Like I've mentioned before, it takes forever to upload picutures onto Blogger because it has to be done one picture at a time. I already put pictures on Facebook and finally (I think) figured out how to get a link for those of you who do not have Facebook accounts. So click on these links and let me know if they work.
This is the beginning of Mom and Dad's visit including Landeck, Innsbruck, and some of Venice:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=25913493&k=Z6C43XR54XVM5CCBYE45PR
This is the rest of Venice and then Vienna, Austria:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=25913493&k=Z2FU5YQ4P4VM5CCBYE45PR
This is Bratislava, Slovakia and Mannheim, Germany with our family:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=25913493&k=YXAX3XQ5V64M5CCBYE45PR
So, hopefully this finally works so the rest of you can see photos but I don't spend my whole life uploding them!
My slight but growing feelings of homesickness have subsided somewhat after a rousing weekend with friends. On Friday I invited Johanna to go to see the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Innsbruck, a festival that shows all sorts of outdoor adventure films. When I was at Western, I went and saw it with friends every year. One film shown this year, The Endless Knot, with Conrad Anker, showed the Khumbu Climbing School that trains Sherpas to be more skilled for porting and guiding in the Himalayas. The Sherpas sang the song 'Ice, Ice, Baby' by Vanilla Ice but changed the lyrics to talk about the school and training. This immediatly reminded me of the ice climbing trips with the Outdoor Center that I went on. Deborah and I thought of the same song and then I ended up making up some new words for it (before The Endless Knot was filmed I might add). It went like this:
"Ice ice baby..dun dun dun dundalunda..."Yo Debo let's kick it/Ice ice baby (x2)/All right stop collaborate and climb it/OC is back with a brand new excursion/This fat ice grabs a hold of me tightly /Flow with my ice tools daily and nightly /Will it ever stop yo I don't know/Put me on belay and I'll go /To the extreme I rock these crampons like a vandal..."
Afterward we went to the birthday party of a friend of hers and danced the night away. The next moring I helped her correct some of her students' essays for English and then headed home. In the afternoon I had another friend over, Raphi. We went for a walk in the beautiful warm weather ( got to wear my Chacos, but still a long sleeve shirt) then I cooked dinner, we made chocolate chip cookies, and watched The 6th Sense in German.
After about a week of crazy winter weather and lots of snow again, it has finally started to feel like spring. Yesterday I went on one of my beloved run-hikes where I run as much as I can to a trail and then slow to a hike once it gets steep. (Allie, this is the trail you and I hiked on and turned around at the frozen waterfall crossing the trail. I was able to go further this time.) It was so warm, I laid down in the one grassy outcropping for a half an hour, just in my shorts and tank top and just enjoyed the sun. I was so exhausted afterwards, but it was beautiful and refreshing. In the evening I got to talk to a couple friends on Skype who I haven't gotten to talk to in a long time, so that was great. Then I managed to get into bed in time to get 8 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, I don't have any proof, so I'm sure none of you will believe me.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Way More
After reading Eddie and LeeAnne's blog about their ministry in Mexico (http://heartsformexico.blogspot.com), then talking to my mom on the phone, and writing a birthday e-mail to one of my dearest friends, Stacy, I was definitely crying. In sorrow and in so much joy. I am profoundly reminded that the only reason I am crying right now is that I have gotten the chance to love and be loved. Deeply. With endurance. Unconditionally. The reminder of the love I have received and given in this life, however imperfect, has given me a sliver of a view of how crazy huge and inconceivable God's love is for me, for us. And I am truly thankful for that slice of goodness, because it is so hard for me to see the extent of God's love.
"...it isn't just those beautiful moments in the midst of the everyday and mundane; it is also in the tragic and the gut-wrenching moments when we cannot escape the simple fact that there is way more going on around us than we realize."
"Truth is everywhere, and it is available to everyone...For Paul [the writer of several books of the Bible], anyone is capable of speaking truth. Anybody, from any perspective, from any religion, from anywhere...I don't follow Jesus because I think Christianity is the best religion. I follow Jesus because he leads me into ultimate reality. He teaches me to live in tune with how reality is. When Jesus said, 'no one comes to the Father except through me', he was saying that his way, his words, his life is our connection to how things truly are at the deepest level of existence. For Jesus then, the point of religion is to help us connect with ultimate reality, God."
