each morning at 6:30. She fills me in on all of the local scoop, gives me insights on how things are done and really helps us out getting around the city. We wouldn’t have half of the trip if it weren’t for her skill and expertise. Paul Mach (to all of you YLC alumni) has been incredible on our trip. He has gone out of his way, as usual, to make things happen for us. He has checked and rechecked on details so that we are truly having the best experience ever. Way to go Paul. The people here are so friendly, kind and helpful. We certainly have a great deal to learn from them in Chicago.

Day four:

When I awoke at 4:30, I laid there for awhile and just stretched. I didn’t hear a thing. I wasn’t sure that Prenger was even still alive. No movement, no sign of life at all. Well, I showered and headed downstairs. I explored the local area and had my first experience with white coffee at the Gloria Jean’s. They make coffee with warmed milk instead of water. It was the greatest cup of coffee I have ever had. No lie. It was still dark outside. Remember it is winter here and just as in Chicago it gets light late and dark early. After roaming for a while I headed back to the hotel for a huge breakfast. It turns out that we will have this breakfast buffet every morning. How cool. After we got our act together, we started to make our way down toward the Opera House. We took about two hours to get there. It really is only about a 20 minute walk, but we were in search of phones, coffee and just spent a great deal of time talking to the other pilgrims from around the world. No luck on the phones, but we made it to the Opera House and purchased tickets for a tour. What an unbelievably cool place. A beautiful design, massive concrete, tons of local woods, wool and glass. It was worth every cent of the admission. We had a very good docent and he gave us some insight as to the politics of getting the Opera House built. It was projected to cost 7 million but ended up costing 102 million. Sounds like a U.S. government project. We shopped for souvenirs and I met some Hindu holy men. I found out later that Roberta attempted to talk to them and they ran. Their handler, yes, handler – later came up to her and explained that as part of their ‘vows’ they can not even speak to women – ever! I spoke with them – they were very nice, very educated men who were here to experience World Youth Day. We spent a great deal of time down by the Opera House and headed along for something to eat. It was a bit reminiscent of the Navy Pier area of Chicago, sort of but not really. We found a fast food stand – called Take Away – where we ate. The hot dogs were weird, kind of plastic-like things. I had the chicken schnitzel – which was awesome. We crossed under the train tracks and found some shade to eat our lunch. We ate, talked and met more people. Looking up we saw a sky-written cross in the perfectly blue sky. The day was awesome – about 70 degrees and clear, blue sunny skies. We met more people and Brad scared away some pigeons which actually look like the bird from finding Nemo. It was very funny, except for the fact that there was a woman walking toward us and the whole flock of frightened birds flew directly at this woman. Funny stuff. So, we looked up at the sky again and saw the skywriter spelling out Jesus. Check out the pictures. It was cool. Oh, oh- I forgot. When walking down to the Opera House, we noticed a strange silence on the street. No cars, no traffic. Suddenly – police cars everywhere. You guessed it….. the pope motorcade. Helicopters in the air – very cool – check out the pictures. Probably the closest we’ll get to the Pope. BTW he said to say hi to all of you.
Ok, back to current reality. After our meal, it was time to head back to the hotel and have some down time before dinner. Chris, Tim and I stayed down by the Opera House and the others all headed back to the hotel. We had a mission. We wanted to go across the Sydney Harbor Bridge and we wanted to visit Sydney’s oldest pub. We accomplished both. We went to the pub for one, yes only one, pint and then made our way up the dark alley type staircase to the upper level road. From there it was quite another climb to the bridge level. Hey, who has the number for 9-1-1? We made it to the middle of the bridge for some great photos. There, of course, was the bridge tower which Prenger paid for all of us to climb since I bought our pints. I came out on top of that detail. Very cool – VERY. See pictures. We climbed down, crawled into a cab and headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I needed a shower badly. It has been above 70 degrees for the past three days – beautiful, just beautiful. We got ready and headed out for dinner – all 90 of us. We went to the Sydney Tower for dinner. Sort of a revolving buffet in the sky. Great views of the city, but not such great pictures. Tried the roasted kangaroo. And the kangaroo sausage. Liked the latter, not the former. Anything you could imagine to eat. Very good atmosphere. We took the slowest elevator down and walked back to the hotel for bed. Slept very soundly. Prenger is spreading some rumor that I snore. I am not sure, but I think he has his facts mixed up.

