Today, I am sat in bed. It’s Sunday and I am sick.  I have skipped church this morning and will also have missed out on Christina’s 30th party last night and Amy’s Bridal Shower this afternoon… but I haven’t been sick for a long time.  I have already called in sick for work tomorrow – it’s that bad. Duude… it sucks.

So, what’s the latest? You’re wondering, now lets see.

I am still working at Starbucks, it’s fun.  I get to have random conversations (mostly with the people I work with) and the same conversations over and over and over… my favourite one usually goes something like this:

“Where are you from? Are you from New Zealand?”, to which I reply  ”No”,

“Australia?”, “Nope”…

“South Africa??”, “Not even close”…

“I’m from England”, “Oh! That was going to be my next guess.”

“Don’t worry” I assure them, “about 95% of people I speak to say the same”

“Are you sure? Because what you just said then sounds really Australian…”

Oh Canadians… I sigh.

So, what else is new?

I’m starting to volunteer with a friend of mine called Bryce, he helps run a kids program for some of the kids on the Native Reserve that is close to where I live.  For those of you who don’t know – in Canada, there are the First Nation people who live here, these were the people who were here before Canada got colonized by the Europeans a few years back.  If you think of Cowboys and Indians, they are the Indians – but that’s not very PC to say.  Anyways, we’ll be doing some fun stuff with them – doing some kind of educational thing and then sports in the gym.  I’m looking forward to it.

I also started playing Soccer …or Football.  I joined an indoor group who just play for fun down at my local community centre – it’s really fun, but I’m out of shape, man!!

Ok, what else?  I want to come visit England over christmas.  I’m planning on it.  So, keep a watch out! Then you’ll be able to tell me whether you think I’m getting a Canadian accent… haha!!

…I’m in the mood to go back to England.

I’ve lived in Canada now for 23 months of my life….and I think I’ll be here for a few more too!  I’m here until further notice.

But I realized today that it was exactly a year ago yesterday that I last flew back to Canada from England.  That means it’s been over a year since I last saw my Mum, my Gran and most of my friends.  It’s been over two years since I last saw my Dad and my family on his side. And it’s been over two years since I last saw my little brother!

I’m a little sad now.

So yeah…. I’m in the mood to go back to England… but only for a holiday.

Hello there, what drink would you like?

I have a job at Starbucks. I can now make Expressos, Lattes, Cappuccinos and more.

I had my first day on Monday and am really enjoying it so far – the people are really friendly and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.  It’s a lot of training but soon I will be the pro at telling you all about coffee and making recommendations, and I’ll be super speedy at making lots of complicated drinks. Today I managed 3 out of 8 in a 3 min test.  It’s all a lot to remember.

This week I have been thinking a little about community.  I really think it’s important to get out there and do something with the people who live around you.  I just finished a book called Yes Man, the principle of the book is the guy said YES more/to everything (sometimes good. sometimes bad, very bad).  As I’ve starting to meet loads of new people over the last couple of weeks, I’ve come to appreciate all of Gods creation…especially the people.  To meet all different characters and personalities, all unique and fabulous in their own way – all by saying YES.  How often do we stay at home and get stuck in the same routine, and never venture out past our own neighbourhood where there are some many fascinating people.  It’s a shame.

I got to go to Anvil Island last week to help out at a kids bible camp, it was a last minute decision – could have been so easy to say no to because I only knew one person. But now I’ve made new friends, and been refreshed and feel happy.  And not only that, I was able to be surrounded by God’s incredible beautiful creation – the water, the mountains, the sunshine….!!! A-MAZ-ING..!!!

I’m happy at the moment.

Yes, it’s July 10th, 2009.

Here’s an update on Jess-life in bullet points:

The Pais Project chapter of my life is over.  The Pais year ended June 13th with a pleasant grad ceremony, I said goodbye to the friends who have returned home and have consequently had quite a lazy month since.  The year ended brilliantly as we had a whole bunch of students from the school come join us at our youth nights (hip hop abs or dodgeball!), we love to see students having fun!

I have decided to stay in Canada until further notice.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but I hope to volunteer at the local school and maybe run a film class in my spare time.  We ended up building a great relationship with Cariboo Hill Secondary School, and the principle is open for more fun stuff to happen.

As of today, I am officially a Starbucks employee.  I have given in my SIN, and can receive my free cup of coffee when I turn up on Monday, July 20th for my first day.  I’m moving back to the westside of Vancouver where I lived last year, the Starbucks is up on Dunbar @ 29th.

