vlog for the blog

Thought you guys might like a break from reading!

hannah's blog: http://post-it-noted.blogspot.com

two weeks down, four to go.

Well, I just spent a two weeks going from 7:45am to 12am every night, talking to people about Jesus every day, running around London via bus and Tube, and everything else you can possibly imagine.

I've learned a lot about God, myself, and His people these past two weeks. I've learned that God answers prayers immediately, one day later, a week later, a year later, 5 years later, and some we're still waiting on. I've learned that God is faithful, unchanging, a Father, friend, confidant. I've learned that he doesn't just love Christians, or good people, but everyone. And most importantly, I'm still trying to learn that He loves me.

I've learned that I'm a lot more outgoing than last year. I've learned that God has been preparing me all year for this without me realizing it. Which proved to me that God is constantly working in our lives, even when we aren't trying. I've learned that we all have something to bring to the table: God's table. I've learned something different from each and every one of my team members, and have been blessed by it.

I've learned that everyone in the world has a story to tell. Yes, this I should've learned from being a writer, but this time I've experienced it first hand. I have talked to people from different countries, tribes, languages, and although there are these different stories, there's all one we share in common, and that's love. But more importantly and greater, His love.

I'd love to talk and tell you stories, but as you can see, I'm quite busy. So drop me a line or e-mail or reply, and I'll try to get back to you. God bless!

London Calling

Hello everyone! I have now completed the first of my 5-½ weeks here in London. My team consists of 8 people – I am the only American. I think I get a funny look every time someone says “football” because they all know that I’m thinking “American Football” and this happens quite often since the world cup is going on. Speaking of which, I might suggest not watching an England vs. USA football game - in England - with a large group of people in which you are one of two Americans in the room.

Every day here is different. Some days we’re taking classes, some days we’re out on the streets or in the parks talking to people (sorry, I have to be a little vague when talking about these things). The other day I helped out in a mothers and toddlers group where I got to play with Portuguese, Arab, Chinese, African, and British children, all speaking different languages to their mothers, but English to each other and me. It’s really really fascinating and amazing to experience such a diverse culture in London.

Today we went to a park to hang out with kids. We had different activities like playing with a parachute, balloon animals, face painting, football, and story time. I was supposed to paint kids faces, but after two butterflies, the children were quite taken with the parachute, so I had the privilege of talking with a woman for an hour and a half. We talked the entire time about our religious beliefs over some mint green tea she had brought from home.

Every day we’re out until about 10:00pm. Then we come back to the church where we are sleeping and hang out with each other as a team and get to know one another. We spent the first night playing hide and go seek in the dark (yes, in the first two seconds I tripped and fell over the stage.)

Funny story before I wrap up- The first time we went out on the streets to talk to people, I went with two Korean girls from a different team. It started raining, so I rolled up my pants. I noticed one of the girls staring at my legs and when I looked up at her she said to me, “Maybe if you got tan, your hair would not show when you do not shave.”

If you could remember to keep these things in your prayers throughout my time here, I would greatly appreciate it. Feel free to comment, ask questions, etc. too and I’ll try to answer them in my next update.

-My team- (bonding, sleep deprivation, wisdom, etc.) Kerry, Bianca, Michael, Aki, Hanna, Dominic, Mandy, and myself.

-The woman who I talked with in the park today.

-Everyone we meet/have conversations with on the team.

-Story ideas for me to write about and be able to share with people

-moms and toddlers group/ children’s ministry in the park.

awkward video

Okay, this is probably the most awkward video I've ever made. But I thought I would unprofessionally and quickly throw it together because I want to "wrap up" Katie and my trip so I can start anew. Here's some video footage I took. The first part is me and Katie in our hostel in Lauterbrunnen and then the majority of the footage is of the Trummelbach falls that I wrote in a previous entry. Then it ends with Katie laughing at me yet again for accidently filming. Touch screen cameras are hard to control sometimes.

Be sure to check out the last couple of entries because I just posted a lot over two days.

France!

Hello everyone! I arrived safe and sound in London this morning, so now begins my 6 week adventure. Although life will be fast, I don't have another plane, train, boat, bus, taxi, etc. to take for six weeks.

Tomorrow all the teams arrive - I arrived a day early - so nothing to report just yet. Meaning.. more pictures! But from France this time.

Marseilles coast

a restaurant on a boat! unfortunately we didn't eat there.

