Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

EGYPT!!
Well I've gone and I've returned from the land of pyramids, desert and mummies. Fortunately, I only saw the firsts two and no mummies at all. I should think mummies wouldn't smell too pleasant. Anyway, I had a great time. It was awesome being able to spend twelve days with eight people that I get along with so well. Talk about a bonding experience. Even today, now that we're back, we're still close. We were all piled on one big arm chair today getting caught up even though we've only been back for three days! We spent most of our time with the sweetest, cutest little Sudanese kids, teaching them English, doing crafts and playing games. I wanted to bring them home with me!

We also spent a lot of time visiting Sudanese church plants and it was incredible to worship with these people. A few months before heading off to Egypt, I was at a Beggar's Feast--a worship night put on by my school-- and we were singing, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," and it had really struck me and stuck with me as I prepared for Egypt. In Egypt, it is illegal for Muslims to convert and I guess it had struck me that without Christ they don't have freedom, so the contrast between the Sudanese, who despite being aliens in a foreign country where they're discriminated against, and yet they're so full of joy and faith and freedom, and the Egyptians who work so hard to please Allah, although it's a futile road, was striking. So it was amazing to worship with these people, who could step out of their pain and suffering and rejoice with every part of their being was incredible, and I hope that even the smallest bit of their faith and passion rubbed off on me.

And so, since I have two midterms tomorrow, I've gotta split! Please feed Garfunkle on your way out! Thanks!

An Unusually Fabulous Day!
For the past couple of mornings, I've been waking up at five o'clock, for reasons unknown to me. Generally, I roll over and go back to sleep for a few more hours before facing the morning, but today was different. As I was rolling back over to return to the bliss of sleep, I felt God whisper in my ear, "Come spend time with me." So after a few minutes of fighting the temptation to ignore Him and go back to sleep, I dug around in the dark for my bible and my glasses and stumbled over to our prayer room where I spent the next couple hours just enjoying how fabulous God is. Can't beat that kind of start to a day.
The rest of the day was full of unexpected surprises such as lunch with Leslie, my roomie from last year. We went out for Chinese and although we wanted the four dollar take out lunch special we wanted to stay in the little restaurant and chat so they put us in this random little room by the door. We felt a little like we were quarantined or not fit to sit with everyone else, but after laughing and making jokes, we had a great time chatting. My fortune cookie was even somewhat relevant even though I don't place any value on these fortunes. Just a fun little coincidence.
Then, excitingly enough my Child Development class was cancelled and I ended up getting to spend time with Lealla. We went out for chai lattes--but they were out of chai lattes which was about the only low point of my day, and it can hardly be considered low. We then ventured into the library, a place I usually avoid as much as possible. We found some great books for our Child Development class, and as we both squatted down to view the lower shelves of books, she knocked me off balance and I fell backwards, sprawling out across the aisle... is anyone surprised?
Well, eight days till Egypt...there's lots to be done, so I should probably get back to my homework!

Christmas banquet, stressful exams and finally...Christmas break!

The Christmas banquet was great. All the girls got together to get all dolled up and then me and my hot date, Lealla, were humiliated because we came in second for who asked who most creatively, but fun not matter what. We had a great time taking pictures and eating chocolate. What more can you ask for? Okay, real dates maybe...but whatever.
So glad exams are over. I had five and the last one was unbelieveably painful. My brain hurt for a day afterward. My last day of work for the year was also quite great. Some guys in the office set up a minigolf course and I spent the last hour and a half munching on chooclate covered pretzels and playing minigolf...I lost, but had a great time nonetheless.
Break has been good so far. A couple friendly gatherings and sleeping in have been quite heavenly, and I look forward to many more over the next three weeks! Merry Christmas everyone!

Why, oh why Oh Canada? My monologue on just how insanely cold it is in this country! Today, I just about died of cold, which maybe is a little too light of a way to use that phrase considering several homeless people have died from the cold in the past two days, so instead I shall say that the cold is unbearable. In order to survive today I wore:
-two pairs of pants
-knee high socks and regular socks
-a tank top
-a short sleeve (how doyou spell that??) shirt
-a long sleeved sweater
-scarf
-touque (beanie for you Americans)
-winter boots
-winter jacket which I hate with an incredible passion. I only wear it when absolutely necessary.
With all these layers I was still cold. I have a headache from the cold, in fact. Yesterday, a bunch of stood at a bus stop for 20-30 minutes to head off to our Egypt meeting before usurping our leader's orders and calling him and telling him that he should drive down to where we were and promptly relocated to a team member's apartment that had a glorious fire place. He made us hot chocolate--he was my hero that day-- and I sat as close to the fire as possible and it took, seriously, more than half an hour to feel fully warm.
I put forth that America needs to give up it's phrase, "The land of the brave" because true bravery is living year after year in this iceberg we call Canada!

EGYPT BOUND!!!
As part of the Miss Exec at my school, we've planned a missions trip to Egypt to work with Sudanese Refugee children by teaching English, music, sports and anything else that we have to offer. We're also raising money to support their lunch program for a semester. And most exciting to me is that.... I'm going!! I'm totally pumped for this opportunity to travel to a land of history! And secondly, as I consider working overseas, maybe north Africa, I think this is just such an amazing opportunity to check it out. Although I grew up overseas, I've never been on a trip like this before and I'm so excited to get on with it! So yeah! There's seven or eight of us going on this trip and I know we'd all appreciate your prayer as we prepare for this trip and while we're over there ministering. The trip is from Feb 16-27. Keep checking my blog for updates! YEAH EGYPT!!