Masterpieces (Or is it masterpi?)

I have been meaning to blog for a long time. Things keep happening in my life and I always think to myself, "I need to blog about this!" But then I get super busy (aka get on Pinterest) and never end up blogging. Maybe I should get rid of all those distractions... But that is a topic for another day. Today the topic is art. This topic has been on my heart for a long time now, and I feel like God has been hitting me over the head with it for seven months now, or there abouts. Maybe I'm just slow to catch onto things, and maybe everyone else has already figured this out in their lives, but I'm still super excited to write about it and share my thoughts. Kristi Fox and Russ Collins have been two of the instrumental people to talk about this topic in my life. Russ talked about this tonight at the Mission, so I figured I would procrastinate no longer and get to blogging. Enough introduction, let us begin.

Girls, this one is mainly for you. Gentlemen (if there are any of you that actually read this), I am sorry. This most definitely probably applies to your lives as well, but seeing as I am a girl, I can really only write from the girl perspective. So please forgive any bias.

Self-esteem. Self-worth. Self-love. These are things that we all struggle with at one point in our lives, or for our entire lives. As a girl, as a human, I know that it has been a huge issue in my life. I still struggle with it. I imagine I will never stop struggling with it. I know I am not the only one. I have spent a large part of my life comparing myself to others. I'm not as smart as she is. I'm not as funny as he is. My hair isn't as pretty as hers. I'm not beautiful like her. The whites of my eyes aren't as white as hers (yes, I legitimately thought that at one point in my life). So many comparisons, and I have only lived for 21.5 years! All of these comparisons led me to try harder to be everything; funny, pretty, smart, lovable, etc. Welp, let's just go ahead and say that the harder I tried, the harder I failed. You want to know why I failed? Because the standard I was basing my "success" off of was still other people! Crazy how that works, huh? I could look at other people and see perfection, but when I looked at myself I only saw flaws.

I always knew in my head that God loved me and that I was His child. So what. Right? WRONG! God loves me (and everyone) so much that He personally put me together, bit by bit. He knit me together just as He wanted me. He made me just as I am for a purpose in this life. "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago." - Ephesians 2:10 (NLT). Depending on which translation your read, we are his masterpieces, handiwork, or craftsmanship. No matter which word you choose, you are still carefully and intentionally put together the way that you are! God made you the way He did for a reason. He is going to use you for a very specific purpose that He already has in mind. He made David really accurate with a slingshot, look what God did with that. He made Zacchaeus pretty darn short, look how that turned out for him (we still talk about him today). I have a contagious laugh (some might just call it unique). To be honest, I find it annoying. It is one thing that I don't always like about myself. But God has used it to break down walls, brighten people's days, and make other people laugh. Whether they are laughing with me or at me is sometimes questionable. It is a gift God has given me, though, and I know He is going to continue using it.

Art is a process. Think of a painting. You start with a blank canvas and you slowly add things to it and transform it. That is what God is doing with us. He starts to form us and make us before we are even conceived. This is our base coat. He picks genes for us to express, decides our hair color, molds our bodies. As our lives go on, God continually adds to the masterpieces that are us. He adds layers, new colors, textures, and the beauty of the masterpiece continues to grow. To be honest, there are plenty of times when I don't feel like a masterpiece. There are things in my past that I look back on and think, "there is no way a masterpiece would have that/do that/think that/act that way." I don't think God ever intended for me to experience some of the things I have experienced nor do some of things I have done. But since we are sinful, humans often do things that God never wanted. When these things happen, God doesn't look at us and say, "Well there's go that masterpiece. Another one for the trash." It's at these points where I imagine Him being like Bob Ross (if you don't know who that is, see the link at the bottom). 'Oops, didn't mean for that to happen, let me make it into a bird'. He takes the mistakes we make or the pain in our lives and says, "I didn't intend for this to ever happen to my masterpiece, but I am going to take it and make it beautiful." We are constantly in the process of being transformed by God, yet He sees us as being perfect the way we are now. And He wants us to come to Him just as we are.

