Goodbye North America...

Hi ho hi ho it’s off to Brussels we go! From here on out English will only be the primary language in the Up With People community. Communication is going to get tricky! It’s the start of a whole new ball game—this past week, besides our general shows preparations and community projects, we also participated in Euro-Prep. This consisted of learning new music and dances for the various shows as well as attempting to communicate basic needs and scenarios to our “host families.” Essentially it’s a game of charades without a common language to facilitate or help zero in on the solution/answer. (Does that make any sense?) It was quite an amusing workshop. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out once we’re in these other cultures.

Lakeland was lovely. It has a small town feel yet a big town population. There are so many stories from the past week I'd love to share and explore but as usual time is short. So here are a few photo’s from the past few weeks.

We had a length commute most afternoons... (Ft. Lauderdale)

Host family! (Pernille, Denmark, Oukje, The Netherlands and Daniel from Sweden

Pedar from Sweden joined us on our Host family day at a local wildlife care center

Watch out for the gator! (We're now in Lakeland)

Marlene from Denmark...

That's not a alligator!

Birds at the Alligator reserve what a surprise!

This is Al.

He's a month old.

He loves to climb...

 

(He also peed all over me.) Gotta love cute baby animals. Here's one more....

David, from Sweden, and I went on a bike ride this past Saturday. It was a picturesque summer/spring day. Golden light skipping along green buds and emerging flower peddles as we wobbled along on rickety rusting  bicycles...

Exhibit A...

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C.

Exhibit D.

Photos from Belgium coming soon. It's been a wonderful day exploring the majestic cobble-stoned mystic of Brussels. I can't help but feel as though I'm walking into the pages of novel or on a movie set. The historic streets, buildings, the rugged roofline and the gently rolling forests abreast the road... Through the early morning mists I can almost catch a glimpse of  blue coated musket men and the flickering Napolionic flag...  (did I mention I live a short drive from Waterloo? Or that Belgium has been the battlefield of Europe for thousands of years? There have been more battles here then in any other region of the world...)

Anyway... more details and images coming soon!