here are some pictures from our stay...it was freezing...like -4 degrees celsius...
{the white building is the cute little room we stayed in}
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Brugge
We went to Brugge for our anniversary/last hooray of Belgium....It was our most favorite trip we took. The snow made the city so beautiful and christmasy. We enjoyed a very lovely dinner the night before. Max took me to the cutest restaurant! It was a real candlelight dinner, so romantic and so fun. Our amazingly delicious dinner took about 3 hours (the belgians love to just sit and eat so there is never a rush to get food out). We also discovered that this resturant has the best vanilla ice cream in the world..it was to die for!! So good!
here are some pictures from our stay...it was freezing...like -4 degrees celsius...
{the white building is the cute little room we stayed in}
here are some pictures from our stay...it was freezing...like -4 degrees celsius...
{the white building is the cute little room we stayed in}
Monday, December 21, 2009
goodbye letters
dear metro: i will miss your overpowering stench, your germ infested poles, and the occasional drug deal
dear central station: i will miss walking to catch early morning trains and smelling that pleasant aroma of drunken urine
dear grand place: i will miss your grandeur, the feeling of awes you create and having you as a backup whenever there is nothing to do
dear waffles: oh how i will miss your flavor and warmth. my body will miss the gaining ten more pounds directly from you
dear belgian commericals: i will miss seeing the oh so popular U.S. celebrities star in oh so not popular commercials
dear carrefour: i will miss wandering your aisles. searching for items and only choose those things that have cooking instructions in picture format. i will miss our weekly encounters.
dear 5 euro stores: i will miss your clothes and inexpensive prices. i will miss finding a good deal with you.
dear saint-josse market: i will miss spending my thursday mornings with you. looking at the new bags, smelling the fresh bread, and looking for some good deals. i know i am your walking advertisement, but you will have to find someone else
dear brussels 2nd ward: i will miss your mix of people, attempting to communicate with each other in different languages and somehow getting the point across. i will miss your testimonies and your warm welcomings.
dear chocolate: thank you for adding ten more pounds on to me...but i sure will miss the many options i had
dear babies of belgian: i will miss your adorbable bundled up faces that always brighten my day
dear city 2: i am not even going to think about all i will miss about you...if i could i would buy everything you have to offer
dear parks: i will miss wandering around, admiring your beauty and attempting to study
dear europe: i will miss your closeness and how i could visit 3 different countries a day if i wanted
dear martin: i will miss your fries and your friendly face that was always working. i am sure your sweaters all smell of frites.
dear belgium: i will miss your weirdness amongst your normalness
dear weather: i will NOT miss your cloudy skies, with rain everyday, and hardly seeing the sun
dear apartment: you cost a ridiculous amount but you kept us safe and warm. i will miss your odd statues and paintings. and i even will miss that screaming child i hear all day long
dear french: i will miss never ever understanding what anyone ever said...and just pretending like i did.
dear brown shoes: i am sorry i ruined you and have to you leave you behind in belgium
dear dutch: you are such a weird language, but i think max does a pretty good job of attempting it
dear man who wanders the streets daily: i will miss seeing your familar face along the chausse, saying bonjour and pretending like you are a good friend.
dear central station: i will miss walking to catch early morning trains and smelling that pleasant aroma of drunken urine
dear grand place: i will miss your grandeur, the feeling of awes you create and having you as a backup whenever there is nothing to do
dear waffles: oh how i will miss your flavor and warmth. my body will miss the gaining ten more pounds directly from you
dear belgian commericals: i will miss seeing the oh so popular U.S. celebrities star in oh so not popular commercials
dear carrefour: i will miss wandering your aisles. searching for items and only choose those things that have cooking instructions in picture format. i will miss our weekly encounters.
dear 5 euro stores: i will miss your clothes and inexpensive prices. i will miss finding a good deal with you.
