Plane, Pyramids, Party!

First off, happy 100th post on this blog! Very exciting!

In just a few hours I'm off to the airport to catch my plane to Cairo, Egypt! SO exciting!! Here's a few pictures of things I'll be seeing:

The pyramids!!

Mt. Sinai! I get to go see one of the caves where Moses hid! fun!

Some other things I'm really excited for: 1 week riverboat cruise down the Nile, Mohammed Alis great alabaster mosque, Valley of Kings, the Sphinx!

AHHHHH!!! So exciting! Might have internet access to update while gone. Stay tuned for stories and more pictures!! (that i've taken this time)

The other night Amy and I made a nacho mountain, our traditional dinner together.

I have other exciting news but that will have to wait until I'm back!! Hee hee... but it will be worth it!!!

Updated Countdown:
0 days until I leave for Egypt
2 more summer classes
24 days until Quebec!
31 more days until... well you'll find that out later!

Full, Funny, Friday

This weekend has been pretty fun. Friday night I went to Bard on the Beach. This is the third one I have seen this season and definitely the most gory one I have ever seen at Bard. Haha.. lots of blood and cutting off of people's hands, heads and tongues and stuff. Very interesting. Well done though! So far Twelfth Night has been my favorite! Now I just need to see The Tempest! The rest of the weekend was spent putting finishing touches on my paper and working on some readings for one of my courses coming up in August. One is on Psalms and Proverbs, so I have been reading through psalms as well as the textbook for Psalms, which is not small in any way, so it's been quite the read!

The other night was a full moon so I thought I would snap a picture-turned out all right, but I was talking on the phone while taking the pics so it didn't quite work out as well!
Here's a church sign that I just had to laugh at. Hmm.. I don't know, seems a bit ridiculous and a bit desperate perhaps? maybe not, but anyway, this church always has my "favorite" signs. Today I drove by another church that is giving "faith-lifts" this sunday. gosh. what are we coming to as the church? Is this really a good method of evangelizing? Hmmm...

Also, for those of you who are unaware, you should all get Bloglines. haha.. Chrystal and I were talking about how amazing it is and how more people should get it. Saves me SO much time! I put all my blog addresses that I check out on there and every time someone updates, it uploads there, so I just have to go to one webpage to see the blogs and it lets me know when everything is updated! It is amazing-try it out!

Countdown:
2 more summer classes
4 more days until Egypt!!!
26 days until Quebec!
too few days until I go back to school! (although I feel like I never left it!)

Bye friends! Have a great day! I was going to delay this post until I got two comments on the last post, but I figured it was futile so here goes! ;)

Paper, Progress, Productive, Prayer

Today was declared official productivity day! I read the reserve materials in the library for my class in August (60 pages) and got a bit done on my beast of a paper (which i really am enjoying.. haha).

Anyway, here is one thought from the seven books I had to read for the paper. (there are many thoughts, so just one for now).

Gerald May suggests that our communication and relationship with God are always occurring without our awareness. I have often heard the concept of people being "on" or "off" with God and I've never really agreed with it. God is always there. Yes, we're not always attentive or responsive, or looking for God, but that does not mean to say that the relationship ceases to be.

Brother Lawrence said "People would be very surprised if they knew what their souls said to God sometimes."

Interesting though. In reality, my life is prayer, whether I acknowledge it or not. So what has my heart been saying to God? What's your heart been saying to God?

York, Yahoo, Yikes

So here are the pictures from New York. First the funny wing story. We got to New York and decided to grab a bite to eat at about 11pm or so. Went to a Texas BBQ place and asked how many wings came with a half order. The lady said six. So we figured we'd share the full order. Ha! When the plate came I laughed at first sight, because one wing to them is about four times the size as one of ours!! hahahaha.. Once again Chrystal has the picture of it, but it was pretty hilarious, because once again we were faced with an overabundance of chicken!!

First day there we took the ferry to Liberty Island (where the Statue is) and Ellis Island (the immigrant island.. also seen in Hitch). We had to wait super long in the line up but it was fun to be on the water and see the city from a distance!

Garbage cans of New York. Amazing how they can pick up after so many people. The hoardes of people everywhere at any time of day was quite spectacular actually.

9/11 memorial

Ellis Island

The view from the Empire State Building at night. Amazing!! i had fun taking pictures

At the Hard Rock Cafe

We took a bike taxi back to our hotel and we both thought we would die. ha. speed up when you see traffic come out of opposite intersections and our light is red. riiiight. crazy.




At the M & M's store. All 25, 000 square feet of it!! haha

Times Square at Night

We went to three broadway productions: The Lion King (SO incredible), Grease and Rent. Chrystal and I had a good laugh in Grease, because Taylor Hicks (past winner of American Idol) has one song in it. He had a dramatic entrance in his glitzy suit and everyone cheered like five times throughout his song. ha. maybe i don't understand because i'm not American? we thought it was funny.


Sunday morning we biked around Central Park twice. So beautiful!! Everywhere we went in the city, I felt like I was on a movie set!! haha




Here's my most recent countdown:
2 days until I go to the waterslides! fun!
3 more summer classes
11 more days until Egypt
23 more pages to write in my 30 page paper
34 more days until Quebec

Lots to look forward to! Hopefully I can get it all done. In August, between school and travel, I don't have a single free day. Wow. haha..

Have a great Sunday!!

Chicago, City, Chocolate

Okay, so I've had this post prepared for quite a few days but just haven't posted it because I've been distracted with other things. But here are a few pics from Chicago. Next will be the pictures from New York.

