Elloooo

Hey Y'all!

Sorry, again no pictures for right now :( just words.


I am currently on my laptop. I walked almost 3 miles in 30 degree weather to get to the McDonalds (yuck!) to use their WiFi (in french they call it weefee haha), so i could update a little. (i reallllly need to tell you about dirty paris! soon i promise... i just need lance's laptop.)

Where do I start?

Before i talk about our travels, i have to say a few things:

MOM: the brownishreddish scarf you knitted me for Belgium.... I LOVE IT. Like seriously love it. I didnt want to wear it while i was traveling, so i tested it out this weekend and today, and it's SO WARM. Thank you thank you for knitting it for me. It's super cute too. The first time i put it on lance asked me where i got it, and i told him you knit it for me and he was like, "woah dude, that' seriously legit" haha. he thought i bought it at nordstrom. And then he said "that's rude she didnt knit me one. i want one" hahaha. so if you feel like knitting up something for him and sending it over, you can. :) he likes greys, reds and black. :)

CLYDIE: I took my under armour pants for a jog today in the VERY COLD belg weather. Seriously they are the most amazing things ever. i looove them and they are keeping me toasty toasty. and they are SO comfortable to run in. So thank you for helping me be healthy while staying warm. And, like i already told you, the socks continue to be the gift that keeps giving. haha they've been life savers day after day.

KATHERINE: I miss you. for real. There have been so many times when i needed to call you to vent/laugh etc and has made me really sad that i couldn't. I just wanted to give you a SHOUT OUT (haha) because i really love you and am so thankful for you! when i get home from Europe i'm going to call you every day. so get ready. because being away has made me grow even more thankful for you. i love you and i will call you as soon as im able to.

HEATHER AND NICK: I am so thankful for y'all too! Thank you so much for taking such good care of our little baby. she couldn't be in better hands. thank you for babysitting her and disciplining her the same way we would if we were there. Thank you for taking on the burden of watching our house and playing landlord. You both are a blessing and the distance has definately reminded me of how grateful i am that you both live so close and that we have you in our lives (and for Jason and McKell for being our friends via you two. even lance loves them! you know that means something).

COSLETT FAMILY (including ralph!): I miss y'all too. Something I've learned during this trip is how grateful I am for you. I am grateful for the comfortable life you've provided me my entire life, for the warm love i've always had in the home, the giving nature you've made sure to hold in our home, and for the wonderful friendships we have that interconnects each one of us. I've taken for granted the fact that i could pick up the phone and call you or text you, i promise when i get back i'll be better about that. I've had a renewed love for you all in general, just the network of family and how much it defines me and the weight it holds in my life. I've had a LOOOOOT of time to think, and i hope my family ends up with the similar nature of ours. Love y'all!

WAKEFIELDS: Lance and I have talked so much about how giving you are, and how selfless you are. The Canon Rebel has helped make this trip so memorable, and we literally take it with us everywhere (we even fight about who gets to take pictures. haha). Thank you for being so willing to try and talk to us and find ways to get skype working and to make sure we're doing okay. Thank you for being so interested in our lives and adventures. i know i've said it before but i feel so lucky to have married into such a wonderful, loving family. I am blessed beyond words. Thankyou for being such a huge factor in that.

PAIGE: I miss youuuuuuuuuuuuuu. I miss texting you DAILY, and having you make me LAUGH out loud. The clothes/fashion/adorable girls on the street make me think of you almost every time. You would fit in SO well here. If you feel like hopping on a plane and want to come visit me you're welcome to do so. haha. Thank you for being a source of happiness in my life daily-believe me, your absence in my life has NOT gone unnoticed (unfortunately. :( it makes me more homesick!) - and I love you more than words. Be waiting for your European birthday gift soon!

Celeste- I love you both A LOT! Sissy - i miss texting you too. PLEASE come and visit me. Ill take you shopping and we can go find some dope photography spots that you would LOVE. Lance and i think about you all the time and how you're SO Euro, no doubt. you'd fit in here perfectly too. i really think you'd love love love it. Find a way to get out here, foolio.

CJ- (dont worry, ill email this to you so you can see it!) i understand a little of what it might be like to be a missionary in the early stages of being in a foreign country. I feel like a moron and my headache is non stop, especially since i SO bad wish i could communicate/read within the culture. I can't imagine doing this while knocking doors and trying to bring people to the gospel. My respect for you (and DEF for lance, and all other missionaries in general) has been heightened by 1202348. Thank you for going out to serve and share your amazing personality with the world. 

KASSIE- YOU WOULD LOVE THIS TRIP. I've thought a few times about how much you'd LOVE backpacking through Europe. You're always up for an adventure, especially ones that include walking and meeting new people. A few times when I've been in a bad mood or wished i was home or was mad that i was walking SO MUCH with a heavy backpack on my back, i've thought about you and the good attitude you'd have, and the adventure you'd turn it into  - usually that helped me a lot and i've tried to do what you might do in the situation. If you want to come visit Europe too, you should! I think you were really meant for this kind of thing. I love you, and appreciate your fun personality that takes life's curveballs with grace.


OKAY onto blogging after that mushy stuff (Europe's turned me soft. haha)

Last I left off, we had vistited the swiss temple.... beautiful! The next day we hopped onto the train and visited a nearby town - which was really cool. You know how castles have their guard towers with gates and then the inner city and then the main castle? you know, typical medieval - what you might picture in your head. we walked from the gare (train) station and over a bridge into the town and explored. it was magical almost. the streets were narrow and there werent really cars, all the streets were REALLY old cobblestone, there was (of course) an amazingly cool church...back then they dated a lot of structures, and i think the oldest one we saw was like 1697 or something like that. I wish there were villages like that in America. I would love to walk or ride my bike everywhere.

