rescue me..

vanessa & i before our journey..

this post is long long over due.
a month to be exact but, i've just been really busy with school and life in general.
bad excuse maybe but, it's legit :)

anyway,
this post is about the "invisible children: rescue me" event.
on saturday april 25th, my roommate vanessa and i participated in the 3rd annual Invisible Children awareness event. i went to the "Global Night Commute" in 2006 in Dallas, "Displace Me" in 2007 in Austin, and then now "Rescue Me" here in Sydney.
A little background: invisible children is an organization started by 3 men who went to Africa just to document the war taking place in Uganda, and what they found was something beyond what they could ever fathom. they discovered that Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) was kidnapping young boys ranging in ages 5 to 14, forcing them to learn how to fight. these boys had to hike 2 to 4 miles every night to the camps or to run away and hide.
the first year was to simulate what it is like for the children and we walked in silence for 3 miles and camped out, writing letters to our government officials.
the next year in austin, the theme was "displace me" where we brought cardboard boxes to build "houses" for us to stay in. we also had a 23 minute silence to remember the 23 years the war has been taking place, and wrote letters to government officials.
after this event, a peace treaty/cease fire was signed between Joseph Kony and the leaders of Africa so the people at IC thought a change was taking place.
however, when the 3 men went back to Uganda to check up, they found that Kony was kidnapping the boys again and forcing them to fight.
this year, IC decided it was time to bring mass awareness to this problem. the point was to be "abducted" and walk to a certain "LRA camp site" and wait for a mogul (celebrity or person of influence) to rescue us.
we also were to have media come and do a story on the event. we started the event at 3 when we walked across the harbour bridge (starting at milson's point, ending at the fleet steps) and then sat and waited for our mogul or the media to rescue us. there were about 3,000 people at our event and it was absolutely beautiful. we also walked in groups of about 20, holding on to a rope, as to simulate the rope the children are tied to every night, so they don't run away. my friend vanessa and i walked in silence and just thought of the children.
holding onto the rope.

when we arrived at the site, we took pictures and footage for the film the organization is going to compile together and then just hung out for a bit. we wrote letters to the Prime Minister, Mr. Rudd, and the Governor of New South Wales. we even had an awesome dance session to Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier." it was so so good. we waited and waited for the media to come and cover us but, unfortunately no one ever came. however, our mogul did. it was an actor named Damien .. and he was on the hit tv show "Underbelly." Vanessa and i had no idea who he was but we still took a picture with him and felt cool.
around 10 o'clock, everyone got up and we hiked to the site where we would be sleeping. we stayed at the barracks, on the gravel, where the first immigrants stayed when they first got to Sydney. we only had our comforters from our beds and sweaters to keep us warm. needless to say, it was not the best night sleep but we were doing it for the children.
one point of the event was to raise the 4 flags we were suppose to raise.
red was for media rescuing us
green was for $5,000 raised
white was for 5,000 letters written
purple was for the mogul rescuing us.
we only raised the white and purple flags but almost the green.
it was sad that the media never came to rescue us but the Sydney Harold interviewed the leaders of this site.
this event took place in 156 cities all over the world and i am so thankful and blessed that i was able to be a part of it.
i will continue to pray and do my best to help stop Joseph Kony from mistreating and kidnapping these young children, and i hope you all would maybe take a look at helping this organization and these children too.
www.invisiblechildren.com

at the LRA camp site where we waited for our mogul & media




i love you all and am sorry i haven't written in a while.
i will be writing a post about my trip to the opera house & the ballet soon, so, keep looking..
xoxox
dustialynn

when dinos & mammoths roamed the earth..

today i visited the famous australian museum. i met up with my aussie friends courtney & kate and it was a day of fun.. i have been wanting to visit the museum ever since i saw "when mammoths roamed," posters that float around the city. in 7th grade, while on a youth trip, we stopped in a town with a similar set up to Boot Hill, and in one of the shops a fossil of a mammoth tusk was on display. It was a novelty to the town and I have been interested in the prehistoric, peaceful beasts, ever since.
thigh bone (femur) of a mammoth!

