On the road again!

Well, I am feeling better, and I am close to being back to normal!  Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns during this time.  :)

Last Saturday I was feeling up to a day trip.  I might not have been feeling completely up to it . . . but it had been 6 days since I had seen the sun (besides the brief excursion to the pharmacy).  Needless to say, I needed to get out.  I went with some friends to Amsterdam, but because of some last-minute timing issues with the group, I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes IN Amsterdam . . . and 8 hours en route.  :/  I got a good deal of Spanish done on the trains, so that was good, haha.

Since I had time to see only one thing in Amsterdam, I chose the Anne Frank House.  I read her diary in 8th grade, and I have felt quite connected with her and her story since.  Since I was on a time crunch, I did not get to spend as much time in the house as I wanted, but I enjoyed what I was able to see and experience.  

Anne Frank Huis

In the 30-40 minutes in the house, I was able to walk up narrow staircases and through secret doors.  I was able to see the different rooms they lived in in the Annex and read many excerpts from her diary.

Here we are going behind the movable bookcase and into the secret annex

As a result of new climate control experimentation, many items were removed from the house.  Though this was unfortunate, I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Anne's diary (taken from a postcard I bought at the house)

My friends stayed the night in Amsterdam (in the train station, sadly), but I had to get back to Maastricht for the best part of my weekend - a night at Binu and Ruth's!

Some of you may know Biju and Sheba, who have visited our church a couple of times to encourage us in our relations with India.  When we were in India in December, we had lunch with Binu, Biju's brother, who was visiting Hyderabad.  We soon came to find out that Binu worked in Maastricht (of all places!), where I would be living the next semester!  WOW!

So we have been keeping in contact and trying to find a good time to get together.  The problem is that I am out of town traveling every weekend, so I was starting to wonder if I would ever be able to see them.  This is where the strep throat comes in!  Because I stayed home from Berlin, I was able to spend the night with Binu and Ruth (and their precious 6-month old, Arun) Saturday night and go to church with them Sunday morning.

At a Belgian Ice Cream Parlor

The church service was completely in Flemish (Belgian Dutch), which was a bit difficult to follow.  The best part was having Binu (from India) translate the Flemish service into English with a Malayalam accent.  :) Here is a little video of congregational singing in their Flemish church.  This is one of my favorite songs, and it is sung here in Flemish.  I learned it first in Spanish at Church Under the Bridge, and then I learned it in English.  It is called "Days of Elijah" in English. (VIDEO COMING SOON.)

We were actually all sick, so we returned to their house to nap for a little while.  Then we went out for an ice cream dinner (yes!) and they took me back to the guesthouse.  I look forward to staying with them again!

I wish you could all be here with me!!!

Love from Europe,

Julia