Sydney experience part 4

Where are we at in this experience?!?!

Thursday July 17

Today we made it to catechesis! One of the archbishops of Australia gave a moving catechesis on the theme of WYD...the Holy Spirit. We were given an opportunity to go to confession afterwards. I wasn't going to, but somehow it happened. Moved by the spirit, I guess! The priest told me a great story that I'll recount at another time. After confession, we had mass and then lunch. Some of the parishioners made pasta for lunch. It was delicious and a far cry from what we'd been eating thus far. We became enamored with these little cans of tuna that they had towards the end of the table. Someone got a hold of a bunch of cans and that went along for the journey to Domain.

We took the bus and WALKED to get to Domain. That was the site assigned to us for the Pope's arrival. Little did we know that we were waiting for him to pass by on his motorcade. We found out soon enough when we arrived that we were nowhere near the harbour where he was sailing in. So, more waiting and waiting. We walked around in groups trading pins and making new friends. We had snacks and those cans of tuna. Amazingly, it tasted good. Tuna mixed with corn. No mayo or any other condiments. The motorcade finally came by and a surprising speed! Looked like they were going 50mph! Some of our kids were closer to the fence on the other side so they got good shots on camera. Afterwards, we got dinner. More meat curry. Gag! But, I ate it...amazing what hunger will make you do. Then we WALKED AND WALKED AND WALKED to the Market City area to catch the Matt Maher life teen concert. Some folks decided to skip the concert and went back to the lodge. Some of us started to fall asleep in the "nosebleed" section of the Entertainment Centre so we left. A few night owls (really, it wasn't even 10pm) stayed back. ON the bus we went back to the lodge.

Friday--July 18
We went to catechesis and found out that it was our very own archbishop giving the talk. Of course, he sang. When does he not sing?!?! Again we had mass. Lunch was.......... those little tuna cans! Then we rode the bus and WALKED towards Barangaroo to participate in the Stations of the Cross. When we finally got to our site... yuck-o! It was by the bathrooms and trash bins! Grrrr!!!! It was so dusty. We didn't have a screen nearby so we didn't know what was going on. When the first station ended, we left. That was disappointing! Somehow we ended up taking the LONG way back to catch our faithful 470 bus to Annandale!

A few of us adults got off at the Broadway mall to go grocery shopping. The kids and the rest of the adults went back to the lodge. We gave specific instructions to make sure everyone was packed for the overnight vigil! Dinner was white rice cooked on the stove (by me), ready made roasted chicken, salad, corn, and this awesome ground beef dip for chips! The best meal we had all week! We called an early night since we had to be up and out before 8am!