dear saint-josse market: i will miss spending my thursday mornings with you. looking at the new bags, smelling the fresh bread, and looking for some good deals. i know i am your walking advertisement, but you will have to find someone else
dear brussels 2nd ward: i will miss your mix of people, attempting to communicate with each other in different languages and somehow getting the point across. i will miss your testimonies and your warm welcomings.
dear chocolate: thank you for adding ten more pounds on to me...but i sure will miss the many options i had
dear babies of belgian: i will miss your adorbable bundled up faces that always brighten my day
dear city 2: i am not even going to think about all i will miss about you...if i could i would buy everything you have to offer
dear parks: i will miss wandering around, admiring your beauty and attempting to study
dear europe: i will miss your closeness and how i could visit 3 different countries a day if i wanted
dear martin: i will miss your fries and your friendly face that was always working. i am sure your sweaters all smell of frites.
dear belgium: i will miss your weirdness amongst your normalness
dear weather: i will NOT miss your cloudy skies, with rain everyday, and hardly seeing the sun
dear apartment: you cost a ridiculous amount but you kept us safe and warm. i will miss your odd statues and paintings. and i even will miss that screaming child i hear all day long
dear french: i will miss never ever understanding what anyone ever said...and just pretending like i did.
dear brown shoes: i am sorry i ruined you and have to you leave you behind in belgium
dear dutch: you are such a weird language, but i think max does a pretty good job of attempting it
dear man who wanders the streets daily: i will miss seeing your familar face along the chausse, saying bonjour and pretending like you are a good friend.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
snow
today brussels was transformed into a winter wonderland
it snowed about 6 inches and it was so beautiful
everything was sparkling and i could feel christmas
i could also feel home and realized how much i love snow
i will post pictures when i get home to utah
but tonight is our last night in this apartment which may mean posts might not happen for awhile
we come home in 5 days
i can't believe how fast the time has gone
but it has been one of the best experiences of our lives
we are headed to brugge for our anniversary
then tuesday we fly out...pray for good weather and that everything goes well
it snowed about 6 inches and it was so beautiful
everything was sparkling and i could feel christmas
i could also feel home and realized how much i love snow
i will post pictures when i get home to utah
but tonight is our last night in this apartment which may mean posts might not happen for awhile
we come home in 5 days
i can't believe how fast the time has gone
but it has been one of the best experiences of our lives
we are headed to brugge for our anniversary
then tuesday we fly out...pray for good weather and that everything goes well
Thursday, December 10, 2009
christmas in brussels
it really doesn't feel like christmas here. i need snow. but needless to say i am loving it here. the christmas markets are so fun. last night we went out and watched the lights dance to techno christmas music at the grand place. i realized i love this city. i love everything about it. and i am going to miss it so much. i thought i had seen all it had to offer, but i was very wrong..only a week and a half left...and my to do list is enormous....guess we better get started.
{on dec. 5 st. nicholas visits the homes of the children in belgium. they leave their shoes out by the front door. if they have been good they get candy and toys. if they have been bad they get twigs. looks like max has been a good boy}
{on dec. 5 st. nicholas visits the homes of the children in belgium. they leave their shoes out by the front door. if they have been good they get candy and toys. if they have been bad they get twigs. looks like max has been a good boy}
{a real nativity..well the people weren't real...but they had real sheep}
{the best picture i could get of the christmas market}
{yes i love this place. an outdoor skating rink in front of a ferris wheel.} 
{but a belgian christmas market wouldn't be complete without something totally odd...behold the ICE MONSTER...Enter if you dare..i have no idea..sometimes belgium is weird}
{beautiful christmas tree in grand place}
{i love this stuff..reminds of me christmas...and my wedding because it was part of the decoration. i was excited to see it at the house i baby-sat at today.}Tuesday, December 8, 2009
we went to ghent...it's in belgium
we also visited ghent while lindsey was here. when we told my dad we were going to ghent he told us he knew a poem about ghent, he couldn't really remember the exact words so instead he wrote us this poem
There were two sisters who went
To the lovely city of Ghent
They ate many waffles that didn’t taste awful
And all of their money was spent.
