roaming_van_bruggens

Apartment Part 2

2012-02-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Here are the pictures of my apartment with stuff in it. As you can see there is still lots of stuff to do but it is getting there.

My living room (notice my sweet couch which turns into a bed (becky this may look similar)

My Ikea desk/table

The view from my front door

My bathroom (not sideways)

My bedroom

So there is my apartment, as you can see it is small but cozy. I also have a storage room outside my apartment that I can store stuff.

My Apartment

2012-02-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Family of Mine

As I had originally challenged here are pictures of my apartment.

This is my living room (as you can notice the floor was recently cleaned). On the wall you will my Ikea coffee table (some assembly required)

This is the picture of my couch (some assembly required)

The Entry to my apartment

The view of my kitchen from my living room

My kitchens (as you can see it is a little bigger then my kitchen in Winnipeg)

A picture of my bathroom

My bedroom (a little small especially when you have a queen size bed in the area)

The view of my bedroom to the rest of my apartment

The other wall in my bedroom.

The pictures of my apartment unfinished (I had just moved in about a hour earlier and had yet to have set up anything (except for my bed because that is important),

The pictures of my finished apartment will soon follow.

My Apartment - cleaned

2012-01-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

I know that Mom already posted pics of my apartment, however, to be fair, the place was a mess, so I have attached pics of my cleaned apartment.

My bed - please note the beautiful bed spread. Mom sewed this for me when she was in Winnipeg. THANKS MOM I LOVE IT!!
The Bed (folded), as you can see I have a plant in my window - real basil (delicious!) (again thanks to Mom). Since taking these pics, I bought another plant, a spider plant, just for Dad.
My Desk (and part of my table - a gift from Mom and Dad - the flaps can fold up). I've purchased a bulletin board which will find its home above my desk, I also have a printer sitting on the desk now, and the pictures have moved to my bookshelf (eventually I'll purchase a shelf for them).
My Watermelon red kitchen - I LOVE this colour, Mom did a FANTASTIC job painting (THANKS MOM!!), I finished painting the red trim on the cupboard doors of the island (sorry no pics).
And finally, my newly improved bathroom - isn't it pretty?!?

Well, now you've seen what the apartment always looks like (OK OK so maybe I cleaned up especially for the pics, but this is how clean I would like to keep it - too bad it intentions aren't enough!)

THANK YOU MOM!!! for making my place so comfy cozy - I love it!!

The Parental Apartment

2012-01-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hey family of mine!

Since we're all inclined to post pictures of our respective apartments, I thought I'd respond to Wes' challenge to post pictures of our apartment here at Handong Global University. Actually, your Momma hasn't seen the new kitchen cabinets in their finished form - she left for Canada just when they were being installed - I needed to add the hanging units underneath the upper cabinets, as well as some finishing touches. I've also added some pictures of the rest of our cozy apartment - see Jude, the plants ARE all alive and thriving - I took these pictures today, January 24th! I've also added a picture of Carens, our faithful SUV Vehicle, standing ever-at-the-ready just at the rear of our apartment. Carens will soon get a bit of a workout as I head up to Seoul/Incheon next week, the Lord willing, to pick up your Momma!

Alright Nettie, now it's YOUR turn to respond to the challenge by posting the pictures of your palatial mansion in Polican - sooner than later sounds just about right!

I love you all!

-Pokey/The old man/Daddy/Poppa-
XOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXO

Our Handong Apartment

2012-01-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Rebekah's New Pad

2012-01-22T04:55:00.000-08:00

Park La Fontaine - across the street from Rebekah's apartment. Notice the cushions around the base of the tree. We figure it is to keep people from hurting themselves when they slide into the tree. There is a bit of a hill here and the frozen pond is at the bottom of the hill.

Looking through the window - in the center is a Catholic church - Notre Dame something or other (can't remember the whole name).

The one and only window in the apartment. Note the curtains - Rebekah had a great idea. It is a King size bed sheet that was cut in half and hemmed. Note the wicker basket which stores her bedding.

The table for two or four depending if you put up the side leaves. It was a great find. I like it.

The sofa bed with a cover. Again we used a fitted bed sheet to cover it. It has a velour covering and everything sticks to it.

This is the new sofa bed and book shelf.

The new improved kitchen. We painted and put stuff on the walls. Looks really cherry.

The original look in the kitchen before the organization and the paint job.

Welcome to 3655 Papineau. Rebekah is on the 11th floor. There are 12 floors. Her apartment faces onto the side street. We are standing in the park across the street, taking this picture.

How to hang a mirror in 1489 steps!

2011-09-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

After three weeks of attempting and procrastinating, I have, finally, hung the hallway mirror! Who would have thought that such a simple thing to become such an endeavor.

The journey began when the parents decided to paint the hallway. On condition of their return, I had requested the condo be repainted. Like any good painters, they removed all hangings from the walls prior to painting. Afterwards, the paint had to dry and cure so the hangings were left for a time. Time passed quickly, and before we knew it, it was time for them to return to Korea, leaving said hangings unhung. Assuring them that, as I was university educated and not completely unhandy with a hammer and screwdriver, I was more than capable of hanging up the hangings, Mom and Dad returned to Korea.

Being a procrastinator by nature, I left the hanging of The Mirror until a couple of days before Amy and Jaclyn were to arrive. Feeling that I should be prepared for their arrival, and have the house in tip-top order, I made my first endeavor to hang The Mirror. This endeavor ended in frustration. While the holes had been painted over, they were still visible. This cheered me greatly as it meant that I did not have to measure and fuss with the screw placement (or so I thought). With this taken care of, I next turned my attention to finding the correct screws to use. Considering the weight of The Mirror (I do believe that it is made out of leaded glass - it is excruciatingly heavy), I needed screws of sufficient width and length. Finding two longish screws I believed that I had everything in order. Screwing in the first screw was as easy as slicing butter with a hot knife (well maybe not that easy, but certainly easier then the next). The second screw proved to be past my strength. Yet I did not despair, for I knew that Dad had an electric screwdriver. But the screwdiver proved my undoing. I could not, for the life of me, determine how to change the tip. I tried and I tried. I thought that I understood how it was to loosen, but I could not loosen it. Tired, frustrated and more than a little annoyed that a piece of equipment could out-smart me, I attempted to screw in the nail a little over. This only resulted in increasing the size of the hole (no duh, I know, but I wasn't thinking clearly at this time). Now, not only was The Mirror not hung, but now I had a hole which was too big for a screw to hold the thing. I emailed Mom and Dad to gain instruction on how to loosen the screwdriver, and determine which screws to use (of which they promptly responded) and proceeded to procrastinate (I had an exam to study for after all).

Considering the size of the hole, I needed to fix it before I could even consider hanging the mirror. After about a week of procrastinating, I purchased the required polyfill, and the next day (pretty good for me), I filled the hole. Now of course, one must wait for the polyfill to dry before screwing anything into it. So I happily put off hanging The Mirror, until the next week.

Monday, September 12th, Amy asked what I was planning to do for the evening, and I admitted that the plan was to hang The Mirror. If ever you have a problem with procrastinating, tell someone that you plan to do the thing you are procrastinating, and when they ask about it, you'll feel guilty and, finally, get around to doing it. (This was Amy for me). So after cleaning the supper dishes, and checking my email, I finally dragged myself into the hall and prepared for battle. Armed with the knowledge of how to change the drill bit on the drill, I quickly measured the distance between the two hooks on the mirror and drilled two holes. I then screwed in the two screws (which I believed to be the ones required). Hoisting The Mirror (did I mention that the things weighs a tonne!), I attempted to hook the hooks onto the screws. After struggling for a couple of minutes, I requested help from a passing roommate (Jaclyn). With her supporting the mirror I attempted to line up the hooks, to no avail. Believing that perhaps the screws had been screwed in too far, I placed The Mirror on the floor, and unscrewed the screws a touch. Again I attempted to hook the hooks, after struggling for a few more minutes, I enlisted Jaclyn's help a second time, with me supporting the thing, and she directing. But again to no avail. Beginning to feel a bit frustrated, I placed The Mirror on the floor and stood staring at the screws, using my superior mental abilites to convince them to work. I tired a third time. This time, Amy passed by and offered her support. As I supported The Mirror (which seemed to grow heavier by the second), Amy directed. After a little bit, Amy asked if I had measured the distance between the hooks, to which I answered YES, but she shyly suggested that the distance was maybe not quite accurate, as one of the hooks appeared to miss the screw alltogether. At this point I switched positions with her to determine that she was indeed correct and my measuring abilities were sucky at best. In a moment of insanity, I drilled another hole right next to the first hole, which only succeeded in making the hole bigger resulting in the same problem as my first attempt (it was a moment of insanity . . . frustration does that to me). So I put The Mirror back on the floor, out of the way, put the drill and everything else away, and taking out the polyfill, filled the stupid hole for a second time.

Considering that I had to allow the polyfill to dry, I happily ignored The Mirror for the rest of the week. On Thursday night, Amy asked if I had any plans for the weekend, to which I replied "Hang The Mirror". I succeeded to ignore The Mirror, Friday night and all day Saturday, but as Sunday dawned I knew that I had to put up that Mirror, or die trying. I refused to allow a piece of furniture to defeat me (also I had told Amy that I was going to hang it, and my pride refused to allow that not to happen)!

So I began my third attempt. I decided that it would be best to make two new holes as I no longer trusted the previous holes being able to support anything. Measuring the distance between the hooks (three times), I carefully drilled two holes below the previous attempt. I then pounded in two screw support thingys (those plastic things which help support screws when they are drilled into drywall and not a 2x4), and drilled in my screws. Calling upon Rachel to help I attempted to hook The Mirror onto the screws. But it was not to be. It was as if The Mirror had decided that its residence on the floor was a much more comfortable existence than the wall, and it refused to catch the screws. I unscrewed the screws, believeing that maybe they were too far in, so the hooks could not catch. But even this seemed not to work. Frustration was mounting, but my pride was on the line. It appeared that one of the screws could catch the hook, but not the other. So unscrewing them I searched for a screw that more closely resembled the one that did catch. I found one screw which had the sharp edge which seemed to be required, but it was too thin and did not fit snuggly in the hole. I was beginning to believe that The Mirror would never hang, when I found it . . . The exact match to the good screw. With abated breath I screwed in the screws, called for Rachel, and hoisted The Mirror. The thing refused to catch, we wiggled one way than the other . . . until suddenly, Rachel cried that one screw had caught, but would the other. I had believed that they would both need to be caught at the same time to work (because of their size), and so it was with little faith that we attempted to wiggle the mirror back and forth. It was really kind of anti-climatic when the hook finally caught. It did it without much fanfare. I must admit, I was kind of hoping for trumpets or something of the like. The thing was hung! The wall was a mess - scrapped and scratched from attempting to catch the screws, and The Mirror was covered in figures, nose and forehead smudges, but it was hung. I thanked Rachel most graciously for her assistance, then went to gather paint and cleaner to cover the scratches and remove the smudges.

The next day as I was walking past The Mirror, I noticed that the stupid thing had gotten the better of me. Though it was hanging, it had the last laugh . . . for I had hung it crooked! But to tell the truth, I don't care. The thing is hung and that's good enough for me. If the fact that its crooked bothers you, just tilt your head and all will be well!

