no worries

Due to the fact that no one has written for a while, i felt the dire need to post something.
A while back Margaret mentioned that she lost Dena. I am happy to say that i have found her back. She showed up at Dordt last week and lives in an apartment above me...for those who were worried sick, Dena's safe and sound.

One Week to Go

One week to go until I move up to BC and start school going. Where are you going to be at in BC Margaret?
Well, my tickets for New Year's would be around $430, so I'm still thinking about it. Of course all of you would be worth it, but we'll have to see if I still have money after this semester. Is this thing for sure?
I only have a few more days of work left, which is exciting. As much as I love it, it's time to leave. I'm moving into a house off campus and living with some crazy cool girls, so life should be good. And yes, I will have to make kosheri or something for them. I am looking forward to getting back into the community at school. The little town of sumas that I live in doesn't hold much for spiritual help. We are the most unchurched state in the country, besides heathen Oregon - no offense Linds. Life in WA has been beautiful though, as as much as you midwesters talk, I don't think much can beat the views of the Pacific NW!
This is just rambled thoughts, sorry about that, but my brother has about 10,000 friends over now and they are all loudly playing system link xbox in the room and it is very distracting. So, I might go read a bit.
Love you guys and hope you have a great start to the school year.

blog

I have a blog! http://margothelion.blogspot.com

the day after tomorrow

is the day I leave for Beautiful British Columbia (that's what it says on their lisence plates--and they're not just bragging because it is breathtakingly beautiful there.) I finished working for Dordt on Friday, and have been hanging out with friends who are returning after the summer, relaxing and trying to get myself into a teacher state of mind, and working on last minute things that need to be finished before I leave. It's fun to have people around again--I forgot how much I missed them. Their return also makes me a little afraid for when I go out on my own and don't have an automatic community like the one here at Dordt. How does one find and make friends who share the same interests and desires for their lives? All a part of growing up, I guess.

So life is going to change quite dramatically soon for me. I'm a little frightened, but I'm also eager to move on to this part of my life. Part of me kind of wishes that I were moving into Dordt right now, setting up my room with my roommates, and getting ready to start classes tomorrow. But I guess there's always grad school. Who am I kidding--I'll never be finished with school.

Love you all.

potential road trip

i have a good friend getting married in ontario, Canada on sept. 2. if (a hopeful "if") i do go, i will be going through chicago and possibly upland on the way back (i have some friends that live there now...not just andrew and marcia). Anyhow, if anyone will be anywhere along this route a few days before or after the 2nd of Sept. AND wants to meet up let me know. Because of fuel prices and missing classes, the trip is not confirmed yet and hitchhiking looks like the most economical mode of transportation right now and this could limit my ability to get somewhere at a certain time, but i'd love to say hi to anyone who may be nearby the route.
later
ANdrew

Jack Johnson and weed

There I was, driving at 4.30am back to Newberg from Bend trying to figure out exactly what I was thinking when I asked my manager for certain days off work. I was headed home from a Jack Johnson concert. yep, thats right, Jack Johnson, in Bend. It was my birthday present, as well as my seester's birthday present from my mom. So our crew (my mom and seester) went to see Jack and his crew with the other crew of people numbering in the thousands in an outdoor amphitheatre on a gorgeous summer evening.. clear skies fading into bright pinks and oranges of sunset behind the stage. One note: while the first band, Matt Costa, was playing, I eyed a couple smokin up a storm on the sheesha from a pipe. I was totally stoked.. even more so because I could tell that they were smoking apple sheesha. crazy? maybe. anyway, after Matt Costa played, a group called ALO (Animal Liberation Organization) came on. One of the guys could play the piano, ukalayli (sp?), guitar, and acordian. yes, he was my hero... aside from Jack of course.
Then the sun set and the lights came up and there he was, the man of the hour.. or two and it was an awesome set. I caught some of the concert on my digital camera but none of it is superb footage simply because I had a bunch of screaming girls .. let me rephrase that.. a bunch of screaming girls who were high, right beside me. Yes, this is correct. For when Jack Johnson, or Bob Dylan, or anyone of the "folk" genre come to town, the weed comes out in mass quantities. why? because we are hippies over here in Or-e-gon. and I love it. So my mom, seester, and I left the concert smelling strongly of weed, being offered a smoke at least a couple times, and feeling quite relaxed actually. Gotta love that second hand smoke! We got home around 11.24pm and went to bed. The next morning I got up at 4am and drove the three hours back to Newberg so I could work the 8-4 shift. but I was satisfied that the drive was well worth the experience.
and I forgot to mention that I got to go waterskiing/tubing all day on the day of the concert. yeah, that was pretty sweet as well. k, hope y'all are gettin excited for school. I know I am.. I just reserved my book list online. $420 at least. psh... petty cash, right? ha!

