you guys can now check out our outreach blog for updates

borgendtsoutreach.blogspot.com

tusen takk!

bonjour bijou! okay, i'm going to attempt to update you on the last 2 weeks. trrrrrry. with my leaking eye, running nose, sore throat, and tired body i might peter out near the end. ok, i'm just being dramatic now....my eye has actually stopped leaking.....but it was yesterday, HONEST!

here's a narrative of my vacation to the tropics of England.
So a trip that really only takes 4hrs of flying time ended up taking Bex and I 2 days. We left Borgen at 10am on the 22nd of December to drive down to Tromsø. Spent the day in Tromsø and then spent the night at Audhild's cute apartment (Audhild is a friend we met during the lecture phase when we had classes with the bible school in Tromsø) Bex and I were SO tired (explanation: because of the darkness our eternal clocks were a little messed & we hadn't been sleeping properly for approx 3 weeks) anyways, so we were tired and ready to go to bed at 6:30pm. We had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our flight, so we crawled into our beds and waiting for sleep.....and waited and waited and waited......8hrs i waited, until 2am when my body finally decided to let me sleep! so we got up the morning of the 23rd, caught a bus, and were flying through the air by 7am. We arrived in Oslo at around 10ish and our next flight didn't leave until 8:30pm. so we caught a bus into the city of Oslo to meet up with Turid and Cherob for the day. We were SUPER excited to see the sun....here I am searching for it:

THERE SHE BE!!!! i don't think that anyone can fully understand how beautiful and lovely and important the sun is until you're away from it.

Bex sees the sun

I see the sun :)

Bex and I waiting for our train into Oslo. this is how i interpret the next couple of pictures:

"Mel, put the camera down."

"fine, then i'll just be cute."

"take this."

"and THIS"

train station in Oslo. ruffin' it

backpacker bex

and mel

an Oslo park

there's Cherob in the bottom right corner :)

So Cherob and Turid took us around the city of Oslo for the day and dropped us off at the airport a couple of hours before our flight was supposed to leave. It was a really tiring day, b/c of the lack of sleep earlier, but Bex and i prevailed! our flight down to London was supposed to leave at 8:30, but because of the fog issues in London in was postponed until about 10:30pm. so bex and i just hung out in the Oslo airport. took a short flight down to London and arrived there before midnight. we had to wait at the airport until the next morning when Eric's flight came in....SO, we wandered around a bit looking for a place to hide and sleep....almost all of the benches had people on them! it was crazy, finally we found an empty bench and settled in:

we didn't really want to ask anyone to take pictures of us....so you have to use your imagination and imagine these next two pictures together as one. we had 2 seats each :) comfy.

so after our LOVELY evening at Heathrow airport (actually, we were quite blessed, because of all the fog issues they were having they gave us blankets to sleep with, free sandwiches, and cookies) we met up with Bex's friends Mez and Ryan (whom we stayed with in Nottingham) at about 8am, then waited for Eric's flight. He came in, we drove out to Nottingham & then made PIZZA for Christmas eve! now THAT made me happy.

Christmas brunch Mez and Ryan made us a FEAST! So much good food, it was crazy!

We were in Nottingham from the 24-27. Over those days we slept in, and then spent the days relaxing & wandering a bit around Nottingham. like the time we ran into Robin Hood:

the view from our window

playing settlers! YES family, i played and didn't do too bad!

Bex and I...roomies

Nottingham at night

on the 27th we had to go to Birmingham to get Eric a new visa for Thailand. so Mez and Ryan lent us their car & Bex bravely and confidently (as you can see in the picture) drove us there. the Embassy was only open from 8-11:30am and b/c of car insurance issues we only left Nottingham by 9am. The drive was only supposed to take an hour......buuuuuuuuut we got a little lost and after a lot of searching we found the building and rushed in there 15minutes before they closed. the processing only took like 5minutes, so it all ended up good and Eric got his visa.

what my lap looked like on the drive there and back

WHERE IS THIS PLACE?????

after our adventure to Birmingham we came back to Nottingham and then caught a train down to London! here are some of the sites of london:

they don't like you feeding their birds alcohol

haha, ok, so that's Buckingham Palace and i look delirious

you can't see it too clearly...but it's a picture of a cross walk for horses.

LUKE BERGEN: we took this picture for YOU. can you find in it London??

the FRONT of Westminster Abby

sometimes Bex goes into fits of rage and then ends up in tears......ok, really her camera battery died and she was in mourning.

BIG BEN

the Tower of London

the new and the old

the London Bridge

Where's Waldo (aka where's bex?) piccadilly circus...INSANE

didn't want to waste a cent :)

Eric had an interesting convo with Sarah Michelle Gellar, she was kind of rude.

and i met Spider Man

it rained, it poured

Peter Pan!

there was a bag of coins behind the Peter Pan statue...we were confused by it, so we just left it.

Eric left the morning of the 31 & in the evening Bex and i met up with Mez and Ryan again, got dressed up and went to a ball for new years eve :)

we're afraid and intimidated

after the ball we spent another night at heathrow airport & left at 8:30am. we arrived in Oslo and look at little bex, no sleep and she still looks beautiful :)

ok, i'm so sick of working on this blog right now..kafsakljajfdkanvaewklfawjeflsdfasfa.....ok, ok, i'm OOOOOK!

anyways, so we took a train from Oslo down to the Grimerud base for a conference, we were reunited with everyone, i got to talk with other Canadians (Laura Hedlin for example :)) it was busy, but good. on the 5th we all flew back up to Tromsø . yesterday and today we've been getting ready for leaving tomorrow (got that?) and that sums it all up!!

this is what my room looks like right now:

a couple of us caught a bad cold, so if you guys could pray for quick recover, it's appreciated. tomorrow morning we're leaving at 9am for Kautokeino! woo! run run run!!

much love, mel