Couch Surfing

Ever heard of it? You can go to this website and create a profile. At this point, you can view people's profiles from all over the world who are willing to let you stay at their place for FREE. Danielle and I decided to take advantage of this and got in contact with a lady from Kenya who lives in London with her three kids.

When we arrived at the airport, we called and left Sarah a message saying we were on our way. She had previously emailed us several times confirming our stay, so before we left the airport, I called our backup hotel and cancelled our reservation. Well...that wasn't the best idea, ha! Upon arriving at our couch surfing destination, we were "greeted" by Sarah's 15 year old son Lewis. He didn't say anything to us. I asked if his mom was home, and he said she was sleeping. Here we are with 6 bags of luggage, our cab had just driven away, we had no idea in what area of London we were, and I felt a little bit awkward...

Well we finally went inside and our luggage filled their hallway and blocked one of the kitchen doors. We felt so bad and explained that we were moving here for six months. I don't know if that made any difference. We visited for a little bit and the kids insisted on letting us watch tv, even though we said we didn't need to. They left it on CNN, and we all watched a press conference with George Bush. Finally we told them they could change it, and they were so excited. They just assumed we wanted to watch news about Bush because we were American! When we went upstairs to take a nap, we realized we were taking one of the kid's rooms and felt terrible. We were under the impression they had an extra room. Because of this and some other things, we decided to find somewhere else to stay.

We called a friend in the states later that night and had him book us a hotel online (which was another ordeal I'll talk about in the next post) since we couldn't find an internet cafe. We then walked around the town that night and didn't start heading back until it was dark. After awhile of being lost and literally having no idea where in London we were, I decided we should stop and knock on someone's door for directions. There was only one house lit up on an entire row of houses so we stopped there. The lady was kind of surprosed but very helpful, and we eventually made it back to Sarah's.

We spent the evening talking with Sarah and her kids, and it was fun listening to their different accents. Sarah still has hers from Kenya but the little girls speak the "Queen's English" because that is what they are taught in school. They were really cute (pictured above) and are obsessed with High School Musical. When we finally went to bed, we slept in our clothes that we were still wearing from the plane because there was no room to bring our bags upstairs. Then we wouldn't sleep under the covers because Lewis had told us earlier that his room was really dirty, he hadn't cleaned it, and he had spilled crumbs everywhere a couple days earlier. Did I mention we had no heat? What a night!

This was an interesting experience to say the least. I would definitely do couch surfing again even though our first time didn't go quite according to plan. Hopefully I can do it while I'm here, but I will make sure to only bring one bag. Raquel, if you're reading this, I hope you'll still look into couch surfing!

** If you don't want to read these detailed posts, Danielle has a summary update on her blog with pictures so go look! **

I'm here! I'm here!

After almost missing my plane, I made it to London! More on that later...For now, I just want to let you know that Danielle and I are safe and finally headed to Sheffield tomorrow. I'm so excited to see what it's like! I haven't had much internet access, so when I finally do, I'll write about all the funny things that have happened. It's been a crazy and wonderful trip so far.

Cheers!

Thoughts Before I Leave

Last night at dinner I sat down with tears in my eyes and hoped no one would notice. Michael, my brother-in-law, asked me from across the table if I was alright. I said yes and looked away but the tears still fell. A lot. I started crying, and when I looked up, my sister was crying as well. This is so hard.

Tonight at dinner was a different story though. Everyone was eating and during the silence I broke out in laughter. My family stared at me and wanted to know what was so funny. I told them I was picturing myself refusing to get out of the car at the airport, missing my flight, cancelling my "plans" and coming back home forever. This was a really funny scenario in my head...until I realized I could actually do that. Unpacking my bags wouldn't be near as hard as packing them, and then I could stay in my comfort zone! I didn't let myself dwell on this past two seconds, otherwise I might do it.

This feeling is like none I've ever experienced. I'm not going three hours away to college or even just a few states over to work at camp. Nope. I'm flying 4,759 miles to an unfamiliar country with no place to live and no job lined up. I don't feel adventurous right now. I feel weird.

Final thoughts:

1) I packed too much. My bags are heavy, and I don't know how I'm going to cart them around for two weeks until I get settled.

2) I wish they had Dr. Pepper in the UK.

3) How cold is it actually going to be in England?

4) I'm tired but know I won't be able to fall asleep.

5) I didn't pack enough. What am I forgetting that will pop in my head while sitting on the runway?

Merry Christmas

Alyssa and I waiting to play Ping Pong


Austin and I before I beat him :)






Going into this Christmas break, everything seemed to be going wrong. Two weeks ago I started having sharp back pains, leaving me unable to bend down or sleep on my back. I found out that I have scoliosis with four curves in my spine...this is not normal. I had a few adjustments done at the chiropractor that took away the pain for the time being. One week ago, my brother, Austin, was in a serious car accident when his Jeep hit a patch of ice and rolled over into a ditch on the highway. He is alright and is just having to suffer through some muscle pain, but he definitely scared my family. All of this happening right as I'm getting ready to leave started to worry me. I let fear take over my thoughts and didn't understand why things like this were happening right before I left.

God is so good though. My back is feeling better, and my brother is pretty much back to normal. He does have chest pain when he laughs, so naturally us siblings try and make him laugh and then watch him try not to. It's quite entertaining! This past week has been amazing, and I feel lucky to have the family I do. Seriously. I cannot describe how much fun I have being with them. This week we paired up and each took a night to cook dinner. This is a new tradition with us, and I'm thankful my night is over! Today was a wonderful day spent playing in a two hour ping pong tournament, playing games, and eating lots of good food. I have always said that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, and although I really do love it, this Christmas is giving it a run for its money.

Last night at the Christmas Eve service, I was again reminded of what a great season this is to remember God's gift to us, His son. All of the classic Christmas carols sing about this truth. My dad talked this morning about the history of the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" and what it really means. It's not just a song about random gifts some guy gave a girl, instead it is full of parallels to the Bible. The line "My true love gave to me" is referring to God, and all the gifts given are ways for us to remember what He has given us. For example, the partridge in a pear tree represents Jesus. Check it out here.

My heart is full. New memories fill my head. I am blessed.

It's really happening...

I'm moving to Sheffield, England in 18 days!

That means in less than three weeks from now I'll be boarding a plane that will set down in London and then take off again without me. For five months I will be living in the UK while working (please pray I find a job) and serving in a local church.

I'm so excited for this opportunity, and I want to share more about how God orchestrated this adventure. In the next few posts I will be doing a lot of backtracking since I didn't have a blog when some things took place and also becasue I simply didn't blog when the rest of it happened. For some reason the thought of having to sit down, gather my thoughts, and then write about them doesn't appeal to me, but I'm making a committment right here and right now to improve on this. Blogging will be my main source for updating friends and family on my weekly happenings in Europe, so I want to keep it updated. ( Plus I don't want anyone to forget about me while I'm away!)