brings me back

maybe i'm behind the times, but i viewed google maps for the very first time this evening. i mozied my way over to cairo and...sure enough, there was my little Agouza. Before i say too much nonsense, i would encourage all of you to check it out if you are ever "bored;" but take caution-while it can be oodles of fun to reminisce, seeing things again can induce severe cases of nostlagia (i'm not sure if that's good or bad or both?)
P.S. I was going to post a screen capture of Agouza but wasn't sure if that was "OK" to do...am i too worried about things?

New Year's

Okay my friends here's sort of what I've been thinking. My house is definetly wide open. You can take a train to Oseola, Iowa (check out Amtrak.com) and I'll even pick you up. The airport to fly into would be Des Moines International Airport, which is fifteen minutes from my house. School's starts for Andrew and I (and probably anyone else with a J-term) on January 3---yes this seems ridiculous to me as well. New Year's lands on a Saturday this year, which means that we could make that weekend the focus of our little get together, but people could begin arriving as early as they wanted to. Heck, show up on Decemeber 26 and I'd be happy to see you.

Or we could just go to London. Which would probably be more fun.

In the meantime I have been traipsing all over the Midwest. I went to Michgan to visit a friend who is working there this summer. I saw Liz Wortman (my MESP roommate) in her natural habitat--Temperancce, Michgan. It was a lovely little town and her mom is rad and she even tried on the wedding gown for me. In a word it was fabulous. I was also reunited with Bonnie this weekend--we smoked the sheesha, but it was a crappy pipe and so I had to call Barrett to get help, he really is a wealth of information. I know you are all jealous of me, but really what can you do about it?

Oh yeah, to the people who Margaret mentioned in her last blog--who can rendezvous in Minneapolis in one week's time. I am moving Marky in on Thursday and Friday of next week. Can we all see each other on Thursday night? I think that would be ideal. But we can swing Friday if that works better. I'll be in touch.

Josiah, so sorry to hear about your uncle. I'll be praying for you and wanted to remind you that we all love you a lot.

Alright, I those are all the vitals. Hopefully I'll see some of you soon and the rest of you just soon after that.

Much Iowa Love...

Cooking again

Hey guys, Can anyone come over? Pretty please with om ali on top? Yes, that's right, there's om ali in the over right now and if it's a success, I'll probably make it for my new flatmates (apartmentmates is such an awkward word) after I move in August 15th. Maybe I can make some when we get together. Thanks for the helpful advice on the driving in winter in the Midwest.
On other notes, a long long time ago in a post far away, Lindsay tried to get something started with people's screennames. AOL: HeatherJoy36 Bland, but that's it. Also, I opened a xanga this summer to put my spare thoughts in and have discovered I sort of like it. I haven't told anyone about it until now, but if you really want to know what's going on for me, feel free to have a look: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=AnorexicHippopotamus
K, that's about it - gotta check the om ali. :-D

