My Hair... oh what a process!! :)

The Long And Arduous Process.... that is my hair :)

Pre-DTS: Nice and brown.... untouched by purple/pink :)

Pre DTS: Oops! How did THAT happen?! :) Purple hair turned fushia... twice!
Albania: I had my hair braided on outreach by one of our wonderful Carribean YWAMers! It took a little over 2 hours to do it all!

Just before coming home, I hair-sprayed my hair red... BIG mistake... the red didn't come out for weeks because I couldn't get it out with braids.

Post DTS:Wow! Poof-mama! It took two hours to take all this hair out of the braids, and it felt really strange to scratch my head again!

Wow! I actually washed my hair... :( After 3 1/2 months of no shampoo or conditioner, I finally gave in... that silly red stuff just would not come out!!

Home now....

I've been meaning to send out one of those “I’m home” email... due to a variety of excuses both creative and lame, I haven’t gotten around to it. I have to say though, it is fun to surprise people and say "I'm home!!" but maybe our flourishing "grapevine" in my community isn't the BEST way to get the news across :) Re-adjusting is going okay... somehow though, I've managed to make myself extremely busy once again- but I'm trying hard not to continue... today I stayed in bed until 1!!! After experiencing "delayed-jetlag" (probably due to the fact that I have only gone to bed before 12 once since coming home), I decided I needed it. Actually, the general consensus around these parts is shock at how good I'm doing... not much culture shock. lol... maybe that means I'm "cut-out-for-it" as Mom said, but I like to think it's the grace of God (really it's that either way). I am realizing how much of a sacrifice it's going to be to keep up on my relationships- both with God and DTS friends... I'm afraid both have kind of been put on the "I'm-tired-and-can't-be-bothered" back burner. Accountability, anyone?!? – Definitely a hard thing about not living in that tight Holmsted Community! Well, this was a bit over a one-liner, and definitely not as long as it should be, but oh well! :) God bless!!

A few Musings from Finland

So I've been thinking about how small this world is- It's so weird to think that a friend from DTS is home in hot, HOT Hawaii, and I'm here in snowy Finland, when just a few days ago we were together in mediocre rainy weather!! :) (okay, maybe not that bad....) Here at Iina's house in Finland, there's not as much as I expected, but still- snow is snow.... and it seems to keep snowing, but only enough to keep it on the ground and about a foot high maybe.... well, maybe a foot and a half...
Iina's family is so nice - she has older siblings, but only her mother and father live with her. Her Mom speaks some English and is ADORABLE when she uses it.... such a thick accent! lol....and her Dad can say "Hello" and that's about it :) So far, I've learned a few words, and, apparently, have a gift for repeating words just like they're said to me - one of the funniest instances of this was when we sat down to dinner and I asked what the Finnish word was for what we were eating (it was like casserole) and when the response was "Makaroonilaatikko" I repeated it perfectly on my first try - which prompted lots of laughs and shock..... :) It's a lot of fun!
Yesterday we went to the capital of Helsinki - I saw the ocean; frozen!!!! (well, the sea anyhow...) It was soooo sooooo cold there- there's a lot of wind that comes off the sea. But it was fun- we went shopping, and I actually got something! :)
I'm here in Finland until the 5th of March... so I'm sure I will have lots more to write about soon.
I'm still not sure of my plans for when I go back to England... I have a few invitations and ideas, but they all take money and they would all probably be fun (oh such a dilemma, I have to chose from too many wonderful things! lol.... I really am so blessed!). I need to decide soon though! Welcome to semi-adulthood, LeAnna!
Here's a thought to leave you on.... at what point to people become adults? In Finland, the idea is apparently much, much different than the US, and it's been the topic of Iina and I's closest thing to an argument! Wow... interesting. I would love to hear any musings on this!

YFG... Dreamcasting

I had a chat with the girl, Cherry, who coordinates Year for God... the program is like a year-long DTS. I initially wanted to do that instead of just a 6 month one. Cherry’s trying to find (well, praying to find, anyways...) a replacement. Listening to her talk about her job and asking her questions was interesting..... it sounds so like me- like what I'm good at, what I love, and what God's gifted me in- all rolled together... I have a desire to do it, but at the same time, I know that this is not the time. Next year might be (smile) but not now. And I have complete peace with that- I would be so excited to do it, but I really, really want to do what God wants me to. The whole year is only about £200 a month and that adds up to about the same price as DTS! And, I would get to visit the students in the countries they're at for about a week or two at each place (depending on how many students, there can be several countries) Anyhow... it's just a thought right now :)

Macedonia... an overview

Macedonia was AMAZING! We all had a really, really great time and enjoyed the scenery (and the shopping) immensely... The city is on the side of one of the most ancient lakes in Europe (so says a Macedonian man we met who became our impromptu tour guide on two occasions!) and is surrounded by mountains. It's so gorgeous! There is a castle/fortress on top of a hill, and walking around the cobbled streets just makes me feel like I'm in such an old place. It's crazy to think of all the history that has happened on those streets and in those places! :) We went to a church there that was one of the first to open up and be "legal" during the beginning of Constantine's reign. Really interesting stuff!! :) Lana had a splendid time checking out the many, many jewellery shops there- apparently there are pearl producing-oysters in the lake, so there is a lot of gorgeous jewellery as a result :) I have to admit, I bought some stuff myself- all at bargain prices as well! (which just makes it that much better... lol) So, we are back in Elbesan and at our cold flat, but even though we are tired, we walk with joy and are looking forward to meeting up with team Indonesia in England in just a few days!!!

