The dominician republic… Yep I know you have probably never heard of this island, but I am positive you have heard of the Caribbean right? A chain of islands of the coast of Florida where rich Americans go for their holidays (kind of like the Greek Islands for the USA). The DR is one of these islands (as is Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico etc…) Well, why am I here you are wondering? I had a good friend Joanna from when I lived in the USA 4 yrs ago who married a dominician guy and moved down here to work as missionaries, [View Full Entry]

---

---

this time its for real! after a disappointing snowboarding experience in canada i was thrown in the deep end this weekend with 2 foot of snow falling overnight! bill and hannah have friends who own (not one!) two luxury houses in this ski resort town up in the wealthy part of new york state (windham). they let us use their house for the weekend.... [View Full Entry]

---

---

actually the title is a little misleading because the little ski resort town of Fernie is currently having the WORST winter in 30yrs!!! the story is that i abandoned my plans for spending this week up in new haven, connecticut looking for work and called a mate of mine from sydney, hannah, who had been living in london but just moved to Fernie on the 16th for the snowboarding season. she had had one day boarding in and got me all excited about some real snowboarding.... so, i got myself a ticket and headed over for two days (i had to [View Full Entry]

---

---

after those few days in princeton i felt rejuvenated enough to head up to new haven, connectitut where i'm hanging out in cafes sending out job email and applications for work and seeing what turns up. and i really do need to get back into exercise and i love running. everyone here is saying how mild the winters are and i simply have to agree - just too hot to run with a shirt on... [View Full Entry]

---

---

well i then had a seriously shocking experience with getting kicked out of a house at the end of a 9" knife - everything was ok though, the man just had some mental instabilities and i just happened to be in the way when he took it out. however the Lord did graciously protect me and kept me so that i came out of it completely unscathed. my rather fiery group email about this incident drew a lot of support and prayers from friends back in australia - thank you so much. the one rather funny response i got was from [View Full Entry]

---

---

i ended up trekking out to a deserted little christian campsite in rural pennysylvania - right in the heart of amish country although there were no sightings, but i did manage to climb razorback mountain without following the trail with a girl from the camp, penelope. [View Full Entry]

---

---

hanging out with some of the local talent. introducing Joel (the guy on the left) whom I have known for years and some of his mates. [View Full Entry]

---

---

freezing cold new jersey! i stayed with some awesomely wonderful friends, the ceryniks who have THE typical american house - the flag out the front... and, yep have a look at this bedroom - a great big lady liberty carpet mural on the wall and even the declaration of independence as well! i'll leave it to your imagination as to what colour the curtains were... and what sort of material colours were chosen for the chest of drawers... thinking red? hmmm? thinking white and blue? hmmm... boxing day was spent with (left to right) me, hannah, linda, bill and doug and [View Full Entry]

---

---

took half a day off work (well it WAS basically the end of the year anyway) and went for a fantastic surf with my mate shelly down at garie beach to say goodbye to the gorgeous city of sydney and the awesome summer days to head on over to... [View Full Entry]

---

---