coffee and friends.

(March 13-20) And here I begin another blog entry with…”so it’s been awhile.”  Since the last entry I have been to many places and my life seems to have been lived out of a backpack. I had the amazing blessing of having my sister Lauren here in Scotland and two of my best friends, Kelly and Sarah. It was God’s perfect timing in bringing them here; I was in need of friends being around for encouragement. And my sister for laughter and song filled days, old children’s church song…”milk, milk, milk drink your milk, milk, milk, spread the word, word, word and live strong…” We sang that quite a lot while walking the streets of Scotland.  Lauren and I were able to have some mornings where we would go off to have coffee and catch up which was nice. She got to spend time in my favorite café, Pico (which is now S’Mug). We all went to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. In St. Andrews we were able to walk up a tight staircase with probably 100 steps to stand on top of a cathedral ruin and see all of St. Andrews and then some. It was beautiful! One of the nights Sarah and I went for a walk and sat on a stonewall and while we were chatting fireworks went off in the distance…it was romantic J.  The best part of having them all here in Scotland was to be able to share my life here with them.  The places that I go daily and the things that I do, they were able to experience.  As much as I was showing them around it did feel like four best friends creating memories together! OH I can’t believe I forgot to mention that I wasn’t even supposed to know Lauren was coming. She was a surprise! The three of them had been brewing this plan since January and a couple days before they came I subtly found out. Which in my thoughts was ok because she needed to be signed into my flat in order to sleep there. But even when Mark and I were at the airport to pick them up I kept saying “oh my gosh I cant believe they are coming, and Lauren is coming, it doesn’t seem real.” And the doors opened and I saw Kelly, then Sarah and then there was Lauren- it was amazing! The best half surprise ever (I have come to the realization that I like half surprises-I know bits about what is going to happen!) It was just a really good time having everyone here. When Lauren left to go home it was kind of sad because the goodbye was early and rushed since Kelly, Sarah and I were off to London. But it was ok because I knew that we’d see each other soon! 

since friday aftertoon my life has been filled with amazing people. kelly and sarah (two best friends from stout) walked into the glasgow international airport with Lauren (MY SISTER)! we spent the weekend in edinburgh walking around: watching a street performer, climbing an intense hill to see over the city, and letting the sun touch our faces as we soaked in the presense of eachother.
mark was really nice to let us all sleep at his place in st. andrews. so we spend sunday going to church, which was amazing and for only 7 pounds we got to go up in a tower and see all of st. andrews, go through a museum and walk through the st. andrews castle. the best part about the castle was when sarah and i road our 'horses' in to it and then the five of us 'shot a canon out of the window! its fun to have an imagination!
what has been really neat is that i think God new when the best time would be for lauren, kelly and sarah to come. i was getting a little lonely and missing friendships! its really great to be able to let them all experience what i experience everyday. and i have realized how important friends and family are. they really give fill hearts with love!....and laughter and smiles!
it was fun to see lauren take off her shoes by the ocean and me telling her she was crazy when that is exactly what i did the first time i saw the ocean!
they got to eat at the best panini restuarant id say in scotland...Le Rendevous. Mark and i have finally learned the owners name, Aldo. So aldo made 4 mean ham paninis (baguette, ham, cheese and wildberry chutney (jam)) and sarah got something different as she like to venture off...the first night she jumped right in to scottish quisine by getting chicken and haggis with a whiskey sauce!
we relaxed a bit before taking on the big city glasgow...i called a taxi for the first time when we got to the bus station and of course it was chaotic and the taxi driver couldnt find us and we couldt find him...but about twenty five minutes later we were in front of 50 Hillhead (my flat). we spent the day eating outside the uni building and then they came to my lecture with me for celtic civilizations...they seem to better understand why im not a regular attendee after that...sadly you want to snore. we rested up before our big st. patty's day experience...we walked around the idyllic ashton lane and there were tons of people dancing, talking and drinking in the streets! we ended up at a pub called Curlers where a deal was with getting a burger, chips (fries) and a pint of cider was only 3.75 pounds! afterwards it was mission pint takeaway (MPT)...had to get a guinnes glass from a pub so we went to this one where an irish band was playing...it was full of st.patty spirit! the whole pub was filled with people clapping, singing, holding their drinks high and having a cheerie time!! it was such a good cultural experience...lauren however was the only one to succeed to spot an empty glass and take it away!
lauren has two more days here so hopefully she will get to do some shopping and other fun stuff...it will be hard to let her go home.
this upcoming weekend though mark, kelly, sarah and i are heading to london. Then on monday kelly, sarah and i are going to hungary and rome. Kelly has a friend in hungary who is letting us stay with her and then rome just for fun! it will be exciting because so many adventures are going to be made!!
i hope i can update at somepoint during the next journey here....

