Susan Sentral

Swim Therapy

2010-06-21T21:34:00.000+02:00

Swimming! One of the things Mom used to love to do as a kid. In preparation for today I have been asking her if she'd like to go swimming sometime and each time she seemed pretty interested. So after we made plans I was confident that it would be a successful adventure.

David was kind enough to stay home from work today to help me out and I think he enjoyed the break too. The weather was great at 10am, and the water was 80 degrees...if not warmer.

As expected Mom mentioned being too cold when getting deeper and deeper in the water, but once she was all the way in she was fine. I was expecting her to be nervous and just ask to get out of the water, but instead she did a lot of laughing and seemed to really enjoy herself.

Her walking was the same in the water...no improvement. We tried to get her to float, or to kick her feet out behind herself, or try to "stand" "on her knees so that the water would come up over her shoulders so she wouldn't have to stand all the way up...she attempted each, but we didn't have much success.

All in all, it was pretty fun. Mom enjoyed sitting outside the pool in the nice weather after we swam too. We'll be doing this again!

Wii Therapy

2010-06-20T20:15:00.000+02:00

There is all kinds of therapy you can do when you really think about it. David thought of this one.

We played the Wii with Mom after her hip injury, but playing with a brain injury brings a whole new dynamic to the game. We played Big Brain Academy which I really thought she wasn't ready for...BUT she did pretty well. One of her best areas was math, and that was a big surprise from this art teacher.

From her point of view:

Another Year

2010-06-17T22:28:00.000+02:00

58 years old!

One year and 6 days ago Mom had her traumatic-brain-injury-causing car accident. Today we were glad to celebrate her birthday. She was happy too, but mostly because she had a pretty delicious birthday cake sitting in front of her!

Mom was excited to get flowers from her good friend from Rochester, Josie!

Midnight Bliss Cake close-up! YUM!

Bowling!

2010-06-16T20:53:00.004+02:00

On Wednesday we were invited to go bowling with the Kings. It was fun!

We didn't know how difficult it might be because of Mom being in her wheelchair most of the time, but the King's are pros at finding ways to do things that most people would think impossible. Below, Emily demonstrates how to use the ramp to bowl instead of having to throw the ball.

Then Mom tried it with David cheering her on! She did very well and was able to play for half of the game before getting tired...

...and cold! Even with all those blankets she was done for the day. But that was ok because David and I got to finish bowling for everyone.

We had a good time and have already made plans to go back. Grandma may even come next time!

Gift Therapy

2010-06-14T15:07:00.000+02:00

Gift Therapy! Bet you've never heard of this! Well, that's because it's not actually real...

Mom got a gift in the mail today from her sisters-in-law. The gift was from "The Nut House." Now, we all know that this could imply different meanings, but after a moment of thinking it through we decided that their intentions were for her to have a delicious assortment of nuts and not imply that she's gone nuts! ...although we thought the other option pretty funny.

The nuts came with packing peanuts too! ...so clever.

Finally got it out of the box!

We decided to make Mom and honorary member of The Nut House.

They are delicious! And really big! I've never seen cashews as large as these.

Gift Therapy will continue this Thursday because it's Mom's birthday!

Everybody needs a friend.

2010-06-11T08:52:00.001+02:00

Despite the look of disgust on the cat's face, I usually see these two this close together multiple times throughout the day. The dog occasionally growls at the cat and the cat occasionally smacks the dog in the face, but these two secretly enjoy each other's company.

Spicy Chicken Goodness

2010-06-02T16:22:00.001+02:00

We got to try the new Chickfila Spicy Chicken Sandwich one week early! We made reservations online and showed up during our time slot.

Dad liked what was written on the sandwich bag.

The breading was the same as the normal chicken sandwich only a little darker because of the spice. And, it came with a small bottle of water.

To me the taste was similar to the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich. I think this is the market they are trying to tap into. Now all we need to do is a taste test! It wasn't that spicy, just enough to give it some character.

David liked it.

This picture is for all the American's overseas. Gotta love waffle fries!

So, the question remains... which sandwich is better? The original or the spicy? Well, the original is pretty good! It will probably depend on your preference, but for me...I'd need to do a taste test so I could compare them at the same time.

Harry Therapy

2010-05-31T15:02:00.004+02:00

During Mom's visit this weekend we were trying to think of things we could do.

We asked Mom what kinds of things she liked to do now, instead of drawing (since she doesn't like the way she draws now). She came up with a few ideas, one of them being reading. Interesting... since she didn't like to read much before. So we tried it!

David went to get a Harry Potter book and Mom started reading!

She needed a little help ever now and then with pronouncing words like "Dursley" and "Privet" but she did pretty well. After reading the first page we stopped her and asked her some questions to see if she was remembering what she read. I think reading will be a good thing for us to do, although Harry Potter might be too long of a story for her. We need a good book of short stories, for adults.

I was also thinking of something like a needlepoint project...but it would have to be one with large holes and a big dull needle. Anybody know about anything about something like that?

Allergies this year.

2010-05-28T21:10:00.001+02:00

Every year I end up writing about allergies and how awful spring is for me because of pollen. This year I decided to spare you my usual rant. Instead I'll tell you what I'm FINALLY doing about this lovely time of year.

Allergy shots. Immunotherapy. I've gone to an allergist, been scratch tested, and learned what all my allergies are!

(This is the grid they drew on my back and then all the red spots are where they poked me with allergens and I reacted...not much white space!)

I'm allergic to cats, dogs, mold, weed pollen, grass pollen, and tree pollen (basically all pollen). It seems like my tree pollen allergies are the worst because trees pollinate in the spring. Grass is a summer pollen, and weeds are a fall pollen, but I don't usually have allergic reactions those times of year. I guess it just doesn't compare to the spring. I have noticed a reaction to cats too, but it still isn't as bad as trees.

So far, I go to the allergist two times each week, and the give me one shot in each arm (cats, dogs, and mold allergens in one, and all outdoor allergens in the other). The arm that gets the outdoor allergens has reacted more than the other arm. It looks and feels like I got bit by a mosquito, and sometimes I get a headache. This will continue for a few months with occasional increases in the strength/purity of the allergen used. Then I'll go once a week, then once ever other week, etc. The goal is to make myself immune to all these things I'm allergic to. Let's hope it works!

At An Angle

2010-05-19T16:23:00.000+02:00

This past Sunday we went to visit Mom at Restore. We sat on the front porch for a while because the weather was beautiful. I pulled out my camera and handed it to Mom just to see if she would want to use it. She was excited to take pictures of David in his orange shirt. But, she didn't make much of an effort to keep the camera straight. Instead, almost every picture was at an angle. At least she got all of him within the frame.

We'll have to work on photography when she comes home. Until then, we'll just have pictures at an angle.

Double Bypass

2010-05-14T18:15:00.001+02:00

This past Wednesday our family went to a Dave Bromberg Concert. But, before the show, we went to eat at the Vortex. Known for their award winning burgers, David just could not decide which one he wanted. So he told the waiter he wanted his recommendation. The waiter asked him some general questions about his likes and dislikes and then asked him how he would want his burger cooked. Without telling David what he would be eating, the waiter went away and turned in our order.

Before long our food arrived and David finally got to see what he ordered.

This, ladies and gentlemen is the Double Bypass Burger, and hopefully the only double bypass David will ever have (and now I'm not referring to burgers). Here is the description of what he ate, directly from the menu:

DOUBLE BYPASS BURGER

Twice as big as the Coronary Bypass! Topped with

two fried eggs, six slices of American cheese, and

eight slices of bacon, all served between the two

grilled cheese sandwiches that we use in place of

the regular hamburger buns.

Yes, he did eat the whole thing, and no, there was no free t-shirt. He also made a decent attempt at the tater tots that were his side item.

Congratulations David...let's not do that again.

Drunk? ...or texting?

2010-05-03T09:35:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, on our way to visit my Mom at Restore, David and I had a very interesting experience.

We were driving down Highway 212 behind a car that was barely going the speed limit. After a short while of following them I noticed that they were driving back and forth within the lane a lot more than usual. I called David's attention to it and then the swerving got worse. The driver was crossing the lines and once came very close to running off the right side of the road. They would quickly re-correct and straighten-out but it didn't last long! While increasing our distance we tried to figure out what the deal was. The conclusion we came to, other than the fact it was around 11am on a Sunday morning, was that this had to be a drunk driver. I've never seen a drunk driver before, but I've also never seen anyone driving this poorly before so it had to be a drunk driver!

We got to a point where the driver was going to make a right turn and we'd be able to pass them. As we passed we looked into their window. We saw a young girl holding a cell phone, texting.

I was amazed. I don't text often in general, but after saying to myself multiple times while following her "They're going to kill themselves" I know that I never will text and drive. Take some time a search the internet for "texting while driving" and see the images you come up with.

Unfortunately I know all too well some of the consequences of getting into a car accident. Although my Mom wasn't texting I guarantee that you don't want to end up dealing with all she's going through because of a car accident. I can also guarantee that you don't want to have to take care of anyone else you know that has done that to themselves, so share with your friends about how stupid the idea of texting while driving is!

It may have made a funny comic, but it's really not funny.

Finding the artist within.

2010-04-30T17:07:00.004+02:00

While cleaning out a room in my parent's house recently I found a bunch of blank canvases that my Mom had. On one of them was a taped picture of this:

artist: Ron Burns

The picture had been painted for a Humane Society advertisement but the bright colors and cute face caught my eye.

I had recently gone to a place called Sips n Strokes with some friends and was completely inspired to recreate the experience at home after finding this picture. After a few months of busy schedules I finally gathered some friends and we attempted to paint our animal friends.

I found a cat for Matthew and Jennifer and I attempted the dog. We started with the backgrounds, had a break for dinner and went back to work on the rest.

We used techniques that we learned at our past visit to Sips n Strokes.

And before long we had some pretty neat looking paintings.

While the original was really cute, I couldn't help but add some of my own "Duncan details" to my painting.

And I we pleased to see my work appreciated.

It was fun! We want to do it again!

Home Visit April 27th

2010-04-29T18:38:00.000+02:00

Mom has started a weekly home visit schedule with the people taking care of her at Restore. They want her to start getting used to doing activities at home with me so that when she comes back home she won't refuse to do things like she did before. Hopefully this plan will work nicely so her transition home doesn't cost her any progress time.

This week she used her brand new shower for the first time, had lunch, planted some flowers, and then we looked at some picture albums. Here is a picture of the flowers she helped with:

It was too cold outside to do this activity outside, but maybe next week she can at least go outside and water them.

When we looked at the picture albums we went through a lot of old pictures. She remembered A LOT of the people in the pictures, and thanks to Grandma Gert we cold confirm that she was remembering correctly. It was neat. She also remembered that Dad told her he was having the house painted (from the Sunday before - 3 days!) but couldn't remember that she took a shower in her new shower about an hour before. Strange how she remembers some things easier than others.

Jamaica - Day 9 - Montego Bay

2010-03-28T20:34:00.075+02:00

Another morning for a breakfast at Burger King before checking out of our hotel. The customers at the Burger King were particularly interesting this morning, some tourists, some natives. There was a little boy with his mom who was wearing sunglasses and making beats on the table. Then, when he would get up to walk around he had a swagger to his step. There was actually an older man that walked by him who imitated him...I think to point out how silly he looked...but the kid didn't get the picture and went back to what he was doing.

Then there was a pretty large family, both in number and in size, that were complaining about the heat. Mostly the kids...they were such whiners: "It's too hot outside!" "I don't want to do (this or that)!" ...except for one. He was sitting there quietly, listening to the rest of them complain with a look on his face that said "Well this isn't any fun." At that point their Dad pointed him out to everybody and said something about how he wasn't a complainer and was really proud of him. It brought a little smile to his face and mine that he was recognized.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel, made sure that we had everything packed, and got our game plan ready to go...our game plan for the taxi driver that is. Since we knew we were going to be over charged we worked out how we were going to pay the guy so that we wouldn't get ripped off. Well, we gave him 300 Jamaican dollars as we walked up to the taxi and told him we needed to go to the airport. As he walked around to the driver seat he counted the money and then go into the car and told us that his boss would fire him if he drove us for only 300. He went on and on about how it's at least 1500 Jamaican dollars (5-7 minutes down the road!) and his boss would be so mad. So then David decided that he would give him another 100 in hopes that it would make him happy. Well, as David pulled the money out of his wallet he didn't look at it so well. Instead of handing him the 100, he gave him a 1000! The driver jumped at the opportunity to take the money. I hit David in the arm but he still didn't realize what had happened. I thought that he was intentionally giving the guy the 1000 dollar bill. Turns out David didn't realize what he had given the guy and was mad at me for not pointing it out to him. It made for a very unpleasant first few minutes in the airport, but a very happy taxi driver. ARGH! They win again!

After we checked in we waited in a really long security checkpoint/passport control line. While in the line we talked with two ladies who were headed home as well. One of them was an aerobics instructor for resorts and she brought her friend with her. We told them about why we were there too and enjoyed our conversation with them until it was our turn to talk to passport control. I was nervous at this point too because David wasn't convinced that they were going to let me bring the conch shell out of the country. I had it in my purse and wasn't planning on saying anything about it unless someone asked. Well, the passport person had absolutely no personality, I don't think she even looked at our faces, so she didn't ask any question and told us we could go through. Then we had to take off our shoes and x-ray our bags and the rest is history!

Back to reality, oh wait, one more picture...

James & Gabrielle

March 26, 2010

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Jamaica - Day 8 - Montego Bay

2010-03-27T23:44:00.010+01:00

We had Burger King for breakfast again this morning and afterwards decided to give ourselves a tour of downtown Montego Bay. We also wanted to check out an old fort area where they currently have markets that was on the way.

As we walked out of the tourist area we noticed that there were no longer “street patrol” people around whenever you wanted to cross the street. On the “hip strip” they were all over ready to stop traffic for you, but here it was just normal streets. As we got closer to the market area we noticed ladies standing on both corners of the street. Before we could even pass the one on our side of the street she came right up to us to start a conversation. It went a little like this, all while we are still walking:

Lady: “Hello there! Are you looking to do some shopping today ma’am?”

Susan: “No thank you, we’re just walking around.”

Lady: “Oh ok, well maybe on your way back you’d like to stop by our market (pointing across the street up the hill) to buy some souvenirs. What’s your name?”

Susan: “Susan.”

Lady: “Susan! Oh that’s a Jamaican name you know.”

Susan: “Oh is it…”

Lady: “Yes! You have such beautiful hair, maybe you’d like to have some braids? We could braid it for you.”

Susan: “No thanks…(as she begins to get the point that we want to keep walking)…bye.”

Susan, a Jamaican name…you learn something new everyday! :o) We kept walking and we then approached, from behind, by a guy. At this point David is walking slightly in front of me, and the guy walks slightly in front of David. He begins a conversation with David, also while we continue walking and he never looks at us in the face…the entire time he is walking slightly ahead of us, talking to us, but never looking at us:

Guy: “Hey man, what’s up?” (holds out his fist to “bump knuckles” with David)

David: “Not much, just walking around.”

Guy: “What’s ya name man?”

David: “David, and you?”

Guy: “I’m (I don’t remember…) and the lady there?”

David: “That’s my wife Susan.”

Guy: “Nice to meet you man. So, where ya from David and Susan?”

David: “The United States. Georgia.”

Guy: “Georgia, yeah, yeah, nice place. So, you are going to see a little of the city huh?”

David: “Yep.”

Guy: “Ya know, there is no racism in Jamaica.”

David: “Really? That’s good.”

Guy: “Ya man, ya man, you don’t have to worry about none of that here. No racism at all.”

David: “Hadn’t even though about it actually.”

Guy: “Well, if you head that way (pointing) you’ll go downtown, and if you walk over there you can go to the farmer’s market…”

(After realizing what was going on and what was going to be expected of us, I chimed in) Susan: “Are you expecting us to pay you for giving us a tour? …because we aren’t going to.”

