Hey good lookin, whatcha got cookin?

Well, lindsey said i should post something, so i told her i would post something about how good i look. I think i am extravagantly good looking. In fact i look so good that Joel said i look "almost as good as him". so there you have it, i guess i look pretty good.

A Wasted Day

So this morning I woke up at 9:30 to meet Raphael, the owner of the apartment to pay him and sign the contract. Then I went back to bed and we all slept until 3:15! I figured it was late but not that late! I hat"e that. We all had cereal for "breakfast" and then went shopping for groceries. It was the weirdest store. I had looked it up on the net and knew it was a grocery store, but fromt he street it looked like a Womens clothing store. The grocery part was all downstairs and it was huge. There was so much selection. We bought lots of stuff and walked back.

We started making supper right away so we could go out. We made Stirfry and rice it was aweome.The rice comes in cool little plastic packages that you just put in boiling water for 10 minutes. There is no measuring and no burnt rice on the bottom of the pan. We even bought steel wool prepared for that. The rice that comes out it perfect! Not mushy at all. It is Uncle Bens. I dont know if we have that at home or not cause eric and I always buy the cheap stuff cause we have a steamer.

I did laundry and we all relaxed for a little bit before going out for a walk. Eric and I went on our own. We shopped around fo souveniers for a little bit. Then we went to the fair in between the Jardin de Tulliers and Place de Concorde. It wasnt that exciting but we bought a Paris Paris Paris Paris bag and a large thing of delicious cotton candy and hung out there. Then we walked along the Seine River for a while before heading back. At 10 oclock the Eiffel Tower started sparkling with lights. It looked so cool. It did it for like 10 minutes. I didnt have a camera so I didnt take any pictures of anything. We came back to the flat and now we are goig to watch a movie and then go to bed. Tomorrow we are going to wake up earlier and then celebrate the new year way before anyone at home!

Paris!

Our sightseeing day in Prauge was rough. Not because of the city or the event, but because of the night and the sickness. I managed a bit of sleep between 7 and 10.3o. But right when I woke up I felt extremely sick again. Eric was just as sick as me and Sean was also sick, but not as bad as us. We think it was the coffee the night before. I had made it really realy strong and Eric and I both had 2 cups and Sean had one which is why he was less sick. If there is such a thing as caffiene poisoning I think we had it. Prague is a gorgeous old city though, it is fun just walking around. Our night train to Paris started and ended rough, but we got an ok night sleep.

Our apartment is great. It is tinier than we thought, but it is perfect for what we need. Today we basically just hung out in it. We walked to the Champs-Elysees and went to the Virgin Megastore for a little bit. I bought my first french CD and it is awesome. I had heard them on the radio when we rented the car and had been trying to figure out who there were. After asking, singing and describing them to an employee he directed me to the right one on the first try even though he looked very confused. This apartment has free internet, even though it is slow so I will update everynight. Maybe some pictures if this old compy can handle it. It has windows 98...

Its only 6AM!

So here we are, wide awake at 6am, me and Eric. The coffee was a big mistake. We have not had any sleep at all yet!

So here we are in beautiful Prauge. Yesterday, well I guess it was two days ago now, we spent all day training to Pardubice cause of some train confusion. We thought we might not make it to the game. But we did. Painted bodies and all. It was the best game of hockey I have ever been to. There were so many canadians there! Way more than I expected! Canada won and it was great. I hope you saw us on TV! We were in the left section on the TV 8 rows up. The only ones with painted bodies. Eric was ALL red. LOL. It was so fun.

Today we slept until 2. We went for lunch and by the time we were done it was dark. Pretty sad. We walked around a bit and went into a Giagantic shopping mall. I loved it. The boys regreted showing it to me i think. Then we went to a bar to watch hockey but they shut it off as soon as we ordered food and they played soccer instead. Then we played cards and drank coffee and now we cannot sleep and I feel sick from the coffee. mmmrrggggmmmm

Merry Christmas From Us!!

I hope you love our family photo!

Our Christmas!

The Beautiful Hoarfrost that has lasted for days here!
Pancake Soup
Us at the Christmas Market in Ulm.
Pictures from our Christmas supper out. Not sure what was happening in the last one.

