…as most of you already know!
The rest of the World Youth Day flew by in a blur. Wednesday Team Henrik, slowly yet surely made their way to the Chocolate Factory. The words ‘Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to the Chocolate factory we go’ hummed in my ear as I walked excitedly towards the big block of chocolate (the building didn’t look like chocolate, but as we walked towards the building in anticipation, it started to look like one) It also occured to me that I was singing the wrong song, so I quickly changed to ‘Oompa Loompa Oompa-di-doo…’
Our excursion to the factory was way cool. There was a chocolate fountain, and product lines in process, in which we stood back and gawked at, occassionally wiped the drool that inevitably rolled from the side of our mouths. To my disappointment, I saw no Oompa Loompa. Not a one. There goes another childhood fable!
Thursday and Friday we were serving in the Cathechesis. Thursday afternoon we walked miles and miles to get a glimpse of the Pope, (all 0.1 mm of him from where we stood)The one of the two days in which it were sunny we hiked from one end of Koln to the other, in my head played ‘I will walk 500 miles, and I will walk 500 hundred’….so annoying! However, got to see the Pope (if one can call that seeing) and managed to soak up a lil colour. Friday night a few of us from the Team decided to head out into Bonn Town Centre, with big plans of a nice hot meal (living on bread rolls alone had somewhat taken it’s toll by then). After a much needed nap Friday evening, we were all ready to go. Dominik was literally licking his lips in anticipation for Fine Cuisine, after more walking looking for the perfect place to dine, considering all budgets and dietary needs, where do we end up? Go on guess….
Yep… McDonalds! Don’t even go there. Dominik and I, refused to accept defeat and actually went for another walk around Bonn in desperation for a place to eat, but in the spirit of Team Solidarity we reluctantly, and defeatedly walked back to McDonalds, where yes we did have a hot meal. A happy meal to celebrate the moment.
Saturday, we were happy for the sleep in. At that point, 8am was a sleep in. We got ready for what we knew was going to be a big rest of the weekend. We left Marienfeld bound at 11am. By 2pm, we were stiill in transit. At this point at the back of some random truck, because of course, Marienfeld was 5km (minimum) away from civilisation. Finally we get dropped off, backpacks and sleeping bags in tow in the middle of nowhere where all these vans were waiting, for the thousands of volunteers. We were on Transport duty, therefore we were being deployed (and that’s the correct term, trust me) to our posts. An hour after deployment, it was realised we were posted in the wrong posts…so hike we went to our correct posts. Lucky for me, I was paired off with Dom and we had some laughs.
By the time we made it to our, place of slumber, also known as the patch of damp grass in which we were to reside in for the next few hours, since there was only a couple of hours left of darkness by the time we got there (as a result of comical – now comical cause it wasn’t that evening, series of events) To say it was a little hard to get to sleep, is a little bit of an understatement. Freezing conditions, damp grounds, over tiredness, what more can a girl ask more you ask. So at 3ish I joined Dominik in his lap around the camping grounds where literally a million people lay on the ground. Finally after 4am we crawled back into, by then, damp sleeping bag. Thankfully, that no longer mattered and we passed out eventually. Hours later Henrik’s sing song voice ‘Elisa, good morning’ taunted me from small patch of warmness I had finally found after a lot of wriggling. Soooo not impressed. Even less so when Dom and I headed over to the water station to wash our faces and brush teeth, to realise the lines in not only the water stations, but the Port a Potty’s! Now, if you know me, you know, I don’t do Port a Potty’s! I would rather hold it in risking a bladder infection rather than walking into one of those things…but when you gotta go, you gotta go. With the parting words of ‘Just don’t look in, you can do it’ (or something to that same effect from Dom), I gulped and stood in line.
The closing mass was really cool. More than a million people gathered for the experience, and there was an awesome atmosphere that was hard to describe. There was a unity, and link that was formed from the days spent together. I got to see Dan, Mary, and Jeanette one last time, which was really nice. They always represent a piece of home, and it was great to see them, if only briefly and sporadically. Unfortunately Lorena and I, despite our many attempts did not even get a glimpse of each other. That evening we said our first lot of goodbyes. I sadly waved at Dom as he boarded the bus Sunday night, my partner in crime. Our very own Frodo. That evening when we finally got home, after 10 hours of waiting to get home…let’s not even go there! we had our last team gathering in the Cafeteria, where a definitive sense of feeling that we were incomplete lingered.
Monday morning Henrik snuck away very early, without a goodbye to his team…slacker! To his defense, he tried to say it the night before, but we said we would try and see him at breakfast. We had the closing ceremony for the Volunteers, which was a lot of fun. Then they played ‘We are the World’ and the waterworks began. Tanja and Lenka burst into tears, which pretty much started what was left of our team. Saying goodbye to everyone, wa sa lot harder than I had anticipated. Finally at 9pm, there were only three of us. Lenka, Marek and I were staying at the building where they held registrations only 10 days before, we were to be sleeping on hard concrete floors, but hey it was warm.
Tuesday morning Lenka and Marek waved me off on my train bound for the airport where I was dropping off my luggage because I refused to lug it for the 8 hours before my check in. Once I dropped it off, I headed for the Centre of Koln. Wandered around, window shopped, then found an internet café to pass time in…at that stage I was soooo exhausted that I just wanted a corner to pass out in. Thank you to those who kept me company in MSN messenger as I waited for time to pass slowly by.
Finally by 9:45pm, I was on the train, bound for home, with only two bus rides ahead of me, I was relieved. All I wanted to do was take a long hot shower (can you blame me?), and sleep on my newly washed sheets and somewhat comfortable bed *sigh*, what a satisfying moment that was when I finally got in there.
Needless to say I slept most the day, the following day. However, I was productive, did all my washing, grocery shopped, even made myself something decent for lunch, it certainly didn’t involved a bread roll, I tell ya! Brent walked in not long after I put my groceries down,back from his own Euro Trek, so we were able to chill out for a couple of hours together. Which was nice. I’ve missed him somewhat of late, and it was great to just chill with him as I tried to verbalise the whole experience. That evening Bek arrived, cooked dinner and we hung out and caught up while Dawsons Creek played in the background.
Being back at work was a nasty slap of reality I really didn’t want. It was nice to see that nothing has changed *insert sarcastic roll of the eyes here*.
On Saturday Ash and I headed for Webley stadium, very early in the morning to go to the ‘Fellowship Festival’, Lord of the Rings Festival. It was sooooo cool. I can see my brother, sister and Sue shaking their heads at me. But hey, it was really cool. Got to see cast. That Craig Parker is cute hey! Too bad he died in the Two Towers.
Sunday Joyce Myers was in the house. Sooo cool. Was in KidzChurch most of the day, but the buzz traveled. As always, Sunday was another great day in God’s house.
After the last service we went out to dinner with Brent’s parents who were leaving the following day. Afterwards I went home with Grace and we stayed up till 6am. We eventually got up, went shopping for B’s present before heading over to Hyde Park for the Picnic. It was such a great day. Nice and sunny. It actually felt like summer.
Now it’s back to this place, I like to refer to as ‘place of character building’… FUN FUN!