MAY...a month of beginnings

This month has been full of firsts!

I started my new internship, which is going really well. I'm working with a classmate, Charles-Henri (who's a "Wallonian" -- a.k.a. from French speaking Belgium), to develop a proposal for a customer loyalty program for VTB-VAB, our sponsoring company. VTB-VAB is similar to the American "AAA"-- a roadside service agency. The research can be tedious at times, but the marketing aspect of it is really fascinating! My psychology degree is definitely useful in a subject like this! I'm getting to use a lot of my Dutch as well. Thankfully, Charles-Henri is fluent in multiple languages, so he makes up for what I don't understand. Overall, it's a good challenge.

Like I mentioned before, another first is that we are hosting our first LST team in Gent this summer! Check out Luk and Holly's blog for some pictures...
http://belgianbreeze.blogspot.com/2006/05/lets-start-talking-has-started.html

One of the most exciting "firsts", though, is that we have begun meeting as a church in Gent, now! Our first meeting was at Luk and Holly's new house, and the second one was held in the LST reading room. We are continuing to worship with the Antwerp congregation on Sunday mornings, and then we meet in Gent for an evening worship. It's really exciting to finally be worshiping together in Gent! Here's some pictures:
http://belgianbreeze.blogspot.com/2006/05/church-plant.html



Gideon is expressing my feelings exactly:

bunny...?

Here's a funny pic of some of my classmates...

Maud, the girl in the "bunny" suit, lost a bet to Emmanuel, the guy on her right. The bet wasn't even that big of a deal...it was a debate over what date our IMAX business game started. But it evolved into a big deal! Emmanuel went out and rented that suit for Maud to wear around school! She had to hop around and deliver Easter egg chocolates (a week after Easter!!)

You might notice that they're holding up Maud's ears...we think that Emmanuel got a bad deal. Her suit looks more like a dog than a bunny! (even the tail's a bit long instead of a fluffy puff...)

=)

Summer RAIN ...Well, it finally feels like summer is here! I got caught in a sudden thunderstorm last week. It was such an incredibly sunny, warm day that everyone was making plans to meet friends out on a terrace for a drink or to barbeque. But as I was leaving school and walking towards the train station, I could tell it was going to storm. I could smell it in the air and feel the wind picking up around me. In the distance, dark clouds were rolling in. If I had been in Alabama, I would have expected tornado weather!

Before I left Gent for the day, I wanted to see how our LST team was doing, so I was in a bit of a dilemma. Should I play it safe and head straight to the station? Or go see the LST girls and chance getting stuck there for a while because of the storm? Well, I decided to chance it and go see the girls.

I made it to their place just in time, but the door was locked! I found out later that they were down the street getting dinner. Anyway, 60 seconds after I left the clouds broke loose and in another 60 seconds I was drenched! The rain was being blown around in sheets and before I made it to the station, there was hail too! Believe it or not, in the midst of all this, I was smiling! Yes, I was drenched...yes, I had a hour ride before I would get home, but at least it was warm rain...and I really miss a good thunderstorm! So I enjoyed myself!! =) (But I did still run the rest of the way to the station and enjoyed the storm from a dryer spot!)


LST ...I guess I should explain what and who our LST team is! "Let's Start Talking" is a worldwide mission program that builds relationships through teaching English. The reading material for the lessons comes from the book of Luke, which is the basis for great conversation and questions. Then, if one of the readers is interested, they are invited to church and to study the Bible further. This summer, we have our first LST team in Gent! It's actually made up of two teams--the first one is two girls, Jessica and Kristy, who are staying for three weeks, and then a second group of two girls and one guy will arrive and stay six more weeks. We're really excited that they're here to help us this summer! The first week has gone great, and we're hoping to have one of the students at church this coming Sunday. Please keep this ministry in your prayers, and pray that we will be able to follow up well will all the contacts that are made!

I HAVE A BROTHER!!

