more random thoughts...

so my family is really pretty good, overall. i'm thankful for them, even when i don't really want to be around them. and really, it's that i don't want to be in va beach at all, not that i want away from my family. but don't get me wrong, i'm glad i'm not sharing a bathroom with 4 adults anymore.

Christmas was pretty good. i made the best stuffing i've ever had. we made the same stuffing at thanksgiving, but we only had polish sausage, not italian, and my oh my has the italian sausage made all the difference! that, and the 2 eggs and 1c sour cream that i forgot to put in it last time. YUM. i also made a pretty stinking good raspberry chocolate truffle cheesecake. my brother in law said it's better than the cheesecake factory.

in sadder news, the little glass christmas tree i bought my mom in venice and carried around for 5 weeks got knocked over and broke into 16 pieces. we both cried. the good news is that the same brother in law bought some special glue and has really steady hands and helped glue the big pieces together. the smaller pieces i think i can get later. well, i hope.

I GOT TO TALK TO KA KI LAST NIGHT!!! wow, i was so excited! if you're reading this, THANK YOU, KA KI!!! ka ki is a friend of mine from OU. she is so stinking awesome, and i was so glad to hear from her! she was really encouraging, too, and just talking to her gave me some great perspective. it is so great to know i'm in the same boat as many other "recent" grads... knowing it's a big world out there, and i have so many doors open to me, but which ones to pursue? and where did all my friends and support system, and instant relationships with classmates and colleagues go? and oh, yeah, what am i doing with my life? i definitely think these first few years after college (ok, 1.5 so far) are the hardest. and i definitely think that is the case with so many of us these days. most campus ministries, for one, don't necessarily do a good job preparing us for life after college. and one reason, as i think about it, is that they don't really know about it... most of the campus crusade staffers at my school started on staff right after college themselves. so in a sense, they never left the college world and entered the "real world" or the work force. but those are more thoughts for a later date...

so i was planning to go up to DC and see dustin and clayton on thurs. but then i got an invitation to go to their baby shower on sat. i can't go both days, which day do i choose?

the weather yesterday was wicked! the high was 71, at 10pm! we were just getting out of the movies, and it was SO warm! 71, to be exact! oy! at midnight, as i walked around the block while talking to ka ki, i passed a guy who had been out running, and i wanted to run, too. it was POURING rain as we entered the movie theater at 730, and if it were pouring at midnight, i definitely would have gone running, too. speaking of, i may have a running date with abbey tomorrow morning... hmmm... that will come early!

paris pictures, finally!!

http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099178&l=8fe94&id=9605288

so these are finally my pictures from paris, my first (and last, but no pics) of my europe journey. when i needed to empty my memory card, i uploaded all the pics to kodak photo gallery. but i doubt you want to look at all 500 pics there, these are just the best/most interesting 18. but if you are interested in seeing them all, let me know, i'll send you the link.

at any rate, enjoy these, 4 months later! i was in paris the last few days of august.

a few ramblings.

thank you to all you guys who i saw last night. i had a great time with y'all! i am so glad you guys are my friends, and i am honored to live this life with you.

i keep dreaming about morocco. more specifically, about being a tour guide with intrepid there. i still haven't heard back from them, and at this point, i'm not all that hopeful. but obviously i'm still dreaming...

i got all these books from the library that i can't read. one is a bout 2 guys who kayak half the way around australia. one is about a woman who walks the inca trail in peru. another is about a guy and his team that walk from the peak of kilimanjaro to the indian ocean. i just get too jealous and am mad that i can't do any of those things right now.

i am feeling more hopeful, at least right now, that i WILL be moving on, in at least SOME aspect of my life, in the near future.

in the meantime, i need patience. not only for the "job search/career search/life search", but in seeing my family over this holiday. oy. grandmother comes in this afternoon (i have more cleaning to do...) and michelle and lee come in on friday morning. for those that are local, please feel free to kidnap me at any time. ooh, even better, those that are NOT local should kidnap me!! :-P :-D

rosamond damron died this morning. she used to live 2 doors down from us, then moved back to her hometown in kentucky a few years ago. she was a sweet woman and dearly loved by her 7th grad students. she and her husband were my "halfway" point when i went back and forth to oklahoma. the last time i saw her is when i went to the passion conference in nashville, last jan. i drove up to see them one afternoon to visit and catch up. please be praying for her family, in particular her daughter amy and granddaughter chelsea. and of course her husband dave.

i had a good time at my family reunion/Christmas party this past weekend in Christiansburg. i really enjoy seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles. all my favorites were there, and i enjoyed catching up with them all.

i went walking yesterday on the noland trail, around the maritime museum in newport news. it was 5mi, and my legs are feeling it today. but it's a good feeling. i also got to check out trader joe's, since it was "close", aka, also in newport news (not all that close, but closer than i usually ever am).

did i mention how much i like my friends. y'all rock.

still waiting...

and it's odd how God answers some of my prayers, then shows me i really don't want it to happen that way at all.

my life

does my life have purpose? how long till i find out what it is?

i'm beginning to remember...

i'm beginning to remember why, when i left FC the last day of school last year, i told myself (and others) i wouldn't mind if i never stepped foot in a high school ever again, except perhaps my kids' (if i want to procreate). i had a pretty good 12th grade english class today. they were behaved and did what i asked of them. but i was till bored out of my mind on my off block, and during my 4th block study block. i hated it. not to mention i hate the politics of the "subbing world". i hate how they play favorites, but it's never based on how good of a sub you actually are. no one ever checks in on me or watches me, they have no idea how well i, or anyone else, actually handles a class. i hate whingeing so much, but i'm just so sick of it, yet i don't know what else to do. i pretty much hate sitting around all day, so i am thankful to be out of the house and actually making money, but i also hate subbing. i don't want to be there, either. i'm not sure i'll go back. i feel like crap about it all.

i really REALLY REALLY hope i hear from the places i applied for a job soon. this waiting stuff sucks. i am so thankful it's only a phase, but man, what if it's not? what if i never hear from either of the places i applied? i don't know what i would do then, but i HAVE to do something other than sub more and live at home. UUUUGH.

everything you bless is not what i'd planned

All my restless heart could do is cry
I stepped on out into the night
The tides turned again and nothing felt right
I searched for truth I sought your light
and all my restless heart could do is cry

Chorus:
Everything I held is out of my hands
Everything you bless is not what I’d planned
Not what I’d seen, not what I’d dreamed

My hearts hope will rise and fall with the wind
A gentle breeze will blow me over again
I’m walking unstable

And all the things I held
Were dragging my heart so far down
And the things I’d dreamed were nothing, Nothing as they’d seemed
And then I question you
And doubt you as the God I know
But all over again, you saved me from myself

i heard this song on the radio as i drove home tonite, and not only did i like the sound of the song, the lyrics hit me like a 2x4 upside the head. the song is "out of my hands" by the turning, on the album "learning to lose". i immediately came home and bought the song on itunes... while i accepted a subbing job for cox tomorrow. back into a world i was so, so, SO glad to leave. so yet again, everything You bless is not what i'd planned...

i'm tired

i forget why it is good to live here. i don't want to live here anymore and i might go insane if i have to live here much longer. i keep thinking, just 6 more weeks, and i'll be gone. if only i had some certainty to know it is true.

i want to visit courtney, hillary and the schells in boston.

i want to visit katrina in seattle and christine in vancouver.

i want to visit bethany in chile. and ka ki in hong kong.

and most of all, i don't want to live in virginia beach anymore. have i mentioned that yet?

so this week has been a little harder than i was thinking it would be.

let the procrastination continue...

ok, i have seen this a few places, and i want to procrastinate even more, so here goes:

The Soundtrack of my life:
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool


Opening Credits: Single, Natasha Bedingfield

Waking Up: Food For Thought - UB40

First Day At School: Light In the Dark - A Few Young Fischermen

Falling In Love: Erosion - Switchfoot

Fight Song: Why Do I Feel So Sad - Alicia Keys

Breaking Up: Hound Dog - Elvis Presley

Prom: Out Of Bounds - Bon Jovi

Life's OK: This Was Good - Rita Springer

Mental Breakdown: Raga One: Alap & Jod - Ravi Shankar

Driving: Gifted Response (We Will Worship You) - Matt Redman

Flashback: Walking Away - Lifehouse

Getting Back Together: The Way You Do the Things You Do - UB40 (i didn't even realize i had this much UB40 on my ipod!)

Wedding: Micah 6:8 - Charlie Hall

Birth of Child: Beautiful - Bethany Dillon. Wow.

Final Battle: Tomorrow Belongs to Us - The Casualties

Death Scene: Si Te Vas - Shakira

Funeral Song: Ordinary - Train

End Credits: Blue Christmas - Brenda Lee

hmmm. interesting. some of them seem accurate, at least. but still kinda fun.

the map of my travels

it's interactive, to some degree. try playing with it!

I will not live my life in between anymore

Artist: Smalltown Poets
Album: Listen Closely
Track: Hold It Up To The Light


It's the choice of a lifetime & I'm almost sure
I will not live my life in between anymore
If I can't be certain of all that's in store
This far it feels so right
I will hold it up hold it up to the light,
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

The search for my future has brought me here
This is more than I'd hoped for, but sometimes I fear
That the choice I was made for will someday appear
And I'll be too late for that flight
So hold it up hold it up to the light,
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

I said God, will you bless this decision?
I'm scared. Is my life at stake?
But I know if you gave me a vision
Would I never have reason to use my faith?