We had a great weekend away! Flew into Chicago on last Wednesday and wandered around downtown. Went up the John Hancock Tower (third tallest building) and the view from the top was pretty sweet! Went to the Hershey's store and to Wicked (broadway musical) in the evening which was amazing!! So much fun! After Wicked we returned to our hotel for dinner (at 11pm). We decided to order 2 lbs of wings to shared. Um.. in Canada terms that's not a lot of chicken. In U.S. terms that's a copious amount of chicken. Chrystal's pictures wont' open on my computer and she has the picture of the gigantic plate of wings so we'll have to wait on that one. it was pretty amazing though. haha.. but it gets better.. (you'll have to wait for that story for the next post).

Thursday morning we went for the Chicago architectural boat tour, which was awesome. it was an hour and a half through the canals of Chicago under all the lift up bridges that go across the river. So beautiful! And the buildings are all pretty amazing! Later we went for Chicago deep dish pizza and then went to the airport to catch our flight to New York! Enjoy the photos!

View from the Hancock Tower

View of the Hancock Tower

Chrystal jumping for joy outside the Hershey's store

Me and my Chicago deep dish pizza- pretty fantastic!

Stranded, Stuck, Smokey

So, hello from New York! We should have been on a place right about now, but after being in the airplane for a while, they decided to cancel the flight because there was too much traffic on the airstrip (???) riiight... thanks Northwest Airlines. Okay, i'm not really mad at them, but it seems that was the only airline that didn't want to take off today and so we had to get our own hotel and book a flight for 24 hours later! haha.. Oh well, like I said, i'm not mad, i think it's kind of funny and we get to spend one more day in New York!

We got to our hotel and they said they had actually overbooked and didn't find a room for us. haha.. luckily they found one, and although it's a smoking room, it's still okay!!

Chicago and New York were fantastic!! I will post some pics once I get home!!!

Chrystal, Chicago, Caleb

In 24 hours I will have just left the theatre where I will have watched the musical Wicked! Tomorrow morning, Chrystal and I are getting up at 2:40 (she's getting up at 2) and we're heading to the airport to catch our flight to Chicago. We're going to chill in Chicago for two days and see Wicked, then fly to New York the next day!! Woot woot!! So far we are seeing The Lion King and Rent and then some other mystery broadway show. FUN!

Here we are with our bags, all ready to go!

Also, I'm adding a new link to my blog list so be sure to check it out. My cousin Caleb and his fiance Emily (who were just out visiting) are travelling in South America and have a blog so check it out! :)

Surrender, Safe, Sunday

I've been reading about Gerald May's theory on spirituality and he talks about surrender a lot. And one of the criteria he gives for it is: "It represents a willingness to engage the fullnes of life with the fullness of oneself. It cannot be an escape or an avoidance. It must be a yes rather than a no." I like that.

This weekend has been pretty full. Saturday I went golfing at The Falls in Chilliwack with some friends, Chad and Rob. It was a lot of fun despite a bit of rain, we still enjoyed ourselves a lot! Kassandra (Chad's daughter) came along and rode in the cart with me which was fun! She even drove me around to, so I had my own personal golf cart driver! hee hee

I met my friend Laura for lunch at Olive Garden and then headed back home where I once again left to go to Chilliwack to meet my cousins' new baby, Jasmine. She's five weeks old and so incredibly cute! Then Desiree and I came back to my place and we watched 'Dan in Real Life' which I had seen before and absolutely loved, so it was nice to watch it again!

This morning I went to my old church and it was so good. It was so great to be back and I felt like I was at home and in my community. I haven't felt that in a really long time at church. So it was refreshing to be there.

This afternoon I managed to clean out and organize a closet! And now I'm working on doing some more reading for my directed study. Amazing how motivated I am to clean when I have so much schoolwork to do!! haha..

Well I'm back to the book that I must finish before slumbering. Hopefully sleep will come soon! Have a good week my friends!

Dying, Decision, Daily

Here are some quotes I recently came across:

"He that knows how to die to all things will have life in all things." -John of the Cross

"To die but not to perish is to be eternally present." -Tao Te Ching

I have been thinking about the whole spiritual concept of death and dying to self of late.

I see my life and I realize how materialistic and how much a product of this culture I am. I see how incredibly individualistic and autonomous I am and I hate it. Yet I am not willing to give it up. Yet I know what needs to be done. It is a daily decision that needs to be made, yet I always seem to choose in the wrong direction.

In Deuteronomy, God spoke to his people saying that He presented to them life or death and they should choose life that they may live. In choosing life though, death to self is necessary. Then life can be fully lived.

One must give up the notion that they can do it themselves and surrender in humility. Sounds so simple, but when I look at my daily life, it's so much harder to actually do.

Cleaning, Cars, Coladas

The other day Desiree and I went for a 24 kilometre bike ride and then went to clean Chad's rental house which was absolutely disgusting. Fun times though!

This is us at an all you can eat restaurant in Vancouver. We went to Bard on the Beach afterwards! It was great!Lindie and Chrystal

Carlee and my matching vehicles. Oh, I bought a new vehicle! A Ford Hybrid Escape. So if you know anyone that wants to buy a Mazda 6, let me know! :) Mine's the one on the left. Perhaps one day I will post some more photos of her!
Lindie sleeping.. or not quite in the back of the pickup truck at the drive-in. And below is Chrystal trying to find the radio station

We made Pina Coladas this evening. A bunch of us girls got together.. Well, originally it was just kristen and i doing homework.. then people came and it was fun! Amy, Carlee, Kristen and I

Kristen the body builder