My life in the past week..

Sally, you’ll get a kick out of this, knowing I subscribed to this comic just last week.. I-R-O-N-Y

and another..

“good thing my baby sister is going to die before you and me.”

“why is she going to die?”

“because she’s younger!”

my most recent conversation..

“I found these vampire teeth but… they were really the hard kind. umm…. are there any of the softer kind?”

“Hm. I don’t know. Where did you find them?”

“In the bathroom downstairs by the shower. I saw these ones… HOLD ON. I have to go to the bathroom and then I’ll tell you.[returns from the bathroom]There were these kind that were… umm.. when you can almost see through them? I’d like to get some of those vampire teeth.”

I burned my hand on a cigarette today..

I think this, my friends, is the epitome of irony.

Welcome.

On why I’ve grown in the last two weeks.

Surprisingly, I have spent many hours playing cards in the last week. I used to think I was the forever winner at Egyptian, and I told this to Matt Waliszek a few months ago who promptly beat me. Ever since then, I can’t seem to win. I probably played 20 games of Egyptian in the last week – and I didn’t lose every one of them, but I did always lose to Idwer. I never beat him. And I just kept playing.. Kept right on playing…. I think I’ll probably miss the card playing accent – words like “tree,” “trow,” and “sick.”

So I’m staying in Liberec, Czech Republic at the moment with an intern of the organization I’ve been hanging out with. We’re going to work on a report of the last two weeks, documenting the things that have happened and the reactions of the participants – finding ways to improve and what worked, etc..
Last night, upon arriving to her home town, we went straight to her pub and hung out for a couple of hours. Her pub is literally a hole in the ground – but quite cozy inside. I can see why people would be drawn there. It was pretty enjoyable, but I was very tired. I drank some Czech beer and, well.. I don’t like beer. We played cards and listened to the open mic and I inhaled cigarette smoke since all 8 people at the table with me were smoking.

It’s times like this you realize – experiences like these only come every so often in life. It’s like that one time I was at the guys house and all the boys started playing double dutch with two giant ropes in their living room. WHAT?

I think I’m probably a better person for all that card playing, for the beer drinking, and the gargantuan game of double dutch. Now how many people can honestly say that?

27

I celebrated my birthday a couple days ago – and I have to say it was really great. Sure I’m in the Czech Republic, and I didn’t really know anybody and wasn’t able to celebrate with my friends in Alaska – but I was sung to 4 different times in three different languages. I got to play some of my music for some folks on a mountain top, and the sun shone ALL DAY LONG. I got sunburned and wrapped my arms in tea soaked paper towels. I ate cake. I drank coffee. I turned 27. And I’ve decided that 27 is a very good number.

second hand

Will three weeks of exposure to second hand smoke kill my voice?

There is crazy smoking here! It’s impossible to escape. I came on this trip with a wicked cough – and mostly it’s gone – but when I’m around the cigarette smoke for hours at a time, it starts to plague me again. I want to be a singer! Lord, spare me from the ills I cannot avoid…

SO HERE’S AN UPDATE:
I’m having a terrific time. I have been in CZ for the last week or so – with five days left. In the last week I was really able to connect with some people, and although I’m still not sure what the purpose of this trip was for me, I was able to really enjoy myself – and that makes it worthwhile.

Obviously, I have not had consistent internet access over the last week and a half – and though I would like to post everything that has happened, it’s just not possible. Even now, it’s just past midnight, and I’ve gotten very little sleep in the last two weeks. So through the remainder of my trip, and on my return, I will just try to post reflections and thoughts as they come to me… It’s the best I can do. Hopefully this hasn’t become so mundane and boring that you’ve stopped reading (or have decided to do so after this post..)

Here’s to continued blogging,
Marijke

I have not much time..

I find that the longer I am in foreign countries talking to people who speak English only very little, I start mimmicking (sp?) their broken speech. It’s kind of funny.

We’re staying in a school right now, getting to know some Czech kids.. The weather is warmer – and this is the first day I’ve been here that it hasn’t rained. I slept on the floor of a classroom and took a very cold shower. Traveling is such an adventure.

I wish I had more to say, but don’t have a lot of time in which to say it, and need space to reflect on things before I post them.

I learned Czech Hip Hop dancing today. Good times..

there is g-o-i joy down in my heart

Tomorrow we leave for the Czech Republic. I’m dying from a cough. I have a peace in my heart, and an uncertainty all at the same time. I’m excited for what God will show me and how he will work in my heart over the next weeks.

And my birthday is in five days.

license to bike

There are a lot of bicycles in holland. Like, 2 million more bikes than people. Yesterday afternoon we spent about 2 hours getting our bike “licenses.” The funny part is, we show up at this school and have to take a test, but they don’t tell us anything about the rules or signs – we’re just expected to know. Then after the test we did a “practical” exam and had to follow a map biking all around Tholen, the village. The great part was – the map was ridiculously hard to follow, we couldn’t read any of the street signs as they were in dutch, and none of the roads had street signs indicating the names. It was really confusing and pretty hilarious as 15 americans bike around the village with green fluorescent vests on.

Last night, we went to another village to hang out with some people and it was just a little far to bike. My host dad asked if I had a driver’s license with me, and promptly gave me his car keys to drive his car. That’s it. I can drive.

I had to take a 2 hour exam to ride a bike, but they let me drive a car no problem.

I didn’t find out till afterwards that the whole bike exam was a joke. All that work – for nothing! How embarrassing… But none of the other Americans know yet that it wasn’t real. Funny.