a few more years shall roll

I am enjoying being in Belgium, first of all. I like that it can be cloudy in the morning, and yet sunny in the evening. I like that last night at 11:15 when I crawled in bed, there was still a bit of light coming through my skylight. I appreciate being away from 90 degree weather in Chattanooga.

Yesterday, though, I had to laugh at the weather.
4:40 wake up to rain and the first light of the day
9:40 a little warm, but dry on the walk to the train station
10:10 train was a little late, and it began sprinkling
10:40 downtown Brussels, no rain
10:52 downtown Brussels, downpour of magnificent proportions while we waited at the tram stop
11:00 ran two meters to the tram and got wet.
11:20 got off our tram stop and ran to a block to church in serious downpour. arrived late, dripping wet. attempted to use tissue to dry off. fail.
12:35 looked outside at the pouring rain and decided to stay for coffee time after service
12:45 looked outside and saw the sunshine
2:00 sat down at cafe near Grand Place and soaked in the sun. actually got a little hot.
6:30 left house of our new friends (after an amazing meal of chicken, veggies, and couscous along with mint tea). as we walk to tram and train station, wind now blowing and temp has dropped about 15 degrees.
7:30 walk from train station home and remark on the beautiful, calm, warm evening.

*Wow, wouldn’t I have SUCH an interesting Twitter feed? All weather, all the time live from Belgium here. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m leaving for another country on Wednesday, where the weather is much more predictable.

I am a city girl at heart, I think. While I enjoy driving through countrysides and experiencing open spaces, I am much more intrigued and energized by the variety of people, places, sights and sounds in cities. Being in Brussels and stopping by a flea market and picking up on conversation in French, Flemish, Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Italian is something I want to experience again. And again.

Look at this scene from the Grand Place: the people are much more beautiful than the architecture.

This past saturday, I joined the local public library, checked out 6 books on Ireland to begin planning my six days there (they didn’t have any on Belgium, where I’ll be the week before Ireland), grilled with my new Weber charcoal grill. For my first attempt at grilling, I made the following:

a burger (with feta)
onions
portabellas
boneless pork chop with dijon maple glaze
butternut squash

Fear not, I did not eat these all in one sitting (it was three meals in one), but I figured I should go ahead and use the grill space and heat while I had it.

So, here was my plate on the table for a late lunch:

Here is the butternut squash, which finished cooking while I ate the burger/onion/mushroom pita sandwich:

I’m still figuring out the vents on my grill, but the first outing was a success.

I’m submitting a few photo entries to the blog. . .with a little explanation.

One of my favorite of more recent traditions is my annual Christmas Eve eve gift exchange, sleepover, and brunch with four of my close friends in Philadelphia. We began four years ago (I think) meeting at Joyce’s home. She decorates her home beautifully for Christmas, so we all enjoy celebrating there. We snack and exchange gifts in the evening, and then the next morning we collaborate and have a lovely brunch together. The photo above shows one of Joyce’s beautiful tea cups on the breakfast table.

Even though I’ve moved away, I hope that this gathering remains a part of my Christmas celebration in years to come. My friends gave me a particularly sweet gift this year–a scrapbook of some of our adventures together–from trips to the Adirondacks, Vermont, and, most recently, Ukraine to celebrations together to our times in choir (where we all met and became friends). It’s a special treasure!

Christmas decorations, at least. I wasn’t going to get a tree this year, but my sister and brother-in-law and their six kids were stopping by on their way to Alabama for Christmas, so I thought I’d go ahead and get one. I got it a few weeks ago–it’s one with the roots and all, which is a lovely concept in theory, but not so great when one lives alone and cannot carry it inside. I should have wised up when it took three guys to put it in the back of my car to get it home.

I did buy a lovely large galvanized bucket to keep it in, but the bucket leaks, so I can’t keep it as well-watered as I would like. I’m pretty sure it’s going to die before I can replant it (not to be a pessimist or anything, and I do try to water it as well as I can, but it’s dropping needles and I have to leave it for a week while i drive to Pennsylvania for Christmas). Next year, I will get a cut tree.

Here’s a photo of my house from the outside, but you can see the tree inside:

Here’s a view from inside:

Good Christmas memories already this December:
–Lessons and Carols at Sewanee
–Reading Luke 2:1-20 in Chapel for Covenant’s (less formal) Lessons and Carols
–Getting to see Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God concert twice. One in Huntsville and one in Nashville.
–Having family visit even though I live so far from “home.” So much fun to have my house full of kids!
–Niedlov’s bakery and their Christmas stollen.

