new adventure!

So...I'm three days into my new adventure and have had a few interesting experiences so far!

I arrived Sunday evening (with two very nice friends who drove to the Netherlands to pick me up and brought me and all my stuff back with them!) and got my room (my own, thankfully!) and a key. Of course, you know that I can't relax until I've got myself organised so I unpacked everything that evening and went happily off to bed.

Monday I hung stuff up in my room and since I had been conscripted for 'volunteer work' (I arrived early and by way of covering those extra costs I had to work; I only found out later that I could have paid for those days instead!) I did some major cleaning. And I mean serious stuff! We had to wear two pairs of rubber gloves, a mask, goggles and a plastic apron and spray this horrible chemical on stains in the bathtubs and sinks. Then when we were done the spraying we had to start at the first one and scrub/wipe it all away. So anyway, that wasn't the funnest job I've ever had, but it was fine.

I also biked into Ware (after spending quite some time trying to find a bike that fit me and would hold air in both tires!) It's just under 3 km from the college to town, but a lot of it is downhill on the way there so I can comfortably make the ride in less than 15 min. I found the Tesco's where I stocked up on a few basic things in case I miss breakfast some morning. (so far we've had porridge, porridge and more porridge which I've managed to avoid by eating toast and yogurt!) Then I had the adventure of the bike ride back! First of all I didn't have any proper bags to carry my shopping, only the plastic ones from the store. They kept hitting the bike tire and finally one broke completely. So I managed to rearrange that and then came to the first hill, which by the time I reached the top, had my legs shaking. So okay, I pedaled the rest of the way and then came to the college driveway which is ,7 km long and all uphill. However, at this one I gave up and just walked. Can you say 'glad to be back'?! Oh yes and don't forget I managed all of this while biking on the opposite side of the road! I do have to admit that I walked my bike around the round-a-bout, I wasn't quite sure how to approach that from a biking, left-side-of-the-road perspective.

Yesterday I finished my 'volunteer' work which was actually quite fun because I had to replace the used tea towels and bath mats with clean ones. So I had fun going into all the buildings, opening all the doors and looking for the bathrooms, kitchenettes, etc. I think I have a pretty good idea of where all the rooms are and how to reach them now!

Today everything starts officiallywith tea/coffee, dinner and a welcome tonight. And I want to bike to Ware again to get a few more things (laundry soap, etc) first. But before that I have to practice a welcome sketch that the student committee asked me to play the 'bewildered first year student' in. So I'm not bored yet! It's been quite strange actually, I've had things to do, but not a lot, so it's not really vacation, but it's not work either. Definitely a 'between' phase!

a bit of this, a bit of that

Yup, I'm off again! But this time I forgot my camera so no pictures (sorry, Jenni!) I left the Netherlands last Saturday with John and I'll fly home again this Friday so there won't be much time to take pictures anyway!

I got my college application sent in just before I left, so now it's wait and see! It looks like I'll spend a couple weeks in the UK in Feb. Some time to check out the college, do an interview, see friends, visit my city, (yay!) and then some work for AB visiting schools, churches, etc. (This is of course based on me getting accepted, which I am just assuming I will be! I guess that's one good thing about the economic crisis eh, schools aren't in the habit of turning down potential (read: paying) students!)

The last few days have been a bit busy; getting up at 4am to leave at 5am and drive for 8 hr to train youth leaders in Germany, then driving another 4 hrs to Czech Republic. The last two days have been: drive somewhere, have a meeting, drive more, have another meeting, sleep, meet, drive, meet, talk, sleep. See my life is not always glamorous! But today and tomorrow I'm hanging out with a friend. I do a bit of work while she's at work during the day and then we do fun stuff at night. Tonight we're going to the sauna - my favourite! - but this time not in the buff, Rachel! (I could go into a whole discussion here about this issue - if you're gonna go to a sauna for the day (this is not just a sauna room, this is like a spa okay? with a pool, different sauna's, steam baths, whirlpools, herbal sauna's, etc, etc) then it's so much easier to go nude - you don't have to worry about any bathing suits riding up or down, sweating in your suit, etc. A caveat: I do always go on ladies day so it makes things a bit more comfortable!)

aaaannnnyyyywwwwaaaayyyy - that's what we're doing tonight, who knows what tomorrow will bring!?

On a totally different subject - I was at a concentration camp yesterday - the first one I've ever visited. We just walked around and in buildings - I found it appalling to even consider the atrocities committed there and wondered about the people imprisoned. Did they know what waited for them when they first walked through the gate? How did some of them manage to keep hope alive, much less their faith in a loving God? I (quite a verbal person, as you all know!) had no words........

travelling adventures

I have a Rachel-travel-story! Well, it's not quite as fun as her's, but it was a small adventure.....

So I got to the Newark airport in NJ four hours early on Monday. A bit more time than I needed, but the next bus that would have taken me there was only two hours early and I thought that might be a bit tight. Turns out I would have had lots of time! Anyway, everything went fine, we boarded, pulled away from the gate, the pilot ran up the engines and then it all went pear-shaped.

One of the engines wouldn't start (I understand that this is necessary to fly across the ocean, so okay). The mechanic said it was the starter, so okay, we have to find another starter. They called JFK airport in New York City which didn't have one and even if they had, it would have taken a long time to get it because by now it was the middle of rush hour. But okay, UPS (at Newark) had one they could give to Delta so the mechanics changed that, after checking that it was the same part because the numers UPS uses are different than the ones from Delta. So fine and dandy, paperwork signed, everything checked and tested and it's only a two hour delay.

