Blog Entries for October 8-12

So, I have either forgotten to post the entries or haven't had internets. Here are some entries from the past couple days, though. :D

Blog Entry for October 8, 2010

This week, we had a guy named Al Akimoff come and talk to us. He was phenomenal! I haven’t taken so many notes on a lecture for a really long time. I learned quite a lot. He has a super fun speaking style: tell a bunch of amazing, miraculous stories and then draw excellent conclusions (remind you of parables, hmm?) He has had many adventures and spoke of the crazy amazing outreaches of Brother Andrew and Corrie ten Boom.

But he and his wife Carolyn left today. They’re going to Latvia, I believe. They will be missed.

Since the conference, we also were hosting the DTS team from Ternopil, Ukraine, so our DTS had been doubled this and last week. Some left today and more are leaving tomorrow. They were a bunch of fun. Last night, Allison, from their team, and I lead worship. We had Marta on bass guitar and singing in Ukrainian and Russian and Senya was on the drums. We played for over an hour, and it was AMAZING. I lost my voice in the middle of it, though. It was weird. It has happened in youth group before, but I don’t know why. Maybe I was singing in a strange way that made my vocal chords rebel.

So, that was a fabulous experience. I learned a lot through that. I’m learning in other areas, too. Like, on Wednesday, we walked around our “island” and evangelized. I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing and didn’t feel very comfortable about walking up to people and telling them the gospel. It didn’t feel very personal and kind of seemed to be ineffective, especially since I had to be translated. But, it was good. Three people came to Christ. That was pretty cool, but I was still kind of wishing that it would have happened a little bit differently. I would rather we have an event and develop relationships rather than just have a brief ten minute conversation. I think it would be more effective and more helpful to people. I’m sure we’ll do stuff like that, but this time, I just kind of felt like I was out campaigning for another politician…only in a Jesus-y kind of way. But, yeah. I learned some stuff.

My group of three people only talked to three people while we were evangelizing. The first person was a girl in her late twenties, I’m guessing. She was agnostic and pretty postmodern in view. It was great. I wish I could have sat and talked to her for an hour or two, but I couldn’t. *needs to learn Russian* The second and third people we met were two babushkas (grandmas). The one was mostly silent while the other cried her eyes out and poured her heart out to us. She told us that her son had recently died and that she felt like she was alone. She also said that she new the entire gospel of Matthew by heart, but in the end, she was angry at God and didn’t really want to pray or anything. She let us pray and comfort her, though. And I promised to come visit her some time. (I think she lives pretty close to me. I’ll have to get the address translated.)

What I learned (and Mr. Akimoff said this, too) is that people need relationships. Just throwing religion in someone’s face is ridiculous. A relationship is what is needed anyway. Most people don’t connect with a random person who comes up to them with a pamphlet. More people are influenced by friends and people whom they trust. Those kind of relationships are very highly valued, and why shouldn’t it be a sort of evangelism? That’s how the Church works and that’s the whole essence of being a Christian anyway: having a relationship with God and loving Him and loving people.

So, yeah. Missions rant there. And now I’m ready for some sleep. There isn’t any heat in this apartment building quite yet, so I’m bundling up: tights, legwarmers, socks, tank top, giant t-shirt of doom, and a hoodie. All is happy, and today is Friday. I will sleep well AND sleep in. Yay! Six o’clock AM, I will NOT be seeing you today. HAH.

Blog Entry for October 9, 2010

Yay! Saturday! For breakfast I made scrambled eggs on bread and cheese. The bread, cheese, and eggs is a typical Ukrainian breakfast, only they aren’t quite familiar with this scrambled egg. Marsa (I’m still not sure how to spell her name) came up and pointed to my eggs and said, “Amerikanka?” She wanted American eggs, too.

So, now I’m listening to some Billy Joel and drinking some chai. (Not real chai, mind you. The Russian word for tea IS chai.) Today shall be relaxing, for sure.

