She always faces tomorrow with a smile... 

proverbs 31 (MSG)

‎"I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. 

Have your mind blown. 

Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. 

Have an adventure. 

Be careful. 

Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. 

Music, 

culture,

 food, 

water. 

Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; 

I’m sorry. 

You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. 

And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go,

 ohhhhh. 

And the light bulb goes on."

— Henry Rollins

As I sit here pretending to do my homework and assignments, I got to thinking: I have been here for nearly 4 months. That is well over the "half time" mark of me being in Australia. Which means the majority of my time here has come and gone and soon I will be on a plane jetting back to beautiful British Columbia. It is a pretty sad thought and as I was talking to my friend Josh about only being around for a short while more, I had to stop him from speaking as I was being brought to tears. It has been such a lovely and discomforting (in a good way) stay here. I've learned so much about myself and I have really grown. Moreover, I've really grown in my relationship with God as well which I didn't think would be what I was taking home with me and getting out of this experience. What really pushed my faith over the edge was the PlanetShakers conference. I remember walking back to the car with my friend Justine and her mentioning that she felt I wasn't meant to come to Australia for school and an awesome experience, I was meant to come to grow in my relationship with God. At that moment I really felt like that's what my calling here was. I took a moment to register in my faith and it really is true. I've grown so much and God has stopped being the thing that is there for when I need him, but the Lord and King who is there all the time. My heart is more focused on Him and my mind is not only thinking of Him at night when I pray but during little moments in the day of happiness, suffering, trial, frustration, content, admiration and love. God is such a powerful attendy in my life now. This adventure has really re confirmed my faith and I wouldn't change a single minute of it. I came on to blog something funny, but it took a whirlwind of a change when I mentioned how great our God actually is and now I can't stop writing about our amazing creator. I feel my heart being called to do something greater in this world. I've always known I can't do a job where I am not helping people. It is in my soul. I need to make a difference and I need to help those in need. I've been trying to find a perfect placement for myself but could never settle and never really felt God's peace about it. Then it hit me: Youth Ministry. It was first a very scary thought and a very uncomfortable one. But God doesn't keep us in our comfort zones. He challenges our faith. He doesn't want us living safe lives where we hide and huddle in our rooms. He wants us to go out and experience. And we can't get experience if we don't take risks. He gives us nothing we can't handle. So for me to enter Youth Ministry is a very scary and big risk. I've never been good at swaying people. I've never been good at public speaking. I've always been the one to sit in the back and shrug off differences and always be like "you have your opinions I have mine". I've never been one to share the amazing-ness of our Lord with non-believers. In fact, it made me unbelievably uncomfortable getting into conversations and debates. But God said "NO! This is your place". Overwhelmed is the only word I can use to describe this. I now have this unending feeling of wanting to spread the word and news to those young teenagers who were just like me trying to figure themselves out. I want to work mostly with girls who are in that stage of unknowing because I was in that exact place not so long ago. I can tell you now if I had someone like who I am wanting to be helping me out every step of the way, my life would have come to Christ so much quicker. My life would have been ever so exploding with the love of God that I wouldn't have been able to be stopped. I wouldn't have been afraid to share my discoveries with my parents. I wouldn't have been afraid to witness to those who were seeking. I wouldn't have been uncertain of what it actually is that God has done to my life and those around me. This is what I want and this is what my heart is being called to do. Minister. Preach. Witness. All for the glory of God. Not to mention I will be able to do this with my sidekick in Christ, Amy Pickard, who is also being called to this. This post here goes to show how overwhelming this feeling and calling is because I never intended to come on and write about this. In fact, I intended to not tell people until I was sure. But God has other plans. Don't worry though, the previous "funny" post I mentioned I would do will come along shortly. I apparently just needed to share with you my new and awesome discovery. God is amazing. Amazing-as.

How can we look at this world see this kind of beauty and still only think it's man made.

In an ideal world no one would talk before 10am. People would just hug, because waking up is really hard.

--- Zooey Deschanel

Easter Break

About a month has passed since I posted last and for that, I apologize. Things haven't been all too interesting. Well they have because I have been in Australia, but I figured you wouldn't all want to read "I made a new friend!" or "class today was really fun" or "hey I was walking to class and I tripped" kind of blog posts so I just figured I wouldn't update you (unless of course you do want to read about the little happenings in my daily majestic life, in which case you should tell me so I can change my blog name to "Cassia's daily happenings" and update you daily on what happened). Any ways with that being said, I did have the MOST exciting Easter (Spring) Break ever! Here's what happened...

