Day of Hope

Hi friends!

I'm writing to you from gate C8 at the Ben Gurion airport. My passport is stamped, my ticket is printed and stuffed inside, and the students of Europe Semester 2011 sit on their computers, mingle and chat about their  duty free purchases, they share nostalgic thoughts. We're really good at waiting now, we make ourselves way too much at home wherever we are! We're all trying to avoid thinking too much about how our adventure is ending, we're still together and it's just a normal travel day, right?

This sunday was the first sunday of Advent, as many of you know. I love Advent! Alex, Tiff and I went to the the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer for church this Sunday where they had the little kids light the first candle on the wreath, the candle of Hope, of expectation for better things to come.

We have learned so much about the conflict here in Israel/Palestine! We have talked to a number of Palestinians who are adamant about holding onto hope for freedom, they call the Israeli's presence in Palestine "occupation", it's a state where they have to have permission to go to Jerusalem, where the Israeli government cuts off their water in the summer for 20 days, where Gaza's resources are so monitored that each person is limited to a 1600 calorie diet. They are hurting, but they have hope for freedom.

At the same time, we talked to several Israelis who are glowing with their new country, who feel that this is finally the place where their people can settle, cultivate the land, their culture, language, and the new generation. With a past filled with persecution, they have hope for a secure future.

And me? I have hope that I get to come home! I'm so excited! It's going to be Christmas when we fly in! I'm so sad to leave my 43 family members, for us to empty our suitcases for the last time and put them in the closet and only be in contact through phones and e-mail and skype and such. That said, now we have this incredible trip to be the foundations of great friendships to come, and I can finally have time to mentally and emotionally unpack this trip.

I can't wait to see you all! I'm coming back home!

Breakfast with Bedouins

Hi all!

The last four days have been the coolest, most intense days of my life. Because we're trying to fit an entire semester's worth of class in one month we are RUNNING through Israel on crazy field days. We stayed in Palestinian Christian familys' homes for two nights in Bethlehem which was awesome, Laurel and I stayed with Hifa and Adeeb who were very kind and welcoming! They made us yummy food and we bonded over Britney Spears (everyone knows Britney Spears) and Justin Beiber, they told us how they met and how what kinds of rice you put yogurt on and how to dip pita in olive oil and then zaatar for breakfast in the morning. :)

We spent a couple hours in the Mediterranean, all 43 of us jumping with the swells and diving into the waves of clear blue-green water still perfectly warm from the summer of sunshine! It was so FUN, and afterward Pappa Ken treated us all to Magnum bars!

Every day we pile in our huge bus, driven by dedicated Omar, and trek to Tels to see ancient cities from the Bible and look at the incredible geography of "the land between"--named this because of its unique location between powerful Egypt and Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean and the desert to the east. I love it here and I learn so much everyday!! I wish I could tell you everything, hopefully I'll have time soon.

Seeing as We have dinner soon and we have to walk back from the cafe to the the hostel, I'll post some pictures and post my impression report from yesterday where we had dinner with a bedouin tribe (we had breakfast with them this morning too), served by the top sheikh of the region!

Impression Report from 11/14/11

 Magnum Bars after the Mediterranean!

 Bedouin tea from last night!

 Our sheikh serving us tea this morning after breakfast.

 Sugar, with some rosemary flavor and water...

CAMEL!

**also, i just noticed all my pictures had to do with food, and the camel is chewing, so heres another one:

Me in my "rockin" hard hat :D about to go into the cistern

Today was the best day, I loved everything about it! We started at the Tel Beersheba, where we were given hard hats just in case we hit our heads in the tunnel at the end, but the majority of people wore them for the first hour while we were sitting and talking anyways, the forest green plastic perched on their heads as though it wanted to take off and float above their heads on its own. We learned about how Abraham planted a Tamarisk tree (Gen 21) at the well, and we were able to walk up to an original iron age well outside the city and drop a rock and hear it splash with a faraway “thunk” 180 feet below. I was especially struck with the parallels in Deuteronomy 2, where God tells the Israelites to avoid taking the land and fighting the Edomites because that is the land that he has saved for them. I was so thankful that God showed care for another nation other than Israel because it shows how he cares for all people. It also applies to the current conflict because people have been saying that maybe it’s possible that God wants the palestinians to be pushed out in this way because it’s happened before in the Old Testament. This always sounded so unlike God to me, and I thought this was a good example in the Old Testament showing God’s loves for everyone.

I also loved climbing the canyon, everyone’s bright shirts stadnding out against the creamy, layered rock with smooth black ribbons showing through. Cyndi was right, the hike was over before I was ready for it to end; it was so beautiful! Afterwards we drove through the desert, the winds picking up dust and making the sunset light purple in the haze that hung over the superbowl crater that we overlooked as we read Psalm 90. This was so cool. Looking out over the expanse of dust, crater, sky, and fading sunlight we talked about how we are invited to be part of an eternal story that God is writing to have a lasting effect. Our purpose is so much bigger than ourselves! When I pray, “God my life is yours” that really means that I am giving him my life as one more small narrative that makes up the grander story of what he is doing to save this world. God is so good! Also, how many class periods are there where ibex come up to the group with curious eyes?? The sunset was beautiful, the light turning orange, then purple, then gray as the wind whipped our hair into our faces and picked up so much dust there was a fine layer on my map as we labeled Nezarite (?) cities. Coolest class of my life, November 2011.

This finished our class day and we walked quickly back to our big blue bus to have shelter against the wind, we were ready to set our stuff down at the hostel in get some food! We set off for Arad as the sun set, and were still driving two hours later, having made a wrong turn back towards Be’er Sheva. Whiney moans begin to issue from hungry, grumpy, tired people, “when’s the foooood??” and Eric starts reciting his cannibal poem. Then Cyndi gets on the microphone and everyone starts relaxing, finally, we’re going to be there soon! She speaks into the mic, “We’re driving on this dirt road because we’re eating with the Bedouins tonight. Silence. “…are you joking?” someone yells from the back. “Nope” intones the microphone. Then Eric pipes in again, holding onto his last shred of hope for a comfortable meal,  “See, it’s funny because we think you are.” And then we were told that there was about a 65% chance that we weren’t going to be having camel meat. (Which was a legitamate concern, as we saw a skinned camel with it’s furry, decapitated head hanging in front of a meat shop in Bethlehem.)