hamsa yom

I just finished my sixth last day of work for the summer. Yes, that's right, I'm counting the days. Next week Friday I will be finished with cleaning up other peoples' messes, and getting ready to drive my newly aquired vehicle (bought from my parents) to British Columbia, the land of eternally green winters. Hopefully sometime between finishing work and leaving for BC, I'll also get to see my dear friends, Andrew U., Marcia, Claire, Cheka, Corrine, Dena, Andrew K., and Jenna (anyone I missed?) in the Mini Mini Apple Ous (shall we make more definite plans?) Dena, when are you coming back anyway? Where are you Dena? Does anyone know where Dena is? I seem to have misplaced her somewhere between Sioux Center and Edmonton. Ah, a summer of mindless work has curddled my brain.

But I continue to be fascinated with the Middle East. My most recent interest is Afghanistan. I read the _Kite Runner_ which was excellent, and then decided that I needed to learn more about Afghanistan. So I read a book about the refugees in Pakistan during the time the Soviets were invading Afghanistan. (There are still 2.2 million Afghani refugees in Pakistan.) And now I'm reading a book about how the Taliban came into existence. All very interesting stuff, and I'm beginning to understand the some of complexities of the situation. What are you guys reading?

I feel like it's about time for a trip to Barnes and Noble. Yes that's right--B&N holds enough entertainment for a Friday night for me. There are so many books--I can't get over it.

I love you all. Miss you all. Hope to see some if not all of you soon.

need a little help

i'm in minneapolis right now and i'm heading up to northern minnesota to bike for the weekend with my family. my problem is that i am trying to find checka's phone number (and andrew U.) but am having no luck (providence? :) i was hoping that i could stop by her place and/or andrew's on the way home to say hi on sunday. so checka, if you're out there...what is your phone number? and will you be around on sunday?
if you're not out there...does anyone else have her contact info? you can email it to me so it doesn't have to be open to the entire internet.
thanks
ANdrew

Mrs. Christensen signs on

My new name still kind of throws me off and it is strange to meet people and have them only know me as Emily Christensen. I mean I sound like an OLD LADY!

I thought that I should give an update on our new life. The most exciting thing is that I have started (as of two weeks) a few job at George Fox University in student life. I am an administrative assistant for housing. Yes that means I have a lot of angry parents and students calling about their placements but so far it has been a lot of fun. I love the people that I work with and we get tuition remission for Brad's gradschool courses (which is SO HELPFUL).

Some days are slow since school hasn't started yet, but I can't complain. I worked at an attorney's firm for three weeks as a temp before this and it SUCKED. I hated it so much, it was wonderful to get this job with such a wonderful work enviroment and I love being around college students!

Brad has been on vacation for the past two weeks and has been my househusband as I am working full time :-) He starts up grad school again on the 24th of August and will be inendated with school work again. It has been fun to have him around to play with. It is so great living with your bestest friend. Don't get me wrong some days have been hard and marriage is a lot of work but we are having a blast.

One of my biggest accomplishments this summer is: I learned to drive our old stick shift and I had my first time driving it alone last week.

Brad and I just went up to Canada to see his extended family that came to the wedding but we really didn't have a chance to hang out with. It was a whirlwind trip and involved a lot of driving, but it was a BLAST. They are all hillarious and have funny accents. :-)

You could all pray for Brad's sister Stacy. She has had some bleeding in her brain that has stopped but she still has been getting bad headaches. Also she is still with her looser boyfriend/fiance. She finally wrote me an email telling me how unhappy she is with him but doesn't know how to get out of the relationship....which was HUGE for her to admit to. Pray that I have the right words to say in helping her make the right decision. She is living with him and is trying to keep is a secret (yet everyone knows). There is a lot of healing that has to happen.

