Adventures in Croatia

From now on...

2007-09-16T21:41:00.001+02:00

...you can find me here.

Saying Goodbye

2007-09-16T21:14:00.000+02:00

Sunny's mom, Sunny's aunt, Sunny, and John on the bus.

Sofi and Mirko after church on Sunday.

Last coffee with Vladimira.

Kami strikes a pose!

Playing in the fountain.

Kami and Iva performed an unforgettable rendition of the Beatles' 'Yesterday' complete with heavy accents and extreme Balkan styling. I captured most of it on video but promised that I wouldn't make it public, so you'll just have to use your imagination...

Final goodbyes in the stairwell only a few hours before I left.

Camping on Cres

2007-09-16T20:53:00.000+02:00

My last weekend in Rijeka, John, Zoran and I decided to go camping on the island of Cres. We took a ferry over to the island and as I was getting settled in my seat I noticed this set of emergency instructions in front of me - especially point #1...

When we got to the island we found out where the trail was and started walking. By the time we got out of the populated town area, it was dark. We wound our way through endless rock-walled sheep pens - we almost ran into a few sheep! - and eventually settled down in an empty rectangle a few hundred meters from the main path. It was beautiful! John set up his hammock, I stayed in a small tent, and Zoran took the ground. We could see so many stars, and it was easy to get a small fire going. In the morning we woke up to a strong breeze and a beautiful view of olive and fig trees, the ocean, and other islands.

Later in the afternoon we went swimming in beautiful crystal clear water before heading home. Other than an awkward walk through Naked Town (a nudist campground), it was one of the best places I've ever camped.

City Life

2007-09-16T20:39:00.000+02:00

There are many pictures and stories from my time in Croatia that I never got around to posting on here, but I'm putting up some things from my last few weeks there as a kind of final wrap up session.

Here are a few random shots from around Rijeka:

Kosi Toranj, or, The Leaning Tower

The Korzo

A local sandwich shop.

A magenta scooter parked up the street from our apartment.

A random bird lady. Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

A New Era

2007-09-06T07:38:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago when I was still in Croatia, John said something to the effect of, "It's the end of an era..." referring to our transition away from Rijeka and the changes that are taking place and will continue to.

This may or may not be the official farewell post on this particular record of events (the Croatia blog), but I'm starting fresh over here. There's still some work to be done, but I figured I'd start directing things over that way now, since, you know, I'm not adventuring in Croatia anymore.

Important Action Item, MUST READ!

2007-08-15T01:17:00.000+02:00

Okay, many of you might already be aware of the phenomenon that is known as "John and Andy".
What you may not know is that there is an exciting new series up. Please, go check it out and definitely leave comments! Even single-worders like 'yes', 'no', 'huh?', 'tasty!', etc. would be appreciated.

Let the goodness begin!

Excess Baggage: $127.00

2007-08-10T19:19:00.000+02:00

It’s pretty cool how 12,700 pennies can be carried around and exchanged quite conveniently using a thin slab of plastic and a piece of paper labeled "credit card receipt."
That’s efficiency right there. I have to say right up front that the rest of this post is just about emotional, touchy-feely stuff and the only part efficiency plays is within an abstract spiritual metaphor. And maybe the fact that I didn’t have to write this all out on paper by hand.

Taylor and I were talking last summer about the first year and speculating about the year ahead of us, and the differences between them, and the good things that we’d miss, and the unhealthy things that we wouldn’t. Looking concerned, she said something to the effect of, “Am I going to have this much baggage from every year of ministry? I’ve only gotten through one so far…”

It’s a frightening thought, but one that probably describes the truth more than I’d care to admit. Maybe that’s why I kept finding myself thinking of this year as some sort of final test. And why I didn’t feel comfortable making any long-term commitments or life plans but just wanted to focus on making it through the year. And why the first month or so I felt somewhat depressed and unable to convince myself to dive full-force into things that had already started, but would have rather gone someplace remote and uninhabited to hibernate for 2 or 4 or 7 weeks.

Looking back, I think the answer to Taylor’s worried question is, Yes, there’s always baggage. And my categorization of this year as a "final" test was wishful thinking. Probably more like a first mid-term, freshman year. Of high school. But I digress.

What is emotional baggage, anyway? Isn’t it just pain and suffering that is converted into scars and fears and habits of self-defense over time? This conversion process is like converting some set amount of value into, say, gold bars. Or bronze or lead, even. Gold bars are great, and you can’t deny that they add up to a lot of money. But they’re not the most convenient or logical way to carry currency. Even less so would be large chunks of non-precious metal. Similarly, our emotional baggage often comes from real and legitimate trauma or distress, and represents something significant (if unwieldy). In all of this, many wise people seem to think that there can be value in pain and suffering. We can learn things through pain, we can hardly avoid being changed by suffering, and hardship makes us stronger as we learn to face resistance. Pain, suffering, and hardship are often the most effective teachers of humility, integrity, endurance, perseverance, mercy, and compassion. I’m sure there are other benefits, too.

How can I take the bits of pain, suffering, and hardship that I have experienced (and will experience) in my lifetime and not allow the wounds and memories to scar and warp me into a hardened, fearful, small, closed, selfish person? How can the raw events and feelings be somehow transformed into value, growth, wisdom, and character? It probably has something to do with refinement, and sanctification, and redemption. I know it has everything to do with Christ and love, but how it all works is something of a mystery.

Pain and suffering hardly ever come from the mere act of “doing ministry,” whatever that means. They are facts of life, more specifically they are products of living life with other people. This has caused me to spend a lot of time thinking about relationships and people and what it means to love as Christ has called us to, but I still haven’t figured it out yet. Let me know if you have.

Only strong swimmers are allowed in the deep end.

2007-08-09T13:44:00.000+02:00

Last summer was kind of an intense time for me. I was at home, trying to spend time with friends and family, raising financial support and preparing to return to Croatia, and working through some Life Issues. There was also some Boy Trouble, and at one point something in particular happened that made me very sad. At the exact time, I didn’t really even realize how I felt about it, but later in the day as I reflected, it sank in and did not feel good. At all. It sounds pretty childish to me, the whole “Waaah. I feel sad!” business. But that’s the only way to describe it, and I think sometimes the most honest human emotions can only be described in simple terms, even though they surely feel complex and run around in the deep end where simple words can’t touch.

Often I try to avoid these complicated, deep running emotions because they are inconvenient. Inconvenient and managed only with great effort. So on this particular day I prayed a lot and asked God to help me.

I didn’t say this to Him, but I thought,
“I don’t have time for this. I don’t have the energy to feel this way and try to do the things I need to do- it’s just too much.”

Simultaneously I prayed,
“Jesus, please grant me wisdom and patience and help me to find joy in You. Thank You for using this to turn me to You, please help me to glorify You in it.”

And though I wanted those things to be true, I also thought/whined,
“It just isn’t fair! I’m trying to obey You, I thought things would turn out differently, I hoped this would be a good, restful summer but instead I feel confused and tired and there’s not enough time. Couldn’t You just change my feelings and at least make me stop crying? I feel so retarded.”

And He waited patiently for me to finish, and stood kindly by while my logical streak took over and briskly scrolled through options, categories, possibilities, and plans of action that I could take to paint a nice layer of calm, collected control over the whole affair. Heh. Over-analyzing seems to be a common pastime of mine (I tend towards the ridiculous), but sometimes a simple question mark is just so much better than Excel spreadsheets and bullet-points.

Somehow, probably because He is God, He communicated to me that all of the rehashing and grasping for control was hogwash and what I really needed and wanted most was a hug (preferably from God Himself, though one from anyone would really do) and to be told with certainty that everything would be okay. And He said that it was good to cry, not just about this thing that made me sad and disappointed on this one day, but also because I felt tired and stressed and overwhelmed by life. And because it reminded me that I’m not as grown up or as strong as I pretend to be. And that is fine, because I’m not ultimately the one in charge.

Thankfully, I currently feel fairly content, and much less dramatic. But there are a lot of transitions coming up so there's really no way way to predict the circumstances I may face or my own unreliable emotional reactions in the near future. And unfortunately, this side of heaven there is no guarantee that everything will be okay. Things could get a whole lot worse tomorrow and continue on roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble down the hill of hard things to go through until I get to the green grass and it all stops short. But that’s alright because I know that the time will come soon when all of this is over and done and life, as it was intended before we broke the world, will begin.

Fire Will Test the Realness of Each Man’s Work

2007-08-09T12:23:00.000+02:00

The 2-year mark is coming up quick, and has already hit in some respects. Two years on STINT. Two years living in Croatia. Two years since graduation. Two years spent trying to pioneer a ministry in Rijeka. Two years away from home. Two years figuring out that this is actually home now. Some of the most difficult, challenging years of my life. And some of the most rewarding.

In many ways, two years isn’t very long. When I think about most 2-year-olds I’ve known, terms like ‘mature’, ‘complete’, and ‘finished product’ never come to mind. The sophomore year in college, the second year of marriage, the second season of basketball… None of those are real milestones.

But that is all the time I was given here. And it was the time that I gave. Was the price too high? Was the return too little? Did it matter? And if it did, why? And to whom? Those answers will probably never be fully given and the relative costs and benefits simply can’t be measured. But I speculate anyway. I know I failed in many ways, and grew in many as well.

Sooner, more so than later, I will return home. To what and for what I don’t know so well anymore. I only pray that what I leave behind will have been built on Christ, and that it will have been done in such a way as to last.

Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I’ve come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand’ring from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above

Party of Five

2007-08-08T22:48:00.000+02:00

Over the last few days it’s been Sunny, her mom, her aunt, John and myself hanging out in Rijeka. They explored the city a bit, we watched Little Miss Sunshine, and generally had a pretty good time. They all left today though, John for Sarajevo [he just can’t stay away from that place!] and the rest for home. On Sunday we went to a free jazz concert at the Trsat castle, which was pretty awesome.

In Which Taylor Gives Us All A Lesson In Leaving Town With Style

2007-08-06T23:30:00.000+02:00

Like I mentioned before, Taylor flew home last Friday. There is a shuttle bus that leaves Rijeka every morning at 5:00am that goes straight to the airport in Zagreb. This was perfect because it got her there 2 hours before her flight, and it meant that we didn’t have to risk driving our ever-deteriorating car all the way there and back.

The shuttle pick-up spot is about a 15-minute walk from our apartment, but with three large bags we figured it would be better to drive. So, around 4:30 I left to go get the car. As I pulled up in front of our apartment, Taylor leaned in the passenger side window and said, “We’re locked out.”

I was slightly annoyed as my plan to quickly go back to bed slipped away. But it was an honest mistake, our building’s front door locks automatically and we were running on less than 2 hours of sleep. So I replied, “Don’t worry about it, let’s just get your bags in the car and get you to the shuttle and John and I can figure it out later.”

“Well, our apartment door is wide open, and one of my bags is still up there.”

Things were getting more complicated. Taylor and John started ringing the buzzers for every apartment in the building as Taylor pleaded into the intercom, “Please….so soooo sorry….locked out….need to get to the airport…” Either nobody heard or nobody cared because we were getting no love from the neighbors. John tried going around the back to our balcony but both of those doors were locked, too.

It was time to kick it up a notch and call our landlady, Branka. After waking her up and explaining the situation a few times, Taylor convinced her to call some neighbors. No answer. We decided to leave and make sure Taylor at least got on her flight and we would just deal with the luggage later, but we left John to keep trying the door.

Zoran met us at the station to say goodbye to Taylor, and after loading the bags she did have we had about 5 minutes to spare. Right about then, John called, “I broke in – come get me!”
I immediately jumped back in the Tiger Tank and headed back while Taylor and Zoran tried to stall the driver. Thankfully there was almost no traffic, because I was careening around corners and running red lights action-spy-thriller style. I saw John running up the street with a suitcase in tow and paused just long enough for him to jump in. We got there just in time and Tay was on her way, miraculously without any missing components.

John, Zoran and I needed to unwind a little so we went to the all-night café by the bus station for some tea and cocoa before getting some more sleep. John thought he had damaged the lock, but after further inspection we messed with it a little and got it working again.

The funniest thing about all of this was just how typical it felt. That’s just the way we roll, I guess. ☺

The Darjeeling Limited

2007-08-04T01:25:00.000+02:00

From the fine people who brought you Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson's 'The Darjeeling Limited' is scheduled to arrive in select theaters on September 29th.

