a letter from somewhere

Visiting Keyling

2010-08-20T12:35:00.004-04:00

We stopped in Managua for a couple of days on the way home so that we could meet the child that I sponsor though Compassion International. I've sponsored her since my freshman year at Butler and we've written letters back and forth since then. Occasionally I would send her stickers or a photo in my letter, and once a year Compassion would send me a new picture of her. She's 11 now, and oh so beautiful.

I have her pictures hanging all over our house: by my desk, on the fridge, in the front of my Bible, but I'd never actually met her. I'd always thought it would be so cool to get to hug her in person, hear her laugh, see her smile, and meet her mom, but didn't know if my dream would ever come true.

So, rewind to last Christmas (2009).

I am sitting at the kitchen table after opening stockings and presents. My grandparents are here and so my whole family is hanging out, getting ready to play Mexican Train Dominoes (which is the tradition). Dad went outside to check something (the snow? I can't remember...) and came back in with the mail. Now, I'm sure it was not delieverd that day, but we picked it up on Christmas day. It probably was delivered a few days before, but in the busyness of getting ready for the Christmas Eve service at church, getting presents wrapped, cookies baked, etc, we had apparently forgotten to pick it up. Dad filtered through the coupons, junk mail, Christmas cards, and bills, and handed me a new letter from Keyling. "What a neat Christmas present," I thought.

I opened it up, and began to read in Spanish. She talked about her school, her studies, her family, and whatever else she could think of, and then (pretty much out of the blue) asked me "Cuando puedo verle?" which translates to "When can I see you?"

At this point, I stopped reading and checked the English translation of her letter just to be sure I had read things correctly. Sure enough, "When can I see you?" Woah.

Now, you must understand that our family has sponsored children for years (I think since before I was born!) and never has one of them asked about getting to see or meet us. Never. Until Keyling's letter on Christmas.

"When can I see you?"

Back in September, we had discussed the possibility of us going to Nicaragua for a mission trip over spring break last year. I had considered the idea that that we might be able to see her on that trip. When our participation in the trip fell through due to school and other stuff, I was certainly disappointed and didn't know when I'd ever get to meet her.

But then in November, Dad proposed the idea of going to Costa Rica as part of his sabbatical. Yes, Costa Rica is close to Nicaragua but still not the same thing, so it would be difficult to make a visit to Managua possible. So close, but yet so far.

So all those ideas had been floating around last fall (2009)....right before I received Keyling's letter. "When can I see you?" God's timing continually amazes me. Now I knew we HAD to go. We just had to make it work to visit her somehow!

So fast forward to early August 2010. We're in Managua (having worked it out to stop there on the way home) and actually will be meeting Keyling and her family!!!

I could go on and on and on about our afternoon in her neighborhood, Barrio San Francisco. But this post is already long enough, and so those stories will have to come in time.

But one quick one first...

Keyling lives with her mom and 18-year old brother. She also has an older sister who has 7 small children of her own. I'm still not sure exactly where Keyling's sister and nieces and nephews live, but we got to meet them all. Anyway, Keyling, her mom, and her brother rent one small room in a house (Read, what we would think of in America as a shack. It has dirt floors, a rusty corrugated tin roof with holes in it, and tattered tarps for doors. No bathroom inside or running water. There was one dim lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room.).

At one point, Keyling was showing me her school books and some other things in her (their) room. She proudly pulled out her "tigre" that she earned for winning a dance competition. I told her that it was very cute, and she held it out to me, saying,"Suyo!!" (meaning "yours!"). She was GIVING me her tiger! I didn't know what to say. After asking her several times if she was sure ("En serio?? Estás seguro?") (and she was very sure!), I accepted this incredible gift. Of course God knew she would do this and I had (or He had?) decided several months before to pack a lamb for her.

So here we are, both holding our new animals. :)

I am still in awe of how God works things out. For Keyling to ask me "When can I see you?" in a letter I received just months before traveling to Centroamerica, just has to be His doing. And then for her to give me her tigre, her one stuffed animal that she obviously loved so much, again, I think it must be His doing. God is so good!

Photos of the beach and the volcano

2010-08-07T14:02:00.003-04:00

Can you believe that we have even MORE pictures?!?!?!?? Check out these of Playa Conchal, Arenal Volcano, the hot springs river in La Fortuna, Pizza John, and celebrating Dad's birthday at Pizza Hut in San José!

Click here to see the pictures :)

Pictures from CR!

2010-08-05T17:34:00.004-04:00

Okay, normally the blogs start out "Written by so-and-so" but I don't need to for this one cause I know you can guess who is posting this...cause I'm the one who is most crazy about pictures, haha!

Anyway...I've posted about 400 pics on my Facebook and here are the links to the albums (and these links will work whether you're on facebook or not) if you are interested....

Album 1

Album 2

Enjoy! More to come later, including pics of our visit with Keyling and her family :)

A quick post to let you know that....

2010-08-02T23:33:00.007-04:00

We just arrived in Nicaragua! We left Arenal Volcano this morning and drove back to San José before flying to Managua.

(And I (Kristen) should apologize in advance for the grammar in this email. As you will read in this blog, I've been thinking and talking in Spanish for the better part of the day. Now we're in Nicaragua, and it seems that almost no one speaks English...so again, I am thinking and talking in Spanish. It's completely fine and I'm really enjoying it, but it is most definitely affecting my ability to communicate in English! haha It's crazy when I think of a Spanish word for something BEFORE thinking of the English word. Anyway, sorry for the run-on sentences and lack of fluency and spelling mistakes that are sure to occur.)

Okay, so about the volcano: we were there for 3 full days and it rumbled occasionally, maybe 1-2 times a day. We saw a lot of smoke come out of it, which was really exciting especially the first time we saw it. It is just really crazy to see brown smoke shoot out of the top of a mountain. Anyway, we didn't see any red lava until last night. About 11 pm, we heard a rumble which sounded a lot like thunder or a jet flying overhead. But DUH!! We are at a VOLCANO!! All rumbles are most likely THE VOLCANO. (I know this sounds quite obvious, but really, it is kind of hard to keep remembering that!) Anyway, at the 11 pm rumble, I rushed to the window and finally saw a tiny bit of lava!! I shrieked, which immediately caused Mom and Dad to rush to the window too. The red color was visible for only a few seconds and there wasn't much of it, but it was definitely molten rock. Pretty cool!! (actually I guess it pretty HOT, but whatever. haha)

Anyway, the volcano continued to be quite active all night (rumbling every 30 minutes or so) but there was a cloud covering it for most of the night, so we didn't see lava again. But we had seen a little bit, and I was happy. :)

So this morning, we left Arenal and drove to San José by way of a quite curvy (think West Virginia times 10!) road. We are not much for curvy roads so we took it slow, but still got to San José by noon. We were supposed to be meeting a friend at the airport to have lunch, and miraculously found him within 5 minutes of getting there! So we dropped off our luggage and the rental car and headed to Alajuela (a town near San José) with Carlos. We met Carlos 2 weeks ago when we first arrived in Costa Rica and were staying at Portantorchas and painting the children's home. He is from San José and therefore speaks Spanish (and is learning English!) . Anyway, at first I was nervious/scared to talk to him (since he's a native speaker) in Espanol, but over the time we were at Portantorchas, he was patient and listened to my (often incorrect) Spanish and gently corrected and helped when need be. So, I am much more comfortable speaking Spanish now! Still a looong way from perfect, but a bit better I think. Hopefully, he can come to Indy sometime and meet you all, cause he is pretty awesome! So, it was great to hang out with him again and to get back in the hang of speaking Spanish (which, come to find out, I would really need in Nicaragua!).

We had lunch at Pizza Hut and during lunch, Carlos found out that Dad's birthday is this coming Saturday. He told the waiters (in Spanish, of course, which Dad can't understand at all) about his birthday and at the end of the meal, they brought him an ice cream sundae complete with a candle and singing! Anyway, lunch today was a great way to end our time in CR. I totally loved it there, and was so sad to leave.

So after lunch, we took the bus back to the aeropuerto and had to say goodbye to Carlos (but in Costa Rica, they commonly say "Hasta luego" which means "See you again later" instead of "Adios" (which means "goodbye, I may not see you again") because it implies that you will see each other again soon. So actually, we said "Hasta luego" - definitely a little better than goodbye :) ).

Then, we flew to Nicaragua! Somehow (and we still don't know how) we got put in first class which was quite surprising and kinda fun! As soon as we got on, they gave us drinks and AGAIN when we were in the air! Woah!

So now we are in Managua. Tomorrow, we are going to meet Keylin, the girl that I sponsor through Compassion International. I am so excited! We all are, really. Before we left Indy in early July, Sophie and Mandy C. helped me pick out some gifts for Keylin and I am so looking forward to giving them to her. It has always been a dream of mine to meet her, and so after she asked me in a letter last winter, "When do I get to see you?" I knew we had to come visit. :) So tomorrow is the day! I'm not sure when you are reading this, but our visit is at 1 pm (3 pm, Indy time) tomorrow (Tuesday) and we are going to her home and Compassion project school. Please pray for all of us - Keylin's family included! - that we are not nervous to meet each other, that we can communicate well, and for safety. Muchas gracias! :)

And then, after visiting Keylin, we are hanging out in Managua for one more day, and then coming home!! I can't believe it! Back in Indy for good (wellll, at least for now)...AND you know what that means??!? Chick-fil-A for me in less than 100 hours!!! hahaha (Of course there are other reasons that I will be happy to be home, but I have sure missed chicken sandwiches.)

Love and miss you all. Can't wait to see you again soon :)

Monkeys, and Iguanas, and Sloths, OH MY!

2010-07-31T16:29:00.005-04:00

Costa Rica has 5% of the species of animals and insects in the world, even though it only has 0.25% of the world's land! And we got to see many of those species on a guided walk we took through one of the national parks here near Manuel Antonio Beach on the western coast of Costa Rica. Words can’t do justice to the experience, so here are a few of the species we saw.

"It was so ugly outside..."

2010-07-27T22:15:00.005-04:00

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Written by Eric

One of the things I learned in Costa Rica is that tías are wonderful people. At least the tías that I met were incredible. “Tía” is the Spanish word for aunt and there were some awesome tías at the children’s home where we have been working this week. The tías serve as full-time housemothers for the group of 11 girls housed at this home on the outskirts of San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

Our task for the week was to repaint the whole outside of the home. The walls and iron work needed to scraped and painted, as well as the doors and facia. It was painted 7 years ago when the home was built by a church in Houston, TX, but the regular rains have taken their toll on the exterior. Here is what it looked like upon our arrival.

Bright orange was chosen as the main color of the walls, brick red for the doors and iron work, white for the underside of the facia and brown for the facia itself. The tías chose the colors. They are not exactly the colors I would have chosen but my role for the week was to paint, not really to question color choices! And so we painted! Four days of work by the 10 of us resulted in this:

Orange, red, brown, and white looks great together! What do you think?
On the final day as we were leaving the site, one of the tías was thanking us for the great work we had done and was moved by how beautiful it looked.

A bit teary-eyed she said to us in Spanish, “This home looked so ugly and I want the girls to have a home that feels happy and gives them hope….”

Now before you know what I said to her, you must know that what moved me so much all week as I was working was not how quickly the scraping went, not how well the painting got done, not how much it rains in Costa Rica, not the cows that would walk along the road everyday (once up the road in the morning and back again in the afternoon), not even how incredible the tías can make beans and rice taste each day, but what touched me the most were the smiles and laughter of the girls that were living in the home. These girls had all come from difficult situations but now were safe in a home where they were loved, fed, and encouraged. They giggled, they played, they loved attention, and they loved on us throughout the days we were there.

“…it looked so ugly but now it looks so beautiful! Thank you!” she said.

I said to her, “Your house could look far uglier than what you say it did when we arrived …..but what makes this home beautiful are not the coats of paint on the outside but the love that I see given and expressed inside this home. That is the most beautiful gift that could be given to these children. Thank you for everything you do for them. We love you for that and God does also.”

“Me gusta…Me gusta mucho,” (meaning "I like it, I like it so much") she said as she was hugging all of us.

No matter how the home looks on the outside, this is what makes this home beautiful….

A LIFETREE ADVENTURE – Wednesday, July 21, 2010

2010-07-21T23:46:00.000-04:00

Written by Eric

Since I first heard about Lifetree Adventures, I was intrigued. Sponsored by the same organization, Group Workcamps Foundation, with which I work in the summers doing the Indianapolis Week of Hope and my construction camps, Lifetree Adventures is half mission trip and half vacation. They have international mission locations all around the world. Since I have done so much with Group and had heard so much about LTA, I decided that we should try it as one of our missions on my sabbatical. Costa Rica with Lifetree Adventures was our choice.

We arrived in Costa Rica this past Monday night and have been staying in San Jose at a Torch Bearers’ retreat center. Torch Bearers is an international Bible teaching school. Students who have finished high school come here for two years before college to learn the Bible and to experience mission work for the needy of San Jose.

Costa Rica is lush green, the temperatures have been cool during the day and surprisingly chilly at nighttime. This is the rainy season, so every afternoon we get a huge storm and every morning we wake up to a perfectly clear day. We are told that it is not unusual for it to be like this during their rainy season, which is May through October. Rice and beans and tortillas have been a part of most of our meals with some fruits and meats added.

We have done a variety of service since we arrived. Yesterday we served lunch to neighborhood children in the most under-resourced area of San Jose. The 3 meals a day that this church serves are the only meals many of the children of the neighborhood will get. We visited the church sponsored addiction rehab centers for men and women. At each of these the residents, while in recovery, are taught to use their abilities to serve the community. For instance, if a man comes in who needs treatment and who knows how to bake, he must use his baking ability to make baked goods to sell to the community to help support his recovery.

Our main work this week is working at a children’s home on the outside of the city. The home is for children without parents. Children stay there under the care of house parents as well as go to school in the building next door. We are painting the girls’ home Texas Longhorn orange and spending time teaching and playing with the children.

As I finish, let me close with a story that reminds me of the goodness and grace of the awesome God we serve:

At the men’s rehab center that we visited yesterday is a man who is now part of the drug/alcohol rehab program. Soon he will be turning 40 years old. Upon his being admitted to the program, he was asked when was the last time someone celebrated his birthday. He replied, “When I was 14 years old. Since then no one has cared about me.”

His story: He left home when he was 14 because he felt no support and love at home. For the next 26 years he lived on the streets of San Jose seeking to find meaning in life but drifted into heavy drug and alcohol usage. Only recently did he seek out the church rehab center and become part of the program.

With his 40th birthday approaching the residents of the center decided they needed to do something to celebrate his birthday. They made a strategic decision. What does a guy need who has not had a birthday party in 26 years? A big party. A really big party. A really big party that will make up for 26 missed birthdays.

His friends are now really motivated - motivated to make sure that he stays in the program long enough so they can all have this big bash. But more importantly, they want to make sure that he knows one thing - that he is cared about more than he can ever imagine - cared enough to make up for 26 years of feeling no love by anyone.

To me, there are few things that speak more of the good news of Jesus than a big blowout party given by a bunch of recovering addicts to show God’s love for someone who has not known love for 26 years. That is grace. That is love. That is the perfect care of our Father in heaven.

That is what God’s Kingdom needs to look like on earth!

A FLIGHT ATTENDANT, SUNGLASSES, AND OTHER THINGS – Monday, July 19, 2010

2010-07-21T23:44:00.001-04:00

Written by Eric

1. Have you ever had a flight attendant that wore sunglasses while tending his flight?

2. Do you think that would be good or bad news?

3. Would you ask your attendant why he was wearing the glasses or would you just go along like everything was normal?

Well…These sunglasses on our flight attendant raised the curiosity of the Lohes on our Continental flight from Indy to Houston on our way to Costa Rica. Our wanting to have some fun on the flight brought out 6 pairs of sunglasses from us (Doug and Karen Thornberry have joined us for this mission). An intrigued flight attendant smiled and stopped by our seats to find out who we were.

