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| Almost 5 months since my last entry, huh? Wow...I would like to start blogging again. I just need to find the inspiration and the time...
On this day almost 2000 years ago, Mary found an empty tomb where my Lord Jesus Christ had been buried three days earlier. By the same power that He raised Himself from the dead, He lived a perfect life on earth, died on the cross, and has taken the punishment for all my sins. Whoever believes in Him will not die, but have everlasting life. He is risen!
What else is there to say?
I praise God for His blessings, His power, and for my eternal life in Him.
He is risen indeed!
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Poland
= awesome.
I went this weekend with several friends. “Several” meaning
18. Actually, they all work on base, but I didn’t meet many of them until this
weekend. But me and 4 of my closest friends here were together for the whole
time and we had quite the adventure…
The trip started poorly. We left Thursday night, and on the
way up there was a huge wreck like 5 cars in front of us on the Autobahn, so
our 1 hour drive to the airport turned into a 3 hour drive and we missed our
flight. Not the end of the world except that we were flying a discount airline
(Jet Blue equivalent…kind of) and the next flight wasn’t until Sunday. So
rather than give up and go home, we decided to take a train to Poland (which
was actually more expensive than the plane! 107 euro one way as opposed to 75
euro round trip. We drove over to the other airport/train station and found out
that the next train left at 4:30 am and took 15 hours to get to Krakow…It was
after midnight by then, so obviously at that point we weren’t going to bed, so
we wandered around downtown Frankfurt trying to find a club or something to do.
Nothing happening at all, so we ended up in a Turkish fast food restaurant/bar
and hung out there all night. Then it was off to the train station for a very
long ride. The train ride ended up being pretty cool. It would have been nice
to know in advance that we were going to take it so we could have brought food,
drinks, cards, and reading material, but it wasn’t too bad. It was really
interesting to travel through Eastern Germany and Poland and see the progression from
the rolling green hills and cute German towns to the flat, barren,
industrialized Eastern Bloc. Many of the towns in Poland looked like WWII was
yesterday instead of 60 years ago.
So instead of getting to Poland on Thursday night, we
arrived at 8 on Friday night and made it to the hostel by 9. We dropped off our
stuff, took a much needed shower, and headed out to dinner since our 5 minute
transfers at the train stations hadn’t allowed us to eat since 9 that morning.
We could have bought food to take with us then, but didn’t realize that there
wouldn’t be food available on the rest of the trains (there was a dining car on
the first one we took). The food in Poland was pretty interesting. I
liked it, but then again I like anything edible. A lot of the people weren’t a
fan of the true Polish food, so we ate a lot of Turkish stuff instead. After
dinner we (the 5 of us) went to a club that had been recommended by the girl at
the front desk of the hostel. In fact she said that she would be there. It was
fun, but pretty weird. It was like this Polish punk club with a very strange
clientele. We would have left except that one of my friends decided that the
girl from the hostel was really cute, so like good wingmen, we hung out and let
him do his thing.
The next day we woke up early to tour the concentration
camps at Auschwitz and Berkenau. What a
sobering experience. I didn’t know a whole lot about them, but now that I know
a little I feel guilty for not knowing much much more. The stuff that went on
was just unreal. We walked through the gas chamber and you could see the fingernail
marks on the wall and stuff. Unreal…There were moments when I just wanted to
run as fast and far as I could and pretend that it never happened. That so many
people (1.6 million between the two camps) hadn’t been treated in ways that we
don’t even treat insects. I get shivers just thinking about it.
Anyways, that night we wandered around the city for a while,
ate some more Polish stuff (Perogis for me!), and found another club. This one
was much better. Much much better. About 15 of us went and I had such a great
time. It was funny – after a while, everyone in the club started imitating us.
As long as the Americans were doing it, the locals would too. This includes
screaming “I like…High five” in your best Borat accent and giving high fives in
the middle of the dance floor. Hilarious.
We didn’t get to bed until after 5, so the next day we slept
in and then had time for a couple hours of shopping before catching the bus
back to the airport. Unlike most European countries, Poland is way cheap. Coming back
ended up being a little exciting too. There were some problems with the bus
from Krakow to the airport in Katowice,
and we barely made the plane. Then since we had caught the train out of
Frankfurt and caught the return flight to Hahn (where were supposed to fly out
of) we had to rent a car and drive to Frankfurt
before we could even come home.
So many more stories from the trip, but I’m pretty much
tired of typing. What an awesome city/country, though. I’m going back sometime.
Soon hopefully. Our next trip is the famous Christmas Market in Nurnberg
sometime in December and then Amsterdam
for New Years. I can’t wait! | | |
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These are bad pictures of Aimee and I but they're pretty much all I have. We're officially "dating" as of about 2 weeks ago, although we've know each other for over 3 months and have been close ever since the first day. I waited this long to say anything because for the first couple months I had no clue what was going on or what I wanted and and I didn't feel like answering a bunch of questions :) Some of you know that I was quite opposed to the idea of trying another long distance relationship (hence me having no clue what was going on or what I wanted), but she surprised me. If anyone wants more details of how we met or why I'm willing to date someone in Colorado I'm more than happy to give them. I just don't really feel like putting them on the internet...
