Monday, May 30, 2005

misjontiimi!!! mission team!!!! (notice that there are 3 I's in mission team/tiimi, so who says theres no I in tiim/team?)

i just got back from finland and the second mission team trip. and it was awesome. (one thing i have to mention before i go any further is that i'm freaking out excited cuz when i came home guess what peter did, he gave me a kiss!! this is something new hes learned to do and he gave me a kiss right on the cheek and i am freaking out excited so just wanted to mention that) and once again some bad things happened, and some good things happened to. a.d now i'll tell you a tale of finns, estonians, and lollpea americans ;)......

on friday morning me and my dad left tartu to drive up to tallinn. and we actually had a pretty good time in the car listening to music, and i read some of my school books (even though a book with a name like "cry, the beloved country" sounds boring, it wasn't). then we got there and met up with everyone and after hanging out a little bit we all got in the car and drove to the boat. let me tell you who was there. there was:anneli, evelin, eero, kristal, my dad, mrs. wittenberg, and me. so we went and drove to the boat and this time we were taking the car and so we drove it into the bottom of the boat, which was kinda cool becuase that meant we didn't have to wait in line for our tickets or passports to be checked. and so we get on the boat and of course right away go check out the karoake. which was, as always, good when we did it, and a head ache machine when anyone else did it. but besides that we had a fairly calm and uneventful trip across then we get there and meet miika and kati at the terminal and said hi to kati and put miika's stuff in the car and took off. so now with miika guiding, and fun music blasting, we went to turku. and on the way we stopped and had ham sandwhiches, which i thought were the nastiest things i ever ate, but every else seemed to like it (except anneli thought it smelled bad). and then we get to the corps in turku and after being locked out for ten minutes finally got a hold of the people in charge who opened the door for us. and so we came and had burgers (these were some of the best burghers i've had since moving to estonia) and practiced everything we had to do the next day. and this is we got me excited, evelin FINALLY taught me the evanescence drama. and surprise, surprise, i was the evil guy!! it is so cool, i get to wear a cape and i get to kill anneli and i try to like kill kristal too and...i'm getting away from my point. so then after this we go to the hostel where we were staying and i tried on my evil evanescence cape. and then me and miika got the cool idea "hey, we should tape me running around in a cape!!". so he got out his video camera that he had brought and tape me doing cool stuff in a cape, this included attacking evelin, killing the air with my drum sticks, running around and taping it from different angles, and me basically becomeing "darth kurisu" (my video game alter ego).

so then after this evelin and miika where talking and i was listeneing to music and reading, and everyone else was out chilling or something. and then anneli gets a phone call. i had gotten bored so i put away my book and went to look for someone to hang out with miika and evelin where having a "serious talk" that they didn't want me to interupt so i go out in to the hallway see anneli on a chair with her phone at her ear with a horribly pained look on her face saying "no!!". now i did what i always do in times like, "back away chris, back away". so i go back to evelin and miika and say to evelin (since she's anneli's sister) "you might want to check on anneli, she was on the phone and she looked upset". so she says she thought anneli was talking to her boyfriend, so i'm just like wow, this is way out of my league, u deal with it. so i go read some more and then come out later and find out that anneli had a really good reason to be upset. her boyfriend had died in a car accident. and so had his friend, and his other friend was in the hospital. so as we all prayed for her mrs. wittenberg talked to her and helped her. and all i could think was "why is it always anneli and evelin who things happen to?". and then i thought of something, you they bassically hold the mission team together, they've tought us half we know, and they are some the most skilled people on the team. normally i don't go in for the whole "devils out to get me" thing but it makes you think doesn't it, its quite a coincidence. so anneli eventually did get to sleep and so we all went to bed. now one thing i hate is that these are the times i feel helpless and useless. other people, like miika, can give a hug and say comforting words becuase they've gone through this stuff themselves. but i can only imagine whats its like to so suddenly lose such a close friend.

so then we all go to sleep and prepare ourselves for the next day, and...oh wait. my moms yelling at me to get off the computer, i'll write more later, Cya.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

mission team rules!!!!! (part 2, osa 2)

ok, i am now finally going to finish writing about mission team, do you want to know why? tommorow i leave for yet ANOTHER mission team thing in turku, finland. so i need to finish writing about last mission team before i go to this one. so now, day 2 of mission team...