Personally, I was loving this, I have heard from a family friend who knows Bedouins in Lebanon (?) about their hospitality and have been so intrigued by these people who live in shacks of scrap metal and plastic, coaxing life from their shepherding and maybe some trade! So our bus pulled up to a (respectively)  fairly large shack and as rain spitted down on us we shuffled from the dark into the harsh light of a single electricity-saver light bulb lighting up a room divided in two, one half had cushy mats for us to sit on for our dinner, the other had a sheet full of olives laying out. The sheik himself laid out our food (which his wife had cooked) on two tables: four huge bowls of rice, a creamy, oily soup to pour on the rice and chicken that was stuffed with herbs, the cucumber/tomato/parsley salad we’ve come to expect everywhere and big floppy flatbread that was thinner and bigger than a tortilla called "laban". Though Aaron and Tiff were both pretty sick, the rest of us sat on the cushons on the floor and ate our meal which felt so good! Everything was pretty much finger food, we had small plastic spoons for the rice but that was it. As I pulled ample meat off the bone, I realized that the chicken I was eating had probably been killed recently, even today. It was so good to eat something not drenched in oil! After dinner the sheikh personally handed out tea, which tasted like rosemary and mint with ample sugar and Bedouin coffee, which he poured in small ceramic cups, about the size of my play tea cups from when I was a kid. It tasted a bit like coffee and more like something strong and even with some spice, but I couldn’t describe it to you if I tried. Then we received a short introduction of the sheikh to taught us to say, “Thank you, Dad” in Arabic and then told us he had twenty children, fourteen with one wife and nine with another before her! He wore a brown emboroidered on the hem smock with a matching jacket on top and a white kifa. He had a long white mustache and happy eyes. I wish I could speak Arabic and tell him how much I loved coming and eating with them! I’m glad we will go back for breakfast tomorrow, what a treat to be with them! I pray we might show them love, tomorrow.

Now there are thirteen of us girls, Laura, Laura, Tay J, Sydney, Laurel, Anne, Hannah, Nif, Alex, Jess, Lauren and I who are sleeping all together in a big open room, it’s not the hostel we were expecting but I feel so comfortable with these girls I love, adventuring and doing things that are unexpected. Thank you Lord for this wonderful, wonderful day in the desert! I pray you may teach us more tomorrow and that we will love Cyndi and show her our appreciation for all that she’s doing for us. Lord you are so Good!

The Deep Foundations

Hello all :)

INCREDIBLE day. LONG day. We're gonna do it all again tomorrow. But--today we got breakfast at 6:30, was out the door by 7:15 and learning about Jerusalem's geography with our new guide and instructor from Jerusalem University College (JUC), Cyndi. To get you all introduced, Cyndi is in her 30's, is as tall as me with curly brown hair. She went to seminary, came to take a 3 week course at JUC and decided to stay for a year, which turned into 5 when she was offered a job here and now she is starting her doctorate, working on creation motifs in Deuteronomy. She's going to be a great leader!

Today we traipsed up and down steps (there are lots of steps in this city-on-a-hill) looking at old archeological digs and findings (they're everywhere in this city with so much history!), geographical features that influence the lives of people in the Bible and those who live there today, and through other adventures! Each day we have to write a page of "impressions" about what we learned, and I thought I would share that with you. It's not edited or organized, just my thoughts. Before I copy-paste, I thought I'd give you and update on me: I'm totally wiped from our big day from today but loving Israel! I'm loving the kids we're meeting who are studying at JUC--there are about 70 of them, which means that our 46 practically doubles their school! It's basically our home base, and we're considered students for this month. Ok, here's what I got for you: (it's long... read what you want and stop when you want) :)

Today was our first day out in Jerusalem. As my feet carried me up and down the many stairs connecting the different levels of the city, over cream-colored Roman stones and through ten inches of water deep underground, the feel of the city (as every city has a “feel”) was gradual. It has deep and meaningful secrets, willing to slowly reveal them to those who dig into its complicated history.

I learned that the land is an entity in itself throughout the history of the people living here. When we first talked about this in class it was just a fact that I recorded obediently on my page of notes; now I am beginning to realize what it means. This city is set apart from the others we have traveled to. The people are like the buildings, rooted in the bedrock of the hill, loyal and proud of the place they have in this city that connects so many others. Hearing from both Ayman and Moshe opened the meaning of this up for me, the way Ayman’s family has lived in that same building for 387 years—a common thread connecting the family in a way I could never understand or experience, and how, to Moshe, this city is the city of his Father and his chosen ones. Even for those who come for a short time, the city lets you enter as a traveler and exit as one who was changed, leaving part of yourself behind. The more I walk on these stones the more I feel the city soak into my heart and mind like water seeps into a towel whose corner was dipped into the pool. I think the best word for the “feel” of this city is wisdom, subtle, strong, and lasting.

What also stood out to me from our tour today was standing on the lookout from the City of David and reading Psalm 125:1-2, “Those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the LORD surrounds his people from this time forth and forever.” After reading this—yes! The mountains nestle close to the city as though it is an egg in a well-built nest. It is a foreign concept for me, to identify both so strongly with a place and God and his love as being together.

 Our chilly morning view of the hills surrounding Jerusalem. I'm not sure which one this is, I'll let you know! I think it's Mount Zion in the front, Western Hill in the back. All the hills look like this, with square houses covering them!

We also sloshed through Hezekiah’s tunnel, a tunnel deep underground, cut into the bedrock of the city during the time of the righteous king Hezekiah (2 Chronicals 32:1-5, 2 Kings 20:20). Basically, Hezekiah had a tunnel built to bring water from the Gihon spring outside the city into the Pool of Saloam inside the city. I’m a little claustrophobic, I don’t like the feeling of being trapped, of being somewhere where I know I can’t get out of. This tunnel pretty much defines that but gosh darnnit it this is one of the coolest things I’ll get the chance to do in my life so I’m going to do it and God and I are going to get over this fear in me. So I prayed that he would keep me calm, that anxiety would not cloud the epicness of the moment, the chance to fully understand and appreciate what I was doing. So, I walked down the slippery stairs in my thin, white Vans socks, pulled up my skirt and walked into two and a half feet of water and a tunnel that I would have to duck most of the way through. The water level dropped to about six to ten inches for the rest of the trip, my jacketed arms would slide between the narrow rough rock walls that still bears chisel marks from those who cut it so many years ago. Everyone was squealing at the cool water, the Indiana-Jones-type of adventure we were having in the darkness and the glow of flashlight beams. And God was there, the whole time, and we were IN the foundations of the city: on biblegateway.com I found 75 entries for “foundation”, this was my favorite:

“For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; on them he has set the world.” (2 Sam 2:8b)

Yeah he has. It continues:

“He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.” (v.9)

Walking through that tunnel, we experienced both his care (that there was NOT an earthquake or something) and what it is like to be in such a “place of darkness” as we kept walking between the cut in the bedrock. Cool, huh?

Though I know God is with me wherever I am, there is no denying that something about this city is special, God has spoken the name of this city, he chose this as the place for his people to come and for his son to be offered as the ultimate sacrifice. Even in Revelation, when it describes the place where everything is made right it is called the “new Jerusalem”—not the “new Centennial, Colorado”, that’s for sure.

Another thought I have is Christianity is real here, it’s full, coming here changes my entire faith but I can’t put it into words. Coming here you see the physical stuff that’s only been painted in your mind from Bible stories. Sometimes it’s easier to picture David’s palace than to actually see the stones that it was founded upon, your brain won’t let yourself believe it and you want to go back to that nice felt-board image you have left over from Sunday school. But here I am, and I have to come here ready to drop all my felt pieces and replace them with the real stones. It makes me feel very small, very much like I am grafted onto a deep root that I am very, very thankful to be getting nutrients from. It has opened my eyes to how real this thing I say I believe actually is, how it has grown from thousands and thousands of years and I am just a tiny, tiny bud off the newest branch of the huge, thick-trunked tree. With this hindsight, my individualistic, touchy—feely, Californianized faith seems very…silly. God is big. God is real. He is bedrock that I am founded upon with millions of others now and before me. Now I realize how we are all part of a much bigger story we only know the barest outlines of! With new humility comes new thankfulness, that we are part of this tree, this outline, this family, and we will be there to see it to completion! It all ties together, don’t you see? New creation doesn’t start when Jesus comes again, whenever that will be, it started when he came the first time and ever since then in every one of us. Shoot.