Masterpieces are things that artists are proud of. They describe them as perfection. They want to show them off to the world. That is how God feels about you. You don't have to be funnier, prettier, cooler, better at sports, etc. He gave you gifts, and He gave your neighbor other gifts. It is so easy for me to look at other people and think about just how precious they are. It was not until recently that I started trying to do that with myself. Sometimes, it takes a conscious effort not to fall back into my habit of comparison and I don't always succeed. It is hard when you know as many amazing people as I do. But what if we all started to try and see ourselves as precious and purposeful? I would love to see what a world like that looked like.

There are so many more things I feel like I could say on this topic, but it's a blog, and who wants to read an essay of a blog. Plus, it is late. And one thing that God certainly made in me is a love for sleep. So if you want to know any of my further views on this or what God is teaching me in this battle, just ask me. I love to talk.

Bob Ross video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA

Swimming in this Ocean

Hello, everyone! I am back on the blogging train. We will see how long this lasts this time, hahahaha. (Is it weird to say haha in a blog? Because I legitimately laughed). 

Anyways... This past weekend we took some of our Young Life kids on a ski trip called Wolf Weekend. We go up to Pagosa Springs and it is basically a weekend of Young Life camp mixed with skiing and snowboarding, aka awesomeness. We were blessed to have the musical talent of Tyson Motsenbocker. He is great, go check him out on iTunes (shameless plug). He sang us a song in which the last verse really resonated with me. I have heard the song before, in fact sang it before, but it never hit home like it did this time. The last verse goes like this: 

                                       "So open your eyes, you're alive.

                                        Another fine night in the ocean.

                                        Please don't cry, it's alright.

                                        You're always gonna be my darling."

If you have ever had the pleasure of having Tyson perform for you, chances are he has had you sing this verse with him. Not only is this verse simply beautiful, it also holds a lot of truth in it.

For those of you who do not know, I am in my last semester of undergrad at UNM. Yipee! Kinda... It is a terrifying time. I have always had an idea of what the next step in my life is going to be. This time, I have no clue. The real world is opening up in front of me, and it is a lot bigger than I ever imagined it to be. This is where the song comes back in. When Tyson was singing it, I just imagined Jesus saying it to me right now. 

My life is just like an ocean right now. There are waves, it is always changing, and there is so much unknown. I don't think I would be lying if I said that we all experience times like this in our lives. Yet, as scary as these times are, Jesus is right there with us. He calls us to open our eyes and experience each moment of our lives. Whether we are in a place where we want to be or not, Jesus has something for you in each phase of your life. If you are single or in a relationship, there are blessings in it. If you have your dream job or are unemployed, there are blessings in it. If you feel like your life is on track, there are definitely blessings in that. If you feel like you are in an incredibly different place than you ever imagined you would be, there are blessings in that. No matter where we are in life, God certainly has something for us to learn or enjoy. He created each season of life to be important and unique. So open your eyes and remember to live in the moment you are in. Your life isn't going to start once something happens, it already has started and it is progressing, whether you want it to or not. Even though it might be scary, I am going to try and keep my eyes open through this time in my life and see what God has put all around me. 

Darling. What a beautiful word. I don't know why, but this is one of the most endearing words to me. Just think, each one of us is Jesus's darling! We are darling to Him! (I am probably going to wear out this word soon) No matter how terrifying or unnerving your life may be right now, Jesus is telling you not to cry, because you are His darling and that is never going to change. He is going to comfort you and carry you through whatever. Nothing is too horrible for Him. I don't know about you, but this boggles my mind so much, yet brings me such an overwhelming sense of peace. I am ready to conquer the storms in my life knowing that I am dear to Jesus and He will always take care of me. 

I challenge you guys to treasure where you are in life and know that He will always love you.

My Friend's Story

My friend, Zach, has asked me to share his story with all of you. Please read his story with an open mind and respectful heart. He is a brave soul for baring his heart.

My Battle with Suicide

This past year many of us have had to deal with a suicide of someone we knew. The irreversible pain that it causes is simply devastating. I have decided to open up and tell my story dealing with depression/anxiety and nearly suicide. This story embarrasses me greatly, but I have decided to face it and tell the truth. I assume that this story will surprise most of you because I have hidden it very well. Most assume that I am a happy guy the majority of the time. My hope is that this story will bring a level of understanding to all of you and just maybe this could prevent another suicide. Many of you will disagree with me, but I hope that you will at least show respect.

