Now that I'm officially back from Abroad (like a million months ago) I thought it would be beneficial to my life to blog about my life and real struggles and joys.
In life there are so many things to think through. Choosing to dwell on the positive things is a choice one has to make every day of their life. In my case, several times a day. If we can't take a bad situation and find something good and pure in it then what's the point? Sitting around being depressed is the only other option I see, and who wants to do that?
Choosing to wake up with God is something I struggle with. A wise man once told me (cough, cough, Austin Wright) that we should talk with God just as we breathe. For along time I have tried to accomplish this task. Struggles, drama, temptations, horrors and tragedies tear into our lives and leave ugly black holes that are hard to ignore. Most of us try our best to cover them up to hide the weakness they cause, but of course our childish attempts to hide the black doesn't last long. The blackness shines through eventually.
With the classes and jobs and activities....or even with nothing to do....we forget what the best cover up is. In fact, it's not even a cover up. It's a filler. A healer. A creator. It's a permanent makeover (for you girly girls out there). It's Him, He can fill those holes with His light and we never have to face the darkness again. And even if you do....you're not alone. He's there waiting and hoping we will call his name to fill out darkness with His light.
His precious light.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Awesomely Awesome
We woke up in Leipzig this morning to wonderful sunny but not too hot weather. First thing we took a train to Wittenburg which is where Martin Luther lived his courageous life. We saw the church he was buried in, the monastery in which is taught, and the church/house/castle thing that he use to live in that has been turned into a museum. All three were very pretty. I must say though....all the churches begin to look alike when you see so many.
The best part of the day was lunch. As we were finishing up paying a group of men sat down next to us. And of course...they were all carrying cameras. Once again the JMC majors ran into a camera crew filming another documentary. (I love my life) So we started talking to them and found that they had been working on this film for 9 years and were almost done. The film was a documentary over Wittenburg and it's slowly decreasing population. They ended up interviewing us for the film, asking why we were there and what importance it meant to us. My input was that being a Christian University, Martin Luther is a huge part of our history. Without him we would be very different. We should know our history and it was very cool to be able to see where he lived and made history.
The men were eating our group up. They loved us! They also needed to film what we call "B Roll" which is a shot of something while the voice over of another person is playing. I was scratching behind my ear and for some reason left my hand there. (Kind of daintaly is how I explained it) and the guy stopped and said, "Wait! Put your hand back, please. That was great!"
I definably had them in the bag with my amazing charm....haha. We made sure to get their business card and were asking if they had a website to look them up on. The guy said no so I blurted, "Do you need one?" Meaning that were are trained in that so if you need and intern...wink wink. I definitely even asked one of them if they used interns and he said to look him up on FB. Greatness.
Then!!! He told me that he and one of the other guys made commercials for a living..... :D
I said, "OMG! can I shake your hand?" He laughed and seemed like he never gets that....and then SHOOK MY HAND! haha It was great fun.
After the day of fun, we took a train to Berlin....we haven't done much but check out a piece of the Berlin wall that was rudely covered in gratify and gum and then ate supper and had class. I'm too tired to go up and get the pictures that I took today. All of the train travel and moving every night is getting to me. Tomorrow is a tour of Berlin and then fly to London where we are spending the night to get up and come home on Saturday.
So, I'll add some pictures probably tomorrow night (if the wifi is good) and then when I get home I'll put all of my pictures on FB for you to see everything my blog missed.
Maybe my commercial making career is going to take off as soon as I add this guy on FB, but I'm too tired to think about it so I'm just guna go to sleep. Home and stillness awaits me in less than two days.
The best part of the day was lunch. As we were finishing up paying a group of men sat down next to us. And of course...they were all carrying cameras. Once again the JMC majors ran into a camera crew filming another documentary. (I love my life) So we started talking to them and found that they had been working on this film for 9 years and were almost done. The film was a documentary over Wittenburg and it's slowly decreasing population. They ended up interviewing us for the film, asking why we were there and what importance it meant to us. My input was that being a Christian University, Martin Luther is a huge part of our history. Without him we would be very different. We should know our history and it was very cool to be able to see where he lived and made history.
The men were eating our group up. They loved us! They also needed to film what we call "B Roll" which is a shot of something while the voice over of another person is playing. I was scratching behind my ear and for some reason left my hand there. (Kind of daintaly is how I explained it) and the guy stopped and said, "Wait! Put your hand back, please. That was great!"