(He begins heading away from us and across the street mumbling under his breath)

Guy: “mumbles…racists…mumbles”

Well, that was interesting. David was glad that I caught on to his intentions, and I was kind of surprised how bold I was. In the end I’m glad that we were up front with him, because I wouldn’t have wanted him to continue “showing us around” and then gotten mad when we didn’t give him anything for it. So we got called racist instead.

I’m sorry, but after walking around Montego Bay and getting asked by every taxi driver that we walked by if we want a ride (to go 5 minutes down the same street), or asked by the ladies who work in the shops if we are doing any shopping and want to check out their store, I decided to be as direct with them as they were being with us. I was beginning to feel like just because we were visiting their country they assumed that we had a ton of money to just throw away on any and everything. Maybe a lot of visitors they see do, but we sure don’t. So if they were going to assume I’m made of money, I was going to assume that they were just trying to hassle me for it. And in this case I was right…and it had nothing to do with race! When are people going to realize this?

When we walked into the downtown area we felt a little like we were back in Kingston, because we stood out so much. There were a couple guys who said hi to us, and welcomed us to Jamaica. But no one else stuck around to give us a tour. Then, when we walked through a central area of downtown, we walked by a mother and her two kids. We smiled at them as we walked by and then heard the mother say in a normal voice: “Look, white people!” So we turned around to look at them, and waved…because they were already waving at us! It was hilarious. I would never have expected that to happen. I think this is a sign that more people need to go visit Jamaica. More people from ALL over the world. And go explore more than just tourist areas…it’s more fun!

On our way back to our hotel, and lunch at Chilito’s again (we love it!) we saw the lady that spoke to me across the street. We were wearing our sunglasses, and had no intention of going shopping, so decided not to acknowledge her unless we absolutely had to, since she was so far away. We heard her calling to us: “Yoo hoo! Hello! Yooooo hooooo!” I guess she couldn’t remember my common Jamaican name. :o)

We also stopped by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, just to check it out as a possibility for dinner. It looked fun. David especially liked to idea of a water slide. We also asked if they could make us milkshakes (since we were craving them after last night’s dinner). We were assured that our dining experience would be fabulous.

After eating at Chilito’s for lunch we spent some time talking with the girls that were working there, and their manager. They were all about our age and very nice. They asked what had brought us to Jamaica, so we told them about the translation project. They were really interested to hear about it. So, while David kept talking with them, I went to get our last book mark from the hotel room. We gave it to them and they had fun trying to read it. The two girls who worked behind the counter were really excited about it, but the manager was a little hesitant. She was more educated than them and even told us that her parents spoke to her in English at home, so she considered English a native language just like Patois. But she did speak Patois with all her friends. She was very open minded about the whole idea in the end though.

Then we went to the beach again. We did some more snorkeling and David found a whole conch shell! “Way cool!” as my mom used said.

Then we laid in the sun a little more and I noticed a bunch of scruffy looking people hanging out along the back of the beach. They were selling marijuana! Not just selling it either, smoking it too. It stunk pretty bad. I also saw a group of American guys, who came off a cruise ship, go and buy some from them. Shame.

Our plan at this point was to head to Margaritaville in time to see the sunset while we ate dinner. So we got ready and headed that way. When we got there the place was almost completely empty. One other couple was there eating. We walked over to the water slide and noticed it was CLOSED!

David’s evening was ruined. He wore his flowery bathing suit for nothing, oh well. Then when we ordered, we were sure to order our milkshakes…and they told us they didn’t have milkshakes! Someone lied to us pretty bad. But, our waiter said he thought he could whip something up for us. They turned out to be delicious and he only charged us for one.

We were able to see as much of the sunset as possible from Montego Bay. I guess going to Negril really is the thing to do to see the sunset in Jamaica. We’ll have to do that on our next trip :o)

We did get to see the cruise ship leaving the bay, and a police boat that was speeding around. We also saw a night snorkeler. I’m sure it would be a lot of fun to do something like that, as long as the police boat doesn’t get too close to you. Seriously, he could have died.

After an extremely filling burger dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Our last night in Jamaica.

Jamaica - Day 7 - Montego Bay

2010-03-26T22:18:00.005+01:00

David is cured! We woke up early and went for a walk along the “hip strip” where our hotel was located. Most of the little shops weren’t even open yet, but that was ok because our goal was for breakfast at Burger King. Apparently, McDonlad’s didn’t try to claim Jamaica because Burger Kings were all we saw on the island. I hadn’t been to a Burger King in a long time, but their breakfast menu, although limited, was just what we were looking for. We ordered to go and decided to keep walking, this time hoping to find a store that sold waterproof sun block. When we first arrived in Kingston we bought the only sun block they had at the grocery store and I didn’t realize that it wasn’t waterproof – that’s not going to work for a redhead on the beach!

We walked the span of the hip strip and finally found the sun block we wanted to buy. It was priced at $15 and David casually said “that’s ridiculous” and the guy sold it to us for $10. We also say the Bobsled Café. Just in case you ever need to watch Cool Runnings while you’re in Jamaica, the Bobsled Café plays it on a loop for all of its customers. Then we grabbed our bathing suits and headed to the beach.

There isn’t as much beach space (sandy shores) as most people who have ever been to Florida would expect from the beaches in Jamaica. Plus, you have to pay to go to them. We were staying at Doctor’s Cave Beach Hotel, so we thought we would get to go to the beach for free, but apparently they are two separate entities. So we went to Doctor’s Cave beach anyway – the nicest beach in Montego Bay – and really enjoyed it.

It was a really nice beach too. The sand was really clean and the water was beautiful.

We spent a good amount of time snorkeling, just enough time, in fact, to allow my sun block to slowly fade away in the water. Anyway, the snorkeling was a lot better than I was expecting. There were a bunch of reefy areas that had a bunch of fish! We saw all kinds of different colored and shaped fish, as well as some rays (don’t know what kind), and little crabs, and coral, conch shells that were moving and the paths they left behind, a huge school of little tiny fish, and a fish that was very defensive of its home! It tried to bite my mask. Seriously, it swam right up to my face as if to say “Hey! This is my home big thing with legs that is trying to swim! Go away!” I’ll admit, I backed away from him! Too bad I didn’t have an underwater camera.

After snorkeling we sat in the sun reading until we got too hot that we couldn’t stand it anymore. Then we had to get in the water again. I realized how red I was getting so once we got out of the water again I moved my towel under a tree and sat there instead.

Then we got hungry for lunch and went to the Chilito’s again so David could try it. After lunch we decided to spend some time out of the sun. Then we went back to the beach and walked down one pier that had some crabs walking around on it. Apparently crabs aren’t really held back by gravity because they walked underneath the pier, upside down because they were afraid of us.

Our intention was to stay at the beach until sunset, but it was cloudy and we wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway. Instead, we went to dinner. We went to a place recommended to us by Charlie called The Pelican. It was good, we had Conch Soup (similar to clam chowder), Sweet & Sour Chicken (David), and Steamed Fish (Susan) that I was hoping would be as good as Lloyd’s from the other day, but it wasn’t. :o( We also had a milkshake! Yum.

Jamaica - Day 6 - Montego Bay

2010-03-25T23:49:00.003+01:00

David woke up this morning feeling better. So we ate and got ready to go on a canopy tour via zip line.

On our bus ride to the tour we met a couple, James and Gabrielle, who would be getting married the next day! They’re eloping in Jamaica – how exciting!

It turns out that it was really great to meet them because by the time we got to the site for our tour David wasn’t feeling well again. He ended up making the decision to stay behind to spare everyone else from having to witness any sickness that might occur.

(David, suited up, but just about to decide to stay behind.)

So, I went without him and brought the camera so he could see what he was missing. He laid on a picnic table bench the entire time we were gone…besides his side trips to the restroom.

It was a lot of fun and I know David would have loved it!

The dense trees of the forest were really beautiful especially when the sun shined through. Our tour guides were nice too and took great care of me since they knew David stayed behind.

When we returned to the beginning of the tour I found David feeling sickly and waited for our driver to get there. David said the bus ride back actually made him feel better. After dropping off the other passengers and wishing James and Gabrielle all the best for their big day we had the driver help us relocate to our new hotel.

And we loved it! Our room was pretty large and very colorful and much cleaner than the other one.

And it was directly across the street from the beach – hooray for walking! The hotel was laid out like a resort too. We had a balcony and there were walkways that connected all the different branches of rooms. Plus there were palm trees everywhere, and that’s always nice. The only problem was that David felt terrible.

We didn’t really eat lunch after the canopy tour so after a little nap I was starving for something to eat. David didn't feel like going anywhere but didn't want me going out alone either so we went to a restaurant that we saw when we first got there that was just around the corner; Chilitos. It is a Jamexican restaurant! :o) It was great! But, poor David, didn’t get anything for fear he would just feel worse. I ate some nachos and jerk shrimp tacos (and saved him one for the next day) and we went back to the hotel.

David was still feeling bad enough that he was concerned about the arrangement we made for our trip on Friday (to Mayfield Falls and Negril). So, I called Charlie and told him we would have to cancel. It was sad, and I felt bad that he would be losing our business. Then David just wanted to lay in bed so I decided to find the hot tub.

I brought my book and my towel and spent the next few hours in the hot tub. I don’t think you are supposed to stay in there that long, but it was great, and I got out every so often. I read a few chapters and then spent the rest of the time watching the anoles that were all around me! They were probably there the whole time and I hadn’t even realized it. They were very entertaining though.

I felt like I was a videographer for the Discovery channel…hiding in the hot tub watching the creatures in their natural habitat. There were five of them in particular that I was watching. It was like an anole soap opera… Two males were trying to attract one female. They were displaying the colorful skin below their jaws to try to lure her to them. She wasn’t easy to impress! At the same time there was another female who was noticing what was going on while a different male approached her. Once she realized he was there she turned her attention toward him instead. Eventually the first female picked her match and the other male ran off. By then it was time for me to go back and check to see if David was still alive and go to bed.

Jamaica - Day 5 - Kingston/Montego Bay

2010-03-24T22:20:00.034+01:00

We awoke at 5am to make sure we had packed everything and could meet our taxi driver by 5:30am. Our Knutsford Express bus was scheduled to leave at 6am for Montego Bay.

Something I have forgotten to mention about Kingston… Since the entire country is on a small island everything is a lot closer together than most of us are used to. While in Kingston you can see the Caribbean as well as the Blue Mountains (to the east). Plus, we aren’t used to seeing mountains all the time, so for us it was extra neat. This early in the morning that mountains looked so beautiful from the city.

Everything went smoothly on our bus ride. We got to see more of the city as we drove out of it and up through the edge of the mountains. David read his second book of the three he brought, and I read some of the one that I brought and then fell asleep. The roads were bumpier than we were used to and our entire ride the bus driver had music playing - often there was an accompanying music video.

Our driver was taking a path north toward the city of Ocho Rios, where we made a first stop, and then continued west to Montego Bay.

Map Key:

Green dot = Kingston

Dark Blue dot = Port Royal

Yellow dot = May Pen (where we went to church on Sunday)

Teal dot = Ocho Rios

Red dot = Montego Bay

We arrived in Montego Bay and were bombarded by taxi drivers who wanted to get our business. I ignored them because I wanted to get our suitcases while David found one who could give us a ride to our hotel. He charged us probably twice as much as he should have, but at the time we really didn’t know any better. Then we got to our hotel, the Grandiosa. On arriving both David and myself were a little disappointed. The hotel was NOT close to a beach, which Expedia said it was, and after seeing a room found that it wasn’t the cleanest place either. The doors didn’t have seals around them so the little ants could come right inside! BUT, the staff at the hotel was excellent. We told them our disappointment about distance from the beach and they helped us arrange new reservations at a hotel that was closer. Although, we did keep our reservation there for the evening because that afternoon and the next morning we had two “adventure tours” scheduled to pick us up from that location.

While making all of our reservation changes David was able to talk to some of the receptionists about the translation project. She had asked him what brought us to Jamaica and then was really interested to hear about everything. The translators had given us two bookmarks and brochures to take home as souvenirs but we felt like we should give them away if we could while were still in Jamaica. So David gave one to the ladies at the hotel.

For lunch we ate some leftover jerk chicken and pork and then started getting ready for our first adventure tour. Our bus driver’s name was Charlie and we made one other stop to pick up passengers before heading to the location of our Horse Ride & Swim tour. We had been told that it might rain today, but we were convinced that it wouldn’t. Then, when we got there it all began. It rained A LOT, but the tour continued! First, after a short briefing, they matched everyone up with a horse. I got to ride Scrumby, and David had Red Man (the horse I thought I would get because our hair matched!). Then we went on a trail ride up through some hills. The terrain was pretty rough and because it was raining the horses would occasionally slide on the mud as they were walking. I felt kind of bad for them! Plus, while we were riding the horses were extremely close together. They didn’t have any personal space. I kept trying to slow Scrumby down so that he could have a view other that the horses backside in front of him, but he was used to being that close that he didn’t want to listen to me.

We had a very friendly guide who would point out different plants for us and make sure that we stayed in line. We were also riding with a couple who used to live in France (the husband was French, the wife was American). Both of them lacked confidence while riding so as soon as we found out we had France in common with them David was able to talk to the wife enough to keep her from thinking about riding.

After our trail ride we dismounted and had a break before the swimming part of the tour. They took off the saddle and left a cushion on the horses’ backs. Then they rematched everyone up with a horse (typically a different one than the first time) for the swimming experience. They took a smaller group of riders into the water. The horses bodies (below the neck) were submerged in the water so we were getting wet almost all the way up to our waists. It was really neat, but didn’t last nearly as long as I had expected, and the horses seemed to have to work so hard to move through the water. I felt sorry for them again. We didn’t bring our camera and we weren’t willing to buy any of the pictures that they took for us because they were too expensive, but it was really neat. It stopped raining as we were finishing our trail ride too, so after the swim we were able to dry off and stay dry.

On our ride back to the hotel we decided we really like Charlie (our driver). So we made arrangements to have him drive us all the way to Negril (far west coast) on Friday to see Mayfield Falls and a popular restaurant called Rick’s Café to watch the sunset.

Then we ate dinner at the hotel. David had a delicious coconut pasta:

And I had a chicken breast stuffed with callaloo and ackee (the fruit of Jamaica):

We went to bed early because our second adventure tour was the next morning. In the middle of the night David began to feel sick…

Jamaica - Day 4 - Kingston

2010-03-23T20:23:00.005+01:00

We “slept in” this morning and had the continental breakfast at the hotel. Jodi picked us up at 9:30am. We headed to a park that is inside the city; Emancipation Park. It is one of the only things to really “site see” in the city, other than the Bob Marley Museum and Port Royal. Anyway, the plan for this morning was to continue doing what we did yesterday, go talk to some people about the translation project. Again, we had some very interesting interactions.

Right when we got out of the car we bumped into two men that Lloyd knew. One was an old classmate and the other was the husband of one of Lloyd’s former teachers, who also is a principle and is very well educated. He expressed a lot of doubt about written Patois because some people pronounce the same words in slightly different ways.

So, Lloyd and Jodi explained how the most common usage of the word would be the one chosen as the standard. They also pointed that although it is pronounced a little different everyone still understands what is being said…similar to the many accents you hear in English. He understood their points but still wasn’t completely sold on the idea. We couldn’t talk with him long because he was showing some visiting family around. Lloyd’s other friend couldn’t stick around either, but before he left we found out that he had been to many places in the US before including Atlanta where his sister is a nurse at Emory…”It’s a small world after all…”

We went into the park, saw a small camera crew filming a commercial, and looked for some people to talk to. Lloyd spotted a group of students who were with their teacher and asked for her permission to talk with them. When she found out what we wanted to talk about she absolutely refused to let them.

