So I thought that I've told you all about the places that I've been and the stuff that I have done, yet haven't really explained what exactly is going on with the school part of my DTS (Discipleship Training School).
Well I am living on a 110ft gaff rigged sailing ketch. There are 13 students (10 girls - 3 guys) attending Bluewater and 11 staff members currently on board. This DTS is specialized because of the sailing aspect of it. As well as being taught about christianity we are also taking a Day Skipper course through the RYA (British). This is an actual course, and with my Day Skipper I would be able to skipper a yaut in the day time by myself (its a licence).
As far as the bible teaching goes, we have lectures all morning. Every week or so a teacher will meet up with us and teach us, this is great because we get a lot of veraity. This week there is a guy from Germany teaching us about the bible, bible history, the new and old testiment canons and bible study. This well be good foundation for us during the next 5 months. Antop of lectures we also have homework to hand in and bible studies and prayer sessions, worship sessions etc. When we are not doing this school stuff there are many other things that keep us busy. We all have a dayly chore (mine is lunch dishes and prep), and we do ship mantanence once a week (this usually includes painting and varnishing the ship). Aaaaaaand then we have free time! Typically we will be busy from 7:30 in the morning till 9ish at night. And then of course we have sail days, and when we sail we do not do any of the normal activities (because we are always sea sick).
So that is basically what I am up to everyday. Its a busy life, but its good. I hope that you are all keeping busy and that life is good for you as well.
Today is the YWAM international day of prayer and fasting. Everyone in YWAM is fasting on either one thing or another today. I am just doing no food, but some of the students are going a day without talking, or without chocolate etc. Dang.... chocolate... yumm....
Moving on....
Yesterday we had boat matanence and I repaired some of the ratlines. This means, for those of you who may not know what this involves, that I was up on the rope ladder (ratline) all afternoon, cutting off old ropes and tying on new ones. It was actually really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. I love learning new things. Hey! I can add this to the list of new things I know!!! Along with preparing squid!! haha
Nothing too exciting has happened lately. I went shoppig with a friend yesterday and got a sweeter for 4 euros! I was stoked. Other then that, not too much exciting.
Take care all you lovely people!!
I've been in Itally for a few days now and have made many memories here. I don't have time to write them all down here, but I will share some with you.
One that I've made was... I bought my firt souveneer!!! Yup! I bought Aveiators!! (those big, old school sunglasses) I bought them from a street vender here. There are so many venders in Catania and they all sell the exact same things. There are typically 4-5 venders per block and they all sell sunglasses or CDs. And the exact same brands and everything! I can't imagin how they can make a living off doing this because of the compatition.
I also had my first Itallian kiss. This one I think I may have to explain further. My friend, Chelanna (also from BC), and I were walking around Catania and taking photos. We stopped by come ruins at the center of the city and were goofing off taking photos. An Italian man was watching us and asked if we wanted his photo. He then motioned that he wanted us also in the photo. So I, having the camera (and being a bit scetched out by Italian men) got Chelanna to go for the photo. That was all great, what a great thing for a souveneer: a photo with a real Italian! (ya, that was a bit sarcastic) Then he wanted one with me. So I went there and smiled for the photo and just as the shutter clicked he kissed me!!! Woah! That came out of no where! (And, for all you parents and adults out there, don't worry, it was just on the cheek.) So that was awkward because I had no clue what to say to the guy afterwards. It is kinda their culture to be like that but also its not mine at all! So anyways... ya... I got the most odd looking photo out of the adventure.
Hmm... what else.. Oh! Did you guys know that they eat horse here? Some friends and I are going to get some later when we have our cameras. Aperently it tastes fairly good... But it's still horse. The way that I see it is that when else do I have the chance?
Me and Chelanna (we've had many experiences together in a short time) also found ourselves wondering around Catania one day. We found ourselves in a dumpy part of town (that we soon got out of--chill guys) but I found the neatest photo there. There was a old, beat up builing that we passed, and as I walked by I saw that someone had placed a long stem rose on the door step. It was old and withered and really sad looking. Forgotten Love. Very Italian.
Love is actually a key theme that runs loose among the city. Everywhere you go there are couples passionatly in love...kinda grose...but very Italian. And everything that you've heard about Itally is true. %90 of all stores here are clothing or shoe stores. Everyone looks like modles. And as one of my ship mates stated, "Itally is one huge cigiret comercial." Everyone looks like modles and smokes.
Well I want to write a few emails before I head back to my ship. So I just want to say that I miss all of you very much and you are still very much a part of my life here on the other side of the world. I keep you in my prayers.
We sailed from Kiato, Greece a few days ago to Catania, Itally.
