Today was my last Sunday at church in Brussels. The Brussels International Ward that we have attended here as been so amazing for us. I will truly miss all the wonderful people here and the experiences we have shared. I will especially miss my six and seven year old Primary (Sunday School) class. I have really enjoyed being their teacher for the last year.
The movers came a few days ago. They packed up all 8,000 lbs. of our stuff and took it away. They did an awesome job, but I am exhausted from just directing them. It is very difficult for one person to keep an eye on four super-fast packers to make sure that nothing gets packed that shouldn't (such as government furniture, stuff that I needed to take with me, or trash). The only casualty was a $90 220 volt Embassy-issued microwave that inadvertently got sent out with our stuff. If anybody has any ideas what we should do with it once we finally get it back, please let us know.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Hague
Today was a holiday so the section that I work with took a day trip to The Hague. Our first stop, and the highlight of our trip, was this fancy go-carting place. I've gone go-carting several times before, but this was by far the coolest one that I have ever been to. It was multiple levels so there were two sections where you drove up and then another part where you drove all the way down. These things were fast and they gripped the track really well to the point that if you found the correct line in the turns, you wouldn't skid. By the end of twelve minutes, my addreneline and my forearms were completly spent. A good time was had by all.
We went to the beach for lunch and spent a few hours playing frisbee, German Yo-yo, and enjoying the cool breeze. Afterwards, a few of us stopped off at Madurodam, a miniturized version of The Netherlands. It was fun to revisit several of the places I had recently seen. I really like the people I work with and it was terrific to hang out with them for the day.
We went to the beach for lunch and spent a few hours playing frisbee, German Yo-yo, and enjoying the cool breeze. Afterwards, a few of us stopped off at Madurodam, a miniturized version of The Netherlands. It was fun to revisit several of the places I had recently seen. I really like the people I work with and it was terrific to hang out with them for the day.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Rackhams Visit
Since my family left me a few weeks early so they could make it home in time for a big family reunion, I've been all alone in our house in Brussels. It has been the perfect time for friends and extended family to come visit.
One group that came was my sister-in-law, Laura, and two of her kids, Hannah and Katie, and their grandma. We had such a fun time going all over the place. These people are serious tourists and I had a difficult time keeping up with them. We ate lots of delicious Belgian food together--french fries, waffles, and chocolate. At one time I think we had over $1,000 worth of chocolate sitting on our dining room table. We were trading it around with each other like baseball cards, very yummy baseball cards.
My favorite place that we went was Amsterdam. I was amazed by the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House. One funny thing that happened, as we were following the instructions of our GPS to get to the Anne Frank House, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of this massive party. The streets were filled with people. As we crossed over a bridge we could see that the canals were also packed with people. My first thought was that we were in the middle of Spring Break for old people. Then I noticed that a lot of the people were wearing pink and there was a much higher-than-normal number of same sex couples. We had inadvertantly driven our massive American SUV right through the middle of Gay Pride Day in Amsterdam! The most interesting part to me, though, was the contrast between people who were completely free, almost to the point of anarchy, and the people depicted in the Anne Frank House who were robbed of all their freedoms and even there very lives, in many cases. There truly is opposition in all things. And just because one extreme is clearly incorrect, it doesn't automatically make the opposite of that extreme good. Anyway, it was quite thought provoking, ironic, and more than a little shocking.
One group that came was my sister-in-law, Laura, and two of her kids, Hannah and Katie, and their grandma. We had such a fun time going all over the place. These people are serious tourists and I had a difficult time keeping up with them. We ate lots of delicious Belgian food together--french fries, waffles, and chocolate. At one time I think we had over $1,000 worth of chocolate sitting on our dining room table. We were trading it around with each other like baseball cards, very yummy baseball cards.