From Bridget on Day four...
Well over the past couple of days I’ve been having mucho fun!!! We went to Bondi Beach and I ate this amazing burger! Like if I had a million dollars I would be ordering them for myself and having them flown over from Australia! They had some real special sauce that tasted like ketchup but looked like salsa…it was yummy!! Anyway enough about the burger…. Yesterday after we visited the Opera House some people went clubbing *Cough*Prenger*Cough*. I’m just kidding…I’m afraid for him whenever he does decide to go clubbing because he really, really can’t dance……like at all……well I guess I could give him a little more credit than that cuz his one dance move was pretty rocking….but all his other clubbing moves are pretty lame….. so……… yea…..It’s really amazing how many people are here!!!! It is the most awesome thing I have ever experienced! The coolest thing was when we were handing out postcards from Saint Walters for people to mail them back to us. I explained what we were doing to a person from Italy and they completely understood what I was talking about because I used and motions and it was pretty cool that I was able to communicate without using words. Im\’m having a really great time. I miss you all and love you….I wish Prenger was able to read this because that means he would be back home and not here….annoying me…I’m just kidding I love Prenger too.

Greetings Earthlings… (I’m sooooo slap happy right now)…it’s Kristin… Kenny Bates guess what (chicken butt)… Batman Dark Knight comes out TOMORROW (the 16th) and we could go see it… we just one upped you there pal… totally just put the kabash on your midnight passes ()! Enough about Batman…
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I saw a kangaroo… thinly sliced on my dinner plate last night at the 360 degree spinning tower café (we were 40ish floors up and the room spun slowly 360 degrees in two opposite directions (the buffet in one direction and the tables in another)… it was crazy. The kangaroo looked like roast beef, but it smelled funky and tasted funky (I think it was a little under cooked). However, next week we will have another chance to eat bbq kangaroo and maybe it will be better, but I don’t think so.
Continuing with the food theme… I had the best chicken schnitzel sandwich yesterday from this take away restaurant in a metro station (basically breaded chicken in a bun… both of which were amazing). However, Nicole and Bridget both got Australian hotdogs… for future reference DO NOT EAT AUSTRALIAN HOTDOGS… picture a reddish/pink hotdog shaped balloon filled with whatever… that’s a hotdog here… it was NARSTY.
Today we had our first pilgrim meal… lunch at the opening mass venue… it was a Big Aussie Beef Pie (Prenger’s new nickname)… it was very tasty (unlike dinner which was a weird “stew”)… Prenger saved his beef pie and decided to whip it out during mass and started handing it out like communion saying, “the body of meat pie”… for which we are going to Hell for (but it was hilarious) and then later Brad made up words to the Eat this Bread song that went “Eat this bread with this meat…” Also funny… also going to send us to Hell in a hand basket…
There are SOOOOO many people… T Wojo and I spent a good two hours talking to other people (50+ we talked two and over a hundred post cards) as we passed out our post cards and we talked to people from all over the world from Perth in Western Australia, Melbourne, Papua New Guinea, to Ireland, London, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, and so many more that I can’t remember… I can’t wait to see who sends back our post cards!!!
Anywho, Karen is being a time nazi with the blogging… so I’ll check back in later… we saw the pope mobile yesterday… 5 days until pope mass… have a great today… I’m off to catch some zzzz’s!!

PS: Ari I have yet to see a real kangaroo, but I have seen two rats and lots of bats, a bee and a fly… 

From Karen/ Grandma:
I am on my first trip to Australia plus on my first laptop writing this . . . WOW ! so much to say but the best part so far . . . is the skywriters . . .a single skywriter airplane ‘smoked’ out J E S U S . . . people stopped everywhere . . .bumping into each other just to have a look see. There is just so much love here. At Mass when it was time to shake hands and say ‘peace be with you’ you could tell we all relly meant it . . really wanted peace in our lives . . . Leah & Johnny . . . I so wished you were here. Grandpa and the 2 of you would just not believe your eyes and ears. This is truly the experience of a lifetime . . .to se over 500,000 teens all in one place for one reason. Tons of love & especially peace to all.

