Just another day in Brussels

When I moved to Brussels 9 months ago I jumped head first into YoungLife things. There was so much going on and I didn't really get a chance to get to know this new city moved into. SO one of my goals for the summer here is to get to know the city a little better. For me that means plopping myself at some point in the city and just letting myself get lost for a few hours. Today was my first try. I took the tram and the bus( I had not up to this point taken the bus in Belgium!) and made my way down to a part of the city I don't usually go. I walked around for a few hours just exploring, window shopping, taking pictures, and enjoying the sunshine. Brussels really is a gorgeous city. For me it is important to be able to get around easily in the place where I live and I also want to fall a bit in love with Brussels so it was a really fun day.

I started near Place Flagey and this is a picture looking up one of the streets off the Place. Again- can I say how beautiful this city is? The next picture is just a building like many others that I came across. I love how there are these little traditional brick houses in between stucco ones.

A cool thing I came across was that the Royal Palace was open for the public and it was free. Here is the outside and some of the garden. I was a little disappointed because we didn't have access to any of the private rooms but it was still pretty cool to go in.

Another picture of some cool brick with a cool sign in front- There are so many little alleys with little shops- it would take years to explore but where I found this little shop is near the antiques part of town-pretty fun

Near the end of my exploring- I found this really cool skate park. It was quite a hot day so not too many people where there but it was fun to stop and see some of the tricks. This guy was the best there. I even showed him the picture I took of him since he stopped right near me- gotta make new friends everywhere:)

This next one is by far my favorite shot of the day. I was trying to get this guys feet as he was doing his trick but got a way cool shot of his shadow and his board- if that doesn't rock- you're crazy!!

Tonight I got invited by some friends to join then in one of the city parks for outdoor aerobics. Now I am game for anything once but even i thought- what???? So I met my friends at the park and wouldn't you know- over 300 people are there for aerobics in the park. It was one of the funniest things I have ever been a part of. So we are all standing in this large circle around the instructor- we are maybe 10 people deep around her as she begins to warm us up. It was funny enough at that point because we couldn't really see her so we were guessing what she was doing by what the people in front of us were doing and that was a bit chaotic. Then she has everyone start running around her in a big circle- think trying to make a whirlpool but on grass. Then we switch directions- I mean who taught this lady the hokey pokey and told her it was aerobics. SO after an hour of laying in the dirt(the grass was a bit sporadic) and laughing our heads off- we were done. I mean where else can you get over 300 adults to roll around in the dirt and do the running man and call in exercise- it was GREAT!! and apparently they do it every Tuesday and Thursday in the park- there may have to be a return trip!! This is me doing one of the crazy moves I'm sure.

This is us all circled around the instructor- Rebecca and Katy are in the brown and white shirt there- they had been several times and were the ones to invite us.

Here is a video of us running in circles!! fun times!

Wonderful evening

I have no picture for this blog and for that I am sorry. But I had such a wonderful night last night that I thought I would share. Liesl- my friend and co-worker was getting in from the Czech and so i invited 2 other friends over to my house for dinner. The weather here has been not so great and it was looking a little sketchy all day. My plan was to grill out on my little terrace and eat out there as well. The rain held off and we feasted on shish-kebabs with meat nad veggies, raw veggies and dip, salad and to drink some sweet tea. MMMMM. Then we went for a walk in the sunshine and came back to my place again. I made smoothies and we again sat on the terrace and just chatted till almost midnight. I have eaten out on my terrace several time but have never sat out there in the dark and just enjoyed the dark blue sky above the trees. It was such a great night. And to have such awesome friends to share it with- i felt very blessed! So if you want-come over and we can sit out on my terrace and sip sweet tea and chat til we fall asleep!!

Back from summer fun!

Well for some people summer is just beginning but pretty much for me the summer fun has already happened. I went to Malibu Club for what turned out to be 3 weeks instead of 4. I got to catch up with a friend I hadn't seen in 8 or so years while I was home. And I got to hang out with my awesome family and go to the "shore" with them.

So I will start here with Malibu. It was a long treck to get there but so worth it. I flew home to PA on May 29th and got to my house about 5:00 PM. Just enough time to eat a home cooked meal, got to a nephew's basketball game, and repack for my 1 suitcase trip across the states. Who are they kidding? Who only needs one suitcase for a month?!! But I am getting better and better at packing so I did it. So Friday morning I flew from PHL to houston and had a layover. Then flew from Housont to Seattle. There some new friends- Keith and Jenny Dow picked me up so I could spend the night at their house. That is where I found out that my assignment was only 3 weeks. Which is kind of funny cuz I was the only one on the team who didn't know and I was the only one it really mattered for(cuz I was the only one who flew). But that ended up working out just fine!

So saturday we drove the last leg fo the trip- which included crossing the canadian border, a car ferry and a water taxi-pretty fun! We arrived at camp in the afternoon. It was gorgeous!!

So the next three weeks were spent being a head leader there at Malibu Club. The people rocked, my team was amazing and camp was jsut all around the bomb!!!(I know- I am throwing back there with the "bomb") Here are a few pics of the peeps.

This is me and moy awesome roomie for the time there-Dana

This is the whole assignment team for the month- I really fell in love with these people and they are now part of my family- which means they better come visit!!

This is the head leader team- Marshall, Keith, Dana and I. This is who I worked directly with every day. We got to do fun things like break up purple, shine bright lights in peoples eyes, sit in the info booth, talk on radios!! the radios were some of the best:) Everyone wanted to be on the Head leader station- we had some pretty fun times!

So now that I have been to a YL camp for an official assignment- the answer is YES!!- yes, in the near future I would LOVE to work full time at one. It was an amazing experience with an incredible group of people.

AHH yes and then there is the after camp adventures- I will save those for another blog but I will say that my A-Team was generous enough to pay to change my plane ticket and send me home for that final week where I thought I had to be at camp but didn't really. They rock I tell ya!