Life without a computer

2011-09-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I have recently came across a realization about myself that I am not sure how I feel about. I think that I may be addicted to technology. It all started a few days ago when I was watching a movie on my computer (alas I can not say I was watching the news being intelligent, but rather the new X-Man movie). Anyways, everything was going well and then all of a sudden in the middle of the movie my computer just turned off. Well, I wish I could say that I was surprised but given that I have heard my hard drive becoming increasingly louder I figured that the hard drive had finally given out and that it was time for a new one. Even thought I am planning on returning to Canada (BOO) shortly I decided that I couldn't bare the thought of going without a computer for that long so it was off to fix the problem. I headed to the nearest media store and set about to buy a hard drive; however, I was dismayed to learn that there was no hard drive to be had which would be Mac compatible so I was given a name of another computer store on the opposite end of Amsterdam that could probably help me. Now I know what you are thinking, "Amsterdam is not that big" and you would be right however anytime you have to traverse an entire city, especially when you have time constraints (Eric was leaving for a few days and I needed to be back to get the keys) so it felt that the trip was taking forever. Well needless to say upon arriving at the store which was to have the hard drive I learned that I had been hoodwinked and that there was no hard drive there but rather at another store quite some distance away. Being that I was down a laptop and I was desperately wanting to finish my movie I did the only sensible thing (phoned eric and told him to hid the key and headed off to the next shop). Well the next store did in fact have what I needed and I was able to get a really good deal on the hard drive but the problem was that they were unwilling to install the hard drive (perhaps it was because it was a mac or perhaps it was because when asked why I didn't want to install it myself I replied that I would rather have someone that I could blame if things went wrong). Well anyways I made my way back to the original media store to get the hard drive installed only to be told that the technicians were done for the day. This left me in a difficult position as it was only 5 in the afternoon and I couldn't really go to bed waiting for the next day so I headed off to the library for my computer fix (I was desperate to check my email) and then after a while I headed home. Upon arriving back home I was confused as to what to do as generally the first thing I do when walking in the front door is open my computer. I ended up reading the book the Urban Saint (great book by the way, not particularly well written but the content is very compelling).

The next day I was up and at it early as I was wanting to get this computer thing figured out as soon as possible (and because my running shorts had blown away in a storm the previous day (they smelled so bad that I had left them outside on the balcony to air out and i guess they managed to get a little too much air and took off). Anyways, I got to the computer store bright and early and presented my precious mac and they promptly replaced the hard drive. With this new hard drive in place I headed home to start the monotonous task of reinstalling all my precious programs, podcasts, music etc. I arrived home, stuck the startup DVD in my computer and waited... Nothing. I pulled out the disk and tried again and again and again (you know what they said if at first you don't succeed keep doing the same thing over and over again and you may get different results). After trying this approach for a while I got frustrated and decided that I needed some help, now generally at this point I hit the internet but given that Eric had taken his computer I was internet less so I was stuck with the problem of how to get this figured out. To make matters worse I couldn't really phone apple or a computer store as I didn't have the internet to look up any phone numbers. I ended up phoning a friend at work and begging him to help me out with looking up Apples dutch number. As much as I like Macs I am not a huge fan of their customer service ( I would imaging that it is even worse here in the Netherlands as dutch people seem to lack a filter for their comments sometimes). After a frustrating 15 minutes on the phone which got me no where and cost me .1 a minute I still had no answers. So I packed everything up and headed back to the store to try to get some answers, the original store I went to was clueless as to how to proceed so I ended up going to the Mac store for some expert advise. I was told that they could install my operating system but it would cost me 80 euros or I could buy an external dvd drive for 30 euros and do it myself. Well being truly cheap I jumped at the chance to save some money and headed off to buy an external dvd player (took me the rest of the day but I was the proud owner of a cheap dvd player which would play my installation dvd so I could install my software and get back to business). Back home I went with the DVD player and a smile. About 2 hours later after my computer turned off suddenly for the 4 time my smile was gone and I was again annoyed. Back to the city I went (perhaps I should say that where I am currently living I am about 20 minutes outside the city, may not sound much but when you are making this trip about 6 times a day it becomes annoying). Well as things go by the time I returned to the Mac Store they had closed for the night so again I returned to the library to get my computer fix. Upon returning home that night I started to read another book (Megatrends 2010) not near as good as the Urban Saint.

Once again the next day started off bright and early as I took my laptop back into the city (I was also worried as I feared that it may be something seriously wrong and I would have to end up buying a new laptop and I was weighing the pros and cons of waiting until I returned to Canada for this). A quick trip to the Mac Store once again proved to be fruitful as they turned it on and there was no problem loading the software and after a brief conversation I was on my way (the repair didn't cost me a cent, WOOHOO). I returned home happy with a song in my heart as it appeared that my laptop was good to go and would continue to live, my happiness was very shorted lived as upon returning home my computer worked long enough for me to get everything set up and then turned itself off. "Not good", I thought as I tried to restart my computer hoping that it was just some kind of fluke which would not repeat itself but true to form my computer lived for about 2 minutes (enough time for me to look at my email) and then it turned off again. Well by this point I was once again worried and once again I packed up everything and headed back into the city to the mac store. HAHAHA the same mac guy helped me out again and upon inspection told me that my system was overheating at first but seemed to be alright, "The stupid computer is working here for everyone else so I appear as a fool but not a home", I silently thought to myself but after 5 minutes of the computer not crashing I conceded defeat and once again took my computer home for me to try to figure out. After playing around with it all day I have finally figured out that my computer is over heating for some reason and I can only do one or two things at once but I figure that it will be good enough to get me though to returning back to Canada and will help me be more productive as it will not let me watch videos (I can only surf the net, listen to podcasts and use my the different applications like word).

Anyways, I have learned two things from this ordeal. First, I am addicted to my computer and am willing to go to great lengths and frustration to get it working again. Second, my computer hates me.

Well i hope that everyone is doing well, mom and dad I hope that you have managed to dry off after your attempts to best nature. Also, to let you all know I have booked my flight back to Canada for Oct 1st and I fly into Calgary.

I will talk to you all later.

Love

Wes

P.S Mom and Dad where are your camping (or rather rain pictures)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!

2011-09-11T07:11:00.002-07:00

Happy Anniversary to you!!!!

Happy Anniversary to you!!!!!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to YOU!!!!!!

(Please sing as off-key as possible to the tune of Happy Birthday!)

I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

2011-09-11T07:11:00.001-07:00

HEY PARENTS!!!

HAPPY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! And may God bless you with more than 29 more! Just minus another set of 3 kids.... That'd be awkward... Love you lots!
Lynne

Happy Anniversary

2011-09-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom and Dad

Congratulations on your 29th Wedding Anniversary! I hope that the camping trip went well and that the rain was not a problem. How is the car?!?

Love

Wes

Spain (part 3 of my adventure)

2011-08-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

Day 4

After leaving Morocco the last part of our adventure takes place in Spain. The flight from Tanger to Madrid only took about a hour and because I was unable to get a good sleep on the overnight train and my sunburn I slept the entire flight. We arrived in Madrid in the early evening and by the time we found our hotel it was pretty late and after eating we only had a little time to explore the city (also interestingly was that it was World Youth Day meaning that there were 1 million catholic youth hanging out in the city). HAHAHA so we went from celebrating Ramadan in Morocco to celebrating Cathothicism in Spain.

Day 5

I ended up sleeping late as I was not feeling very well because of the sun burn and we ended up leaving the hotel at about 2 in the afternoon, which was great as the weather was clear and hot (it was about 37 degrees, sunny and no wind). We spent part of the day exploring the city.

This was the castle in Madrid, the castle was seriously huge and try as I must I was unable to get a good picture showing the size of the castle.

This was a picture of downtown Madrid

As we were wandering around the city we came across a Mariachi band who were amazing but only played one song before the cops ushered them away.

This is the stadium of the Real Madrid football team (they won the world cup in 2010).

After seeing the football stadium we returned to the hotel and I ended up taking an epic nap (about three hours) because I was feeling pretty rough. After I finally woke up at about 10 or so Eric and I made our way into the city center where we hung out and had a few drinks (juice for me) before heading back to our hotel as our flight was pretty early the next morning. I must say that spain is a beautiful place and I feel that I should get back there to better explore the city as I feel that I certainly could have used a few more days in Madrid alone. The trip back to the netherlands was pretty unexciting with nothing worth mentioning or any pictures worth taking.

So now you have seen pictures from my trip and heard my adventures and I expect the same from all of you. Hope to see your blog posts soon.

Love

Wes

Morocco (part 2 of my adventure)

2011-08-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my adventure takes place in Morocco

After a quick flight from Brussels (the flight took about 2 1/2 hours) we arrived in Tanger at about 5 local time (we lost 2 hours going from Brussels to Tanger). We quickly realized that we were no longer in the Netherlands given that the temperature was about 30 degrees and there was SUN!!! (we have not seen sun for so long!). We made our way out of the airport and found a dusty old cab to drive us into the city (the airport is about 20 km outside of town and there is really no public transportation to the airport) and got a quick lesson in how life goes in Morocco as we were defiantly taken advantage of (tourists are ripe for the cheating) and paid a premium for the cab ride but that being said it was still pretty cheap (about 15 euros) for a 30 minute cab ride. We were in Morocco for 3 days and I must say that during that time I feel that we had a pretty good look at Morocco.

Day 1

This is a picture from our balcony in Tanger

A picture of our hotel room (it was interesting as it had a very Moroccan feel to it)

After arriving we set out to find a bit to eat as we had not really eaten all day. Now I realized that we would be arriving during Ramadan however I didn't think that it would be that difficult to find something to eat but I was wrong. We literally walked walked up and down the street looking for a place to eat and were unable to find some place to eat until the sun went down (at 7:30) and then the city became alive. HAHAHA not only was finding food difficult but finding a cold beer was next to impossible because during Ramadan muslims don't drink, there were actually signs in restaurants which did serve alcohol saying that they would not sell alcohol to muslims. After a bit of searching we found a local hotel were we could grab a beer in the hotel bar and after a little bit I decided that I was exhausted from all the excitement of the day and decided to call it a early night.

Day 2

The next day we were up early but not early enough for breakfast as during Ramadan everyone eats before sun up (at about 4 in the morning) so we ended up fasting for most of the day.

A picture of the beach in Tanger, Morocco has many thousands of km of beautiful beaches.

While trying to figure out how to get to the cave of Hercules we found a cab driver who was willing to take us to all the best places in the city for 30 euros (so we rented the cab for 3 hours for 30 euros and were driven to all the best places and given information on tanger). This is a picture of part of Tanger, the city contains about 1.2 million people and spreads across two hills, this is just one of those two hills.

Many of the royalty of the middle east have palaces here in Tanger because the weather is really beautiful (the temp gets down to about 15 in the winter and goes as high as 33 in summer and there is always a cool breeze). This is the front door of the king of Morocco (the king has two palaces in Tanger and in most cities in Morocco). The King of Morocco has 45 hectors which reaches back to the sea and 84 full time gardeners and a ton of guards.

Our taxi driver had a lot of connections and for a small tip we were allowed into some of the palaces to see certain things. This is a picture of a 1964 Rolls Royce Phantom (there are only 3 of these cars in the world) and this one belonged to some saudi business man.

This is a picture of Eric and I in the palace of some Spanish wealthy merchant.

This is the point where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic (the straight of Gibraltar), you can see streaks where dark water and light water meet.

This beach is one of the most famous beaches for surfing in Morocco.

As we were driving our cab driver spins around and asks if we would like to ride a camel for about 10 euros and we were delighted to say yes. This is me on my camel, the camel ride was quite something and I must say I really enjoyed it.

After the camel ride we then went to the cave of Hercules this was our guide Mufassa (who did a terrible job at giving us our tour but did a great job of extorting a few euros from us) HAHAHA thus is Morocco.

The Hercules cave was created by cutting mill stones and this is one of the mill stones which were being cut.

After the cave our cab driver took us to some Moroccan stores so Eric could buy some souvenirs and I ended up seeing these great moroccan rugs. This rug was hand made from silk and could have been had for about 220 euros but could have probably been had for less depending on your negotiation skills.

