No barricades necessary

This weekend I headed to the opposite side of Holland to visit some people i have never met before.

Linda was first. She knows Sara from YWAM in australia where they were on the same team so sara packed a gift for her along with me and told me I had to get in touch with her, so i did. I took a two hour train ride to a tiny town called Twello where I boarded this "station bus" which was really more like a little van/ bus thing and I was the only one at the bus stop. When i got on the driver told me we had to wait a bit because the girl who takes the bus each day was just finishing up getting groceries so we would wait for you. Haha.. when she got on the bus it was like her and the bus driver were best friends. she even gave him some fruit for his cooler, pears and bananas. It made me smile. She then attempted to teach me dutch words while we drove along. When i got off in Epe, I stood there looking around and was hoping that Linda would be there to meet me. She was but at the bus stop on the other side of the street. We then walked around the market in Epe, bought some dinner and then i rode on the back of her bike. It was my first ride on teh back of a bike experience while here in Holland! Her house was fun we talked lots watched a movie, cycled lots and got stuck in rain storm where we hid under trees to wait it out so we could finish cycling home. She gave me a tour of the YWAM base that she works at in Heidebeek, not the amsterdam one. It was actually quite fun at her house even though I had never met her before. Then it was off to Roeloffs, I boarded the train for a 2 hour ride and headed off to Enschede, a town only about 15 minutes from the Germany boarder.

Roeloffs. When i got off the train in Enschede I saw Roeloff waiting there for me looking around for me, but I blend into the crowd of people. He does not blend in so much. I saw him right away! haha. You might be thinking... Who is this guy, and where do you know him from. well he is going to sweden with me, and i asked my base director if there are any students coming from Holland and she gave me his email, so I got in touch and vwa la! There i was meeting him at the train station stuck there for Saturday and sunday! We went grocery shopping for dinner first and already then i had a taste of how strange he was. He just bought random things to throw together because apparently cooking is fun and with a little common sense you can throw practically anything together and it will taste good. Thats his perpective anyways. We made a salad and in it there was lettuce, tomatoe, canned tropical fruit, and yogurt. What a weird combo, but i ate it. The rest of the meal was more normal... we had rice with some sauce from a can mixed with meat and more tomatos. It was all just a little odd. after dinner we just chatted for qutie some time about life, and why we are going to YWAM, and where we hope to be in the next five years... that kind of stuff. Then we watched a movie.

So this might sound quite regular to you but it was so odd. I would find myself randomly laughing an trying to hold it back because i was only laughing at the fact that i was staying in this disgusting batchelor pad overnight and it was hilarious that i was there. He told me that they do not wash dishes with soap. Just rinse them with water and use them again. About once a week they use the soap. They also only clean up once every two weeks which was quite evident by the state of the floors and counters and bathrooms... oh the bathroom was very grose! His roommate was away for the weekend so i got to sleep in his room but I am almost 100 % postive that they did not change the sheets so i slept on top of the blankets and slept terribly because whenever i woke up i was so grosed out that i was sleeping there and just wanted mornign to come so I could get out of bed.

Sunday we went to church and God knew i was sick of dutch so he sent an english speaker that week. So it was fabulous. I could jsut listen and then the dutch people had to wait for the translation! I also knew 2 or 3 of the songs and although they sung in dutch i belted it out in english. It felt so good to just sing and worship becaue i have not been to church in the past 2 sundays i've been here! this weekend I will be going to an english church about 10 minutes walk from my house so i am pumped for that! Anyways sunday passed by quickly. we went out for icecream after church with one of his friends and just chatted there for a good 2 hours! then when we went home we ate lunch and then looked up flights for Sweden. That was interesting I think i'll be able to get there for under 200 Euros which would be fabulous! but packing is going to be a serious difficulty because travelign in Europe they only allow you to take about half as much as travelign in North America! Uh oh... i'll have to pay extra because there is no way i can fit all mystuff into only 1 bag!

So yeah anyways long story short my weekend was hilarious, Roeloff was Hilarious and i laughed alot to myself. I enjoyed my 8 hours of train riding and read lots of the bible and took some good old train ride naps! Gotta love those.

mom, I think you will understand what the title means :) Haha, I hope you didn't worry about me!