First day of conference: German nerds! (draft)

Day 5:

First day at conference at Sweet Briar College, VA:
Fantastic class! I’m already learning so much! I’m excited to know that I will HARDLY have to use my textbook at all next year! This is so fantastic! I’m learning this method called TPRS, which stands for Total Physical Response Storytelling.

A woman told me today the following: “A bad day of TPRS teaching is so much better than even a good day of teaching out of the textbook.” I found this incredibly encouraging!

Day 4: Day on the Greyhound (draft)

Day 4 of trip: travelling from DC to Sweet Briar, VA (what an adventure!!!)

I left very early to take the metro to the Greyhound station. What a day this was! I got to the station at 9 to take a bus to leave for Sweet Briar, VA at 10 am. Now if you’ve taken Greyhound/Jefferson before, you know what this type of bus experience can be like. First, we waited an hour lined up to get on the bus, and then we were told our driver was sick and that they were finding a new one for us. A guy showed up an hour later. By the time we loaded the bus, it was noon and 2 hours after the time we should have left. Unfortunately, the driver did not know the route and what should have taken us 5 minutes to get out of DC ended up taking 45 minutes! He also took several wrong turns during our trip. Luckly there was a man on the bus who had been a passenger on this route over 20 times so he helped get us to our destinations.

Day 3 in DC (draft)

Day 3 in DC: (draft)

Went back to the Holocaust Museum. Went to the FDR Memorial, other memorials, Korean War Memorial…..

Ate at another ethnic restaurant near my hotel. Then went to the Braisiallian restaurant I ate at the first night, this time to go salsa dancing. There I met so many people! First I met Futi, from Swaiziland! She also grew up as the daughter of a diplomat. She was so nice to me and kept making sure that I was OK, since I was by myself and all. Then I met a whole bunch more interesting people. I met this American-born Columbia guy that first started working in the White House during the Clinton-Lewinsky era. Then he moved up and traveled with Gore during his presidential campaign and later for Kerry during his campaign. He served as a spokesman for both campaigns! Now he works for Dean and says he spends most of his day talking to the press. He was so great to talk to! After salsa ended I went out with him and his friend (he works with refugee populations all over the US) to eat falafel nearby. This was 4 am and you should have seen the neighborhood! It was so incredibly packed!

Day 2 in DC (Draft)

Day 2: (draft - wrote this in like 3 minutes - no time)

The best day ever! I headed out by 10 am and went to my main point of interest in DC: The National Holocaust Memorial Museum. I spent 7 hours there! They have such interesting and well displayed exhibits and I just soaked up all the information. There was a main exhibit that is 3 floors and this starts with a video of Hitler’s Rise to Power and the development of the 3rd Reich. There is so much information in this exhibit and some of it was really hard to see and learn about.

Saw the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, White House

Went to a restaurant to get some food next to my hostel and sat outdoors. Met a woman named Gabrielle from DC who grew up as a diplomat’s daughter. She’s also half French and works now as a translator for the UN. She grew up moving to a different country every couple year. Later a friend of hers named Niles joined us who is the director of a homeless shelter in DC. He was incredibly interesting! They were both so nice and accommodating and gave me their numbers if I should happen to run into any problems in DC.

Later I went back to Habana’s to go dancing. Many stories to tell about this, but too much to write in my blog! Got my cell phone stolen. ☹

Day 1 in Washington DC

1st day of trip:

My first day in DC has already been so great! I’m having a blast!! My trip started early with a flight leaving at 6 am. Thank you to Sabrina for getting me to the airport by 5 am!! I arrived at 9:30 am, and took a 40 minute bus ride to the Metro, DC’s subway system. I took 2 different lines to get to my stop for the youth hostel. At the stop I went up the biggest escalator I’ve ever been up in my life. I was totally afraid! And I’ve been up some big escalators before – in London. See picture (once I get my fotos developed!).

