Vicarious Travelblog

Yellow Fever: check. Hep A: check

2012-01-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

It starts feeling pretty real when you start getting shots!

In just over three months I'll be heading to Kenya for the 2012 World Conference of Friends (Quakers). I'll be there for 12 days. I know there will be some internet access but I don't know how much or when. I'll do my best to post a bit while I'm there!

After getting a round of shots, and prescriptions for pills, and advice for traveling from the travel clinic today, I decided I'd better start blogging about this whole thing. It will help me to process and to make this a bit more real.

So maybe I'll do a little more processing and then I'll get back to posting...soon.

Figgy Pudding!

2007-12-08T09:37:00.001-08:00

Okay, I've been telling people for years they needed to check out the annual Figgy Pudding Street Corner Christmas Caroling Competition in Seattle. It is a fantastic event! This year I could finally record some songs.
Sadly I had to chop them down to fit the MB size requirement of YouTube, but I'm sure you'll still enjoy them!

The Llew Crew's rendition of O Holy Night:

The Seattle Labor Union Choir's rendition of Angels We Have Heard On High:

Lastly, another rendition by the Labor Union Choir, to the tune of Hark, The Herald Angels Sing:

Photos!

2007-07-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

It took two days to download these - even with a fast connection! I hope you all enjoy them. =)

http://www.photoworks.com/members/Aimee

Update: Some of you may have thought to yourselves, "wow, I went through those 289 pictures really fast!" That's because 89 of them were chopped out the album because of a glitch with photoworks. You can now go back and see the rest of the photos in my 'part 2' album. Enjoy!

Drum roll, por favor...

2007-07-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

My last week has been interesting and full of activities - and speaking spanish! Okay, so I´m usually doing that, but I think I´m speaking and understanding more. I´m quite proud of myself.

Tuesday Juan and the other computer lab guys invited me to have some pizza with them at lunch. We sat around for an hour chatting and laughing and joking. In Spanish! I´m still amazed.

Wednesday night I went out to dinner with the Guatemalan director of Child Aid and the volunteer coordinator. Thursday I had lunch with the founder and director of Probigua and his wife and another couple. This meant a half day at the library since I had to take the bus back to Antigua, wait a half hour for everyone to show up, then travel to Jocotenango for lunch. It was apparently a typical Guatemalan meal. First they cook a chicken, a really tough little chicken, in the soup broth so it has the flavor of chicken. They take that out and serve it on the side, all dried out and tough, with rice. So you put rice and the chicken into your soup. But apparently most people don´t get chicken often. It was an interesting meal.

Today was my last day in the library. It was somewhat frustrating for me. The computer would not work this morning. I kept restarting it and trying everything and it just got to a startup screen and wouldn´t go any farther. I was disappointed to lose time cataloging, but I could wait for Juan to arrive. Well - Juan was really, really late today. He had been in the process of buying a motorcycle and he got the call this morning that paperwork had gone through and he could come get his bike. So he motored into work (literally wheeled the motorcycle into the library!) after 12:00!

While I was waiting for him to arrive and fix the computer I taught myself the numbering system in Kaqchikel then I watched the students out in the field next to the library. There were dozens and dozens of students out, rough-housing and playing games and cutting the grass.
Yes - they were cutting the field... with machetes. I think every person around here has a machete, big 2 or 3 foot long blades. They bend down close to the ground and hack and hack and hack at the grass and grass is flying everywhere.
Loud music was blasting out into the field - I could feel the bass vibrating in the library wall. Students were doing handstands, walking on their hands, doing cartwheels, playing soccer, salsa dancing, and playing hackey sack with soccer balls and bouncy balls. Every now and then some guy would go down and a dog pile would commence - with the last several guys taking running leaps and jumping onto the top of the pile. Then the guys would all go crashing down and the guy on the bottom would get up and go chasing after the guy on the top, running through the field, past the library, all through the campus.
I looked over to another side of the field and saw many students gathering up piles of grass and throwing it in a pile on top of another student. Three pretty girls in tight jeans and pink shirts walked by, chattering and swinging their machetes.

It was a sight to see.

Juan finally showed up and came over to help with the computer. I´m really quite embarrassed. A student had left a disk in the computer and that´s the only reason it wouldn´t turn on! I knew disks left in the computer caused problems - which I learned back in the age of the dinosaurs when I still used disks. I mean, come on - who out there has used a disk recently? Anyway, by the time it was fixed it was time for lunch. The two librarians and Juan bought lunch and we all ate together. We were all too stuffed to eat the chocolates I had brought for them - but I´m sure they´ll be enjoyed next week.

Anyway, now for the moment you´ve all been impatiently waiting for!

I finished today with 1,096 books.

Congratulations to Andi at OHCS who wins her very own chicken bus! This chicken bus comes complete with fruit and a chicken, but you´ll have to provide your own people. With approximately 3 adults and at least one child per seat and the aisle packed, you´ll need about 40 some people. Good luck!

I also decided to give a runner up prize. This prize isn´t for the next closest guess though. I realized I was having you all guess how many individual titles I was cataloging. But I´ve had to touch a lot more books than that because of all the duplicates. I´ve had to make sure they all had the Dewey number in them and had a codigo (spine label) printed. The total number of all books, with copies, is 2,108.

Congratulations to Phil, who wins his very own Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala!

Thanks for playing everyone. Stay tuned and I´ll post pictures next week after I return home!

Amigos

2007-07-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend Jen found a little advertisement for the Quaker meeting near Antigua. I had found their information online weeks ago but the phone numbers didn´t work. I called the new number – which worked! – and arranged a ride to meeting this last Sunday.

Loren and his friend arrived just before 11 a.m. to pick us up. We bounced along through the streets of Antigua, past the market, until we came out onto the “highway” to Ciudad Vieja. The meeting is actually held in the home of one of the members, halfway between Antigua and Ciudad Vieja.

We arrived a bit late for the 11 a.m. meeting,, but Loren explained it was okay because the meeting was so small, the others would just wait for us. It was indeed very small: just three members last Sunday. And what an eclectic group they were!

Loren is an older man, tall, slim, and slightly stooped. He had a bit of a raspy voice and it looked like the years had been hard on him. He is a direct descendant of the founders of Mormonism. His ancestors trekked across the US following Joseph Smith. I believe his particular ancestors were part of the group that traveled without oxen or horses, lugging all their own belongings. I guess quite a few of them died trying to do this. But Loren is completely Quaker now. He comes to the meeting from Parramos, on the other side of Antigua, but only lives in Guatemala part of the year.

One of the other members, an older, jolly-looking woman, has been in Guatemala for 20+ years. She travels from Guatemala City for every meeting and is originally from the US.

Margaret, whose house we met in, is originally from Scotland. She is an older woman with long grey-white hair and kind eyes behind her glasses. She speaks slowly and precisely, with a wonderful Scottish accent. She was wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with a brightly colored butterfly. Her house was amazing, with lots of tile and wood and windows and animals. Two dogs and a cat joined us for the meeting. Attached to the back of the house was an enclosed butterfly garden with a hundred butterflies fluttering around.

After a little bit of chatting the five of us settled down into cat hair covered couches and chairs for an hour-long silent Quaker meeting. It was very peaceful and quiet. For the most part. As you settle into silence you start to hear a lot of things.

Growling and gurgling stomachs
The rain
Children laughing and running out in the street
Birds
A ticking clock
People shifting in their seats
The dogs taking in deep breaths and sighing
Other dogs barking outside
The heat clicking on
The cat licking itself (and licking and licking with the most disgusting sounds a cat can make – cats always want to be the center of attention)
A bell somewhere out in town chiming the hour
Breathing

After an hour one of the women took off her glasses, which was the sign I guess. We all stood up and held hands in a circle to close the meeting. Then we sat down around the table for a potluck and the three members of the meeting had a brief business meeting.

Margaret took Jen and me outside to the butterfly garden after lunch. As Margaret reached the back of the garden she exclaimed, “We have a birth! We have a birth!!” She opened a little hatch on the wall and I saw a big black and orange butterfly flopping and fluttering about, its chrysalis empty on floor of the little hatchery. Another bright green chrysalis was hanging nearby, promising a new exciting birth in another week or two.

Walking tour of sorts

2007-07-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

I was considering taking a walking tour of Antigua today with Elizabeth Bell. She´s a well known character around here and knows everything about Antigua apparently. In the end I decided I would rather have my last Saturday to myself and not be "trapped" in a tour - even if it was good.

I went to the market and got the prize for the contest as well as a few other regalos.

I was leaving the market and as I came to the end of a block I heard the sound of drums. I love drums. If I hear a marching band, drum line, any sort of drumming, everything else in the world disappears. I came around the corner and saw a marching band coming up the street.

There were three girls dancing in the front, followed by guys with snare drums, trumpets, saxophones, trombones, other horns, xylophones, different unidentifiable percussion instruments, and bass drums (I think that´s what they are - the big ones!)

I took a video of them and as they passed I saw there was a great crowd of people with banners following them. Well, I couldn´t help myself - because of the drums - so I joined them! I walked with this random group of people, following the marching band, through the streets of Antigua for an hour and a half!

The parade spectators sort of appeared about a block ahead of us as we went and either joined or wandered off as we passed. Every few minutes the sound of the band was joined by the sound of car alarms, since the loud drums set them off.

A little boy became very interested in the band and started following closely. He was probably 5 or 6 and wearing a bright green striped shirt. His father tried to stop him but the band members encouraged him. For perhaps half an hour he walked along with the band, completely enthralled by the drums and brass instruments. One of the drummers gave him a drum stick so he could beat the big drums. Then later a trumpet player gave the little boy his trumpet and the little boy tried to play it. The trumpet was almost as big as this kid!

The parade of people was led by several people holding a big banner - which I never got a chance to read. Leading the pack in front of the banner was this crazy old lady. She looked to be 80 years old, about 4 1/2 feet tall, very wrinkly, and hardly any teeth. She was wearing a bright orange t-shirt, shiny black work-out pants, high heels, and a big floppy blue hat and carrying a big umbrella. Her grey-brown hair was tied back. When the music really got going she was a dancing maniac - twisting and shaking and shimying (is that even a word?) and sometimes some really risqué looking dancing. After a bout of dancing, she would bow and blow kisses to the crowd, turn to us behind her and shout out something and everyone in the people parade shouted back and blew whistles and laughed.

As we got close to Parqué Central two women started talking to me. They asked if I lived in Antigua. I said no I was just here for six weeks. They wondered if I was alone. I said yes, my novio is in Seattle. When I told them I was getting married they asked if they could come! They were being a bit silly I think. They told me that this was a big event put on by the government or perhaps it´s an election rally; I´m really not sure. When we got the Park there were tons of tents set up and stages with people singing - a huge fiesta!

Well, this was all before lunch. We´ll see what the rest of the day brings...

More tales from the chicken bus

2007-07-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

An hour a day on the chicken bus has made me think that I could probably start a blog just about chicken buses!

The other day a woman got on and sat next to me. She had a baby on her back and was carrying another bag. After a few minutes I started hearing a funny noise and decided surely the baby was not making the noise. I realized the noise was coming from the bag she was carrying. I asked her about it and she told me it was a chicken. Then she opened the bag so I could peak in, although I only saw feathers. There really are chickens on the chicken bus! The woman proceeded to ask me where I was going and what I was doing. I told her I was working at the library at Pedro Molina and she thought this was very good.

Oh, I probably forgot to mention a few weeks ago our bus, despite sort of braking a little bit, hit a dog. I didn´t see it but I heard it. It was pretty awful. There are often close calls with all the stray dogs running around, but usually they´re paying attention and get out of the way in time..

Yesterday was yet another fun experience. The bus was a little bit late. When we got to one of the towns, perhaps Pastores, they decided to change drivers. So the driver got up out of his seat and the new driver slid into his spot. It was a really quick switch - just a few seconds. The catch is - the bus was still rolling! They didn´t turn it off or set the break or anything, just kept going while the switched!
I think the new guy was a race car driver. I started praying that we would make it safely to Antigua! He was driving so fast, passing semis on curvy mountain roads, trying to pass anything he could in fact. We almost took out a bicyclist as we tried to pass him and then had to get back in the lane when a truck was headed toward us. I heard the bicyclist yelling at the bus. And then I started feeling this weird thumping under the bus, like something was loose - perhaps they were racing back to Antigua and the bus lot before the bus fell apart? Who knows, but we did make it safely.

Yesterday I got on the bus in the morning and there was another American on the bus. I sat with her and we got to talking. She said she had seen me several times- but I had never seen her! She´s a nurse and has been here in Guatemala for 4 years. She´s teaching a number of Guatemalan nurses and does clinics and trainings all over the place. She knows the chicken buses pretty well - enough to even recognize the crazy drivers and not ride on their buses.
She said one time she was taking some visitors out to another town. They got on the bus and didn´t see the driver. When the driver got on Ruth recognized him as a totally insane driver and she wondered if they should get off. But they didn´t. The whole trip she was praying that they didn´t have an accident or die because the driver was so bad and so fast! Every now and then she would look back at her guests in the seat behind her and smile. When they arrived safely at their location she apologized profusely for the ride. But her guests said it was just fine. They were worried at first, but when they saw she seemed fine and didn´t look worried they thought it must be normal and okay!

A week or so ago I was getting on the return bus and was just able to fit in the stairwell. Now, this has happened a time or two before and usually the bus takes off with me hanging on for dear life. But this time the driver didn´t move. He started calling for everyone to move back and to make sure I got a seat. It was very nice of him. But at the next stop several women got on, with kids, and he took off with them in the stairwell. Perhaps they´re used to it and I´m more likely to go flying out the door on the curves.

Well, back to cataloging... =)

Weekend report

2007-07-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was full of actividades!

The weekend started late Friday night when one of the candidates running for president had a little parade through town: starting about 9:00 pm. This consisted in a truck with loudspeakers driving through town yelling out all the reasons why people should vote for this candidate. The loudspeaker quality was so bad I couldn´t understand even a single word. There were also lots of horns honking and “bombas,” explosions of fireworks. I rarely see fireworks though. They just set off things that sound like bottle rockets or pipe bombs or something. They are really loud. Qué ruido! Then of course all the dogs around the neighborhood start barking.

There is a law in Antigua that election candidates can´t put up billboards (in fact there are no billboards of any kind in Antigua) so the candidates put billboards in their trucks and drive through town blasting obnoxious music or shouting out why people should vote for them. Or they put up “temporary” billboards just for the day – erecting huge scaffolding on the side of the road and hanging giant posters of the candidate – only to take the whole thing down at the end of the day.

Saturday morning after breakfast I met my friend Kristen for tea/coffee. She is the volunteer coordinator for Child Aid. We stopped by to see her friend Hector. He is preparing to open a new café here in Antigua. It is a very small restaurant with the kitchen and a couple tables all in one room. It is absolutely beautiful and Hector is building a lot of the furniture for the restaurant. Now I have to come back to Guatemala when the restaurant opens. =)

After lunch I went with my friends Scott and Jen to the market. They were looking for a few more gifts and for fabric. I was looking for a sombrero. After they bought a bunch of fabric I asked where we could find sombreros in the market. The man pointed in a general direction through the market.

Last year I talked about the outside market, for those of you who remember. We were in the inside market on Saturday. The inside market is a huge building of sorts, some open to the outside, some of it not. It is an enormous dark labyrinth of tight pathways twisting through scores of little shops selling everything you can imagine: fabric, fruit, nuts, vegetables, bras, tricycles, huge bags of spices and cooking ingredients (you scoop out what you want), cut flowers, clothing, shoes, toys, baby clothes, drugs (like tylenol – that sort of drug!), live plants, pots for plants, barrels, raw meat (chicken, fish…and other unidentifiable animals), dried fish, dried iguanas, candy, and more than I can even remember. I guess it´s like a Fred Meyer – only it´s kind of dark, the ceiling (when there is one) is very low, there doesn´t seem to be any organization to anything, there are no signs, it´s not very clean, and sometimes it really smells awful!

So, off into this labyrinth we were directed. The man had gestured with his arm straight and then left – directo y izquierdo. After some time we still hadn´t found sombreros. I asked another person and their answer: directo y izquierdo. So we hadn´t passed them yet! We kept wandering through the maze, always straight ahead and taking lefts when they looked promising. We kept asking people every few minutes and kept getting directo y izquierdo. At long last we found sombreros! We had lots of fun trying them on and posing for silly pictures.

We agreed to go out to eat Saturday night and give our host family a break from cooking for us, mostly because they had begun the moving process that day. The family I´m living with is moving! They were going to move on the 20th, but when I reminded them I was staying till the 21st, they changed their plans. Part of the moving process involves removing everything they added to the house. They had added on a whole section in the back for their rooms and they removed all of that and moved into one of the rooms that students usually live in. Things are getting interesting around here!

On our way to dinner we stopped at La Merced, one of the big churches. The International Olympic Committee was in town and they were having a huge final event in the ruins next to La Merced. I guess Guatemala is pushing for the Olympics to be held here in 2014.

We went off to a lovely dinner after that at some restaurant I can´t remember – sorry. But it was really old and had really great food. We always smell garlic while walking down this street and it turns out the garlic was coming from this restaurant. So we all ordered lots of extra garlic with our dinners.

Sunday morning I went out to breakfast with Scott and Jen at Café Condessa. This used to be a home for some Count back in the 1700s. The rumor is that one time the count came home early from some travels and caught his wife with the butler. It was said that he buried the butler alive in the house. This rumor was (perhaps) confirmed when the house was being renovated and they found a skeleton entombed in the pantry walls – standing up.

After that lovely breakfast we went to the ruins of Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza, Las Capuchinas. The convent was completed in 1736 but when the big earthquake hit about 40 years later the nuns abandoned the building for something safer elsewhere. Not much damage was done to the building in that earthquake though. Scott and Jen and I spent three hours wandering around the ruins and taking photos. We found one great room that was down a flight of stairs under the ruins. It looked like I was going into a deep black pit but when I got into the large round room it was light because of two vents cut at angles letting light in. The room had amazing acoustics. The three of us went into the room and attempted to hum Gregorian chants. It sounded pretty good…at times.

