20 Things I'm Thankful for Right Now

1. freshness of visiting new places every week

2. hospitality of the Austrian family that has taken us in and everyone else that has hosted us

3. meeting up with old friends in new places 

4. sunsets

5. metro rides (aka people-watching paradise)

6. baguettes (45 cents!)

7. culture and it subtleties 

8. finally being in a place where the languages are somehow tied to english 

9. being mistaken for locals… because the two completely lost Canadian girls are going to be able to 

give you directions in German

10. the awkwardness of telling someone who has been talking to you for a couple minutes that you didn’t understand anything they've said

11. palaces/castles/ruins 

12. high places with views… every city seems to have at least one

13. wandering around with no agenda (other than to maybe find cheap food)

14. having unlimited time to get completely lost

15. coffee (seriously North America, you're doing something wrong when it comes to hot drinks)

16. the incredibly good and cheap Asian food that is pretty much anywhere... also Kebab stands.

17. the instant bond with every other Canadian (it’s actually really strange)

18. CHEESE… so good... missing good old cheddar, but the rest is just plain delicious

19. snow, if there wasn't any this Europe in winter thing would be extra lame

20. going to church in different places and having the opportunity to meet brothers and sister

p.s. If you experienced any jealousy as you read this you should probably know that I wrote this list because I would give just about anything to be home right now... traveling isn't everything it's made out to be. It's exhausting, boring, and sometimes miserable. Being thankful sometimes takes some thought. Good and bad, I am where I am so I'm gonna give appreciating it my all.

In other news, I'm doing a year long disposable camera challenge. There's a blog coming that will describe exactly what that means and why there will be very few photos in any blogs written in 2014.

Bllogoogoggging

This blog is about my blog. It is so easy to feel like I ‘should’ blog, like for some reason it is another obligation in my life. I put blogging on my to-do list, but I don’t think that is actually where it belongs. Let’s be honest, there aren’t very many people who read this blog, and I love the people who do, so why would I want to force them to read junk? I want this blog to be a place where I can share what I’m learning and not a place where I have to fabricate something so that people think I am learning. I don’t want to have a daily blog, or even a weekly blog, because I don’t want to blog just to blog. I'm sorry for the blogs I have posted that have been pointless. My goal from here on out is to only post blogs that actually help you to know more about what I am learning and experiencing… so if the blogging gets sparse, so be it.

Uganda Studies Program. Blog #1. 

This has been an amazing experience so far. After a few days of orientation in Uganda we bused over to Rwanda for about a week. While in Rwanda we stayed at two convents, participated in a monthly mandatory national work day, and visited art museums, micro-finance groups, and genocide memorials. It was an extremely informational and emotional trip, and I am astounded by the amount of pain the Rwandese have experienced and the beauty that has grown out of such deeply rooted pain. One of the things that astounded me the most was the reality of how recently the terrible events came to an end in Rwanda. There are people my age in Rwanda that have memories of watching their families gruesomely chopped to death. There is no escaping the affect this has on the emotional and spiritual health of the Rwandese. It was almost hard to feel anything at all while hearing such raw stories because no pain felt great enough to do justice to reality. (I think I could go on about this trip for a long time..).

We spent a couple days debriefing our trip on an island at beautiful Lake Bunyonyi, the third deepest lake in the world. I don't think there could be a more relaxing place to debrief from the issues we faced in Rwanda. It was a beautiful weekend spent swimming, stargazing, worshipping, and eating. The eating part was actually ridiculous... one should not try to eat multiple quesadillas, guacamole, and salsa followed by crepes with chocolate after being on a rice and beans diet for a couple weeks. It just doesn't end well. Anyway, we had our last hot showers for who knows how long and then hopped on the bus (but first the boat) for the long ride back to campus.

Today was our first day of classes and it's just plain old beautiful to finally be able to establish some sort of routine. I wish I could say I haven't experienced culture shock... but I definitely have. This is not a short trip and therefore issues that come up now need to be dealt with. now. I am definitely finding comfort in the fact that God is God to all nations and I know I share this huge part of my identity with many of my peers here. This evening I found myself attending community worship... or fellowship as they call it. Man. These people know how to worship freely. And the speakers here. So direct. There's no tiptoeing around. It's great. 

I think that pretty well summarizes my life since August 25th. I can't wait to become more comfortable in this community, and to hopefully move beyond being overwhelmed by little things like laundry.