Something From The Question and Answer Mix Up Game

Q- What if Joel loved wearing women's pants?

A- Then I would puke a little bit in the back of my throat.


Couldn't have worked out much funnier than that.

Christmas is Coming!

So its been a long time since I wrote on here because.... well I dont know a good reason except that I am lazy. So.... where to begin.

We are here at Dayna's and it is awesome. It feels the most like Christmas and home out of anywhere we have been. We are glad to be here. We have done alot so far. The first day we met the family and ate lunch with them. It was really nice to meet them. Then we hung out for the afternoon and then went to the Christmas market in Bad Saulagu. It was small but it was nice to see it and the town. I stayed up really late that night baking Christmas cookies. It was awesome.

The next day we slept in really late and it was beautiful. Then we at lunch. Then Dayna took us to a thermal pool thingie (hot springs) and they were so awesome. We stayed there for 2 hours and it only cost 6.50. I felt so much better after that. Then Joel had to come backto shave his face for the ladies and then we went for and amaing raclette supper with Dayna's friends. It was soooooo very very good, and I want one of those machines. We came back home and I baked cookies late into the night.

The next day we went to Ulm to shop in the christmas markets. We sent the boys alone to buy gifts and Dayna and I had fun girl time shopping. I found an amazing sweater and Eric wouldt let me buy it but I forgot I had some money for Christmas. I love H & M, it is an awesome and cheap store. We hung out in the evening, I made more cookies and we watched The Pianist and it was really good. We went to bed earlyish.

This morning we woke up early to go to a brunch at Daynas church. It was really good and we talked to lots of very nice people who had very good english. It was fun. Then we hung out at home watching TV and playing cards and eating cookies. Then we went to a restaurant to have supper. It took a while to find one but it was worth it. It was a cute little place with a cute little old German lady serving us. She was so cool. We loved her so much we took a picture with her! Dayna and I got free Santa chocolates from a guy who probably had a large crush on both of us. The meal was amazing good. We spent lots of time there and it was fun.

Some fun stories for you...
...I baked my wedding ring in the oven yesterday. It was bad but it is not ruined. It wasnt in a cookie but it was covered in cookie dough and it got stuck to the bottom of the pan.
...we found a gorgeous and awesome girlfriend for Joel. We just need him to make a move.

Thats about all. This post sucks but I was really distraced by converstaions and Gross Chef, Klein Chef. It is AWESOME! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Dead goats and hoarfrost.

Hello and Merry Christmas!

I understand yesterday was the Mennville Christmas Program. Sorry to have missed it.

We are in Germany at Dayna's, finally. There is hoarfrost on all the trees (i hope everyone knows what that is, but just to be safe here is an explanation: if there is fog during the night in winter, it freezes on the tree branches and twigs making them all white and sparkling; it is not a woman of questionable morals freezing on a tree branch [check the spelling]) and it is beautiful.

The plan is to stay here for five days, until Christmas day when we take off for the Czech Republic to watch the Canada game. Some interesting stuff happened to us in the last few days, particularly in Marseille, where we were for a day before coming to Germany.

We went to a Morroccan market there, and boy was that an experience. There as a long line up when we got there to get into some kind of compound where there were a dozen (at least) sheep in a pen. Of course i asked what was going on, and didn't get a clear answer, at least not in english. The guy made a throat cutting motion, so i put my hands up and backed away slowly. I didn't know if he was threatening me or if he meant the sheep were being slaughtered, so i figured i should play it safe and get the heck out of there. Later i figured out that it wasnt a threat, because there were morroccans running around all over the place with dead skinned sheep over there shoulders.

For some reason the markets always smell hideous (actually i know the reason, it is the smell of all the fish that are left out in the hot market for who knows how long - i don't think the ice unerneath is helping any, guys) so of course lindsey walks around with one of seans socks under her nose to filter the smell, which, if you'll remember form some of my precious posts, tells you how bad the smell is.

All in all, it was an amazing cultural experience, especially after the disappointment of not being able to get to Morrocco. Well, i am off for lunch, so i will write more again some other time.

Off to start our Christmas "Holidays"!

Right now we are in Marseille, not seeing very much stuff. Tonight we start our journey to Dayna's place in Germany. Something we are all very excited about. I can't wait to make good meals and bake cookies! So many cookies! Lol.

