words...

BLUE STEEL! (or magnum... you decide)
back row: Dan, Dave, Gu, Darn, Felix, Meray, Kate Martin, Gary, Warren, Lindsay.
front row: Elsie, Kathy, Doris, Me, Anna, Meredith.

Words cannot express the funness that was Arts Colleges Getaway 07... well actually... that's a half-lie... I could express the funness in words... but you may not feel from reading these words that it was fun:

On friday arvo... I dropped off my stuff at Felix's place. Then I had trumpet. Then I met Elsie at her house, and I helped her carry more things to Felix's room. It was a lot smaller than I had expected it to be... and also a little messier... but that was probably because he had everyone's luggage on his floor.

Then me and Elsie went to Central Station to meet up with some other people: Doris, Kathy, Meredith, Dan (Darn), Lindsay and Warren. We bought Hungry Jacks for dinner and got on a very crowded train to Campbelltown. At first me, Doris and Elsie were sitting down the bottom of the carriage while the other stood in the middle... Elsie was worried that the other weren't talking to Cathy (the new girl). But they were. :)

Once we got closer to Campbelltown, me, Doris and Elsie moved to the middle of the carriage with the others where we all got a seat. Since we were all together we decided to play a game of mafia... and it begun! In the first round, I had my head down, waiting to be woken up... when I felt someones finger poke me in the head! I was shocked! To my disgust, I was killed off in the first round. Before I officially died though... I told everyone that someone poked me to kill me... meaing that Warren, Lindsay or Elsie were mafia. Evil evil Warren was the one who killed me... lol.

Warren looking very shifty... (with George, the neckless giraffe)

From that round on... I was always the first person to be killed off. *sigh*
When we got to Campbelltown... we swapped trains to get to Tahmoor. And our mafia game continued. Luckily, we all got seats next to each other. After a few rounds of me getting killed off first every time (unless I was mafia), I decided to be narrator... and then it begun. Doris got killed off first this time... so it was always either me or Doris getting killed off first. It was funny because whenever we wanted to kill people, we would be like "LETS KILL KATHY" or "LETS KILL LINDSAY" etc. And the train carriage was pretty full... there was this one lady very close by giving us very weird looks... haha. On another note, the scenery was very beautiful around Tahmoor... sweeping hills with a very nice purple/pink sunset. awww.

When we got to Tahmoor... we had to wait for people to pick us up in cars to take us to the campsite. To kill time, we played a few old classic games like big tractor and alien.

Playing Alien when we finally got to the house
clockwise from left: Lindsay, Felix, Darn, Dan and the back of my head.

Then, Warren and Kathy decided to play this game on us... one of those games where you have to work out what the rule is. It took me over an hour to work it out. The problem with those games is that you try and overcomplicate the rule when the rule is quite easy. Poor Meredith was too tired to work it out. But oh the liberation when you finally worked out the rule.

Over an hour later, Dan (Dan) picked us up. As we left, we heard a train honk... we knew it was honking at Doris... cuz she had been dangling her feet over the platform. The place we were staying at was really nice. It was like a house. We all stayed in the same house which made it nice and cosy. In my room was Kathy, Doris and Elsie. After hot chocolate and games (a couple of long rounds of mafia... thanks Warren for saving me this time), we slept.

On Saturday, I reluctantly got out of bed after a quite uncomfortable sleep. After breakfast we had our first session from Ron Serje. YAY for Ron! He was our MTS person last year (with Elsie). The topic of the weekend was Resurrection (1 Cor 15). It was full on stuff... but basically... the resurrection is important because:
-since Christ was raised, we can be raised.
-if Christ wasn't raised, our way of life (faith) is absurd.

Then, we had morning tea... then we had seminars. The college boys went off and did a seminar on "being Christians in colleges" while the arts people did a seminar on "being Christians in arts" and also talked a bit about good purposes for travelling overseas.

Then we had free time! It was raining, so I stayed indoors with most other people, although some people did go play tennis in the rain and some people went for a swim.

Tennis in the Rain
l-r: Lindsay, Anna, Darn, Dan

Indoors we played lots of card games. We played a lot of "Emperors and Scums." Then Doris straightened Nicole's hair. We tried to convince the boys to let us straighten their hair... but they refused.

Before dinner, we had a missionary spot about some missionaries in Russia. It was run a bit like a quiz competition which was fun. It was very informative too.

After dinner, we had the ACG SUPER CHALLENGE run by Lindsay. This was a giant trivia evening with sections such "super sudoku," "super taboo" and "the music game." There were also other general trivia questions. It was very well planned. I think my team came third... which was quite good seeing that we only knew about 5 of the 60 countries of Africa. LOL! My team's name was "Darn we're good" because Darn (ie: Dan Wilton... yes... he has a new nickname now) was in our group.

Look its Darn!

Look it's Elsie, Dan and me (now you will forever be able to tell the difference between Dan and Darn)

After trivia, we chilled in the lounge room a bit. We were all pretty tired but too excited to go to sleep... which was a good thing because we convinced Lindsay to let us straighten his hair! It was so funny... I'll let you look at the pictures.

Lindsay Before and After
with Doris looking very proud of her efforts

Once Lindsay got his hair straightened... all the other guys agreed to having their hair straightened. It was so funny and fun. We tried to flatten down Darn and Warren's 'Tin Tin" fringe... but it didn't work... their fringes stubbornly stay up. Once all the boys hair was straightened out... we went to sleep.

Prim and Proper People have Straight Hair
l-r: Dave, Darn, Lindsay, Martin, Anna, Meredith and Gu

To our disappointment, all the guys' hair was back to normal in the morning. We had leaderless bible study groups in the morning about "the bodily resurrection" (Luke 24) and then Ron gave his second talk on the Resurrection. I learned:
-The kingdom of God wont accept our lowly bodies, we need an imperishable body.
-because we are in Christ (who was raised), our bodies will be radically transformed when he returns, this is the conquest of death.

Then we had lunch and went home. Meray drove me, Kathy, Meredith and Doris. Me and Kathy got dropped off at strathfield where we caught a train home together. The train ride was... interesting... gotta love public transport (not).

And that was it.

From Car-O-Line

Waiting for Dan to pick us from Tahmoor Station
l-r: Warren, Me, Kathy, Elsie and Darn