i wake up and think to myself "oh what a beutiful morning!!! oh what a beutiful day!!! etc. etc....". then i get up, go out into the hallway with miika and see evelin there and we just hang out and talk and have fun for a while. and then i get around to asking what time it is..."4:15" miika says. wait, wait, wait. i didn't have to wake up 'til like 7 and you made me wake up at 4!!! ugh... but of course i didn't care, so then we have i nice delicious breakfast, and hung out some more, and then...we left!! first we went to do this open air (a meeting outside, duh!) and it was awesome we did the line dance(i'm, in this), the chair drama(i'm the dude who laughs), and the evanescence drama (i'm not in this but we used my CD becuase i am a HUGE evanescence fan, thank you auntie for giving me that CD). and then sarah gave an object testimony, and mrs. tyrell talked about god and stuff. and heres the coolest part, all we had was a small CD player that had sertious technical dificulties with each song, and we had trouble getting organized each time, and we had no amplification for when people talked. but, people stopped, watched, and listened. i don't know if anyone really was moved to tears, but people listened and payed attention, which was a lot more than i expected.

so then we go to this corps (pronounced like core, not corpes. if it were corpes that would be a dead body) and get ready for something we're gonna do with the kids, a sunday school type thing. so well everybody else just lied around, me and evelin (we were working together on part of the program) cut out butterflys and got ready. and then when we were done evelin went on the piano and started playing this tune that was like pure magic...it was...so hard...to stay...awa..ke. band we all just crashed so while we tried to sleep anton took pictures of us!! (you don't want to see the picture of me...ugh) and then after that the kids got there and we all woke up got ready to rumble!! me and evelin didn' t have to do anything 'til the end so me and her just helped everyone else, it was fun. we played 2 games with the kids, baked ressurection biscuits (delicious), and basically had a good time. then at the end, i'm still not sure why, me and evelin could't do our thing :-(. i think we were out of time. so then we left and went back to the place where we were staying and had all sorts of fun all the guys and anneli (cuz shes a "tomboy") went out and ran around and junk on the playground. that was fun, i haven't played on a playground in a looooong time.

then that nigt anton had the idea that we should have a party (PARTY!!!!) and i, obviously, loved the idea!! so it fell to me and anneli to plan it. i suggested we play knight, horseman, cavalier ( if you were at english camp you know the game), but that turned out not to good. and then we played broken telephone, and a charades type thing, and did other fun stuff. that was awesome. so then after the party we still had time so we did whatever we wanted. evelin, sarah, and miika played war (hey, i have a secret for you, BLUE MONKEY!!!*) and me and anneli played yugioh. see, thats how cool anneli is, whenever i'm around she steals half my cards and we play yugioh, and even though she doesn't know the rules, she still wins. why would that happen, i wonder...;-). so than after me and anneli finished, i sort of got absorbed into the game of war and anneli went off somewhere. so then after war it was time to go to bed, so i go into the bathroom and do all my go-to-bed stuff (brush teeth, etc.) and come out to see one of the scariest things i've ever seen...mrs. tyrell helping anneli walk down the hall...anneli with blood on her face...mrs. tyrell looking very serious. right away, FREAK OUT!!! i go freak out at miika and evelin to find out what happened, even that wasn't good cuz evelin was already freakin' out(evelin and anneli are twin sisters)!! so then me, miika, and sarah try to help evelin calm down (she was really freaking, hyperventilating, shaking, the whole deal). dude, i was scared to death. so we bring evelin to an unnocupied room and lie her down on a bed, we then try to comfort her by telling her "it's gonna be ok" and stuff. then mrs. tyrell comes and kicks me and miika out, and all the guys have to go to the guys room "AND DON'T COME OUT!!". ok, first we see anneli bleeding with no explaination, then we see evelin freaking with no explaination. ok, right about now i started freaking, all the other guys just went to bed but me and miika where freaking out. we were praying like crazy, we were talking and stuff until we finally had to go to sleep. but we didn't sleep. me and him stayed almost all night (i think i got maybe like and hour and a half of sleep) praying and just freaking. then next morning i wake up with miika's foot in my ribs (he kicked me) and then go out and see evelin, looking better, but her hand was still shaking (it shook almost half the day, that too really freaked me out) and then as we are having a very solemn worried conversation about anneli she comes bouncing out of the girls room, kicks over the chair i'm in (ouch!!) and says "good morning" with a big smile on her face. we note the cut lip and are like "are you ok?". and then we told her of how worried we were and she just laughed and said she was fine. it turns out she fainted, you'll hear why when i tell you about her testimony...

