Easter Break

I am officially on break now - study week, as it is called here. Fall (Autumn) break. Easter break. Whatever you want to call it! It started on Good Friday and extends till next week! Whooohoo! Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays here in Australia, and I find that kind of odd. I mean, maybe it's because they don't have separation of church and state(?) - I don't know, but it's not as if everyone goes out and runs to church. It was definitely an experience to not forget, celebrating Easter here. Good Friday I took the train up to Nicole's place, as she had invited me to go to Mass with her auntie and the rest of the family. It is so wonderful to be included in their family, as afterward we went back to her auntie's home and had a huge meal of fish curry, fish patties, delicious salads, and everything! I spent the night and Saturday I "nannied" the kids a bit while Nicole ran errands. I entertained them at the arcade, we flew kites in the park after watching Mary Poppins and had a blast! They are precious and I love being so close to them. I took the train home that night to celebrate Easter back in Freo.

I went to Mass at 8:30am with some of the students from Cleo's dorm and that in itself was a beautiful, yet odd celebration. When it was time to receive communion, everyone just rushes up to the front. There is really no order or much of a line formation as there is back home. We all sat in the pew with a confused look on our face and then joined in the "line." I guess everyone is anxious to receive Jesus, but I can't deny that either. Father Tony ended with a joke and we all walked out laughing and thinking of the different ways we celebrate Easter. Although the church was full, it wasn't as packed as I thought it would be, and I had put on an Easter dress, but it was really of no need - regular clothes would have sufficed, but I like feeling special for the glorious day. Christ is risen from the dead, we are one with him again!!! ALLELUIA!!!

Lyndsay, my RS, had invited the 5 of us that stayed home for break over to her family's house for Easter lunch! It was lovely - roast beef, cheesecake, corn on the cob! Sooo good. We stayed there all afternoon and on the way back home we had a brilliant idea of stopping at Blockbuster to rent one movie each for a marathon! Perfect! We all got home, changed into our "jim-jams" and enjoyed movie after movie after movie. We popped some popcorn, Pricey (our other RS) ordered us all Indian food for dinner, and we all sat down an ate like a (little) big family, as the rest of the students are gone. It's really nice having a smaller group around, as we get to bond really well. Pricey always does this thing at dinner where if you are sitting at his table, you always share a high and a low of the week or day, but last week he added in share someway you have helped someone this week, which really makes you think about serving other people and even the little things you do. This week, though, since it was such a small intimate group we added another new thing to share. We all shared something that we need to forgive someone for, or are trying to forgive someone for. It was amazing the hurts that came out and we were all bawling our eyes out by the end. But it was so good to get to know what is going on in some of our hearts. We wrapped up with some ice cream Pricey went out and got, and ended the night with all of us asleep on the couches with Cool Runnings on. What a beautiful Easter. (Oh, and there were some rain showers early in the morning, so peaceful and it just made the town shine and clean. I loved it).

Today, I am off to the beach for a bit, as it is starting to cool down here, and then I must get to work on my Ethics paper, in case I take a trip down south at the end of the week...

Hope y'all have a blessed Eater! (with some jelly bellies and chocolate involved as well...Cadbury creme egg, yes please!)

Happy happy Eater,
Megs