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!

New haircut and mom and dad visit

Mom and dad got here last Friday and in the spirit of trying to keep them from jet-lagging I did not let them go to sleep- they call me mean but they will thank me later:) So I took them into Brussels and showed them some of the sights. Here they are in front of the arches-we even went on top and got a cool view of the park.

Then Saturday we drove down near Paris and visited Versailles- pretty amazing place. It's hard to imagine it in its hay-day when it was filled with all kinds of royalty. Here we are in the hall of mirrors.

Sunday we got up and drove into the city. Well not really into but outside of and parked our car and took the metro in. It started pouring moments after getting off the metro and so we decided to go in the Louvre first. We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Our favorite part was sitting in front of Napolean and being art critics for a few moments- like we were in a movie or something:) When we came out of the Louvre the sun was shining.

That night we went and saw the Eiffel Tower with it's lights on. At the top of each hour there are twinkle lights that go on the tower- it was beautiful. Here are mom and dad in front of the tower.

Tuesday we took off from sightseeing- I had to do some work and mom and dad needed some rest:)!! But Wednesday we started back up again- we went to Brugge- only about 1 hour away. The market was going on when we got there so we bought a chicken and some potatoes and sat by the water and ate with our fingers- how American of us. Then we took the boat tour through the canals and walked around a bit.

Today I sent mom and dad off on the train by themselves. i again had some work to do and some fun stuff to do. One of the fun things was going to the European Parlament to eat lunch. A friend works there and she invited a few of us the come check it out. It was pretty impressive being in a place where world changing decisions are made every day. Here we are sitting in the seats before we got kicked out.

Right after the EP I had a haircut. There was a guy interviewing for a job here. Him and his wife are also going to be working with one of the churches here and that is how I knew about it. So I went and told him that as long as I could pull the front back he could do whatever he wanted with it. SO here is what he came up with- I really like it- its fun and new and no one can say they can't tell I got my hair cut!!!

That's all for now- I think it's enough!

Monday in Paris!!

So monday's are my day off here in Brussels. Last week my friend Jessica called me up and asked if I would like to go to Paris for the day on Monday. So of course me answer was YES!! I mean really- paris for the day- how gets to do that?!!! SO we headed off around 7:30 AM- it's a 3 hour drive. Here we are in the car on the way down. And some other fun pics of the trip. As you cansee we got to see lots of good stuff and we even met up with a good friend of ours-Tiffany- who lives there.

Oh what fun!

So it's a crazy time right now-next friday morning I pick up my parents from the aiport. I am SO excited that they are coming. They are going to get to see (and I'm sure spruce up) my place, meet my friends, see what I do over here and even get to travel a bit. Paris, Germany and Amsterdam are on their list- all are withing 3 hours- pretty cool. Not only are they coming but we are trying to wind up the year with YoungLife and WyldLife stuff. I am only here for 2 more weeks before I head back to the states to work at camp!! Which if I haven't told you- I am beyond excited about!!! SO busy busy over here-but lots of fun too.

A few weeks back all the women who work for YoungLife in Europe came here to Brussels for a women's weekend. It was so much fun hanging out and hearing peoples stories. I think all we did all weekend was go from cafe to resaurant and chat. Here's a photo of the group after one of our dinners. Yes 2 random men decided to get in our pictures:)

I have started to get a group of great fun friends here- the sad part is most of them will not be here next year- but that just means I will that many more places to go visit!:) This is our group after a fun day at the flea market!

This is me, Liesl and Nino- he is honestly one of the funniest guys- who knows what he is looking at here but I am sure we were all laughing! Don't me and Liesl look cute though:)!!

Spring may be here!

So I forgot to tell everyone about our last intern training in London- if you don't know we go 4 times a year to training -2x in London and 2x in munich(and when I say "in" I mean like an hour outside). This training was so much fun- the 2nd year interns had to run club- here Kathy and I are doing announcements for the hearing impaired(really she is saying them and then I am SCREAMING them at the top of my lungs-it was hard to keep a straight face.

This is a pic of some of the amazing ladies I get to do training with-they are so much fun and such encouragement!

This is most of the group outide of Nandos- our favorite portuguese resteraunt.

