Celebrating the Birth

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

J and I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

our tree all lit up! (this pic is copyrighted- do not copy)

Merry Christmas to and from my family!!!

OH the JOY of OUR SAVIOR'S BIRTH!!!!

This is for my parents - click here

Yes I did get your e-card! sorry I forgot to tell you! 

LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!

poor quality .. got to get better at this!

ps - if you forgot how to view the video... click on the title

Night Clubs and the songs you may hear...

So, about a month ago, I tagged along with my American pal here to one of her friend's 80's theme night club event. Let's just say it was fun! Some songs I heard were:

1. Madonna... several

2. Girls Just want to have Fun

3. Metallica- you name it... i prolly heard it

4. GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

5. YMCA! of course, but the americans were the only ones doing the hand motions...

Overall, it was a really great night where I was able to connect with some girls and listen to some fun music! Please take a minute to rejoice in meeting them and our relationship with them! We even topped off the night at 1 am(which was leaving really early for them!) with chocolate desserts and tea! yummm!

Highlight:

Here is one of the songs that played before... Cherokee style... this one is for you Stacy R!

EYE OF THE TIGER! for all you LSU fans out there- Katie K!

(sorry for the poor quality!)

Enjoy!

the beginning video

hey

here is the first video from like two months ago. i finally figured out how to get it on here!

CB

ps- click on the title 'the beginning video' to go to the page

Look at this!

I am so excited to share this with you all! I got to go with a group of tourist to an area that overlooks most of the area I live around. Cool huh?

This is where our lives encompass!!! yeah! it's huge, holding about 3 million just in this district!  If you could take a few minutes and just look over this area and ya know... talk about it :) that would be AMAZING! it is almost like walking around except you are looking around! It is cool that you can be so far away and still be a HUGE  part of my life and experiences here!

*starting at the first picture and  as you go down the picture show the lay out of the view from left to right. I live at the bottom(across the street) of that tall building at the very left in the distance of the picture below.

I hope you can one day come a see this for yourselves!

Sea of people

So there are a lot of people - masses of people. And you can see thousands of them from this point looking down this street. They say that a million people will walk through this area in just one night. 

Take a minute. 

Focus on this picture.

Then close your eyes and picture this please:

If you can just imagine getting or being lost in this sea of people and being the only one who can see the light... then you can understand the massive numbers here of just people who live here. It's HUGE! 

99.9 percent.

That is it.

Do you see it?

Happy 1 Month with Sardines!

Creativity

I don't care who you are. Even if you are an artist {my mam-maw(grandmother for those who don't live in the south.. or those who are wondering what word i just made up)}- was one so I want you to no that was not to be offensive because God has given you an absolutely amazing talent! However, to the point....

No one can create and recreate sunsets the way my God can. Look how beautiful it is! 

"Let there be light and there was light... and light was good and he separated the light from the darkness... called light 'day' and darkness 'night'...there was evening ...

...Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate the water from water.... and so God made the expanse and separated the expanse from the water above it. And it was so... called the expanse 'sky'...

Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let the dry ground (earth)... And it was so... called the dry ground ' land'....

and called the gathered waters 'seas'.

And God saw that it was good.

There is so much more. This is just some of what is in the first chapter of Genesis! If you keep reading you find that He create all the plants, two light- one greater(sun) and one less(moon), seasons, stars, animals on land and in the seas,

and yes, even man and woman. 

Then God rested. And that, that is what I did today. Rested on my 7th day.

Extra long visits. Extra long bread.

Julie and I invited our neighbors over this week, 3 sisters- all single. It was fun to feed them red beans and rice(yes!) and lemon squares(which they did not exactly love). But we had a great time(3 hours to be exact!!!) just sitting and talking and trying to communicate using two languages! We were able to share some great conversation about our thoughts on the truth, and they shared their too. I hope to see them more! You can be thankful that we have great neighbors and they are already open to talking with us!!!

Language is going. I need to study more, but it is coming along! Sometimes, I catch myself realizing that this is real life and my job depends on it! haha (like it wasn't real life before or something...) haha. 

Extras pics you may not have seen yet... (unless you have facebook!)

Thought you might like this picture. It was for a going away party... apparently the red staches was a big deal. I love this picture! 

It seems like life here revolves around bread(and chai/cay). So I hope you enjoy this extra long bread serving!

have you ever lived in a city that doesn't have canned pumpkin? Well, I do! So my wonderful friend Rindy showed me how to make pumpkin sauce! yum!!!

Classic sun in your face, squinting you eyes and trying to smile all at the same time! 

