Off to See Europe

Day 1 was our longest driving day of the entire trip.  We were on the road for over 8 hours of driving time.  Thankfully, my sister was awake enough to keep me entertained the entire time.  While there wasn't much excitement on the road, the hours leading up to leaving was FILLED with new experiences.

About ten minutes before we were going to get our car at the car rental shop, I heard a hissing noise under the sink.  As it turns out, that noise was due to a steadily leaking water pipe (it had been leaking for several hours during the night).  Needless to say, our trip did not begin on time.  After an hour of tinkering with it, calling everyone we could think of, and running around trying to find the House Manager we finally had a breakthrough...the water literally broke through the last of the pipe's defenses and proceeded to spill out all over my kitchen, dining room, and hallway.  Thankfully, our downstairs neighbor, Matt (who had been trying to help us), discovered how to turn off the water in the kitchen and the flood ceased.  During this time, Sara was busy coming when called and talking pictures of the aftermath.  Enjoy some of those photos and photos from our first day of traveling.

The Great Flood of April 16th

Water, Water Everywhere...it was even worse than this before

The water shut off valve (good to know where it is)

Not thrilled to be dealing with this before an 8 hour drive

The Problem!

Clean up, Clean up, Everybody do your share

Good friends are hard to come by
(especially when they have to give up a Saturday morning)

The Solution (Duck Tape fixes everything)

About half of the towels/sheets needed to clean up

Off to Germany

Go, Go Gadget (our car's new name)

Road Trip Lunch

We made it!

Say Hello to Ivan Jr. (our faithful GPS)

Hotel room in Germany

Our Room's Bible in German, English, and French

Trying to find Dinner

Next Day Adventures

On Friday I took Sara with me to school to meet my students and fellow co-workers.  She seemed to enjoy meeting my "special-odd class" (that's what my students call themselves).  After work we went back to the apartment to pack for our road trip through Europe.  (And yes I do mean road trip, we are renting a car to drive around.  When I say "we" I really mean me because Sara is helpless when it comes to driving a stick shift.)

When I was home in December Sara and I decided that the best time for her to come visit me would be over my Easter break because she has never been to Europe and this way I'd have time to show her around.  Therefore, we have both been saving and planning the cheapest way for her to experience as much of Europe as possible.  Our itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 (Saturday): Drive to Monheim, Germany
Day 2 (Sunday): Drive to Amsterdam, Netherlands
Day 3 (Monday): Explore Amsterdam
Day 4 (Tuesday): Drive to Haarlem, Netherlands (Corrie Ten Boon's Clockshop); Keukenhof, Netherlands (Tulip Farm); Belgium; Luxemburg; Luneville, France
Day 5 (Wednesday): Drive to Lucerne, Switzerland
Day 6 (Thursday): Drive to Verona, Italy; Venice, Italy
Day 7 (Friday): Explore Venice
Day 8 (Saturday): Drive to Salzburg, Austria
Day 9 (Sunday): Drive back to Vienna

It will definitely be a whirlwind adventure, but we'll try our best to keep you updated with each day's highlight.  Below I've included some of the highlights from Friday night's (day before road trip) excursions to a Schnitzel restaurant and Easter Market.

Schnitzel Dinner with Friends, Amanda & Carrie

Easter Market Eggs

Small Part of the Easter Market

My Sister has Arrived

Hooray!!!  Sara arrived on Thursday morning to what she considered to be freezing cold weather, seeing as she left 70-80 degree weather in sunny SoCal.  I spent the first part of the day attempting to keep her awake, not an easy task seeing as she had had about 4 hours of sleep in the previous 24 hours.  We spent several hours exploring the city in the rain, while Sara decided to try to catch up on several months of talking.  It was my favorite part of the day!!!  Ok, so actually my favorite part was when we were on the Strassenbahn (street car/trolley) and I realized Sara couldn't talk anymore because she was way to tired.  In fact while I was in the middle of pointing out the different buildings and places around the city I discovered she was practically falling asleep on me.  Therefore we needed up going back to my flat to let her sleep for what was suppose to be 2 hours.  It ended up being closer to 3 since the only way I could get her up was threatening to sit on her.  Sadly she was then back to her normal non-stop talkative self.  :-)  While I could continue describing our day in detail, I'll let the following pictures speak for themselves.  These pictures were taken around Vienna.