Last week we went to Bulgaria for our annual service project and it was amazing. I am still recovering from my lack of sleep but lack of sleep pales in comparison to how much fun it was! We got to build a huge playground and picnic table and benches and paint amazing murals. We got 'er done!! Here is Olivia and I right after she finished drilling holes in metal bech legs! Go Olivia!

The students we took were awesome and they invited us out to do karoake with them once we got back to Brussels. So i went to my first Karaoke bar and it was here in Brussels- crazy life i live! It was actually quite fun! Her are Liesl and I singing- "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor- classic I know!

then a bunch of our group got up and did "Lean on me" since that was a song we did at service project- it was a blast!

Wow my life is crazy and amazing and I am so thankful for it! Yesterday was a gorgeous day in brussels- the sun was out and I had all my doors and windows open! I can not wait for more days like that- so i can use my grill and sit out on my terasse and enjoy the sun! are you jealous yet?!!

Place Wiener & Wyldlife

I have not put any Wyldlife Photos on here yet because I have not gotten any good ones:) I am usually either in the midst of the chaos or organzing it so I gave my camera to one of the moms last time and got a few pictures. This is the room where we have Club. Behind where all the kids are standing is a little cafe area where we eat before we start. And behind where the camera person is standing is a small stage where we do our skits.

Place Wiener is the square that I live off of. So the other week I took a few pictures of my little part of town. This is the street that I live on- this is the walk up the street that I get to take most every day- not bad huh!? My house is not brick- I am sad- but I am surrounded by the beautiful red brick that is so common here.

this is a picture of my Tram- the 94 tram that is. This is what I take to get to the Metro. I ride about 4 stops on this and then get on the underground metro. I LOVE public transport so that fact that I can pretty much get it right outside my front door thrills me to no end!

This picture is taken from the metro stop and looking toward mt street. My street is just behind the "smart car"-between the white and brick building. That brick building is home to an awesome italian restaraunt called Via Rome- mmm magnific!! The white building is home to the GB which is a small convenience store. This is my friend on Sunday's because it is one of the only things open. The problem is that means it is closed on tuesday's and when I forget that it really stinks!

So I LOVE living where I do- I can walk to restaraunts, the small grocery store, the tram, the bank, the office and pretty much anything else I need.

But it is also nice to have a car!! yeah for wheels finally! I use that to get to the gym and to one of the schools where we do a lot of ministry. It's also nice to be able to go to a real grocery store every once in a while and get everything I need. My station wagon is great! Here is the spectacular mom mobile!

Is February really almost gone?

I know! I know! it has been a month- but really? How often do the rest of you actually update your blog? That's what I'm talking about!! So i am including a variety of pictures here- starting with my apartment. Here is my living room with my stuff all in it- I have actually rearranged

since taking this picture but you get the idea.

Here's my kitchen- again I have gotten a few more pices of furntire in here(so the micorwave is no longer on the floor-yippee) but you get the idea! Yes- those of you who sent me christmas pictures you have made the refridgerator and those that didn't- there is still time so send em in!

These are some pictures of the fun I have been up to lately. Last month at church I met some great girls from England and the next weekend they invited me and Liesl over to celebrate "fat tuesday" on Sunday. Here are Joanna and Fiona in their kitchen cooking us up some pancakes!! the next picture is from a day trip Liesl, Janet and I took to Amsterdam. We went for a few hours, got to see Ann Frank's house and ate some lunch. It is a beautiful city!

This past weekend the middle school basketball team I help coach went to Bonn, Germany to play against a school there. Here we are hanging out, waiting for our game to start. We won all the games that weekend so it was a lot of fun.

Monday's are our day off here in Brussels. Up to this point I have mostly slept and hung out around home on those days- trying to get things organized. This week I decided to go explore the city a little more. Liesl and I headed across town to the Atomium which was built in 1958 for the world's fair. It's a pretty cool "building" to look at. We did not go in it because I figured mom and dad might want to do that when they come and I wanted to save a little fun for them! But i took some cool pictures. You can go into each one of the "balls" and walk from one to the next-pretty cool! sorry the picture is on it's side but again- you get the idea!

Hope that gives you a small glimpse into the past month. This week is a bit crazy with service projects, club and leadership. It seems that time is at a full out sprint and I am trying to keep up. The days are getting longer which is wonderful and people are starting to come out of hybernation. I can not wait to see what this place looks like in the spring!