One of my favorite statues I've ever seen. Inside a cathedral in Marseilles.

A boy (that looks very similar to my neighbor) and a fisherman at the daily fish market.

This is self explanatory. It is just toooo cute.

An awesome Frenchman selling cherries.

Here she is, Teresa, queen of the market!

a photo of lavender that I hope to see hanging in my parents bedroom sometime soon.

a picture for my mom.

A mysterious photo of Katie at the beach in Nice.

Photos

I promised some photos, so here they are! Don't forget you can click on them to make them bigger if you want. These are just from Switzerland. I should hopefully be able to post some from France later, but there may be a chance that my internet connection will decrease after tonight. Enjoy!

Also, I just wrote another post below this, so be sure to check it out!

Misadventures of Katie and Adrienne

I thought I'd share a few mishaps along the way. All taken as non-seriously as possible, of course.

1. French Fry Overload- Katie and I needed to eat lunch during an lay over to Venice, so we went to a restaurant in the airport called "Cafe American." Katie ordered in Spanish, and in Spanish, the man at the counter said "I can't understand her." The boss yelled to him, "She's speaking Spanish if you would just pay attention!" So Katie ordered her veggie burger with fries and promptly dropped the burger on the floor. The manager was nice, so he gave her a new one, complete with fry side dish. One sandwich, two orders of fries. My turn. I ordered the chicken wrap with fries. I just got fries. I had to reorder, fumbling over pronunciations of "pollo wrap." I was also given a wrap and fries. Assessment at the end of the day: one veggie burger, one chicken wrap, four generous orders of fries. This is when I proclaimed "We could feed the 5,000 with these fries!" and Katie retaliated, "You really think so?" and I said "Well, no. You probably couldn't even get 1,000 pieces with these." In which Katie replied, "That sounds like a challenge!!" With the following photos, you can guess how we spend the remainder of our lay over.

before... after... ladies and gentleman, 1,000 pieces of fries hand-torn.

2. Cough Attack- Of course when you know you're not supposed to laugh, you laugh more. Well, as Katie and I were waiting for the opera to start we got a bad case of the boreds so we started playing a game where we would pick people out of the audience. Apparently we were doing this a little too loudly, and the lady in front of us turned around a gave us the stink eye. Well, when you're sick and everything makes you cough, trying to hold in fits of laughter proved to be unsuccessful.

3. not so easyjet- With large backpacks and large purses as our carry-on's, Katie and I were always a little weary trying to get on the plane without having to check our bags. We were successful until our easyjet flight which required one bag only. Not a carry-on and a personal item. ONE bag. So we shoved our purses into our backpacks carrying the larger items our in our hands because they just wouldn't fit. We were in the terminal sitting on each others backpacks trying to smash them down as much as possible. As soon as we got on the plane Katie and I were separated because the seats were first come first serve. So we were both nervous because there was no way our bags would fit in the overhead. We both shoved our bags under the seats. Well, the girl sitting next to me had a nice, clean carry on suitcase under her seat, and the flight attendant (who was really intimidating and Katie and I now refer to her as The Stickler) called her out because her suitcase was sticking out three inches underneath the seat. Not into the aisle, but just into her leg room space. The Stickler took the lady's bag from her and checked it. I'm in slight panic mode, so I'm trying everything I can to avoid my bag being seen. I was sure she would've made me apologize to the plane and then kick me off if she would've seen it. I'm covering my legs with the in-flight magazines, I'm taking my coat off and draping it over my legs, and that lady STILL caught me. But it was too late, the flight was taking off, and she had to go strap herself in! ah HA! Apparently the same thing happened to Katie too, and we made it. But not with a little more grey hairs showing up on my head.

4. First impressions - Our first dinner in Venice was supposed to be a nice, local dinner. We wound through back alley's, got lost, everything to find a place that looked more local than tourists. We thought it looked local when the chef, wearing crazy pants that resembled pj's and suspenders that had old men picture framed on them. We fumbled through ordering in Italian, and we could kind of tell that everyone was already looking at us weird. But the first big mistake was not us, but the crazy chef. He knocked over our pitcher of water with his elbow, and Katie, trying to make conversation, asked if those were the U.S. Presidents on his suspenders. His lack of response, and a closer look on our parts, informed us that his suspenders were of Mozart. To add to everything on top of that, we realized the French couple next to us had left their map. We were in need of a good map, because the only one we had was from the bus station, and roads weren't labeled and we had already been lost multiple times. So the crazy chef gives us their map. When the French couple returned for their beloved map, ol' chef ratted us out!