After a little plate of nachos, some ice cream, and a brief rest at home, we climbed up a hill overlooking Antigua. There is a huge cross up there and a lot of postcards and pictures of Antigua are taken from this hill. It had been a beautiful day but we could see clouds starting to come in. I saw several bolts of lightning around Volcan Agua, the volcano that rises above Antigua. On our way down the hill a person in our group heard a large boom or explosion. We looked to the west, to one of the volcanoes ringing the area and saw a column of smoke rising from it. Qué interesante! But we haven´t seen any more activity from that volcano.

So, that´s just an overview of my excellent and full weekend! And now it´s back to work…

Guessing Game

2007-07-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, I´ve been cataloging away for three weeks now – two weeks to go! As I neared 600 books today, I had a brainstorm: why not let you all in on the fun by guessing how many books I´ll catalog before I go?

The person with the closest guess gets an authentic, made-in-Guatemala souvenir (it´s a surprise! – because I haven´t bought it yet…)

Some facts (for those of you who want to make this a math problem – hee hee: good luck!)

1st week: ended with 232 books cataloged (there were about 140 already in, but I went through all those records to verify them and add more info).

2nd week: ended with 363 books

3rd week (today): ended with 616 books

The fine print:
Leave your guess as a comment.
Only one guess per person.

I´m not splitting up the prize, so if a number is taken, choose another (or it goes to the first person who picked the number).
I´m not going to share my progress anymore after this point so guess any time.
I´ll post the final number and winner on July 20th – so please post a guess by 4:00 p.m. Guatemala time on the 20th!

Language & the rainy season

2007-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

One of the interesting parts of this job is assigning subjects to books – in Spanish. Some books have these little info cards in them that say exactly what the book is about. I love those books! But sometimes there is no information and I have to skim through the book and try to figure out what it is about. This has actually gone well for me and I´m picking up all sorts of words that are totally unhelpful for every day conversation. Words like desarrollo (development), siglo (century), aprendizaje (learning), enseñanza (teaching), and idioma (language).

Speaking of language, other than Spanish there are somewhere between 20 and 30 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala. Some are spoken by as few as 1800 people and others are spoken by nearly 2 million people. Since education has been improving (or the attempt is being made) there is more focus on bilingual (bilingüe) education so I´ve found several books in these Mayan languages. I can barely read Spanish to figure out subjects, let alone Kaqchikel or some other language! But usually the books are also Spanish.

Some of the languages spoken are:

Itza´
Tektitejo
Sipakapense
Mopan
Uspanteko
Awakateko
Sakapulteko
Achi
Ch´orti´
Popti´ (Jakalteko)
Chuj
Poqomam
Ixil
Tz´utujiil
Q´anjob´al
Poqomchi´
Q´eqchi´
Kaqchikel
Mam
K´iche´

And here are a few examples – just bits of titles from some books :

Ixil:
A´ sa k´uchax u jikla chusu´m ech sa ch´expu u qatine´
Chuck´al yol tuk´ vatzib´al u ixil/kaxhlan

K´iche´:
Riqow etamanik kuk´ ri qa nan qa tat
Ch´iysel toj xnaq ´tzb´il ex xnaq ´tzb´il toj ch´iysel

Kaqchikel:
Rujotay Kaqchikel ch´ab´äl
K´ak´a´ taq tzij richin retamab´alil kajulew

I don´t have the first clue how you pronounce any of that. There are some students here at Pedro Molina who speak some of these languages. A girl spoke Kaqchikel to me a couple weeks ago. I can´t wait to hear some more.

Now, about the rainy season. A couple weeks ago we (estudiantes) were all surprised when it didn´t rain for three days in a row. I thought this was the rainy season! Tomás explained that in the dry season they had rain too, but it might go 10 or more days without rain. In the rainy season it doesn´t usually go more than three days without raining.

And it rains hard here. It´s the most amazing, fuerte (strong) rain I´ve seen. I think it has now rained every day for the past week and a half. The day usually starts out sunny and warm and beautiful, then the clouds roll in and it starts pouring sometime between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. It´s amazing how predictable it is. (In fact, it´s raining right now, so hard that I can´t even hear the clicking of the keyboard as I´m typing, or the music the guys in the computer lab are playing!)

Sometimes it will also rain during the night. The rain is almost always accompanied by lots of lighting (I watch bolts of it streak across the sky as I´m walking through the streets of Antigua) and the most incredible thunder that often sounds like explosions and keeps on going and going.

We had a really hard rain on Sunday night. Monday as I was going to work and passing the cornfields, I noticed that quite a bit of the corn had been flattened. I guess this is a common thing – que triste! Then I noticed trees that had come down and lots of branches. In a couple towns there were mudslides with a couple inches of mud over the roads. Traffic continues on as normal of course. This morning they finally had a couple guys digging the road out with shovels.

Out in the mountains boulders fall on the road when there is a lot of rain. They don´t close the road – and who knows how long it will take for the boulder to be removed. People just honk and speed around, and hopefully don´t hit oncoming traffic!

Don´t I know you?

2007-07-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking yesterday that I´m really getting comfortable (sort of) with things here. The routine and familiarity of everything is somewhat comforting.

Every now and then I see a Probigua student out in town, though I´m not sure how much longer that will last since people don´t usually stay for that long.

Just today I was coming home and saw, half a block ahead, Delcia and her kids. I caught up and said hi and talked with her for a couple minutes.

Saturday I was walking through town and Juan, the computer lab guy, was going the opposite direction on the back of a motorcycle. He called out hello. I responded ¨Hey!¨ and then shook my head a moment later as I realized ´hey´is not a word in Spanish. Tomás and I and the other students at the house had a good laugh about this.

I´ve been riding the chicken bus to work every day for 2 and a half weeks now. I think I finally am recognizing the driver and one of the helpers, not to mention a few of the people that get on the bus at different stops. Everyday after we´ve passed through most of the town, the helper guy comes through the bus collecting fairs. He usually says ¨Chimal¨(short for Chimaltenango) as he walks through, just to see where people are going. I usually nod or don´t say anything - most people do the same unless they´re getting off at Parramos. Then of course I always get up to be let off at Pedro Molina. Yesterday morning the helper was going through the bus as usual. He stopped at my seat to take money from the guy next to me and mumbled Chimal, then he looked at me as he took my money and said ¨Pedro.¨ Si! Gracias! So, now the bus helper recognizes me and remembers where I get off.

Today as I was returning home a woman came and sat next to me on the bus. She seemed very nice, but people don´t often talk on the bus. We were speeding along quite fast and there is this one little hill where it feels like we fly for a bit, if we´re going fast enough. We went over the hill and the woman next to me made a comment about the bus driver going fast. I agreed. We started talking and she said my Spanish was really good. Wow! Wow! It was so nice to hear her say that, since sometimes I feel like I struggle so much to communicate with people. So thanks Estela - much gusto!

p.s. for John Cz: El Domingo, yo compré un cuaderno sin lineas y un lapíz. =)

Amigos de la biblioteca (Friends of the library)

2007-06-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

No ladies and gentlemen, I´m not talking about the kind men and women who set up shop at libraries and sell used books and other things. I´m talking about ratones - rats.

Two days this past week I came into the library to discover a little bag of creamer on the floor with a hole in it and half the creamer eaten. Hmmm... Friday I got started cataloging the reference section of the library. This is the last section of shelving over by the wall. As I looked at the books and the shelves I realized there was evidence of some sort of rodent (i.e. droppings) all over the place!

It really can´t be helped. The windows here don´t close well and there is a giant gap under all three doors in the library. It would be no problem for some small or even medium sized creature to squeeze in every night and make itself at home, snuggled up between stacks of books. Luckily, as far as I can tell, they haven´t started stealing pages from the books to make themselves nests.

We´ve found a total of 4 or 5 books that have been eaten straight through by some sort of mysterious bug that I have yet to see. The librarians are being good about disposing of these books right away.

It´s kind of a never ending battle to keep books in good condition here. It rains all the time, at least in the rainy season, and there are no temperature controls or humidity controls which can cause some books to get damp and mildew. And of course there is no stopping any sort of creature from getting into the library. It´s a very interesting experience after the temperature controlled, light controlled, humidity controlled, non-rodent, non-pest, quiet libraries I´m used to in the states.

Oh, this week I got help from a couple students from Probigua. They came in and stuck spine labels on books for 3 days, four hours a day. It was wonderful to finally see all that work complete. I really feel like I´m getting somewhere now. I have almost 400 books cataloged and still have three weeks to go.

I´ll try to keep updating you all on my adventures. It was hard this last week because the internet was down all week. A big rainstorm over the weekend took down some trees I guess. We have been having fabulous rain storms with huge bolts of lightening and never-ending rolling thunder almost every day for the last week. I love it!

There ARE bus stops here...somewhere

2007-06-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I got off work and went to wait for my bus. It was starting to sprinkle and I was anxious for the bus to arrive. I finally saw one coming that I’m sure said Antigua on it. I’m sure it did. I jumped on and after a couple minutes the helper came to collect money. I asked for Antigua and he said no. This bus does not go to Antigua.

The bus came to a halt and I got off with some other women. I assumed this spot in the middle of nowhere was a bus stop. The other women climbed up the hill, to her home no doubt. I stood by the side of the road and waited.

Cars kept coming by and they were giving me funny looks – like it was kind of weird to see this white girl hanging out on the side of the road. At least one guy started slowing down like he was going to stop. I ignored him. I don’t even take rides from strangers in Seattle!

Finally I saw the right bus coming. I waved at it as it sped on by. Apparently I was not actually at a bus stop. Crap! I had no idea where the next stop was, since nothing is marked, so I started to walk. Up a huge hill around a sharp curve. And it began to pour rain.

I was really getting looks now. Guys on the side of the road and people driving by were saying things (I have no idea what) and whistling. I was in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but cornfields for as far as I could see, no sign of a town or anything. This could be a bad thing.

I kept looking back as I heard vehicles, hoping to flag down a bus. I looked back at one point and saw a police truck approaching. I’m sorry to say this didn’t make me feel better. Just this morning one of the students at my house was saying that violence is growing in Guatemala, and the police aren’t quite as corrupt as they used to be. They drove by and parked on the side of the road ahead of me. They were helping out some motorist. I walked by and kept on going.

I finally came to a possible bus stop. A concrete pad with four wooden posts and a corrugated metal roof. Good enough. I stood there hoping this thing was actually a bus stop (and praying like crazy!).
Then the police truck came by again. They pulled up right in front of me and rolled down the window. One of them (there were three) asked where I was going. I told them I was just waiting for the bus to Antigua. They nodded and paused for a moment, talked amongst themselves. Then they drove forward and backed up next to the bus stop. I thought they were just going to turn around and go back the way they came, but the driver switched off the engine. I just stood there like I knew what I was doing and there was no trouble at all. Best not to freak out until things really do get crazy.

Then the driver rolled down his window and told me there was a bus coming. I looked down the road, and sure enough! And it was even the right bus! I jumped on and shouted thanks to the policemen. And thanks to God as well!!

I settled onto the bus and looked around at the usual icons and signs: bugs bunny, winnie the pooh, and Jesus. And this great photo of a yellow school bus with about two dozen LED lights set into it that were flashing to the beat of the music.

Probigua Library Bus 2

2007-06-23T12:29:00.003-07:00

Here is the other video!

Probigua Library Bus

2007-06-23T12:29:00.001-07:00

Here is one of the videos that was taken on Monday. I don´t have sound here so I can´t hear it, but I´m sure it´s great!

moscas, cucarachas, and silverfish

2007-06-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

This morning there was the biggest cucaracha in the bathroom, on the wall next to the shower. Sometimes a bug is so big, it ceases to be gross and becomes fascinating. At least, I kept telling myself that as I looked at the three-inch antennae swivelling about and its hairy legs and big beady eyes. I was going to take a picture but another student saw it and asked Tomás to take it away. Lo siento! Next time tal vez.

Moscas are flies and they are everywhere. I´m sure I don´t see a single one all day until food is served and then they are out in force. Have you ever seen someone sitting around with flies on them and they don´t brush the flies away? Now I understand why. It´s too much work! You would be constantly waving your arms and brushing them away and they keep coming back. You just give up after awhile (as long as they aren´t on your food anyway).

Silverfish are one brand of bugs that like to eat books. I have now found two books in the library that have been munched on. For the first book the bug must have eaten itself to death. It munched on quite a bit of the book but I don´t know where the bug disappeared to. The librarians seemed to think this was bad and they took the book away, but they haven´t disposed of it. I´m convinced they´ll put it back on the shelf once I´m gone.

I found another book today that had a hole straight through it and the bug had also eaten a line cutting the cover into two pieces. The librarians had taped the cover back together and put the book back in the stacks! Que horor!

I understand books are valuable and people don´t want to get rid of them, but if there is a chance there is a bug that can eat the rest of your books, I think it´s worth it to toss the books out. Different culture though.

Back to the books. And the bugs.

Chicken bus

2007-06-20T12:57:00.001-07:00

Let me start this post by saying that I will (probably) NEVER complain about the buses in Seattle again!

I´ve seen a lot of chicken buses in the last week or so and yesterday was my first chance to ride in one. From the outside they are all old school buses from the 50s, some still yellow and black, others brighly painted with green, red, yellow, purple, white, and other colors. They often seem packed with people inside and packed with baskets and boxes of things on the roof of the bus. And they often seem to be in an incredible hurry - speeding through town and countryside at unbelievable rates, taking corners so fast it looks like they´ll tip over, and passing cars and trucks (especially around blind corners or in narrow streets or if other vehicles are coming at them).

There are no bus stops that I can see. People congregate alongside the road and if you see a bus coming that you want, you hail the driver or the helper. I know there is a name for these guys, but I can't remember it right now. There are one or two helpers per bus. They help the driver by letting him know if there are people who want to get on or off, by running ahead in towns to check intersections, by taking money on the bus, and by putting packages on top of the bus (and retrieving them later).

For my first experience, I had gotten directions to go to the corner of the park near my house and wait there. Buses kept coming down the street and I finally spotted one that said Antigua, Parramos, Chimaltenango. I hailed the driver. He stopped just long enough for me to get my foot in the door and then took off. The doors don't normally close because one of the helpers is always standing on the step hanging outside the bus.

I found a place a few seats back. After awhile the bus left Antigua, Jocotenango, and Parramos and headed into the country. The helper headed back through the bus collecting money from every who hadn't paid yet. Four quetzales and he gives change. We headed up a hill past a cemetery, then through farmland with lots of corn, down into a valley past a mustang ranch, up another winding hill road, more farmland, down into another valley past a fun park with a water attraction, then up another steep winding road and Pedro Molina Escuela is at the top of that. The ride is about half an hour.

The ride was fun and I had no troubles, but my adventures hadn't truly begun yet! That night when I left work I crossed to the other side of the street from where I got off the bus and waited for the return bus. I assumed it was a bus stop since there were several other people standing around. Eventually the Chimaltenango, Parramos, Antigua bus came into view. It was packed. I could see people standing all the way to the back, all the seats full, and people on the steps of the bus. Three boys at the stop decided to get on. Two were literally hanging outside the bus as it took off, one of them balancing himself on the front wheel guard so he didn't fall off. The buses take curves so fast I wouldn't be surprised if people went flying off the bus from time to time.

I decided to wait for the next bus.

It arrived with standing room only, but I was able to fit inside this time. Now, I'm sure the school buses I rode in grade school weren't this small, but I could be wrong. The aisle in the buses is about 8 inches wide, barely wide enough for most people to squeeze through sideways. During the busy times, you'll find three adults per seat, with other people somehow managing to stand in the aisle (even sardines aren't packed so tightly), and sometimes children sitting on laps as well. No - the seats are not wide enough for three people. The person on the end has one cheek on, one cheek off, and with your narrow aisle, that means the people sitting on the ends are, uh, cheek to cheek. =) So I don't know how people manage to stand in the aisle when it is so full like that! Lets just say you get really, really close to people.

Once I was packed on the bus, careening through mountains and valleys and countryside, I looked around at the inside of the bus. The drivers spend a bit of money on decorations and nice speakers and paint. At the front of my bus yesterday hung a big poster of Jesus. He was partly covering a large cross stitch that said something like "Jesus guards your entering and leaving, something-something now and forever." Hanging from the roof of the bus on either side of Jesus and the cross-stitch were two round dangling key-chain pictures of Mary. They were those pictures that change as you move the picture left and right. There were pink and blue tassles hanging off of these. Then there were two multi-colored rabbits feet hanging off the mirror. There was also a small wooden cross hanging off the mirror. Right in the center of the window was a big wooden crucifix with Jesus on it and half a dozen rosary necklaces hanging from it, all set in a bouquet of red and white flowers. On the wall behind the driver was a big sticker of the Tasmanian Devil.

I couldn't help but smile all the way home.

libros! libros!

2007-06-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to start my first day of work on Monday, but there was a change of plans. There was a videographer in town and they wanted to take her around to show her the different libraries and schools Probigua/Child Aid is helping out.

So first we went to Pedro Molina, the school in Chimaltenango where I’ll be working. This is a converted military base. Part of the agreement made at the end of the civil war was that some military spending would now go towards education instead. I guess the military took this to mean they could hand over bases as part of the deal (Guatemala spends an extremely small amount of their GDP on education, something like 1.7%).

I think the school is for grade school up to high school and there are quite a few students that board here. Some of the classrooms are in former barracks or other buildings. The library/computer lab is in the former mess hall.

I have no idea what it must have been like here during the civil war. Horrible probably doesn’t describe it enough. It is great to see this army base reclaimed for education and children. Where soldiers probably once drilled, girls were playing an uproarious game of soccer this morning, with friends sitting around the field cheering and laughing.