Day Three:
(a note here: we have had some phone troubles. We are trying to resolve them, and should have a solution soon. I think the answer is going to be in the form a phone cards. Don’t panic, we are all OK – check the blog and prayerfully know that we are happily making our way along our pilgrimage)
Well we made it Auckland with few troubles and then changed planes to a much smaller one for our last leg to Sydney. It is about a three hour flight to Sydney. We’re kind of used to it by now. Still needing a shower. However that won’t come until much later today. We land at Sydney and are greeted by our guides. It takes a bit to get it all together, but eventually we board buses and head for a quick tour around the city. It is really hard to get your bearings on a bus. Things look like a weird combination of San Francisco (hilly) and New Orleans. The houses are very close to the road and they have the bayou sort of look with two floors and a balcony sort of space on the second floor. We head to St. Peter’s Church and have a mass of welcoming by Bishop Kaffer. Paul Mach does us well by leading the impromptu choir sections of mass. The church was very neat with its own little courtyard to the side. We waited there until mass began because they had a Portuguese mass going on as we arrived. Sydney is a very diverse city but it doesn’t seem to offer the segregation pockets that Chicago has. After mass we cruise down to the Bondi Beach area and spend about an hour on the beach or getting food. I, of course, chose food – with the promise that we would be back on one of our free days. I had a fish burger that was killer. This little shack was quite expensive, but really very good. We are starting to run into other pilgrims and our teens (and adults) are enjoying their time talking with other teens from around the world. We reboarded the bus and made our way around the city back to our hotel. We check into the Hyde Park Plaza hotel. Check it out on the web. It is very nice. Sort of an apartment/hotel complex. The rooms are individually owned, but you can still rent them out. Prenger and I had a king sized bed, pull out couch, a kitchen table, full kitchen and full bath. I was feeling bad for a few minutes that Prenger would have to sleep on the hide a bed. Not that bad – and not for that long. Well, anyway, we figured out that the king sized bed could be split into two twins. That made life much easier. A weird note – there are no dressers in the room. I am living out of the suitcase, but it’s not bad – on the suit case stand. We then headed out to dinner. We walked about seven blocks, all down hill and ended up at an Italian place for pizza breads, pasta and dessert. We had our fill and then walked the seven blocks – all up hill to work off all of that pasta. By then, it was about nine o’clock and we were all wiped out. Headed to bed and slept like a rock. Seven hours without moving.

Day Two:

Well, we are nearing the end of our twelve hour flight to New Zealand. It sounds bad, but really it was pretty nice. The food was quite good. Not just for airline food either. It was good. For dinner we had this awesome beef and for breakfast this morning we had a cheese omelet. The only thing is, the cup in which they serve coffee was definitely not the super-sized Americana type of coffee cup that I am accustomed to. At this point, we have been traveling for about thirty hours. We only have one more short three-hour flight to go in order to get to Sydney. BTW, this is also the biggest plane that I have ever been in. Ten seats in a row and Bridget and I are in row 62. There are about eight more rows behind us. To say that we would all greatly benefit from a shower would be an understatement. I am pretty sure we all smell, have bad breath and have out of control hair – well, except for Prenger.

From Bridget…hold on I think it’s day three….wait…I’m confused…
Well not existing for 24 hours isn’t as hard as it sounds. I slept on most of the plane ride so I never really knew what time it was. There’s this really cool movie screen right in front of every passenger. It’s really cool because there are so many different things to do. You can watch movies, watch TV programs (some of which are from New Zealand…Cool beans!) listen to music, and play videogames. And when the pilot wants to speak to you, they pause your game or movie or program and you can hear them through your headphones. I watched two good movies; The Other Boleyn Girl and 21; both of which I highly recommend but The Other Boleyn Girl is a major chick flick so…if your not a chick you may not like it…unless you’re I’lla guy with a weird passion for chick flicks. 21 is apparently based on a book. I would have liked to read that first but Prenger failed to inform me of this before I watched the WHOLE movie. Way to go Prenger!!! Well, I’m having all the fun you can have on an airplane!! I love you all and miss you but I will have many more stories to tell : )