Other Moroccan rugs, notice the beautiful colours

At one of the places we found a ton of lamps, I tried rubbing them to find a genie but I only ended up with a dirty hand.

After our cab tour we headed to the bus station to make the trip to Casablanca and since we had a few hours to kill we ended up checking out a local market.

This was a picture of one of the ladies begging at the market for food or money

The Moroccans love olives and this is a picture of one of the many stands in the market where you could buy Olives.

One of the more interesting stores we saw was this one, you had your option between very fresh eggs or very fresh chicken.

A picture of children selling things on the street.

We had a few options to get to Casablanca but we opted to go with the bus as we were assured that it would be air conditioned and the trip would only take about 5 hours. The trip was pretty unexciting and I must say certain areas of the country side look like parts of the Canadian prairies.

This is a picture from our hotel room in Casablanca

Eric and I stumbled across a great little restaurant which provided us with some great Moroccan food

After our dinner we headed out for a little entertainment and ended up in a few Moroccan night clubs. I wish I could give you a better idea of the environment as there was great Moroccan music, lots of dancing and hooka smoke but I guess these pictures will have to do.

Day 3

The next day after a night out we saw the largest mosque in the world.

Following checking out the mosque we decided to wander the streets in the old part of Casablance. I must admit I was surprised with the city I was expecting it to be much more modern however it kind of felt like a shell of a city (the city has over 8 million people) which missed its hay day in the 40s.

After a bit of wandering we found Rick's Cafe from the movie Casablanca

And proceeded to have a few drinks

A pot of moroccan tea (mint tea) that I had at Rick's Cafe. Seriously you have never had mint tea until you have moroccan mint tea it is sooo good!

This was a picture of one of the beautiful parks in Casablanca (note how dry the trees look)

This was picture of a synagogue that we saw (about 10% of the moroccan population is Jewish)

After a bit of wandering we came across a beach where we found tones of people playing football on the beach so we hung out there a bit and caught some sun. We had decided earlier on that we would be returning to Tanger by night train (leaving at 12:45) so after a bit to eat we headed off to the hotel to collect our things. On our way to our Hotel we got pretty lost and ended up getting a helping hand from a Moroccan family who showed us to our hotel and invited us out for a cup of tea after. During my time in Morocco I found that Moroccans are very friendly and easy to get along with.

Day 4

After we arrived back in Tanger we decided to go to the hamam (this is a bath house) as we had heard that this was something that needed to be experienced. We were unable to find a hamam open on Firday (given that Fridays are a holy day and it was Ramadan)

Seeing as we were unable to go to the bath house and our flight was at 2 we ended up hanging out at the beach (I ended up getting a sunburn) and then left for the airport at about 12 or so. Next stop Madrid!

trip to the airport (part 1 of Wes's trip)

2011-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hi all

In order to allow me to organize my thoughts I have decided to divide my adventure into three parts.

The first part looks at our (Eric and I) to the airport:

As with everything this adventure started with a single event and in this case it was me leaving my apartment and handing over the keys at 9 in the morning and by 9:45 we were on the train headed to Brussels (the trip was to only take 2 1/2 hours). By 12:15 we were told that there had been an accident between the city we were and Antwerp and we would have to catch a bus. By the time the bus got into Antwerp (after the bus was late it got lost) it was about 2:00 and we decided to take a train straight to the airport. We were told that the trip would take 1 1/2 hours so we figured that we would have enough time to get the airport, well we were lied to and it took almost 2 hours to get there (now this would not be a problem but our flight was at 4), and the train didn't take us to the airport but rather a train station about 20 minutes from the airport. Upon getting to the train station we ran and hopped into a taxi (now I don't know whether the taxi driver was just crazy or the worried look in our eyes) who proceeded to drive at 140 k/h all the way to the airport and after a sprint to the gate and a little begging they allowed us to get on the plane (HAHAHA success). It was nice that the airplane was very empty so we were able to spread out a little off to Morocco to go!

Gezuar Diten e Babait!!!

2011-06-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day Papa!!!

Dad, now we're broken arm twins! Isn't that exciting!!! And I must admit, after hearing about Wes's special treatment on the plane I too thought that it might be kindof neat to hurt something to make traveling easier. Good job!!

I hope that you have a great Father's day today even in the hospital. We look forward to celebrating a delightful Father's day with you when you arrive here in Wednesday night. We already have a supper planned for you!!

Love you lots Papa, hope you have a good time with the younguns in your room and you captivate them with your many stories (or your snooring, whichever one comes first!).

Lynne

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

2011-06-19T05:28:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!

Dad honestly if you didn't want to hear us sing you could have just asked there was no need to go and put yourself in hospital and under sedation to avoid our lovely singing voices. I mean I understand that the girls voices are pretty rough to listen to but I have always felt that my angelic voice more then makes up for the warbling they call singing.

HAHAHA anyways Dad try to have a great fathers day even though you are not in the best of situations, maybe your lovely wife will bring you a chocolate croissant. We all missed talking to you today.

Love

Wes

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

2011-06-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

Oh what a Daddy I have

His prayers and advice are a salve

He teases and scolds

His love's better than gold

I'll never get rid of MY DAD!

I LOVE YOU A WHOLE BIG BUNCH DADDY!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Birthday Cake

2011-05-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

Jenn made me a birthday cake for my birthday . . . white chocolate cake with raspberry filling and she decorated it! So not only is it absolutely, positively delicious but its also beautiful!

Marseille

2011-05-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hi family

I am sorry that this blog post took so long to put up, my internet has not been cooperating with me. Anyways at the end of April I took a trip to the south of France (Marseille) with a friend of mine (Nick) for a little R&R plus I had never been to France before so I figured that this would be an excellent opportunity.

So we left on Thursday morning early (we had to be up and at the train station by 5:45) so we could get to the airport on time. Of course the trip to Eindhoven (where the airport is) was anything but smooth as the train was running late and I was nearly having a heart attack (If we missed this flight it would have been the second flight that I had missed with Ryanair) but fortunately everything worked out and we got to the airport, on the plane and took off on time. The flight was about 1 1/2 hours long with nothing really unusual and then we landed in the south of France. We quickly discovered that the french are not the most helpful people on the face of the earth as we bought train tickets but yet there was no train station for at least 10 km so ended up having to spend more money and time to take a bus into Marseille. After arriving in the city I must say that I was underwhelmed as the area that we were walking though looked pretty run down but we quickly found our way to the Old Port (the most touristic area of the city) and found our hostel. The hostel looked a little drab outside but inside it was really beautiful (sorry no pics) and after dropping our stuff off and a quick explanation of what to see and do in Marseille from the hostel employees we headed out to explore but not before a quick bite to eat (I must say that French food is DELICIOUS!!!).

Our first stop was this little park which I must say was very little and not that impressive. There was a sign which Nick translated which stated that there had been great aspirations for the park yet with only modest realizations (I think I will remember that line for the next time that I utterly fail at something).

The next location was this cathredeal on top of a hill (the highest point in Marseille). It was absolutely stunning and the view was fantastic as well

After leaving the cathredeal we headed down the hill back to the old port to check out a couple of castles we had heard about.

Finally we slowly wondered our way back to our hostel to get a shower and ready for dinner (yum more French food)

The next day we were off to one of the two islands just off the cost of Marseille. The first picture is of Chateau d'if (this is where they filmed that movie the count of monte cristo) but the chateau was expensive to see and we figured that there was not much there so we opted to head for the second island which had several old forts. The island was about 2 km long and we walked that thing from tip to tail. For lunch we had a delicious lunch of mussels and fries (the mussels came in a cream sauce that was sooooooo goooood!), not great hiking food but that is alright. After a complete exploration of the entire island (including the german fortifications left over from world war II) we decided to head back to the main land. As you can see I managed to get a little sun. That night I was not feeling really well, stupid sunburn, so needless to say it was a bit of a quiet evening.

The next day we were off to explore a part and found this beautiful water fountain. As we were walking back to the Hostel to pick up our stuff we found this bakery (it has been around for 200 years) and had to sample some of their delicious pastries (they were so good). A little further on we came across this store which sold delicious french cookies and caramel (amazingly good, it is fortunate that I don't live in Marseille full time or else I would be fat for sure, fat but happy).

Then it was back to the airport to conclude our quick trip, all in all a good time had by all.

Mother's Day

2011-05-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

Thank you family for your poems and good wishes. They are beautiful, very meaningful.

Yesterday, your father treated me to my favorite things. We left early in the morning for Kyungju, a city about 30 minutes from here. It's a well-known tourist spot, the ancient capital of Korea. It has lots of historical sites. There is a lake in the center of the city which has landscaped trails and green space all around it. Next to this greenspace, they have built several 5 star hotels. Last year Dad and I discovered that these hotels serve great buffet brunches so we have gone a couple of times now just to enjoy the brunch. It's expensive but a nice treat to enjoy once in awhile. We took work with us and after breakfast sat in the lounge doing our work for a couple of hours. The lounge has floor to ceiling windows which look out over the lake. Right now many trees are flowering so the scene was very pretty. Later we went for a stroll around the lake and found a traditional tea house stopping to have some plum tea. It is very sweet but tasty. Before heading back we stopped at an ice cream stand and had ourselves some ice cream. Then on the way home, we stopped at a plant shop and Dad bought me some plants for our front balcony. Last year we hung plants there which were nice to look at so I was hoping to do the same this year. They look really great. It was a wonderful day.

This morning your dad made his amazing Bread Pudding Breakfast. This time he made it with carmel sauce. It is just so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o good. It has lots of cinnamon, dried craisens, and pecans. Full of good stuff. Wonderful.

I've been suffering due to the pollen on the pine trees - it's really bad right now. Everything has a coating of yellow right now - it sifts into the house. I usually can handle it during the day, although I have coughing fits from time to time. However at night I struggle the most. Last night because we had left the window open during the day, I couldn't lie down - set off the coughing so I moved to the couch where I could prop myself up. Needless to say I didn't sleep well so I think that instead of going to church this morning, I am going to try to get more sleep. I'm still coughing this morning and don't know if I can sit in church without going into a coughing spell. I'm praying for rain to wash the pollen out of the air. It seems really bad this year. The trees are almost done so that should help too.

Thanks again for making this day special.
With love from your MOM

Mother's Day

2011-05-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom I admit that I didn't write these poems but I did find them on the internets so hopefully that counts for something.

The Rose Family

Robert Lee Frost

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But now the theory goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose--
But were always a rose

Walking Sunshine

Dear Mother I love you and want you to know,
I think of you often wherever I go.
You lift me up; you're like walking sunshine;
I am lucky to have a great mother like mine.

Your endless affection makes you special and rare;
I'm always amazed by how much you care.
What you've given to me I can never repay,
Thank you, Mom, on mother’s day

Extra Special Mom Mom, you’ve always been the best
A better mom than all the rest.
I’m thankful for all the things you do
I’m glad my mom is extra special you! On Mother’s Day, I want you to know
You’re the greatest mom, and I love you so.
There’s one more thing I want to say:
I wish you Happy Mother’s Day! By Joanna Fuchs
A Thousand Thanks Mother's Day brings to mind
The thousands of things you did for me
that helped make me happier,
stronger and wiser,
because I had you as a role model. I'm grateful for all the times
you healed my hurts
and calmed my fears,
so that I could face the world
feeling safe and secure. I'm thankful for all you showed me
about how to love and give--
lessons that now bring
so many blessings to me
each and every day. Your sacrifices and unselfishness
did not go unnoticed, Mom.
I admire you, I respect you,
I love you.
And I'm so glad you're my mother! Happy Mother's Day! By Joanna Fuchs I was unsure which poem I liked the best so I used them all. Happy Mothers day Love
Wes

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY MOM!!!!