huge mammoth skeleton.
some interesting things i learned about mammoths:
- they are NOT prehistoric elephants! they are wayyy cooler than elephants. (they are cousins to the
elephant, as donkeys are to horses).
- their bodies are different than elephants to help adapt to the cold weather they lived in.
- they had small ears to help reduced heat escape, small little tails to prevent heat loss, and even an
anal covering. (weird, i know, but i was fascinated ☺ ).
- they have 2 flares on the ends of their trunks (above & below nostrils) verses the asian elephant,
which has one above, and the african elephant which has none.
cute baby wooly (notice the tip of its trunk)

- they chewed their food by grinding their back teeth forward then back.
- bones found mostly in France but, also Spain and the US.
- they are cute and furry and i wish they weren’t extinct. ☺

after we visited the mammoth exhibit, it was on to the dinosaurs!
i have been fascinated with dinos ever since i had an epiphany my junior year of high school when i realized i had never seen real dinosaur bones. i have, however, now 3 times. once was on my weekend visit to OC, my senior year of high school and the other i can’t remember but, i have NEVER seen anything like this exhibit. it was ab.so.lutely AMAZING! i learned so much about dinosaurs too. most of the dino bones on exhibit are fake and from the "Cretaceous.” era. this is the era after the Triassic and the Jurassic eras. this would be around the time that people and other animals were starting to pop up, before the Ice Age. anyway, if you thought the TRex was the largest dinosaur, you would be wrong. It is actually the Giganotosaurus!! it was… GIGANTIC! i can’t even begin to explain how awesome this creature was. it’s a good thing humans were not around because, they would have quickly disappeared if they had been. Forget the flood, God should’ve just dropped dinosaurs to do the dirty work.. ☺
picture does NOT do it justice.

interesting fact about the Giganotosaurus:
- discovered in 1995, in Argentina.
- used the 'bite & slice' method when eating prey
- ate the equivalent of 150 steaks a day..


the next exhibit we visited was the “Surviving Australia” exhibit, which contained all the scary animals that once roamed, and some that still roam, this great land down under. my favorite was the “Demon Duck of Doom,” other wise known as the wombat! which is nowhere NEAR a duck! silly aboriginals. there were also some really large, furry animals of which i didn’t catch the names of them but, let’s just say, it’s a good thing they were stuffed ..

right after that we were lead into a room full of skeletons! this was a veryy cool exhibit. it was case after case of skeletons of every animal group. my favorites were:
lion

horseman & his horse
when i pedaled the bike, so did the skeleton :)

after that, we went to the room of “Birds of Australia.” it was room with glass cases of stuffed birds, big to small. colorful or dull.
we didn't spend too long in the room. it was a bit creepy walking around staring at stuffed birds.
outside the room was a 7 meter crocodile in a case with some snakes from australia. snakes up to 10 meters. in english that is 15 ft and almost 21 ft!!! they were so scary to look at, even in a case.
me stanching an emu :)

overall, I had a truly amazing time and i would like to have a night at the museum there. it would be epic.



xoxox
dustialynn

pancakes and sunrise

before the festivities began. hanging out at macca's. (mcdonald's)

yesterday, april 20th - the 21st, vanessa, sajetha (my roommates), anthony (a friend of ours), and i watched the sunrise at bondi beach. before you act so shocked, it wasn't all that bad & it wasn't my idea, i just went along for the ride.. but, i'm really glad i did. it was an experience of a lifetime.
it all started at 12 when anthony & i met sajetha & vanessa at the circular quay in the city.

the first part of our night/morning we spent at pancakes on the rocks. this was the second time i had been and it was just as amazing as before.. this time i got the "strawberry jam" pancakes. two buttermilk pancakes topped with strawberry jam, cream, and ice cream. they were sooo good!
we hung out there for a bit because it was only around 2:30 and the sun didn't rise until 6:23am on the 21st.
on the way to pancakes, i taught them the game "20 questions" and they played it for like 3 hours straight while i fell asleep on the table, for about an hour. :)
vanessa & i were tired after eating.. we all cleared our plates. mmmm

around 4:30, we got up and headed to the bus stop to bondi beach. the bus came at 5:17 and it took the whole bit of 45 minutes for us to get there. we stopped and took pictures in the random Londonisque phone booth and we enjoyed the walk as well..
after we got to the bus stop, we met up with people who were headed out to there jobs, like civilized human beings 'normailly' would do. :)
we were trying to hurry at this point though because we didn't want to miss the sunrise, thank goodness we didn't.