Now as soon as I'm moving my choice is good
This way comes through right where I prayed that it would
If I keep my eyes open and look where I should
Somehow all of the signs are in sight
If I hold up the light

It's too late to be stopped at the crossroads
Each life here and each a possible way
But wait and they all will be lost roads
Each path's growing shorter the longer I stay

I was dead with deciding and afraid to choose
I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose
But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move
And trust that the timing is right
I will hold it up hold it up to the light
Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light.

a thousand thoughts and a million emotions

um, i don't really know where to start or what to say, except that man, God is good.

i've had a few AMAZING conversations in the past week; they kind of shake up the world i thought i was living in, a bit. i realize i interact with people differently than i thought i did, i realize a few relationships are different than i thought they were. i realize i can stay out/up later than i thought and still exist (i got too much sleep in college and missed out on a lot of fun). i am ready to "move on" in my life and say goodbye to this chapter, but i am so scared that i will repeat it for another year, or more. i do realize that i have no idea what God has in store for my future, really, even if i think i do.

i applied for 2 jobs recently - one stateside, in one of 6 locations (DC, atlanta, norman, eugene OR, houston, east lansing MI), the other overseas (location not yet determined). i think i would LOVE either one, and i really really really hope to be offered at least one of them. if i get offered both, i'm not really sure which i would pick. but, oh God, please don't make me stay in VB.

on the other side of that, i am enjoying my relationship with my parents and the depths of relationship i am finally enjoying with my friends here. but i am also certain they are the kinds of friendships that will stay with me for a long time, no matter what continent i'm on. which is a good thing, since i hope to be on other continents within the next few years, even if the 2nd job doesn't come thru.

for the last week or so, i have felt "wrapped in grace". i'm not really sure i can describe that feeling, except to say it is a kind of culmination, or perhaps conglomeration, of a lot of different thoughts and experiences and lessons for a few years now. but let me tell you, it is one of the most secure feelings, despite circumstances and despite people (we all suck, sometimes, even when we don't mean to). i am so SO thankful to God for a number of things - things that He kept me out of and safe from when i couldn't understand why i wasn't "being let in on" them or when my own legalism and self-righteousness/superiority kept me away. i am thankful for some of the hardest seasons, when God proved to me, in the end (or more likely i couldn't see it until the end), His goodness, faithfulness and love for me. i am thankful that my relationship with God is unique, because it really is a relationship, and it doesn't have to look like or work like anyone else's relationship with God. i am thankful that i stayed blinded to so many things that i would have worried and obsessed over unnecessarily. and i am so SO thankful that God has allowed me to have a wise perspective in these things now.

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [12] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [13] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.


Romans 6:14 (ESV)
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

1 Cor. 15:10 (ESV)
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

2 Cor. 4:15 (ESV)
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

2 Cor. 9:8 (ESV)
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Ephes. 2:8 (ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

1 Peter 5:10 (ESV)
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.


2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

wow. "wrapped in grace".

countries visited, updated!

create your own visited countries map

photos, finally!

pics of morocco can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090383&l=577fa&id=9605288

pics of italy and spain can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090171&l=80007&id=9605288


pics of the rest of europe (norway, sweeden, denmark, netherlands, belgium, germany, and switzerland) can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090148&l=85288&id=9605288

enjoy!
(for those of you who have been subjected already to the printed photos, these are the same ones.)

TX and OK

ahhhh... it is so great to visit with old friends! i have gotten to see and really talk with some old friends that are so near and dear to my heart. there are also many that i wish i could see, but without a car it's a little difficult.

so gabe gave us a tour of the new weather center. ah-maze-ing. that's what they mean when they say a "state of the art building". and luckily for me, and unluckily for them, both the seniors and grad students had a test monday, so they were all in the building studying on sunday. which worked well for my social schedule! fun times.

i also got to see a lot of people at rachel and chris's wedding on saturday. it was good times! and of course, the wedding was beautiful. it was really cool to see touches of rachel all thru the ceremony and reception.

out here at HGM, i've been able to catch up with some of my friends on staff, and get to meet some of this year's boot camp class. it has been way fun catching up on what everyone from our class is doing, since we all don't keep in touch with each other. and a lot of workers from all over the world are home right now, so it is cool to see them and get to know them better, too. but campus is crazy! not only is this the biggest class they've ever had (by about 15), with all the workers home, and classes being slack this (last) week, there are people everywhere, all the time. and so many are sick! it is hard to find a quiet place to hang out or have a private conversation. but it has been good.

i'll be flying home tomorrow... see you then!

voting today

i'm not sure how to vote. even on the marriage amendment. and i am so ridiculously sick of all the political mud-slinging i have experienced in the 5 days i have been home. i have watched a bit of tv since being home, and i have yet to see a commercial that is FOR a candidate, and not against one. rex said he heard somewhere that their objective is to get you not to vote. it's working. i don't want to vote for any politician that has so little integrity that they allow their supporters to write ads like this, much less endorse and pay for them. it makes me sick.

so maybe i'll just vote on the other 2 amendments.

in other news, lunch with scott and my dad today. mexican. mmmmm. so excited. and i also plan to print some of my europe/morocco pics, too. eventually i'll upload them to a website so those of you i won't be seeing physically in the next 2 weeks can catch a glimpse of my travels. trust me, you just want a "glimpse" = 150-200 photos, not all = 4500. yeah... my little camera had quite a work out, and is showing worse for the wear!

i definitely owe a lot of people a long detailed "dianne-styled" email. but i'm hoping to see a lot of you in the next week as i go to texas and oklahoma, so if i don't see you and have a conversation face-to-face, i'll try to send ya one of those emails.

i'm going to texas and oklahoma!! somebody better give me a ride to rusty's!! mmmm... pumpkin custard. goodness in my mouth. can't wait!

home... sort of

well, i am back in VA. thank you so much to all my friends and family who have welcomed me so well! i truly feel loved and am so blessed so much to know you all.

on the other hand, i don't want to be here. my heart is a mess and i don't expect it to be "put back together" anytime soon. rachel mentioned re-entry culture shock being much worse than she expected, and i guess that is the best way to describe what i am feeling. i feel myself slipping back into old habits from when i lived here before, even tho my thoughts and attitudes toward those actions have changed. for example, having lived out of a backpack for more than 2 months, i realize i don't need most of what i own. i am thankful to have my material possessions, but they shouldn't and don't own me. yet as i drove thru hilltop this afternoon, i was very tempted to go into target, just to see what they have that i might want, and possibly buy it.

one thing that is hard is that my favorite part of my trip was the last part... the backpacker's tour in morocco. i absolutely loved it and "came alive" in a sense... i loved the people in our group (even tho a few got on my nerves at times), especially the aussies ;-). i loved experiencing another culture so different from my own, and different from most of what i saw and experienced in europe. i loved travelling in a new way (africa! not quite as easy as europe...). i loved the food; it was probably the best i'd eaten my whole trip. i loved the sense of expectation every corner held, the beauty of just about every moment, the fullness of living life that i felt. i was basically in love with it all. (minus the unwanted advances of a few men.)

i know that life cannot be lived on a "high" like that trip was, but man, i want to try! i got up early my first morning home and went down to the beach for sunrise, and went jogging. it was amazing. it was sort of a continuation of "living life to the full" that i started thinking about 5 years ago. (remember, shane?)

so now i am here, sorting out what my life should and needs to look like. i am trying to figure out who i really am, and what i am really called to, and how to love living this life, and not just "get through" it, as i had basically been doing before i left. and yes, some seasons will be hard and worse than others, and i don't expect to be living the dream life forever, but man, something out there has to be better than the existence i was eeking out before.

now i just have to figure out what that is.

back in paris...

thanks to mary's (and everyone else's) prayers, i made it back to paris in one piece, on time, with all my bags. woohoo! i had a few close calls, but the trains were on adjoining platforms, so i hopped off one and onto the other. i am a bit parched and hungry, so off i go to find some yummy french food (crepes, anyone?) before heading off to meet my friend lizzy, whom i am staying with tonight. yay for friends!

i am thankful the trains are done, and not excited to sit on a plane for 10 hours tomorrow (paris to philly, philly to norfolk). i am very excited to see everyone, and excited to be off again in another week to see my sister and my TX/OK friends. i am not so much looking forward to being in one place again. the travel bug has bitten me bad. anyone want to backpack africa? asia?

i'm still alive

woohoo, this is an amazing country. and unfortunately, the exclamation point on this keyboard doesn't work. grrr.

so yeah, just imagine that i am very very excited when writing this, and then you'll understand i wish i could put exclamation marks on just about every sentence.

i don't really know where to begin, and i will be home soon, so i don't even want to write that much. getting lazy, i suppose.

so i met my group here in marrakesh, and they are all great. quite a mix, really, except with names: dianne, diana, laura, laurie, linda, leigh, and leonie were the girls. the guys at least were alan, jeff, josh, ben, and craig was our leader. good times.

we headed off for the high atlas mountains the first day and stayed in a gite, a mountain home/inn. amazing food. we went on a walk of the village the first day and did a hike up to a mountain pass with amazing views into the next valley. i rode a mule, too. woohoo. after the hike, we girls headed for the traditional hammam, the bathhouse. 2 local girls scrubbed us down in a sauna of a bucket shower room and we all relaxed and enjoyed the experience. we slept out on the terrace with 3 thick, wool blankets each under teh stars. they were amazing. i saw several shooting stars and just enjoyed the quiet of the village.

next we went to another small berber village in a valley. there wasn't much to do there except eat an awesome traditional berber lunch with our hands and enjoy the end of ramadan with the locals. special cookies. woohoo. we went for a walk over to the next village and a guide showed us the school house and the jewish cemetary there. more awesome views of the rugged mountains and the green valleys. we also sat by the pool and enjoyed each other's company.

then we headed for the coast, essaouira. it was raining when we arrived but cleared up for some beautiful weather, even if the seas were still really rough. no fishing boats went out the 3 days/2 nights we were there. the town is all whitewashed, except for teh shutters and doors, which are painted bright blue, supposedly to keep the flies out. so beautiful. more great food and even better shopping. we went to a bar one night to hear a local band play a certain kind of music that i don't remember right now. it was amazing, i even bought their cd. it kind of reminds me of burlap to cashmere meets irish music meets african music, and add a flute. good times.