She called the translation project nonsense and a stupid idea. We tried to reason with her and convince her that it would be beneficial for the country, but she refused to believe that Patois would be anything but bad and confusing for her students. She said “they struggle with English enough as it is, it would just make their English worse!” I even tried to make a comparison for her with me trying to learn French without have English to help me understand what I needed to learn and I think she got my point, but still refused to consider it a good idea. The stigma of Patois was just too much of a barrier for her.

Next we approached two women. One, when finding out we wanted to talk about the Bible didn’t want to on that premise alone. I think she mentioned something about “religion” not working for her and things never went her way, so we talked with the lady sitting next to her instead and she was still able to listen. This other woman, as well, was skeptical at first, also because she was well educated and wanting to raise her five year old son to speak English (and that was her focus). Once Lloyd convinced her of the benefits of raising her son to be bilingual she began to listen to Lloyd while looking at him rather than just looking around him. You could see her interest growing.

Then one of her friends came to sit next to her and joined the conversation. She seemed to like the idea a lot. We gave them the bookmarks and the tried to read the Lord’s Prayer and struggled because they were trying to pronounce Patois words with English pronunciation rules. But, after we encouraged them to think about how they speak Patois while they read it they read much better.

Speaking of the Lord’s Prayer in Patois, would you like to see what it looks like? Try to read it too: (think about a Jamaican accent while you read…and if you need help with that go watch the movie “Cool Runnings” and come back and try again)

“Wi Faada we iina evn,

Mek piipl av nof respek fi yu an yu niem.

Mek di taim kom wen yu ruul iina evri wie.

Laad, mek we yu waahn apm pan ort,

Jos laik ou a way u waahn fi apm iina evn apm.

Evri die, gi wi di fuud we wi niid.

Paadn wi fi aal a di rang we wi du,

Siem laik ou wi paadn dem we du wi rang.

No mek we fies notn we wi kaaz wi fi sin,

An protek wi fram di Wikid Wan”

(Matyu 6: 9-13)

Anyway, back to the ladies we were talking about…

Before we went to talk to some other people Lloyd offered to pray with the first woman who said she wasn’t really interested in talking, and she was willing.

Our last conversation was with a girl who was sitting in the park studying. From the very beginning of our conversation she was supportive and in favor of the Bible being translated to her native language. She easily saw the benefits and even pointed some of them out on her own. It was encouraging to end by talking with her. She even allowed us to video tape her talking about why she thought the project was a great idea. It was a little windy in the park though, so we’ll have to see if we can eliminate some of the noisy wind.

The rest of our day was spent being tourists…with great tour guides! First we stopped to grab a snack. A Jamaican treat called a patty.

It looks a lot like a taco, but the inside is just meat (sometimes with cheese) and it is wrapped up in coco bread (which is just yummy delicioud doughy bread). Then we drove out to Port Royal (the same one that is referred to in The Pirates of the Caribbean movie). Did you know that a lot of Port Royal is now underwater because of an earthquake? What was left was neat though. There was a base that was designed to look like a ship if you were approaching by water in the distance. This way, when an enemy ship was headed toward you, by the time they realized that you were really on land and had an entire army behind the walls it was too late to get away!

Currently, there is a coast guard based there and the rest of the area has been preserved as it was. The people who live there even live as though they were living in a different era than the rest of Jamaica.

After a tour and some looking around, we drove out to Portmore, where Lloyd lives and ate at a jerk restaurant; Sundayz by the Bay.

We tried jerk chicken, jerk pork, and steamed fish that was cooked with okra and other veggies. It was all very good, but Lloyd’s steamed fish was really really good. There were also some puppies around the restaurant that were extremely cute and playful and were lucky to get some of our leftovers.

Then we went to Lloyd’s house, to drop him off. We also used the time to film Jodi and Lloyd telling us a little about their experience getting involved with the translation project. Then we said our goodbyes and Jodi took us to a place to shop for souvenirs. We bought some postcards and then returned to our hotel. After saying goodbye to Jodi we went to arrange our checkout for the next morning.

Then David went swimming, I started writing, and we watched LOST before bed. That show is ridiculous…if you’ve never watched it, don’t start now! …or else I will have to recommend a book to you called “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper. Well, I recommend the book either way!

Jamaica - Day 3 - Kingston

2010-03-22T18:27:00.073+01:00

I wish I could just upload my thoughts directly to the page right now because today has been so awesome that I know my hand will hurt from writing when I’m done. (It’s a long one so get ready!)

Our first planned event for the day was to go to Meadowbrook High School to participate in their morning devotion time. The Bible Society translation team was scheduled to come and speak to them about the translation project. When we arrived they were beginning to sing some praise songs…songs that most of them probably knew from going to church, because most Jamaicans do go to church. It is a huge part of their culture in general. It’s very obvious when you drive around town, because there is a church every two buildings or so.

After songs, Jodi, Lloyd, and Bertram were invited on stage to make their presentation. Jodi started by briefly talking about translating the Bible into their native Patois language, followed by reading Luke 5:17-26 in Patois. Lloyd followed with a shortened version of his Sunday sermon. The students standing on the edges of the crowd (where we were) were definitely more easily distracted, as any high schooler might be, and didn’t pay attention as much as those in the center and front. For the most part, it seemed like they were very receptive to what they were hearing, and I think the translation team would agree that the majority of the students would probably agree that what they were hearing, in Patois, was easier for them to understand than what they usually hear in English, in church. Then, Bertram closed their devotion time with a prayer in Patois. Afterwards we stayed a while and spoke with the Headboy of the school who was very enthusiastic about the project.

Next, we headed to the Bible Society of the West Indies headquarters, where the translators work. We sat in on their morning meeting where they discuss their goals, progress, and/or lack of progress, as well as upcoming meetings, etc. We met the big boss (Secretary General), Rev. Courtney Stewart, who led the meeting. Think about James Earl Jones, and the big guy from The Green Mile…that is the kind of voice that Rev. Stewart has. We also really liked the sign on his office door.

Then we got a very in depth tour and explanation of the facility and how the translators work. We got to see the software they use and their reference books, and everything that is necessary for translating accurately.

(David learning about the translation software)

Then Bertram showed us how he has divided up the Bible for the three translators, the method in which they translate (1^st-4^th drafts and exegete revisions, etc.) and then how he tracks their progress to make sure they are using their funding wisely, efficiently, and effectively.

Then we went to have lunch across the street at an Indian restaurant (Bombay) where we had curry chicken, curry goat, and roti sandwiches. It was delicious, very filling, and cheap!

We returned to the BSWI and got to observe some of the group review time. The way it works is that one translator will send what they have translated to the other translators and they will go through the scripture verse by verse, and often word by word, to make sure that the translation is accurate and would be understood properly with the words used in Patois.

Today, a portion of Jodi’s scripture was being discussed. Beginning in Galatians 1:1, Jodi read in Patois and Lloyd and Bertram commented and asked questions when necessary. Their big debate today was about the best way to translate the word “brothers” or “brethren” in this context. Since Patois is a gender neutral language they just wanted to make sure that the way they translated it was accurate to the way Paul wrote it. …who, specifically, was being included in the word “brothers” in this letter… They considered the Greek, the English translations, the context of the letter and previous letters Paul wrote and in the end they decided to leave a note for the exegetes to add their opinion before they make an official decision. This kind of debate happened often within the first 2 verses of Galatians to ensure the accuracy and understandability of the Patois translation, as it has been done in the past for other translations. These translators are picking apart scripture word by word for the entire Bible. They know this word so well! How often do most people thoroughly study and think about God’s word in this way? Well, if it’s not our job, and we don’t have our workday set aside for it, then most of us probably haven’t. We’ve placed our priorities elsewhere and we’re missing out!

We left the Bible Society and headed to a local transportation center and at this hour, most students were awaiting their busses home for the day. Our goal now, was to take some of the already translated portions of scripture out in public to spread word about the project, so that people can hear it, and to make sure that what they were hearing was clear and understandable. The range of reactions we saw was very interesting.

We started by speaking to a group of three high school aged girls. Lloyd started most of our conversations by asking them if they spoke Patois – you may wonder why this would be a good conversation starter, but if you remember what I wrote in my first post about Jamaica and the opinion of Patois vs. English it might make a little more sense. In about 50% of the interactions when Lloyd would ask if they spoke Patois, they would say “no.” The other half would say “yes, but only with friends” or something similar. So, in this first group of girls there was one girl who very quickly, and with a negative tone, said “No, I don’t speak it” while one of her friends said “yeah, I do.” From there, Lloyd’s strategy, to prove to the resistant girl that she did speak Patois was to question her in Patois, and once she responded she would prove to us and herself that she does speak it. That helped soften her view on things, but it also helped that she had a friend that was interested in talking with us.

Soon into our conversation with them, three other girls jumped into our circle (probably just to see what was going on – since David and I stuck out amongst all the Jamaicans) and they immediately said that they spoke Patois and were interested in trying to read some of it. Lloyd had his copy of the book of Luke (Di Luuk Buk) and he read some of it for them just so they could hear and to see if they thought it was easy to understand. They said it was. But, at that point, the resistant girl said that it would be a waste of time to translate the Bible to Patois since they already read the Bible in English, plus she wouldn’t even know how to read it, so it would be a waste of time and money. This is when Lloyd asked them to try to read the cover of his book, and after that we gave them each a bookmark that had the Lord’s Prayer (Di Laad Prieya) on it. They all tried reading it together, and with a little guidance they did very well. Eventually the resistant girl warmed up to the idea of the translation and said “Yeah, I could read that.”

Next we went into a bakery, Swirl, where it wasn’t as noisy and where Jodi knew someone who worked there. She gave us permission to speak to the customers. There were a few younger girls and a lady who began talking with Lloyd. One of the girls was open to talking with Lloyd without any reservations but the lady began by saying that she didn’t know Patois at all. Lloyd used his “talking to her in Patois” technique and was able to get her to respond. But she was still extremely negative about the language.

Then Lloyd asked her what language Jamaicans speak and she said “English,”

Lloyd: “But you speak Patois too, right? You speak two languages.”

Lady: “Oh, two languages…yeah I guess so.”

Convincing her that she was bilingual made a big impact on her willingness to hear about the translation project. Then Lloyd read to them from Luke and we gave them each a Lord’s Prayer bookmark and encouraged them to try to read it. A group of young boys approached looking over my shoulder (…I must be short because they weren’t that old) to see the brochures I had, so I gave them one plus a bookmark and they tried to read along as well. At this point, the lady in the corner began reading too and when the younger kids struggled with a word she could figure out she began to help them! It was a pretty big transformation within the course of about 10 minutes. These people, once they see they can read it, really desire the acceptance of their own language! And how cool that it begins with them reading their own language for the first time from the word of God. That is how people used to learn how to read English in our country…from the Bible in Sunday school classes.

Then we stopped to talk with a very well dressed man who was sitting next to a much poorer looking woman (I think they were talking prior to our arrival, but I’m not sure). The woman never said very much, although she was very smiley.

From the very beginning the man was incredibly excited about the idea of the project and when he read the Lord’s Prayer he read it very loud and with enthusiasm. I think it was because he was just thrilled to be able to read it! It was great. He asked for details about the release date of the New Testament and how to find out more in general.

Our next encounter was, by far the most interesting. We walked up some stairs right to a woman who was trying to hand us something. (I will leave out the belief group she was representing) I bet she didn’t think that someone would be trying to give her something while she was out. She gave the defensive “No.” to Lloyd’s questioning her ability to speak Patois. Then, she thought that David and I were walking around with these Jamaicans because we were interested in learning to speak Patois (the thought had crossed my mind). We finally got to the point where Lloyd mentioned the translation project and she was very skeptical and seemed greatly protective of the King James Version of the Bible. She wanted to know about how the translation was being done, mostly if it was being translated from the original scriptures in Greek. This reassured her a little so that our conversation could continue. Lloyd was then able to get her to try to read a little of the text of Luke. I’m not really sure how it happened but quickly the conversation switched to her view of God only having one name, and then about the church that she goes to, and Jodi and Lloyd tried their darndest to get her to see that what she was saying was wrong, but she was very defensive of the false truths she has been taught over the years even if they could be easily disproved. Then Lloyd asked her if what she learned from God’s word wasn’t what she currently knew to be true, if she would be willing to change what she believes, but she refused to believe that that was even a possibility! She then said boldly that she would live and die believing what she believes, basically, because she wanted it to be that way. I understand that it is hard to change what you believe especially, for example, if your entire life you were told that grass is yellow and one day someone told you that it is really green and whoever had been teaching you had been teaching you incorrectly. I also understand that pride was probably a big part of her statement. But at least she was able to hear what we had to say and whether she changed her mind right then and there in front of us doesn’t matter, but now she can at least think about it and take the time to make a final decision. I can pretty much guarantee that she thought about that conversation for the rest of the day, if not longer, just because of how worked up it got her. We still left her a brochure and bookmark. As we walked away I noticed her looking at the brochure intently and then stopping someone to either give it away to them or to talk to them about it. At least it didn’t go straight to the trash can!

We ended the day in conversation with a young adult male who also had the same kind of support for the project as the well dressed man did. It was great to see the Jamaicans who recognized the need to have scripture available in a language that they all could understand better, but also to agree that there are many Jamaicans in the country who don’t know any English at all. When they all start accepting this I think the mindset of the country will change.

By the time we finished “field testing” we realized that it was about an hour later than we had planned, so it was time to head back. Jodi took us back to our hotel, we gave her an Awakening CD as a thank you gift for driving us everywhere and then went to sit by the pool so I could begin recording our events for the day, David could swim, and we could simply be outside to enjoy the beautiful climate. The whole time I wanted to speak to the Jamaicans at the pool about the translation project. I was thinking that we should ask Jodi and Lloyd to teach us something so that when we go to Montego Bay we could at least have a foot in the door to talk to some of them.

For dinner we ate at our hotel. I had a filet mignon a la Four Seasons that was phenomenal and David had a pepper soup and BBQ chicken that had a great flavor as well.

We only have one more day with our new friends in Kingston. It has been so great to use this opportunity to meet them. Our giving has so much more meaning now than it did before.

Jamaica - Day 2 - Kingston

2010-03-21T21:22:00.002+01:00

We woke up nice and early today to leave by 7:15am. The continental breakfast started at 7am, but because it was serve a la carte we didn’t have time to sit down and eat anything. We met Jodianne (translator, linguist) in the lobby and headed out for the day!

(breakfast)

Our first stop was at a gas station, for gas of course, but also so that we could use an ATM there and grab something to eat as breakfast. Then we continued our drive to Portmore to pick up Lloyd (translator, pastor), and off to May Pen. May Pen is a central Jamaican city where Lloyd helped start a church. This Sunday, the plan was to go back to visit and to share with them about the translation project.

We met Reverend Reid, the current pastor of the church, and learned a little about the church and his ministry there. The service began with a time of praise and worship that was really cool. There wasn’t the typical mundane clapping that you’d find in a lot of churches here, but all kinds of different rhythms that worked together to create a new style to the songs that I’ve never heard before. We did know some of the songs and really enjoyed how the few people there were singing loud and confidently so that it sounded like the church was packed.

Then Jodi read Luke 5:17-26 in Patois and Lloyd followed with an entire message in Patois. This was the first time the people in this church have ever heard a sermon entirely in their own native language. It was neat to see and hear their reactions. It was obvious they understood everything they heard. And when I think about the reactions they may have had when listening to the King James Version of the bible, which they usually use…!!! It’s hard for me, as a native English speaker to understand the KJV! How nice it must have been to understand so easily for once.

It was hard for us to follow but since we knew what passage he was preaching from we were able to listen for similar words and were able to catch a lot of the points he was making. It was neat! Afterwards, Lloyd wanted to set aside a time for questions…questions about the passage or questions about the translation project. All the questions ended up about the project. The biggest concern was that they didn’t think they would be able to read the patios. So, Lloyd invited one of the ladies to try to read some of it. It took her a minute to switch her thinking from reading English to reading Patois, but before long she was reading her own native language for the first time! As more questions were answered interest continued to grow and no one seemed opposed to the idea of having a bible in their own language. Then they asked about the completion date for the project so they knew when they would be able to have a copy.

