well it's been awhile since i've written anything. sorry bout that. i've been a little sick since monday :( now i know that isn't a good excuse but i really just didn't feel like it..and im also getting a little stir crazy. but yeah please pray that this nasty cold goes away! it would be much appreciated! :) so yes. i haven't really been up to much. saturday we went to Brugge, which is a REALLY cute town about an hour from here. im sure it would have been much nicer with better weather but we still had fun! we just explored the town all morning, saw the lake of love :), and a bunch of awesome old buildings. later we went on a carriage ride which was much fun and went to a chocolate museum (which actually wasn't as cool as it sounded, but we got free samples!) then me shannon and hannah did a little shopping. there was this one store that had all these like home things, decorations, dishes, and all sorts of stuff. ohmygosh. they were sooo cool! i wanted everything!! anyway, then we had dinner and BARELY made it back for our train! it probably wasn't the smartest idea to be out in the rain and cold all day but it was fun! and i got tons of pictures. once again. anyway, this week i've just been chilling and trying to get better. tuesday night we had a surprise baby shower for one of the ladies here! she was so surprised! it was her first baby shower for her so far and we had a really good special night. :) i've also been learning a little guitar and also how to play piano from lead sheets which is so much fun! me, shannon, maggie, and hannah had a great jam session last night! it's so much fun to be able to play with people and sing and mess around! :) ok. well i think i'll wrap it up with some pictures...if i can figure it out.

this is an

nie. she is such a cutie and brightens up the place! :)

and this is her sister lily. (aka baby e) who is also a a bundle of joy :)

a street in brugge..

the lake of love...

me and hannah tryin on hats in brugge :)

the main square at night.

somewhere in the middle..

for today's post, i just want to put the lyrics of a song that is one of my favorites and definitely emotional for me.. (wv 08 anyone? :) just something to think about...

(in case you want to listen to it as you read it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WN37XYqrmY )

Somewhere between the hot and the cold

Somewhere between the new and the old
Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be
Somewhere in the middle, You'll find me

Somewhere between the wrong and the right
Somewhere between the darkness and the light
Somewhere between who I was and who You're making me
Somewhere in the middle, You'll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle
With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle
Are we caught in the middle

Somewhere between my heart and my hands
Somewhere between my faith and my plans
Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing waves

Somewhere between a whisper and a roar
Somewhere between the altar and the door
Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more
Somewhere in the middle You'll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Lord, I feel You in this place and I know You're by my side
Loving me even on these nights when I'm caught in the middle

so you might be wondering...

...is it all play and no work? and the answer is no. most definitely not. although it does kinda sound like it :)...no these adventures have happened in between and sometimes apart of our training. all last week we had morning sessions which consisted of a worship time, then some kind of speaker on different things, usually some type of activity to help make the point of whatever we were learning, and then more speaking. or something along the lines of that... it's been really good! sometimes the topics just go over my head but most of them have been ones i understand and can learn from. along with that, we are split up onto 2 different teams, a service team and a ministry team. for my service team i am on a communications team, which basically is a team that's in charge of a newspaper that goes out once a week and also collecting pictures to share for an end of the month cd. obviously, im not doing any of the writing. im just helping with pictures and such. :) also i've already mention the ministry team i'm on. we are working with the korean church and that's been going really well too. we are all also working on a little ethnography and cultural interviewing and journaling. so the answer is no. :) it's not all play and no work. until next time...

a few things for today...

well this is going to be short cuz im wiped out. hopefully it'll be legible. :) yesterday we did this Brussels Exercise where we were given this assignment and bascially had to go out and answer a BILLION questions about belgium and culture and all this stuff. it was lots of fun and we learned SO much! i could say a lot more about it but i just don't have the time now....Today, my service team (Liz (our mentor) Vitaliy, Marissa, Shannon, Abbey, and Jenni) went and worshipped at the Korean church we are working with. It was a great experience! Everything was in Korean but we had translations for everything except the singing. Most of the songs we didn't know but we did sing "My Jesus i love thee" and it was really cool cuz we had the english words which we sang while they sand in Korean. After that, they had croissants and pastries and boiled eggs and we meet some of the people there. Funny story: they had coffee and tea and so i got some coffee. Well they had a little container with sugar cubes in it and then a bowl with what looked like sugar. So, i tried to get some sugar cubes out but was having a hard time doing that with a spoon so i thought, oh i'll just get some of the loose regular kind! by the time i was putting the second spoon in I realized "oh you know what? this quite possibly be salt! oh no!" so I cautiously took a sip and well...let's just say it was NASTY! yeah. it was most definitely salt. gross. anyway, after a little snack me and shannon went up to the youth room and meet the some of the high schoolers and just hung out and talked and asked them all about themselves and belgium and such stuff. after that we all went out for lunch to this Thai food place. i got a delicious fried noodles and beef dish! it was so yummy! especially considering the facts that 1: it was 3:30 and 2: all i had eaten was some croissants and an egg. Then some of us decided to walk around Brussels a little and pop into a few shops. i treated myself to some gelato. :) yummm. i still have yet to get myself a waffle but i did take a bite of someone's and it was amazing! but anyway, i wanted to share a few things i've learned mostly just about belgians and the culture. (these are mostly from observing people and talking to people) let's make it fun and have a list..