Latest Challenge-Romania Missions Trip

As many of you know, I went on a missions trip to Romania during the Summer of 2004.  After that trip I came back a changed person.  Part of my heart was left with the children who will spend the rest of their childhoods growing up without parents to love on them.

For the past five years, high school students at ICSV have been working in Romania with senior adults, single mothers, and children.  This year I am a part of the team that will serve, but I am not going with them to Romania.  I am serving as the administrative assistant for the adult in charge (our high school principal).  To date, we have approximately 22 students and 8 adults going on the trip.  They will leave on the Sunday of our Easter Break (April 17) and not return until the end of the week on Thursday.  Students are learning how to work together, raise financial and prayer support, and become leaders amongst their peers.  In order to finance the missions trip, those going to Romania need to raise approximately 9,000 Euro.  While this is a huge amount of money, I know that God will ultimately provide (He did for me!).

If you'd like to hear more about this, please let me know and I'd be happy to share more specific details.

Kids Will be Kids

Every year in the spring the gelato shops open back up for all to enjoy.  One of the shops near the school serves free ice cream (gelato) for a few hours on their first day open.  Check out the fun times that 4th and 5th grade had getting free gelato!

Our amazing German teacher who helped
each student order their gelato

Just for the Fun of It!

A few weeks ago some friends and I drove 7 hours (one way) to Venice, Italy in order to experience Carnival.  It was CRAZY!!!  First of all, who gets to say that they drove 14 hours in one day (I drove back) in order to visit another city (country) for a few hours.  Second, who gets to say that they have been to Carnival.  Not too many people I would assume.  With that said, it was a wonderful, crazy, exhausting, and crowded adventure.  Not one that I will probably do again any time soon, but well worth it for the memories (and not too expensive either since 9 of us went).  Enjoy some of the "interesting" pictures below.  Make sure to check out some of the Carnival outfits!

Proof I was there :)

I Haven't Forgotten the Prague Pictures :)

I know that I promised these a month ago, but life has been crazy busy.  The past few weeks I've been working on a really important curriculum project for my school and it took up a lot of time.  Thankfully it is now finished and I can focus on my next project..."Administrative Assistant for the Romania Missions Trip."  (more details to follow)  Enjoy some of my favorites!  For those of you on Facebook, I posted all my pictures a few weeks ago, so check it out.

Famous Prague Clock (a bit smaller than I originally thought)

Beautiful stain glass inside the Cathedral

My travelling buddy :) (my momma)

Cathedral inside the Palace

View of the city from the Palace

The Amazing Race Stairs!!!!

The Jesus Doll...People believe that this doll can heal you and they send
different dresses for the doll to wear (the doll has thousands of dresses).

John Lennon's Wall

Lover's Locks...put on a lock, throw the key in the river,
and you will come to Prague again with your love

Charles Bridge

My Dad's Favorite Birds!!! (just kidding)

This mole was EVERYWHERE!  Incredibly adorable...I now have
one hanging from my mirror :)

My Sister's New Favorite Store

How Quickly Does Time Fly

It's crazy to realize that I have been in Vienna for 7 1/2 months!  Looking back on the triumphs and challenges God put before me is not only amazing, but also overwhelming.

As I was searching the internet for some kind of cool picture to add to this post, I noticed that most of the images about a journey focused on the person...not on the publisher of our journey.  Take this one for instance:



Since I didn't agree with that saying, I decided to make my own.

Throughout this journey God has taught me many things, but one of the lessons that sticks out the most is trust...Trusting that He knows what He's doing and all I need to do is follow Him!