Photos Added!

Hi friends,
I have finally figured out how to make my photos accessible (I think...). So, the links are on the left hand side of the page, enjoy!!

Last week was the BVS Europe retreat in Bonn, Germany. It was a wonderful week to relax, explore Germany and get to know the other BVSers who are working in Europe. They are doing some amazing things...other than the four of us who are doing cross community work in NI, there were people working in Serbia (with an international peace network made up of women around the world), Hungary (with an eccumenical organization linking Christian students throughout Europe), Bosnia (working in the arts and film with young people in a war torn area) and Germany (with people who have developmental diabilities). We ate and drank foods from each country, had good conversations re: self care, secularism and the misuse of religion, current events. I also got to visit a German history museum (focused on post WW1), eat lunch on the banks of the Rhine River, and visit a castle in and around Bonn, and spend a day in Cologne touring the huge cathedral, other churches and Beethoven's Birth Home (scratch that- that was in Bonn too). I'm still rather in awe of the transportation system across Europe; my trip home required streetcar to train to plane to bus to taxi to minibus, and it was all remarkably easy.

This week has been one big attempt to get myself motivated to get out of the house. I've worked just a few hours (more on that in a minute) and haven't had any roommates (they move in tomorrow) so it's tempting to sit and read or just bum around all day. I did read 2 Jodi Picoult books (Salem Falls and The Tenth Circle- both good, but don't read them back to back, they are too similar), move into the orange room (which I love) and generally just poke around the house cleaning out linen closets and refrigerators. BUT, I did manage to get up and about and I can proudly say that I am a bus riding genius. Yesterday I ended up downtown running errands and scoping out good coffee shops. Today I managed to get myself to Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park for the end of Rose Week. They have all these roses from all over the world, and they are judged each year. So it becomes a big event with acrobats, bands, magic shows, face painting and lots and lots of beautiful roses (see photos!!). It was probably not a bad thing that my camera batteries were dying or else I would have thousands of photos. They were the most vibrant reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, whites and every little park led into another. I was just meandering through the mud and roses and all of the sudden there's harp music from a gazebo one section over...seriously, all I needed was a tea cup.

And in the midst of the fun this week, I even worked a bit. We'e been out on "detached." Basically that means that we walk a route that goes through all of the neighborhoods that we work with looking for yp out and about. We hit up the parks and the corners that they're typically on and just say hello and chat for a bit. We've brought a bit of sports equipment, but haven't yet found any groups interested in playing. Most of the yp who come through the club are recruited via outreach, so we see lots of the yp who were on the residentials, and some who used to come but haven't for awhile. It's just so different than growing up in a suburb. I try to think of something equivalent from home, and just draw a blank. No one hung out on street corners and parks (or maybe I wasn't cool enough :) ). Sometimes no one's about, it was actually a quiet few nights, but in general we can predict who will be in which location, and they're just there hanging out all night. At this point it's a bit tough to throw myself right into it, I'm still desperately trying to work out the accent and the slang (a week of German and American accents didn't help!) but eventually, I think it'll be very cool, and a very good way to work on conversation starting skills!

Next week I start up full time, and with two new roommates things should all change a bit...