Blog Entry for October 12, 2010

The apartment is quite crazy right now. We have all of the DTS girls except Ksenya and Jessica here to make supper for thirteen people. We invited our leaders to come over and have a meal with all of us girls. It’s quite interesting that we’re cooking here considering that we have a cutting board the size of a flip-flop and one dull knife. And along with the cheese grater and a couple pots, there’s not much more to offer by way of culinary utensils. Ah well. It’ll turn out fine.

We have a new speaker for the week. His name is Sergei something or other. Apparently he’s pretty famous around these parts. I don’t know, that’s just what I’m told. He does speak very well. He is pretty funny and has excellent things to say about having a relationship with God.

It’s warm today! Not short sleeved shirt weather of course. But I could walk around with only three shirts, tights and jeans and two pairs of socks! Heh…I’m not really being sarcastic. It is warmer, I promise. I didn’t have to wear leg warmers or my jacket! *nods* Things are looking up!—sort of. The awesome thing is that in four days they’ll turn our heat on in the apartment building. Woohoo!

I thought that maybe I’d show you some stuff that I did for my assignments this week and last week. Here are a couple pictures:

Last week we had to write a letter to God, and we had to be creative. Here’s what I made:

This week we had to answer a bunch of questions, and if we wanted we could do something that reflected what we learned from last week’s lectures. I just made a page of reminders:

Granted, it’s not the best thing or most original thing ever, but it is something, and I enjoyed doing it. :D

Blog Entry for October 2, 2010

We just got back from the YWAM Jubilee Celebration: a conference to celebrate the 50 years of YWAM. It was quite awesome. We went to a place called a sanatorium. It’s really hard to explain what a sanatorium is because we don’t have them in the US. But, basically it’s a camp with dorm-like buildings. There are swing-sets and playgrounds and a soccer field. Loren and Carol(?) Cunningham, the founders of YWAM spoke quite a bit, but we also got to hear from the YWAM base leaders from all over Eastern Europe. It was very exciting to hear what all is getting done in other nations. Mr. Cunningham also spoke about the future of YWAM. There was some awesome technological stuff that YWAM has. Apparently YWAM is on the same level as the US military when it comes to technology. Impressive, eh? He talked about this one video conferencing system that is specific to YWAM. Using this system, people from all over the world work together to make a movie. It could be filmed in the US, directed in Australia, and edited in South Africa. It’s really quite incredible.

So, everything was completely awesome, but most of us were exhausted. We had a hard time staying awake during some the long sessions, but it was all good.

The worship services were wonderful! The singers would alternate between Russian and English and the lyrics were in both languages. It reminded me of Costa Rica a bit, when we sang in both Spanish and English. It’s super cool when you can hear many voices and different languages worship the same God. It makes me happy. :D

There were a couple downsides. There were horrible squatty-potties. Ick. I can’t stand the things. But, ah well. I’ll just have to get used to it. Apparently when we’re on outreach, it’s the only toilet we’ll be able to access. But let me tell you, we were quite thankful when we got back to the apartment. We actually came in and sighed, “We’re home!” It’s neat.

It was also very cold. We hadn’t quite prepared for the chilliness. The weather required a jacket, but we all just took hoodies. Bad plan. But we had hot tea all the time, and Lance brought us nice warm sleeping bags, so it was good.

I got to talk to a lady who is running the YWAM Hope here in Kyiv. (YWAM Hope is an orphanage ministry). She and her husband were from Germany, so that was cool. We talked about the spirituality in Germany. It’s very postmodern, and the church has not grown very much there. THAT made me sad. But this whole conference has been showing me stuff like that. There are SO many needs, but there is progress! And that’s awesome. There just needs to be people to go.

