June 23, 2009

Friends

So the idea of leaving for 5 months is getting harder think about. I'm very excited to go on this adventure but I'm going to hate missing out on everything that happens here. But God keeps giving me a sign after sign that this is a good thing and I know it's something I have to do. He keeps reaffirming me and I know this is going to be so good for me. I actually met someone just yesterday that was from Australia and lived only a half hour from where I'm going. It's such a small small world.

Anyways, the benefit show was incredible. We packed almost 100 people in Taza! The bands were all incredible and everyone played for free. It ended up just being a massive party and I don't know one single person that didn't enjoy themselves. I couldn't have asked for better music... it was such a blast. Who knew benefits could be so much fun?! Anyways, without Briana and the girls... none of this would have happened. God seriously answered every single one of our prayers about the night and even took it to the next level. We ended up raising over $800 and I couldn't stop smiling all night. That is going to help me out tremendously. I still have a lot to raise but this helped me out a ton!

Tomorrow is Chic-Fil-A night. The owners are gracious enough to give me 15% of all food sales between the hours of 5-8pm. And I just so happen to get lucky and do this the week of SOS. They even put an announcement on a flyer for all 800 students to see at the conference! So hopefully we jam pack Chic-Fil-A with loads and loads of Jr. and High School students.


So anyways... thank God for my amazing friends who have helped me out with everything. I've never met such a giving group and I am blessed to have them in my life. It's hard to meet people who never ask for anything in return and genuinely just want to help because they love you. It makes you want to give to them so much more. Crazy how that works right?

Thought I'd share a few of our greatest moments...





Yeah... we're a special group sometimes...
:)

June 17, 2009

Alive.

This is really the only picture I need to show to sum up my time in Norther Ireland:



Oh and maybe this one too...

June 8, 2009


This is the beautiful beautiful rhine we sat on before the show


Of course all the bikes... i love it.


Talitha and my adventures!


Yeah, apparently no one was home...


This is when we jammed out on night... made lots of wonderful new friends!


Then I made some friends on Monkey Mountain (no joke)


Dad thought it would be funny if he made me the little monkey this time


Then we went to an actual castle!! It was incredible!!


Lastly off to a village in France and they called this "Le Petite Vienna"... or something.


Walking around some more in the beautiful village


And I will leave you with this :)

June 7, 2009

Wow.

I don't even know where to begin.

The plane rides were extremely long but they got us to Germany safe. There are many stories that go into that one but I'll try to keep this to the point. We arrived around 4pm there and the Benz girls picked us up to take us to their house. I got to know the family a little better over an amazing dinner and a good beer. Got up late the next day and walked around Basel Germany and I have fallen in love. The city is absolutely beautiful... I can't explain it. I got to know Talitha a lot better talking about all the shopping they have there and what life is like there. She speaks english so well and makes it very easy to talk. It's fun for me to try to explain words that I wouldn't normally have to think about. Later on our parents went off to the conference and Talitha and I listened to each others music and talked about everything we were going to swap. We then got ready and went to meet up with her friend Daniel who was taking us to see some of his friends play a show in Switzerland. Before we went to that we stopped at Starbucks (ha!) and got some coffee and sat on the Rhine where TONS of young folks sit for fun and just talk. Everyone is of course drinking beer and smoking. Ah Europe :). Then we ended up meet up with another friend Kevin who took us to this lounge bar. It was called CityBeach and it was on a roof over looking all of Switzerland. It had sand with modern white couches and a pool for people to swim in if they wanted. It was too cold for that so obviously no one was in it. It was a seriously ritzy place... Talitha and I felt so under dressed because probably every single girl was in high heals. After a beer and around 9:45pm, we left and walked back to where the concert was going to be.

Check them out:

http://www.myspace.com/mananamusic

It was awesome. I got to meet the band and hang out while they all tried so hard to speak to me in english and it was so sweet. They were absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see them play in the states. Currently they are being produced by the guy who produced Sigur Ros... sooooo pretty good stuff. I had such a blast at the show and couldn't get enough of it. It's so funny because the bands write their music in english but in between songs talk normal. Made me laugh...

Got up the next day and Talitha and I went to the market far out in the countryside and bought guinea pigs/rats for the pet snake their dad has. It was so surreal walking into a tiny village with tubs being surrounded by people talking only in german. I really did feel like I was living back in the day.

We took those back to the house and she wanted to show me her church that she calls home :). It was incredible. We got coffee at the cafe and she took me on a tour of the church. They have a restaurant/bar, hotel, apartments and then the actual sanctuary all in one building. We went and listened to the worship band practice for a few mins then headed up the the creative department to visit some of her friends. They were fun and I had a blast talking and hanging out with them for a bit.

After that we decided to go on a 10min drive to France. We drove past many villages with the most amazing houses and every village had a beautiful church in the center. It was incredible... rolling hills all around and tall trees everywhere. Even the cows looked french :) . We ended up in more of a populated area and stopped at the market and it was so much fun listening to people speak french. After taking it for 3 years you'd think I would have remembered more! I was in Heaven though... so Talitha and I went into a photo booth (an actual one... not the one on your mac) and took a picture together! It's so cute and I'm going to keep it forever!

After all of that we picked up Benaja and went back to the church and had a little jam session on the stage. It was pretty fun to try to think of all the songs we both knew. Then we went up to Jonathan's apartment at the church and watched Faulty Towers. It's a british show with terrible slapstick humor but it was really funny. I loved it when everyone would quote it.

Got home super late and got up early for church. Got to wear headphones and listen to the english translated version of the service and sing worship in german. Good times. Hung out with all my new friends after church and then Talitha and I left and swapped a ton of music back at the house. Took the car out for a spin later and went all through the really rich areas and saw incredible houses. Went to switzerland to get pizza from a turkish man that was ordered by talitha who is german for me who is an american girl. Funny funny.

It is now extremely late and I have to get up early to go to monkey mountian.
I'll leave you in suspense with that.

June 3, 2009

On our way!

June 1, 2009

thank the lord for dads who can save the day!!