A mere 4 weeks since I returned from Europe, I’m embarking on yet another adventure… Zambia!  Not to say that these past 4 weeks have not been an adventure in itself.  After an intense climax at the end of the Winter term, it was nice to have time away from school, IV and Canada to be in Europe, although by the end of that trip, I was eager to jump back into my internship with IV.  It’s been a saturated month, one filled with many learning experiences, challenges, risk-taking… all that good stuff.  In short, it’s like I’m living a parable.

As excited as I am to be working with my Waterloo team, I join another team for the next 5 weeks as I go to Zambia.  Once again in short, the work we’ll be doing involves training and developing student leaders.  Our team will also be trained and developed in a similar way.

Internet access may be limited for personal use so I will update when I can… else see you back August 4

Pictures uploaded!

It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve returned from Europe. I found it very difficult to process my experience during the trip since we had little downtime in between destinations. Immediately after I returned home on June 4, I headed straight to Campus Gathering, an IV staff conference for 5 days and so having finally processed that, I’ve spent the last few hours sorting out pictures, reflecting on my journal and recreating the story of Eurotrip’08. Hopefully now if I’m asked ‘how was Europe?’ I can answer with more clarity and depth rather than my vague remarks and attempts to come up with the highlight reel on the spot. I’ve written a lot so pace yourself…

the food…

This trip was really all about the food =) We spent an unprecendented time research about food, hunting for food, eating the food, talking about the food… at least that’s how I remember it. My travelmates reflected back to me that when I start getting hungry, I zone out, my pace quickens, and I start scanning for the next meal. My sentences trail off and aren’t always coherent and my jaw stays in a dropped position. While I’m eating, I tend to be entranced in my meal and since there’s very little time until I get hungry again, I seem to be spaced out most of the time. Perhaps that’s true but I think there’s a little of bit of that in every one of us. For example, our quest for the best gelato. We began having gelato everyday since day 10 in Seville, Spain. It started as an innocent delight of one scoop after dinner, but soon doubled, no tripled to 3 scoops. It wasn’t long until we were doing two-a-days totaling 4 to 6 scoops. It wasn’t until Italy however, that we decided that we need to take our health more seriously and should only eat the best gelato everyday. And so begins the quest for the best gelato in each city we visited. Our rough guide disappointed us in Venice where the gelato store that was deemed an ‘institution’ didn’t live up to expectations. Luckily, we found another store by surprise and had the best lemon and pink grapefruit flavours from the trip. Our day to Pisa, frutti di bosco was the flavour in town. That same afternoon in Lucca, after a long bike ride and searching for the recommended gelato store, it wasn’t where it was supposed to be but we found it on the way back to the train station and got 6 scoops, totalling 9 scoops for the day! Fresh flavours such as peach and pear were new to us and that day was a milestone in our journey. In Florence, two places stood out. One place that only served in cups (which we would later find out the reasoning for) had blood orange and pear/caramel. The second place we walked an hour to while waiting for our train, and loaded up on green apple and kiwi. Our quest comes to a magnificent end in Rome where the shop was hidden away with no fancy signs and apparently needs no advertising. Word of mouth is enough to get this place its recognition. Gelato is served in cups only since the taste of cone taints the true flavour of gelato. Liquor flavoured gelato is the speciality of this gelato master. Fruit gelatos are made only with those that are in season. And none of the gelato tubs are visible on display because flavour is kept in individually sealed stainless steel tubs that are temperature controlled to maintain the true consistency and texture of gelato. If I could apprentice as a gelato maker, it would be here. And so with 3 scoops, we delighted in the best gelato in the world and left happy. In total, we consumed 50 scoops of gelato each (minus Sameer), and probably spent the equivalent in hours, researching, hunting, eating, thinking about, and talking about gelato.

Maybe we are food crazy. Ask me about the quest for the best pizza. Either way, I’ve decided to take up gelato making.

the architecture…

To think that fortresses, palaces, cathedrals, etc. of massive stature and detailed design was possible upto 2000 years ago is mind-blowing. The Sistine chapel and St.Peter’s basilica in Rome, La Alhambra in Granada, and the twisted looking Sagrada Familia that’s still under construction in Barcelona are just some of the highlight European structures we saw. I began to reflect on how these cathedrals were once the centre of religion and state and how much of the world has been shaped by it. Much of these places of worship were and are used by the Catholic church and it leads me to wonder how Protestant Christianty has come up from that and what we are to make of it now. These churches seem more like tourist attractions than places of worship in today’s age and it brings up the question of how these churches are engaging post-modernism. I don’t know a whole lot about Christian history or the Catholic church and perhaps it something that would be intriguing to read about especially as I found myself asking a lot of questions that my travelmates were asking.