My favorite place that we went was Amsterdam. I was amazed by the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House. One funny thing that happened, as we were following the instructions of our GPS to get to the Anne Frank House, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of this massive party. The streets were filled with people. As we crossed over a bridge we could see that the canals were also packed with people. My first thought was that we were in the middle of Spring Break for old people. Then I noticed that a lot of the people were wearing pink and there was a much higher-than-normal number of same sex couples. We had inadvertantly driven our massive American SUV right through the middle of Gay Pride Day in Amsterdam! The most interesting part to me, though, was the contrast between people who were completely free, almost to the point of anarchy, and the people depicted in the Anne Frank House who were robbed of all their freedoms and even there very lives, in many cases. There truly is opposition in all things. And just because one extreme is clearly incorrect, it doesn't automatically make the opposite of that extreme good. Anyway, it was quite thought provoking, ironic, and more than a little shocking.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Old Friends
So I've really been enjoying social networking services like Facebook lately. Through them I've been able to catch up with all sorts of fun people from my past. I found out that one of my best friends from High School was living in Ramstein, Germany which is not very far from us at all. He and his family were able to come visit me for a weekend and we had a blast touring around Brussels and traveling back through memory lane. Thank goodness there are easier ways these days to find old friends and keep in touch.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Our church here in Cairo is doing a special activity for Christmas. They cut out red peices of paper in the shape of Christmas tree ornaments and wrote one chapter of The Book of Mormon on each one. They then asked people to write their names on the ones with the chapters that they were going to read. Once someone reads the chapter they can then decorate the ornament however they want and hang them on a special Christmas tree that's set up at the church. This way, in a very short amount of time, a small group of people is able to read the entire Book of Mormon (collectively) and meaningfully decorate their tree. I randomly chose four different chapters that I have now read and I'm decorating their respective ornaments today. I had my wife send me pictures of each of our girls that I am pasting on the ornaments along with writing their names. So, even though I wasn't able to bring them to Egypt with me, I told everyone here about them and their names and pictures will be hanging on a Christmas tree in the branch here to help decorate the tree and so that other people can enjoy their beautiful smiling faces.
As I was reading one of the chapters I had chosen, 3 Nephi 26, verse two made me think of when we give people scriptures for the first time, like how we just got Carrie her own set of scriptures when she turned eight. Among many other wonderful things, the chapter teaches about scriptures, baptism, and children. Though I am taking the verse a little bit out of context and changing a few of the words, I think the application is still interesting: "[The] scriptures, which [we recently gave you], [Heavenly] Father commanded that [we] should give [them to] you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations."
Our oldest daughter Carrie is such a good reader. She has such an excitement for the scriptures. I hope she continues to read from her scriptures every day and that she continues to share her love for the scriptures and for reading with her sisters by reading to them often. I look forward to being back in Brussels and reading the scriptures with them all soon. I know that our Heavenly Father has given Holy Scriptures to us for a wise purpose, that he has commanded us to study them, and also to share them with others.
As I was reading one of the chapters I had chosen, 3 Nephi 26, verse two made me think of when we give people scriptures for the first time, like how we just got Carrie her own set of scriptures when she turned eight. Among many other wonderful things, the chapter teaches about scriptures, baptism, and children. Though I am taking the verse a little bit out of context and changing a few of the words, I think the application is still interesting: "[The] scriptures, which [we recently gave you], [Heavenly] Father commanded that [we] should give [them to] you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations."
Our oldest daughter Carrie is such a good reader. She has such an excitement for the scriptures. I hope she continues to read from her scriptures every day and that she continues to share her love for the scriptures and for reading with her sisters by reading to them often. I look forward to being back in Brussels and reading the scriptures with them all soon. I know that our Heavenly Father has given Holy Scriptures to us for a wise purpose, that he has commanded us to study them, and also to share them with others.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Training in Cairo
I arrived in Cairo about two weeks ago to attend some computer training at the U.S. Embassy here.
The driving in Cairo is absolutely crazy. It makes Honduran driving seem tame. Apparently there are more deaths per mile of road in Cairo than anywhere else in the world. Lovely. I consider it a miracle that I made it unscathed from the airport to my hotel. I have not felt any more comfortable as I've had to take local taxis to subsequent destinations. You may know that I am not a great passenger even in "normal" circumstances, but when you take away seatbelts and headlights, and add in the craziest driving you could ever imagine, it's downright scary. I'm not sure why they bother putting up stoplights or painting lines on the roads here. These types of things seem to be completely ignored. If there is an empty space on the road, somebody will drive up and fill it in, no matter where it is. But what's worse is when you have to cross a street on foot. Ahhhh! I feel like I'm in a real-life version of Frogger.