The last 5 years I have battled anxiety and depression, with the last 3 years being incredibly difficult. I have on two occasions come close to ending my life and had it not been for the incredible support from family and friends, I would have. Now, here is the difficult part for me to understand. I have a good life and there is nothing in my past that would lead you to believe that I am depressed. I grew up in a very loving, middle class family; I have some of the best friends around; never have I had a substance abuse problem; and I never had trouble being social-Lord knows that. This, however, shouldn’t shock you. I guarantee all of you have a friend that is hiding depression/anxiety. It could be caused by a number of things, but it’s there.

My first year of college was the first time that my anxiety became difficult to conceal. There were days that I didn’t go to school because I was freaking out. That September, I became terrified to go to bed. I knew that there was a good chance that I would wake up in the middle of the night panicking. Most of those nights I would wake up sweating, nauseous, anxious, my heartbeat was a million beats per minute and I was convinced I was crazy. I felt so weak and for the first time in years I couldn’t help but cry.

I want you to notice something here, the anxiety hit before I attached a meaning to it. It wasn’t like I started worrying and than began to freak out over it; rather I freaked out and then found something to be worried about. I constantly worried about things that, honestly, were pretty ridiculous. I worried about my family and friends dying, I became convinced that I was going to die in a car accident (still am), I worried that nobody cared, and would even overanalyze everything people said just to make sure that I wasn’t missing something. There were two fears that I had about exposing my panic attacks, 1) People would think that I was weak or 2) People would think that I was crazy.

This went on for months before I finally broke. Going on little rest and high stress wore me down quickly. I finally told my parents, but I refused to go to the doctor. I didn’t want to be thought of as crazy and I sure as hell didn’t need somebody to talk about my problems. What would I tell him, “Well my family is great, school is good, friends are good, and yeah still not using any drugs?” Seemed to me like it was an absolute waste of time. My parents soon forced me to see a counselor, one that was not very sympathetic. He basically said, “Yeah it’s probably a little anxiety, but that’s to be expected at college.” Now that is not what I needed to hear; I was already worried about being seen as weak and here was a professional telling me to suck it up.

After a few more months of struggling, I finally went to the doctor and got put on some medicine. The medicine stopped the panic attacks, but it still didn’t bring me back to normal. Though the anxiety persisted, I always found a way to hide it and keep pushing foreword.

It wasn’t until this year that I finally broke down again. Same anxiety attacks, but this time I felt an incredible depression. It was unbearable and I can’t even describe to you how painful it was. I was a prisoner in my own body and yet again felt like I was loosing my mind. Honestly, if I could have traded it for physical pain I would have. It got so bad that I lost all hope of ever being “normal.” The depression and anxiety never went away, but sometimes faded to the background. I was floored again and unable to be productive. One night, out of the blue I decided the only way out was death. It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt the people around me, but I just wanted the pain to stop. At this point I will lose most of you reading. You will think how selfish Zach must be, after all didn’t he know how much he would hurt his friends and family? The answer to that question is a yes and no. At that moment, I didn’t think of anything but stopping the pain. I was in sort of a haze, which is hard to describe. I don’t really remember the night very well, but I remember moving my car into the garage and deciding the next morning I was going to wait until everybody left and then start the engine. The next morning when I came to, my friends and family were there. Apparently, I had called my uncle and he had warned everybody. They took me to the doctor and I decided to get some serious help. I started seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist, who worked on the medication and different coping methods.

Today, I am still fighting depression and anxiety. It has gotten much better though and I can go weeks without attacks from either. Then some weeks I get hit hard again and have to keep fighting. I still worry about what people think about me and I still sometimes think that I am crazy. Fight those thoughts though and get help.

Things I want you to take away

1)  Getting help is not weak, it’s responsible. I still wrestle with this problem, but remember if you need help then get it.

2)  Finding a counselor can be tough, but don’t stop looking until you find one that works.

