The Happy Couple

Congratulations Greg and Lissy!!

After years of anticipation, Greg and Lissy, two of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, are FINALLY engaged! Aren't they cute?

Sadly, I couldn't be there to celebrate with them (since I'm here, of course), but I did wake up at 12:15am to call and congratulate the couple. Well, I guess I mostly just spoke to Panda, but congratulations to Greg also! Tee hee, he understands.

I'm so super trilled I can't even handle it. I'm still waiting for pictures, and it's killing me.

Yay Greg! Yay Panda!

Okay, so now if you're reading this you have to pray for them - that's the way it works. A couple gets engaged, so you pray for them. Marriage is hard stuff!! (or so I'm told) Even if you don't know them, say a prayer. And if you do know them, say more than one!

Adios!

LB

Thoughts on English...

Learning a new language has really made me realize just how complicated my own first language, English, is.

TANGENT ALERT: I would just like to let you know that I ended that last sentence with a preposition and I don't care. I got a point taken off of a history paper my freshman year of college for ending a sentence with a preposition. I'm still a bit bitter about it.

I find that the words that I have the most trouble with are the "connecting" words. Words that would translate to "since", "therefore," "so," "then," etc. To demonstrate how difficult this is, I am going to open your eyes to the complexities of these words in English.

1) Since. Ever SINCE I came here, I've been learning a lot SINCE I am able to practice the language daily.

Did you see that? I just used the word "since" twice in one sentence, and both times it had a different meaning! It can mean from one time until the current time, or it can mean because. Look at the dictionary definition of the word, and see if that doesn't get you confused.

2) Therefore. Butch always says, "when you see the word 'therefore', you need to see what it is there for." This word really only has one meaning, which is basically, "consequently." The confusing part to a person trying to learn English is that it is made up of two words, "there" and "for," neither of which mean "consequently." Speaking of "for," that one's net on my list.

3) For. "For by the powers vested in me..." "I'm just here for the food." "For 10 years I tried and tired..." Do you get it? It can mean "through," "because of," "due to," "during," and about a million other things. And if you're trying to learn to speak English, how in the world do you learn when to use the word "for"???

4) By. "He went by train." "I'll be there by 6." "The table is by the couch." "I'm taller than Lissy by 8 inches." "This book is by CS Lewis." "Well by me! I can hardly believe it!" "My parents did well by me." "She had a son by him." "It was only a by comment." "Your time will come, by and by." "By and large, I like pecans better than almonds."

I could go on forever with the word "by." But I'll stop here.

5) Here. "It's only a mile from here." "Here, don't cry." "Here's to the king of rock!" Or to mix up 4 and 5, "I hereby declare the words 'here' and 'by' illegal."

6) To, Too, and Two. 'Nuff said.

7) At. "I'm at the park." "The kids are at play." "I'm at my best today." "They're at it again."

"Do see what I'm getting at?" I could go on like this forever....

I know some of these seem really obvious to us because we've been speaking English our whole lives, but to someone who is just learning for the first time, I can see how confusing it must be!

-LB

A Weekend Away!

This weekend I went on a trip to visit some friends a few hours southwest of me. This is a few of the city from the highway:

That's a castle on top of the hill...a real live (well, it's not alive, but you know what I mean) castle. And this is the city center at night. It was gorgeous, but I didn't have time to mess with my camera settings to get the "perfect shot", so you're just going to have to deal with this:


And these are two of my favorite little girls in the whole wide world:



This is the view from my bedroom window - the castle is RIGHT there! It was so cool!

The drive out there was very reminiscent of Idaho - long stretches of flat or slightly hilly land, but the mountain range was right alongside the road the whole way out there. The biggest difference is that Idaho doesn't have castles...

This weekend was just what I needed. I got to spend some great time with my friends who live out there and they just included me with the family as they went to a concert in another city, a youth event for all of the region, and church Sunday morning where Joel preached. Sadly, I didn't get a picture with Joel and Angela. I'll have to do make sure I do that next time I go visit!

And now I'm going to go for a run. =)

-LB

Internet is Back!

My internet is back! Yay! It was quite an ordeal to get it fixed...well, maybe not THAT much of an ordeal, but we did go 2 1/2 weeks without it, and I did cry on the phone with the internet people today. Mostly because I was frustrated about not being able to communicate, and because I'm just flat-out emotional today. I just need a really big hug. I miss my family and friends back home. So after I cried a bit, I went to a coffee shop and read Isaiah 43, which is one of my all-time favorite passages. So stop reading this blog, and go read Isaiah 43 right now. RIGHT now.

That's really all I have time to say, because I'm SOOO sleepy.

Now go read Isaiah 43 if you haven't already. And if you've read it before, but not today, go read it again. Right now. RIGHT now.

Adios.

I'm Still Alive

So apparently (are there are any 121ites saying "APP-a-rently" with me?), I haven't updated my blog for a long time. There's a good reason for that, however. We haven't had internet for over 2 weeks, so I've been going to the internet café to check my email and, since it costs money, I haven't updated my blog. However today I purchased more time than I needed, so here I am.

There's this girl watching music videos on youtube and singing along loudly in some other language. She's not a very good singer. I hope you don't think I'm being mean by saying that - just honest. But I'm glad she feels confident enough to sing in an otherwise silent public setting such as this. I certainly don't.