now i am back in marrakesh, where i started the tour. we headed for el-fna square teh first night and took in the craziness. snake charmers, millions of stands selling dates, other dried fruits, spices, fresh squeezed orange juice, boiled snails, goat's heads, women walking around doing henna art, a "fish for a coke bottle" game, tons of food stands with picnic tables, teeth pullers, herbalists, and who knows what else. craziness. we grabbed a picnic table and ordered tapas, basically, of shrip, calamari, salads, french fries, grilled eggplant, cokes, kebabs of mixed meat and beef, bread, chili sauce-more of tomato soup- and grilled bell peppers. all for 40 dirham, about 5 bucks each. not too shabby.

yesterday we hit the souqs, the markets. we wandered the touristy area as well as teh back streets where teh locals did their shopping. metal workers, spices, fish, tapestries, scarves, thuya wood, pottery, carpets, tons of shoes, linen clothes, and silver for blocks and blocks of covered winding alleys. so fun. then we had the afternoon to ourselves, and since it was raining, we just grabbed lunch and headed back for the hotel.

at the start of the trip, we all drew names out of a hat to buy a tacky gift for one another that couldn't be over 25 dirhams, about 3 dollars. the person who could find teh tackiest gift would win a prize. we exchanged them last night before heading out to dinner, and the gift i received was the winner: a pair of used, dirty women's shoes, purchased for 10DH. the guy who got them for me actually purchased a nicer gift in essaouira, but left it there, and felt so bad that he gave me such a bad gift that he gave me his prize: a bar of argon oil and olive oil soap. we had stopped at a coop on the road where women are given jobs to make teh argon oil products taht are supposedly some of the best in the world, in terms of skin care. it was pretty neat, but out of my price range. so i got a bar of soap for free. woohoo.

so now i will take the overnight train back to tangier, take a ferry back to spain in teh morning, pick up the stuff i left there, catch a train back to madrid, catch the overnight train from madrid to somewhere in southern france, the tgv to paris and arrive about 2pm tuesday before my 11am flight out of paris on wed. bring it on, baby.

i'm in AFRICA!!!

woohoo!!!

so i headed for the 3pm boat across the strait of gibraltar, and for some reason, the security guards never showed up to let us thru security. at about 4pm, the ferry crew was like, just get on the boat. so we left an hour late, and apparently the winds were stronger than usual cos it took 3hrs to cross, which put us in morocco about 5pm (2hr time change). and i do mean "us": i met 2 girls and a guy that are studying in florence, italy, and weree on the same ferry as me. so i hung out with them and it was so great. it turned out they, too, were taking the overnight train from tangier to marrakesh, so we all had to get to the train station together. it was so great to not be on my own for all that!! we also met a group of 19 from london, and their leader is a great guy. he has been to morocco 14 times, so he knows all teh inside scoop and totally helped us out (where to get/change money, how much a taxi should cost, how the system works in general). their whole group was also taking the overnight train to marrakesh! fortunately for them, they reserved couchettes on the train in advance. by the time we got tehre, only seats were available. on this train, there was one car of couchettes (beds), one car of first class seeats (6 to a cabin) and 7 or so of 2nd class seaats (8 to a cabin). so the 4 of us made it to the train station, bought our tickets, had some dinner, played some cards, and made teh mad dash for the train 45 min before it was supposed to leave! i still haven't figured out why everyone wanted to get on the train so early... to get a seat in a compartment with their friends? i dunno.

so anyway, it was a looong night on the train. just about every stop the train made, teh conductor would turn the light on and ask to see our tickets. again. which are on the heat-sensitive paper that receipts are printed on, folded up in my pocket. that thing was pretty trasshed by the end of the night! toward dawn, enough people had gotten on and off the train that i had a little more room to myself, so i was able to sleep better. i do think i slept better than i think i did. when we arrived in marrakesh, the brit leader was so great and told us about the hotel his group is staying at, and even had his guy call and make a reservattion there for the other 3. (i am meeting my tour group this afternoon aat our hotel, elsewhere). so he has been so kind and good to us! so i immediately bought my ticket back to tangier for next weekend, to ensure that i get a couchette! good times. we took a taxi to the hotel, left our bags in their room, and headed out for the souks, the different markets, basically.

we were walking around, wanting generally to see the tanneries, when this guy says, "you want to see the tanneries?" so gordon is like, yeah! and starts following him. all 3 of us girls are giving each other looks like, what the heck is he getting us into? one girl was really pretty worried, one pretty blase about everything, and i'm trying to be wise, but just go with the flow. he leads us very far away and then knocks on a door ina very foul smellling neighborhood. another guy greets us and hands us several stalks of mint. he shows us around teh tannery, to the differnt very foul smelling vats of pidgeon poo, flour mixtures, and all sorts of things that i can't begin to recall or describe. he says that this is an arabic tannery, and they don't like thier picture being taken, and that they only work with goats hides, of which there is a nice big pile by the gate. yum.

so then he leads us around the corner of the neighborhood to another house, leads us up to the roof, and tells us all the same things, just pointing at the differnt vats from above. he says this is a berber tannery, so they don't mind their photo being taken, and they work with camels hids and cows hides. then he leadds us downstairs to a small little shop where another guy starts to work his magic in selling us his leather goods. he said during the day he worked at teh tannery, at night he made the shoes and purses we saw there in teh shop. so gordon buys a pair of shoes, and one of the girls gets a tiny little pair for her cousin. he then is a little upset that we don't buy anything else, and wants teh girl's watch in exchange for the little shoes, "for his wife, up in the mounttains". he then sees teh 2 caribiners on my bag and wants one. well, one is just about to break and i was just thinking this morning that it probably won't see american soil again (like a lot of my stuff), so i was happy to give it to him. the other caribiner is actually a lock, so there is no way i was gonna take that off to even show him!

after we leave his shop, the first "guide" corners us and demands money. we knew he was going to, barter with him a little, and then finally pay him 20 dirhams each, about 2.20 american. not too bad for 45 min of entertainment.

after we got back to the hotel, i pulled out the lonely planet and started reading about teh tanneries here. it says exactly what we just experienced... the tanneries here in marrakesh are hard to get to, so find a "guide" and tip him when his tour is over, especially if you don't buy anything in the shops that he might ge t acommission on. and the mint is for the weak foreigners to smell as they walk by the acrid vats, as kind of an air freshener. which is exactly what i did. good times.

so that is my first morning in africa. woohoo!!

off to morocco

so i am sitting in the ferry terminal, waiting for my boat to morocco. please pray for me! i´m pretty nervous, and i am already weary of everyone around, thinking they are just here to rip me off or steal my stuff. obviously i do need to be careful, aware, and wise, but this is just plain paranoia. argh! pray that i will really enjoy my trip and not just be anxious, especially the first day, since i don´t meet my tour group until tomorrow afternoon. and pray for travel mercies in general...

so i took the overnight train from madrid to algeciras yesterday... and the line from cordoba to algeciras was broken, perhaps from the tons of rain we´ve gotten. anyway, they made us all get off at 445am in cordoba and put us on a bus. not quite the same as a bed on a train. but we did make it to algeciras, about 3 hrs late. good thing i didn´t realy have any plans! so i went to gibraltar in the afternoon. but it rained, and i was tired, adn the cable car to the top wasn´t working, so i just sat in the botanic gardens and read a bit. not too shabby, but i certainly dídn´t realy "experience" gibraltar. oh, well.

oh, and i´m going to oklahoma-texas a week after i get back, for about a week, for rachel´s wedding. woohoo!! see you ou/hgm/tx folk soon! anyone want to take me to the okc airport at 5am tues, nov 14? or want to give me a place to stay during that weekend?

so.

on this street, there are 3 starbucks within a 10 minute walk. this cafe, zahara, has another location 3 blocks away, where the internet prices are 3 times as high. there are also lots of theaters... movie theaters and musicals, too. for example, the producers is playing across the street from my hostel. which is on the 3rd floor of a building that has a starbucks on the ground floor. but it´s sweet.

i´m tired of madrid. i went to the prado museum this morning, mainly bc i thought it was 3 euro (not the 6 it is) and because it was raining. there is not much to do in madrid when it rains except shop and see art museums. i´m museumed out. but it did quit raining, which is very good, but i am still tired from walking all over town and am not inclined at the moment to walk even more. and i am sick of spending money, so shopping is out. and i have already checked out of the hostel, and my train isn´t until 11pm, so i have about another 7 hours to kill. hmmmm.

at some point i´ll have to splurge and get chocolate con churros. A. MAZE. ING.

so i´m a tad bored and a little more than a tad tired, which suppose will make for good sleeping on the train. maybe i´ll curl up in one of the 3 starbucks for a while with my latest donald miller book. or maybe i´ll crash the big bookstore and sit on the floor and read one of their books. for 5 hours. or maybe not.

so can you tell i´m a little out of it? it´s pretty hot in here, too, which i guess is a good contrast to the 50 degrees it is outside. and i´m just babbling.

