Overall, we had a nice, relaxing weekend. Thursday night we got back down to the city to have drinks with two American friends at an Irish pub. We really love hanging out with Sarah and Rob because they can relate to us 100%, and after my day it was so nice to be on the exact same page with some friends. They are really nice people.
Then Friday, Em and I went downtown to shop around and just soak up the lovely day. We went into a few shops, bought some postcards and tea, ate some delicious "tosti" sandwiches (we're getting really good at just going for new dishes on menus at these foreign restaurants!) and then made it home in time to Skype with some friends back at Butler.
Saturday morning we anxiously awoke still checking our online Dutch bank accounts for our payment from the university (which finally came this morning!! Praise Jesus.) and went along with our friends Clara, Abi, and Georgie to a really fun market, where I nearly had a panic attack from the claustrophobia causing amount people. I didn't realize how well I truly don't do in large crowds of people! While downtown, Clara and I got caught up in a sort of festival that was getting ready to start, where live music streamed from all the shops, beers were in high demand from little street carts, and the trams were having a interesting time weaving amongst the crowds. We found a band of about 8 guys, who couldn't have been older than 16, playing trombones, trumpets, saxophones, African drums, basses, guitars and keyboards. They had attracted an incredible crowd so we stopped for a bit, we were so glad we did, they were so much fun to watch! It was really cool for me personally to see these teenage guys so excited about their music. It reminded me of band in high school; I really loved the band-y atmosphere, and it was inspiring to see kids getting excited about making their own music. They were really cute too!
After our tour downtown, Emily, Abi, and I, along with our Finnish friend Jussi, made a delicious dinner of meat pasta and salad with fresh veggies from the market at Clara's place. About once a week I bring my laundry over to the green tower, because it's free for them. Here in our building we have two washers and dryers, but it's expensive and you have to have special coins to use the machines, that can only be purchased on the weekdays. For this reason, I make the trek across Uilenstede with my Ikea bag full of laundry on my little bike because it seems to make more sense.... :) An interesting things about these washers though, is that they heat the water themselves. At home, you know, we have water heaters, so when you start your laundry the water is instantly hot. Here, that not being the case, one round in the washer takes about 3 hours. Yikes. Anyways, long story short, after the 3 hour washing stint, the dryer ended up being broken. So, after thinking my clothes were dry after 2 hours in the dryer I opened the dryer to a sopping wet surprise. 1 load of piping hot, soaked, and all blue laundry. Let me now add that not everything had gone into this load being blue. I ended up borrowing a hanging rack and spreading the ruined laundry all over my quaint apartment, praying it would dry quickly.
Sunday morning, Emily and I headed off to Crossroads, our new church here in the Netherlands (I never know if I'm supposed to capitalize "the"?) and when getting off the tram at our stop, a lovely man handed me a list of bible verses. One of those sheets that says where to look in the Bible when you have specific prayer needs. He said he had overheard me telling Emily about my nightmare from the night before, and that God wanted me to have good dreams. It melted my heart. Then, at church, the sermon hit the nail smack dab on the head of the issues we have been stressing over lately. The new sermon series is The Sermon on the Mount from Matthew, one of my favorite passages, and each week we go over one of the Beatitudes and then are challenged with different "Experiments."
For instance, the first Beatitude is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And the pastor described how the poor in spirit are those who stand without pretense before God, their only hope. He explained that we enter this world dependently, when we are born as helpless infants, and we leave this world dependently as we are taken by death; but that we constantly try to overcome this dependency throughout life, trying to "do" life on our own, when in reality we simply cannot do it on our own. We must fully rely on God for all things in our life, and this is what it's like for those who are poor in spirit. The experiments for this week are things like fasting, grocery shopping for the food pantry, sleeping on the floor, and fasting from as much electricity as possible. These acts are all little luxuries that we truly don't realize how much we rely on, but that we don't really NEED to live. And there it was: I have been so focused on missing my comforter, and food, and my blow dryer, and while I have absolutely already realized how much I take for granted back home (it's sickening actually) it was like listening to this sermon was God saying, I've heard your prayers, I know what you're going through, and you're gonna be fine. During dinner Emily and I had a long conversation about how neat it was, and had a little heart to heart about finding soulmates and whatnot :)
When I went to bed last night, my laundry still damp and my mind racing with all the drama going on back home and trying to sort out my thoughts and feelings, I had a very hard time falling asleep. But when I woke up this morning, I went to the office to buy some laundry coins, rewashed my laundry (which is now *pretty much* back to normal!), replied to my grandmother's sweet e-mail, and now am talking to you, sippin' on some instant coffee, and just thankful to be clean and back in my comfy sweatshirt I thought was ruined forever. Life is good, thanks for reading.
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