today you get: stream of consciousness

Dutch is trucking along. Here's a picture of my book and dictionary... my close friends these days. I spent a while at a great little coffee shop 2 blocks from my apartment today. It's been so fun being able to get the gist of newspaper articles and understand some of the things people say around me! Speaking of articles, here are a couple I read (skimmed with the help of my dictionary!) today. I thought the article's accompanying images communicate well:

The first is about Ramadan and the debate over whether the next two days (Eid Ul-Fitr) should be considered an official holiday in the Netherlands. I've been thinking about this idea a lot. In a city like Amsterdam where half the people are internationals; sensitivity to religious and cultural traditions is a hot topic. My class had a big test on Rosh Hashanah and a class party was planned during Ramadan (which ruled out more the half the class). I'm not saying we need to tiptoe around everyone's traditions but I do think in a place like this where there's a sort of "war" of misunderstanding, especially between Muslims and the secular culture, effort needs to be made. I'm not talking about just tolerance... I think it's something more toward appreciation and celebration. It reminds me of a video my pastor showed one time, "Celebrate What's Right With the World." I think holidays and special occasions are something to appreciate; and to celebrate their importance to a group of people, even if you believe radically different things. Plus at a very simplistic level it means tasty new foods to try and words to learn!

The second article visually depicts what's happening economically in America... perhaps the world. It's been strange to watch CNN at night, hear people talking in cafes, and skype with folks who are wondering what to do with their money... and feel so far away from it all. I woke up Monday and was scared thinking about what could happen. I plunged into the fear for about 5 minutes and then I felt the Lord check my spirit, and almost say "hey" and point my chin back up toward him. Fear is not from me [God]. Never. And so I took a deep breath and tried to pray instead. This is no surprise to God. The banks have lost control, the government doesn't know what to do, but God is in control, and even if everything tumbles, that fact gives me amazing comfort. He's in control of me, my parent's retirement, my time here, the church etc...

        [new train of thought]

Every morning I wake up at 7am, spend some time with the Lord, eat, get ready and leave the house at 8:30 for a 20 min bike ride down to class. The ride is beautiful... along a bustling market, through Vondelpark, the fancy neighborhoods surrounding the park, under (literally) an old school, and under the A10 freeway to the Vrije University. The 10 min. that it takes to cycle from the park to VU smells like parsley. Strange but so beautiful.. I want to bottle up the smell.

On Saturday I was invited to a little cottage that P & C from small group own/live in most of the year. P invited me for lunch and I had a sweet time getting to know her, playing with her pets, enjoying the garden, and learning new dutch phrases. She taught me some great ones:

      Ik houd van jou (I love you)

      Oh, jongen jongen... (oh boy oh boy...)

      Precise (exactly!) For some reason this is one of my favorites!

I also wonder if one day I'll be able to look back to this time and clearly comprehend all that's happening. It's all going so fast. I don't feel like I can process enough or think enough or remember enough.  I want to save everything. All the details. All the good conversations. Even the moments of confusion and embarrassment (they may make sense later!)

the weekend

view from my window

the sun comes to vondelpark (sunday after church)

"artemis" comes to amsterdam 

in an instant the city seemed even smaller

getting some love

change

I don't have a lot of time to make art these days so I took a "30 min" break from studying and let loose on my blog. You may have been confused. Some of you may know that I thrive on changing my environment. I get it from my mother. I'm always moving a picture or rearranging couches anywhere I live... 

It's been a good few days here:

1. Saturday Allie and I had our first little hang out at our apartment! It was so fun! We had a very dutch brunch... hard boiled eggs, breads, cheese, fruit, and lots of coffee! Allie's friend from school came, the Pickerills, the V's, and even Connor's friend and mom from his school. After breakfast we all went to an outdoor market.

2. Sunday I went to Utrecht Vineyard with everyone. We carpooled with our friends the V's and the N's. It was a little crazy since no cars were allowed in Amsterdam on Sunday due to a big marathon. It was so good to worship, to enjoy 3 coffee times during the service, and to spend time with new friends. Eric preached which was fun as well.

3. Monday was my brother's birthday and I had the best time skyping with him and the rest of the family! My sister even happened to call from Chicago, so she jumped on skype and we had a three way conference call! I was so happy! 