(2 min pause) i can´t think of anything else. which is kind of frustrating, cos all day long i think of stuff that would be good to write about, and of course, as everyone knows, as soon as i sit down at the computer it all goes out of my head.

maybe the chocolate (hot pudding basically) with curros would be good now, as a late afternoon snack. hmmm...

i always wait too long to write on this.

i only have 11:35 left on internet now, and i´m sorry this entry will be short. cos i know you all love me and love trudging thru my awfully long posts every time i write them. :-D

so had an interesting time on the overnight train to barcelona, didn´t realize it was a holiday weekend and got really frustrated when the trains i wanted to take were all full. so i hung out an extra day in barcelona, which was good. met a guy in my hostel that i had actually already conversed with, momentarily, in an internet cafe in milan. neither one of us could get it to work, so we helped each other out. and when he saw me in barcelona, was like, you look familiar... and we figured it out. that is the 4th time i have run into someone i just met twice. good times. small world, for travellers, at least.

so barcelona was more fun than i expected. really, i just hadn´t done my homework and didn´t know what to expect. then on to salamanca to see joanna. so fun. that girl is fun, even tho we´ve only conversed twice in teh past 5 years. yeah, really. it was fun to be shown around a city by a local who knows the fun things, like that there is an astronaut sculpted in the doorway of the old church. for serious, yo.

now i am in madrid. and it is raining. and cold. and i don´t know what to do here, except see museums, and i am museumed out. but this is the first hostel with a free use kitchen in a long time, so i was quite glad and cooked myself some eggs for dinner. yum. and a lot cheaper than burger king.

so i was thinking...
the human eye is amazing. i get so frustrated with my camera all the time cos it can´t capture what i am seeing the way i am seeing it. God did a really good job with our eyes. able to focus on contrasting lights near each other, able to focus on multiple distances instantaneously, able to filter out reflections in train windows to see what is really outside. sweetness.

i really like knowing spanish. i was so SO rproud of myself when i checked into my hostel tonight and the guy talked to me in spanish, not english, tho he knows both, and i was able to understand everything he said. i think. i definitely got the main idea of what he said and his instructions about where stuff is in teh hostel and how barcelona has a problem with pickpockets and madrid is just as bad. i was so excited. i certainly can´t speak as much as i understand, and i only understand if people speak slowly, but i love it. it is so nice, a nice change from pretty much every other european country.

so maybe i will learn more spanish. or maybe i only like spanish because i am able to communicate in another language, and it isn´t spanish that i like. i hope i will have opportunity and reason to learn more languages. and i hope i have as easy a time with them i as i have had with spanish. not likely, tho.

i like you all. please email me. :-D i miss you and want to know what is going on with you, too, while i am gone. please? pretty please with a cherry on top? thanks! (omg, pix pls, thx!)

ciao, italia!

i am rather sad to say that. i will miss italy. i cant believe i have been here 2 and a half weeks! as i write this, dusk is falling on the smoggy city of milan. it makes for interesting lighting. there are mcdonalds everywhere. i can see 2 right now. soon i will be on a train for 13 hours to barcelona. part of me is looking forward to a new adventure and speaking a language i know a bit of, but part of me doesnt want to travel anymore. here in italy, i have been staying at least 2 nights almost everywhere, usually 3. so it will be a little more difficult to have one night on teh train, one in barcelona, 2 in salamanca, 1 in madrid, 1 on the train, and who knows for morocco? i havent gotten that far yet. rather, i am waiting to hear on a few things, and i will be on a tour, so i am happy to let them decide those things. i dont even want to think about it. after the tour, i should have 2 nights on a train and 1 in paris before heading home nov 1. oh, how time flies!

hates, loves, and likes:
so, i hate when the handrail on escalators moves faster than the steps do.
i like walking around supermarkets and markets of new cities and countries. i like hearing 2 and 3 year olds learn how to talk in their languages. it is so cute!! i like the idea of hospitality, welcoming people and helping them out. i am not so good at it when it comes to my own house. i love travelling. it really is a bed of roses, thorns adn all.

thinking:
i am thinking abuot teaching english overseas for a year or so, maybe in asia (dad, maybe you were right). someone mentioned it to me as i sat waiting for a train in the cinque terre, and i thought, "why not?" i am thinking of working holiday retail when i get back, maybe bath and body works or something. my friend and former roommate (and closest friend in boot camp) is getting married in oklahoma on nov 8, and i am thinking of flying out for the wedding. i am thinking about urbana. maybe i will go, maybe i wont. i am thinking life really is a lot simpler than i have made it to be for so many years.

cinque terre:
freaking amazing. i actually think the amalfi coast is more beautiful and dramatic, but the cinque terre seems more accessible, bc of the many hiking paths. and the towns are closer together, so it is perfect hiking for me. cliffs over the sea, mountains, desert climate on teh sunny side, rainforest on the dark side. so interesting to walk from one into the other. terraced vineyards, lemon groves, and olive groves on most visible slopes. the birthplace of pesto. warm, very salty seas that are perfect for a quick swim with the fishes after a long hike. just fabulous. i even stayed an extra day. i was supposed to have 2 nights, then go up to the lake district (lake como, lake maggiore), but decided to stay and do mre hiking. an aussie couple that i made friends with did teh same, only i didnt know it, so i was quite suprised to run into them! they were great fun to hang out with and a fun reminder of my semester in oz.

milan:
oh, it was so good to see annesa. we were friends when she came to OU to study for a year, my last year there. she is a student here in milan, so i stayed with her for almost 3 days. it was nice to slow down a bit and not rush around seeing tourist sights. and of course, it was fun to hang out with authentic italians. the first night, she took me to meet a friend of hers at a buffet-bar. its a pretty sweet setup, you buy a drink, then you get all the food you want. during happy hour, which wasnt over by the time we left at 930pm, that is. yum. i went to the duomo yesterday. the interior seems to me just like any other old, opulent roman catholic churh in italy. bu the exterior, and more specifically the roof.... ooh la la! it has a million spires on it, adn they let you up there to walk around. it is so amazing! loved it. after annesa got back from class, she took me to the castle. pretty sweet, a medeival castle in the middle of town. we also were shopping for birthday gifts for 2 of her friends. later that night, another of her friends picked us up and we went out to a suburb, to the house of the birthday girl, and had a small dinner party with the other birthday boy. they have all been friends for years, and it was fun to watch them interact and tease one another. i could tell that they were really good friends and really enjoyed each others company. they did speak in italian all night, and about every 15 min or so, someone would translate a few lines, or just tell me what they are talking about. so i did get bored pretty fast. i could pick out their conversation topic every now and then with my limited spanish, but still. i fell asleep on the way home. it didnt help that it was 1am. ah, well. so today i went to the teatro della scala, the opera house. it was beautiful. the outside wasnt much, except that it is italys first opera house, and mozart came and wrote operas for that building. theere were 6 levels of box seating as well as floor seats. there was also a museum next door that had portraits of the major actors and actresses and singers and composers for centuries. mom would have appreciated it more than i, but i did enjoy it. just stickig my head in the actual theater made it worth it.

so i am getting more excited about morocco, now that it is fast approaching. i would like to buy a guide book, but the ones i have found in english (lonely planet, rough guide) are ridiculously expensive. perhaps i should forgo it, or maybe i should have just bought one in the US. i am hoping to find one more moderately priced in spain. ah, espagna...

off to my forever long train ride i go!

books. for thething3

1. changed your life; bruchko, by bruce olsen
2. read more than once; night of the twisters, by ivy ruckman. that could be 1 as well.
3. want on a deserted island; the Bible
4. made you laugh (giggle); pretty much everything. i laugh out loud at a lot of silly things. but one i laughed a lot at would be the princess bride.
5. if youve seen the movie, the book is hillarious; the princess bride. so great. (thanks megan)
6. made you cry; er, um...again, several books... im gonna go with an isobel kuhn book here, in the arena
7. wish had been written; um, right now, a cheap travel guide to morocco for just the places i am visiting.
8. wish had never been written; er, uh... dunno probably gonna go with the grapes of wrath, cos i had to read it in high school and it was so hard to get thru! but that is more i wish i hadnt had to read it, not that it was never written.
9. currently reading; a john grisham... the client, i think it is. and searching for God knows what.
10. fact or fiction; both. i agree with thething3
11. awesome book that is empowering me; well, the spiritual secret of hudson taylor was pretty stinking awesome, but i think i need to reread it.
12. meaning to read; the section in my lets go europe on a budget book about barcelona, so i can book accomodation there.
12.

friends. are. great. (for mda)

but its true! i hung out yesterday with the same kiwi and another american, and it was so great. i just loved having someone to laugh with about our ridiculous predicaments and slightly erring decisions that dont quite end up the way we want. and of course, in chasing sunsets.

so we headed out yesterday at about 9am, straight for the bus terminal and got on the right bus for pompei scavi, the ruins of pompeii. peter hadnt slept well, so he assigned me the task of determining where to get off and took a nap. so daniel and i chit-chatted our way across town and by the shadow of vesuvius. there werent too many other tourists on the bus, as it was a regional transit bus, and they all got off in one area of hotels and such. i looked around, but didnt see any big signs saying this was our stop, nor did it look like there were any ruins anywhere. so we stayed on. and stayed on. about an hour later, peter wakes up and is like, uh, we have been on this bus too long. where are we? well, i stopped yapping away to daniel long enough to realize we are the only ones on the bus by this point, and we have long since passed vesuvius and have seen nothing but city for the past hour. so, peter, the great guy that he is who doesnt speak but a few words of italian, goes and asks the bus driver, who doesnt speak but a few more words of english, about where we should get off. he points backwards and makes motions that mean to say, "a long way back was pompei scavi". so peter asks about what bus we can take to get back there, and the bus driver comes back to us in our seats (the bus is still running, in stopped traffic, with no driver behind the wheel) and says that he will turn around soon and go back himself, he just will stop to get a coffee and smoke a cigarette.

sure enough, about 3 blocks later, he turns around and parks the bus and comes to talk to us again. he keeps motioning that we should get coffee, and peter is like, i am not leaving this bus! then the driver says we need to get new tickets. well, we purposely had bought 3 zone (downtown to pompei) daily tickets, which are good for the bus, train, metro and trams in the naples area. we keep trying to explain to him that we already have tickets and try to show them to him, but he is still saying we need to buy more tickets. eventually he gives up and invites us to have a cup of coffee with him. so we follow him off the bus down the street to a coffee shop. and we have no idea where we are, just in some city south of naples and pompei. before all this happened, daniel had said that he had to pee pretty bad, so as we walk to the cafe, he is looking for a toilet anywhere. he sticks his head into the back room of the cafe, and the bus driver comes up and starts joking with him, then goes in the room, and daniel follows him. but the bus driver holds up his hand in a "stop!" motion and goes in and shuts the door to the restroom. so daniel backs up, a bit bewildered and a little desperate, and waits his turn. good times.