More to come as I travel north on Friday, visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Va, before heading to Philly on Saturday.

i doubt anyone even checks this little blog anymore, but i thought i might just put a little post in. i’m in lookout mountain, ga, staying in a student apartment at Covenant College, with all my worldly goods in storage somewhere in Georgia (seriously, I have no idea where they are). i’m waiting to find a new house to live in to go with my new job here at the college. tomorrow afternoon, i’m going to check one more place out and try to make up my mind on what I want to buy. my house is philly sold in a hurry, although managing all the details while traveling in Ukraine and Turkey was quite interesting.

i’m excited about this new opportunity, back to working with students and helping them think about life and work. it does feel like i’m on some kind of big road trip, having packed up my car, and driven for days, visiting family and friends along the way, and staying in a place where i’m not really unpacking. it always takes a while for a place to feel like home for me, but i think a big step will be having a place to call my own. for now, i’m eating lots of prepared food and living with very white walls and institutional furniture.

when it’s been so long since the last entry, i’m not even sure where to begin. it’s like trying to sum up my ‘accomplishments since graduation’ for my 15th high school reunion. i’m wondering what consititutes an accomplishment. somehow that’s easier than writing down my “best memory from high school” since i’ve forgotten most of my high school experiences!

i’ll list instead my best memories/accomplishments during last week’s vacation in the adirondacks:
1. sleeping in until 10:30 am one day
2. watching roman holiday
3. hiking eight miles (i have the raspberry branch scratches on my ankles to prove it)
4. sailing for the first time (ok, so i just rode, while my friend Joyce sailed)
5. quoting pride and prejudice lines with my friends [i believe it is of great doctrinal import]
6. finishing stephen ambrose’s band of brothers; starting orhan pamuk’s snow
7. studying five psalms with four of my good friends
8. eating great food–salmon, sauerbrauten, beef bbq, chicken tagine, hot dogs over the campfire
9. enjoying cold sleeping weather and clear starry nights
10. finding a great diner on our way home

now, when i try a household project, it’s usually ripping up carpet or cleaning the living room. my sister and brother-in-law, on the other hand, are renovating a huge house, from a shell into something livable. the photos are part way through the project in February–they’ve done a lot more since i took them. it makes me tired just thinking about all that work!

i’m excited that they and their five kids might come visit me over Easter weekend.

what is thrift bowling, you ask?

i asked the same question when my roommate Sarah informed me of the planned event. lindsey and luke had put their heads together to determine a suitable activity for friends from our tuesday night bible study.

lindsey wrote: “Thrift Bowling includes getting together with a bunch of people, picking names from a hat & dressing the person that you picked in thrift clothes. Then, we go bowling.”

i was tired after a long week on friday night, but determined i would at least join in some of the fun, since our thrift store was the attic of a missions guesthouse just around the corner.

it turned into quite an evening . . . outfits were chosen to properly humiliate the wearer, pictures were taken, bowling alley attendants were amused, and a good time was had by all. i highly recommend it.

Luke took a bunch of pictures which are here.

A few highlights:

Trying things on (check out Tim’s white shoes and socks in the background):
Sarah’s sombrero

jeff’s leisure suit and wig:

the whole group:
luke trying the sombrero (it was a popular item):
the frey siblings:

i went “thrift bowling” on friday night. now that was a fun time. i will post pictures soon, i promise!

Laurel tagged me just so I would update my blog, I believe!

Four Jobs I Have Had:
High School English Teacher
Hersheypark Cashier
Missions Coordinator
Pre-Medical Advisor

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
Elf
Dumb and Dumber (sue me!)
The Philadelphia Story
The Sound of Music
(Serenity may be entering this list soon–it’s too early to tell)

Four Books I Could Read Over and Over:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (or any other, really)
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (any volume)

Four Places I Have Lived:
Troy, NC
Elliottsburg, PA
Winston-Salem, NC
Philadelphia, PA

Four TV Shows I Watch:
Lost
Firefly (DVD only)
Arrested Development on DVD
The Simpsons

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
Vermont (every year)
Nashville, TN
Katmandu and Okhuldunga, Nepal
Toronto, Ontario and Georgian Bay, Ontario

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
Yahoo mail
Google
marion clark’s blog
Tenth Presbyterian Church (I have to—it’s my homepage)

Four Favorite Foods:
Ice Cream (Maple Walnut or anything chocolate)
Pad Thai
Chicken Souvlaki
Mom’s roast chicken and mashed potatoes and rolls and corn . . .

Four Places I’d Like To Be Right Now:
Wandering around Istanbul, Turkey
Enjoying a cup of coffee in front of the fire at my family’s cabin in Vermont
Hanging out with all my siblings (anywhere)
On a road trip to see Andrew Peterson playing music (it’s been too long)

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:
chrissy
dawn
Christy
Ryia

apologies for the hiatus. i took a week off between my two jobs and have simply not had time near my little laptop to post anything recently. thanksgiving was good–all siblings present, mainly because we all needed to see “Pappy” my grandfather, who is fading fast.

then, tuesday we found out that molly, my beautiful baby neice, has severe/profound hearing loss in both ears. this is hard news, although we know God is sovereign and this is for our good and Molly’s good.

I’m getting ready to leave my office on my last day of work at Penn. It feels a little odd, although that’s perhaps because I’m coming back tomorrow to clean up all the mess! I’m such a procrastinator that I can’t even quit on time.

to my friend Jay and his new wife Monique. They were married on Saturday in St. Louis.

I think the first real conversation I had with Jay was after a Sunday lunch at the guys’ house, where my brother lived for three years during medical school and where I still attend a Bible study on Tuesday nights. Jay lived in the house during his med school years as well. We talked about infant baptism and the covenant on the front porch. We didn’t argue, just discussed. We recognized that we could be friends even if we disagreed. (correct me if I’m wrong, Jay).

God’s richest blessings on the two of you as you begin your life together under Him.

life’s been a little crazy lately, but i’m going to leave the craziness behind for a bit and take a little 10 hour plane ride tomorrow. i highly recommend it.

i need to pack.