 The Western/Wailing wall--men and women divided (WEIRD) with army in the center. The army kids standing their were between 18 and 20.

Can't Believe It

Hi!

I'll tell you about Italy later, it FLEW BY, I spent a lot of money, ate good food, and did a ton of homework, but now all those classes are done!

Then we went to Athens and visited the Acropolis; the Europe portion of our trip was tied up nicely, starting with seeing the sculpures from the Parthenon in the British Museum and then visiting the actual parthenon and seeing where they used to look out over the old city of Athens. We also sat on Mars Hill and read Acts 17:16--, the speech he gave on that very hill!

(What do you dress up as for halloween when you're in Greece and nobody else celebrates it?? Yeah. The hotel people were taken aback when we all showed up like this for dinner but they got over it and started snapping pictures.)

And now?

Guys. I'm in Jerusalem.


Last night we got on a plane from Athens to Tel Aviv, arrived at 12:30 AM, arrived to the wall around 2:15, all us girls dragged our suitcases up a huge hill, through a gap in the wall made by Kaiser Wilhelm so he could see his invasion (known as Jaffa Gate because it faces west towards Jaffa) and through the silent streets to our hotel.

Walking up the hill, by the wall with our bags at 2 in the morning!

We're here! This morning, when Alex and I turned on the TV in our hotel we found Emma with Arabic subtitles, and then it stopped and some guy started singing middle-eastern style and it said on the screen "Time for Prayer" in with a green and blue computer graphics background with arabic cursive swirling into view; this happened for about five minutes and then the movie started up again.

I can't believe we're here, 28 days left in the trip, we're in Israel.

Land of the...

Ken posted this on our Europe semester blog, a little love for home:

Procrastination. Now homework, love you all!

The Annunciation Lillies

Bonne Serra!

Today I am in Firenze! Or Florence, for us english speakers. It smells like wet cobblestones, leather, and cyprus trees! Well, maybe not the cyprus trees in the city, but I thought it sounded good so I added it anyway. Today we put off homework and went to the Uffizi and the Galleria dell 'Accademia. On our way to buy tickets we got caught in a rainstorm and it was thundering and pouring but so much fun! (Now, when I'm dry and warm at least :) ) I baught a three euro umbrella and a five euro scarf and they're probably the best things I've bought on the trip this far! I'm beginning to love annunciation paintings, or, for those who don't know, scenes depicting when the angel Gabriel came to Mary. I absolutely love this one by Botticelli, completed in 1490. The triangular composition characteristic of the Renaissance is clear, the three points made by Mary's halo, Gabriel's bent knee and Mary's cloaked feet. I love the colors, the gold detail in Mary's crown and dress is incredible! I don't know why Gabriel is kneeling, it almost looks like he just landed in the room, his hand raised to calm Mary from his unexpected entrance. Sometimes I think Mary can look a little vague, and while her expression is demure in this scene, her face is sweet and she looks like a real girl. I love it, I hope you do too!

It's time for group dinner! Fingers crossed for raviolli, it's always too expensive for me to buy on my own!!

I love you!

Glass, Gondolas, & Generals?

Hello all!

Guess what?? I’m in a Venice hotel right now. Eek!

To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to Italy. I mean, compared to these other, non-cliché European countries to go to, Italy wasn’t high on my list. Plus it means that our European portion is OVER and I so, so, so don’t want it to be over!! The passage of time is so weird, you guys. Every day feels like a week, and all these weeks add up to about ten minutes. There’s weird things that show time passing, like all the guys are needing haircuts now, the warm summer light of August has turned into the more intense, direct light of fall. The little yellow cards that have our itineraries on them have checkmarks from England to Austria, and now we’re flipping the card over to the back side!

I’m not homesick, per se, but I’m missing a lot of things about home. I miss family and friends, I miss playing guitar, I miss baking and coming down to breakfast and pouring coffee out of our random coffee pot that sits next to the stove under the cereal cupboard. I miss fall decorations, and baked pumpkin things, I miss seeing the mountains in the distance, and having a laundry machine readily available!

But, at the same time,

I love the people of our group: Colby makes friends with everyone, waitresses, gas-station cashiers, palace guards, our old-lady tour guides…, Shanon takes pictures of people sleeping on the bus, Joanna’s laugh can always be heard from anywhere and she’s always available for deep conversations, Alex likes windowsills, Jenny likes fat jokes, Gabe, Nif, and the Kihlstroms are the best and laugh so loud at dinner! We just had a night of cabaret, which shows how well we know each other, each of our groups did a skit making fun of something about our trip, like our leaders loading homework on us, grumpy museum people, people being impersonated… it was great, Gabe says that he would wake up giggling during the night, and it’s we did too! I’m sure our performances will make facebook, at some point, you should watch them. J

Also, we hear that there’s crazy high security at Westmont now?? It seems like a world away and now we have to worry about rooming and classes and what?? And who knows what’s going on with the DC. We have rumors circling our group but no one really knows what’s going on. And we’re kind of okay with it.

Anyway.

Now we’re in Venice!! Guys, we had to take a WATER TAXI to get to our hotel, and we were giggly, squeely, picture-taking tourist girls and didn’t care. Even the guys, because after you’ve been cooped up in a castle library loaded down with homework, cooped up in a bus for six hours, and then put on a water taxi and on canals between mossy-footed stone buildings, you going to freak out at just about anything remotely exciting, not to mention water taxis squeezing between gondoliers in small canals between beautiful old stone buildings! So we arrived at our hotel and went out to explore and find food. Venice is a dizzying maze of small alleyways lined with glittering windows of glass vases and leather shoes which open to small bridges crossing the canals into another small alleyway. We’re only a five minutes walk from St. Marcos Square, so we made a quick visit and picked an alley to explore and found about 20 US military guys hanging out at a bar, so we talked with them for a little bit. There plane broke down on the way to Afghanistan so they’re staying at the Aviano (eh, family??!) base and enjoying Venice…or at least it’s bars… They were great though and loved talking to us college kids, plus it turned out they were high up officers in the 102 Airborne division, which had a big roll in WWII and we learned all about them and visited the town they jumped in on DDAY and went to the museum and all that! They’re the only jumping airborne division left, apparently. So we talked with them for a while, and then we went and got--

ITALIAN FOOD. Guys, I forgot that garlic existed. Seriously. With all our food pounded into shnitzel, drowned in vinegar, or rolled into sausage I forgot that tomatoes and basil and garlic and flatbread pizza existed in this good world and it was absolutely amazing. Appreciate your garlic, people.

Today we have class and free time, free time I will fill with homework and probably museums, knowing us J

I’m feeling better, pink eye is still hanging on a little but I think I quit the medicine too soon, and after our lovely break in Mittersill (I miss the mountians!) I’m feeling much refreshed.