And I can guarantee that my brother and I will do everything in our power to get ourselves to one of those theaters to see it.

Current Status

2007-08-04T01:19:00.000+02:00

John is back here in Rijeka, Allison is at home preparing to return in September, Sunny is traveling with her aunt and mother and will fly home next week, Taylor went home today, and Andy is at home in Oregon. Just so you know.

Logging Back In...

2007-08-04T01:14:00.000+02:00

Some of you might have noticed that over the past 2 to 8 months, my posting frequency has dropped severely. The thing is, we’ve been such busy little bees over here in Tiger-Pirate Land that there just hasn’t been much time for blogging. Also, we’ve been gone a lot lately. In fact, out of the past 41 days, I’ve only been home for 10!

As it now stands, I have just a little over 2 weeks before my adventures in Croatia come to an end. So. Here’s the plan: in between packing and saying my goodbyes and getting tangled in red tape at MUP (the police/department of internal affairs) and cleaning the apartment and slacking off and watching movies and lounging by the sea, I will do my best to do some catching up and sharing of photos, anecdotes, deep thoughts, etc. for you to enjoy/endure at your leisure. Cheers!

Overheard

2007-07-10T17:51:00.000+02:00

"The problem with learning English from role playing games is that I know what chain mail, banded mail, plated mail, king's mail, and scale mail are, but I don't know what a nozzle is..."

Adventures in Korea

2007-07-08T18:24:00.000+02:00

“South Korea?!” you ask. Yep, that’s where we were. CM2007 was a global missions conference 4 years in the making, hosted by South Koreans. They generously provided all in-country transportation, housing, and food for everyone who came – no small feat! There were about 9,000 Koreans and about 7,000 international attendees (mainly student leaders and CCC staff) from over 120 countries around the world.

We brought 5 students from Rijeka, and it was quite a week. Cross cultural experiences abounded as we made many new friends, ate loads of kimchi and rice, got soaked by the monsoon season rain, explored the open markets, tried to decipher the intense recycling protocol, crammed into the subway morning and evening, and attempted (poorly) to master a few basic language points – ‘hello,’ ‘thank you’… yeah, just those two I guess.

The conference was held in Busan, at the Busan Exposition & Conference Center (BEXCO). I very much enjoyed this description I found on the BEXCO website: BEXCO is a high-tech structure designed after a sea gull soaring to the Pacific Ocean, combined with a cruise ship.

The week as a whole was probably best documented by Matt here. Whatever you do, don’t miss the CM 2007 dance break footage…

Sentimentality

2007-06-23T01:15:00.000+02:00

We had our end of the year party tonight, and John came back to join us! He's still not quite allowed to stay in Croatia, so we are headed to Slovenia tomorrow morning to spend a few days debriefing as a team. Then we'll be back in Rijeka for less than 24 hours before driving to Zagreb to catch our flight to South Korea for CM2007. More on that later...

While you wait, though, this is the slideshow we watched tonight:

Just Another Ordinary Day

2007-06-15T23:59:00.000+02:00

Events of today:

~Three failed garbage bags: all in a row! Explosions of fermented Mexican food from the fiesta on Wednesday- one in our apartment, two in the entryway. I think it was a faulty batch of bags.

~Two soon-to-be-priests stopped by unexpectedly during our morning team prayer meeting. Here's how it went down:

Downstairs buzzer rings. [This was the 4th ring of the morning.]

Taylor answers.

Taylor says, "It's Tomislav and Dario - the PRIESTS. They're coming up!"

Sunny, Allison, and I (pajama-clad) fly into our rooms and throw on clothes as if our lives depend on it.

I skid into the kitchen just as they walk in the door, Al and Sunny follow soon after.

They are here to drop off some gifts for summer projecters and us (so nice) and we make awkward small talk for 10 or 15 minutes. We sense that they really want us to invite them to stay and pray with us, they sense that we just got dressed and aren't really ready for company. They leave.

~One spontaneous combustion. Yes, that's right. Less than an hour ago, Sunny's computer burst into flame for no apparent reason.

Thank you for reading, ladies and gentlemen. This is our life.

The End Of The World As We Knew It

2007-06-15T23:36:00.000+02:00

Andy was just here to visit for about 2 weeks. It was great to spend some more time with him, as we haven't seen him since he left so suddenly 3 1/2 months ago. Here are some pictures from last February when he left:

Even with only a few hours of notice, we still had a chance to give the banana suit a final outing on the Korzo!

Andy with Dario and his dog, Magi (pronounced 'moggy') who also joined us for the impromptu festivities.

A classic John and Andy. Little did we know, John would be skipping town too just a few weeks later.

This dysfunctional, less-than-attractive, oddly composed photo captures the mood of that night fairly accurately.

Musicality

2007-06-15T23:03:00.000+02:00

Waaaay back in February we a) went to a Guns N' Roses tribute concert with Sunny's friend Jenna who came to visit and b) discovered a cool weekly jazz night at a nearby café. We attended pretty regularly for a while, but haven't gone to see them recently. Even so, we seem to keep running into the musicians in unexpected places like a friend's recital, a prayer and worship night on a visiting missionary ship, the movie theater, and, tonight, with a random orchestra doing some sort of cultural performance in an alley/courtyard behind the Korzo.

One Sentence

2007-06-15T22:36:00.000+02:00

True stories, told in one sentence. Read here.

Educational Public Service Announcement

2007-06-15T22:32:00.000+02:00

I'm not a man so this didn't revolutionize my world, but I still thought it might be useful to some of you out there:

VideoJug: How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug

Stranger in the Night

2007-06-12T00:54:00.000+02:00

So tonight we went running again. At about 11pm at that one soccer field up the hill. It was gently raining and too warm and muggy, but we haven't gone in, oh, I don't know, forever. And it is time to get back on that wagon.

Anyway, we were spread out, running around, when I passed a weird little stump-like thing on the track. It was pretty dark, and it kind of looked like it could have been an animal, but it didn't move at all when I ran by about 1 ft. away, so I figured it couldn't be. After another 1/2 lap, Allison waved me over because she and Sunny had discovered that it was a HEDGEHOG.

We hassled the poor creature with the lighted screens of our mp3 players, trying to get a closer look and cursing ourselves for not bringing cameras. Eventually it awkwardly scurried away. I'm not sure if it was a pet or what, it was definitely fat, though. My brother had a pet hedgehog for a while, named Louie, and he was a lot smaller than this guy. And in case you have ever wondered, watching a hedgehog climb stairs is no ordinary experience, let me tell you.

Best Day Ever!

2007-06-06T23:45:00.004+02:00

A couple of Saturdays ago a group of us spent the day at a children's home not too far from Rijeka. We had an amazing time hanging out with the kids and tie-dyeing some t-shirts, playing soccer and frisbee, eating ice cream, and swimming. At the end of the day I think we made a pretty much unanimous decision to return as soon as possible.

Igor was popular.

Here's everyone working hard...

...and playing hard.

This could be trouble...

This little guy had limited mobility but we played a very respectable and long-running game of Keep-The-Latex-Glove-Balloon-Up-In-The-Air-For-As-Long-As-Possible-Without-Letting-It-Hit-The-Ground. And I got to sign his cast.

Off to the pool!

Igor was very popular.

It was incredibly warm that day, and, well, the sea was refreshing.

The Internet = Good or Bad? You choose…

2007-06-03T15:02:00.000+02:00

Real-life things I have looked up:

• How to tie-dye clothing
• The Croatian word for ‘goiter’
• James Hetfield
• Statistics on foreign drugs imported to the Netherlands
• Bird clip art
• Infanta
• How to shotgun a beer
• Homeless World Cup
• The plot of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (this was after viewing the film)
• Oxycodone and its uses
• The definition of teetotaler
• The Legend of Zelda FAQ
• Whiffle bat
• The ins and outs of correct apostrophe usage
• Brain

Redemption Song or Kutless Is My New Favorite

2007-06-03T14:29:00.000+02:00

Osijek: Final Installment

As the sun rose Sunday morning, we collapsed into bed. While falling asleep, I remember trying to make sense of some of the more minor interactions we had as the night turned to morning. It had been requested that the kitchen prepare boiling water and cups for everyone at departure time, and in reality only one person actually drank any. Someone else was annoyed that the pre-packed lunches we sent them off with contained apples, not bananas – I guess we scored some points with bananas that first afternoon on the bus. I think my favorite moment was when a disgruntled traveler emerged from the elevator and headed towards the door. Looking for all the world like an oversized toddler unwillingly roused from a nap, he paused before he reached the automatic sliding glass doors. He started again, but the open doors had started to close in on him. He stepped back and directed the EVILEST look of disgust at the door (which, if I may remind you, is an inanimate object) before plodding out to the waiting bus. It really was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

So, anyway, we slept for quite a while. Too long, actually, since checkout was supposed to be at 12:00. We talked with the cleaning lady and she kindly waited to do our room last so we could pack up and get out. After some lunch and coffee we got a ride to the festival once again, where we had little to do for most of the afternoon. In the evening we got to hang out with the wife of one of Kutless’ band members and help out a little at their merchandise table. They are from Portland, and also spend time in Seattle pretty regularly, so it was great to hang out with someone from close to home. Plus, she was just amazingly kind, genuine, wise, and honest in general. Hearing her talk about the band’s philosophy and goals, as well as her own, was incredibly refreshing. Their attitudes and actions in the face of several tricky/frustrating situations at the festival were very gracious and humble. In short, our time with her was tremendously encouraging.

We were lucky enough to be able to sort-of-sleep during the drive home, which miraculously only took about 4.5 hours. Then we had a few hours at home in our beds before a day of summer project briefing on Monday. It was definitely a whirlwind of a weekend, but we had a good time and learned a whole lot in the process. I enjoyed the change of pace, and the way that being thrust into a completely new environment gave me a different perspective on life and values and human beings and the way we behave. It shook me up a little and broke down some of my assumptions, but ultimately reinforced my core beliefs, passions, and desires in a new way, which was kind of cool.

Till The Morning Comes

2007-06-02T21:30:00.008+02:00

Osijek, continued...

The evening was fun and relatively uneventful. We got to watch most of the sets and play with some of our favorite kiddos.

This is one of our friends who is going to CM2007 with us!

Around 1:30 or 2:00am we rounded up all but the last performers and rode back to the hotel. After we got there we rested a little and searched for anything decent to watch on TV (Bridget Jones' Diary dubbed in German, for instance, didn't make the cut). Then we met various groups that were departing for the airport at 3:30 and 4:30 to make sure checkout went smoothly and take care of some last minute details.

By 5:15, our beds were a very welcome sight.

Somebody’s Gotta Do It

2007-06-02T18:20:00.000+02:00

More about the weekend in Osijek...

Around 8:00am Sunny’s phone rang and we were told that the bus was leaving at 10:00 instead of 9:00 so everyone had a little more time to get ready and eat breakfast. It had been a late night, so this was good news. Everyone else had apparently been notified, so we felt content and relaxed while getting ready for the day, and headed down to the lobby for a quick breakfast around 9:30.

We greeted a few of our compadres, scoped out a table to sit at, and headed over to the self-serve coffee station – clearly a high priority. Sunny had the carafe of coffee poised in mid-air above her cup when she was interrupted by one of our less-than-favorite people, who demanded that she go outside to the bus immediately to deal with a situation that had arisen. Later, when asked how she felt at that moment, she confessed that her entire being had been filled with rage. That can’t be good for the lifespan. [This might sound like an overreaction, but, trust me, if I could really go into detail about some of these events I am confident you would empathize with our frustrations.] Even so, she proceeded calmly to the tour bus and dealt with the issue, which basically amounted to some miscommunication about timing and schedules. Due to her masterful diplomatic work, by the time I got out there everything seemed calm so we went back in and ate a quick breakfast. In the short 30 or 40 minutes between leaving our room and boarding the bus, there had been a number of small interactions that led us to believe it might be a pretty stressful day, so the half-hour ride to the festival site was a perfect time for some reflection, prayer, and personal preparation.

It was weird to be thrown into such an odd set of circumstances, dealing with so many emotions and sensations and issues and powerfully asserted egos all at once. Everything seemed to be colliding, and while I looked out the window, the setting of all of this chaos started to become clear. We were staying in Vukovar. It is considered the most war-devastated place in Europe since WWII, and evidence of the damage from the war in the ‘90s is still visible all over the town. Among wrecked and bullet-riddled homes and buildings there were old men on bikes, and children playing, and women working in gardens.

