RECAP SHMEECAP

Well we have now been in Vancouver for nearly 3 months and I fully recognize the lack of photo updating. Or updating in general. School absolutely has taken over. So, I decided to do a recap on our lives since that day… Dec.26th, that we started making our way to Vancouver.

We had some GREAT helpers to get us settled. Danny’s Mom and Dad, and his sister Darla joined us in our adventure in moving our lives out here. Danny’s Dad drove out the monster truck with the trailer behind it, that carried ALL of our stuff! We drove the car; and of course we couldn’t leave the dogs behind. They joined us too. Although they weren’t much help; they could hardly carry anything!

We spent our first night in Kelowna at Danny’s Grandma’s, and then we eventually made it to Vancouver where there was LOTS of rain. So much rain actually that we had to postpone our move-in date until the next day to avoid soggy boxes.


We did some painting and unpacking that took forever! Danny’s parents left the day after, but they left behind their wonderful daughter Darla. Soon after came Tom and Heather, our cousins from Cali, and then Jase from Texas!


We enjoyed some gallivanting around the city, and counted down to a new year as a lovely group of 6 crammed in our car.

Tom and Heather could only stay for 2 days, but Jase and Darla stayed for about 10 more days and then Darla headed off to Australia where she is now, and Jase back to America. Jase and Darla were both helpful with getting us moved in! HOLLA! And we celebrated Darla's birthday early too. So we of course HAD to surprise her with cupcakes!!!! We opened Christmas presents from Jase too which was really exciting. He is so thoughtful...getting us a "Don't Mess With Texas" mug and some House Blend coffee as a house warming gift, and a Starbucks Christmas Barista bear that I LOVE, and a couple other goodies!



After everyone was gone, next came Danae- Danny’s other sister, and Mom Taylor again for a weekend. We had fun showing them the city and shopping around! Then came my Mom, but we didn’t get any pictures with her!


Next came Natalie, which was, loads of fun, although like I mentioned in a previous blog, Danny got the most time with her. NOT FAIR! We went to the States to shop and it was gooood.



After Natalie left came my friend Danielle and also our friends from Edmonton Aaron and Rob. Danielle and I had some great coffees and we had lots of laughs with Rob and Aaron too. The boys were so sweet they even took us out for a nice dinner to thank us for hosting them! Ladies, these boys are single, hilarious, and they are very kind. If you’re interested you just let me know!

I have been LOVING my school. Danny managed to steal a shot of me in the car on the first day so that I could show my Mom. Haha He wanted me to sit on the couch but I wouldn’t have it. The views from my classroom are unreal. I can see the mountains and downtown. It’s a hard life I tell ya.

And of course Danny is almost done his shifts at the Urban Barn, completely enjoying his new job, but is a bit overwhelmed, and I am still truckin along at the Travel Bug, learning the world.

Because we haven't had much time or opportunities to meet new people, we have been spending loads of quality time together. We went to the new and HUGE movie theatre downtown to see "In Bruges", a Colin Farrel film that is both violent and humorous. Actually kind of liked it. I took this pic of Danny but its kind of blurry because I was laughing too hard.

We are still not 100% settled, but our living room is pretty much finished, here is a mini night time glimpse for you. We just bought another piece of art this weekend from my uncle that I am SO excited about. And I am talkin pricey. That is one thing Danny and I actually ENJOY spending money on. Art. The most we have spent on a painting was $800. Hey, if it changes the way you live and lifts your spirits, I think its worth it! Our newest piece of furniture is a coffee table from Pottery Barn. I was quite delighted to get it on sale.




These peppers are glowing bright red from my favorite market I buy all our fresh produce from. The prices are AMAZING. I sometimes buy TOO much because I get such a deal. It's AWESOME.
We were shopping/window shopping on Commercial Drive one day and snapping photos. We can across this cool antique shop. The little sign was on a storage unit. Who spits on furniture?



These next 2 photos pretty much summarize the last 3 months for us. We literally go to coffee shops more than ever now. And read and study. School was giving me tests and big projects nearly every week and therefore we were "forced" to go to our favorite Starbucks overlooking Coal Harbour.

And last, but NOT least. Chocolatl. I am poting this so that I don't forget this moment. So it's really for me. But this day we spent $16 on chocolate. At one store. We bought 2 hot chocolates and 2 truffles. $16. Ouch. BUT this isn't just any chocolate shop. It is simply delicious. They serve hot chocolate that is hard to explain, but its cocoa from different parts of the world. We both got the Venezuelan. Absolutely creamy and divine.