1: belgium is most strongly racially divided in the french population and flemish (or dutch) population. there's SO much history behind the reasons for that but basically you are french or dutch (if you're a true belgian) and you hate the other side.

2: brussels is also hugely inhabited by internationals!

3: a huge attraction is a 2ish feet tall statue of a little boy peeing. no joke.

4: chocolate. yum. there are AT LEAST 2 chocolate shop on every block!

5. they have a pub, Delirium, that held the record in 2004 for the biggest selection of beer at one place. around 2500 different kinds!!

6: dogs aren't on leashes very much here (which means they are very well trained) and tons of people have them!

7: the political situation is so screwed up and ridiculous that most people just stopped caring.

8: most people here speak at least 2 languages... french or flemish (dutch) and then english and sometimes german and other languages!

9: the public transportation is a NIGTHMARE to figure out but i think after you get it figured out it would be ok.

10. the legal age to drink is 16 which means that kids my age regularly go to the bars and pubs and have a beer. and even kids who are like 13 go too! it's crazy.

ok i think i'll stop at 10. that's a good number. hopefully i didn't bore you out of your mind! thanks for reading! check out my facebook pics for stuff i talked about in the blog :) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4778924&l=f69a7032f3&id=642339687

So, I have taken the great responsibility of starting a blog. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up and update it as much I would like and as much as ya'll would like. :) Oh, and you can comment on the bottom if you want.

Well, Belgium. The trip over was ok. It was definitely long and very tiring but it was bearable. On the flight from Columbia to Atlanta, my ticket was not with either of my parents and even though I didn't really care if I was next to a stranger my Dad offered to take the seat, so I was like, ok whatever. Well. What we didn't know was the person next to him was this guy from South Africa so he had an AWESOME accent. I really wish I had sat there. But oh well. I could hear him anyway. hahaha anyway, the flight from Atlanta to Athens was about 8 hours so i tried to sleep but that wasn't THAT successful. oh well. So we got here and got picked up and taken to the place we're staying. This place reminds me a lot of the Hostel we stayed at in NY. Not the same layout but definitely the same feel with rooms with bunk beds and community bathrooms. I'm in a rather small room with one bunk bed and a desk. The nice thing is that I didn't think there would be anyone here my age but I found out that there is another girl here who is 18 and so I'm sharing a room with her. This was a very pleasant surprise. We are getting along really well so that's definitely a praise. Ok so. There are 14 other missionaries. There are 3 girls who are just out of college or around that age, 2 young couples (one with 2 adorable kids) and then 3 (or 4?) other couples about my parents ages. These people are awesome! We are all getting along very well (so far) and I'm looking forward to getting to know them more. Yesterday, my service team (which is me, the 3 single girls, one young couple, and our mentor) went to meet the pastor of the Korean church we are going to be attending and serving this month. It took a little longer to get there than we thought...we didn't exactly get lost but it just took some effort to figure out how we were going to get where we needed to go. Anyway, after that, the 3 girls and I decided to go to downtown Brussels and walk around. hahaha what an adventure. It took alot of map consulting and broken french/english communicating but we finally got where we want to go. We walked around a little and saw a cathedral, lots of chocolate shops, and tons of cool architecture. Europe architecture is SO cool! Everything is soo detailed and interesting! So anyway, our stomachs decided it was LONG past time to eat so we tried to find a good restaurant. It was so funny cuz we ended up in this tourist section so there were a ton of cafe/restaurant places and every single one had guys standing out there trying to convince us to eat there! It was pretty ridiculous actually. But we did choose a restaurant that DIDN'T have someone out there and got some delicious pizza! It was pretty late so we started heading back to the centre. We figured out which train we needed and waited for like 20 minutes. Long story short, we missed the train. Let's just say it was a lack of knowledge of the train system. So we waited like another 30 minutes and GOT the train we needed and got back to the center around 9ish. It was quite the adventure. But it was lots of fun :) well there's so much more to say about the training and stuff but it's getting late and im supposed to be ready by 8:30 in the morning for an unknown "exercise" thing in Brussels. Let's hope i don't get lost or something. haha anyway, thanks for the prayers and the support! love you guys and miss you!