“We are going on a mission to Costa Rica,” was our reply.

“So that is why you have sunglasses?” he asked.

“Well sure. But sunglasses are not all that we have. We have…(Kristen starts to unpack her carry on bag at this point) we have ball caps, Emergen-C, an umbrella, a bag of little green men, 20 plastic cups and….”

He continued, “And other things?”

“Sure we have 175 beanie babies but they are in our check in luggage. (Thank you Kinsey for your donation!) We have 200 bars of soap, towels, baby wipes, jump ropes, sheets, soccer balls, etc., etc. (We would have been great contestants with Monty Hall and Let’s Make a Deal!)

Prompted by the weirdness of the contents of our many bags, the flight attendant returned a bunch of times to find out all of the details of our summer. He was intrigued by all the places we have been this summer and of all that we have yet to do. (We never got his name but if you are he and you read this blog, please leave us your name on the comment section of the blog so we can let everyone know who you are.) We loved talking to him. Maybe he will go on a mission trip too someday.

And you know what I learned? Sunglasses worn on the inside of a plane reduces the brightness of the sun there too, especially at sunset! He was a very smart flight attendant. Maybe we will see him on our leg back from Houston to Indy! And…maybe by then we will know his name!

GREAT RESULTS ORCHESTRATED BY OUR GREAT GOD – Saturday, July 17, 2010

2010-07-20T22:59:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric

“If you can’t paint like professionals, then don’t paint at all you @#^&* kids,” she said to the crew.

Girls sobbing. Built-up frustration. Phone call to me, the camp director. Thursday afternoon.

“Eric, please come out to our site. We can no longer work here because our resident (she) is not at all thankful for the painting we are doing for her. In fact, she is downright mean and swore at us.”

I headed out to the site with an ongoing debate in my mind. When we serve Jesus by helping a resident with home repairs, do we need to have thanks and praise OR do we continue despite ridicule by others because we know that ultimately we are serving Jesus, not the resident? What do you think?

I arrive. The resident was on the phone. Her husband had been sick for weeks and was now hospitalized. “A tumor in his lungs,” came the word on the other end of the phone. She was quiet for a moment and then hung up.

“Tough news, huh? We will pray for you,” I said.

Now it was time to make a decision about what to do with a group of youth who no longer wanted to work for a resident because she was swearing at them. The youth who were working on her house were doing an incredible job painting and repairing her house. She, nevertheless, demanded 4 coats of paint on her house and was constantly looking over their shoulders as this crew of first time workcampers worked their hardest in the surprising heat of a Canadian week.

As director of the camp it is my responsibility to make sure that all of our campers have a good experience serving Jesus. I do not tolerate swearing residents very well. Granted she had reasons why the stress of her husband’s illness could have triggered her anger, but she had no right swearing at youth who were there to serve.

“I am going to move you to a new site,” I told the group. The girls responded with a quiet, “Yes!” I knew I had made a good decision. The group worked hard to finish as much work as they could that Thursday afternoon and I moved them on to a different site with a great resident who loved on them all day Friday.

I went back Friday to check on the angry resident. It is never comfortable walking back into a situation where you do not know what will be the reaction. She greeted me with somewhat of a smile and said words that only could have been orchestrated by God, “You know these kids. They are angels and I can’t say how much I appreciate what they did.”

Only God can orchestrate that. I told the kids back at camp what the work they did meant to her even though she was never able to share it. Though he may never read this great praise needs to go to Ralph, the adult leader on the site. He handled things so wisely!

Please pray for this resident woman and for her husband. Can you imagine how hurting one has to be inside in order to swear at youth who have come to paint your house? Gotta be great need there!

It was an incredible week. 58 construction projects including a 60 foot wheelchair ramp and a second story deck. Wonderful worship. 1,876 cans of food donated. I learned to speak Canadian, “eh”! A boys group from Jersey wrote a song about me - Kristen taped it for you. And God was honored by 374 lives serving Him for a week.

The tourists: Carol and Greta

2010-07-15T22:22:00.002-04:00

Well, we have attended two of the programs at the workcamp and delivered desserts to our Indiana three, but mostly we've been exploring around the area. We went to the "Lift-Off" last weekend which included a hot air balloon festival and the "Ontario's Strongest Man" contest. Those guys lifted all kinds of stuff and even pulled an eighteen wheeler down Water Street! (The trick was to see who could pull it the FASTEST!!) We spent another day at Upper Canada Village, a Conner Prairie type place where we visited a water powered saw mill, steam powered woolen factory, a grain mill, bakery, cheese factory, bootmaker, tinsmith, dressmaker, general store, tavern, printer, weaver, schoolhouse, wheelwright, blacksmith, and farm. (All 1866) Greta milked a cow with both hands, and we sung in two different church buildings (when no other guests were there.) The acoustics were great! We also took in a horse-drawn wagon ride, a horse-towed canal boat ride, and an 1866 "medicine show," The Traveling Tiltons. Since then, we've been picnicing and swimming in the St. Lawrence River a couple of times. Tomorrow we plan to venture to Ottawa (Canada's capital) and hopefully have a tour of Parliament.
Even if we hadn't done all these fun things, it was great being here because our B&B hostess, Trish, makes the BEST breakfasts in the WORLD!! We have really been pampered! If anyone needs a place to stay up here, we will give them her name!

The Fire Marshall, God, the Facility Guys, and Poutine - Wednesday, July 14, 2010

2010-07-15T21:52:00.001-04:00

Written by Eric

It is Wednesday afternoon, the middle of workcamp week here in Cornwall, Ontario. If you go as far east on the upper border of New York, then cross over into Canada, you will find Cornwall. It was a 15 hour drive from Indy and about an a 1 1/2 hour drive west of Montreal. Cornwall is a city of 46,000 people next to the St. Lawrence River. Though things have changed a bit now, a few decades ago the city was divided by the French speaking ones on the east side of town and the English speaking ones on the west side of town.

375 campers have the afternoon off and are either at the river, water park, a nearby city (Montreal or Ottawa) or shopping. It is time for a little relaxation, food, and an afternoon away from the week-long work. As for me, as the director of the camp, I am at the school staffing the office while the rest of the staff and workcampers are away.

As far as people here....We have 16 churches in attendance. One from Canada, others from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

As far as our lodging...We are staying in a French Catholic High School. Here all high schools, whether Christian or public, are funded by the government. That is very different than in the states. This school's mission is "to teach students about Jesus Christ and about their French heritage."

As far as sleeping places for 375...By 5 pm last Friday we had everyone assigned to rooms in the school, some had air-conditioning and some did not. At 5 pm the fire department came by to "check" our rooms and told us that we had to reduce each of the rooms by 5-7 people to meet fire code. That caused us to wonder, "What will we do with 42 boys?" "Put them in the gym!" The only trouble was that the gym was not air-conditioned and 42 breathing boys make the gym even warmer. Oops, that should be HOTTER, not warmer. It was stuffy and extremely hot. What should we do?

As far as the facility guys...Rightly so the facility guys, custodians, were protecting their school from all of these students coming from all over. Only certain rooms were available. Only the front door of the school could be used for entrance and exit. No door could be left open to cool off the gym. That is how it was for one night. And then a very awesome thing happened. God moved some hearts. After walking through the gym on Sunday night with the facility people, after their experiencing the heat of a room with no doors open, God touched hearts. THEY started suggesting rooms where the boys could lodge. THEY decided that doors could be open. They have now all worked beyond their hours just to keep the facility clean for us. Today one of them rigged up a system in our non-airconditioned program auditorium for the cooler air to flow through the space. Go God!

As far as work...We have 54 sites that are painting, home repairs, and roofing whole houses. The most odd project is painting a Royal Canadian Air Force plane that is mounted in the town park. How many of you ever got to paint a jet?

As far as their currency...They have $1 coins called "loonies" because the coins contain pictures of birds, loons. They have a $2 coin with birds on them. Guess what they call them? "Two-nies." They are considering $5 dollar coins. Any guess what they will call them?

As far as food....Maybe the most unique food we have found here in Cornwall is POUTINE. Poutine is a combination of...are you ready?...french fries topped with cheese curd, covered in gravy. Delightful and of course, no calories at all!

As far as me...I am still sitting in the office waiting for dinner while the others are out. There is something beautiful about having some time to write and reflect. There is something good about having 375 high schoolers out of the school for just a little time this afternoon.

I pray your summer is continuing to be a great one for you.

Spending A Week Living in a School

2010-07-09T09:09:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric - Friday July 9, 2010

In 1976 in Loveland, Colorado 12 inches of rain fell in 3 hours. The sudden and unexpected rains flooded Big Thompson Canyon washing out homes and killing 140 people. The call went out for youth groups to come and help with recovery and clean-up. Over 300 youth and their leaders showed up to help. Group Workcamps Foundation, now Group Cares, was formed that year as an organization to help local residents with housing needs and now has over 200 camps each summer. In the past CrossRoads has served with Group Cares in Manistee, MI (Kris Gidley's home town), Blytheville, AR and Red Lake, MN.

Today Kristen and I join with a 15 other volunteer staff from across North America for a workcamp in Cornwall, ON. Cornwall is just across the border from the northeastern tip of New York. Cornwall was the town that the British created following the American Revolution for British sympathizers. Today it is a town of 40,000 people.

We drove 12 hours yesterday through heavy rain to get to Toronto and we are headed off to Cornwall today, another 5 hours. The campers come Sunday for a week of work and worship. I will be directing the camp and Kristen will be serving as a construction supervisor. Chris Kemp is joining us here on staff for the week to also oversee construction. Ed Gill was supposed to be here too but, at the last minute, work would not allow him to join us. He is disappointed not to be here, so when you see him Sunday give him a hug to lift his spirits.

Carol and Greta drove with us and are spending the week in the area seeing the sights of Ontario and Quebec.

Oh yes, and for the record, so far on this trip others have guessed our nationality as German and Swedish. Last night the dinner server greeted us with, "And oh you must be, let me guess, Dutch." The blond hair and blue eyes confused him. We gladly told him we were from Indiana and he was most surprised.

On to Cornwall to enlarge our family to 400+ for the week! Pray for ours, Chris' and the many groups' attending our camps safe travel.

It Was Hard to Eat Again After That Two Hour Walk

2010-07-04T11:09:00.003-04:00

Written by Eric

Last week I had the chance to visit Dachau Concentration Camp just outside of Munich, Germany. It is not one of those places that I "wanted" to visit but it was one that I "just had" to go if I was going to be in Germany. I don't want this post to be a downer but the images that still flow through my mind are vivid and difficult to deal with.

We spent about 2 hours walking around the camp which is being preserved so that we all can remember the atrocities human beings can perpetrate on one another. The displays, though very nicely done, were difficult to process, the posted pictures chronicling the years of the actions at the camp were gruesome and the air seemed stagnant and stale as people moved around the camp.

Toward the end of our walk we went to the crematorium, the "ovens" as they were described. The crematorium was outside the walled and barbed wire camp so that people that were being retained inside the camp would not know what was going on. I had always heard about the "gas chambers" at the camps however it is another thing to stand in the middle of one of them and realize how many lives had needlessly been taken in that particular room, how many lives had been affected by this senseless and depraved ideology.

If there is any good news from my time there it is that evil in its most horrific expression does not in the end win out. Dachau is now only a memorial, not an ongoing camp. God is faithful in wiping out human evil and, even though many innocent people may die in the process, goodness always is God's will and He has the power to make all things right in the end. It reminded me again of just how off base we can become so quickly and begin to value that which corrupts us. For me, it was an affirmation of why I seek to be a disciple of Jesus and why I want others to be the same. We must, we must be the ones to bring goodness and justice to a world in need so that no one ever has to be hurt by another human being.

Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A Mouthful for a Young Boy

2010-07-03T14:57:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric

My dad, Gunther, emigrated with his family from Germany to the United States in 1928 when he was 9 years old. From the time that I was very young, whenever I asked my dad where he was born, he would say, "Wuppertal-Elberfeld." Now I was looking for some response like "Mayberry or Allentown or even Westfield." But what I got was a name of a town I could not understand especially since it was couched in a deep German accent.

When I got older my dad, though he was an invalid by that time and had difficulty speaking, would tell me some things about where he came from. I knew it was in northern Germany and that it was an industrialized area. I knew they had a special monorail in town and he also gave me a book with pictures of his town that was printed in 1920. Every time I had a social studies project in school, I would choose to do a report on this double-named town.

You can imagine my intrigue and excitement last week when, driving down the Autobahn, I saw the exit for Wuppertal. We had been able to narrow down the choices of where he lived to one street - Wulfrather Strasse. Through Google Maps I found out that it was only four blocks long. That was short enough to walk the whole way.

There is something hard to describe about the feeling I had walking in Germany on the street where my dad was born and where he lived. Though my dad died in 1969, walking down Wulfrather Strasse gave me a special connection with my dad again. It was an incredibly steep street with apartments and a local neighborhood church and cemetery. Maybe my dad was baptized in that church - how cool is that? Maybe my dad sledded down his street. That would have been fun. Maybe there were my relatives buried in the cemetary. I did not have time to explore. I did get to ride the special mono-rail called the Schwebebahn, built in the late 1800s. During that whole day I was wishing I could do the "Back to the Future" thing and see my relatives as they were when they were children.

While we only got to spend a day in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, I thought much about what it must have been like for a young 9-year-old boy to leave the only city and country that he knows, and to get on a boat with his family and ride for over a week to a new land where they spoke a different language. I do know that it was the faith in God of his family that gave them the strength to come to the States. And as much as I liked being in Wuppertal, I am grateful that they made the journey across the Atlantic because I have been blessed to grow up in the United States.

Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A mouthful for a young boy. An incredible experience for a guy celebrating the roots of his dad.

Not Sure What I Just Agreed To

2010-07-02T09:00:00.004-04:00

With Germany advancing in her World Cup bid with her 4-1 win over England, there is soccer mania throughout Germany. Houses everywhere are flying the German flag and nearly every car has a least one, if not two (or more!), German flags flying. Some people have taken their German flag and tucked them in the front hood of their car so the whole front of their car cries out "Deutschland!"

Not wanting to be the only car not flying the black, red, and gold, I stopped into a store along the Autobahn to buy a flag for our car. Finding a flag, I took it up to the cashier.

"Zwei euros," she said rather firmly.

"Ya!" I plunked out my two euros with a smile.

She rang up the purchase and then she began a long run of German words that I could not understand. And then, thinking that I was understanding it all, she continued with more words. She concluded with a big, "YA?" She was looking for a reply. She wanted a reply to a bunch of words that I did not understand.

At that point I had two choices. I could use my meager German language knowledge and tell her that I really did not understand her OR I could just say, "Ya!" and go on. So which one would you choose?

With my biggest smile I picked up my flag and said, "YA...YA!!" and I walked away.

Walking back to the car I wondered what I had just agreed to. Perhaps...

(1) I agreed with her that, like everyone else, I was a great German Wold Cup fan OR...

(2) Maybe she was telling me just how stupid it is that I, like all these other crazy people, are spending their money on these stupid flags for a dumb sport.

All I can say is, "YA!" Go Deutschland in the World Cup" and if you see a blue car running around Westfield in a few days flying a German flag, please nod your head with me, smile, and say, ""YA!"

