How do you say…”I don’t know German”?

So, the blogging has been lacking, but let’s face it…we aren’t overseas to blog and internet is hard to come by. But the short of it is, all is well. After a long and sleepless flight, we made it to Frankfurt where we waited another three hours to ride a bus for an additional two and a half hours. After a little orientation to our surroundings, we called it a night.

Since then, each day has looked a little different, but we usually start out by prepping the music for worship. There are about 300 missionaries here from all over Europe and we’ve had the chance to speak to some and hear about what they are doing or how they feel music is such a great way to bridge the language barrier in missions. One of the first days was a day of worship and fasting. Many of the songs were played a bit on the fly in order for the music to go along the lines of what was being said and prayed for at the time. All in all, it seems to be well-received. Scott even got to do a quick Beatles tune (by request) to tie into the message about finances… “Can’t buy me love…no, no, no, no, no!”

In other news, we are still adjusting a bit to the jet lag considering we are 7 hours ahead of Iowa time. I’m sure we’ll adjust just in time to turn around and go home, but what can you do? All of our food is provided through the conference at the hotel, and it has certainly been up to par. Unfortunately for me, it’s all my favorite things that I should probably avoid. (As a sidenote, my recovery is mostly going well. I was a bit sick for a day or two but that’s to be expected.)  Scott however is chowing down on meat and potatoes, fancy cheese and chocolate mousse while I salivate in the corner. We wandered into town during our free time yesterday and got a small taste for German trends. We also quickly found that in this small town, English does not go far. But it’s always good to remember that the world is bigger than Iowa and what we’re familiar with is not all there is. And it’s good  to have the reminder that there are people on every continent who have goals and needs and dreams.

Wait, what?

Scott called me this morning with one simple question. “What day are we going to Germany?”

What kind of question is that? We’ve been planning on going for months. August 10th, silly. That’s ridiculous.

To which he replied, “Not according to our plane tickets.”

NO WAY. I looked up the flight information in my email. There it is – AUG 9. They say you become like your spouse when you get married but this is outrageous. I am all about my planner (and no, it does not consist of a smart phone but the good ‘ole pen and paper), am already starting to look at Christmas plans and HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

The only thing I can imagine is that originally, yes, it was August 10th but then the flight was booked and it worked out for the day earlier but we never took note. In our minds, it was always August 10th. And then with other life happenings like birthdays, holidays, weddings and all things summer, not to mention having surgery last week, we never checked back. It’s a good thing I am in between jobs, because I have no idea how one would explain needing that extra day of PTO the day before leaving the country. Or what if we hadn’t found out until it was too late? How do you explain that?

So, everyone, new plan. We will be leaving the country the day after tomorrow. News to me. But you better believe my to do list just exploded and my missing gallbladder better get with the program, because we’ve got a plane to catch!

Off We Go!

It’s been a loooong time since I have given this blog some much needed TLC considering this is my “travel blog” and to be frank, it’s been awhile since I’ve gone much of anywhere. Since studying abroad in China and Greece and traveling all over Europe I have done the following major life things:

1. Graduated college with a Bachelors degree in journalism and mass communication.
2. Worked my first “grown-up” job complete with my own salary, health insurance and nowhere near enough vacation time.
3. Got married in October 2010 to my wonderful husband Scott (and of course, blogged all about it).
4. Mysteriously spent months and months being very sick and having all sorts of medical tests to figure it out.
5. Had my first real surgery (other than wisdom teeth) to remove my gallbladder yesterday.

So what’s next? Well, a week from today, that wonderful husband and I will be boarding a plane to Germany. Scott works full-time with the music and creative arts team at  Valley Church in West Des Moines, IA and they have partnered up with an organization of missionaries around the world called ReachGlobal. Scott and I, along with a team of a few other musicians from our church will be going to Germany to lead worship for ReachGlobal’s yearly missionary conference. We will be there for only a week, but are looking forward to the opportunity to minister to others. Additionally, this will be Scott’s first trip across the pond, which will be an exciting journey for us to share as a couple. For updates on how it goes, feel free to check back at this blog to hear the latest. In the meantime, here’s a few ways you can pray for us:

• As mentioned, I had surgery to remove my gallbladder yesterday, which wasn’t exactly something we had planned on facing this close to the trip. Please pray for a quick and full recovery.

• We will be traveling from Des Moines to Chicago to Frankfurt with both luggage and instruments (and I’m not allowed to lift anything over 25 pounds…good thing I pack light!). Please pray that everything arrives safely and without any damage or theft.

• Pray that while we are there that we are able to serve and encourage these missionary families that work so hard year to year in isolated areas far from friends and family.

• Pray for us to all grow in Christ as we minister to others and adjust to a different time zone, a different language and different routine.

• As we spend time in Germany, pray that we are all open to the Lord’s teaching.

We really appreciate your prayers and know this opportunity would not be possible otherwise. We do still need to raise some more financial support, so if you feel led to give you can do so by sending a check to Valley Church 4343 Fuller Road, West Des Moines, IA 50265 written out to Valley Church with our names in the memo line. But more than anything, we feel blessed by your prayers.

