Far Side of the World

Wow, so much has happened in the past few days, it'll be hard to remember it all, and I dont think that I even have the time to do so. So I will just talk about some of the highlights.

On Easter Sunday we had our first day off! Wow, were we ever excited!!! We bussed into Corinth, where we all went to chuch in the morning. It was pretty neat to go to a Greek church, although it was still in Greek and most of it I didnt understand at all. Thankfully the sermon was translated and so we could kinda follow along (to a degree). Then most of us just stayed in Corinth and walked around the city. Me and some guys tried to get to the old city where Paul went to and preached at, but we wernt sure that it would be open and didnt want to wait the taxi fare. But it was neat to just hang out. We went to a bakery that had INCREDIBLE food!!! And it was just plain amazing bread!! Although it was Easter no one in Greece was celibrating it cuz they have a different calendar than ours.

On Monday (yesterday) we had Missionary Training Day. Wow. Thats all I can say. After breakfast we played some team building games. Like the spider wed (you camp people will know what I mean) and blind folded games. Then we had to build a "raft" out of bouyies (sp). And we got shafted to round one and I ended up going for a swim fully clothed. The water wasnt half bad though. Actually I was prepared to stay in and help my team go across back and forth cept that aperently I wasnt alouwd. But still the water is warmer than in Canada (so I was stoked,...yet everyone else thiought I was insane lol). Then we were given 2 euros for each team (6-7 people) and had to do a treasure hunt around the town with our cameras. some stuff we had to take photos of, some stuff was information we had to gather from Greek people and some stuff was the actual treasure hunt with clues and such. It was crazy intence walking around twon. But I have now been taught a Greek dance (by a group of greek children) and I know who is on the Greek euro (thearetically). The euros was for lunch for the 6 of us. It was crazy and my team actually ended up not eating (aperently thats a big part of beinga missionary =S). Then in the evening we were looking forward to food (glorious food!!)....boy were we in for a surprize. lol Well we were supposed to roast our dinner (taht we didnt knwo what it was) and to earn a pan to fry it in we had to have 3 ppl from each team eat half a LIVE sea urchan. Ya, live. thats the part that got to me. BUT I did it!!! and Im pretty proud of it. haha A live, raw, freash-off-the-dock urchan. Haha (another thing that missionarys have to do regularly is eat whatever they are given). It actually wasnt too bad (cept the live part) and it tasted like ocean. Blah. The creepy thing is watching the poor thing try to walk away even though it is empty and just going off nerves. Then we went out side (we werent aloud inside) and we were given dinner: Two Octopi and 26 squid. ya... so now I also know how to prepare raw squid (taht means taking the head off and skinning them and cuting them up propperly so we dont eat anything we shouldnt). And that was dinner. There is one thing about sea food, its a lot easier to eat when you get it at a resteraunt and you dont skin it yourself. haha And so we chilled out side (in teh rain), originally the idea was that the leaders were gonna make us sleep out side (with 8 sleeping bags for 13 people) but then a storm blew in and we were confinded to a small room downstirs for the night. All in all it was quite an exciting day... and I actually really enjoyed it!!

Today we recapped on yesterday and what learned from our experiences and how we worked as a team and what didnt work ( I was blessed with an incredible team that got along perfectly! which was awesome!). Then we had our first run down of sail training!!! So fun, we learned about watches and the wheel house and knots (which I really enjoyed) and how to butt-slide across the gaff (the beam above the boom that you raise when you raise the main sail). So all in all its been a pretty sweet couple of days.

Tomorrow the idea is that in the evening we are going to start our three-day sail to Cicily (sp), Italy. It looks like we are in for some pretty rough weather (and potentialy a storm =S), so prayer that I dont get sea sick will be most apreciated! But I am really looking forward to start sailing!! The wind here has been incredibly intence since yesterday, so I'm sure we'll have quite an exciting first sail. =S

As for the school, its been going very well. We've had a few classes already. One we had on intersession (and prayer) and that was neat to hear from a slight different perspective than I am used to. During this school we have to write three book reports (and well read the books too I guess, =P), hand in a weekly journal of what we've learned in the week and how we can aply it to our lives, etc, and have small group studies and one-on-ones with a staff member. We have been kept very busy. When we arent in class or leaning something (like navigation) we have work duties. My work duty is Lunch prep/clean up (which I really lucked out getting). I am staying in a cabin with two other girls, one from New Zealand and one from Florida. They are both amazing girls and we get along pretty sweet. The cabin is small, no windows and it has three bunk beds (so we each get two beds--one for stuff and one to sleep on). I have also learned the art of a "ship shower". Water on, water off, soap on, water on, water off, done. I'm sure thats also going to be a good thing for missionary training. I have some very sweet photos of me cutting up squid and eating urchans, etc, but I havent yet found a way to put them on the site. I will try when I have more time.

So I look forward to the next months here on the ship as we travel through the Mediterrenean to (eventually) Portugal.

Prayer for me is so much apreaciated. It is intimadating doing this not knowing anything about sailing, not knowing the peaple on the ship, or the cultures where we are staying.

Take care all of you!! I hope that you are all doing well. God bless.