3)  It will get better and never lose hope

4)  Lean on family and friends that you trust for a while.

5)  Depression and anxiety are usually a physical problem and so remember to get the medication you need. It’s no different than getting help for a broken leg.

6)  You are valuable and make sure that you just fight like crazy for that day.

7)  If your not suffering, make sure you are paying attention to your friends and making sure that they know you care.

I am not a counselor and I am not a psychologist. Nor, do I intend on taking their place. I will be here though if you ever need to talk. I will help you fight this because I know how tough it is. I also know that most people will not understand.

Let us create a community that overcomes the stigma of mental illness and suicide, so that we might be able to stop it before it occurs.

My email is zparks@unm.edu. Please don’t hesitate to email me. 

Risky Self-Control

This semester at the Mission we have been talking about the fruits of the Spirit. To be honest, I'd always read over them saying to myself, "Sure I'm good. I'm kind to people. Self-control? Well, we are struggle in some areas." Never had I really stopped to think about them. This past week we recapped all the fruits and reminisced on what stuck out to us. The one God really kept bringing to my mind was self-control. If you guys are anything like me, then self-control does not bring pleasant thoughts to your head. All the other fruits of the Spirit are nice and bring fuzzy feelings. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. And then there is self-control. Yes, of course we all know it is good to have. But why can't it be like the other ones? Those sound like more fun! I had always thought of self-control as a restraint. I will control myself and not eat that cookie. I will control myself and not lash out at the car that just cut me off. Well luckily for you and me, Jamie Collins is full of wonderful wisdom.

Jamie spoke about self-control last week, and it changed my whole view of it. Basically, self-control is not just restraint. It is much more than that. Self-control is willing yourself to go out of your comfort zone. Think about it! How easy is it to stay in your little bubble doing what you've always done? Jesus, however, doesn't call us to stay in our comfort zone. He never stayed in a place I would have called comfortable. We are to go outside of ourselves and love others, just as Jesus did. The best part about this is, God will provide opportunities for you to do this. He's not going to make you look far for them. Most of the time, He'll hit you over the head with them. Have you ever looked at someone's life and thought, "man, they are really living an adventurous life for Christ?" Ten bucks says it is because they take advantage of those opportunities.

You guys might be wondering why I called this post "Risky Self-Control." Or maybe you're not, but bear with me anyways. If you know me well enough, then you know this about me. If you don't know me that well, I'm going to tell you right now. I like risks. Or at least I think I do. I guess it's safer to say I like controlled risks. Risks in which I may have some control over the situation or the outcome. Risks which in some way, shape, or form have always been part of my life plan. Travel to Europe by myself? That's risky. Risky enough that I had planned on doing it since I was a kid. Go cliff jumping? Only if I know there aren't rocks and the water is deep enough. Calculated risks. I calculate every risk so much that I might not take them. If it wasn't in the plan or I'm not sure everything will be fine, I don't do it.

What kind of life is that to live? I was listening to K-Love the other night and they threw out this statistic about doing life again. I don't remember the exact number, but is was basically that a ton of people in their 80's and 90's said that if they could do life over again, the one thing they would do differently is take more risks. Well heck, why don't we take their advice? Let us all self-control ourselves to go out of our comfort zones and take risks! See someone that needs help but it would be easy to pass them by? Take the risk of going out of your comfort zone and help them. Love people! Don't think about it, just do it. Exercise self-control and do what Jesus did. Here is where the worry comes in. We love control. We all want to control our lives. It is our sinful nature. But that is a whole different blog post.

To finish this one up, let's all look at our lives. I know I have opportunities in my life that God has placed there. I also know that in an effort to live an awesome life for Christ I go looking for situations to put myself in where I can love people. Those never seem to work. Oswalt Chambers said, "We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work." God will put us in situations where we are able to serve Him by loving people. And we are just to self-control ourselves to go into those situations and love people. Take risks to follow God. He will provide.

The Reason and Spirit

 So the whole reason I called my blog 'Everyday Blessings' is because I had always wanted to have a blog just reflecting on everything God does for us everyday. I wholeheartedly believe that He blesses us everyday, even in the smallest things. However, I never had the motivation to blog until I went to Italy. And then I lost the motivation once I got back. But now, I'm getting back into it. So here goes nothing...