-Rob Bell, in the book Velvet Elvis
Thank you God for life and love. Thank you to you who I get to love and who love me.
"...it isn't just those beautiful moments in the midst of the everyday and mundane; it is also in the tragic and the gut-wrenching moments when we cannot escape the simple fact that there is way more going on around us than we realize."
"Truth is everywhere, and it is available to everyone...For Paul [the writer of several books of the Bible], anyone is capable of speaking truth. Anybody, from any perspective, from any religion, from anywhere...I don't follow Jesus because I think Christianity is the best religion. I follow Jesus because he leads me into ultimate reality. He teaches me to live in tune with how reality is. When Jesus said, 'no one comes to the Father except through me', he was saying that his way, his words, his life is our connection to how things truly are at the deepest level of existence. For Jesus then, the point of religion is to help us connect with ultimate reality, God."
-Rob Bell, in the book Velvet Elvis
Thank you God for life and love. Thank you to you who I get to love and who love me.
Adventure is Everything
I wrote this a couple days ago. A fraction of the fruits of much pondering....
Since I’ve been in Austria, travelling, climbing, teaching English; I’ve gotten the line a lot, “Your life sounds so exciting, adventurous.” But adventure isn’t everything.
I’m on month seven abroad; right around the time most of the others are really feeling good and comfortable, confident with the culture and their language skills, I’m starting to feel homesick. After days-weeks of dreary snowy weather (despite the fact that the calendar says it’s spring), the clouds finally rolled back for a few minutes today to expose the sun and the glorious snow covered mountains, the birds were singing, and I had tears in my eyes as I pictured all of your beautiful faces in my head and heart, knowing how far away you all are from me.
Yeah, I know, Dad and Mom just left of Friday. I should still be carried by the high of getting to see them, but somehow that is what has allowed these feelings to surface, made them suddenly so acute. That is the bitter sweetness of having visitors.
Allie was here in December. She is basically the friend that I’ve had for the longest, she understands me, I understand her in ways many others don’t. We could just be together and enjoy seeing those smiles and hearing the laughs we each know so well.
Kurtis came in February. We have many mutual friends, went to the same college, have both worked with YD Adventures for a while, and have many common interests and faith, but we only cross paths every once in a while and usually only for a short time. Despite or because of these factors we had a lot to talk about. We discussed, questioned, encouraged, shared stories in a way that I hadn’t gotten to with anyone for a while. It was a short but deeply meaningful slice of the community I miss so dearly from home.
I even got to cross paths with Jason and Thom from YDA for a few short days in Prague.
Dad and Mom were here in March. The loins that produced me, two of the people that I love most dearly but too frequently take for granted. Despite that fact that there are things that I don’t always share with them, they know me like no one else on earth does. And perhaps love me more unconditionally than anyone else on earth—I base this primarily on the fact that they have put up with me the longest—that really says something. Oh my dad’s big, long, man hugs, my mom’s jokes and smiles, the way she laughs at the little things I do—like my lizard face. How I love these things so dearly. I even sort of miss how she makes loud kissing noises in my ear, just to be silly.
I’m learning lots, enjoying lots, relaxing, and playing here in Austria. But I miss being known. I miss being understood. And I miss knowing and understanding the people around me. There is a certain beauty in the written word but frankly I’m tired of trying to express myself through a keyboard that doesn’t know what I want to say. I miss being able to have long solid conversations without using the technology of phones or the internet. Conversations that happen on long road trips in the depths of Canada, girl talk while piled on one of my roommate’s beds, discussions at Boundary Bay, laughter echoing from the side of some mountain, tears…anywhere--but shared with a friend.
