Yes I am still alive!

I know I have been missing for quite some time but I have many excuses-which include but are not limited to being in france and then the states for a month!

So for this moment I will leave you with a little teaser of my time away.

2 of my sisters came to YoungLife camp with me and I made them go on the giant swing:) They may tell you they hated it but they loved it:) they even willingly went on the Zip line the next day!

We also spent the annual week at the shore-here we are being hardcore!

This was my view in France when I went to YoungLife camp to work! God's handiwork is AMAZING!

Bulgaria Hysteria!

Just got back from our annual YoungLife service project. We went to Bulgaria this year. From Brussels we took 22 students and 4 adults. It was an absolute blast! I am still exhausted and a little sick but it was all VERY worth it!

Here is the program team of "Bulgaria Hysteria"

One of the murals we painted at the school for kids with disabilities.

Alyssa getting to use the saw!

Emily and I on the work site

The girls on the beach!

The whole Brussels group in front of the other mural.

With some of the kids from the school

Stephen and his posse!

Our awesome Brussels leaders!!

Paul got to come back and be part of Brussels!!

You know your a people pleaser when . . .

Ok so everyday when I go to the gym I pass one of those blinking signs that has a radar in it and it tells you how fast you are going. Now I have seen many different varieties of these types of radar signs over the years and some are more motivating than others. The ones that just blink your speed-not motivating AT ALL-i can look at my speedometer for that. Then there are the ones that blink your speed and how much the fine$$ would be if they caught you. A little more motivating but still . . who's there to catch me. Well the one I pass on the way home from the gym takes another approach which I find VERY motivating. It flashes your speed and then if you are below 50kmp it gives you a ☺ or a ☹ if you are going over 50mph. Now I am NOT joking when I tell you that every time I go by-if it is on ☹ I slow down to earn my ☺. Sad I know-but so true-way to go radar sign inventor you have figured out how to motivate me to slow down-it's kind of like getting a sticker when you were in kindergarten- ONLY BETTER!!!

happy new year 1319!!

SO a few weeks back I went to the Bulgarian embassy here in Brussels to get a visa for my friend Said who is coming as one of our leaders on service project. He attempted to come last year but at the last minute(literally 2 days before) we realized that he needed a visa and we did not have enough time to get it. So this year we were on our A game! and got to the task months in advance. It was quite a little adventure. First of all picking up Said on the side of the road:) after trying to find him by the statue only to figure out that there were 2 statues and we were each at different ones! Then finding the front of the embassy and trying to buzz ourselves in. I ended up talking into one of those intercom things and NO ONE was on the other end-yes I looked a little crazy. Then we drove to the back entrance and were greeted by a Bulgarian guy who spoke no French, Flemish, english or persian(all languages that between the 2 of us we could have functioned in) so we proceeded to wait in line only to be told when we got to the front of the line that we needed to fill out a bunch of papers. Problem was that the 1st guy did not speak and of our languages so he could not give us the appropriate paperwork. SO we got out of line and I got right back in line while Said filled out the papers. When we got back to the front of the line the guy was checking Said's answers. He pointed out a mistake- Said had put the wrong year down for his birth year. I looked at him and was like "what! how could you not know your birth year?" and he proceeded to call me out on my ignorance and tell me that in Iran(where he is from) they are on a totally different calendar and thus when he moved here the people who issued his documents had to count backwards to figure out the year that we would use.

So fast forward to this past saturday night when I get a call from Said asking me if I wanted to come with him to a Iranian New Year's celebration. Well regardless of whatever else I had planned the answer was YES!! I would love to ring in the year 1319!!! and eat amazing Iranian food and try my hand at reading and speaking persian! SO Sunday afternoon I joined him and his family at their church for a New Years celebration. I sadly did not take any pictures but it was quite an event! But I wish you a very happy 1319!!