The other day I went to the museum and saw more Picasso than I ever thought possible. I didn't even see all of it because I was really tired and decided to go home and return again on another free day (every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning!).

Language school is fun, but I'm getting frustrated. I'm ready to know the language. I'm ready to be able to understand when people talk at a normal pace, not just when they speak slowly and clearly. I'm ready not have to nod and smile anymore. I'm ready to not have to wait days for the internet company to find somebody who speaks English to call me so we can get our internet back. I'm ready to not have to say "speak more slowly, please" ten times in the same conversation.

That's all.

And now as soon as I click "Post Entry" blogger is going to steal all of my double spaces between sentences. Argh. See?? Right here. There should be two spaces. But all you see is one. I don't like it.

That's all. For real.

Flowers and Creepy Men

In case you didn't know, I love love LOVE taking pictures of flowers. The park near our apartment has a rose garden and one day last week I took some time to meander around and take some pictures:









Those are just a few of my favorites. And since I can only figure out how to put horizontal pictures on here, I left out all the vertical shots. I took about 150 pictures, so obviously I can't post them all on here...but I hope you like the ones I did post. =) I ordered prints of some to decorate our apartment - right now there are only the pictures that our previous owners left, and they're uh...not quite our style.

That same day at the park I sat down on a bench to spend some time in the Word, and just as I was getting situated a man walked up to me and asked if I spoke English. The way he approached me was just weird - it was like he was thinking "I've got bad intentions - let's see if I can get this girl to fall for one of my tricks." The abridged conversation went something like this:

Him: Do you speak English?

Me: Yes.

Oh good, I thought so. Hi, my name is ___ and I thought maybe you were European, because you look European, and I just want somebody to speak English with because there aren't many people here who speak English.

[I'm thinking, "What?? Do you realize that what you just said makes no sense?]

Oh, I understand, but right now I'm waiting for a friend and I'd like to read.

When can I meet you again?

You can't.

Do you come here often?

Occasionally.

When can I meet you? Do you come to this spot?

I'd rather not. I don't like to talk to men I don't know.

Well if you talk to me then you'll know me and it will be okay.

No, I don't think so. I'd like to read now.

Okay. When can I meet you again? Will you be here again?

And so on and so on and so on...I had to say, "it was nice to meet you but I'm going to read now" at least 4 times before he left.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?? Apparently I'm just a magnet for strange, creepy guys.

Case study number 1:
Freshman year of high school I'm walking home on the first day of school. Creepy guy in front of me turns around, sees me and waits for me to catch up to him, then starts talking to me and walking with me. He says maybe I can come over to his house sometime, do you have a boyfriend? Will you go out with me? I tell him my dad won't let me date until I'm 16, and he said, "that's what my last girlfriend said but her dad made an exception for me." I said, "my dad won't."


Case study number 2:
I'm shopping at Target and pass this guy in the isle. He smiles, I smile back, because that's what I do. He meets me at the end of the isle and says something like, "excuse me, but I'd like to talk to you..." SERIOUSLY?? Next thing I know he's telling me how he's new to the country and he doesn't have a girlfriend and asking for my phone number. I told him I don't give my number to guys I just met.


Case study number 3:
I'm in Kenya, talking to a friend, the milk guy, to be exact. His friend comes up, talks to me for 5 minutes, and then asks me to MARRY HIM!! I told him he wasn't the kind of guy I was looking for. Do I have "VISA" stamped on my forehead or something?


I could go on, because there are several more of these too ridiculous to be true stories, but I won't. No normal God-fearing guy has ever expressed any interest in me, yet I seem to be a magnet for strange, mostly foreign men. I suppose I just need to stop smiling, stop saying hi, stop acknowledging the opposite sex in general. But then I'll scare away all of the normal, God-fearing guys! What's a girl to do??

I'm sure Tim Holm would have the answer, but I don't think he reads my blog. Tim, do you read my blog?? Any other guys? They're probably all reading about Stephen Colbert right now. ¡Que triste!

ALSO if you're still reading, I always put two spaces between sentences, because that's what I learned in school when we were doing PAWS party and learning how to type more than just asdf jkl; frfrfr jujuju and so on. But then when I make my post, the extra space just disappears! I've even gone back and added them between each and every sentence, but the second I post *POOF* they're gone!

Punctuation is important, and I don't appreciate blogspot stealing my spaces.

Random Happenings

So this is our lovely apartment. We live on the third floor, that is, the one with the really nice white windows (they're new). Really it's the 4th floor, but here, they call the 1st floor, "floor 0." I always get confused when I walk up the stairs because I always stop on the 2nd floor thinking it's my floor, but then I look at the door and think "something's not right."


I can't figure out how to turn the pictures the right way, so just turn your head to the side and pretend like you didn't:


That's me and Katie after we cooked our first meal in our awesome apartment. Notice our adorable aprons. We had chicken and vegetables and bread. Yum.

In a previous post called "Price Check" I mentioned how Katie and I got suckered into a 15 Euro lunch. Here's a picture of Katie and the amazing chocolate cake that came with out lunch:



I knew it was going to be a pricey meal, but the moment when I REALLY knew that it would be killer was when the chocolate cake came out. Ouch.

That's all for now!

LB