With my luggage I walked about 12 minutes to my youth hostel and hauled everything up 2 flights of stairs once I arrive at the hostel. The hostel itself is by far the worst one I’ve ever stayed in. It was pretty disgusting actually. It reminded me of the rooming house I stayed in at the U of M my senior year. My room for 3 days was shared with 8 females… My first day there were 2 Americans, 3 Koreans, and Austrian and a woman from New Zealand.

I must say though that the hostel is in the most perfect neighborhood ever! It’s home to tons of ethnic restaurants and night life!! People stay out until 4-5 am in this neighborhood because the restaurants and night clubs stay open this late.

After I got settled I left to go back to the Metro and check out DC! Today I saw the Capital Building, spent a few hours in some of the Smithsonian Museums: History of American Indian Museum, African Art Museum, and …..

I took the Metro home, and went to a Brazilian restaurant next to my hostel. There a couple Brazilian girls started talking to me and eventually I found myself at a table with 6 people! I met some great people who ended up inviting me to their party next weekend even, the night before I fly home. I had a great time!

I then headed out to Habana, which is locale just seconds from my hostel that has salsa! I spent a few hours there dancing and had such a blast!

No more teachers, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks!

So I'm done with school! Yay! Today was the official last day for me at St. Thomas, and I completed my master's program! I'm sooooooo glad to be done! Though the program was pretty easy, it's been kind of a long haul for me. I've been taking classes sloooowly at St. Thomas for the past 3 years. And thank you to U of M for the 3 free classes I got to take there and transfer to St. Thomas! Yay! I've gotten to meet a lot of new people through the program, so that's been good! Here's some pictures of the building I had most of my classes in at the downtown Minneapolis campus. I will hopefully attend the graduation ceremony in December.

Also, I treated Libby today to a home grooming kit! Ha! I just couldn't stand to pay $40 a haircut anymore, so I thought I'd take care of it myself... Well, let's just say I'm gonna need some more practice! Libby looks pretty ugly! I'm not sure how to do her ears yet, and she WILL NOT let me do her legs and feet! I was pretty amazed at how good of a job she did, although she did keep trying to bite the trimmer! Pretty funny! She'd growl at it and then take bites at it. Also, she kept trying to bite the blow dryer too when I first dried her hair! What a crazy dog I have! I don't know if you can tell from the "after" picture, but I got some big gouges out in her head by accident and she looks incredibly homely! Oh well Libbs, it'll grow back! Hey, I saved $40 though! :)

The best weekend ever!

So I had one of the best weekends ever! I did some of my absolute favorite things, spent time with wonderful people and just had fun doing everything I did! So I definitely have to write about it!!

After work was over Friday morning I went to hang out with my friend Jalane. We made this super delish chicken salad and some oatmeal cookies while catching up and listening to some great music!

That night I went to a German movie with Ellen at the Germanic American Institute. Depending on how well you know me, you'd know this would fall into the category of the above-mentioned favorite things! :) I got there early and met some sweet old German women. Then after Ellen arrived a couple sat down at our table..the woman, from Germany, and the man, from the U.S. They met when they were working as missionaries in Ethiopia! Isn't that awesome? And random - or as I like to see it, an act of God that they sat at our table. I'm excited to get to know them better. The movie "Das Leben der Anderen" or "The Lives of Others," was VERY good. It won the 2007 Academy for best Foreign Film. It takes place in the few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Saturday I went to watch my friend complete a triathon. It was great because the weather was beautiful and I just love for cheering for all the participants. It brings me back to my cross country/track days... Sat afternoon I went to my friend Naomi's b-day party which she started off at Feed My Starving Children. How awesome is that?! It was a blast! Naomi, you're an inspiration!

That evening I went salsa dancing (another one of my favorite things!) with Erica and had the time of my life. I used to go salsa dancing a lot back in my early 20's (I hate saying early 20's). And now I'm hitting the craze again! I can't seem to get enough of it. I'm hoping to go a couple nights while I'm in Washington DC. I leave for DC on Thursday already!

