great land of cheese

i've made it to the great land of cheese... Switzerland i mean... and its as beautiful as i've imagined it to be. i'm now here in burtigny, switzerland doing my last course called the school of communication foundations. the students. the ywam base. the content of the school. the food.... its just been amazing. im actually surprised myself with adjusting to living in this small french speaking village but i definitely know its a God thing since i was pretty much over thr transition thing... but God is good... and so is the cheese...

for the newly weds

i'd like to dedicate this one to charmaine and ferdie.... my good friends that just got married back in california and sadly enough, i wasn't able to be there to witness their special day. this entry wouldn't even come close to making up for my absence, but i just wanted to honor them and wish them all the blessings in their marriage! these two are amazing and i love 'em to bits and pieces and have both meant so much to me over the years... blessings to you guys in your new marriage. now go make 'em ferdie jr.'s! (DODE. haha) CONGRATULATIONS...

a hui hou

can't say that it was the end of the world, but it was the end of my journey in kona, hawaii. for the last 2 years, i've been completing different schools at the university of the nations... it became a routine to fly in every few months or so but now that im coming to the end of this degree, i've stepped off the campus knowing i wouldnt be back in awhile...its as cliche as it gets, but you dont realize what you got until you've left it. so i say aloha to the beautiful big island of hawaiii...a hui hou... until we meet again...

snow... in hawaii?

i saw it with my own two rainbow shaped eyes... i saw snow in hawaii! so my friend peter took me up to mauna kea the other weekend, the tallest volcano in hawaii (it rises 32,000 ft from the ocean floor) and mauna kea literally means "white mountain" in hawaiian. when youre up that high, you get kinda loopy... weeeee... there was no sunrise we could rave about that morning but heck... there was heaps of snow. it was a blessing that we got to go up to the summit cause on our way down, they closed off the road because of the snowstorm! so im glad we went (thanks pedro) and that i got to see just another piece of this mysterious beautiful big island of hawaii...

back in the 4th grade

there's a lot of things that i wish i pursued as a kid... and one of those things was playing the violin. if only i wouldlve sucked it in and enjoyed being in my 4th grade violin class. but now that im older, ive been keeping my eyes open for anyone to teach me (and for cheap cause lessons can be expensive)... well, it so happens theres a classically trained violinist doing her DTS and her name is Sirja from Finland...we got to talking and now, im taking violin lessons for an hour each week! im no violinst and who knows if i'll ever be called one, but heck, i played my first piece last weekend... it was called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. :) it was awesome but kinda ironic that i felt like i was back in 4th grade....

one day... one day...

i'm realizing more and more how much i love being here at this ywam base in kona and that im in the midst of being in a melting pot of cultures, languages and generations each and every single day. theres over 31 nations represented right now, sitting in my own backyard and its amazing. i'm reading this book called "Foreign to Familiar" by Sarah A. Lanier. it talks about understanding the differences between hot and cold climate cultures... very interesting... you can say im getting cultured each day. part of that is learning japanese...日本語を学びたいと思う... (okay, i cheated and just put that in the translator thingy.) but learning the language take times. ive always been fascinated by the japanese culture and im claiming it now, that one day... one day... i'll get to japan...