Macedonia!!

- Started out semi-early with not knowing what to pack! :) So, I decided to wear some insane layers: Iina’s long sleeve, a t-shirt, a tak top, and a ¾ sleeve! With Matt’s fleece and my coat! I was veeeery warm :) I thought it would be much colder than it actually was :)
- We took a coach (aka van) to the border, where we stood in a queue for wuite some time (which was okay since people were getting over nausea from the coach and exhaustion from an impromptu snowball/ice fight :)
- From the border, we taxi-d to the hostel that had been recommended, but when we say how far it was from the city, we decided to try somewhere else- a place our taxi drivers knew about! It turned out to be really nice and not far from shopping and sight-seeing! Hooray :) We dropped our stuff off and went to find a place to make reservations for dinner that evening.
- We booked somewhere right on the water- it was so gorgeous, and with the sun shining, it was quite tempting to just glory in the moment… unless you were Lana, who was VERY anxious to find food.
- Tori, Lana, and I (and a few others) wanted to spend our first day shopping, but first we went to find some grub :) We first went to a fast food place. No English 2-Pizza place. Slow and no service. 3- The Pink Panther! An American-inspired restaurant that had okay food :)
- During our meal, I changed my decision to shop and wanted to go sight-öseeing instead. Since it was such a gorgeous day, I wanted to capture everything I saw on film (or memory space, or whatever :) ) Out the restaurant’s second story window, I saw the group going to the Fortress aka Castle. So I left some dinar [SIDENOTE: exchange rate= 60 dinar to 1 dollar; not the easiest to figure out in your head!] with Tori and Lana and ran to catch up :)
- We first went to the Colloseum. It was so weird to think of the people who sat in those seats almost 2,000 years ago (well, not quite). Later on, I learned a bit of the history. Originally, it was just for plays and such, but then it got re-furbished and designed to be a gladiator arena… I found out that 100s, probably even 1000s of Christians were killed there… so much history.
- From there, we trekked up some CRAZY hilly streets (where we almost god mowed down by a little car speeding down hills=. We slowly made our way to the castle at the top. It was so pretty, and it was fun to look around and explore the [mostly renovated] walls. We even got serenaded by a guy with a Macedonian-version bagpipe (it was a sheep stomach I think).
- After the castle, [including some forbidden wall-scaling escapades with Lauren, Iina, Jo, Matt and I], we walked down to see the church and basilica (a place where public meetings would have been held, ect.)
There, we met a theology dude, who became our impromptu (and VERY willing) tour-guide. We joined the 2 young guys (who, if I understood correctly, are training to become electricians! What they were doing there, who knows!) in learning about lots of the deeper meanings of the things around. We also got to go into a church and see some of a Greek Orthodox service.
- Then, I went to a café with Gab, Lo, Jo, Bec, and Paul… instead of going to a library thing with our new friend.
- Then we looked around a bit and asked about getting piercings…. some of them got their ears pierced and then we went to dinner. It was kinda scary how fast it happened. They went in to ask a question, and came out 5 minutes later with their ears pierced- no paperwork required!
- At dinner, I saw waves breaking on the dock and it made me miss home, and the ocean.
- Back at the hostel, there was some goofing off, but we were mostly calm and went to bed soon. It was sooo, so cold, but Iina and I got to sleep after we put our beds together to be warmer.

A Not so Normal Day in the Life.... Journal Excerpt

- Wow! It’s Februrary! Time has gone so fast! Today I’m in a funk mood. It’s our “Historic Tour of Elbesan” day, but I do NOT want to go. I feel sad and left out.
The Orthodox church on our tour was cool, though… very pretty. As for the museum… well, I’d rather not talk about that.
- Boot shopping with the 3 Jolly Caribbeans! I bought some stylish high-heeled ones! Whoop, Whoop!
- Romas- Lauren spoke on the Great Commission. It was good.
- Watched “Holiday” that evening. Bad acting, pretty lame story, choppy scene editing, but I really liked it! It was certainly an odd experience… sitting in a cushy theatre chair, in a huge, nearly empty theatre, with large schip (Albania) subtitles fuzzing half of the picture, while the few Albanian men in the theatre laughed because the titles were off-sync with the film :)
When it was over, mostly everyone walked home balking at how ridiculous the film had veen, but a few of us liked it :)
- A spot of cake, then bed!