Our next trip was to visit the Bibliobus. It was parked at a school in another town. As soon as recess was over, two classes of girls came running over to the bus. They had about 30 minutes to sit on the bus or outside the bus on chairs and read books. The bibliobus librarian had placed brightly colored plastic chairs and tables outside the bus and had piled picture and story books on each table. As the girls were assigned tables they pored over the books available, trading with friends, looking at pictures, sometimes reading the stories too. At the table I was near I saw several versions of Pinocchio and Little Red Riding Hood, which were the favorites at that table.

Our last stop was at Melotto (I think that was the name of the school). The videographer talked to students in a classroom and then asked if the students could go to the library so she could film them in there. The kids were ecstatic! They jumped out of their seats and ran for the door. Their teacher dismissed them and they ran across the open field to the library building. We passed out stacks of books to the kids and they came to the shelves to exchange books they didn’t like for better books. After filming was done, we asked the kids to close their books and return them to the shelves. The kids were not happy. Three girls came up to me and asked if they could borrow the books, just for one day. I’m sorry, we had to say, not today. You see, most libraries here aren’t set up for lending books. They’re working on this but things are slow here.

In fact, at Pedro Molina the library is what we call closed stacks. That means no one but the librarian can go in the stacks. This makes it difficult since there is no online catalog or catalog of any sort for the students to look up books. I guess they just tell the librarian what subject they are looking for or particular books if they happen to know, and she gets the books for them.

My job for the next four and half weeks is to catalog as many of the books as I can so students can see what is in the library!

photos!

2007-06-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

It took FOREVER to upload these, something like 5 minutes per photo, so sorry there aren´t many. I´ll keep working on it.

http://www.photoworks.com/members/Aimee

Antigua a Panajachel a Chichicastenango a Antigua!

2007-06-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

Buenas tardes amigos! It was an extremely busy weekend for me.

After class on Friday I joined five new friends for a trip to Lago Atitlan. A tourist bus picked us up at 1:30. We were on the main highway for a little while but then our driver swerved off. He said there was road construction and lots of traffic so he would take us a different route: the back roads.

We were climbing impossibly steep roads up mountainsides and then down the other into deep valleys, swerving around hairpin turns, passing other buses and cars at breakneck speeds around blind corners, and having other vehicles pass us around blind corners as well! I don´t get carsick but after several hours of this I thought it just might happen.

And thanks to my mom who taught me to be prepared. We stopped in the middle of the mountains for some guys in the van who needed to use the bathroom. One of the guys cut his hand on a rock and came back bleeding all over the place. I quickly pulled out tissue for him to clean up and a couple bandaids. If only I had brought along Neosporin! =)

We finally made it to Panajachel around 4ish in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel (Hotel Regis) and went down to look at the lake. The lake is enormous. It is 5128 feet above sea level, 12 miles long, 6 miles wide, 1049 feet deep, with an area of 49.3 square miles. It is surrounded by the volcanoes Atitlan, Toliman, and San Pedro, as well as some other outlying ones I think. It is the deepest lake in Central America.

After taking a look, the six of us went back to our hotel which had two natural hot spring pools. We relaxed in the hot springs for a couple hours. I actually sat on the side along with another woman because we didn´t have swimsuits with us. That water was unbelievably hot!

Saturday morning we set off for a 7 hour boat tour around the lake. It was a bit cloudy, but still a beautiful day. At the first town we visited we only had an hour and a half which we took up with an incredible breakfast. We sat on an open deck looking out on a bay and the lake. It was gorgeous! Of course there are many differences between here and the US. For instance, the moment we sat down women and children began coming to our table with baskets of food and other items trying to sell us things. And there were also a ton of flies. Flies everywhere!

We left that town and moved on to the next. (sorry I can´t recall the names right now!) At this small town little chilren and old women came down immediately to meet the boat and start begging for quezales (money) or for us to buy something or to go on a tour.
We were befriended by a young boy, Pedro, who took us up to the church and showed us around town. He was an excellent guide. He kept track of all six of us and kept watch on the time to make sure we got back to the boat on time. He was also very respectful of the church even though he isn´t Catholic. He also showed us, we think, the home of their local god, who, as legend tells, saved the village from a sickness a long time ago.

We left Pedro with a big tip and travelled to the next small town. It being rainy season, and it being afternoon, the wind was starting to pick up a bit and there were white caps on the lack. It also started to sprinkle a bit. Most of the people moved down below on the boat, but several of us stayed up top. We had only a half hour in the last town, which was good. It was a very poor town and the beggars were quite insistent. They apparently called some of our group bad names when they wouldn´t buy things or give money.

I certainly, as well as others, began to wonder what we were doing. Are we rich white people coming to gawk at these poor people, take pictures of them, and then depart on our private boat back to our comfortable lives? It seemed a bit that way. The lake is beautiful and the towns are fascinating: clinging to the sides of mountains, with steep, steep streets winding up and up. The small houses painted in many colors: red, orange, green, yellow, white, mint, pink, and so on. The houses seem to be piled one on top of the other and the towns are full of roaming dogs, chickens, and men, women, and children selling every sort of tourist trinket you can imagine.

We left the last town a bit sad and overwhelmed. The rain had picked up so very few of us stayed up on deck. For our last hour or so boat ride home, the wind was stronger, the waves were higher, and it really began to pour! When the thunder and lightening started all but myself and Margy went below. I had to try out my new raincoat. =) Our little boat was rocking back and forth, up and down, as we motored through the troughs of the waves, water splashing over the front of the boat as we crashed down into each time. The sky was growing darker and the clouds were getting lower. It was very exciting!

We finally reached home and rested for awhile before heading out to find dinner. The streets were absolutely flooded with water. We had to wade across to a restaurant on the other side of the street. As we sat on the second floor looking out at the town, I thought for sure there would be no street left by the time we finished dinner. It rained harder and harder and harder. But the rain finally let up and we made it home mostly dry.

On Sunday morning we boarded a return bus. Our bus wound up and down the mountains and valleys again and stopped at Chichicastenango. This is a small town which has a humongous market on Sundays. They sell everything! Handicrafts, food, flowers, clothing, animals (dead or alive), machetes, carved wooden masks, medicinal plants, pottery, wooden boxes, candles, bags, tons of jewelry, blankets, pillows, and lots more. We walked through the market for about 4 or 5 hours and bought some things. =)
We had a nice lunch at a hotel nearby and eventually returned to our bus with our purchases.

As we neared Antigua the sickness began. One of our party said she didn´t feel well so we dropped her at home. A few hours later I began to feel sick as well as the other girl in my house. This morning we heard a fourth friend had come down sick in the middle of the night. Ugh. Two of the group seem to be fine so far, but, as they say, vamos a ver: we´ll see.
For me I think it was a combination of too much traveling on curvy roads, the food, too much sun, and my really bad sunburn I got on Saturday.
I´m feeling much better today, though still a bit funny.

I´ll be sharing photos soon!

Salsa

2007-06-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon I returned to the school for salsa lessons. There were several girls gathered at the top level of the school and the two instructors. (I was informed later that these guys are 'mangos' = hot guys!)

The girls formed a line and the lesson began. It's very easy, our instructors said. Tiene ocho partas - there are 8 parts. Right foot back, left foot steps, right foot forward = uno, dos, tres. Pause. Left foot forward, right foot steps, left foot back = cinco, seis, seite. Otro vez! uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! (Yes, he skipped cuatro because that was a pause.)

Then we learned a sidestep move: uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! Otra vez!

Then we learned a spinning move: uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! Otra vez!

Over and over and over we practiced the steps. It was getting darker and darker as the clouds rolled in for the afternoon rain. uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! Otra vez!

The salsa music was turned up on the tape player and the wind picked up. uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete!

Then there was a large crack of thunder and lightning lit up the sky. uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete!

It began to rain and the thunder rumbled. uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! Otra vez!

There were three or four girls for each guy, so we all kept up the dance moves and the guys moved down the line, dancing a complete set with a girl, then moving on to the next. uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete! uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis, siete!

After 45 minutes, I think I got the steps down!

papayas, mangos, y piñas

2007-06-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

One of the estudiantes in my house is leaving after tomorrow. She had the idea of buying fruit from the market and making a giant fruit salad. During our break today, several maestras cut up watermelon (sandia), cantelope (melon), bananas, papaya, mangos, pineapple (piña), y oranges (naranjas). Then they served the salada de frutas with ice cream (helado) or yogurt. So much fruit!

We had piñas, papaya, sandia, y mangos for breakfast (desayuno) this morning, as well as bread and tea or coffee. Te for me!
Yesterday it was eggs (huevos), bread, and perhaps something else.
We´ve had lots of rice (arroz), some chicken (pollo), beef, beans (frijoles), cucumbers, green beans with garlic, tomatos, and always fresh made tortillas or bread. Most of the bread here is very sweet, pan dulce.

I just discovered a shop that makes crepes a block away from the school, I´ll have to try them out soon. The other day on my way to the market I saw a McDonalds, which I´m sure was not here last year. Tomas says there is also Burger King and Dominos, though I haven´t seen these. I´m more interested in the carts selling mangos y papays or the tortillas made fresh on the side of the street.

This afternoon I will try my hand at salsa dancing!

Robberies, earthquakes, and rain ~ oh my!

2007-06-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

I had four hours of spanish lessons this morning. My brain can´t take much more!

Sometime around 10am there was a disturbance. Lots of students were gathered in the lower part of the school looking out to the hotel two doors down. (Our space is covered by corrugated metal and there are walls about 8 feet high, but is open otherwise.)

A woman was squatting on the ledge of the second story of the hotel. The story came to us that masked robbers (banditos) had entered the hotel and tied up the workers, but this woman had escaped and was hanging on to the outside of the building. The next couple hours were somewhat tense. For some time all the students crowded into the front of the school while the policia got into the hotel and looked for the robbers. We were never clear if there was one or more or if they escaped or not. I don´t know if they were found. Everything is back to normal now and there are police all around, so if you´re thinking about worrying, don´t!

Later in the afternoon, after lunch, I was sitting in my room and all of a sudden everything started shaking. I had a few seconds to think about what was happening, then I got up and went outside my room where the rest of the houeshold was gathering. We stood there in the courtyard for several more seconds as the ground kept shaking. It´s the strongest earthquake I´ve ever been in!

Tomas says earthquakes happen now and then, but not usually this big (muy fuerte). It was apparently 6.8, centered off the coast, and was felt as far as the border with Mexico. My first thought of course was the volcano nearby that is steaming, but I guess this is just an active area for this sort of thing.

As for rain, it has been threatening all day, but not much has happened, though I´m sure I´ve heard thunder a few times.

Adios,

aimee

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and busses)

2007-06-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hola from Guatemala!

I have had a long, long day of traveling but finally arrived in Guatemala city this morning at 6:30.

My travels began with a train from Seattle to Portland, then a bus from Portland to Salem. I visited my family for a few hours in Salem. After an interesting visit we drove up to the airport in Portland.

I went to check in my suitcase at the United desk and they informed me that my itinerary had changed and my flight had left three hours earlier - or it had been cancelled, I'm not quite sure what happened. They had record of leaving me a voicemail a month ago, but I never got it! So they booked me in for some other flights and I took off for the first leg which was about to start boarding!

I flew from Portland to San Francisco, San Francisco to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Guatemala City. All my layovers were about 30 minutes and I think my seats were upgraded along the way, so that was nice.

I settled into my window seat for the last leg with the intention of going to sleep. We were set to take off at 10:55. Sometime near midnight they informed us that there were troubles with the plane and we'd all have to get off and get further instructions on what to do next. As soon as this announcement was made the flight attendant got new information and told us to sit tight. A few minutes later he announced that the captain decided he would fly this plane after all and we would take off soon. How confident we all felt!

But there were no troubles with the plane and we arrived safely this morning. I was concerned whether or not my ride would still be waiting since I was an hour and a half late. But he was still waiting - thank goodness!

As we neared Antigua, on a steep, steep, switch-back road, he pointed out one of the nearby volcanos with a column of smoke rising from it. He said that at night you could see fire spitting out of it. Excellent.

I am spending today napping and settling in. Happily I am staying with Tomas and Delcia, where I stayed last year, so I know where everything is and how to get around town with no troubles. Tomorrow I begin a few days of Spanish classes!

adios,

aimee

Reifying

2007-06-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's probably a bad use of the word, but that was the word going through my mind today as I did a few things to prepare for my trip to Guatemala!

I picked up traveler's checks at the bank and turned in a card at the post office asking them to hold my mail for the next six weeks.

I'll be flying to Guatemala on Monday, June 11th. I arrive in Guatemala City at 5:00 am Tuesday morning where I'll be picked up and we'll head for Antigua. There I'll settle in my new home, maybe check out the market, and brush up on some Spanish. I'll take language lessons Wednesday through Friday. For the rest of the five weeks I'll be working at a school library in Chimaltenango, a short 30-minute chicken bus ride away. On the weekends I may take trips to see different parts of Guatemala, or I may hang out in Antigua.

No matter what, I hope to update the Vicarious Travelblog with pictures and stories so you'll all feel like you're there as well!

I'm sure it will feel more real for me once I actually start thinking about packing... =)

Skype

2007-03-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've already been to Mexicao and Kigali, and that was just over lunch.
Two sixth-grade girls and I walked to Lupita's restaurant in downtown Dayton through the cool sunshine. One explained how my horchata drink was made while I waited for my burrito mojado.
When I returned to school, the Skype icon on my computer beeped to alert me that one of my contacts was online. It was Chrissy in Kigali and she was still awake. Though awake, she was not alert enough to appreciate my helpful suggestions. Maybe she was merely distracted. Could be Chrissy is actually asleep right now and drooling on her computer keyboard while still signed-in to Skype. Could be that she is playing her 12th game of solitaire. Or could be that she is using an alternate font to decode a message from her informant in Uzbekistan. Makes you think. =)

Los Angeles!

2007-03-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends,

I just had a hop down to LA for an extended four day visit with my boyfriend Jeremy's grandma. I'd only ever driven by or been in the airport of Los Angeles. We had a wonderfully relaxing time, lots of time chatting with grandma, and got to see a few cool sites. So, this will be more of a picture blog...

Jeremy and I arrived on Thursday afternoon and just had time for a brief walk around the neighborhood before dinner. The house is just off Sunset Blvd - so a beautiful area - and a wonderful old house. This is the front yard:

And some sculptures around the house:

On Friday we went up to the old Getty on the hill. The new Getty (the Getty Villa) requires reservations a month in advance! It would have been cool to see, but the old Getty was amazing...

They had a great collection of illuminated manuscripts:

There was a really interesting piece in the main entry called the 'uberorgan.' It was made of recycled bits and pieces and looked like intestines or something, but it was actually a musical instrument and played once per hour. The 'organ' is controlled by a 250 foot long loop of mylar painted with black dots and dashes that triggers light sensitive switches.

We managed to make it to the beach for a few moments amongst some other errands, and back to grandma's house for dinner and chatting late into the night.

On Saturday we went to LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We only looked at a few exhibits, but I really enjoyed the Japanese pavilion. The interior of the building was just fascinating. Jeremy got a few shots of it...

After LACMA we went to Canter's for lunch. Canter's is a well-known, and humongous, Jewish restaurant/deli/bakery/bar. We had an excellent pastrami on rye and some matzo ball soup. Mmm, tasty!

Then we headed for a long walk on the beach. Now, I grew up on the Oregon coast and this time of year you bundle up and expect to freeze. Not in California! Though it certainly wasn't warm, people were still out in bikinis in the surf! I walked in the surf and the water was actually warmish. I still can't get over that. I was most fascinated by the birds...

On Sunday before we left we had just enough time to visit Venice Beach. Wow, what a crazy place!

I took several videos of these street performers. Unfortunately, I filmed sideways and can't get the thing to turn around the right way! Sorry about that. Here is one for now - turn your head to the left!

Boise to Omaha: Dec. 27-29, 2006

2007-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

My trip was a God-sighting experience.

Johannan and I listened to the book "Redeaming Love" by Francine Rivers, on tape, from Idaho through Omaha. I heard how God wants to be our provider and hopes we will just obey him and trust him. The "obey" part bristled by hair at first like the part in marriage ceremonies where she promised to obey him. But God is not made in my image, so I'm wrestling with promising to obey, knowinig that God is perfect and good, reminding myself that God never asks me to do too much or too hard of things. He plans the best for us and calls us "Beloved." Beautiful and breathtaking.

And I saw God's provision at work. There were several places that I barely got through: waking up in Cheyenne with 9 inches of blown snow, avoiding a car sliding off the road behind us in western (COLD) Nebraska, finally getting to fly out of Omaha and barely making the connecting flight from Denver to Boise.
I finally relaxed, sipping hot water and lemon 1000 feet over the Rocky Mountains: surrounded by snow and low clouds, moonlight generously drizzled on their peaks and edges.

"Tirzah, beloved" God breathed.

Minneapolis to Seattle

2007-01-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Welcome to another fun and exiting edition of the Vicarious Travelblog!

On December 26th at 1:00 in the morning I flew out to Minneapolis where my boyfriend lived. I hung out with the family for a day and helped Jeremy pack (for moving to Seattle!).

I've had a lot of moving experience so I took charge of getting the rest of his things into his new Honda Civic. There were a few things to keep in mind:
1) There were certain items that needed to be accessible, like suitcase/backpack/sleeping bags.
2) Things in the back seat couldn't go above the level of the top of the back seat so Jeremy could still see out.
3) Nothing could go on the floor of the driver's side, but the passenger's side was fair game!
4) And of course we had to be able to access drinks and snacks and maps.