when we arrived at the beach, it was really dark, the waves were outrageous, and the winds were strong.
after standing in awe of the gorgeous view before our eyes, we found a spot on a grassy hill of the beach, and set up shop, waiting for the sun to rise. if finally did but, unfortunately, behind blankets of clouds. we were only able to see the light from the sunrays.
along with the clouds, came sprinkling for a bit. thankfully anthony & sajetha had umbrellas because we would have froze even more than we already were!

while they went for a run on the beach, i laid and watched the ocean.
i am now going to try and put into words the feelings i felt as i lay there with the vast, gorgeous ocean in front of me. it was a combination of frightening and breathtaking. the ocean is one of the most dangerous places on earth (for many reasons) and i experienced it yesterday while watching the waves. they were so violent against the shore in a peaceful way. i felt 100 percent at ease while i was watching the waves but i was more than happy to be as far from the beach shore as i was. i felt connected with God and so minute against His vast creation.
as the minutes crotched on the sun crept through the sky bringing light to the world. the waves died down, the weather warmed up a bit, the sharks left the shallow waters, the surfers ran in, and we packed up and headed back to the 'real world'.

the beautiful ocean and morning sky.

the journey home was an interesting one. one full of laughter from sanity and lack of sleep. we must have looked silly amongst the packed buses and trains full of business men and women. we laughed at everything and then fell asleep as soon as we landed a spot in an empty seat.
i truly enjoy my roommates company and i am so glad they invited me to go. it was a once in a lifetime experience and i am so thankful to our Creator for allowing me this opportunity.
such a beautiful, frightening, peaceful place to watch the sunrise.

xoxo
dustialynn

just living the life..

just a quick update to tell you how i've been doing.
well, i've been doing amazing! :)
it's our fall break so i've had a relaxing week just hanging out with my roommates and traveling around sydney.
wednesday alex, vanessa, and both anthony's went to bondi. not a cloud in the sky. it was perfect!!
we had a day of just lounging around and bonding. it was a lot of fun & i am so blessed to be here.
i also bought me a new swimming suit :) i'm really excited about it and have decided to move to a city by the beach when i go back to the states as it is my favorite place in the world.
God's creation all in one.

thursday we just hung around and didn't really do anything. i've been getting sick so i haven't been up to doing much but, it was still a wonderful day. so beautiful and sunny..

today, vanessa and i went to paddy's market. to it's basically a warehouse turned into flea market. we were expecting more souvenirs but we just found the same 10 shops, repeated thoroughout it's entirity. we started the day by attempting to go down the up escalator, as the train station had switched the sides on us (normally when you get passed the ticket counter, if you turn right, the escalator goes down, and on the left, the escalator comes up.. well, not today).. we were not paying attention and as i go to step onto the escalator, i notice something strange about what i'm feeling under my hands, and then i look down and realize we were about to go down the "up" escalator.. :D we got a very good laugh out of it and thus begin our adventure to what we now call a "fail, fail, fail."
after we finally got down to the platform that would take us to epping we hopped on and caught the train. i love taking the train and think that dallas/arlington should put a train system throughout the city..
another interesting part of our day was when we got on the second train.. it was like a time travel bus and it looked like the 60s. vanessa and i got a kick out of it. i'm sure the other passengers were confused as to what was so fascinating about the train, but we were simply tickled..
after we finally arrived at the market, we were disappointed because we were anticipating something different than what was there. it was a range of items and "stands" with things like wallets, coin purses, etc. or socks, belts, etc. or produce or whatever. totally random, cheap stuff. not what we wanted but it was fun to say we went.
i really enjoy vanessa's company.
we have a lot in common & i never thought i would be so close to a mormon, haha. (if that even matters anyway). God works in mysterious ways.

fall break..

this post is more for me than anything.
continue to read if you wanttt.


today marked the first day of fall break here at macquarie.
well, really, it was yesterday but today was the day that most people left.
most of them went to new zealand, some to the gold coast, but i stayed here.

