Friends

So a couple of weeks ago, I posted about how the best time to make friends is when nobody has any friends.   I still hold that to be true, and it has been confirmed to me over the past couple of weeks.  Since being here, I have made some incredible friends.

  
Last week, I went to Brugge to go do the whole tourist thing there, and it was amazing, mostly because I had people with whom I was having fun and I made some good friends.  This weekend was extremely similar.  We ended up going to the Atomium, which is this 300-foot monument of a carbon atom on the north side of Brussels.  Who would have guessed that that was the iconic thing to see here?  I went with some friends from last week, as well as this girl from Spain and her boyfriend.  We took a LOT of pictures, and ended up having a fantastic time. 

  
Then yesterday, after work I headed over to the Palomaki's house to have dinner and family home evening with them.  I seriously LOVE their kids and how cute they are (for proof, look at the picture I have of Victoria from about a week ago).  Too, Michael and Aurelie make me SO EXCITED to be getting married, because I see how incredibly happy they are together.  I had an amazing evening with them, including delicious chicken with pickled lemons, crepes, and family home evening afterwards.  I got to give the lesson, which made me feel really at home :-)  

  
I pretty much have a lot of thoughts in this post.  Actually, this is pretty much just a post to thank all of the amazing people who are in my life.  Those friends who I mentioned, Michael and Aurelie, and then finally my mom, for some stuff that I never would have thought I would be thanking her for.  She was the one who originally set up this blog, and who got me started posting.  Granted, I was writing a journal previously, but this way I get to share all of my experiences with all you people whom I love :-)  In addition to that, she has ALWAYS been the one who says, after I have described some great experience, "Did you take a picture?"  Often, the answer has been no, in particular whenever I spend time with Rebecca (sorry about that, I'm just so distracted when I'm with her that I forget to take pictures!)  However, since I have been in Brussels I have made a renewed effort to take pictures, and I honestly LOVE having those memories immortalized in pictures of people who I care about, and me doing things with them that are truly fun.  So, thanks to all of the people who have made these experiences so wonderful of late, and thanks to a mother who pushes me to recognize and share with others those fabulous experiences!   

Surviving a mugging and 100 days

Okay, there wasn't actually a mugging or anything of the sort, but I'm trying an experiment with my blog. I have noticed that when I have a more interesting title for my posts there are more views, so we will see if more people look at my blog.  If you are one of those people who did so, got'cha!  And thank you for all of my faithful readers and commenters :-)  This post is actually about a song that I heard on my mission and it's application to my life.  This was during the Szczecin time, which was the defining part of my mission for me.  I was with a companion who is coming to my wedding and with whom I had more success than any other time of my mission.  We had some major issues with the branch, and I was struggling with some other stuff on top of it all.  It was definitely the best part of my mission.  Anyways, this song is called "Jet Lag"  by Simple Plan, was super popular in Poland at the time.  Like, we would walk into any mall and we would hear it, we would walk into a restaurant and it would be on the radio....we heard it a lot.  The music video is about this guy who is in Europe in the airport and his girlfriend/significant other is on the other side of the world.  They miss each other terribly, and the song is about the time difference between the two, and how they are always thinking about each other and what the other is doing.  Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

 You say good morning

When it's midnight

Going out of my head

Alone in this bed

I wake up to your sunset

And it's driving me mad

I miss you so bad

And my heart, heart, heart is so jet-lagged

Without realizing it until I was already here, this is Rebecca's and my life.  There is an eight hour time difference between our lives.  I wake up at 7:40 every morning.  What time is it for her?  11:40, right as she is getting ready to go to bed.  If I got up a little earlier, then I would be waking up right when the sun is setting in Utah.  The entire song really describes rather perfectly what Rebecca and I are going through right now.  

Today is an important day for us, because it's 100 days until the two of us get married!  I am incredibly excited.  I an doing some amazing things her in Europe and she is doing a fantastic job in her MPA program, but that still doesn't make my heart feel any less "jet-lagged".  I love her SO MUCH, and I can't wait until the two of us are no longer separated by eight time zones. :-)  Love you babe, and I can't wait to be married to you!