At first we didn’t really understand why there was so much hesitation to having to bible translated to the Jamaican language…from the Jamaicans! But, as I explained in the beginning of yesterday’s post, Patois has been given a bad name in the eyes of most Jamaicans and this project is going to help correct that view.

After church we enjoyed a delicious lunch/dinner at Lloyd’s home with his wife and Jodianne. We tried some traditional Jamaican dishes provided by a member of his church. He also gave us a tour of the new church that is being built/expanded behind his house. He is a very busy man!

(Lloyd, Marion, Jodi, Susan, David)

That evening we went to a local play called “Easy Street.” The play was a comedy about life in the “slums” of Jamaica. The comedians spoke mostly in Patois, so we were often lost in the plot, but got the general idea and also picked up on a lot of the comedy.

After the play we stood outside for a while, talking. Three young kids ran up to us and starred, and then ran away! It was funny. It was obvious that it was because we were the only white people around…we really stuck out. Up until this point we hadn’t seen any other white people in Kingston. I don’t like sticking out, but we were having a great time, so we didn’t care.

Jamaica - Day 1 - Kingston

2010-03-20T18:30:00.006+01:00

Some background information you need to know before you read about our experiences.

Jamaicans grow up speaking a language native to Jamaica. It can be called many things such as Creole, but they refer to it mostly as Patois (Patwa). Most Jamaicans have been taught over the years that Patois is not a language in its own right but a “gutter English”, a slang used by the uneducated and poor in society. In school they are taught English, but they don’t learn English by way of their native language (in the same way that we would use our knowledge of English and English vocabulary to learn Spanish, or any other foreign language). Jamaican Patois is spoken by everyone, but no one really knows how to write it, and therefore they don’t know how to read it. Although Jamaicans learn English, there is still a lot about the language that they don’t fully understand because it isn’t their native language.

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After arriving in Kingston it was finally our turn to approach the passport control agent. He did his typical job of asking us why we were coming to Jamaica. We told him about OneVerse and the translation project and he began asking a lot of questions. David did a good job of answering him while being sure to tell him about salvation through Christ, etc. The whole time I am thinking to myself “Wow, this guy is really interested in hearing about Jesus…that’s great!” He slowly continued working on our paperwork so that he could keep talking to us, and before long he asked us if we would be willing to die for what we believe because he believes that that is the true test of how much you really believe in something. He kept emphasizing very specific things about Christianity until I finally asked him, “Are you a Christian?” His response was immediate and a very enthusiastic “Of course!” It was funny, because the whole time we thought we were ministering to him while in reality he was testing us. As I think back I guess it makes sense that he would be “screening” people who claim to be Christians that are entering his country, especially if he is one. Youth Groups and Mission Teams travel to places like Jamaica all the time (and we saw multiple groups on our plane alone), and this guy just wanted to make sure that if you were coming in the name of Jesus you weren’t just messing around. It was great. Heaven is going to be so diverse.

We headed towards the exit to look for our driver. I’ve never had anyone pick me up from an airport before holding a sign with my name on it. And this would have been the first time it would have happened too if our plane hadn’t been late and our driver hadn’t left and then come back! But, when he did come back he had the sign! But I think it was too easy to pick us out of the crowd. He knew he was supposed to be driving the white people. Errol was the drivers name and he was very friendly. We had a great experience driving on the left hand side of the road. We drove all the way around the Kingston Harbor into downtown Kingston to our hotel, Hotel Four Seasons. We arrived at the hotel too early to get our room so we grabbed our sunglasses and started walking to find an ATM, sun block, and Gatorade. Walking around the streets of the city we really stuck out. We didn’t see anyone that looked like a foreigner. But, we were pleased to see that we didn’t get bothered too much. We did have one guy follow us, and when we stopped at the bank to try to use the ATM he slowed down so that when we were done he could continue following us, but we were on to him, so he wasn’t going to fool us! I think our other experiences traveling, especially to big cities, has us prepared fairly well.

(our hotel room)

We went back to the hotel having found sun block and Gatorade, but no open ATMs or banks. Using our credit card at the grocery store was quite the hassle since we had to carry our receipt from the cashier to the lady with the credit card machine and then back again, but at least we were able to use it. We flipped through some TV channels and then decided to go to the pool because we were so hot!

At the pool we met a little girl named Leanna, her Mom, and her Mom’s boyfriend, Shawn (he was from the Bahamas). Leanna, 8 yrs, was so grateful that we were willing to play with her and I think her Mom was just as happy that we were willing to occupy her daughter for a little while to give her a break. We had a great time helping her gain confidence to swim the length of the pool and taught her games like marco polo. David even held her up in the air and made her feel like a cheerleader. Eventually Shawn joined us in the pool, after much begging on Leanna’s part, and we were able to talk to him about the translation project. He was glad to hear that the project wasn’t affiliated with any denomination and thought it was a good idea that the people would be able to have the bible written in a language that they could better understand. Leanna, a resident of Kingston, told us that she went to church and really likes it. She also insisted that instead of going to May Pen (central Jamaica) as set in our schedule, we just go to church with her the next day so that afterwards we could play in the pool with her again. She also told us that at her school she is in a class with 40 other students and they have one teacher. That’s a lot! Math is her favorite subject and one day she dreams of living in America. She wants a house with 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 pools, a Jacuzzi, and a guest room. Her plan to pay for it all is to be a lawyer. She also has an aunt that lives in Florida named Susan. David and Shawn then continued talking about engineering.

The other thing I learned from our first day in Jamaica is that “Yah mon”, and “No problem!” are used just as much as you see in the movies. For some reason it still took me by surprise…just like “voila!” did when I heard it in France. I wonder what catch phrases Americans are known for these days…

(another picture of our hotel since everyone thinks I don't have enough pictures up yet. We didn't take a lot of pictures the first day!)

Carepages.com

2009-06-24T15:54:00.002+02:00

For those of you who are interested in following the progress of my Mom that have been using the link in my last post, you are probably wondering why there hasn't been an update since the 13th of June. That's just because that link only takes you to the update that was posted on that day.

If you would like to receive emails when an update is posted (although you can opt out of them if you'd like) then just go to carepages.com, type in your email address and a password, then search for the carepage for "MaryKommeth" (no spaces).

There are also pictures on the page of her and the torched car.

But briefly...

She is still not awake, but stable, and making slow signs of progress which is normal. We visit her everyday and talk to her and move her limbs around and have started playing some music that she likes.

(busy-ness) x (1,000,000) = me

2009-06-14T23:10:00.003+02:00

(

Read the update now: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/marykommeth/updates/2194805?client_code=default&ipc=mur)

My Mom was in a car accicent...

This is an update from my Dad. I'm making plans to go home.

-----------------------------------------------

June 11 news with a June 12 update.

June 11, 2009, Thursday afternoon, my wife, Mary, was returning home after a morning spent at a summer camp in Newton Co. for handicapped kids - she was assisting with art projects with these children and recording some of the activities in photographs.

She drove her car off the road, Brown Bridge Road, not far from home. I don't yet know exactly what caused her to do this.
She is currently in an Intensive Care Unit at Atlanta Medical Center which is one of the 2 large trauma centers for the Atlanta region.

She is not conscious, having head trauma, intracranial bleeding and she is intubated, breathing on her own but being assisted w/a ventilator.

Neurosurgery has put a pressure monitor in her skull to be able to monitor any swelling of the brain which if not quickly treated can cause severe complications.

In the ICU where she is, their goal is to minimize stimulation for her since any stimulation causes the pressure on the brain to increase naturally.

Mary has a fracture in the occipital bone in the back of the skull, a fractured clavicle (collarbone) on the right side, multiple fractured ribs, a punctured lung, cut spleen and a fractured patella (kneecap) on the right knee. Also scrapes and bruises.

I know this doesn't sound real but it is.

At this point, the best that the Doctors can tell me is that we will take it one day at a time. The 1st 48 hours are the critical ones for a head trauma patient.
She has good/steady vital signs including blood pressure. She is able to move both arms and legs on her own.

I believe that no matter what happens, God is in control & I'll accept what His will is for me and my wife.

I ask that you pray for God’s healing touch for Mary.

I’ll update again when I can & I hope to be able to use CarePages (www.CarePages.com) as a way to provide updates that will be easy for all to access.
I have made contact with Maria/Rocky and Susan/David so the girls know about their Mom.

Update on June 12.

At the end of the day it is hard for me to realize that this only represents a little more than 24 hours since Mary had her accident.
How quickly life can change.
Since the first 48 hours are critical for a head trauma patient I have to be patient and continue to trust and pray.

Mary is still unconscious.
This "coma" is the result of the trauma, not the result of any medication.
She has been able to move her arms and legs by herself - it reminds me of how one shifts position while sleeping. I did see a grimace on her face when the nurse changed the cervical collar around her neck. These are good signs. The intracranial pressure has been good. Her vital signs including blood pressure continue to be stable. She was administered 3 units of whole blood and has begun enteral feeding - liquid nutrition through a tube.

Mary was taken for another CT scan. I don't know the results because I didn't speak with any doctor on Friday. I understand from the nurses that it will be routine for Mary to have CT scans - probably on a daily basis - so that the condition of her brain can be frequently evaluated.

So, even though I'm reporting all of these things, it really come down to the fact that not a lot has changed for Mary after 24 hours.

I want to sincerely thank all of those who have called/emailed wishing their best thoughts and offering of prayers. To those who have visited at the hospital I also offer my gratitude for your love and friendship.

The offerings of support and "if there is anything your need please let me know..." have been wonderful. These are true expressions of kindness compassion and support. I wish I could take each of you up on those offers...that there really was something physical or material that I could ask you to do for me or for Mary. That would be easy for me and you.
But in a situation like this there really isn't that much that I need your help with right now (please believe me - I WILL ask for help whenever I think of a need.)
There really isn't anything you can do for Mary right now.

The harder thing for me to ask you for is your prayers. We use the words so easily - I'm guilty of this - but we minimize the time for actually doing this. So my harder request is for you to really think about those words, what they mean and then to find the time to make them true in your life.
Right now, and as we slowly travel the long difficult road that lies ahead, that is how all of you can help Mary and me the most.
Sincerely,
John Kommeth

-----------------------------------------------

Spa-ahhhh

2009-06-07T21:17:00.004+02:00

It decided to rain this weekend so David and I decided to show Rocky and Maria what we did to celebrate our anniversary last year... and it was a great success.

David and I went to a place called Thermopolis (in a nearby city, Amneville), but we took them to a place called Villa Pompei that is just up the street from Thermopolis. This is what the outside looks like.

We didn't bring our cameras, so we don't have any pictures of the inside, but don't worry, we plan to go back! Villa Pompei is twice as expensive as Thermopolis, but we have decided that when we go back we'll go to Thermopolis insead. It was actually bigger (with more pools/hot tubs, and jets, and even a "waterfall"). So, we aren't really sure why there is such a big price difference...but it was greeeat.

After that, we came home and made some Cincinnati Chili for lunch and went outside to find the flamenco dancers that were supposed to be at Place St. Louis. They weren't there. We think that's because of the rain earlier in the day...it was canceled. Then we walked around to see if we could find anything else going on (since this is supposed to be some kind of "music weekend"). Instead, we ended up at the Museum of Metz.

Every first Sunday of the month (until September, so they said) the museum is free. So we went! We've been before but never through the entire thing. It's pretty enormous. We found a nice picture of Metz from the 17th century. For those of you who have visited us, can you find where we live? Most of the pedestrian streets of the city are still the same...and of course the cathedral is in the same place (hint! good reference point).

We also liked this painting of Metz. Notice the clouds...not much has changed, huh?

It's neat to see how the city has grown and changed, but also what has stayed the same. The majority of the stuff in the museum was from Metz throughout the years...found, or painted, etc, but they did have some things borrowed from other museums temporarily. It's like a Louvre for Metz. Seriously, it's big.

That was our weekend!

Stay tuned! In the near future you'll be seeing things about Italy... Austria (hopefully!)... and more spa-ing!

busy-ness

2009-05-28T20:04:00.004+02:00

We've had visitors...

(Jay & Amy)

We've made some awesome food...

(Mongolian Beef)

I've practiced my dessert skills...

(chocolate cup cakes with almond icing - and flowers!)

I'm SO close to finishing the stitching on my Christmas stocking...

(this means I get to start David's soon!)

I've given tours of Metz...traveled to Nancy for the billionth time...and done a bunch of errands for my terribly forgetful sister...

And we have our tickets home! We leave France early August to travel to Ireland with my family, then on August 13th we leave Ireland, stop by Rochester (to visit more of my family) and then we arrive in Georgia on the 16th! Fun fun!

Bourgogne

2009-05-22T12:10:00.001+02:00

Welcome to the premier of the very first production of Swafford.Dunlap Films!

The second weekend in May we took our first weekend vacation with Rocky and Maria since their arrival. We went to the Burgundy (Bourgogne) region of France, known for it's wine, and saw MANY vineyards, chateaux, and French countrysides.

We hope to continue the trend of making videos of our adventures. I'll try to keep them a decent length. This one is on the long side...a little over 9 minutes. Enjoy!

...and this little doggie goes "arf! arf! arf!" all the way home...

2009-05-17T20:20:00.008+02:00

At 3am we load the car to bring Duncan to Frankfurt.

At 6am he will be in the hands of PetAir headed to Atlanta.

Super Dog!

2009-05-12T09:24:00.003+02:00

Our little world traveler is off again! ...even though he hasn't realized it yet.

Duncan has a flight out of Frankfurt on Friday. (Well, it was Friday bu tnow the date is changing...maybe Monday or Tuesday, thanks to customs in Atlanta) We are supposed to get him there by 6am - yikes! And then he will arrive in Atlanta around 1:55pm local time. And, Metz has decided to give him a traditional Metz going-away present...rain! How nice.

arrivals and departures

2009-05-08T21:00:00.004+02:00

It's not everyday that members of your family move abroad to live in the same city as you. We have been lucky enough to have this experience.

After a fun adventure at the airport and quick TGV ride...
...the Dunlaps are here!They are predictably jet lagged but hopefully we'll keep them busy enough to get over it fast.

In other news, it is official that we will be returning to Georgia mid-August. David needs to return to the Atlanta campus to use their lab again, but this time we will stay. This doesn't mean that David has finished his PhD or anything, cause he hasn't. But, returning to Atlanta might speed along this process because he'll have access to a wider variety of classes and people experienced in what he's working on.

This also means I get to try to find a job. Good timing huh? It's probably the worst time to be looking for work... I'm ready for a real job though.

Duncan will be returning to Georgia Friday, May 15th before the weather gets really warm :o( It will be sad to see him go, but he'll enjoy the Georgia summer sun and ability to have free roam of his invisible fenced in yard again. I know he misses it.

So, we'll be busy this summer! Traveling with Rocky and Maria, our other visiting family, packing, and moving our lives back the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Maheen.

2009-05-03T09:57:00.002+02:00

Katherine,
This is mostly for you.

She cracks me up.

2009-04-29T13:59:00.003+02:00

Locked Out!

2009-04-19T18:38:00.002+02:00

We took Duncan out for a walk this morning in the beautiful sunshine. Then when we returned to our apartment we saw one of our neighbors struggling to get in the door. It as just her key that didn't work. It looked like someone had broken off the end of their key in the door! Turns out the lock was actually broken. It has been getting more and more difficult to turn the key in the door, but now it's fixed! We had to seek refuge at Fred's place for a little while while borrowing his locksmith locating talents. ...Duncan enjoyed it...he's pet sitting a rat... We were a little worried at first that no one was going to come out to help us since it's a Sunday, but it all worked out.

