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Aussie trip 2009-2010

a travel blog by lisanikki

Full-time pioneers, part-time employees, best friends with no money but a desire to travel and see the world; embark on a journey to Australia for two months. After months of preparation, saving money and "FREAKING OUT" we're finally on our way to The Best Trip of Our Lives!!
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MY FRIEND!! Goodbyes and hellos...

Los Angeles, United States

After hours of tears and saying goodbye to family and friends we finally met up in Los Angeles. "MY FRIEND" was heard for Miles across the International Terminal as Nickumz approached gate 77 for our flight to Sydney. Although the trip started off a little rocky (i.e Nikkys card being declined at Starbucks, glasses crashing and shattering in a souvenir shop and strangers trying to steal electrical outlets) we were more than excited to be on our way!!
We boarded our flight at 10pm, shared our excitement to be on "such a big plane" with the flight attendant and met Lenny (re-named Kravitz) who was our seat buddy. Started off fun but in the end we found Lenny to be a bit chatty and uninteresting.

November 19th (Australian time)
LAND!!
Aussies are so amazing. That's the first thing we learned when we arrived at customs in Sydney. We were greeted by Hugh Jackman-esque customs officers and were instantly infatuated! Haha, enough of that:) We caught up with our bags and hopped into a taxi. Our Asian-Australian taxi driver was super nice and informative, but we couldnt pay much attention to him because we were so amazed that we were riding on the other side of the road!
Our hotel room was super nice, very small but modern and in a really busy area about 15min walk from Sydney Central! Elevator was super tiny but we managed!
We arrived about 7am so we went straight into the city and ran a bunch of errands...met some really nice Aussies along the way...Everyone is extremely nice and welcomming, always willing to dish out directions or answer a question.
Walked all the way to Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge...took in the amazing views...walked back to our hotel and rested up a bit. Showered up and went out for a nice dinner and some live music!!
AND THIS WAS ALL IN THE FIRST DAY!!


permalink written by  lisanikki on November 17, 2009 from Los Angeles, United States
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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NIKKIS ON A PLANE TO SYDNEY?!?!?!

Sydney, Australia

Our 2nd day!
Woke up in the late morning and had breakfast at a cute place by our hotel.
Recieved a call from mum about mid-day informing us that Nikky Baran (a good friend from Minnesota) had got her Sydney travel dates mixed up and was on her way to Sydney, a whole month early!! Made some calls and prepared for that...
Hopped on the subway to Bondi Beach, one of the nicest beaches in Sydney. Stayed there for a couple hours and soaked in the sun! There are many people visiting Sydney on holiday from other countrys so the beach was filled with all sorts of people...saw some familiar faces (oddly enough!)
Took a bus back to Sydney city and did some shopping downtown! There are really nice stores downtown but things definitely cost twice as much so that was interesting. We were desperate for energy so went on a hunt for a coffee shop but was dissapointed to find that all the shops stop selling coffee at 5pm(dont know why!)...
Went by the Central Train Station to make some more bookings to other cities then headed back to our hotel.

permalink written by  lisanikki on November 20, 2009 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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LLOYDSTER!!

Coffs Harbour, Australia

The 3 of us(Lisa, Nikki AND Nikky) hopped on the 8hr train ride to Coffs Harbour to meet up with the Canneys, the family of some friends we met in Mexico. They welcommed us with open arms and brought us back to their Australian style home! Its the perfect House, half inside, half out, right by the beach with Kangaroos surrounding the area!
Llyod, their youngest son, made lamb chops and salad. We ate and talked well into the night. The Canneys have lots of stories to tell, they are really a charming family!

permalink written by  lisanikki on November 21, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Australia love

Coffs Harbour, Australia

The best day so far!
Woke up early for the 9:30am meeting. Really, really nice congregation/Beautiful Hall. Lots of windows to see the beautiful surroundings. Congregation had about 150 publishers and 15 pioneers and all were very nice and happy to have American visitors. Met some really nice young people and invited them over for a barbeque later that evening.
After meeting Llyod made some amazing sandwhiches for us(he's the best cook!) Rested up at the House for a bit and then headed for the beach and then to downtown Coffs Harbour.
Everyone headed over later that night for "shrimps on the barbie" and good conversation! Had the best time getting to know the Aussie folks. Introduced to them the game Spoons and played a couple intense rounds of that!