As we drove the distance to Osijek through fields of grass and golden grain, the landscape was punctuated by beautiful bunches of bright red poppies. There were also signs every hundred yards or so sternly warning everyone to stay out (because there are still land-mines in the fields), illustrated with skulls and crossbones. Seeing these things, and thinking about what they meant – especially for the people who lived through it all – lent an element of gravity to my general state of mind, and by the time we arrived I felt sobered and somewhat softened.

We received our ‘Organizator’ identification badges and got the lay of the land. The venue was actually a Franciscan monastery, with a big tent and stage set up in a large field. While everyone went through their sound checks we spent most of our time in a dining/waiting/hangout room that served as the green room. We were doing such an awesome job fetching coffee and delivering messages and such that some people – understandably – wanted to take pictures with us. Or maybe it was because Sunny looks like a “Hollywood movie actress.” [This is an actual quote, admittedly taken slightly out of context…]

As the sound checks wrapped up, one of the performers informed us that he needed a razor. We found out where a few drugstores were, and another guy we know from church offered to drive him. Unfortunately most of the stores were closed by that time, but the driver didn’t know exactly what the passenger needed and the dramatic demeanor and mannerisms that characterized his quest led the driver to take him directly to a hospital, believing that he truly needed urgent care! Eventually they made their way back to the waiting bus, sans razor, and we headed to the hotel for some food and a few hours of rest before returning to the festival that evening.

Dinnertime brought a new round of challenges as some of the food was deemed unacceptable, with replacement dishes suffering the same fate. Sunny and I got to enjoy some downtime toward the end, and had fun watching people play PlayStation2 soccer.

Soon it was time to get back on the bus. We were already tired, our patience was wearing thin, and the evening had yet to begin. Fortunately we were armed with angry music guaranteed to get us pumped up. I started off with some long-forgotten Fiona Apple, and Sunny trumped that with what became our theme song for the weekend- The Roots’ Somebody’s Gotta Do It. Here’s an excerpt:

Somebody's gotta be there when it gets ugly
Somebody's gotta be there when it gets bloody
Somebody's gotta get their hands dirty
Yo, it's a ------ up job but somebody's gotta do it
Somebody's gotta come up with a plan
And be there when the ---- hits the fan
I hope ya'll out there understand
Look man it's a ------ up job, but somebody's gotta do it

Awkward Is A Way Of Life

2007-05-29T01:36:00.000+02:00

Part A:

Last night we all went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. It pretty much totally sucked. I was tired to begin with, and my hopes that Johnny Depp would be enough to carry me through the movie were unfortunately falsely optimistic. I tried very hard just to go to sleep, to no avail- I just couldn’t get comfortable. Another added challenge was that the sound quality in the theater was pretty low so we couldn’t really get a grip on what was going on a lot of the time. Anyway, we lived through it and shuffled out of the theater, looking and feeling drab and unkempt from squirming so much while trying to find a comfy dozing position.

While exiting I sort of did a double-take as I noticed a local jazz musician (and Orlando-Bloom-with-a-slight-Euro-mullet look alike) that all of us girls have moderate crushes on. As I fumbled to alert Sunny without being too obvious, she was simultaneously trying to let me know that this other guy we recently met at a café was coming over. Well, it turns out they were together. Café Guy introduced us to Bass Player Guy, as we stood there thinking Hey, didn’t we just watch you on screen for 2 ½ hours? and Huh. Sure glad I’m wearing my nasty rain-soaked jeans and sloppy sweatshirt right now.

Part B:

Tonight I was emailing this woman who performed at Kristfest last weekend just to say hi and that it was nice to meet her, and that we might see her in Amsterdam if we end up making it out there in August. It was a semi-formal, testing-the-waters kind of an email, and when I pressed ‘send’, Gmail alerted me to the fact that I had forgotten to type in a subject line. I quickly tapped out ‘hello’ to serve as a rather bland but functional subject line and hit ‘send’ again.

About 3 seconds later I looked at my sent messages and noticed with some horror that my subject line had evolved in an unexpected fashion. The thing is, Gmail fills in the fields predictive-text-style with previous email addresses or subject lines you’ve used in case you want to use the same one again. It saves time and valuable effort thinking of new ones every time, I suppose. This time it backfired, though, as a previous email I sent to Taylor labeled, “Hello my little honey bunches of oats…” came back to haunt me. Yep, that’s how my email went out to Dutch rocker chick. Dang. Had to quickly follow up with an apologetic explanation. Hope she doesn’t think I’m a complete psycho.

Over and out. My work here is done.

Friday - Part 2

2007-05-28T01:22:00.002+02:00

We were on our way at last. Sunny and I sent the passenger manifest on its way around the bus for people to sign and started distributing snacks and drinks. It was pretty challenging- a lot like being stewardesses on a junior high school bus. Eventually we found homes for all the pastries and bananas and sat back to enjoy the ride, hoping to get a little sleep. Someone had brought ‘Wild Hogs’ on DVD and the bus driver put it on. Not much time passed before one of the guys from the back came up to hang out with us. Pretty soon after that there were some desperate calls for a pit stop, which afforded us the opportunity to buy some much-needed candy. Our new front seat companion appreciated this, as well. The rest of the trip was pretty smooth, with ‘Wild Hogs’ playing through on repeat about 2.5 times.

When we arrived at the hotel in Vukovar, things were a little hectic. As people were checking in, there were a host of questions to field, 90% of which we had no answers for. Everyone wanted to know how many people would be at the festival, what the schedule was, what was for dinner, etc. Your blind guess is as good as mine was at the time. One person requested – nay, demanded – that they switch his room to one with a bathtub. Because he hates to take showers.

Anyway, we were able to convince the hotel staff to move dinner so people didn’t have to wait until 9pm to eat. Then we started to figure out who wanted to go to the festival – the venue was about 30 minutes away – and how they would get there. One person decided to brave it alone and made his own arrangements (alienating the entire front desk staff in the process - impressive) while the rest of them were at our mercy. It ended up being more complicated than we anticipated, and while we sorted things out we were treated to some singing and dancing outside on the lighted staircase. One person nearly made me audition for the choir by imploring me to sing ‘Baa-Baa Black Sheep’ for her. She was really funny and nice so I wanted to please her but in the end declined, perhaps turning down a revolutionary career as a vocalist.

At any rate, we were able to arrange transportation for most of the people who wanted to go check out the festival that night, except for Sunny and me (the vans were full). We successfully drank away our sorrows, and emotionally prepared for the following day by watching the Grey’s Anatomy season finale.

I know this is a pretty lame picture, but it was the only one we took of our bus driver, and he deserves recognition. He drove a ton and put up with a lot over the course of the weekend. Thanks, Željko!

I’m Kind Of A Big Deal or Blame It On The Bus Driver

2007-05-25T00:49:00.001+02:00

So as usual I’m coming back after a longish absence. We’re running at warp speed these days and the blogs are suffering the consequences (as are Allison, Taylor, Sunny and I…). Anyhow, this past weekend Taylor and Allison stayed in Rijeka with the newly-arrived summer project team – they are all awesome, by the way – while Sunny and I traveled to Osijek for KristFest, a Christian music festival.

Sunny has been helping Andrej, a friend from church, with some of the organization of the festival over the past few months. She was planning to help out a bit over the weekend, and I was tagging along, excited to attend the festival and happy to be of service in whatever ways I could. Between preparing and putting on many events and retreats over the past few months, and getting ready for and greeting and briefing the summer project, we were pretty tired, and I for one was really excited about the refreshing prospect of a change of pace and environment over the weekend.

We had no idea what was coming. This is how it all went down:

Thursday night we had a pancake party with students that rocked on* past midnight. Sometime that evening we found out that our ride was meeting us at 6:30 the next morning, so when we left the apartment on Friday we were armed with tea, toothbrushes, 2-3 hours of sleep, and little else. The 2 hours spent driving to Zagreb were uneventful, then we were dropped off at the airport. We had been asked to meet a few bands there and ride with them on the bus to Osijek. No problem, we thought.

*I’m really sorry. I honestly don’t know why I use phrases like that. It doesn’t further my cause as a respectable human being or as a writer, but I just can’t seem to help it.

Once we got to the airport Sunny called and got a few more details about what we were doing there: i.e. a list of the groups we were supposed to meet and the times we were supposed to meet them.

The first group we met was the largest – a full-blown gospel choir. They wanted to go downtown and walk around and they showed us the email they had received telling them they could, but the bus driver said it was not possible in the amount of time we had, so we headed to another small town nearby. Already we noticed that most of the artists were very kind and gracious, while a few would have done well to have VIP emblazoned on their foreheads, lest anyone, anywhere, anytime make the mistake of thinking otherwise.

Our guests wandered the small park and marketplace while Sunny and I assessed the situation and realized we needed to get some food for these people. They were tired, a bit cranky, had no kuna, and were facing another 4+ hour bus ride. And there were still more passengers to pick up. We got 5 or 6 bunches of bananas, a small buttload of pastries, and 4 liters of juice and water and a pack of small plastic cups. Not world class, but it would have to do. We loaded up the bus again and headed back to the airport.

We checked the flight arrival times of the next 3 bands and realized we might have a problem. The choir group hadn’t been too hard to spot, because, let’s face it, 21 gospel singers with British accents and lots of bling tend to stand out at the Zagreb airport. This time, however, we only had band names, flight times, and knew we were looking for 3 groups of 5-7 people, all European. The arrival area was small and, by this point, crowded. I didn’t even know what language I should listen for or what countries they were flying in from. One of the groups needed to get on a van that was waiting for them and immediately book it to the festival since they were performing that night, while the other two bands would join us on the bus.

We constructed woefully inadequate signs by scribbling band names on random pieces of paper, and awkwardly tried to hold them all up at once while scouring the crowd for anything resembling an instrument case. For some reason it was taking everyone a really long time to get through customs so the flight arrival times ceased to be useful. Eventually Sunny and I separated and the sign holding was only complicated by simultaneous cell phone conversations and purse-digging/schedule reviewing sessions.

Somehow, in the end, we met all the people we were supposed to and got them into the proper vehicles. One of the new arrivals really wanted a bottle of cold water, so I ran back in and bought one, and almost got left behind by the bus. As I handed it to her, someone asked why I had gotten one for her but not for them. I don’t think they believed me when I said that I only had money for one. But it was the literal truth.

To be continued…

Christopher Walken: Dream? Nightmare? Weapon of Choice.

2007-05-24T15:30:00.000+02:00

Watch. This.

On Beauty and Excellence and Praiseworthy Things

2007-05-02T01:33:00.000+02:00

I thought that this was fascinating, sad, and not all that surprising.

Down Time

2007-05-01T01:17:00.000+02:00

Today, after a staff meeting, a 2+ hour student appointment, a coffee appointment with a teammate, a team-leader powwow by phone, several emails, numerous text messages back and forth arranging ticket delivery for our banquet on Wednesday, as well as various other work-related odds and ends, it was time for some normal-life non-work work. I went to the grocery store, dropped off a movie at the video rental place, and bought some toilet paper and paper towels at another small market.

About a minute after arriving home, the phone rang. This was the Vonage line from the states, and it was Sunny’s Uncle Ted calling from Minneapolis. I’ve never met Ted, but we ended up having a good, solid half-hour conversation during his lunch break. We covered many topics: where I grew up, the relative benefits of volunteering to help others learn English in Seattle or Minneapolis, European coffee, and whether or not Sunny has been to Greece. Unfortunately he ran out of time and didn’t get to talk to her himself, but at least we bonded.

A bit later it was time for our weekly apartment cleaning extravaganza. I was on floor duty, mopping and vacuuming away, when Taylor called me in for a consult.

*Graphic, unnecessary details to follow*

Taylor was cleaning the bathroom, but when she got to the toilet she ran into an obstacle – literally. There was a stubborn log of poo at the bottom of the toilet basin that refused to be flushed. Believe me, we tried. Many times. And it just sat there, swaying a little in the flow, but never leaving.

We entered the experimental phase and employed copious amounts of baking soda and vinegar hoping the reactionary activity would break things down, so to speak. Still no dice.