I definably had them in the bag with my amazing charm....haha. We made sure to get their business card and were asking if they had a website to look them up on. The guy said no so I blurted, "Do you need one?" Meaning that were are trained in that so if you need and intern...wink wink. I definitely even asked one of them if they used interns and he said to look him up on FB. Greatness.
Then!!! He told me that he and one of the other guys made commercials for a living..... :D
I said, "OMG! can I shake your hand?" He laughed and seemed like he never gets that....and then SHOOK MY HAND! haha It was great fun.
After the day of fun, we took a train to Berlin....we haven't done much but check out a piece of the Berlin wall that was rudely covered in gratify and gum and then ate supper and had class. I'm too tired to go up and get the pictures that I took today. All of the train travel and moving every night is getting to me. Tomorrow is a tour of Berlin and then fly to London where we are spending the night to get up and come home on Saturday.
So, I'll add some pictures probably tomorrow night (if the wifi is good) and then when I get home I'll put all of my pictures on FB for you to see everything my blog missed.
Maybe my commercial making career is going to take off as soon as I add this guy on FB, but I'm too tired to think about it so I'm just guna go to sleep. Home and stillness awaits me in less than two days.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Germany!
It is Wednesday here!! I haven't been able to blog because of the bad internet connections in our Hostels. Speaking of Hostels, all three of them that we have stayed in so far have been better than our hotel in Paris. Waaay less sketchy and I've had more fun hanging out with all the girls at once! We got to Germany by a long train ride on Sunday. It was a very long day of traveling but we finally got to our Hotel in a very cute town called Mainz. A pretty small town so it was less walking to get to good food. And I actually go to sit back and relax that day for hours. We left super early that morning so we got to Mainz hours before anyone else.
Germany looks a lot like Munster (for you Noconians). There are pastures leading into towns that look just like our except more green and the tractors are smaller. More of a variety of trees, of course. The towns also look like muster so they have definitely done a great job with that. The distinct dark brown lines that are on the buildings are what make German buildings look German.
I didn't actually take any pictures of Mainz, but all the towns are similar so far. (so you'll get a good look soon)
Monday we traveled (by train) to Weimar and found our hostel first.
A great little place squeezed back in between several buildings. Very cute. We had a room of eight girls and one of seven. The boys had there own room of three. If you don't know how a hostel works, it's not like the movie. They were designed for travelers so they don't have to spend as much money on the road. They have a reputation of being dangerous and dirty, but I haven't experienced those two at all. You share a room either with your group, stranger, or even a single room. The walls were decorated strangely but I loved it.
Very cool. Wish we could have stayed there longer. The town was cool too. It was also small and cute. The first thing we did was stop by the Bauhaus Museum. The Bauhaus is a school of design and the school was originally started there in Weimar. I learned about this school of design in my Publication design class this past semester so it was cool to see something in "real life" that I learn about in class. Very famous in our department.
Julie and I at the Museum. We were in Pub Design together last semester so we needed a picture together so we could tag our Professor on FB.
The museum was cool, but German movies with English subtitles aren't my favorite.
The rest of the night was ours so we ate and looked around and slept. We have all been so tired lately from taking train after train. It seems like it's been so long since we left Paris, but its only been a couple of days. Tuesday we went to the concentration camp just outside of Weimar. Buchenwald concentration camp was a very big place. It is one of the larger camps during the Nazi reign. Although it was more of a holding camp and less of a death camp compared to camps like Auswich, in Poland. A holding camp more or less means they worked, starved, or beat to prisoners to death rather that complete torture. We had a great tour guide that had never had an English speaking group before, but he did a splendid job speaking English to us. Lots of researcher go there to conduct studies over the camp and they live there for months in the old SS barracks. In return for there food and board they are tour guides for the groups that come through.
Only about 10% of the original buildings have made it through all of the aftermath of the war. The SS (Nazi Soldiers) barracks were still there mostly. It was very weird to see the barracks because they looked so new. I mean I'm sure they have been repainted and such but it was odd to see how well together they were. Mostly because I feel like this war happened so long ago but the buildings quickly put that into reality. It didn't.
I won't put too many pictures of the pictures they have posted on their walls or on buildings such as the crematorium, but they will be on FB when I get home if you want to take a look.
This is a map of the entire camp. This red buildings are the existing buildings and the grey have been destroyed.
Fence surrounding the prisoners part of the camp.
Entrance to the prisoners camp.