I can’t complain my life is so good; I appreciate every day God has given me. But I am also learning more and more about myself and my passions. I love adventure—and it comes in so many shapes and sizes, some half way across the world, some in the challenge of a hard conversation in your own living room. Maybe I’m getting old fashioned, but I think I like the idea of, dare I say it, settling down. I would really like to live somewhere for a long while, have community, continuity. When I left Bellingham I knew that I was leaving a place that had very much become my home. I love new people and situations but I loved showing up at Mallard Ice Cream or some outdoor film, recognizing a bunch of faces and wander around chatting with them. I don’t mean get boring and lazy, what I want really is a base camp. It is the place you always come back to but you regularly venture off to try something new, be challenged. But you’ve got a cozy place to sleep, first aid, community, all waiting for you there when you get back (and usually you don’t leave for 9 months or more). By the way, base camp itself is pretty gorgeous too, rivers below, peaks all around.
I am perhaps idealizing things back home. It wasn’t perfect before, I was way more stressed out with school, work, and always busy, not much money. But at least I had friends to share it with. I think there is so much adventure and challenge in being somewhere for a long time, in knowing people more deeply. It requires more commitment, more sacrifice, more patience. You can’t just say,”Oh well, I’ll be gone in four months anyway.” The fact that you are sort of stuck with each other (voluntarily or not) makes you want to and have to work harder at being a community. But what a sweet adventure that is.
Adventure is in the simple things. I love going out and challenging myself on a rock face or in a long running race. My second summer at YDA Brie reminded me of the adventure in simple things; intense long laughter, skinny dipping, running around your city in the dark playing hide and seek or some other equally beautiful and innocent spur of the moment activity.
Adventure is in our heads. That is what makes some of those simple things such an adventure for some but a bore to others. Wrapping my mind around God is an adventure. The challenge and joy of living my life for God is an adventure. Listening to other peoples’ journeys is a great adventure as is learning, reading, watching, jumping in, staying out, questioning, walking, looking. A challenging adventure I’m having right now is learning that, “Being a Christian is more about celebrating mystery than conquering it.” (Rob Bell from the book Velvet Elvis). Trying to live frugally and generously at the same time is a great adventure. Other good adventures: trying to ease some suffering in this world, having purpose, understanding politics, learning to be wise but not worry, living today like there might not be a tomorrow, trying to express my appreciation and love for the people around me, getting out of my comfort zone socially, learning how to listen more and speak less, how to be more patient and not get angry.
There are so many adventures in this life if we would only see them as that. I’m talking to myself as much as I am to any of you. Adventure is everything, but our attitudes are what determine whether we classify things as adventures or not. So as I turn from my homesick lament to teetering on the edge of corny motivational speaker, I must ask myself, “How will I let my homesickness be an adventure and not purely a sorrow or dread?” Adventure is not everything unless you can make everything into an adventure. So maybe the next adventure is figuring out how to make everything an adventure.
“The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” –Pascal
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” –Matthew 10:39
“An adventure is an inconvenience rightly deserved.” –G. K. Chesterton
“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to. If only we could apply a travelling mindset to our own locals, we might find these places becoming no less interesting than the high mountain passes and butterfly-filled jungles.” –Alain De Botton from The Art of Travel
We live today in a world of growing isolation, frantic activity, and desperate violence, where paradoxically, we find ourselves longing for both solitude and companionship, intimacy and community. Some of us may look back to times when life seemed to make sense and relationships were more certain. Whether or not such times ever existed, we nevertheless long today for relationships that acknowledge who we are and who we want to be. We want someone to hear us, to hear our hearts beating, to hear our deepest longings—even longings of which we dare not speak. - Sondra Higgins Matthaei Faith Matters
Since I’ve been in Austria, travelling, climbing, teaching English; I’ve gotten the line a lot, “Your life sounds so exciting, adventurous.” But adventure isn’t everything.
I’m on month seven abroad; right around the time most of the others are really feeling good and comfortable, confident with the culture and their language skills, I’m starting to feel homesick. After days-weeks of dreary snowy weather (despite the fact that the calendar says it’s spring), the clouds finally rolled back for a few minutes today to expose the sun and the glorious snow covered mountains, the birds were singing, and I had tears in my eyes as I pictured all of your beautiful faces in my head and heart, knowing how far away you all are from me.