4. Language school was so awesome today (even though we found out half of our big test is on Monday.. ahhh). During the break we all stood around and shared how old we were... weird, right? Well you would have had to be there. Saying numbers in dutch is kinda hard for some of us (me included!) so we were dieing with laughter! It was really fun! It's been so sweet getting to know such an eclectic fascinating group of people... and it makes learning a new language way better. We even have a party this weekend.

5. Tonight Allie and I had some great time praying for each other. I needed it so bad!

6. Tomorrow Eric, Julia, and I are hanging out with T to practice dutch! I'm glad to have a friend willing to listen to my broken messed up dutch and lovingly correct me!  We also have small group. Another fun group of people. 

Ok, well... that's all I've got. I'm going to hit the sack... Good night!

my toes

No pictures for this one. They were really blurry. It's better though, I want to remember how I felt at the show. Bon Iver. In Amsterdam. Last night (Friday). With Allie. Gewoon prachtig (a dutch phrase I like alot=simply fantastic!) Allie has loved this group for a while so I gladly accepted when she asked me to come along.

First, I want to quote two tid bits I read recently.

1. A book Julia loaned me called Simpler Living Compassionate Life. There's an excerpt by Cecile Andrews that says, "In living mindfully, we pay attention to whatever we're doing and "suck out all the marrow," as Thoreau said. We become deeply absorbed in what we are doing, appreciate the people we are with, being conscious of the wind on our face... taking the time to notice, slowing down, sitting peacefully, and just being."

2. A book by Bill Johnson called Dreaming with God. "God never intended the believer to be a puppet on a string. God actually makes Himself vulnerable to the desires of His people... while much of the Church is waiting for the next word from God, He is waiting to hear the dream of His people. He longs for us to take our role, not because He needs us, but because He loves us."

The theme of dreaming/creativity/mindfulness/simply living has been in my face a lot lately. These days my life consists of very simple things: going to school, studying, eating with new friends, listening to a new language, being quiet a lot, getting to know my new city, reading, praying, buying food, cooking food, sleeping. And it's been difficult at times coming from a pace of life that was not at all like that. I hardly had time to eat, let alone be quiet and pray sometimes. God's been quieting me down asking me to be still. Remember who He is and that He is God and He loves me and has a plan for my life and an amazing plan for the church, way better than something I can make up. 

So, it was last night that I got a glimpse of God, again! Of worship.  As J (the singer of Bon Iver) walked on the stage, I thought, "who let this guy on?" He looked like a mountain man, wild hair and a beard, plaid flannel shirt. Straight from the Mid-West. He sat down pulled out his guitar and started to sing... a light gut wrenching note. And I though, "oh, never mind.. I see now..." I was in a daze the rest of the night... as J went from a quiet whispery song to yelling and almost roaring in the mic as his band mates hammered on drums behind him. Every inch of his body was a part of the music. The muscles on his face, his legs and arms. I saw King David in this guy. And as I stood there with the music swallowing my body. I thought about worship. About what it means to really worship. This emotion is in my head when I worship but this guy just gave me permission to let it out for good. To really give in to worship. To let it out of my toes, my ears, and the top of my head. 

beauty I've seen lately

remembering space

Ohio Space. Taken near Hocking Hills on a adventure I had a couple yrs. ago.

Amsterdam space. A picture of the annex where Ann Frank hid with her family.

thoughts at 11pm

Yesterday I baked a GF brownie mix that I brought from home. So good! The baking process was a little funny though, since the only oven we have (as most ppl. here do as well) is a microwave with an oven feature! Which is good for me... no fear of blowing things up anymore when I forget to take off the aluminum foil! Here's a random picture for fun: 

This image took me completely by surprise. I have to share. The artist is Peter Wever, from Berlin. The title: "Um Blau Hochkant." What an image! I want to experience a hug like that! I think that's the kind of hug the prodigal son received (we receive) from his father. 

Language class was so good today! It was really fun and I feel like I got a bit closer to people in the class as well. We talked about Prinsjesdag, which is today. The day when the queen goes to parliament and the budget and plan for the year is presented. It's the official start of the political year. I think I caught that all (she was speaking in dutch!). There's also a sort of parade of little hats. All the women wear these fancy old fashioned hats. Here are some examples:

Allie and I made up a list of people to invite to our first party next weekend! I'm so excited! It'll be a little house warming party and a way to get to know our new friends better. We're going to invite everyone we've met and interacted with so far! So, pray that they come! Yay!  I'm also praying for a very "dutch" environment, a cafe or somewhere where I can become a regular and study dutch there a couple times a week, practice the language, as well as get to know the people who work there and frequent the place. I'm trying to kill many birds with one stone!