Memorial spot. People from all over the world come to lay flowers or any kind of remembrance on lots of places around the camp.
KLB is the German term for the Buchenwald camp. He asked us to place our hands on the memorial to feel the warmth of it. He decribed how it was warmed by the sun every day to remind us of the warmth of the bodies that were lost in this place.
We traveled to Leipzig after that...where we are now. Today we had class with an actual German Lawyer. She was very informative. We also went to the Museum of Printed Arts....very cool also, but I'm about to run out of battery. I'll give away more information when I get internet again!
Germany looks a lot like Munster (for you Noconians). There are pastures leading into towns that look just like our except more green and the tractors are smaller. More of a variety of trees, of course. The towns also look like muster so they have definitely done a great job with that. The distinct dark brown lines that are on the buildings are what make German buildings look German.
I didn't actually take any pictures of Mainz, but all the towns are similar so far. (so you'll get a good look soon)
Monday we traveled (by train) to Weimar and found our hostel first.
A great little place squeezed back in between several buildings. Very cute. We had a room of eight girls and one of seven. The boys had there own room of three. If you don't know how a hostel works, it's not like the movie. They were designed for travelers so they don't have to spend as much money on the road. They have a reputation of being dangerous and dirty, but I haven't experienced those two at all. You share a room either with your group, stranger, or even a single room. The walls were decorated strangely but I loved it.
The rest of the night was ours so we ate and looked around and slept. We have all been so tired lately from taking train after train. It seems like it's been so long since we left Paris, but its only been a couple of days. Tuesday we went to the concentration camp just outside of Weimar. Buchenwald concentration camp was a very big place. It is one of the larger camps during the Nazi reign. Although it was more of a holding camp and less of a death camp compared to camps like Auswich, in Poland. A holding camp more or less means they worked, starved, or beat to prisoners to death rather that complete torture. We had a great tour guide that had never had an English speaking group before, but he did a splendid job speaking English to us. Lots of researcher go there to conduct studies over the camp and they live there for months in the old SS barracks. In return for there food and board they are tour guides for the groups that come through.
This is a map of the entire camp. This red buildings are the existing buildings and the grey have been destroyed.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
"Real Paris"
Today we went to Montmartre which is just another section of Paris. I got to experience the part of Paris that I thought the whole thing was suppose to be. Very market-y and painters every where. Moulin Rouge was our first stop (because it was right out of the Metro station.
There was quite the entertainment outside of it too.....
A guy was singing out side...great stage presence....funny and a great singer!
Bread.
Friday, May 27, 2011
....Paris....
Okay so I haven't posted since yesterday, but it feels like six years. We left Oxford yesterday morning and walked to the train station that took us to London. We saw the British Library. I needed my mother again to tell me what everything was. I wish you book lovers could have seen all of those pretty books. They were locked behind glass but very pretty. I love the way they look! They are so old and worn, which makes them beautiful.
This internet here is pretty bad so I may not be able to add pictures :/ But they will all be on FB when I get home. (which isnt very long!)
But the Library was very neat. We saw some of the works of Shakespeare. His actual hand writing was behind the glass (that I touched). We saw the Gutenberg Bible. Which is a big deal for us ACU JMC majors. Gutenberg was the man who invented movable type, or in English is the first Printing Press. A huge step in technology and obviously extremely important to us Journalism majors. This was the first Bible printed for commoners. Decorated very carefully and beautifully.
In the Library we also saw the Magna Carta and one of my favorite parts......The Beatles original work! It was cool because they had their original scribbles from when they were writing a couple of their songs. Pretty sweet. That definitely put their tunes in my head for the rest of the day, which was FOREVER long.
The next step was to get to the train station. We took the Chunnel to Paris. Parts of the train ride were under water. I was expecting the entire trip to be under (for some reason) but it wasn't. Thank God because the pressure that it put on your ears was almost unbearable. It hit us all at once and everyone jumped and groaned. I really enjoyed when we started getting closer to France though because it there was beautiful country-side. Those tall skinny trees along the plain green fields like you see on movies...they are real!
When we arrived in Paris and our professor let us loose the fact that we were alone in a strange country hit us. We all were just standing there for awhile. Finally we got the nerve to head out. The underground (trains) are different than in England and not just because everything is in French instead of English. Its just very difficult to maneuver ESPECIALLY with luggage. One of our girls actually got caught in the door and ended up having to drop her bags behind in order to get on the cart with us. Thankfully there was a nice Frechman who waited there until she got back with her stuff. It was a scar experience for all of us and after that we were all super freaked. We were tired and hungry and stressed and alone. It had been a long day and we finally found our hotel (which wasn't what we expected) But hey, it's better than an Egyptian sleeper-train. We found a McDonalds (that actually tasted real) and headed for bed.