The contents of the car fit together like a really tight puzzle. Each night we had to excavate Jeremy's suitcase from the trunk which involved removing a blanket and pillow and yoga mat and some other random pieces and then tugging the suitcase free. Each morning we'd squeeze the suitcase back into its spot then place all the other items on top and around. I'd squat down and hold everything to keep it from falling while Jeremy slowly closed the trunk. The trunk hinges had to avoid a table leg on one side and part of the suitcase and some other thing on the other side. Once the trunk was down (and my hands were out of the way) we had to apply a little pressure to get it closed all the way.

My backpack was wedged in the middle seat between a computer and some other box, behind another bag with books and maps, which was under a bag or two of groceries and a gallon of water. So that had to be excavated and replaced each night.

I know it sounds complicated - but it made the most sense!

We couldn't fit all the groceries between the seat so I sacrificed most of the floor in front of me to a bag filled with chips, bread, butter, water, dried fruit and nuts, some fig newtons, a six-pack of club soda and a few water bottles, as well as a singing bowl from India. It was quite cozy.

We hit the road on Wednesday just before noon and headed south on I-35 to Albert Lea where we met up with I-90 west. Our goal was to make it to Sioux Falls the first day and we made such good time that we went on to Chamberlain, South Dakota where we stopped for the night. So that was a little over 400 miles the first day.

I should mention here that both our families, especially the mothers, were worried about this wintery trip of ours. The snow! The ice! The blizzards! Etc, etc. Every few hours or so I was requested to send an update to my family about what state we were in, what city we were near, and the mile post we were passing. This was so that if I didn't make contact for a long while my mom would be able to tell the search and rescue team where to start looking. I'm not joking at all.
So I sent messages like:
"leaving Rapid City SD; m.p. 51; roads good"
"coming into butte...'
"30 miles 2 missoula!"
"Almost to cour d'alene - passes were ice-free & dry!"
All that texting - I finally figured out how to use the text functions on my phone!

Back to our travels...

Thursday we headed out, making a brief stop at Wall and passing through Sturgis, before crossing into Wyoming. There was a bit of ice and snow to deal with in Wyoming though it wasn't too awful. We did have to slow down a bit at points. We were debating whether to stop in Buffalo or Sheridan but we had time so we pushed on to Sheridan. That put us at 468 miles for the second day.

Our goal on Friday was to make it Missoula where my aunt lives. The weather and roads were fine and we made it to Missoula in the evening. My aunt actually lives in Darby, about 60 miles south, so we headed down to see her and got in around 9:00. That put our third day miles at almost 530!

We only had to make it to Spokane by Saturday evening, since we had some Quaker librarian friends to stay with there. We went through a pass or two and the mountains and trees were incredible! We racked up 193 miles and a stop by the lovely Lake Coeur D'Alene.

Sunday we headed for Seattle and the last 271 miles of our trip.

Other than the snow and dodgy weather in Wyoming, we had great weather and great road conditions. I kept Jeremy awake and driving by searching for obnoxious radio channels, reading aloud from a book we had brought, and making sure we took plenty of breaks for walking around - which was quite invigorating since it wasn't much over 20 degrees for most of our trip!

I think that's about it. For those of you brave souls who made it this far, you are rewarded by getting to see the pictures! Enjoy! (Oh, and click on 'full screen' for better quality.)

Until next time,

Aimee

Northwest Yearly Meeting

2006-07-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

So it's not travelling all that far, but I believe the four of us will all be at Yearly Meeting next week!

Yearly Meeting is always held in July on the campus of George Fox University. It is always one of the hottest weeks of the year. This year they are calling for temperatures of up to 105 degrees on the weekend, but luckily "cooling down" to 95 by the beginning of the week.

That's it. I'm moving to Alaska!

2006-07-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Check out http://ycew.blogspot.com/ to see what Chrissy is up to! I've just posted a comment re: grad school and learning on my blog as well.

Delonna, I think the interactive picture might be at the new and improved World Gathering wegsite: http://www.wgyf.org/ oh, just found a more direct link to the actual Group Picture: http://bluesock.org/~ben/wgyf/

Love ya!

2006-05-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hey!!
I miss you guys!!!!

I know.. I missed the last Area Rally in SEattle...

Anyone remember the online address for that cool interactive photo from WGYF? I think Simon sent it out, but I can't find the link any more.

Shouldn't we be packing or planning something? My summer is almost here!! when are you coming to visit, huh?

delonna

How about this?

2006-04-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

ooooh, how about this:

http://www.globalvolunteers.org/1main/cook/cook_islandsprogram.htm

Where next?

2006-03-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

The next FWCC Section of the Americas meeting will be in Providence, Rhode Island next March. That would be fun to go to. And the Triennial will be in Ireland next August! But I'm not a rep so I don't know that I'll go.

Anyway, so I don't know where (or when) I'll be traveling next. Any suggestions, or free tickets somewhere?? =)

home again

2006-03-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back home again. I got home Saturday, sorry for the delay in posting.

I've been looking through my posts and realized they don't explain things all that well! While I was in Antigua I stayed with a family a block or two from the school. The father and mother worked at Probigua. They had a pretty big house so there were actually 4 bedrooms for students. While I was there the other students were a woman from the midwest, a guy from Germany, and another guy from the US who had just gotten out of the Navy and was going to be going into law school.

We all ate meals together and walked to school together sometimes, but mostly everyone had their own schedules. They were all there for several weeks or months - I was only there for a week. =( Each weekend people would make plans for travels around the country or the city or parties or whatnot. I think I could get used to that. =)

Well, sorry it wasn't as detailed this time as times in the past - but I was only there 10 days and didn't have much computer access.

Going where no bus was ever, ever, ever meant to go

2006-03-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

This morning at 8:30 we left on a school trip to visit a school up in the mountains. We left school and walked down the street to the biblio bus - bookmobile! It's basically your standard school bus with a few seats taken out and a some bookshelves in it. There are also shelves full of books above the seats the entire length of the bus - both sides. On top of the bus were tied 50 desks for the school - those little one piece things.

After 20 minutes of driving or so we hit the mountain. I thought the cobblestone streets of Antigua were bad (and cobblestone would actually be a vast improvement, let me tell you!) - these mountain roads were unbelievable!

There were mostly dirt and gravel. There are no siderails so when we got up high, on one side was the mountain and the other you could look way, way, way down into these deep valleys. The shocks are so good and the road is really rough so it was like sitting in one of those vibrating massage chairs. Add to that the rutted road and switchback curves hugging the mountain - it was like riding in one of those chairs on a little boat in choppy seas, going about 40 miles an hour - for 2 1/2 hours!!

I truly believed today would be my last day on earth.

All the way up the mountain huge trucks were coming down the road and we had to get over to the right, precariously close to the edge, while still driving and rocking back and forth. Ay! I was gripping my shoes with my toes so hard - as if hanging on to my shoes would save us from a plunge to our deaths! Sometimes I just had to close my eyes.

When we finally arrived at the school there were several kids to greet us. As we got out of the bus they were very excited and wanted us to take their pictures. They were amazed by the digital cameras and seeing their photos right away. After a few minutes and exchanging names and trying to understand what they were saying, I heard this noise. I looked up and from a block up the hill came dozens and dozens of children running down the road toward us yelling and laughing - they were so excited to see us! It was an amazing experience. Amazing.

Of course all the new kids wanted photos to. I immediately had several new friends attached to both hands and whatever else they could get hold of. Several of them asked Marcos to take a picture. He turned his camera on us and the other kids saw this. There was a huge rush and suddenly I was surrounded by maybe 30 or 40 kids jumping up and down trying to get in the picture and giving the peace sign. Again, it was amazing.

As soon as we had arrived the kids climbed to the top of the bus and started handing down the desks. In no time they had all the desks down, then each picked up a desk and started walking up to the school. A little boy, perhaps 8, wanted to hold my hand and carry a chair on his back at the same time. I tried to help, or offer him his other hand, but he liked it that way.

We got the school and all the kids had paper and pens and wanted all of us to write down our names and other things - where we lived, what our job was. I was signing autographs forever! It was such a funny experience - I felt famous. =)

Then all the students go organized in chairs, with us up on the stage. They had a little assembly to thank PROBIGUA for the chairs and other things and thank us for our help. There were many speeches and much clapping, singing of the country anthem, etc, etc. Then the women of the school had lunch for us.

We did more and saw more and (obviously) made it home safely, but I have to leave now - the place is closing! I leave for home at 4:00 in the morning and will see some of you soon!

adios!

a day in the life

2006-03-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

I only have 9 minutes so I'll try to type fast. So much happens every day and the days go so fast - it is hard to find time at the computers!

So each morning I wake around 6 am. Usually because it's getting too light to sleep, there is a lot of noise outside, and because I most likely went to bed at 9 the night before! Before going to the bathroom for my shower I have to turn on the hot water in the outside hallway. Though - this doesn't make the water all that hot. Since I've been in Guat I've only had one hot (warmish) shower. Brr!

Then the four of us students in the house set the breakfast table. Promptly at 7:00 breakfast arrives. Usually a lot of fruit combined with pancakes or bread or cereal or eggs or other things, and always coffee and tea. We all attempt to speak spanish with one another and Tomas, el hombre del casa. About 7:30 or so we all head to school. It's just a couple minutes down the road from us.

Classes begin promptly at 8:00. Mine starts with talking with my maestra for an hour mas o menos, en espanol. Sometimes this actually resembles a conversation, and sometimes it involves a lot of "ahh, umm, hmm, aahhh, I think..." trying to come up with the right words! And also using the dictionary a lot.

At 10 everyone takes a break for cafe, te, y pan. Then it's back to work at 10:30 - 12:00.

At 12 we're all finished. Some people run errands then or do some email. Everyone eventually heads back home for lunch at 1:00.

That's only half the day - but I have to go catch a bus - the biblioteca bus! We're riding the bookmobile bus to a pueblo up near one of the volcanos. I'll be back later in the afternoon. Not sure if I'll get to post though... I'll try!

the rest...

Lunch is at about 1:00 each day - almuerzo. Lunch is the main meal of the day so it is usually pretty big. All the students and the people of the house return and we set the table again. The food comes out and we all try to remember, yet again, how to say things like 'please pass the salt' (pasame la sal) or the words for fork, knife, y spoon (tenedor, cuchillo, y cuchara).

I think one of us has another hour or two of classes starting at 2:00 but the rest of us are free for the rest of the day. On Tuesday through Friday the school has different activities each day. Tuesday it was a 'reunion' with Rigoberto, the director of the school. Wednesday was making bolletes, Thursday a trip to a local ceramico. Today was a trip to a pueblo up in the mountains. More on that later!

The afternoons are a good time for these activities and also for wandering the city and shopping in the mercado. The Parque Central in the middle of the town is also a nice place. Yesterday there was a band playing in the arcade of one of the old buildings in the square. It was really cool!

All the students return before 7:00 for dinner. Some much earlier to work on homework! Pero there isn't usually much homework. Dinner at 7:00 and we don't usually go out after that. Well, the guys do - but I suppose it's fine for them. Usually the days are so full and it has been so warm, I desperately try to stay awake till 9:00! I guess it is my vacation - but I'm used to going to bed LATE and waking up LATE - not the other way 'round!

This morning I woke to the sound of rain. (You were right mom!) The sound of rain has to be one of the most beautiful things in the world! It stopped by 8:00 though and the rest of the day has been hace mucho calor!

Oh - yesterday morning after breakfast, Tomas said he was a giving us an examen. We each got a piece of paper and he had us write down three words each. Then he told us it was market day and we had to find these things in the market! I think mine were caimities, zapotes, and manzaniros - or something like that. Madarine oranges and two other odd things. We had to find these things after classes (or during) and bring them to the house before lunch. Que bueno!

My teacher and I went to the market during classes and found all the fruit. I also bought some flowers - some for my teacher Olga and some for the house. None of us were quite sure what this fruit was for. A big fruit salad?

Lunch came and there was no fruit, some rice and other things (I forget now). Right as we were finishing - the fruit came out on 4 platters! I've never eaten so much fruit in my whole life - combined! There were two kinds of bananas (mmmmm), two kinds of mangos, zapotes, boysenberries (muy sour!), mandarin oranges, and several other fruits I've never seen before. This combined with the pineapple, watermelon, and cantelope from the morning! Some of the fruit was good, some was weird, and others were kind of yucky. Me no gusta. It was a fun experience though!

ha ha ha!

2006-03-21T14:42:00.000-08:00

This will be my one mean post - for those of you in the Northwest who have been inundated with rain I understand. The average temperature in Chiquimula was probably between 80-90 degrees every day. Guatemala City was a little cooler. Here in Antigua it's about 80 degrees each day. Hace calor! It has been beautiful every day and I haven't seen rain since I left Seattle. And... I got a little sunburn today walking through the markets. =)

Ahora, mi maestra digo yo necesito practicar espanol! =)

Only justice brings peace...

2006-03-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, so last Thursday I got a ride over to the airport. I was supposed to be there around 1:30 or 2 for the bus to Chiquimula. I arrived closer to 2:00 but I hadn't had lunch and I didn't have money. I found a bank then a place to eat. It took them a long time to prepare my sandwich and I was getting nervous about the time. I finally grabbed my sandwhich and ran out to the arrival area.

There are dozens and dozens of people in the arrival area. Some are trying to sell you stuff. Some are trying to offer you a ride in a taxi. Some people have signs with names. If you even look at a person, they assume they've found the person they are looking for so it's a bit confusing! There was supposed to be a sign saying FWCC. I looked at all the signs but none said FWCC. There were a couple large groups that had arrived as well so there were a lot of people.

My directions said that if I didn't see a sign to look for some type of bus in the loading area. Well I had no idea what sort of buses they were talking about!! There were many buses in the loading area with people getting in - and the buses driving off. Did I miss my bus? Was that one of them just leaving? I don't even know who is picking me up or what anyone looks like! I don't even know how many people are arriving, if they're arriving together, how big the bus is, etc.

I started going around asking random strangers, "FWCC?" One person thought they had seen a sign, but not recently. I started to get really upset as it was about 2:30 and the bus was supposed to have left at 2:00. Surely I had missed it!! I had no idea what to do with myself.

So I'm standing there on the sidewalk trying to collect myself and figure out what to do next and suddenly there is a group of about 6 people surrounding me. I didn't notice it at first because the place was so crowded. Then one of them pointed to the button on my sweater and said, "Only justice brings peace... she's one of ours!" Yay! My group had found me!

That is one of the most wonderful things I've heard! I've been wearing this button for 7 months and have gotten some weird responses to it. All day and night traveling to Guatemala I got some funny looks from people. Some give the thumbs up, but others look concerned or puzzled and one guy looked like he wanted to get into a debate, but then though better of it. So this comment was so wonderful!

We had another 45 minutes to wait for another arrival, then we jumped into the bus and headed for Chiquimula. I think it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get there - through mountains and valleys. The roads were often narrow and steep, with a cliff face on one side and a deep valley on the other. The driver drove at breakneck speeds passing on the downhill and being passed on the uphill. Someone almost got carsick at one point - I'm glad she didn't!

Road rage...

2006-03-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

I have so much to say from FWCC but I don't have time right now, so just one story. On Friday night we left the hotel in 3 buses and took the hour trip to Chiquimula. The roads are rather narrow and steep, in the mountains, and are very windy. There are a lot of slow trucks on the roads. Our buses were trying to pass this big slow truck who kept straddling the center line whenever there was room to pass. The first two buses finally managed it, then it was our turn.

Our driver kept trying and trying till finally there was enough room to get over. Then the truck driver started coming over and we ended up clipping his mirror! I don't think it broke, just moved a bit. But we manged to pass the truck.

A moment later the truck came speeding up, passed us, then stopped right in front of us! Big trouble! The other two buses saw this and stopped immediately. All the drivers got out and had and started arguing and fighting in front of our bus.

Finally everyone went back to their vehicles and we were off again. About two minutes later the truck had gotten in front of our caravan and stopped again! All the drivers got out and the police came. We were parked in the middle of the road on a rather steep incline headed down into a valley. Lots of other cars and trucks were passing within inches of the arguing drivers. They finally sorted everything out and we all headed on our way again.

I guess the driver said it was a 'crazy Salvadoran driver.' No se. I was getting a little scared at this situation - was it a setup? But everyone else seemed to be having a grand time and we were all okay in the end.

After the church service in Chiquimula, the city police provided two motorcycle escorts out of the city and I think another escort in a car stayed with us all the way back to the hotel.

I guess after the war there were a lot of guns left in the country and now no one knows who has guns and whether or not they have ammo. A bit of a scary situation.

Anyway, I'm off to lunch (almuerzo) and then to find a banco.

Adios!

(p.s. It's already Tuesday and I haven't managed to find any postcards yet, so lo siento, no postcards this time...)

Touchdown, and a familiar face...

2006-03-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

I landed in Guatemala City Thursday morning at 5:30. It was a full flight, full of screaming babies, and Iwas on the aisle - so not much sleep for me! I had been told to go to the informatin desk "you can't miss it" but it was not where it was supposed to be! I finally found it but the woman there didn't have a phone. She did have a cell phone and after awhile was able to figure it out so she could call my hotel. They arrived at the airport within minutes and it was a quick drive over.

All these months I´ve thought I hopefully understood enough Spanish to get by. It's because my roommate is kind enough to speak slow, use hand gestures, and repeat things over and over. It's not the same thing down here! I came into the little hotel and had no clue what the woman was talking about! Finally I guessed she wanted me to wait for my room to be ready. When it was I wanted to ask about breakfast. Another disaster in understanding! I was able to ask what time it was and say 'breakfast.' =) I was able to ask for breakfast at 7:30 then I went to see if I could get any sleep.

When I came out at 7:30 there was no breakfast, and wouldn´t be for another 45 minutes. I think she didn´t understand me after all. Oh well. Luckily by then someone who spoke a littleEnglish showed up and I could finally understand things. What have I gotten myself in to!?