*End bathroom-oriented content*

I left her alone and went back to the floors. It was almost 10pm at this point, but swimsuit season is basically here, so no slacking with the exercise can be tolerated. Sunny and I donned our smelly workout gear and headed out. While running around a nearby soccer field, Sunny was targeted by a high-powered and frighteningly accurate laser pointer. We dodged and hid behind a large tree- partly laughing and partly terrified that she was about to be annihilated by a sniper. A few minutes later a random old guy started running around the same track so we felt a little safer and resumed our activities.

We arrived home and were greeted by Josip, a student we just met last Wednesday. He was stopping by to get a ticket to the banquet and decided to hang out for a while. Once we got there he probably felt a little outnumbered, because he invited two more friends to join us. The seven of us talked for quite a while and covered an impressive array of conversational subjects over apple juice and cookies. I think they are some of our new favorite friends.

Around 12:30 Sunny and I looked at one another and gave up on the remaining business we had planned to cover tonight. There’s always tomorrow, right?

Seriously, though. People ask us what a typical day is like. There is no typical day. Random stuff happens all the time. All the time. And it’s great, it just takes getting used to. And I will miss it.

Card Games and Paper Airplanes: What we did tonight, in pictures.

2007-04-26T01:48:00.000+02:00

I'm fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon [White & Nerdy]

2007-04-25T00:00:00.000+02:00

Okay. Taylor and I have spent 4-5 solid hours working on some important videos. We were recently loaned a video camera from the states and were pretty excited to start using it. It works great, and is much better than the low budget video function on our digital cameras. We filmed the interview clips we needed without a hitch, and even fooled around doing silly stuff a little bit, too. Next step: onto the computer for editing. That's where the issues began.

We used no less than 4 cord/memory card options before finding a suitable transfer method. Then we had to locate and download driver software that would allow the computer to recognize the camera hardware. Unfortunately we only found software for PCs, no love for the Mac. We could get the video onto Taylor's computer, but she couldn't edit it. So we needed to convert the file format in order to be able to use the editing software on my computer. The ensuing chaos was nothing short of traumatizing. Between the two of us we installed 9, yes NINE, different programs designed to help us do just that. I felt like I was in some awful dream version of Hackers. There were zip files, codecs, and binary codes involved, and I will probably mumble about MPEG4s and AVIs and those blasted ASFs in my sleep tonight... Amazingly enough, Taylor figured out a way to get it to work, but it's not ideal so we're hoping for more breakthroughs tomorrow.

Anyway, all this reminded me of this one night that we went over to Dario's and he turned on a VH1 special called Big in '06. It was kind of a shock to discover how out of touch with pop culture I've grown, but my favorite part by far was Weird Al Yankovic's performance of "White & Nerdy."

Go ahead, take in the brilliance:

Full lyrics available here.

Exile, or, Excellent question, Sarah May!

2007-04-23T23:18:00.000+02:00

I know, I know, posting two days in a row! Amazing. After yesterday's offering let everyone know that we're still alive over here, Sarah May insightfully asked, in essence, 'What's the dillio/deal, yo with John?' Well, like I said, he's in Sarajevo. It's a little complicated, but I can at least try to clear up some of the confusion. For one, he was not arrested for failure to heed lawn signage.

Nor did he and Allison elope - as convincing as this photo may be! He also was not deported. But a little over 3 weeks ago we were informed that the central police authorities had decided to review his case. In order to review his case, they need to have his file on hand. Until they have finished that process, he is unable to begin the necessary procedures to request residency again. If they decide to uphold the rejection issued in March, it's not really a problem because he has been given permission to reapply. If they decide to overturn the rejection and allow him to stay, that's even better! The thing is, since he is not officially 'in process' yet because his file is not available, he cannot be in the country. Early on we had high hopes because there wasn't a lot riding on any decisions being made. But. The last we heard was that no progress had been made. We don't know what that means. We don't know if they've reviewed everything and the right form just hasn't reached the right people to let us know John can come back tomorrow, or if they haven't even touched his file to begin reviewing it yet. There's always the possibility that the hair fashion crimes shown below (known only as The Rony [rat + pony] Tail) have swung the odds against us, but it's hard to say.

Anyway, thanks for your prayers. Nothing too crazy is going on, but we miss him and it's hard having our team leader gone, having no guys on the team, and trying to continue full speed ahead to finish the year well with only 4 of us left.

Real Estate by Baryshnikov...and other news.

2007-04-22T19:51:00.001+02:00

So much has happened in the past few months it's tough to know where to begin. I feel that 9:00pm this past Thursday night is as good a place as any. Right about then, Taylor and I arrived at El Rio, a nearby café, to meet two guys from an apartment agency to try to find places for the summer project group to stay. Shortly before sitting down, they called and told Taylor they were running late but that we should order and they would pay for our drinks. We ordered fruit tea and talked...for 40 minutes. We were starting to worry, but then saw two guys in their early 30's approach our table. We introduced ourselves and shook hands - I knew they didn't actually catch my name and I forgot theirs about 4 seconds after hearing them. One of them had dark hair, dark eyes, and very limited English so he spent most of the time quietly listening and staring. The other did most of the talking and looked strikingly like a young Mikhail Baryshnikov (i.e. not bad). Since our tea was gone and paid for they insisted on us ordering something else. After that, it only took about 5 minutes to reconfirm the details of what types of apartments we needed and at what price. The half hour of small talk and long pauses that followed was...awkward. But we're used to that by now, so it wasn't all that bad. Walking home we were laughing at ourselves and recalling various parts of the evening that entertained us when we noticed they were following about half a block behind us on the way to their car. Oops, hope we weren't too loud...

Considering that I haven't posted anything in over 3 weeks, and even that was about our travels in January, I've fallen pretty far behind. We'll see how it goes from here on out, though I can't make any promises. Now we're two men down - Andy's in Portland to stay, and John is in Sarajevo indefinitely. We hoped he would be back in a couple weeks, but now it's been 3 and the last update we got on Friday was that no progress had been made on his case. So. There you have it.

We're busy, we miss John, the semester is well underway, and we went to Ireland!

Day Sixteen: On the Way Back Home

2007-03-31T23:31:00.000+02:00

We woke up early and took the bus to the airport, eager to get home, even with a long last day of travel ahead of us. A few of the connections were close, but we made it to Trieste without any major drama, and then thankfully found a taxi willing to drive to Rijeka that night. We were tired but really excited to finally get home.

Day Fifteen: On Sale!

2007-03-31T23:23:00.000+02:00

After getting off the train in the morning we took taxis to the ferry dock. While waiting for our departure time, it became apparent just how truly nasty we were. Not only had we gone without showers for a few days, but we had been traveling in a sandy desert and on an African train, had been without normal bathrooms or soap and running water for a while, and were dealing with our own general human grossness, plus camel grossness, plus general public place grossness. In addition, Sunny and I both have a remarkable tendency toward oily hair, and by day 3, the grease factor was seriously sick. Hats were mandatory.

We took the ferry to Spain, then a bus to Malaga, where we were dropped off at a large shopping mall. Everything was shiny and glowy and clean and new and... western. We ate some Burger King, then went straight to the hostel to shower. Then it was go time, and the only thing all of us girls really wanted to do was shop, so back to the mall we went!

This taxi driver was great, he sang show tunes to us the whole way. So cute!

After a while we met back up with the guys and went to a great little Irish pub. It was then that I realized just how Irish I was - we were drinking Guinness, I was wearing green, U2 was playing, plus I had been reading James Joyce's Dubliners. (Which, by the way, I can't wholeheartedly recommend. Pretty dry. But I probably just didn't get it...) At any rate, we had fun celebrating the emerald isle during our last night in Spain.

Day Fourteen: On Camelback

2007-03-31T21:19:00.000+02:00

After some silliness before falling asleep (for some reason an unknown creature in the night grabbed both Sunny's foot and mine, which startled us a little...), we slept pretty comfortably and soundly out there in the desert - even though it rained, in the desert, which was odd. I mean, I'm used to that back home, but to come all the way to Africa and have it rain there was just unnecessary. We woke up, had bread and tea (they call mint tea 'Moroccan whiskey') for breakfast, enjoyed the pleasures of using the open sandy desert as our own personal litterbox, had toothbrushing/spitting wars, and re-mounted the camels. I have one word for that: soreness. Bigtime.

Here's Abraham contemplating the day ahead. He was actually really cool and we wished we could have had another day to hang out.

John's best effort at 'ninja chic'. Impressive.

Camel riding is a little awkward, there's really no way around it.

We actually all named our camels, but I am ashamed to admit that by now, I've forgotten the name I gave mine :-(.

Graham did some final bartering during one of our pit stops on the way back to Marrakesh.

Can you guess what this says? That's right, 'milk', good job.

Day Thirteen: On the Sands of the Sahara

2007-03-31T20:45:00.000+02:00

Camel trek time! We got up super early to get to the meeting spot by 7:00am, piled into a mini-van, and hit the road. The drive to the desert took around 7 hours, including a stop for lunch and many short stops along the way.

The Atlas mountains were beautiful!

It was nice to be able to get coffee, tea, and snacks, and hit the restroom periodically.

Tourist traps exist even in the most remote places!

Here are some pictures of the locals...

I think this was actually built as part of a movie set.

Some more locals.

Finally we arrived in Zagora and met our camels and our guides, Mohammed and Abraham/Ibrahim.

Here's Nova looking smart and sassy.

Sunny looks like she's off to the races.

Taylor looks a little photoshopped here, but I swear it's authentic!

Not quite Arabian Nights, but pretty darn close. Except for the part where we saw a shiny black Mercedes drive by about an hour into our journey...

These were our sleeping quarters in the berber tent.

Our guides made us dinner, and after observing a persistent, deep, bone-rattling cough, along with bare-handed toe picking (knowing with certainty that there were no washing facilities), we were frankly a little nervous.

But a cozy moonlit drum circle before hitting the sack helped calm any fears of illness or food poisoning and we all went to sleep without too much trouble.

Day Twelve: On Her Head There Were Candles?!

2007-03-31T14:28:00.000+02:00

The view from the train in the morning was pretty nice. Marrakesh was crazy! We took taxis to the main square/marketplace area for some tea and breakfast. We met two guys from Split (Croatia) in Algeciras who were traveling the same way, and we met up with them again here.

Our fellow travelers from Croatia.

Our hostel was only a short walk from the main square.

Our rooms were compact but fairly comfortable, and the colors and decorations were pretty cool.

The view from up top.

After getting settled at the hostel, we headed into the bargaining fray of the marketplace. After a little while, John and I got separated from the others. We figured we'd run into them again at some point, but as time passed that seemed less and less likely. We were getting hungry, and a little turned around in the labyrinth of stalls crowded on all sides by displays and fellow shoppers, so we decided to try to get some food and get back to the main square. That was easier said than done. This donkey turned out to be a significant landmark for us, although it was not all that helpful once we realized we'd passed it 2 or 3 times and were no closer to figuring out where we were.

John had been searching for a good man-purse, and in one of the little alleys we turned down, we found this shop. He got a pretty good deal on a nice leather bag, but the experience kind of sketched us out. As we gingerly walked down the stairs into the basement-like workshop, one of the guys turned up the radio, and in hindsight, if they had intended any harm, we would have basically been out of luck. After that, we continued on and after a while I thought, Huh. No more tourists... Didn't think I'd ever actually wish I were back in the touristy part of town... We asked for directions quite a few times, which didn't seem to help that much, but eventually, much to our relief, we got back where we wanted to be.

We encountered some pretty crafty henna artists who shamelessly grabbed our hands and started applying henna before we could protest, following it up with a demand for payment. When it happened to me I was literally pulling my hand away as hard as I could and got henna smeared all over it. Kinda frustrating.

The fresh squeezed orange juice was amazing! In general we had a lot of fun experiencing the craziness. Except one time some guys were walking beside me asking, "Ca va? Ca va?" and when I ignored them (thinking I don't speak French and really have nothing to say, anyway...) they grabbed my arm. And when I wrenched it free, they responded with a hearty "---- you!!" in English. Hmm.

Here are some more cool sights...

The square at night!

For dinner, everyone went to a nice local restaurant, but I stayed back to shower, read, and rest a little. If only I had known what I was missing!! There was quite a belly dancing show. Here's John clearly busting some crazy moves. He claims not to like dancing, not to be good at dancing, not to feel the lord of the dance rising up within him. Flimsy claims, I say.
In fact, less than one week ago, the following words issued from John himself, "...I would really feel more comfortable with a dance." This was said seriously, without sarcasm, maybe context had something to do with it, though...

