friends!
norway is amazing. it is beautiful. it is cold. and it is lovely.
I am writing an update, and I am so sorry that it has taken me a week and 1/2 to do so. my dts started the 15th of september and has been a wonderful whirlwind of Jesus ever since.
hmm. so much has happened. I am excited to share it. I figure I'll start at the beginning, seeing how that's where I began, and try to sort my way through to this very moment of now. wow, a lot has happened.
ok, deep breath, here we go.
on the 13th I left my family at the dallas airport, it was such a strange thing. to hug my family and know that I wouldn't be seeing them for a series of months. some are used to this sensation, and I myself am somewhat familiar with the feeling of separating with loved ones for long periods of time at a time. but this is my family, the ones I love most on this earth, and it was strange.
my first stop, with my lovely traveling companion lyxee green, was amsterdam.
the flight to amsterdam was only 9 hours long. I've endured worse, and I had my own personal video-viewing screen. a definite plus when traveling long distances in flight. but anyway. we stopped in amsterdam, and met up with a friend of lyxees mumsy named sanne (sorry if I totally botched the spelling!) it was incredible. I have never seen so many vintage bikes in my entire life. I was in awe, I was in europe. we got to go to a coffee place (note. not a coffee shop) and on a ferry tour of the city (totally sick) and my personal favorite, which takes on a much more serious tone. the anne frank house. wow, inspired. if you ever, ever have the opportunity to experience this, please, don't pass it up. I could hardly speak at some points. my heart was just so... yah, just wow.
we were in amsterdam for 9 hours before hopping on a plane to oslo norway. a 3-ish hour flight, I don't remember. I was sleeping. the oslo airport is not something I wish to tell you about. I was disappointed, and have had much better encounters in years past. it was strange, and expensive (over $200 for over weight bags), and before I get worked up, yay I was in norway. in any case we (me and lyxee) met up with our friend hannah (who will also be attending our dts) in the oslo airport, and we all flew together to alesund.
I arrived in alesund norway on the 14th of september. it was chilly, but not all-too-cold, bearable. I arrived with my traveling buddies lyxee and hannah linked arm-in-arm. it was about, oh, maybe 8.30 here (norway) time and 1.30 in my texas head time. I was thoroughly confused and rather tired. but I fought back sleep with anticipation as we rode across the norwegian waters upon "flybussen" (the airport bus) which was upon norwegian ferry. we then journeyed through forest and back-roads until arriving at the moa bus stop where we were met with friendly faces that spoke english and knew our names (gabby and mitch, staff and dts co-leader) they then proceeded to pack our bags into a bus and drive us up and up to our new home the "ungdom i oppdrag" (ywam) base of alesund norway. woot!
at our new home we got shown our rooms and met fellow students from all around the world. my roommates (cailey from canada and josefin from sweden) had would not arrive until the next day, so I crashed and didn't bother with my many luggage bags.
have you ever gotten somewhere, and it just feels right. that's how I feel here. it's like it is already home to me. my heart is at peace, and that's a total God thing.
the next day was our first meeting as a school. in that first time of worship God already started to speak. confirmation after confirmation never gets old. you know?
we had some orientation meetings those first 2 days. the 17th however was something rather different. the whole dts packed up big hiking backpacks and headed to a secluded mountain. we were split into groups of 5 with a staff member amongst us to make sure we didn't die on our way up.
my team the "polly pocket vikings" was made up of: myself (of course), arnbjorg (other dts co-leader) cailey (one of my roommates) hannah (my travel buddy) and esther (my netherlandian (pretty sure I just made that word up) friend)
we then hiked for (I don't even know how many) hours. meeting obstacles (games) that when over-come won us food for the journey. haha. and a few unplanned obstacles. such as: hannah losing her shoe to mud (she got it back), arbjorg doing a beautifully graceful slip dive into muddy bog-ness, and myself hopping right into the clutches of a (over) knee-high mud monster who sucked me in. luckily, I had the best team ever. (polly pocket vikings forever) who swooped in to my rescue and now I am not dead. (don't worry, I didn't actually almost die)
we made a song for ourselves, so we could have something uber awesome to represent ourselves at the group presentation time. it went a little something like this, ehhem:
we're vikings, what do you know, the terrors of the sea
we're vikings, wherever we go, pillaging happily
we're vikings, let there be no, animosity
'cause, who doesn’t love a viking girl, with a hiking boot, and a viking 'tude?
ohhhhh!!!! the terrors of the mount!
lalala. hope you enjoyed that. and of course there were motions to match it's superb-ity.
anyway, it rained all night, and was cold, and my socks got soaked through due to the mud monster incident. but with the help of friends I didn't experience frostbite.
but really, I have no room for complaining, because our one and only most loved south korean gahyun twisted her ankle, bad, and had to spend the night with elevated foot.
anyway, the next day we trekked back down the mountain. but on a different, easier path, due to the need of our ankle twist-ee needing to be carried down the mountain on a man made stretcher. go crafty males!
and we had soup made in a "hurricane kitchen" a lovely little gadget that you can google if you've never heard of one before.
and then near the bottom there was a beautifully clear grassy hill that of course had to be rolled down.
we were then picked up by bus and driven back to the base where newly completed showers (and the rest of the marvelous bathroom) awaited us girls. oh lassa, you're so rad!
these are the most highlighted of highlights I have currently, because this blog is growing to ginormousy.
but. I do have a few more tid bits.
on the 20th we had our first teachers come and teach (imagine that). they started of our first "creative week" which means that my dts splits into our 4 different tracks and spends time with a special focus on them.
this year the visual art track is in a new location that is actually inside of alesund in a prayer house where revival broke out in the 30s or so and has laid somewhat dormant sense. I am so excited to bring back Jesus to the middle of alesund, and we believe that through this step into a new place God is going to be able to get his spirit pumping back through this city.
I'm excited, and very inspired.
be praying that God will use us being there to do great and wonderful things.
also, and I swear this is the last thing.
next week we are heading to a conference in oslo called nations to nations. it is being held in one of the most culturally diverse parts of norway. and all of the dtss being held in norway (and some other surrounding nations) will be meeting and inviting churches and people to unite together and seek Gods face. what an exciting outreach opportunity! please be praying over this next week that Jesus shows up in a mighty way.
**praise report my sister victoria was struck last week with a1 influenza, and was super sick. a1 has the ability to lead into swine flue. but Jesus is oh so faithful, and from a report I got from my mom today she is not contagious anymore and doesn't have to wear a mask. yay! I love you tori!
peace friends. thanks for your lovessss.