Tomorrow I am going on a true Canadian experience and I can’t wait….!! I’m going to camp.  Oh yes, I’m going to spend the next week up at Anvil Island (Up Howe Sound – which is up the coast a little from West Vancouver)  I’m helping out with the work crew which should be fun.

I’ve been reading Yes Man by Danny Wallace and it’s so funny.  It’s a must read for any british people who are living away from home, it reminds me of home and the british ways and makes me laugh so much! I do love being British!!  Ah man…now I want some fish and chips.  I’ve also been reading Prayer by Philip Yancey – it’s interesting, it’s making me think about what I really believe especially in regards to prayer….does it make a difference??

Ok people, I think that’ll do for now.

It’s official.  I am terrible at keeping this thing updated. But I have not given up on myself just yet, as I wish to start again… today.

Here goes.

So, the new year has come and I thought it was about time that I sent out an update to all.  I’ve been so blessed by the support shown to me over the year, and I hope that you know that (between random emails) I love you and appreciate you an awful lot! So, THANKS!! You know who you are

And so, onto the meat….

Vancouver, this winter, has had the most abnormal weather – I’ve heard rumours that it hasn’t been like this since the 40’s!! (or since 40 yrs ago…either??) Anyways…..and so we’ve been covered in at least a foot of snow for about a month!!! It’s slowly melting away now…although this week it got down to -5C and snowed today!!..aaggh!!

Here’s a picture of my car and me scraping off the snow one day in Dec…

scraping away the icy and snow

Me in the snow!

Haha…ok….so you’ve got the picture by now!!

By the way, so that is my team car up there – it’s an Oldsmobile Cutlass 1990. We’ve called it Opa or Opi or Oldi (basically Grandpa) It’s such an old man car, it’s funny.    The only problem is that it is quite the gas guzzler – it’s costing us more to fuel it than money we have in our account, so we have a wee problem.  We need a new car or more money – so please pray for that, or if you want to donate to the cause then email me!!

So, this week I got a new team member – welcome David Lancaster, from England – the Brits now out number the Germans!!  He’s a funny one, and I think will settle in well to the team – he’s out at a school basketball game at the moment with Ben (our youth pastor).  It was sad to say goodbye to Sophie before Christmas, but she is safely back in Germany…which has meant that Sarah is the only German on the team now! She’s coping well with all the sarcasm so far!!

I have been badgering two local schools this week, trying to get meetings – Burnaby Mountain and Cariboo Hill Secondary Schools.  We have quite a few students in our church youth group who go to Cariboo Hill, so it’d be amazing to get involved there and meet their friends and make new ones – get them involved with the church.

Our youth program at the church is taking a change, starting Feb 1.  We’re starting new small groups (called Clutch) and fun events and a new service centered night called Crew Nights (that’ll start later though).  We’re really excited to connect more with the girls in our group, we have some awesome Grade 8’s who we really want to see grow in their faith and in reaching out to their friends in their schools.

Here are some names you can pray for – Sarah, Shawna, Rachel, Hana, Jessica, Stefanie, Katrina… they’re all super cool girls who we want to see grow in their relationship with God, their relationships with each other and to see them share that with the world!!

What else…??

The Flying Buzzard set sail at the beginning of December, they are currently around the Canary Islands….what’s more exciting is that her and Mike got engaged!!! My mom’s getting married!!!!!

Ok….so I think that’ll do for now.  This is a new season and I’m super excited!!!

Please email me with comments, or questions, or just to say hi, or to tell me that you’re praying, or to tell me how you’re supporting me….all’s good! I really appreciate it all. Thank you.

Be Blessed, love Jess

So…it’s been 2 months since Pais 08/09 started and this weekend is Thanksgiving weekend a.k.a Happy Turkey.  I get to spend Sunday with some of my favourite people and then get Monday off work too…which is great!

Ok, update on life thus far….

I got back from England and had a beautiful few weeks in the sunshine of Vancouver, I went to Vancouver Island and visited some family friends, I went down to Portland, OR to visit a long-time friend and got to see Seattle, WA too – the weather was amazing and it was wonderful seeing my friend Jennica again too (it’s been 4 yrs).  From there I flew to Fort Worth, TX for 2 weeks of Pais Foundational Training.

Pais Training:TEXAS

My role as Team Leader kicked in as I met the first member of my new Pais team – Sophie is 23 and from Germany.  My other team member is Sarah, she’s 20 and from Germany as well – she wasn’t able to get to the training in Texas until the last day because she had problems with her visa.  The training was an intense 2 weeks of seminars and teaching – it was good but crazy busy.  I was staying with the most AMAZING host family though – they had a swimming pool, hot tub, boat, jetski….it was amazing and the couple were the kindest, most loveliest people EVER!! I felt so blessed to have met them and live with them for two weeks.