so we are hanging out on the patio for the driver to finish his coffee (which is espresso in a tiny little mug that looks more like a shot glass). when he does, we walk right by a peach orchard back to the bus, and the driver keeps joking about us stealing a peach. or something. so peter pulls his out that he bought at the supermarket the day before to eat for lunch, and is rather confused, and tries telling the bus driver that he already has one, he doesnt need another. i am just laughing at this whole exchange, glad he isnt trying to joke with me cos i would freeze up and freak out about not knowing italiano. so i am happy he is joking with peter and making peter confused. he then starts saying that pompei is not far, we should walk. i immediately know he is just kidding, but peter kind of plays along and is like, "really? how far? should we just walk? is it not far?" but again, i am just laughing at how we got ourselves into this predicament, not knowing where we are, not really being able to communicate well with anyone (daniels italian is even worse than peters, and mine, too). then i remember that I got us here, by not getting off the bus at the right place, and laugh even more. so we get on the bus, and a few other women get on, too, and we take off. they and the bus driver are talking loudly and very animatedly (is that a word?!) for a while. well, the whole trip! i love that about italians... side note: when i was on the train from rome to naples, i was in a cabin with 5 italians, and they didnt know each other and were all in a big, heated discussion over the different types of trains and how fast tehy are and how much they cost. for an hour. in america, we wouldnt even talk to one another, much less argue with a stranger! again, i just laughed as i watched them all. ok, back to my story. the bus driver also points to us and i realize he is laughing about us to them, how stupid we are not to get off at the right place. well, one woman gets off the bus while it is stopped in traffic, runs across the street to the equivalent of 7-11, buys 2 bus tickets and jumps back on. when she sticks her tickets into the machine to validate them, i realize they have a big "4" on them... as in, 4 zone tickets. ours are only 3 zone. so THAT is why the bus driver was saying we needed another ticket! so, we are glad that he gave up and let us keep our 3 zone. we go along for a half an hour thru more city, and peter is like, wow, i really slept through a lot! then one of the women leans over and tells us where to get off, and we are thankful. yeah, it is the same place with all the hotels all the other tourists got off at earlier. still, i dont see a sign that this is the right stop or anything, i just see an old wall off to the right, thru a park, that happens to be the ruins. so, we get off and walk that direction, having finally made it to pompei scavi, spending and extra hour and a half to get there!

so up to this point, i failed to mention that it is raining, and our plan was, from pompei scavi, to catch a bus up vesuvius to near the summit, walk around the crater for a few hours, then come back down, see the ruins, and come home, making it a long day. and at this point, since it is 1130 and we heard the busses only run in the morning to vesuvius, we decide to just see teh ruins first and play it by ear abour vesuvius. peter pulls out his raincoat, and daniel and i are both cursing ourselves that we didnt bring out raincoats, having listened to the weather forecast instead, which called for sun. those darn meteorologists dont know anything! so we are standing under the tent of a vendor, wet, im a little cold (having worn shorts for the first time on this trip), and we see people selling umbrellas and head for them. they are also selling ponchos, so i opt for one of those, adn we head into pompei.

ok, let me tell you, this place is AMAZING. i cannot believe how much work must have gone into excavating a WHOLE CITY, digging it out of ash, finding stuff all over the place, including everything that would make daily life in a roman city. wow. and teh place is HUGE! and it, much to your dismay, i am sure, doesnt look anything like "escape from pompeii" at busch gardens. anyway, we figure out where we are on the map, wander around with our guide book, and see as much as we can in 3 hours. i cannot believe how many frescoes survived 2000 years. they are just amazing, with beautiful detail. i dont think they have done any reconstruction, except to replace, perhaps, what was already there. that is to say that they just added roofs, they didnt reconstruct anything else, saying this is what it would have looked like. they have redone some of the vegetation, but that is about it. so that was really cool, looking at teh gardens of houses, thinking, this is really what it looked like! my favorite place had tons of frescoes and 2 huge long fish ponds in the garden. no fish in there now, tho. we walked thru the arena, the equivalent to the ymca (recreation area for young men), up and down the streets, in a few houses, by the "fast food" restaurants of the day, the bakers-millers, thru the brothel, by another rich guys house, by the city baths (the ceilings there survived with amazing reliefs), and finally out thru the forum with temples and government buildings galore. so amazing. peter kept exclaiming that he had never taken so many pictures and was scolding himself for being so snap happy. he still doesnt have anything on me, as i took more than 60 pics on the bus from amalfi to positano the day before, and he just laughed at me.

so while we were there, it had quit raining, but we are a little to beat to try to find a nonexistant bus up to vesuvius, still hidden in clouds, so we make for the train station and head back to naples. daniel says he would love a coffee, so we decided to head thru the historic center of the city, by the duomo (taking pictures teh whole way), and to the main street of the city to find a good cafe to sit and chill at. so we just wander for a while, and it was so cool. we had gone to the historic center the past 2 nights for pizza, but it looked SO different during the day. tons of people walking, kids riding bikes, madness all around. adn the napolis (napolitans? napolians?) drive CRAZY. red lights really are suggestions, as are one-ways. craziness. thru small alleys, too. anyway, it was great fun. we find a gelateria and lick and slurp our gelato as we wander past more than 5 churches and down the main street. it is about 6pm now, we find a cafe, daniel knocks back his coffee at the counter, and we head for the castle to take sunset pics. well, from there, we realize we are on a bay and head for the sunset (with the AMAZING clouds), and daniel tells us about this waterfront walk that has amazing views. we we wind our way thru the city, and the road we are on goes thru a tunnel under the city, with no sidewalk. so there is an elevator and stairs up, to teh top of the hill the road cuts under, so we take that up, trying to head west. when we got to teh top, we were blown away. it was a huge plaza with a huge government building in a semicircle with big white columns all the way around, and kids playing soccer around the graffitied statues. with a perfectly blue sky and pink clouds. so amazing, and certainly not what we expected.

after snapping a million more pictures, we continued our chase for teh sunset, and the road we were on came to a bridge, about 4 stories above another road, that was a pedestrian mall with a million people shopping and eating at cafes. with laundry hanging on all teh balconies of apartments above. with the amazing sky of sunset. we again took a million pictures, and i climbed up a little to get a better view. an italian walked by, and said there was a staircase down to it. what?! oh, geez, so we raced down and followed the road west. so amazing and again, not what we were expecting! so then we followed it, realizing the sun was setting faster than we could get to the water. we continued following it to where we thought we needed to be, and ended at a park with the city aquarium. on the other side, alas, was teh waterfront. the sun had set behind the peninsula, but there were tons of lights on the hill and the clouds were still amazing behind them. and we took a million pictures, exclaiming all night at how amazing the sunset was. then we turned around and saw teh moon rising over another castle-island. another million pictures, and my camera battry was on its last legs, and my spare was dead, too. so we just sat there, enjoying it all, and eventually wandered back to the hostel, exclaiming at the clarity of the water, even in the port, and the guys planned to go back tonite. but i am headed for roma.

if you actually read all this, you are an amazing friend. ciao!!

doing awesome.

yeah... doing incredibly awesome. i prayed for a friend here in italy, and got one! i met a friend here in my hostel in naples who wanted to do the same thing as me, so off we went!

so today we headed for the amalfi coast. SO AMAZING. i usually just buy one postcard of everywhere i go, to keep costs down as well as the weight of my bag. well, let me tell you, this place was so amazing that i bought a whole book. yes, it is that good.

so we took the boat-ferry to amalfi from naples, about 2.5 hrs, and then hung around amalfi a bit. tehy have a pretty cool duomo there, apparently where st andrew is buried? so pretty cool. and the whole town is built on a hillside, so the streets are alleyways/stairs leading up the mountainside. so we wound our ways up, then back down again adn caught a bus to positano. seen the movie "under the tuscan sun"? she goes to positano to meet her guy friend... so amazing. we liked positano even better than amalfi. there was a woman selling real lemon slushes on the corner (with the seeds still in it! yum!), so we bought some and wandered down the hill to the beach. we watched a few fishermen dive into the aquamarine waves to bring their boats into shore, and took pictures of the lighthouse with waves crashing on the breakwaters. so amazing. it did rain on us some, but it helped to cool things off, so we werent too put off. then back on the bus to sorrento. the bus ride was erally part of the amzing part of the day... winding roads along the side of the mountains that just drop off onto cliffs in the deep blue waters. can i say how amazing it was? so then back on the train back to napoli, with a cheap, amazing pizza dinner with 5 other single travellers - 2 americans, 2 aussies, a kiwi and a brazilian. sweetness. gelati on the way home, and now a quiet evening watching oceans 12. what a perfect day.

doing much better...

after a pretty rough yesterday morning, i was able to take a nap, get some food in me (it is AMAZING how much good some grub can do me!), and headed back out into roma. i had fewer expectations and was rewarded with some suprises and more peace. i enjoyed the majority of my afternoon and was able to just hang out some, which i needed.

today i did decide to go back to the vatican, which was pretty darn amazing. i had no idea how big the vatican museums were, but they were HUGE. and the sistine chapel was less chapel-like than i expected... more like a big open room with lots of paintings. but beautiful, nonetheless. i think the part i liked the best was that the bottom 1/3 of the walls were paintings of tapestries! like it looked like big, beautiful bedspreads were hung on the walls. and it was painted to look like that! they did a pretty good job... making folds and shadows where you would expect them. pretty cool. and funny to me!

