one week down .. 11 to go in vegas!!!

its the weekend!! on the weekends we dont really have any scheduled classes, or duties. today we're going to red rock to do some hiking/climbing which should be tons of fun! im excited. im wearing shorts today too! and tomorrow we're having a super bowl party at andrews place. apparently theres tons of big screen tv's and a hot tub! im excited, and i dont even like football! haha.
i didnt do a 'full detail' update on what we've been doing and stuff. every day in the morning we have work duties for like 30/60 minutes. my work duty for the month is mopping the kitchen floor. the good thing is that i have to do it at night, so i get to sleep in every morning !!! i was mad at first when i heard out of all the work duties, i got mopping! but now im glad that i have the mornings off, and it doesnt take to long to do it at night.
yesterday we went around our neighbourhood and passed out flyers for 'the pier' (which is the building that we're living in). we're providing services to our neighbourhood like needles for kids so that they can go to school, after school programs, food assistance and thing like that. it was really nice out too! we went in groups of four. we met this one guy, 'mike' that said he needed food assistance because he's waiting on a check to come in the mail, but it wasnt going to come until the 3rd. so we prepared a box of some food for him and he came later and picked it up. it was fun giving out the flyers to the people in our neighbourhood. some of us were kinda scared because it is a rough neighbourhood, and almost every person has a scary dog. but i think we're going to be doing tons of fun stuff for this neighbourhood, and getting to know them better!
on monday we're having our first speaker which is exciting! and we're going to be more in a routine.
i cant think of anything else that we did that was suppper exciting, and worth writing about.
im still waiting for them to put our computer in the lounge, so that i can stop bumming off other peoples computers. ill probably be able to post some pictures once we get that computer set up. until then, facebook pictures will have to do !!

vegas so far!

well , hello again. sorry for the lack of updates. we've been pretty busy here at the base with orientation week, and getting settled in. on my dts there are 7 students, and 3 leaders.. -- 4 canadians, 3 americans, 1 korean, 1 swiss, and 1 english. so its cool to have 5 different countries in our dts. (5 girls, 5 boys)
we've started to move away from the 'rules/guidelines' and more into a bit of teaching. we also got our first book report thats due sometime in feb. for the book called 'is that really you God?' by loren cunnigham (the founder of ywam). but i like just read the book a month ago, so its pretty pointless for me to read it again and do a book report on it. so one of my dts leaders are going to pick another book for me.

the dts is going great so far..lots of fun stuff to do. today after supper, about 8 of us went to a near by childrens park and played some soccer which was fun. im going to try and get back in shape .. i dont know how well that will go, but its worth a try. and after me and my friend went for a mile or so run around the block, and it actually wasnt to bad! i didnt die! haha. i think im going to go again tomorrow morning.

we went to the strip to explore last night for the first time for most of the people on my dts. it was fun to see it all again, but i was dang tired of walking around !! im sure that soon we'll all be sick of it !! but we have some fun adventures that we're going to be doing soon. this weekend we're going to red rock and do some hiking, and then on sunday we're having a super bowl party at one of the guys' house that works here at the base. apparently its been sweet there, with like tons of big screen tv's and stuff.

well thats all for now! it might take me awhile to update often because the internet hasnt been working that great lately, and i dont have my own computer. some of my dts mates put some pictures of vegas here so far that you can check out on my facebook. leave some comments, talk again soon!! :)

im alive!!