After breakfast I wanted to try to find a market. They directed me to the museum down the road and said there was a market nearby. Never found the market, but I got an education in roads around here...The roads are crazy!

There are people hanging out of trucks and cars everywhere zooming down the roads. No seatbelts here. The buses are huge, red, and old. Huge clouds of black smoke are usually billowing out the back, and crowds of people are crammed inside. There are often 2 or 3 men hanging out the front and back doors of the bus. The guidebook says they´re´trawling´ for more passengers, which is really what it looks like! There are no crosswalks, you just figure out what direction the traffic is flowing, wait for a gap, and run for it! There are some new cars, but there are some amazing contraptions as well. Cars that must have rolled down a mountain then been left in the rain for a year - and then surprise! they still run! And run with all the clanging and clunking and no-muffler-sound you might expect. There were a number of little stores on the side of the road selling soda, beer, and snacks. Some were closed off with iron bars and chain link. I guess you look through and ask for what you want and the person hands it to you through a gap in the fence. On my way back to the hotel I came around a corner and ran into an old familiar face - the black-hatted Quaker man smiling at me from a sign over a store. The 3 volcanos I saw on my walk were cool too. =)

Just a little while till I jump on a bus for Chiquimula!

(Sorry! I wrote this on Thursday but could not log in - everything was in German for some reason too!)

details, details

2006-03-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

When I arrive in Guatemala City at 5:45 a.m. (TOMORROW MORNING!) I'll have about 8 hours to kill before my shuttle bus leaves for Chiquimula. I thought I'd just get to hang out in the airport or go sit in a hotel lobby somewhere...but I just found out it's so much more exciting than that!

And I quote:

There is a nearby bed & breakfast that will pick you up, take you to their hotel and give you coffee, breakfast, a place to put your bags, or whatever your needs will be. They have a nice living room area and garden area. They can also arrange or guide you in visiting a nearby anthropological museum, zoo or Guatemalan market.
The afternoon bus will be going after the two o clock arrivals come and you would need to be back at the airport at 1:30 p.m.

Well that works for me!!

The other detail is that I really wanted to get a ride home from the airport when I return home and everyone I know is either out of town, at a wedding, moving, helping someone move, has visitors, etc. Ack! But I did just finally find someone. Thanks Arlyene!

22 hours and counting...

"Packing" update

2006-03-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the way I pack is I gather together everything I think I want to take with me, then I see what fits in the suitcase. Sometimes this gathering process can last for weeks; sometimes I do a lot of gathering in my mind and on lists, then I just put it all together at the last minute.

However, I just moved a few months ago and most of my stuff is still in boxes. Everything else is dispersed throughout the house in weird places. I can't find anything! Right now I'm trying to find my sunglasses and my hat. I know these two items exist somewhere...but where on earth I do not know.

I heard a funny fact about Seattle that sunglass sales are higher here than in many sunnier cities. Why? Because we put our sunglasses away for so long we can't find them again when the sun comes out so we have to buy more! I can't afford that since these are prescription, so back to the hunt...

UPDATE: I hesitate to say that blogs will solve all your problems, but I DID just find my sunglasses and my hat - minutes after this posting. Okay blogger, now I need to find my passport. =)

On the road again...

2006-03-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

In 48 hours I'm jumping on a plane and heading for Guatemala! Unfortunately my pals Joyce, Delonna, and Chrissy can't come on this trip. =(

First I'll be heading to the Friends World Committee for Consultation Annual Meeting in Chiquimula.

On Monday I head to Antigua where I'll be living with a family and studying some Spanish for a week with PROBIGUA, a school that is helping to develop libraries in Guatemala.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a ton of stuff to do!!

Now where??

2005-09-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Ok ladies,
We've had enough of a break. Where shall we go next? I hear Habitat for Humanity will be needing a lot of people in New Orleans. :)
I won't be doing FWCC because its not during my spring break.

I am teaching 3rd Grade and LOVING it. I have 11 of my previous students (with 23 total in the class). Its all not a giant love-fest, there are a few squirly kids in that group...

So, seriously.. where to? I have a short Christmas break, Spring Break, Veteran's day (early Nov.) and of course the summer!

And yes, I am fully aware I have to figure out that (grrr) car rental stuff.

Missing all of you so very much

Delonna
PS: Aimee, thanks for the package!!

Chrissy's run-in with US Customs

2005-09-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

One moment of the trip home sticks out in my mind.

Setting: US Customs in Houston, Texas

Cast: Joe Customs Agent, Joyce (me) and Chrissy

Scene One
Chrissy clears customs, by less-than transparent means. =) Joyce honestly discloses that "we" walked through a pasture while in England. Joe calls back Chrissy.

Conversation
Joe: Did you walk through a pasture in the UK?
Chrissy: I forgot about that.

Final Scene
Joe reams Chrissy for lying to a US Customs Agent. Joyce doesn't get reamed. Both Chrissy and Joyce have to dig through their luggage to get out the shoes they wore while walking in the pasture.

Note: Joyce got to use her walkie talkies while walking through the pastures in England.

Moral
Always use walkie talkies while walking in English pastures - they might improve memory.

Um, I'm home

2005-09-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm home! I only had a few nights of waking up at 2am but I think I'm okay now.

So are we done with this blog for now... since it is supposed to be a traveling blog?

Or should we talk about where we want to travel next? Who's up for Guatemala in March 2006? Ireland in 2007? Other ideas??

Keeping the traveling bug alive...

leaving soon

2005-08-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

I spent several hours at the British Museum yesterday. There was so much to see and I'm sure I only scratched the surface. I saw the Rosetta Stone and a lot of stuff from the Acropolis, and a lot of ancient British stuff.

One thing stood out to me though. There was an exhibit from artists in Mozambique. Mozambique has been in a lot of civil wars and conflict for years. Tons and tons of guns were being poured in to support the wars. Now that it's over there are millions of weapons spread throughout the country. A group, Arms for Tools I think, started a program to turn in guns in exchange for farm tools and other things. There is a story of one whole village who turned in all their guns for a tractor. Then a group of artists take these weapons and make sculptures out of them. There was a huge tree, the Tree of Life, made out of tons of guns. You can still see it all, pieces of triggers, etc. It was amazing, hard to describe when you see that many weapons turned into art...

I spent several hours trying to track down some Yorkshire tea and managed to make it to the Indian/Muslim area where there were a ton of stalls out. People were selling everything! Beautiful clothes and scarves, shoes, toys, fruits and vegetables. This went on for blocks and blocks and blocks. I wish I had discovered this area sooner! I could only linger so long though since I had a dinner date to keep.

I had arranged to meet Nancy Irving, the general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation, for dinner. (I think that's her title.) I had gotten way over to East London to find a big enough Sainsbury's that sold big boxes of tea and I knew I would be late. It was a rush back through the street stalls and the tube to get back to my hostel and unload all my purchases, then a quick turnaround back to the tub.

I made it to Friends House fifteen minutes late, but all was well. Nancy and I caught a bus over to the Thames area. The Tate Modern is over there and a lot of theatres (for live shows). There was a theatre show going on in a park area and we stopped for a few minutes. The setting was a barber shop and there were three actors. They never said a thing, just interacted with the set and the radio. They would occassionally change the station and then would interact with the radio. We came in and the radio was doing war of the worlds type broadcast. The actors were terrified, trying to hide, etc, etc, acting like the world was ending. Then a soothing voice came on saying that this was episode 6 of such-and-such show, tune in next week... The actors became embarrassed and acted like they knew all along. The radio was changed to a different station, and they were off on another skit. They just kept going and going! We finally left and meandered along the river. We had a lovely dinner at a pizza place then went to visit the Tate.

This museum was made out of an old power company building. It is absolutely enormous! The 'atrium' area inside has to be something like 10 stories high. They did a wonderful job converting the building into a museum. We only had time to visit one gallery. It was titled something like 'beyond painting.' There were a number of 'artists' who had created these pieces with clay, sacking, bits of fluffy stuff, etc. One was simply a large piece of burlap stretched over the canvass with a slice right through the middle of it. This particular artist had really gotten into poking holes into his canvass or slicing through it to give a sense of infinity. Hmmm. I think that one gallery was enough for both of us!

I went across the Millenium Bridge straight to St. Pauls and made my way 'home.' I had a good last day in London and wonder if I'll every get back here again.

Well, the St. Paul's bells just rang 9:00. Time for me to gather my luggage and head for the airport! See some of you soon!

Returning to Work

2005-08-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

Joyce and I arrived in Idaho last night at 10:00 PM. Today I came into school in order to get everything set up for the students who come on Monday. I think I'm about ready. It has been such a fast transition from being with 230 other young adults to being at school again. There is so much that I want to think on from the gathering and so many people that I want to begin e-mailing. I'm hoping that I'll make space in my life for these things and not allow my time to be swallowed up by less important matters.

I'm grateful for all the prayers that were offered on behalf of the gathering. It was evident that God was at work among us, and I believe that he'll use that event for years to come in the continuing transformation of many lives. You can still be praying for the gathering that will occur in Kenya in October.

Back... to London

2005-08-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

Time when you are traveling is a weird thing. Sometimes it passes so slowly and sometimes so quickly. Tuesday and Wednesday seemed to pass so quickly, and I felt like the whole last two weeks had gone by fast. But today, Thursday, I feel like the last two days have been forever long.

I was up early yesterday morning to be at Pendle Bar by 7am to check in keys. At 8:30 I was relieved and ran off to breakfast, scarfed down a full breakfast (yay!) and ran back to the Bar to continue checking people out. I was bummed to miss the last admin team meeting...but I don't know if anyone else made it either! I was able to attend most of the last session then, where worship was quite good. We then got to work approving the epistle. I don't even know what the final version is yet - I had to leave early and run back to the Bar to get the door unlocked so people leaving on the 12 bus could get their luggage!

The next few hours were spent checking people out, directing people traffic, trying to answer questions, etc. Also saying goodbyes to people which was quite sad. After many had left I took myself over to the office where the walls and desks were looking quite bare. I helped clean up the rest of the place. It was quite odd how bare and empty it felt, how life-less. And yet, you could still feel the energy in the rooms and halls.

I caught a ride down to Lancaster Meeting house and was reunited with about 20 participants who were staying the night there. I had a homestay though, and after dinner in the meeting house, two Rachels and I headed out. Rachel Phillip's house is way out in the middle of nowhere. It was a long drive! But so beautiful. It was quintessential English countryside. It was the Lancashire dales I believe, covered in fields and grazing sheep. We did have a near run in with sheep on the road a few times!

Rachel's house is quite simple and very old - about 200 years old perhaps, and is right next to a public footpath so there are always people walking by. She doesn't have a fridge, just puts items in the window and keeps the window open. That tells you how cold it is there! It was a wonderful, peaceful place to get a good night's sleep.

This morning Rachel and Rachel and I went into a little town to dry my clothes in the smallest laundrette in England - a little room on the end of a building holding one washer and one dryer! We did some shopping at a few local shops, collected my clothes, then drove on to Lancaster. There were still several participants hanging out so we all walked over to a great vegetarian restaurant called The Whale Tail.

Rachel, Thomas, Matt and I all had to get on the 2:24 train to London. Thanks to Chrissy for buying the wrong tickets so that Rachel and I could use them! =)

Getting back to London was weird. The noise and craziness was a bit overwhelming and shocking to the senses. And yet, I do really like this city. I had to drop off a lost passport at the Friends House, and then made my way over to my youth hostel. I'd tried to book this place a month ago for my first night here and it was full. I'm so glad I got it this time! I'm using the computer in the lobby and there is a big window right next to me. Out the window I can see St Paul's Cathedral, all lit up. And I can hear the church bells chiming each hour, and more often during the day. It is wonderful. I've mostly wandered around a few familiar spots today and will be going to bed soon as I am really knackered! =)

I think I might spend the whole day at the British Museum tomorrow, but we'll see...

Home!

2005-08-25T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ready for some amazing news???
I slept in my own bed last night!
So, here are some thoughts and ramblings after the event:

I don't know for sure what I've taken away yet from the conference. I think that the "fruit" will need time to grow and ripen before I can see the full effects. I have not turned on my TV once since coming home, and I so far, I am enjoying that.
I have decided to make two changes in my life. The first is the aforementioned "silencing of the TV," and the second is... well... I am not going to buy clothes this year. I will if I need to replace something, but I am not going to buy something because it is on sale and "Too cute to pass up..".

Now, I am not one to think that just "doing" will increase my spiritual life, but I do feel that a call to simplicity must start somewhere. I want to declutter my life of some stresses and I think both shopping and TV have been a waste of my time and resources. Mike pointed out that I do enjoy shopping and that I needed to be aware of that but... look at the work "enjoy." Should I really find joy in shopping?? I should find it in being with friends and talking with Mike and doing my best at work... not to mention in my relationship with Christ. If I am finding joy elsewhere, where do I leave room (or time) to seek joy where it really matters?

If my friends invite me to go shopping, I will simply have to use the discipline not to spend money. I may need to leave my debit cards at home to start, but I will do it. When something does wear out, I think I will take my time and carefully purchase what I need, and in that, find better quality (fair trade) products.

Avoiding both TV and shopping I think will help me de-materialize my life. The constant bombardment of commercials through TV and the readiness and availability of goods are two of the challenges I hope to avoid.

Personally, I have come to love my 3 traveling companions a great deal. I know the 3 of them share a closer bond than I do with any of them, but I appreciate their willingness to share their relationships and love with me. Even though I thought they were a bit screwy in the beginning, I came to adore those oddities and just added in my own version to their mix!

I love you three very much, and look forward to many other crazy adventures!

aimee's thoughts

2005-08-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

I think we've about covered the first week of traveling around England. Luckily there are many more stories we haven't told (the windshield wipers... =) so we'll have plenty of stories when we return home. It is Tuesday now, the last full day of the Gathering. I have not shared much of my experience yet.

I have been glad to read the girls' experience, and to talk with them and others. As a member of the admin team I think I've only been able to experience about half of the Gathering. I've been running about doing a lot of work, organizing this and that, been in a lot of meetings, and been involved in some pretty heavy stuff (that i don't feel at liberty to share here).

I've made a few connections with people and had some good conversations and interesting experiences. I'm starting to ask myself now, what will I take away from this experience? What have I learned? How have I changed? What has impacted me? Where do I go from here?

I'm afraid I've been 'on' so much that I haven't had much time to just stop and listen and think. Interestingly, listening has been one of the common themes I've heard. Everyone has been very willing to listen to one another. I think we all expected there to be a lot more division and strife and arguments, but I haven't seen a lot of that. People have been very open.

One interesting story is that I met a girl who thinks that perhaps the 'other' Quakers (unprogrammed) don't really know God, they only think they do. She said that a couple days ago and I didn't have a chance to talk to her more about that. Today we were in a group and had to draw pictures of what we thought the future of Quakerism was. This girl drew a picture with the word 'God' written at the top, then EFI, FUM, FGC - all crossed out, and a crowd of people below that. She hoped that in the future Quakers could move beyond those divisions and have more in common. I really appreciated hearing that from her.

I've gotten to the point that I have a lot of thoughts... and no thoughts. This week has been really, really interesting in many ways. I don't know if/when I'll be able to share them on this blog. I apologize to my 'fans' that there aren't more travel details. My traveling has mostly been from my room to the dining room to the office, to the great hall, to the office, to the dining hall, to the office, to my room. =) I did go on a trip to Swarthmore Hall (and sat in both George Fox's and Margaret Fell's chairs!) and also climbed Pendle Hill. I will try to post about those soon.

Lake District

2005-08-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

Just before the World Gathering began, Delonna and I stayed at the Elas Crag Bed and Breakfast in the North of England, near Keswick.

This area is known as the Lake District and is one of the most beautiful places, especially if you like nature, mutton, cloud cover, tea, foliage (especially ferns), flowers, stone walls, water and quiet.

Climbing Pendle Hill

2005-08-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

Most of us at the World Gathering climbed up Pendle Hill today. This is the hill upon which George Fox had a vision of a large number of people to be gathered to God

"Didn't George Fox envision us in our climb: a great people to be gathered from all corners of the earth and branches of the Quaker Tree." - Ute Caspers, speaker WGYF 2005

"George Fox chose a challenging way to climb. This could be seem as a metaphor for us. There might be easier ways to live. But we choose to allow the Spirit to challenge us. Maybe it will be worth the view, especially if we have each other . . .. Get enough rest so we can be ready to face the challenges of loving each other." - Cherice Bock, facilitator WGYF 2005

http://www.wgyf.org/

2005-08-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

Watch, read, & listen to the World Gathering live as it happens!

All the reports, pictures, sounds, & video from the gathering are being placed here constantly throughout the gathering, live as it takes place; both at Lancaster and during the post-gathering events both in the UK & in Africa.

Russian to English to Spanish and back

2005-08-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Translating languages is a recognized challenge. Translating ideas . . .

Conversations about Jesus

2005-08-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

Last night our base groups were supposed to discuss who Jesus is, but because we were running short on time we put the discussion off until today. This meant that I was able to have the conversation with the girl who asked me about how I see Jesus. In short I tried to explain to her how I saw Jesus as the one who has brought us back into a relationship with God, a relationship that is broken by sin. I talked about how the Isrealites made sacrifices in order to restore their "righteousness," and that Jesus was the final sacrifice for all time. She said that this was the first time that the concepts of "saved" and "washed in the blood" had made sense to her. She's still not at a place where she can say that Jesus is God or that he enables her to connect to God better. However, I believe that God is at work in her and she is continuing to seek Him.

In our base groups today we read statements such as "The Bible is very important to me" and "Jesus is the light of the world." Then we spread ourselves out on a line from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" and explained why we were where we were. Everlyn (a lady from Kenya) and myself were the evangelicals in the group and the others ranged from being brought up in the Christian tradition, but not really sure that other religions aren't valid, to seeing Jesus only as a good teacher, perhaps on a slightly higher level than others such as Gahndi.