So tonight we are off to Seattle for a day, and then to Edmonton. I cannot say how excited I am to see my family. I miss them dearly! I won't have much time to post when I'm there but I promise to update when I can. Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter. (We went to the island to visit my Mom's side of the family, and I will post more on that later. It was a blast.)

He has RISEN INDEED!

Another FREAK OUT!

I am getting sick of technology. Absolutely sick of it. Some of it. I know that in my life I benefit from it often. But I am just getting sick of how it replaces human interaction, and it sucks up all my time. I don't like how it replaces getting a phone call or getting a letter or a real birthday card in the mail. Facebook is the worst for this. Suddenly all my conversations are online. It's all online. I am guilty of this myself, and a lot of it really does have to do with the fact that I don't have as much time to call anymore because I am a student and majority of my time is spent in a class room with computers. So in some respects, it is my only option. But my teacher was telling us a story the other day about his grade 12 daughter. She sent... GET THIS.... she sent over 6000 text messages on her cell phone last month. YES. There are 3 zeros there. SIX THOUSAND. Luckily his son works for the cell phone company so they get it for free. But I am worried. The next generation is going to have such a struggle with honest face to face to communication because of what technology is doing. I also hate facebook snoopers. Yes, I will randomly come across info on other people's page's while I am writing them a message or whatever, but it just bothers me that so many people just hop from page to page snooping in on other people's business when they don't even talk to that person ever. My friend said she went to a party and ran into someone she had as a facebook friend, but hadn't seen for years and this person knew everything that was going on in her life! It just bothers me. I don't like nosy people. I am considering getting rid of my account because it bothers me that much. But the main thing that bothers me is that it is so easy to lose HOURS and HOURS of your life/ my life just sitting at the computer all day. We don't have cable on our tv, so we have that advantage, but the Internet still manages to grab our attention. I don't know. When I heard about my teachers daughter my jaw actually dropped. What is our world becoming? It scares me sometimes.

Conviction

I have been feeling convicted lately. I am not sure what exactly sparked this conviction, but I am trying to figure it out. I have a couple hunches.

Danny and I watched this amazing movie a couple nights ago. It is called "God Grew Tired of Us". If you haven't seen it YOU MUST. You absolutely must. And if you haven't got a heart for Africa yet, you will when you're done watching. It's a documentary that follows three "Lost Boys" from the Sudan who had to leave their homeland and move to America leaving everything they know, their friends and family behind. Pretty much what happened was, there was a civil war going on in Sudan in the late 90's, and 25 000 boys from the ages of 3 to 13 had to flee their villages to avoid being killed. (there was some edict out that all young boys should be killed-its a longer story involving corrupt people; I may write more about it in the future) They walked across the sub-Saharan dessert fighting against famine, disease, dangerous wild animals and rebel soldiers. These boys traveled for over 5 years together, forming make-shift families with one another, trying to find some comfort in their circumstance. They eventually made it to the UN's refugee camp in Kenya. But MANY lives were lost along the way. Eventually an American journalist heard word of these boys, and was able to track them down. He was eventually able to pursue the States that they should rescue these boys and help them relocate in America. This documentary follows 3 of there boys and their experience. Not all the boys were given the opportunity to relocate though- I think there were only 3800. There are some extremely heart wrenching moments in this movie, but there are some really funny ones too. It shows the boys experiencing all sorts of things for the first time such as flying in an airplane, using electricity, eating American food, etc. And it also shows some really candid moments of the boys talking about deeper issues too. I found it amazing to watch.