Sorry to end on a downer. I love you all and you are in my prayers. I have your picture up in my office and everyone wants to know who all those students are and I just say "well they are my students from mesp and they were fabulous people."
love Em

AM radio

i was listening to AM radio on the way home tonight and was again amazed by the variety of networks and surprisingly enjoyably (is that a word) interesting programs. I feel bad that i have neglected AM for the 10 (maybe) FM stations that repeat songs. Anyhow, i wanted to share with you the three things one "DJ" and callers talked about for over 15 minutes: One man from Texas says he is going to go to every Starbucks in the world...another man is going to hit up 1000 saloons in the U.S. in 365 days (ok, 365 1/4)...another man in South Korea died of exhaustion after playing online computer games for ver 50 hours. I don't know what the point is, but i guess it could possibly be a few things:
1) AM is kinda cool (in my world)
2) What is our world coming to?
3) Real news does not come from news stations on TV

The man said he feels he's accomplished something when he enters a new starbucks ?????.......
"Hey dude, I hear they're all the same!"

Get together stuff

I know there's been discussion on getting together a MESP reunion and there was some stuff on comments recently, but I was thinking it's time to get a whole post going. It's getting to the point where we might start wanting to make solid plans for the sake of people who might need to buy plane pr train tickets (they're much cheaper well in advance) and those of us who might possibly have to get time off from work. So where are we looking at? And what dates? (I know the Midwest and New Years have been the main answers, but I'm hoping to pin something down). It would be really spectacular to see people again, especially since missing everyone took a little while to set in for me. I hope we can work this out.

cars

Corrine, i gotta say i loved the car analogy and it was very fitting.
I get a lot of time to sit and think, and when i can't take it anymore (or get sick of it), i turn on the radio. Today i was again in a tractor for a few hours straight. I was windrowing (mowing) a large field of alfalfa as the sun was setting over the hazy horizon and i could not stop thinking about Egypt and all of you. I don't really have much else to say, but Corrine prompted me to write this small bit about how much i miss the family you all were/are to me and about how much easier it is to push everything (shattered world stuff) to the back of my head. don't really know what i'm trying to say, but that's all...:)
later
ANdrew

youth in the Middle East

I don't know if anyone else has run across this page on the bbc, but I really appreciated the article and responses on premarital sex in Egypt and also the photo essays on reproductive health and emerging fashion. I haven't had a chance to read anything else, but it's kind of neat to read about these taboo topics as they affect our age group in Cairo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2005/young_in_the_middle_east/default.stm

in the way of replies.........

Margaret, the movie that we watched in your flat is called Kandahar, directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It is the true story of young female journalist Nelofer Pazira (plays herself in the movie) and is filmed on the border of Iran and Afghanistan, telling the story of her disguised journey into the Taliban-controlled city of Kandahar in order to save her sisterfrom imminent suicide.
I meant to lend it to a boys' flat while we were in Egpyt, and I regret not doing so. It is very thought provoking, and I recommend it to any who didn't see it while we were there.

Andrew K, I spoke at my church on a Wednesday night, not a Sunday. We have a potluck dinner and teaching every Wednesday, so that was the format I spoke at.

Evan, how did speaking this Sunday go?

Steve, I'm sorry you can't come to my BBQ, I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to send you an invite in case you had that as one of your free nights. (I couldn't leave you out of the summer New England-Gordon gang.)

In any case, keep on keeping the faith at Brookwoods. Obviously those wealthy kids can be just as impovershed in spirit, as broken, and lacking affection in their lives as any human being, and you are certainly there to minister where tenderness and earnestness are needed.

I know that pain and injustice of the world weigh on your mind and on your heart Steve, and of you others reading this. I too, feel twisted and dry when I forget the world, or worse, when I remember and close my eyes. How long do I dream about how the world is verus the way it should be? I have so many answers for that, and exponentially more questions. All I know is......well, actually, I want to avoid the triteness of a single "bottom line." The subjects raised here are wrought with complexity. You're right, let us begin with prayers for wisdom....... in our words, in our actions, in our decisions, and for love........ underlying all we do. If you touch people in the name of love, then you aren't forgetting the world.
(gosh darn it, I went and composed a trite bottom line. that wasn't very wise.)

love to all of you,
Chels