Finding Food in Wuppertal (Carol)

2010-06-29T17:13:00.003-04:00

Last night we drove to Wuppertal, the town in Germany where Eric’s dad was born and lived until he came to the states at age nine. Since we were blessed to have a navigation system, we were quickly able to find the street where Gunther lived, a steep strasse with beautiful old buildings curving around the bend. After enjoying the moment, we decided to enjoy some dinner in Wuppertal. A restaurant was not so quickly found, however! We drove through downtown, down by the river and saw the Schwebebahn (we rode that today—it’s like an elevated tram that hangs under its one track which is suspended over the river; it swings sideways when it goes around curves!) We couldn’t find any of the cute restaurants that were so plentiful in other cities.

Finally, we found a spot where we thought we could walk to a café. As Eric parallel parked, we noticed two guys sitting on a nearby bench laughing at us. (I think the laughing was due more to the beer they were drinking than Eric’s parking—everyone parks on the sidewalks over here!) As we got out of the car, they came over to us and started up a conversation, all in German, of course. When Eric said, “We don’t speak much German, English” the reply was “Ohh! 4 to 1!” (The score of the recent Germany v. England world cup game) When I tried to clear up the misconception, “No, we’re not English, we’re American,” the second guy replied, “Oh, sorry for you!” (He meant sorry, the U. S. is now out of the World Cup since we lost to Ghana.) Then the first guy proceeded to tell us in very broken English all the places he’d been in the U. S.--Las Vegas, L. A., the Grand Canyon (“BIG”) and Bryce Canyon (“not so big”). The smell and their slurred speech made it pretty clear that their current bottles of beer had not been their firsts. When they asked us what we were doing here, Eric told them about his dad and said we were looking for a place to eat.

Guy #1 to Eric: Oh, no! You don’t want to eat here! We live here. Ghetto! Walk around the corner and go about ten minutes to city center.

Guy #2 to Carol: You have navigation system? Drive car to Landhaus Dreyer! Food is (puts fingers to lips and pulls them away with a smacking sound). You go there.

Guy #1 to Guy #2: They can walk! Only 10 minutes!

Guy #2 to Guy #1: No! They drive!

As the two Germans began to argue over where we should eat, I decided that wherever we ate, we weren’t leaving our car there with two drunk guys who knew we had a nav system in our rental car. By now Kristen had our map out and they were both trying to show us where to go to find a nice dinner. Guy #2 scrawled out a street name on the back of the map and I spelled out the restaurant name I thought he had said. He nodded and grinned. We hopped in our car and Eric shook their hands and thanked them for being so friendly. “No,” laughed guy #1. “Not so friendly, just drunk!”

We drove away, a bit relieved, and still hungry. In the front seat, Kristen was clicking away at the GPS which shortly responded with, “Calculating route.” “Hey!” she cried, “The place is legit!” “What place?” we asked. “Landhaus Dreyer, the restaurant those guys told us about! It actually shows up on the GPS. Let’s go there!”

Now would you go to a place recommended by two inebriated strangers who mostly spoke a language you didn’t understand in a non-tourist city where you’d never been before at 9:00 at night?

Well, you know us. As we followed the British-sounding directions we laughed to think about what sort of place this might be if we ever did find it. To our surprise, about eight minutes later, we pulled up in front of a very nice German restaurant where we were ushered to an outdoor table under trees glowing with lights and paper lanterns. It was managed by a mother and her twenty-something daughter, our waitress, who switched from German to flawless English when she met us. It turns out she was studying Anglo-Germanic linguistics and had done an “exchange” year in Minnesota (“a one-horse town with five churches!”). We had a delicious dinner with gracious hosts at a great place! God is ALWAYS watching over us!

A day in the Black Forest

2010-06-27T17:11:00.008-04:00

It's time for....

You guessed it!

Another picture update!!

(So I'm sure you can guess who's writing this. I'll give you one hint: eldest daughter whose name starts with "K.")

Anyway....

We are in the Black Forest of southern Germany! After taking the Autobahn here, we are staying in a small town called Schiltach. It is VERY cute...

And this is our hotel!

It's run by an American woman and her German husband (who is a chef). While we have so much enjoyed being in Europe and experiencing the culture here this month, it is nice to talk to an American who understands why we would like ice in our drinks and why we keep looking for "flat" water (or my favorite term for it: water with "no gas"! hahaha). (On a side note, it is never good to hear "fizzzzzzz" when you open a new bottle of water. We have accidentally purchased at least two bottles of carbonated mineral water, and the stuff pretty much tastes like Sprite without the sugar. ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. No wonder they drink a lot of beer over here! haha) The couple has been great, and the hotel couldn't be any more wonderful.

Its superbness (if that is a word) was only matched by our day today. We went to another little town about 20 km from here called Triberg (pronounced "Tree-berg") and hiked up to a waterfall and through the woods some. Then, we had lunch at this neat place right by the lake and got to watch duck drama (the male was chasing the female and WOULD. NOT. LEAVE. HER. ALONE. AT. ALL.) while we ate Spatzle and potato soup and some traditional French thing that looked like pizza with alfredo sauce.

Then, it was about 5 pm and the Germany-England World Cup game was on. We have caught as many games as possible and as we are in Germany now, we definitely wanted to see this one! But, as our hotel was still 45 minutes away, we figured we'd miss it. Oh well.

As we were driving home, we saw the "Rodelbahn." Lisa, the woman at the hotel, had recommended it to us and we wanted to check it out. Basically, it's a rollercoaster-like thing on the hill. Sounded fun to us! So we pulled in, and guess what!?!? They had the game on there! WOOOOO!! So we ended up watching the last half of the game with 50 Germans, who were obviously thrilled with the outcome. Since the win, people have been driving around town honking, yelling, waving flags out their car windows, hanging flags out their house windows, etc. Excitement kind of like when Butler was in the final few games of the NCAA tourney, but German-style. Pretty cool. We've decided to get some flags for our rental car :)

Anyway, back to the Rodelbahn. It was WAY fun, but I'll let you see that in the pictures. I wish we could bring all of you over here to ride it...it was that fun. We all went 3 times. :)

Okay, it's nearly midnight here and I need to sleep! I've had a cold these past few days so I'm taking lots of cold medicine and Emergen-C and trying not to miss visiting stuff over here :) But....sleep is probably necessary too, at least at some point.

Only 4 more days and we'll be back home! I can't believe it. SO going to miss Europe, but SO looking forward to seeing my Kiwi again.

And beautiful Miss Oreo.

And of course Gracie and Linus too.

Okay, off to bed!

Leaving Salzburg - Saturday, June 26

2010-06-26T17:42:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update from Eric.

We left Salzburg. Austria this morning and have just arrived in the Black Forest in southern Germany. The train ride out of Salzburg was great, the Munich train station is one to see, and I got to drive on Germany's Autobahn today for the first time ever. Dare I tell you how fast I got to drive? Any guesses?

We will post more soon. Tomorrow looks like a day to hike in the mountains!

Prayers for a great West Virginia mission!

The Sound of Music – Wednesday, June 23

2010-06-26T17:40:00.001-04:00

Written by Eric

My sixth grade teacher, Ingrid Bergman, (not the famous actress) was a Sound of Music fanatic. Perhaps she ingrained that love in all her students and even though that has been quite a few years ago, I still love the movie. So as Kristen was planning our route back from Romania to London, she knew that if there was anyway possible, we should stop in Salzburg, where the outside scenes for the movie were filmed and where the actual Von Trapp family lived.

The unique part of our stop here is that we are staying in the actual house of the Von Trapp family. Yes, where Captain Von Trapp and Maria and their children lived. The house was abandoned by the Von Trapps in 1927, was seized by the Nazis shortly afterwards, was bought by a Catholic group after the Nazi regime fell, and then, two years ago, was bought by a family and opened as a bed and breakfast. And we get to stay here. How cool is that! Tomorrow we are going to go on a tour to see all the places in town where the movie was filmed.

(By the way, the oldest child of the Von Trapps was not Liesel as in the movie, but an older son, Ruppert. I guess Hollywood needed a love story in the movie and Liesel and her boyfriend Ralph made a better story!)

We learned lots of interesting Sound of Music trivia while we were here. Ask us about it. I found it all quite fascinating.

Sometimes You Get Better Than You Expect

2010-06-26T03:24:00.003-04:00

Note: We have been in Salzburg for the past 3 days and just finally got internet this morning. So, the next couple posts are about stuff that happened a few days ago. We'll catch up to now at some point! Later today we are headed to the Black Forest in southern Germany and I'm not sure if we'll have internet there or not. We'll blog if we can!

Tuesday, June 22 - Written by Eric (with picture comments by Kristen)

I always try to live by the adage: You will often get better than you expect.

Croatia was a place that was never on my personal radar screen. If you had asked me where I wanted to go on my sabbatical, it would not have been top on my list. However, by the insightful advice of a friend of Kristen’s, we chose to visit. If I knew anything about Croatia, it was because of the war that took place in the 1990s: the Serbain-Croation conflict. It was on the news regularly in those days. It was the start of the break-up of former Yugoslovia.

The past few days staying in Croatia, for me however, have been incredible. Kristen posted about the “Garden of Eden” like experience at Plitvice Lakes National Park. I don’t think I have ever been at a place that is more beautiful, peaceful, and God-breathed. It really can’t be described, just experienced. Following our day in the park, we drove to and stayed in Zadar, a city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Many of these old cities, like Zadar, are walled in, fort-like cities with narrow streets and buildings that date back to 1000 AD. Over these past days I got much more than I expected. Croatia is beautiful and the people helpful.

The view of the Adriatic Sea from our window (the Adriatic Sea is right between Italy and Croatia...the mountains in this picture are not Italy (unfortunately) but rather the Kornati Islands, which are a string of barrier islands just off the coast of Croatia) -

The sea organ in Zadar (as waves roll in, different tones sound) -

Enjoying ice cream (which is THE THING to do Zadar!) -

After leaving Zadar, we were scheduled to stay in Zagreb, a larger city in northern Croatia. We arrived later Tuesday afternoon, find our prearranged lodging, needed to take back a rental car, and get some dinner. We successfully found the address of our lodging for the night…But that is when I began to wonder about living by my adage because I was not sure we were going to get better than we expected.

The entrance to our lodging, as you can see, was adorned with full garbage cans. There was graffiti on the walls, and no sign anywhere that indicated where our lodging was. It was ironic to me that the place we were looking for was “Camera Felice”, which means “Happy Room” and we were not greeted by anything that even was close to “happy.” We opened the door and walked into a dark hallway. Coming around the corner was a shorter, older man, mostly unkempt and toothless, emerging from a dark apartment with his finger pointing up in the air. He wanted us to know something, I am sure, because the more confused I looked, the more he repeated himself, and the louder and louder he repeated the same words (in Croatian) and made the same motions.

I went upstairs to find…..nothing. I found nothing that appeared to be a “Happy Room.” I thought that maybe it was time to look for another place to stay. So back into the car we jumped and drove around town. A few moments to gather ourselves again, we decided we would make one more try to find our happy room. Kristen texted her contact there to figure out where and how to get in. No response.

Walking up and down the sidewalk trying to find someone who might know about the “Happy Room”, a woman emerged out of a window. She was on the younger side with a huge afro and big white glasses. She was talking to us. “What have we gotten ourselves into,” I thought. She invited us up to see the “Happy Room.” I still was wondering, “What have we gotten ourselves in to?”

I should always trust my old adage. I should learn to trust God more. What we ended getting ourselves into was a “Sobe.” Sobes in Croatia are rooms that individuals rent in their apartments or homes. We ended up staying in two brightly colored and modernly decorated rooms in the home of a young couple. They had all the things we needed, and more. A bed. Hot water. Clean towels. A small refrigerator. A TV for watching the World Cup. And even a gift for their guests.

We did get better than we expected. We found the “Happy Rooms”! I should learn to believe more often.

Tomorrow it is on to Salzburg, Austria. Seven hours on the train….I am surely looking forward to seeing the mountains!

A post from Croatia

2010-06-22T04:07:00.003-04:00

From Kristen --

Hello all!! I know we haven't blogged in a few days so I just wanted to let you know that everything is okay and we are alive!

We have one night left in Croatia before taking a train to Salzburg, Austria, early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. Then, we'll be safely checked into our hotel (which is the former house of the Von Trapp family from the Sound of Music!) by the time of the US vs. Algeria World Cup game!! We are actually on South Africa time here in Europe so we won't even have to figure out and calculate what time the game is on. Yes!

And speaking of the World Cup, it is HUGE over here. EVERY restaurant with TV's has it on. On our last night in Budapest, we were walking to dinner and stumbled upon a viewing party with probably 3000 Hungarians watching the France vs. Mexico game on a jumbo-tron in a square next to the Hungarian Parliament. The energy was INCREDIBLE! Never did figure out who they were cheering for, though, cause it was late and we were hungry! But still, it was very fun to watch them watching the game for even a few minutes.

But anyway, back to Croatia. After taking the train to Zagreb, we picked up a rental car and drove to Plitvice Lakes National Park. (Note: It is quite interesting to drive (or for Dad to drive, as the case may be) a stick shift car when you have only been driving automatics for years, in a city that you've never been to before, that has trams, buses, and cars all sharing the same lanes, and has virtually no street signs, and if there are any signs posted, they are in a language that you not only cannot read, but looks nothing like any language you've seen before, with words that have letters together that look like they should never, never go together!! whew. it was a challenge to say the least. But we have made it all around Croatia so far, which is good.)

So back to Croatia, again. Plitvice was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I have never seen a place like it anywhere. There are plenty of stories from our day visiting there (some good, some bad--but remember, we all are alive, okay, and healthy!!) but for now I'll just leave you with these pictures cause we're getting ready to get on the road and I am being summoned to get off the computer and into the car. See you in Austria!

Potty Advice

2010-06-19T01:52:00.002-04:00

From Kristen...

It has certainly been an adventure to travel in Europe. And in the past 3 weeks, I’ve learned a few things about how to effectively use bathrooms/toalettes/toilettes/WC’s in Europe:

1) It is nicest to use a train WC when the train is still. Moving is trickier.

2) Don’t flush at the station.*

3) The handle in a train WC, the one that you can conveniently reach while seated, is there for a reason. Don’t hesitate to use it, especially when the train is in motion.

4) Also, don’t stand up while the train goes around a curve. Standing up often requires that you let go of the handle, and remember, the handle is there for a reason.

5) Always have a small supply of TP with you. You never know when you will need it.

6) Train TP is more like paper towels than Cottonelle.

7) Never use a stall that has a broken lock no matter how badly you have to go or whether giant beetles have just run into the other stalls. Wait, find a different bathroom, bring a friend in to guard the door—SOMETHING!—but avoid the stall with the broken lock. Unless, that is, you want very shocked and slightly embarrassed company. Twice.

8) Train WC doors rarely have working locks. Beware.

9) No matter how many times you go to the bathroom before you get on the train and no matter how few milliliters of liquid you drink, you will almost certainly have to go to the WC quite soon after you get on the train. (Perhaps this only applies to me…)

10) Always carry change in your pocket for the bathroom. Rarely will you find a “free pee.”

11) But if you DO find a “free pee,” use it whether you really have to go or not. There may not be another one for a while. **

12) The handle in the train WC is there for a reason. Feel free to use it.

Okay, I think that is plenty for now. Sorry to those of you who were coming to the blog hoping for something insightful, cute, pretty, etc. That will come in time. But for now, I hope you appreciate this very practical advice!***

* Note for astute readers: I know that #1 and #2 seem incompatible and really, they are. Perhaps USE the WC while at the station and then FLUSH after you get going. Or something.

** Greta’s take on things: “Why pay 100 Forint (which is Hungarian currency equivalent to about $0.45) to use the bathroom when you can pay 180 Forint for an ice cream bar…and pee in the woods??”