It doesnt feel like Christmas at all and it is 5 days away. Normally I would be so excited and counting down the days. We all really miss home and wish we could be there for Christmas...

Another Great Day In Barcelona!

Today was very fun. We slept in way too late again. We went back to the same Donar place we went to yesterday, but it was closed, to we waited for it to open. It was only 1/2 hour wait. They donars there are amazing and it was well worth the wait. Then we took the metro to Park Guiell, one of Gaudi´s designs. It is soo cool, tonnes of mosaic tile and the longest park bench in the world. We took the metro, Eric and I to the Poble Espanyol and the boys to the FC Barcelona football stadium and museum. Eric and I didn´t go there because we have already been. The ¨Spanish Village¨ that Eric and I went to wasn´t very good. There was nothing really to see there and it cost 8 euros each to get in. It was just a recreation of 117 spanish buildings, none of which I recognised. It was nice, but it should have been free. There was cool shops we looked around in, but we didnt bring enough money to buy anything good. We walked around and took funny pictures. We spent all of our money on candy and then headed back to the hostel. Even though it wansn´t great it was nice to be on a ¨date¨ with just the two of us.

Back at the hostel we bought groceries and made supper. It was the best supper yet. We made mashed potates with cream cheese, butter, oregano, garlic salt and pepper ( it was half mashed and half chunks but it was all good); fried seasoned pork and a garden salad. It was soooooo very very good. Then we headed out to see a flamenco show. We took the metro to the wrong place and had to go back. We made it to the show with plenty of time. We bought Sangria to drink ( the BEST i have ever had) and enjoyed the show. It was amazing. We only paid 6 euros to get in, because it only lasted 1/2 hour. It was over way too soon. It was my favorite thing we have done here. Now we are going to bed. Tomorrow we head to Marseille with a short detour to the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres. Night!

joel's list of things he hates

Lindsey missed a few things that i dislike so i made a list for those of you who are interested.
in no particular order.....
1.montreal allouettes
2.saskatchewan roughriders (unless they are playing the allouettes)
3.spelling allouettes
4.detroit red wings
5.cbc televison (exception for saturday nights)
6.jocks that are one size too small
7. greek salads
8. the antiques rode show
9. chris chelios
10.trinket shops with pushy pakestani sales men

A Gaudi Day in Barcelona

Not sure how good this post will be cause I am really angry right now. The guys lefts me all alone in Barcelone at night. They were supposed to follow me like normal, but they didnt.

Anyways, now that I am safe and sound ( I walked around with me pocket knife open for a while cause I thought this one guy was following me), today was otherwise good. We slept in waaaaay too late. Then we went to see the amazing Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s masterpiece church that was started in 1882 and won´t be finished until 2020! Joel and Sean hated it, but they don´t like anything we see anyways, nevermind stuff that I like. I loved it! Then we went on an architectural adventure and saw a few more of Gaudi´s buildings. They are very cool. I really wanted to go in one but it was 16 euros each, way over our budget for the day. We continued walking to Las Ramblas, a cool pedestrain street with lots of human statues and souvenier shops. We bought a few souveniers that i really like. I tried to get Joel to buy something for his mom here, but he thought everything was ugly that i picked out. I guess if it doesn´t look like a weapon or sports items it is ugly. There was a really cute chihuahua dressed up with a clown playing music. It was even wearing pink doggles. Eric didn´t think it was real. Then I headed towards the park and thought the guys were behind me, but they weren´t. So I walked back to the hostel by myself at night without a map. I think they are making supper now but I don´t feel like eating.

Barcelona Graffiti

Alicante was a much needed stop. We didnt do a whole lot there, but after the rough week we had prior, we needed to relax and stay in once place for a few night. I really love that city. I love all the parks and palm trees. I love the huge beach lined with palm trees with the soft fine white sand. I loved the sun! It was so nice to be in the sun, not in the rain!

We arrived in Barcelona a few hours ago, it is pretty cold here. It seems the shorts are going to be packed deep into my bag for the rest of the trip. I am excited about this city though, it is really cool. Lots of things to see! It´s almost Christmas! I am really looking forward to the time at Daynas. It doesnt feel like Christmas AT ALL here. I am not in the spirit at all. Usually I would have been for like 3 weeks!