They were escorted by Maximus
They traveled by taximus
All around Belgium they went.
{we really went by train but he needed to include max in the poem}
To the lovely city of Ghent
They ate many waffles that didn’t taste awful
And all of their money was spent.
They were escorted by Maximus
They traveled by taximus
All around Belgium they went.
{we really went by train but he needed to include max in the poem}
Monday, December 7, 2009
some more ukraine
here is the second half of our kiev trip....
{if you look closely at this picture..you might have to make it larger....but if you look you see a beautiful yellow house...it looks like a mansion...but if you look next to it you see a house that is just falling apart. it was amazing to see the extreme poverty, right next to a beautiful mansion}
{{this wall is part of the lavre. it's on the grounds of the russian orthodox church. we had a very different experience here. in the lavre they have what they call "caves". in order to go into these caves i had to cover my head with a scarf, rent a skirt type thing to cover my jeans and purchased a candle. then we climbed down these stairs to these hallways that would've been completely dark, if we didn't have candles. in this area the bodies of some of their saints were kept. it was really interesting the shrines they had to them. they were in glass coffins and the bodies were wrapped up in beautiful clothe. the people there would kiss the coffin as they passed, then crossed themselves. they also crossed themselves everytime the exited a room. it had a very eerie feeling to it. in some of the coffins the hand of the saint was placed outside of the wraps, so we were able to see their actual mummified hand. its a very interesting religion, it felt really dark and cold to me. but i enjoyed seeing this new culture.}
{beautiful colored houses. love that they use all sorts of colors here}
{This was on a street full of awesome touristy gifts...i for some reason get caught in their traps...but anyways this lady was just cookin her lunch here in the street. amazing to see how different someones life is from mine}
{the chernobyl museum was so sad.. the destruction caused when the nuclear reactor exploded was incredible. so many cities were evacuated and most haven't been legally inhabited since. so many health problems occured from the radiation in the air. and so much of the problems occured because the russian president tried to cover up the seriousness of the incident. he hid if for three days, until a nuclear plant in another country reported extremely high levels of radiation, they thought if was from their plant, but discovered what had happened at chernobyl. the people were told to leave their homes, but that they could come back from their things. however they never returned and they lost all they had. some people live illegaly in the area around chernobyl because they are so poor they can't live anywhere else. it's so sad because there is still so much radiation there}
{these two pictures were taken from the oldest orthodox church in ukraine}
{unfortunately this picture also has a sad story. in the the 1930's stalin decided he wanted to destroy the ukrainian culture (which meant people) so the USSR could be completely russian. to do this he caused a famine to occur in ukraine...i can't even imagine how someone could feel justified doing something this awful. but 6 to 7 MILLION people died because of this. we were there on a national day of remembrance for those who were victims to this genocide. the square we went to was filled with candles people had brought to light in memory of those who had died}
{this is the spot where president packer dedicate ukraine for the spreading of the gospel. it was located next to the statue of the man who brought christianity into ukraine. but it was cool to think about that moment, when after years of being controlled by the USSR, ukraine could now be open to the gospel and it's amazing to see how this gospel truly is spreading throughout the world}
{this is the white house of ukraine...it's massive...bigger than the real white house...oh and don't worry you can just walk right up to it, no problem...no security, nothing...try doing that at the white house...you would get shot if you got as close to the white house as we got to this presidents house} 
{the longest escaltor i've ever been on..took like 5 minutes...kiev has the deepest metro system in the world...i think they said it was like 500 feet below ground}
{cute baby nikita}
and that concludes our ukraine vacation...wonderfully awesome experience...