so then after breakfast and everything we go to the big, head quarters helsinki corps and do the meeting. we did dramas and sang. and i gave my testimony. halfway through my testimonay my mind just goes blank. "...uh, i...uh...", braindead. i did manage to finish without looking to stupid though, and every says they didn't notice anything, whatever. so then we go and have lunch at this all-you-can-eat pizza place, man did i leave there full. that food was goooooood!!

so then at the next meeting at a different corps (this on was under where we were staying) we did a drama, sang, and anneli and tanel gave thier testimonies. tanel's testimony was about his life before and after he became a christian, and asnneli's was asbout the night before. i think it would be funny in a sick kind of way if i stopped now and left you hanging in suspenseful worry about anneli, but i am not that mean. so anneli gives her testimony. the week before someone had tried to rape her, i swear i am gonna follow this girl with a knife to protect her!! i had already known about the whole attempted rape thing, she had told me right after it happened, i just didn't know it was affecting her so much. at the time she fainted she had been thinking about it and had been thinking about it and thinking guys only wanted her for her body, and then kept reminding herself that wasn't true. so she was under a huge amount of stress and she fainted. i swear i'm gonna stalk her to protect her...

when i asked anneli if it was ok if i put this on my blog she said to have this as a warning to other girls. stay away from dudes you don't know, especially if they're older then you. if you're with ANYONE and they start getting sexual in any way, or just make you uncomfortable, say you have to go. and if they don't listen, kick, punch, scratch, scream, whatever it takes.

so then after anneli's testimony we finished up the meeting and went with the people and had snacks, and then we got on the boat to leave. and on the way back we do more karoake and some people won mini cruises on the ferry for being such good singers!! and of course our people won (i didn't) becuase everybody else was singing really bad (they were drunk i guess) and was singing annoying russian/finnish songs (duck and roll sarah!!*). and on one song (the backstreet boys one) the whole wission team danced while anneli sang, that was cool. then we got back to tallinn and went home. and now i'm home, and i'm tired, and...Cya.


*inside joke, don't ask. blue monkey rules!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

i know i said i'd finish writeing about mission team BUT THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING!!!

today i went to yugioh (yawn, you don't wanna hear about this, do you?) and since me and one other kid were the only people who signed up for the tournement they canceled it. which was fine with me becuase it meant i could take a break from losing. so then i spent most of the time trading and playing with this one guy (who i later found out is named Vlad) who spoke russian, estonian, and english quite well. so i after that we left and walked together to the R kiosk where he bought a lottery ticket and some gum. now as a missionary i said to myself, "a lottery ticket? dude, this guys like 16!!". and so as he was scratching the thing to see if he won i talked to him about the lottery, asking him if he ever won, (he won 10 kroon once, impressive huh?) and i asked him how much money he had spent on tickets. he didn't even want to think about how much he'd spent on lottery tickets, and with his current total earnings from the lottery being 10 kroon, i think i made my point when i said "see, thats why i don't play the lottery". so then we went and played cards on a bench for an hour before he had to go home, and i almost invited him to youth group at kolgata tommorow but i thought that would totally freak him out. but now i'm kicking myself, becuase what i should have invited him to, but didn't even think of, was going up! duh!! big kewl teen concert!! come on!! stupid, stupid, stupid!! loll, loll, loll!! well what ever. i'll see him next week. so now i can almost officially say i have a friend in tartu, now i can no longer complain to meaghan and sarah and say "you think your lifes bad...". but seriously, it's about time. whats it been, 10 months? more? well who cares, i kinda have a friend now, so i am officially happy. good night.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

mission team rules!!!!!

i had the most awesomely cool weekend ever!! i went to finland with the mission team and it tottally rocked!! and now i'm gonna write about it in segments (i can't write it all in one sitting) so starting at the beggining...

