Village Schools of the Bible

August - December



It never croseed my mind once that I would do some sort of Bible course while I was here in the USA.

Yet I did and I have! Keith and Meredith did this course together before they were married and they get newsletters in the mail from the school and one day Meredith said to me that I should look into doing this course and that its really good.

I proabaly said something like oh yea? Meaning I wasnt too interested but I will look into it! I don't know why that was my attitude, but I was probably thinking something stupid like well I did a year long Bible course last year!

But then I looked into it and the lectures were on Wednesday morning - perfect for me because Gracie is at school, Matty at daycare and Isaac at preschool! So I enrolled and went along.

The course was a New Testament Survey class, and our wednesday morning lectures were at Woodridge church (only 15min drive away down the freeway).

It was a womans class, and of course I was the youngest (it was good to have Rachel come along a few weeks with me, Rachel nannyed for the Johnsons the past few summers and we worked together when keith and Meredith were in Italy in June - a really great girl).

I really enjoyed this course!! Each week we would read a book of the New Testament (or more considering the length of the book) then write an essay about it then on that Wednesday we would then hear the lecture. So to re-word this, we were writing the essay before we heard the lecture on that book.

I really enjoyed doing it that way so I wasn't just writing what I had heard from someone else but havent to really think through it myself.

It was also really good to read through the New Testament that way and to really study it at the same time.

The course ran over the 'fall' (Autumn) semester and it was good to be back studying again and being made to do something with a deadline!!

And funny thing, through all this I remembered that when I was about 13, a woman came to my church in Putaruru from the US and she was, or had studied in a Bible school and I thought to myself I want to study in a Bible school one day in America and thats what happpened!! And that thought did not cross my mind until near the end of the course.

God is faithful! Its funny, those tiny dreams we have, whether we believe in them or not, if its something God wants for our lives he will fulfill them, not necessarily in our timing or our way but his way!

Illinois Vacation

Illinois was the 6th state I stayed in!

We (Keith, Meredith, Gracie, Isaac, Matty and I) drove approximately 10 hours (longest road trip ever!!) on the 3rd of July to Springfield (the capital of Illinois, and no not the Springifeld where Bart Simpson is from; in fact there are many Springfields throught the USA).

We stayed with family friends - Margie and Dard who were just great!!

We spent half the day with them on the '4th of July', hanging out by their pool which was lovely and then we traveled another 3 hours south to a small town Benton (like Putaruru size!) for Merediths' family reunion.

Had a tonne of fun there, hung out at the lake for a 4th of July picnic (now on the 5th of July), with all the family, went out on a boat one day which was nice as it was a beauitful day so just chilled in the water for a while.

On the Monday we drove up to St Louis (Missouri) where we went to an awesome kids museum with the relatives, and saw the gateway arch.

We dropped Keith of at the airoprt and went on back to Springfield.

That week we saw the Linclon museum, had donuts from 'mel-o-cream' yum yum and hung out at the pool.

We then went on to Chicago where we stayed with family friends, the Harters (Miris future home :P). They live in a suburb of Chicago so one day I took the train downtown (with a niece and friend of Karri Harters) and caught up with my cousin Dean, his fiance Emily and a friend of theirs. It was a big coinicidence that we were in the city the same day - Dean and Emily were driving cross country, moving from California to New York and we happened to be in Chicago the same day!! It was soo good to see Dean again and meet the very sweet Emily. It was fun to hang out and see a bit of the city with them.

It was great to see the Harters again, and spend time with them, but the following day it was time to head back to Minneapolis. Only a 6 hour drive (like from Putaruru to Wellignton I guess) this time, and it was nice to see the countryside of Wisconsin again.

Sport

I didn't expect many Americans to know what rugby was, let alone there be a women's rugby team in Minneapolis/St Paul (and more than one at that!).