a luncheon and 10k.

so today, tuesday, a great day!
i went to the beanscene and read 1 Corinthians for bible study tonight. i meet a little boy named Thor who wanted to grab my tea and knock it to the ground! cutie! i practiced my chanter a bit...still should be doing that more...eeek. i went to a celtic lecture then had a lovely lunch with my friend Katy Dycus who is a post grad student from Texas! next tuesday we are going to this indian restaurant with our other friends Gina and Dish...its called Mother India...they all love it so im sure i will too!
when i got back to my flat i checked my email and got this message from someone saying there is a 10k for just women may 10th...i went to the website...checked what exactly is a 10k, about 6.5 miles...thought about it hmmm....i can do that! So i registered...and now i cant go back! Im doing my first 10k in glasgow scotland! What exactly its for is cancer research and its the biggest all-women 10k in the uk(Ignis Asset Management Women's 10k; Sunday 10th May 2009; 10am). i got to choose a charity to run for so im running for the Parkinson's Disease Society! I have been wanted to do something like this for awhile and now im just going to do it! why wait or put it off! so wish me luck with training...i can take some tips as well!

so i have this amazing opportunity to raise money for the Parkinson's Disease Society...so if anyone is wanting to support me running for this charity please let me know. i'll post my address if people would like to:
50C Hillhead Street
G12 8QB
Glasgow, Scotland

first things first... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Davidson
when ashley and i went to Edinburgh...we saw the woman who holds the Guinness world record for most piercings...we just found this out today!!! i knew there was a reason for coming to scotland!

more in-depth: this has been quite the journey. i have gone in and out of thoughts on what is important to me in life. i never knew one way for God to help me grow would be to send me to scotland. but it has a lot. i have basically been forced to face myself each day with who i am. i realized how in the past its been easy for me to put others interests/feelings on myself, kind of ignoring what my interests and feelings are. but i've started to discover those things that get me excited about life. its not going to pubs, living the 'city' life, or trying to make a million friends at once. it is about walking in to coffee shops and sitting down in a comfy chair to have good conversation or a writing session with God. it is about going up and down hills to my art classes and realizing that it is ok not to be perfect. that sculpting a human body is not going to look like it belongs in an museum my first try. and drawing does not have to be a certain way, just as long as i let myself breathe and love the process. it is about accepting someones love and friendship, knowing they wont leave even if i can't make decisions all the time. it is about realizing that back home my heart misses when i thought i wouldn't miss it at all. i have to come to the understanding that life here for me is more that the stereotypical scottish life, it is about walking with God everywhere I go and listening to Him tell me each step He wants me taking. No matter where i go, who i am with, how my life is here, He tells me its where He wants me.
Saturday I went to a worship concert called 'Soul Survivor' with Mark. He heard about it through people from his church. It was held in the South end of town (a place needed to be discovered) at the Queen's Park Baptist Church. It was an amazing night, a night I had been longing for ever since I came here. A night of praising the Lord, dancing and singing to Him, and accepting and surrendering life to Him again! It was amazing to see all these people fill this place up coming together to sing for the thankfulness and praise to a God that LOVES. I couldn't help but cry a little...of course.

