merci beaucoup

ok first, klm airlines are the greatest. anytime you get a chance to fly klm, or even if you have a choice and its close in price range...go with klm. most airlines will boast little tv's in the headrests. klm not only has the tv's in the headrests but they give you a library of choices to choose from for your viewing pleasure. i have been out of the loop in the theatre in the last year and a half so, of course, every movie available i had not seen. on the way to the eastern hemisphere i should have gotten sleep seeing as belgium is 7 hours ahead of our time but...i DONT sleep on planes period. even if i take an aid i still won't sleep and will be even more groggy when i land. fortunately klm's library was stocked with movies i had not seen. flying east i saw the love guru with mike meyers followed by jumper with the chosen one, hayden christensen and last but not least vantage point with jack from lost and dennis quaid. on the way back i enjoyed poseidon, prince caspian, 21, syriana. so plenty of entertainment to keep me busy whilst every one else was sleeping. except for liz, there was about an hour or so in the middle of the flight we battled in tetris. thats right, they have games, where you can battle others on the plane. i would have thought this would be pointless and boring, however on the way back if it hadn't been for my tetris skills, the terrorists who were going to hijack the plane would have followed through with there plan if i hadn't challenged them to a winner takes all match. needless to say there was a library of tv shows to watch as well but of course they were all stupid shows like 30 rock and sex in the city, or friends. they did have one episode of flight of the conchords and the office but episodes i had seen before. anyways klm has my vote for all my overseas flights. and funny thing...they handed out these brownies that made me real loopy, strange i know, but when i ate one i got hungrier and even a bit sleepy. i asked where they were made they said a quaint little coffee bar in the downtown district. apparently this little hotspot was famous for their brownies and americanos, i had never heard of them. 

now the important issue...belgium. well if liz and i had taken peanut on this trip it would have been disastrous, in my mind. the first location in carlsbourg, where the convention was held, was not the ideal location for a 10 month old child. i am gonna refer to jon, nathan, courtney, liz, and myself as the americans from here on out. well the americans were told their beds were on the 5th floor in the "b" corridor. this was originally sounding like it would be a great place for us. we were told there wouldn't be any disturbances from the other kids and that basically we would be all the way out of the way. good, sounds great, we thought. until we had to climb the stairwell that took us to the 5th floor in corridor "b." sheesh, even the days we didn't have to carry our luggage up the stairs was the most exhausting climb for me. well, we thought, lets get settled in and things will be ok. ummmmm, not true. our heater was broke so not only were we looking forward to climbing 5 floors of stairs we would need to wear 3 layers of clothing every night to survive the cold cell. well, we thought, the stairwell is bad, the no heating situation is bad but i had liz to snuggle with and nathan had court and jon and allyster had...extra blankets, so...problem solved. NOPE. we found out later on in the night our "b" sector was not occupied by only the americans, but by belgian, french and many other teens that we had never meant nor would in the coming days. so basically it was youth camp in a tall building in the middle of the winter for us. oh well we had fun and like des's blog says, we were able to get to know each other a little more on this trip. it was really fun, because every night jon, nathan, allyster, and i got to do a house of prayer room for the convention called the holy lounge. this wasn't the name we gave it but it was similar to a coffee bar inside the house of prayer during an intimate session. it was great because this had never really been observed by so many teens before and we were able to show them and teach them, in a workshop, about worship and what it is about and what it does. it was great. we played during the conference in front of 300-400 youth and most of the songs were all in french so playing with someone whom we had never met before was challenging to say the least. i could go on and will later but i know that statistically by now you have phased out of reading and are doing something else. i will blog again about the spiritual implications and such later on.