i can't stay away from sydney!

i was actually able to go to sydney again!  i said i would LOVE to go again, but didn't really think i would!

and it was amazing the second time too!

i went for the passion conference.  it is a christian conference for 18-25 year olds and has only been held in the US for the last 8 years.  i went the last 2 years in atlanta!  well they took a huge leap of faith and did a world tour in 16 different cities all around the world!  aaand they came to sydney while i was here!  so i was able to use the money that my parents gave me for my birthday to buy a plane ticket to fly out to sydney for the passion world tour (thank you mom and dad!) !  it was so exciting to see students worshipping God in the same way that our college ministry does back home, but all the way on the other side of the world.

i flew out of melbourne around 1pm on october 21st and got into sydney about 2:30pm.

i figured out all the public transportation and maps before i got there and didn't get lost once...woohoo!

i went and checked into my hotel after getting in and then went out and walked around for a bit before heading to the sydney entertainment center.

i went to darling harbor again just to walk around.

it was rainy when i was here this time, so it wasn't quite as beautiful, but still great!

i noticed some things this time that i didn't notice the first time.  i was alone and able to just look around and take more things in.  all of the trash cans in darling harbor had tops shaped like the sydney opera house.  

and lots of the architecture is obviously designed after sailing and ships
sydney olympic sculpture in darling harbor..

something else i didn't notice the first time...flowers planted from world youth day in a park and darling harbor.  it was a big deal and was going on the first week i was here in australia.  lots of youth pilgrims walking around and the pope was in town.

i only walked around for about an hour and then headed over to the entertainment center to get in line!  i saw this building when i was there the first time, but didn't realize what it was!  i obviously didn't look up enough!

finally inside after waiting for 3 hours, but it was definitely worth the wait, i was on the 6th row!!!  and got to stand at the stage for the singing!

here's chris tomlin...

and singing "God of this City" with chris tomlin and christy nockels.  it is such a powerful song, but was so amazing to be singing it in sydney with 8,000 australians (mostly..i did meet some americans in line!)

woo banjo time for "i saw the light"
and here's the david crowder band
and the good ol' david crowder himself...

SOO glad i went!  it was amazing!  passion is such a great thing and all of the speakers and artists involved are absolutely amazing.  they are all such huge role models to be and have such amazing hearts for God!