The next day was another of my favorites. The Swiss Alps. Yan was SO awesome and let us borrow his car for the day... which meant we had to get up at 630 and go to the temple with him, drop him off, and head to the alps... I am SO happy Yan trusted us enough to drive his car, because we were able to see and stop and visit really cool things and towns and villages along the way. At first i was in a REALLY bad mood because i was exhausted and more sightseeing was not exactly on my jet-lagged agenda of fun. haha. but once the sun started coming up and i had been awake for an hour, i turned my frown upside down and really began to enjoy it. we visited ANOTHER cool castle with so many stairs and more cobblestone streets and arches. Lance told me a long time ago taht when you've seen one castle youve seen them all... while i can see what he's saying, i still appreciate the history and let my imagination run while im walking through the historic castles, picturing bartering, battles, love stories (haha!) happening inside the huge brick walls. hopefully i can get pictures up stat so you can see what im talking about.

we then left and took the back way to Interlaken, which was basically inside the swiss alps. the backway was this long, winding road that took you through villages that were only awake in the summer - i think because it was PCH style, only on the edge of this enormous lake that was basically tucked up against the mountain sides. I really loved this drive. lance was driving and always has a good eye for adventure (and no one was on the highway at ALL)...so when we passed a gate that basically said DONT ENTER, of course he stopped, reversed, and parked on the side of the road. It was this cave type thing.... we hopped the sharp fence and explored a little. The cave part wasn't huge, but it had two caverns that led you to this HUGE  canyon where they were now harvesting rock. SO breathtaking (and a little scary!). I almost snagged my poor, abused leggings on the fence, but luckily i somehow managed to escape with out (much) injury.

we kept driving and investigated a few more villages, then Interlaken (which i wasnt exactly impressed with - atleast in comparison to the villages we had just seen), then we started to drive sortof aimlessly, and even though it was only 10 am, we were already hungry. so we stopped at this place up in the mountains, overlooking the valley, and ate lunch - bread, salami, cheese, juice, and chocolate... hahah SUCH  a french meal.... and it was AHHHHMAZING. (i've eaten SO much bread here...so many different kinds, and its been heaven for my tummy and tongue.) After we froze and finished our lunch, we kept driving upward and somehow ended up at this awesome ski resort that reminded me of brighton and deer valley if they were meshed together.

Lance had to go to the bathroom, and really every country we've been in so far hasnt believed in public bathrooms (except the trains, but you dont go in the trains unless you're interested in catching an std or foreign disease)...so we went on a hunt for one. We used our deductive reasoning and went into this really ritzy hotel, acted like we knew what we were doing, and ran to the bathrooms (apparently it's REALLY not okay to do that. haha). eventually we made our way back to the swiss temple after exploring to pick yan up at 4:00. It was a lot of time in the car, but we were distracted by the beauty.

Really, if anyone wants to come to Europe, Switzerland really is the place to go. especially if you know someone who lives here - having yan tell us the great places to visit truly made the experience all that much better. I think one day maybe we will have a home by the Swiss Alps ;)

eventually we had to leave because lance's job started the following monday - and i was REALLY sad. Not as sad as i was when i left Hawaii (i literally teared up), but it was a close second. We took i think 4 different trains to get back to Belgium - stopping in nasty paris and transferring twice there - then Lille (cute name, right?) then to Mons. Belgium greeted us with freezing, pouring rain, which was pretty awesome because we had to walk around 2 miles to get to the place where we are living. I said a prayer in my head that i wouldn't kill Lance, ha ha, and i think the Lord was listening because we made i there and the rain sortof let up.

We're staying in this really big house - this is the city that lance last served in, and there is this really feisty, spunky sister who is older and lets the missionaries live in the 3rd story of her house that she turned into a fully functional and equipped apartment. Lance LOVED her. her name is Sister Egbert. She had told Lance to come back and visit, and lance took the liberty to interpret that into living with her for 3 months. hahah. I was a little weary about this at first, as that could be a little awkward to live with someone else, but when we walked inside, she showed us our room on the first floor which really isnt a room, its more like a flat (minus a kitchen) with a bathroom. it's actually pretty big...and then theres two huge living rooms. so basically we have the entire first floor to ourselves. upstairs is her place - 3 bedrooms, laundry room, 2 bathrooms, 2 livingrooms, kitchen. its huge. then keep going up and its basically a duplicate of her floor for the missionaries. it's pretty awesome.

anyway, so we made it here safe and sound. Today Lance went to his job in Brussels. I hope he loves it! like i said, i walked to mcdonalds to get internet service - to blog and to put out ads for my tutoring service and to look for jobs around here... its really hard because i cant get a working visa, so i need to find a paying SOMETHING that's "under the table". i really do need prayers that i can find something! (mostly for my sanity. i cant just sit around all day and do nothing!). Hopefully by the end of the week we will get wifi set up at sister egbert's house and that way if y'all want to Skype, we can work that out.

SO it's been a FREAKING JOURNEY. I've learned a lot. it's really been a humbling experience for me (but shh dont tell lance i said that. hahah)

talk to y'all soon.

ciao!