let me start with what happened yesterday.
i took a trip to bondi by myself because everyone i was going to go with flaked. but, it was a BEAUTIFUL day in sydney so i decided to go. i'm veryyy gladd i did because i got to hang out with my friends gabor and yael who leave on the beach, so it was a blessing in disguise.
as i was riding in the train and looking out the window, i took a methaphorical step back, and looked at my life as if i were a forturne teller looking in to a crystal ball..
I'M IN AUSTRALIA!!!!!! MY DREAM COME TRUE!!! it is beautiful and i am so in love!!!!!!!!
i can NOT believe i'm here! God is so good to bless me in the ways He has.
i met a weird indian guy on the bus to bondi too. i felt bad ignoring him when he tried to talk because i kept thinking of bradford and how he would've talked to him and it was good friday so then i felt like Jesus wanted me too as well, hahaha. i talked to him for a bit but then he just got weird and i had to say "what's that?" or "huh?" after everything he said because i couldn't understand, so i put my headphones back in my ears and enjoyed the ride..
then i told him to get off one stop too soon, on accident, but it worked out in my benefit :)

after i got on the beach, i laid down next to the ridiculously dark australians in hopes that my pastey white skin would someday be as rich and almond. doubt it..

anyway, i met up with my friends and we laid out for a bit. the sun was going down and i was going to go to a good friday service at st. mary's cathedral downtown in hyde park, so we left after like an hour.. that was long enough to get me a bit tanner :)

i got on the bus back to the city. i arrived at the cathedral and waited for my friend, jami, to arrive from off the bus from the uni. we were both really excited to experience a catholic, good friday mass since neither one of are catholic. to our demise, we missed the service. we were told there was a service at 6 pm, which made sense to us because it seemed like home; but, the services were at 10:15am and 3pm.. the "stations of the cross" were taking place at hyde park but when we walked over there, they were putting everything away. :( we were bummed but, it was the effort that counted.. :)

jami and i then went to get cheesecake & talked about boys and life. i love her to death and am so glad i met her. we got back to the village and hung out for a bit, watching mr. & mrs. smith while she packed for break. per usual, i feel asleep.. :)

this morning i woke up and went to bondi beach again but this time i met up with kelly and her roommate.. i didn't make it to the beach in time before kelly & lisa had left so i met up with them at westfield, a national mall chain. we walked around for a long while. i will be going back monday to shop :)

we then went to dinner at sunshine grill at bondi beach. my ceaser salad was uhmazing! it was like a pile of lettuce with two chicken breasts though, so it was a bit awkward to eat. as i was sitting in dinner and talking to kelly, i was very happy inside thinking, finally! i'm here! i had a good time with them. i'll be hanging out with kelly at the end of next week and she said she'd come to melbourne with me, so i'm pretty excited about that too.

now i'm sitting here with my roommates watching the village (first) and then the passion of the Christ. they both came on channel 7, we didn't just pop them in to watch. too intense. but, it's Easter tomorrow/today so i guess that's why they decided to show it. i don't know how i feel about the movie. if i should be sad or feeled with joy. it's a weird movie to handle. i'm just glad to be here, hanging out with my roommates. they're wonderful & i love them!!

i'm off to bed now because i have to catch the bus for church tomorrow.
have a blessed day/night.

xoxox
dustialynn.

rugby game: roosters vs. eels

last friday night AIFS sponsored a night to a footy game. although, i'm not too interested in the sport, i had a good time. the game was a national rugby league (NRL) game, which is the more "dirty/rough & tumble" kind of rugby. basically, this means broken necks and head injuries are more common. :)
(the other is rugby union). the game we watched was the sydney roosters and the paramatta eels. i don't feel like a rooster is a very ferocious animal, but they clearly proved me wrong when they ended the game on top, with a score of 24 to 6. it was a smaller game in comparison to the "civil war" game between NSW and QLD, which is coming up soon, but it was still a fun game regardless. before the actual game started, two 5 -7 year old rugby teams played each other. it was really cute to watch.. 4 boys out of 9 (?) on one of the teams, had on helmets, hahaha. it was really cute. my friend laura said over protective parents, i said previous head injury as cause for head protection. it could be both, we don't know. but, mostly it boils down to rugby being a ruthless sport. there really isn't much to say about it, as i didn't really watch too much of it. the "touchdowns" are called "try(ie)s." the "field goals" are called " conversion goals." 4 points for every try, 2 for every goal. that is pretty much all i got out of the game, aside from the fact that the boys go out clean and leave covered in grass.. it was a lot of fun and i'm glad i could go. i can't wait for the 'civil war,' either. :D