Yeah, I know, Dad and Mom just left of Friday. I should still be carried by the high of getting to see them, but somehow that is what has allowed these feelings to surface, made them suddenly so acute. That is the bitter sweetness of having visitors.
Allie was here in December. She is basically the friend that I’ve had for the longest, she understands me, I understand her in ways many others don’t. We could just be together and enjoy seeing those smiles and hearing the laughs we each know so well.
Kurtis came in February. We have many mutual friends, went to the same college, have both worked with YD Adventures for a while, and have many common interests and faith, but we only cross paths every once in a while and usually only for a short time. Despite or because of these factors we had a lot to talk about. We discussed, questioned, encouraged, shared stories in a way that I hadn’t gotten to with anyone for a while. It was a short but deeply meaningful slice of the community I miss so dearly from home.
I even got to cross paths with Jason and Thom from YDA for a few short days in Prague.
Dad and Mom were here in March. The loins that produced me, two of the people that I love most dearly but too frequently take for granted. Despite that fact that there are things that I don’t always share with them, they know me like no one else on earth does. And perhaps love me more unconditionally than anyone else on earth—I base this primarily on the fact that they have put up with me the longest—that really says something. Oh my dad’s big, long, man hugs, my mom’s jokes and smiles, the way she laughs at the little things I do—like my lizard face. How I love these things so dearly. I even sort of miss how she makes loud kissing noises in my ear, just to be silly.
I’m learning lots, enjoying lots, relaxing, and playing here in Austria. But I miss being known. I miss being understood. And I miss knowing and understanding the people around me. There is a certain beauty in the written word but frankly I’m tired of trying to express myself through a keyboard that doesn’t know what I want to say. I miss being able to have long solid conversations without using the technology of phones or the internet. Conversations that happen on long road trips in the depths of Canada, girl talk while piled on one of my roommate’s beds, discussions at Boundary Bay, laughter echoing from the side of some mountain, tears…anywhere--but shared with a friend.
I can’t complain my life is so good; I appreciate every day God has given me. But I am also learning more and more about myself and my passions. I love adventure—and it comes in so many shapes and sizes, some half way across the world, some in the challenge of a hard conversation in your own living room. Maybe I’m getting old fashioned, but I think I like the idea of, dare I say it, settling down. I would really like to live somewhere for a long while, have community, continuity. When I left Bellingham I knew that I was leaving a place that had very much become my home. I love new people and situations but I loved showing up at Mallard Ice Cream or some outdoor film, recognizing a bunch of faces and wander around chatting with them. I don’t mean get boring and lazy, what I want really is a base camp. It is the place you always come back to but you regularly venture off to try something new, be challenged. But you’ve got a cozy place to sleep, first aid, community, all waiting for you there when you get back (and usually you don’t leave for 9 months or more). By the way, base camp itself is pretty gorgeous too, rivers below, peaks all around.
I am perhaps idealizing things back home. It wasn’t perfect before, I was way more stressed out with school, work, and always busy, not much money. But at least I had friends to share it with. I think there is so much adventure and challenge in being somewhere for a long time, in knowing people more deeply. It requires more commitment, more sacrifice, more patience. You can’t just say,”Oh well, I’ll be gone in four months anyway.” The fact that you are sort of stuck with each other (voluntarily or not) makes you want to and have to work harder at being a community. But what a sweet adventure that is.
Adventure is in the simple things. I love going out and challenging myself on a rock face or in a long running race. My second summer at YDA Brie reminded me of the adventure in simple things; intense long laughter, skinny dipping, running around your city in the dark playing hide and seek or some other equally beautiful and innocent spur of the moment activity.