We were ready to start over today. And we did! We have successfully conquered the Metro/Underground for an entire day. It went smoothly too. But I must confess something....I forgot my camera. I know, I know....I almost balled in the Metro when I realized it. But I keep reminding myself that I still experienced those things and I'm alive and happy. So....I feel kind of better. I did take pictures with my phone though.
First we went to Notre Dame. It's HUGE! I was astonished at the size of it and the architecture was unlike any other, I think. It gave Westminster a run for it's money. And the bell actually rang! I need to re-watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame again when I get home. Its hard to describe how beautiful it was. One thing that was humerous was the fact that at Westminster you could offer prayers by lighting a candle or by writing it down. (I lit a candle in honor of my family and wrote Jordan's name on a piece of paper) BUT in Notre Dame it cost 2 Euros to put in a prayer request and 5 Euros if it was a big one. LOL. crazy French people.
After that we made our way to The Louvre which is a very famous museum. And rightfully so. It was crazy big...we saw like one sixth of the interior. The most important things for me to see were the Mona Lisa, which was beautiful but smaller than I had perceived and the famous (armless) statue of Venus, which was beautiful. I can't wait to come back with my familia.
Then it was on to the Eiffel Tower. It was brown....not what I expected, but pretty all the same. Just like all the pictures....very tall. I didn't have the urge to go to the top, but I actually wished I had after my friends got back. I didn't really want to spend the money (because Pris is SO expensive) but their pictures seemed to be great. The park was a little trashy though....
I've eaten ham and cheese twice today (I don't like ham)...haha, but It tasted good. I'm feeling better about Paris every minute. Not my favorite town, by far, but definitely a memorable place. Being here makes me want my mom and dad. lol. My dad is so good at picking up new things and would be great at maneuvering through the subways and trains. And my mother would drive me crazy reading everything but it would be nice to follow her brilliant mind around. I want them to experience these things too, and I'm thankful that they let me come. :)
Tomorrow is another day of Paris before we head to Germany to meet our class again. We are going to take it slower and find some neat areas, hopefully. I'm getting excited to see the concentration camp in Germany!
This internet here is pretty bad so I may not be able to add pictures :/ But they will all be on FB when I get home. (which isnt very long!)
But the Library was very neat. We saw some of the works of Shakespeare. His actual hand writing was behind the glass (that I touched). We saw the Gutenberg Bible. Which is a big deal for us ACU JMC majors. Gutenberg was the man who invented movable type, or in English is the first Printing Press. A huge step in technology and obviously extremely important to us Journalism majors. This was the first Bible printed for commoners. Decorated very carefully and beautifully.
In the Library we also saw the Magna Carta and one of my favorite parts......The Beatles original work! It was cool because they had their original scribbles from when they were writing a couple of their songs. Pretty sweet. That definitely put their tunes in my head for the rest of the day, which was FOREVER long.
The next step was to get to the train station. We took the Chunnel to Paris. Parts of the train ride were under water. I was expecting the entire trip to be under (for some reason) but it wasn't. Thank God because the pressure that it put on your ears was almost unbearable. It hit us all at once and everyone jumped and groaned. I really enjoyed when we started getting closer to France though because it there was beautiful country-side. Those tall skinny trees along the plain green fields like you see on movies...they are real!
When we arrived in Paris and our professor let us loose the fact that we were alone in a strange country hit us. We all were just standing there for awhile. Finally we got the nerve to head out. The underground (trains) are different than in England and not just because everything is in French instead of English. Its just very difficult to maneuver ESPECIALLY with luggage. One of our girls actually got caught in the door and ended up having to drop her bags behind in order to get on the cart with us. Thankfully there was a nice Frechman who waited there until she got back with her stuff. It was a scar experience for all of us and after that we were all super freaked. We were tired and hungry and stressed and alone. It had been a long day and we finally found our hotel (which wasn't what we expected) But hey, it's better than an Egyptian sleeper-train. We found a McDonalds (that actually tasted real) and headed for bed.
We were ready to start over today. And we did! We have successfully conquered the Metro/Underground for an entire day. It went smoothly too. But I must confess something....I forgot my camera. I know, I know....I almost balled in the Metro when I realized it. But I keep reminding myself that I still experienced those things and I'm alive and happy. So....I feel kind of better. I did take pictures with my phone though.