So, yeah. I have a bunch of friends. :D They’re great. Yesterday, I walked around with Petya and Nikolay. They are pretttty great. Petya doesn’t speak much English, but he know a bit. Nikolay is usually the translator. He’s from Kyrgyzstan and, like Svinge, which is actually spelled Sevinch :D, he speaks multiple languages very well. On the way to the sanatorium, Sevinch, Nikolay, and I played word games. I won all the time because I knew more words in English, but they still did pretty well.

Pretty much the entire DTS group is becoming great friends already. We’re made of mostly Ukrainians, but there are four Americans: Jessica, Erin, me, and Mr. Ed. Ed is 48 and is the only other American who can’t speak much Russian. AND it just so happens that it was him and me who got lost when we all played the “run around the city and answer some questions about places you see” game. Heh…yeah. I COULDN’T FIND THAT BLASTED ROAD. Maps can be deceiving, you know? :D From Ukraine, we have Oksana, Elvira (Eilla), Ksenya, Marsa, Marta, Petya, Ruslan, and Rustam. Then Sevinch and Nikolay are from other countries. Our leaders are from a variety of countries, too. Andrew and Oksana Ford are from Australia (Australian accents, ftw!) and Ukraine. Lance is from Oregon, and Kate is from Michigan. Tanya is from Russia and Senya is from Ukraine. And they are all awesome. :D

So, little Oksana is here now. She doesn’t really understand everything I type. ;) But she is AWESOME. I love my Oksana. :D (She just squealed and gave me a hug. Haha!)

But, yeah, so there are some awesome relationships and I’m learning a bunch. So, obviously, this is awesome. I wake up every morning at 6:00 or 6:30 and walk a mile or so to get to the base. While we were at the camp thing I just walked around the camp. It’s gorgeous here. And I’m kind of falling in love with Kyiv. Even when we get lost, it’s a great city. It’s so different, but a good sort of different. On the side of the road, people sell food from their gardens or farms. There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE, but they’re all nice. Sah-bah-ka. That’s dog. :D I can read more, too! Yay! Now if only I can understand what some of those words mean…

Alright. I better go work on that homework…lol. Procrastination is THE BEST.

…And the homework is coming along. Let me tell you, this is the best homework EVER. It’s all creative artsy stuff if you so choose to do it that way…so….Yay!! This makes for happy Arielles. :D So, yeah, I’ll show you all my projects when I’m finished. They shall be B-E-A-utiful!

I also started laundry today. Heh…yay, right? So, we have laundry detergent and a bathtub. That’s how we do it. I almost feel like a regular pioneer woman (this said while typing on a Macbook. Oh, the irony!) And it’s getting late and I’m getting ridiculous (and I love the fact that the clock says 0:18 right now.)

Tomorrow is church! I’ll be going to the international church that is in English and serves tea and cookies. The worship is phenomenal and the sermon related extremely well to things we talked about in DTS. So, yay! Good night, everybody! I hope you enjoyed this extraordinarily long post.

So, yeah...that was a couple days ago. I'll get something better soon!

Blog Entry for September 27, 2010

Today was the first day of DTS. It was pretty spectacular. Kyle and Anya spoke for a bit and Lance, our DTS leader guy, gave the rest of the lectures. We had an intercessory prayer time with the Biblical Studies group from upstairs and did some chores and ate food and such. I cleaned a nasty stove and got some unidentified substance all over me, but it was all good. :D

In the evening, we walked over to “the office.” It’s a few minutes from base. We had supper there and sat and talked. Afterward, Jessica, Marta, the two new girls in our apartment (Marsha and Oksana), and I walked back to the apartment. We got a little lost. :D Actually, a lot lost. We just kind of meandered around and asked people where the super market was until we eventually found the RIGHT super market and the right apartment.