Adventure is in our heads. That is what makes some of those simple things such an adventure for some but a bore to others. Wrapping my mind around God is an adventure. The challenge and joy of living my life for God is an adventure. Listening to other peoples’ journeys is a great adventure as is learning, reading, watching, jumping in, staying out, questioning, walking, looking. A challenging adventure I’m having right now is learning that, “Being a Christian is more about celebrating mystery than conquering it.” (Rob Bell from the book Velvet Elvis). Trying to live frugally and generously at the same time is a great adventure. Other good adventures: trying to ease some suffering in this world, having purpose, understanding politics, learning to be wise but not worry, living today like there might not be a tomorrow, trying to express my appreciation and love for the people around me, getting out of my comfort zone socially, learning how to listen more and speak less, how to be more patient and not get angry.
There are so many adventures in this life if we would only see them as that. I’m talking to myself as much as I am to any of you. Adventure is everything, but our attitudes are what determine whether we classify things as adventures or not. So as I turn from my homesick lament to teetering on the edge of corny motivational speaker, I must ask myself, “How will I let my homesickness be an adventure and not purely a sorrow or dread?” Adventure is not everything unless you can make everything into an adventure. So maybe the next adventure is figuring out how to make everything an adventure.
“The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” –Pascal
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” –Matthew 10:39
“An adventure is an inconvenience rightly deserved.” –G. K. Chesterton
“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to. If only we could apply a travelling mindset to our own locals, we might find these places becoming no less interesting than the high mountain passes and butterfly-filled jungles.” –Alain De Botton from The Art of Travel
We live today in a world of growing isolation, frantic activity, and desperate violence, where paradoxically, we find ourselves longing for both solitude and companionship, intimacy and community. Some of us may look back to times when life seemed to make sense and relationships were more certain. Whether or not such times ever existed, we nevertheless long today for relationships that acknowledge who we are and who we want to be. We want someone to hear us, to hear our hearts beating, to hear our deepest longings—even longings of which we dare not speak. - Sondra Higgins Matthaei Faith Matters
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Spring?
Spring is supposed to start on March 21st right? Or am I in another dimension? I was running outside in a tank top and shorts the last week of February (granted that was pretty warm for that time of year) but when I got home on Friday afternoon it was snowing and continued to do so all evening. We ended up with 4 or 5 inches that night. This is what it looked like out my front door:
The next day it got sunny, a bit warmer, and a lot of the white stuff melted but now it is Sunday and it just started snowing again.
I check online and the average low for March is 31 degrees (F). This year it has dug deep to 18 F!! The average high is 51 F, but this march it has gotten up to 63. Wow. So it was super warm at the end of Feb and now it's snowy again. I was just getting pumped for climbing but it looks like I might need to pull out my snowboard stuff again.
Happy Easter! Revel in the resurrection!
The next day it got sunny, a bit warmer, and a lot of the white stuff melted but now it is Sunday and it just started snowing again. I check online and the average low for March is 31 degrees (F). This year it has dug deep to 18 F!! The average high is 51 F, but this march it has gotten up to 63. Wow. So it was super warm at the end of Feb and now it's snowy again. I was just getting pumped for climbing but it looks like I might need to pull out my snowboard stuff again.
Happy Easter! Revel in the resurrection!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Familial Adventures
Sunday the 9th, after 11pm my parents FINALLY arrived. They were flying standby and missed several connections so they got here a day later than we had hoped, so I was waiting with “grosse Schmertz” (much pain) for them the whole time. It was so great to get to hang out, talk, hug, and travel together. We did so much but here are some of the highlights; One stand out memory from:
Landeck, Austria (my town): Dad’s excitement at the Metzgerei (deli) where everything is homemade and fresh, asking questions about the smoking process, trying to tell them stories of his meat experiences, fishing, and smoking despite the language barrier.
