Well, we made it! After 24 hours of traveling including a 6 hour layover in Minneapolis, we are home! Now to get out our toques and gloves as there's 4 inches of snow, and still snowing, and the temperature is a balmy -10C! The trip wasn't too bad, and we got to spend some time with our friends Katie and Travis in Minneapolis and got to go the Outback steakhouse! Yum! My feet were hurting pretty bad by the time I got off the plane 'cause I didn't take my boots off til we got home, which meant 24 hrs stuffed in cowboy boots! Now we have to get a bunch of stuff ready and packed for our move down to Michigan. It is strange to be back home, but know that we are leaving again soon. Oh well, it will be fun getting everything ready for our new start. Let you all know a bit more as we get closer to knowing when we move and everything. We have a one bedroom townhouse lined up to move into when we get down there. It is owned by the Seminary, though not on campus. Anyway, we better get back to work

We have been having a really good trip so far. Greece was really nice, and cheap too!! We stayed in a nice place with a private bath for €12 each. The weather was really nice and we did some hiking and looked at some really old ruins. We are now back in Italy, in Bologna, and the weather is not so nice. It is only 10 °c and wet. Oh well, I guess that is what we get for waiting until off tourist season to do our travelling. We are really looking forward to the end of the trip now. There are only two weeks left before we fly back to Calgary, and then it is another three weeks before I start classes again. I must be crazy, at least that is what Sherilyn thinks. I am glad that we have found the direction that God wants us to take, it is just hard to resign myself to another four years of study. It will be fun though. At least we got to see Europe while we were here. I think our next trip will be to some of the Greek islands, if we can ever afford to come back out here.

Chad

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