I have looked forward to sailing all my life and my chance had finally come. I was very excited to set sail for Itally and venture on the high seas...well the Med Sea anyways. I had also stocked up on Gravol before leaving Greece, because if you know me well you will know that I am deathly afraid of throwing up, and sea sickness is one thing that I did not want to have to deal with. We left in the evening and the sea was perfectly still and calm--like a lake. It was so beautiful with the city lights shining across the water. There was some phosphoresance, but it was hard to see because of the city lights. That night I set my clock for 3:30 am and slept one of the best sleeps of my life!! The ship gently rocking me to sleep. My watch for this leg of our journy (three day sail) was the 4-8 shift. This means that I had to be on deck from 4-8 am and pm. Kiato is set in the end of a long passage of sheltered water from the main part of the Med Sea. There is a bridge that spans a nerrow strait before the passage opens up into the sea. When I got up for my shift, thats what I saw, a long line of lights, lighting the bridge across the channel. The clouds also parted for a while and I could see the Greek stars (which are actually the same ones that we have in Canada, by the way). The neat thing about the 4-8 watch is that I got to watch both the sunrise and the sunset. On a watch we do three things: Look out (watching for ships on the horizon, or anything else that we may run into), Helm (steer the ship in the right direction--hopefully) and Plot (charting our coordinants on a map so we can track where weàve been, when and so on). And when you're not busy doing either of these...we socialize (as best you can at 4 am). As far as sea sick goes... well I felt sick the whole three days. But I never threw up!! Generally everyone else threw up at least 3 or 4 times a day. Needless to say I was quite relieved when we saw Itally. But I did see a dolphin!!! And I'm planning on seeing a whole lot more in the future! =)
Itally is amaaaaazing!! So far I'd say its the best place that I've ever visted! The water is aqua blue and crystal clear and the weather is clear and hot (but not too hot), the food is the most amazing thing that I've ever eaten in my entire life. One word - gelato! Wow wow wow!! I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to Canadian ice cream again, and its pretty cheap too--which is amazing. The pizza that I got was an adventure in itself. We (me and four other girls) desided that we wanted Italian pizza. So we went into this place that looked authentic... and boy was it. The place was painted orange and had photos taped to the wall for decor, and there was a strip of table cloth taped to the wall to kinda look like wall paper that matched the table cloth.. 'cept it was the table cloth. lol The pizza was amazing too!!! Soooo good! The guy kinda ripped us off though and charged for service... lol Wow ya, great "service". haha Oh well... it was quite the adventure. I'ts weird here cause nothing is open before 8pm, and then its like BAM!!! People EVERYWHERE!!! It's a packed place here! I'm sitting in the internet cafe now, and there is a strong smell of deoderent... like the spray stuff... I can hear people loading it on. *spray* *spray* It's grose. But, nonetheless, it is still a lovely place!
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.
I made it to the boat yesterday afternoon from Athens, Greece. Taking a Greek bus is an experience that I havent yet had the pleasure of taking. We listened to Greek music the WHOLE way to Kiato. The bus driver was smoking a cigeret and texting while driving the bus. The YWAM people met me at the bus "stop" and helped me take my junk to the boat. We also found out that my sleeping bag is waterproof as one of the guys dropped it overboard by accedent. I am sleeping in a room with two other girls, one from Florida and one from New Zealand. Its not a big room, but we have more space than I thought that we would have. There are 13 students attending Bluewater and 13 staff/crew. But really you cant tell the difference because we are all basically the same age (18-30). Its a great group and we have already begun to bond at an intence way. Living on a ship tends to do that kind of thing to a person.
I hope that all of you are doing okay. I will try to update this as often as possible. Greece is great, by the way. Stay in touch!
Hey everyone!!! So I have arrived in Athens, Greece after two very long days of travel (I left on Monday and it is now Wednsday)! My flights went fairly well. Nothing too exciting. All my flights were late but I always had tons of time to get to my next one.
I'm trying to deside weather I want the time to go by fast or slowly. Only 44 days untill I leave on my 6 month trip on the other side of the world. Although I am really excited about this trip, I'm getting disheartened at the thought of leaving my boy friend (Aaron, you may hear his name a few times in my blog =P), my family and my friends--all of whom are incredibly dear to me and I love em all to death! Thats why I have desided I want the next 44 days to crawl by. Slowly inching forward till the day that I leave. Every day that slips by now is a day I'll be missing then. Although, dont get me wrong, I'm really excited about this trip. I've been incredibly blessed to have the chance of going! And I'm looking forward to the experiences that I'm going to have. God is going to do huge things on this trip, that's why I'm so happy about it. It's more than just traveling and visiting forin countries. More than checking them off my list. More exciting than being there, I'm excited about what's going to happen while I'm there. I know that this is going to be a life changing experience and I can't wait to see in what way that will happen!
To my family: I'm going to miss you terribly. I may even miss doing dishes and helping to clean around the house. I'm going to miss sharing a room with you, Helen. Gonna miss working with you, Daddy and sharing tea and talks. I'm going to miss your warm hugs and encouragement, Mom. And Luke, I'm gonna miss taking pictures with you and you showing me stuff on the computer that I dont understand at all. I love you all so much! And I'll be thinking of you when I'm gone.
To my best friend: Oh Katherine. We've shared so much together. Both laughter and tears, good times and bad, and much bonding. I'm gonna miss you terrible when I'm gone. You are a huge part of my life and my bestest friend in the entire world!! Thank you for the times that we've had together, and the talks that we're had when we wernt physically together. I'll always be here for you, but it just may take me a lil longer to reply when I'm gone. I love you so much!! And I'm gonna miss you something awful.