Abstract:
Sorry this is so late; I went to crash NTE for the day; it was fun.
Sorry this is so late. I had a horrible headache when I got home last night. I was also really tired and really cold and I was just sick of writing a blog. Then I woke up this morning (or the next morning since I'll write this like it was today) and I still had a huge headache that resulted in me sleeping/laying in bed for basically the entire day.
This morning I woke up and got ready to go to EPIC. EPIC stands for Exhibition Park in Canberra and is where NTE, National Training Event, is held every year. NTE is a Christian conference for uni students all over Australia and it's the reason that I met Rohan. We were on a bus trip from Perth to NTE two year ago. Anyway, he is there again this year, so I went to visit him. We didn't have Crossroads in the City because of NTE, so we were supposed to go to NTE for the Sunday night talk because it was free. Rohan invited me to go over to NTE early because he had a big break after lunch.
So I got up and got ready. I had to stop by the ATM before heading over, so I made sure to leave my flat with enough time for that detour. I ended up getting to the bus stop really early, but that's better than being late and missing the bus! I got to EPIC. The bus stop was just across the street, which was awesome. I knew that Rohan was still busy, so I texted him to let him know that I was there and I went to go sit in the "singing corner." That's what Katie, my friend that I decided to go to bus trip/NTE with, and I named the corner that we always sat in during our breaks two years ago. We would like to just sit there, listen to our own music, and sing along with it. Except for the times when I was listening to the Hope College worship band music, I was almost always listening to the Glee version of Teenage Dream. It was my only Darren Criss song besides his A Very Potter Musical stuff because he had just joined the cast of Glee before I left on bus trip.
So I sat there for a bit until Rohan finished with his strand group. Then he came and found me and we went to lunch. Since I wasn't part of the conference, I just brought some fruit with me. We ended up sitting opposite from each other at one of the tables, they're round tables. It was kind of sad because I couldn't talk to him. I talked to the guy next to me for a little bit. He asked me how NTE was going for me and it was a little awkward to explain that I wasn't actually there. I mean I was there, but not really there. Jo also saw me during lunch. I talked to her for a little bit. She got to see Rohan, even though she didn't actually meet him since he was across the table. She still got to see him before Janice. Haha. When the guy sitting next to Rohan left, I went to sit by Rohan.
After lunch, we went to maccas, that's McDonalds for my non-Aussie readers, which is right outside the gates of EPIC. They have free wifi there, so Rohan, who brought his laptop with him, always goes there during break. We were there for a while before deciding to walk back to NTE. We went to the main hall where we sat with some people that he knew. They were playing cards and after a while Rohan and some other people started up a new game. I hate playing cards, so I just watched. I don't mind watching, but I absolutely hate playing cards.
Then Rohan had to go to more NTE stuff, so I just had time to chill by myself while he was there. I couldn't just leave because I was staying for the night talk. I walked with him to where he needed to go and then I walked back to the singing corner. I tried to read The Casual Vacancy. It had been a while since I read it, so I was getting confused again. Plus I was tired. It was also sprinkling a bit. I gave up reading after finishing the chapter and then I played Angry Birds for a while. Then it stopped raining and was kind of sunny, so I laid in the grass and tried to nap. That didn't work and it got cold and looked like it was going to rain again. I decided to go inside and find somewhere to sit. Again it was kind of awkward because everyone from the conference was busy in their strand group and so all of the places with chairs were taken up. I just kind of sat awkwardly along one of the walls in a hallway and played Angry Birds until dinnertime.
At 6ish, when dinner was supposed to start, Rohan texted me to tell me that they were supposed to eat in their strand groups. Well, that's awkward. He told me to just walk up to him and try to blend in. Well, that meant that I had to go find him. There are over 1500 people that go to NTE, so that was quite difficult. I ran into Steve, the staff worker for Murdoch Christians United which is the group that I went to NTE with two years ago. He asked me how I had been and said that it took him a while to realise that I was back in Australia, we're facebook friends. He also asked me when I had met Rohan. Apparently he didn't realise that we had actually met on bus trip. Such a great story! I think it'd make a good chick flick plot.
Anyway, I searched around for Rohan and then I texted him to find out where he was because the line was ridiculous and I couldn't find him. He was near the front of the line. Well that explains it! His strand group was fine with me joining them. He had to introduce me, though. So much for me blending in with the carpet! (That's what he initially told me to do to blend in. Such a joker!)
They were all really nice. At one point, one girl was talking about trying to get in somewhere and they calculated her age wrong so she was talking about how she was born in 1993, obviously she was over 18. Then Rohan made sure that I heard that and that I felt old. Yes, Rohan, I feel old! I'm going to get grey hair soon! Rohan also put gummy bears in his water bottle and they looked disgusting. Rohan is weird.
Speaking of weird, he was wearing his t-shirt with the equation on the front and it's graph on the back, which is a heart. (He gave me the same one) So every time someone asked what the equation was, he would say that it was a pointed cardioid. Yeah, everyone just looked at him with a blank look on their faces. It's probably the same face that you had while reading that. (Unless, of course, you're Rohan reading this, in which case... I love you, Rohan!) I had to explain what he was saying every time. Actually, pretty much any time he says something everyone else just looks at him blankly. It's actually really funny to just look at everyone else's faces when he says something. I was thoroughly entertained by that.
Also, one of the guys from his strand group, who was also from WA, is studying abroad in Canada next year. I honestly could not help but laugh. Then we made some Canadian jokes and they asked what the "Tassie of the US" is if Canada is our New Zealand. I said that it was probably Tennessee (sorry, Caitlin!) and that whole Appalachian area. Rohan said that we probably wished that we could put a body of water there to separate it, but I said that we just use mountains instead.
I don't remember anything else happening between dinner and the main session talk, so I'm guessing that nothing did. I know that I did run into some more people that I knew from CIF, including Owen. That was good because I had to talk to him about who he talked to for giving me a ride home.
Then we went to the main session. Since Rohan decided to go to the bathroom like five minutes before, we were close to the back. He said that it was probably the closest to the front he has been the whole time, and I reminded him that we were always near the front when I was here with him. He's always late to stuff. I'm always early to stuff. I guess opposites attract! Our seats were actually perfect, though, because we were sitting right in front of Sam, who Owen said was supposed to give me a ride home after the session.
The theme for NTE this year is "The Last Days." I'm pretty sure that they did that because of all the apocalyptic hype surrounding the Mayan calendar ending. Anyway, the main speaker for NTE this year, William Taylor, is from the UK. At one point during his talk, he was saying that he heard that some people didn't understand what he was saying before. He said that it was ok because he didn't understand what they were saying because he speaks English. It really made me laugh because Aussies (*cough* Rohan *cough*) make fun of Americans for not speaking proper English but he was making fun of Aussies. They have so many weird nicknames for things. No word can be more or less than two syllables. He also made some Tassie jokes. It was great!
Then I said good-bye to Rohan and talked to Sam about getting a ride home. I instead got a ride from Wira but I didn't care as long as I got back home. I got home and went online for a bit. Then I realised that I had a horrible headache, I was tired, and I was cold. I also just really did not want to blog. I'm getting kind of sick of it, but I know that it's a good way for my family and friends back home to know how I'm doing and I'm going to wish that I had it in the future if I stopped. Especially when I eventually get to this part in my memoir. Anyway, I'm sorry that today was late, but as you can see, it was long and I just wanted to go to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment