Tuesday, September 30, 2003
hahaha. had this conversation while visions of jason's demanding ex-gf was dancing in my head. :P
happy birthday, nate! says:
let's try moxy's!! is that your fave place? wanna come pick me up?
Little Rat says:
sure thing
Little Rat says:
around 11:30am ish
happy birthday, nate! says:
alrighty!! are you allowed to take a long lunch break?
Little Rat says:
I'm not in the office, I don't have office hourse.
happy birthday, nate! says:
ooh... you're not in the office??
happy birthday, nate! says:
oh wait, you're back in school.... oh yeah!!
happy birthday, nate! says:
shoudl i meet you there then? since you're comign from.... up there somewhere.
happy birthday, nate! says:
my dad should be home... i think. so i can take the car.
Little Rat says:
it's okay
happy birthday, nate! says:
are ya sure?? i can drive, ya know.
Little Rat says:
i noticed...
happy birthday, nate! says:
[grin]
happy birthday, nate! says:
i dont' wanna be one of those demanding girls. hahaha.
Little Rat says:
that's not too deamnding
happy birthday, nate! says:
yeah, it is... you just go down the dvp and you're there!!
Little Rat says:
le'ts go together, it's more fun
happy birthday, nate! says:
but this way you gotta go along the 401 a whole 15 min adn then go that way baaack just to get to moxy's. AND THEN the same thing on the way home to drop me off!! yikes... that is a whole entire HOUR of driving you dont' hafta do. forget it!! i'm driving!!!! :P
Little Rat says:
you know how to get there then?
happy birthday, nate! says:
yuppers!! i've seen it before. just never walked in.
Little Rat says:
cool, i'll meet you there at 12 then
happy birthday to nate the great!!
and happy belated to clara bo bara. :D (sept 28)
Monday, September 29, 2003
my great big sis. :) ... and her man. welcome!
so... i woke up at 4:30 today... yes, PM. i'm officially messed up. jet lag is such a great excuse.
brr... the chilly autumn weather. so diff from the warm rays of the croatian sun. wish i was still there... basking in its light. i wonder how ciaran, peta and ben are doing there.
a german boy asked me why i painted my face so dark... i said - i didn't paint my face... it's a TAN. lol.
but it's nice to be back and experiencing the brisk fall weather of canada. i walk down the street and colourful leaves swirl around me. not that i've walked down the street much lately. i've spent most of my time indoors at home... still in denial, i guess. still reflecting, still figuring things out, still asking questions. still being lazy.
i think it's time i stopped focusing my energies on ppl who don't really care to be my friend and start caring more about those who are my real friends.
what i wouldn't give to be soaking in a pool at szechyni right now... basking in the sun, warm water covering my entire body from head to toe except for my eyes, nose and mouth. mmmmm..... warmth, comfort, safety. peace.
Friday, September 26, 2003
ann, i miss God too....
i'm glad you're out of the fish's stomach. :) and you are so hilarious!! you and ken have such a silly relationship. :D gotta love it! heehee. i am jealous. ;)
some ppl share their prayer requests on their blogs and others share what they're thankful for. i've never really done that, but i think i'd like to start. so here's the beginning of my lists.
thanks God!
1. for the chance and the time to travel and see new places, learn about history, different cultures, and make new friends.
2. for my family who loves me no matter how i treat them.
3. for wongs, who is always loyal and has always been there for me whenever i needed a friend to laugh with or a shoulder to cry on.
4. for angee, whom i can be completely honest with and who continually opens my eyes to new horizons.
5. for music, that can calm or excite or comfort. and express our thoughts when there are no words.
prayer requests
1. direction. i'm not sure where God wants me to go right now... a job in toronto, a job overseas? i can't seem to sense where he is guiding me right now.
2. role at cpc. after being away for an entire month and out of the loop at church, i'm still not sure what my role is here. what ministry, what level of serving in each area, how my gifts fit into all of this.
3. my sis at mac. she's having a hard time adjusting to the work load and understanding what's being taught. pls pray for her that she will have peace and wisdom to face the changes.
4. wongs in aachen. praise God for the great friends he has made in germany, but pray also for friends there who can support him in his daily walk with God. pray for his discipline in coming to God in prayer and immersing himself in the word each day. and that he would seek first HIS kingdom.
since coming back to toronto, i've been fighting the wave of busyness that i can feel coming. already my sunday is completely booked. ppl are busy here... oh so busy. in germany i had all the time in the world to relax, walk around town, talk to ppl, take a nap, eat, read a book, pray. now that i'm back, my calendar is filling up. my brother isn't home til late sat night. my dad has meeting after meeting, sermon after sermon to prepare. such is life.... but is it? i'm not convinced that it has to be...
AND i miss the "city on a hill" cd. heehee. :P
i've got "the stone" running thru my head.... the stone that the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone...
hey kiddos... so i'm home again, home again... jiggity jig. it feels sorta weird... that everything is familiar. and i can READ ALL THE SIGNS! lol. yesterday, riding the bus thru london from stansted to heathrow i caught myself wondering - this is strange - why do i understand everything?
and ppl don't speak with accents, and i don't have to worry about opening my mouth and being able to talk to ppl cuz i don't speak german. but you know what? i almost miss saying "dankeschen" (um... is that how you spell it??) and "tschuss" already.
here i am. back to life. back to reality. and finding a job. and cleaning my room. and studying. back to my old wannabe productive self.
i miss wongs.....
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
sleepless in aachen
ok, so i'm not really sleepless... just procrastinating from sleeping is all. don't ask me why. i guess i just miss being online all the time. wongs is fast asleep as he should be. poor boy has to go to work tmr. work shmerk. and then we are making dinner for jason and his 3 roommates... how did we get roped into that?? ;) jk. i hope it'll be fun! my last night in aachen... *sniff, sniff*. at first i had big plans to go to cologne tmr... i've been there twice but haven't really walked around town on my own and look at stuff yet. haven't been to the chocolate museum. but i think i'm gonna cop out and just take it easy again tmr. well, maybe not as easy as i took it today. it was raining outside, so all i did was go to the markt in the morning and then sleeeeep again. and lie around and listen to worship music (something i miss very, very much) and spend some time with God and go online. what a life. :)
some personal msgs...
sus - hey, i checked your blog tonight for the first time in a LONG time and discovered you had blogged!!! and been blogging for such a loong time too!! every since i was away. :) well, ever since your birthday. ya know, i really like your entries. you have an artsy-ness to you. :) and you're so honest. i wish i could be that honest....
angee - what time are you getting in? it's like 8 pm over there now i think... i wanted to sign your gbk but i kept getting an X on the letter/number combo thingy you have to type in before they'll post, so it wouldn't work. darn.
i went away for a month and 2 really great things happen to my brother... tmr he starts his new job!! maybe HE should go away for a month now. and good things will happen to me. :)
i wonder what life back home will be like. i've been gone for an entire month... not so long i guess you would probably say, but it seems so long to me for some reason. the last time i went away for 5 wks, i came back and it felt like this gaping hole that i had missed in so many ppl's lives.... at least i know what's been going on with my family. and with everyone else... i'll hafta find out... a couple things have come and gone... i missed the buck. but i wouldn't have traded this adventure for anything... good times. and i for sure know wongs a whole lot better now... i think. though i still don't have him completely figured out. :)
Monday, September 22, 2003
2 more days til i go home.... but i dont' wanna go back yet! :( it's been so much fun since we got back from our trip. i really love it in aachen! fri and sat i was sorta cranky cuz i was still tired from the trip... sat night we went to wongs' roommate fritzi's grad party. she's just graduated from a speech therapist program so we all went to party with her! her friend christina was spending a whole lotta time at our place while they were studying just before we left on our trip cuz they had something like 16 exams in 3 wks - crazy!! i had a ton of fun dancing - i discovered it gives me a natural high!! so tiring though... i don't think i've ever put so much energy into dancing before. germans play weird music, but if it's alright music i'll dance to it! and on the dance floor, everyone is your friend! heehee.
sunday i got to go to ibc (international baptist church) - wongs' church and worship with them. it was refreshing to go to church again after 3 wks of travelling. the service was super long - 2.5 h and then at least an hour of fellowship and cleaning up afterwards. wongs had worship team practise before service too, so we got there around 1 pm and left the church at 6 pm!! but it didn't seem that long at all. i really loved the service - they had tons of time for sharing about what God has been doing in their life and in the lives of those around them and lots of ppl shared! there was also the chance for ppl to pray out loud too. there was a pastor and his wife visiting from tanzania (or was it uganda?) who shared and sang a couple african songs for us... it was great! i really miss that kinda music. we went for coffee at starbucks with church ppl after the fellowship time and then a loong dinner with wongs' friend renee from church who spent most of the time telling us about his wedding plans. he's getting married in capetown, south africa to a south african girl.... really cool! :) he sounds pretty excited about it all. :)
today i spent most of the day in maastricht, a town in holland. the one that i flew into. it's actually a really nice place... there's a river and lots of shops in the city centre. i spent some time relaxing at a cafe after walking around for a couple hours. it took me a couple hours to find the tourist info so i was walking randomly for awhile. i had a vague idea of where i was going. :) it was sorta dead in the south end of the city cuz it was monday - and all museums, galleries and even a lot of shops and cafes are closed on mondays. when i got back, we went out for german food with jason and chris. it was so much fun!! they are hilarious!! such great ppl. :D i'm really glad i get to stay for a few days after our trip so i get to see more of what wongs' life here is like. that's one of the reasons i wanted to come visit him. it's so diff here, but at the same time, it's not. it's been great meeting his friends and chilling with them. his roommates and close friends are so friendly and welcoming. maybe it's cuz they're so used to wongs having visitors that they're used to this by now. :P
ok, it's almost 2. i better get to bed if i wanna make it in time for the market tmr on early tues morn!! nite y'all. :)
Friday, September 19, 2003
The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all the hurt.
max lerner, journalist
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
hey you guys! i'm in budapest right now. last stop on our trip. wongs and i are staying at a hostel here and having a blast! meeting lotsa great ppl and having fun. he's taking it easy while i satisfy my museum hopping urges. :) i went to the opera tonight!! this really generous guy had tickets so i went! and the opera house is AMAZING!!! well, i better go cuz i'm on free internet at the hostel and there's a lineup. so tell ya more l8r! ciao. :)
Thursday, September 11, 2003
funny how wongs said that bosnia isn't that diff from croatia when i said it was so diff! :) but it's true... everywhere we go we never fail to see benetton and ppl sitting at cafes drinking coffee. it's like they don't hafta go to work or something!
today we sent spent the day walking around the old city of sarajevo, looking at religious buildings in the morn. there are roman catholic, serbian orthodox, jewish and muslim places of worship all within a few hundred square metres of each other. very interesting! i've never been to an orthodox service before... i wonder what it'd be like. the chairs seem to be all along the outside of the main hall rather than directed towards one central focal point at the front. and there are little altar-like things set up around the hall for saints. and a huge iconostase of icons at the front. we've been having some real bosnian food and wongs really likes this bosnian coffee that is sorta cute and interesting the way they serve it. they grind up the beans and put it all into this little serving pot. let it settle and the hot water soak up the good coffee-ness. then you put in a couple sugar cubes into a little tea cup (sorta like a chinese one) and pour the coffee over them. let it sit for awhile for the grounds to settle, sugar to melt. and there you go. all served on a copper platter, tea with a piece of turkish delight.
we also saw the bridge that archduke franz ferdinand and his wife sofie crossed before there were assassinated, but didn't get to stand on it cuz it's being reconstructed right now. tmr we're gonna go on a tour of the city and also to the war tunnel museum - a tunnel that was the only way sarajevo was connected to the rest of the world while they were under siege from the war. we're also gonna see a photo exhibition of the siege and i wanna go to a gallery of bosnian artists. then off to belgrade we go... this trip is going by so fast... i don't want it to end!! but at the same time it feels like i've been travelling forever. :) i wonder what it'd be like to travel for an entire yr... i met a japanese girl in zadar who had been travelling for 3.5 months and was gonna go for another 11 more. crazy! all across europe and asia...
oh, i should comment about wongs' remarks about croatian girls. it's true that there is a really high ratio of girls to guys that we saw. but i wouldn't entirely agree with his comment that they're all good looking. i think a lot of the "good looking-ness" has to do with style and body type. clothes they where, hair and make up, etc. and i also think sunglasses usually automatically make girls look better. hehe. so yeah... i wouldn't agree that they're all hot, but most of them do have nice bodies (according to the media induced image of "good" - i.e. tall and skinny.)
ok, wongs is saying how i'm blogging AGAIN so i will stop here. :P bye!
finding a husband interesting...
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
we're in sarajevo now... got in this afternoon from mostar. it's diff here. not the little croatian coastal town i was getting used to seeing. sarajevo is a bigger city, more pollution, more big buildings and traffic. we're spending 3 nights here. mostar was so diff - lotsa buildings still standing with big holes in them. and buildings and homes still in use with bullet holes in them. we stayed at the home of a girl who has lived in mostar all her life except during the war when her family moved to belgrade. when they came back afterwards, they found 3 muslim families occupying their home, so they got the police to help them reclaim their home back. now she's 22 and has a 1.5 yr old son. her husband doesn't earn very much as a security guard, so they supplement their income by renting out rooms to tourists during the summer. we met a guy who works for the world bank while we were looking the old bridge, stari most, being reconstructed. he told us that there is still a lot of underlying tension and deep-seated anger btwn muslims and croats on either side of the bridge.
i got lotsa long update emails from ppl back home today. everything back there seems so distant and far away. and i can't keep track of each day and what ppl would be doing back there. it seems so much longer than 2 wks that i've been away from home. and each day doesn't seem like a full day - it seems like a wk! hearing about my sister's new life at mac, what's going on with my family, what's going on at cpc, with small group and fellowship.... i wonder if this is what it would be like if i went overseas to work for a yr or two. it would really take a whole lot of effort to keep in touch with ppl and keep thinking of them and what they're up to when you have a new life somewhere else.
you know what i've found? smiling is still a universal ice breaker! :) when i smile, old men and babies alike will wave at me. :P and i think i seem less threatening to ppl when i do that - even when i look diff from them and maybe a little imposing or foreign. so i try to do it as much as possible. most ppl will smile back at me or at least not look so mean or solemn-faced. though that wasn't the case in aachen. :P
ok, i've been on here way too long so i'm getting off. bye!
Monday, September 08, 2003
this might be my last post in awhile. today was a relaxing day so we were gonna go swimming and chill at cafes, but it turned out rainy so we couldn't do what we originally planned. but we did go swimming in the end anyhow! rain or shine. :) we found this sorta sandy beach (all the other beaches are rocky. dubrovnik, the city itself is built into all rock) with deserted chairs and umbrellas and just waded into the water and jumped waves! i've never swam in the ocean or lake before, so this was quite an experience... such big waves! the wind was pretty strong. we had watched the waves swell against the rocks before and that was pretty crazy. the salt burned my nose and mouth though so i didn't go in for very long. wongs was in for quite awhile though, yelling at the waves and everything. hahaha. so funny! he cracks me up all the time.
ppl in europe sit in cafes all the time and ppl watch. they deliberately sit facing the street and just watch ppl walk by. today we sat down at a cafe, caught in the rain, beside this old couple. the man beside me was taking pics of interesting ppl running by in the rain and saying how he wished he had a telephoto lens so he could take better pics! lol!! i like the concept though... the idea of chilling at a cafe and doing your own thing, watching ppl walk by. when i come back i'm gonna hafta go dt more often and sit on a patio somewhere and do that. too bad it'll be cold by the time i get back... the weather has been so beautiful here other than today. and i have more of a tan! :)
tmr we are off to mostar! ... if we catch our bus in the morning. :P
Saturday, September 06, 2003
so here i am again... by the amount of times i've updated in the last couple days you'd think we were bored!! but it's the total opposite!!
last night was really cool. i had been wanting to meet local croatian ppl for awhile cuz i find that when you're travelling, you do all the tourist things and see all the tourist sites. watch ppl, sit at caffe bars and relax, even stay at a croatian woman's home. but all of this you are observing from the outside. even though we are in croatia, we are still watching everything, not really able to get into the heads of ppl and understand what it is like to live in croatia. so i wanted to meet someone who was from here. well, God answered that prayer yesterday just when i had prayed it at lunch!! (i think it was at lunch). after internet, wongs and i grabbed some food and headed back to where we were staying. on the way, we passed by a croatian who spoke really great english and started talking to us. he invited us to go out for drinks with this dutch couple he had just met a few min ago. we had a really early ferry to catch this morn, but we decided to go anyway!! so off we went and srdjan, the croatian, showed us around the old city where diocletian's palace stands. wongs and i had explored it earlier that day, but there were so many small passageways and stuff it was really confusing, we hadn't seen it all. we ended up at another caffe bar and chatted for a couple hours. i talked a lot with bianca, the dutch girl who is mixed - her mom is dutch, her dad is from the dutch intellees... (i have no idea how to spell that, that's how she pronounced it...) it was really interesting to hear all about things in holland and we had a slight misunderstanding about "coffee shops" cuz coffee shops in the netherlands are actually places where ppl go to do pot... hahaha. her bf is richard and wongs thinks he looks sooo much like a famous person (but i won't give it away in case he posts the pic we took and tries to do a comparison. haha). anyhow, it was lotsa fun to meet them and to talk to srdjan who is a hilarious guy! he wants to get into sustainable development and go to grad school in utrecht. he's also into "far east" girls (i.e. asian) ... so it was hilarious hearing him go on about that! lol.
this morn we got up super early, but super on time (i had no idea wongs was so amazing at getting up for things on time. lol. the things you learn!) to catch the ferry at 6:30 am. i think we got to the pier at 6 am... the ride to dubrovnik was great! we had seats at the back of the ship on the top deck, so the whole time there was a great breeze and as the day wore on, it got a lot warmer and the sunshine was great! i have this very distinct watch tan line from that few hour trip! the scenery was amazing, lots of smaller islands off the coast of croatia to see and the water is so blue. i napped a lot and also journalled a bit. :)
we arrived in dubrovnik and went to look for housing. had 2 false alarms (ppl asking us if we wanted housing, but theirs turned out to be taken already) but we did meet this israeli family on vacation in croatia. we finally walked further and up a whole bunch of stairs (dubrovnik is built into the side of the mountain/hill so it's quite steep!!) and found a lady with free rooms. her place is so nice and there is an amazing view from the balcony of the room!!
after settling in, we went back to the city centre to check it out and find the tourist info and other miscellaneous things. found the internet cafes, checked out the bus station for our trip to mostar in a couple days and then went to look for food. found this restaurant called moby dick up the stairs and ordered the moby dick platter which consisted of: a grilled lobster, a huge pile of muscles, lots of calamari, shrimp with some rice underneath that tasted great, and 2 grilled fish!! yummmmmm!! it was so goood!! when we first read it on the menu, we were like - yumm.... hmm.. let's splurge on this meal!! so that's what we did and it was worth it!! EXCEPT.... wongs forgot to take a pic of it!!! doh!! he's still kicking himself, i think. hahaha. all of that food was on this one huge platter, they had to clear off extra stuff on our table to fit it all on!!
ok, time to go do some more emails. :) heehee. didn't think you'd get to hear so many of our adventures, eh? :) well, i dunno when i'll be online when we get to bosnia cuz there probably won't be so much internet availability there. so taking advantage of it now! hehe.
anyhoo, ciao!
Friday, September 05, 2003
so Ætil next timeÆ turns out to be the next daz. ÈP so brian suggested that i tzpe out mz entire blog not trzing to fix the kezs so that itæll end up sounding more like iæm writing from a foreign countrz! lol. so lemme trz.
the weather is amaying here!!! todaz was so bright and sunnz. wore a skirt and tank top and was hot still! at times. but nice breeye bz the water front. this morn we got up and wongs wanted to return the rental car to the airport right awaz cuy we had a sorta precarious parking spot. except... he couldnæt find the rental forms pocket... aiza!! this isnæt the first time something like this has happened... weæve had so manz things that have gone wrong on this trip. like finding the rental car companz in the first place!! when we arrived in rijeka, the car rental ppl were supposed to meet us at the train station. except... thez were nowhere to be found!! so we walked around towards the citz centre trzing to find the tourist info place. we finallz found it and thez said that the car rental companz that wongs had booked the car with didnæt exist!!! so we were like uhoh - now what_ wongs wanted to check the website cuy he had booked it online. so we tried to find an internet cafe... except the closest oneæs internet was down. doh. so back to the tourist info we went. to get them to get to call kompass agencz for us... the ladz called the airport in rijeka thinking it might be there. turns out kompass is a travel agencz, NOT a car rental place. but thez have connections with a car rental place. so thez said to trz budget. so we walk to budget in rijeka. thez said - no, no bookings. trz herty. so we walk to herty... thez said no, trz someone else... oh man!! by then we were like . what is going on_ did we get scammed_ heehee. but of course not, we knew God would pull thru cuy he had done so so manz other times on this trip!! so we found another internet cafe and had a drink and wongs printed out his email from the kompass agencz, gave the guz a call and the guz sazs go to europcar. so off to europcar we go... and find out that we were FINALLZ at the right place!!! amaying. the guz from kompass turns out, hadnæt contacted europcar so thez had no idea we had a reservation. doh. but we ended up getting a renault clio instead of a twingo so itæs a bigger car. and wongs has alwazs wanted to drive one! so it all worked out. we waited for it for 2 h, so we walked around the citz centre of rijeka for a bit. before, we hadnæt even planned to do that, so good that we got some time to do that. so all in all, it worked out!! like alwazs. GIG ATT!! the car was fun, but kind of a pain when we got into the citz. i think weære gonna rent a scooter in dubrovnik. woohoo!! iæve never been on one before. oh zeah, wongs explained the whole how manual cars work... so now i have an idea. too bad i couldnæt learn how to drive one though. hehe. ah well. next time!!
zou know what is so great_ wongs has this amaying innate sense of direction. we have never gotten lost. even if we have no map or anzthing, all he does is follow signs or drive-walk around for a bit and we alwazs get where we wanna go!! amaying!! dunno what iæd do without him. probablz get lost a gayillion times and take forever to figure things out on the map. heehee.
so anzhow, wongs went to go return the rental car and i got to walk around the market and the harbourfront bz mzself. got a cappucino and sat down at a caffe bar right off the waterfront. such an amaying view here... wongs will hafta post his pics for all of zou when we get back to aachen. in the aft we explored diocletianæs palace (the remains) which is a unesco world heritage site. needless to saz, wongs took a ton of pics!! iæm on mz 5th roll of film now.. which is a lot for me. hehe.
za know what_ i think iæm gonna be a stronger and diff person as a result of this trip... hehe. weæll see. anzhow, time to stop spending monez on internet!!
ps. angee, where are zou_ how come zouære not online__ are zou being a good girl and studzing__ ÈD
Thursday, September 04, 2003
hello from croatia! dober dan! wongs and i are at an internet cafe in split right now. it's about 9:30 pm and i've been on here for over an hour already. heehee.
we began our trip in venice, but didn't spend any time there since wongs thinks it's such a hole there and kept whining about having to spend the night there. heehee. so instead we went to trieste which was soooo beautiful. the very first hostel i ever stayed at was right by the ocean, so i fell asleep to the sound of waves. it was great! except for the fact that it was super hot and i couldn't sleep. doh.
the next day we took the train to slovenia, ljubljana - the capital city. it is a great city!! most places are walk-able and there was some great buildings, lotsa rich history and culture in this city, a castle to see and everything. i loved it. we stayed in this great hostel called celica which means cell in slovene. it's a former prison and each cell has been converted into a room. each room was designed by a different croatian artist so they're all diff and very cool!! i took pics of my room.
we then took the train to rijeka, a central hub city of croatia, rented a car there (a big adventure there! gotta tell that story l8r. or wongs will tell it on his page when he writes it up) and drove to zadar. the trip to zadar was another adventure. haha. we are having some interesting experiences!! lotsa stories to tell the grandkids. hahaha. darn, i can't even do smiley faces cuz i can't find all the symbols on this keyboard!! now we're in split today. drove in without too much probs. God has been really great to us - providing us with everything - smooth connections, lotsa adventures, but things ALWAYS work out. so grateful. God is good... all the time!! we've also been trying hard and doing devos everyday. i've been writing lots in my journal - hope i don't run out of space! lots of thoughts. i hope we meet more locals so we can learn more about what life is like in these countries. the prob is the language barrier though!!
anyhow, i better stop. i've been online for way too long. gotta go eat. til next time!