Venice, Italy: Wandering the back streets at night in the dark, when it’s quieter, stopping and taking artsy pictures, running to catch up with M+D and squishing my hand under one or both of their arms and walking arm in arm, stopping for gelato, looking down little old alleys at crumbly old houses that are beautiful and real. “I’ve reached the time of life where my idea of a fabulous time is to sit around for half a day with a cup of coffee and a newspaper…” –Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There 
Vienna, Austria: Standing outside in the cold on the cobble stoned shopping street at the door of our Pension at 10:30 pm the first night with mom, trying to convince the doorman that we really did have a reservation and having him hang up on us repeatedly. “Vienna is certainly the grandest city I have ever seen… a Martian coming to earth would unhesitatingly land at Vienna, thinking it the capital of the planet.” -Bill Bryson, “Neither Here Nor There. And on Viennese waiters, “I didn’t feel precisely like excrement, but the waiters certainly did have that studied are of superiority that you find among a certain class of European waiter. “
Bratislava, Slovakia: Our evening meal at Prašná Bašta a cozy cellar of a restaurant with thick arching walls, fitting non-English music, and the most delicious and authentic food. The highlight was thick potato pancakes with tender meat and mushroom sauce and two different delicious soups.
Mannheim, Germany: Getting to see mom interacting with her cousins and relatives, speaking German, telling stories, looking at old pictures of their parents and home town. Also, the amusement of being the translator for dad and getting confused and speaking to him in German.
Most thought provoking: having a quarrel with my dad about which way we should go to the train station and noticing that I become frustrated and snappier far more easily with my family than anyone else in my life. Sitting on a train for 7 hours after that reminding my self:“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” James 1:19
“Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins…if anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” 2 Peter 4:7-8, 11
Really satisfying: joking with mom about her fascination with Rick Steves, a travel author that she quotes like my brother does lines from movies.
Best Idea for future travel: Don’t do it with my parents. Just kidding. Read a book related to when you’ve been or where you are going. When I was in Prague, Czech Republic, I bought the book, “Summer Meditations” by Václav Havel, playwright, dissident and the first president of Czechoslovakia (right after the breakup of the Soviet Union). He writes about the Velvet Revolution that helped Czechoslovakia break free from communism and what it’s like to try and guide a new (and old) country into a new birth. It was super interesting to learn about the not so distant past and his views on politics, moral responsibility, and transforming society. We get to visit Bratislava, Slovakia and look down at the city from the castle and see row after row of huge concrete communist housing units (see background of picture below)
and I rode through the still transforming countries-Czech Republic and Slovakia (the two countries were together Czechoslovakia and split shortly after the book was written in 1992). It is a great book for people who are apathetic, frustrated, or uninterested in politics because he shows how, “politicians have duty to awaken this slumbering potential, to offer it direction and ease its passage, to encourage it and give it room, or simply hope. They say a nation gets the politicians it deserves…Those who find themselves in politics therefore bear a heightened responsibility for the moral state of society, and it is their responsibility to seek out the best in that society, and to develop and strengthen it.”Best addiction: I like coffee but limit my coffee shop stops for budget reasons when I travel normally but Dad is a big coffee drinker, so we would sneak off several times a day for cup of joe. The best (and cheapest) was a stand up coffee bar in Venice with huge cloth bags of whole beans piled up in the front of the store. Mmm.
That’s all for now!
“If you’re having a good time- stay. If you’ve met someone you fancy and who fancies you-stay. If you’re too beggared to move- stay. If the police are closing in on you- go.” -Peter Moore, travel Author
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Kurt's Visit and more photos
Man, putting up these photos is so time consuming. I'll put up some more later. So this is still under construction.
Wait, I'm going to try something. Does this link link to my Facebook photo album work? Let me know. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103704&id=25913493
These are from Verona:
Back in Austria we went snowboarding one day. The sky cleared up for great views in the aftenoon but there hadn't been any new snow for a while.
Kurt's last day in Austria, we do a bit of buildering in Landeck and do a walking tour of the town, castle, and some little ponds up in the hills.
The smallest mountian rescue vehicle ever. You probably can't see the mountain rescue sticker on the wind shield.
Wait, I'm going to try something. Does this link link to my Facebook photo album work? Let me know. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103704&id=25913493
These are from Verona:
Back in Austria we went snowboarding one day. The sky cleared up for great views in the aftenoon but there hadn't been any new snow for a while.
Kurt's last day in Austria, we do a bit of buildering in Landeck and do a walking tour of the town, castle, and some little ponds up in the hills.
The smallest mountian rescue vehicle ever. You probably can't see the mountain rescue sticker on the wind shield.
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