2 DAYS TO GO!!! (but the Pope is already here!)

G'DAY MATE!!!
(WARNING! THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO WRITE A HORRIBLE AUZZIE ACCENT. R's will most likely be replaced with a silent H.)

ELOW! Hieuh is ma furst post and i'm wrey'in frum down unda. We been havin quite a bit o' fun frum the mowment we got hieuh. Afta the long playne riode, baggage claim and customs di'int take too long, especially since we came in a few days uhly.

We di'int wait ta begin our advencha. We grabbed an early brecky and ate some kebabs on Bondi beach. It was cowld! We wuh sowkin up sum auzzie sun, and enjoyin all the li'ole auzzie cahs n li'ole auzzie feyuh trucks, the li'ole doors, n li'ole houses... (the toilets don't flush the opposites way anymore, b/c they changed it so it flushes straight down. saves wohta)

Julie took us to a park so we could take great picture of Sydney Harbor, the opera house and the Sydney harbor bridge.

Ain't that a beaut?!

It was still too uhly in thuh mornin to do much but we just drove arownd a bit and looked at oll the sites.

But saw the best view of the harbor frum the Sydney Tower. We did the the tour and got to walk on a glass floor 60 giraffes high, 260 meters. it looked lioke we wuh walkin on the air. We wuh terrified at furst but afta lookin down long enough we got used to it.
We olso did the Oz-trek which was an informative li'ole hologram show and virtual ride of the land down unda. We toured Sydney, the outback, the swamps, and the auzzie waters.

By the time that woz ova, we wuh buggahd. It was only 3pm local time, but to our bodies it was 10pm.

we prayed 2 days of our novena and prayed for the petitions, then went to bed uhly expecting to attend a High Mass in the mornin.

We woke up uhly in the mornin, naturally, and eddie cooked a filling brecky and we got ready for Mass at the St. Mary's Cathedral.
There was a mass goin on, but we were actually early for the Mass at half past 10. It was beautiful. We visited the tomb of Blessed Pier Gorgio Frasatti and we asked for his intercession as we prayed for the intentions of all the parishioners. We could feel the excitement from all the pilgrims who had just arrived. The crowd was huge already. I reckon this is nothing compared to what will be expected of the masses of people still filtering in.

As we were exiting the Church, there were moments when Eddie seemed to be swallowed by the crowd somewhere behind us. I assume that he was being polite and letting people pass in front of him, but I had to remind him, that may not be the best idea, especially when the crowd will only be multiplying these next few days. It's one of those things that you can't really fathom until you've experienced it. And suddenly all those feelings of my previous experience started coming back to me.

I don't want to expect anything, I'm sure this pilgrimage will be different from the last. But I know many of those same feelings will arise. I remember standing in awe of the size of the crowd and being surrounded by thousands of people with the love of Christ, a feeling so precious and rare, people breaking out into song all over, in so many different languages, but actually the same one. Being united with our brothers and sister from all over the world, who we mostly could not talk to but we understood nonetheless... it was truly heavenly.

I'M SO EXCITED!!! (running really fast in place, flailing my arms like crazy) AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT! (a bit out of character, but hey it's me)

ah reckon mah horrible accent is geh'in a bit annoyin, but ya betta get used ta it cuz we'll be tahkin loike this when we get back :)
Well lucky for you I got tired myself and I started writing correctly halfway through the blog. don't worry, I won't do that again.

Til laytah, Cheers!