*** Of course I’m not drawing on any personal experiences when giving this advice. Just things that I’ve heard. ;)

On the train again, just can’t wait to get on the train again

2010-06-18T17:26:00.003-04:00

From Kristen...

I knew when I booked the tickets for the 6:30 am train to Croatia that it would be a tough morning for us.

We are not early risers. Generally, we are night people. Most of you reading this probably know that Dad routinely stays up late doing graphics work, Mom stays up late grading papers, Greta does homework til fairly late, and I…well, I stay up late doing stuff. I am happiest when I get to bed around 1 am and get up at 8-9ish.

Did you catch that? Things are ideal for me when I go to bed late (or quite early, as the case may be) and get up mid-morning. Not 6:30. To me, the only good reason to get up that early is to get a chicken biscuit as soon as Chick-fil-A opens. And even then, they serve breakfast til 10:30, so why set the alarm so early?

Anyway, there are no Chick-fil-A’s in Budapest (or anywhere else in Europe for that matter…do you know what I’m already planning to do on the way home from the Indy airport when we get back?!?) but there was a 6:30 train from Budapest’s Keleti Pályaudvar station to Zagreb’s Glavni Kolodvor station (gotta love those names!) and we needed to take it.

Yes, I had considered other options:

1) Drive a rental car. No, all of the international car rental companies in Croatia folded last year so there is no way to do a one-way rental into the country.

2) Fly. I might have done this if we weren’t on a budget! Tickets ran anywhere from $400-$1200 per person. Ouch.

3) Walk. This option certainly was cheaper than the previous one and had the added bonus of helping to work off all the palacsintas (Hungarian crepes) consumed in the past few days. But, we opted not go with it as Zagreb is kinda far from Budapest. And, we have a lot of luggage. Still. Even after dropping off all those puppets.

4) Take a train later in the day. This would have been a super plan…if there had been any trains that went from Budapest to Zagreb in a reasonable amount of time. The 6:30 one was direct and arrived in Zagreb at 12:59 pm while other ones that left later in the day took MUCH longer. I even found one that took 19 hours through Bosnia and Serbia. Uhhh…

So the 6:30 one would be our train by default. Not ideal, I thought, but we’ll just go to bed early and get some sleep, get up, catch the train, and then sleep some more en route. It will work. Not the most perfect situation, but definitely do-able.

And yes, we did go to bed early! Any guesses on the time?!?

8?

9:30?

10?

Later???

Well…..Gret went to bed first just before midnight, followed by the rest of us by 1-ish. Oops. So much for getting a full night’s sleep!! The alarm came quickly at 4:30 but still, no problem, we thought, we’ll just sleep on the train.

Uhhhhh. Think again!

Just as we’d settled into our seats in our little couchette-like compartment (no beds in this one, though) and the train started to move, the conductor (who had already checked our tickets a few minutes before) returned. He turned to Dad and said two words: “No sleeping.”

Immediately, I was confused.

WHAT?

No sleeping? Huh? Why would that matter?!

I am tired.

I would really like to sleep.

So would the rest of the family.

And why would sleeping matter?

This isn’t even an airplane where you have to turn off and stow everything. It’s a train! And regardless, they let you sleep on planes!

The conductor, noticing our obviously confused faces, repeated himself. “No sleeping!”

Dad, still puzzled, turned to me. “Do you understand?”

What I thought and what I said were two different things. Of course I UNDERSTAND the meaning of “no sleeping” but I have no idea why that matters or why we can’t sleep. “Ummm, no…”

The conductor turned to his co-conductor, a female about my age, who shook her head at him. I don’t know what that means in Hungarian, but apparently something, because he quickly turned to us and said, “Ticket okay.” And then shut the door to our compartment and they both headed down the corridor.

It took a minute but quickly we all burst out laughing. No sleeping?!? How can he make us not sleep?? If I am tired (and I AM tired!) there’s pretty much no way he can make me not fall asleep.

Mom, who had been resting with her eyes closed at the time the conductor visited us, mentioned that she wasn’t sleeping but just resting her eyes. Okay, normally that would be fine Mom, but NOT ON THIS TRAIN! You look like you’re sleeping! And that is not allowed! You can only rest your eyes one at a time! But then there’s probably no winking on this train either, so even that may not work!

We never did figure out what he really meant, but we certainly had a good laugh thinking of all the things he could have been referring to.

I’m sure he didn’t mean “no sleeping.”

But if he did, then he’s not very good at enforcing the rule, because as I’m typing this (still on the train traveling though a station called “Siófok” in western Hungary) the other three members of the family are….shhhh…sleeping!! Or perhaps they’re merely resting their eyes. Yes, surely that must be it, because I’m sure they would never partake in such a forbidden activity as SLEEPING!! ;)

The Next Four Blog Entries

2010-06-17T18:44:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric

Oops...I forgot to write that the next four blog entries, though posted by Kristen, are written by me.

Sorry for the delay in getting the stories out to you but we had computer problems, that are now solved, as you will hear about below.

We are finishing up our time in Budapest and will be on our way to Croatia on Friday.

Thanks for your prayers and comments!

A Problem, a Text, Some Googling, and Star-King (June 15 – Tuesday)

2010-06-17T18:39:00.002-04:00

You have to understand the Lohes. You can’t be around us very long to know our great love of Apple computers. You also know that we miss all of you. That makes our need to share our experiences with you tantamount. We love your comments.

Arriving in Budapest after a 17 hour train ride, we discovered that our computer charger was not working. It was a somber moment as we thought about its implications. No more blog. No more comments. No more facebook to see what is happening with you. No more email. It was not a good morning.

We have a goofy phone with us. We can text but we cannot call unless someone calls us first. But the realization of a dead charger prompted Kristen to think about all the people she could text at 12 pm Budapest time. That is 6 hours ahead of Indiana time. So while your name may have passed through her mind, aren’t you glad she didn’t text you?

Kristen had a thought. Text Marie. (A friend of hers from Butler.) Surely Marie would get the text when she awakened at a reasonable hour and she would get back to us. What we did not know is that Marie’s phone would awaken her with every text. Marie was prompt to call us. A new charger for an Apple computer? No problem. A new charger for an Apple computer in Budapest? It was a challenge Marie welcomed!

Marie googled. Marie emailed. We waited. We bemoaned the possibility of no communication with you for the rest of the journey. Marie got an answer back and repeated what they told her, “Go to Star-King in Budapest. They can help you. They are located at a shopping center on Kerepesi út.”

But where is that? Well, after asking a young-looking guy selling sausages at the Central Market (where we were finding fruit), he told us it was right by the train station. You know so often God provides answers even before we need them. Two hours earlier we had arrived in Budapest. The first place we landed in this new country was…guess where? The train station! “Sure, we know where the train station is. We were there this morning.” Off to Star-King.

We found Star-King. It is an authorized reseller for Apple. They had exactly what we needed and we are again charged and ready to write and Facebook. And if you need to find anything in Budapest, just remember Marie. She can find it all, even early in the morning!

(Thanks, Marie!)

17 Hours On a Train in a Couchette (Monday – June 14)

2010-06-17T18:37:00.000-04:00

Do you know what a “couchette” is? I didn’t. At least I did not know what the word meant. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend 17 hours in one even if it was with three of my family members. But we looked on it as an experience. Actually it was the only reasonable way to get out of Romania. Plane tickets out of Romania are incredibly expensive. So the best option: 17 hours overnight on a train.

There are some options in traveling on a train. Seats that face forward. Seats that allow you to ride backwards. And couchettes. Couchettes are those little rooms on a train where you can fold the seats down far enough so that you can sleep on them. Since we were leaving at 7 pm and were going to ride through the night, we opted for a couchette. And I would opt for one again. However, it is quite an experience.

There are 4 person and 6 person couchettes. If there are not 6 in your group, and you are in a 6 person couchette, you share this small room (and I do mean small) with people you do not know. (I guess it is a good way to get to know people but…) Since we were going to be in this room for 17 hours, since we were traveling internationally (from Romania to Hungary), and since we were sleeping, we opted for the 4 person couchette. No strangers!
There was a small unit that cooled the air. There were three seats on one side and 3 on the other. There was a place to store luggage on the top rack and there was an electrical plug. So getting to spend 17 hours together “very closely” as a family was both fun and a challenge.

The scenery for the first 3 hours as it was getting dark was great. Climbing out of Bucharest on the plains in the east of Romania where the topography is flat, to the west where the Carpathian mountain range runs is quite dramatic. Dramatic also means challenging for trains and the climb up and down the mountains is quite a challenge.
Once we conquered the “changing to get ready for sleep” challenge, Greta and Kristen climbed up to the top bunks. Sleep was welcomed and rather somber. I think I woke up a bunch throughout the night but first really remembered the knock on the window of the couchette at 5 am.

“This is the porter. Get your passports ready. Get your passports ready.”

They checked our passports at 5:34 am at the Romanian border and again at 5:54 once we were in Hungary. I still can’t tell the temperaments of the border patrols. They always ask lots of questions and never smile. At least this time they didn’t ask if I was traveling with three wives. (See earlier post!)

I never really got a straight answer but our train was 3 hours late getting into Hungary. The extra time allowed for some extra dozing, folding up the sheets, stuffing away the comforters, packing things back into our suitcases, and eating cereal out of a plastic cup.

The dictionary defines couchette as a sleeping berth in a passenger compartment that can be collapsed to form a benchlike seat for daytime use. Eric’s definition: Couchette – a very small room on a night train; an experience everyone should have, at least once!

When No Words Are Needed to Share God’s Love (Monday June 14)

2010-06-17T18:35:00.000-04:00

We were headed out of Romania and had to catch a train in Bucharest. A 7 pm train out to Budapest, Hungary. Trying to find a parking place near the train station is difficult. The 100+ degree heat made finding a parking spot seem even more difficult and driving a big van makes it even more challenging finding a space. Carolyn was our faithful driver. I have seen a lot of crazy drivers, but Romanians take the cake for me. (Nice driving always, Carolyn, you are incredible! I must admit, you are one of those crazy drivers!)

Coming around the corner, there was a spot and there was a younger man standing in it. “Surely he is saving it for someone,” I thought. But a bright, big smile welcomed us into that parking spot. I stepped out and he approached me. I tried a few words to see if he was friendly or something else. The smile grew bigger. He pointed to my sun glasses and with one motion put his fingers together on his lips and then pulled them away making what I guess is the universal sign for “sweet!” he made the motion again. I guess he liked the glasses. I took them off. He examined them, made the sign again, and handed them back to me. I smiled and shook his hand.

I am rather good at figuring out what people are feeling and I was getting the feeling that I had made a friend. I tried some more words and he shook his head. I tried a few more. He made the same head motion. The using his fingers he pointed to his lips and to his ears and then shook his head. Ah, he is deaf and mute, I realized. At least at this point my not really knowing Romanian was no longer an issue. Sign language works in every time and place.

He pulled out his wallet. I thought, “This is a switch. A guy on the street is about to give me something from his wallet.” He pointed to three pictures. His picture. He wrote on the dirty window the number “32.” A picture of a woman. He made a motion to his heart. His wife. Same window. The number “24.” He pointed to her, his ears and his mouth and then shook his head. “Ah, she is also deaf and mute,” I surmised. Yes, he nodded his head. And then he pointed to a picture of a young boy, again to his heart, and this time he took his hand, pointed to his own ears and mouth and then made the hand gesture, you know, the one that indicated “blabby.” And he smiled the biggest smile as yet. He and his wife are deaf and mute but his boy is not. He pointed up in the sky. Now he was talking my language. I pointed up to the sky too.

For just a moment I though about how incredible this was. Here I am in Bucharest, Romania, in 100+ degree heat, standing in a parking lot talking to a man I just met, a man with whom I cannot speak and know we are praising God. That is the way it is supposed to be, isn’t it?

Our pointing up to the sky repeatedly prompted him to open his wallet. What was he up to now? From his wallet he pulled out two cards. Both were from his church and both were celebrating God. Though I could not read the Romanian words on them, he handed them to me. I looked at them and then looked at him. Together we pointed up to heaven. And then with the biggest grin yet, his fingers drew to his lips and away. God is “sweet.”

We had to get some food before the train trip so our “conversation” had to end. But I tell you for a brief time on a Romanian street two guys from two different sides of the globe got to celebrate the “sweetness” of our God.

A New Meaning for Transylvania (Saturday and Sunday – June 12 and 13)

2010-06-17T18:28:00.005-04:00

From Eric --

What comes to mind when you hear the word, “Transylvania?” Vampires and Dracula? That is what I always thought. But after a visit to Transylvania, I want you to change your image to something very much opposite. Transylvania is in western Romania. The image I want you to have now is “the Garden of Eden.” It is a mountainous region with patches of trees, sheer cliffs, velvety green fields, farmers cutting their grasses with scythes, mountain top peaks, beautiful rivers, and castles. It is the kind of place where you just want to sit for a while and ponder how God could have made such a beautiful place.

As for the castles, we visited two. One named Peles (pronounced “pell-ESH”) and one named Bran (“Bron”). Peles Castle is an ornate, Tudor style castle built by a Romanian King named Carol I from the late 1800s until 1914. One of the unique features of the castle was that the King built different sections of the castle in the various styles of cultures from around the world. Interestingly, he believed that few Romanians would get to travel the world to see its style and culture, so he wanted to bring it to the people. At his own expense, he built this impressive castle.

The second castle was my favorite of the two: Bran Castle. It dates from 1212 AD and has a rich history. Built along one of the routes of the ancient world, it has links to an ancient just but fierce king. His reputation led the castle to be identified as Dracula’s home though the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, has never mentioned Bran Castle.

These pics were added with the help of Google...but we will add some of our own soon!

Colored Material and Tears

2010-06-13T15:19:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric on Sunday night - June 13

We have now officially finished our week of puppetry at the Mission of Mercy School. Wow, what a great week of learning and sharing with students and staff. 220 hand puppets and almost all of the 40+ mouth puppets were made into beautiful creations for God. While we would love to show you the faces of the kids who made the puppets, we are not allowed to post any of them on line. You can, however, see some of the puppets posted below.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent making puppets and constructing a stage. From 8 am until 6 pm busy hands were making great creations. By Thursday we had made most of the puppets and so we spent the last two days practicing and performing puppet songs and skits. It always amazes me how God can take people who do not speak the same language, can take simple colored material, and work it all together to change lives. All week there was great energy among the staff and students at the school. From kindergarteners to high school student, they all excelled at the making of the puppets. Seems like most of the people here focus so much on their academic studies (even here at the school) that they do not take the time for creative arts. And so this week, their creative side flourished.

Thursday early afternoon was the time for the staff and the Lohes to practice a couple of songs that we would present for the children. We decided to do two songs that we had brought, both of which were in English. We tried and we practiced and practiced but we were having trouble getting all of us English and Romanian speakers to get the English songs correct. But as God so often does, He uses someone to make a suggestion that just makes everything work well. We practiced the song again. I don't know if this time somehow it let out all the stress of the week or it was such a neat thing to finally experience people from across the globe together praising God, but this time the puppets sang and danced.... and the humans cried. It was indeed a beautiful God moment of joy, unity, and satisfaction.

Thursday afternoon brought lots of the younger children and Friday morning brought many of the older ones. We acted out the parable of the Good Samaritan with hand puppets, did a mouth-puppet skit in Romanian about not littering and a song about frogs, used mouth puppets for the staff to do two English songs, and finished off each show with a Romanian song entitled "Isus Iubeste", celebrating how much Jesus loves us. (You'll get to hear it when we get back!)