{if you look closely at this picture..you might have to make it larger....but if you look you see a beautiful yellow house...it looks like a mansion...but if you look next to it you see a house that is just falling apart. it was amazing to see the extreme poverty, right next to a beautiful mansion}
{{this wall is part of the lavre. it's on the grounds of the russian orthodox church. we had a very different experience here. in the lavre they have what they call "caves". in order to go into these caves i had to cover my head with a scarf, rent a skirt type thing to cover my jeans and purchased a candle. then we climbed down these stairs to these hallways that would've been completely dark, if we didn't have candles. in this area the bodies of some of their saints were kept. it was really interesting the shrines they had to them. they were in glass coffins and the bodies were wrapped up in beautiful clothe. the people there would kiss the coffin as they passed, then crossed themselves. they also crossed themselves everytime the exited a room. it had a very eerie feeling to it. in some of the coffins the hand of the saint was placed outside of the wraps, so we were able to see their actual mummified hand. its a very interesting religion, it felt really dark and cold to me. but i enjoyed seeing this new culture.}
{beautiful colored houses. love that they use all sorts of colors here}
{This was on a street full of awesome touristy gifts...i for some reason get caught in their traps...but anyways this lady was just cookin her lunch here in the street. amazing to see how different someones life is from mine}
{the chernobyl museum was so sad.. the destruction caused when the nuclear reactor exploded was incredible. so many cities were evacuated and most haven't been legally inhabited since. so many health problems occured from the radiation in the air. and so much of the problems occured because the russian president tried to cover up the seriousness of the incident. he hid if for three days, until a nuclear plant in another country reported extremely high levels of radiation, they thought if was from their plant, but discovered what had happened at chernobyl. the people were told to leave their homes, but that they could come back from their things. however they never returned and they lost all they had. some people live illegaly in the area around chernobyl because they are so poor they can't live anywhere else. it's so sad because there is still so much radiation there}
{these two pictures were taken from the oldest orthodox church in ukraine}
{unfortunately this picture also has a sad story. in the the 1930's stalin decided he wanted to destroy the ukrainian culture (which meant people) so the USSR could be completely russian. to do this he caused a famine to occur in ukraine...i can't even imagine how someone could feel justified doing something this awful. but 6 to 7 MILLION people died because of this. we were there on a national day of remembrance for those who were victims to this genocide. the square we went to was filled with candles people had brought to light in memory of those who had died}
{this is the spot where president packer dedicate ukraine for the spreading of the gospel. it was located next to the statue of the man who brought christianity into ukraine. but it was cool to think about that moment, when after years of being controlled by the USSR, ukraine could now be open to the gospel and it's amazing to see how this gospel truly is spreading throughout the world}
{this is the white house of ukraine...it's massive...bigger than the real white house...oh and don't worry you can just walk right up to it, no problem...no security, nothing...try doing that at the white house...you would get shot if you got as close to the white house as we got to this presidents house} 
{the longest escaltor i've ever been on..took like 5 minutes...kiev has the deepest metro system in the world...i think they said it was like 500 feet below ground}
{cute baby nikita}and that concludes our ukraine vacation...wonderfully awesome experience...
Sunday, December 6, 2009
thanksgiving in kiev
we went to kiev for the thanksgiving weekend. the number one question we were asked before we left....why kiev? the answer is a) doesn't it sound like some forbidden place to visit, wouldn't you want to go b) max speaks russian c) the real reason...max had a missionary companion (well they weren't ever companions it's just easier to say companion) and his name is max also and they were really good friends...and he lives in kiev...and they invited us to come stay with them...so we did..
and that is why we went to kiev...
and i am so glad that we did. it really made me grateful for america and the freedoms we enjoy. ukraine has such a sad history because their government didn't care about them. when it was part of the USSR, their lives and their culture meant nothing to the Russians. they suffered so much and you can still see the effects today.