Pais Canada::VANCOUVER!!! 

Back in Vancouver and It’s never felt more like home – I’m so glad to be back after being in Texas!! Vancouver is a sweet place to live. Seriously.

So, being back in Vancouver now, I have moved churches. I know work at a church called Cariboo Christian Fellowship Church, which is in the city east of Vancouver called Burnaby.  Because of this, I have had to move house too – so I spent my first week living with a Filipino family in Surrey.  The family were so lovely but Surrey is so far away! I was driving for nearly 2hrs each morning to get to devotions in Vancouver, as I had to pick up the girls in my team from Port Moody (which is also far far away!).  I moved after a week to near where the girls were living to another city called Coquitlam – where I live at the moment with a lovely couple called Bob and Sara.

My team life has been challenging – trying to hold onto the vision of creating a media team, but not having anything turn out how I expected it (not just things I wanted to happen not happening, but things I didn’t want to happen happening!)  So, I’m learning to be faithful with what I have and to hold on to my dream.  I have the most amazing people around me and I love my new church – my new youth pastor is called Ben and he’s awesome.  I just don’t like being so far out in the suburbs. I miss my old host family and being in the Westside…but I keep visiting.

And now it’s been 2 months and things are plodding along….it’s not bad but it’s not great.  But I do have tons to be thankful for….and now it’s Thanksgiving and I’m so thankful, I’m happy and feel so loved.  I feel at home in this temporary home for the year…..that sounds weird, but it’s all ok!!

Some photos:

I had the privilege of visiting 2 awesome friends (and seeing 2 more) in Germany – just an hour flight from England, and I landed in Frankfurt Hahn Airport.  I arrived on the Wednesday and spent the first few days with Lotte and then Robin picked me up on Saturday and we drove down near to Stuttgart…or rather to Moensheim! hehe.

Joni came on Monday and we made the trip to Bodensee, where you can get phone signal from Switzerland because it’s right across the lake.  We got wet, as it was raining but it was great fun and we got to see Tabi.

Robin likes to do a million and one things, and so he showed us his Paragliding stuff…we played mini-golf, twice…we went for bike rides…shot air rifles…drank lots of Becks with Lemon…and many more things – like meet Robin’s twin, Heiko!!! haha.

I really loved Germany  

How lucky am I?! I got to go back to England and see all my wonderful friends and family that I haven’t seen in a year.  It was such a strange feeling as I arrived in London Gatwick, for the first time in nearly a year, I wasn’t the one with the accent!  Suddenly, it felt like my life in Canada was only a dream as everyone drove on the left, spoke all posh and drank Tea everywhere.

I spent my first week in Cheltenham, the town where I spent 3 years at University. It was wonderful being back and seeing so many of my friends! It was like I’d never left….conversations picked right back up again, especially as I had to catch up on all the goss.  I realised here how much I miss England, and that I prefer small towns to giant cities (like Vancouver).  It’s a place that feels comfortable – it’s home.  And so I had a crazy week of seeing a million people over lunches, dinners and cups of tea!

Second week…I made the trek up to Cumbria, where my Mum lives in a small coastal town called Maryport.  It was great seeing the family again, and to see how far the boat has improved in a year.  This week was a lot more relaxed – reading, walking the dog, and not much else.  We drove up to Scotland for the day and I got to stand on Hadrian’s Wall – oh the fun! 

I then went to my Gran’s over near Hull. That was nice. I then made my way back south towards Birmingham and then Stansted Airport – to go to Germany (see above post).

Back in England after a week in Deutschland, I stayed in Birmingham with my Aunt’s family. I video’d Sebrina and Steve Miller’s wedding which was a lovely day – still working on the video!  I then went and saw Rosie…..before leaving back to Canada! 

The weather is not worth talking about. I got back to Vancouver expecting sun, and well…summer, but so far I’m still waiting.

But today there was no stopping me as I trudged through the Westside rain clouds, I found myself at my destination: Cheap Skates on Dunbar,  AND . . . bought a bike!! for $59. It’s sweet. It’s white and says ‘Made in Canada’ on it. And…well…I don’t know much about bikes, but it works!!  

And now I’ve just finished baking some Chunky Monkeys I actually enjoy baking (even though I rarely do it)…and as I was using a British recipe it meant I had to convert grams to cups. So my brain got a little mental arithmetic workout at the same time.

 yum

ps…You might like to know that my black eye is almost back to normal. I’m impressed with it’s quick healing – usually bruises last forever on me, but this one has pretty much gone in 5 days!!