Some little boys tried to talk to me about a dog. I know this because I know the word for dog. It’s, like, one of the only words I know. Hah! I now know yes, no, dog, God, Lord, carrot, and what. It’s rather hard for me to remember new words, especially since they’re written with a different alphabet. I can’t really see what the words look like. I can’t wait until I know my Cyrillic alphabet! All I know so far is that the Ps are Rs and the Cs make the S sound and K makes the K sound. T is T. I and E are the same or very similar. I still haven’t quite figured that out yet. I think H might be N. The X with a line through it makes the “zh” sound. So, I guess, I know a little bit, but not enough to read words. The only word I have successfully read is market, which is written “MAPKET.” So, yeah, the boys asked me about the dog. I think they asked if it was mine. I said, “dog?” and “no,” back in Russian. Oy.

We all say “oy” a bunch, too.

So, the base is a boat, and it is super duper. Sometimes it sways on the waves. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s pretty fun. I’m enjoying getting to know all the people here. I don’t know what they say, usually, but I can watch them, and it’s pretty great. A lot of the Ukrainians know a little bit of English. We all get along quite well. Some of the DTSers are really good at English. Svinge is from Azerbaijan and she speaks phenomenal English. Erin is from Atlanta, Georgia and has been a missionary kid in Russia for seven years, so she speaks both English and Russian. I stick around her a bit. :D

Oksana speaks a little bit of English, but Marsha doesn’t. But, all in all, we get along quite well. It makes me pretty happy. I’m making friends. I tried playing Fooseball with some of the peoples. Oksana and I won twice, but that was mostly because she was pretty great and I had occasional luck.

Last night, I showed Oksana and Marsha my Mario and Metroid games. They were cheering me on and yelling at me in Russian. It was pretty epic. Also, Marta can sing songs like, Undignified, Big House, and Pharoah Pharoah. She learned them at camp. That was all fun. Lance knows Trogdor. And Erin is just all-around awesome.

Blog Entry for September 26, 2010

So, I’m all moved in to the apartment. I will be sharing it with four other girls, two of which (Jessica and Marta) I have already met. (The others come in to Kyiv, today). It’s not the most glamorous apartment at all, but it is definitely perfect for us. It’s comfortable and convenient, and will be easy to make feel homey. There are four beds and one convertible couch. The kitchen has a few cups, a stack of miss-match plates, two forks, two butter knives, a handful of soupspoons, a ladle, a bottle opener, a cutting board, some pans, and a pot. We were provided with eggs, butter, bread, water, and cheese for breakfast. Marta and I made breakfast this morning. We toasted the bread on the stove and topped it with our eggs and cheese. It was delicious! We had stopped in at the little grocery store around the block last night and purchased mango juice and coffee.

We also purchased some laundry detergent for washing our clothes in the bathtub, but there’s a rumor that the ladies next store have a washer and Marta said that perhaps we could exchange detergent for some use of the washer. I do hope so!

Jessica and Marta are pretty fabulous. They are 24 and 17 years old. Jessica is from New York and knows a little bit of Russian. She has been to Russia before. Marta is Ukrainian and knows a little bit English. So, we all get along pretty well with the language barrier. Hopefully they’ll be able to help me learn some Russian. I currently know only a couple of words. I can say hello, thank-you, and good-bye. And scarf. I can say scarf. In Russians it’s pronounced “sharf,” so it’s pretty easy to remember. Once I can read/type Russian, I’ll be able to know this stuff for sure. :D

So, here’s a little video of the apartment.

We went to church this morning. It was all in English because it’s an international church. It was small, which was nice. I got to meet a few people and have a second cup of coffee. Worship was excellent, and so was the sermon.

After church, Anya and Lance, our DTS director, took us to a pizza place. It was delicious. They don’t make your typical American pepperoni and cheese pizza. Mine had ham, corn, and tomatoes on it: a tasty combination. The crust was lighter than a typical US pizza and the sauce and cheese were quite different. It’s all good.

We have orientation and registration earlier, so I’ll end here and take a little nap before it’s time to go. :D

Off to Ukraine!

So, the Alaska trip was awesome, and now I have a great new adventure! I am on my way to Kyiv, Ukraine to take part in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM. I'm super excited, of course, because I know that God has some big plans for me. :) He has already done some major things in the preparation for this trip (funds were completely provided for and that blasted visa of mine came in).