Then we had lunch with Kathy and Peter. Vietnamese spring rolls, fried rice, and French pastries.

Scuba diving level 2 theory test is this week...time to study!

"We are in Sain!"

2009-04-14T20:59:00.003+02:00

The title of this blog is in tribute to a typo I made recently. Though a typo, it may not be too far from the truth sometimes! It was supposed to read : "We are in Spain!" ...because we were!

We spent 5 days and 4 nights in Barcelona. We had a hotel along La Rambla, the biggest pedestrian street. It was filled with street performers, mimes, tourist shops, street vendors, and supposedly pick-pockets, but we didn't see any, thankfully!

The first day was full of sunshine and lots of walking to get our barrings for the rest of the trip. I got a sunburn! It was a nice change! Then, for the rest of the time we tried to plan out our days to maximize what we could see.

The only problem we had was with food...surprisingly. And it wasn't that we didn't like the food, because we LOVED it, but for some reason, all the recommended restaurants, on the day we wanted to go to them, were either closed or we couldn't find them. And the rest of the places were either not what we were looking for or too expensive. It was strange, we've never had issues like that. We did have traditional Spanish stuff like paella and tapas, but there were times that we had to resort to Hard Rock Cafe and McDonald's.

We also were able to see some flamenco dancing! People were always handing out brochures on the streets for different performances. We had the choice between Spanish guitar and a Flamenco show. Now, for everyone who knows David, you all know which one he wanted to see. But he let me pick, and we ended up getting the best of both worlds! There was live music with the dancers, and not just guitars, but a violin and cello as well so David was very happy. It was great, and we even had front row seats!! (...well, we paid for them, but still!)

We saw lots of interesting architecture, mostly from Antoni Gaudi, celebrations for Easter, the beach, parks, guys sell those "name brand" purses and sunglasses, and wallets, and belts, and pirated movies, etc etc.

Anyway, overall it was a great vacation...minues the fact that I lost my keys. Yeah...stinks. Chech out the tons of pictures we took.

Duncan seemed to have fun while we were gone too. We were told that he caught 3 hedgehogs! Maybe we'll keep the next one as a pet...as long as he doesn't kill it. Ha! He's so vicious. haha...

David's Birthday

2009-04-01T13:11:00.004+02:00

This is probably the happiest 26-year-old you'll ever see!(Click on the picture for more pictures)

Yesterday, some of David's PhD friends got the idea to take a trip just across the German border to a US military base where there is a Taco Bell express. They brought back a TON of Taco Bell and really surprised David.

The guy who helped them get everything even sent a birthday card back with them for David.

Just another reason to appreciate the US military! ;o)

Videos from Munich

2009-03-30T19:26:00.008+02:00

Kimber giggles to Munich

Glockenspiel in Munich

Monk.

2009-03-30T13:14:00.008+02:00

Did you know that Munich/München means "monk"? I didn't either! It is Germany's 3rd largest city, and our longest getaway of the year so far.I uploaded all our pictures to picasaweb with detailed captions for most of them so this will just be a quick recap of a few things we did over the weekend.

We went to the BMW Museum...
...picked out the cars we want...
...had fun traveling with a baby...
...ate a lot of yummy food from famous places...
...saw lots of German things...
...took a free tour of the city...
...saw lots of buildings and learned lots of history...
...went to an engineering museum......visited the first concentration camp......and headed home.

On our way home we found Dr. Pepper. That was one of my goals on this trip. :o)

Check out all the pictures!

being brief

2009-03-26T14:16:00.002+01:00

I helped decorate a surprise birthday cake! (all the pictures are on picasaweb)

It was fun! New hobby one day? I vote YES.We are going to Munich this weekend. It's for a beer festival, and that's why we're going...ha! You know I'm kidding. We will go to the festival to see everything and drink our favorite beer festival beverage, Spetzi, but then we'll be touring Munich for most of the time.

More when we return!

Project!

2009-03-19T12:47:00.003+01:00

Boxes boxes boxes! I've gotten 3 boxes in the mail this week! One from each of our Mothers and one that I ordered.

Since I've gotten into cross stitching I decided to make Christmas stockings for us (thanks to Janice for the great idea :o) ...I'm copying her). My family never really did the whole Christmas stocking thing, so this is really exciting for me! I found 2 different patterns online that I liked and ordered them. Although, they both provide new challenges for me. One (David's) is just a pattern - so I have to buy everything in order to make it, and the other (mine) is not even a cross stitch. It's needlepoint. This is similar, but different! So...It'll be an interesting challenge.

That is a picture of my stocking needlepoint "kit". There is so much thread, and it's so much bigger than my cute little teddy bear! Which is finished by-the-way.

Like my grass? That is my personal contribution to the pattern.

Anyway...

Setting up is very time consuming. First I have to separate all the colors, then I have to separate all the threads! And there are a lot of them! And there are even beads and ribbons. I'll be taking pictures as I go, like I did before, but the progress may not be as evident since I'm working with a painted canvas (see first picture).

So "yeah!" or lots of free time to try new projects!

Rearranged.

2009-03-17T11:28:00.004+01:00

We rearrange our apartment every now and then. Each time we move things around we like it better than the last time.

David went to scuba diving last night without me because if I had tried to dive my head would have exploded thanks to my allergies. So, I made use of my free time by rearranging!
We've had similar arrangements, but this one is kind of nice. We like the cozy feeling of where the couch is now, and regardless of that lovely pole in the middle of the room, you can see the TV from any spot on the couch.
In high school I would get bored with my room all the time. Sometimes I would be sitting in my room, trying to fall asleep, and get some idea about how I should move my furniture around. Then, no matter how late, I'd just start moving stuff! This happened the most at ridiculously late hours at night when everyone else was sleeping. But it was fun! I wonder if, when we have a real house, my rearranging habits will continue.

Can't wait to find out!!

He's growing.

2009-03-14T13:59:00.002+01:00

I'm expanding the range of my talents. I'm cross stitching now. It's fun! This is the cross stitch I've been working on... my birthday present from Janice. Here are some progress pictures. It's fun to see the progression.
I've also already ordered some other projects to work on after this one. They are a bit bigger.

...we all fall down!

2009-03-10T12:12:00.003+01:00

Originally, I was going to post on a different subject today, but something happened on my way to the grocery store that merits an entry.

Today it's raining (big surprise). And, if you've ever lived in France you know that people dress up to go just about everywhere. Where Americans would wear sweatpants to the grocery store, women here wear high heels.

So that sets the stage.

While walking, a girl came around the corner and slipped and fell. She fell straight down on her hiney!Well, instead of getting up, she just stayed on the ground, laid down (in the wet street!) and closed her eyes. ??? So these people started going up to her to see if she was ok. They were tapping her, shaking her, questioning her, and she didn't move. So then a bunch of people start getting out their cell phones and begin to call ambulences etc etc. And all of a sudden...she wakes up! (And very dramatically I might add) Now, remember when I told you she laid down in the street. She didn't hit her head, she didn't faint, she didn't break a leg... she was acting!

Ok, I get that she was embarassed, but come on! People were calling ambulances for her! Why the drama? Why not just get up, admit you fell, and next time not wear high heels...in the rain!

At least she gave everyone a good story to tell. Thanks girl that fell! I wonder if she'll admit to any of her friends that she was faking it. It was terribly obvious.

l'économie??

2009-03-08T14:50:00.003+01:00

We have some terribly sad news. Our favorite bakery for baguettes...is closed! For the last few weeks it has been closed with a sign on the door that said they were closed for work. Either work on something inside or because they were doing work on the street and we thought it may have been affecting something in the bakery...

But, a few days ago, we saw THIS:
The "available" sign in the window...they're gone!

According to David "this is a monumental moment in our lives!" And I can't agree more. Now we have to walk a whole minute up the street to find another bakery...but we don't really like that one, so now we have to go a whole 5 minutes away to the next best one! It was just too nice to be able to walk down our 4 flights of stairs and around the corner for a fresh baguette.

So we were trying to decide whether it was because of the economy that they closed. Then we remembered...we're in France! Everyone buys baguettes! Bakeries are the LAST places that will go under! So...what's the deal?! Oh well. Life goes on!

'Twas my birfday

2009-03-04T17:52:00.010+01:00

why the weird title? i really don't know.

Yesterday was my birthday! I am now 25. No, I don't feel different.

To start my day, I did what I do everyday... I took Duncan for a walk! Most people would think that is a terrible way to start off your birthday, but I like walking with Duncan. Especially when the weather is nice, and the weather was nice! The sun was even out!

Then I got ready to go to lunch with Janice! We went to a place called noodle. It was fun! We each tried some asian noodles with a sauce we have never heard of. Anyone know what saté is? Anyway, we had some egg rolls too, yum.

Then we did some shopping! I've been wanting to get an apron ever since I started deep frying things, and making homemade cookies, dough, and biscuits. So I got one! And I replaced our oven mitts, because the old ones were getting pretty ugly. I'm enjoying the colorfulness of them. Most things in our apartment are black or white or wood. I'd love to paint the walls but David thinks we'll have to paint it white again before we leave. ?? Oh well. The plan isn't to be here so long that I can't live with white walls!

Janice also got me a little gift. She's been doing a lot of cross-stitching and she bought me a small one to try. I think it will be perfect to cross-stitch a baby's name onto the side of this one day:
Isn't he cute? So, at first the directions were really overwhelming, but then I read them :o) And it wasn't too bad. This is all I've done so far.And I'm going to wait to continue until I ask Janice some other questions. I think it will be fun. I've got lots of things to do now, between scrap booking, cross-stitching, the dog, english lessons, and my other everyday stuff. I can't wait to add going outside in the sunshine to that list.

So after shopping we went to the grocery store, did some shopping, and then parted ways. I went home and played with the beast (this is what David calls Duncan). And started my cross-stitch, and tried to trick David into telling me what we'd be doing that evening. I was almost successful!

Eventually, David came home and told me what we would be doing, then where we would be going and to go put on nicer clothes. Then we took a picture so that everyone could see what we looked like on my 25th birthday. About the same, huh? (this is not meant to be an opportunity for you to make one of your comments Matthew! :oP ) We decided to take a picture in front of our map...but we failed to center it properly - sorry Mom! You taught me better than that. :o)

Off to the restaurant! Thierry Saveur et Cuisine (You can even view the site in English)
The atmosphere was really cool. Fancy, gormet, and we were the first people there for the evening so we had 3 people serving us. They must have been bored because they were always looking over at us to see if we needed anything.

I didn't bring my camera but you can see what it was like at the website. I did find this picture on there. This is a small view of the exact table that we sat at. I thought it was neat that it was one of the pictures on the site. We ordered a 3 course meal (menu) and everything came out to us looking beautiful. This is another one of those restaurants were the food is more or a decoration for your plate. But I'm impressed with how it can look so good and taste great too. I guess I just never went to restaurants like this at home. Or else the places we went always served so much food that there was no room for decorating. We didn't leave stuffed, but just full enough. That should be more of a habit for us. We can seriously put some food away when we want to!

Our appetizers was beef and foie gras made into a loaf thingie with some sauces around it. yummy. The main course was sole (fish) and calamari with rice and some other sauces... I think one was called dog sauce (sauce chien)! And for dessert we had french toast! It was not the French toast you are invisioning. It was fancy. Served with apples and a little melted ice cream (which I think was a huge mistake! There should have been a nice scoop of ice cream right on top instead!) But it was still really yummy, and now we can say we've had real french toast.

That's about all that happened on March 3, 2009!

YUM!

2009-02-23T13:42:00.002+01:00

David has been helping a fellow PhD student, Fred, with his proposal presentation (he proposes today!). So, as a "Thank You" Fred wanted to take us out to dinner. :o)

We went to a restaurant that is pretty close to our apartment. À Côté. I'm pretty sure it is called this because it is right next to another restaurant that the head chef owns. We were lucky to have the Chef there the night we went too. His other restaurant was given a 1 star (the highest rating for any restaurant in Metz ...3 is the highest overall though). So around Metz he is pretty well known.

Most of the seats in the restaurant are bar-style so that you can see all the cooks cooking. It was fun being able to see our food throughout all its stanges of preparation. But, you'd think that I would know how to make all of it now, right? Ha. We saw it all the time, but sometimes it would pop up looking totally different than the last time we saw it. It was like magic!

I had fois gras, and David had calamari for appetizers, then I had a duck "burger" (nothing like a burger you would picture) and David had jarret de veau (veal). They were both delicious, but I have to admit, I think the duck was better. Then for dessert I had cheesecake (just like American cheesecake!) and David had a fancy milkshake-like dessert. It was wonderful. And it wasn't too much food because this is one of those restaurants where you don't get too much becasue they serve everything as if it were meant to be a decoration for your plate.

It has been one of our goals to eat out a little bit more so that we know of good restaurants in the area to recommend to people. Plus, we won't live in France forever...but I WILL be cooking forever... Sorry I don't have pictures. I guess if you really want to know what it was like you'll just have to come visit us and we'll take you there! :o)

Videos

2009-02-17T16:16:00.010+01:00

Until I blog again...some videos to hold you over:

Snowshoeing:
(The default quality of this video stinks, so, if you click the little "HQ" icon in the bottom right corner you can watch it in high quality and it's much better!)

Duncan:

Valentine's Day Weekend

2009-02-16T14:54:00.001+01:00

David and I always seem to end up with interesting Valentine's Day stories. This year was no exception.

We took a trip to the Black Forest in Germany to go snowshoeing. We were invited by a lady from our scuba diving club who is a member of the Alpine club in Metz that planned the trip. We left Saturday morning at 6:30am, took a bus with the rest of the club members, and began hiking through the snow a little after 12:30pm. We hiked for 6 hours, about 10 miles the first day. The views were beautiful! The snow was fluffy! And the sun was shining! It took us a while to get our clothing layers right, but once we found the right combination it was great.

After the 10 miles we arrived at our hotel. The rooms were nice and we had an enormous balcony (too bad it was too cold to really enjoy it). We went to check out the pool and were unhappy to see that the pool wasn't heated. The water was freezing! So, of course, we skipped it! After nice warm showers we headed down for dinner. We had vegetable soup, delicious filets and potatoes, followed by a yummy sorbet and fruit dessert. Pretty good for a Valentine's Day dinner...and we didn't even plan it!

The next morning we set our for day two of snowshoeing. With healed feet and rested legs we were raring to go! A lot of the time we were following a path, but often we got to create our own. I liked it best when we were able to walk through the fluffy, untouched snow. The only qualm I had with snowshoeing was that I saw a lot of ski slopes and skiers. While we were walking UP they were skiing DOWN. And when we were WALKING down, they were still SKIING down. I was totally jealous. I wanted to ski so badly, but the cleats on the bottom of my 'raquets' wouldn't allow it. So, Matthew, this picture is for you:

The ski slopes we've been to are like the ghetto compared to everything I saw this past weekend. There were so many slopes to ski down that it wasn't crowded. You could ski wherever you wanted and on paths of completely fresh and fluffy snow. So cool.

At the end of our hike we stopped by a little German "cafe" (I guess that's what you'd call it...it wasn't a restaurant...). We had hot chocolate and an enormous slice of apple pie. It was delicious!

Then we got back on the bus and headed back to Metz. This is where is gets pretty interesting. Things were so normal the whole time that I new something was bound to happen. On the bus they had a microphone so that the 'leaders' of the trip could make announcements. For the majority of the trip back there was someone talking on the microphone. They were talking about future trip options (in extreme detail) as well as recaping the trip that we just took (also in extreme detail). And after that they put in a German music CD and turned up the volume. Then, after a while of the CD playing, the guy that had the microphone started whistling the tune and tapping on the microphone. So, all of the talking and noise making was kind of annoying. We were kind of hoping to sleep some on the way back...ha!

It was a great weekend. Check out more pictures here.