{independence square..i think...about 95% of the time they were speaking in russian...i have become really good at translating what people are saying into what i think they are saying....and i think they said something about independence and i also think i heard them saying how awesome i was too}
{max and mark...the busiest two year old i have ever met}
{this is where we had our thanksgiving feast...puzata hata..i think..again every name they said was completlyforeign to me...but my good friend katherine recommended it to us and it was a fabulous recommendation...ukraine food is different but oh so good...we ate here twice and i think my most favorite thing i had was pelmeni..its like ravoli but better...}
{mark again...eating a waffle we brought. this kid taught me more russian in three days than what i learned of french in three months...i know how to say thank you, ocean, cartoon, yes, and the one i learned the best...NO...it's his favorite word..}
{the goryachevs in front of the beautiful kiev temple. so exciting for them. as you are driving up on the freeway to get to the temple...it looks as if the temple is sitting on the freeway...it is this huge beautiful building...among so many old apartment complexs...it is going to be the most beautiful thing is kiev}
{baby nikita....he is almost 2 months old...and so dang cute...it was so fun being able to help out and hold him as much as possible. i love the cream thing he is wearing in this picture. all of the babies in europe have them and they make the babies look ten times fatter than they are...and they can't move anything when they are in this warm jumper suits..its darling}
{beautiful colorful church}
{one of my most favorite things....we went to the taping of the Ukrainian So You Think You Can Dance. It was AWESOME....the stage is just like america's and we were right on the floor...it was kinda hard to see but so fun to be so close. the dancing was amazing and i loved being a part of it...the show is my most favorite back home and i felt like i was watching the american version...even though i had no idea what anyone was saying...it was just great...i was so close to the dancers...{sara i was so close to the dancers i could've touched them...imagine what it would've been like going to a taping in l.a. when benji was on the show}
{this giant lady was built in ww2 i think..i am sure i am getting all of these facts messed up..but i don't really know why she was built..probably because this culture loves to build statues...they are everywhere}
to be continued.....
and that is why we went to kiev...
and i am so glad that we did. it really made me grateful for america and the freedoms we enjoy. ukraine has such a sad history because their government didn't care about them. when it was part of the USSR, their lives and their culture meant nothing to the Russians. they suffered so much and you can still see the effects today.
{independence square..i think...about 95% of the time they were speaking in russian...i have become really good at translating what people are saying into what i think they are saying....and i think they said something about independence and i also think i heard them saying how awesome i was too}
{max and mark...the busiest two year old i have ever met}
{this is where we had our thanksgiving feast...puzata hata..i think..again every name they said was completlyforeign to me...but my good friend katherine recommended it to us and it was a fabulous recommendation...ukraine food is different but oh so good...we ate here twice and i think my most favorite thing i had was pelmeni..its like ravoli but better...}
{mark again...eating a waffle we brought. this kid taught me more russian in three days than what i learned of french in three months...i know how to say thank you, ocean, cartoon, yes, and the one i learned the best...NO...it's his favorite word..}
{the goryachevs in front of the beautiful kiev temple. so exciting for them. as you are driving up on the freeway to get to the temple...it looks as if the temple is sitting on the freeway...it is this huge beautiful building...among so many old apartment complexs...it is going to be the most beautiful thing is kiev}
{baby nikita....he is almost 2 months old...and so dang cute...it was so fun being able to help out and hold him as much as possible. i love the cream thing he is wearing in this picture. all of the babies in europe have them and they make the babies look ten times fatter than they are...and they can't move anything when they are in this warm jumper suits..its darling}
{beautiful colorful church}
{one of my most favorite things....we went to the taping of the Ukrainian So You Think You Can Dance. It was AWESOME....the stage is just like america's and we were right on the floor...it was kinda hard to see but so fun to be so close. the dancing was amazing and i loved being a part of it...the show is my most favorite back home and i felt like i was watching the american version...even though i had no idea what anyone was saying...it was just great...i was so close to the dancers...{sara i was so close to the dancers i could've touched them...imagine what it would've been like going to a taping in l.a. when benji was on the show}
{this giant lady was built in ww2 i think..i am sure i am getting all of these facts messed up..but i don't really know why she was built..probably because this culture loves to build statues...they are everywhere}to be continued.....
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