So, yeah, visa. As many of you may know, I tend to be somewhat of an airhead, not always, just, you know...sometimes--especially when working on administrative things, like applying for a visa. It took three tries to get that visa. The last try was a drive to Washington, D.C., with my mom. We had to do some running around, but we were able to get everything together...ten minutes before the consular closed. That was last Wednesday. They gave a receipt saying that the visa would be available September 22, two days before my trip. So, the past week was, understandably, a bit stressful. But the visa did come. And now I am in the airport ready to go do some awesome!

It's the first time that I have ever flown by myself, so leaving Mom and Dad was a little bit frightening. Everything is going smoothly, though, and all jitters were gone once I was checked-in and through security. I'm not really stressed or scared like I expected. I'm at peace and happy and excited. Yay!

So, once I got out of security, I met a woman from the Philippines named Cynthia. I asked where she was going, and she said New York. I told her that I was going to Bible school in Ukraine. Upon hearing this she lit up and said, "Oh, would you please pray for me then!" It seems she had been having troubles with citizenship and getting a job--something about the recession. So, I talked to her and promised to keep her in my prayers. It was all quite neat.

Then, I met an elderly lady who was a missionary in Japan. She wished me well on my trip and she's sitting next to me in the airport right now. :D

This is a food blog, apparently.

So, I realize that the last couple of posts have been mostly about food. The reason for this is that there isn't really anything too eventful to take pictures of. We use our creativity mostly on the things we cook, thus that's what get posted. When I have something creative to post, I'll post it.

(For the record, I sewed a quilted pillowcase that was originally supposed to be a skirt, but was far too ugly to be worn around the waste, and therefore was converted to a pillowcase. Because of my embarrassment toward the creation, it will not be posted here. I thought about giving it googly eyes, and making it into a Quilt Monster, but that would have been about as tacky as the skirt idea. Alas! A wasted 4+ hours on that blasted quilted pillowcase.)

Now, I shall commence in presenting another food post. How 'bout some cake?

Rachel and I made a delicious chocolate cake. The cake itself had melted chocolate chips and coffee. It was filled with mocha frosting and topped with peanut butter frosting. It was tasty to the tongue, but was a sight to make the eyes sore.

The idea was that it was a giant cookie that said, "om nom nom." (Think Cookie Monster). I suppose we got that somewhat. And don't you worry, I was well aware of it's Cake Wrecky-ness. It was mostly for fun, anyway.

An added bonus is when you turn it 180 degrees.

It becomes the Chinese cookie cake.

Also, when viewed from the side it reads "220 003 33." It's probably a secret code.

Probably.

Results.

The sorbet turned out quite nice, even if it was a little pulpy.

Rhubarb (roll the R for emphasis)

So, today was baking day! Yay! Rachel and I ventured out into the unknown, chopped up the wild rhubarb plants of doom, and tromped back to base with our kill.

We decided to make our world famous rhubarb crisp.

'Tis delicious.

Now, the only problem was that I got a little chop-happy and decapitated twice as many stalks from the rhubarb plants than we needed. (Hark! What dreadful dole is here?) Heh. Rachel said to throw them out.

AH HAH. Silly girl.

I had plans.

1. Blend the extra 1 pound of rhubarb with a little bit of water.
2. Put it in a pan, cook it for 5 minutes.

3. Meaaaanwhile, beat an egg white until it's stiff.


4. When the nasty-looking rhubarb goo is somewhat near room temperature, add 3/4 of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla.
5. Beat it. (just beat it.) (That is, after you add in the egg whites, of course.)
5. Then freeze it for a bit, then beat it again, and freeze it a little bit again, then beat it again, then freeze it. (That's beat three times and freeze three times).

And then wake up tomorrow and see what it's like.


