you know, sometimes i wonder just how blessed i am... i mean, i've got a job here in germany, able to
travel all over europe with my 6 weeks of vacation per year, and hang out with a great group of friends
from places ranging from the netherlands to mexico. am i not a great example of God's providence? and
yet further evidence has come this month...
first, remember how i'm applying to all these universities in the uk for a masters degree in
international development? well, i've already heard from lse and
bath, and i didn't get into either one... lse because the program
was already full by the time my application was completed (i don't want to blame the profs for taking
so long for writing their references... but the profs took so long writing their references!), and bath
cuz i just didn't get in...
how is that good? well, it's not, but i also got an email from king's
college that i was accepted there! woohoo! how awesome is that? the masters admissions tutor for
my program (that's the guy who decides if you're good enough or not) emailed me and said that i'll be
sent an unconditional offer for my program! cool beans!!!
well, i'm still waiting on the package from king's, and also from the answers from manchester and
birmingham, but now that i've definitely been accepted somewhere, that's the deal. i'm outtie. i
haven't formally given notice at work yet, cuz my mom says to hold off until i get the offer on paper,
but still... woot! so all you ppl who said you would visit me but still haven't... now you can visit
me in a country where you can still understand the language! :P
allan, me, steph, andrew, grace (l to r) in nice
click here for more pics
second thing was the trip to aix-en-provence... it was great. the weather was just fantastic... sunny,
warm, every day was around 26 degrees... i even got a little sunburn on the back of my neck. deadly.
it was really great to see andrew and steph again, and to get to know allan and grace better... we had
such a great time, walking through the streets in aix, frolicking on the beach in cannes, and best of
all, eating killer gelato in nice... seriously, it's the best i've ever had.
oh, i'm going to revamp the website again... i'm just not into maintaining it now as i was before
(obviously), so i'm gonna concentrate on creating content, and leaving the coding to someone else...
so as part of that, i'm gonna slowly move all my pics to flickr,
which is a photo-sharing website, and i'll probably blog with
blogger although a part of me still wants to go with something
like movable type... well, we'll see. it'll be
slow going...
anyways, i mention this cuz i've already posted 2 sets of pics to flickr... i'd also appreciate any
comments on the usage of flickr too... but yeah, here are a couple sets of pics to appease those who
think i don't post enough: pics from the
smd retreat and pics from the trip to
aix-en-provence.
i've also noticed that this might be the third month in a row where i'll only have posted one entry...
pretty dumb, eh? yeah, ok, i'll try to post more often, esp. since there's some other stuff to say...
but that will have to wait, since i've gotta get packing... going back to aix this long weekend...
which leads me to item number three of how blessed i am... but i'll write about that later. :P
5.30.2005 am i the luckiest guy on the planet or what?
holy website updating, batman! a second entry within a calendar month! yes, that's right, kids... your
humble host here is back with another update. don't worry, i'm still me, ever the slacker, but there's
that little thing i wanted to share about from the last post...
so in case you weren't able to figure it out... which shouldn't be the case, cuz even jason figured it
out... but yeah, i went back to aix-en-provence to visit a girl. but not just any girl, mind you... now,
she's my girl, the girl... the one? i sure think so...
anyways, for those unfamiliar with steph's vitals... christian, german, languages and economics, almost
23, 160, 55, brown, brown. i think that just about covers it.
my sweetie and me
it's funny how things happen, you know... one minute, you're just visiting a friend studying in a foreign
country, the next minute you're sitting on a bus for almost 16 hours to see her again... weird. but then
again, a lot of strange things have happened to steph and i over the last 18 months, so who's to say that
this wasn't all by design? which is to say, i do think it was by design, only not ours, but from the Man
upstairs...
steph, in her room
in fact, just during our last phone conversation, we bantered a bit over the question viet and i love to
use: "what if...?" what if steph hadn't come to toronto last year? what if she never met andrew? what
if andrew and allan didn't come to visit europe when they did? what if they didn't want to go to visit
steph in aix-en-provence? what if steph hadn't grabbed my hand that day in aix? what if the raptors
drafted hakim warrick? (whoops, how did that get in there? :P)
well, suffice it to say, against the odds and even more importantly, our own general idiocy, we managed
to get together... and now, we're trying to take things slowly, trying to build our relationship for the
long-haul... i mean, she'll be off to ireland in september for the next year of her program, while i'll
be somewhere in england (oh yeah, i didn't get into manchester :( oh wellz), and then she still has a
year after that back in köln, when i'll be... who knows where.
but whatever. after that, it's all in the air... all in God's hands. i don't know where He's leading
me to, but i'm glad i've finally found someone to come along for the ride.