Google Glass Reception

Tonight I experienced one of the joys of working at the European Parliament: Receptions!!!  Did you know that there are people who are willing to give you free food (and for most people, free alcohol) just so that you will show up to their events and enjoy yourself?  It's awesome!  Okay, I'm not THAT naive, but I hadn't yet gone to one before tonight.  A friend who lives in the same residence as me invited everyone there to an event at Google for the promotion of a product they are developing, Google Glass.  When I went, I was mostly just going for the snacks, and there were those.  They had these delicious little dessert things, they had Coca-Cola products (which I appreciated), they had cake...it was a nice little snack spread.  Too, just walking around the Google office with their exercise balls and the bright colors and the atmosphere felt very Google-like and was a lot of fun.  Then we got to go try out the product, Google Glass.  When we saw the demonstration, the Google representative talked about their "Moonshot" division, which develops experimental programs, and some of the other programs they have in the works.  This one fits the way glasses fit, although it was much lighter.  There is also no glass to impede you looking straight at someone.  it's pretty much just the top part of the frames and the nose pieces.  If you can see it, on the right-hand side of the frame by my eye there is a camera.  See the little dot of light?  To me, that is an actual screen that looks like a normal sized screen to me.  You click on the side of the frame to activate it, and then say "okay glass" to show that you want to start giving it commands.  Then you can say things like "take a picture" or "get directions to...."  The whole thing is connected to your phone, so you are basically using your phone without looking at it nor using your hands.  That was the whole point of it, to get you away from looking at a phone screen which, even with Siri, we still do a ton to make sure she types everything correctly.  :-)  It was funny, but it reacted far better to my commands than to anyone else's at my table.  Why?  Well, they were from Germany, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, France, and Belgium.  Because of their accents, the Glass had a difficult time understanding them.  I'm not making fun of them, but you could definitely tell that it was made for an American market first, before a European one. :-)

Me, Deniz from Sweden, and Julia and Sophie from Germany.  My drink is
Coca-Cola, just to clarify :-)

Henrietta from Finland and me.  I actually only
 ended up in this picture because she didn't want to be awkwardly alone.

This sign is neon green.  See the ball pillar in the background?

 

  We had a way fun night, and here are a couple of pictures of people that I was with.  I have one last picture to share.  As we were walking home, it was raining.  I had my leather backpack on and a suit with a Polish tie.  I also happened to be walking in the downtown area of a European city.  Can you say mission flashback?  I had to take a picture of that, just because of how funny it felt to me.

Spontaneous Brugge trip!

So, today when I woke up I didn't really have any plans.  I was mostly waiting for the Michigan game tonight at six (I slept in my Michigan shirt and Michigan shorts, just to make sure i was supporting the team).  I went downstairs to get some breakfast, and there were some people talking about going to Bruges (Brugge) today.  I didn't really want to go because I was worried about the cost, and then I found out that it was ten euros, and then I was down to go!
  I ended up going with three girls.  One of them, Amelie, is staying at the same place that I am, and the other two, Miriam and Verena, are some other interns in her office.  She and I met them at the train station, and we headed out at 11:30.  Bruges is about an hour away, so we just talked about a variety of subjects.  Literally, after the day, we joked that we had talked about everything :-)  None of us really had a plan where we were going to do, but we got there and we saw three spires, so we decided that we were going to go see those.  These are the pictures from our trip.  We actually ended up buying tickets and going into the belfry.  It was really cool!  They have a carollin that is automated and built in the 14th century.  It was seriously cool!  We also had a fun experience with lunch/dinner.  There were only three seats at the bar-style restaurant where we were eating, and there were four of us.  However, there were seats for when they had tables outside of the restaurant, but they were way shorter than the bar.  So, I was chivalrous and say in the short chair.  It was pretty funny  :-)  So here are the pictures from the day.  I hope you enjoy!

From left to right: Verena, Miriam, and Amelie.  It seriously was an amazing trip!

So, it was raining, and this expression says it all about how I felt about it.

Here's the lunch place!  Can you tell that I'm sitting on a shorter chair?

One of the churches.  I really liked the way that
it rises us out of the other buildings.

The four of us on the main square.

Going up the belfry

A river running through the city

Another one

The church again.

This the the other big church in Bruges.

The inside of the church

The three girls on the bridge.

The second church.

A cool door

The drum of the automated carrilon

The bells of the carrilon

The belfry

On top of the belfry

We found a random statue of Papageno.  What opera is he from and who wrote the music?
Bonus points if you can get the lyricist as well.  They all knew it, thank you iconic German culture!