concerts

It has been the month of concerts. To be honest in the past I have rarely if ever gone to concerts. Most of that came out of the fact that I was not that into music. That's not to say I don't love music-cuz i do! but I didn't really follow the "music scene" and pretty much only knew big names artists that one would hear on the radio all the time. Things have changed in the past year or so. I think I have found my genre of music and therefore have done a bit of research into similar artists. This has also been helped out by the fact that some of my good friend in BXL are VERY into music. So in the past 5-6 weeks I have been to several concerts- some of them more my style and some as a result of friends and students. The first concert was with students-THE SCRIPT-an irish band came through town. I was smart enough to get tickets ahead of time(it sold out early) and went with a few high school students. It was a decent concert- the lead singer was a bit full of himself but I am guessing that a lead singer of a rock band should be a little cocky? The next concert 2 weeks later and more my style- IRON & WINE. I was quite excited about this concert and was actually the one who organized my friends to go. Sad to say it was very disappointing. The music was all changed up and slightly self-indulgent and I walked away feeling like the best part of the evening was going out afterwards. Then the week after that we had our YoungLife fundraiser concert where we had THROW TELEVISION open up for RUE ROYALE. Both amazing bands and quite possibly my favorite concert so far! Monday night was yet another concert- KT TUNSTALL was in town. Fiona got tickets way back when and though I did not know much of her music-let's just say black horse and a cherry tree was probably the only song I DID know- the concert was quite good. She was fun and unassuming and gave a great show. We started out pretty close to the front and since I am somehow taller than most Belgians I had a pretty good view of the entire stage(even the awesome orange drum set!) We ended up in the back after a near fainting scare from Fiona but all in all a good concert

No more concerts for a while but it sure was a fun month!

all in a day

Sometimes I crack up at my life. For instance- today by 1 PM I had

1-been to french class where of course I spoke french and as much english as I could get my neighbors to speak:)

2-Gone to the car dealership because this morning I wanted to check my oil but the hood would not open. SO I went to the dealership to see what I was doing wrong-YES i did try reading the french manual first but it just said to do what I was trying. The problem was NOT me-but a loose cable so the nice french belgian checked my oil for me:)

3-went to the grocery store where I got to speak the little Flemish I know(thank you and I would like to pay with credit please:))

and then back to my place- yes 3 languages in 1 morning-

only in Belgium where not only can they not choose a language but we also hold the record for longest time without a government! GO BELGIUM!!

Italian adventures

There are many moments in my life when I step back and have to tell myself- "this is my life!!" Some of those moments are in the best of times and some not:)

As far as best of times go- Since November I have been to Italy not once but TWICE!! ridiculous-I know!! considering I had not been since my "european adventure" of 1999 it is pretty impressive:)

Trip 1-In november I went with my amazing friend Kate who was living in Spain at the time and wanted to visit Rome before she moved back to the states. We stayed in amazing apartment right around the corner from the Colosseum. It was so much fun to walk around Rome and eat lots of pizza and Gelato with one of my dearest friends. We met lots of fun people, heard opera being sung outside the Pantheon, took illegal pictures:), and mastered the art of public transport in Rome-it's impressive believe me:)

a picture in the colosseum looking out towards the Roman Forum-amazing history!

in the Roman forum-I actually learned how to use this type of fountain by watching Eat, Pray, Love- at least i learned something:)

My favorite outfits of the trip- really -do they have to make the Swiss guard look like clowns?

Trip #2- For my birthday back in October my 2 dearest friends in Brussels gave me an amazing gift. They planned an adventure for us to Italy in january-figuring we would need an escape from the dreary belgium weather! We flew to Pisa and then stayed in acute little Tuscan town at the top of a hairpin turn mountain road. We built fires every night and walked around fairly deserted italian villages during the day. These ladies are amazing and I am so blessed to have them in my life. We chatted and chatted, made s'mores in our fireplace at night and ate breakfast on the rooftop terrace.

IN pisa taking the obligatory-"it's gonna fall without me" picture

Fiona, me and Sarah in Pisa

Eating on the rooftop- it was sunny- but COLD!! hey coming from Belgium we will do anything for some sun!

In one of our tuscan villages:)

Thanks ladies for giving me the best present ever-TIME with you in an incredible setting!