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| Bleah...I forgot how long 13 hour work days are and how stressful my job is! And how hard it is to come home to a super energetic dog when all you want to do is crash on the couch. I'm still really happy to be back home, though :) With any luck I'll have time tomorrow or Sunday to write another post during work. Weekends aren't usually too busy, but I still have to be there.
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| Yet again, I've fallen off the face of the xanga planet...It's one of those downhill spiral things. After I go a couple weeks without updating, it's like "well, what's one more week?" But I'm back now! We'll see how long it lasts ;) I'm back from the states now after 3 1/2 months. I got my dog this morning which is way way exciting! I was so happy to see him and he seemed equally thrilled to see me, so that was fun :) The lady at the kennel couldn't stop telling me how great he was. She
was impressed that he knew me since I was gone for so long. She said
usually when people are gone that long it takes a while for the dog to
warm back up to them. She was like "I see so many dogs that I don't
immediately fall in love with them very often. But the first time I
looked into Rocky's eyes I fell in love." And then she rambled on for
like 5 more minutes about how sweet he was. It made me really happy to
hear that he was so well behaved and had such a good time! She said her
son doesn't usually play with the dogs, but was out playing frisbee
with Rocky almost every day. And I guess he made a bunch of doggy
friends too :) Enough about my dog, but I'm so relieved that leaving him for so long didn't permanently scar him or anything!!
I got in yesterday and last night was a going away party for 3 people of the office, 2 of who I knew really well. I thought about skipping it because I was really tired when I got home.
I went straight from the airport to work to pick up my car. I stopped
in, said hi to my new boss, cleared the 10000 e-mails out of my
"deleted items" folder, did a couple other little errands like checking
my mail, and got home about 1. At that point I knew I would be sleeping
and then at the party, so I decided to let Rocky spend one more night
in the kennel since I wouldn't be around anyways. I went to bed about
2:30, woke up at 5 and was really really tired and grumpy. But I
decided to go anyways, and I'm so glad I did!!! It was great. I sat
with 2 of the 3 people who were going away (the 2 I knew) and a couple other people, including my new boss. We had a great time and it was really nice to
get to know Major Reburn in a social setting first. We had chatted for
like 3 minutes earlier that day, but it was all work stuff. He's so
cool! Super super chill, really nice, really easy to get along with,
and hilarious. We got along great :) It was really cool, too - Capt Gladden was one of the ones leaving. He trained me in my current job and in the 2 months I spent with him, I learned so much! I really look up to him as a professional role model in every sense of the word. Anyway, as
everyone was leaving and saying goodbye and stuff, Capt Gladden pulled
me aside. He basically said that he wanted to tell me personally how
impressed he was with me. He had a bunch of really nice compliments for me and wanted to make sure I wasn't thinking about getting out of the Air Force any time soon (the Air Force has way too many young officers in my career field, so it'd be really easy to leave). I respect him and his opinion a ton, so it was nice to hear that he appreciates the way I work too!
Hmm, here's a random story about my favorite quote from my time in Mississippi (I was reminded of it today somehow, which is why I'm thinking about it). I'm not sure how many people will appreciate it - it might be one of those things that you had to be there, but I thought it was good :) So my class is on a break, all standing around watching Fox News. A story comes on about Bill Clinton and a kid in my class says "didn't I hear that he was recently diagnosed with mental problems? Isn't he going crazy now?" I, being in a room full of military who are vastly conservative, blurt out "hasn't he always been?" It wasn't terribly funny or clever, but it drew a pretty impressive reaction from a couple girls in my class who got upset and stormed out of the room. I felt kind of bad and apologized for offending them. Lesson learned about making assumptions. Just because someone is in the military doesn't mean that they dislike the former President as much as I do. Anyways, fast forward a couple days when somehow the story has gotten around class. Everyone knew about my comment and their reaction. We're sitting there in class wondering why the mascot for the school is the Mad Ducks. Our teacher starts telling the story of how someone put it on the ballot as a joke and enough people voted for it as a joke that it won and now they're stuck with it. She finishes the story and without missing a beat a guy in the class says "well, isn't that how President Clinton was elected too?" Everyone laughed and immediately turned to look at the two girls who were, of course, fuming. Everyone then turned back to look at the guy who said it and he's staring right at the girls too, with this ridiculous grin on his face. He's about 40 years old, and just doesn't care what other people think. Anyways, his quote was great, but the fact that he said it solely to get a rise out of the girls made it a classic ECOT moment :)
And thus ends my random story and this blog...
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