These guys were playing the wedding march right inside the belfry.
Given my relationship status, I was pretty happy about it :-)

Here are the two church topers rising up over the city.  How cool is that!

Politics with a grain of salt

For anyone who isn't really into those introspective posts, then you may want to skip this one.  I don't even know if it can be called introspective though, so you might want to read on.

This is the Parliament, and where
I walk into work every day.

Yesterday I was walking to work, and I looked at this place and realized that I was working at one of the largest political machines in the world, and how incredibly privileged I was to work there.  It was an amazing feeling.  I can't believe that I got this opportunity, and despite some of the challenges that I have been facing, it really has been a great experience.  Right after I had that wave of gratitude wash over me, I took this picture to sort of commemorate that feeling:
Today was the State of the Union for the European Union.  The Commission, Council,  and the Parliament all met to talk about whatever people thought was important.  As we were watching it, the assistant who is in the office with me started to make remarks about it.  I won't tell you which side, but they were distinctly motivated from one perspective.  As I was listening to this, I realized that I started to do the exact same thing.  He was making sarcastic comments about specific members of Parliament, and rather quickly I started to do so as well.  When I left for lunch, I was trying to figure out why exactly I was doing that.  I consider myself a rather open person when it comes to political opinions, and I pride myself on the fact that I see both sides.  Today however, I just started bashing specific people without actually listening to what they were saying.  I realized that after having been surrounded by these extremely specific political biases in the office where I am working, they had influenced me to the point where I only saw their point of view, and that blinded me to other ideas.  Thankfully I have a wonderful mother who enjoys politics and with whom I could have a good political discussion.  I also met Michael Palomaki for lunch, and we talked about stuff.   They helped me recenter my feelings on politics and my political basis.  All of this reinforced that I need to make sure to try to see both points of view, or at least take everything with a grain of salt.  If I do that, then there is far more that can be accomplished.  If I do not, then any chance that I may have to learn from others of a different viewpoint will be lost.

Mystery solved!

I've realized that not much that I have posted has been about work, but I am honestly okay with that.  Today is no different, because I reconnected with the mystery family from last Sunday!  

This is Victoria.  Seriously, once I pulled out the camera
she started making faces, and I had to follow suit!

They are the Palomaki family, and it's Michael, Aurelie, Victoria, and Arthur.  I left a note with their Polish neighbors last week after I realized that I had no way of getting in touch with them, and they got it yesterday!  I met Michael for lunch, since he works like two minutes away, and then I went over for dinner.  I LOVED it. We just talked the whole time about all sorts of stuff, and it was extremely fun.  We had some delicious food, and I am so grateful to have people here in the city who I really can call my friends.  We are already planning on going and getting a typical Brussels food this weekend: Mussels and French fries!  Who would have guessed, right?  But there is even a mussels season!  I think one of the main reasons why I like them so much is because of the fact that they are raising their kids so well in the gospel, and for the awesome example that they are being to me in how a young family should act when they are completely focused on the gospel the way that they are.  It's a beautiful feeling to be in their house and recognize that commitment.  Here's to friends!

I'm comin' home, I'm comin' home, tell the world, I'm comin' home....

Sorry for anyone who has been checking the blog and I haven’t been posting recently.  It’s been a super busy, super AWESOME weekend! 

            
This weekend I decided to take a trip to Germany.  One of my missionary companions was getting married, and not only was I the only American from our mission in Europe at when he would be getting married, but I was also the only one who would have understood it because it was in German!  That ended up not taking very long at all in the grand scheme of the weekend.  I spent the rest of it with several other people who live in Germany that I know and wanted to get to see. 

Train headed to Frankfurt!!!

            
On Friday, I took the train from Brussels down to Frankfurt, Germany after work on Friday  .Okay, just the ride alone brought back a host of memories.  Taking the train to school every day for four years pretty much dominated it all, but I also took a lot of trains when I was on my mission in Poland.  I LOVE the trains in Europe, especially when you get to ride in style on the legendary ICE trains that cruise between countries.  Seriously, it only took us three hours to get from Brussels to Frankfurt, and it didn’t ever feel like we were on a train.   Too, I am really enjoying living in Brussels, but there was an immediate sense of home when we crossed the border from Belgium to Germany.  Everything started to be in German, and when I got off the train in Frankfurt, I was able to understand everything that was around me.  SUCH a good feeling.  I love Germany so much, specifically because it feels like I am going home.  That pretty much boosted everything about the weekend up a notch.  