Nikki and I embarked on our journey on a Wednesday (two days before break actually started, I'm a bad student, I know), leaving behind rainy old Melbourne and entering the beautiful, sunny Queensland. We stayed two nights in Brisbane with Nikki's wonderful aunt and uncle. While there we took a day trip to Burleigh Beach, which was gorgeous and sunny (credit to Berkley Vopinfjord). It was so nice to lay on the beach again and fully distance myself from the world whilst reading The Hunger Games-- yes I got sucked in. In the evening we went to the footy game Carlton vs Brisbane. You think hockey is rough? You should watch AFL (Australian Rules Football) I am pretty sure the only thing they have protecting themselves are cups for... you know. Other than that they just fling their bodies everywhere tackling and jumping, yes jumping, on one another. It's quite entertaining.

We then took to Yamba with Nikki's brother and soon-to-be sister in law. Yamba is this little surf town in NSW and it is so so quaint. I loved it! I got to go surfing again (which I am now pro at I may add) and I got to go fishing for the first time (again, pro. I caught like 10 fish. I should have my own show). It was such a nice little vacay filled with BBQ's and fun laughs. We hit this little watering pool filled with fresh water for a little dip. It was so nice.

Our last day away we headed up to Byron Bay which was such a fun little town! It was One Day Without Shoes and I fit right in cause everyone in Byron doesn't wear shoes.

I want to go back there and spend a week there but that will have to wait till Australia Trip # 2! On the way to the Airport we hit up a little beach, Cabarita Beach in Bogangar.

It was SO nice! One of the nicest beaches I've been to and it was DESERTED! There was no one there. So i got the chance to frolick my bambi legs out there for some added fun.

When I got back to Melbourne, my friend Justine gave me a spare ticket to the PlanetShakers conference. OH. MY. GOODNESS! Most amazing God filled conference EVER!

They had Reggie Dabbs, Chris Hill, Reinhard Bonke and Rich Wilkerson Jr. come speak and they had Israel Houghton come worship. My life was changed. Most amazing experience every. The presence of God was so strong. All in all I feel like I left there with a better relationship with our incredible creator. God is SO good!!

Over the break I managed to confine myself long enough to finish all 3 Hunger Games books so the week was finished off with a trip to the movie which yes, was amazing. Man, Australia is treating me well. Back to the real world (sort of). Only 6 more weeks of school left! Can you believe it? Time has flown by SO fast. I can't believe how soon I will be re-joining you island folk. Such a bitter sweet feeling. I am going to soak up the little time remaining here and keep it amazing as!

Big Rocks, Bon Iver and Birthdays

These past couple of weeks have been full of fun and entertainment. Now that school has started, it's been hard to find the time to just lounge around or go on adventures. But that being said we still have weekends which makes for a full, fun packed 3 days.

After week one of school, I was able to accompany my good friend Pat on a hike up Hanging Rock. There is a movie about this place that has to do with children getting lost or something like that. I made sure Pat knew exactly where he was going cause, let's be honest, my luck on mountains, not the greatest. It was about an hour drive out of Melbourne to this very beautiful location. The hike took about an hour or

so to get to the top. It was so nice to go on a bit of a hike because I do miss that trek up my local, lovable, Mt Tzouhalem. At the top there were some spectacular views of fields and trees. Man it was fantastic. After our hike we decided to soak in the beautiful scenery for a little bit. We managed to make our way down (only getting slightly lost) and had some ice cream at the bottom. It was quite nice.

Another really awesome event that I was able to attend at the end of the first week was a Bon Iver concert. I had been waiting for this moment my entire life. I couldn't believe I got to go to a Bon Iver concert. It all started when a friend of mine posted that she got tickets for the next evening's show. I immediately searched it online and saw there were still tickets available. I quickly bought my ticket as did another friend of mine and soaked in that the next night I would get to see Justin Vernon and his beautifulness live in concert. And pee your pants. I was so excited! I can't even explain the feeling. The next day, Caity and I took the trek out to the Sydney Myer Music Bowl which is this awesome outdoor venue. We went early because we only had general

seating and we wanted to get a good seat. We also managed to sneak into a very exclusive-- not really-- 85 person general seating. It was a little patch of grass right above the actual seats and right below the general seating field. Yeah, we lucked out. To say the concert was unbelievably, amazingly, spectacularly fantastic would be a massive understatement. Bon Iver has a way with music. Justin Vernon has a way with the crowd. All in all, it was the most amazing concert I've been to in my entire life. The show wrapped up with a fake encore (the music bowl has a curfew which we and the band were unaware of) so Bon Iver pretended to go offstage and come back on which was rather hilarious. He finished off with Skinny Love and Wolves. Night. Was. Made. So unreal.

