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

I Forgot to Fall Back!

Did you know they do daylight saving time in other countries???

Well, I did...but I didn't know WHICH countries they do it in, and since I hadn't heard anything from anybody around here, I figured I didn't need to worry about it. I would have seen something on the news, right? Or I would have heard somebody mention it, right?

Or maybe I did, but I just didn't understand them. I don't exactly speak the language very well. That could have been the problem.

This morning I was supposed to meet a friend to go to an open market that is held every Sunday. We were going to meet at 9:45, but since I didn't know the area, I told her I would call her when I got off the Metro and we would find each other. I got off the metro, looked around a bit, and gave her a call. The conversation went like this:

"Hey, where are you?"

"I'm at home."

"Uh...but you're coming, right?"

"Yeah but not until 9:45."

I looked at my watch. "I thought it was 9:45 right now?"

"There was the time change. Did nobody tell you about the time change?"

"Uh...no. So, it's 8:45 right now?"

Needless to say, I was pretty upset about that lost hour of sleep. Every year, I look forward to ONE MORE HOUR of sleep, and this year, I missed it. I could not have been more upset even if my dog had died. Actually, last year my dog did die, and I would have to say that I was far more upset about this lost hour of sleep.

So I decided to make the best of it and sat down in a café, drank some coffee, practiced my language skills by reading a celebrity gossip magazine (did you know that Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham are no longer BFF?? And Hilary Duff has a new boyfriend?? Serious stuff, I know.), and watched a special on TV about Juanes. If you read my previous posts then you know I'm his number one fan. I heard about 2 beats of one of his songs and immediately my head popped up from the magazine and I was enamored with the television for the next 20 minutes. It was great and almost made up for lost hour of sleep.

That's all for now, as I must sleep!

LB

Price Check!!

Today on the way back from running some errands, Katie and I decided to find somewhere to eat some authentic, cultural food. So there was this one place we've seen and there's always people in there, so we decided to give it a try. We sat down at the bar (it's always cheaper to eat at the bar!) and looked at the menu, but of course it was all unfamiliar to us, so we asked if they had a "Menu of the Day." Here, all restaurants are required to have a "Menu of the Day" for a set price, that usually includes 2 courses, a drink and dessert. It's also usually the most affordable way to eat. Usually.

So they told us that to have the Menu of the Day, we needed to sit down in the restaurant. We had no idea there was more to the place! We just thought it was a little hole in the wall (albeit a nice hole in the wall). So we go to the bag and there's this whole big extra room and the tables and chairs are so nice and there's fancy plates with the real cloth napkin (that's how you know it's high class - when the napkins aren't paper) folded all fancy on the plates with two different wine glasses at each place setting....I'm thinking, "oh no. What did we get ourselves into?" So the waiter shows us the Menu of the Day (no price, of course) and helps us figure out what to order. The food comes and while it's not the most delicious meal I've ever had, it's certainly one of the "nicest," in presentation and everything.

Before the meal they brought us a bread basket and a plate of roasted almonds. They were some of the yummiest almonds I've ever had in my entire life. No lie.

The first course was this dish with scrambled eggs, more mushrooms than I ever thought were possible on one plate (they LOVE mushrooms here), and shrimp. The second course for me was little things of lamb - I don't know what cut they were but there were bones - with potatoes. Katie's second course was bass - scales, eyeballs and all. Very nice.

Then came dessert. A big slice of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, the kind with chocolate crinkles throughout it. Then came coffee. SO good. Way better than coffee in the U.S.

So I'm thinking, "wow...this was a nice meal. Last time we had a menu of the day meal, it was like 7 euros. I bet this will be 10. 10 is okay - it's too much, but I'll deal with it."

So then the check came. 15.50 Euros each. That's like, 20 something dollars each!! TWENTY DOLLARS!! I've never paid TWENTY DOLLARS for just one meal!!! NEVER!! OUCH!!

So the lesson of the day: ALWAYS find out the price before you order. I'll be recovering from this one for at least the next week...