It's been a good weekend. First we went to Carols of the King on Friday, that was a big Carol sing-a-long event, about 1,000 people came, it was amazing! The missionaries did an awesome job 'hosting it', and it was a nice thing to be out and have a picnic, and sing carols into the night, holding our little candles ... which were flameless fake ones. I was introduced to some new people last night, and one woman named Teia and I had been talking when some of her children came over after playing in the grass. They had Christmas lights braided into the hair that were twinkling, she leaned forward towards them and said, "Girls! This is Molly ... and she's a YANK!" Haha!
As we sat and sang, and held our fake little candles, I looked up into the sky and finally saw the Southern Cross for the first time since I've been here. I live too close to too much light to be able to see it from where I live, so it was wonderful to be able to see it again. I had a bit of a heart twinge though, it reminded me of the first time that I had seen the Southern Cross, back in St. Croix. I'm missing that home a little tonight.
But the whole even was really neat, because singing Christmas carols this way is a sure Aussie thing. I guess it'd have to be, where else is it warm enough for people to go sit in a big grassy area, enjoy a picnic, and let your kids run wild barefoot, and sticky with Christmas lollies (candy). It's such an Aussie thing that as I'm writing this we have the Woolies Christmas Carol Special on TV, which is being held in Sydney. Essentially it's the same thing that we did, only way more than 1,000 people, and it looks as if the audience gets actual candles (and hey! look! there's Russell Crowe sitting in the grass with his family -- yes, definitely in Australia!)
Then, this morning, we went and cleaned at the church (everyone had different assignments). I had several errands to run this morning, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to go. Both the bank and post office, and both places I needed to go to, are closed by the time I get back from work, and only open early on Saturdays, and even then I had to find the special ones that were open (meaning take a couple buses to get there). But Liz said that we only had to clean toilets, so I was fine with that. I, however, forgot that "toilets" here mean the bathrooms. As in all the bathrooms in the building, including cleaning walls, the doors, the vents, etc., so even with the two us working full steam ... haha, well ... let's just say it took a while.
But afterwards, I was still able to get everything sorted, I still don't have access to money from my bank just yet. The banks here close at 4pm, so it's been a hassel working things out, so I'm going to have to wait for my debit card to come in the mail. Waiting, haha, I think I'm getting a bit used to that.
After all of those things were sorted, we went to Freo (Fremantle) and we had Fish and Chips. It was amazing!!! Today was the second to last day in the International Sailing Championships here in Freo (we saw some of the kitesurfers), and we sat on the dock under an umbrella table, and ate our fish and chips with salt and malt vinegar. The fish and chips are served in packing paper, so you unfold the packing paper to get to your food and dig in!
We then made our way to the E-Shed markets, and one of the fruit vendors, an older man who was sitting lazily back in his chair, offered us some orange slices. We grabbed two, and thanked him, and he said, "Go ahead and try 'em, they're sweeter than a boyfriend's kiss, they are!"
It's been a really good Saturday.
And now I'm ending my post the same way I ended my day ... with a little Australian country music
boys from the BUSH
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