the company…

Our group of 4 came about in an unpredictable way. It began with Andrew and myself, then Kuo-Bao joined with no hesitation along with Sameer with a lot of persuasion. Although I knew Andrew and Sameer well from my classes, Kuo-Bao I knew the least. And although I thought I knew Sameer well, we found that we knew him even less. All the quirks, pet peeves, strange mannerisms, our breaking point, how we react when we’re tired… it all came out and we had moments of both tension and laughter. We also picked out those quirks and tendancies among the people we encountered during the trip and had a good laugh about that as well. In fact, those were the things that kept coming up in our conversations and provided endless comical relief at any stage of the trip. When we were tired, it kept us walking aimlessly trying to find our hotel in the labyrinth of Venice… when we were hungry, it kept us from settling for that fatal restaurant… and the once in a blue moon times our group was getting too serious, we broke out in laughter again and again. People observing us from the outside must’ve thought we were weird and bizarre but that’s exactly what we are. The pictures in Pisa show it all. At first our strange pictures involved the leaning tower in some way. And then, they had nothing to do with the leaning tower, but why not do crazy stunts. Why not eat 9 scoops of gelato in one day? Or drink 2L of Fanta in search of the next better deal on Fanta? Or parkour up historic sites… It’s amazing how much you learn about someone through spending 31 days together without a break. And in all that time of joking around and having fun, you’re bound to have some personal and deep conversations. We did. More so than I’ve had in the past 5 years with them. And it was very good!

the photos…

The 4 of us combined to take 15 gigs of photos/videos. It would’ve been more it Sameer’s camera hadn’t malfunctioned in Morocco but sorting through them now has been a headache. It’s surprising how many of our photos are of landscape that simply don’t do justice and aren’t nearly as exciting to look back at as I thought it would be at the time. Filtering out all the repeats, blurrs and landscapes, I’m left with a much more manageable number of pictures that tell stories of some of the encounters we had. They’ve been uploaded with captions on my picasa. Looking through the process of how I’ve filtered pictures, I beginning to see themes to the type of photos that pique my interest and am developing my own photography style. For example, there’s something about capturing perspective that I find inspiring… smallness amongst grandoise like St.Peter’s basilica. Or capturing a unique feature that stands out as the focal point… like the lone tree in a field, or the windy roads in Morocco. And of course, culinary photography has a vice on me. It’ll take some more experimentation to figure out what my personal style is, perhaps something I’ll do this summer and during the year.

something Jesus-esque…

When planning the trip, I had booked my flights without knowing the schedule for my internship. It just so happened that I would have to be in two places at the same time around day 22 of my trip: Florence or Waterloo, for fundraising training. Upon having some thoughts about catching an early flight back to honour my commitment to my internship, I decided it was more valuable at this time to honour my commitment to my friends and finish well, not only wrapping up our trip together but our celebration of 5 years together. So the night that might have been my early return was the night I planned to meet with Rosaria, a friend from last summer’s IFES World Assembly. I must’ve misread the email because what I thought was going to be a dinner among the 6 of us turned out to be an invitation to her campus fellowship end-of-term potluck gathering. We walked in to a quaint courtyard only to be welcomed by 30 or so Italian and international students and a plethora of homemade Tuscan food including probably the best Tiramisu I’ve ever had. The vibe resembled the gatherings we would have back at Waterloo and upon hearing the wrap-up talk from the staff worker, their purpose and vision was also very much the same. It was totally unexpected encounter and for my travelmates to have been a part of it can only lead me to believe that God was showing a visual picture of what his Kingdom might look like. Not only did this encounter help bring to life some of the conversations about life and faith that we’ve had throughout the trip, but also gave a pretty good picture of what my work with InterVarsity might look like for the next year. I look forward to more conversations about our jobs throughout the year and can be certain that as I share more about my journey with IV that they remember that day in Florence when a bunch of Italian-speaking students destroyed us in foosball yet we were very much filled.

next…

On June 4, we checked out of our hostel in Rome and said goodbye to Europe as we went to the airport. 31 days went by. Our last night we stayed up reflecting back on the trip and how much we’ve learned from each other, about each other, and about ourselves. Despite butting heads at times, winsome losesome experiences, we came to a point where all that doesn’t matter and the only thing that really matters is the friendship that’s been deeper rooted together. Although staying connected to each other in the past during co-op terms has been rarely existent, there’s a greater sense of urgency now to do so now especially as we bring closure to our 5 years in university. Convocation just passed this weekend and that sense of staying connected resonates throughout our class but perhaps even more so within my travelmates. I’m confident that what was built on our trip will open more doors for conversations in the next year and have faith that the Lord will continue to do the good work that He has started.