I love you! 

Guten Morgen, Kinder!

Guten Morgen!

I’m writing this on the bus on the way to Saltzburg, the city of the dear von Trappe family! I spent four days between our little home and the attached restaurant, sitting doing homework, having Vespers, watching Tron, playing the piano and guitar (made my week!! Kaly, I played blackbird and thought of you!) AHHH we just saw a herd of yaks! With baby yaks! Ahhh! So yes, being cooped up gets to you, even when you’re cooped up in a castle, so now we have a free day in Saltzburg and people are going crazy on the bus with enthusiasm for everything:

Nif, on the bus mic: Guten Morgen everyone

GUTEN MORGEN!! YEAHHHH!

Nif: This is our busdriver, Alex

ALEX!!! YEAH ALEX!!!!

Nif: And you need to wear your seatbelts in Austria.

…………………….. aw. (clicking noises)

MOUNTAINS!!!

YAKS!!!!

CLOUDS!!!!

It’s time we got out. At the top of the pass there are huge mountians scraping the sky all around us, their rocky tops swept with snow, their huge, spreading feet blanketed with grass. Clouds hang in the valley below us and as we drive on the highway we drive over grassy ski runs. How. Cool. Is. THAT.

Yesterday was my breaking point, I lost my camera the first night in the castle, and since I haven’t left I know it’s here somewhere, but I can’t find it ANYWHERE and it’s been worrying me and then we have so much work to do:

History Paper

Technology Paper

Art Paper

Art Presentation

Poetry assignments

Cabaret presentation

Israel maps….israel’s coming up sooner than I would like…

I know that this is pretty standard for a semester’s work, but when your traveling and only have 5 days to get it done… I freaked out. While I was looking for my camera I ran into Alex in the dining room having hot chocolate and she asked me how I was doing and I totally broke down (again). I chose a hard topic for my history paper so I couldn’t get it written down, which put off all this other work that I had to do plus I can’t find my camera, which just weighs me down and there was no way I would be able to go and see the town because I had so much to do! Alex listened and then took me through a little side door, up a steep little staircase to a secret lookout point in the castle where you can see the whole valley! We ran into Joanna, prayed, and then (I was still totally stressed, and you know me, crying J ) she sat up and said, “Guys, let’s go to Mittersill. Let’s go and get hot chocolate!” So we did, forgetting our homework, forgetting the camera, we (literally) hiked down the hill to the town and got hot chocolate in a tavern and it was delicious, exactly what we needed. It was so refreshing to get away, to stretch our legs and have time just to talk and have fun.

So now I’m about to start on my history essay again, and tonight I’ll try to start on some art. ßThere, that’s my poetry! And I don’t know about the camera. I read the “do not worry” part of Luke, I thought it was kind of appropriate, and it says that God knows what we need and he provides for us when we “seek his kingdom”. He knows that a camera is a traveller’s must-have, but maybe I’m supposed to be learning that it’s not? I don’t know. I’ll keep you updated.

I wrote this, and now I am so, SO happy to say that I FOUND MY CAMERA. In a pocket of my backpack I hadn’t checked before. It would be stupid but its not because I found it!! AND I finished my World War II paper, which I wasn't sure would get done.

Tonight we have cabaret which will be fun but we’re all very overwhelmed with homework, still. Tonight’s our last night in our dear castle!

I love you!

Castle Life Reflections

This is another all-over-the-place one, but it's late so I'm typing fast! :)

You would love this place. The clouds decend on the valley and smother the high, craggy peaks and then you know it's going to snow! It was snowing big fat flakes last night and we twirled in them and it was beautiful! They were illuminated by the lights in the front courtyard and people threw snowballs and for one total california guy it was his first time in falling snow EVER. Imagine that, your first snowfall in the alps in a castle in Austria! 

The people here are masters of soups. They've served us so many over the past few days! Some for lunch and some for dinner, and (haha, when I can taste them) they're phenomenal and so cozy! Tonight we had vespers which was awesome, as always, it comes just in time every week! Afterward Shanan (our guitar chaplain guy) just wanted to keep playing, and a bunch of other people still had a lot of energy so we all hung out in the big room upstairs and they formed a little band and played boy-band music from middle school--I don't like boy-band music sooo I only knew of few of the words but gosh darnnit you can do some mad tambourine to just about any song, even if you don't know it well! It was a great memory! As was last night, a big group of girls and I watched pride and prejudice on the big bed in our room and it was just the coziest, girliest thing ever and we ate it up! Please, castle, snow, and pride and prejudice? Its a girl's dream come true. We may even have had chocolate.

There is no logical floor plan in this quirky castle-turned-cabin of ours, there's random curlying staircases everywhere, hidden hallways and tucked away rooms! The doors all have big, flowery iron door-nobs with big, old fashioned key-holes with matching keys. There are two pianos, one in the library and one in our classroom room and you can hear talented people sneak off from writing their papers and plink away in happy, procratinative bliss. During the day, when we're working on homework (we have two big papers to do, plus a lot of poetry to catch up on) we're scattered on the floor in the small lobby or on the living room couches or floor. Imagine legs stretched out everywhere with apple laptops set upon them, us typing away with headphones in, totally zoned out to the world. Then of course, every hour people start getting antsy and take breaks, talking, going for walks (it's 20 min to the town, and a steep walk back up!) or, as some discovered today, getting the 2.40 euro hot chocolate in the restaurant connected to our castle, across the courtyard. I love that everyone is here together, and I'm so thankful we have a week here to rest up! It's actually hard to get used to, not having to go somewhere all the time, but I love it. My favorite part is knowing that when I walk outside I can touch grass that goes on for a very long time and isn't bound by cement boundaries. Did I already say this? Cities are endless miles of pavement, but here we're free! If anything, I'm learning I love outside, REAL outside, too much to live in a city!

 Typical Prague in the early morning, a stunning city.

 Krakow street performer, how does he do it??!

 Best lunch in Krakow! It was super cheap and with great people :) I had vegetable filled pancakes! They were actually pretty good, and more like crepes than pancakes.

Best dinner in Krakow, group meal at a Jewish restaurant on the Jewish New Years, where a traditional folk band played for us, it was awesome, and we had "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel" stuck in our head for the next few days!

I love you all!

Kenzie

Snowy Mountain Castle

Something interesting about blogging is that the Blogger site changes languages wherever we go, so I’m never entirely sure what words I need to click to sign in.

Anyway…

  Hello all!

It’s been a whole city since I last wrote!

           

Vienna. Vienna was good: it specializes in CAKE, COFFEE, and BAROQUE ARCHETECTURE, what’s not to like?

Highlights:

The Kunsthistoriches Museum (kunst=art, historiches=history…that took me forever to figure out) but it was INCREDIBLE. You walk inside and you are overwhelmed with marble and frescos and gold and ornate decorations and huge columns and smooth white statues. We spent an entire day inside the museum looking at four different pieces and discussing them in groups and all together. We also had cake. My highlight from the museum was seeing Rembrandt’s painting of the Prophetess Anna praying. Rembrandt specialized in making the subject not only look realistic but come alive, he could show their inner thoughts, character, and emotion. The way the light falls, it highlights her faraway, anxious face and her loosely clasped hands. You can almost hear her prayers to the Father she knows so well, praying that she might see the Messiah before she dies. I stared at this painting for almost ten minutes. I loved it.

