tandem

If by chance you were down town Victoria this weekend... somewhere around Yates and Vancouver... and you saw two people flying down the street laughing cheerily, with silly smiles on their faces and riding a red tandem bicycle.... well, I was on that bike. My cousin Lliam and I chopped up some veggies and tossed them in a roasting pan with some delicious stuffed chicken breasts, threw it in the oven and then zipped off on a large red bicycle to the green party office down town where they were showing an environmental documentary about farming on Vancouver Island. When it was over we had a little chat with a few interesting characters (the kind you totally expect to see at something like that) and then rode back to his house to enjoy our feast.

Over (and after) supper we had a friendly debate about (between) Christianity and ___________. I don't really know what to call whatever it is that Lliam believes in. It challenged me and made me look at my faith in a way I never had before. It isn't too often (ever) that I have conversations that in depth about what it really is that I believe. And I hear myself say things and I think "oh man! this makes me sound crazy!" Yet at the same time... I know its true. And I can't really prove it in any tangible way... I just know in my heart that its truth. I don't know if Lliam will be too pleased to know that after mulling things over for a few days... it has only driven me farther into what I believe, and the faith that I have in God. But we declared before the debate began that we were not going to be pushing our beliefs in each other's faces, nor were we trying to make the other change who they are. But I know what I believe, and I believe its the absolute truth. And it breaks my heart that some of my family members don't believe the same things I do. But is that going to make me stop loving them? or will it cause me to think less of them? NOT A CHANCE! If anything it makes me love them more, and desire to show them that I love them... and that I ALWAYS will. There is nothing they can do that will make me stop loving them... and that is the same way God feels about all of us. He sees us for who we really are, and loves us in spite of all our faults.

After my fantastic evening with Lliam I drove back to Jenna and Cait's where a curled up on the couch and fell asleep until my alarm rudely went off at 730. I quickly turned it off and then fell back asleep. Oops. By the time I realized that I had 'slept' through my alarm.... I was too late to get in the shower before Kk, and ended up washing my hair in the sink.

This was the last weekend in the TESOL/TESL/TEFL course that Kayla and I took together down in Victoria. And let me tell you... I am SO glad that its over. It was a great experience an I am coming out of it with qualifications to teach English in other countries.... and I am excited to see where is might take me, but it was 3 very long weekends. We had the most entertaining instructor who was constantly making us laugh and shocking us with his stories that proved over and over his motto for life: its all about manipulation. I think that with any other teacher I may have died of boredom while sitting in class for so many hours a day... but Steve was able to break up the complex grammar lessons and information hours with hilarious stories about his life. I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard in a classroom.... (except for maybe a couple of the lectures that Eis gave at Tauernhof)

And now I am home again. Ready to head back to work. I am hoping things start to pick up at the Kingfisher, otherwise I most definitely will have to get a second job. But I am hoping that I might be able to get a few ESL tutoring students through the international exchange program at NIC. If I am brave enough to put my name out there... but its good to start somewhere, right?!