So often God uses the simple to teach us the most profound things in the world. It happened again this week. Beautiful colored material offered to God by the people of CrossRoads is now changing the lives of children here in Pitesti. What a great and awesome God we serve! For this, the Kingdom will never be the same. Thanks for all your sewing and prayers!

What is better than the song Numa Numa?

2010-06-12T16:14:00.003-04:00

Do you remember the Romanian song NUMA NUMA? With regards to that song, there are few things better than what happened today. We got to hear NUMA NUMA played here in its home country Romania. Enough said! (Not familiar with the song? Just ask Emma Glover to sing it for you!)

What Not to Carry Across a Romanian Parking Lot

2010-06-11T06:03:00.003-04:00

From Eric --

One of the things that Carolyn commented about when we arrived was the extraordinary number of stray dogs in Romania. You know how that goes. Comments like these are always based on the eyes of the beholder. Stray dogs. One here and one there, I thought. OK, I can handle that. I often see stray dogs here and there in Indiana. Wrong. In the states, most households own a dog. In Romania, few own dogs. However, all parking lots have their stray dogs. So do shopping centers and schools and roadways and parks and streets and alleys. Lots of stray dogs. In fact Carolyn has been bitten 5 times since she has been here for 15 years. Given my astute mathematical skills that works out to once every three years. Not good odds for Carolyn but since I will only be here for 9 days, I am rather safe. (You can figure out the odds, if you have nothing else to do!) Rather safe I thought……. Really low odds of getting bitten. Low odds I thought until last night…..

Last night we decided to walk to the local grocery store to get one of those baked chickens for dinner. Aren’t they great and quick and easy? Just the same way here in Romania. We picked out 2 nice juicy ones, they got wrapped in paper, and put in a plastic bag. Yummy and hot!

As we got to Carolyn’s parking lot, she saw some of her friends that she wanted us to meet. So we stopped to meet them. Not wanting to push my odds with the stray dogs, I always take the circuitous route avoiding the most stray dogs. Standing there doing the common introductory courtesies, “Hello” and “Great to meet you”, and “Why are you here in Romania?”
Here is the pressing question for this story: Do you know what you do not carry across the parking lot in Romania?
As the conversation in the parking lot proceeded, I noticed something. Dog after dog after dog was getting up and walking closer and closer to me. I now know what you don’t carry across a Romanian parking lot: Two, hot, juicy, cooked, smelly, yummy chickens. Do you know what stray dogs like more than ever at dinner time? Cooked chickens are at the top of the list. No, I did not get bitten and neither did Carolyn. But my greatest accomplishment last night was smuggling two cooked, deliciously smelly chickens past the parking lot stray dogs. (OK, OK, we admit, we saved the chicken skin for the dogs and well after I went to bed, Carol, Kristen, Greta and Carolyn threw the chicken skin out the window to the dogs. Maybe they will remember next time and be nice to Carolyn the next time they get ornery!)

Note from Kristen: Tomorrow morning, we head into the mountains near Peles (I think). Internet access may be limited so if we don't post for a couple days, that's why! But I'm sure there will be many good stories after that. Stay tuned! :)

Returning Hardware in Romania

2010-06-11T02:07:00.002-04:00

From Eric --

In Indiana land, when you have to get some hardware, you have three main choices. I don’t even need to mention them. (If you don’t know, volunteer to fix the sink the next times it leaks and you will easily find out the answer.) Today I went to take back some material that had been purchased for the puppet stage that needed to be returned. The name of the store here was OBI. It was a great store but a bit eerie. This store had one predominant color. Lowes is blue. Menards is green and red. And Home Depot is bright orange. OBI is all one bright color. One bright color. One color that pervades every cart, sign,
advertisement, clothing of the employees, and floor. Bright, ever-present orange.

The last time I returned something in the states, it was a rather quick, two minute, “sign here and we will return it to your credit card” transaction. Here it was a much longer process. Each item was checked and rechecked. Each item was hand written down on a paper with all the serial and skew numbers. Then, they called the manager of each department to come up to the return desk to approve the returns. Kind of a lengthy process. But the time was so worth it as I learned about how great it was to participate in this process today.

Following the fall of communism in 1989 here in Romania, home supply stores were not in existence. And they were not around for many years later. Here one could not just decide to do a home repair project on Saturday and go down to your local orange store and get what you need. You had to plan and wait and wait. Only recently had OBI, a German based store, come to Romania. And even more recently have they allowed you to return things for exchange or credit. Carolyn told us that 15 years ago when she came here it she needed a light bulb, you could go down to the local store and see if they had any light bulbs. If they did, then you had to test it in the store because you were not allowed to bring things back (even if they didn’t work).

So what seemed like a rather routine process today really was a great experience of a freedom that is new for Romanians and should always be cherished as a blessing for those of us in the states who can jump in the car and get or return whatever you need today at your local orange, red and green or blue store.

Prague and Romania (so far) in Pictures

2010-06-09T10:22:00.009-04:00

Time for the second patch of photos!

Greta and me in Prague. This was taken shortly after we arrived. We just couldn't get over how cute all the buildings were!! From here, we went off to find a traditional Czech dinner.

This is Greta's Czech dinner: bits of pork with cream sauce and dumplings.

Mom and Gret in the kitchen of our apartment in Prague.

The day we arrived and the our first full day in Prague were rainy and cold. Nevertheless, we went out to enjoy the city. This is a typical Czech street. SO CUTE!!

This is Wenceslas Square which used to be (a looong time ago) the equine market. Since then, it has been the site of many revolutions and protests, including the Velvet Revolution in 1989 where 250,000-300,000 Czech filled this square.

At the top end of Wenceslas Square sits the Czech National Museum (see previous post for a picture). Inside, the ceiling looks like this:

It has rooms and rooms full of rocks, minerals, paleontology stuff, and stuffed animals.

The next day was beautiful, sunny, and warm. This is Dad standing by the Vltava River with Prague Castle in the background.

Old Town Square:

We took a walking tour of Prague Castle one afternoon. Our guide was a guy named Colin, who was originally from Scotland. At one point while we were walking between sites, he asked me where we were from. "Indiana" (I have learned that I shouldn't respond "America" as our accent has already given that away! so Indiana it is.).

"Indiana, really?" he replied.

"Uhh, yes.... my Dad's family is originally from Germany, but....."

Colin: "Ah, so you are German."
Me: "Well, uhh, yes kinda."
Colin: "So you're not from Sweden? You look Swedish."
Me: "No, not from Sweden."
etc....

At the end of the tour, he was saying goodbye to everyone and turned to us and said, "Okay, goodbye Swedish-looking Americans! Enjoy Prague!"

I thought this was fairly funny and amusing. Not sure if it will be funny via the internet, but it was definitely funny in person. Since then, Dad has been occasionally using a fake Swedish accent and referring to some (unknown and definitely made-up) great-cousin Sven. I'm sure you can picture that exactly. ;)

Anyway, the tour was very informative and interesting. Prague Castle is huge and it took about 4 hours to tour it. About halfway into the tour, we stopped for a break to get food, drinks, use the WC (bathroom), etc. As Colin gathered us at the end of the stop, a woman came out from a store, handed him a package of almonds, smiled, and went back in her store. I didn't think much of this seemingly simple exchange until Colin explained its significance.

As Dad has said in previous posts, the fall of communism only happened 20 years ago, so the thinking that comes with that kind of existence is still very prevalent in the Czech Republic. While we, in America, understand "commission", Czechs really do not (or do not understand it very much). Apparently, Colin had previously talked to the woman shop owner, asking her if he could have a free snack since he encourages over 50 tourists a day to stop in her store to buy snacks (meaning a lot of business for her!!). "No" was her quick response. Really? She couldn't spare a small bag of almonds when he brought her several hundred Crowns of business every day?? Well, by communist thinking, no. In fact, she didn't really even want all that extra business! During communist times, everyone had a job and was paid a certain amount no matter how much work they did, how well the business did, etc. So that thinking still exists. If Colin brings her so many more people, that means a whole lot more work! She doesn't really want extra work, and doesn't really link extra work with extra pay. He then explained that she must have reconsidered, and decided to give him the almonds anyway. Slowly, the thinking is changing. It has been so interesting to see how communism has so greatly affected eastern/central Europe, and continues to affect it now, even after its fall.

A view of the city from Prague Castle:

Mom at one of the gardens at Prague Castle:

St. Vitus Cathedral, which sits at the middle of Prague Castle:

The inside of St. Vitus Cathedral:

Mom and me at St. Vitus:

The famous "mille fille" (aka chocolate chick-peas!! haha):

A view of Prague Castle at night from the top of Petrin Tower:

Petrin Tower. It is a 1/5 scale version of Eiffel Tower. Supposedly, the top of it is at the same height as the top of the real Eiffel Tower in Paris....but in Prague, you must count the hill it sits on too!

After Prague, we took a plane to Munich (see the story about Dad's supposed 3 wives) and then another to Bucharest. This was taken the next day in Pitesti at the school where we are working on puppets!

The school sits up on a hill and has a great view of the city below it. Also, it has some of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen.

This is Gret, Mom, Carolyn, and me during our lunch break on Monday

We have taken so, so, so many good pictures of the kids this week and I would love to post them. However, by Romanian law I am not allowed to. So instead of pictures of the kids, here are pictures of their incredibly cute, incredibly creative, incredibly amazing hand puppets!!

Okay, it's nearly 6:30 pm here and we're headed to dinner before going to a show (not really sure what type of show though - I think it might be Romanian school kids doing dancing or something, but I'm not really sure).

But before I sign off, I just have to say how much WE MISS YOU ALL!! It has been great getting to see everything and I have loved being here and meeting people, but I really, really miss you guys at home. (Oh, and I miss Chick-fil-A too. Anyone have a good method for overnighting chicken sandwiches halfway across the world??) Thank you for all the comments! WE LOVE YOU! :)

And here's the post for Sophie, Mandy, Rebecca, and Emily

2010-06-07T06:38:00.003-04:00

(So this post is specifically for Sophie, Mandy, Rebecca, and Emily from Mom's class this year, but.... if anyone else wants to read, go ahead :) )

S, M, R, and E:

Here's the picture Mom took for you in front of the Czech National Museum in Prague:

I think (actually, I know!) she misses you.

Soooo, have you figured out what JoJos are yet? Hint: we got them in Prague at the grocery store.

Let me know if you have a guess! :)
See you at the end of the summer!
-Kristen

Adventures in Passport Control

2010-06-07T06:31:00.001-04:00

From Eric (written Saturday night, June 5)

Getting off the plane in Munich, Germany, and transferring onto a plane to get to Bucharest, Romania, we had to pass through the Passport Check. Carol went first. The guard asked her all kinds of questions.

“So where did you come from? How many days were you there? Where are you going? How long are you going to be there? What is your purpose for going?” The questions kept coming and coming.

“Well sir, I came from Prague, (or was he wanting to hear Indiana?) Was it 2 days or 3?” Carol wanted to make sure she got the correct answers lest she get detained. She must have gotten them right.

“Go on, Mrs. Lohe.”

Kristen was next. He scanned her passport, asked “Was that your mother?” and sent her on. Then came Greta. Very similar to Kristen’s. Just one question.

I was up next. I gave the guard my passport, with a smile. No smile came back.

“So you are Mr. Lohe?”

“Yes, I am” Now I was waiting for the typical questions. (See above….)

“And so Mr. Lohe, I see you have 3 wives?”

“No, not three wives.”

“Yes, Mr. Lohe, you have three wives!”

Now what would you do? Give the man in the impressive uniform the answer he was looking for or give him the correct information? He wasn’t even smiling.

“No sir, I have three women. (Now, that doesn’t sound quite right, either?) I have only one wife.”

“So you don’t have three wives, Mr. Lohe?”

“No sir.”

“OK, go on. Good day.”

So now it is off to Romania, our long awaited destination, a 2-hour flight to Bucharest…(with my three “wives!”)

I Think I Just Ordered Chocolate Chick-Peas with Cherries for Dessert

2010-06-04T18:22:00.004-04:00

From Eric - Friday evening, June 4

I am finding that it is not always helpful here in Prague even when your waiter speaks English. English is still hard to understand especially when your waiter has a very thick Czech accent. We were caught off guard tonight as we were finishing dinner when the waiter asked if we wanted dessert.

"Well, yes, that sounds good. What do you have?"

He brought a menu. As I scanned the menu I came across a few words that I did not know "Mille Fille", one that I recognized "cherries" and one that looked a lot like the word "chocolate."

"I think I will try the Mille Fille," was my response. Chocolate and cherries sound good together.

"Just what is Mille Fille?"Greta asks.

And with a small smile erupting from what was an extremely stern face all during dinner, our waiter said,"That is one of my favorites. That is made of....." The next words that came out of his mouth were in English but unrecognizable to us as he spoke them in his deep accent. Not wanting too be the difficult traveler, we nodded, "Yes, we will try one."

He left and we looked at each other and at the same time said, "Did he just say what I think he said? I think that we just ordered chocolate chick-peas with cherries?" That is surely what it sounded like."

Fortunately it was chocolate gingerbread cake with cherries and whipped creme cheese. Yum! It was great!

By the way, you may or may not know that waiters here in eastern Europe get paid by the hour and not by the tips. While American waiters are glad when you leave so that other people can come so they can get more tips, here in eastern Europe they get paid by the hour. The longer you stay, the less work they have to do and they still get paid the same. Now you can choose to tip here, but it is not expected.

It is time for bed. We walked for 13 hours today throughout the city for probably 11+ miles. I am tired and by the way, if you were wondering, I never did get to see even one chick-pea in all of Prague.

Keep the comments coming, please. We love reading them! Tomorrow night it is on to Romania.

A Repost from Carolyn in Romania

2010-06-04T03:41:00.000-04:00

Carolyn said...
I'm enjoying traveling with you via blog! Reading and commenting on blogs is new for me so here goes! Can't wait to hear even more about your journey - sorry that the baggage is so cumbersome. We're so looking forward to your arrival here - the kids are excited! We have the photos on the bulletin board and are getting everything ready (I hope!)! Keep writing - we're praying! Carolyn

And now, for the first round of pictures...

2010-06-03T18:15:00.005-04:00

From Kristen --

Okay, so here is the first batch of pictures. Among the four of us, we've taken over 4000 pics already!!

(okay, I am completely guessing on that number, but I just spent half an hour clicking - JUST CLICKING! - through them, deciding what ones to post...so I don't think that 4000 is much of an exaggeration!)

Anyway... here goes!

Okay, it quite late here and we have a full day tomorrow - potentially two walking tours which means 6 hours of standing/walking/listening/learning/loving Prague. :) More pics of Germany and some of Prague coming sometime!

We are having a super time here, and often still can't believe we're really here. Really! It is still crazy to think that we are in the Czech Republic! A former (uhh, just 20 years ago!) communist country and such an incredible part of Europe. I can't help but say how beautiful it is here, over and over and over and over. I would say that I'm sure the rest of the family is sick of hearing that by now, but they keep saying it too, so there ya go: central Europe is beautiful.

Okay, now for some sleep so I will be awake enough to enjoy it tomorrow! Good night Indy friends! Enjoy the last several hours of Thursday! Friday is good already :)

WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SAY "BLUE BASKET" IN CZECH

2010-06-03T07:19:00.004-04:00

From Eric - June 3

We arrived in Prague via a 5 hour train ride last night and were greeted by rain and cool temperatures. Our venture this morning was to go to the grocery store. You did hear the word "venture" didn't you?? We had read that most everyone in Prague speaks Czech AND English...but not so true. We found a store like Meijer with lots of things. In Germany we could figure out some of the words on food because they were either translated into English or among us four we know enough German to make sense. However here most all the labels and signs are in Czech. Of course it is written in Czech! It is the Czech Republic... but we don't speak Czech. At all. Good thing that most food looks the same throughout the world!