I also went to eat at a place called Café Central (“centrahl”), twice. It’s high ceiling supported by columns has sheltered writers, politicians, philosophers, and artists since the 1800’s! They had incredible desserts, incredible soup, and a very fun atmosphere. Three of us shared a “pancake”, but really was a pile of dough baked for 20 minutes with plum preserves poured over the top.

The third highlight was going to see the Crown Jewels of the Habsburgs, perhaps them most powerful royal family in all of European history, the last one dying this last year in June. We saw intricate, priceless crowns, a wide bowl of stone that may be the holy grail (in certain light you can see “Christ” in the veins of color in the smoothed stone, almost a thousand years old. We also saw a unicorn’s horn (or a narwal tusk?) that was taller than me!

Ah but now we’re in Mittersill, Austria! In a castle. I know. Don’t get too excited—I mean it’s awesome but don’t picture Beauty-and-the-Beast-enchanted-castle, picture castle-turned-alpine-cabin. It’s the coziest thing in the world! There’s little rooms off the sides of little hallways off of little winding staircases with views of the little town of Mittersill nestled at the foot of HUGE, craggy mountains dusted with snow! All the California kids who have been bemoaning the lack of Mexican food in Europe are now completely enchanted watching the snow fall, and to be honest, I’m giddy right along with them! This morning I got ready and read my Bible and journaled while looking out the window at the mountain sleeping right outside. It feels so good to be in the mountains again, to know that if I stepped outside I could run an touch grass, flowers, trees, and dirt instead of a spreading mass of concrete. I’m glad we’re all trapped in here together, a 20 minute’s walk from town, to do work and get well (I got a bad cold and, surprise? Pink eye. Thankfully Ricola is all over the place and Laura had pink eye medicine!)

I’m wearing my new scarf, my new legwarmers, and I’m happy J

Hotels, Hostels, Home?

Hi!

I'm writing frommmmmm KRAKOW, POLAND! We drove 8 hours in a bus, a very small bus, and I was wedged in a seat with Aaron, who's 6'5"--I've learned that we cannot be bus buddies, we just don't fit! But it was a fairly smooth day, we stopped in a town for a typical czech lunch and had another multi-course meal! Over the past week we've had at least four of them! It's a great way to eat but oof it's a lot of food!

Man-sized chocolate cake during a group dinner, it was delicious!

Prague was beautiful! Some highlights:

Gabe took us on a tour where we reenacted the assassination attempt on Reihard Heinrich (one of the Nazi's closest to Hitler, I may have spelled his name wrong but I'm too lazy the czech...) and how the assassins got away. Basically, they have to got to Plan B and blow up the back tire of his car as he drives to work which sprays shrapnel everywhere, and then when Joseph Assassin realizes the top Nazi and his Nazi driver are still alive he books it up the hill on the side of the highway. So Gabe, who took us to this little stretch of highway, took off running and all 43 of us stampeded after him. We ran down another street to a building that used to have a butcher shop. Joseph, who was now being chased by Nazi Chauffeur ducked inside the shop, unfortunately the butcher was a Nazi sympathizer and when Joseph clipped Chauffeur on the leg with his pistol the butcher took up the gun and fired as Joseph ran down the street. Luckily, the butcher's a lousy shot and Joseph makes it away! Heidrich, on the other hand, while he survived the explosion died of blood poisoning from the shrapnel three days later. (Hitler retaliates by killing an entire town :( )

Group dinners (I love them!) at a Lebanese restaurant and Cafe Louvre, where we had our own section of the restaurant and specially reserved pool tables!

Czeck money! 17 to a dollar, you try that math.

Theresienstadt Ghetto and camp: We spent a day in Theresienstadt and I could write an entire blog about the day, hopefully I will! But this experience at this camp was way more meaningful for me than last Sachenhausen. It was easier to see the cruelties done to these prisoners, and it looked like it could have been emptied that day, every door, every window is exactly the same. They put 70 people in tiny room and shut the door, no lights, no food, nothing, and people would die of suffocation. Our tour guide said she led a group of about 70 and they couldn't even all fit in, that tells you 1: how emaciated the prisoners were and 2: how crammed it was. Afterward I had a long talk with Alex about it, and every cell she goes in she prays for the prisoners kept in those cells. I think I'm going to start. Walking around in there it was so easy to picture us all as being prisoners in the camp and what that would be, all those beloved faces in such a horrible place! I was glad to leave, but that was also hard. We could leave the dead, somber place after an hour, but thousands of people had to stay there for months, even years. 

3,000 people lived in this area, the stage is for executions. 

Today: before we left this morning, a group of five of us walked up the hill at 6 AM to watched the sunrise! It was wonderful to be on the quiet streets where the locals embraced the city before the tourist flood (Gabe calls it "sludge, full of white trainers and catalogue-ordered beige cargo pants"), walking their dogs and talking together quietly. The city is blanketed in fog ("Proggue"...ah hah hah so punny) in the morning, and we were disappointed that we couldn't see the sunrise until--there, look! The sun rose out of the thickest layers of fog and appeared, an orange orb suspended low over the ghostly, mist-shrouded spires. 

Prague at night, the river, the castle, the sky!

Our hotel was beautiful, we stayed in suites with a bedroom, living room and kitchenette! Our windows overlooked the Charles bridge, and when one of my roommates sat on the windowsill journaling a bunch of Asian tourists started waving and taking pictures of her. :) 

Now we're in the Tutti Frutti Hostel in Old Town Krakow. I can't believe we're here! It's quite the change of pace from Prague, and going from incredible suits to hostel blankets and beds is a hard shift for me. I feel spoiled saying I don't like hostels, but I honestly I don't think I do. I'm a homebody, I like to have a homey place to come back to at the end of the day but it's hard to do that here! Luckily our group took over the entire hostel soooo that's fun. We've already had a dance party in the breakfast room, don't worry! Sitting on my bunk bed, I can hear Shanan playing his guitar in the other room (or downstairs?) people laughing on the busy street below, and bedtime calling my name...

I'm doing well, I haven't been getting good time with God so I feel very... stuck in that sense. I also am having a hard time getting to my e-mail which is just full of e-mails, so I'm sorry if I'm not responding to anything right away! I'm making some really great friendships that make all these transitions possible and they're becoming a really wonderful family. Pray that we see each other's gifts and encourage each other in them, pray against bedbugs (I have some bites from somewhere...elghh!) pray against being so overwhelmed by homework that we don't appreciate where we are, pray that we learn more than we ever thought possible on this trip! Thank you so much! Send me anything I can be praying for for you guys too!

In Prague on our free afternoon, after running from the Nazis.

Tomorrow we have a walking tour of the city and free time from one untilllll GROUP DINNER!! Ahh! We've had so many group dinners this last week it's fantastic! I love that we don't have to figure out where to get food, it's always good food, and we're all together. 

Psalm 46

I love you!

baaahhhh czech a;lgha;kljhg;ioawerijklf

Hi!

