Tulips, windmills and stroopwafels!

A big HELLO from the country who's national color is orange! We left one week ago, yesterday, for our A-lag trip to Pagedal, the conference center in Holland. We boarded the 4 buses at 7:00 a.m., clutching our pillows, with our one allotted bag (NOT LARGE) and enough food and drink and good humor to get us through the day. What should have been a 7 hour trip to our overnight stop in Copenhagen, Denmark, turned into a 12 hour trip as it is required here that bus drivers stop every 2.5 hours and take a 45 minute break. Interesting, although by the time we were on our way home, we were almost begging our bus driver to stop and take a break as he kept riding the rumble strips and not keeping his eyes on the car in front of us in the traffic jam and then slamming on the brakes, nearly tossing us out of our seats! They had dinner and a feast prepared for us when we arrived in Copenhagen and we had a really nice evening there. The next evening we arrived at Pagedal where we were served dinner and had a relaxing evening. The following day, Saturday, we had the choice of going to Amsterdam or to a Dolphin Show and the city of Harderwijk. I was planning to go to Amsterdam but by a fluke ended up going to Harderwijk. We had a really nice day despite the light rain and enjoyed the quaint city!

A random windmill seen from the bus

Dorota and Agusia at the Dolphin place

Agusia, Doris, Dorota and I formed a little group and perused the city together

The Pancake Ship (or something like that!)

There was a cool open-air market in the middle of a square and they had tons of awesome cheeses and fresh fruits and veggies and odd-looking gypsy clothing. They even had a stand where they made fresh stroopwafels, which I just had to try! It was super good! The one thing I did NOT find there was a stroopwafel MAKER! The guy behind the counter (and every other store I looked in) told me quite decidedly that industrial size stroopwafel makers were the only size available to purchase and they were the size of a small horse. Um, no thanks. I'll keep looking! We decided to go into the cathedral and to our surprise found there was a new and used book sale going on in there! Too bad we couldn't read any of the books! Later in the day, one of the girls wanted to stop for coffee at McDonalds "because they have good coffee". Ok. News to me! When fries were ordered, we were asked if we wanted mayonaise with them...!! Huh??!! I'll stick to ketchup, thanks! That evening, we had an awesome meeting and a feast that was put on by the A-team at Pagedal. It was quite funny and good, ending in a soccer game which we won! The following day was an intense outdoor challenge which I did not get any pictures of. In the evening was another amazing meeting and feast put on my the A-team at Brunstad. The meeting was about only living before God's face and not worrying about what others think or don't think about me, the future, etc, but to fear God alone. Jan Hein Staal spoke about how he had observed someone filming the outdoor challenge earlier in the day and how it made him think about how it would be if someone were to film our life and our thoughts, and then play it back on a big screen in Heaven for everyone to see. Would we take things differently or more seriously than we do now? It was really good to think about - to always live in such a way that you would have no regrets if people could see into your thoughts and heart. It was quite late by the time the feast was over and we made our way back to pack up for leaving early in the morning again, getting only 2 hours of sleep!! This time the trip back was made in ONE VERY LONG DAY which included taking the ferry from Denmark to Norway from 10:00 - 2:30 a.m. It was a really rough ride and I just tried to hunker down and sleep, but wasn't altogether successful! Everyone pretty much staggered off the ferry and back onto the buses and we arrived back at Brunstad around 3:00 a.m. and tumbled straight into our beds. Everyone (almost) had the next day off and it was pretty quiet, even in the kitchen! Thanks for another fantastic trip with memories for a lifetime!!

Shannon, Jessica and I, waiting to board the ferry on the way home. We were tired as all get out!!

Today: It has been amazingly nice here this week with the snow melting more and more every day, even though they got another foot and a half here while we were gone! They have taken to plowing the snow into dump trucks and carting it off where mountains of snow don't matter! You can now see more than just a patch of grass and the trees are starting to bud here too! Since we put the clocks forward last weekend, it is now daylight until after 8:00 in the evening! I tell you when summer comes, it comes fast! Funny event of the day: We made chicken curry with cucumber tomatoe salad and naan bread for dinner tonight and the one Indian guy on A-lag has been after me to have curry so he was extra pleased when he saw what was for dinner. During dinner, I glanced over and saw him enjoying it and he gave me two thumbs up and then stood up and saluted me for like a minute while I was dying laughing and like, "ok, ok, I get the point. You're welcome and welcome to sit down now!" hehe. Too funny! We are having hamburgers for dinner tomorrow and I have this huge urge to grill outside! Maybe, just maybe, if the weather cooperates...!! Here's hoping!