At the check-out each of us had a blue basket that we were carrying. We never could find out where you get the carts. So up to the rolling check out we went. I set the blue basket on the belt thinking that the cashier could take the food directly out of the basket. No, No! Not here. A long, long sentence in Czech came my way. I figured out what her motions meant. I put my food on the roller. But then what to do with the basket? I would hold it in my hand until I saw the stack of other blue baskets. Nope, you don't hold blue baskets in Prague. Everyone in Prague except me knows that you put the basket under the counter at the beginning of the belt. Now it was not just a long sentence. I got fussed at in Czech. Not knowing that I was getting fussed at, I stood there and smiled. You guessed it, she tried again hoping that I was not really as dumb as it appeared. This time she used motions. I got it now. Blue baskets go under the belt at the beginning of the line. You probably already knew that from your red basket shopping days at Meijer. (I always use a cart at Meijer - the small ones are my favorite.) But for those of you who don't know about blue basket etiquette, just remember whenever you hear someone say to you something about "Modrá koš" now you know you better do something with your blue basket.

Keep the comments coming. We love them!

What a Difference 20 Years Can Make

2010-06-02T16:34:00.002-04:00

From Eric (Monday and Tuesday, May 31 and June 1)

For most of my life visiting behind the "iron curtain" was never one of my desires. When I was a teenager, visiting a communist country was never on my radar screen. Maybe it was because I never had the ability to travel there, maybe it was because my heritage and teaching was that traveling to a communist country was not a good thing or a patriotic thing to do, but mostly it was because westerners were simply not allowed to visit East Berlin and the surrounding areas. I had heard of the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin wall, and Check-Point Charlie but never had a thought about really being here. Today we got to stand at each of them and got to touch the Berlin wall.

For the past two days we lived in, eaten in, and traveled around East Berlin. For me it was very surreal. Germany has always been of great interest to me because my dad was born in western Germany (that visit will come later in the trip). However, visiting East Berlin for the past two days has been one of the most fascinating experiences I have had in a long time. After walking 10+ miles through the streets sometimes led by an incredible guide named Max from the UK and others times just wandering around, we learned much about the history of the Jewish people at a museum dedicated to them, about the holocaust, and about what life was life living in a communist city.

Maybe what was most overwhelming was that everything here has changed since 1989. People are now free; people have opened all kinds of businesses and restaurants, and everyone is glad to share the goodness of living in East Berlin today. When someone tells me that things can never change, I now will always think about the incredible, enormous changes that can take place in the lives of people in relatively short times. Absent was any evidence of the Church being alive here (of course you would expect me to be looking for this!) but I will pray, as I ask you to do too, that someday the changes that have started here will make its way into the hearts of these friendly and intriguing people and that all will see these 20 years as the gift of God to them and their nation.

Please send comments. They mean more than you can imagine when everyone is speaking a language that is foreign to us!

Rikard and 141 kilos

2010-06-01T05:28:00.000-04:00

From Eric --

“Are you coming to church? Here, let us take it all for you.” These were the welcomed words as we entered Hillsong Church London for worship on Sunday. It was a beautiful old theater into which hundreds of people were streaming for the 1 pm worship. Aside from the words of the familiar worship song and not trying to demean the sacrifice of Jesus for us, the words “take it all for you” had special meaning this time.

We had showed up at their building with 5 large bags of luggage and 6 other bags – all 141 kilograms that we have been lugging through the streets of London, up and down the steps and escalators of the underground subway stops.
For an hour and a half the people of Hillsong Church took all our bags for us, checked them in, and freed us from what has been quite a challenge. 141 kilograms equals 310 pounds. For an hour and a half we were free to stand and worship. For an hour and a half I sensed what it is like to have physical burdens lifted. For an hour and a half we got to worship without the worry of keeping up with lots of things.

When the worship ended and our next 20 minute walk to the underground was about to begin, when we all looked at one another and sighed a bit with the challenge again of maneuvering our luggage through the streets and down all the step, Rikard from the Hillsong Church says, “I’ll walk with you to the underground station. You’ve got a lot to carry and I can help you.” Thank you God for another gift. The luggage was back but the burdened shared. This young South African walked with us and carried a part of our luggage for the mile walk to the station, and not only to the station but down the many steps and waited with us until we were safely on the train. “Share one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. If they ask you to carry their bag for a mile, carry it for two.” All these words of Jesus’ kept streaming through my head. Thank you God for Hillsong Church and for Rikard.

Now you may be asking why the Lohes would be carrying 310 pounds of luggage. After all wisdom says there are 2 kinds of travelers – those who pack lightly and those who wish they did. The original plan was not for us to carry all this luggage. The plan was for us to send all the puppets and staging materials to Romania ahead of us. But the local post office could not guarantee it getting to our friend in Romania and UPS would charge us $804 a box. Multiple boxes = lots of money. So, nevertheless, we made the decision to carry all the puppets – 300 hand puppets, 50 mouth puppets, stage curtains and all the metal hardware for the puppet stage – with us. Five big suitcases and 6 smaller ones now makes sense though the 310 pounds is not any lighter.

We are now in Berlin for 3 days, excited for the days ahead and thankful for constant reminders of God’s providing for our needs. Rikard, His church, and great people all along the way – all reminders of His love.

We have arrived!

2010-05-29T17:17:00.006-04:00

We made it London!

Us at the Heathrow tube station

We arrived at about 9 this morning after two good flights - not much turbulence on either flight and only one problem in the Indy airport...apparently, it is always best to check your bags to your FINAL final destination, rather than just to the final destination on your ticket if you have two tickets.

Okay, that sounded super confusing and in actuality, it WAS confusing! So, to clarify: our first flight was on Continental and the second flight was on Virgin Atlantic. I had had to book two reservations because of the two different airlines. SOOO, I figured that we would have to pick up our bags in Newark and re-check them to London. This, I presumed, would be no problem because I had planned in a more-than-three-hours layover, so no problem, right? uhhhh..... Well, after an initial delay of 1 hr in Indy, I began to panic. Enter Continental gate agent to the rescue!! Who knew that Continental and Virgin Atlantic have some partnership that allows them to check bags through each other?!? Well, they do! We got it straightened out (which included Dad and me running from the gate to the baggage carousel, finding our bags, dragging all 5 of them - each at 50 lbs - upstairs to the ticket counter, and sprinting back out to the gate! we made it JUST in time :) ) PS: Adrenaline really does help you run faster.

So anyway, we got here, were happy to collect our bags (however, we were a bit less happy to drag them (what felt like) ALL around London), took the Tube to our hotel, and hopped on a double decker bus to see the city. It was very gray, cold, and rainy most of the afternoon, hence the raincoats and hoods in the picture below.

Kinda a bummer that our day to see London had not-so-wonderful weather, but we still got to see Big Ben (and hear it too!), Parliament, the outside of Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, London Bridge, London Tower, and the National Gallery. Mom especially loved the Gallery. I wasn't so hyped up about going in (art museums are not especially my thing) but it actually was pretty neat!

Okay, so I am pretty tired (pushing 36 hours with only a 2 hr "nap" on the plane) but I have to tell you this quick story. For dinner, we stopped in at this little cutesy place near our hotel. The beginning of the meal was filled with questions: "what is 'Rocket'?" "what about something non-alcoholic to drink?" etc, so obviously our waiter knew we were not from around here. At the end of the meal he asked us about it. I replied that we were from America ("yes, I figured that, but where...."), specifically Indiana.

Waiter: "OH! That's in the west right?"
Me: "Wellll, the midwest, but close enough"
Waiter (very strong accent): "So do you have guns?"
Me: "Huh?" (thinking that I MUST have misheard him, because surely why would he immediately ask me about guns?)
Waiter (still very strong accent): "Guns!"
Me: "Uhh..."
Waiter: "You know..." (makes the shape of a gun with his thumb and index finger)
Me: "Guns?"
Waiter: "Yes!"
Me: "Uh, no. I don't have any guns." (why is he asking me this???)
Waiter: "Well, I have a friend who lived in Texas for a while to practice his English and he lived near a prison. When the prisoners would sometimes escape, they would ride around on their horses with rifles, searching for the bad guys. They never found anyone, but they had a lot of fun!"
Me: "Ohh, um, yeah!" (but why did that story have to do with me???)

Come to find out, he figured Indiana was pretty close to Texas (both in the "west" I guess?), so surely we would also have plenty of guns laying around. (Umm, no.) We pointed out to him that no, we don't have rattlesnakes, and therefore don't need guns for protection of that sort, and told him that Indiana is actually fairly far from Texas and that we grow a lot of corn.

Okay, it is bedtime for me. Tomorrow, we're off to see Buckingham Palace (hopefully) and go to Hillsong Church in London. Pretty sweet! Then, it's off to Berlin. "See" you in Germany!

Puppets!

2010-05-15T11:26:00.007-04:00

So here's a few photos of the animal puppets before they get....ummm.... flattened (aka stuffing removed), put in bags, and packed into my suitcase. (wow, that sounds a whole lot meaner than it actually is!)

Wait, what?!? Oh, Mr. Horse?? that is MY grad cap!

The blog comes alive again!

2010-05-13T13:19:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm going to start blogging again to chronicle the adventures of the summer. This time, I'm not really going on a roadtrip, but a worldtrip! Seriously, oh my gosh, this will be crazy!

We're flying to London in just over 2 weeks, and then heading to east to Bucharest with stops in Berlin and Prague along the way. Once in Romania, we'll be working with kids at a school using puppets to teach life skills, such as not littering, not bullying, taking care of yourself, how to value those different from you, etc. Pretty excited about that, as well as seeing our friend Carolyn who has taught there for the last 17 years!

After Romania, we're taking the recommendation of my friend Monica who studied abroad in Budapest last fall, and we're visiting her city (yes, Monica--Budapest is YOUR city in my mind now :) ) and Croatia. Adriatic Sea, here I come! It has been far toooo long since I've seen the ocean.

Then, since Greta and mom are such big fans of "The Sound of Music," we couldn't bypass an opportunity to visit Salzburg...and even are going to be staying at the Von Trapp family's former house! Next, we'll take a train into Germany and visit the Black Forest. Dad's mom's family was from this area, so it'll be neat to see their neck of the woods (and after looking at the map, it will be WOODS, literally!). And then, Dad's dad's family was from Wuppertal, Germany, so we're driving up there for a few days to try and find the house he grew up in. And then??? HOME. whew! I think we'll be ready for a looooong nap.

And if you know me, you know how many pictures I take normally. Like of things that don't really need to be photographed. Like my shoes. And 10 million pics of Oreo sleeping in strange locations. So uhh, I can't imagine how quickly I will fill up my camera card in Europe. Anyway, all that to say... stay tuned! I'll post the best and spare you the ones of the airplane food, the sidewalk, and yes, my shoes.

Cristy guessed it

2008-05-24T14:11:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm feeling better--well enough for a day of drywalling yesterday (yay!!!) and well enough to go to Pensacola and hang out with Emily for the weekend.

Highlights so far? Seeing incredible lightening over several hours last night, getting to meet one of Emily's friends, and off-roading at Eglin AFB.

We're headed out to the beach now. I have lots of photos from yesterday (a 6 year old "stole" my camera (with permission, usually) and took LOTS of pictures...down the storm drain, of random cars, kids, some worker at another construction site, and so many of me. you likely don't want to see them all!), maybe I'll post a few later after I get my fill of sun and sand and ocean-smelling air (ahhh, how lovely :) ).

Things change--often quickly

2008-05-19T13:38:00.004-04:00

I'm still feeling weird today, so I'm hanging out at camp trying to get rid of this dizziness-and-yellow-icky-stuff thing. (sorry for being gross.)

It's funny how much your perspective can change in less than 2 weeks...

TEMPERATURE
-Two weeks ago, 60 felt warm, 70 felt awesome, and 80 felt hot.
-Now, 60 feels quite cold (yes, I wear a sweatshirt most evenings here), 70 is chilly, 80 feels nice, and only temperatures above 92 or so feel hot.

WAKE UP TIME
-Two weeks ago, getting up early was rising before 10. Sleeping in meant staying in bed til whenever I woke up.
-Now, getting up on time is 6:30. Sleeping in is til 7:30. Today (because of being sick) I didn't get up til 10. Oh. My. Goodness. That seems absurdly late.*

ALARM CLOCK
-Two weeks ago, my "alarm clock" was Kiwi gently (or sometimes loudly) rubbing against my door to tell me he wanted attention.
-Now, my alarm clock is my phone's "Xylophone" ring (first alarm) and then "Marimba" (a few minutes later).

MILK
-Two weeks ago, I had to kind of be forced to drink my milk at dinner. I always longed for sweet tea.
-Now, I crave milk--white, chocolate, whatever. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE sweet tea but I rarely get milk down here so when I do, it's glorious.

EVENING ACTIVITY
-Two weeks ago, I tried to watch Idol every time it was on and would usually take a walk with Mom or do something else with her or Dad or Gret.
-Now, DOMINOES!

BEDTIME
-Two weeks ago, I'd sit up in my room til whenever at night on the computer or finishing up stuff from the day. (Honestly, just over two weeks ago, I'd spend every night up til at least midnight finishing my last 8 papers of the semester. Thanks goodness that's over!) Then, I'd eventually go to sleep.
-Now, 9:30 rolls around and I'm ready to go bed. I usually don't actually go to bed then (the company of friends and our games of dominoes win nearly every time), but I strongly consider it every night. Some nights, sleepiness comes on closer to 8:30! How long ago was it that I wanted to go to bed at 8:30???!?

I'll have to keep thinking of other things. I'm sure there are more. Any times this has happened for you?

a boatload of photos

2008-05-18T22:04:00.002-04:00

(remember, I am in southern Mississippi, so the "boatload" title IS VERY appropriate)

To catch up on photos from the past week:

At the Mississippi River in New Orleans. It was windy and VERY sunny and therefore became very hot that day (think 95, much humidity, and being in a city)

Almost immediately upon getting into the city, we were hungry. Good thing we found this poboy shop! I opted for fried catfish and Cassandra had fried chicken salad. This was the beginning of our "All Fried, All Day Long" day....

On the way home, we stopped in Waveland and Bay St. Louis.

This is one thing that always haunts me whenever I see it: steps to nothing. Makes me wonder about the family that used to climb these steps to get into their house. Where are they now? How is their life? What is their story?

On Sunday morning between the two church services, we went to the beach. "Hey everyone, let's get a picture. This will be so fun!" And yes, it was fun. And yes, the picture did actually turn out okay! Yay for having perfected this "take-it-yourself" technique in Hawaii last summer. Guess we MUST go back to the islands so I can become a better photographer. ;)

So then, after church and lunch we headed to Biloxi Beach. Not the prettiest water ever (picture poopy colored brown--this became our joke all day) but it sure was fun to swim for hours with two of my favorite people. But before we jumped into the Gulf, Emily of course wanted pictures.

After swimming, we found this squashed turtle on the side of the road. After crying for its too short life, what else would three 20ish girls do? Take a picture, of course. (can you guess whose toes are whose??)

Second dead animal in half an hour: a horseshoe crab. Again, a brilliant photo op. (Special thanks to some random dude on the beach for taking the picture.) Also notable, Emily's and my "beating sticks." You know, she HAS taken land survival courses so she should know a good beating stick when she sees one!!!

On the way home, we saw this license plate. Again, Emily is awesome and (without missing a beat) knew what this was. "It's the Spanish version of James Bond!"

The next morning, we headed out to the home of the "apostles" (all their names are from Jesus's 12) and did some caulking.

Monday afternoon, Emily and I went to a drywall site.

