lower case g
Sunday, September 30, 2007
this week in seattle: i learn what layers are, and my errors continuethis week i had to convince people that i'm not always as scatter brained as i have appeared in the last few weeks (although there is always a little bit of it going on in my life)
it did not help when i had to play the "where are you game"
with my keys
thankfully i did find them... but not after a full day of searching and having to make sure i could get back into my house and office
also late fall/winter is starting to set in here in the northwest and that means bad things for my coffee/tea drinking habits- this mug is now permanently attached to my cold hands
along with the changing weather, i have learned that the way to survive seattle winters is to layer your clothing and wear fleece... wahoo! now if i could only make my layers match with each other :S oh well who ever said matching was important anywaybesides constantly loosing things and being generally confused as to the line between working and not working (when you are supposed to hang out with people as work it is a bit difficult to discern the difference) i have been slowly but surely finding my place here. i am getting to know more people (which is wonderful!) and i've started work on a 4 week old testament survey class for church (SO fun). i'm also working with the church's outreach area. this weeks goal: get to know the service providers that already exist in the neighbourhood.
Monday, September 24, 2007
this week in seattle (2 days late): a comedy of erro-rsthese are some of the things i have managed to do in the last week:
-left my wallet at a cafe- this story has a happy ending though. someone at the zeitgeist coffee shop (what a name eh?) was feeling particularly kind and returned my wallet to the counter. also, on my way back to retrieve it (and while i was feeling particularly panicked) i ran into ben katt who works at sanctuary and we had lunch together. so in the end... my absent mindedness ended in a pleasant lunch. moral of the story is seattle is smaller then you think... but it is still not a good feeling to think you have lost your wallet thousands of miles from the michigan offices you would need to replace things that are inside it.
-left my keys in the door to the house i'm staying. we found them in the morning when we left the house. oops!
-left the coffee pot on and boiled the coffee dry (if you have done this before you know that the smell is not pretty)
-burned spagetti to the point that cleaning the pan was a little bit difficult
-spilled indian food all over myself
-right now i am learning how to steam milk for coffee... and in the process of learning i keep forgetting which way to turn the knob so that the steamer turns off. one time i had a particularly hard time remembering... so much so that milk exploded all over me and the coffee station i was working... hehe... sorry to whoever has to get coffee that i have made. i apologize in advance
-spilled coffee all over the fabric of faithfulness which i suppose fits because it focuses on learning how to connect belief and behaviour while in university... i drank a lot of coffee during that period of my life (although it has not really lessened in the past month... hint to coffee addicts: do not move to seattle if you want to stop drinking coffee! not only is it more available here it is better!!!)
-after spilling coffee on my book (sad) i lost it (sadder) which means that my attempts to find faithfulness were thwarted for at least 3 days while i searched for my beloved coffee stained book. i did find it (which made me very happy!!!)
to all who still read this: HAPPY MONDAY
Sunday, September 16, 2007
this week in seattle: first-year memories rise againactivity number 1: meeting new people and connecting names with faces has become a renewed past-time this week. i have learned the excitement (once again) of remembering someone's name...
activity number 2: burning spaghetti. yes, that is right... for those of you who know the disaster that was my spaghetti experience in dorm 15, tonight i repeated the feat (which i am embarrassed to admit... maybe italian is not a cuisine i should pursue) although this time there was less damage to myself and the walls.
activity number 3: cultural acclimation. although this is opposite, it was from american to canadian culture and now i am adjusting the other way around. the nice thing is that i already know amercianize... although i miss saying first year, second year, grade 10, etc... i also miss hearing about the temperature in celcius.
activity number 4: getting lost (sort-of). i tried to get to a bike shop without looking up the directions... apparently there was an important turn that i missed; however, i did turn down another street randomly and ended up right where i was supposed to be... a surprising yet good way to learn 2 different ways to get to the bike shop.
it has been a good week. my work at the green bean (a coffee shop has started) which has quickly become some of my favourite times of the week. the bean, which is about three years old used to be a bar where drug deals took place, now it is a place of community and coffee (yum). kind of reminds me of the the following quote:
In creating or changing a public space, small improvements help to garner support along the way to the end result. They indicate visible change and show that someone is in charge. Petunias, which are low cost and easy to plant, have an immediate visible impact. On the other hand, once planted, they must be watered and cared for. Therefore, these flowers give a clear message that someone must be looking after the space (Kathleen Madden, How to Turn a Place Around,).
the only difference is there are no patunias... mostly because the people that work there, like myself, have a hard time keeping things alive... but in place of patunias there is coffee and some wonderful people...
Thursday, September 13, 2007
happy and sadtoday i am happy because i am a proud owner of this:
but i am sad because all the books i want to read are apparently very popular and i have been put onto massively long waiting lists (although this may just be the result of trying to reinvigorate my love for novels. i did check the theology section... all intact and ready to be taken out:)
also... i am quite excited that the library is a 3 min. walk from work!!!!
Saturday, September 08, 2007
this week in seattle: dutch neocalvinist meets a lack of schedualemy arrival on tuesday was met with some fantastic pacific northwest rainfall which was actually a bit colder then i expected. oh well it's been sunny every other day so far. shortly after my arrival randy (the lead pastor of sanctuary crc) picked me up and gave me a fast and furious orientation to seattle as well as a tasty soup lunch (no matter how much soup i have i still love it... the world needs more soup i say!)
my first week has been filled with getting to know the bus system, finding the best and prettiest way to walk to work, meeting many new people, having a good time touring around the city with someone from the church (torrey), and figuring out how i will fit in here. it has been both busy and not so busy at the same time i.e. a lot of free time... hence the dutch work ethic in me going crazy over not having a list the size of my arm to do... but people keep encouraging me to take time and enjoy the rest (ha, easier said then done ;) i am hopeful though, maybe this year i will take the time to learn how to read slowly and not in a rushed manor.
and that is the end of this edition (with hopefully more in store) of "this week in seattle" where there are actually cafes everywhere! yum... coffee!!!
Thursday, September 06, 2007
resting......is not one of my talents
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
the journey continues...west...and finally an update... this time from the west and rainy coast of the u.s./land of the green money that i'm having a hard time getting used to again
hello to anyone who still checks this blog. you are more faithful then i have been in the past few months. anyway, i had a wonderful trip across the country by train... which i highly recommend to anyone who enjoys scenery and can stand a few strange meetings with random people.
here are a few photo highlights (i did not take many on the account of i thought it might look strange to take lots of pictures of myself with the camera on my comp.)
this is how i spent most of my waking hours... creation is beautiful... particularly mountains!!
this represents the morning/afternoon of the second day of my journey. note how red hot the side of my face is... yes that is right... i spent a long while in the sun being very warm... but on the plus side i had a whole seat to myself on the second day and i was able to access one of the train car's two outlets.
this is mid-afternoon on the second day when i became a bit blitzed and tired... i decided to listen to the magician's nephew on "tape" which i had made sure to bring along. it was a good decision.
this is how i felt when i finally arrived in seattle. (it is also how i felt when we went through glacier national park and the cascades) where i was greeted by the head pastor, and showed around town. i also arrived in my new home for the year and got (sort of) settled in.
this is my most recent felling... perhaps the time change is catching up with me after all!
until next time, this is gayle... in the middle of an adventure filled with fun, drizzle, and strange reminders that she is not in canada any more.
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