2011-05-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

Mom, on this day we tip our hats and raise our glasses high,

For on this day we celebrate "THE WORLD's BEST MOM", and that's NO LIE!

Nine months did you bear us, 18 years did you raise,

But instead of being finished, a lifetime labour, seems not you faze!

You tended our cuts with kisses, you soothed our fears with smiles,

You helped us believe in ourselves across many literal and figurative miles!

Tantrums did not stop you, arguments and tears gave you no pause,

Your love for us was boundless, though we tested boundaries without cause!

And so on this day we pause awhile to thank you for ALL you've done.

You've been with us through thick and thin and WE LOVE YOU TONS AND TONS!!!!

The Wedding and The Election

2011-05-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Wow what a week. First the wedding of the century and then the promise of an election that will upset the look of politics in Canada. Exciting!!!

Did you watch the wedding? On Friday when we got home from the office, the wedding was just beginning to stream live on YouTube (courtesy of the BBC). We were able to watch it in real time. Very beautiful! If you missed it you will want to catch the highlights on YouTube.

Now we are counting down to the election. Some really interesting things are happening. Who would have thought that the NDP would be gaining so much ground, especially in Quebec? Our hats off to the youth for taking the challenge and jumping into arena making their voice heard. It's good to see and we hope this continues not just at election time but after. Canadian politics needs a shake up and hopefully we will see it this time.

This week is missions festival and Dad and I are hosting a booth on Albania/Kosovo. We found 3 students who are MK from this area. Last night they came over for supper and then we worked together to prepare Qofti to serve in our booth. They brought pictures and we enjoyed hearing stories and seeing pictures from this region. It was a good evening.

Have a great week.

2011-04-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well Van Bruggen bloggers, it's about time for a post from this VERY BUSY English Professor (quit laughing Becky!!!). I've talked about posting a recipe for awhile, so now it's time to get to it! Here goes:

ZESTY EGGS AND VEGGIES IN A WRAP (Alright, so maybe the recipe title does need some refining!)

Ingredients:
-1 onion (spanish or yellow)
-1/2 to 1 sweet pepper (I like red, but green or others can be substituted)
-Mushrooms (any type, but the white button variety works well)
-3 eggs
-1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar and/or pepperjack works best)
-salt & pepper to taste
- 2 or 3 large, soft tortilla shells
-Sweet & hot sauce - mix sweet and hot pepper sauces together (hot pepper sauce may be substituted by tobasco, worshshire, or other hot sauce) and add mayo to taste.
-Enough cooking oil (virgin olive oil works best) to sautee the veggies and then the eggs.

1. Cut-up and/or dice the onion, sweet pepper and mushrooms - sautee in a hot frying pan until done (crispy/tender is tastiest). [You can also add bacon, ham or other pieces of meat, as per your preference and availability)- set aside
2. Separately mix the 3 eggs and scramble them up.
3. Add the sauteed veggie mixture to the srambled eggs
4. Add the shredded cheese and salt/pepper mix and stir until blended.
5. Add the sweet & hot sauce to the blend - stir until thoroughly mixed.
6. Fold 1/3 to 1/2 the mixture into either 2 or 3 large tortilla shells - wrap up tightly and cut in half.
7. Enjoy! Makes 2 - 3 servings (note: for 1 person, use 1/2 the amount of ingredients [approximately!].

Vinyl Cafe

2011-04-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm addicted . . . so what! This weeks story was so funny!! I laughed and laughed. You have to listen.

feed://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/vinylcafe.xml April 16th, 2011 (Hospital Dave)

ENJOY

Cherry Blossom Time Again

2011-04-10T03:44:00.001-07:00

Well it is Cherry Blossom Time again in South Korea. Our campus looks beautiful right now with all the Cherry Trees and Magnolia Trees in bloom. There are other trees blooming but I don't know the names of them. Everything looks good.

This morning Dad and I played hooky from church and drove into Daegu. We had arranged to take our friends from Nepal to Youngnam University to see the Cherry Trees. It was a wonderful afternoon walking around the university with hundreds of other people. It was very festive on the campus: cotton candy sellers, various types of street food sellers, balloons sellers, trinket sellers, people having picnics, people flying kites. It was great. We took pictures and wandered around for a couple of hours then drove to Xin Chao, a Thai restaurant for some good food. It was great to reconnect with them.

After a hurried march through Costco, weaving our way through the crowd, we headed back home to watch The National and talk with our kids.

It was a good day.

Check this out

2011-04-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Family

I apologize as I fear that I will not be able to join you on skype this afternoon as I have a few things which need to be done. I will try to talk to you this week but for sure I will be around next week. Anyways I just wanted to leave you with this video as it is absolutely amazing.

http://blog.ted.com/2011/04/01/a-virtual-choir-2000-voices-strong-eric-whitacre-on-ted-com/

It is really fantastic and a testament to what can be done with technology.

Anyways I love you all and I again urge you all to check this out as it is amazing.

For a friend

2011-03-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I have a bit of an unusual request for you all, I have a prayer request but not for myself. A friend of mine, who I will not name as to respect their privacy, recently went in for a regular medical checkup and at that time some precancerous cells were found. They were very fortunate as this was discovered early and the medical professionals didn't believe that the cells had a chance to spread so a surgery was scheduled and these cells were removed. The surgery was a success however my friend will be going back in to surgery in the next little bit just to ensure that there are no more problems and just to confirm that the cancer did not have a chance to spread. So if you could all keep my friend in your prayers for the next little bit just praying that there was no spread and that all the cancer has been removed that would be very appreciated.

Otherwise I hope that you are all having great weeks and Becky I am seeing that it looks to be warming up in Winnipeg so it looks like you can be excited for the next official season in Manitoba which seems to be flood season and then mosquito season and then back to winter (ahh the joys of living in Manitoba).

Love

Wes

We Love You Japan

2011-03-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Our school made this video and put it up on youtube in the hopes of providing encouragement to the people of Japan.

Did you see me? I was there in the crowd.

Mom

Outhouse Calender pic just for you!

2011-03-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

Kosovo Pictures!!

2011-03-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a wonderful chicken curry that we had in a restaurant and guess how much it was??? 4 Euros! I know I know, so cheap!!!

And this was the capuccino that I had. Honestly it was 2 mouthfuls of capuccino and A MOUNTAIN of whipping cream. (I shared mine!)

A wonderful find as we were driving through Kosovo!

SNOW!!!

Snow and mountains!!

So . . . what do ya think?

2011-03-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

I got my hair cut . . . and straightened!

Don't worry . . . its not permanent. I went to the salon and they gave me a nice head massage and then styled my hair. The stylist just started straightening it . . . I didn't ask for it to be straightened, she just decided to do it. Shelley really likes it straight, I prefer it curly. What do you think? [Not that it matters, as I will be wearing it curly . . . but your opinions will be duly noted . . . and ignored ;) ]

There are other cheapstakes out there . . .

2011-03-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

I have become addicted to the Vinyl Cafe - a radio broadcast on CBC. Steward McLean, is an excellent story teller, he has a remarkable voice, and a wonderful sense of timing. It comes on every Saturday morning after Adventures in Odyessy (By the way, they are playing new shows - this weeks was a continuation of last weeks - called the Green Ring Conspiracy - its really really good, apparently you can listen online at whitsend.org). Last week, Steward McLean told a story about his time growing up in Montreal, and one particular story made me think of Wes, and his never ceasing quest to obtain free or discounted entrance into events.

As mentioned, Steward McLean grew up in Montreal during the 60s. While he was a university student, many of the big Greats in rock at the time were playing at a particular theater in Downtown Montreal. Being a poor university student and unable to afford the ticket price, he devised a way to sneak into the theater, not only to catch the acts, but also to meet the members. His plan worked best in the winter, particularly when it was snowing. A small cafe/shop was just down the street from the theater, and it was to that shop that Steward McLean would head to prior to the show. There he would remove his outercoat, revealing a short sleeve shirt, hang up the jacket, then walk to the back door of the theater. Surrounding this back door was usually a collection of impressionable, highly excitable, and head-over-heels in love girls, who would wait in giddy anticipation at the back door in hopes of a glimpse or, even better, a chance to meet their musical heros. Seeing a young man, in short sleeves, walking in the softly falling snow with a decided sense of purpose towards the back door, these groupies would assume that he belonged inside and would begin clamouring for him to let them in. Steward McLean would then knock at the back door, and when security would open it, he would push himself inside, and direct the overwhelmed guard, over his shoulder as he walked in, to "not let any of THEM in". The trick, he said, was to just keep walking. Apparently he succeeded several times to gain entrance.

The story reminded me so much of Wes (and for that matter Dad), that I just had to pass it on. I do NOT, I repeat, NOT condone Steward McLean's actions, and I would be HORRIFIED, repeat HORRIFIED, if I found out that my brother (or father) attempted such a thing. Though it was a good story.

I did it!

2011-03-19T09:03:00.001-07:00

After three and a half months, countless moments of doubts, sore muscles and aching limbs, tired days and exhausted sleeps (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration . . . but not much), I did it! I ran 10km! Unfortunately, I've only ran it twice this past week, but I still have one more week of my gym membership, so plenty of time to attempt it a couple of more times.

Something Useful

2011-03-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Now I know that we are all perfect but sometimes even perfection can be helped along a little. I am not sure about the rest of my family but I know that I am terrible at pronouncing people's names and I must admit that this is a little embarrassing for me; the number of times that I have embarrassed myself has certainly increased since living abroad as there are so many new names and different ways of pronouncing them. Anyways, I had a presentation to give recently and was worried about how to pronounce the name Katarzyna and not wanting to make a fool of myself in front of the class I thought to myself "self the internets knows everything there must be a website out there that can help me with this problem"; enter www.pronouncenames.com where there was not only the phonetic spelling of the name to help me but they also have an audio file which can help you pronounce the name. Needless to say I managed to embarrass myself one less time, WOOHOO!

Something to think about.

2011-03-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

"Others May, You Cannot"

- George Douglas Watson -

If GOD has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely GOD will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The LORD may let others be honoured and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit of it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that GOD is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His . . . slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living GOD that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over you life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

Driving in Kosovo

2011-03-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

Hey Family!!
Well we made it there and back safe and sound!! I even got to drive up a mtn that had ice and blowing snow and ice windshield wipers. Yikes, I forgot what it was like to drive in winter!!! Praise God He protected us! But I have a story for you as long as you parents promise not to go too over the top by the story and get worried. I'm telling you so that you can be encouraged about how God watches over your children.

We began to drive in Kosovo over this mtn. It has started snowing at the base but it wasn't very deep or very much. But the higher that we got the worse it got. The snow covered the road and the temperature droped by about 10 degrees. There was ice under the snow and the wind was blowing the snow so that it was hard to see. There were lots of bends in the road and the windshield wipers were iced over, making hard to see. It was really slow going, about 20 kms. But there weren't many people on the road. The diesel car didn't like the cold and had a hard time going into 2nd gear to get up the mtn.

I normally drove on the middle of the road because I thought 1. there are soooo few people on the road, and 2. if i hit black ice and swing off, I want to have as much distance as I can from the edge. When a car came i'd just move over.

However this one time a car was coming (me in the middle and he coming on the side that had the mtn) and i tried to move the car over but the car didn't respond! The other car came closer and in a moment of panick I crancked the wheel to the right, HARD. Not a smart move to do on an icy road, the other car could have caught the back of our car sending us spinning. But you know, that nothing happened. It was as if I had held the wheel perfectly straight in both hands. It acted like I hadn't cranked the wheel hard to the right, but I had. I knew it. Later i was telling the story and one of the ladies was like "yah, I thought that was strange that the car kept going like normal". There were another set of hands on that wheel and they weren't mine!!!