The classic evening activity:

Tuesday morning: roofing!! I got kinda pink even though I kept reapplying SPF 30 every hour. :( But still, it was fun and I'd never been on a roof.

By the afternoon, I was even using a nail gun and putting on shingles! So much for being afraid of power tools. Power saws and screw guns last summer, nail guns this summer. Goodness!

Wednesday morning, Cassandra and I joined Tom, Ann, and Manny from the Lend A Hand crew to paint James and Tara's house. James used to be a Harrison Country deputy and he and Tara come over almost every night. Tara just learned how to play dominoes maybe 10 days ago now, but she's hooked :) and very good at it too!! She's awesome and I love having her come hang out. I'll really miss her when I leave. Here's me painting one of the bedrooms. (Another awesome thing about Tara is that she likes the same colors I do! Greens and browns fill her house and they're beautiful. :) )

Here's the painting crew I got to work with both on James and Tara's house and on Miss Abby's house later in the week: top is Tom and Ann, bottom is Manny and Cassandra)

Ann and Cassandra... the paint belongs on the WALLS!!!

This pole is filled with signs made by everyone who has come to camp. It's pretty neat to see how so many people have come and come and come from all over.

On Tuesday night, we found out that Ella had NEVER BEEN TO CHICK-FIL-A!!!!! Can you believe it?? I mean, sure she's from Boston, but she's lived in the South for more than a year now and in Key West some time before that. And still no Chick-fil-A! But you know what's worse? I knew Ella for a week before I found out that she'd never been to CFA and decided to take her there! And then on Wednesday morning I found out that Diane had never been to CFA either!!! She's from Canada so I can understand her lack of tasting the best chikin ever a little better, but still. Oh my goodness. OF COURSE WE HAD TO GO! What a tragedy to live without some Christian chikin in your life. My life is better because of the chikin. My the health of my heart? Wellllllll......maybe not so much better. But certainly my taste buds are happier with the greatness of CFA.

So on Wednesday, Cassandra, Diane, and I met Ella in Gulfport for lunch.

They're fans now!!!

And then, the saddest moment of my trip so far. Cassandra had to leave. Here, she's getting ready to go through security and she looks pretty happy to be getting away from me. ummmm......

So, I think I've picked up some kind of Mississippi germs or something. I've felt fairly crummy today. I'm drinking water like crazy and am not going to put on the heat in my tent tonight even though it's gonna get cold. (Yes, I do think 60 is cold now.) Hopefully, this thing will go away quickly so I can be useful for work tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll either be drywalling or painting at James and Tara's.

I've taken more than 600 pictures so far, which means I have enough for another "boatload" later. Maybe tomorrow it will be an "oceanload." haha

Time created by a thunderstorm

2008-05-14T22:49:00.004-04:00

Oops, no time (or energy when I DO have time) for blogging these past few days! But now, we're all stuck in the concession stand (which is a concrete block building) because there's a big thunderstorm coming...

Ooooo, doesn't THAT look nice??!!?! ummm....

Anyway... So now that I have some unexpected time, here's what's been going on:

Sunday: church twice; going to the beach in between the services; Emily came!!!!!!!; had lunch; went to the beach at Biloxi; swam for 3 hours; searched for cheap jet skis to rent (no luck--maybe in Pensacola next weekend?); laughed way too much to be allowed; found a horseshoe crab, a pelican skull, and a squashed turtle on the beach; grabbed a quick dinner at Taco Bell; came back for orientation; showered; played cards; and finally went to bed. It was cold that night (oh, probably about 60 but it felt cold) and so we shouldn't have left the AC on in the tent. But we did, and it was SLIGHTLY reminiscent of my trip here in January.

Monday: caulked a porch in the morning, learned how to drive quickly around D'Iberville in search of some people and trying to out-race others (haha ;) ), and then Emily and I went over to a different site to hang drywall in the afternoon (Cassandra went roofing), all 3 of us went to Sonic for a snack, then came back to camp for the evening.

Tuesday: spent the day on the roof ripping off old shingles, laying tar paper, and finally nailing new shingles. I'd never done this before (actually, I hadn't ever been on a roof before!) and learned a lot. It was fun and I didn't even mind the heat, but I did get kinda sunburned even though I put on SPF 30 literally every hour.

Wednesday: spent this morning painting the deputy's house, took Cassandra to the airport in the afternoon, helped Diane with dinner, and then headed out to help install a microwave with Jody and Leroy. Cool guys who know tons about how to do everything.

Okay, the storm warning is pretty much over (until the next round comes in from TX/LA) so I'm going to bed. I have tons of pictures to post sometime. Stay tuned for those! :)

Creativity in NOLA

2008-05-10T23:07:00.004-04:00

These t-shirts in New Orleans made me laugh.... I suppose trying to laugh about the levee failure is probably a healthy thing, though I don't think the first picture is what Don McLean had in mind for his song..... And perhaps there's some interesting political commentary in the second one?

And the last one?? Well, I dunno. I just thought it was silly. Makes me laugh every time.

Update: Days 1 and 2

2008-05-09T22:40:00.014-04:00

Yesterday and this morning we worked at Mr. Gilbert's house. He has Asperger's Syndrome and has a difficult time relating to people well, especially females. So at times, working for him was very tough and uncomfortable. But he really loved having us there and we were able to paint the inside of his garage. Before the storm he'd lived right near Biloxi Bay. In Katrina, he took 6-8 feet of rushing water (moving at about 14 meters per second) through his home . He decided to rebuild several miles inland near family. He'll be able to move into his new house by July. Right now, he lives in MEMA cottage that's a lot like this one:

These are much better than the FEMA trailers, but still they're not like living in a real house. So of course Mr. Gil's excited to move in and claims that his new house will be "second to none!"

Cassandra and I've become known as "The Painting Crew" (not exactly sure why other than we're willing to do it) and therefore were assigned to another painting job after we finished at Mr. Gil's. Actually, we're a great painting team cause she likes to do the parts I don't like (painting trim) and I like the parts that she doesn't (taping and rolling walls). After a most delicious shrimp poboy at Rusty's store, we drove around a little to see the rebuilding progress. There's still a lot to be done especially along the coast at Biloxi but there are definite signs of recovery!

For instance, this apartment building in Biloxi is right on the Gulf and looked like this one year ago (May 2007):

Today, they're rebuilding:

Also, there's less "Katrina blue" than there was the first time that I came here. I haven't been to Bay St. Louis and Waveland yet on this trip, but we're headed there tomorrow to visit and go to an art festival. We're also hopefully going to Mayfest in Ocean Springs tomorrow evening. AND, tomorrow's the day to go to New Orleans! Busy day! Then, Emily's coming over to hang out for a couple days and I'm super excited to see her.

I always meet some really incredible people on mission trips. Emily's one--I met her on my first trip here and we've kept up over the past year and gotten to visit each other and hang out lots of times. :) Maybe it's cause people who come do these kinds of things are just neat. Anyway, a group from Boone, NC left this morning and even though I'd only gotten to know them for a couple days, it was hard to see them go. It was a group of middle-aged and retired guys and they were just fun and incredibly willing to serve. This is the group that is Ed and Irene's first response team, which means that if another storm is ever headed for this area, the Boone group will leave NC even before the storm hits so they can be here within hours after the storm blows by. Some of them have made more than 20 trips to D'Iberville in the past 2 1/2 years and know so many of the residents very well. I was sad to not get to hang out with them more.

Diane is here again, too. I met her on my first trip to D'Iberville last March. She's from Canada and she and her husband come here for months at a time. I'd gotten to know her only a little bit before, but I'm getting to talk to her so much more this trip. Last night at dinner I found out that she lived in Africa for five years and taught at a boarding school for missionary kids. One of her daughters is still serving there! Diane's also awesome at dominoes, an incredible cook, and I'm excited to get to know her more over the next few weeks, you know? ;)

Before I left home I was so excited to come on this trip but also kind of nervous at times because I knew I'd be "by myself" (no friends from home here with me) for most of the trip. But God's been so incredible. He's been very evident to me through the people here and in the peace I've felt since I've arrived. The long term folks here have just been so welcoming and wonderful. Before I left Indy I figured they'd be great, but I was still nervous about how I'd fit in or survive the loneliness I felt would surely come because I didn't have anyone from home here. But I've really felt okay about being here for the rest of the month. I will certainly miss Cassandra when she leaves and I certainly miss everyone back home, but I feel so much better about being here "alone." Another cool thing: the first morning I woke up, it really hit me that'd I'd be here for so long. But when I climbed out of my tent, there was such a beautiful sunrise. I think it was God saying to me that yes, this was His plan and that'd He'd always be here taking care of me. It was really, really awesome. Isn't He incredible?!

(Click the picture to see it bigger-aren't the rays of light amazing??)

Guess what! We found tiny kittens under a FEMA trailer at Mr. Andrews's house (our 2nd painting job) this afternoon! Aren't they cute??? Mama, can I bring one home? ;)

So tomorrow, it's off to NOLA to get beignets, see the French Quarter, Tulane, the 9th ward, the eastern neighborhoods, and avoid Bourbon Street. Then, we'll catch the art fest on the way to Mayfest and then dominoes and/or movies with Emily back at camp. Maybe I should go to bed soon...

But before that, a few pictures:

At the fruit stand in Florida selling California-grown strawberries:

First CFA stop of the trip!

Cassandra at Pensacola Beach: (look, she's standing in the water in early May and not freezing!!!!!)

Caulking at Mr. Andrews's house this afternoon:

Our first 30 hours on the Gulf Coast!

2008-05-08T22:14:00.000-04:00

So we did safely make it to D'Iberville yesterday by dinnertime. We took a detour on the way to Pensacola Beach so Cassandra could see my kind of beach :) (a warm climate beach). She's in love! haha Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT awesome for her, but she did really, really like it. And I did too.

A couple of things from the past 30 hours:

1-We stopped for gas at a gas station just south of Birmingham that smelled like flowers. Much better than smelling like gas, and I just couldn't get over the fact that a gas station smelled so strongly like lovely flowers! I even made Cassandra get out of the car to take in the aroma. "Hey Cassandra, get out and smell this gas station!!!" I'm sure I sounded crazy. Gas stations usually aren't that good smelling. But I guess south Birmingham is different. (or maybe it's the fact that it's spring???)

2-Apparently, we looked pretty great driving down I-65....or at least that's what two twenty-something year old guys in a beat up dark blue pickup thought....

3-Just so you know, strawberries bought at a roadside stand in Florida aren't necessarily locally grown...Even when the sign reads "Fresh!!"

4-Chick-fil-A in Westfield is the BEST Chick-fil-A I've ever found. BEST.

5-Sara Bareilles's "Love Song" is played on every station, everywhere, all the time. (We've heard it at least 6 times in 3 days in 5 states, and we've only listened to the radio for a few hours.)

6-Rap is fun to listen to really loudly when you're sick of driving and can't find any station other than country. (And by the way, Cassandra has sweet rap moves. Ask her about them.)

7-The South still has fire ants. I'm teaching Cassandra to avoid them at all costs. ewww. I hate those things.

8-It is VERY windy on the Gulf Coast in May!! Very warm and very windy.

9-Dominos has been good. There are lots of "dominos regulars" here and so both nights we've played for a long time. :)

10-Ed and Irene are leaving for a few days next weekend and I'm going to be running the food prep and office!!

11-We painted the inside of a garage this morning, and for the record it is very hard to see where you've painted paint on a ceiling that already has primer on it and the light isn't good. You end up missing lots of spots. So yep, we'll be back there tomorrow finishing up that job and catching the areas we couldn't tell we missed.

12-Bed time now. I've taken a few (hundred) pictures so far. Hopefully I can post some tomorrow!

I'm having a great time so far and am incredibly glad Cassandra's here to experience everything with me. It's been so great to have her here to talk to, laugh with, and everything else. Yay!! :) Okay, I'm signing off so she can have some internet time too. Good night!

First stop: Music City, USA

2008-05-07T08:40:00.016-04:00

We got on the road yesterday at 8, after Cassandra got to vote and I said goodbye to my family. I will miss you all!! (and already do)

It's a beautiful morning!

This trip is full of "firsts" for Cassandra. Here is the first first:

A stop at the Bass Pro Shops!!

If I'm not allowed to enter the restrooms, how can I use them???? haha

I'd never been in the "Big Game" section. It was scary... What does she see??

We found "cheap" gas in middle Kentucky, filled up, and headed to Nashville. I wanted to take Cassandra to this little taco place near Vanderbilt that I had been to several years ago. Fortunately, I had taken 2 campus tours and kinda knew my way around. But we parked on the other side of campus, and even though I was a little turned around, we still made it to the San Antonio Taco Co. Mmmmm, my first cup of Southern sweet tea! Cassandra did like the food (yay!) but I think she even more liked the sign that read (in really bad handwriting) "We ain't dialin' 911" and had a (fake) gun hanging from it. I know that SOUNDS weird, but believe me it was really pretty funny. So lunch was good, the tea was good, and the signage was good. The walk back to the car (which I had gotten to park next to another Prius, so of course I was happy) was good--a little round-about way of getting there--and we got to see the Vandy medical center on the way!

Then, it was off to downtown Music City.

Welcome to country music central!!

This is for you, Suzanne:

I kept having to remember "This IS Nashville," especially as I heard country music blaring all across the city.... even from speakers in electrical boxes.

She was happy!

We walked all around to the Ryman, to Rocketown, to the Country Music Hall of Fame (still can't believe that the TWO OF US (who don't like country music) went there!), to the Gaylord Center, to the Nashborough Fort, and to the SA Taco Co. downtown.

We crossed the bridge over to where the Titans stadium is and got this neat skyline shot:

Then, we headed back to the West End area and drove through music row. I have no aspirations at all of becoming a recording artist, but it was cool to drive through anyway! To see the buildings of all the recording companies that I've heard of was pretty sweet!

Across West End to the Centennial Park where we found some really cute geese and the Parthenon!!

By now, it was almost evening so we headed down to Franklin to a historic site that I wanted to show Cassandra. We finally found the Carter house after missing a sign ("hmmm, no, I don't think the "Carter House" is where we want to go"), missed the right street, missed another street ("no, I don't think this looks like the right area..."), called Dad for the name of the site ("Okay, I guess the Carter House IS where we want to go!"), plugged the address into the gps in the Prius, followed her directions and missed the entrance to the parking lot, and then finally, finally made it there. The museum was closed but we still walked around a little bit and I called Dad for directions to a pizza place in Alabama while Cassandra was studious and read all the historical plaques and took pictures.

After that it was a quick stop at Starbucks (and they need to fix their bathroom door) and then off to Alabama! There was a "huge, explosively awesome" surprise that I told her "could take her thoughts to far away places" coming up ahead. (Thanks Dad for this idea that the thing is a surprise for visitors :) ) She said I probably enjoyed taunting her with the "surprise" even though I kept giving her clues as to what it was. At the Alabama border there was a "Rest stop: 2 miles" sign and I said "ok, get ready... 2 miles til your suprise!!!" She surely hoped that this super exciting surprise wasn't a rest stop. But nope, it wasn't a rest stop, it was a........

ROCKET!!!!

Now it's the next morning and we're off to catch some breakfast and get to Mississippi!!! yay! We should be there by at least 4 pm (central).

Lowest gas price of yesterday?? $3.35 in Columbia, Tennessee (too bad we didn't need gas then).

Signing off from Alabama!! Next stop? Camp in D'Iberville!! :)

Getting ready

2008-05-04T20:27:00.010-04:00

I'm packing and wearing the most appropriate shirt for the occasion:

"Cajun Yard Dog"

:)

35 hours left at home....

What should I remember to not forget???