CAUTION: Cover your mixer and bowl with a towel or else the toxic goo will splatter over your entire kitchen. Also, do not unscrew your mixer from it's base. The liquid will come out of the container like some sort of oozy volcano.

AUCHTUNG: Kangurus mit rotes regenmantel und garnelangeshmacht!

Leninade: A Taste Worth Standing in Line For

Yesterday was quite amazing! I was running on a total of less than four hours of sleep. (I had been babysitting Saturday night, and walked home around 3:00 AM.) At 5:15 Pacific time, I was woken up by ooVoo for a video test. Mr. Gary and the rest of the youth group were on the other end. It was 9:15 there, and they were getting ready for the service.

At 6:00 (or 10:00 AM, Eastern), it was time for me to give my testimony. It went well. I didn't say everything I wished to say, and I wasn't as organized as I wished to be, and I definitely didn't do as well as I could have. But it was definitely alright. It was sort of difficult for me to respond to my audience because I couldn't see them on the other end. It was just a black screen. It's quite a challenge to talk to an invisible audience.

I listened to my youth group do the rest of the Sunday service. They did fabulously! I was smiling the entire time. The skits (at least the parts that I heard) were very good, and so were the songs. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the mime if I had seen it, but it was only about five minutes of silence and then some clapping at the end.

After that service, I went back to bed and got an hour and a half more of sleep. I had another church service at 10:30. Here I played keyboard and sang on the worship team. It was quite an experience, since the team there did the songs differently than I am familiar with. It went well, though the electric guitarist was extremely loud and made a lot of mistakes.

The rest of the service was a mime program put on by AIM Around the World. It was quite good. Their first presentation was so good that I almost cried. It was very touching.

After the service, Rachel and I had lunch, and then left for Wasilla. We bought some snacks at Fred Meyer and then watched Toy Story 3 at a crappy little theater. (It was the closest theater around, and took us an hour to get there. *sighs* Oh, Alaska.)

Toy Story 3 was amazing, though. I laughed and cried. Not only was it incredibly new and fresh and full of creative ingenuity, but it was also incredibly nostalgic, bringing together the two older Toy Stories and creating a fabulous ending to the trilogy. Toy Story was the first movie I had ever seen in theaters. I was three, then, and was so scared of that stupid dog in the mean neighbor kid's house that they had to take me out of the theater because I was crying. My current Facebook status is "When I was three, I cried in the theater at Toy Story. When I was eighteen, I cried in the theater at Toy Story 3."

After the movie, we went shopping. I got The Cranberry's "Everybody Else is Doing it So Why Can't We?" CD and a childhood favorite movie: Once Upon a Forest.

This is the movie that hardly anybody has heard of, but is still awesome even if it does have a nothing rating on RottenTomatoes.com.

Rachel and I bought matching skirts, and I got some awesome sunglasses. It was all a good bunch of fun, especially these drinks I found at Fred Meyer:

I can't bring myself to drink the Leninade yet. It's so hilarious. Some of the captions are, "Get Hammered and Sickled!" "Surprisingly Satisfying Simple Soviet Style Soda," and "Our 5-Year Plan: Drink a bottle a day for five years and become a Hero of Socialist Flavor."

It's quite fabulous.

A Post of Chocolate, Mostly

We girl cousins have been having a good deal of fun. After my parents left for home, I stayed in Anchorage at my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Celesta's. Sara and I had some fun (and Seth, too sometimes :D). On Friday, she and I drove back out to Glacier View to have some time with Rachel. We stayed up late--past 3:00! It wasn't exactly planned, but that's how it happened. We watched a few movies and woke up late in the morning. We went to Grand View for some Mountain High Brownie Pies. We got two to split between the three of us.
They were huge, delicious.....and were rather...um...filling.

Nevertheless, it was great fun. Sadly, Sara left to go back to Anchorage, and I am stuck with just Rachel. (I joke.) We've been having fun, still, plus I'm getting all kinds of stuff done, like chemistry. Yay.