so now i leave for napoli. in the next few days: pompeii (like BG! only REAL!), herculaneum, hiking mt vesuvius (if i have the energy, hopefully at least the rim of the volcano), the bus to the amalfi coast (positano, sorrento, amalfi...) and perhaps even a trip over to the isle of capri. but most of all, PIZZA! the birthplace of it all. yum!!

thanks again for your prayers. i am so thankful to have friends and family like you all. and thanks for your emails (dad, mom, chelle, kpc folk...)

hrmmm... not as fun as i was hoping...

so i am here in rome, and i am a little bored. not to mention lonely again. it is one thing to stand in line for 45 min for a ride at busch gardens, you have your friends there to chat with. it is something else to stand in line for over 2 hrs (10 city blocks long) to see the vatican museums, which i don't care all that much about, all by myself. so i didn't.

i did want to at least go in the courtyard and see st peter's basilica, and as i was trying to find the end of the line, a guy came up to me and said "hi". and i cautiously said hi, back. and he was like, "do you remember me? we met on the train to venice." he took his sunglasses off, and i did recognize him, tho not from the train to venice. so, he took me to his spot in line, with several others, whom i did recognize, and they invited me to join them in line. so i did. i cut in line. they had already been waiting 20 min and were an older (60-70s) american group that was friendly to chat with, so i was quite glad. i had been praying for a friend in rome, and here is this group that i met a week ago! i still haven't quite placed them. i think i was going to verona when i met them, and they were continuing on to venice. i think, i dunno.

well the sad part of the story comes at security. it's almost as bad as an airport. and i forgot that i had my swiss army knife in my bag. yeah... so they wanted me to throw it out, and i was like, i got that in switzerland, had my initials put on it, there is no way i am throwing it out! so i left, instead. and sat down and cried. and had to figure out a way to break my 50 euro note so i could buy a subway ticket back to my hostel. the little things get me, ya know?

so now, here i am, in "splashnet", where they do my laundry while i sit here on the internet. not a bad system. and i got a discount from my hostel, even better.

i am still feeling lethargic and tired, i guess from being sick. i still have a bit of a cold, unfortunately. so i went to bed early last nite, but missed out on the fun on the rooftop terrace. hopefully tonite there will be more fun up there, and i will feel up to joining them! in the meantime, the guy that runs the "splashnet" is fun to chat with.

ciao.

if i see one more painting of the madonna with child.....

i dont know what i am gonna do. but i am quite sick of them!

i am here in firenze (florence) italy, and i am glad to be leaving tomorrow. it is a beautiful city with amazing museums that cost a boat load, and too many tourists to even pretend this is actually in italy! and it is september, almost october, for crying out loud! ah, well...

i have been feeling better, but i am still not at 100%, which i am sure limits my energy (and therefore my willingness to be out and about) some. i have exhausted myself quite well the past few days, but to beat the crowds i have to be out the door by 8 or so. well, tomorrow i am catching a train to rome, so i dont have to leave until 9.

i did go to venice, and that certainly was an experience! it truly is a unique city, but not one that i would want to live in, or really ever go back to. i am glad i went and experienced it, but again, i was glad to leave. it is a normal sized city, with only walkways and a few boats along the canals, which equals a LOT of walking. and apparently the art museums are pretty sweet, but not being an art person, i wanted to save my very few "art points" for here in florence. even that was a stretch!! so, i did go in the duomo and up the bell tower, both of which were gerat.

but alas, my internet time is up. thanks again for praying for me, i do appreciate it. andthanks for emailing me, too!

better!!

now i am in verona, italy. it took all day to get here, and i am glad i didnt have to do much more than change trains a few times to get here. i am feeling much better, thank you for your prayers!! my throat is still sore, but that is nothing compared to the misery i was in a few days ago.
verona is beautiful, and i cant wait to explore it a bit before heading to venice tomorrow. too bad it is raining now!

still sick.

but of all the places to be sick, this isnt so bad. i am in gimmelwald, switzerland, still, in the alps south of interlaken, for those who know their swiss geography. this little farming town is part of the way up the schilthorn mountain, a gondola ride, bus ride, and train ride from interlaken. and 3 more gondola rides to the top.

i did go up the schilthorn yesterday, but that was probably a mistake since i havent felt that bad ever, i dont think. my drugs wore off up there, and at 10000 feet, it is a little cold, so my shivers were just worse! and my whole body tensed up, too, so i just ached even more. so i made a hasty retreat back to bed, where i basically have been since then. thankfully there is a computer with internet here, so i dont have to go far to check email!

the most bumming part is missing out on seeing friends. i was supposed to be in austria now, hanging out with brad, a friend from OU. and i am supposed to go to a town outside munich to meet up with alex, another friend from OU, tomorrow, but i may not have the energy for it. and i dont want to get her sick, too. so perhaps i will just go to italy from here....

thank you all for praying. i really do appreciate your prayers!

sick

hey, yáll, quick update. been sick today, like the flu. felt the crappiest this morning than i have in at least more than 2 years, if not since high school. i am feeling better now, mostly since i am drugged up, but not sure what is going to happen. please be praying for me! thanks!

heck. yes.

so. i had a fabolous post up, and since all the stuff on this computer is in german, i deleted it on accident. i thought i was publishing, but really i deleted it. dang it.

so, i think this is a lame recreation of what i said earlier, but i guess it will have to do.

so, this place is amazing. it is definitely my favorite hostel yet. out my window is the jungfrau, eiger and monch mountains. and i have to bend over to see them, thez are so high!!

yesterday i went canyoning. i donned a much-needed wetsuit, jumped into and over waterfalls, rapelled down waterfalls, floated down the river on my back, rushed down on my front with my hands out front, hopped over boulders in the water, etc. the sweetest way yet to spend 110 swiss francs.

so i am pretty exhausted today... i went hiking, on a supposed 3 hr easy hike to a waterfall. it was 4 hrs and we made it to a boulder field near the waterfall, and decided against trying to go up to the glacier to walk on it. figured we would probably fall and break something. at least that is what i thought. so we headed back, along the white-blue river with snow capped towering mountains all around, dodging the path of huge, cute cows with bells on their necks, noticing the tree line just above us, and trying not to fall. good times. and i greatly enjoyed the hot tub tonite, too. ;-) it is cool at night, but i can see so many stars it is ridiculous. so many. so ridiculous.

tomorrow i will head up the schilthorn, where the james bond movie was filmed at gloria piz, a rotating restaurant at the top of the mountain. i will play on the glacier and in the snow and enjoy the panoramic view as i sip my hot cocoa. mmmmm! then i will hike down, at least part of it, before getting all the way back down to interlaken to catch the overnight train from zurich to graz, austria. i am going to see brad and florian, and i am prettz stinking excited.

so now that i had another go at the computer (one shared among 30 or so of us), i am tired and heading for bed. gnight, and much love!

greetings from freiburg, germany!

i keep calling this place "free-burg", but it's definitely "fry-burg". oops.

i know you're all dying of dianne-deprivation (and yes, i'm a fan of alliteration), so after 5 days of silence, here i am!

so i'm here visiting charlie. he's studying german at the goethe institut before heading elsewhere in germany for 2 semesters of study abroad. we were friends at ou, and man, is it good to hang out with someone i already know, and we can trade stories about our many mutual friends. good times, indeed!

i've also had a quieter few days which has been good for the budget and the rest. and the laundry, and email catching-up. i wanted to post from belgium, but they have the stinkin french keyboard at my hostel, which is ridiculously hard for an american english speaker to use. all the keys are in the wrong place! ok, not all, but at least the a w z m n ... and you have to "shift" to use the numbers, instead of shifting to use the symbols. grrr. at any rate, it wasn't worth it to me to pay to spend 3 times as long as i normally would to write a post. so instead, you get the "quick" update now. ha. like any update with me is quick!!

ok, so mary was asking about the corrie ten boom house, which was great. the guided tour was excellent, telling many of the stories from "the hiding place" (corrie's book), as well as other cultural and political happenings at the time of ww2. the tourguide was excellent, a great storyteller, amusing, and honest about what was going on and the ten boom's religious convictions. again, it was just awesome to be there. i walked around the markt (town square) afterwards, remembering most, if not all, the buildings i was looking at were there when corrie lived there in ww2. most are even several hundred years old! it is so hard to think of that, coming from a city less than 100 years old.

so i was glad to leave amsterdam the next morning, and i so i headed for brussels. i met a group of grandparents from ohio that were very entertaining and funny. i could see them all trying to get up the stairs to the train platform (we were on the same train to belgium) with their large suitcases, so i helped one lady by picking up the end of her bag, so it didn't drag on the stairs. i continued in conversation with them, and a few mins later, she came back and handed me a 2 euro coin! i was so surprised! she said to buy myself a coffee with it, and the guy i was talking to was like, "even better, a glass of wine!"

well, i don't care for brussels at all. it was a lot rougher around the edges than i was expecting. it was just a big, dirty city with the train station in the working class/immigrant neighborhood. so as i walked up to the main markt area, where all the touristy stuff was that i wanted to see, i had to walk down a big road with hundreds of muslim men drinking tea, watching me walk down the sidewalk. not fun. so i took a pic of "mannekin pis", the little boy peeing out water fountain, and then looked for one of the 5 waffle stands/shops listed in my guidebook, which is less than a year old. no luck. one of the 5 was still there, but it served ice cream now, not waffles. so i was 1 for 2. then i went in search of the chocolate museum. i couldn't find it and was 1 for 3, ready to call it a day, when i spotted it the next block up. so i went in, and they said the chocolate master was at lunch, come back later. so i was still 1 for 3, and went in search of some other waffle. i did find one, and man, was it sweet!!! there was also a market set up that i walked thru and just enjoyed that few blocks of the city, before going back to tour the disappointing chocolate museum. i did get a free sample, which was good, and saw a demonstration of how pralines are made (the filled ones), which was cool, but i'm not sure it was worth the entry price. some of the signs and info pages were in 3 of 5 languages all over the museum, but not all 5 languages. frustrating. so i was happy to walk back to the train station, collect my bag and head on to bruges...