From Kristin:
Right now it is like 6:00ish am on July 13, 2008 (that would be Sunday for those of you back home). We are currently in line for our transfer flight to Sydney… our flight here to New Zealand was SOOOOOOOOOO long and my bum (haha Aussie slang) was in pain (because of my freak cross country skiing “accidents” in Witteveens class... without skis), but the airplane was so cool… it was GINORMOUS actually and we were in the way, way back with YLC hat guy, Paul Mach, Bishop Kaffer, etc. During the long flight we got to pick from a plethora of movies, tv shows, music, and games to entertain ourselves with… I played a really long game of black jack at like 3 am (which probably isn’t the A game to play on a Catholic dealio, but whatev).
Prenger is our “Beacon of Bladness”… he seems to know his way around everywhere and therefore, we follow him like little ducks. Prenger also only has one piece of luggage, period… one of those awkward camping backpacks (he has seven pairs of socks and Bee swears that he is wearing all of his pants right now… but we (Tim, Brad and I) think that he is a nudist in disguise (just kidding) because public nudity is evidently acceptable on public beaches in Sydney). In all seriousness, it finally hit me that I’m going to Australia when we were landing in New Zealand and saw the lights of the city… it was so pretty. I’ll most likely write more on another occasion, but for now peace out girl scouts. (Haha AP)!

PS: Ari I promise to write ASAP about my first live kangaroo experience!
PPS: Bee’s uber-white shoes are no longer uber-white!
PPPS: Bridget says that Brad is currently fighting… Bee just interjected BATTLING a giant eye ball… which is actually two giant eyeballs, which have as of now been defeated.

From Steve:
G’Day mates!! I am currently writing from the airport in Aukland, New Zealand. It is 6:20 in the morning, on Sunday. Friday was a lot of fun. We went to the Santa Monica Beach in L.A. It was fun to get wet in the Pacific Ocean. Then we ate there too. It was a zoo there! Apparently, Ronnie Renner, who’s a Moto-X rider, was attempting a world record jump there later that day. We were unfortunately not able to view the spectacle. The flight from L.A. was longish. I slept a good 6-7, maybe 8 hrs on the plane. Otherwise I was watching Semi-Pro and Vantage Point, or playing solitare or millionaire. They even had Led Zeppelin to listen to. I was able to listen to “Stairway to Heaven” a couple of times. I met some pretty cool people on the plane too. I met Joey Pacione’s cousin Jason, he sat next to me. He’s pretty cool. We were helping each other out on the millionaire questions, as we were playing for Euros, and having multiple international questions that neither of us knew. When we get to Sydney, we’ll all hopefully go looking for 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, just like in Finding Nemo. I’m very excited for this trip, and I miss you all. Talk to you guys from Sydney next!! Party.

From Bridget

I think that Prenger was Mary Poppins in another life….that’s how he is able to fit all of his stuff in his bag.

I will be able to post pictures later tonight and blog more regularly since I have now found a spot to do so.

Always,

Tom

So far our trip has been pretty uneventful. We left Chicago this morning and landed in LA without any problems. We have met some really unique people thus far. On the flight out from Chicago, the under 18 Chicago Fire Soccer Team was on our flight. That was kind of cool. After we landed in L.A. we had to pick up our luggage and recheck in with Air New Zealand. This was alright except that we had to wait for an hour for their desk to open up. In line we met a lovely elderly couple from New Zealand. He was a shepherd in New Zealand and spent time talking to me about the similarities between current day shepherds and Christ’s disciples. After they opened the desk , they checked us all in. I had a bit of trouble because my visa listed me as being two years younger than my passport. (If only it were that easy) It took about 15 minutes to correct that problem and we were ready for our nine hour lay over in L.A. Don’t feel bad for us, however, because we managed to find something to do. We boarded a bus, changed buses, changed buses again and ended up at Santa Monica Beach. It was quite a journey but so well worth it. They have this great boardwalk and very awesome beach. One of us…. Go ahead guess who….. managed to get himself soaked while the rest of us dipped our feet in the Pacific. Have you figured it out yet?? I’ll tell you at the end of today’s blog. We headed down the boardwalk for a quick lunch. Some went to McDonald’s (yuck) and others ate at a local hamburger joint with real beach culture. Not to mention grease and grime that was older than our teens. We chose to eat outside where Karen got attacked by a gull who swooped down and grabbed her hamburger right out of her hands. It scared the daylights out of me and I was just standing next to her. I can’t imagine what she was feeling as the hamburger left her hand. She said she got hit in the side of the head by the wings. Anyhow, back to LAX and ready to board the plane. I’ll let you know about the rest of the journey tomorrow. It was Brad. Unfortunately I cannot post pictures here in the airport. I will post them when we hit Sydney.
Pray for us.....

The countdown has ended. We are on our way tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Check back here for posts, pictures and send us some feedback while we are gone. Also, make sure you pray for us while we are in the land down under. Always, Tom