I knew I had brought my mouthguard all the way to America for some reason! lol

So I found a team on the net and went along to a few trainings. They are a very good team - very skilled and also competitive which is great!

The team were vey nice and welcoming to me. I went along and watched them play their cross-town rivals one saturday in May, which was a great game to watch (I could have played for a little bit but I forgot to take along my mouthguard :S).

Their main rugby season is in the Fall (Autumn), so I had a month to think about whether I wanted to be a part of the team.

I decided not to be as it would have been a big commitment with trainings twice a week, and I would have had to travel quite a bit out of state to saturday games. They are a really good team who are hoping to get to the nationals, so I wish them all the best and hopefully I will get to see them play a few games this season.

So on that note I joined a soccer team :) We have just finished our season (which ran through summer) which I am disappointed about but I had a fun time!

It was a step up from saturday morning Putaruru High School girls team! So I learnt quite a bit from the players on my team - they are really good players!

Games were played on Tuesday and Thursday nights, all around the Minneapolis area, so through it I saw a few different places I wouldn't have necessarily gone to.

We had a mixture of wins, draws and losses but it was so much fun. The gals were really nice, and it was great soccer!

Even though the games were at night, it sould get soo hot. The humidity is huge here in Minnesota (well especially for me) so the games were definitly a great work out!

New York, New York!

On the 8th of May, Tessa and I arrived in New York(!!) - 11.30 Thursday night.

We were greeted at the airport by Bronwyn and Matt (my cousin and her husband).

It was soo good to see them, especially as I hadn't seen them for a while, and a bonus was them being kiwis, you sort of miss them after a while :P

We caught the bus with them back to their apratment - we couldn't have done it without them!

I made 'friends' with a guy on the bus. He kept on saying 'Don't go to Brooklyn, don't go to Brooklyn' and telling me all this scary stuff about it, then he would say haha just joking, yip I make the coolest friends :)

Bron and Matt lived by Columbia uni in Manhattan, was a pretty sweet apartment :)

On the Friday, Tessa and I went to the statue of liberty and Ellis Island. We caught the subway, which was easier than I thought it would be (thanks Matt for your help!).

It was a wet miserable day and we grabbed these plastic poncho raincoats thinking they were free but NO! nothing is free in NY!

We waited in the pouring rain for about half n hour before we went through security checkpoints before boarding the ferry to go to the islands.

We decided not to hop off at the staute of liberty cos of the rain, but had a good view from the ferry.

Ellis Island is an island where some of the first US imigrants came to get checked out etc, to see if they were allowed to stay in America. It was really interesting.

It was really cold and wet which kinda sucked, but it was an awesome experience to be there all the same!!

Tessa and I then meet up with Bronwyn at the Museum of Modern Art, then we also went to the wax museum which was a tonne of fun!

On the Saturday, we went to the Guggenheim museum - which was very interesting! We also went up the empire state building which was incredible!!! We were soo high and it was amazing to see New York that way - an absolute must do in NY!

On the way home from Times Square that night we ended up at the wrong subway station, but decided we could walk home from there..but we ended up in the wrong part of town (not quite the bronx but nearly!!) In the end we rang our saviours (Bronwyn and Matt) who directe us to the nearest subway station, it was good to get home safely that night~

On Sunday we did a tour of the NBC studio, a bike tour around Central Park - that was super fun! The park is soo huge, and it was kewl to be there and see different places where movies have been filmed. One of the highlights of the whole weekend was going to Legally blonde - the broadway! It was a hilarious show!! The scenes, the acting, the music - everything was amazing!!! It was fun to go there with Matt and Bronwyn too (secretly I think Matt enjoyed it the most :P)

On our last day in New York we rode the subway all the way to Brooklyn (across the Brooklyn Bridge) to go the DUB pie shop - the down under pie shop. Tessa had found out about it and we knew we had to go there. In America they don't have meat pies like they do back home!