Before we started on the trip as well, God watched over us. Usually it takes 1.5 hrs to get to Lushnje and then another 45 mins to get to Durres. It took us 5 hrs to get to Durres because car wheel was dented and then became flat, we fixed it in Berat and then were stopped by the police... it was such a long trip just to get to DUrres!! But praise God that that happened when Helio was in the car (they came with us to Lushnje and then Lili and I continued without them) so he changed the tire and took care of all that.

I have pics but no time now to put them on, neser neser!
Love you guys lots!
Lynne

2011-03-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

I found these videos recently. I like them - especially the Cute Kid video - it will make you laugh. They both will begin at once. I don't know how to prevent this so you will need to stop one.

Baggage

Cute Kid

TEAM

2011-03-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Our TEAM leader - Eunshin (guy in the plaid shirt) and Josue (from Honduras)

This is Dongbok Ki. He was with OM in Africa for one year. Lynne, he has a friend with OM who is in Kosovo. If you meet a Korean guy with OM in Kosovo, chances are that he is Dongbok's friend.

This is David from Rawanda and Jae. Jae was in charge of the entertainment for the MT. Great guy - he was a great leader.

This is Dasol, Paul (grew up in California) and Anna (from China). All last semester I met with Anna three times a week. She had little to no English but here she is part of an English team. She really worked hard learning English so that she could enter the English dorm and be on an English team.

Jihye. Dad and I met her during the winter break when we taught the additional course during January.

The woman in the Handong hoodie is Naha from Napal. Beside her is YunJin. She is from Japan, she is Korean but her parents are missionaries in Japan. Beside Eunshin, sitting on the floor is Jerry, also from China.

On the couch is Shine (from Mongolia) and Sera (from Korea).

Sitting with her head down is Kate (from Russia) and to my left is Baigalmaa (from Mongolia) and Amy (from Korea). Eating supper from the floor.

This semester I am doing TEAM. This is a unique course to Handong. Students must take TEAM six semesters out of eight. They register for the course and it is worth one credit for them. This also determines where they live in dorm because students in the same TEAM live together - 3 dorm rooms in the women and men's dorms - 4 students per room. Thus my TEAM has 24 students - freshmen to seniors. I was assigned to them. These are International students or Korean students who have chosen to do English speaking TEAM because they want to improve their English or because some of them have spent time in the US or another English speaking country.

On Wednesday, we have English chapel at 3 in the afternoon which is followed by TEAM meeting. Everyone on TEAM must attend chapel and the meeting - attendance is taken. 3 misses and they fail. Last week was our first chapel and meeting. The purpose of the meeting was for introductions and to plan for MT (membership training). MT is common in Korean universities - they had this at Kyungpook also. Basically the students in the same class/year/club spend a few days together having fun and building relationship. At Kyungpook, I dreaded MT because that meant that students were so hung-over that they could barely function. This being a 'christian' university, I wasn't sure what to expect. On Wednesday we chose our MT organizers - food and entertainment. They selected a committee to help them and then went about arranging everything. I offered our house for the meal.

We meet on Friday at 6pm. The food committee came earlier to prepare food - preparing fruit salad, some kind of rice dish and Russian pancakes. Later the students arrived and the food was ordered - zimduk, fried chicken and a hot spicy stew (don't know the Korean name). We stuffed ourselves with food which we ate while sitting on the floor. All the furniture was pushed to the side and we laid out the food on newpaper on the floor and everyone sat cross legged around it to eat. After dessert and lots of talking, around 8, we moved to a classroom to play games.

The entertainment committee had prepared about 8 different games for us to play. We played the games as a team competition. One game, "How far can you go", had us spitting a mandarine orange section across the room to see who could spit it the farthest. The section had to land in tact - no manipulation. I mention this one because guess who won - Moi. Your mother is the champion of spitters. I was able to spit my orange section the furthest - clear across the room. Fortunately there was a wall on the other side or else I may have been able to go further. Unfortunately there was no prize or recognition given but I did earn my team the most points.

Here are a few pictures from the evening. I forgot to take our camera for the games but we got pictures of everyone in our apartment. There are about 9 countries represented in our group. I see that I don't have pictures of some of the people that were there. That night we had 22 people together for the meal - less for games as not everyone came for games. It was a lot of fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

Last weekend

2011-03-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Alright so I may be avoiding reading articles by posting on the blog but I can rationalize this by figuring that this is at least productive so I can feel good about myself.

So as I mentioned last week I had guests from Malta visiting me for the weekend so as a good host I made sure that I was able to get everything done that needed to be done before they arrived so I would be free to show them around all weekend.

Anyways my friends arrived on Thursday in the early afternoon and after an initial delay in meeting them (I was running all over town trying to get everything together to host friends) I met them at the train station and got them setup with public transportation cards (3 days of unlimited use of the metro, bus, and trams for only 15 euros (this may sound expensive but transportation is expensive in Amsterdam so it is actually pretty cheap)). After this we headed back to my little slice of heaven that I call my dorm room (everyone was adequately warned about the size of my room and the condition of the dorm, I think that mom and dad can back me up when I say that it is a bit of a challenge living in student housing in Amsterdam but I guess it helps build character (I personally feel that all my character building has made me the person I am today and I partly blame dad for all the character snow shoveling that I did and being the only one who actually read the manual for the riding lawnmower). Anyways after getting everyone settled we took a fun trip to the university because I was still not finished with handing in a last assignment so everyone had to suffer even though they were all very hungry from their trip (hey no one said I was a good host). After running around the university and getting a bit to eat it was off to see amsterdam. I guess when you live anywhere for a while you forget about what it is like to see it for the first time and tend to overlook that most people are interested in the architecture and canals so when asked about what is good to see you kind of blank. Anyways after wandering around for a while and stopping for coffee it was decided that it would be best to call it an early evening (which was good because I was exhausted)

Friday started with a trip to the purse museum, as much as I want to mock the experience it was actually pretty interesting. As usual it seems that I am the only one actually interested in reading the information (I am looking at you mom and dad) so I took my sweet time while everyone else just ran though the museum looking at all the bags. After the museum it was off to the Anne Frank house, just a short tram ride away, but because of a massive line the plan was changed and we headed off for a canal cruise. The canal cruise is exactly what it sounds like you get in a flat bottom boat and go though the canals of Amsterdam while a tour guide gives you some history on the place. It was really interesting as they pointed out lots of things that I didn't previously know. Plus I had extra incentive to enjoy the canal cruise as I managed to negotiate the children's price for myself by sticking to the claim that I was only 12. After the canal cruise finished it was off to the Van Gohl museum to look at some art (being that this was my 3rd time there I took the role of unofficial tour guide) but I was also pleased to see that they had a Picasso exhibit which was new (I tried to get a discount here but no go, oh well). After the obligatory three hours in the museum it was off to the House of Boels (Boels makes the oldest liqueur in the netherlands as it was started in the 1500s). The House of Boels was interesting as you got to smell and taste lots of different things and try to guess what they are (apparently I am terrible at this). Finally, after finishing at the house of boels it was off for a bite to eat (I was starving as we hadn't eaten all day but everyone else seemed alright). After dinner it was getting ready and then out for the night.

Saturday we were to get up early (at 7) so we could get to the Anne Frank Museum but needless to day this didn't happen and we ended up rolling into the line at the Anne Frank Museum at about 11. After a long wait in the misty cold weather (everyone else decided to wait in a little shop and me being kind stood in the rain all by my lonesome, am I an awesome host or what) we finally got in to do the tour. As mom and dad will attest it was a good experience (I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it because I don't think you are meant to enjoy such things but it was good). Following the Anne Frank Museum and feeling that we needed to lighten things up we were off to the Heineken brewery to learn how beer is made (talk about a transition). We hung out at the Heineken brewery for a while (they really do great advertising so that was really the attraction to the entire experience) before everyone decided that it was time to hit up the H&M for some shopping. Fortunately because of the fact that we were meeting a friend we were only able to spend about 20 minutes in H&M (oh boo hoo) before having to leave. We then met up with a friend and hit a chinese restaurant for a bit to eat and then back to my place to get ready for the evening.

Sunday morning early (at about 6 in the morning) everyone woke up and my friends from Malta left to head to the airport and I went back to bed to get a little more sleep before church.

All in all a good time but hosting 4 people in my tiny room was just a little too much and I don't think that I will be doing that again.

Anyways I hope that everyone is having a great week and I will talk to you sunday.

Love

Wes

Eating Healthy

2011-03-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hi

I am always on the lookout for cheap, fast, and healthy recipes and this week I think that I found a winner. I was initially skeptical about the dish as it looked more like a dip (and it actually could function quite well as a healthy dip if you feel so inclined) but is a side dish; in my case it was a main course but lets not focus on that. Anyways I have been thinking that I need to up my green vegetable intake and I figured that spinach would be perfect (I was sick of salad and broccoli was expensive). After picking up my spinach I was stuck trying to figure out how to turn this vegetable into a main course and that is when I came across this recipe for Spinach Surprise.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 cup salsa or picante sauce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

In a saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour and salt until blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Stir in spinach and picante sauce. Stir in 3/4 cup cheese. Transfer to a greased 8-in. square baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

I ended up using an entire jar of salsa and I didn't bake it for as long as suggested but I found it to be quite delicious.

If anyone else has any winning cheap, healthy and delicious recipes (preferably all three attributes are present in the recipe but I will also suffice with cheap and healthy if it is a must) I would love to hear them.

Love

Wes

Buried by snow at Handong

2011-02-15T02:44:00.000-08:00

Lots of snow - about 20 cms - perhaps not much by Winterpeg standards, but the most this area has had in one dump in almost 100 years! This is the view from the second floor of our teaching/office building.

This is another view from the second floor of our office/teaching building - taken from our resource room, looking north. By the end of the day, the snow was gone from the trees - the sun was that strong!

The big commute to work - it took us almost TEN MINUTES to complete the trek this morning under BRUTAL conditions - now, don't you feel sorry for us?!?!!!

Mom was exhausted from trekking through the snow and needed a break - watch out Momma - there's a vehicle a'coming twards ya!!!!

Koreans are very friendly people - until you try walking in their snow track lane - watch out for those snowballs!

Just some neighbourhood gang-members hanging around making trouble at Handong!

A couple of scary looking characters out for a stroll on our unusually lengthy trek/commute to work this morning.

This is the laneway leading down the "hill" (as the Americans call it - it's actually just a slope!) - part of our commute when we have to go the "long-way around"!

This is the eastern view from close to our apartment - the middle/high school is on the left-hand side.

Its gonna take a while to dig our car (4th from the left, 3rd from the right) out! Fortunately, we don't have to take the car on our commute - YIPPEE!!!!

The view this morning from in front of our apartment - ain't the view pretty (in addition to your Momma, that is!)

Your Momma (as if you didn't know) after a long, hard day at the office - now, don't you feel sorry for her?!?

News Flash - major snowstorm buries Pohang!!