The hotel that I'm staying at is
called the Semiramis 
Intercontinental. It has some beautiful views of the River Nile and is very convenient to the Embassy. It's like a little city of its own, with tons of shops, a pretty pool, a good gym, a wonderful complimentary breakfast with just about anything you could imagine, and several nice restaurants.
The U.S. Embassy here is massive. Like many things in the area, it is undergoing some major reconstruction. It's been fun to see old friends there and to meet lots of terrific new people. My training classes are good. I am learning a lot and having a fun time. A few of us in the class get together in the evenings to go out to dinner or check out the city.
There is a decent-sized LDS branch
here. It's located in a town called Maadi, where a lot of the expat families live. It's a little strange, though, because they have church on Fridays here. So instead of having Sunday School, they have Friday School. I got there last week without much difficulty taking the metro and then catching a cab. Unfortunately, today, the people that I spoke with, including a few cabs that I got into, didn't speak or read English at all, and so it took me a really long time to find the church. The first clue that they have no idea is when you hand them a piece of paper with an address on it and they try to read it when it's not facing the right way.
I have been missing my family and Brussels a lot, especially during my wife's birthday and Thanksgiving. Thank goodness for Skype which allows us to video conference every night. I'm really looking forward to having Sarah come and visit me in a few days. Everything's better when you have somebody special to share it with. I'm looking forward to going to the museum, park, and pyramids with her. So hopefully by then I'll have some more exciting stories and pictures of Egypt to share.
The driving in Cairo is absolutely crazy. It makes Honduran driving seem tame. Apparently there are more deaths per mile of road in Cairo than anywhere else in the world. Lovely. I consider it a miracle that I made it unscathed from the airport to my hotel. I have not felt any more comfortable as I've had to take local taxis to subsequent destinations. You may know that I am not a great passenger even in "normal" circumstances, but when you take away seatbelts and headlights, and add in the craziest driving you could ever imagine, it's downright scary. I'm not sure why they bother putting up stoplights or painting lines on the roads here. These types of things seem to be completely ignored. If there is an empty space on the road, somebody will drive up and fill it in, no matter where it is. But what's worse is when you have to cross a street on foot. Ahhhh! I feel like I'm in a real-life version of Frogger.
The hotel that I'm staying at is
called the Semiramis 
Intercontinental. It has some beautiful views of the River Nile and is very convenient to the Embassy. It's like a little city of its own, with tons of shops, a pretty pool, a good gym, a wonderful complimentary breakfast with just about anything you could imagine, and several nice restaurants.
The U.S. Embassy here is massive. Like many things in the area, it is undergoing some major reconstruction. It's been fun to see old friends there and to meet lots of terrific new people. My training classes are good. I am learning a lot and having a fun time. A few of us in the class get together in the evenings to go out to dinner or check out the city.
There is a decent-sized LDS branch
here. It's located in a town called Maadi, where a lot of the expat families live. It's a little strange, though, because they have church on Fridays here. So instead of having Sunday School, they have Friday School. I got there last week without much difficulty taking the metro and then catching a cab. Unfortunately, today, the people that I spoke with, including a few cabs that I got into, didn't speak or read English at all, and so it took me a really long time to find the church. The first clue that they have no idea is when you hand them a piece of paper with an address on it and they try to read it when it's not facing the right way.I have been missing my family and Brussels a lot, especially during my wife's birthday and Thanksgiving. Thank goodness for Skype which allows us to video conference every night. I'm really looking forward to having Sarah come and visit me in a few days. Everything's better when you have somebody special to share it with. I'm looking forward to going to the museum, park, and pyramids with her. So hopefully by then I'll have some more exciting stories and pictures of Egypt to share.
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