And the trip was worth it, unfortuantely it was pouring down with rain so we didnt walk back over the Brooklyn bridge, which I heard gives a great view of New York.

Overall it was an awesome weekend. It was great to catch up with Matt and Bronwyn and stay with them, and also to spend the weekend with my fellow NZer Tessa :) (small town represent)!

My first half marathon!

-Before

On the 4th of May, I completed my first half marathon.

I did not know what to expect, but it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be! At the 6mile mark I thought it was never going to end, but then at the 8mile mark I got some energy from somewhere.

It was held at Lake Minnetonka, approx 30mins drive from my house. Meredith and Sarah Graff (friend, neighbour and also Merediths business partner) also did it (thats how I came about doing it).

It was great weather for it too, a nice cloudy day.

-After

Some spring photos

Tessa, Sabrina, Nina and I at Lake Calhoun

The gymnastics meet at the University of

Minnesota

The church of St Paul at St Paul City

And the wall came tumbling down...

So the wall outside our house that seperates our street and the freeway came tumbling down! They are doing extensions to the freeway (motorway) so they took it down and its going to be down for a year or so!!! We weren't really looking foward to it but suprisingly it hasn't made much difference to things, there hasn't been a lot of noise because of it thankfully.

Well it has been a busy past week and a bit. A week ago on Sunday I had my monthly aupair gathering with the rest of the aupairs in my area. That was quite nice, we ate out at a vey american place 'Famous Dave's' where the 'ribs' are quite famous so of course I checked them out and I give my thumbs up to.

The next day,;Monday night I went to the movies with Tessa, Emma and Henna (a neighbouring aupair from Finland). We went to some movies at a town called Hopkins (about 15min away) and believe it or not our movie tickets were only $2.50!! It was great! Hehe we saw 27 dresses which is a predictable chick flick but cute all the same.

On the Wednesday I went to a Bible study group called 'young life' at the neighbouring city called St Paul (though it and Minneapolis are basically joined together - they're known as the 'Twin Cities') I went along with Annalise, (who knows Meredith from the skating ring where Gracie has her skating lessons) who goes to the University of Minnesota (known as 'the U'). I really enjoyed it, there were I would guess around 40 people, mostly college (university) students aged round 18-25.

The past weekend has been my busyiest yet socially! On the friday night I went along to the 'Wizard of Oz' play at the 'U' with Annalise and a few of her friends. It was a really good play, very talented acting and singing! There were many local (american and university) connatations throughout the play that I laughed along with the crowd pretending I knew what the joke was!
Before it started I had my first experience in a dorm cafeteria! (at the uni) There was soo much food selection, not gross looking food like in the movies either! I was pretty excited to be there! Had a really good night.

After working Saturday morning, I went with Keith and Merdith to their newphews middle school play. It was about the Beatles - a cute school play.
That night I went along with Tessa and her host family to a univeristy woman's gymnastics meet. That was amazing to see live!!! Something I have always wanted to do! The university of Minnesota is in the top 10 universities in the country for gymnastics, so it was top quality gymnastics performances.

Just a few facts - there are 53,000 students at the University of Minnesota.
- the first open heart surgery ever was performed here
- One of the largest universities in the USA

After that, Tessa and I caught up with a few aupair friends and went downtown.

On Sunday, Henna, Tessa and I tried out the bus system. We first went to uptown (a concept in cites throughout the states) where I found a shop I just love called urban outfitters then we headed downtown. The buses were pretty easy, not to confuisng or too scary (As someone had heard they were). You pay $1.5o and you can make as many transfers as you want for the next 2 and a half hours.

Oh yea, a few exciting things to note! Tessa and I are going to New York for the weekend in early May! It is all booked and we are rearing to go!
Also I had been on a waiting list for a half marathon (that Meredith is doing) and was emailed the other day to say a few spots had come up, so I am now registered for my first half marathon, on May the 4th.

Yip so as you can see its been a pretty busy week...Take care!