Two, two, two, one, and a whole lotta stuff to file

2008-05-02T17:27:00.003-04:00

I filled two of these today. Never done that before! Two! Yep, I filled two blue books writing two essays. Two hours, two essays, two blue books.

One more exam to go.

Come 10 am on Monday morning, I will be free from homework for 4 months and free to move about the country. ;)

That's lovely.

I'm about to go file away papers from this semester. I usually keep most of my notes and such in case I ever need them again (because you never know when you might need to know all about globalization of fruit in Chile, or something else like that...). Don't know where I'm going to put the more-than-a-ream-of-documents (literally) that I had to print out for Latin America. So much for saving the Amazon from deforestation!! haha

(And-I-don't-know-why-I've-been-writing-with-hypens-a-lot-recently.-hmmmmm)

It's good to be (nearly) done. I think I need to get packing soon.

The best mistake of the week

2008-05-01T22:02:00.001-04:00

So I've decided to not rush things and just take my last final on Monday morning. That way, I won't be rushed tonight finishing up my three English papers, actually get some sleep, and get to prolong my school year by 3 days.... (yippee on that last one, haha)

This also means that I have a little bit of spare time!! So, the story of the best mistake this week...

Last Saturday I found the song "Crazy Beautiful" on iTunes and decided to get it. After all, I'd been singing it in my head for hours after hearing it on WayFM while studying for a Chemistry test on Thursday. It's rather catchy, and I obviously "caught" it because it stuck with me for two days! I was compelled to buy it so I could hear the REAL version in which all the notes are on key. (two days is a lot of time for the game of "Telephone" to happen with notes and lyrics...)

So I'm in iTunes and I click "Chasen" (the artist). I can buy A) an "album" of just the single by itself, or B) the single as part of the full album. Either way I'd pay $.99 for my one song. But if I pick the version that is part of the full album, I could come back and buy the rest of the songs for cheaper later on if I want. So of course, I picked the single-as-part-of-the-full-album option. But instead of clicking on "buy song" (to just get the one song I wanted), I accidently clicked "buy album." This may sound crazy to you know now (as it did to me just after I did it), but you see, it was pretty easy to do. The "buy album" button for the full album is in exactly the same place as the "buy album" button for the album that has only the one single. This was unbeknownst to me at the time, though, until it started to download to my mac. "13 downloads." 13?!?? THIRTEEN? Dear computer, you have got to be kidding!! Surely you must mean one! I only MEANT to get ONE download!! Not thirteen!! But alas, I had purchased all 13 songs...the full album.

I hadn't listened to any of the band's other songs... just the one that I had intended to get. So, now I've just bought a whole album of music that I have no idea if I'll like or not! Kinda freaked me out a little, cause this is not normally how I buy music. (Random buying of music by new bands just isn't my thing. usually. until last Saturday, I suppose.)

But (and here's where the "best" part comes in), you know what? I really like the album. I really, really do. It took a few listens to get hooked, but yeah, it's "caught" me just like that original song did.

Favorites? "If It Comes Down," "Crazy Beautiful" (the one song I originally wanted to buy is still one of my faves on the album), "Drown" (chorus of this one was running through my head all during my Chem final. I think this album is just good Chemistry music!! haha ;) ), "All Creation" (love love love this one), "History Tonight," and the hidden track "Shine Through the Stars." (Yes, I am aware that nearly half the album is my "favorite" :) )

So, that's how I made the best mistake of the week. Go check it out and take a listen. Maybe you'll end up choosing to make my same mistake. ;)

Wrong kind of spam

2008-05-01T11:45:00.005-04:00

I've been getting a lot--a TON!-- of spam messages in my gmail account lately. I delete probably 8 per day, which is a lot cause only friends have that email address. I love gmail anyway.

There aren't flashing or noise-making ads on there ever. There are text ads that are customized to display info about topics related to those in your emails. Basically, I think it picks up on keywords within your email and finds ads that match what you might be interested in. But those ads don't bother me cause they're easily ignorable. ...and sometimes funny. I found something interesting in my spam box yesterday...

(click the picture if you can't read what I've highlighted with red boxes)

Ummm, I think the clever gmail ad finder picked up on the wrong kind of spam!

Only one paper left

2008-04-29T23:41:00.002-04:00

Today has been a day full of writing papers (and having a great burrito for lunch) and I've listened to every iTunes playlist that I've made since December. Actually, make that last August. So instead of hearing the same songs over and over, I've been pulling out old records (haha, that sounds much better than "clicking on old(ish) songs that I haven't listened to in a long time) and re-enjoying music that I loved years ago.

...like Lifehouse's "No Name Face" album. Do you remember this one? Solid, thought-provoking lyrics and nice melodies (sorry I can't come up with a better description right now. If you had asked me to describe how Afghanistan's history affects its politics now or about America's internal and external spheres of influence...I probably could do that decently well. ...let's hope my professors think so!)

But anyway, here's one of those songs that I have re-loved today.

"I am falling into grace
To the unknown to where you are
And faith makes everybody scared
It's the unknown, the don't-know
That keeps me hanging on and on and on to you"

(I didn't know they played at the Olympics! Any idea what year?)

What music have you re-loved recently? Anything I should know about? (after all, I DO have a 12 hour drive coming up in a week and music suggestions are always welcome! :) )

This is really cool...er, cold....er, frozen...umm...

2008-04-28T21:53:00.006-04:00

This is really cool. I saw this somewhere weeks ago and still think it's a sweet video...neat idea and crazy that it actually worked.

Can you imagine something like this happening in Indy?!? What would be the equivalent since we don't really have train stations?

A 2-inch stack of "chest"

2008-04-28T21:45:00.001-04:00

So last Wednesday morning I went to the library to print some documents before class. I downloaded what I needed, set it to print, picked it up, and began to scan some other documents. My computer was fairly close to the printer and all of a sudden I noticed that the printer was frantically spitting out pages and pages of something. Oh well, sometimes people have large documents to print, so no problem, I thought. But after more than 5 minutes of frantically printing?? I was beginning to wonder. So, I went back over there to see what was up. Every piece of paper that it printed had only one word on it at the very top, centered, and in size 12 font: "CHEST." Huh???? Weird. But who knows. Maybe it was someone's anatomy project and they had to draw pictures and they wanted to print labels?? (maybe...?) Anyway, while I was trying to decide what to do (would YOU want to call out loudly in the library to see if "chest" is anyone's homework?) the printer kept going. Chest, chest, chest, and on and on and on. A couple other people had come up to the printing station by now and confirmed that no, it wasn't their homework, and yes, it was weird that the printer was printing so many copies of "chest." But stopping it?? Maybe I could just press "cancel." No, that didn't work. This printer was SET on printing all however many copies of "chest" that it was supposed to! It would print maybe 10 copies, pause for a moment as if catching its breath, and then begin with some more. So, during one of its breaths, I opened the paper drawer. Good thing, too, cause there was more than a ream of paper left in there!!! Who knows how long it would have kept going. All I know is that there was a two-inch stack of "CHEST" in the printer tray when I left for class. And I laughed about that for a long while. :)

The best use of resources?? Not at all. But kind of funny? Sure thing.

A bit of blogging advice

2008-04-26T00:41:00.007-04:00

Yes, I know I'm new at blogging. But I've learned one really important thing already...

Don't start a blog right before finals. Yes really, wait til they're over! Cause either the blog won't get enough attention or your homework/studying won't get enough attention. You can see which option I've chosen....

One week left! In 7 days, I will be free for 4 months!! And in 10 days I will be on my way to Mississippi and therefore will have something interesting to write about. Stay tuned for that. :)

And by the way, if you have any Katrina recovery related questions, questions about my trip, about New Orleans, Mississippi or the like, feel free to leave them here and I'll try to answer them soon!

Weird things

2008-04-22T20:52:00.002-04:00

So lacking something actually interesting to write about, I decided to blog about some weird things that have happened recently.

1) I had a dream about ranch dressing last night. Weird, huh? The even weirder thing is that I don't really like ranch dressing. It's okay, but I would much prefer blue cheese any day. So why ranch in the dream? Well, all I can remember is that someone needed something to eat and no one had any food. She was really hungry and everyone was sorry that there was nothing. But then suddenly, I remembered I had some ranch dressing in my fridge (which is true in real life, cause some came with my celery last week) and was running to go get it when the girl was gone and I woke up.

2) My bruise is still sore sometimes. Maybe you know the story of my incident with the ski lift chair over spring break? Or maybe you know my past history with lift chairs?? Anyway, one hit me pretty hard at the bottom of the mountain and I got this wonderfully dark purple bruise for the next 10 days or so. Lovely, I know. It's gone now, but sometimes I'll still feel it. Ouch. Weird, cause spring break was nearly 6 weeks ago.

3) American Idol was on tonight and I didn't exactly love it. Last week, so many of the songs were awesome and this week was just okay for me, dawg. haha ;) Four weeks til the finale! Four weeks til I'm crowded around a 6 inch TV in a tent in Mississippi with friends, all of us dying to see which David wins the whole thing. (cause dontcha think at least ONE of them will be in the finals?) (And by the way, I am so incredibly excited about going to Mississippi I can barely stand it!! :) )

4) And the fourth weird thing of the day: I got assigned another Latin America paper today--even BEFORE I turned in the last one! Are you surprised? Oh okay, me neither. Oh, how I wish paper writing was weird to me. But 30 papers this semester and writing's not weird or uncommon or anything. And with only 4 1/2 papers to go, they don't seem so bad anymore.

What weird things have you noticed recently?

umm, I'm really still here (just busy)

2008-04-20T23:15:00.004-04:00

Oops, no blogging in several days. I spent Friday clarifying info for my Latin America paper and researching about Afghanistan for my English paper. Then, (at least) 15 hours of this weekend were dedicated to the Latin America paper, which turned out to be really loooonnnng. (I still have no idea how you can write a thorough paper about the Spanish colonization of Mexico and Central America; the relationship between Anglo-Americans and Mexicans in Texas, social, economic, and political characteristics of Mexico's dictatorship and the Mexican revolution; the significance and consequences of NAFTA; the advantages and disadvantages of Mexican immigration to the US; and Hispanic migration to Indianapolis (whew!!) in a 6-8 page paper, double-spaced. yeah, I have no idea how to do that. So mine's...um, ...a teensy bit longer. But the exciting (?) thing is that I listened to nearly my entire iTunes library while writing this one paper. Yeah...)

Maybe I'll post something more interesting tomorrow. Something other than writing papers is bound to happen!

Pictures: hot off the press......um, I mean phone

2008-04-17T20:14:00.003-04:00

So I finally just downloaded pics from my phone from the last several months. And my favorites are.....

1) Back in the winter, my dorm room was pretty hot. No problem, cause I could usually just open the window.

But during the below-freezing

nights, I couldn't leave it open so I "installed" this little fan (with command hooks. don't worry, no dorm room walls were damaged) so I could sleep soundly on my top bunk.

2) Another pic of the fan.

If you ever need to hook a fan to a wall, feel free to refer to this (almost) "do it yourself" guide. haha (But see, I used my geometry skills to figure out at what angle the second hook needed to be.

and here I thought geometry was useless...... ;) )

3) A little Prius awesomeness for you, taken as Dad and I were leaving Snowshoe Mountain. Yep, 99.9 mpg for more than 15 minutes!!

4) Another one on the way down the mountain. Isn't this funny? (can you tell that it's a scarecrow?)

5) Such a lovely day! I took this one today on my way to Latin America class. Don't know if you can see it or not, but there are a lot of people out on the mall studying, playing, and just enjoying the sunshine. AND, the trees are starting to bloom! My English professor decided to have class outside today and it was super nice. 74 and sunny. Indiana's kind of nice in mid/late April. I think I like this month :)

And in other news, I got to talk to one of my Psych professors today about the possibility of being in his research group in the fall!

I miss...

2008-04-16T16:27:00.005-04:00

these kittens! I got to spend all last week with them, and now I'm back at school and... no cats. :( Yes, they were often in trouble. Yes, they often interrupted my homework cause they wanted to eat (like 20 times a day...literally). Yes, they frequently wanted to share my dinner (and usually I let them, haha). Yes, they kept walking on my computer when I was trying to do homework. Yeah, I had to scoop their litter box lots of times. Yes, life alone with 4 cats was interesting. But at the same time, I loved it. They are so sweet and certainly entertaining! Funny, too, and CUTE!!! I wish they were here to "help" me with my homework now. I miss them a lot. Gracie and I got to be good friends last week, so I know she misses me too. :)

(I discovered it's hard to take pictures of 4 cats when there's no one else around to help...)

(and what? no pictures of Kiwi? I'll see if I can remedy that this weekend.)

This looks nice

2008-04-16T09:49:00.004-04:00

Lots of iced tea days coming up :) I love this sunshine and warm weather!!! Warm-ness makes walking to class so much better. Okay, I'm off to Chemistry. Be back later.

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." -Anne Bradstreet

A full fall semester in iCal

2008-04-15T16:49:00.004-04:00

Wahoooo!!! I have a schedule for next fall! 18 hours and no permission numbers needed!

Here's what I'll be taking:

Organic Chemistry (and lab)

Experimental Psychology (and lab)

Developmental Psychology

South Asian Civilizations

Health

Tennis

I think it looks manageable. Developmental and South Asian Civ will be a lot of work (reading and papers, perhaps), Organic will be a lot of memorization, I've heard that Experimental's not too bad, and Health and Tennis are P/F, which will be nice. With the labs, I'll actually be in class more than 18 hours a week. Also, Health and Tennis meet twice a week and are only 1 credit each. So it comes out to 23 hours of class, I think. (So in theory, I could go to school ALL day for one day and have 6 days off to sleep and cook and do homework and catch up with friends, etc. haha) Then, I'll need two more semesters of 16 hours each and I can graduate early!

So glad to have scheduling all done! And it wasn't too bad this time. Yay for being a rising upperclassman (that is hard to believe!) and getting to schedule towards the beginning of everyone.

2 weeks left!

2008-04-14T20:11:00.005-04:00

Today was fairly typical: get up, have French toast with Dad, then classes, lunch with Megan, class again and then reading. I actually got all of my Latin America documents read before dinner (!!!). Had dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in weeks, which was great. We reminisced about our camping trip last September and our great plans of camping again this spring, which sadly never happened. (Next fall, hopefully?) And now I'm back to homework. Tonight I only have reading, which is nice. No more papers til this weekend!

It's getting to the point in the semester where everyone's shocked about how few class days are left. This is an awesome feeling, except when you realize how much you have to do between now and freedom (which happens to come for me on May 2 at 4 pm!). 9 class days left. 8 papers to write. 500 pages to read. I can certainly make it.

And this lovely cool spring weather??? AWESOME! Yeah, I'm more of a fan of 70+ degrees, but when it's sunny and 50, I'm cool with that. And it's definitely easier to think of wanting to go to Alaska this summer when it's warm outside. And you know what else? When it's above freezing outside, people don't look at you weirdly when you get iced tea. That's always nice.

I am really going

2008-04-13T19:20:00.003-04:00

I finally emailed Ed and Irene a couple of weeks ago to ask about coming to serve at DVF in May and got this reply within an hour:

"Absolutely!!!! We would count it a privilege to have you! And your friends!!!!! Stay in touch and we will plan to see you early May!!!!

Blessings and Love,
Irene & Ed"

So I guess I'm really going!! To say I'm excited is an incredible understatement...I can't wait to be there! Two more weeks of classes, 2 days of final exams, a few days of unpacking dorm stuff and doing laundry, and then repacking bags to be gone for a month.

But for now, homework's a reality... Another 3 page "overnight write" about America's external empire in the 20th century. It really is actually interesting stuff, but I just keep thinking about the summer. I have to remind myself that all the reading and writing will be done soon and summer will be here. :)