Life’s Update

After three months back in the U.S. my life is obviously different. My weekends are spent visiting exotic places like Des Moines and Ankeny. Just the same, I am happy to be where I am. As much as I hate the snow and cold, the people I am surrounded by make it worth the while.

While I hope to never say my travels are over, they may be on a serious hold for a while. I am happy to announce that I am engaged! I am embarking on a completely new and different adventure, but could not be more thrilled.

As with all things in my life, this calls for a new blog. Here you can follow my wedding plans which takes more courage than I thought (something I recently realized shopping for my wedding dress). Feel free to follow along. Otherwise, I hope this blog has inspired you to travel and see the wonderful things of the world, but more importantly, I hope it has inspired you to grow. I certainly have grown in the past year and am so thankful for the opportunities it led me to.

Almost There

Strolling aimlessly through the streets of Florence, Italy, it finally felt like Christmas. Trees were lit and lights were hung. Shops bustled with excited shoppers as Christmas music played. Lastly, it was actually cold outside! I loved every minute of it. Florence was beautiful with all of its “little Italy” charm. We did happen to sleep outside in Milan the night before, which may make anywhere seem quaint… but that is another story.

Today, my friend Erica and I packed in as much of Rome as we could. Started out the morning right with bread. Then we ate pizza followed by gelato. Had some pasta and later a raspberry tart with a glass of wine and called it a day. Okay, okay, we did do more than just eat! We managed to fit the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Roman Forum into our busy schedule as well. Tomorrow we will head to the Vatican to see what all the fuss is about before going back to Greece.

As we rode around in the train, bus, and plane I have gotten the chance to reflect a bit on my semester and all my travels. It has been a good three and a half months as I have gotten to see more of the world. Throughout it all I’ve picked up on qualities and characteristics of others and myself – good and bad. It’s given me plenty to ponder and evaluate since leaving the States. Maybe I’ll give you more of a glimpse into that reflection next time. For now, I have 16 minutes left of internet and four days until I come home!

Like Nothing Else

I travelled to Turkey with some friends on an overnight bus ride this past weekend, which took somewhere around ten hours. We had to buy a visa just to get in (which thankfully is far less work than getting a Greek visa… all I had to do this time was pay) but got to see a bit of Muslim culture while there. Mosques are everywhere in Turkey. Five times a day people go to pray and the loud singing/chanting is heard throughout the city.

Turkey not only has a crazy unique name (shared with a beloved Thanksgiving dish), but holds a culture unlike any other. Istanbul, where I was just this past weekend, is split by a body of water and somehow belongs to two continents! So, doing the only reasonable thing I could think of,  I casually boarded a ferry to Asia last Saturday.

In Turkey I experienced something else that I’m not sure I’ll ever find in the U.S. (It is a bit controversial, so please send small children away from the computer).  For a whopping 50 lira (roughly $33.45) I paid to get washed.

Turkish baths are a culture all on their own. I went there and was scrubbed down in an open room – where everyone was naked. Quite the experience, and for the sake of seeing your facial expressions, I’ll let you ask me more about it once I return to the States. But, I think this may fall under the growing category of  “doing something I’ve never done before or EVER imagined myself doing“.

The World’s a Blur

After nearly two weeks of running around Western Europe, you’d think things would be slowing down a bit around here. That is far from the case. Tomorrow, I leave around midnight with four other girls on the night bus to Turkey, and next week I’ll finish out my stay in Europe by visiting Italy. In the meantime, I am surrounded with homework and projects, and I am less than three weeks away from returning to the States!

My past trip was beyond any expectations. I was able to go to Paris and spend a few days perusing the sights, feeling quite sophisticated in the city of romance. The weather was perfect, barely chilly, just enough for a jacket. We stayed in the smallest hotel room I’ve ever seen, with a bathroom and shower down the hall to be shared with 30 other rooms. I saw the Mona Lisa, the Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the inside of a snail.

My visit to Belgium not only provided amazing pictures and memories, but a bit of family background as well. I met with some distant cousins living in Belgium who were wonderful hosts as they showed me around Gent and Brussels. Feeling adventurous on my trip alone, I went to breathtaking Bruges,where I stayed in a hostel and made friends with people from New Zealand, Holland, England, USA, and Kenya. We even went ice skating in the outdoor skating rink in the middle of town square, complete with Christmas decorations.

Thanksgiving morning I met up with Paige and her aunt in the happening city of Dublin, Ireland. We got a three-hour walking tour from a real-live redheaded Irish student as the wind cut through our layers, leaving us no choice but to have some authentic Irish coffee. We found ourselves some traditional music one night in the pub before heading off to London for our final leg of the trip. In London I visited a few famous sites and places in the rain such as: Hillsong, Abbey Road, Big Ben, the London Eye, etc.

All in all, it was an excellent reason to skip a week of classes and get to see places I’ve only known in movies. It had its hiccups, a few missed departures, and unpredictable mishaps, but it was still a great trip. I am very thankful for all I’ve gotten to see, but very excited to return home to see some familiar places and faces.