Toom, one of the cornerstone stores that we went to in Germany.

I hate selfies, I never really smile.  But here's me
about to get on my ICE train.  Going in style!!

Friday night I stayed with a senior missionary couple, the Kagels, in Frankfurt.  They are the public affairs missionaries for all of Europe, and I helped the sister work on her German before they went into the MTC.  It was a lot of fun staying with them, because they are in charge of public affairs for Poland as well, and I got to talk to them about that.  I also know TONS of the other senior couples with whom they are working, because I had the chance to teach those missionaries too.  In fact, Saturday morning one of them came by the apartment just to see me and talk.  I sort of felt like a superstar there, because I knew so many people J   It was lots of fun to hear about everything that they are doing on their mission, and Sister Kagel and I probably stayed up until midnight just talking about missionary stuff.  Saturday morning we had breakfast, and they drove me to the temple.  While there, I could tell that the Kagels are working extremely hard on their missions, and that they are doing everything they could to further the growth of the church in Europe.  I am so grateful for the chance I have to know them and all of the other hard-working senior couples.

  
The temple was also a sort of coming home for me.  The Frankfurt temple was the first temple I ever went to to do baptisms as a youth.  I was never old enough to go inside when we lived there, so to do a session was such an amazing experience.  I also got to participate in German in the session, which was a different experience for me as well.  However, it was most definitely an excellent one.  Shortly thereafter, Elder Sorn and his wife arrived at the temple and were sealed.  Elder Siebert, another Poland missionary, was there and we got to do some catching up.  Elder Sorn looked so happy, and I couldn’t help but think that that will be me in a couple of months J  Only 111 days from today, but who is counting, right?   I think their marriage was very simple, but there was definitely an elegance to it that I enjoyed.  I am extremely happy for him. 

After the temple the fun began!  The Morans, some of our best friends from Germany, had driven up from the base where they are now stationed in Germany and picked me up for the rest of the weekend.  

(For this weekend, I had two culinary goals:  I wanted a real Kebab, not the wrap that I had barely counted last week, and I wanted Spaghetti Eis.  You know in Elf where Buddy takes spaghetti and puts syrup all over it?  That’s what Spaghetti Eis is, only with ice cream.  Just kidding!  That would be really gross.  In actuality it's three scoops of vanilla ice cream put through a compressor that makes the ice cream come out looking like spaghetti noodles.  Then they drizzle strawberry syrup over the top to look like tomato sauce, and add shavings of something ( I thought they were white chocolate, but they might be coconut) to imitate the parmesan.  To top it all off, they spray whipped cream on top.  It is SO GOOD!)  

Returning to the story, we were able to fulfill both those goals on the way home from the temple.  While going home, we made a quick pit stop at the base (lucky I had my passport!) so that Brother Moran could pick up Halo 4.  His excuse was that maybe his girls would play that one with him, rather than Call of Duty, but in reality he has wanted Halo for forever, right Brother Moran? J  We played for about an hour and a half.  I was skunking him at the beginning, but then he found the Scorpion tank and it all went downhill from there J   I did end up killing him three or four times even while he was in the tank, so I would call it a draw J  Afterwards we went down and played some Siedler.  Brother Moran beat me at that too!  It was not a good weekend for playing games.  Unless you’re Michigan though, who won their game 41-30 against Notre Dame WOOT!!!  Yeah, I was happy when I woke up to that news this morning!  We played Quirkle this morning, which Madison won, and then headed to church.  I loved going with the Morans, who are such good friends and who made my weekend awesome.  I can’t wait to see them again in a month when I go back down for conference weekend! 

            
All in all, this weekend just made me reflect on how much Germany is my home, and how much I care about the people who I saw there.  I am incredibly grateful for friends who you can go years without seeing and then just pick up right where you left off, and I can’t wait to do it again!     

This is hard to see, but my train back to Brussels is the second one down.
 When I saw this, I just felt this twinge in my heart.  I did NOT want to leave Germany.