For now, 

goodnight!

dutch music

piles of awesome patterned clothes. mint and fresh eggs

I just built a little desk for myself. I'm sitting here taking a break from my homework. To my left is a large window where I can people watch. It's Sunday, but there's a lot of action on the street... a motorcycle gang of middle aged men just roared by. At the other end of the street is the Elandsgracht festival. It's been going on since noon on Saturday. Wild dutch music galore! It's kinda painful to listen to after a while (17 hrs and counting, ha ha!) I just got back from getting some groceries and exploring. There's one store open on Sundays. I continue to find amazing ethnic restaurants! Let's see if I can remember them all... Tunisian, Moroccan, Brazilian, Thai, Indonesian, Indian, Italian (of course!), Japanese, and even a boutique burger place! And that's just my street! It's so ethnically diverse around here!

Saturday was wonderful! I had some great time in the morning to read and rest, then had lunch with a new friend we've met through a great little church here in the city. She had Allie and I over for yummy sandwiches, fruit, and great coffee! Then off to the organic market just north of us. Amazing! My favorite place so far in Amsterdam! Everything was so fresh and gorgeous and so inexpensive. So, I'm thinking I'll just get my produce for the week there.  It will also be a great place to Christmas shop... lots of little hand made art items, clothes, and gorgeousness! My senses are going crazy lately! I can't take the beauty, it's out of control! I've taken this month to just soak it all in... now that I'm thoroughly drenched I'm going to start making art again... and putting my thoughts in to some paintings.. If it's any good, I'll share!

Tomorrow morning I'm back to the dutch! I leave at 8:30 and cycle south through  Oud West, Vondelpark and Oud Zuid to the Vrije University. It's a beautiful ride and I'm wide awake by the end of it! The lessons this past week were on furniture, food, and ordering things. Which came at a perfect time since I went to get some furniture (meubels)... I was able to understand a lot! And then the market was great for food practice! I successfully asked, paid, and thanked in dutch :) Slowly but surely! 

Our teacher informed us on Thursday that "This is the most intensive dutch course in the Netherlands!" Wow, we sure know how to pick em! Ha!!.. oh well, at least we'll learn fast... and hanging on for dear life! The other students are so fun! People from New Zealand, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Guinea, Italy, Spain, and Morocco to name just a few! I'm in heaven! It's fun to look at all the dictionaries, not Dutch to English, but Dutch to Farsi, Italian, Arabic, etc... These people are so crazy smart! 

Much love,

bc

As promised: pictures of my new little home

the other angle of the living room.. to the left is the hall back to the kitchen

proof: no need to worry mom, I'm eating!

the view from the front window. It's a very active street, lots of ppl and action!

the view from the back balcony (attached to the kitchen and my room)

building furniture

the kitchen. Everyone has Ikea designed kitchens here. Very clean and modern.

The living room and the huge wonderful front windows

home sweet home

Yesterday was a low point for me. It's hard living out of suitcases and not feeling settled, and feeling confused about why the apartment stuff was taking so long. Carol J. sent this psalm to me. It hit me square between the eyes and was exactly what I needed to hear. 

God, the one and only--I'll wait as long as he says. Everything I hope for comes from him, so why not? He's solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an impregnalbe castle: I'm set for life. My help and glory are in God--granite-strength-and-safe-harbor-God--So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him. God is a safe place to be. Ps 62 (the Message)

Some of today's highlights:

1)  I had some great time praying with Eric, Julia, and Allie in the am. It felt amazing to re-focus and worship God, remembering that He is our solid rock and the one leading us as we enter in to this new city and love new people and seek his wisdom as we plan and dream and join what He's doing here.

2) Gigi (the Pickerill's youngest) and I went looking for an adventure in the afternoon while Eric and Julia had some chill time. We had so much fun, got sandwiches and ate them under a tree by a canal. It started pouring (and I hadn't brought rain coats) so we hopped from tree shelter to tree shelter and then ducked into The Flamigo, a cute little pub for some tea. It was a great afternoon which finished with this amazing pic of Gigi buying her mom flowers!