Today I went to church and met up with my friend Angela, who is visiting from Texas. She's so awesome and I'm bummed that she's leaving on Wednesday already. We hooked up with Jeanelle for a bit at church too. Then this afternoon I did another one of my favorites: played ultimate frisbee. What a blast!!!

Oh, I've also been finishing a great and INSPIRING movie this weekend called "The Final Days of Sophie Scholl." It's also German. Sophie and her brother Hans were members of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany. They were accused of high treason and sentenced to death for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at homes, businesses and universities. The movie depicts Sophie's unwavering desire to stand up for truth at ANY cost. For her, this cost was execution by guillotine. It made me think about what cost I am willing to stand up for my beliefs for.

There's a deep thought to leave you with too....
Hope you all had an equally great weekend.

More encouraging community living passion around me!

This week I got to be inspired by a few people who are passionate about community living and loving service to others. I met with a couple from the Steiger Ministry houses and left feeling a bit overwhelmed, but also inspired. They have 10 or so houses in a small area in south Minneapolis!! They have sooo many cool things going on. Too many to mention in this blog-piece. But let me just say God is doing AMAZING things through that ministry and that I was blessed to meet such a humble and caring couple! They recommended a lot of material to me and also said that at this point (the beginning stages) that prayer is VERY crucial.

The last couple weeks I've been trying to walk around my neighborhood and pray for it and all the people in their homes and their lives. I feel God has laid some specific prayers on my heart for specific homes, so I'm excited to see what He will do. I've even gotten to meet more people up the street from me...

I also met with a girl Erin this week from Woodland Hills youth. She's on staff there and also has a house about a mile south of me. She's very excited about community living. She lives in a 4-plex with one unit still open. They're hoping to use it mostly as a transitional living space for people. I LOVE this whole idea! Please pray for Erin and the others in her house and those in the neighborhood they are reaching out to. God is going to do something amazing there!

First hug from my nephew

I got to visit my adorable nephew yesterday for a while. My mom's been babysitting him the past 2 days and she's in complete bliss!

While I was there I got my first ever real hug from him! It was sooooo sweet that I couldn't help but brag and post it!

He has recently started to be glued to the TV. He started watching baby DVD's last week and is so enamored with them. I couldn't help but wonder if these videos have subliminal messages of some kind? How do they keep kids so glued and interested? They're boring videos with put-you-to-sleep music!



I also got the chance to spend the evening with one of my best friends from high school, Erica. People used to call us "Sarica" because we were so inseparable! We met at Famous Dave's to catch up, and of course, spend time looking at our high school senior yearbook. We have our 10-year reunion in 25 days so we needed to look at all the pictures to refresh our memories about all our old classmates. What fun this was! We ended the evening at Famous Dave's by salsa dancing. Erica has turned out to be quite the dancer! Wow! I had a blast and got to dance a lot (and learn a lot too!), and the dance floor was PACKED!

Chicago with the girls!

This weekend I got to take a very quick trip to Chicago with my friends Cassie and Kami. Our purpose in going was to visit our friend Anne who lives there, and also to visit the botanical gardens down there (well, that was Cass and Kami's agenda at least,they are addicted to gardens! not a addiction, eh?). We ate lots of fabulous food in India Town and China Town, which could have been worth the trip down there alone! We also ate some amazing Chicago-style pizza. Our friend Anne moved to Chicago about a year ago to work as a physican's assistant at a clinic. It was awesome hearing about her job. She works in a Christian clinic and most of her patients are lower income and without insurance. The staff their see their patients and then they pray with them to be physically healed in addition to other prayer concerns. This is awesome!
We visited Millenium Park on Saturday, which I loved! See the picture of the cloud, which is a huge metal thing that is reflective.

Saturday night I attempted to dye my hair brown. But did it work? No!! It may be just a smidge darker - the shade it usually looks when I haven't watched my hair for a couple days. Ha!