Alicante, eh?

We are currently enjoying the beautiful sun and beach in Alicante, a mere 15 minute tram ride from my old school, Rio Vida! We found a great hostel for 15 euros a night, with a kitchen, and 4 bathrooms on our floor.

Last night we got invited to the principal´s house for supper. After a bit of confusion about trams and such we arrived, to a candlelit dinner, with christmas music playing in the background! (no bull) His eight (8) beautiful children were sitting around the table, and we were served meatloaf, potatoes, and salad, as well as specially baked cookies by one of the girls for dessert! It was amazing, and it felt really christmassy, which is always good.

We are staying one more night in Alicante, then heading to Barcelona, Marseille, Dayna´s, Czech Republic, Paris, London, then HOME!! Our little trip is almost over. It will be bittersweet to board that plane back to God´s country.

Well, that´s all for now...

pointless entry

Just writting to let everyone know that i am alive, you really dont have to worry. This is not a long post because i have no pant shitting experiences to write about. I guess my feet smell similiar to that little diddy of an experience though. Oh and just so people can have a visual of me, i think that i should note im getting fatter.

Things are looking up in Alicante

So, after a very long series of unfourtunate events, the sun is now shining, literally and figuratively, on our European adventure. The rain clouds have truely been bamboozled by us, and we are much less stressed.

The night train back to Madrid was horrible. We luckly made it on the train at 9:05 to Alicante. Yesterday the Alicante day was horrible. Lots of walking around with our packs confused and very little eating. Our low point was paying 55 euroes to wash all of our laundry and then getting a hostel with access to a washing machine. Unreal.

Today was much better. We went to Rio Vida to visit Eric old school in the morning. The rest of the day we hung out and had Siesta. It was really nice. We still have to go back to the hostel and cook supper tonight, and I´m not sure what else. We are spending tomorrow here as well, because it is cheap and we love it. It is so pretty!

Night Train

Okay, i know lindsey is going to give you the pretty version of the night train, so i am here to set you all straight on how it really was:

As you know, we booked the cheapest seats not realizing that they were just that - seats, and not a sleeper car. The story lindsey wont tell you is how we ended up in a sleeper. First of all some Koreans (or maybe chinese, its so hard to tell the difference, you know?) ahead of us had apparently pulled the same mistake (can you imagine two people, english both their second language, trying to comunicate - oh boy [actually we saw that in paris, it was hilarious, but thats another story]). We saw them all of a sudden getting up and grabbing their stuff off the racks, and lindsey, stressed to the hilt, leaps out of her seat and tackels the smallest one in the back. They both go flying and lindsey demands to know where they are headed. The poor lady is terrified, she nearly wet her pants, and stutters that they got an upgrade.

Lindsey takes off like a shot, i honestly didnt know she could move that fast, and she heads off to find the conductor. Meanwhile, sean joel and i are sweltering in our seats behind what must be the only boiler left on trains (it was weird, i could have swore that the train wasnt running on coal, but there was the boiler) wondering if we should go after her or pretend we didnt know her. The Korean/chinese people were giving us pretty dark looks, so we decided to play stupid, and said she was from the USA, which seemed to work.

Well, long story short, we get the sleeper car, and everyone sleeps ok.

It's all downhill from here.

Please take note how the Jealous Mutterings section has changed to Condolences.

So last night we though we got a major deal by paying 6 euros for a sleeper car. Well suprise, suprise, just out luck. The 6 euros was for second class seats in the hottest, most uncomfortable train seats ever. I almost paniced so we paid 23 euros each for a sleeper for 4. The room was hot, but at least it had beds. It stank like nothing else. 4 bodies, all in need of a shower and NO clean underwear. I MADE everyone put cucumber melon antibacterial handwash on their feet to keep the stink down. It worked ok. The sleep was decent.