At one point I told the group that this has been an interesting week. On the one hand I want to be respectful of others and where they are on their spiritual journies. I know that God leads us in different ways and that not everyone will experience him as I do. However, I want to be honest and say that my view is that Christianity is what I see as having the most truth about who God is and that if people are truly seeking God they are going to come to a place where they see Jesus as much more than just a teacher or a prophet. And even though other religions have some truth, in my mind it may be because the best lies are based on truth. I was really encouraged when two of the people in my group said that a couple of days ago they might have been really threatened by my saying this, but they feel like God has brought them to a place where they can hear this and not be on the defensive.

There have been many other ways that I have felt God challenging me to be open about my beliefs and He has helped me to do it in ways that are loving. Yesterday, at the meeting house near Swarthmore Hall, I felt like he was asking me to share a message that was a bit contradictory with the message shared by an older member of the meeting. At first I was very uncomfortable with this, but now I'm seeing that it's important that we don't avoid the things that we disagree about; we must discuss them in order to allow God's Spirit to work to the fullest during this week.

Well we've just finished an international dance time (there was bellydancing, folk dancing, the hokey pokey, a Zulu dance, and New Zealand dance, and much, much more) and I'm feeling a bit tired so I will sign off in the hopes that I can get some sleep before speaking at the early programmed worship tomorrow at 7:30 A.M.

Midway through the World Gathering

2005-08-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

It comes down to Jesus. Who do you say that he is?

In Edinburgh, Scotland

2005-08-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Stone of Destiny is considered by many, as more important the the Queen's crown.

Walking on cobblestones is supposedly good for one's health. If you can get past twisting your ankle, it puts both of your body's balance systems into use.

I was Driving in England....

2005-08-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

There is a band from the 80's I used to love called, "The Swirling Eddies." They were a not well-known band that delivered most of their messages in parables. One song went, "I was driving in England on the Santa Ana Freeway, somebody's screamin' out, "You're goin' down the wrong way"....
Fortunately, I didn't actually go the wrong way except when there weren't any cars around.

Driving was a bit scary at first. Deep down, I was worried my primary impulse would be to hop to the wrong side of the road in case of emergency. I pondered a couple times if that changed the "suicide seat" to the driver's seat or if it just meant we'd all be in trouble if we got hit. It wasn't a thought I harbored long...

I did declare a bit of marshal law on the topic of direction-giving. I knew driving would be challenging enough, but I couldn't have 3 intelligent women trying to direct me and therefore creating arguments amongst each other. It did work for the most part.

Finding the hostel in York was the most frustrating (I admit I was near tears), but that perhaps due to the fact I hadn't looked at a map myself. Thereafter, Joyce and I spent time before each trip looking at maps and then checking them together along the way. It helped me ensure a sense of direction. Next time, I'll remember to pack a compass.

Getting (not lost) turned around north of Amble (we never actually made it there) was one of my favorite times driving. There weren't many cars on the roads and we just wandered around, looking for anything labled "A1". There was this one young man we encountered on a bridge pushing a pram (that's a baby-carriage for you non-brit speakers). "Hi! Excuse me, but do you know how to get to the A1?"
"Hm well, its a bit far from here... you just... you jus' go up the road here and you'll come across a high um... wall. Its really high. You jus' follow it 'round till it goes to the left. You ya don' wan' ta follow it. Ya wanna go to theh uh.. theh... (at this point, he is motioning with his right arm towards the right. It is flapping around...) the wall goes to the righ' an' ya go ta the um... uh.. to theh..."
"Right?"
"Yeah, go to theh right. Then you'll come to a roundabout an you go.... blah blah..."
because that is about all I heard. Inside my head I'm thinking, "Great, we're getting directions from a guy who can't say the word "right." This is painful."

When he finished, I said, "So, we'll see you back here in about 15 minutes, huh?"
He laughed. I did too... but sure enough, about 15 minutes later, we passed the same spot going the opposite direction.

I now understand how in British Literature, there can be stories of people thinking they were bewitched and that was why they were lost. I mean really, we are four intelligent, college-educated women. We are logical and sensible... yet we drove around the same 10 square miles for over 2 hours!

language

2005-08-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing like being separated by a common language! I've been collecting lots of interesting phrases that are used here.

In response to 'Do you want to share this tray?' = 'go on'

In response to 'Do you want chips or peas?' = 'I'm easy'

There's also a lot of 'faffing' about. Faffing about with our memory sticks, faffing about with details, faffing about with unimportant things, etc.

People often 'can't be bothered.' As in, 'do you want to run over to the store?' = 'ooh, I can't be bothered' or 'I couldn't be bothered.'

There are more which I can't remember right now. But the funny thing about this worldwide conference, I'm not sure where these phrases are really all from. So, pardon my possible english/irish/scottish/canadian/nepalese/australian/kenyan/new zealand/mexican/guatemalan/russian/bolivian/peruvian/indian/french/dutch/etc phrases/accent. =)

aimee says - a little more detail

2005-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Right, well I appreciate lots of detail and I don't mind it in this main window, so here I go again. (Sorry Joyce =)

So it was a bit stressful at first learning the left side of the road. Delonna started out doing the driving and she insisted that only one other person at a time, the navigator, be allowed to talk. This sounded okay in theory, but Chrissy and I (or maybe really just myself) were back-seat-drivers trying to be helpful in pointing out road signs and every other thing we saw. This created a bit of tension, but we survived.

I kept my eye out for things that were different from driving in the US, other than driving on the left side of the road. One of course is all the roundabouts. Instead of exits that go off to the side, every now and then you reach a roundabout in the middle of the highway. You travel around it and go off in the direction of the place you want to go. Takes up less space than exits I suppose. I also saw signs on big trucks saying "abnormal load." We followed signs to "The North," and tried to figure out the meaning of the round sign post with a red x on a blue background. We passed signs for many towns: Tickencote, Doncaster, Pickworth, Clipsham, Cottesmore, Woolsthorpe, Colsterworth, Buckminster, Sleaford, Harlayton, Nottingham!, Claypole, Bathley, and Kneesall.

We got into York on Wednesday night just about dusk. We were going to be staying in a backpackers hostel and had some vague directions on how to get there. We had already found out a few road rules for England which Joyce has alluded to. One, they don't really label their roads. There are street signs every now and then, posted on buildings on that street. But they aren't everywhere and it's hard to see them, especially at night. There are also lots of one-ways and roundabouts to help you get lost. Also, streets seem to change names about every three blocks. The street we were staying on I think had about 5 different names on in within about a 12 block length! We drove around lost and asked directions a few times and the stress levels increased! We were tired and just wanted to go to bed! And all the directions sounded like - 'go down that road, turn right, then left at the roundabout, can't miss it.' But we did! Anyway, after speaking with the hostel we finally found the place, which we'd passed at least once thinking it was on the other side of the road!

We came up a few steps, rang the bell, and were invited into a beautiful old house. Dark hard wood floors and a sweeping grand staircase climbing to the second story. It was a beautiful old house with a lot of charm. We signed ourselves in and climbed up the stairs to our room. I was last in line as Chrissy, Joyce, and Delonna crowded in to the room. They stopped in the doors and seemed concerned. I peeked my head in and saw there was a bucket of water in the middle of the room, with a steady drip into it from the ceiling. That one bucket was not enough. The entire ceiling was leaking! It was like a waterfall coming down right in the middle of the room. The ceiling (very high up) was cracked and had signs that this was not the first time it had leaked. The carpet through the whole middle of the room was wet and it seemed that the floor was sloping in toward the middle.

We cautiously put our stuff down at the edges of the room. The bunkbeds were circled around the outside of the room so we thought it would be okay to sleep there. Another traveller came in then and exclaimed, 'ah! it's still going!? They said it would stop soon!' "When was that?" we enquired. 'About two hours ago.' We then discovered that several of the beds were getting wet and perhaps the management didn't know about the severity of the problem. Indeed they did not and they moved us all to a different room.
Some of us were a bit sad about this as we thought the drip-drip-drip sound might be soothing. Of course then they changed the bucket out and it was more of a plunk-plunk-plunk, followed by bits of plaster falling from the ceiling.

Thursday morning we woke early (finally!) and managed to make it to York Minster Cathedral for their morning service. The Cathedral was very beautiful and quiet in the morning. I think the girls managed to find a reference to Quakers there. I read a bit of history about a lightning strike in the 80s that struck the roof of one wing and set the Cathedral ablaze. The roof was destroyed as well as one grand rose window. They spent years fixing it and renovating.

After the cathedral we went to the Merchant Adventurers Hall. This was a really old building still in possession by the original organization. This was a merchants organization which sort of had control over who could sell what in town. The building was hundreds of years old and quite interesting to wander around. (Sorry I don't have much more detail!)

We then cut across town over to the Castle Museum. It was probably quite similar to other small town museums, with recreations of what the town looked like in the early days, and a portion of the gaols (english spelling!) and shops and a millworks, etc. They had a spy game to play where you searched for clues amongst the artefacts in the museum and tried to figure out the mystery. I didn't play the game all the way through, but did go into the 'solution room' to find out what the solution was. The man there told us it was based on a true story of WW2 when spies were all over the country trying to find out what was going on, what the plans were, etc. Many business were closed down or shifted over to making different things. In York there is a chocolate factory and this factory did not shut down. But, part of the factory was not making chocolate. It was making ammunitions! And none of the spies ever found out.

After we finally got out of the museum (Joyce was having a blast with the spy game) we wandered over to The Shambles, a really picturesque little street with many, many little tiny shops selling all sorts of things. The cobblestone street was only wide enough for a small car and there were hundreds of people milling about. Many of the shops were only big enough for a couple people to stand inside. Chrissy, Delonna, and I had lunch at 'the sandwich man' - or something like that. The one-man shop made about 50 different kinds of sandwiches, to order, for £1 each.

We realized that one morning in York was certainly not enough! There was so much to see, but we really needed to get moving and get up to Edinburgh. It was going to be about a 4 or 5 hour drive, or so we thought...

Traveling in the evening

2005-08-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Looking for places to stay was not always a game. It was serious work.

Finally at the Gathering

2005-08-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Lancaster on Tuesday afternoon. The group from Woodbrooke traveled on the train together and then waited at the Lancaster Meeting House for the next bus to the University. Right as the bus was pulling away I saw Delonna and Joyce come out of the train station. I was glad to see that they'd come out unscathed from their travels without Aimee or I.

The first two days of the gathering have been full of meaningful conversations and fun activities. Already I've talked about such various topics as alter calls, Quaker worship and culture in other countries, spiritual journies, pastors, the nominating process, absence of young adults in meetings for worship, and much more.

I was also able to help organize the worship session last night. We had about 9 Yearly Meetings that each did two minute presentations, NWYM and North Carolina YM led singing, Colin Saxton and Ute (from Germany) spoke, and we had some silence. The one and a half hour meeting somehow turned into two hours, but nobody seemed to mind too much. NWYM sang a blessing at the end in English and Spanish. (The blessing that the youth sang during youth night at yearly meeting.)

Last nigh after worship we had a Bible trivia game. It was very fun. After answering the first question correctly my team chanted, "We know the Bible, yes we do. We know the Bible, how 'bout you?" Aiden (from Ireland) told us that if we knew the Bible we should know it says not to trash talk the other team. I think he was just jealous. Most of the Spanish speakers were on the other team. One recited the books of the Old Testament in Spanish flawlessly, and we gave her a round of applause. This was a fun way to get to know people.

Today, after morning worship, my base group had a very powerful time of sharing and we were able to pray for one of the members who is going through a difficult time. Afterwards one of the girls asked me if we could talk sometime about how I view Jesus. Although she is a Quaker, she hasn't really looked at Jesus before, but she says that she sees something in those of us who profess Jesus that she would like to explore more. You can be praying for this conversation and others that I have with people about who Jesus is to me.

This afternoon a group of 20 or so played soccer. The representative from Jamaica is very good and unfortunately he was not on my team. We lost by two and both goals were scored by Joyce White. (It is a good thing for her that we were not calling off sides, otherwise I'm not sure that the goals would have counted.) Tomorrow, Benny from Cuba wants to get a group together to play basketball after our trips to various Quaker historical sites.

Hand sanitizer

2005-08-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

You can live without it.

aimee says - continuing the story

2005-08-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning we decided to split up a bit. Joyce and I went to see the Tower of London and the crown jewels, Delonna went to the British Museum, and I think Chrissy went to the Tower Bridge. We were all going to meet back at the Museum at 11:45, then head back to our rooms, grab our stuff, and head out of town.

Joyce and I took a bit more time at the Tower though wandering through the grounds, looking at all the crown jewels, etc. It felt like we really didn't spend that much time there at all and I think we'd both like to go back and see it in more detail. We ended up leaving there around 12ish and jumping back on the tube. We made it to Totenham road station around 12:15 and decided to call Delonna. We thought it would be better if we continued on to our hostel instead of meeting up. We called Delonna and Chrissy still hadn't showed up! So Joyce and I continued on to our hostel at Sheperd's Park station and when we arrived there, called again. Still no Chrissy! So Joyce and I did email for awhile, then called - still no Chrissy! It had occured to us that she didn't have Delonna's cell phone and I wasn't sure if she remembered what tube stop to get off on, and I don't know if she had a watch to check the time - I worry a lot when traveling, we've all realized. =)

Anyway, at some point Chrissy finally caught up with Delonna and they made their way back to us. We grabbed our bags and jumped back on the tube and rode it out of town. We were on our way to pick up our car for the journey north. We got off the tube at a station in the middle of nowhere it seemed. Someone pointed us down the road to the car place 'about ten or fifteen minutes walk.' After an eternity we made it to the car shop only to find out we needed our confirmation email which we hadn't brought. Was there an internet place nearby? 'about ten or fifteen minutes walk' back the way we came! We found out everything was ten or fifteen minutes walk from wherever we were. It took FOREVER to get the car! While Delonna and Chrissy were getting the details down the road, Joyce and I went to a little shop for lunch. We had pies with peas and chips. Sounds odd I suppose. =) I think joyce's was a kidney pie, can't remember mine; chips are of course fries; and the peas were excellent!

We finally got the car and began a short lesson on how to drive on the left side of the road. Delonna did quite well, but perhaps I'll stop here and let her tell. =)

aimee again!

2005-08-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's almost 10 pm here in England and the office is quite. There are three people here working on various things and most have gone to Pendle Bar to play Bible trivia. I must catch up soon - and go to bed! But one more post today to catch up.

I can't even remember what day it was now, but one day we had some time and went off to the British Library. It was quite large and I'm afraid I don't have the details in front of me. But apparently it has the deepest basement in England, with book stacks stretching something like 6 stories tall in the middle of the building. it's a research library so you don't actually get to go into the stacks, but ask for what you want.

I never even got there because we had a very short time there and I really wanted to check out the Hans Christian Anderson exhibit they had there. They tons of stuff about him, original drawings and books, quotes, autobiographics, etc. I'll leave you to read some of his stories or an autobiography instead of repeating it all! But I did find one quote he wrote in May of 1831 after traveling to England when he began to be more famous, which I shall share here:

'Oh, to travel, to travel! If only one could spend one's life fluttering about! I feel as if the world is my home and I shall, I must, frolic about in that home!'

aimee says - finally!!!

2005-08-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the delay!! I 've been going 24/7 it seems since I left the girls last friday. I'm not going to make a big attemp to capitalize or correct things as these english keyboards have keys in all the wrong places. There are a ton of things I'd like to talk about - some of which have been mentioned ever so briefly in past posts. but it's 6:00 and I'm skipping most of dinner while the office is clear so i don't feel so bad about using this computer. =)

So, first to St. Paul's Cathedral, which I think we visited last Tuesday! Hate to rehash old history, but I did take copious notes and don't want to waste them!

We got off the tube and walked down toward the cathedral. It is enormous! I wanted to take a picture of the front so I went down about half a block. Then I just had to keep backing up and backing up through the square and across the street. Finally I just took three pictures, top to bottom, and will have to paste the pictures together when I get them developed.

It was obviously very beautiful inside and humongous. There is carved wood, carved marble, statues, other carved items, wrought iron railings and decorations, paintings, sculptures, mosaics, and beautiful chandeliers.

We first wandered around on the ground floor. I found a US memorial for 28,000 soldiers killed in WW2. There were a lot of war memorials which seemed odd to me.

Anyway, we were quite interested to climb to the galleries. It's 590 or so steps to the top. We started climbing up a wide spiral staircase made of shallow, wide wooden steps, with windows looking up. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed! I kept expecting a landing to be there, surely, any minute, but we just kept going round and 'round. We finally reached a landing then went down a dark, narrow hallway, up a short flight of stairs, half a spiral staircase, more straight stairs, then emerged into the Whispering Gallery. This is basically a hallway-width pathway along the inside of the large dome. There is a railing and you can look down into the cathedral, probably 2 or 3 stories below. There is a bench running all along the Gallery. From the bench I could see statues in niches of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Gregory, and below these are mosaics of Daniel, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Up above in the dome are painted images from Paul's life. It is called the whispering gallery because you can whisper and people on the other side of the room can hear everything you say. The other side is about 30 feet away - it is quite amazing!

After whispering at each other and eavesdropping on other conversations, we circled round and exited to climb to the next Gallery. This time it was a tight stone spiral stair case up and up and up and up and up. The stone gallery is outside around the main dome. and there is a fantastic view of the whole city. We spent a while taking photos and catching our breath before climbing to the Gold Gallery (I think!).

The way up was many, many, many wrought iron spiral staircases up through a vast hollow of the dome. So as you're climbing up you can look way, way, way down, through the stairs. It was a bit scary! After 156 or so steps on these spiral stair cases we reached the top and passed through a tiny little hallway that was so narrow, my arms at my sides touched both sides of the wall, and I had to duck so I wouldn't hit my head! We came out onto a breathtaking view of the city, the Thames, the Eye of London, other churches, parks, etc, etc. It was a tiny little walkway wide enough for one person or two at best and I think there were 20 or 30 people crammed up there at the very top of the Cathedral.