more out-depth: i got a card from mom and she said maybe the best chocolate cake that mark and i have will be one that we make...so our daring selves tried this. friday night we spent a couple hours preparing the best 'EGG SPONGE, non-tasting chocolate, so bad had to spit out CAKE'. haha. it was awful, but of course the measuring techniques here are different, we didn't exactly have all the right ingredients and the ovens were foreign to us...excuses i know. But it isn't the last time, we think we can only get better turnouts!
we also tried to find the play Peter Pan (which crazily is the minneapolis childeren's theatre here touring) but it was in the East end of glasgow (the called 'dodgy' part of town). But after 2.45 hours on a bus we only found it after the play had started! just wasn't meant to be to find peter pan that day.
sunday went to Re:Hope again, it was different this time since Sandra and Kenny weren't there but it was nice to think about them having a lovely time in Texas! I am joining a Bible Read through group, which gets together every tuesday in starbuck to talk about a book in the bible. Im quite excited about that!
things i miss: cinnamon toast crunch, natural skippy peanut butter, high-pressure shower heads.
...before i end this post i would like to open the comment section up for anyone that has prayer requests that I could pray for!
see you!

red&green lights.

...and i am still in glasgow!!
...and this trip is unfolding in many ways i could not have imagined. i thought i would be doing more things, meeting more people and really just doing more, but it has been a time of introspection lately. being away from a place i am familiar with and comfortable in has opened my eyes up to my life in general. i have developed a lot of questions that do not have answers and i am trying to find peace in that. i have been walking the streets praying and just taking time to think about what it is my life entails. its been an experience of learning patience and definitely a time of much needed grace. hearing the words "it's ok" has been fresh air for me. this is a more personal aspect to how this trip has been going. it isn't always filled with joyful sounds and dancing feet...there are times i shuffle the pathways. the most amazing thing through it all is that i KNOW God is with me the entire time. even when it feels a bit lonely, He is there carrying me through and also to make jokes with me!! i know for sure that if i didn't have Him this trip would have never even began! He is just so so faithful and i am excited to see what is still to come!
...besides that i have done a few new things...i got my first haircut!! i had an hour to spare before bagpiping lecture so i went walking around and passed a salon and just decided, why not? and it was lovely! when they washed my hair i got to sit in a massage chair...fantastic! i painted my first watercolor (thanks to Sandra)...i was missing home so i got a picture of mom's garden and painted flowers from it...i cant wait for the summer bloom! i started a new sculpture, we are doing just a head now for four weeks-im learning that everything that i want to learn or know does not come to perfection right away. this is where the patience comes in.
...mark and i had an adventure last weekend, crazy God moments...last minute i decided to go to st. andrews on thursday but there was no buses departing out of glasgow so i got on a bus to Edinburgh thinking there would be one there going to st. andrews...well that one was only going so far as Leven (1/2 hr drive from st. a's). my phone didnt work, i was sick, had no money and was pretty much stranded. until the bus driver came and started talking to me and well...i broke down to him...haha its funny now that i think about it but at the time i thought i was a stranded little girl. but he let me use his phone and i called mark and told him what happened and he said get on the bus to Leven and he'd meet me there some way. so i am thinking he is going to have to get a taxi and that would be like 100 pounds, i felt awful...BUT during this time i was on the bus, mark was busy calling people to see if they could drive him and well, either no one picked up or no one could. Until he felt he was suppose to call this women he had meet only through email through a grape vine of young lifers. and so mark called her explaining to this lady who has not really meet mark formally what was going on and seeing if she could drive. well i got to Leven and there was mark in a black van with Jeni Sterling! wow! and during this time God kept telling me it was going to be ok and He had everything situated, i just needed to give up my structured plans...not everything happens the same way every time...not everything happens a certain way either! it was a crazy adventure!
...i also have managed to lock myself out of my flat a couple time (forgot my keys...typical) i have tried to get into the wrong flat and a man opened the door and i ran in thinking it was my flat but it was really the floor below mine...embarassing but again typical! i have ran into many automatic doors when they open...i swear they are different here.
hmmm...what else...its hard to remember everything that has gone on...i need to write more often...but for now things are getting sunny!