We are now in the Czech Republic! I'm typing on a Czeck keyboard and its freaking difficult. We're going to prague castle today and i'm excited! im giving up on capital letters this is rediculous. well, we have to leave, but i just wanted to say i'm doing well, we have good internet, and i'll have a better update soon. love you!

My Art Heart

 I think tonight I will share what I’ve been thinking the past couple days.

Merel was our guest speaker for our art class in Amsterdam. She has a unique, profound, and infectious appreciation for art of all kinds, and when she would start explaining a painting she would get so excited she wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off it while she gestured with her hands, trying to express her love for these colors on the canvas. What I’ve been thinking about during Gabe’s lectures finally clicked while I listened to Merel, we think much more similarly and I have a little-sister admiration for her, she was amazing!

In her lecture, Merel explained that “art is not a puzzle, at one point it starts speaking differently to you. The lack of words  in great music and paintings mean that they can never be solved, not everything can be explained with words”. That was so true for me! I had never stood in front of a painting and realized that my world was suddenly expressed in the painting in front of me better than I ever could with words. I had been trying to “solve” art pieces like puzzles but during her lecture I took a step back and a few paintings did slide into focus and mean something important.  

The first time I ever encountered “The Balcony” by Manet, it was on the cover of our ~$3.95 copy of A Room with a View by E. M. Forester. When I first sat down to read this book (which is now one of my favorites) I stared at this picture and wondered why they always put ugly girls from ugly old paintings on the covers of these books. When I visited the Musee d’Orsay and stood in front of this painting in person it totally changed. There was the initial recognition: “Oh! This is the painting that was on my book cover!” and then the closer inspection to see if my reaction last summer was accurate. It wasn’t. The painting is huge: probably at least six feet high and four feet wide and details you are unable to fully make out in the background are clear in person. The gentleman and the other girl stare demurely to the right at the unknown view beyond the balcony with the attitude that they just arrived to their new hotel room and they’re exploring the balcony and all it offers for the first time. They seem a little travel worn and unsettled, as we all are when we travel. However, what really struck me was the girl in the foreground, the girl I had thought so ugly only a year before. She, unlike her companions, has an intense gaze that is hidden from the man and her friend as she looks off the opposite side of the balcony. It is a moment of privacy for this girl where she exposes what she is truly feeling inside, something rare in her society of the time as it seems by the contrasting blank face of the other girl.  She looks out with a look that shows how much she wants to be free, while the other two look frazzled and tired she looks anxious to move and think and experience life in this new place.

This is how I feel, traveling with so many people so often and how I have felt in the past when time alone is rare to non-existent. How often have I looked out at the view with this same feeling inside me, letting my mask slide off as I appreciate the view, the fresh air and the moment of having my own few seconds to let my true emotions come through. Manet has beautifully expressed this complicated moment of vulnerability, truth, and strength. J

The second painting is “Portrait of a Violin Player” by Matisse. Go listen to some violin music before you read what else I have to say, Merel played Mozart’s String Quartet 4 G Minor. With that in your head, look at this painting. This art is more modern than the Manet, the figure is faceless and stands playing the violin while looking out the window (are you seeing a trend here? You’ll see more!). The colors in this painting are also important, I think, they’re all mostly shades of orange and pastel blues. To me, this is peaceful and exhilarating all at once. The man stands calmly looking out the window, playing for no one but himself. But the colors! The bright orange brings in a feeling of intensity and playfulness while the contrasting pale blue accents underline the peacefulness of the man inside. Maybe contentedness is a better word.

How beautiful is that? To be still, looking out a window (psalm 46) while having the feeling of when you purely enjoy something that you find most intensely beautiful, that thing where you know God created it because it was beautiful and knew how much we would  soar with joy when we discovered it too. It’s when you sit and let the beauty soak into you just because you love it and don’t have explain why you like it to anyone else! It’s effortless and praiseworthy.   

I could keep going but it’s time for bed J Today we had a long day of classes again and then a private concert of a phenomenal violinist friend of Gabe’s in his apartment! To have a private concert of someone so talented (she played at least 30 minutes of Bach from memory and then, after the cookie intermission played at least another 30 minutes of complicated Hungarian folk music) was a chance of a lifetime and I enjoyed it immensely! We also had the chance to talk to her and she was so quiet and adorable and then couldn’t stop laughing when someone found an old P. Diddy CD on Gabe’s shelf—Gabe’s been giving us the impression that he is one of cultured taste and only listens to classical music...

It was a perfect way to end another day in Berlin. Tomorrow we leave to tour Sachsenhausen, our first concentration camp (different from an extermination camp) and it will be intense but I’m so thankful that I am able to 1. Acknowledge that these things were real and 2. Discuss and pray about them with a group who believes the same things I do, enabling us to encourage and pray together in deeper ways. After a few hours to process we'll have our night of karaoke, not to forget what we've just seen but to embrace being alive! Oh geez. I wonder if I'll go up??

I guess I'll let you know. Goodnight!! I love you!

Mumble-Jumble Post

Hi!

It's real late, and I didn't want to have to write something new but I wanted to post something, so here's part of an update I sent Bren that's all over the place. Sorry if it doesn't make sense but if it does, well, yay!

How is it being a month in? In our group our happy faces are starting to wear off and we're seeing the real sides of each other which is mostly good, but it can get tense sometimes. We had an awesome vespers tonight though where we all agreed that we're in this together and we need to start acting more respectful and loving towards each other than we have been. I mean it's been great but sometimes some people get on your nerves and it's harder to love them and easier to ignore them. I'm definitely guilty of this.

So real life starts to settle in but it's great. Alisha says that when people cry you see the real side of them. She said that when I was crying, because when I have emotions, I cry. Let's be real. And I was tired and hungry and frustrated at people and life, so I cried, and she said this beautiful piece of life philosophy and it made my runny nose seem a lot more deep and intellectual. 

We had vespers in this church that used to love the Nazis and worked their ideas into Christianity. In the church there's friezes of men with SS helmets and WWII nazi soldiers at the right hand of Jesus. The whole idea is that Christianity is a religion for men of strength who do not bow to anyone. There is the small hiccup in which Jesus happened to be a Jew, so they placed more emphasis on Martin Luther because he was a German who overcame the superpower to create a bigger, more influential movement... sound familiar? Crazy. We held Vespers here, where swastikas have been chipped off the walls, but worship is not affected by place but is in "spirit and in truth". We got real, especially the guys which is awesome, and God is really, really good even though we mess up like crap.

Then we had group dinner, and I LOVE group dinner because we totally take over a restaurant and hang out with everybody and I wore my contacts so I felt pretty and it was DELICIOUS WE HAD PIZZA at this candle-lit place under a metro track so it rumbled above every 10 minutes! It was called the 12 Apostles on Friedrichstraat.  

I love you! Tomorrow is a day of cabaret and class. wish. us. luck. 

Tourists or Travelers

There's a difference, isn't there, between these two kinds of people. Maybe you can't put your finger on it right at first, maybe you have some ideas, but I hadn't really thought about it until Gabe mentioned it in class today. As a tour guide, Gabe comes into contact with a lot of tourists, and really appreciates when we become travelers.

I'm sorry I haven't written in a long time! Internet connection has been slim to none this past week but now it's one in the morning and no one else is on, so the wifi is mine! Win!