Awaaaaaaiting Summertime

2009-02-13T12:10:00.000+01:00

I don't think I've ever been more ready for the summer! Maybe, when I was 16 and back in high school I would have had a similar motivation for the summer and a break from school...but this year my reasons are different. I've lived through the coldest winter that I've ever experienced. I was away from home for the first time at Christmas. Duncan is here now and he loves being outside and I'll be glad to have his company. And, I never really look forward to spring because of my pollen allergies. So, I have high expectations for the summer and all it may bring.

I'm trying to block from my memory the summer of 2007 here in Metz... because it was not really a summer at all. Rain, clouds, cold = not summer. But this year, it just feels like things will be different and I'm ready!

I've been searching for a special kind of picnic blanket since we came back to France in August. I even looked in Germany! Luckily, I finally found what I was looking for and it's even a little better than I had planned.The kind of picnic blanket I've been wanting has a special tarp-like lining on the underside of it. This is key here in Metz because the ground it always moist. Thanks to the new Intersport store that they put in near Cora I was able to find exactly that... and more!

They didn't have picnic blankets all by themselves so I had to get one that came with an entire picnic set! (for 4) Darn.

(Duncan is winking at you because he is really excited about our new stuff)

Goodbye winter! Hello sunshine! ...hello? ...sunshine? ...you there?

Gombo!

2009-02-11T11:58:00.012+01:00

You will never believe what David and I found yesterday at what might become one of our favorite grocery stores...

The store is called "Grand Frais" because they have a large variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, etc...

We went there in hopes of finding some asparagus, since they NEVER have it at our grocery store downtown! While we were there we were totally impressed with all the stuff we found. The biggest surprise was that we found okra. Yep! The vegetable that every french person we've ever asked (and some of the Americans...usually of northern decent) have never heard of. ...the vegetable name that couldn't be translated by our awesome french/english dictionary. ...the vegetable that made our dinner last night awesome...OKRA!

On the sign above it it said that it was called "gombo." So, now we know. And I'm sure we'll be telling all our french friends about it, and then making it so that they can try it. We also found corn meal for preparing it. It was delicious. I'm very happy. :o)

Stay away from the back of the bus...

2009-01-28T16:41:00.004+01:00

Today I had an interesting experience. It was one of those experiences where you wish that you were the kind of person who has no problem setting someone straight when they do something wrong/disgusting/irresponsible/annoying... especially when they are, what I like to call, the French Hoodlums of Metz.

After going to the Intersport to purchase my new picnic set (so exciting!!) I got on the 11 bus line heading back downtown. Because I had a decent sized shopping bag with me and because I wanted to read during my 30 minute ride, I went all the way to the back of the two-length bus to sit in peace. I sat, got my book, and started reading.

A few stops later the bus began to fill and a girl walked towards me. So, I moved over a little closer to my bag so that she could have some extra room. She sat down, followed by a guy-friend and they started talking...a lot louder than most French people (they are usually pretty soft spoken...but again I remind you...hoodlums).

Then they started wrapping up, what I thought was a cigarette. They do this all the time...homemade cigarettes. And they have to hurry because as soon as they get off the bus the MUST smoke, or they'll die. Anyway... she made hers and then pulled out a lighter... Then the guy gave her a hard time about something and she stood up and cracked a window (it's still below freezing here...not cool). Then she started flicking the lighter... so I looked up, saw she was about to light her "cigarette" and gave her this look that meant "Don't do it...you can't smoke on the bus...plus I don't want you to smoke right next to me..." Then, she looked directly at me, put the "cigarette" in her mouth and lit it (while still looking at me). SO, she was basically saying: "Ha! Try and stop me!" At this point I had to control my strangling reflex. Then she leaned over and spit on the floor...YES, spit! inside the bus!!

So, I took my bags, and got up and went to the front of the bus. At this point I'm sure she thought I was going to go talk to the driver. I hope she was nervous. I should have talked to him. So, my advice, when riding a bus in Metz, especially if you are going through the Borny area: Ride in the front of the bus, with the nice old ladies.

Oh, by-the-way, the "cigarette" was really weed...and stunk...how classy! There you go people. France isn't just all about baguettes, the Eiffel Tower, beautiful women, and fancy clothes. So don't be jealous that I live here...seriously.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-26T14:10:00.007+01:00

Sorry for such a delay. I had these big plans to make a Christmas video and "Apres Noel" blog entry etc etc. Well, how about Happy New Year! Happy Chinese New Year! Even though it was a few days ago...

So, most recently, we were invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with some of the Chinese students at GTL. The year of the Ox! It was a great time. This is a video of one of the Chinese guys singing a song after we ate. The night before, he had performed at an 'official' Chinese New Year celebration they had at the University of Metz in collaboration with the Chinese consulate here in France.

I also tried to make the video a button that links to my picasa website, where you can see more pictures. If it didn't work there is a button you can click on over there. (--> under "Links") There are also lots of other new pictures you should check out. The captions should be enough to tell you all about them!

So, roughly, since my last entry, we had a great anniversary (went to some thermal baths...it was great!), had a great Christmas, had dinner with a french couple from our scuba diving club, after Christmas, have started "theory" courses for certification in level 2 in the French scuba diving system, and plan to go snow shoeing in February.

David is taking a class this semester (only 2 more after this one!) and has made a good amount of progress organizing his thoughts and plans so that he can make significant progress towards proposing, thesising, and graduating.

Duncan and I are getting mentally prepared for the weather to warm up! I have found a picnic blanket and set that I plan to buy so that we can spend lots of time outside once it's warm enough.

I also found a scrapbook so that I can start scrap booking about our time here in France. I got a photo printer for Christmas, (thanks David's family!) so this was my main motivation to get started before we've been here so long that I have too much to try to recapture. Well, I'm back to blogging, so stay tuned!

avant Noël

2008-12-15T13:51:00.004+01:00

We are all set up for Christmas! We bought our Christmas tree and ornaments at IKEA and set them up last week. It's a little scrawny but it'll do! Click on the tree to see more pictures.

We just had our last set of visitors for the year. Phillip and Eileen! They spent a few days with us before heading to Paris. We had a great time with them playing games, touring Metz and Christmas markets, watching movies, and eating yummy food.
They took lots of pictures around Metz to help add to their portfolio. They started their own photography business. Getting married? Check them out! Blume Photography

In Duncan news...

The sun came out today. Duncan and I were playing with his squirrel... as soon as he stepped into the spot on the floor where the sun came in the window, he sat down in the rays and decided to take a nap. I think he really misses the sunshine and back porch in Conyers.

Our anniversary is coming up! 2 years! Not sure what we'll do yet, but we'll celebrate somehow!We are thinking that in the future we will celebrate our anniversary in August, when we got engaged instead...and go somewhere WARM!

We hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season so far!

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

album links

2008-11-24T14:46:00.004+01:00

Duncan news.

I got up to take a shower the other morning. When I returned to the bedroom this is what I saw:

We went scuba diving in Belgium. Didn't take many pictures, but were happy that we survived the cold conditions. The water temperature was 11 degrees Celsius (54 F). With our 7mm wetsuits we stayed warmer than we were expecting. BUT, my toes did get really cold... There are two more pictures to see if you click on us.

Yesterday we enjoyed lots of snow! Click on the Duncan paws to see more pictures. But today, it's raining again. :o(

In other cool news - In Japan, there is a restaurant where Monkeys help wait the tables. NO JOKE, it's so cute! They serve drinks, bring you change and hot towels. I totally want to go see them in action. i saw it on CNN international, but here is a clip I found on YouTube.

International and Eventful.

2008-11-13T13:07:00.008+01:00

David has been spending quality time with Duncan. Here I caught them playing cards. I especially like Duncan's "chillin' " pose while he's listening. And you should see his poker face...

A few weeks ago we went out to eat at a fondue restaurant. It was delicious. We ordered multiple cheese fondues to share and then chocolate fondue for dessert. Yum.

I never wrote much about Halloween. We invited some friends over and bought our own Halloween candy to eat. We watched an Alfred Hitchcock movie (Rear Window) and made pancakes for dinner. The pancakes were supposed to be dyed orange but the store was out of food coloring when I went shopping. Oh well!

Then we took a trip to Luxembourg to see the new James Bond movie. While there we visited ChiChi's a texmex restaurant. I've been there twice before, but I think they are under new management now...it wasn't as good as before. My chicken chimichanga is pictured top right below.Then, Sunday, we had a Greek inspired lunch. Our Greek friend Konstantinos made moussaka. It was delicious! For dessert we had a lemon tart (yum!) and tiramisu.

After that, we had dinner with some Americans who make awesome crepes. We had buckwheat crepes with ham, potato, creme fraiche, and cheese for dinner, and dessert crepes for dessert.

Then, yesterday after our bible study, I made a meatloaf to share with everyone. This was a first for a few people there, but definitely a hit. How can you not like something wrapped in bacon!? (It's a great recipe.)

And I have an honorary picture to share with you. This is Fred. He is French. If you know anything about the kind of food the French like, you will know that they don't like spicy/hot things. Well, Fred tried a hot pepper while we were at ChiChi's. This was a picture of his reaction. Other than that, he handled it well.
I only talk about food huh?

Well, stay tuned. I think I'll have some very interesting things to tell you about before long...

Black American President

2008-11-05T10:27:00.005+01:00

Great! Our next President will be a black American. Honestly, I'm surprised so many people thought this wasn't possible. Racism hasn't been that much of an issue in our country for a while now, although people have been treating it like it has been. Yes, there are still racist people out there, but they aren't the majority of our nation. Hopefully people will finally realize that and stop blaming things on racism!

My hope, now that Obama will be President, is that everyone won't be too disappointed when he doesn't turn out to the the Messiah they are treating him as. Watching the reaction of his win was kind of troubling. People were practically worshiping him. Let's not replace God people...no man or government can do that. And I hope that all the other countries aren't disappointed if they don't get the special treatment they are expecting to get from him. Everytime they have interviewed a foreigner to get their reaction on Obama's election they have mentioned specific aspects of how Obama will interact with their country. He has a lot of expectations to live up to. To the American people and to the rest of the world. He may have given them hope, but now he's going to have to give them results.

I did like how Obama asked everyone to be willing to work and that his change wouldn't come quickly or easily but require people to make an effort. Because, I feel like many people think things will change for them just because Obama was elected...not because they have to join him in the efforts.

OH! There is a funny thing I have to mention. Remember when Obama made his speech after his win became "officially" predicted? And he said that his daughters could have a dog in the white house? Well, at the very moment after Obama said that, our sleeping dog Duncan growled in his sleep. It was hilarious! He was jealous I guess...

Election Coverage Observations

2008-11-04T19:29:00.012+01:00

Election News is all that is on the news today...of course. But even in foreign countries. It has been an interesting experience to see the world's view of my country while living abroad.

First, I must comment on what I've seen from the French media. The news headlines on the news channels here say "Preparing to Celebrate"... The newspapers this morning implied a victory, already, for Obama, and the polls in the US had not even opened yet. As I watch "France 3" I'm seeing the French reporters interviewing Americans that are in line to vote in various locations in the US, yet they are only airing the voters that are supporting Obama. All-night parties are planned here in France as well as in other countries, to watch election coverage and updated results as they are reported. While the rest of the world is eager for Obama to be President, the Americans are the ones who get to decide, and I'm interested to see the result. I feel like they are just ignoring the fact that there are supporters in the US for MCain. It was the same when Hilary was running. They were saying that she would be the next President. Funny...she isn't even in the race anymore. You should see the people from Obama, Japan. ...bet you didn't know there was an Obama, Japan. I didn't until today.

I have already voted. All I can do is wait. Plus, with either result, I'll survive. I won't be overly upset if McCain doesn't win and I won't be tremendously disappointed if Obama does. I know that either way God is going to use the situation for his purposes. BUT, just because of the response of the rest of the world, and mostly what I've seen from the French, I'm eager to see McCain win just to see their reaction! I mean, this reported just said "Obama, without exception, will win the Presidency." How can he say that so assuredly? I know that the American President is important for the rest of the world, but I don't like when the rest of the world predicts how the Americans will vote with such certainty.

Now they have people dressed up in elaborate costumes...young, old, black, white, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Michael Jackson, some Amish people...all casting votes...they are making fun of us now. ? I'm not catching the jokes. Oh look! a preview for Wall-E ...good movie! ...wait...Obama is in the preview...he is friends with Wall-E. Uh oh, now a John McCain puppet... It's funny, when there is an American character, they speak french with a really strong American accent - makes sense. Uh oh, now Bush...he was just rooting for Obama...hmm...I don't think that's accurate. ANYWAY--!

In other news, we have been trying to successfully wire money from one of our French bank accounts to our Wachovia account in the US. Today we worked out all the bugs and it will go through, but, while we were at the bank they offered us another account. The savings accounts here work much differently than the ones we are used to. The accounts have maximum amounts of money that you are allowed to keep in them. They also have minimums, but it's only 10 euros. So, I suppose because of this maximum limitation they have to offer you multiple accounts so that you can actually save money! When we filled up our first account we were kind of disappointed. I prefer to save money in a savings account rather than just leaving it to accumulate in a checking account. Luckily, nearly every time we go back to the bank to ask a question or deal with something, they offer us a new account with a higher maximum value. Thus, we have 4 French bank accounts now. That's a lot. Now we want to deversify. We know a German banker...think he can get us a German bank account? After that we really would like a Swiss account. We just need to find the money to fill them all :o)

Ok ok. That's all for now. I'm going to see how late I can stay up tonight watching CNN international for election results. They start official coverage at 11pm. Gotta love time zones!

Your dog doesn't do that?

2008-10-30T15:35:00.004+01:00

I had to share this with you.

We have taught Duncan that when we go to bed he has to sleep on his bed on the floor. ..and he does. But, every morning, David sets the alarm to go off around 7am. Does David get up at 7am? No! He reaches for his Bose remote and turns the alarm off so that he can sleep for another hour or two. Why have the alarm set so early? Good question!

Anyway. The alarm doesn't just wake us up, but it wakes up Duncan to. At this point he has gotten into the habit of standing next to the side of the bed whining at us until we give him attention. At first I thought he really needed to go outside to go to the bathroom. But, after several early morning walks I was tired of getting up so early so I tapped on the bed and let him sit next to me. Not only did he just sit next to me, but he curled up and fell back to sleep. AND, he didn't bother me again until I got out of bed. Nice! So now our morning routine involves letting Duncan get on the bed after the alarm goes off. It works well. No complaints.

Well, the other morning it was especially cold in the room. When Duncan jumped up on the bed I covered him with the blanket too. Before I knew it he had shimmied his way up to my pillow too. Before long he looked like this:That's right, sleeping just like a person. It's very cute.

Vampire cookies. I told you I'd make them. It took me a while to get them just right, but they finally turned out the way they were supposed to. Look good huh?I prefer the ones with just the holes...the "dripping blood" just looks messy. I've never been much of a sugar cookie lover, but these turned out OK for my first attempt at them. I don't think I'll do them again though - unless someone begs me for them - because, in the Swafford household, we prefer chocolate chip cookies, hands down!

Indoor Cookout?!

2008-10-28T15:51:00.004+01:00

Saturday afternoon we got together with some students who had stayed in Metz for the weekend for an indoor cookout. One of them had wanted to buy a "grill" and decided that this was the perfect opportunity. So, after a trip to Cora the guys arrived with a bunch of food.

I will describe to you some of the pictures in the following collages, but know that you can see full sized pictures on our picasa website.

For our afternoon gathering we played the Wii, made and ate lots of food, played Rock band, and David and Peter played their guitars (top left). Our "main course" was kabas (top middle) consisting of beef, bell peppers, onion, and pineapple. We also had potatoes and hot peppers (I think David was the only one who ate the hot peppers...after he teared up no one else wanted any), french sausages, and lamb prepared Greek-style thanks to our Greek contributing cook, Constantinos, and his homemade olive oil.