Well, it took us forever to climb up, so then we had to climb down. We went down 2 iron spiral cases counter clockwise, then down two more clockwise, then a few sets of stone steps, then more iron ones, then another stone set, another spiral set, a few steps, a narrow hall, 2 more stone spiral staircases, a landing, another spiral staircase, a landing, another spiral, another landing, a creaky wood staircase, down a hallway, to the right, through another hall, down some steps, through a hall, to the wide wooden steps, winding clockwise, down, down, down, down. I see light ahead! The end! Nope. it's just a window shining light. down, down, down. Ah! Here we are. nope, just another window. down, down, down, down. now?? nope. down, down, down. I gave up that we would ever reach the end.

Then - the end! We finally came down. Wow, my legs were feeling weird. They were all shaky and weird. We sat down and listened into a service that was going on and then eventually went to have lunch in the crypt.

Just so you know, I did not make up all the stairs and hallways, I took notes as I went. =) Well, I'm off to dinner and to collect my laundry I hope. I have much more to say and hope to overwhelm you all soon. The other girls will be quite jealous that I've made it to a computer! =)

Pregathering at Woodbrooke in Birmingham

2005-08-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I left Joyce and Delonna in Edinburgh and caught a 6:32 train to Birmingham (home of the Cadbury chocolate factory). At 11:20 I arrived and began to find my way to the Woodbrooke Quaker Center with nothing more than an adress in hand (1042 Bristol Rd). Luckily I was able to find Bristol stop on a bus map and found I needed to take bus number 61, 62, or 63. Unluckily the stop was for Bristol St. not Bristol Rd. Luckily I discovered by studying the bus maps that Bristol St. turned into Bristol Rd. so I started walking. Unluckily it started to rain and after 10 minutes I was still in the one hundreds. Luckily I boarded a bus for the rest of the trip. Unluckily I got off one stop too soon and so was drenched when I arrived. Luckily there were people waiting to register me when I arrived. Unluckily I was not on one of their lists as people coming to the pregathering. Luckily it was the other lady who assigned rooms and I was on her list.

Being here the last couple of days has been great fun. There are 2 friends from Nepal, 1 from India, 2 from Cuba, 4 from the Northwest, 1 from Ireland, 1 from Korea, 1 from Canada, 3 from Kenya (although they only arrived last night) and several from the East Coast. Yesterday we worshipped and ate with local Friends in Warwick and then went to Fenny Drayton, where George Fox was born and raised. There are also some older Friends here at Woodbrooke working on various writing projects and using the library here for research. It has been very interesting talking to them about their research on various Quaker/religious topics.

Today I'm hoping to do some laundrey and make a trip to the chocolate factory. Tomorrow I catch a train for Lancaster an the main conference begins. There are many who planned to attend (especially from Kenya) who have not been given visas. We will miss them, but maybe their absence will be another reason to travel after the gathering.

Thursday - I got to plan it!

2005-08-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

6:30am Wake up in York, England
7:10am Brisk walk to Minster (large church)
Breakfast - thanks Delonna!!!
Visit the large of building
Play spy games through the museum
Spend eight hours driving to Edinburgh (instead of the estimated four), and have a lovely time doing it!
More to come on the drive.

blog (the other)

2005-08-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

so, I haven't posted here since arriving.. but I have posted elsewhere! In an attempt to not be a complete traitor to either blog, I'm posting links on both. So, visit my other one for more travel info and this one for group info. I may get to post on both when I have time, but for now, this is going to have to do!

www.xanga.com/delonna

We have done nothing today but sleep, read, eat, shower and check email/internet correspondence. And that is exactly how I like it.
We are going to the Meeting house later today to see a show. I went out last night and bought 1/2 price tickets to see an Irish string quartet/comedy troup. Aimee left us yesterday for Lancaster, and Joyce took Chrissy to the train early this AM. She and are in the process of determining what we really have time and inclination to do for the next few days. She would like to go horseback riding, and I want to visit Livingston (not far from here).

Wednesday - bloody day

2005-08-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

Good thing I carry band-aids in my travel pouch.

Good thing I don't live in the 1600s when heads were being hacked off at the Tower.

Good thing thoughts don't kill.

Tuesday

2005-08-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

"Early" does not exist.

Would you believe I climbed 200,000 steps up St. Paul's Cathedral?

Would you believe I lost my waterbottle in St. Paul's gift store?

Monday

2005-08-10T05:08:00.000-07:00

I got to fly over Ireland this morning!

A busy day of sight seeing (Chrissy's perspective)

2005-08-10T01:31:00.001-07:00

Well today I have a whole 12 minutes to write and a computer that actually functions well; that means that this may be a long post. I probably won't get as many responses as Aimee, though, because I don't know if my mom will respond three times to this post. :)

So yesterday we started out at St. Paul's cathedral. We got there about 11:00 A.M. because we had to stop and get our heritage passes and use the internet at the tourist info office. This very large cathedral has actually been built three different times. The first two buildings were destroyed by fire. It has many memorials to war heros. (Does that seem a little odd in a church?) One of my favorite memorials was to a naval officer. It said something about him being appointed by providence to maintain the royal navy as the most powerful in the world. Then to the left of the memorial was a plaque with a quote from Luke saying: Do harm to no man. A bit ironic don't you think?

Next I went to the crypt. They have all these signs about the displays having alarms and at one time Joyce beeped me on the walkie talkies and I thought I'd set off an alarm until I rembered the walkie talkie in my bag.

Delonna and I climbed up to the inside of the dome. There if you whisper next to the wall people on the far side of the dome can hear you. We got to listen in on an interesting conversation between a father and son. Climbing the rest of the way to the top we met a lady named Charlotte from Vancouver, Canada, and discussed knee ijuries and climbing the Statue of Liberty with her. At the very top we got some great pictures of the city and talked to a couple from Conneticut. The climb was deffinitely a great workout.

We had lunch for the second time in a crypt. ( I wonder if this will become a pattern?) They had some humongous pieces of pizza and Joyce bought some delicious cheese cake. After buying some stuff at the gift shop, we headed off to the globe theatre.

Joyce and I got standing tickets and were very close to the stage. The play was The Tempest. It was amazing because even though there are about 12-15 parts in the play, the whole thing was done by only three actors. They were all guys, so the women's parts looked a bit odd.

Well, I'm almost out of time, so here is the short version of the rest of the day:
Joyce went to get her water bottle which she'd left in the Crypt of St. Paul's. Aimee and Delonna went to see a replica of some ship. I went to get Joyce and we all met at Westminster Abbey for evensong. Then we went on the eye and ate dinner.

Finally in London (from Chrissy's perspective)

2005-08-09T02:12:00.000-07:00

So here we are in London. Yesterday Joyce and I met a girl from Alaska on our flight over (Her name was Kerrico). We helped eachother figure out how to get to Victoria station where Aimee was waiting for us. Then we went to find the St. Christopher's hostel at Shephard's Bush. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring the directions, so we didn't find it until after going the wrong way, asking several people for directions, and then finally stopping at an internet cafe to get the directions on line. Then we went to lunch in the crypt of St. Martin's-in-the-field. They had a very nice cafeteria. Aimee and Joyce had cheese sandwiches, while I splurged on quiche, salad, figs, olives, and bread with a sweet onion spread. We had enough time to get tickets for Les Miserable before going to get Delonna.

Then it was off to find Delonna. Seeing as she was at the Victorian charter bus station and we were at the Victorian train/city bus station, it took us a while to connect. We then lugged her luggage(including the extra bag she'd picked up in Germany) to a Burger King so that she could eat and we could have ice cream. Then Aimee and I went to pick up her luggage and Delonna and Joyce went back to the hostel.

Finally we got dressed and headed to the theater. Well I'm out of time, I'll post again tomorrow.

Confirming plans

2005-08-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

Just to be safe, I wanted to be sure I had the game-plan down:
I arrive at 1:50pm. I"ll hop the tube and get to the YH. I"ll check for reservations under our names, but if there isn't one, I'll make my own. Then, I'll head to Big Ben.
I'll be expecting a phone call at about 2:30... right??
If things go off, I'll drop by Big Ben every 1/2 hour until about 6:00 when I will probably just return to the hostel.

I have enjoyed Germany immensly. France also. I bought Mike a gift in France I know he will love and I hope he'll like what I got him here in Germany. I bought a cute outfit... that I would not have normally picked out for myself. Its white. I'm a bit of a clutz.

I am not looking forward to tomorrow. I think I'm tired of planes. I will feel much better when the four of us are together. I hope we will take time for silence... I crave it right now.
Delonna

Aimee says: change of plan(e)s

2005-08-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I'm writing from the youth hostel in Holland Park in London. I've got 17 minutes left on my time, so hopefully I can get everything out (despite the slow connection, missing keys on the keyboard, and keys in different spots.)

So, I should have written sooner about Friday because it was crazy with so much stuff to do (and not being able to find my passport) - but things just got more fun after that, so on with Saturday!

My pals Jessica and Jill stayed the night and they helped me make sure I'd packed everything I needed. (thanks!) My ride was on time and I got to the airport with 2 hours to spare and sped through security, as usual. Our plane was a bit late since they were still loading the luggage (and two poor dogs in kennels!) So when I arrived in Chicago I had a much shorter layover: I got off the first plane, walked a few gates down, got on the second plane.

Then we sat. And sat. And sat. And the 3-year-old behind me kicked the seat and whined and cried. Then finally the captain said that there was a leak in the engine and they'd let us know the status soon. Kick, whine, kick. The captain then announced that there was a fuel leak in the engine and they were working to fix it. It would take an hour and they wanted us to stay on board. To make things 'easier' they served water and started the movies. At this point it was midnight in London and I was ready to start forcing myself into my new schedule. But it was also 7pm and I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast! After half an hour the captain informed us that we were getting off the plane and getting on a new one. So we all got off, waited in another gate room for another half hour, got on the plane and waited some more. I think we left around 9:00 - a bit after our original 6:28 time!

The little boy behind me settled down so I did get some sleep. We arrived in London at 10:05. It took anotherhour just to get to the terminal; then another 45 minutes to get through passport inspection. I am so glad I only brought carry on!

After asking around I figured out how to get a train to Kensington High Street station which is only a couple minutes walk, through a beautiful park, to the youth hostel I'm booked at.

After stowing my stuff, I set out to explore, and take care of my 'to-do' list my pals gave me. =)
I first wanted to head for Portabello Road and check out the market and antiques. I got an excellent map - complete with green highlighter marking out every road I should take. And I got totally lost! Well, I was able to backtrack so I knew where I was, but the map wasn't making sense and nothing was right. It doesn't help that they don't label any roads here!!

Totally depressed at my inability to find anything, I came back to the park for lunch. That's when I realized my mistake and the wrong road I'd taken. I went the right way and found Portabello Road. I meandered through the shops selling clothes, shoes, scarves from India, antiques, etc, etc. (I found something for my mom! Several of them in fact. =)

Anyway, I came out onto Notting Hill gate and decided to go do my errands. Now, I've been on trains here in England before and they've never made any sense at all! This was one thing I was worried a lot about. How would I ever find my way around!?

It only took a short time to get it. From Notting Hill I went to Tottenham Court Road, then switched to theNorthern line down to Leicester Square. (That was to get tickets for the theatre but they were closed!) So back down to the tube and on to Piccadilly Circus. That was to go to the visitor center and get bus/tube passes. (They were closed too!) The day was still young(ish) so I decided to go down and see London Bridge. I took the tube to Green Park, transferred to the Jubilee Line and went to London Bridge station. I was following the signs to the bridge, but got distracted by this beautiful church.

It turned out to be Southwark Cathedral, the oldest gothic church in London. It was rebuilt in 1212 after a fire and has been a place of worship for 1,400 years. They believe it was founded as a Saxon convent in 606. It was really beautiful. I kept following the path I was on, a really old awful cobblestone. You need good hiking boots for this stuff! Around the corner I came upon a full life-size reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's 16th century galleon - just floating there in the water. Down the road was Winchester Palace (what's left of it) , from the 14th century. The most beautiful part was the carved stone rose window. I also passed by its prison, the 'Clink.' I walked along the Thames looking at all the bridges, one every few yards it seemed. I never actually saw the London Bridge - at least I don't think I did.

After this full day of walking I decided it was time to head home. Back on the London Bridge tube to Westminster. I wanted to catch the Circle Line to Kensington High Street, but it didn't seem to be running so I had to go to Earl's Court on the District Line instead, and transfer over.

Sorry to bore everyone with this. I'm just so glad I figured out the tube! Now when the girls come tomorrow we'll have that on our side (unless I'm the only one who didn't have it figured out...) Wish us luck connecting at Victoria Station - I don't know what they were thinking. =)

It's 9:00 and I think I might go to bed now. More later!

Tickets from Lancaster to London

2005-08-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, Joyce and I decided to go online to see if buying train tickets ahead of time from Lancaster to London was cheaper than the World Gathering folks' 60 pound estimate. We found out that 14 day advance tickets are only 15 pounds. However, if you don't book them for the right date they can end up being double that. I accidentally booked ours for the 24th instead of the 25th of August. I called to try to get them changed, but they weren't willing to make them earlier, only later. This was not helpful. (Also, 14 day advance tickets are not refunded.) This meant that I had to go and buy a whole new set of tickets so that Joyce and I are both paying about 30 pounds each (which is still better than the original 60). So, now we have two extra tickets for the 25th. If they are transferrable, we'll hopefully find someone at the gathering who can use them. If not, well at least I learned the lesson of looking at the date before I click on "buy tickets now" buttons.

Staying in York

2005-08-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

So I got a response from the hostel in York and they have a "family" room available to stay in. It looked like a great deal, so I already booked the room via long distance call. The total per person is only 16 pounds, and we get our own room. The only other option was mixed dormitory beds and that would have been about 15 pounds per person. I say we got quite a deal. Hope you guys agree since I already put it all on my credit card. We'll probably need to call once we leave London and let them know what time to expect us. The phone number is 0 1904 627720.

Tuesday and Wednesday Itineraries

2005-08-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

We can't start using the heritage pass until Tuesday because we want it to last until Friday so that we can get into Edinburough Castle. So here are the things we'd like to see Tuesday and Wednesday and the times they'll be open.

Probably Tuesday
8:30-16:00 St. Paul's Cathedral (H. Pass)
9:30-12:30 Shakespeare Globe Tour (H. Pass)
9:30-18:00 British Library
10:00-17:30 British Musuem
9:30-15:45 Westminster Abbey (7.50 pounds) -- Evensong at 17:00 (free)
14:00/16:00 The Tempest at the Globe (5 pounds)
9:30-21:00 London Eye (11.50 pounds)

Probably Wednesday
9:00-18:00 Tower of London (6.75 pounds w/H. Pass)
10:00-18:30 Tower Bridge Experience (H. Pass)
The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace (H. Pass)
11:00/11:30 The Changing of the Guard
9:45-16:00 Windsor Castle (H. Pass) -- drive out to it on our way to York?
14:00-16:00 Leave for York

Hostels

2005-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

So it appears that we have to find a place to stay in London and in York because our contacts have not panned out. Due to an unhappy stay in a hostel with my brother five years ago, I must admit that I'm not excited about another one. However, hostels do seem to be the cheapest way to go. St. Christopher's Inns in London seem to have the best prices and availability. They are also conveniently located. However, I'd much rather stay in the Cherry Court Hotel near Victoria Station. The difference in price? about 2-10 pounds, depending on what type of hostel room you stay in. I've also found a promising hostel in York called the York Backpackers Hostel. I've sent an inquiry to see if they have beds available on the 9th. At least we have people to stay with in Edinburgh.

Moin moin!

2005-08-05T00:14:00.000-07:00

That is the common, local dilect greeting in Hamburg. Aparently, it doesn't work here outside Frankfurt.
I grabbed my "Literary Walking Tours" book as I read the last post. Nothing for Sherlock Holmes. It does have: The Brontes Moors, DH Lawrence's Midlands, Lewis Carroll's Oxford, Thomas Hardy's Dorest, and Jane Austen's Bath.

Hamburg was amazing. A beautiful, flat city. I made getting around easy.. except for the part where I got lost on the #5 bus.
Aug 3:
I woke up in Chris' apartment as soon as he turned the key in the lock as he left. I dwadled around, getting slowly ready. I had to keep telling myself I should hurry along and "You survived China fine not knowing the language, you'll do fine here..."
I did very well really. I got on the right bus, and got off at Rathouse (the legislative building).
I:
walked around the Rathouse square
went on a boat ride through the cannals
walked up to St. Michaels
Ate a dumma (domma?) along the way (A turkish gyro)
Took the elevator to the top of St. Michaels... walked down
Wandered the Crypt
Decided my feet hurt and needed remedy
Took bus 37 back downtown
Looked for a new pair of shoes
Decided I needed a nap and tried to get home4
Got lost somewhere on bus 5
Decided that since I was near a market, I may as well go shopping
Bought a few random things
Finally got home (with the help of 2 old women, a teenage boy and a woman about my age)
Chris arrived around 6:00 and we dressed for the soccer game. I even work a team shirt.
Train to the game with fans
Lots of Anarchists at the game
Stood in line to get my reserved ticket
Bought a scarf
Stood in the standing area and watched it all unfold:
The fans were a mix of businessmen, Anarchists (and all points in between) and a smattering of women
They sang loud songs about love and dedication to San Pauli (and ironically, "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Oscar and Hamerstien.
San Pauli scored the only point of the game
It was pouring.
Port area next. We saw where the Beatles got their start, which meant going through the Red Light District.
Home and in bed by 12:45am.
Up at 5:30.
Dressed, checked email, packed, 10 minutes of silent worship and off we went to send me down here to Frankfurt.

