Earth Shaking Experience

Early Monday morning and I mean early, (my flight was at 7:00 am) I was on my way to Melbourne.  This time, I was all on my own.  Hmmm whose idea was that?  It actually turned out quite well.  From Monday to Thursday I lived at the Dominican Priory with some of the Fathers and Brothers.  I really didn't know what to expect from the trip and my original contact, Fr. Dom Murphy left Monday afternoon for a Retreat in Brisbane.

Before he left though, he showed me around the ACU campus a bit and said midday mass.  Father then drove me up to the priory in Camberwell and when there, Father Martin gave me a tour and I participated in evening prayer and mass, again.  That night I was sitting in my room wondering what the Lord had in store for me with this part of the trip and I soon realized that I was being given a retreat and time to step back from the first half of my time here. 

I really took that to heart as I spent the week visiting Melbourne, which compared to Sydney seemed to focus a lot more on art and culture and was really obsessed with Australian Football.  I also visited the Dominican founded primary school and went with Father Laurie over to Mannix College which is a Catholic residence hall for Monash University.  Throughout the days I was able to refocus on my prayer life through daily mass, evening prayer, and a new found motivation.  Like the whole fellowship, visiting Melbourne was such a blessing.



There are three things i will remember most from this trip.  First is Fr. Dom's passion for making a difference on campus and his spot on and hilarious Italian accent.  Second, I will always be grateful to Father Martin for taking me under his wing while I was visiting and sharing his stories and his knowledge of the city.  Finally, how could I ever forget the 5.3 magnitude earthquake that shook my bedroom for 30 seconds on Wednesday night.  Yeah I know, I cause devastation everywhere I go. 

Rest of Cairns excursion

Saturday saw us up early once again but this time we walked down to the harbor to get on a boat for Green Island and some Great Barrier Reef snorkeling.  Once we made it to the Island we tried to do some snorkeling but found that the spot we had chosen was too shallow and we were scraping the bottom.  However, we had much more luck when we moved to the other side of the island.  We saw a number of awesome underwater creatures.  The things I can name include: giant clams, starfish, of course lots of coral, clown fish, sea slugs, swordfish, sea anemones, this big eel type thing, lots of schools of silverfish, really bright fish, but also fish that were pretty camouflaged.  It was like all the pictures I had seen but so much cooler in person.  My favorite part was following some to the fish around.

After a break for lunch back on the boat, Em and I took about an hour to just lie on the beach.  After all it is our summer, right?  Em took a turn around the Island while I did another hour of snorkeling which I realized soon after solidified the frying my back took that day.  Soon after, we jumped back on the boat and took the hour trip back to the Mainland.

Before heading back for our free backpacker's meal, Em and I took a leisurely walk along the coast.  It seemed like the place to be as there were numerous people running and biking, or just laying in the grass.  After dinner, we had a few drinks while watching the 2nd Australia Vs Wales Rugby union match and just catching up with each other in general.  We had a rather easy and early night because by then our sunburns were really starting to heat up.

To round out the weekend, we woke up and checked out of Gilligan's and went on a 3 hour and 20 km mission to find a church in which to go to mass.  Unfortunately, our quest ended in vain and we spent the afternoon laying in the grass by the coast and reading.  I ended up finishing my fourth book of the entire trip. 

A good trip it was and a nice break from the cold weather in Sydney.