and bruges was great! i absolutely loved it. the hostel i stayed in had a funky character, but nice and friendly. my room was on the 2nd floor, and you had to go thru another bunk room to get to it. to get to the shower, i had to go thru the other room, downstairs, thru the bar, thru the kitchen, thru the courtyard, up the stairs, down the hall, and into the shower room. my ukranian roommate loved it so much she took a video of it with her camera! good times. so i got in in the afternoon and found an australian family chillin in the courtyard, making dinner, so i hung out with them and cooked my own pasta. then, i decided to walk around the town in the dark. i saw mostly american tourists in their 40s and 50s, with a few locals out for a night on the town themselves. it was a small city with canals and beautiful gabled roofs on houses and old, big churches lit up in the night. so i played with the long exposure function on my camera and just enjoyed the perfect weather and gorgeous surroundings.

saturday, i headed out around town to see how different was in daylight. i headed straight for the church of our lady to see the only michelangelo sculpture to leave italy while he was alive - the madonna with child. then i headed for the belfry tower over the markt and climbed the steep spiral staircase to the top, and i was rewarded with some incredible views! it was really neat to see the bells and all, too. then i met up with a group for a countryside bike tour. we headed northeast, toward holland, along the canals, saw some windmills, ate lunch at a quaint garden/restaurant, and headed back thru town. it was a great way to spend 3 hours, and it exhausted me enough for a nap... mmm...

the next day i headed for freiburg (not freeburg) germany, to see charlie. i would not have come here, except that i wanted to hang out with charlie, and he gave me a free place to stay. not to mention i am using his lovely american mac to type this while he's at class. good combo. at any rate, i'm having a great time here and am enjoying myself. i think switzerland is next, but possibly shorter than i wish. we'll see.

ta ta for now!

Success!!

yay! i tried a couple places to get my photos off my (full) memory card and onto the internet to save them, with no luck. no usb ports, disconnected usb ports, computer errors, 9 euro and 7 hours later, i have my pictures on a cd. well, i assume they are there... i can't find a computer with a cd reader to check! well, a free computer, anyway. so, for those wanting photos, you'll just have to wait a bit longer. sorry!!

i'm also feeling better in general. i was quite happy to get over to haarlem today, instead of staying all day in amsterdam. it's a beautiful city, but just not my cup of tea. at least the environment that my hostel is... well, as i speak, i am in the bar area, with music loud enough to discourage conversation, a guy smoking weed and drinking beer on my left, and a disco ball illuminating the wall above me in moving polka dots. last night, at least, they were watching a soccer/football match, but i couldn't ever quite figure out who manchester was playing. a guy said, but either i couldn't understand him, or i had never heard of it before.

so anyway, i am enjoying the local foods. i didn't eat much at all my first week and a half or so, but i think i have made up for it here. so good! giant frites, belgian waffles dipped in chocolate, falafel, dutch pancakes, yum! i was planning to make pasta tonite and even bought some pesto sauce to put on it, but in my mad dash for an internet cafe with a working usb drive, i worked up enough hunger for a "small" serving of frites. it's american small, which means huge!! but delish!

i also walked around for a while looking for a payphone that i could use my prepaid calling card on (thanks, rex!) to call my sister (happy birthday!!). but it was a nice tour of the city. i do feel more confident now, knowing more of my way around. and in like scandinavia, most everyone speaks english, which is such a huge blessing!

so thanks to everyone praying for me and leaving comments. i am enjoying the journey, realizing it's kinda silly to get so frustrated with things that don't go my way, and am just enjoying myself a bit more than i was before. but i definitely have enjoyed this trip so far, and am quite thankful to be here. even if this isn't my favorite city. ;-)

the netherlands

so, the guy sitting next to me is smoking pot. and it's blowing in my eyes. not cool. but hey, that's holland, so it seems.

this is the first "american" keyboard i've typed in since leaving the states, and it's a little odd. hard to get used to again.

this country is beautiful, and i'm loving the canals and old buildings all squished up together. i'm not liking my hostel so much, or that i can't meet any travellers at all who aren't stoned. grrr.

i went to the van gogh museum yesterday, definitely cool. then i walked around a bit, took an hour canal boat tour, then headed for the anne frank house. they did a really really great job with that one.

now i'm in haarlem, waiting to go to the corrie ten boom house. i read"the hiding place" just before i left, so i'm hoping iremember enough of it. they have an english tour at 1:45, and that is the only time the building is open. i'm glad i have all day!

so i haven't had as much luck with hostels as i thought i would. current counts:
hostels i booked, but then i didn't make it to that city: 3
hostels i booked and stayed in: 1
hostels i booked, but they lost my reservation and i could stay anyway: 1
hostels i booked, they lost my reservation, and i cou'ldn't stay there: 1
hostels i booked, then cancelled: 1

now, i'm not having so much luck with this computer. SO frustrating!! i came to this internet cafe soley for the purpose of uploading my photos, but it won't let me. i have them on the computer (all 800, it took 20 min), but when i try to upload them, the window opens and automatically closes. and the guy who works here doesn't know how to fix it. he says to try another computer, which i don't have time for, as the tour leaves in less than 30 min. oy.

copenhagen

so... i've been in copenhagen 2 days now. and i walk around and think of things all the time that i want to put up here, but i forget them.

random thoughts:
there are TONS of jellyfish here! and the water in the harbor and canals is so clear! i'm very impressed in both the water quality, and the ability of the jellyfish to live in such cold water.

i actually went back to sweeden today. i haven't visited trivoli gardens (sorry, jim!) cos it's pretty expensive, so i decided to head back across the water for the morning. i walked around malmø for a bit, saw the "twisting torso", a building that isn't straight up and down, but the actual structure twists, spent some swedish kroner, and hopped back on the train for lund. lund was pretty... a university town with a huge old church. i'm glad i went, then hopped back on the train back to malmo, realized that 60 SEK isn't worth exchanging, and spent an hour trying to decide how to spend it. there weren't any good shopping\touristy areas around the train station, that i could see, so i ended up getting a couple postcards and some food there at the train station.

then i came back to this side of the water (denmark), headed for the little mermaid statue (that hans christian anderson used as inspiration, good job, mary!), and walked along the water for a while. i went thru the area where the royal palace is, got too close to a statue and had a royal guard yell at me across the plaza. whoops. too bad i don't understand danish! another guy told me later that he was yelling at me. i had no idea, i just heard him yelling. and i thought the chain was up around the thing to keep the cars out. oh, well. another lesson learned!!

things i like

lighthouses
views from high places
clouds
water (as in lakes, rivers, bays, oceans, waterfalls...)
irony
seeing things from a different angle
architecture
arches and courtyards
laughing out loud to myself, to the amusement of those around me
chocolate
sleeping

peace in oslo

i went to the nobel peace center in oslo yesterday, and they had a display of photographs of religious actions and life from judaism, christianity, and islam. i cried seeing the images of humanity that don't know the Father as i know Him. and i just felt an overwhelming sense of love and compassion that God has for all of them- jews, muslims and christians alike. it's been a while since i remembered that, and i was thankful for the reminder of how "real" other people are. i was then thinking about how to best respond, both now and in the future. it seems that love is the only option, and that means loving well those who are around me. and as i felt the grace to serve others in little things, to honor those who don't "deserve" or haven't "earned" my respect, but just to love them. of course, at the same time, i had the greatest instances of selfishness and rudeness, so i can see it is a fight i will have to keep taking to the Cross. hmmm, i seem to be rambling, but i guess i'm just saying that loving people is hard, but God is good.

so now i am in denmark. i sat next to a guy on the train yesterday who was very friendly and talkative, so i enjoyed conversing with him for the 2-3 hours of our trip. and i am very glad to be in a cheaper city! copenhagen seems, so far, to be a mix of paris and gothenborg. laid back, pretty architecture, and lots of bikes! i plan to rent a bike this afternoon and just ride around a bit, explore the longest pedestrian mall in the world, and get some good food. the exchange rate is about the same (about 6 kronar to the dollar), but a hamburger here is 10dkk, not 15. woohoo!

the hostel i'm staying in is very nice, i'm on the 10th floor with views of the city. so far i'm the only one in my room, but perhaps others will join me tonite.

thank you to everyone who has left me comments or emailed me. i'm so glad to know you're reading this! i'm also delighted to read about what you are up to and to hear from you. it may take a few days to read your emails, but i do read them and i love them!

frustrations in oslo

ok, so i'm in oslo again. i didn't want to be here now. it's the most expensive city in the world, and i'd like to leave. the whole travelling on a eurail pass, staying at hostels is a bit more frustrating than i thought it would be. the trains i want to take are either not actually running or fully booked. the hostels i want are also fully booked.

i had planned to take the train this morning to stockholm, but i couldn't find anywhere to stay, so i'm staying where i am in oslo. which is really a pretty good deal - i'm staying at a woman's apt here in the city. good stuff.

i also ran into a guy i met a few days ago in voss, so i was able to tour around the city with him today which alleviated some of my lonesomeness. oslo is really a great city, if it weren't so expensive!! it's a little over 6NOK to the US dollar, and a plain hamburger at mcdonalds is 15NOK, and that is by far the cheapest lunch i'll ever find. most "cheap" restauarants run at least 75NOK a dinner. thankfully, i am able to cook at the apt i'm staying in, so i made pasta last nite. nice and cheap.

