CLIMBING.

So over the past year I've gotten into some Rock Climbing, don't have many great pictures but I'll share a few.

SUMMER

SportsLife08

Alright so I'm a bit slow on the updates for the blog... however I'm doing great! This summer I have the opportunity to work for Sports Life Camps in the Twin city area. I get to work with some great people, and get paid to play games with kids!! I'm not going to lie I was really hoping to be home this summer... i love my home town area(well not so much the area but the people!) But I'm excited to see what God has in store for me this summer and fall back at Bethel University! Your prayers are always welcome by the way!!! (pray for guidance and wisdom!)

MN-3 My team for the summer!

More SportsLife Staff...

Barcelona

Three days and two nights in Spain... After my time in Amsterdam I decided to get a little bit more of Europe and fly over to Barcelona with the extra days I had . So another Bethel student who also studied in Amsterdam with me, decided to fly over to Spain with me.
Now we had this epiphany right before leaving Amsterdam that should rent scooters while in Barcelona, I mean seriously what better way to see a city in only a couple days. However when we arrived we found the rent place and they basically said, well its legal however the Police will likely confiscate our Scooter because you don't speak Spanish , that is if you are stopped. So knowning that we would look rather ridiculous on said scooters , or at least we wouldn't look at home and so would likly be an easy pair to spot for the Police we decided against the scooters.Tossa Del Mar
However the alternative option to the scooters was to take a bus up the coast a few hours to Tossa Del Mar. Which was well worth it, the pictures should speak for themselves.

Bikes and Coffee..

I have never seen so many bikes in my life as I have in Holland... however they are put to very good use. We were able to rent bikes one day in Amsterdam, wow... its amazing how fast you can get around the city.. and when parking a car in the city cost about 4,50 euro(~$7.00 US) and hour its starts to make sense..

...and I believe I drank more coffee in the three weeks than I have combined in my life time... Any kind of event or meal that I was at regardless of how small, we were served coffee..

-AMSTERDAM-

The city of Amsterdam is now the most international city it the world, representing 179 different countries. The second being New York City. The Dutch pride themselves on their tolerernt 'live and let live' philosophy. The Netherlands is the only European country to have legalized soft drugs, legalized prostitution, and legal euthanasia.

I was part of the Drug Articles group for this class, we were given several articles regarding the situation of the soft drugs here in Amsterdam. The sale and consumption of Cannabis is legal when following strict guidelines here is the Netherlands. If following these guideline you can only really consume in a coffee shop, which the limit per customer is 5 grams. A Coffee shop can have a stock of 500 grams at any given time. There are a few others, but basically when a shop follows these guidelines it will not run into any trouble. The idea behind this an effort to seperate the hard and soft drug markets. The soft drugs are considered to have acceptable affects where as hard drugs are considered to have unacceptable affects on the body.

In the effort to seperate the drug markets, the Netherlands has actually received good results from various surveys regarding drug use, the numbers are far superior to that of the United States. As a percentage in population... however these good numbers are two faced. Despite the fact that the 'front door' policy is legal. The 'back door' policy is not monitored, meaning the government doesn't know where the coffee shops get their supply of cannabis. Which is a huge grey area in Dutch politics. However speaking with various residents in random Cafes around Amsterdam, the Dutch people are very aware of this issue.... if you want to discuss more.. feel free to comment..

This is a Cannabis Seed Shop!! However its illegal to grow it!

AMSTERDAM

Hey, well I'm new to this blog thing... had to keep up with siblings and get my own. So here it is.. Right about now I'm studying in Amsterdam over the month of January. However Amsterdam was not my first choice for study abroad options... intially I was going to try and visit the big sister down in Mexico and take a class at the school where Dominique teaches. When this fell through I went to the office of internatinal studies and found that the only study abroad program with open positions was Amsterdam. I jumped on the oppurtunity, the class will cover a gen ed. but I also desire the experiance of being abroad. I mean sure its a great time... but I also consider it a very valuable blessing to be able to increase my global perspective.

This is a picture of the YWAM(Youth With A Mission) building where my self and the rest of the Bethel students are living for the month of January. This building is located a few blocks away from Central Station, making it very easy to get around the city.

Hey I'll get more on here but my time limited on the YWAM computer, so this is it for now..

Transportation of Amsterdam