One of the biggest blessings in my life is The Mission House and the group of people that make it up. It is amazing to have a group of people in my life that I can call on at any time for prayer or advice. Each person from there brings something different to the table. It is just an amazing representation of the body of Christ and how we all serve a purpose. Twice a month, an amazing lady named Katie Swaim gets a group of us girls together for a bible study. We are currently going through the gospel of Luke. I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love doing bible studies with other people. Yes, I love reading the bible by myself too, but there is something so incredible about doing it with other people. My favorite part is being able to see how God speaks to us all differently and reveals different things about His Word to each of us. When we start talking about a passage, it is like we are a pinball machine. We bounce ideas off of each other and get everyone's perspective. I have never felt like I have unpacked a bible verse as much as I do when I am with these girls. We can spend an hour talking about just several verses.

Several weeks ago our conversation led us to come up with a list of steps of what to do when you reach a rough patch in your life. We all have rough patches. Even if we are following God's path. He uses those rough patches to refine and polish us. So below is what we came up with. I typed it up that day and am just copying it now because I am lazy...

So today in bible study we were discussing Mary and her journey to Bethlehem. We often look at Mary and see her faithfulness and willingness to be used by God. She immediately accepts the fact that she will be carrying the Messiah and she submits to God. The next thing we know she is treasuring all the things about her baby boy. But what about what happens in between these two points? Was her journey perfectly smooth? I think we can all agree that it was probably not. She probably faced much ridicule and rejection being pregnant without being married. Traveling over 80 miles on the back of a donkey while being extremely pregnant doesn’t sound like a piece of cake either. Pregnancy itself does not seem easy, especially in those times. And yet, she kept on going. I can only guess that she doubted and wondered why God had her go through this. That is natural. In my own life, I get caught up in the idea that when I am on God’s path for me that it will be easy. There will be rough patches in our walks with Christ, even if we are on the correct path. God loves us too much for it not to be easy! He uses those times to teach us and mold us and draw us closer to himself. So what do we do when we come to those rough patches in our walks? Katie, Nina, and I came up with this list of things to do in order to check that we are where God wants us to be and to help us persevere. I did take some creative liberty so that it would make the acronym SPIRIT.

S- Stop! When things get messy or hard, negative thoughts start to flood our head. We are filled with doubts and worry. We need to take some time to stop those. This can be physically stopping what you are doing or simply just stopping your thoughts. We are called to focus on God in the tough times, and often times this requires us to silence our mind and still our hearts.

·      “Be still, and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10

P- Pray and listen. What more could God want than for you to come to Him with your worries? He sent Jesus so we could communicate with Him. Why not use this gift? When we pray, however, we must pray honestly. God knows every depth of our heart, so why do we need to pray honestly? When we are honest with God, we are forced to be honest with ourselves. This can reveal deep doubts that we have. When we admit these doubts to ourselves and to God, that is when He can start to work on them. What good is praying if we do not listen? A relationship is two-sided. God will respond to your prayer, you just have to find how He speaks to you and listen.

·      “Call to me and I will answer you. And show you great and mighty things which you do not know.” – Jeremiah 33:3

I- Identify doubts honestly. When we come to rocky points in our lives, doubts arise. Once we start to pinpoint what we doubt, then we can work through those doubts. Doubting is sometimes viewed as weakness. However, when doubts are brought to light and then worked through, that is where strength in our beliefs comes from. We are never alone in doubting. All have doubted something at some point, even Peter doubted God’s power when he was walking on water.

·      “He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?’” – Luke 24:38

R- Remind yourself of God’s promises. The bible is full of promises that God makes to his people. He promises to never leave us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrew 13:5). He promises to fight for us (Exodus 14:14). He promises to work for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Just to name a few. These promises still reign true for us today. He provides us with these promises to help us combat doubts and guide us through rough times. God is the most faithful friend you could want. He will not back out on promises.