I was starting to wonder if my brother and his wife were merely figments of my imagination... But just this morning my worries evaporated when I opened my e-mail and THERE it was! A letter from Matt!!! =)
In fact, he's probably been wondering himself what happened to his life since it's been kinda non-existent...turns out he's been spending all his waking hours in the lab at school working on his project to end all projects.

You'll have to ask him the details, but from what I understand, it's a pretty fancy robot complete with a webcam and sound system!

Toni's also been swamped with work, spending all her free time applying to med schools. Matt and Toni are both graduating this month from Harding University (my alma mater! ; )

~

Infamous Harding Swing

Three swings and a ...

~

Congrats you two!!

Subway never tasted so good!

The greatest thing happened to me today! Okay, well, TWO things! First, our stock trippled this morning--from 150-ish to 500!! (no...not real stock...just the stock of our simulated company. We're in the middle of a intensive, week-long competition at school.) So needless to say, my group is excited and motivated to see how much more we can grow before this afternoon. (I might as well note, though, that we'd have to reach 2000 before we'd even be able to touch the current leading group! haha)

So the second greatest thing that happened today was that I discovered the new Subway in Gent!! Yep, Belgium's first! The ONLY other fast food restaurants are McD's and the Quick (a belgian burger place)...and there's Pizza Hut if you count that as fastfood. Otherwise, you can go get fries at a local mam and pap's joint. But other than that, the pickin's are thin. I never realized how much I'd miss the choices in America...

The moral of this story is to APPRECIATE what you've got! =)

Spring is in the air!

SPRING!


Wow! The weather has been great the past week! And we thought spring would never come! I love it this time a year when the rain slacks of and the sun comes out! The whole city comes alive... everyone's sitting outside of the cafes drinking their coffees...students biking around town in shorts and skirts...birds singing...flowers blooming! At lunch we all sit outside in the courtyard to eat and soak up the sun. I feel so envigorated and full of energy! Thank you God for spring!


I especially love the flowers in Europe... They go crazy with flowers! The city has special gardeners who change the arangements in the "round abouts" every few weeks... and, like in the first photo above, they have flower baskets hanging everywhere! The flower shops are hard to resist too... this time a year, i'm iching to buy a bunch of plants to start a pot garden! I didn't do so well with my plants last year... haha! I have wide window sills, so I put my pots outside my windows. Well, the windows are kinda hard to open, so my plants didn't really get watered as much as they'd like, i'm sure. Plus, a few times we had some really strong wind, and my pots got blown out of the window and crashed in the courtyard below! oops! I guess plants don't have nine lives. I should stick to cats! =)
I guess we're appreciating the beautiful weather even more because of the harsh winter we had. Normally, it starts warming up by march, but we're a month overdue! We were still getting snow when it was supposed to be getting warm!



By the way, if you ever get a chance to come to Europe in the spring, you HAVE to make a visit to the Keukenhof. (see photos above and below) Its a huge garden in holland that borders tulip fields. There are thousands of tulip varieties in the gardens, and special flower expositions in inside. I saw one kind of tulip that was probably as wide as a CD and twice as tall (just the flower part!)

Whew!

Yea! I'm DONE with exams FOREVER! (at least, for now!) I feel so good. I'm not even sure how well I did (hopefully good enough to pass...!) But it doesn't matter, because I made it through the week--6 exams and a presentation--and I'm still alive!
Sleeping in has never felt better! Or starting a new book and not feeling guilty about it! lol. If you can't tell, I'm really enjoying my Easter weekend! =)
Friday and Saturday, Dennis and I were busying helping out with the youth weekend in Antwerp. I normally spend time with the older teen girls, but they were not here this weekend. It was a good thing, too, because it forced me to practice my Dutch and get to know the younger girls. (The older kids are better with English.) I felt like I bonded with a few of the girls and guys, and they all seemed really responsive to the bible studies. So overall, it was a great weekend. Then Saturday night, Dennis and I drove up to spend some time with his parents--something I haven't had time to do in a long time! It's always nice to get to see them and relax at their place. I am truly bless to have TWO sets of christian parents who love me!