Day 4 in Seville, the capital of the Andalucian province of Spain.  We had just spent 5 days in Morocco, touring the High Atlas mountains and staying over in a hotel by the Dades Valley.  Also made a visit to the Todra Gorges where I could see bolts indicating some fantastic multi-pitch climbing routes.  But the highlight of the tour was getting to Merzouga, the edge of the Sahara desert where we went camel riding on sand dunes and stayed the night in tents.  The colours of red, orange, gold sand and slopes of smooth dunes was a similar picture to that of the high alpine slopes in Banff or Whistler.  How many grains of sand did God plunk down on this desert?

After an entire day of travel out of Morocco to Seville, I was blown away by the beauty of Spain.  The colours, architecture, greenery, slick light rail transit system were all part of the initial overload in senses.  And the FOOD!  Paella, cervezas, tapas, and fresh seafood… after having a lot of the same foods in Morocco, this is someplace special for my stomach!  Seville’s been a relaxing end of our trip as we take our time visiting the largest cathedral in the world, Alcazar, the old fort, and enjoying the vibe of tapas at 2pm when everything else closes down for siesta… dinner starts around 9pm and restaurants are packed at 11; it’s not uncommon to see bars and the nightlife come to life past 1am!  Yesterday, we saw a flamenco performance that was simply amazing.  We’ll finish off our time in Seville with a bullfight tonight.  The two things southern Spain is known for, flamenco and bullfighting, we’re getting it done and quite pleased.

Next up, Granada for a day, then Barcelona for 3 days before heading to Italy.  The SD card slot doesn’t work here, so wait some more for pictures!

this post is awfully frustrating because the keyboard im using is a french/arabic keyboard that has the letter A, W, M, and all the punctuation in the wrong places!  so ill keep this short even though i have much more to say.

Paris truly lives up to its name as the romantic city of the world.  There is a vibe about the people, the shop, cafés, and of course the brightly lit tour eiffel that makes this metropolitan a dream.  We arrived 6am on Tuesday morning where we dove right in and visited the Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc du Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel.  On the plane we met another fellow Canadian who was also travelling Paris and so she joined our group and spoke excellent French to help us along the way.  Kuo-Bao also had two friends he knew from before living in France and they joined us adding even more local guidance, taking us to some very nice neighbourhoods like Montmartre and other really good places to eat.  Having slept little to none on the flight, I thought to myself, why were we so ambitious?  The next day though, felt a lot more refreshed and spent the whole day at the Louvre.  Not enough time… one of those places ill have to revisit.  Our final day in Paris was totally relaxed, leaving our hotel at 2pm and lounging on grass by the Tour Eiffel.  It was also time to say goodbye to our new friends and our group was back down to 4.  They made all the difference in making the start to our vacation a very smooth one.

After a day in Dieppe yesterday, we spent the night at the airport and flew into Marrakech, Morocco this morning.  Quite a contrast from Paris but on the lighter side, everything is much cheaper.  Our next few days will involve a tour through the mountains, camel riding on sand dunes, and visiting castles, ruins, and the imperial cities.  Unfortunately, I wont be able to post pictures… at least until I find myself a better computer.

One day, ill visit you again France!

I just got back from city/script, a week-long intense inductive manuscript study of the first half of the book of Mark.  Welcome to the IV internship.  For 6 days, we studied Mark for about 6 hours each day, digging in to the text and discovering what it means to follow Jesus.  The week also included trips to Kitchener where we explored the downtown core and toured The Working Centre and the KW Multicultural Centre.  These places gave fresh perspective and real ways that the gospel is being lived out in our city.  Despite the conversations we had and friendships built, I came home Friday afternoon exhausted with my mind desperately longing to catch up with everything that’s been happening.  But even as I still process now, I find myself heading on yet another adventure…

Grad Trip!  From May 5 – June 4, I will be going to Europe with some friends that I’ve lived life with the past 5 years at Waterloo.  All of us lived in the same residence in 1st year, two of them were in my program, and one of them has been my housemate since the beginning.  After 5 years of school-coop-school-etc… it’s finally time to take a break and celebrate before everyone goes off to work.

