Jesus freak, Jesus freak, she's super-freakay ... yow
Day 3 of my volunteer work at the Domain for World Youth Day, and a few things to report from the field.
Day 1 was very quiet - we expected many pilgrims to come to the Domain to watch Opening Mass on the big screens, but I think less than a thousand came. The other 150,000 were at Barangaroo! My role is as a Crowd Marshall Assistant, opening and shutting a gate for workers to go into a restricted zone. A passing policemanofficer commented that my arm would get very big, opening and shutting this gate. Maybe I should swap arms once in a while.
Day 2 - finally, excitement as musical and dance acts took to the stage. Polish dancing (not pole dancing) turned out to be more entertaining than it sounds, as lovely young men in military uniforms and girls in Cinderella dresses skipped about gaily. Speaking of skipping and gaiety, liciti and jailnaziking joined me to watch the Altar Boyz. Matching white boyband costumes, hip thrusts, bad breakdancing, songs about going to church.
Day 3 - 50x as much excitement as the last two days, as 50x as many people crammed into the Domain. More Polish dancing? Combined Polish and Irish dancing??? No way, dude. Better than that. Better than the Batmobile. It's the Popemobile!! In a stroke of what must have been divine intervention, I got moved from my bicep workout at the gate to a prime position in the media pit at the side of the road where the Papal motorcade was to pass. The atmosphere today was amazing. World Youth Day really is a great innovation, so to speak. You can't fail to have your faith renewed when there are so many gleeful, flag-waving youngsters everywhere, unless you're jailnaziking. (LOL! Just kiddin', bb!) I'm proud to be Catholic. (Does this mean I have to go to church more than, um, once a year?)
It was SO EXCITING watching the big screens as the Popemobile made its way towards the Domain. He's three minutes away, somebody screamed. Eeee, he's coming along the road! I whip out my phone, concentrate hard on taking a photo, and then ... he's gone. He's like the wind. The Pope zipped past so quickly I didn't even see him, only part of his car. I did get a blurry photo, observez:
He does move in mysterious ways.
One final thing that made me think of liciti: crowd management was not helped today by the show-stopping appeal of a group of ridiculously good-looking young French guys, apparently pilgrims but you would never be able to tell from the way they wore tailored pants and blazers, holding a sign that read, "Free French Kisses". I don't know if anyone took them up on their offer because I couldn't see through the swarm of girls which assembled around them.
So, louche, well-dressed Frenchmen offering freebies are not fictional.
Day 1 was very quiet - we expected many pilgrims to come to the Domain to watch Opening Mass on the big screens, but I think less than a thousand came. The other 150,000 were at Barangaroo! My role is as a Crowd Marshall Assistant, opening and shutting a gate for workers to go into a restricted zone. A passing policemanofficer commented that my arm would get very big, opening and shutting this gate. Maybe I should swap arms once in a while.
Day 2 - finally, excitement as musical and dance acts took to the stage. Polish dancing (not pole dancing) turned out to be more entertaining than it sounds, as lovely young men in military uniforms and girls in Cinderella dresses skipped about gaily. Speaking of skipping and gaiety, liciti and jailnaziking joined me to watch the Altar Boyz. Matching white boyband costumes, hip thrusts, bad breakdancing, songs about going to church.
Day 3 - 50x as much excitement as the last two days, as 50x as many people crammed into the Domain. More Polish dancing? Combined Polish and Irish dancing??? No way, dude. Better than that. Better than the Batmobile. It's the Popemobile!! In a stroke of what must have been divine intervention, I got moved from my bicep workout at the gate to a prime position in the media pit at the side of the road where the Papal motorcade was to pass. The atmosphere today was amazing. World Youth Day really is a great innovation, so to speak. You can't fail to have your faith renewed when there are so many gleeful, flag-waving youngsters everywhere, unless you're jailnaziking. (LOL! Just kiddin', bb!) I'm proud to be Catholic. (Does this mean I have to go to church more than, um, once a year?)
It was SO EXCITING watching the big screens as the Popemobile made its way towards the Domain. He's three minutes away, somebody screamed. Eeee, he's coming along the road! I whip out my phone, concentrate hard on taking a photo, and then ... he's gone. He's like the wind. The Pope zipped past so quickly I didn't even see him, only part of his car. I did get a blurry photo, observez:
He does move in mysterious ways.
One final thing that made me think of liciti: crowd management was not helped today by the show-stopping appeal of a group of ridiculously good-looking young French guys, apparently pilgrims but you would never be able to tell from the way they wore tailored pants and blazers, holding a sign that read, "Free French Kisses". I don't know if anyone took them up on their offer because I couldn't see through the swarm of girls which assembled around them.
So, louche, well-dressed Frenchmen offering freebies are not fictional.