Day Eleven: On Another Continent

2007-03-25T22:57:00.000+02:00

In the morning, we were determined to get the heck out of Algeciras, one way or another. In an effort to explain/justify our general displeasure with the place, I would like to direct you to Sunny's description of our showering experience.

Thankfully, the boats were running again.

We saw this gem while waiting to board. Yes, that is blood. Sick, no? Also, these little tiny kids kept coming over and walking away with our container of Pringles. We didn't mind, but the moms were very apologetic. It was funny.

Arriving in Tangiers drove home the fact that we had landed squarely in an entirely foreign culture. We bargained for a few minutes to get a still slightly overpriced set of taxis to the train station. The sunset was pretty cool looking.

John, Allison, and I stayed with the luggage while the others went to dinner. We hit up some good hacky sack time before sheepishly remembering that it is a grave insult in Arab culture to show the bottom of your foot. We sat down and read some more.

The night train sleeping quarters were small, but decently comfortable, and John, Graham, Nova, and I enjoyed some random conversational getting-to-know-your-cabinmates-on-a-deeper-level time before going to sleep.

Day Ten: On the Border

2007-03-25T00:20:00.000+01:00

We took a bus from Malaga to Algeciras - the closest place from which to ferry over to Africa. Unfortunately, after waiting for a while we found out that no boats were running due to hurricane force winds!

This is the hostel we got. It had some cool Moroccan-style decor, and a sketchiness rating that was off the charts. We could see our breath indoors, there was no heat and scarcely any running water. Thankfully, toilet paper was available upon request.

"Din-Don" is the restaurant that was recommended to us for lunch before we found out about the ferry situation. After getting the hostel, knowing we had all evening to explore the city, we headed out looking for a good place to eat dinner. We walked and walked. Everything seemed to be closed! We kept walking and it started to rain. At one point we found an indoor kids play center that offered tiny pieces of overpriced pizza, but it was smoky and we still had some hope and determination so we pressed on. It got dark and started pouring.

We passed by some more places that were closed, and went down promising streets to no avail. I found a Bingo center that was open, but they didn't offer food. Finally we found this weird little fried chicken place. By that time we would have eaten fried umbrella, so we were grateful.

For warmth and safety we decided to push 3 beds together in one of the rooms for all 5 of us girls to sleep together. A little better in theory than in practice, but we just chalked it up to making memories and crawled on in.

Day Nine: On the Queen's Island

2007-03-25T00:04:00.000+01:00

My dad and his wife were in London while we were in Spain, so they found me a cheap flight to go see them. After about 2 hours of sleep and a bus ride to the airport way too early in the morning, I still had about 4 hours to wait for my flight. Sleep was my greatest need and highest priority, so I wandered around for a while, then found some stairs up to a hallway of offices (all empty and locked, it being 5:30am on a Saturday), and curled up with my backpack in a random corner. The stone floor wasn't a prime choice for napping, but it was quieter and less breezy than it had been downstairs. I just kept thinking, "This would never be okay in America." Of course, it wasn't exactly culturally appropriate there, either, but nobody bothered me and security didn't seem concerned.

Once I got to London, it took me all of 5 minutes to figure out that a) one day would not be nearly enough time and b) I could probably be very happy living in London. We had some communication/location mishaps and lost Julia for a good part of the afternoon, but eventually were all reunited and had a good time.

The accents were lovely, and I saw a lot of places and people that I would have liked to get to know better. Particularly one really cool stationery shop, an Indian restaurant with very tasty food, and a certain highly attractive backpacker (Canadian, I think?) on the Underground...

Okay, I know it's gross, but...

2007-03-24T23:58:00.000+01:00

...it was really pretty amazing. Here are some pictures after all:

Before

In Process

The Final Product

Day Eight: On Siesta Time

2007-03-24T23:34:00.000+01:00

So, I'm determined to finish this whole day-by-day diary of our travels up. It's old news now, but it was fun. You don't need to read these posts, I will just be satisfied knowing that they are done.

We went to lunch with the Lithuania team - it was great! At one point, one of the guys actually inserted the entire handle of a fork straight back into his nasal passage... I decided not to post a picture of that one, but here's Sunny and Jen, just looking happy.

The African jewelry seller tracked us down once again!

Andy and Brian between face-shaking sessions...

Lots of silliness.

14

2007-03-22T16:30:00.000+01:00

Last night we had our first group Bible study of the year. Last spring we tried to do this, but week after week there was only one regular attendee. If I recall correctly, one time the regular was absent, and that time one other student came. Other than that, nobody came, and it felt like a failure.

So last night we weren't sure what to expect. 5 or 6 of the students who normally study the Bible with us one on one were not able to come, and a few students had shown interest but we didn't know if they would actually follow through. John and Allison prepared a study on the first 14 verses of the gospel of John, us girls tidied up the apartment and put out some tea and cookies, we all prayed, and then we waited.

And 14 students came. It was glorious! We split into 2 groups, and there were Bibles in all kinds of translations strewn about while conversations about scripture and the gospel weaved in and out of Croatian and English. There were some maturing believers and some people who had never cracked the Bible to read on their own before. Truth was spoken and Christ was honored. And we were humbled and grateful.

After kind of a tough and crazy month, with wacky things happening left and right, this was an incredible reminder that God is indeed at work, and our time here is not in vain.

Back, hopefully to stay.

2007-03-20T22:06:00.000+01:00

Okay, sorry for leaving you all hanging for so long. It has seriously been a crazy month. I don't know where the time went! Allison did a good job recapping here.

Andy's gone, John was almost gone, Jenna (Sunny's awesome friend) came and went, Pete and 7 guys from MSU came and went, our first big event came and went, Al and I left for Budapest and returned, and spring is here - although it's been cold and rainy for the last day and a half. And there were many mini-adventures in between all those bigger things! Important things, like Tay and I appearing in the famous Rijekan Carnival parade, and (again it was Taylor and I) having trouble at the Slovenian border - with a full on accusation of being terrorists (true story), and finding real live amazing jazz music every Monday at this swanky café not far from us, and watching Weird Al's 'White and Nerdy" on VH1 at a student's house... All of these things and more.

So much to share, so little time.

Mom and Grandma: I'm fine, please don't be mad and definitely don't worry. I will call you soon.

A picture of a neato castle we went to on Saturday:

Alright, alright, alright...

2007-03-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

Sorry it's been a while (again). A lot has been going down here in R-town lately. John's having some pretty major visa issues again, and we're hoping for some answers in the next few days. Andy is back in Portland again, please pray for him and his mom. And spring semester starts tomorrow. More later, but hopefully not too much later...

Day Seven: On The Balcon de Europa

2007-02-24T22:50:00.000+01:00

I tried to hang out with Krista pretty much every day, and succeeded for the most part. It was a little windy that day, but the coast was still pretty.

All the team leaders went to lunch, and 1/3-1/2 of us were still around for the group picture afterwards...

That night we found a pretty cool Irish pub. The band was British and American. The country was Spain. And at one point an African woman wandered through selling jewelry. Quite a multicultural night!

'Jamin took baby duty so Ashley could join us. Many good husband points for him.

Left to right: Eric, John, Taylor, Brian

Day Six: On Down to Monkey Town

2007-02-24T22:03:00.000+01:00

We had a free day in the middle of the week. One group went to Granada to see historical sights, architecture, etc. and another group went to Gibraltar to see WWII stuff, eat fish and chips, and, mostly, to see MONKEYS!!! (Also known as Barbary Macaques.) That's right. We got to play with monkeys. You are soooooo jealous right now.

This little guy was cute, but tried to eat my bracelet.

Later he and Graham had some good bonding time.

They were pretty thorough in patting us down for snacks or other treasures.

In the Great Siege Tunnels we happened upon some wax figures, one of whom was General Ulysses S. Grant. They seemed to be having a good time.

A final contemplative shot.

For other thoughts and pictures on this experience, see John's post.

Does it really taste better? Better than what?

Days Four and Five: On Monday and Tuesday

2007-02-24T21:20:00.000+01:00

On Monday and Tuesday the conference got rolling, and Spain was still beautiful.

The 'chair' John is sitting on is actually Randall. Seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess.

The hotel had some pretty sweet flamenco dancers. They busted their moves and the reactions varied. Some watched in awe or enjoyment, some walked away in boredom, some averted their eyes for the half-naked belly dancing portions, some attempted to imitate, and some simply enjoyed the sensation of becoming noticeably more cultured people over the course of 20-30 minutes. Ashley and I entered into extreme flashback mode and remembered our years of Spanish dancing lessons. We laughed a lot and bemoaned the difficulty we had back in the day getting those blasted castanets to sound right or getting our skinny teenaged ballerina bodies to move in anything close to an authentic (i.e. sensual) Spanish manner. The two of us ended the evening by hiding out in a remote corner of the hotel basement, first trying to remember some Spanish dances, and eventually giving up and moving on to rehash some old ballet stuff. It was fun.

Day Three: On La Costa del Sol or Sunday Night Football

2007-02-17T18:53:00.000+01:00

The mid-year conference was held in Nerja, Spain, and it was an ideal location- right next to the Mediterranean. It was also great to see old friends again after being scattered around away from home and family for so long.

She's one of my favorites :-).

That night we went to a near-empty pub and the guy working there was nice enough to put on the Bears/Saints game for 20-30 Americans. Here's Taylor, 'Jamin, John, and Graham enjoying some of the action.

Day Two: On A Jet Plane

2007-02-15T01:06:00.000+01:00

We took off pretty early in the morning, but before boarding we grabbed some breakfast. I had a little trouble transitioning to the new culture. After ordering and paying for, but before obtaining, my croissant and orange juice, I tossed the receipt in a fairly large trash bin. The thing is, I needed to show it to the people at the next counter to pick up the food. Not speaking Italian, my only option seemed to be dumpster diving. Weaving through a cluster of other hungry passengers I thrust my arm and part of my head into the can, and miraculously located the crumpled ball of paper immediately - and it was not nastified, bonus! Yay for breakfast. After browsing the duty-free shop looking at jewelry and gum (John and Andy were looking at short shorts, but we won't speak of such things here), we headed to the plane.

We all adopted different methods for coping with the lack of sleep. John chose to travel zombie-style...

...Sunny went with 'rockstar pissed'...

...and Andy and I opted for outlandish cheer - somewhat remniscent of Midwest State Fair goers.

We enjoyed this.

Another coping mechanism = hugging.

After two more bus rides, we got to Nerja, and it was beautiful! Look left, look right, smile.

More Entertainment

2007-02-14T21:37:00.000+01:00

My friend Dan has once again directed me to a source of bloggish entertainment - I found that Blankenship guy's site because of him, too.

Indexed has a series of entertaining graphical/philosophical offerings a la:

Day One: On The Road

2007-02-13T00:01:00.000+01:00

After a busy week, some deep cleaning, careful packing, "24"-watching, and bus-time-debating, we finally left Rijeka and headed off to the mid-year conference in Spain. As far as I can remember, the bus ride to Trieste was uneventful. Our brief stay in Trieste was pretty tame, as well. We got some cash at the bank and saw this woman with her little dog dressed to match. Yeah, boring, I know.

The first few hours on the train were great. In Venice we were supposed to change trains, and when we pulled into the station our car emptied pretty quickly. As we calmly put our backpacks on, Sunny started to ask if she should wait or just get off or hold the door, but before she finished the doors swiftly closed and the train pulled out. A lone Italian was left on our car, so Taylor communicated with him via Spanish, English Sign Language, and clicks and gestures, and somehow got us redirected back to Venice at the next station. Andy's expression communicates pretty well how we all felt about being stowaways on a commuter line we didn't have time to get tickets for, desperately praying against hope that we wouldn't miss our connection to Milan.

Amazingly, we made it. Promptly seating ourselves in a spacious 1st class compartment, we all got busy reading. Allison definitely looks like she belongs there, wouldn't you agree? It didn't matter, though, we got bumped down to 2nd class shortly thereafter, where, fittingly, Sunny discovered this little gem - toilet paper hitching a ride.