I went with Anne to her church on Sunday and was very inspired. The church is called New Community Covenant Church and the woman preacher used my absolute favorite Bible passage as a springboard for her sermon: Acts 2:42-48. She then tied talked about why Life Change is a core value at their church and it made so much sense. It's in the times of Life Change that people draw nearer to God and that He challenges us and changes us. The church is probably one of the most ethnicly diverse church I find this so BEAUTIFUL! People of different races and ethnicities and nationalities worshipping together! AWESOME! A little slice of heaven.

I love Chicago. I could picture myself living there for a few years someday....

God has heard!

I'm incredibly excited today because I feel God has really answered a great prayer of mine! I've had this huge desire for the last year (and arguably even for the last 10+ years) to live in community with others. Though I'm not Catholic, the thought of being a nun has always appealed to me. Not the not being married part. Heavens no! But the aspects of communal living, simplicity, a life devoted to God, the church and service.

The last year + especially this has been on my mind a lot and I've met and heard from others experiences with this type of lifestyle. I read the best book ever a while ago called The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. It's by Shane Claiborne. It's awesome!

Anyway, I've been praying about how to take steps so I can make the plunge and use my home in this way. And today my friend Sabrina hooked me up with some people and just made my entire week!! I contacted them immediately and I'm going to meet them next week. Check out their website (it's a great picture of what I want to do): http://steiger.org/bases_minneapolis.htm

Not only that but I just found out today that a guy I know named Seth (who I view as a kind of mentor in this particular venture) is organizing a trip to Chicago to visit such a community and check out how they do stuff and hopefully replicate in our St. Paul homes and neighborhoods.
Also, another girl I know emailed me today also expressing interest in community living! This is so exciting!

What encouragement I've received today! Thank you God!

Here's a link to the community in Chicago:

Reminiscing - for me it never gets old...

Today I got to hang out with some of the people I share some of the most history with and love reminiscing most with... I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing about the hours of enjoyment reminiscing can bring. You probably have stories yourself....

First I met my brothers for lunch after my class at St. Thomas. They both work at together, so I met them and we ate in their cafeteria. Though the lunch went quick, we covered many topics... For some reason, we never tire of bringing up the same old stories that make us laugh... We love talking about what we like calling some of the best moments in our family history. Much of these moments have to do with someone in our family saying something that we now make fun of. Like the time my dad, filled with a bit of road rage at someone making some sort of driving error yelled out the window "Where'd you get your license in a crackerjack box?" I'm so glad I have these times with my brothers and that we can spend hours laughing together. Thanks you 2 for being so fun and great and not taking our stupidity too seriously!

Then I went over to my friend Terri's house. She is my oldest friend. Not in terms of age, but we've known each other since we were just lil' tots. Our brothers played hockey together all growing up and we were cheerleaders for them. :) Of all people, Terri and I can really spend a great deal of time talking about all the funny and great times we've experienced together. Like the time my mom got a beautiful fruit basket for Christmas. We were so tempted by the fruit that we stole some of it (it was soooo good!) before my mom got home and replaced it with stuff from our fridge that was probably near-moldy. Or when my brother Ben kicked us out of his car because we were being too snotty. Or the time Terri slipped on the floor because Matt had somehow washed it "too" well.

Here's a picture of Terri and her 3-month old baby. Congrats Terri!





I'm so thankful we can laugh at the good old times!

Summer Days...

I started the weekend off with a BLAST with a party and sleepover with 10 - ninth graders from our youth group. The best thing about volunteering with youth is that you get to do all the fun stuff that adults don't typically do... I love it!

First we set off to my co-leader Alisha's in-laws' inground swimming pool! It was awesome! They have a hot tub too, so it was perfect. Her husband Tim grilled out for us girlies and then we left to go to the drive-in in Lake Elmo. We saw Fantastic Four. It was good. I think going to drive-ins must be in my list of top 15 things I like to do... I gotta get back there soon! Then we headed back to Alisha's where we ate more junk food, played mafia and fell asleep to a movie. At least some fell asleep.... ;) I must be getting old! I couldn't stay up past 4!

Thanks for the great times ladies! I always love it!