5. ice castle- Katie and I were at the top of Europe. Advertised at the top of Europe was an ice castle. 15 minutes before the last train left for the bottom of the mountain, Katie and I decided to hurriedly follow the signs to this ice castle. We descended some stairs and opened up a freezer. It literally was hallways and rooms made entirely of ice. We skated through the halls snapping photos. This was only a misadventure because we only had about 5 minutes to explore the thing. But that was also a good thing because we were the only people there the whole time. It was kind of creepy, but being in a room where the floors, walls, and ceilings are ice, you want room to slip slide around!

6. Scrabble Scramble- Here's a Swiss tip for you: restaurants in small mountain towns close early. The entire town closes early. Katie and I were ready to go eat when we discovered everything was closed. Including stores. Luckily, we found a vending machine, and we had left overs from our lunch so Katie and my nice Swiss dinner consisted of chips and salsa, bread and cheese, two candy bars, half a bottle of grapefruit juice, and a capri sun. We ate this delicious meal at our hostel and decided to make the experience all the more better by playing scrabble while we ate.

7. horriblenogoodverybadday- Flight was at 7:30am. Get up at 5am, be in the cab by 6am. Check in at 6:30. Wait at the gate until boarding. Busy morning, but we did it. Our first bad omen was when we got out of the cab, walked into the airport, and Katie just stood there looking weird. I asked her what was wrong and she just threw up. In the airport. On the floor. Second bad omen. When it was ready to board, we got in line, and gave the attendant our tickets. "Ummm it says the 2nd. Today is the 3rd. Your flight was yesterday." You don't want to hear those words when you have hostels booked, train rides to catch, etc. We took a cab back home, and booked a flight later on in the day and slept off the mornings mishaps. Flight take two. Everything was going smoothly this time around. We were waiting in line and I picked up my backpack and a pain shot through my lower back like nothing I've ever felt before. I felt like I was 90 years old. I pulled my back out. Everything seemed to fail us that morning, and it caused us to arrive at our hostel at midnight, but a flight, 3 train rides, and a 15-minute walk later, we were there.

8. Paper airtrains- Fact: when you are on a train at night and can't see out the windows for two hours, things get a little boring. I realized things get boring when I was writing in my journal and I get a paper airplane thrown at me. I look up and Katie has crazy eyes that are saying "HA. Take THAT." So of course we have a paper airplane fight that turns into our own version of "horse" like the game you play with a basketball, but instead our fists were targets (sometimes moving to make things more challenging) and our basketball was the paper airplane. Fact 2: Katie is much more skilled at paper airplane throwing than I am.

9. French Elevators- If you don't know what the French do for elevators, let me enlighten you. They stick a birdcage on an electronic pulley system in the middle of their spiral staircases. Katie and I, needing to get to the third floor, forgot about this, so Katie goes directly in and realizes that she can't turn around with her big backpack on. Realizing her mistake, I backed into the elevator so I could press the button. Well, I couldn't get all the way in so I smashed Katie who had to twist herself in a position where our backpacks would fit together. But as soon as the doors closed, she realized how bad it was hurting her, so I smashed up against the front doors of the elevator. Anyone who looked in on us would've seen my two hands and cheek smashed to the glass elevator sides, and Katie the contortionist somewhere around me. When we got to the top, the doors wouldn't open because I was smashed up against them. (These kind fold in, not slide apart) So we had to smash all backwards again and then spill out into the hallway. I'm pretty sure we woke everyone up by screaming, then laughing, then yelling "ow!" then laughing again.