This past weekend was filled with some birthdays. My roommate Colleen's and my Canadian friend Kailey's. For Colleen's birthday we went downtown to a club called Eve and had a great time. Colleen works at this club so we got special discounted entry. When we got there we noticed there was a runway in the middle of the dancefloor and were told that there would be a male model show. BONUS! That was pretty fantastic and the models were pretty... well... pretty. I spent a bit the night chatting to my friend Sean who did a semester exchange to Canada. We chatted about skiing, snowboarding and hockey for the majority of our chat. I was almost put to tears with how much I miss Canadian culture. Boy, if Australia had snow and hockey I would never leave.

Kailey's birthday was lucky enough to fall on St Patrick's Day so we hit the town for a little Irish birthday celebration. We spent the night at this little Irish pub called the Young and Jackson. It was so fun and definitely my kind of scene. I love little pubs with live bands. Yeah, there was a live band and yeah, we did get to jump on stage with them. The night was filled with dancing and celebrating miss Kailey's 21 years of living. So much fun.

The first few weeks of school have been super fun and amazing. The only downfall is I've been pretty sick pants. I had tonsillitis for the past week and now am suffering from a pretty bad cold forcing me to miss a bit of school (not the worst thing). But I do hope I feel better soon so then I can live out more fun and keep it amazing-as.

O'Week

So it begins. I have started school and my Australia travels are put on hold to do gross school work. I guess I knew this when I signed up for a SCHOOL exchange/ study abroad program. But with all the winging aside, school here is actually pretty nice. I have a sweet campus- Deakin Burwood campus in Melbourne for those who didn't know- and school is so chill here. Almost half the course work of back home. This is my kind of studying. The classes are broken up into tutorials- the Australians call these tuts and every time I say it I can't help but think of people farting, real mature, I know- and lectures. Tuts--ha-- are obligatory but lectures are not. So in reality you only have to go to half of your classes. It is super chill and I love it.

Deakin is one of the most accommodating schools I know. For all first years and exchange students, they opened campus a week early to do some orientation, what they call O'Week. It is a chance for all new students to sign up for clubs and get to know fellow students. They have music, events, vendors, free stuff, bbqs etc. What more could a gal ask for? Among these events were events like a beach party, superhero party, nerd party and abc party. I got to hit up both the beach party and the superhero party.

The beach party was fantastic! We started out the night at a house around the corner. I dressed in my favourite skirt with an equally beachy top and got to express my creativity in form of body paint on my arms. It gave me a good excuse to show off the old pipes for a change. This inspired a long photoshoot on the tram of us pretending to wake up in the ocean, pretend we found out our fathers were black and even pretend David Beckham was a ginger (my personal favourite). It was wonderful. We hit the club for some dancing and drinks and familiar faces. Unfortunately, the back devils decided to attack my back at the end of the night. On the way home I collapsed in the street and had to lie there for a few minutes. My "California version of Sam Trainor" friend Kyle decided to do some meditation stuff to make me feel better. It was a bit weird and out there, but that's alright. It was a good ending to a fantastically fun night.

The superhero party was... how to put this... not as fun as the beach party. I started the night with my friends Brendon, Natasha and Nam at Brendon and Nam's house. We had some dinner then hit the guitar for some jamming. It was so chill and fun we should have just stayed there the whole night. It made me miss my guitar though, forever in my heart Charlize <3. But since we bought the tickets I figured we should probably go. So we did. It was crowded and I was so not in the mood to be in a crowded place. I was dragged upstairs by Rebecca only to meet a guy who was talking to me about killing all Canadian animals before they killed us. Yeah, cool buddy.

Then school started. A bit overwhelming to start but that was expected. The units (in Australia, courses are called units) I am taking are economics, marketing, management and dance. Yes, dance. It is not the type of dance you are thinking of though. The course is called "Body Awareness and Improvisation". Yeah. The instructor basically turns on music and you have to move whatever way your body, mind and soul take you. It is actually quite fun and relaxing. A great little elective to take while I am here. All for fun of course.

Now that school has started, it is time to cut the fun and get down to business. HA! Yeah right. School is so chilled down here I have no doubt that I will still be having the time of my life. Time to buckle down and keep it amazing as.