2011-02-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, it was great talking to each and all of you last night - we had a great time "rapping" (remember that one Nettie?) - even though the old man got tired and went to bed at midnight - can you imagine!!! Well, one of the reasons I went to bed when I did was that I figured 7:30 a.m. would roll around soon enough and then we'd have an all-day Handong University in-service in which to spend our 29th engagement anniversary - well, guess what - we woke up to snow falling this morning and it hasn't let up since! We were just about to leave the apartment at about 8:50 when we got the call that the in-service was being delayed, likely to 1:00 p.m. due to the snowstorm. Maybe this sounds selfish, but, to us, that was good news - we could use the morning off - it got even more intersting - about 11:00 a.m., we received an email over the Handong website telling us that the inservice was cancelled for the day. Then, early this afternoon, while the snowstorm was still raging away, we learned that the in-service was cancelled for Tuesday as well. We went into the office for a bit and then left for home, dancing through the snow and throwing snowballs at each other. I'd forgotten to turn the heat off, so the apartment was like a blast furnace! Mom made pizza, we watched a great old movie (Remembering Henry - with Harrison Ford and Annette Benning - a great movie!) and now we've just come back from a walk through the snow - beautiful - and it's still snowing! I've estimated that we've got between 20-30 cms. on the ground now already - who knows how much we'll have by tomorrow - pictures to follow tomorrow! GOD IS GOOD - Its been a WONDERFUL 29th engagement anniversary!!!!

Mom and I hope and pray that you're all doing well, and that you'll have wonderful weeks ahead of you!! We're praying for each of you!!!!

LOVE, ALWAYS AND FOREVER,

-Dad-

Prayer request

2011-02-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

Hi all

So I know that I have a while until I graduate (6 months give or take) but still I am starting to get nervous about finding a job. While the job market is recovering the financial industry is still hurting and I am having some difficulties in finding a job. These difficulties in finding a job compounded with the fact that I have absolutely no idea where I would go when I complete my degree if I don't have a job are really starting to concern me (do I try to stay in Europe to see what I can find, do I go back to Canada and if I do go back to Canada where do I go etc.). If you could please remember me in your prayers in these matters I would be very much appreciated that.

Love Wes

Mom and Dad's Contact Information

2011-02-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

George and Judith (Judy)

Home number: +82-54-260-1577

Office number: +82-54-260-1856 (George)

Office number: +82-54-260-1172 (Judy)

Mobile: + 10126645702

Address: Handong Global University

Global Leadership School

Pohang, Gyeoungbuk Do

791-708 South Korea

E-mail addresses:

judyvb@handong.edu

georgevb@handong.edu

judyvb1982@yahoo.ca

georgevb1982@yahoo.com

jvanbruggenster@gmail.com

Wes's contact information

2011-02-13T06:01:00.000-08:00

HI all

Dutch phone number: +31 649 996 1782
email address: wes.vanbruggen@gmail.com
current address: Weesperstraat 17B, 1018 DN, Amsterdam, North Holland

Love

Wes

Family Celebration - 30th Wedding Anniversary

2011-02-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

OK This is what everyone needs to think about and plan for:

Your parents 30th Wedding Anniversary on September 11, 2012

I would like to plan a family celebration in the Canary Island in either December 2012 or January/February 2013.

This will be a special celebration so I would like to be together for 5 to 7 days. This means that you need to plan schedule and finances. Dad and I will find an apartment for all of us.

I know that this is way in the future but consider this your official notice/invitation.

Keep it in your mind and your scheduler.

Mom

I guess it's time for my post!

2011-02-13T02:30:00.000-08:00

The Van Bruggen men, loading our rental car (would you believe looking for stuff?) - we're by the dunes in the north part of the Island - very nice!

Watch out Wes - there's a flying fossil coming to attack you - too late, but luckilly (for the fossil or for Wes, we're not sure, it missed!!!! Now we're in the south part of the Island - behind us is a long, sandy beach - the three of us went walking for a long time.

Mom, trying to "out-height" her lil' baby boy - check out the black sand - this was at an isolated community on the west side of the Island - there was a great walkway along the cliffs which led down into caves - a great afternoon while cruising around in our rental.

This is the view from a nearby hilltop of the resort community we stayed in - lots of development here - our apartment is located in the "Caleta Garden", near the top left-hand of the picture - can you make it out?

The view of the balcony of our apartment - our balcony overlooked the pool and lounge areas, which was in the middle of the "Caleta Garden" complex.

The Van Bruggen boys - what else - resting in their humble abode at the Caleta Gardens! This couch also doubled as Wes' bed.

Mom talking to one of the statutes in the nearby capital - she says it was the only way she could get a word in edgewise - come on, that's unbelievable - Wes and Dad (at least Dad!) aren't talkative at all!!!

Here we are, eating yet again - one of the many activities we could all agree on and "sink our teeth into" - this time it was a metre [yup!] long sausage with fries, dips and salad - this was in the capital.

Hey - who's that cool dude - must be a movie star! First day in Furteventura - we're at one of the many restaurants - where we shed much of our clothes (thankfully, not all, or else they would have thrown us out) and just soaked up the sun - WONDERFUL!!

Even Mom had to admit that this warm weather business was going to pretty nice afterall!

Made it to Furteventurea, the Canary Islands - Wes is a happy camper - he got to don the shades, and shed his winter clothing - he's still wearing pants in this picture (I hope, anyways!!) but they soon were replaced by shorts when we checked into our apartment - just a few minutes away from this restaurant.

Wes is a happy camper - first time in T-shirt

and sandals - when we get to our hotel-apartment,

the shorts will come on next

Rebekah's Contact Info

2011-02-12T10:09:00.001-08:00

Well, Dad, I'm not sure your posting really counts as a posting, but posting contact info is a good idea.

Home Phone Number: 1-204-285-7842

Work Phone Number: 1-204-789-7081

Email addresses:

(personal) rebekahvanb@gmail.com

(work) rebekah.vanbruggen@phac-aspc.gc.ca

I don't know my supervisor's number, but I'll post it when I find out.

Contact Information

2011-02-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

Calling all kids, calling all kids - Now, I know this is entirely boring, but "the parents" (well, it's my idea mostly) would like each of us to post enhanced contact information (perhaps to the blog?). It has occurred to us (in our mostly futile attempts to contact Nettie this week) that we have very little recourse should we need to contact each other in the event of an important occasion or emergency.

I would like us to list the following:
1. cell-phone (including the proper number sequence to call from outside of the country - we'll need to also test this out via Skype (we've just spoken to Lynne and have finally figured out the proper number sequence to call her - it took about 6 or 7 tries though).
2. land-line (if applicable) at home and at place of employment (we'll be updating this information from time to time as our numbers/employers change).
3. alternate email and/or phone numbers (i.e. friend, supervisor, etc.) - who can generally (and quickly) get in contact with us - this information will also need to be updated from time to time.

As I'd said, I know this isn't very exciting, and I'm hoping/praying we'll never need to use this contact information system (except in the possible event of exceptionally good news) - but its worthwhile to have (and will also likely extend the life-spans of "the parents") - this is the "heads up" - we'll talk more about this at our upcoming Sunday Skype date.

Your parents love and pray for each of you!

Love, always and forever!!!

-Dad-

Creativity

2011-02-10T22:59:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Alright I will admit that I am not the most creative individual, sure I have an active imagination however that often does not translate well into reality, but sometimes circumstances call for a creative solution and when you are in these situations you have to come up with something.

So as I am sure that everyone can contest one of the challenges of living in a different city from where you grew up is that you are never really sure to get all the things that you need. I know you are thinking "Wes you have been living in Amsterdam for over 6 months surely you must be use to the city by know and know where everything is!" and I would say yes for the most part I do but there are always things that you need but you are just not sure where to find. Let me explain.

I have been suffering from allergies and my eczema has been getting particularly bad, especially after mom and dad left, and I have been trying to figure out what it could be. I have started to change my diet, change my exercise routine, get more sleep, get less sleep, try cold showers, basically I have just been trying different things to relieve the symptoms and nothing really seemed to be working. Then all of a sudden it hit me I was sleeping on a mattress which has been here since the dawn of time and I am sure that it is full of dust mites, after coming to this realization the solution became easy I just have to find a mattress cover. Well you think that a mattress cover would be an easy thing to find, at least I did, I figured that I would pop down to IKEA or some other similar store and pick one up for 20 or so euros and I would be off to the races. Well that certainly was not the case, I actually spent the better part of one day going from store to store and then phoning stores asking about mattress covers and I was only greeted with confused looks and annoying off topic advice "why don't you just buy a new mattress?". I finally found a store which did have mattress covers but it turns out that they had to be custom made and were about 350 euros per cover (apparently they have microorganisms in them which kill all these things and make them very good to use). Well needless to say the thought of coughing up 350 euros for a mattress cover is not very enticing and I just figured that I would just buy a lot of allergy medication for that money and be just as well off.

As I returned home grumpy both because of the lack of success and because I was hungry (I managed to gain about 6 pounds while mom and dad were here so now I have to get rid of it so it is diet and exercise for me but the bad thing is that I seem to be constantly slightly hungry as I wait for my stomach to shrink, Thanks mom and dad!) I was still trying to figure out what a possible solution may be. Then when I was in the kitchen making some dinner (bean chili) it hit me, why not use plastic bags to cover my mattress! This way I solve the problem of the dust mites affecting me and I save 350 euros. Well I have done just that and I am proud to say that my plastic bag mattress cover works like a champ but I probably will be buying a foam pad to put over my mattress as my mattress now crunches when I turn over.

HAAAZAAAA! Chalk one up for creativity!

Love

Wes

P.S I noticed that mom posted a blog post dad, where is your blog post?

Thankfulness

2011-02-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you are doing the simple things in life, you remember to be thankful. Take chopping wood for example. I was chopping some wood the other day and was very thankful!

Thank you Lord that that wood missed my head.
Thank you Lord that that one landed between my legs and not on one.
Thank you Lord that my toe wasn't in that part of my shoe where the axe landed.
Thank you Lord that it brushed my hair and missed my ear!

Yes, chopping wood is a good time to give thanks. That, and driving in Tirana!!!

Visit to the Relatives

2011-02-09T01:39:00.000-08:00

The house where Gramma VB was born and raised. It has been modernized since that time but the basic structure and location is the same.

The house where Gramma and Grampa VB first lived. It is on the side of a sand dune. At the time that they lived there, it was a converted chicken coup. There is farm land all around. Notice the thatched roof.

Behind the sand dunes is the beach/ocean. It was a windy and cold day. Here are Bram and Grace with me.

This is Bram and Grace standing outside there home.

Bram and Grace (Her English Name) were great hosts and Dad and I had a great time.

Our trip started off with a mishap. After Wes left us in Amsterdam, we boarded the train. When it came into the station there were two sections coupled together. We boarded the section that was closest to us from where we were standing on the platform. We should have noticed that everyone was getting on the other section but we didn't. There was one other passenger in our section and she got off at the next station. At the 3rd station, the train came to a stop and then we felt a slight jerk. About 5 minutes later we discovered that the jerk was the sections uncoupling and you guessed it - we were on the wrong section. We were told that another train would be coming through in 20 minutes so not wanting to waste our time, we found a cafe and ordered some coffee and Dad wanted another chocolate pastry (his favorite). Bram and Grace fearing that something had happened when we didn't arrive phoned Wes. Wes in his typical nonplussed attitude told them that he didn't know what happened because he knew we were getting on the train. As it was they had to wait in town for their granddaughter to get out of school and in the meantime, we arrived.

That evening we sat around talking, eating and drinking strong coffee.

The next day they drove us around the countryside. We saw where Gramma and Grampa Van Bruggen had lived when they first got married and the place where Gramma was born and raised. They took us to a museum and we went out for lunch. Bram use to grow tulips for a living so he explained about the industry and showed us places where different flowers were grown and prepared for exporting.

That evening Grace served your father's favorite meal - Snet (Green Pea Soup).

On Sunday, we went with them to their church and later that afternoon, we caught the train back to Amsterdam. The return trip was uneventful.

Overall it was a very pleasant time.

I survived . . .

2011-02-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

The Fort Garry EMC Youth Retreat!

Unfortunately I have no pictures to prove that I attended said retreat, but my muscles and sense of tiredness would attest to it.