3) Our broker finally called back! Praise God! ... and (drum roll please!!) we have an apartment!! Hurray!! hurray! hip hip hurray!! We'll get our keys and move in Friday! It's in the Jordaan neighborhood. Really great! 2 bedrooms, perfect for Allie and I. I'm going to go measure some things tomorrow and head to Ikea to get some furniture. The address is:

                Elandsgracht 97 3H

                1016 TS

                Amsterdam

              the Netherlands

4) I'm going to start language school on Thursday, I think. It's a great program held at the Free University. It runs for 9 weeks, 4 days/week, 4 hours/day with usually 16 hours of work to do at home on your own. It's pretty intense.. ahh! They have 4 levels. So if we find it to be really good we'll just keep going. I'm so excited to start! Eric and I will do this session and then Julia will follow. 

5) Amanda and John, my team mates who are still in Ohio arrive in less than a month! I can't wait to have them here! It feels like a huge chunk of me is still in Ohio! I can't wait! and then Bernie and Roxi will follow a few months later in January! Please pray for all of them!

So, those are the highlights! It was a fun day finding out about lots of things! 

i don't like dam square

So I decided that I'm going to shy away from dam square from now on. The last two times I've ridden my bike through that part of town (very busy and touristy) I almost died... twice. Today was pretty close and horrible. A car pulled up in front of me to my left (as I was riding by) and before I knew it the passenger side door flew open. I came within centimeters of slamming in to the door. All I could muster was a wimpy "ahhhyiaaahh," as I slammed on my brakes as hard as I could. Nothing else came out, I couldn't breathe. The girl behind me almost crashed as well, and she let him have it. He just laughed a crazy weird laugh and I wanted to punch him. I got my voice back a couple blocks later and almost turned around to go give him a stern talk and then I heard my mom's voice in my head and thought better of it. Thanks mom. Well, I just thought I'd share my most recent biking adventure with you, since the end is happy: I'm alive! Good night all!

at the wheel with the dutch flag behind me!

captain menno!                                       

inside. it was so quaint. could sleep alot of ppl.

allie and gloria loving the wind (and a cookie!)

the view as we pushed off

when the sun comes to amsterdam you.. sail!

This weekend, in an attempt to be culturally relevant (!!) we accepted our dear friend Menno's invitation and joined him on his wonderful sail boat for a restful Saturday on the Markenmere (Marken Lake) just to the north east of Amsterdam. It was just what the doctor ordered! Sun, wind, lunch on the boat, water, exploring a small fishing town called Marken, keeping the kids from falling overboard. In all, it was a 10 hr. adventure on the water and quite exhausting! It was so good to have some silence and be out in beauty and just be a part of the wind and the world.  There were tons of boats out with us due to a 24 hr. sailing race that was going on. All the boats in the race had gps systems which would log the distance they'd gone. They just had to be back at a particular port at 22:00, and then they would decide the winner by the distance on the gps. A quite intriguing race! 

I'll add some pictures here so you can see some of the fun! It was also the day of public transport usage. We (Allie, the Pickerills, and I) left the house at 9am. We biked 30 min up to the main train station where we caught the #32 bus out of the city, switched to the #30 bus which took us to a small fishing town where Menno met us with his boat. That also meant we were biking home at midnight through downtown Amsterdam.. pretty crazy! Especially when you're swerving around people who've had too much to drink and can't tell a bike lane from the sidewalk, let alone the street! I'm happy to say I didn't hit anyone! 

Sunday I woke up with a mad headache and a sun burn! I went to the Utrecht Vineyard, my first time there since officially living here now! It was so fun to be there! It felt like home in so many ways. They even have coffee time like Joshua House! I got to see lots of our friends from the Amsterdam small group, enjoyed the dutch worship (I'm starting to pick up a few words!) and even bought a dutch Bible to help with my language learning. A very sweet woman named Ina, translated the message for me. I sat next to her and she whispered it in my ear! That got me so excited for our church and how we'll eventually have sermon translations into English! Everyone was so warm and very welcoming! I'm so thrilled we get to work along side Utrecht in this adventure!

So, it's now Monday and it's almost been two weeks since I've been here. Man, does the time fly! So far today I've had some down time to read and think, went to the grocery, called our broker, again.. and again about the apartment.. I'm still waiting! Ahh!! Help me God! Now I'm going to do some language school research. So, that's the scoop! Just wanted to fill you in on the news!  I had my first hint of missing home last night so I looked at some pictures and reveled in the amazing community I come from! Love you all!