Once we arrived in Milan, we got some dinner and took another bus to the airport. As we looked for a place to camp out for the night, we were greeted by wide open spaces and the glow of industrial lighting. This picture is kind of lame, but it is actually the very last picture I took before my camera broke, never to resurrect. So sad. From here on out, all pictures are borrowed, stolen, or imagined.

This is where we actually decided to bed down - a fairly secluded little area near the offices uptairs. We played some Skip-Bo and made ourselves as comfortable as the bright lights, floor buffing machines, and cold temperature would allow. This made for a pretty, uh, chipper time the next morning at 5:00.

A New Website to Waste Your Time On

2007-02-12T23:36:00.000+01:00

During some recent internet wanderings I came across this, and particularly enjoyed Mr. Blankenship's myriad notes to self.

Here are some of my favorites:

Note to Self : Now that he is slightly old and definitively crazy, convince Mel Gibson to make a 4th installment of the existing Mad Max Trilogy, then use your newfound friendship with the actor/director to be cast as post-post-apocalypse-surviving extra in said film.

Note to self: Choreograph office dances to the entirety of the new Justin Timberlake album. Test your glass desk for max weight distribution load. Rig lights underneath the desk. Disco.

Note to self: Through either research or consultation of black magic, determine exactly what famed popstar Meatloaf wouldn't do for love. Also, determine exactly what way the Backstreet Boys wanted it that way.

Note to self: Next time you're traveling solo via elevator, remove the overhead light fixture and find out if there's really a door to the elevator roof, like in all the movies. Explore.

Note to self: It's time to kick it up a notch.

Note to self: The next time someone says "turn that frown upside down," hang them from a chainlink fence by the elastic of their recently outstretched underwear and inform them that their view should be all smiles now. Resist smiling at this point, as it would ruin the specific purpose of the entire exercise.

Note to self: Update your websites. It might be the only reason people like you.

Note to self: Build a medieval catapult. Always refer to it as a trebuchet, just to sound elitist.

Note to self: Write a poem about making out. Title it "Better Than Cigarettes," because honestly... you believe it.

Note to self: Three words: stairwell pole vaulting.

Note to self: Take a poll of various Taco Bell employees to find out if they too think it would be appropriate to refer to their workforce as "The Border Patrol.”

Note to self: 99.4% of men on Earth should not have long hair. Groom yourself accordingly.

Note to self: Give in to the realization that you will, henceforth, analyze every person on every flight you take for the rest of your life, wondering, if you crash and are stranded on a tropical island full of unexplained phenomenon, who would be the leader?

Note to self: Learn to parallel park at full speed stuntman-style.

Note to self: Try and think of any viable reasons to ever visit/re-visit the following states: Florida, Alabama, North Dakota, Kansas, and/or West Virginia. Fail miserably.

Note to self: Build a zeppelin.

January Recap. Part 4: Love Story

2007-02-10T18:07:00.000+01:00

Our recently married friends Vjenci and Anita came up from Split to talk about relationships and share their story with students.

Those who were there really enjoyed hearing from fellow Croatians and took advantage of the opportunity to grill them afterwards with lots of questions.

It was nice to have some final time with our friends here before heading out of town for a few weeks.

January Recap. Part 3: Plitvice

2007-02-10T17:28:00.000+01:00

So there's this national park here in Croatia that is pretty famous, and very beautiful. It's a couple hours away and there is a series of lakes and waterfalls with trails to walk around, so we headed out with a few friends to enjoy the scenery.

Andy, Kamelija, and Sunny

On the drive home, it was late, cold, and dark but we still stopped at a park to enjoy some swings, teeter-totters, and this really nifty rocket climbing structure. I'm pretty sure NASA designed it to hold 4 children, but we managed to get 6 'adults' (not so sure that term always applies) inside.

January Recap. Part 2: Happy Birthday Iva!

2007-02-05T23:34:00.000+01:00

The birthday girl and, uh, a friend...

A couple of crazed party-goers.

A lovely klapa serenade for our awesome and hilarious friend. These guys were seriously incredible, and it was so fun to be there to celebrate. Thanks for inviting us, Iva!

January Recap. Part 1: Farewell, Tannenbaum

2007-02-05T23:26:00.000+01:00

Successful Christmas tree disposal! I dropped this sucker off our balcony straight into the dumpster. It was beautiful.

The Stories We Could Tell...

2007-02-04T20:47:00.000+01:00

Hello, friends!

We've been off adventuring, but now we're back in good old Rijeka. I'll do my best to get pictures and stories up pretty soon for you to enjoy.

Look forward to tales of taxis, trains, buses, planes, boats, monkeys, rain, the beach, friends, Italy, Spain, London, Morocco, camels, deserts, hostels, sleepless nights, sketchy food, cultural mysteries, and more!

Miscellaneous Pictures

2007-01-05T23:52:00.000+01:00

Cookies!

Sunset in Kostrena

The gang.

Mmmmmmm, chocolate.

Zagreb

2007-01-05T23:37:00.000+01:00

On New Year’s Eve, Taylor, John, Sunny and I headed to Zagreb. We met up with Mario, a guy who lived with some of Sunny’s friends for a year when he was playing basketball in the states. His friend plays on a professional team here, and was out of town so his fantastic apartment was available. For some reason, Mario and his friend were incredibly generous and trusting and allowed us to stay there, along with a couple of friends who met up with us in Zagreb.

Mario and Sunny

We rocked in the new year by watching the fireworks in the main square, then squeezing through crazy crowds to get back to the apartment, where we watched Castaway on T.V. before falling asleep.

Weirdest thing in Zagreb: random graffiti extolling the…fame(?) of Ben Savage. Now, I have nothing against him, but why? Why him, of all possible celebrities? I don’t really get it. When I was younger one of my friends was in love with Fred Savage for a good 4 or 5 years. The Wonder Years = best show ever.

Merriment

2007-01-05T23:02:00.000+01:00

I really enjoyed this most recent batch of holiday revelry, and one thing I particularly like about Christmas in Croatia is the little Santa train they have driving around the Korzo playing music and ferrying kids around. One day I was walking along and saw it headed my direction. A little boy about 5 years old, I’m guessing, had his hand stuck straight out the side of the train, like he was signaling a left turn or had been waving and stopped mid-way. On a whim, I stuck out my palm and met his, high five style. We never made eye contact, but it pretty much made my week.

Doda's family dropped by a few days before Christmas.

Saying good-bye to Andy, circa 1:30am on Christmas.

Christmas day, once we got rolling again, was pretty awesome. Here's John and Sunny doing some creative cooking.

John and Allison look like brother and sister, in an awkward sort of way...

Our favorite Red Ninja!!!

Yay! A hat to complement the three pairs of mittens I received from my three roommates. :-)

A random assortment of presents and other weird stuff.

We also played some games, watched Home Alone, talked to people on the phone, and watched House. Good times.

Victory!

2007-01-04T22:38:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, 2007 is here! In my first post of the year, I'm pleased to announce that, once again, we live next door to a toilet store! Just like last year.

That was the weirdest Christmas ever.

2006-12-30T13:04:00.000+01:00

Destination: Zagreb Airport.

Our beat up car is rattling down the highway- a lone wolf winding through construction sites and thick patches of fog. We’re all Free Fallin’ with Tom Petty, and beef jerky and Twizzlers are keeping us awake. For once, the sky actually is the deep black velvet that the poets talk about, with millions of stars shining clearly in the cold. From my window, the sea is visible where it’s not blocked out by black hills rising up, huge and two-dimensional. For a few seconds at a time I see lights from distant villages, the same lights reflected by a handful of clouds that show up white and ghostly. There is no moon.

We attempt to sing along to ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It’ before Simon and Garfunkel start in on Mrs. Robinson. Andy’s mom is sick. We don’t know much more than that, but we’re on a mission to get him home. I imagine all the Croatian families enjoying post-midnight-mass Christmas dinners in the middle of this odd, silent night. I wonder what it would be like to be Andy – worried, tired, desperate. I think about my dad and his wife, and my mom and sister and brothers, I know they’re all together at my grandparents’ house and I wish I could be there. But I’m glad I don’t have to fly home for an emergency. Kind of a Catch-22, really.

Now we’re definitely in the mountains. There is snow and the sky is all pink and glowy and the Smashing Pumpkins provide both the soundtrack and the motivation to forge ahead.

Christmas. It snuck up on me this year, and I don’t feel prepared emotionally, spiritually, mentally, or practically. I haven’t even wrapped presents yet. We missed going to mass on account of unexpected developments with Andy. I try to make it mean something to me. Jesus, God, came to us as a baby. He limited Himself to come to us, to die for us, so we could know Him. It isn’t sinking in. For Christ to leave heaven to come down to this earth – home of pain and suffering and betrayal and blood and tears and death – is (rightly) seen as a great sacrifice, an unthinkable humbling. But there is also Andy’s mother, and we’re terrified she might die, even though for her it would mean leaving all of that to go be in the presence of all Glory and Perfection and Beauty and Life.

Why do we think like that? Is it only selfishness that makes us want to keep those we love here with us? Is it only unbelief that makes us continue to fear death on some level even though we have an ultimate hope beyond death? Maybe. Maybe it’s selfishness and unbelief, but I also think that it’s partly an unknowing and partly a genuine love of the good that is here.

Because it is here that we learn about life and beauty and love and glory, and the only glimpses of ultimate goodness and perfection we’ve seen have been seen here, amidst the pain and wrong and darkness. Yes, we want to be with Christ and see all that He has prepared and be all that He has created us to be. But, for now, this world is where we have learned to love Him and to love others. Sometimes I am eager to leave it all behind, to get the hell out, so to speak, but not tonight.

Adam Duritz whines his way through ‘A Long December’ and I remember Katie Walsh, who’s reached her final destination and almost certainly understands all of this better than I do.

We’re finally at the airport and it only takes us a few tries to get to the area where you drop off departing passengers. The place is deserted, except for a single guard (or taxi driver?) standing in the cold across the street. We take turns going to the restroom and notice 3 or 4 travelers sleeping on benches. Andy will have to wait a few hours for the ticket counter to open so before leaving him we go through a few last cultural rituals for old times’ sake. We hug and say our goodbyes and get in the car to head home. In search of coffee, or anything, really, we make a few gas station stops and hit the highway armed with Snickers ice cream bars and cappuccinos that taste like watered-down potting soil.

The visibility is terrible, which helps keep us alert. Sunny keeps the conversation going with questions like, “How many kids do you guys want to have?” and we answer sincerely, and at length, because it’s 5:30 in the morning and we’ve got nothing better to do. John keeps the music going, and I try to navigate through the fog.

We roll into town at the first light of dawn, walk back to our apartments, and greet Christmas morning by crawling into bed.

John and Andy: The Unauthorized Edition

2006-12-30T00:39:00.000+01:00

Subzero Twilight

Zamboni-riffic

Christmas Morning Magic

Ice Skating

2006-12-30T00:20:00.000+01:00

Getting ready...

Group shot.

Čočo and a crazy drunken speed skater behind him.

I almost wish this had happened to me…

2006-12-28T16:26:00.000+01:00

…because then I could write about it. Sunny tells her tale here.

Tonight it’s my turn to go to Robin and Carol’s with John and Taylor. I’m crossing my fingers for an adventure.

Did you think I was kidnapped?

2006-12-28T16:17:00.000+01:00

Yeah, so I’ve been gone for a while. I blame it on Christmas festivities, urgent team matters, holiday busyness, and losing our internet for a week or so. I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, since back home most of the West Coast was without power for days on end and most of you were probably busy celebrating Christmas with your families, anyway.

A little while back, I discovered that my new blog layout looked like crap on non-Macintosh computers, sorry about that! So after messing around on Blogger, I’ve reached a compromise where it looks merely mediocre on both Macs and PCs.

At any rate, all this is just to say that I’m back. I’d like to say, ‘Back with a vengeance!!’ but that would be an exaggeration.

Important People Agree: 'House' is a great show!

2006-12-16T16:36:00.000+01:00

The last few days have been a whirlwind. We distributed 1600 newsletters in 2 days, had our Christmas party (somewhere around 50 or 60 people came, not sure exactly), cleaned up after the party, hung out and went to coffee with friends, started Christmas shopping, and as a really cool bonus, Kristi and Carolyn came to visit!