Good music. Good food. Great association...cheers mate!

permalink written by  lisanikki on November 22, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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2nd day in Coffs

Coffs Harbour, Australia

Woke up around 9am and headed to the meeting for service. There were about 20 people out and they were all very happy to see us! We were warned that Australians by nature are not very interestedin the Bible tand that wewould likey not be able to talk to that many people... good conversations and 2 book placements later, we were guided to think otherwise!!!!!!!!! We had a great time and finished off the morning at an Indian Sisters House and she indulged us with Indian chi tea (which was amazing!)
The brothers in this area are extremely welcomming and loving, Australians in general are, but especially the brothers. On a spiritual high, we headed back to the Canney home only to find a tow truck in front of te House! The car that the Canneys had intended for us to borrow had caught on fire! It was pretty funny and sad,,, more funny than sad though!
After that we went out for a nice lunch.

We met up with some young people in the late afternoon and went out for Thai curry and a stop at the local Pub.

permalink written by  lisanikki on November 23, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Another assignment??

Coffs Harbour, Australia

Woke up for early morning service with a really nice young pioneer sister...she showed us around a bunch and was really fun to be around.
We talked with a couple nice people in service and was able to get another placement. Australians are very laid-back and willing to talk so that has been so great in the ministry.
There was quite a big service group out and we all met up at THE BEACH for our mid-morning break. It was so great, the brothers brought out coffee and bisquits and we all sat around a picnic table and chatted.

We recieved an email from the Australia Branch offices informing us that we had recieved another assignment to serve a congregation, this one in Sydney central!! So we're super excited about that! In addition to us helping out in Brisbane we'll be able to visit the Sydney brothers for a bit and then we also have been approved for the priviledge of staying at Bethel for about a week and a half! Just an amazing opportunity! We still kind of dont believe it....but we have lots to look forward to over the next month or so.

The sister from this morning offered to take us out surfing and we gladly accepted! There ended up being more tanning than surfing happening but we had a great time nonetheless. We all got pretty burned up...some of us turned red, others black(finally!)

The mid-week meeting was tonight and we really enjoyed that!! The brother are very expresive in their comments do that makes things really interesting/encouraging. Nikki made cards for ua that included our information, a picture of us and a cute farewell('Catch ya on the flip side!') so we handed those out to a few sisters that had been super sweet to us...we gave those out along with handmade bookmarks and bracelets from mum! The sisters couldnt believe what we were giving them! You wouldve thought we gave them a million dollars or something! They were so appreciative of a little act of kindness, they couldnt stop hugging and kissing us, some almost giving way to tears! Thanks mum!

We came home to a homemade dessert from Lloydie and then off to chat and a good nights rest!

Missing all of you reading this, hope all is well:)

permalink written by  lisanikki on November 24, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Road trip!

Coffs Harbour, Australia

We took a road trip this weekend, traveled north up the Coast. We stopped in Byron Bay which is a nice beach town. We also stopped in Brisbane and Surfers Paradise. Nicole knew some friends that lived in Brisbane so we were able to meet up with them for a bit.They invited some friends over to there House and we had a nice barbeque! It was super nice to get together with some other young people.
We arrived back in Coffs on Monday and went to the Koala Zoo with sister Canney. That was really nice! We got to see Kangaroos, Koalas and all sorts of native Australia animals!
Our last meeting in Coffs was tonight so that was sad, but we plan to come back on the 12th for their Special Assembly Day so we hope to see the brothers and Sisters again!

We will head to Brisbane late tomorrow afternoon to begin our assignment with the Creastmead Congregation! The brothers seem super excited for us to come and they are eager to meet and get to know us so we cant wait to arrive there! We are a little nervous about fulfilling our first assignment but with Jehovahs help we're sure everything will work out and go smoothly.


permalink written by  lisanikki on December 1, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Passing the 2 week mark...