tomatoe soup and royalty.

its been a success...i have stayed in glasgow for a weekend by myself!
details? ah yes!
friday
i went to the Naked Soup cafe because...they had a sign outside their door that read as follows "american style pancakes with syrup, small stack 2.75, regular stack 3.75" and well pancakes and me get a long real well! it was my treat before i started the massive trial of finishing my first essay. one word-'delish' (they didn't have peanut butter so the next i am going to have to bring my own, pancakes are lonely without peanut butter!)
saturday
the journey of the day was for my friend ashley (a stoutie) and i to go to the famed capital, edinburgh. we both claimed we were not into the whole touristy thing...so this is what we did: got off the bus, looked for the nearest map (great for tourists), asked a worker to show us where we were on the map (after some fowl words of frustration he managed to show us), started walking, went to a land of monuments and took pictures (not touristy at all), found jacob's ladder and began our trek up the Royal Mile leading us to the untouristy castle that we have no idea who lived in. we weren't feeling touristy enough so we found a live sculpture and a William Wallace impersonator to take pictures with. oh and of course where Harry Potter was ignited into words on a page...we ate there (elephant cafe). but ashley and i realized we needed some spice in our life so we went off the beaten path to the courtyard cafe and patiently waited for the best tomato soup ever and ham and cheese paninis! at the end of the day we deemed ourselves pretty successful as not being tourists! :)
sunday
had a lovely sunday morning at Re:Hope Church, its seriously 20 steps from my apartment building door! i meet the couple, sandra and kenny, who were starting a church here. i say 'were' because they have just been told their home church in texas needs them back there, kenny as the worship leader. it was a pretty sad day, as they have kind of been the people to take care of me here. but after an amazing time of worship we had lunch at Curlers pub and great conversation.
something learned or well constantly being relearned: we can't try and figure God out, He has his own way of doing things, such as unexpectedly taking us out of places we thought we were to be. if we try and figure Him out we will only leave ourselves frustrated and in lack of faith. we need to trust that He is a God of good and works for the good of those that love Him.
i also meet some people at the church that i will be getting together tuesday for a bible book club in starbucks.
ben (another soutie) and i have continued our dinners and its been an awesome way to learn how to cook and have good meals and conversation!
its been snowing here, i look at the window and the city is white. sometimes i wonder if i even left MN.
the lattes, cappuccinos and scones have become the culprit for lack of pounds. i may need to start trading off the days i buy them. oh man.
....until the next.
we can ask the Lord to fill our hearts with the fruit of His Spirit...may joy fill you!

overstuffed stomachs, Irish rocks and firsties.

sorry its been while since i've updated my blog...
but last weekend I went on another adventure with mark...operation...
Northern Ireland.
it was a lot of fun with many surprises!
what it entailed:
!) running around the airport to catch our flight at 6:30 am.
@) walking the streets of Belfast with a handy tourist map, waiting for our hostel room to be ready (first time in a hostel...interesting)
#) claiming the first startbucks we'd both been in over here to have the most genuine barista ever. then also claiming the best scones to be occupying cafe renoir.
$) stuffing our faces the night of mark's birthday with an amazing meal cooked by his Irish friend Andrew's mom in Crossgar.
%) experiencing the first of "warming rooms" where tea and biscuits are offered. (fires were feed with coal...neat)
^) the most touristy thing we probably did: went to Northern Ireland's must see Giant's Causeway. Huge rocks that apparently giants used as stepping stones across the ocean...who knew. best memory made there: it was freezing/windy and we had to walk super far down this hill to get to the place. So to get our minds semi-off the cold and the drudgery of a mountain climb we skipped/ran up it! of course laughing.
&) we wanted to see an opera or a play or something but most of the places had no showings or mysteriously were being renovated and opening later in the spring...our cure for that: lion king in London! (at some point)
even though the weather has been hiding the sun there were moments where it would peek through the clouds and i just knew that new days are always here and the past (such as aged rocks) can be stepped on to be written in a new light.