Then it brought me back to this conviction. I have so much. Why do I have so much? I am just overwhelmed with how much I have. Over the last month I have been thinking about my trip last year to Niger, a lot. I think it is because we left in mid-March and we are approaching the anniversary of that life-changing experience. So all these memories and experiences are vividly running through my mind as I go about my day. I find that I am often frustrated when I am not able to finish the food on my plate at dinner time, that I can just throw out the leftovers. I can cook and eat whatever I want when I want it. I can go shopping for clothes, pretty much whenever I want to. I can drive anywhere I want. I have a comfortable bed to sleep on with an abundance of pillows. I can buy as much for my house as I want. And yes I realize that there are still big restrictions on me because I myself am not a millionaire. But still. Why me? Why do I have these options? And why do I STILL take them for granted? I find that each day I am more and more convicted to do something. I am still patiently waiting on God to find out what that something is though. For this year I am stuck in Vancouver because my school goes straight through the summer and I graduate in December. I know the reason why I went into the travel industry is because I love traveling, but it is also HUGELY that I love culture, and I am passionate about building God's kingdom with my diploma somehow. I am wanting to get involved in, or start a non-profit organization that does humanitarian aid travel planning. Something along the lines of that. I am not sure what this looks like quite yet, but all I know is that I am heading in the right direction. But until I graduate, I am trying to figure out what I can do while I'm here. What that looks like. Vancouver is a needy city too. There are vast differences in wealth here, and when I really think about it, we are not much different that Niger. The Niger that I saw had a large mansion next door to a small hut. And here there are homeless people everywhere and wealthy business men and women everywhere too. I think our pastor mentioned last week that only 3% of Vancouver are Christians. Only 3% know Jesus. He said that Jesus did not die on the cross for only 3%. Its true. And its sad. Anyways, I just felt like writing about it. I feel frustrated at the world and frustrated with myself this week. It helps to write it out.
Here is a photo the very talented Robbie Jackson took in Niger. It reminds me of a lot.


I will write more soon! But its back to the books for me at the moment!

OPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Question: How long will it take me to get you all caught up on two months of travel that we did in 2007?

Answer: F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

I’m sorry. I gave up on my travel blogs a while ago because they were just too much to handle! I was overwhelmed. And even now, we have been so incredibly busy that I have not had time to catch you up on things that have been going on the last 2 weeks either. BUT I feel like re-living my travels at the moment, and I’ve also managed to upload photos at well. So we are ready to rock. I will fill you in on life now, later.

Let’s escape to Greece again shall we? We left off at the island of Santorini. Seems I have left you all shipwrecked there for a couple months. But the Greek ferry is ready to go. Next stop… the Greek island of Ios.

Let me tell you a little about this Greek ferry we took in particular. It was pretty much just a giant chunk of floating metal. We all sit on the deck in plastic seats and this ferry goes about as fast as you can swim. So I read a book. And we chatted with some girls from Vancouver. There was this unique little Catholic-looking shrine-thing right in the middle of the boat too, where you could go and do your ‘Hail Mary’s’ and read scriptures. I’m not 100% sure. But it was interesting. But that was about all the boat had to offer. That, and bathrooms.


We arrived in Ios to be greeted by a very loud, very relaxed and overly honest and crass Brazilian /English man in his mid thirties who runs the place where we were staying. He picked a crew of us up and drove us in a giant van. On the ride there, we chatted with this man to find out, like I mentioned, that he is a Brazilian/English man.  I think he’s confused what he is. Or maybe I am. Either way, he kind of screamed “mid-life-crisis”. The place he runs is called The Far Out Beach Club. Pretty much a young adults party resort over-run by Australians. But because we were traveling in September after the big rush of tourists, we managed to avoid all the hype, and the party scene.

This place was one of our favorites. We could not believe our eyes when we saw that we were staying in an extremely clean room with our own private patio…for an extremely cheap rate. Breakfast included! This place had a couple giant swimming pools, it was right across from a gorgeous beach, complete with its own private restaurants and all. Our days here were definitely spent sun tanning and reading by the swimming pool, eating delicious food, and swimming in the glorious ocean. This was Danny’s favorite island because it was all about r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g.


We took the bus into town for a little bit, one day, only to discover that it really wasn’t all that interesting, and we just wanted to be back at the beach. So we looked at some ships, a man on a donkey, the ocean, and spent too much time at an Internet café looking for a place to stay at our next island. And then went back to the club. Well to the beach actually. Apparently the ladies don’t wear tops there. I find this strange to see a 30-year-old woman playing with her little daughter in the sand with no bathing suit top on. I wanted to go and cover her up. But instead I covered Danny’s eyes by throwing sand in them. Okay, I’m kidding.






At night the Far Out Beach Club would show movies on a big screen kind of near the pool. Everybody would crowd around and eat and watch. It was one of the only things to do at night unless you wanted to go to the bar.

In the morning we would wake up and eat breakfast by the pool, and it was glorious. Although I must say, the breakfasts weren't that impressive. Cereal with warm milk and dry chocolate cake. But it filled our bellies nonetheless. Can't complain when you're in paradise!



Overall this place was a nice treat in our HOT Greek adventure. But we were only there for 2.5 days. We met up with the Vancouver girls again at the ferry and off we went to our next stop...the island of Mykonos.