Brisbane, Australia

Its interesting that after about 2 weeks on "holiday"(Australian for vacation) it starts to feel less like your on vacation and more like this is your life now...

All is well in Brisbane! The congregation we are at has about 50 publishers and 2 regular pioneers so its been quite a shock! The friends are really loving though and happy to have had us at their meetings. We recieved a really nice card from one sister saying that we had been an encouragement to her and her family so that made us feel really great! We had another contact in Brisbane, a young pioneer sister that came to the States for the International Convention this year and met some friends of ours, so we have really enjoyed spending time with her and her family. Went to a congregation BBQ(thats the Australian thing to do on the weekends, we've been to about 4 bbq's so far!) so that was super nice. We got to meet alot of nice people from a neighboring congregation.

We are looking forward to a busy week in service and then also to our assignment from The Branch in Sydney next week. From our travels thus far we've really learned to lean on Jehovah and let him guide and direct us in all matters...and its only been 2 1/2 weeks!!

Side note: We've been trying tons of new foods since we've arrived in Oz! I especially(as many of you probably know) am a terribly picky eater, but lately i've been eating whatever is put in front of me! And im loving it! From simple things like onions(yes, i usually dont touch onions) and pesto to beetroot, curry and PRAWNS!! Its been soo amazing, and has opened my eyes to so many amazing foods I had been missing out on! Im eternally grateful! :)

Also, my camera broke(of course!) so picture uploads will be less frequent...

Thats all for now, cheers!

permalink written by  lisanikki on December 7, 2009 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Back in Coffs!

Coffs Harbour, Australia

Happy to be back in Coffs Harbour and awaiting the Special Assembly day tomorrow! The C.O and his wife were visiting the congregation this week so we were able to do service with them yesterday! They were a really nice couople, the wife especially was super funny and quirky! We spent the whole day out, sight-seeing, preaching and getting to know each other! It was wonderful!
One of the older Pioneer Sisters really connected with Nikki and I and shes been looking after us alot. She invited us to her House for lunch yesterday and the 3 of us just sat around talking and laughing! So many brothers and Sisters have been so sweet to us while we've been in Australia. Its so amazing to see Jehovahs people in another country, not only are they nice and welcoming but they genuinely want to look after you! Its been so great!
We'll be packing up our things tonight in preperation for travel to our assignment in Sydney! We're really looking forward to it!

permalink written by  lisanikki on December 11, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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Special Assembly Day

Coffs Harbour, Australia

We attended the Special Assembly Day in Coffs Harbour this past Saturday, it was super nice! The friends from Woolgoolga were all really excited to see us again so we enjoyed that. The program itsellf was super encouraging and a couple of the young ones we made friends with had parts, so that was awesome to see them up there. It was kind of funny becuse nikki and I were noticing that alot of the friends were looking at us during lunch and come to find out that it had been circulating around the assembly that there were 2 Amercian girls among them(like we're aliens or something!). One brother came up to us after having given one of the closing parts and said "I heard through the grapevine that there were 2 American sisters here and once I saw you I knew, I just knew it had to be you!" It was really funny! There was a brother visiting the Circuit from the Australia Branch, we were eager to meet him since we'll be there next month. We searched all during lunch but could never find him. Finally at the end of the progam we asked one of the Elders from the Woolgoolga Cong. if he had spotted him and he led us directly to them! Brother Terry and Margeret O'Brian were their names and they were super sweet! We told them we'd be visiting soon and Bro. O'Brian wrote our names down in his calender and said theyd have to invite us over for a cup of tea!! They also knew Bro Carlos and Joetta Hose from Grand Prairie South!
Before we left the assembly one of the Elders from the Woologoolga cong pulled us aside and said he really wanted to thank us for being such an encouragent to the hall. He said that we had really shown the young people in the hall that you can pioneer and travel the world and have the best time doing it! That really touched Nikki and I because it was out of the blue and really sincere!
We finished off the evening at a restaurant with a group of young people from the assembly. All the young ones are so nice and eager to hear stories about America.
It was a really great day:)

permalink written by  lisanikki on December 12, 2009 from Coffs Harbour, Australia
from the travel blog: Aussie trip 2009-2010
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