While at Cora David bought a pumpkin...because I thought everyone would get one and we'd carve them together after lunch...but no one else was interested so we saved it and carved it Sunday instead. The weather was decent so we ook Duncan and the pumpkin outside to the plan d'eau. We sat next to the water while we designed and then carved our pumpkin. Everyone was stopping and looking at us. Parents were telling there kids: "Look! It's for 'alloween" ("H" omitted on purpose).
Top Right: This is the view from INSIDE the pumpkin while we were carving it. I was really surprised that this picture turned out so good.

We also tried to get Duncan to sit next to the pumpkin, in some fallen leaves, after it was carved so we could take a nice holiday picture of him, but he didn't want to cooperate. I guess the picture before the pumpkin was carved was all he was willing to give us (middle). Cute enough I suppose!

Sunday for dinner we tried a veal parmesan recipe for the second time. Although the pumpkin appears to be saying it wasn't that great, it was actually really great this time. We still have a few things we want to try next time to make it even better, but I would definitely make it this was again. I also want to try it with chicken and egg plant.

I'm going to be making vampire cookies tomorrow to share with the people in our bible study...as long as they turn out ok. I was going to make them today and just bring them tomorrow but the recipe says "best if eaten the day they are made" so I'll wait!

Bonjour!

2008-10-24T16:57:00.004+02:00

My apologies. I have not been a diligent updater. Therefore, today's entry will be very random but informative.

We got a microwave! I bought it at Cora and then carried it back via the bus then my feet. The next day I discovered that I had bruises on my hip bones. The box was so heavy that I had to pull it against myself so hard so that I would drop it. I didn't realize, at the time, that it was hitting my hip bones so badly. I also didn't realize how heavy the box was going to be in the first place. The bruises lasted for a while and were quite painful.

We have a friend from Tunisia, Mohamed, who gave us some Tunisian goodies! They were yummy! I really liked the ones with the pistachios (the green triangular one).

Then, one weekend, we went to IKEA. We have been needing more storage space in our kitchen. This was our solution:We bought it, brought it home (this too was very to carry home on the bus, even with the two of us) and assembled it. Once it was together we discovered that it was ONE centimeter to tall! So we had to borrow a hack saw from GTL and we cut a few centimeters off of the legs. Problem solved. It fits very nicely under our stairs. I'm still working on the best way to store things on it.

We went out to dinner last night with some friends from GTL. We went to a fondue restaurant. It was greeeeeeat. We all ordered different kinds of cheese fondue and agreed to share, but David and I were very pleased that the one we chose ended up being our favorite. Since then I have only eatten an apple. It's already 6pm...I guess I'm getting a little hungry for dinner... Sorry, I didn't have my camera at the restaurant...maybe next time.

Tomorrow we are going to go to GTL to get together with a bunch of people who aren't going anywhere for the weekend. I think we will be having a cookout and carving pumpkins and playing video games. Duncan is going to come too. Another dog used to live there (remember Maddie from previous posts?) so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. It'll be fun! I WILL bring my camera for that. :o)

À bientôt.

Sun Swing and Swim

2008-09-29T13:46:00.004+02:00

Lately, here in Metz, the weather has been great! But I have to give you a few statistics.

Since we first arrived back in France I have been keeping track of the weather each day. Rain or no rain, that is the extent of my tracking. For the first month I am able to report this: 41% of the days we had rain and 59%, no rain. (Aug 20th - Sept 20th). Although, recently we have had 10 straight days of NO RAIN! It really has been amazing. There were only a few days during this time where it was overcast too. Mostly sun! I'm glad that Metz weather isn't ruining my opinion of my favorite season :o)

It has been really great for Duncan too because he isn't used to living with no sun. He used to sit in the sun everyday back in Georgia on the porch. Luckily, we have one window in our apartment that gets direct sunshine when it's out. Below you can see him basking in the rays! He ends up following it as it moves across the room so that he can lay in the warmth the whole time it lasts...sometimes I do it with him.

We've also been able to go on a lot of really nice walks each afternoon. I've walked around more of Metz than I ever have before. Even though we have all this sun, you still have to remember that it's chilly outside. On our walks I still have to wear a jacket. The temperature has been around 65 degrees.

Good news about the weather, huh? Well, David and I have figured that it can't last forever. In fact, God only promised to never flood the entire earth again...so we are a little concerned about the future of France. Ha! Seriously though, rain is supposed to hit us either later today or tomorrow.

Yesterday, we were lucky to get some free tickets! We got to see some of the Moselle Open tennis tournament. I've never been to a tennis tournament before and it was interesting. We watched most of one match between a South African guy and a Swedish guy. It was neat because whenever they got frusterated or needed to talk to the official, they spoke in English so we were able to understand what they were saying. I wonder how much of what the official was saying to the crowd they understood.

It was also kind of strange to watch an indoor tennis match. I've always played outside, so by default, I expect to see it played outside. When we walked into the arena it was very quiet except for the squeaking of tennis shoes and the bounce of the tennis ball. I guess that is what a golf tournament is like. It was fun to watch the people on the front rows. Their heads would go back and forth and back and forth following the ball...very stereotypical, yet proven true. And the kids that are in charge of running after the balls and making sure that the server is fully stocked were pretty funny too.

Tonight our scuba diving club starts up again. David is very excited of course. He always says that Monday nights are the highlight of his week. It will be a little different this year because the other students from GTL who participated with us aren't here anymore and we will be practicing with a different group of people because we've already been certified at a higher level. Plus our favorite instructor will remain with the level 1s, so we will get a different guy...we don't know who yet.

Long Overdue

2008-09-24T16:12:00.005+02:00

I've been meaning to write another post since last weekend...

Last Friday morning, I was taking Duncan outside for him morning walk. We headed toward the plan d'eau because I was planning on letting him run free for a little while when all of a sudden I saw people falling from the sky! Haha, well, they had parachutes. We got a little closer and watched for a few minutes (well, I watched, Duncan wanted to go walk along the lake). Then we turned around and headed back toward the apartment. I was hoping David was still there so that he could see and was planning on grabbing my camera so that we could go back out and take pictures.

As we were walking David jumped out in front of us! He said he saw us walking under the bridge as he was going to catch the bus. So I told him he couldn't go to school yet because he had to go see the people falling out of the sky! So we went back down and watched some more.

Eventually we found out that it was a national competition. Team Parachuting. How you parachute as a team I don't know...I guess they just combine the scores, because these guys were jumping individually. Above is a collage of some of the pictures that I eventually took and if you click on the image it will take you to my picasa website where there are some more pictures and explanations. It was pretty neat to watch them jump out of the plane and then let their parachutes out and land on the huge grey circle. But I must admit, it got kind of boring. It was the same thing over and over for the entire weekend. No cool tricks or anything, just jumping and landing. And everyone we saw hit the target. A few misses would have made be interesting...haha.

A little on David...

Recently, it seems like David is having to write reports for everything. Reports about reports he has already written and then another report just for the heck of it. It all seems kind of time consuming and pointless. SO, this morning David asked me to send him a list of anything we needed from CORA (because he was going to stop by before he came home). And then, jokingly, he said, "Write me a report about it." So I did... If you'd like to see my creativity you can find it here in the Swafford Supplies INC Report. For understanding purposes...Fred is our friend who offered to drive David in his car.

And today I leave you with some humor. Understanding Engineers...

A priest, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers.

The engineer fumed, 'What's with these people? We've been waiting for 15 minutes!'

The doctor chimed in, 'I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude!'

The priest said, 'Hey, here comes the green keeper. Let's have a word with him.'

'Hi George, what's the matter that group ahead of us? They're rather
slow, aren't they?'

The green keeper replied, 'Oh, yes, that's a group of blind fire-fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime.'

The group was silent for a moment. Then the priest said, 'That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight.'

The doctor said, 'Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist f riend and see if there is anything he can do for them.'

The engineer said, 'Why can't they play at night?'

The city n'est pas ma tasse de thé

2008-09-17T16:39:00.002+02:00

Franglais translation: "The city is not my cup of tea."

This past Sunday the weather was beautiful, unlike Saturday - it rained all day long, so David and I took Duncan for a nice long walk. Our goal was the top of the "mountain" that we can see from our window. So we headed towards it the best way we knew how. After walking an hour and a half, and trying to use bus stop maps to help us, we found ourselves at the end of a paved road leading up into a forest-like area. In we went! Within the next 20 minutes we passed an old military fort (we plan to go back with flashlights and actually go inside), met a dog that was the same color as Duncan (he was naturally white, but had really enjoyed his muddy walk), and made it to the top of the mountain. Once atop we turned over our left shoulders to see the top of the mountain that we were actually intending to climb. Oops. Regardless, we felt accomplished.

Anyway, while we were walking we passed through a town called Plappeville. It was beautiful. It was laid out more like a neighborhood and we walked by a couple houses that smelled as though they had fires burning in their fireplaces. The view was amazing because the entire time we had been walking up so we could see down onto the town of Metz...we saw the cathedral and some other things close to our apartment. We even walked by an automatic baguette dispenser. Yes, you read that correctly. It was like a vending machine for baguettes! I've never seen anything like it and was kicking myself for not having any change with me. The slot, where you pick up your item, was baguette length. It was Sunday, so the bakery was closed therefore this was a brilliant idea! I just wish I knew if those baguettes were any good...they don't last that long before they are hard as a rock.

So the point of all this is that while we were walking I realized that I really don't like living in the city. I don't like the smells, the noise, the mess, the crowds, the lack of space... Not that we're going to move while we're here, but I think I know now that when we leave, we will not be looking for homes within a city. And I think Duncan agrees. He wants a yard.

In other news

I'll be starting English lessons again soon. Probably next week.
David got some movies from the internet server at the student dorms. We watched Enchanted (very funny), Be Kind Rewind (wasn't as good as I exected, but had it's moments), Stardust (weird...a combination of at least 3 different movies), and have begun and old season of 24 that I haven't seen, but David has. We have some other ones too, but haven't watched them yet.
I think I've figured out how to survive morning walks with Duncan when it gets colder. It involves buying one of these awesome electric water heaters (WAY faster then waiting for water to boil), a thermos, and tea or cappuccino mixes.
I'm loving the down blanket that Katherine got me - how have I survived without it?

First Swim

2008-09-10T13:18:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I got a message from our friends Laurence and Martin saying that they were home from their vacation. After a few correspondences we eventually arrived at the conclusion that we were going to meet down at the plan d'eau so that they could meet Duncan!

We met by the playground and did some walking around. It was a beautiful day outside, very sunny, nice and warm. Before long we ended up sitting down by the side of the lake and Duncan ended up in the water. I brought the stick (featured in the last entry) and Duncan retrieved it multiple times showing them how good of a swimmer he was. He was very happy to be wet. So happy in fact that he wanted to share the experience with Martin who was comfortably sitting on the nice dry blanket.

Duncan likes them, and I'm pretty sure they like him too. It is the start of a wonderful friendship.

"Ok, throw it already!" - Duncan

"I have the stick, I have the stick, I have the stick..." - Duncan

"This view reminds me of my old backyard" - Duncan

After a nice day outside I introduced Laurence and Martin to our Wii. It was their first time playing one and they quite enjoyed themselves. Here they are playing Wii Sports, Boxing :o)

After some Wiing (I figure that you'd drop the last "i" and add "ing"...anyone else know proper Wii grammar?) we ate dinner together, took a walk to Place St. Jacques to get ice cream for dessert (Ice cream dude upped his price by € 0.30), and headed back to the apartment for some Mario Kart. It was fun!

After the lovely weather yesterday, today it is raining. I'll do a monthly update of my rain count around the 20th. But I just thought I'd share.

It's a new 'season' of blogging so I figured I would change the look of things again. Hope you like it! Happy reading.

Sunday Afternoon Excitement

2008-09-07T15:22:00.006+02:00

Today, after "church" we took Duncan for a walk to the plan d'eau. Last night on our walk we took him over there and because no one was around we let him off of his leash and ran around with him. Well, this afternoon it was a similar situation. Hardly anyone was outside - a few bikers, walkers, and a roller blader - so we tried it again. I was very impressed. Being off his leash he is actually more attentive to where we are to make sure that he doesn't get left behind. And he has to follow us, instead of us having to follow him because he's attached to us with the leash. As long as there aren't lots of dogs around I will continue to do this with him and hopefully it will work well for the both of us.

We also found a stick and Duncan actually chased it! Usually he only goes after sticks if we throw them into water and he can swim and get them, but this time he actually did it on land - amazing! One time he even got the stick and brought it back to us...one time. He seemed to be having lots of fun. He is a brief video I made. To those of you who know Duncan, I think you'll be impressed.

Duncan has also found a squirrel replacement, crows. He loves to chase them and we love to watch him do it.

While walking we also saw some baby ducks. They were very little, so much so that they were able to sit on the lilly pads like little frogs!
But their mommy didn't like Duncan hanging around (even though he wasn't paying attention to them) so we didn't stay long.

Hoping for nice weather this week... later!

A Weekend To Remember

2008-09-02T21:25:00.009+02:00

This past weekend David and I went to Germany for a couple of reasons.

To visit Cori
To pick up Duncan
To see more of Germany

Here are some details:

Thursday evening we made somewhat last minute plans to head to Germany early Friday morning. We woke up pretty early to catch a 7:41am train to Frankfurt. As soon as we had crossed the German boarder the train controllers came around to check passports. Ours were in the bags above our head. I think David and I had just woken up so when they asked it took us a minute to remember where they were and then start to get them. This must have been normal for them because as I was reaching for the our bag the man said "Americans?" we said "Yes." and then he said "Nevermind, it's ok." ?? Well that was strange. Something has been strange lately, because when we arrived at the airport in France they didn't stamp our passports there either. Oh well! We've missed out on two more stamps though...

On our way to Frankfurt we were surrounded by kids. It was lots of fun. A set of German twins, an American girl (who knew a few languages for such a little kid), and a little black boy whose mothers language we didn't recognize. It seemed like all the Moms saw other children and then congregated in our car...right next to us. They were all very cute and fun to watch. The funniest thing was when the little black boy put his hand on the German Dad's knee so that he wouldn't fall over and the little German girl tried to kick his hand away (she was sitting on her Dad's leg). I've never seen a kid be defensive of their parent like that.

Then we took another train from Frankfurt to Wuerzburg to meet Cori. We got a quick tour of the downtown area of Wuerzburg and just missed a trash can fire...but caught the end of it when the guy put it out with a fire extinguisher and the police showed up. Then we went to Wertheim, where Cori lives and got to see her new apartment - it's nice! Then we picked up Frank from work (because we were borrowing his car) and proceeded to watch a documentary about David Hasselhoff...long story.

Saturday we went to a flea market, then a town market, ate some Bratwurst for lunch, and headed back to the apartment. I took a nap, and David and Cori read books. Later that evening we met up with Frank again and went to a Festival in a nearby town. It was a blast. There was a huge ferris wheel, another crazy ride that would make you lose your lunch, some swings, and of course, a beer tent. We didn't actually sit under the tent because it was crowded, no one would share their table, Frank didn't approve of the band, and it was kind of muggy in there. So we sat at a table just outside. David and I tried some weiner schnitzel and the alternative for beer when you are at a beer tent, Spezi. It's yummy!

Sunday we woke up and had apple pancakes for breakfast. Then we headed out to meet some of Cori's friends. Richard and Ulli. We had a "barbque" at their house for lunch. Richard was in the military, stationed in Germany, when he met Ulli. They have two daughters. They were really great. They had just put a pond in their back yard and Ulli kept fishing things out of it to keep it clean...especially nuts from a hazelnut tree. We also found out that Richard is into scuba diving. He hasn't done it in a while, but we might go scuba diving with him sometime! While we were there we borrowed their internet to check on Duncan. I also ended up checking the weather in Atlanta - it was looking hopeful! That evening for dinner we went to Cori's favorite Italian restaurant and totally understand why it is her favorite. David had gnocci, I had tortellini, Cori had a really tastey spaghetti, and Frank had a yummy penne. They were all worth ordering again. We left very full.