·      “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” – Deuteronomy 7:9

I- Invite the counsel of others. God calls us to be in fellowship with other believers. And this is one of the many reasons why. When life gets rough and doubts fill our minds, it is useful to get an outsiders perspective. They can point out our doubts and show us truths. They can give us wisdom. They can also walk with us through the hard time and be a physical representation of God in that manner. God can also speak to us through other people. When we invite the counsel of others, we are opening doors to vast pools of wisdom that others possess. God gives wisdom generously to those who ask, but He often uses others to provide us the wisdom.

·      “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17

T- Take a step out in faith. God will always guide us in life, but there are many times when that guidance requires us to take a step to follow Him. We cannot expect God to do everything for us. It is said that He opens doors for us, but He cannot make us cross that threshold. When we face trials in our lives, we must rely on God to move the insurmountable obstacles out of the way, but then He will nudge us to step towards Him. Most times, we have no idea what will come from taking a step of faith. We cannot see God’s path for us at the time we do it, but once we step, He reveals some of the path to us. In our trials, we can look back on other times in our lives when we took a step of faith and see what God did in those situations. We can see how God showed up then, just like He will show up each time we take a step of faith.

·      “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7

Land of the Vikings... Or trolls

After leaving Germany, I headed up to Oslo, Norway. Yes, a bit random, but I have a wonderful friend there, Cait Kipp. I've realized that going to see friends in foreign countries is about ten times better than going to somewhere where you know no one. The first perk is that they pick you up from the airport. Score! It's a lot nicer looking for a friendly face at the airport than a sign that tells you how to get to the bus. The second perk of going to foreign countries to see friends, they live in cool places. Cait's family has a cabin right up the hill from a fjord. Cabin in the Norwegian country side with a beautiful view of a fjord or a hostel? Isn't a hard choice if you ask me. Probably the best thing about the cabin, I had a bed! An actual bed! With a mattress! And a pillow! I even had a big, fluffy towel, which really topped my little dinky camping towel. Oh it really is the little things in life that make it worth living. I hope I will never take a bed for granted again. They are amazing things.

Cait, like the rest of us college folk in Europe, is taking classes for the summer. So I was blessed enough to go to class with her the next day. Hence why I said in a previous post that I had to go to class. It was actually fascinating sitting in on a Norwegian language class. I did not understand a word, but it certainly sounded cool. Though while I was sitting there, I was thinking about how hard it was to get around in Germany not speaking any German, and now Norway without speaking any Norwegian. At least in Italy I could kind of understand things, thanks to knowing another romance language. But in these countries, I was completely lost. All I kept saying to myself was, darn those babylonians. Language can be quite a barrier, but at least with good acting and charades skills, you can get around. After the language class we went to Cait's culture class. Who knew you could listen to an hour and a half lecture on Norwegian music? I do have to admit though, I did not know that A-ha was from Norway. I guess you do learn something new everyday.

After three hours of language class and an hour and a half of Norwegian culture class, I was starting to feel a little Norse myself. We went shopping in downtown Oslo. Norwegian fashion is awesome, but I have to say that my favorite store was a souvenir shop full of troll things! Apparently trolls are huge in Norwegian legends. And they are everywhere. I would have bought the whole shop if I could. But it was a tourist shop, so sadly things were a bit expensive. But this is when I decided that Norway should not be the land of the vikings, but the land of the trolls instead.

The next day I got to go to Cait's language class again, and this time I actually got some of it. I can understand some pronouns and random verbs. I was quite proud. Afterwards we got to be tourists and get on a tour bus! They are becoming some of my favorite things, I think. We stopped at Viegland's garden, which is basically a huge park full or statues by a guy named Viegland. They were really neat looking, that's for sure. For some reason, the most famous one is of a grumpy little baby boy stomping his feet and screaming. Why you might ask? No one knows. People just tend to like to steal him and touch his hand. Rather odd if you ask me. On the rest of our tour we got to drive by the Viking ship museum and the opera house where Justin Bieber performed. I can admit it, I have Bieber fever. And I have really high hopes for the Viking ship museum and I really want to go there someday and hopefully not be let down. How cool would it be to see the viking ships?!?!?! I think it'd be awesome.