Today we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal at around 8 their time. We locked out bags in a locker at the station and looked for a tourist info kiosk. We got a map of the city and searched forever for a terrace with a great view of the city. We found 1 euro bowls of soup for lunch. They were bright yellow but they tasted good. Not sure what was in there. Then we toured the castle for a while. Bought groceries and ate them. Went to a closed monastary. It was cool thougth. We saw the discovery monumnet. Layed on grass!!! It was great. Been a while since we could do that! Then we seached for an internet cafe. Tonight we take another train back to Madrid. It will be the tiny hot seats. But that all we can afford. Not sure how me and Eric are going to make it through this trip finacially. We didnt budget good enough in the beginning. We are cutting lots of stuff out and eating barely anything. And we will have to camp as much as we can. This is going to be rough...

My legs hurt

Well, after sleeping in the red box for two and a half nights, my rear is permanantly damaged. The bed we got last night was amazing, soft as a cloud, as lindsey put it.

I was the lucky driver of the car, and my nerves are shot. I knew it would be stressful driving in europe, but i feel lucky to escape with my life. Joel looks like he has a severe case of scoliosis, he was cramped at the best of times, never mind for twentyish hours a day.

Sean of course enjoyed it, he is so short that he just lay down on the seat and went right to bed. I wonder what people thought when they saw us in the mall parking lot in the morning, windows all fogged up.

Well, i´m nearly out of time, so i´ll sign off.

Madrid is cool.

Ok, finally we are in Spain where the keyboards are basically decent. The french ones were messed up.

Our third night sleeping in the car was BRUTAL. We finished walking around Bordeaux around and found a place to park in a Atac Supermarket around 8. We played cards and drank out of a 5 litre keg of wine we bought for 3.95. It tasted like sour grape juice. Pa-thet-ic. We were basically homeless. We were also starting to reek of sour B.O. I woke up at least 75-95 times during the night. Four people slept in a 4 x 8 foot box for 3 days. We lived in a car. For three days. We ate in parking lots and people laughed at us. Out of 72 hours we had the car, we spent at least 68 in the car. Its all about the experience I guess.

Then came the train from hell. Yesterday we dropped of the car as soon as possible when we woke up and hopped on a train to Irun in Spain, just across the border. We had to wait for four hours in the train station and all we could find to eat was chips and pastries. It was brutal. Then we hopped on the train, which was really nice. Very clean and tonnes of leg room. We were excited. About 2 hours into the journey the train stopped, which was basically in the middle of nowhere. 45 minutes later we were informed the train would not be leaving for 2 more hours because it broke down. WHAT?!?!?!?!? NOOOOOO! At least they gave a free sandwich and drink for our troubles. We were supposed to arrive in Madrid at 10.30, we got there at like 1:30. We were tired and stressed. We had just slept in a car for three days and our spines were twisted into knots. We were in a new city and our hostel was far, no buses in sight and no taxi was willing to take 4 of us. It was an all time low. I would have paid 5 years salary to be at home in my bed, my little dogs sleeping by my feet. I guess we looked pathetic enough and a taxi driver finally took us to the hostel.

We got to the hostel at two, showered ( we were so greasy the water beaded off of us, like it would a ducks feather, and my hair was so greasy the shampoo didnt lather enough) and went to bed. The beds were awesome. It was like sleeping on a could. Wonderful . SLeep was not long enough though cause we had to be packed up and checked out by 11. Today in Madrid we went to two art museums, mostly paintings, and hung out in the parks. It was a good day. I love the Spanish, so friendly and full of life. In a few hours we will hop on a night train to Portugal. It should be an ok sleep, and Lisbon sounds like an awesome city! Our days look brighter.

Speaking of brighter, I think the train from hell last night tricked the rain clouds and they lost us, because today was a beautiful day. Blue skies and sunny. Hopefully they will take a long time to find us!

I Woke Up In A Car

So we did rent a car, for three days. Its lots of fun, but we feel poorer than ever. The first day we stopped at the french version of lilac resort and played mini golf. It was free cause we had to clean all the leaves off of the course. We tried to tent, but I went to the car in the middle of the night because I couldnt sleep on the cold ground. Eric was the only one who stayed in the tent. We visited Sarlat and some caveswith prehistoric paintings. We slept in the car last night, it was awful. But today we visited Carassonne, an amazing medivel city. Now we are back in Bordeaux and we are sleeping in the car again tonight. Rough. Tomorrow it is Espagna!

