Goodbye's

The time has come to say good-bye! I am quite sure it was only a very short time ago that Val and I stepped off the plane, looked at eachother with eyes that said, "how on earth did this happen? What do we do now?!" Our eyes have slowly adjusted to the brilliance of the light in Rotterdam (okay, that's a pretty horrible metaphor but I haven't taken English classes for 5 months now!) From sitting in a strange church with a strange language and hundreds of strangers to a church full of smiling welcoming faces, we have seen not only a change in the smiles but also in ourselves. Or at least, in myself. As jetlag is really calling these now partially closed eyes to bed, I will cheat a little bit and give you a quick summary that I also submitted recently to a scholarship. 

I am a History exchange student from Canada, studying for five months at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. As the semester has come to a close the time of reflection and suitcase packing has begun. This past semester has taught me, not only history lessons, but how to communicate effectively with friends from so many cultures, as I got to know and travel with many other exchange students. Living in a culture slightly different than my own also gave me the opportunity to reflect and challenge some of my previous thoughts and ideas. At least the Dutch language with all it’s guttural ‘g’ sounds is not quite as revolting as I always thought! Biking to and from school 8 kms turned out to be a pretty great form of exercise. Much interaction with Dutch people has shown me the pro’s and con’s of being stubborn, direct and honest. And of course the thing I respect most- drops! Along with challenging my thoughts, ideas and character, this experience also showed me the vibrant colored shoes of the traveller. I found these shoes to fit very well. Exploring behind the touristy areas of many cities around Europe holds so many good memories. After packing all these memories in my suitcase I am very reluctant to zip it shut. But life keeps moving, and I must move along with it. So I head back to Canada with one of the best experience’s in my life behind me. 

Here's some pictures from a good-bye party we had on my last night in Rotterdam. These people are truly wonderful! 

There's some pretty special people in this shot!

And of course Val-pal!

A friend's Mom who I kind of adopted :)

While at the airport on Monday I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know whether to cry or to be happy I was coming back. So I just talked to some Americans in the line-up who had a very strong drawl :) 

But although I really miss some really great people, at the same time it is so nice to be under the shadow of the Hudson Bay Mountains once again! 

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Either you were a little bored or you care about me, either way I thank you for reading!

Blessings,

Kim

Switzerland Hiking Trip!

This past weekend brought five of us to Grindelwald, Switzerland. I'm pretty sure this place is where God lives sometimes, it is incredibly breath-taking in it's beauty. Harsh jagged mountains intrude sharply into deep blue sky. Avalanches roar down the mountains. Deep blue glacier lakes dot the landscape, framed by evergreens sparkling in the water's reflection. Here is our group.

 

 

This is Thursday, just after we arrived. We decided to try find some snow but got about half way there before sliding down. Faye was the photographer for the most part, and I realized while I was choosing photos that it is a pity, but this beautiful girl is not on very many photos! But I do hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

 

Faye and Joash are exchange students at Erasmus from Singapore.

Most mountain streams had to be crossed, whether or not they were over knee deep and came straight from a glacier...

It's hard to see the steepness of the slope from this angle, but this was a pretty impressive 10 steps!

We are trying to balance here. This is taken about two seconds before I got a pretty bad cut under my foot from the 'trying' part gone wrong...

Simply amazing 

This is a picture from Friday. Our destination was a lake that was marked on the map. First we were told that it is only an hour from where we had stopped to rest. An hour later some hikers told us it was fifteen more minutes. Half an hour later we were told it was another 20 minutes. We finally arrived though, the only issue was... would we make it back to the gondola before it shut down?

Woohoo! We even got a free ride down as it was the last run of the day!

Snowball fight in June

Got to love the GoPro camera!

 

 

View from the balcony, right outside our rooms! Every morning sang its vibrant praise to God!

"I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? From the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth."

Four relaxing evenings were spent in our cozy little cabin.They also included home made warm dinners, some wet sweaters, and exploring maps. Plus late night chats in the moon shadow of the mountain, doing devotions every morning under the same shadow and brilliant sunlight, evening crickets... so much beauty on our doorstep!  

Just around the corner of our chalet.

J-man

Holding a random biker's dog who wouldn't sit still while she biked down. This is a pretty stellar spot for mountain bikers.

 

The next day we went swimming! This is also a glacier lake, although it is lower in altitude and gets warmed up by the sun pretty ok. It was freezing cold still, but we couldn't resist a short dip.

 

 

Amazing colors

A small town of peaceful farmland

Climbing another waterfall

Moments before the guy in the pink shirt (Geoffrey) fell, tumbling down on his back. It was pretty painful I think.

Feeding the goats

These guys climb EVERYTHING!

Watching an avalanche

So much love. Not very much balance.

Absolutely amazing!!

Natural spring water that came from the ground! 

Flying Photobombers

Another stream... let's cross it too!

One of my favorite shots by the amazing photographer Faye!

Lunch break at a hungry 2:30 pm, a bit discouraged after being told three times that we were almost there and it's just around the corner... Really this day gave a different definition to 'almost there'.

Kind of fun colors

Walk on snow? No problem!

Until you have to touch it! I think I've had enough of this from Smithers that I don't have to do it in June in Europe!

Lay on snow without a Tshirt? No big deal!

You must appreciate the rolled down socks on this picture. These legs were a little grandpa-ish for a lot of the time. A cool shot again though!

 

Evening soccer practise under the glowing mountain.

Really too cool ;) 

 

Evening roasting by a nearby river.

Meatballs on a stick! It makes for slightly crispy outsides, and is pretty tasty!

Aaand another river needing to be crossed

A perfect evening I think!

I am not sure what to put as a caption for this picture...

 

I get a kick out of our faces here, I think this is part of the balancing act

 

Attempting to balance on a rock with five people while standing at the base of a waterfall is a bit squishy, a lot sketchy, and more than a lot freezing.

My beautiful friend!

Another favorite

 

 

A natural spring, with a hollow log to catch the water for the cattle.

Blocking the view

We also went river rafting, but don't have photos as we didn't want to risk taking cameras along. All in all, one of my favorite European trips! It was awesome to have God take my breath away with his presence and his beauty. The quiet peace of the place really seeps into a person's skin after a time as well.

 

And now is the official one-week mark before it is home time! I'm really looking forward to seeing Smithers again, but especially yesterday on the way home from Switzerland it really hit me that I am for real going away from Rotterdam in just a few days. Maybe I was overtired, but my pillow was pretty close to receiving a few tear drops last night at this thought.

 

But again, God always gives us reason to bloom where he plants us!

 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well, and have a great week!