∞ WYD08
Monday, July 21, 2008
Well, on the weekend I went with my brother and mum to World Youth Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still recovering from the excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got up early on Saturday morning when it the sun was hardly up and the temperature was in the single digits filled with excitement and put on my dodgy, stuffed-with-so-much-stuff-that-the-seams-were-about-to-break WYD bag, pass, scarf and eye-blindingly bright beanie.
We got in, still half-asleep (I didn't even brush my hair ==) into the car and went to McDonalds for breakfast so that we could use our VIP WYD card before it expired. xD Asian. After breakfast, we found out that, being the disorganised family we are, I left my super poufy, super warm jacket at home so we had to go all the way back to get it. And then we went to the train station to watch a train to North Sydney to start the pilgrimage using our free public transport pass. Hehehe. We entered the train station and BOOM!!! The station was packed with heaps and heaps of people with the bright yellow, red and orange backpacks waving flags and all that stuff and I could, literally feel the excitement in the air. We got on the train but then we realised we were too early and that we forgot to wait for our group leader. ><"
I looked out the window when we were getting near the city and I swear, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The streets were, literally, a sea of colours and people. Even though it sounds like a cliche, that's what it was.
We joined up with the people from church at Easyway (typical Asian ==' ) and just waited around until 10 when we could start walking.
Putting tattoos on in the bathroom.Finally we started walking and OMFGSH SO MANY PEOPLE!!!! There were people from all these different countries waving flags, playing guitar, singing and the whole atmosphere was really..... light-hearted? (I have a limited vocabulary) A group of people would just start singing and chanting and then the people around them would start joining in and.. I dunno. It just felt like everyone was.. unified? and all these people had come from all around the world because of their faith and..
After the 10km hike, we got to the racecourse finally and set up our sleeping bags and stuff and then the evening vigil started. We were like, 500 metres from the stage/altar so we couldn't see the Pope. =( But luckily we were pretty close to a big screen. I feel sorry for the people all the way at the back who are, like, 500 metres from any screen and can't see anything. When it got darker, we got candles and it looked really really pretty when the camera took shots of the whole racecourse and it was specks of light from thousands and thousands of candles. =) It was really... enlightening and I think everyone's faith has been strengthened heaps. We were kneeling for so long that my legs were starting to get tired and my mum was like, "The Pope's 80-something and he can still stand it." But overall, inspirational.
Now let me tell you about the food.. xD Below are the 3 meals we got:
It was like we were on army rations or something man. My brother who eats a lot was complaining.Dinner: cold tinned "wild salmon and vegetables". Seriously, it was exactly like cat food. But not too bad for cat-food tasting food.
Me eating dinner. I look disgusted. xD
At night we saw this weird blurry moon with a halo of light or something around it, which was.. strangely beautiful.
Obviously, I would need to go to the toilet at some point, so I went and OMFGSH. The line for every toilet was like, FREAKIN 100 METRES LONG and you had to hold it in for like, half an hour while going around from toilet to toilet to find a shorter line and the toilets kept blocking up or running out of water because of overuse. =______= But some people really needed to go so they just went on top of other people's shit and stuff so it was like, a whole toilet full of shit and pee and toilet paper. So freakin gross~~~ The closest flushable toilets were like, a very very long Duke of Ed-like hike. But that was about the only bad thing, besides the cold at night. ==" But luckily, I was well prepared so I didn't feel it much. =D
Early in the morning.OH YES. I was reading this random WYD newspaper or something and I saw this:
ROFLMAO. xDDDD
The next morning was the final Mass and there were EVEN MORE people than the day before. =OO I still can't get over the number of people!! But luckily, the toilets had been fixed and were flushing. =) The Mass was really ceremonial and.. This is when my bad writing skills are getting in the way. If only I could describe to everyone the whole atmosphere.. And Guy Sebastian sang the theme song which is "Receive the Power - Guy Sebastian" I think this song really shows the feelings behind this whole event and whenever I hear it, it makes me think of WYD =)
After the Final Mass, we had lunch and then a loooong journey back home. What a tiring 2 days. But it was well worth it. I read in the papers that these Chinese people who are part of the underground Catholic group in China used tourist visas to secretly come to World Youth Day. Because China doesn't approve of the Pope and Vatican so the government elects the bishops and stuff. Which is really stupid. They risk their whole lifestyle and livelihood just to come for this event, so everyone pray for them. =)
God bless,
Fred.