Oh, and we enjoyed some peanut butter Oreos, too.
Om nom nom...

Update, finally.

So, I have to cover quite a few days here to catch up.


The cake turned out well for our first attempt at a wedding cake.So, yeah it turned out fine, but the frosting was a pain to work with. It was mostly butter and did not have any powdered sugar, which made the consistency a bit thin.

There were only a couple of tables at the reception. The little buckets of flowers were quite cute, in my opinion.
And, of course, there were tasty chocolate moose (yes, moose.) They were flavored cherry, mint, and peanut butter.

Before the wedding, a group of family members and the wedding party took a hike up a mountain. It was tough, but it was definitely worth the view. Plus, we saw a moose.

I sat on "Big Rock" for quite a while, enjoying the view, and let me tell you, there is no better view of mountains than from another mountain.

A Day in the Life [in Alaska]

Today was just a normal day. I did what I do at home, only a little better, since I'm in Alaska.

There were tasty snacks, like fresh baked bread and brownies...
...endless amounts of entertainment...
...and a whole bunch of reading. In fact, I spent a majority of my day here:
...reading this:


Which I finished and loved. It was quite a wonderful read. If you haven't read it yet, you most definitely should!

Today was also the day to make the wedding cake(s).



It shall be three tiers of decadent zesty lemon cake filled with some raspberry jam and topped with a lovely little lemon buttermilk frosting.

It's the same cake we had for my graduation...and Elijah's birthday...and every celebratory event in the past couple of months. (Mom had to perfect her recipe).

It shall be delicious...again.

Oh, and here is where I'm staying:
It's not much of a room, but it's a room with a view, for sure. And, believe it or not, it's rather comfy. Rachel and I had issues figuring out how to get in to our tiny little bunks, but once we were arranged, life was good.

Matanuska, how I've missed you...

Today, Uncle Marlin drove Mom and me out to his house. (We have to be here early because we're making the cake...om nom nom.) It was great to be back in Glacier View. I haven't been here for four years. It's quite nice to be back.

The Matanuska River is really quite beautiful. It's grey water because of the melting glaciers. I wish I could see it run clear, but it only runs clear for about four weeks in a year: in October. It freezes in November. I've never been to Alaska in October. Someday I will.

We drove for a good long time. It takes a long time to get there. At a point, we stopped at Costco. We had to get a lot of things there for the wedding. We don't have a Costco around home, so, this was a treat. I walked around for perhaps an hour. I was just being awesome. (That's pretty much JOKE). They had good food samples: sparkling lemonade, popcorn chicken, flax seed crackers...

We got some cheesecakes.



I did a lot of reading, but still haven't finished To Kill a Mockingbird. I was too distracted looking at the mountains, which are gorgeous! I didn't take very many pictures. My lame attempts at photography pale in comparison to God's glorious artistry.


We eventually got there. It's quite nostalgic. Rachel, Mom, and I are sleeping in a camper out by the pond because the house is full of wedding party members and helpers. I don't mind. It's a cozy camper, and it's a busy week around here, you know?

A Trip to the Park

Today was divine.

I woke up to a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Uncle Dennis and Aunt Celesta also prepared some excellent coffee for us. It was strong enough "to put hair on your chest," as Uncle Dennis says.

I was happy. Anchorage is fabulous. The weather is gorgeous, too. Today, it is around 60-70 degrees. I was able to just sit for a while and read some more Mockingbird.

After a lunch of peanut butter apples, cucumbers, and baby carrots, Aunt Celesta drove us over to the park.


It was a charming little park by a lake. The ground was covered in dandelions: a great place for some pictures.


The lake was nice, too.
There was a man fishing and planes landing and a sign.

We decided to play some wiffle ball.
Meanwhile, Uncle Dennis was back at the house preparing some meat.
I do believe we shall be eating well on this trip.

Leaving on a Jetplane...

So, yesterday, after a lame homeschool graduation, an awesome graduation party with a million friends, and a quick goodbye to some of those friends, my family and I left for Alaska.