10. Chateau d'If: the boat ride - We wanted to go on a tour of Chateau d'If (kinda like France's version of San Francisco's Alcatraz) made famous in the book/movie Counte of Monte Cristo. The water was too choppy, so the tour that docked at the Chateau was cancelled, but we caught a boat that rode around it and the coast of Marseilles. First, we were the youngest people by at least thirty years. We were also the only non-French speaking people on the boat, so we understood nothing of the tour guide's announcements. Then the boat was full, but we asked the captain if we could sit outside on the front of the boat. She said yes, but we'd probably have to come in once we left the dock because the choppy water would get us wet. Whatever! We felt like champions with the best seat in the house. After we left the dock, no water. But boy was there wind! Too stubborn to sit inside we were whipped around by crazy wind, and since the Chateau was at the end of the tour, we were determined to stay outside the whole time. Once we actually circled the Chateau, the water did in fact come, getting us pretty wet. When the ride was over, we had dried off, but the salty sea still got the best of us leaving us with chunks of salt all over us, our wind-tangled hair, and our clothes.

before... after...chateau d'if

over the river and through the woods.

this is ahqt q nor,ql sentence aould look like if i used qn q,ericqn keyboqrd:

translation: this is what a normal sentence would look like if I used an American keyboard.

I am using a french keyboard so please excuse my atrocious punctuation. i have still to locate the apostophe.

Bonjour! Je suis dans France, mais je ne comprend pas le français.

translation: I am in France, but I cant understand French.

First, let me backtrack a bit:

For Katie and my full day in Lauterbrunnen (pronounced lauter.. like water... brew-nen), we hiked around the main waterfall and then took a 45 minute walk through beautiful fields of wildflowers with the river and the alps as our background to Trummelbach falls. I'm providing links because i still cant upload pictures (but check back in two days!) and this picture of Trummelbach does not do it justice. We happened upon it by chance but it is a series of 10 waterfalls inside and outside of a mountain. The falls are all from one river, but it's so powerful, it has shot through multiple walls of the mountain and caves inside it causing a series of falls. I have never seen so much water power in my life. This river alone is the glacier drainage for all three tallest alps in Europe. It was absolutely incredible.

(on that last picture of the three mountains if you look closely at the top between the middle and right mountain, you will see a little speck that looks like a castle sticking up. That's where Katie and I went.)

The next morning we left Switzerland and headed to south France. We spent our first night in Nice. In the morning we went to a picturesque flower, fruit, and vegetable market outside, and we even got a famous "socca" (a crèpe made out of chickpeas) from Terèsa- the "queen of the market." We spent the rest of the day on the beach before heading to Marseilles this evening and enjoying the native dish, bouillabaisse. It's a type of fish stew.

I've decided that my favorite thing about France is that everyone can pronounce my last name correctly on the first try, and with the real pronunciation: none of this "shadow-in" business, but "showd-wah."

Tomorrow marks the last full day of our journey. Then we head back to Madrid for less than 24 hours before Katie returns home to the States and I head to London for six weeks.

Oh, what are men compared to rocks and mountains?

Bonjour, Guten tag, hello!

We have come to discover the Swiss are trilingual. When anyone looks at my name, they speak french to me. And then when I can say "je ne parle pas francais" they switch to English. Katie looks more German, so they speak German to her. On the train, when they took my ticket, they said "merci" and then looked at katie and said "danke" unfortunately, they finally realize we're American and halfheartedly say "have a good day."

I don't think anyone could have a bad day in Switzerland. That's what I've decided. Everywhere is absolutely beautiful and majestic. The first two nights we stayed in the valley of Interlaken in the oldest hostel in Europe. It actually seemed very new and was extremely more organized than our hostel in Venice, and they gave us local "Swiss cheese"!! The view from my window was overlooking the tallest mountain in Europe, called Jungfrau.

Our full day in Interlaken was spent being pretty outdoorsy. We took a hike for the first half of the morning passing a brewery, playing around on old castle ruins, walking by a river, and walking into town to take pictures of the extremely picturesque wooden buildings with amazing carvings and brightly colored shutters with flower boxes in each window. The second half of the day was awesome. The most exhilarating two hours I've spent in a long time. We went white water rafting down the river that cuts through the valley. My biggest fear was falling out. The only scenario I didn't think about was losing my paddle. So of course, ten minutes into our two hour excursion I lost my paddle. I got my paddle back about 20 minutes later, but for those 20 minutes our guide had to make fun of me, and christened me group photographer, so I moved to the back of the raft with him and filmed and photographed the rest of the team. He saw I was enjoying myself way too much and claimed I did it on purpose and scoffed "women." After I got my paddle back he used his paddle to dump water on my head.

So all that being said, I did NOT fall out. And the trip down the river was extreme, and I was definitely under a two-hour adrenaline rush. It was awesome.