I had only spent about 45” with Kristi before in my life, but after spending some more concentrated time with her, all of the rumors of her complete awesomeness have been confirmed. And, of course, time with Carolyn was fantastic as usual. On Thursday I came home looking a little cracked-out and dazed, I guess, and the only thing I could do was try to explain, “Well, Carolyn just unloaded most, if not all, of the truths of the universe on me again, and I haven’t had a chance to process yet.”

As if just coming to visit wasn’t enough, they brought loads of gifts and books and treats, and they cooked some amazing dinners! Personally, I was very very excited to receive Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas. I know Christmas isn’t about the presents… but this one was pretty cool.

They left this morning, and we were sad they couldn’t stay longer, but it was fun to have them here while it lasted.

The Jaw Braw

2006-12-14T18:37:00.000+01:00

My dear sister had jaw surgery last week to fix a problem that caused her jaw to keep locking open. This is the device that holds ice packs to her face. I think she pulls the look off pretty well.

What is a dekagram?

2006-12-12T23:58:00.000+01:00

Today was officially set aside for a marathon-like cookie making extravaganza in preparation for the Christmas party tomorrow. We let all our friends know that our apartment would be open all day for drop-in baking, decorating, and socializing...

I call this one 'Homeless Santa.'

Homeless Santa and Found Object Holiday Tree join forces.

"How much is a dekagram?...Why don't you have a scale?"

Natasha, Taylor, and Doda are definitely busting some kind of crazy holiday moves. This came after a conversation that went something like this:
Bing Crosby Christmas album playing in background-
"Can we listen to some Christmas music?!"
"This is Christmas music."
"No, this is I want to die music."
Bing Crosby Christmas album no longer playing in background.

Later in the evening, John, Taylor, Allison, and Andy took some awkward prom-like pictures before heading out to the symphony, while Sunny and I stayed home and rocked the rest of the baking.

Whew. And somewhere in there I went to MUP and got a visa in my passport. Yay! It is valid for another 4 months.

Funny Girl

2006-12-11T23:53:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we had our first community service outreach. Andy spent quite a lot of time contacting dozens of people trying to determine needs in the city and any way we could get involved and serve. By last Saturday morning, things had just barely fallen into place and we had a car full of clothes and food, a large bag of pre-made sandwiches, and 3 different locations we could split up and go to. We also had about 2 inches of rain during the hour immediately preceding the time we were supposed to start. We'd had a lot of students express interest in participating, but the night before about half had cancelled. And now we had wetness to deal with, too. We have found that Rijekans don't really enjoy going out in the rain- especially on a sleepy Saturday morning. But, lo and behold, 12-15 of our faithful friends showed up- cheerful, dripping, and eager to help.

Sunny and I were assigned to go to this organization that helps blind children learn valuable skills and equips them to function independently in school, jobs, etc. The founder, Mary, talked to us for a while and explained their history and strategy. After about 20 minutes, she informed us that she was blind herself. We were all surprised, nobody had noticed anything too unusual. Later we introduced ourselves. Sunny started, "I'm Sunny, and I'm from America..." and Mary said, "Oh! Funny! Hi Funny!" Someone corrected her, "No, Sunny, like sunčica." She laughed, "I know, I heard. Funny!"

Overall it was an awesome day, and now Sunny's new nickname is Funny. And Andy's new nickname is Bubbles. But that's a story for another day.

The Best Christmas Package In The History Of The Universe

2006-12-10T14:53:00.000+01:00

On Friday morning I received The Best Christmas Package In The History Of The Universe. Seriously. It was chock full of love and presents and letters and happiness and Christmas cheer. There were a lot of wrapped items that I still haven’t opened, but some things that I have opened are: a package of Sour Patch Kids, some pictures of my mom and grandma and brother, and Season Two of that TV show, House. That was from my brother Tim. Last year our whole team watched Season One and sort of got addicted, and we were pretty excited about this new round of episodes- even the new team members!

Anyway, thanks Tim!

Also included were some letters. The one from my mom was loving and descriptive and had a story that made me laugh. My sister’s was just a random short anecdote, and it was pretty funny, but a bit vulgar. The one from my brother Tobin was probably one of the most amazing letters I’ve ever gotten. There were a few personally meaningful relics enclosed, along with some illustrations. It was philosophical, mundane, wacky, bizarre, and brilliant. Probably because we are products of the same gene pool, the madness made sense to me. I was reminded of who I am, and what I care about. In their own way, the hand-scribbled lines of all three notes made me feel known and loved in a rare way that I haven’t felt for a while.

A few excerpts:
“My mood makes me believe I could drink the Pacific, punch a star, and run on the clouds of the American man’s heart… You don’t understand? Neither do I…”

“Perhaps I will quit school and chill in the monastery with you. We can write there. And there is no telling what mysterious treasures would be drawn onto pages in those old damp rooms. Hundreds of years of spiritual crazy men egging us on – letting us pull out our souls to transcribe for the masses! [Where all that came from? Don’t know]…”
~This section was accompanied by an illustration of me writing, with a bulge labeled ‘hump’ (so as not to be mistaken for poor artistry) on my back, at a table specified as being 500 years old, with wild hair (“perfect locks- compliments of months of flaxseed oil!”) and a ‘clubbed ballet foot’- again, labeled.

“He has the ability (perhaps it comes with age, a lot of it) to transcend the madness and smile cockeyed at absolutely nothing. Nothing but wrinkled sun spotted Beauty.”

“I didn't capitalize that last sentence. My God that is freeing. I just brought down all of Language Education with a single letter…”

“I wish I had something more enduring or endearing to write…but nothing but tired fills my head.”

“I love you and miss the sh-- out of you... Alexis, you are an offspring of the Mind’s Eye – rare you are. Send my regards to the Team and remember your prison = my heart. (meaning you’ll never leave my heart)”

In case you ever wanted to know…

2006-12-09T15:47:00.000+01:00

…how a thermos works, my friend Dan has provided a nice explanation here.

Red Is Best

2006-12-08T23:10:00.000+01:00

When I was little I LOVED this book! Red is best, for so many reasons.

And here's our very own red ninja.

Although this picture looks more like a proud red brigadier statue.

Cause For Concern

2006-12-07T23:38:00.000+01:00

-Several nights ago, preceding the official commencement of our weekly apartment-cleaning party, I most definitely stated, “I think we’d better listen to Justin Timberlake.”

-On Tuesday I was on the Korzo with Allison and we saw a ridiculously adorable little black puppy. Now, that in itself is no crime. But it was SO CUTE, I literally almost started crying because it was just that cute. Seriously people, what the heck? I thought I was a stalwart anti-sentimentalist, but now I’m unsure.

-Tickle fighting has not only occurred, but has become commonplace(!).

I was worried about living with sorority girls. I thought we wouldn’t get along, wouldn’t relate, wouldn’t connect or find common ground. Never – never in my wildest imaginings – did I guess that I myself might be transformed into the bearer of such frightening and stereotypical hallmarks of extreme girly-ness. Heaven help us all.

Warning! Read disclaimer first.

2006-12-06T17:39:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: Before watching this video, please note that there is mention of male genitalia. Consider yourself informed.

"Injured Bad"

The Past Few Weeks

2006-12-05T13:28:00.000+01:00

...have been pretty packed!

Friends at Thanksgiving.

Allison unveiling her birthday star and putting it to good use.

Good times...

...and better times with the WSU guys.

Best. Night. Ever.

2006-12-04T23:29:00.000+01:00

Last Friday night the roommates and I watched Elf, drank very good beer imported by the WSU visitors, and ate these insanely tasty chocolate-peanut-butter creations that we had made during team time earlier that afternoon. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

Just thought you might want to know.

Courtesy of my junk-mail folder:

2006-12-04T23:16:00.000+01:00

“And the new with him by their faces so Tamar bare the wilderness and the sanctuary.”

Thank you, spammers.

Poet Laureate?!

2006-12-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

My boss, a.k.a. ‘coolest boss ever’, hosted a poetry contest in order to designate poets laureate for a bunch of states that didn’t have them. The other entrants and winners were real poets, so I hope his choosing me
for Washington was not offensive to them. I’m pretty sure it was a sympathy vote after a blah week on top of losing tag rights(!), which was my inspiration in the first place. Anyway, you should check out the others. I’m not all that into poetry, but the ones that have been posted so far are pretty cool.

And since this is likely to be the only poetry-themed post around here for quite a long while, here’s the only other poem I remember ever having written, from back in 5th or 6th grade or something (hard to tell when you’re homeschooled…):

I like my marbles round and bright
I polish them ‘most every night
Some people think I’ve gone quite mad
But I’ve still got my marbles…

Last Year At This Time

2006-12-03T21:11:00.000+01:00

Katie Walsh died one year ago. It was really sad for our team, and heartbreaking for her family, friends, and students and staff at the University of Montana. I remember Kevin Kneeshaw reading this about an hour after we found out:

Psalm 116
I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

English Standard Version

Real Life, Part 3: Sons & Daughters

2006-12-02T22:19:00.000+01:00

This series consists of a somewhat fictionalized account of things that probably actually happened but maybe not in this order, with a few identifying and temporal details altered.

Carole King is singing “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman” via the café sound system. I like the Aretha Franklin version better. Regardless of the artist, though, this song always makes me think of 3 specific things: 1) an old commercial extolling the virtues of 100% cotton clothing, 2) my brother laughing and using the term ‘natural woman’ in a condescending manner and 3) as a direct result of #2, my internal monologue questioning and speculating on the meaning of womanhood and what a ‘natural woman’ really ought to be, anyway. Perhaps in preparation for motherhood, perhaps not, I’ve been feeling much more like a natural woman these days. I’ve been learning to cook, and crying more, and earlier today I went shopping!

I tell my friend about the stores I went to in the new enormous shopping center that opened last week, and how much it reminds me of an American mall. She tells me about the boots she tried on this morning, and also about the true meaning of Zen Buddhism that can’t be put into human language.

Eventually our coffee date ends, and I head home to get working on some details for an event coming up. As I settle into my work, the doorbell rings. Taylor and another girl are doing a bible study in the living room, and someone opens the door for our visitor. Well, the visitor is one of my friends, dropping by unexpectedly. No big deal, really. I get out some cookies and offer coffee and tea. Suddenly her face falls. “This is katastrof!!” she exclaims. (Katastrof = catastrophic.) She glares, and pointing to my sock-covered feet with one hand, she grabs my calf with the other. Because I’m not wearing shoes or slippers, she proceeds to lecture me in extremely broken English and universal gesturing that I will have problems with my ovaries because of the cold from the floor traveling through my legs and right on up. Well, this would be an unfortunate development. It’s clear that our conversation will continue no further without shoes, so I go and put some on.

My friend leaves and my roommates and I start making dinner for ourselves, John and Andy, and a couple from church and their little boy who are coming over soon. We are so excited to have guests, but I am mainly looking forward to playing with a little kid. Spending time with kids used to be a big part of my life before moving to Croatia, but here even the toddlers speak Croatian better than I do (and no English), which makes things difficult.

Dinner’s going well, and the conversation is interesting enough. Little Nikola keeps running around and getting up and down and up and down from the table. He also keeps asking for Coke. His parents let him have a little bit at a time, but he is never satisfied. When the duties of politeness have been fulfilled, John, Sunny, and I practically run from the table into the living room to explore the wonders of tiny cars, plastic tigers, and a pirate toy with our smallest guest. The others continue to engage in normal adult interaction. Nikola keeps drinking Coke, and we are having lots and lots of fun. The evening is winding down and we say goodbye and thanks for coming. We put away the food and start to clean the dishes. Andy’s face tells us something is wrong.
“This isn’t Coke.”
“What do you mean it isn’t Coke? Of course it’s Coke.”
“No it isn’t. It’s bambus left over from last weekend. It’s Coke and wine!!!”

Maybe I’m not ready for children after all.

This may or may not be continued at some unidentified future time.

Real Life, Part 2: I Don’t Feel Like Dancing Or Singing!

2006-12-01T19:58:00.000+01:00

This series consists of a somewhat fictionalized account of things that probably actually happened but maybe not in this order, with a few identifying and temporal details altered.

John and I are in the Philosophy building handing out planners and giving surveys. It’s pretty fun, and people seem very responsive today. An older lady approaches us and asks if professors can participate, too. Of course they can! We love meeting professors, and Iva is very friendly. She’s telling us all her ideas of ways we can serve the students better, and topics she wants us to do seminars on. She starts talking about Turkey (the country) and how she used to do ballet dancing. I am getting really excited at this point. Maybe too excited. But what are the odds? I might want to move to Turkey some day, and I used to do ballet, and I’m so happy I’m grinning. We keep talking about dancing and other things and trying to go to coffee sometime. And John is grinning, too. Because she said belly dancing. Not ballet.