On Friday night, we all met at the church (all 17 youth and five adults), packed up and drove out to Winkler Bible Camp, which is near, you'll never guess . . . Winkler. Once there we had a session then all piled outside for some s'mores around a campfire, along with a rousing game of B-sk-ice-ball (Basketball on a very slippery ice rink - I stayed huddled around the fire with a few sane youth discussing the probabilities of two people in a room having the same birthday . . . there was other topics discussed, but that's the one I remember best, not because it was necessarily interesting but because there was some very definite numbers being tossed around.) Afterwards, we returned to warmer areas and played board games. I retired at 1:00, though some youth stayed awake until 5am.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of waking the girls at 8:30 (water splashed on anyone not moving quick enough) for breakfast at 9. Afterwards we had a session, a retreat of silence, lunch then free time outside. During free time I helped to set up for the group game. This required walking all over the camp in very deep snow (think thigh deep), finding places to hide "food" and "water" stickers. The group game was called "survive" or something like that, and involved a lot of running and tackling people - not necessarily because we were suppose to tackle but because as you reached out to tag them they tripped in the deep snow taking you down with them. The day was a very pleasant temperature, which made it nice to be outside, though that did mean we got very wet. After the group game, we all trouped back inside, tired and wet, where we dried off and chatted, and played some more games before dinner. After dinner, we had a third session, a talent show (there are a lot of musically talented youth in this group), and then an hour of broomball to finish the evening (yes I played . . . well I participated, I'm not sure you can call shuffling after the ball as playing, though I did manage to hit the ball a couple times, never in the correct direction, but at least I didn't sit on the sidelines . . . I think my feet would have frozen inside my shoes if I had because the temperature was beginning to drop and my boots were soaking wet.) Afterwards, we sat around and chatted. I turned in at 12:30, though some of the youth stayed up until 4:30am.

On Sunday, I again was privileged to serenade the girls awake with a rousing, and slightly off-key, rendition of "Good morning to you!" We ate breakfast at 9:45 (I was starving, considering I normally eat at 7am on Sundays), had a long session, ate lunch, packed up and went home.

All in all the retreat went well. No one died, no one suffered any serious injuries (one guy attempted to stop a sled with his face and was rewarded with a pretty good snow burn), and everyone appeared to be friends at the end of it. I came home tired and maybe just a little bit grumpy (Rachel took off not too long after I got home, she said she was going dancing but . . . I'm not too sure that was the only reason). Anyway I survived the retreat and lived to tell the tale. I hope that you all had a fabulous week and am looking forward to more postings to meet the 154.5 posting challenge.

HI everyone

2011-02-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

Alright I have a challenge for you, but this is a long-term challenge and one that needs to be carefully planned to be executed.

I noticed that we had 53 posts in 2009 (this was good considering that the blog was started in October so it was only around for 3 full months before the year was up) and then we had 103 posts (or something like that) in 2010 and that was for the full year. This year was have currently 8 posts (9 if you include this post) and my challenge to my family is to beat the 2010 number of posts by at least 50%, yes dear family I am suggesting that in 2011 we aim to have at least 154.5 posts. Do you think you are up for the challenge?!?!?!!?!

I know that it will be challenging, what with our amazing abilities to forget our cameras whenever we travel anywhere, but I think that this is something that we can do. Don't forget you don't have to be traveling to post on the blog recipes, stories (both cautionary and exciting are acceptable), random pictures (you don't have to be on holidays to take pictures, Lynnette as I recall you enjoy photography and I am wanting to become a better photographer so in order for this to be done more pictures are necessary. Mom you said that you don't take pictures because you are not any good, well I am not going to disagree but in order to get good you have to take more pictures) etc. Use your imaginations and JUST POST!!!

Porto

2011-01-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

HI all

Well usually this is the point where I tell everyone what fun I had in Portugal, how the food was so good and I really want to go back to explore more and this may be the case if I had made it to Portugal. Our flight was at 5:30 and since it is normally only a hour and 20 minutes to the airport from Amsterdam we decided (my friend and I) to leave at 2 in the afternoon so we could get some things done before going. Anyways we had no problem getting our needed train and getting about 1/2 hour outside the city when we ran into a problem. For some reason the electricity was down on a area of track so we ended up having to take a detour which turned into a 2 hour detour. Needless to say we ended up missing our train and ending up spending the weekend in Amsterdam. Oh well at least I was able to get some work done and the tickets were only 30 euro so that is alright, if anything this will only encourage me to book another trip sooner rather than later and I am thinking Morocco is looking pretty good (even if there are uprises there).

Well I love you all

Love

Wes

Furtaventura (the Canary Islands)

2011-01-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

HI all

As I am sure you are aware of Mom and Dad arrived in Amsterdam on Jan 15 and since Dad seems to be allergic to the cold we only hung around Amsterdam until Jan 18 before heading off to warmer climates. The flight was actually on Jan 19 but since the flight was really early in the morning and from Brussels, and since mom and dad have never been to brussels, we decided to head up the day before to explore around brussels a little and then get ready for the flight. We took an early bus from Amsterdam to Brussels and ended up getting in around 12 or so, after arriving we promptly got lost a few times but ended up going to see a comic museum (which was really interesting) and then starting our way to the airport. Since the airport we were flying out of was about a hour outside of the city and the flight was early (6:30) we decided to spend the night sleeping at the airport. I honestly thought that we would be the only ones there but apparently it is fairly common to sleep at the airport (they are building a hotel outside the airport but it is still not yet completed but I am sure that it will be very successful). Anyways after a less then restful night we boarded the plane and were off in true Ryanair fashion to warmer climates (it was only about 3 degrees in Brussels and rainy), after a 4 hour flight we arrived in sunny Furtaventura (A island just north of Africa) to a clear sunny day with a temperature of about 24 degrees. We arrived a little after 10 and after getting our bearings we were off, since we had a little time before we could check in we decided that lunch was in order and in the time when we were sitting outside and being happy in the sun I managed to get myself a slight sunburn (stupid cloudy amsterdam weather has made me more sensitive to the sun). After a bit to eat and a little more sun we made our way to the apartment (which was really nice and congrats to mom for getting such a great deal) and made ourselves comfortable (in my case this was taking a small nap because I was absolutely exhausted) and then changing into shorts, t-shirts and sandals (no need for jeans and hoodies here) and were off to explore our little city a little.

Just a few pictures from the little town we were in and as I am sure that you can see it was certainly bright and sunny. We were there in Winter but the difference between the weather in winter and summer is only about 5 degrees (we were told) and it rarely rains (sounds like heaven). Anyways after a little exploration we were off to bed early (dad was falling sleep mid-sentence)

The next morning we were up bright and early, when on holidays with mom and dad they like to get up early, and decided to explore the main city (I don't remember the full name but there was a rosa in there somewhere).

The goat is the national animal here on the Island so dad and I decided to pay our respects to the goat in our own way.

Mom being much more civilized then dad or myself decided to engage in a conversation with a lovely but quiet gentleman on the side of the road (neither dad nor myself had the heart to tell mom that it was a statue)

You will see lots of pictures of shorelines because I like the shoreline but also it makes me feel happy to see large open expanses of water.

After the day in the city we headed back to our little abode and retired for the evening.

The next day we spent preparing for some activities that we were interested in doing while we were on the Island (this took us to an internet cafe where I could finally check my email and we discovered a wonderful pastry shop which made killer chocolate croissants). Anyways we also scouted out a car to rent for a few days so we could explore the island to a fuller extent and I set up a time to go snorkeling (sorry no pictures from this day).

On Saturday we picked up the car (since my drivers license has expired I was unable to drive so this responsibility fell on dads shoulders and I became the navigator (I guess I was the lessor of two bad navigators as mom kept on telling us to look for the railway tracks (we never did find those railway tracks))) and started exploring the Island.

the annual cactus harvest is looking excellent this year

One of many windmills on the Island

Hey cut that out folks there are impressionable young people around

Ask mom about the prickly pear story

Yes the sand on this beach is black

We thought that we found a cave with a bear but it turned out to be just a grumpy dad (close enough)

We found another cave but there was no way that mom was going to explore this one, I actually couldn't make it that far in as I didn't have a light and simply taking a picture with flash didn't provide me enough light to see what was going on. Also the cave smelled like pee and I didn't want to find out who or what was peeing in the cave.

So on Saturday we explored the south end and central part of the island.

On Sunday we were originally scheduled to go snorkeling but we were slow getting moving (the time was at 10 in the morning and this just didn't work with our 2 hour breakfasts complete with copious amounts of yogurt). However this was alright as it gave us a chance to explore the sand dunes and the north end of the Island.

Mom and I beginning a race down a dune (you can kind of see it here but it was a pretty steep dune)

Mom and I racing back up the dune (on the way down it was generally agreed that it was either a tie or mom won but on the way up Mom couldn't quite keep up)

Mom and dad pretending that i was not there

Mom tired to storm the castle but gave up quite quickly (I was trying to urge her to scale the side and attack the roof as that seems to be the weak spot but she didn't think that it was a good idea)

You can't really see it here but it seems that when people are bored on this island they build rock walls as there were rock walls all over the island.

And more windmill action.

On monday we finally got our buts in gear early enough and managed to get to the gas station where we were being picked up to go snorkeling. Mom had decided that she was not really too keen on going so it was just dad and I who went (sorry no snorkeling pics as water and cameras don't really get along too well) but both dad and I had a wonderful time but mom had the best time being rid of dad and myself for a morning. Anyways after we got our fill of the water and dried off it was off to explore the rest of the Island, we managed to make it to almost every city, town and village on the island (mind you this is not too hard when the Island in only 130 kms in length and 30 kms in width)

Our chariot

Some pretty sweet graffiti

Awww

They also have rocks on this island, lots and lots of rocks. If there is ever a rock shortage in the world this is the place to come.

A weird upside down tree that we found (kind of like a charlie brown christmas tree)

The view from a mountain top

Mom and dad pretending on being invaders (either that or they were trying to intimidate me into giving them the last chocolate danish I can't really remember)

Papa bear roaring

Anyways it seems that I can't remember where the cut off time was between sunday and monday so these are both of the days combined.

Tuesday was a super windy day but we were able to find a sweet mini golf place (because of course no family time is complete without a little mini golf, and the obligatory cheating).

Awww matching shirts and shorts and everything it is almost like they are from korea

This was the end of Tuesday and then on Wednesday we were up early so to get to the airport on time so we could catch our flight back to Belgium.

I don't have any pictures for the last little part of the trip but if I did it would just be dad complaining about how cold it is and bothering mom and I because he was bored.

Well that was our trip, All in all it was a fantastic time.

Love

Wes

Christmas in Polican, Albania

2011-01-09T06:25:00.001-08:00

Hey Family,
Ok, I couldn't see what pictures I was putting on here so they are a bit of a random collection.
This is a picture when I went for a walk with some friends. its part of the area around Polican. Pretty ain't it?
We had two tables for Christmas dinner, this was one of the tables. We had around 18 people.
This is Elidoni and he read the Christmas story and then we sang all together for a good looooooong time!
Dessert!

These are some Albanians that Moza (the girl in the middle) and I went to visit. Lili was taking the picture. Notice how much taller I am then them. I had to croutch down because I was too tall for the picture.
This is again a picture of the region around Polican, just before Christmas!

After everyone left we did some cleaning and these were the guys who 'helped', at least as much as an Albanian guy helps... :P

Cheap, Easy and Delicious . . .

2011-01-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

Lentils for Stagflation

Ingredients:

1/2 cups brown rice
3 cups water
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
3 cups water
1 cube vegetable bouillon
1 1/2 cups red lentils
4 eggs

Directions:

Bring brown rice and 3 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender, 45 to 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Stir in the curry powder and red pepper flakes. Cook for a few seconds until fragrant. Pour in the remaining 3 cups of water, bouillon cube, and lentils. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are nearly tender, about 15 minutes. Make four shallow indentations in the cooked lentils with the back of a spoon, and crack a whole egg into each indentation. Recover, and continue cooking until the eggs have cooked to your desired degree of doneness, about 5 minutes for medium-well. Serve over the brown rice.