ive made it to vegas !! i got in yesterday night at 1030pm .. so 230 am NS time. i was SUPPOSE to get into vegas 12 hours earlier, but i had some "diffficulties" at my stop over in toronto. i had to get a visa, so i had a request letter for one from my DTS leader. when i went to get my visa inbetween flights they were taking forever. at one point i went up to the guy and told him that my flight leaves in 20 min "and i kinda need to make it". after a lot of sitting and waiting, and them not understanding anything, they guy eventually gave me the visa (yet, its not the one that i requested, but it'll do). Conviently he gave it to me at about 935am .. the same time that my flight as leaving. he said that i'd still make my flight. so i RAN to my gate ( i felt like i was in some movie or something) and when i got to my gate, the plane had already left. and then i couldnt get out of the gate area and i was just calling people at the base (woke them up at like 4 or something) here balling my eyes out trying to figure out what to do. i eventually made it back to baggage check in and told the lady what happened. they gave me a ticket on the next flight out .. which was at 850pm ... it was like 10 am !!! they tried to charge me 45$, but i wasnt letting that happen. she "waved the fee, just this once!" because it wasnt my fault that i had missed my flight. so then they made me go and get my bags, and push them around with me until about 5pm. i was basically pushing my weight in bags. i now hate the toronto airport because 1)they wouldnt let me through 2)its soo huge and confusing, i got lost wayy to many times 3) the people suck at giving directions. half of them didnt speak english either. ohh, i forgot; the lady put me on stand by so i wasnt even guarenteed a spot on the flight. but thankfully she said there was lots of extra seats on and that i'd make it. i arrived at my gate about 3 hours early. there was NO way that plane was leaving without me on it!
so, my 3 dts leaders, one of their friends and my friend sam who works at the base picked me up at the airport. at that point it had been about 20+ hours of travelling, and i had only slept in the airport for maybe a hour, and for about a hour on the plane aswell. my friend took me out to drive down the strip, and re live all the memories from last year !! i really did miss vegas! im glad to be back
i'll have a computer for the next couple of days because sam's gone to oregon or something to speak at a retreat for the weekend. i have to work on a dance written assignment that i didnt quite get done before leaving. ohhh school !!! how im glad im done with you !!
so, that is that !! bottom line; i'm in vegas, safe and alive ! im the first of 7 DTSers, so i just get to chill and do whatever. theres also 2 girls here from ywam tyler (texas) and theyre here until this friday. theyre crashing in my room (or im in theres? it'll be mine after they go . which i think im sharing with 3 other girls. ekk!) today im going to help them work on the prayer room, and paint and stuff which should be fun. i didnt sleep much last night; i went to bed at like 2 .. and woke up at 730. i think im soo over tired, that im not tired .. or something like that?
check soon for more updates. when i get a chance to update, i will ! i dont know how often after this weekend i'll be able to use a computer, but i ll try my hardest ! :)
love beth

ps--my canadian phone doesnt work here because it costs money for me to text back to canada, and i have no balance left on my phone. so i think you can text me and i ll get them (i dont know where my phone is right now ..) but when i get my new phone hooked up, i'll give you the numberr :)

the weekend

this weekend i had my going away party in the city at the belairs. i have some pictures for you too! YAY
after school on friday i headed to the city and went and hung out with michael and ryan for a bit and watched part of a movie. On saturday we did a lot of baking, decorating food and going out buying stuff for the party. Me and gabrielle made the cupcakes in the picture (well, lisa anne baked them, brittany iced them and we put them m&m's on. joint effort i guess).

it says "good byebeth jan 09 vegas!"

picture of gabrielle, brittany and me !

this last picture is the cake that lisa anne and brittany made; black forrest! lisa anne remembered me saying that it was my favourite kind, and i said that probably 3 months ago! yummmy.

after the party on saturday night, i hung out with brittany and gabby for the night and we just acted silly, and dressed up. maybe you'll see some pictures on facebook, i dont really have any good ones. it was a fun last night in the city to say the least !
it was hard to say goodbye to some of my friends today after church, and knowing that im not going to see them for the next 5 months! it sounds crazy, and im really going to miss my friends. its great to know that theyre excited for me to go!! after church michael, luke, matt & i all went out to swiss chalet for lunch. kinda a tradition to go there for lunch after church. i wonder if they have swiss in the states??

as of tomorrow morning, it will be 9 days until i go !!!! 9 days .. that just seems crazy. time really does seem to fly. im starting to get a little more ready, and i ll probably try and do some packing tonight. i also bought a camera this weekend for my trip because i figured that since im going away on such an awesome trip, im going to want to have pictures to remember it all by ! i only have 7 days left of school too ! (but im hoping for a snow day tomorrow!). check soon for another update !! leave me some comments ! :)