Our itinerary looks like:

May 5 – 10 : In-transit from Toronto to Paris.  Spending 4 days in Paris and probably a day trip out to Dieppe.

May 10 – 15: Morocco.  A culturally different flavour to the Europe adventure.

May 15 – 24 : Spain.  Working our way from Andalucia in the south, up to Barcelona.  Paella!

May 24 – June 4 : Italy.  Starting in Venice, going through Tuscany (Florence, Lucca, Pisa), down to Rome, and spending our final days in Naples and Pompei.

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I will try my best to post stories and pictures along the way of our travels.  Bon voyage!

And so ends my undergraduate career.  Checked my marks yesterday just to make sure there were no hiccups… So now I’ve begun my next year as a university ministry intern with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  I will be working to develop student disciples within the University of Waterloo in IV and KCF through mentorship, training and leadership development.  Through this internship, I hope to develop further as a mature follower of Jesus and a person who can lead others toward Jesus and his Kingdom and also see if a longer-term calling to university ministry is something that I could do.

It’s new, risky, and most likely hard.  But it’ll be good and I look forward to transformations in myself and on campus.  I begin today with a week long Mark manuscript study at city/script.

This past Tuesday, my housemates and some others that we’ve experienced the past 5 years with, celebrated our graduation with what will now be known as ‘Steak for a Day’. Maybe it’s because last term, I happened to have steak for lunch and dinner in one day. Or maybe it’s cause Darren’s steaks are always so big that they hang off the edges of the plate. Whatever it was that possessed us have steak for every meal of the day, it was both glorious and wrong and the same time.

We consumed all of that.

Breakfast: Steak and Eggs

Lunch: Steak fajitas

Dinner: Steak roast… note the extra fat on the top for extra goodness!

Ironically, it was Earth Day.

I came home to my place in Waterloo this evening to find moving boxes and bins cluttered in our living space.  We’re moving out.  We’re done.  Graduated.  Well I have one more exam on Monday but I’ve felt like I’ve been done for a few days now.  Yesterday night was one of the last class gathering parties as people start to head home and fly out on crazy grad trips around the world and to work in all parts of North America.  Some I may not see again… many I’ll run into in the GTA and Waterloo.  But the fact that our 08sys class of 5 years is officially ending is a reality now.  I guess we have to grow up and move on from university.

I’ll be back.  Officially confirmed to be back at Waterloo next year interning with Inter-Varsity.  And up to now, I knew that it would be different knowing that I won’t be in school and my class being gone, but I knew that much would be similar with non-graduating students still around and Waterloo being a campus and a city that I’m familiar with and growing to be fond of.

and it finally hit me… Things are going to be very different next year.  Frighteningly so.  Between yesterday’s confirmation of internship and the beginnings of conversations about what next year might look like, I find myself taken a back by how different this new experience is actually going to be.  For one thing, I’ve lived with the same guys in Waterloo for 5 years and now that’s about to change.  I’ve always thought that my nomadic co-op life has broken me in to being able to move to new places, meet new people and say goodbyes as a way of life and with a sense of ease.  For some reason, this time it just seems very foreign and I think it might take some time to let it sink in and for me to learn from this change that is already begun.

April seems to be a month of rebirth and new beginnings.  Not so much January.  Perhaps September.  But now is when school’s out.  Now is when we graduate.  Now is when the flowers emerge from the dead of Winter.  With such beautiful weather outside, we want to break out of our shells inside and go play outside, running around, doing things that are new, daring, bold, risky in the world that God’s created.  It’s a time when we can once again get excited about our relationships, our communities and our God.

This is my third one today.  I might as well call the spurts of studying as procrastination breaks…

Despite having two exams coming up tomorrow and the day after, I’m really enjoying being in Waterloo right now.  Came back from Toronto last night from the weekend, looked at my schedule for the week and its filled with lunches and dinners with people.  Just about every day has some form of physical activity penciled in, and oh yes… it’s playoff season.  Exam time is generally a nice relief from the semester cause there’s no classes, projects and reports are finished, and you just need to focus on your finals.  Although, I can empathize with those who have 5 or more to write… it was pretty painful.  But even with that, everyone’s got to eat, and you can’t possibly sit in place and study ALL day… can you?  Exam time is study break time.  Hang out with friends before we head off to co-op in the next semester, or in my case, graduate!

In 10 mins, I will be entering my last hour of class of my undergraduate career… I’ll let you know if the grass truly is greener on the other side

UPDATE Apr 9: ahh! why am I still writing reports?!