This keyboard sucks bad.

rain rain on my face, it hasnt stopped raining for days

Here is a little skit i wrote, i hope you like it:

Raincloud (somewhere over mexico): hey, the duecks are in bordeaux, i am going to head over there.

Wind: good idea, lets ruin their vacation. We had a nice day off while sun took our place yesterday while they were travelling, but its time to go back.

Raincloud: Race you there!

That is what we think happens nearly every day.

We are in Bordeaux for the next couple of days, and it is slightly warmer than Brussels, but still raining. We were thinking of renting a car and driving around then tenting at night, but it doesnt look like that will happen for a while now.

Sean and Joel have developed what we think is a deadly fungus on their feet, it is starting to get gangrenous (is that a word? i think so) It smells like a cross between the whisky shits and a rotten turkey, so they have gotten into the habit of sleeping with their feet in plastic bags, which i think only helps the fungus to culture, but at least they can get some sleep in fresher air.

Sean thinks his laundry bag may smell worse, but it hasnt stopped him from rewearing all of his socks and some of his underwear (Sean if you are reading this its time to do laundry buddy).

Sean seems to have the worst luck out of all of us, he has also developed a severe case of dysentry, and is drinking a daily concoction of water, salt and sugar to keep hydrated and his electrolytes up.

Joel, on the other hand, isnt getting enough food in him to even have anything in his bowels to move (Lu, what do you feed this kid at home? i think we should have an offering in church to help pay for your grocery bills. he has also told me that he doesnt have to mow the lawn at home ever, and that instead you do it. that seems a little backwards to me. i can talk to him about it if you want.) He drinks a lot of water to ward off the hunger, but he has lost about 40 lbs, which is quite a bit for a thin boy like Joel. I think i will start preparing him some gruel in the evenings so that the sound of his rumbling stomach (combined with the foot fungus) doesnt keep us all awake at night.

Well, thats all for now...

Bordeaux

Ok...we are all the way in Bordeaux and it is not very cool yet; This keyboard also sucks. I will post more when the keyboard is better.

Brussels is better than the veggies

This is going to be very short becase this keyboard is THE WORST. Even the period is out of place. WHO DOESNT USE THE PERIOD?? ARGH...

Anyways; there is not much to do in this city; but eat of course. I hade some more awesome waffles today and aldo very good chocolate! (this keyboard is so dumb you have to use shift for the nunbers, also while I am at it the aqwzm,;. are also out of place, there is a q where the a should be)

anyways, tommorow we are off to France... i really cant stand typing here...

Amsterdam Conversations

So Berlin was awesome. We left it with lots of things missed. It was also the coldest place so far, and we didn't really bring clothing for really cold weather. I know at home it is really cold, but at home you have warm homes and cars to be in. We are out in the cold all day. We went to the Berlin Zoo and it was AWESOME! We saw rhinos and pandas and gorillas and kangaroos and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. The penguins were awesome as well, they can swim wicked fast.

Then to Amsterdam. We only really did stuff yesterday and it was fun. First we went to the Anne Frank museum, its the house they hid in, and it was very cool. Then we went to the Van Gogh museum and saw like 200 of his paintings. He is definatly my favorite! Then we went to the house of Bol's, which is a liquer company. The smell and taste tests were cool, but it wasnt worth the admission price. We were quite cheesed the Heineken Experience is closed for renos so that was supposed to make up for it. Then we head to the Hemp and Marijuana Museum. It was interesting, but don't worry, there were no free samples. We all stayed clean and respectable.

Today we went to Madame Tassauds in Amsterdam, a wax museum. It was dissapointing. Not worth the money. We ate donairs for lunch and then headed to Brussels, Belguim. A nice shopowners let us use his phone and we quickly found our hostel. Eric and I forgot out Let's Go Europe in Amsterdam though, which really sucks. Hopefully we can find a new one somewhere.

After checking into the hostel, which took nearly 2 hours, felt like it at least, we went in search of food. It took forever to find a waffle van, but it was worth it. The waffles were AMAZING. Then we had fries, which were nothing special. The best fries in the world come from the red Smokies van across from my work. I have never had anything that amazing, in the pomme frites sence. That pretty much brings us to right now. I will probably go to sleep early because I am bored....I know its sad. I get bored easy.