My work there is done, and I’m on my way home to practice guitar, which I am very much looking forward to. The sidewalk up ahead is obstructed by a delivery van, so I make a quick choice between dodging oncoming traffic and maneuvering between the van and the storefront. I opt for the squeeze, and right before flattening myself against the crumbling exterior of the building, the deliveryman crosses my path. Dressed in a bright blue jumpsuit with wisps of white hair stirring in the wind, he bursts through the door. Upon entering the small market, he breaks into song, belting out, “I love you BABY!!! And if it’s quite alright, I need you BABY...” It’s obvious that the twenty-something serenade-ee is just as surprised as I am, and I smile the rest of the way home.

A few minutes after I get there, my friend/guitar buddy arrives. She’s very friendly and sweet and is teaching me how to play. I make some tea for us and get out the honey and sugar. While we’re pouring and steeping, and catching up with one another, I put a few drops of honey in my tea, but then ask for the sugar because the honey is this dark kind that tastes funky and I really don’t like it. She demands to know why I want sugar and why I don’t use more honey. I start explaining that I don’t like the taste, but before the words come out she lectures me on the importance of caring for my voice. Lemon is good, and so is honey, but NOT sugar. I begin to protest, “But, but I don’t need to care for my voice, I’m not--“
“Today you must sing!” She takes my steaming tea and pours 2/3 of it into the jar, melting and absorbing all of the remaining honey, then she returns the mixture to my cup. “There. Drink that.” At this point I’m pretty much speechless. Not knowing what else to do I begin to lift the beverage to my lips, but she stops me. “No, no. Now it is too hot, wait for it to cool,” she says, simultaneously miming the presumed scalding of my vocal chords that would occur were I to drink such hot liquid.

We make our way into the bedroom, beverages in hand. Getting settled and ready to play, I take a sip of the now-lukewarm nasty-honey-infused tea. I try to hide it but my face contorts. My companion nods approvingly, “Yes, this is very good for you.” We run through some chords and strumming patterns and I’m happy because it’s getting easier. Then she lays out a simple worship song and says, “We will sing this now.” I start to play, just barely humming along while concentrating on keeping the whole guitar-playing thing going, assuming that she will do the singing part. She stops me.
“Why you not sing?”
“Um…”
“WHY you not sing? You must sing.”
“Well, it’s in Croatian, and I can read it, but it’s hard to concentrate on both…”
“I will play then, and you will sing. We will sing in English.”
Things are getting uncomfortable. She doesn’t seem to realize that I Do. Not. Sing. in front of other people unless it's like a whole group worship thing because then it's required by Jesus and I don't want to be struck down. I see that she will do everything short of climbing down my throat and working my pipes herself to make me sing out loud. I try once more to say that I don't want to and as I sing quietly she becomes extremely grave. She rebukes me for not worshiping the Lord and fighting the 'negatives' away by raising my voice. What can I do? I sing.

To Be Continued...

Real Life, Part 1: Lazy Eye

2006-11-30T18:14:00.000+01:00

This series consists of a somewhat fictionalized account of things that probably actually happened but maybe not in this order, with a few identifying and temporal details altered.

It’s a beautiful sunny day. It feels like September, but it’s almost December. I may have just gotten kicked in the face by life, but I don’t really care, I can handle it. In fact, I’m feeling better every minute, and just the experience of noticeably progressing from depressed to joyful makes me a little giddy. I almost start skipping right there on the Korzo, but don’t. That’s not really like me. When I was younger I actually believed I could skip faster than I could run, and skipping always felt like I was flying.

I get to the café and sit down at the table with my friend. The seating is a little awkward and I’m sort of on the corner.
“Have you heard the story about sitting at the corner of the table?”
“Uh, no…”
“It means you’ll never get married.”
I laugh lightly and shift my chair. Inside I think, Awesome, thanks for that.

We start talking about Christmas decorations and traveling and whether or not I’ll move here permanently. I glance down at the table and notice her keychain. There’s a little attachment, sort of transparent and jelly-like, with rhinestone eyes and a little tail… Is that a ghost? Oh. No. No, wait. Yes. That is definitely a sperm cell. I jerk my head up, afraid my distraction was noticeable. It seems it wasn’t, and conversation continues.

She shows me a picture of Josh Hartnett taped in her notebook, and earnestly sermonizes me on his finer qualities. I don’t really agree, but politely nod along. This example of the mystery of human attraction reminds me of the grocery store clerk I stalked for about 5 years. So I tell her about Hans and how to this day I consider him to probably be the most physically attractive person in existence (and he is so smart, too) - even though I think he does drugs and my family swears he has a lazy eye. But when it’s love, it’s love, right? No? You don't agree? Whatever. I don’t care what you think.

To Be Continued…

More Good Stuff

2006-11-29T11:47:00.000+01:00

[Big sigh of relief]
Tonight we had a big event we've been working on for a while, and it went pretty well!

We were so excited to see how God provided everything we needed, including a location, technological know-how (Jason, one of the visitors here last week, helped us get everything figured out), equipment, translation, volunteers, attendees, and many other things. It was so cool to see everything come together, and about 36 students came (plus us), which was perfect for the size of the café/pub that we were in. Now we're tired, but happy.

Tomorrow we've set aside most of the day to rest and personally connect with and enjoy God, and tomorrow night we'll celebrate Allison's birthday. Good times.

The last week or so has been sort of tough, but tonight was such a cool reminder of what really matters and how great the God I serve is. I was nervous because it was my job to talk about some of my own story, and what Christ has done in my life, and how I think the gospel actually matters and relates to us today in the midst of both small personal issues and major global problems. It seemed like too much to try to tie together, but somehow God helped it to come out and it was so cool to see students get excited and share ideas and engage in conversation about real things that truly matter.

Great news!

2006-11-28T23:55:00.000+01:00

Taylor and I got a call yesterday from Zoran who heard from MUP that we were approved for our visas! Yay! There are a few more things we have to do (of course) but we should be home free, at least until March when we're supposed to re-apply...
At any rate, we're happy for now.

Two down, four to go!

Obligatory post.

2006-11-27T23:53:00.000+01:00

I'll be glad when November is over and I won't have any commitment to hold to when I don't feel like blogging.

A few items of note:

-Sunny has a sty in her eye.

-Our apartment is really, really dirty right now. Normally we have cleaning parties on Monday nights, but tonight we had some much needed girl time and just talked and caught up with one another. Even though we technically live together, it's hard to connect all at once when things are so busy.

-Today I got to talk to my best friend on the phone! Due to complicated phone arrangements, we haven't gotten to speak to each other in 3 months and I miss her so much. It was really wonderful to be able to encourage one another at a time when we both really need it.

-Tonight I went to an art class with one of my friends here. It was SO fun! I think Sunny might start going, too.

That's it.

Okay, more than a little bummed out…

2006-11-26T18:58:00.000+01:00

Shortly after I posted that last entry, I had a couple of really difficult conversations that left me feeling pretty much pummeled emotionally.

I’ve heard this analogy before that we are like grapes and God ‘squeezes’ us with various challenging or painful circumstances, and when we are pressed, wine comes out. Basically the idea is that it’s all for the best and we should aim to allow good things to come out of us when we’re feeling crushed.

But that doesn’t feel true right now. Everything seems more literal to me. I feel like I’m getting squashed, but I’m not a cute, sweet little grape. I am a person. And when people get squashed, it is pretty gross. Grape juice doesn’t come out. Instead, it’s bones, bile, blood, guts, snot, tears, saliva… all kinds of unpleasant things. And not in the nice, predictable and steady stream that comes to mind when I think of wine being poured out. No. Things come out in ugly, shocking bursts and squirts, with tearing, popping and groaning.

A few weeks ago I felt like things were going pretty well overall in most areas of life, and the things that were challenging me were subtle, long-term type things. There was no real drama or distress or anything unexpected.

Now I feel plunged into the midst of some chaotic and confusing battle, and don’t quite feel ready for it. But there’s no time for feeling unprepared, because I’m here and can’t help it.

I just finished a book by G.K. Chesterton. It was beautiful and wonderful in many ways, but I'll just share two short excerpts:

1) A direct quote:
"Cold pheasant is a good thing," said Syme reflectively, "and Burgundy is a spanking good thing..."

I really love the word spank, used in various forms as an adjective or expletive. In fact, everything I feel about the last week could probably be summed up (with the right tone, posture, and facial expression, of course) by simply saying, 'Spank.'

2) There are a lot of plot twists in the story, and people you thought were good/bad turn out to be the opposite, etc. and there is a scene where the main characters are basically questioning and responding to the 'God' character after everything has been revealed.

Here are the last few responses:

Bull said, "I understand nothing, but I am happy. In fact, I am going to sleep."

"I am not happy," said the Professor with his head in his hands, "because I do not understand. You let me stray a little too near to hell."

And then Gogol said, with the absolute simplicity of a child-
"I wish I knew why I was hurt so much."

Maybe someday we will understand. Maybe we never will.

Feeling a little bummed out.

2006-11-25T20:50:00.000+01:00

The last week or so has been pretty crazy. Thanksgiving was great, and it has been really fun to have Jason, Jesse, and Kyle here from WSU. The last few days have included much laughter, much cooking, more cleaning, and little bit of chaos, too :-).

During the last 5 days or so I have found out that two couples that I know and love were expecting babies! Then I found out that one couple lost their baby. I can't really imagine what that is like, but it breaks my heart to see people that I love go through something so painful.

We've also had some drama regarding our residency/visa situation here. On Monday it seemed like Taylor and I were the ones in jeopardy. Then on Wednesday things changed and Taylor and I were fine, but the other 4 teammates were in trouble. Now things are uncertain. There is a pretty decent possibility that John might need to leave Croatia for 3 months, and that is tough to swallow. Logically speaking, we know everything will be okay. Even if people have to leave, they'll probably get to come back, and of course God is always in control. But to be honest, this is no fun to think about and I am really hoping and praying that everyone will get to stay in Rijeka.

What I am most thankful for right now is that God is greater than sadness, death, loss, defeat, pain, loneliness, fear, separation, and uncertainty. In all of those things He has repeatedly shown Himself faithful, and has been my joy and hope. He is greater than those things, and He is Good, and He is There. Knowing that whatever comes next, He will indeed be There as He always is, even though I often forget, is enough. And I am grateful.

Dan zahvalnosti*

2006-11-24T17:13:00.000+01:00

Well, it turned out that we had about 40 or so friends come last night, plus the 9 of us Americans. It was a really fun evening and the festivities lasted until around 1:30am. Today we've been taking it easy (sort of) and cooking some more for a low key, smaller scale repeat tonight.

*Thanks for the spelling tip, Zoran :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T18:40:00.000+01:00

Here it's called 'Dan za Hvalnosti' and it was so nice out today!

In about an hour a bunch of students are coming over for pie and turkey, it should be fun, although we have no idea how many people will be here...

Last Week

2006-11-23T18:30:00.000+01:00

Taylor's group at the English workshop

Sanja, Natasha, Sunny, and Maja hanging out at our girls movie night last Friday

To Be Alone With You

2006-11-22T23:51:00.000+01:00

I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your Ghost

To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me you went up on the tree

I've never known a man who loved me

Sufjan Stevens

The Transfiguration

2006-11-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

When he took the three disciples
to the mountainside to pray,
his countenance was modified,
his clothing was aflame.
Two men appeared:
Moses and Elijah came;
they were at his side.
The prophecy, the legislation spoke of whenever he would die.

Then there came a word of what he should accomplish on the day.
Then Peter spoke, to make of them a tabernacle place.
A cloud appeared in glory as an accolade.
They fell on the ground.
A voice arrived, the voice of God,
the face of God, covered in a cloud.

What he said to them, the voice of God: the most beloved son.
Consider what he says to you, consider what's to come.
The prophecy was put to death, was put to death, and so will the Son.
And keep your word, disguise the vision till the time has come.

Lost in the cloud, a voice: Have no fear! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Turn your ear!
Lost in the cloud, a voice: Lamb of God! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Son of God!

Sufjan Stevens