But no, there was more fun to be had!

While they were fixing the starter, the reading lights in the rear of the cabin started blinking on and off. The flight attendants tried to reset them, but their switches didn't work so the mechanic had to look at this too. They can't figure out where the control panel is so are on the phone to Atlanta (Delta's home office) trying to figure out how and where to reset them, which circuit to disconnect, etc. This is turning out to be a big problem because the plane isn't allowed to take off for a trans-Atlantic flight if less than 75% of the cabin lights are working. And this circuit is going to disconnect the reading lights of the entire economy class section. (I guess this is why first-class is better?) So anyway they finally figure out which switch to pull so we can fly, but no one in economy has reading lights and the tv's and sound systems don't work because they're on the same circuit. (I never figured out about the 75% thing because there were no lights except the general cabin lights) And this is another two hours later! Let me tell you, it can get very warm and stuffy in a plane with hundreds of passengers on board that have sat on the runway for 4 hours without good air ventilation!

Anyway, then we finally took off and - miracle of miracles - nothing else went wrong! (by this time I was considering if I should get off the plane, I mean, you sort of start to wonder what else can go wrong!) But the rest of the trip went fine and I ended up sleeping for most of it. There was nothing else to do: no movie, no lights to read, my mp3 player battery picked that moment to die....but it turned out okay as I wasn't too tired when I got home.

And this makes my little Mennonite soul happy - for those four hours of inconvenience I got two vouchers! Each one worth $100 off your next flight or 2,000 airmiles. I guess 50 bucks an hour is not a bad salary?

New York

I know, it's hard being a missionary! Really, the next two weeks will be more boring, but seeing Boston and New York were pretty cool! I've added some pictures, but I don't know how cool they will show up. I didn't have a lot of time (1 1/2 days), but I at least saw most of the things I wanted to. I didn't actually really go into any places (Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island would have taken too long - long lines, boat ride, etc; some places I was too tired or not willing to spend the time), but I saw a lot. Times Square and Rockefeller Center where cool. I liked the buzz and life on Times Square, but it was a pedestrian street so there were lots of places to sit down and watch life! They were filming some entertainment show which was fun to watch (lots of standing around, doing nothing, touching up of makeup, hair, etc).

Rockefeller Center was cool, too! You know how you always see people skating there in movies? Well I saw them in real life! It was way smaller than I thought and the Christmas tree wasn't up yet, but still cool! And then to top of a perfect day - I had a real New York cheesecake! Let me tell you - all those New York style cheesecakes you've eaten were just that - NY style. This really was the creamiest, most delicious cheesecake I have ever had!

So anyway, that's the story so far! We had an AB 20th anniversary celebration at John's alma mater on Sat. Now I'm in PA where I'm hanging out this week. Trying to catch up on some office work, set up and have some meetings on Thurs and have another AB celebration this Sat in PA. Fun and games!

Photo 1 - Times Square

Photo 2 - Central Park

Photo 3 - chocolate bar and fountain at Sak's Fifth Ave.

Photo 4 - Chrysler Building

Photo 5 - Heather and Statue of Liberty

So I've been doing a bit of sightseeing in Lowell (a northern suburb of Boston) and on the Maine coast. There are still brilliant red, orange and yellow leaves on the trees and the ocean was gorgeous yesterday! I have photo evidence! (more photos on Facebook)

posting again!

I know, I know, this almost is like an annual event for me! But I promise, I'm trying to do better and keep this updated. I'm not promising any long entries, but at least short blurbs to let you know what I'm up to.

At the moment I'm sitting in the cafeteria at Gordon College, a Christian college just north of Boston and about 4km from the Maine coast. It's beautiful here, the sun is shining and the leaves are gorgeous colours - we really miss the reds and orange in northwestern Ontario! I'm here doing promotional work for Atlantic Bridge - I'm supposed to be recruiting staff and volunteers who will come work for us. Today was the first day so it was a bit chaotic figuring out what will happen, when and how. But I have internet, a place to sleep and shower, free meals and the college has a fantastic library - too bad I have to work!

This is the first part of my nomadic and recruitment year - I'll spend the next nine months travelling for Atlantic Bridge and gradually working myself out of a job and then I'm going to study in the UK from next Sept. I was sort of dreading it - you know it's always so much work to travel and get things ready, etc, etc - but now that I've actually started, it's quite fun! Ask me again in four weeks when I've been living out of a suitcase for four weeks, but so far so good! I'm also looking forward to doing some sight-seeing - in and around Boston, along the coast, two days in New York - so it's not all work. I may even try to post some pictures!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!...........i'm updating my blog

okay, your words have gotten through to me! I'm updating! (not that I have anything to write about, but okay....)

I got back to the Netherlands on the 25th and after taking the rest of that day off to unpack, shower, take a nap and eat I hit the office the next day and haven't had much of a break since! I left in the middle of summer vacation and when I got back, school had started, volleyball training had begun and church stuff was rolling again.

You know, after five and a half years of working with volunteers from all different countries, I thought I had heard most things. There is nothing new under the sun, right? Until last week when one girl thought two different emails about two different trainings where the same thing and decided she wasn't coming to the Netherlands until the beginning of October. While I was planning she would be here on Sept 7th! Hopefully we've got it all figured out and she will come this weekend, but it certainly caused me several hours of stress to figure it all out!

Like I said, not exactly earth shattering, but that's been my top priority for the last few days. At least I've posted, right?