Back to traveling, I thought I would bullet point some everyday life stuff that we now take for granted but are kind of funny. Also, you should know that an inside-joke of our trip is the twitter firstworldpains, where the writer basically complains about things in privilaged situations, like: "I really want to go to McDonalds for breakfast but I won't get up before 11" or one of ours is "My apartment in the middle of Paris only has one ethernet cable and so I have to go out and appreciate the city more instead of being on the computer"...firstworldpains: FWP. Some of these will be firstworldpains, and I think they're funny.

• The showers have either very hot or very cold temperature settings, and the nozzles all come as hand-held things with hoses out the bottoms of them, we didn't relaly know what to make of that when we first got to London. 
• The bathroom light switches are always outside the bathroom, and I still always forget to turn them on and hit the wall right inside the doorway first.
• When people here do american accents, they make really harrrd 'R' sounds and sound like pirrrrates, or like they keep chomping on their worrds or something
• Breakfast cereal is either corn flakes, museli, or chocolate
• People buy only one or two day's worth of groceries, and grocery "sacks" are 10-50 cents
• We always know the price of ice cream: Here in Berlin it's best so far: 80 cents for a scoop of gelato!!
• NUTELLA: actually these people are sugar junkies, they have crazy croissants with chocolate in them and other pastries for breakfast with sugar and cookies and cakes everywhere, it's rediculous how thin these people are when they eat all this.
• Walking everywhere, I love it!
• Women's style: flats, skinny-leg pants cuffed at the ankle, belt, collared shirt tucked in with a sweater or blazer over the top, very classy :)
• In my bag: water bottle, small notebook with pen, gum, camera, city and metro maps, bobby pins, euros, tour guide system.
• Amsterdam is WINDY. Makes sense with the windmills, but I never put that together.
• You don't have choices of coffee sizes, and they cost a lot but you pay for the table, they don't pressure you to leave, coffee is a thing to DO not to GET here.
• Travelling in a group: mass chaos of bags getting on and off trains, everyone trying to lead (too many cooks...) guys embracing their manly-ness and throwing our bags at each other while leaving us to fight for our lives through their elbows and shouting and bag throwing! ...And then we stand and wait for 47 tickets to be bought (elevator music)... and then parade through the station.... and AHHHH mass chaos all over again
• First thing everyone asks when we get to a place: is there wifi??!?!?! Personally, I think it does us some good when we can't get on Facebook every free moment we have :)

Me, Bry, Joanna, and Laurel sitting by an Amsterdam canal about to have lunch, it was delicious! :)
  

We're in Berlin! Coming from Amsterdam! Coming from Bruges! Coming from Paris! Yep, count 'em--4 countries in one week! AND yesterday was our one-month anniversary! Woot! But, as I think I've said before? I don't think in terms of weeks I think in terms of countries: this is our second day in Berlin, last 'week' was 2 days ago when we were in Amsterdam which feels like a year ago. Time is totally relative!

A quick recap, I have SO MUCH I've wanted to say and haven't been able to!

In Amsterdam we stayed in The Shelter, a christian hostel in the red light district, seriously. Girls were standing in windows that share the same portion of wall that our hostel door was cut into. People in our group either liked or hated Amsterdam, personally I couldn't tack this city down. What is Amsterdam? A beautiful city with gorgeous architecture and canals winding in concentric circles through the city, the city that hid Anne Frank during the war, a city with cobblestone streets? Or is it the city with coffee-shops (not coffeehouses, there's an important difference on what is available for purchase here...) on every corner and two in-between and the red light district, where girls stand in windows while men window shop. Seriously. 

Being in the Red Light district gave me a weird, and this is the only way to describe it, vibe. A lot of people in our group felt it, it was heavy, for the first time we had no desire to go out and explore the city and we stayed in the hostel when we had free time, which was awesome, actually. They had hamburger night--6 euros and you get burger, fries (with mayo, that's the thing), salad, drink, and vla (runny pudding stuff that tastes like...runny pudding)--we all turned up for it and made it an event, we talked with other people staying and working there, did some homework, played music, it was great :)

Our group enjoying Amsterdam Hostel's coffeehouse/cafe. 

We did walk through the red light district and my reaction was surprising. I think we all had the different reactions that God wanted us to. It is really, really hard walking through that place seeing so much of humanity gone wrong, these girls completely objectified and men talking about cup sizes and who they like best. It's hard to see the girls try to get attention, to see them wearing those outfits, to see curtains pulled and to see girls showing men out. There are no pretenses, it's very in your face. I was expecting it to really weigh on me, but it didn't, interestingly. Praying, "Father, look at this! Save them! I don't know how but get these girls out, tell them how beautiful they are, enable them to give and receive true love and give them a chance to live life the way you intended it!" somehow made me... confident, or emboldened. Instead of sadness and solemnity all I felt was a strong trust flow into me that

 "My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart". --Jeremiah 24:6,7

Some people had really emotional reactions and weren't ready to hear this. It's hard to leave them behind, knowing that we didn't even have the chance to talk to them. The only, and most powerful, thing we can do is to pray.

To be a traveler rather than a tourist, I think the key is to interact with the city and it's people more and look through my camera less. A tourist goes to see famous things with the purpose to say he saw them when he returns home, a traveler goes to places and tells stories about the true experiences she had there.

 I will be a traveler, and I will pray.

Sweet Chocolate Waffles

 Hallo!

I just finished skyping Mom & Dad and it was the BEST. I love you both very, very much and it was SO GOOD to see your faces!

Let’s see…

I. Love. Bruges.

It’s the quaintest little town you ever did see. Hannah and I went on a run through the empty streets this morning to explore: we ran on cobblestones next to the canal winding through the town, past bakeries that smelled so delicious and cozy in the morning, through the Saturday morning flea market and up to the hotel for breakfast. Is there a better way to start a day?

We have no schedule here in Bruges, which was badly needed! We have art homework to catch up on and I’m going to be honest, sitting in our clean, peaceful apartment sipping tea and reading through The Story of Art is amazing. I actually enjoyed studying, it felt good to really think and not just gulp down more museum plaques; I was getting full.

One of the rooms of our apartment! How cute is this? Joanna and I are sharing the fold-out-of-the-cabinet bed shown here.

Speaking of food--for lunch we went back to the market and we got the smallest rotisserie chicken they had, some cheese, bread, vegetables and hummus. It turned into a thanksgiving-style spread (minus the hummus, maybe) and having protein and vegetables was so refreshing! Of course, later, when I needed a study break I walked to the small Markt Square to Chocolatier Dumon, a famous little chocolate shop. After eating this chocolate, Hershey’s could be brown crunchy stuff it was so good. It didn’t even taste like chocolate! It was smooth, rich but not too rich, flavorful but not overdone…sorry I can’t bring it home! After a dinner of lunch leftovers, we went to get some Belgian waffles for dessert, seeing as we’re in Belgium and all. Mine weighed about as much as me and was smothered in melty Nutella. Different from home waffles, they were crunchy on the outside, sugary and bready and buttery on the inside. I would almost get them without the nutella to taste their flavor by themselves!

Needless to say, I had a delightful food experience today.