I LOVE this recipe! I have used green lentils and red, and a mix. The green lentils require more time to cook, but it is DELICIOUS!! Cooking the egg in the mixture is a little weird and you have to be careful or you may burn your lentils if you add the egg to late, but it is wonderful. I have even eaten this for breakfast on flatbread (instead of on rice).

And FYI, Stagflation is a economic state where inflation AND the unemployment rate are high.

And now for something completely different

2011-01-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

HAHAHA alright well maybe not something completely different but it did manage to get your attention, at least that is the hope. So being a student I am always on the lookout for quick, cheap and nutritious recipes to make and today I came up with a good one. As a student I certainly have had my fair share of pasta with all kinds of different toppings and after a while you get bored of the typical toppings but today good family I came up with something different. PASTA WITH YOGURT!

If you have already experienced this before then I don't need to tell you about the versatility, deliciousness and cheapness it is to make pasta with yogurt. I had come across the idea while looking for dinner ideas online, now I know that you all are saying it is impossible it just can't be done it is a well known fact that when you heat up yogurt it separates and goes all grainy and weird. You would be very correct as you have to be very careful when heating yogurt as it will do just that but I think that I have found a solution.

For this recipe the first thing that you are going to want to do is boil some water, because the pasta can't be very hot when you put the yogurt sauce on it I suggest making the pasta first as it will give it some time to cool down before applying the sauce.

After you have the pasta cooking then what you are going to want to do is heat up a frying pan and add some chopped onions, if you are like me and love the flavor of caramelized onions don't be afraid to use a couple of onions to get lots of onion goodness in the pasta.

Once you onions are well on their way to being cooked, be careful to keep an eye on the pasta as there is nothing worse then overcooked pasta, you are going to want to add some garlic. In this case I have become lazy and bought some premashed garlic so I am going to add about a teaspoon and a bit (whatever feels right). At the same time that you add the garlic throw some cherry tomatoes in as well so they can get all nice and warm all though out.

The pasta is probably done so drain your pasta and set it aside (off the heat)

Now once your onion, garlic and tomato mixture is ready throw some salt into it to spice things up and then mix the mixture in with your pasta. Now for the next step you are going to want to turn the heat way down on your frying pan (if you have not already done this) and let the pan cool a little. Once the pan is just warm you are going to add your plain yogurt (I am sure that you could use a flavored yogurt but that would be just weird). Anyways warm up your yogurt just until it gets runny (it shouldn't take very long), this will make it easier for you to spread your yogurt though your pasta as well as take all those delicious flavors from the onions and the garlic from your pan into your pasta. I would suggest adding a little salt to the yogurt mixture as well or else your pasta may end up a little bland (I don't usually cook my pasta in salt water but if you have you may want to skip this step).

Anyways once that yogurt is runny you are going to add this to your warm pasta and mix it all around. Then voila you have a delicious meal just waiting to be eaten that is nutritious, cheap and easy to make. Three good things if you are a Van Bruggen.

If you have any dinner suggestions which meet the criteria of being fast, cheap, nutritious and easy please forward them on to me as I would be ever so grateful.

Love

Wes

Christmas and New Years 2010/2011

2011-01-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

Hi all

So as you know over Christmas I had Maria come to visit me for a bit and then we headed off to Switzerland for a few days of snowboarding and fun before I left on Dec 31 to spend New Years in Milan and then on Jan 1 I flew out to Belgium with some friends where we spent the night and then returned to Amsterdam late on Jan 2. Over all the trip was a lot of fun but I must say that I was absolutely enthralled with Switzerland (I think that the mountains are so beautiful) plus it was great being able to spend a few days on the slopes.

The view from the place in Savognin where we were staying, this town was in the mountains about 2100 m up.

This is the view of the town at night, the building lit up in the background was one of the churches in the city. The city was about 1000 people and it was charming as everyone was either related or knew each other.

A picture with myself, Maria and the gentleman who we went to see (Fadri). Fadri is a 5 star chef who was working in Geneva and had just quite and was waiting to start a new job in Singapore, needless to say we ate really well while we were there.

Doing a little night skiing with ski bikes.

The view from the ski lift coming back to town.

The place where we were staying in Switzerland, it was built about 80 years ago and had the feel of a hunting lodge. The place was located just above the town and had a beautiful view of the town and sounding mountains.

A castle in Ballizona, this is a small town right on the border of Switzerland and Italy. As you can see the city was very old with a few beautiful churches and this castle. I was only in the town for a few hours so I was not able to take many pictures but these are the highlights.

This is at the battle field of Waterloo. Lynnette you probably know the history better then I do but we found out that the battle of Waterloo took place about 50 kms from Brussels so we decided to head out and see the battle field on Jan 2. The battle of Waterloo is where Napoleon was defeated for the second time in 1815 and over the course of 24 hours an approximate 70,000 men were killed on this battle field (which is only about 3 km wide and 5 km long). During the battle the prince of The Netherlands was wounded in the shoulder and they built this giant hill (which you can see behind me and in the picture below) to commemorate him for his bravery. Just imagine what they would have built if he had been more seriously injured. There are 235 steps to the top of the hill and let me tell you about 1/2 way up you start thinking about how unpleasant if you were to slip and fall as there would be a lot of stairs to hit on your way down. It was funny because upon reaching the top you just had a better view of the fields below, I am not really sure what we were expecting but it was a little anti-climatic.

A view from the plane while flying over Switzerland for those of you how have not had the pleasure to fly over this country yet.

This is a picture of our Christmas dinner and below you can see the chicken which we made with stuffing. Surprising it all seemed to work out pretty well and we had lots of left overs but we had a good time making and eating the food and it reminded me of Christmas past.

Above are pictures of the mountains as we were heading up to a mountain pass. These were pictures taken by Maria because I was in the back of the car trying to concentrate on not being sick. In the end i was not successful (I guess I fail at being swiss) but the scenery was beautiful so I figure that it was all worth it.

A proper swiss breakfast involving cheese and chocolate and all that is missing in a cuckoo clock.

As I am sure that you have noticed the majority of my pictures focus around Switzerland with not too much for Milan or Brussels. This was because I found Switzerland so beautiful and I was there for the longest time, also I had been to brussels a few times before so I didn't really feel the need to take many pictures.

Anyways this was a small view of my Christmas and New Years trip for 2010/2011. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and hopefully I will be able to talk to everyone sunday.

Love

Wes

Christmas with the family!

2011-01-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hello my Wonderful Family!

Well, here is my first posting of the New Year! Christmas pictures!

Grandma and her newest Great-Grandbaby!!

The family doing what they do best . . . eating!
Proud grandma and Mama.
The newly weds and Grandma
Grandpa!

Blog posting

2011-01-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

We were so good at regularly posting but it seems that the novelty has fallen off a little so I am just reminding everyone to post frequently and post pictures. I admit that I am partly to blame as well because I have been busy with school and life but I will be posting pictures from my latest trip soon (I have an exam on Jan 5th so it will probably be after that) but I know that Netty you have taken a trip and Becky you had Christmas at the family so I am expecting on seeing lots of pictures from those events. Mom and Dad I know that you always forget the camera everywhere you go but I am expecting you to make a concerted effort and at the very least take some pictures of all the snow that you are getting so those of us without any snow (netty and myself) can laugh at you and feel better.

Love you all

Wes

You decide!!

2010-11-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Well folks, I have found some potential pictures for Grandma/Grandpa's puzzle picture gift. You have to decide which ones. I am willing to order up to three. (Just a reminder 4x6 is $8.99 - and can be made with a magnetic backing, and 8x10 is $22.99)

If anyone has any better pics don't hesitate to post and rate. I need to get this done ASAP. Like this Monday!

The girls . . .

The gruesome threesome . . .

Grandpa (there are almost no pictures of Grandma and us kids!)

Classic . . .

Proud Mamma with her kiddies . . . thats right this is Grandma with Uncle Murray, Uncle Howard and MOM!

Proud Papa and his kiddies (the same as above, just substitute parents)

Rate and decide!

2010-11-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of an inland see, to be honest I was not very impressed as it does not look that big.

This is a famous beach with red sand (mind-you I can't remember the name of the beach)

This is inside a cave near the red sand beach

Well now you have an idea of what I saw while I was in Malta. After being there for a few days I returned to the airport to catch my 6:30 flight back to Amsterdam.

Well that is everything.

Love

Wes

2010-11-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

Becky's summer house

The high jumping spot (the water got really deep instantally, if I were to guess at the depth I would say at least 20 feet give or take)

The normal jumping spot (much closer to the water)

Aziruses window (or something along those lines)

2010-11-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

The view from the front window

2010-11-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

This is a pic of the front of Becky's parents summer place

2010-11-15T14:39:00.000-08:00

2010-11-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

This is the view of Valetta from across the bay

This is a picture of Golden Cove, a beautiful place to swim

These were little watch towers built around Malta

2010-11-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

Classiest pizza hut ever!

2010-11-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hey all

Alright so as I am sure that I have said now and then I am just back from my trip to Malta. Oh am I sorry does that sound like I am bragging, well that is very astute of you because that was exactly what I was doing.

Anyways I ended up flying out on Ryanair at 10:10 in the morning on Thursday, I must say that the trip was not near as bad as I feared (being that I was flying a budget airline). I arrived in Malta at about 2:00 and was picked up by my friend and we headed to her parents place (where I was staying for the time that I was there). My friends parents live in a 350 year old farm house and I must say that it was absolutely beautiful, has stone floors and is very antique feeling. After settling it was off to explore Malta:

This is a picture of the walled city Valenta

This is a pic of me hanging out in Valenta and trying to look cool (note the short sleeves as the temperature was about 22 degrees)

One of the many churches in Malta (the country is about 95% Catholic)

A picture of one of the gardens in Malta

One last thing

2010-11-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hi family

I just wanted to post this movie of the piano man playing as he was really good.

I hope that this video works. Also I wanted to let you know that I will probably not be around next week as I will be in Malta for a bit of a holiday and to visit a friend for a few days.

Love you all and hopefully I will talk to you this week.

Love

Wes

Antwerp

2010-11-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

Hi all

I know that it has been a while since I have posted and I am sorry about that I will try to post more often. Anyways after finishing my last exam a few friends and I decided that we had spent too much time in a library and needed to get out and have a little fun. After quickly ruling out flights to Warsaw and taking the train to Berlin we decided to head to Antwerp for a few days. The trip was a bit of a bust as we had a bit of a string of bad luck when it came to Antwerp but it was still an adventure which is always fun. Here are some pics from the trip.

The was one of the first sights that we saw when we got out of central station. This piano man was amazing he had a piano hooked up to the back of his bike and was awesome.

This inside of the church seen below.

The central square in Antwerp, it is very much like the central square in Brussels

The was an amazing cathedral and we were able to get in just before a mass started, it was difficult to get this picture and I ended up having to lie flat on my back to get this picture.

Inside the cathedral, it was just as beautiful inside as it was outside.

This picture is for grandpa.

This was a modern art building that we found and ended up going in to see the collection (the art collection was really cool but they didn't allow pictures), anyways the pool you see behind me was filled with water and after a caution step in we realized that it seemed to be shallow however this was not universally the case and this was found out the hard way by myself.

MMMM Belgium Waffles

A harp store, it was a little unusual to see an entire store dedicated to harps but it was cool.

Anyways this gives you a quick idea of the trip. Well I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

Love

Wes