A Most Gorgeous Place

This past weekend happened to be another weekend of traveling due to a spur of the moment decision to visit the Greek islands. Today it donned on me that of the next 32 days I’ll be in Europe, only 11 of which will be spent in Thessaloniki. I am excited, blessed, curious, and a little scared of all my upcoming travels. But in the meantime, let me tell you a bit about the beautiful island of Amorgos.

Paige and I realized we had a five-day weekend thanks to the observance of Polytechnic Day in Greece (which is essentially the day for students to riot in the streets – hundreds of police officers blocked off the street leading to my apartment, completely decked out in gear and shields. It reminded me of E.T.) Without wanting to miss out on such an opportunity, we booked a ferry ride from Athens to Amorgos without much hesitation or research into where we were going. Someone had recommended it, which was good enough for us.

The ferry took a whopping eight hours, in addition to the six and a half hour bus beforehand. By the time we made it there, we were pretty tired. But even though it was dark outside, I could tell it was totally worth the trip down. There they were, the white houses with blue shutters scattered up the hill.

Thessaloniki, where we currently reside, is not like this at all. In some regards, it could just be another big city anywhere. Some of the architecture is different, the language, and obviously the weather, but it does not say, “Greece” quite like the islands do. In Amorgos we finally got a taste of what that was like.

Everything was slow, and then to top it off, it’s winter so most things were closed. We found two nice places to stay on ports on either sides of the island. We hiked a few miles up to the town in between and explored countless white alleyways. It was beautiful.

We did have a few mishaps with prices though. Our ferry tickets were student tickets and apparently we didn’t qualify though and had to pay more. We also ordered a crepe in one of the open cafes without asking the price and definitely over payed. The taxi from side to side cost a ridiculous 23 euros, which we decided to take only once.

This left plenty of room to improvise as we ended up hiking whenever we could, cooking noodles at night, splitting meals, and hitchhiking. All in all, it was gorgeous and relaxing. This next trip will be entirely different. As soon as my laundry dries, I’ll pack it up again for a week and a half through Western Europe, including Paris, Brussels, Gent, Bruges, Stockholm, Dublin, and London!

Can’t take it away

I must say that I am well behind schedule on my blogging and for that, I am terribly sorry. Travelling keeps me busy and hardly leaves time other than for sleep. I promise to give a more a detailed update soon, but in the meantime I will share something quite essential which I have recently learned.

As I spend time and money travelling and seeing all sorts of new places I realize that I am incredibly blessed. I may not be able to afford the same luxuries as others in the group. I might not come home with an entirely new European wardrobe. Over the course of my time here I have lost an umbrella, my debit card, and at times, my patience. But I do have my dignity, and for that I am incredibly grateful.

Your Traveling Tourist

Today I passed some tourists and chuckled to myself. With their backpacks, guidebooks, and cameras I felt like a local compared to them. It’s when I open my mouth to try to buy something at the market that the real locals chuckle. I did end up walking away with what I wanted (cheese, chicken, prunes, pears, pomegranate, and some weird looking yellow thing), but it was not easy.

This past weekend I embraced the tourist in me and went to the small town of Kalambaka with my friend Paige. The more we break out of our comfort zone and take the buses hours outside of Thessaloniki, the more quickly we become acclimated to our surroundings. We easily found our hotel, bought our return bus tickets, and eventually started hiking.

We made it up some giant rock formations as we neared several monasteries and nunneries in the area called Meteora. It looks as if they were just plopped on top of the rocks. They were built there for the monks and nuns who were fleeing for safety. Now they are open to the public.

The first day we hiked up to the Agias Traida (Holy Trinity) and got as far as the door to find it was closed. Major bummer, but it was from up there that we spotted another girl hiking along in a bright yellow hat. She met us as we came down and ended up joining us as we headed off to the nunnery nearby. In order to get in, Paige, Caoimhe (pronounced Keefa), and I had to pay two euros and don the skirts provided. Inside, it was intricately decorated with beautiful detailed paintings along all of the walls of saints and what I assume are biblical stories (though very few looked familiar). Nuns still live there today in fact and came in and out of the rooms we were visiting.

We walked back down to the town to enjoy a nice meal of gyros and baklava before turning in for the night. Our hotel balcony looked out to the rocks and the mountains, which was lit up at night. It was incredible to open the door and see such gorgeous rock formations. The three of us started the next morning early and went up to the top once more to go inside the Great Meteora!

After finding that monasteries and nunneries were all essentially the same on the inside, we opted to only hike to them instead of going inside them. Due to the wind and our growling stomachs, we headed back to town for another meal and got to hear all about Caoimhe and her travels. Originally from Australia, she was on fall break from teaching music in a primary school in London. She seemed to know everything about all of our upcoming destinations. It was great to meet her and hear of the places we just had to visit.

Our four-hour bus ride took us to Thessaloniki just in time for a toga party in our building with the rest of the American study abroad students missing out on Halloween. That counts as Greek culture right? We fit right in now.