A couple of days before, Brooke made a great find when she researched and found a bar named "Cheers" (ironically enough) that opens at 9am. Andrew made a call to them and they said that they would be showing the Auburn game at 11:30 - SCORE! So later that morning, a good number of the group loaded up and headed out to go cheer on the Tigers halfway around the globe. Warrrrrrr Eagle, Hey!!!!!
The game went well, as expected, and every time Auburn did something great (which thankfully was a good number of times) a huge cheer erupted from our corner which pretty much made everyone on the second floor of the bar stare at us, the "Crazy American" stereotype confirmed. I brought an all orange shaker, a national championship white hat, a national championship banner, and had a recording of the fight song, "War Eagle," on my cell phone to play after each score.
The group met several interesting people (As you might expect in a bar at high noon) throughout the course of the game. The person I met in particular was a guy (he never said his name and I don't think anyone managed to retrieve it) originally from Miami, but had been in Sydney for quite some time working for IBM. He said he lost count of his length of stay after 10 years. He was a nice, sober guy who was quick to point out in a joking nature that his team, University of Miami, was watching bowl games just like us - on tv. He still followed every American sport even though he has lived in Sydney for so long. For instance, he knew right off that the SEC had 9 teams in a bowl game, something none of us had taken the time to count. He had not watched Auburn games all that closely this year and I particularly enjoyed him yelling at Trotter to "Throw the ball man, your gonna get killed running around back there!" after pretty much every snap in the third and fourth quarter. He liked to make analogies pertaining to the game, but from his choice of similarities, I could tell the guy was really intelligent. (He worked for IBM, after all.) For instance, instead of using slang football terms for brutal tackles, he would say something like, "He took him down Greco-Roman style!" What a blast. Here are a few pictures of the group and pictures from the game at Cheers:
After the game game, everyone left Cheers. Most people went towards Bondi Beach to catch some sun and waves, but I wanted to catch one of the energetic evening services at Hillsong Church located here in Sydney. For the evening service, they have a 5pm and 7pm service. I had scoped out transportation several days prior and saw where 45 minutes before the service a bus leaves Central Station and takes people in the downtown part of the city out to the church, which is about a 40 minute ride away according to the Hillsong website.
The way my afternoon was shaping up, it was already getting close to 4:00pm, so I decided I would go to the 7pm service. I made it easily to Central Station by walking, arriving just after 5:45. I walked around and found the intersection the website said the bus loads from (25m from Devonshire and Chalmers intersection). To my dismay, only city system buses and taxis came and went on the road. I called Emily who was the only person not at the beach and still at the dorms and she looked up online alternate ways to get to Hillsong from my current location. The distance was so great that a taxi seemed way too expensive to take the entire way, especially since we have a train pass that is prepaid for our entire time in Sydney. After a few moments we determined that a bus to Quakers Hill train station would get me within 6 km or so of the church. From there I would attempt to take a taxi. The train ride took about an hour after all of the stops, but I eventually made it to Quakers Hill station.
Looking out over the station from the bus, I didn't like what I saw. Walking down the steps from the platform onto the streets, I was pretty disheartened. Quakers Hill train station is located on the edge of a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood in residential Sydney. There was a sign that showed where one city bus picks up and drops off, though the area on the sign where times should show was a big, white, empty, rectangular space. The sun was beginning to go down and as I looked around for another form of transportation I realized it was Sunday evening on the first day of a New Year and that I was probably not going to find a bus ride. It was obvious that taxis did not run this route normally. Here is a look at the scene:
Time had really passed by since I first arrived at Central Station - it was already 8:05pm. I think Hillsong services generally last around an hour and a half (their website said they tend to linger in worship on Sunday nights), but judging from my current location and approximate distance of 6 km I would not be able to get there in time for anything if I did manage to find transportation. I walked back up to the platform still wanting to at least see Hillsong from the outside (I mean, I had come this far!), but the train times showed a train that would depart in 3 minutes heading back towards Central Station. The next train would not arrive for another 1 hour, 27 minutes. This pretty much determined that I would not be getting to see Hillsong this day, unfortunately.
It seemed like a much longer ride back to Central Station. I fell asleep for a good bit of the time, but woke up about 10 minutes before arriving at Central. I got off the train and made the trek back to
Wesley College, still hopeful that before I leave Australia I will be able to visit Hillsong!
It was about 9:30 when I walked back in the dorm room and started doing some more blogging and posting of pictures to facebook so friends and family can follow the trip. I went to bed around midnight looking forward to a short night of sleep, as the group was planning to leave at 6:30am to head out to hike the Blue Mountains. Exhausted but excited for tomorrow, I laid down in my bed and fell asleep.
Ah, boo! Is this the same Hillsong that I know??
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is!
ReplyDelete