Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
It's been a long time since the last time I wrote! I have so many different journals, real and electronic, that I find it difficult to keep up to date with all of them! If you haven't already, you could go check out my myspace, I check that one almost every day and keep it a little more up to date:) Christmas in Sweden was amazing! I got to be with family, which was a really nice change, to be with people I really know, well sort of. I have only really seen my cousins maybe four or five times my entire life, they live so far away, and I wouldn't say I really knew them before this trip. Family is family and you love them no matter what, but it sure is nice to discover that you like them as well:) I had a great time getting to know them, learning about their life and their customs, especially the Christmas traditons which were really fun! It is funny though that some of their big holiday traditions involve television! There is a show on Christmas Eve and one on New Years Eve as well that everyone watches! EVERYONE! It's always the same broadcast every year and all the Sweeds gather round to watch it together. The food was great(except the lutefisk) and the company was a real treat. Besides the family there were five other people at the house for Christmas. One was my uncles mother, one was an american friend of Joannes, and the other three were wonderful older people who I think are related to me somehow:) They didn't speak much English, but we got on pretty well anyways:) It was fun to watch them be silent for a while, thinking and mumbling to themselves a little and to know that they were about to ask you a question or say somthing to you -they were figuring out and practicing how to say it in English! The only problem was that then they had to try to figure out the answer too:) It was a fun time and I was completly comfortable in that house with those people, and that's something I haven't been in a really long time. I've been back in Paris now for two weeks and a day:) School has been going well, I amm gaining more confidence in my French! I still am no where near fluent, but I can understand a lot and am beginning to be able to express myself in complete sentences off the top of my head! That is a big step for me. I went to lunch with two girls from school yesterday(one's from Japan and the other from Korea - they don't speak Engish too well:). We spent over an hour talking in French! All in French! It was such an amazing time learning about each other's cultures, the school systems, normal food, normal families, jobs for students, marriage customs, ect. And practicing French all the time. I haven't been studying that much lately, I have been dividing my free time between walking around Paris, e-mailing and myspacing my friends and familly, and planning and preparing for Rock N Water next summer. For those who don't know(which would suggest you don't know me, because RNW has become a big part of that:) Rock N Water is a christian adventure camp out of Coloma, near Sacramento, that hosts camps for youth groups, church groups, work groups, or any other kind of group. I have been a guide there the last two summers and am most definatly planning to go back for as long as I can. I will stay with RNW until God calls me away:) I have been working out ideas, lists, charts, plans, and strategies to make this summer the best it can be. I want to reach my full potential as a servant for Christ and be totally prepared to minister to the kids(and adults) he brings to the camp this summer. Pray that God would guide my plans and ideas towards what he wants to achieve this summer and that I would not lose sight of him in all the planning and forget to leave room for him to work. I know that all the organization in the world isn't worth a thing if he's not in it! O, and if you have any good youth Bible related games, activities, skits, talks or anything else like that definatly e-mail them to me! I am very open to ideas and always grateful for advice:) Thank you sooooooo much for caring about me enough to read all these things, I feel very honored and blessed to have so much love in my life and to be surrounded by great Godly people who care about me:) I love and care about you all too! I miss my home and all of you everyday, but it is not ruining my time here, it is actually enriching it in a way - knowing all the real friends I have at home makes it easier to be without real friends here, I don't feel so lonely because all I have to do is think about the people I love and who love me and it makes me happy. Plus I know how much they support me and that makes me want to do well for them and to really make the best of this amazing opportunity I've been given. I am loving my time here and all the experiences I have had during these last few months. I am learning a lot about traveling, different cultures, the world community, just life in general and the different kinds of people who live it, not to mention how much I am learning about myself! I have been pushed out of my comfort zone so many times during my travels and it has given me so many opportunities to grow - Craig would be proud(my boss at RNW whose all about getting people out of their comfort zones:) It has been really crazy to watch that comfort zone grow over time - it's pretty huge by now, there's probably enough room for all of us - party in Kahla's comfort zone! :) Thanks again for your prayers and just for your love, I feel it all the way in Paris! Love, Mikahla
- comments