Long post... but there it is!

I am happy to report I slept almost 8 hours tonight! The past few nights I'd only been able to sleep 5. It didn't matter that I went to bed at 12:00 or later, I just woke up.

Chris and I had a fabulous moment of silence before we headed to the train to send me off (and he left for work).

Tentative Itinerary

2005-08-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

So we talked again on Sunday and tried to figure out last minute details before Dalonna left for Germany. The biggest issue seems to be how we're going to meet up on Monday. Dalonna will be posting her phone number so that we can call her, but it may be a bit more difficult for Joyce and I to meet up with Aimee. Here's our plan so far:

9:55 Joyce and Chrissy arrive at Gatwick airport

10:30 Joyce and Chrissy catch the shuttle to Victoria Station (12 pounds)

11:00 arrive at Victoria Station where Aimee will be waiting to meet us. Hopefully Aimee will have already done the following:

~gotten all of us 3 day bus/tube passes for Zone 1&2 (15 pounds)

~visited the Britain and London Visitors Centre at 1 Lower Regent St. just off Piccadilly Circus in order to picked up information on walking tours (especially if they have a Sherlock Holmes one) -- this is also where the bus/tube passes may be found, and the theatre guides

~go by Leicester square or Canary Wharf Docklands Light Railway Station (near platforms #4 and #5) to get tickets for the theatre Monday night (preferably 18:00 or later) Make sure to go to the freestanding kiosk with the "tkts" name as there are several dishonest outfits nearby that advertise "official half-price tickets."I would like to see Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, or Mama Mia if possible.

12:00 After dropping off our stuff wherever we may be staying and reimbursing Aimee for tube
pass and theatre tickets, we'll need to go and pick up our heritage passes.

13:00 Lunch and a free concert at St. Martin's-in-the fields.

14:00 Dalonna's plane arrives, we'll be walking from St. Martin's down towards Big Ben. We
will call Dalonna on the way and arrange a time to meet near Big Ben.

15:00 Meet Dalonna near Big Ben, perhaps go and see the Westminster Abbey or the Old
Opperating Theatre or the British Musuem or Library.

17:00 Return to our place of residence to get ready for the theater

18:00 Eat dinner

19:00 Go to the theatre

So there is the tentative schedule for Monday the 8th.

Packing

2005-08-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today I've been packing. I don't want to check any luggage and I'm trying to pack light so that I don't have to carry too much around England. I decided to take just my Trager back pack that I've had since my junior year of highschool. I was amazed by just how much I could fit in: 2 skirts, 3 pants, 2 pairs of shoes, 5 pairs of socks, 7 shirts, a Bible, sm. towel and washrag, rain jacket, plus a variety of other necessary items.

Unfortunately there are still a couple of things that I need to take. Maybe I can convince Joyce that she has room for them:) After all, she's the one who volunteered us to possibly take 50 world gathering t-shirts over. I don't mind taking them, but if I end up having to carry them around London, I won't be happy.

One thing that makes me verry happy is that my passport was waiting for me when I got home from Yearly Meeting early Saturday morning. I was so glad that it hadn't gotten lost or something. Of course, I went straight to the Library to make copies of it. It wasn't until later that night, after the library was closed, that I relized my passport was still in the copier. Luckily someone turned it in to the desk, and I was able to pick it up on Monday.

Bad Example

2005-08-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm a bad example because I said I'd post while I was on my trip and I didn't! So, after the fact - my trip went well. I made it to the train station in time, had an uneventful trip down, even got into Portland early! I got to catch up with my two sisters and brother and mom over some lovely soup - even though it was stinkin' hot in Portland! Every fan in the house was on. I missed my nice cool Seattle.
I was very happy that my mom had finally finished my college graduation present - a quilt. And my sister, visiting from North Carolina, had brought the set of ceramic salad bowls she'd made for me for Christmas. They are great!
Saturday my Grandpa and my aunt and family friend Joe came up and we had lunch and chatted. It was a regular family reunion! I had to leave at 5 but before I left we started up an old family favorite - Uno. I won the very first round! Then my next sister won, then the other sister, then my brother - in descending age order! It was very weird. My mom joined in and we assured her that after we all won, it would be her turn, since she had joined in late. But after each of us had won, I won the fifth round, and my next sister won the next! My mom was out of the loop. =)
The train trip home was uneventful again. We arrived about 15 minutes late and I was prepared for my ride to be waiting outside the station for me. I was glad I'd arranged for a ride since I was carrying this huge quilt and big heavy set of salad bowls. As I neared the station exit, something seemed wrong. I had heard sirens going which seemed strange. The first thing I noticed when I exited was that there were hardly any taxis. Usually there are dozens of taxis lined up for train arrivals; this time there were only a couple. There were only a few cars too. Then the noise caught my attention and I looked up. The next block over there was a parade going through! The parking lot next to the station was the ending point for this parade and it was filled with floats and clowns, high school marching bands, vendors selling all sorts of things. I took one look at the troop of acrobats dressed in karate garb, jumping through the air to pop balloons with their feet - and I turned around and went straight back to the station. I used my only two quarters to call Greg, my ride. The cell phone was off. I knew he was out there somewhere in this late night parade (it was after 10:30pm!) and I might as well enjoy the parade. I went out to the sidelines and watched a huge dance troop and marching band go by, a bunch of people dressed like cowboys, lots of old fire engines, then lots of tow trucks, including the Lincoln "Toe" Truck, which is painted pink and has a set of five giant toes stuck to the top of it. That was actually the end of the parade. It took some time for all the clowns, horses, high school bands, groups of musicians in Korean garb, vendors and more to clear the streets - but eventually traffic started moving and my ride found me.
A perfectly wacky ending to a rather wacky weekend with my siblings.

Zo Ba!

2005-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

Zo Ba means: Let's Go in Chinese... or well. something close to that.
I leave tomorrow at 6:40 from Seatac. That means I need to be at the airport around 4:00.

Yearly Meeting was great. The best part was seeing everyone. It always feel so "campy." There was a long, arduous meeting about continuing on with the FWCC. I was frustrated. Some people I respect lied about it. LIED. L-I-E-D. Or at the least gave mis-leading information. Grrrr.

enough about it! Mike is helping me by doing my last minute laundry. I always say I'd be starved, naked and living in squalor with out that man. Girls... you ready for me?

Holding out...

2005-07-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, I happen to know Joyce, Chrissy, and Delonna are all traveling abroad this week, in the far-away land of Newberg, Oregon. What a perfect opportunity to update us on your travels while you're away! Come on guys - let's hear it!

I am taking yet another mini pre-trip trip this weekend. I've been talked into going home, down in Oregon, to see the family. As ever, I'm into tight turnarounds and traveling light. I'm only staying about 24 hours so won't need more than my backpack, which I'll take with me to work on Friday morning. Right after work (I get off at 1:00) I'll catch a bus into downtown, then go into the tunnels and catch another bus to the international district. From there it's only three blocks to the train station. Hopefully everything will be on time as I'll be stretching it to make the 1:45 train. I do like to cut things close. =)

Then it's a four or five hour ride down along the Puget Sound, across some rivers and into Portland. I will do my best to set an example and update you all while on my "trip."

2005-07-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have one week and 3 days until I leave. The next six days will be spent at Yearly Meeting. Then, I'll be home for Saturday, Sunday and I leave Monday night. I still don't know what I"m going to do about Germany. Should I go to Hamburg or Frankfurt? Can I do both from the 2nd to the 8th?? I've been learning German for the past 2 days. I'm not so sure how much I'll remember but between the next week (the drive to Oregon) and the plane ride, I should be able to carry on a basic conversation.
The car is rented and I've been looking at maps.

More later!
Delonna

17 days and counting...

2005-07-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

Ooh, I shouldn't have counted how many days! Less than three weeks! My to-dos are a little bit different.

I'm on the North American committee so my to-dos include a conference call every Wednesday afternoon, the moment I get home, for the next three weeks. I have been taking minutes and posting them online for a year or so, but yesterday I decided I wasn't doing that anymore! No one else has volunteered yet…and I'm okay with that. =) I'm the north american treasurer so my to-dos include going to the PO Box at least twice a week for the next three weeks to pick up checks that are straggling in. And then recording all the information in various places so we know who has donated how much and what participants are paid for. And sending off thank-you notes. And then doing bank deposits. And then there's the occasional transfer to the European bank account so they can cover the travel and university fees. And checking, re-checking, double-checking to make sure everything is accurate in the accounts - good thing I'm detail oriented. =)

Don't forget about my two part-time jobs! And I'm afraid I'm very occupied with other things that will happen after the Gathering. For one, I start grad school a month after my return from England. I'm thinking about purchasing the two required books so I can get a head start on reading. On the plane? Most definitely not!

And, I'm thinking about moving. This could happen as early as August 15th and as late as October 1st. It wouldn't be too difficult as I'd just be moving to the top floor of a three story house, from the basement. But I've been in my little basement (Hobbit Hole, Cave, etc) for over four years! I have a feeling the decision will be made before I go.

Trip-related goals are finding housing options for the four of us travelers; making sure I have everything I need to pack (possibly purchasing a rain jacket - I know, you'd think living in Seattle I'd have one of these!); getting some film for my camera…

I'm sure there are more things, but I just can't think of them now.

Gearing up to Go!

2005-07-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Since last week I've accomplished quite a bit on my "to do" list. I'm now on the third chapter of my Swahili book (only 15 more to go), I'm almost done with the history of Oregon Yearly Meeting that I've been reading (of course it only goes up to the 70's, right about the time I was born), I've got a lot of my school planning done, I'm signed up for the pre-gathering at Woodbrooke in Birmingham, and I've done some research into some of the sights I want to see while in England. So what are my top sights you might ask? One is the Old Operating Theater in London, a place rich in medicinal and operation procedure history. Another is Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. A visit to England would not be complete without seeing at least one of his plays, and there is the added bonust that it only costs five pounds to be in the area closest to the stage. I would also like to go to the free afternoon concert at St. Something's-in-the-fields (maybe it's St. Martin's). Then if there is time I guess I'd like to see all the other "must see" sights like St. Paul's Cathedral, the British Musuem, and Buckingham Palace.

So before I go, I'll leave you with my most recent bit of Swahili:
Joyce na Aimee na Delonna na mimi tutakwenda Uingereza kwa ndege.
Tutaopa London, York na Edinburgh. Kwa heri.

Translated (probably badly) into Espanol:
Josephina, Aimee, Delonna y yo estamos irando a England por avion.
Nosotros vamos a ver London, York y Edinburgh. Adios.

Translated to English:
Joyce, Aimee, Delonna and I are going to England by airplane.
We will see London, York and Edinburgh. Good bye.

Planning Guide

2005-07-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

I found this guide online for packing and planning. I thought it might be useful.

http://www.frommers.com/tips/packing_tips/travel_planner.pdf

To dos

2005-07-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

Here is my update as of today (Tue. the 19th)
Here is the link for the Heritage Pass: http://www.gbheritagepass.com/?module=welcome

Here is my to-do list:
Arrange for rental car (call/visit AAA) (Visited on the 18th, someone is working on it)
Get International Dr. Lic (at AAA)
Get European phone from Emily (Left message for her to call me back)
Order luggage (dropping off check today)
Finish WGYF paperwork (I can't seem to find it online.. Aimee??)
Notify my bank I'll be out of country (so they don't cancel my cards!) (I found out we need to do this 24 hours in advance, and yes, we all should do it so they don't cancel our cards!)
Buy British Heritiage Cards (Joyce will do)

Buy German Language CDs

Aside from that:
Finalize a friend's wedding design
Buy stuff for wedding
Pick up Hannah from the airport
Pick up Nichola at the airport
Shakespeare Presentation
Shop for her dress
Meet a friend for breakfast
See Charlie and the Chocolate Factory w/students
Reading group w/ students

I think it will be fine.

Tentative Itinerary

2005-07-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Here are the things I noted from our conference call this afternoon. Ladies, please let me know of corrections, additions, subtractions, divisions. Anything mathematical. =)

1st Day (Quaker for "Sunday")
London
-Aimee-the-Fender arrives
-Delonna-on-Cue arrives

2nd Day (Monday)
London
-Buy 3-day Bus pass ($26.34 each)
-Chrissy-of-the-Dungeons & Joyce arrive, take luggage to homestay
-nap
-London Eye
-Covent Garden
-Globe Theatre

*3rd Day (Tuesday)
London
-Buy Heritage pass(?)
-Lichester Square
-Buy Theatre tickets
-St Paul's Cathedral
-British Museum
-Tower of London
-Friends' History
-Theatre

*4th Day (Wednesday)
London
-Buckingham Palace
-Friends' History
-pick up car

Travel to York
(Stratford on Avon?)

*5th Day (Thursday)
York
Edinburgh

*6th Day (Friday)
Edinburgh

7th Day (Saturday)
Aimee goes to Lancaster through duration of pre-Conference trip
Chrissy goes to Burmingham through duration of pre-Conference trip
Joyce & Delonna go to Glascow

Second 1st Day (Sunday)
Glascow
Lake District

Second 2nd Day (Monday)
Lake District
Manchester

Second 3rd Day (Tuesday)
Manchester: turn in car, pick up Mike
Lancaster: World Gathering Conference

----------------------------
* Heritage Pass ($50)

here!

2005-07-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Computer is back and I'm back in business...
So, this is our new blog, huh? Pretty nifty.
I'm really just checking in... just to prove I'm here.

I did a little practice packing myself this week. I was in Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival (wonderful). The only downside is the weather isn't equal to England's. It was in the 90's. I loved it in the evenings... but I'd rather have the 80's...or 70's.

I saw Aimee today at NPYM. Nice group there.

I have my own blog.. you can check it out to: www.xanga.com/delonna
Fun stuff there... OK, well not so much recently, but go to the posts from China... those are fun.
More later... when I actually have something substantial to impose on you other than this rambling.

Getting ready

2005-07-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is Joyce checking in, one of two silent friends, or as I prefer to be known: unprogrammed. =) It is intriguing to me that spell-check does not recognize that word. Coincidence? I don't think so.

I've been doing many things to get ready for the trip, but now that I know Aimee is bringing her world-famous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, don't let the others fool you, I will be able to devote more time to preparing. My current preparatory activities include: packing, brushing up on my Spanish, "helping" Chrissy practice Swahili (sana means "very") and a few horseback riding lessons (one must be prepared to ride on the Scottish moors). I also hope to read George Fox's journal this next week, work on translations for the World Gathering and make time each day to be with God.

I have the pleasure of helping to coordinate youth activities during the annual gathering of Friends who belong to Northwest Yearly Meeting (NWYM) in Oregon, Idaho and Washington. This gathering takes place in one week (last week on July this year)and I'll be spending most of the next week getting ready for it. I feel very blessed to be a part of this gathering, and look forward to sharing the World Gathering with NWYM, and NWYM with the World Gathering.

Invisible members & pre-trip

2005-07-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday to one and all! We joked about it, but now I fear it's true. We have two invisible (perhaps make-believe?) members of this traveling group: Joyce and Delonna.
I guess Delonna has an excuse because her computer isn't working and she has no access. But Joyce! Where are you Joyce? Don't tell me we've already lost a member of our expedition!

I am going on a mini pre-trip this weekend. Since I cannot go to my own yearly meeting (not enough vacation time) I'll be going to North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Well, I have more reasons than just that. For one I've been asked to share in session about what is happening with World Gathering.
After I get home this afternoon I'll be packing furiously and then heading out to catch a series of buses down to Tacoma. I've decided this will be a practice run on not packing very much...since I hope to not pack too much for the England trip. The real reason is that I'm only taking a backpack and I have to fit in 25 WGYF prep books, 7 WGYF t-shirts, 9 WGYF DVDs, and a container with a couple dozen mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. That only leaves room for a shirt and hopefully my pjs! I'll report back on whether or not I make it.

I imagine the rest of the group (invisible or not) agrees that on a trip such as we're taking, no one cares too much if you wear the same clothes a lot. Although Delonna did suggest we try swapping clothes with one another in case we get bored with what we brought - so there's always that option. =)

Procrastinating

2005-07-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

As Aimee has said there are but four weeks left before we leave for England. I guess it's finally time to start doing all of those things I meant to do a year ago in order to prepare. So here's my list to accomplish before getting on the plane: Learn Swahili, review my Spanish, read about 10 books on Quaker History including George Fox's Journal and Barclay's Apology, save some money, put together a Northwest Yearly Meeting scrapbook to show to people at the gathering, decide what to bring and how to pack it, apply for the pregathering session at Woodbrook (at least that's where I think it is), and finally figure out with my other traveling buddies just where we'll be going and what we'll be doing that week befor the conference. Also, there is the little worry of my passport arriving in time. I sen it off the first week of June and haven't got it back yet, but there's still plenty of time before the plane leaves.
Chrissy

Pronunciation

2005-07-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sure we'll be learning how to pronounce a lot of things the 'correct' way. One we know about now is Edinburgh.

This is not pronounced Ed - in - burrow

It is pronounced Ed - in - burr - uh

Say it together with me, Edinburgh!

Does anyone know how to say Glasgow??

Horseback riding on the moors of Scotland

2005-07-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

Chrissy, Joyce, Delonna and I had a conference call the other day to begin planning what we'll be doing on this trip. We listed out all the places we want to go, things we want to do:

In and around London we want to:
go to a theatre show
go to someplace called Stratford on Avon
go to some cathedral, we can't recall the name
go to the London eye
Buckingham palace
some art museum, like, the British Museum
Covent garden
a Friends Meeting House
The Tower

We also want to go to Scotland and ride horses on the moors, and go to the Glasgow arts festival.

And I think we also want to hang out in Manchester and in the Lake District, Grasmere, Windemere, etc.

but we only have 7 days! (I actually have less I think, but the girls don't know this yet!)

So we're still planning...