Washers and Dryers

this is a poem in honor of our new washing machine

The Washing Machine

by D. Bennett

The washing machine spins

Cleaning my clothes again

I consider biting my nails

And wonder if I can sleep

Tomorrow you will arrive(it has arrived!!!!)

Will it all work out?

Will I be enough for you?

What will it all bring?

Your so wonderful and pretty

You make my heart sing.

I think and feel and know.

I really want this to work.

And i don't have one for the dryer I wish I had! haha but the pictures should so you how I ghetto-fied drying my clothes!

 

Happy 3 months!

our first meal at our new apartment! quesadillas!

It's official! I have been at my job for three whole months!

We just got the rest of our stuff moved into our house, so it is a mess but I am so excited for when it will feel like 'home' or 'our apartment.' I feel like our nesting time is just now starting. So by the time we really settle in we will have been here a month! wow!

We have even met several of our neighbors. Just last night even two girls came over to bring us cookies. They just moved into their place downstairs a month ago and are about our age. Please remember them and our relationship with them.

Language is coming along. I have a full week of language study- 3 times a week, 3 hours, and extra study. Tutoring is starting soon. I really want to learn the language and be able to communicate and understanding them fluently!

PICTURE TIME!!!!

... from this last weekend....

Well... i wanted to make sugar cookies, but i forgot to buy oil and all we had was olive oil. 

They tasted like olive oil, and we couldn't cut them to look like pumpkins... 

It was just bad... but then we made chocolate frosting! And they were amazing.

This is the elevator at brittany and april's apartment. It said it holds 4 people.

Costume party!

French Toast!!! I made it like my momma. YUMMM!!!

Eating with the girls. Of course we had to take a picture!

Hanging out on the side of the boat.

THANKS FOR COMING TO LOOK AT MY SITE!

NEXT POST: MY NEW APARTMENT!

Happy Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY!!!!

(well both were two days ago!)

My friend brittany.

This last week I....

This last week I...

-learned to take off my shoes when going into my apartment

-learned the word for slippers, toilet, and 'how much does this cost' only cause they remind me of English words. (before language class!)

-Travel on a boat from one side of the city to the other.

another friend!

my roommate Julie

-ran in a little fun 6K race this last weekend in the pouring raining with thousands of other people.

- hear a song about mustaches....

-went to language  class for the first time!!! eeeekk!

-rode on the bus all by myself - new everything- new way to get from one place to the other... i felt VERY successful!

-ate some amazing food

-drank coffee at a cafe with an amazing view!

-actually started to recognize some words and bus stops!!! 

-had six people outside my apartment at 9 at night mostly speaking another language - some broken english trying to help me understand when to pay my rent. They were so great! I really have some very nice neighbors!

- got on the wrong bus to go back home once

View from one window in my apartment at night!

on the other side

Here is a brief little update of my first 5 days!

Day #0 (cause our "first" floor in the USA is their 'Zero' floor here) Friday

Arrived and meet like 15 plus people! The other Americans friends are so welcoming.

Day #1 Saturday

Hung out at a house group learning about our Father and singing some fun tunes.

Day #2 Sunday

Drove in some crazy city traffic of from Europe to Asia(my first time to ever cross the bridge and I was driving!!!)

Day #3 

Orientation on Europe side

Day #4

Orientation  on Asia side

Stayed with April and Brittany.

April almost didn't make it on the bus because it started taking off and julie had drop here akbil to get her on the bus and there was another larger older woman standing talking to the driver. it was reallllly funny. Our friend Ed who was taking us around just walked to the back of the bus and acted like he didn't know us....

Day #5 

Traveling solo with Julie back to our apt.  Definitely  took the wrong bus but we meet two university student that helped us out!

I really want to upload some video! so next time hopefully!

One big update for AUG- OCT 15th!

Hello all! 

I have probably already left, or am leaving, or... am already there. However, I thought I would give you a little Video of my last night and the luggage I had to pack...hopefully it works.

Also, here are some pics from the last few months. They are a little out of order but mostly in the order of more recent to the past. 

great neighbors

the last supper...

My bff. one last picture.

Some other 'sisters'

Two other great friends!

Molly got married!

My friend Timothy came for a visit.

and oh how he loves Tech!

Finale at chili's

Who knows???

We are some amazing 5K runners

Anyone want to take a guess?

Louisiana street!

State fair!

my former living quarters!

Crazy rides in the car

Cheesecake Factory Night

Girls Ice Cream Run

hanging out at a b-day party