Today we headed further up the mountain to a picturesque town called Lauterbrunnen. (Don't even ask me how to pronouce that.) The most charming feature of this small town is not its 930 inhabitants, an amazing view of the tallest Alps, or the little wooden houses dotting the side of the moutain, but the HUGE waterfall that gushes out of the side of the mountain. It's the predominant feature of the town, being able to see it from every point because it's so large. Unfortunately, I can't upload pictures right now, but if you want to google "Lauterbrunnen" you'll definitely get some good pictures.

Our hostel is run by older mothers. We have to take our shoes off to enter the house, and there are signs everywhere that say "you are old enough to clean up after yourselves." Katie and my beds are in a loft, and our own personal window has a view of the waterfall.

Today we took a train to the top of Jungfrau (the tallest mountain in Europe.) We can officially say we've been to the top of Europe. The view was spectacular, too aweseome for words. So I will post pictures as soon as possible.

Tomorrow we're going to take it easy and hike around this area, then head back down the mountain and we're off to the sunny beaches of south france. C'est la vie!

mambo italiano

Ciao!

(just to let you know, you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger)

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, internet connections in hostels aren't very good. So prepare yourself for a long post covering all of Venice.

Katie and I left bright and early Saturday morning for Venice, and after 2 flights, a 45-minute bus ride, an ambiguous map, and using mapquest on my phone, we arrived at our hostel: A Venice Fish (our hostel had it's own bridge- pictured above).

Hostels are always an adventure. It had a great location and a beautiful view, but the hostel itself was highly unorganized and we got moved around every night because they forgot that we were staying there for three days.

Katie and I were both pretty sick the whole time. Which was unfortunate, but we have some pretty hilarious memories because of it. Our sickness included a runny nose and a bad cough. We quickly learned that laughing causes horrible coughing fits, followed by a huge runny nose. We also quickly discovered that when it's wisest not to laugh, you tend to laugh a lot more. I'm pretty sure that everyone in Venice thinks we're the grossest people ever. We'd get into a huge laughing fit then we'd start coughing like crazy and then we'd both have to blow our nose. I think we were bad business for outdoor cafes.

So Venice (or Venezia, as the Italians call it). Venice is magical. It's a lot smaller than one would think, being a larger tourist spot in Europe, but it would take us about 30 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other. I say it's magical because it's like a combination of every cute Italian movie stereotype and Phantom of the Opera. I think the Phantom of the Opera should've taken place here. It could take place today and still look the same. The city is old, and it goes to sleep around 11pm, so the streets are deserted. It's both creepy and cool because it's like you get the city to yourself.

The first night, Katie and I were exploring and we wandered down many empty streets that

were so narrow, we could touch both sides with our hands. We wandered our way to the largest piazza (or, plaza) in Venice called St. Marco's Square. We were looking around when we both heard music and assumed it was playing from a speaker because it sounded like a symphony.

But we followed the sound and found that it was actually coming from a small stage surrounded by cafe tables and chairs. There was a small band of a violinist, bass player, pianist, and an accordion player. They were playing songs both familiar and unfamiliar to the people eating at the cafe and a few onlookers. People were dancing in the lamplit plaza. It was a great first impression for both of us. And it helped that they played a Phantom of the Opera medley!

(I put together a quick video of this, combined with an opera performance we went to.)

The food was wonderful, of course. We had homemade pasta the first night, and the next day, and the next. For breakfast one day we had these awesome pistachio croissants with chocolate chips in them, I had the best basil pesto I've ever had, and we had to eat gelato at least twice a day. A wonderful food we discovered was pizza. Yeah, pizza is going to be good in Italy, I know. But street vendor pizza. It's 2 euros per slice. But check out the picture to see what a "slice" is.

It's impossible for me to describe everything, so I'm leaving you with these pictures and a few tips/facts about Venice.

1. Pigeons should be fed when you are completely done eating.
2. Being by both the river and trash means that you will most likely see a rat. Ones that I mistake for small dogs.
3. You will get lost - but you are never really lost. You will always end up somewhere unexpected that turns out to be some of your best memories (stumbled across the empty plaza [below] that way).
4. If you sit on steps leading down to the water, leave a step or two for waves from passing boats.
5. Cheap pizza is like taco bell. There's entirely way too much food for so little a price, and you know it's not good quality, but boy is it good.
6. Always follow your ears and/or nose. It will be worth it.
7. When staying in a cheap hostel, prepare to be flexible.
8. Venetians work on their own time. Prepare to be flexible.