I feel really bad for not posting for months! To be honest, I am forgetful and lazy.
So I'm going to do what my sister did and catch you up on the whole summer
July:
July was the busiest month for me. On the 18th I flew with my friend Mary out to Scotland where we met up with the rest of our team from our church. That night I was absolutely exhausted, but not so exhausted that I couldn't enjoy a haggis and chips dinner! The next day was a day off and we went to the Edinburgh City Center to sight see. We started off with a history lesson by seeing the place where the Scottish covanenters would have been hanged because of their faith. We also saw the Scottish National Museum and saw the view of Edinburgh from the top of it
The view was amazing! We were fortunate enough to be there during a "heat wave" when it was sunny and 80*. We also saw Edinburgh Castle (unfortunately only from the outside) and walked the whole of the Royal Mile, before walking back to Niddrie. On the other days we mostly just painted the McConnell's house, cleaned, painted and fixed up the church and did some other community projects. It may not seem like we did anything significant. We didn't storm through the city converting hundreds of people, but that'ts not why we were there. We were there to serve a sister church in any way we could, so our brothers and sisters there could focus on building on relationships with people in the community (I'll write a more in-depth post about that later).
I met so many awesome people while in Scotland as well! Everyone was friendly and welcoming! I really hope I'll be able to go back!!
My last day in Scotland, I met up with a really good friend I've been keeping in touch with over Facebook and e-mail for the past year. He, Mary, a couple from the Niddrie church and I climbed Arthur's Seat. The view from there is even better!
I hated leaving Edinburgh and everyone there, but the next day Mary and I were off to Northern Ireland. We took the ferry from Scotland to Northern Ireland, and I'm so glad we did! The crossing was perfectly smooth and the land on the distance looked like what I always imagined in fairy tales!
It started raining once we reached NI and soon after we started walking around the city centre of Belfast Mary and I were soaked through! Thanks to my good friend Jenni (who we were visiting in NI) and especially her husband, Merv, we were able to do a bus tour of Belfast. I think the most interesting part was the Belfast peace wall. It just blows my mind how there are still places where people are so divided
(That probably shows how sheltered I am). Anyway, at my friend Jenni's house I met a bunch of ladies from her church when they came to lunch. I also hung out with Jenni's two adorable kids! They showed me their toys, chatted with me about their lives and showed me their guinea pigs, which are also extremely adorable! I was very sad to leave this wonderful family!
London was pretty cool. We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham palace, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar square, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the National Museum and probably a few other things. By the end of that day, I was sooo tired and my feet hurt sooo bad. I walked so much that my feet had been rubbed raw in places.
The next day, August 3rd, I went home while Mary traveled on to Paris. Hopefully next time ( if there is a next time) I'll be able to save enough money to travel to more European continental countries. Or I might just stay longer in Scotland.
August-November:
I've been working hard to make back what I lost not working for almost a month. When I got back, the elevator at work had broken down so for the last 3 months or so we've had to carry all the books up the stairs rather than taking them up in the elevator. I think it's been good for our arms and legs, but it's extremely inconvenient and we lose time when we have to carry the books.
At the beginning of this month my sister, Kirsten, and I went to Wisconsin for one of our cousins weddings. It was amazing to see family who we hadn't seen for years and to meet new baby cousins. We had some good laughs and made great memories!
That's the overview of what I've been up to since I last posted. I'll probably post some more specific updates later. And I'm going to try to post more often than I have been!!
