We loved Greece. We are back in Italy now, in Bologna, heading up to Venice to take our flight back to London. We are flying back to Calgary Nov 2nd. I start classes on the 1st of Dec. so it will be pretty hectic when we are home.

Chad

We are writing this from an email cafe in ROME!!! Pretty cool, eh? We spent the last day traveling on the train for about 14 hours, including stopping for lunch in Milan (McDonalds). We are having a really good trip, two nights ago we stayed in this tiny town in the Swiss alps and no one spoke any English. It is a good thing that I know a bit of French. We went to an Irish Pub for dinner, but all they were serving was this really stinky cheese fondue, really Irish !?! We were not all that impressed with the Netherlands, but I think we should have gone in the spring. We did enjoy Kinderdijk with all the windmills though. Rome is finally the place where we don't have to wear a sweatshirt, what a relief. We are heading off to Greece tomorrow on the ferry, should be fun. Oh, I almost forgot. We saw the Pope today. He was outside St Peter's Basillica and shaking hands, etc. We got a picture, though I think he will be pretty small in it. Anyway, I should be going, this is costing us money. Talk to y'all later.

Chad

We are not on our trip yet. We don't leave until the 30th of September, but we are really looking forward to it. My parents are going to come over here on the 19th of September, and we are all going over to the Netherlands on the 30th for a week, and then Chad and I are continuing to Switzerland, Italy, and Greece.

We have been living in an old 5 bedroom Victorian house in the outskirts of London with an older
couple for about 7 months now. It is nice because they are letting us stay here for free!!! Four more weeks and we will be travelling around the continent for three weeks, then it is back home to sunny southern Alberta for three weeks before we head off to Grand Rapids to start my M Div. It is going to be hectic, but I can't wait to get back.

We are slowly getting things in order to head out of here. I have put a for sale sign in the car so hopefully it will sell soon. I want to get that out of our hair before we get too close to leaving. Sherilyn finishes her job this week, but she is going back to cover some holidays for another
girl so that will be nice. We have a nice budget for our trip, so it looks like we don't have to scrimp and save and can enjoy ourselves a bit.

It is hot here and the tube and trains feel like ovens. It gets up to 35 outside and I am sure it is another 10 degrees hotter inside the tube. They just don't have proper ventilation for the
trains. Anyway, I better get back to work.

Chad

We are about 9 weeks away from going on our trip around Europe. We're going to Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands. It should be pretty fun, but I am really anxious to get home again. We're going back to Alberta in November for a month and then we're moving down to Grand Rapids, Michigan and Chad is going to go to school to be a pastor for 4 years.

I'm quite happy to be going back to the States. Everything over here is so unfamiliar, and I just want to get back to where things are normal! The other girl at work has quit, so now I am working her hours too. I'm doing 10 hour days, and the people here can't figure out how I can do it. Most people work 5-6 hours. I don't see how they can afford to live that way, maybe they are being paid more than I am!

So, yes, we are going to the States again. We were trying to decide whether to go back to the farm, or for Chad to continue school for a PhD. Both are really good options, but we couldn't make the decision, neither one seemed to be the right choice. So, in church one night Chad said "show me what I'm supposed to do" And God said go into the ministry. It's not like Chad hadn't though about it before, he'd kinda always felt the call, but never took it seriously. So once he knew the answer, he knew he'd better take it seriously. So we're going to Grand Rapids, Michigan to start school in December for Chad to become an ordained pastor.