Monday morning Cori and I did some shopping. I was hoping to find a picnic blanket that had a lining on one side - great for ground that is always went AKA the ground in Metz! But I never found one :o( I did find Listerine :o) (we don't have it in France). Cori got all of her stuff and we headed back so that David could help her with hanging a shower curtain and cabinet in her bathroom. I took a nap :o) After I was rudely awoken we visiting another family Cori is friends with, the Webers. They were the ones who gave her her first job in Germany. We had a really good meal, really good, really really good. To me, it didn't seem German though, but it was really good. It was slightly baked Feta cheese (so that it was warm and soft), a salad made with tomatoes, onions, mozarella, basil olive oil, salt, pepper, and balaslmic vinegar, and bread of course, lots of bread. Some warm with butter and herbs, some just plain. Oh! And they made ice cubes for us to have with our coke. How nice. Oh, the luxury of ice cubes!

While we were there we got a call from my Mom saying that they had just dropped off Duncan and he was on his way - !! How exciting.

After going to bed way too late to wake up this early, we woke up around 6:30ish to head to the airport in Frankfurt to pick up Duncan! We got to the airport around 9am to start the paperwork process. By 11am we were almost done with everything, but it had already taken so long I took a picture of my watch.

Finally by about 11:15 they rolled him out to us and the waiting was finally over! We packed up the car, gave Duncan some much needed water and a 'restroom stop' and headed to the train station for the trip home.

We found a train that left 10 minutes after we bough the tickets so we hurried with all our stuff. On German trains Duncan had to ride in his box, again, or else we had to pay quite a bit. But, we did find out that on French trains we only have to pay 5.50 and he can ride just on a leash! All right for France making something LESS complicated! That rocks.

Now we are home, Duncan survived the 88 step hike to the top of our building, twice, and he sleeping like a baby - trying to ignore all the unfamiliar noises. I hope he continues to adjust well. Do animals get jet lag?

So many things...

2008-08-28T16:24:00.006+02:00

So many things have happened within a short amount of time.

First - Last Wednesday the 22nd, my Grandfather (actually, great-uncle) passed away. While I was home I took him to and from multiple doctor's appointments, we moved him into a nursing home, and we watched as dementia began to over-take his mind. He was 89 years old, and an Army veteran who served in WWII. He was buried yesterday. This is a picture of him from early 2002, shortly after he and his wife moved from New York down to Georgia to live with our family. I think that was the last time he saw snow in Georgia. His sister was my Mom's mother, and she was the one who had the red hair that I inherited.

Next - Tuesday evening, David and I went with a large group of Students from GTL, to play laser tag! It was a lot of fun. We broke up into teams of 10-11 people and then each team had the opportunity to play every other team. My team was team "E". We did really well, after the first game (it was just our warm up game). I went from a negative score of -450 and a rank of 21/23 to a positive score of 1600 (still not that high) and a rank of 10/23...and I was on a team of all guys...so that's pretty good, right?

There was only one problem...the vest we had to wear that had the sensors on it was a little big on me and I ended up getting bruises on my arms. They are actually really uncomfortable.

We also had our carte de sejour renewal meeting today (the reason we had to be back here in France by this week). Everything went smoothly and quickly believe it or not. The thing we find particularly interesting is that everytime we have to submit paperwork for something we had to include a copy of our marriage certificate. ...even for a renewal. Oh well, Josyane has about 50 copies so at least we won't run out!

Lastly - Today, official plans have been made to send Duncan. David and I will be going Germany to spend the weekend with Cori in hopes that on Monday the weather in Georgia will remain cool enough for Duncan to get on a plane. It can't be warmer than 85 degrees or Delta won't allow him to fly. The uncertainty makes me nervous, so I bet you can guess what I'll be praying about the entire weekend. :o)

That's all for today. I'll leave you with a picture of Duncan, from yesterday, pre-yawn...isn't he cute?

Full First Day

2008-08-21T22:50:00.004+02:00

David and I had big plans for today...so here is how today went:

David set an alarm last night (and I was unaware of this) for 6am. His plan was to start waking up earlier so that he'd begin to get into the habit, in order to force himself to be productive earlier in the day. This also works for me because once Duncan is here he will want to go on early morning walks since he won't be able to go outside whenever he wants to anymore. ANYWAY, I woke up around 1:30pm and rolled over to wake up David. He then asked me "Did you hear the alarm this morning?" To which I answered "No." ...haha, he had heard the alarm and still didn't get up...even 7 hours later. Oops! So that set our day behind a few more hours than scheduled.

So instead of making a yummy quiche for breakfast, it was our lunch. Actually I was surprised by the quiche. It didn't taste like my quiche's used to. It tasted more like scrambled eggs. Granted, it is a lot like scrambled eggs, with onion and ham and cheese, but before it tasted more quichey. Oh well, it was good. I guess the 8 months in the US has affected my in-France cooking skills.

After quick showers we made our shopping lists and headed out! We each had bus passes that we never finished using back in December that still work - fwew! We headed over to the new shopping area near Cora to look in a store called "Saturn" (not a car dealership) it's an electronics store...like a Circuit City. The goal was to look at TVs that would be compatable (have the right inputs) for our Wii. Our initial thoughts were that somewhere people would be selling really old, big and bulky, somewhat large sized TVs that might have the right inputs, but that really isn't the case anymore. I never once saw a TV that wasn't a flat screen. So anyway, we looked at a few and narrowed it down to two, and before we knew it we had decided on one and jsut got it! I was surprised...David never makes a purchase that quickly qith so little research. He describes his mindset in this way "It's not like we're going to be keeping this TV for any length of time so I don't have to make sure it's the best out there at this size for this price." True, so true. So we have this TV...here's what it looks like:Oh, we rearranged our apartment again too...here is a preview:
Then we went to Cora to get a few essential things that we didn't get at our downtown ATAC (grocery store) last night...cereal (it's not that the ATAC doesn't have it, they just don't have a good variety - aka nothing we like), salsa for our tacos, milk, laundry detergent, and a big apple juice. After Cora we skipped going to GTL because it was too late and nobody would be there.

When we arrived home I made tacos for dinner. Did you know that our first meal here in our apartment was tacos? Now you do. Keep that in mind for future Swafford trivia. After dinner we went on a walk - David's idea (miracle!). The weather here has been great so far. The temperature is what I'm referring to really. Today was like a nice cool fall day. The sun was out a little, but clouds shaded the ground. It's funny, most of the people here are already wearing light scarves and jackets. I was walking around in a tank top. It was lovely.

Speaking of the weather, I had a brilliant idea today, and I really wish I had thought of this last year. But really, last year is the reason why I thought of this. Starting with yesterday, I am going to keep a record of whether it rains or not each day, everyday...and I'm going to make charts at the end of each month and at the end of the year to show the percentage of time that it rains here. But I really wish I had thought if this last year because then I would have proof that 98% of the days last year, it rained. I'm hoping this year the weather will put my idea to shame, but just in case I'll be ready! Just to keep you up to date, so far it is 50/50!

That's all for today!

8 months later

2008-08-20T20:06:00.003+02:00

For the last 8 months, David and I have been living in Georgia so that David could work in one of Georgia Tech's clean rooms. He worked very hard, but also a lot longer than he though he would have to. That is why we are just now returning to France. So, to make up for the last 8 months I will do a quick bullet list of things that I probably would have written about in more detail.

Return home mid-December
Celebrate our 1-year anniversary
Celebrate Christmas
Happy New Year!
Phillip and Eileen's wedding
Buy a Wii
Celebrate Rock Dunlap's life
Move David's parents into their new house
Mom has total hip replacement surgery
Trip to the Mountains
Nathan and Rebecca's wedding
Renovate my old bedroom - paint walls, put in hardwood floors
Rocky goes to Colorado for the summer
Finish Scuba certification
Grandpa Pete's cuts off part of his thumb
Ashley and Nathan's wedding
Nurses come to stay at the house to help Grandma around the clock
David's Dad buys back his old lake house - we go skiing, a lot.
Grandpa move's to a nursing home
Learn to slalom ski - ski a lot more
Luke and Danielle's wedding and Kathryn and Matt's wedding on the same day!!
Go hang out in Alabama
Get Duncan ready to be sent to live with us!
Accumulate TONS of family tree information to add to family tree software
David's parents get their home theater set up
Go to Florida to scuba dive
Watch Olympics
pack, leave.

Yep, that covers most of it. Since we have been back we have reestablished ourselves in our apartment. I think we've figured out and remembered where everything is. We haven't seen anyone we know yet (except for Audric who we saw ride by on the bus). Lots of our friends have left Metz. It's almost going to be like starting over.

One of the first things that happened to us when we stepped off the bus at the train station was that we were approached by a man handing out brochures about his church. This is particularly interesting because we think we might have already heard the pastor of his church one time at the other church we were attending. After he visited we told each other that we wished we knew where his church was because #1 - his French was easy to understand and #2 - he taught with a lot more scripture than the pastor/other people that were teaching at the other church. So, we are going to try to find them this Sunday and see how we like it. It will even be closer to where we live - maybe we won't have to ride the bus 3o minutes anymore!

Tomorrow we will journey over to the Technopole to get our carte de sejour renewal paperwork ready. Then we're going to start looking for a tv that will work with our Wii! And all the while I will be checking the weather back in Georgia to see when Duncan can be sent to us :o)

More later.

Heaven Bound

2008-02-17T22:40:00.010+01:00

Saturday, February 16th Rock Dunlap passed away.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:16

"I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom."

Psalm 145:1-12

Visitation Information:
Monday, February 18th (5-7pm)
Caldwell & Cowan Funeral Home
1215 Access Road
Covington, GA 30015 770-786-7062 http://www.caldwellandcowan.com/

Funeral Information:
Tuesday, February 19th (3pm)
First Baptist Church of Conyers
2100 Hwy 138 NE Conyers, GA 30013 (770) 483-8700 http://www.firstbaptistconyers.org/

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation: http://www.komen.org/

Thank You Joshua

2007-12-06T09:25:00.000+01:00

I have to share someone else's words that echo my own opinion:

(I've edited some spelling errors and capitalization)

"now, this is revolutionary for me, because: 1. I am 21 years old (and its a rare thing for younger people to be interested in politics) and 2. I have never before, before this campaign, been so intrigued and enthusiastic about any other campaign or government matters.
I am becoming a pastor soon, and I work as a intern at my church. From the beginning as I shared about Huckabee, I've heard the leaders/pastors tell me that "he has no chance, but if he gets that far, he has my vote." ...now these are the people that preach to me behind the pulpit about the biblical stories, such as David and Goliath, and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. These are the people that teach me about faith.

These are the people that tell me to believe in the inerrant word of the Bible. And they tell me about a young boy, going against the odds, and facing a giant. And how he overcomes the giant and ends up becoming king, but they don't think its possible
for a man of God to become President of the United States.
There are too many religious leaders out there, pastors, preachers, evangelists, whatever..that are preaching one thing to the choir on Sunday mornings and not practicing their true faith outside of the church walls. They are willing to vote for a man that has "more leadership capability", however has no stance in his faith, is pro-choice, and believes homosexuality as a normality. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

But, as Huckabee is going against the odds..I'm beginning to see a change in these people. I'll ask this question, and I believe its a question worth thinking about. I know the Bible says that all political leaders are ultimately appointed by God to govern over us, and because of that, we are to respect them. But, God (somewhere where our choice and His sovereignty overlap) has given us the power to choose the leader in this democratic government.

We have the choices in front of us. We see where politicians stand on subjects and faith and other important matters. Would God rather us put in office someone who is more "fit for the job", or "proven a better leader", or a man who fears and reveres God and wants to do everything in his power to please the Creator of the universe, and lead this country as President of the United States? If we believe in God, we should also believe in the ability of God to take a Shepard, and transform him into one of the greatest leaders of history, David. If God never changes, why isn't it possible that Huckabee can be the president that the United States has been searching for, the one that makes us One Nation Under God, again?"
-Joshua Davies
(comment from MikeHuckabee.com)

While it's sad that some of our current leaders aren't realizing this, I'm glad that people from the younger generation of The United States are.

However the elections go, I hope that you will support our nation with prayer and by participating by casting your vote.

Continuing to Follow Huckabee.

2007-11-29T13:12:00.000+01:00

Last night (this morning at 2am for us) David and I watched the live YouTube Republican debate. I'd like to share with you the Southern Political Report's survey results from the debate:

"The Florida survey conducted with the Florida Chamber of Commerce showed the following results:

Huckabee: 44%
Giulani: 18%
Romney: 13%
McCain: 10%
Thompson: 5%
Paul: 4%
Hunter: 1%
Tancredo: 1%
Rest: undecided
The survey of 341 Republicans who stated they were undecided, intended to watch the debate and agreed to phone in their opinion immediately after the ending was weighted for age and gender. It has a margin of error of +/- 6%.
A survey of Iowa Republicans of over 1,035 Iowa Republicans taken in the last twenty minutes of the debate showed Huckabee the winner in that state as well. The numbers virtually mirrored Florida. They were:
Huckabee: 32%
Romney: 16%
Giuliani: 12%
McCain: 10%
Thompson: 7%
Paul: 6%
Tancredo: 2%
Hunter: 0%
Rest: undecided
Interestingly, the Iowa poll did not survey only undecided voters. Yet, both a survey of undecided voters in Florida and a general survey in Iowa showed Huckabee the winner. In the media Spin Room, most of the major candidates were left with little if any media attention as virtually all print and broadcast media circled Governor Huckabee."

If you weren't able to watch the debate I highly recommend it. In the same way I highly recommend that you watch any of the debates because in each one Huckabee shows that he is a strong candidate and the best Republican candidate for the nomination of the Republican Party.

I hope and pray that if you are a Christian Republican your faith is strong enough to allow you to support Huckabee 100% even though many "Christian leaders" of today don't think he can "beat Hillary." Well, I don't know what God they serve, but my God is capable of beating Hillary and I believe he can use this man of God to do so.

Be involved! Vote in the primaries!!

Mike Huckabee is also endorsed by Chuck Norris.(see the video at the end)

Oh, one other thing that was pretty funny...

When addressing a question about trying to send someone to Mars (like we did with the moon) Huckabee recommended that Hillary be the one that gets to go. We need a President with a sense of humor!

HuckChuckFacts

MikeHuckabee.com

beginnings and ends

2007-11-20T11:11:00.000+01:00

Today in Metz a strike is starting, and it's a pretty big one. All government employees are striking. From teachers, to postal workers, to train employees, no one is going to work, and no one is sure how long it will last. I don't really know all the details, but I hope it doesn't last too long. David and I need to take a train on December 11th to go home!!

In Swafford news... I've been talking to David more about wanting Duncan to come live over here with us, especially since pet sitting our friend's dog. Last night he came home and handed me a piece of paper that looked like this:

We wouldn't have a specific room to put him, but this was just David's way of saying "It's ok with me if Duncan comes over here." !! This is big news, and I'm very excited. I hope I can find the best way to get him over here.

Thursday is Thanksgiving! We will be going to dinner at GTL with about 150 other people (students, professors, and families). My first Thanksgiving in another country, David and my first thanksgiving as husband and wife, and my first thanksgiving without any of my other family. A lot of firsts this year...

And lastly, and David will make fun of me for this... Our last month-iversary is this Friday!! (not that we have been celerating monthiversasries) I told David this is a big deal because we will never have a monthiversary again! Once you reach the first year anniversaries are all that matter... SO, we'll "celebrate" this one. I think we're going to go ice skating :o)

a little more from Halloween

2007-11-08T13:53:00.000+01:00

Singing Pumpkin Jack