Chinatown and Mars Hill

This morning we had our first Chinese test – 15 characters. I am pleased to report it went well! I felt pretty confident with my studying time and am actually enjoying my study of Chinese thus far. It is definitely a challenging and overwhelming task, but also somewhat exciting to me.

For the afternoon, we went back into downtown Sydney and decided to visit Chinatown (one of Jana’s suggestions for us). It took quite a while to walk there from the Sydney Opera House, but I didn’t notice on the way there because I was just enjoying soaking in the sites of the city and being with our group. Once we arrived to Chinatown, our group dispersed to do some shopping. By the time Katie and I decided to leave the market, everyone was doing their own thing. So, we found a map and figured out how to get back to the Opera House. I am pleased to announce that we navigated the city successfully. I was nervous about getting back safely, but we made it just fine. I wish we would have been able to spend more time… but I think we'll be going back later this week.

Tonight we went to a coffee shop called Mars Hill Cafe. Some of the people here at Southern Cross College work there and are really enjoying connecting with people in the community. It was really interesting to talk to them about coffee shop stuff. We had quite an adventure, though... it took us an hour to get to there when it should have only taken about 15-20 minutes. Apparently, Australians don't like to label their roads very often. it make for quite the experience. We had a fun time, though. I'm glad we went. It was a great experience... and the coffee was amazing ,which is always a plus.

In the morning, we will be going to Hillsong, which I'm really looking forward to. After that, we'll go to Canberra (the capital of Sydney) to spend the night and learn more about Australian history. We'll also do spend a couple of the days on the beach... and probably spend all day Thursday in Sydney. I'm hoping to go to the botanical gardens. It should be a full week... but a sweet week. I'm so loving Australia and I’ve really been blessed to see how our group is getting along. I feel like a lot of walls have fallen down and we are becoming more unified.

I just love life...
Missing you all...
~Holly

P.S. I promise I will post pictures... but probably not until I get to China. I should have unlimited internet access there, which will definitely help. :)