Something else that I'm doing when I go back to Norway, and yes, that is a when and not if, is swim in a fjord. This time I only got to dip my feet in, but next time, I'm going all out. The fjords are beautiful, along with the rest of Norway. It is definitely something that everyone should see. So go do it.

My trip to Norway was way too short, which is why I need to go back again. But I guess when you're doing a euro tour, you can't stay in every place for a long time.

Motherland #2

So I left my last post off with saying something about the Pisa airport. So the story is that Veronica and I had to catch an early flight, and there were no trains that got to the airport early enough. So we took the latest one to the airport and spent the night outside. Thankfully the pisa airport has lovely grassy areas right outside. And we weren't the only ones with this idea. There were probably about fifty backpackers doing the same thing. As hot as Italy is though, it gets quite cold at night. And wet. The sprinklers decided to come on. That was fun. The happy ending to this story is that we got on our flight and made it up to Germany.

We landed in hamburg, so naturally we had to have a hamburger. The only burger joint we could find though was McDonald's. But we settled for it. As sad as I am to say it, McDonald's is McDonald's no matter what country you're in. The burgers taste just about the same. Though in germany they do offer America's three biggest big macs yet. I personally have never heard of these before. Who knew America had come up with a way to make he big Mac worse for you. And my question is, why isn't this being offered to Americans? Don't get all excited or anything, I did not try one. I stuck with the dollar menu. I'm happy that is universal.

After our culinary adventures, we caught a train up to braunschweig to see my friend, Kate Rooney. There isn't much to say about Braunschweig except that it's Germany and I love if. Also their shopping mall is a palace. Literally. They took a palace and turned it into a shopping mall. It was huge! I do have to say that my favorite part of Braunschweig was sleeping. Kate was kind enough to let us crash in her dorm room. This was like a four star hotel compared to the Pisa airport. Veronica and I even got to sleep on a blanket on the ground! That sounds horrible on paper, but it felt magical after the last night we had. I was as happy as a hungry puppy with a bone.

It is so interesting to get to see how other students studying abroad are living. It opens your eyes even more than just doing your own study abroad program. Just a little thought.

One day whilst frolicking around Germany, Veronica and I ended up in Hannover. Seeing as we had no idea what was in Hannover we ended up just wandering around. We stumbled upon this church, of course. I know I always talk about churches, but they're everywhere and I think they're so cool! This church was certainly like no church I'd seen in Italy or before for that matter. There were knights fighting dragons and skeletons carved all over the outside. I'd love to know the history behind this. Norse roots perhaps? If you know, please inform me. Well inside I finally got the answer I had been looking for about the resurrection thing. In the front of this church was this huge art thing, I don't know the proper name for it. But it finally had the resurrection! It went through the passion and the resurrection. I was a bit excited.

Well the next day was my last day in Germany, regrettably. But I was fortunate to spend it in Berlin. I love Berlin. Don't get me wrong, I like the renaissance and medieval history that is all over Italy, but war history is so much cooler to me! In my typical style, I did not have a plan at all going to Berlin, and so I ended up wandering around. Though this time, I bought a map. I walked around a bit, but got tired of walking in the rain, so I hopped on a bus to dry off for a bit. Here's a tourist tip for you all. If you are ever in Berlin, take the bus 100. It goes by all of the main sites and it is only a city bus. That way you don't have to pay for a tour bus. Granted, I did get a little lost trying to find checkpoint charlie. I had just given up and was heading back to the subway station when I looked up at saw a bus stop called checkpoint. I looked to my right, and what do you know, Checkpoint Charlie was right there! Thank God, literally. Because I finally found that I also got to see the Berlin wall, or what remains of it. It's really mind opening to read all about East Berlin and the terrors that went on there. Went right along with the rainy weather. I finished my tour of Berlin with seeing the Brandenburg gates and Tiergarten. And with that I had to catch a train to the airport. Thankfully I made it to the right airport. There are like five airports in Berlin and my boarding pass did not say which one I was supposed to go to. Talk about being a little stressed while traveling. And with that I said goodbye to the second land of my ancestors.