ANZAC weekend

Well it has been quite a busy week related to school work, so I'm trying to catch up on my blogging. Again. Last weekend (April 24th-25th) was ANZAC weekend in Australia (I'll explain what it stands for in a moment.) The first thing I did that weekend was go on a Christian Union girls retreat Friday night and Saturday. It was so much fun! We went down to Mornington Peninsula and stayed in a holiday house, which was really pretty. I rode down to Mornington with Amy, who I had previously met at the Christian Union fish and chips dinner, and we became friends after that, so it was fun to drive down there with someone I knew. We also had some fun conversations in the car :-). I was able to meet many girls from Deakin and Monash University, which is another University in Melbourne. The message for the weekend was about true beauty, which I thought was a really good message since so many girls struggle with their body image. Friday night we spent some time doing face masks and then playing sing star (karaoke) on the playstation. It was in the morning that the talks started to begin. In the morning we talked about the media/culture's view on beauty. Then we later talked about what the bible says about beauty, and how to incorporate that into our lives. Then in the afternoon we had some free time, and Amy, Alex, Bri, and I went into the town and got some coffee and shared a vanilla slice (yum!). Then we walked over to the beach area, where I took some pictures. It was pretty, but not really warm that day. That evening we had dinner before heading back to Deakin. It was definitely a fun retreat.

The next day I decided to go to the ANZAC ceremonies with Sarah. ANZAC stand for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. ANZAC Day for Australians is pretty much like Memorial Day for Americans, but for Australians here it is a big deal, not just a reason to get together and BBQ. I got up at 4 a.m. so Sarah and I could make it to the 6 a.m. Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance. It was a very touching ceremony, even if we didn't get to see any of it because there were so many people there. There were thousands of people! But we were able to hear everything. They definitely honor their war veterans. After the service was over he headed into the city to go get breakfast. So many places were busy! Apparently that was what everyone else from the service was doing. We ended up at McDonalds because the food there was cheap and we were actually able to find a seat. After breakfast we stuck around for the parade, which started around 9 a.m. It was a pretty big parade. They had sections feeding in from three different streets. It was an interesting parade to watch. They had lots of old cars and veterans and bands marching. Even though it was a very early morning, I'm glad I went. It was an interesting experience and a very fun weekend.