today i went to the sculpture park, which was pretty cool. and i also just took the tram around town to see the different neighborhoods. i also went over to the castle, which was closed, but that's ok, cos i didn't want to pay 60NOK to see it anyway.

yesterday i went to the munch museum, which was good. (think: the scream) it was all his stuff that he left in his will to the city of oslo when he died. i was able to catch a 50min english movie on his life, which really helped explain his work. the paintings were pretty good, too.

i also broke down and bought a book to read while waiting for trains and while on trains. i'm excited to just sit and relax tonite, i wore out my feet and legs the past few days.

on a personal note, i'm feeling pretty lonely. i was glad to share a room at this apt with a polish girl that speaks english well, and i was really excited to see my friend from voss. i didn't have any plans to go to the castle, but since he was going, i decided it would be better to hang out with him than mope around by myself, doing my own thing. i was frustrated enough to cry this morning, as i wanted to take the train tomorrow to stockholm and had already booked a hostel there (the third time i've booked a hostel i couldn't make it to, but i really don't have an option, cos then i'm stuck on the other side - not having a place to stay, which is probably worse). so... i'm thankful for the blessings (great weather, friends, being here at all), but i'm a little down overall.

i plan to go to copenhagen tomorrow, stay there tomorrow night and the next, take the overnight train to amsterdam, stay there 2 nights, and then go to bruges for 2 nights. at that point, i'll have to do more planning, but it's looking like germany. kinda depends on my friends in germany, and what they're doing.

voss, flåm and bergen, norway

oh, geez, this place is AMAZING!!!! if it were further south, i'd move here. it's a bit chilly, about as cold as i ever like it to get, so thankfully i am wearing a shortsleeve shirt, longsleeve shirt, midweight fleece, and a rain-windbreaker. but today is mostly sunny, which is a huge blessing!! it rained yesterday, which made the trail i was on to see a waterfall a little slippery, adn i fell. but the waterfall was awesome, and i made it back in one piece, with just a few scrapes and bruises.

i went kayaking on the fjords tuesday. thankfully, another good weatther day, and not too cold. it was AWESOME!! we put into nærøysfjord and went up about halfway to a little farm place for lunch. we made a fire and cooked the best pork chops i've ever had (sorry mom) and fed the sheep GORP (raisins and peanuts). it was really spectacular and i took over 150 pictures. woohoo!!

yesterday i took the bus to gudvangen, near where we kayaked the day before and i took the 2 hr ferry up that fjord and down the next. we landed in flåm, and i walked around town and up to the waterfall. when i started hiking is when it started raining. i didn't like flåm much, there wasn't anything to do but shop in the now closed stores or hike, which i'd had my fill of. so i took the next train up the mountain to myrdal. THAT was amazing. the trainride, that is. it goes up over 850m in 20k, and had spectacular views as it criss-crossed the valley. unfortunately, i didn't check the train schedule close enough and had to wait in the rain and fog at myrdal for the train. but it was beautiful and reminded me a lot of tasmania. i was the only one there, too, so i could put on my ipod and sing aloud along with it. i did make it back to my hostel in voss ok and made a nice warm cup of tomato soup.

today i took the train into bergen, on the west coast. i walked around town, saw the beautiful churches and headed for the torget, the fish market. it reminded me of the fish market in sydney, but that's just because that's the only other fish market i've ever been to. this city is amazing. i think if you crossed seattle with colorado, this is what you'd get. sweetness. well, i walked thru the old wooden buildings part of town up to the fort on the hillside and watched a big ship load up. then i took the train-thingy up the hill to hike around the mountains a bit before heading back down to catch my overnight train to oslo.

paris, hamburg, goteborg and oslo

ok, so i made it to paris safely wed. unfortunately, my bag did not. it actually arrived thurs, then spent 3 days taking a tour of paris, just like i did. i did get it back saturday, soaking wet and smelling terrible, but at least it was in my possession!!

my first day, i was pretty jet lagged and out of it, so i made my way to zahra's house, the sister of my dad's cousin's husband. got it? anyway, they are an awesome family that i was very please to stay with for 3 nights. we went out to dinner the first night with other family that had come into town for the evening. the next day i set out for the sights: eiffel tower, champs elysee, arc de triomphe, and musee orsay. the next day i set out again and saw: the louvre, notre dame cathedral and towers, musee rodin, and a market area. and i had an incredible crepe. by far, my favorite thing was the view of the city from the notre dame towers. it brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful. i definitely had a full 2 days and was exhausted enough to prove it.

saturday, i set out for the airport to try to track down my bag. it had been sent out for delivery, so i had to sit around all day and wait for the delivery truck to come back. then i got an overnight train to hamburg to copenhagen, but the overnight train was an hour late and i missed my connecting train to copenhagen. so i found a place to shower (now that i have my shampoo and soap and a sopping wet towel that dried a little on the train overnight), then found a laundromat and washed and dried all the wet stuff. so even tho i didn't want to be in hamburg, it was a lovely place. it was nice and quiet on a sunday morning, cool and overcast. it started to rain as i did laundry, so i rode the tram back to the main train station to get an afternoon train to copenhagen. and i had a great big pretzel, too.

the train to copenhagen was good, if long. i sat next to a bolivian guy who spoke pretty good english and across from a ukrainian woman and her 6 yr old son who really got on my nerves by the end of the trip. he was cute tho, it just reinforced the idea that i don't want kids anytime soon. so i made it to goteborg, a suprisingly big and convenient city in southwestern sweeden. it was quite an evening... in my guidebook, all the hostels had receptions that close by 9pm, my train didn't get in until 10:20. i saw 2 girls with backpacks on heading out of the trainstation, so i asked them if they had a place to stay and could i tag along. they were german and found on the internet a "mini-hotel" that stayed open until 11. so it took asking a bunch of people and getting a free ride from a cabbie to find the place, but we did. it was a little sketchy, but worked just fine. the german girls had been camping in norway for a week, they were just glad to have a bed!!

the only problem was the tram we took cost 20kr, and i didn't have any sweedish money at all. (my original plan was to take the afternoon train from copenhagen to oslo and stay the night there, so i didn't intend to have any sweedish kronar at all!) so one of my new friends paid for me to get to the hostel, but i would still need 20kr to get back to the train station in the morning for my 6:45 train to oslo. so i asked one of the guys hanging out in the lounge, and he took me to an atm. well then, i had 100kr, but no change to pay the girl back. so i asked another guy and he went around to all his friends at the mini-hotel, and none had change for 100kr. so we went out again, in search of a store or restaurant that could give me change. he was an older somalian guy named mohammed who lived there at the mini-hotel and promised to treat me as his daughter. he was really funny and i enjoyed talking to him as we walked around town. we found a bar that gave me change, and then he was hungry, so we stopped at burger king. i was really tired and knew i had to get up early, but this guy was entertaining enough to keep me distracted from my exhaustion. so that's how i ended up eating burger king at midnight in sweeden with a somali guy.

so i caught the train this morning to oslo and i'll catch the train in an hour or so to voss, where i'll stay 2 nights. tomorrow: kayaking on the fjords!! in hindsight, i planned the kayaking way too soon after arriving, but hindsight is 20\20, right? so here i am... the plan for now is to spend the next day (wed) on the "norway in a nutshell" trip and head for bergen. thursday night i'll overnight back to oslo where i'lls tay the night friday, then train to stockholm and spend sunday and monday nights there. monday night i'll overnight it to copenhagen, and the next night overnight it to amsterdam. i sat down for 2 hrs after arriving here in oslo to decide this stuff. so we'll see how much it changes as i go!!

thanks for reading, if you got this far. i am checking email, but i am a bit overwhelmed by the 26 in my inbox, so we'll see how i do about responding. i'm also uploading pics to kodakgallery.com at the moment, so depending on how long that takes is how long i'll spend on emails. thanks, y'all!!!

i still want to answer every phone with "scialdone and taylor"

i'm feeling rather lethargic toward my europe trip. tuesday was my last day of work, and i'm not leaving until next tuesday. i felt like i should be leaving by now, so perhaps i'm just anxious to go, and not thinking about it is the way to not drive myself crazy. it is so so so weird that i honestly don't know where i'll be in a week. next thurs nite, i don't know where i'll be. it's just odd. it isn't like i don't know where i'll be, but i'm on a trip where someone else is in control and knows. nobody knows. well, besides God.

i had a good time at BG yesterday. it was kind of a last thrill, the last time i'll use my summer pass. it was good to hang out with suzanne and neal and get to know them better. brian also came and rode a whopping (count 'em) 2 roller coasters. at least he got free parking!

it's hitting again how i have no idea what i'm doing with my life. i've got a little more peace thanks to 2 well-timed comments that others have said that have impacted me deeply in the last week. i know that i will eventually be living overseas, at least for a few years. i don't know where that will be, but it is not likely that hair dryers are a necessity.

i am helping my dad with his business for a few days. it's kinda funny... if it were anyone's but his, i would have signed on long ago. i'm totally behind the thought of what he's doing, and i would love to be a part of it under normal circumstances, but working with my dad is not normal circumstances. as much as i love him, working with him is not a good thing for us. it just wouldn't work. and thankfully, since i am leaving, i don't have to worry about the work streching on longer than it should, and i have a planned "out" which makes it easier.

so after working at the law firm, i know that i can work in administrative/customer service positions, but it would have to be in an industry or office that i "believe in." law is not such an industry. missions would be.

back to europe... ginny let me know today she won't be joining me. big bummer. i'm rethinking my whole trip now, wanting to spend more time in morocco. i've been really interested in africa as of late, and although morocco doesn't really fit in africa, europe, or the middle east, it still is the same continent. just like turkey isn't all that asian, but it counts! paris, norway, morocco, italy, and seeing friends are all my priorities now. so we shall see!

i'll keep y'all updated on a somewhat regular basis of what i'm up to and what i've been doing. since all 3 of you read this. ;-)