First we went to Notre Dame. It's HUGE! I was astonished at the size of it and the architecture was unlike any other, I think. It gave Westminster a run for it's money. And the bell actually rang! I need to re-watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame again when I get home. Its hard to describe how beautiful it was. One thing that was humerous was the fact that at Westminster you could offer prayers by lighting a candle or by writing it down. (I lit a candle in honor of my family and wrote Jordan's name on a piece of paper) BUT in Notre Dame it cost 2 Euros to put in a prayer request and 5 Euros if it was a big one. LOL. crazy French people.
After that we made our way to The Louvre which is a very famous museum. And rightfully so. It was crazy big...we saw like one sixth of the interior. The most important things for me to see were the Mona Lisa, which was beautiful but smaller than I had perceived and the famous (armless) statue of Venus, which was beautiful. I can't wait to come back with my familia.
Then it was on to the Eiffel Tower. It was brown....not what I expected, but pretty all the same. Just like all the pictures....very tall. I didn't have the urge to go to the top, but I actually wished I had after my friends got back. I didn't really want to spend the money (because Pris is SO expensive) but their pictures seemed to be great. The park was a little trashy though....
I've eaten ham and cheese twice today (I don't like ham)...haha, but It tasted good. I'm feeling better about Paris every minute. Not my favorite town, by far, but definitely a memorable place. Being here makes me want my mom and dad. lol. My dad is so good at picking up new things and would be great at maneuvering through the subways and trains. And my mother would drive me crazy reading everything but it would be nice to follow her brilliant mind around. I want them to experience these things too, and I'm thankful that they let me come. :)
Tomorrow is another day of Paris before we head to Germany to meet our class again. We are going to take it slower and find some neat areas, hopefully. I'm getting excited to see the concentration camp in Germany!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Party in the Park
Today is Wednesday! I had wonderful plans that ended up not happening but still had a successful day. I planned on going to the palace where Churchill was born, but we couldn't really find the right bus and it was taking too long......so we went to Christ Church.
Now, I'm sure that this church has much more of a significance than what we wanted to see it for, but I don't really know what that is. Although, there is a staircase inside of the church that a scene from the first Harry Potter movie was filmed on. There are spots like that all over Oxford and London and this was a close one! However, Michelle Obama was in town and coming to the same church....who knew. The guards has it blocked off and wouldn't let anyone in for the inside tours. Bummer....thanks a lot Michelle.
Anyhow, we had a wonderful shopping/walking tour....again. I got a little sweater so that I could look more Parisian and wouldn't have to wear my wind-breaker everywhere anymore.
We walked passed this goergeous building and thought we would climb the tower to the top!...Beautiful view.
We then headed to the Park for class. Today's discussion was over Copyright. Also we had a 21st birthday of one of the girls today! We had a cookie cake and hats....probably got lots of stares, but fun all the same.
After packing, resting, tv watching, and being REALLY hungry we finally all got ready to go eat for our birthday party celebration! We ate at a wonderful little Italian place. Now I'm packing and getting ready to wake up early for tomorrow.
Agenda:
Walk to the train station.
Train to London.
Play time.
British Library
Chunnel to Paris (under water train)
Arrive in Paris for a weekend filled with sights, cheese, and baguettes!
After our free weekend we will be off to Germany for the rest of our class. I'm not positive there will be internet access in our Hotel in Paris so that I can update you guys...but I'm almost certain there will be. Hope so! I can't wait to see the sights!
Anyhow, we had a wonderful shopping/walking tour....again. I got a little sweater so that I could look more Parisian and wouldn't have to wear my wind-breaker everywhere anymore.
We walked passed this goergeous building and thought we would climb the tower to the top!...Beautiful view.
We then headed to the Park for class. Today's discussion was over Copyright. Also we had a 21st birthday of one of the girls today! We had a cookie cake and hats....probably got lots of stares, but fun all the same.
Agenda:
Walk to the train station.
Train to London.
Play time.
British Library
Chunnel to Paris (under water train)
Arrive in Paris for a weekend filled with sights, cheese, and baguettes!
After our free weekend we will be off to Germany for the rest of our class. I'm not positive there will be internet access in our Hotel in Paris so that I can update you guys...but I'm almost certain there will be. Hope so! I can't wait to see the sights!
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