It was a long, long trip. The first flight (to Pheonix) was quite tedious, but not exactly miserable. I got in the plane and sat apart from my family. I was alright with it because I like meeting new people, and I planned on reading most of the time, anyway. I ended up meeting some nice and not so "nice" people.

When I sat down in our first plane, there was a lady named Katherine and her darling 16 month old daughter, Elizabeth. I was getting pretty excited about sitting next to them for a whole plane ride. But, alas, it was not to be. She was on the wrong side of the aisle and her seat was taken by an elderly couple. But it was alright, I suppose. They were a nice elderly couple. They slept most of the time, so I didn't really talk to them much. When they did talk, I found out that they were from Manilla. I thought that was pretty cool. I'd love to go to the Philippines.

My seat was the very last one in the plane. I just sat there and read quite a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm enjoying it. By the end of the trip I had finished half of it. Mostly the trip was just, you know, peaceful. Baby Elizabeth cried and screamed for about two hours straight, but it was fine. The stewardess gave her some ice cubes, and that pacified her for a time.

The second trip was quite a different experience. I went in knowing that I was sitting with strangers again, however, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Our flight left around 11:00 PM Eastern Time and we arrived in Anchorage at around 4:20 AM. It was a long flight--which I should have spent sleeping.

The moment I saw the man, all hopes of an enjoyable flight dwindled. He looked the part of a guy who would be more than willing to live in an old trailer and spend his day in a rusty boat, never taking a shower or cutting his hair...or doing anything remotely related to hygiene. He also smelled horrid and his face was covered with acne. Really, it was nasty. What's worse is his red pillow had suspicious stains (which I later realized were not the result of sobriety), and he was wearing a hat to "cover up where his friend shaved some of his head." Yeah. He talked a lot. He also snuffed something up his nose. I'm not sure what it was, but...yeah. It was definitely an experience.

He asked me about my religion, my politics, and if I "smoked or drank?" I told him that I didn't and don't plan to either. He was surprised. His policy on life was that you should try everything before you die (and he had tried about everything, believe me). He mentioned quite a few times that he regretted many of his actions, but he doesn't see any reason to change his lifestyle. I questioned this. It was discussed.

I was also able to share my testimony. He listened. He was interested. He didn't agree. But that's alright. I think, sharing the concept of "being kind to everyone no matter what the circumstance and basically just living a good life" was something that could possibly impact an eighteen-year-old, atheistic druggie. He had gone through many religions in his childhood: Mormonism, Catholicism, and Christianity. He basically denied it all, and for understandable reasons. I told him of my experiences with God and about my awesome church. It was different than his experience, for sure.

Anyway, he talked and talked and talked...and talked. Really, he wouldn't shut up. Some part of me wished that I had been like the guy in the window seat who had taken his seat, raised his eyebrow at the repulsive guy beside him, blocked off society with a sleeping mask and ear plugs, and was not heard from again. Instead, I was deprived of sleep and kept up until 4:20 listening to stories about different drugs, drinking parties, being arrested, getting kicked out of English classes for saying obscenities about Obama, and the OH SO ENJOYABLE fishing stories. It was a time. Yes, yes indeed.

I felt bad for the guy in the aisle across from me. I glanced over at him pityingly multiple times. He tried to sleep. I'm sure of it. But he didn't. In fact, I believe he was forced to listen to every word of the conversations had by Drugs Guy and me. I guess he was tolerable of it enough, though. He looked pretty awesome, too. He had long dreadlocks, wore brown pants and a brown shirt, and had white shoes. His dark glasses gave him a "yeah, I'm cool and can't be bothered" sort of look. I would have talked to him, but he didn't look like the talkative sort, and the other guy wouldn't stop talking.

I was glad to get off that plane.

Aunt Celesta and Uncle Dennis picked us up at the airport and drove us to their house. It's quite nice. I slept for a very long time.