My HUGE HUMUNGOUS man waffle that was delicious.

Bruges is made of a small net of cobble stone streets opening into large squares with cafes lining the borders and a fountain in the middle. Today they had horse and buggy rides for tourists and under our window we could hear them clop-cloppity by. Locals ride their bikes everywhere, even little 80-year-old grandmas wearing their adorable headscarves! The buildings that line the streets have at least three stories and some of them were built in the 1600s. The bell tower is right by our hotel, Hotel Aragon, and we can hear the bells chime melodies just about every half-hour, luckily they're beautiful and not like the one's Bren might remember from Italy... :)

One of the squares at night, I love the sky!

I’m learning about what it means to have time with Jesus while being with other people. Because we’re together 24-7 it’s hard to get alone time! I always forget that God is understanding and flexible, he knows our time is crazy (but awesome) and is just as available as he is any other time. There are a lot of people who really, really love Jesus on our trip and we have had some awesome conversations together. During those special conversations I hear enough truth that I could have the Bible in my hands and reading; it would be the same. I guess I’m learning a new, deeper understanding of “fellowship” (one of those vague Christian words): the spirit of Jesus in me and my friends speaking truth and love to each other while praising God for giving us everything and for who he is. Does any of that make sense? It’s new, and I have a lot to learn but I’m excited that I am learning and that God is bigger than the box I put him into. I don’t have to get him out and dust him off everyday, he’s just never been in it and chooses to be by me, no matter what’s going on, instead.

Me, Alex, and Alisha having expensive coffee, tea, and hot chocolate talking about God. This cafe is in the square shown in the first picture.

We need a place for our Vespers to be held, pray that God would provide somewhere!

I love you!

Kenz

Dank U, Belgium

Hello world!

I write to you from Bruges, Belgium and I am quite happy!

Driving into Bruges, it reminded me of driving north on I-25 to Loveland. It smelled like cows and there were big flat fields with little farmhouses nestled between them underneath big trees. The only difference was that behind the fields were thick forests that I'm pretty sure are the inspiration for many a fairy tale: the limbs of the trees stretch out as if to draw you in to the funny light and who knows where the paths will lead!

Bruges is the quaintest. We are staying absolutely gorgeous apartments! I thought our apartment in Paris was wonderful, but it was nothing compared to this (although really, who can complain about any apartment in Paris??) It has a bedroom, a little couch room that only has a couch situated to look out the window, a huge bathroom, a hallway to a living/dining room and off of that is the kitchen. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? We are so, so blessed to be living in these places! The streets of Bruges are all cobblestone and lined with four-story, old buildings with colorful doors, of course. It was pretty funny to see all 47 of us rumbling our suitcases single-file along the cobblestone street to get to our hotel. We looked like a mini ant brigade.

This is Europe, as Mom said when we (finally!) got to skype!! Apparently Belgium's specialties are beer, chocolate, and waffles. Tomorrow the plan is to go for a run, do homework, eat chocolate, eat waffles, (probably skip the beer) and have a wonderful relaxed day!

I love you all,

kenz

What is beauty?

As one friend said to me today: this is 

CRAZY. 

It's not ending! We're going to be doing adventures for a long time! You know? Today we went to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, tomorrow we're going to Versailles, and then on friday we go to Belgium. 

No big deal.

Except it is  a big deal! We're coming to our 3 week anniversary, even long vacations are ending about this time and if I was on that vacation I would have treasured every day full of the freedom of travel! I think as a survival mechanism I've stopped appreciating everything we do. It was normal to go to the Eiffel tower today, and going to the Palais de Versailles tomorrow will be just another long day trip, meaning sore feet, sheep-herding-style travel, holding pee until we make a group run, and eating lots of carbs because that's all the french eat: that and butter. 

No! No. Here and now I'm appreciating this time for what it is, I want you all to know that. 

SO. Here is what I appreciate--

I took the Metro all by myself to the Notre Dame! Yes, I took Line 5 to Gare de Austerlitz and switched to the C RER train and got of at Sainte Michel and walked across the bridge to the island that the Notre Dame sits on and found my group and breathed in incense during the church service, sang french hymns,  and craned my neck to look up at the beautiful, beautiful stained glass windows high up on the cieling! 

I'm appreciating my classes:

In our Technology class, we learned that Gothic cathedrals are an incredible innovation because unlike the Romanesque-style class preceding them which were made to look strong, heavy, impenetrable with big columns and small windows, the Gothic cathedrals favor "height and light"! They have slim columns  along the walls to make the vaulted ceiling with pointed arches and, because of the thinner walls, are able to have big windows! There's a problem though, the thin walls and small columns supporting the arches can't support much weight, so the walls bend outward unless (dun dundun dunnnn!) they have flying buttresses!! Yes! Flying butresses support the walls, enabling us to experience the light from the stained glass and the magnificence of the huge cathedral. 

I'm appreciating my processing of what we experience:

How do I appreciate art differently as a Christian? What is beauty when looking through the "lens" (comm major motif...) of Christ when looking at art? I think cathedrals are absolutely stunning, God deserves to have such a thing built to glorify his name! But it wasn't, the king of france commissioned it because every great city has to have a great cathedral. God would rather me worship whole-heartedly in the gutter than have thousands of people attend a service with their cameras out the whole time. Or maybe not. How awesome would it be to pack that cathedral with hundreds of people singing praises to him! Our songs would echo and magnify off the big walls as we sing together! Harmonies would combine and twirl all the way up to those high arches! The bells would ring! That, I think, would be the most beautiful thing I could ever be a part of. 

The beauty I see now is broken, partial; maybe something becomes most beautiful when it becomes what it is supposed to be. Think about it: a view is the best when it is uninterrupted by smog or litter, friendship is the best when both people love selflessly, as Jesus did. We become more beautiful when we allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus! We are in a broken world, nothing is as it should be. One day everything will be f i n i s h e d and we will be the most beautiful we can be because we will be made complete in Christ, the way he intended. Ah! I can't wait! 

See? I just processed that. You don't have to read it, but it's definitely going into my art journal. 

I'm appreciating the food: today I had two baguette sandwiches (they're the cheapest thing here...), we've made AMAZING pasta dinners in our apartment! (speaking of apartment, our cleaning lady came today and when she walked in she asked for a coke, (what??) but ok, well, we have juice? She drank it so fast it dribbled all over the tile in the kitchenette, and when we came back... the now dried-and-sticky yellow juice was still there. So weird.)

I'm appreciating the language, I'm learning so much!

I'm appreciating having seen Hugh Jackman walk with his family to get dinner in the Eiffel Tower (300 euros a plate, apparently). I've always thought I would keep my cool when I met someone famous, but no. I got so giddy I could have been a five year old girl about to be adopted by all the Disney princesses plus Mulan. But still, it was awesome. Then the sunset over the city was absolutely stunning, and I was SO glad I went up instead of working on my paper. :)

So artsy...

I'm appreciating our man-neighbor across the street who we named Pierre and we're pretend friends with him. 

I love our group, there really isn't a bad combination of people to be with. 

and... now I must appreciate my night of paper writing--on the US policy of isolationism from 1918-1941 (woo-hoo).

I LOVE YOU!