on friday at lunch time me and my dad took a bus to tallinn which was, as all bus trips are, pure torture. me and my dad where squeezed into a little seat together along with his bag, my backpack and sleeping bag, and my drum. not in any way a comfortable experience. so then we get there and at the bus station they had this place where you could buy burgers, so we got so some. those were the most atrocious burgers i've ever had!! they mixed together ketchup and mayonaise and smothered it all over the burger, the thing, quite literally, dripped!! urg, that was sickening. so then Mrs. Wittenberg comes and picks us up and seems very interested in some of meaghans music that a friend had sent her. right away shes like saying the songs about pushing the fingers into your eyes to stop the pain and i just go "oh!! i know that song, thats the slipknot one!!", and meaghan gives me this look saying "shut up, shut up, shut up!!". and then of course i qeuitly hum the song and remember the lyrics..."i push my fingers into my eyes, cuz its the only way to slowly stop the ache!!", and then Mrs. Wittenberg puts on the song and i sing along. and this whole time meaghan is obviously not happy with me. but meaghan i doubt that you noticed this but i was thinking that maybe your mom would not freak at this music if she knew that i listen to this music too, so i was kinda trying to help you. but man, i love it when you make that face, you know that "chris i'm gonna kill you face", that is so beutiful!! lol. sorry i got away from my point there.

so then we dump meaghan and go get all the rest of the mission team and go to the ferry, and besides some minor passport problems with one of the russian speakers all went well. and so then we get on the boat we start to explore of course, and what do we find? karoake and dancing!!! so of course we have to try out the karoake and so me, tanel, sarah, and evilin sang that backstreet boys song "everybody". and so despite the fact that evilin was the only one who actually knew the whole s0ng we had an awesome time singing anyway. and then we danced. so what if we were dancing in a bar, so what if there where some drunk guys sitting at one of the tables, and so what if the band's guy drummer had 2 girlie looking braids (i find it personally insulting when i see a freaky looking drummer becuase, seeing as how i am one, i think all drumers should look good)!! we danced anyway. and part way through some lady started dancing with us, becuase we were dancing the mission team line dance. and then a few more started dancing, then half the people in the whole place started dancing with us!! that was awesome, dancing our missiong team dance on the boat and having a bar full of people dance with us.

so the we got there kati was there to pick us up and, man, was it great to see her! so then we went and moved into our "mission team apartment", we had a whole floor of what i believe is the headquarters of the salvation army in finland (correct me if im wrong). and man it was so great to walk in there and see miika, maria, and jennika there to greet us. and so then we unpacked, moved in, and made ourselves comfrotable. and between hanging out with a bunch of friends and listening to music on sarah's "baby" (her CD player) it was a great night. and after a pillow fight and an excercise seesion where miika challenged us to do 100 push ups (i did 4) we dropped dead and slept.

and then next day...*yawn*...aw man, i'm tired. i'll right mor later, Cya.

mission team rules!!!!!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

in the bible it says to avoid immoral women...foreign ladies and strange dames?

lol, i'm kidding. in proverbs it says repeatedly to avoid immoral women, which i think i'd agree is good advice. but today i was listening to my KnowDaVerbs (a christian rapper i kinda like) CD and i heard this song strange dames. and it was basically that whole proverbs thing all over again, except of course this is rap so it can't say "immoral women", that doesn't ryme with anything, so it had to be "foreign ladies and strange dames". but it is also has a warning in there for you girls out there, "cuz for every strange dame, theres a peculiar man", so guys, avoid immoral women, foreign ladies, and strange dames. girls, avoid peculiar men and pretty much any other guy who messes with you. you guys got it? good.

i don't know why i wrote all that up there that was just what i've been thinking about today. today, since i'm not gonna see him for 3 days when i'm in finland, me and peter had a big playtime. i'd blow on his stomach until he was laughing histericaally and then he'd attemp to blow on my stomach which would make me luagh not becuase it tickled but becuase it was just so funny!! but then after that i was lying down on the floor and peter went over and, like an addict, went and got his babysongs DVD. peter loves his babysongs DVD. so i'm lying down and he comes down and shows it to me and i say "no, peter. why don't we play instead of watching TV?" so as i was about to get up and play with him he crawls on my stomach and starts hitting me with the DVD case!!! OW!! that hurt!! so again, i try to interest him in games, "whack, whack!!" he hit me until i would put it on. then once it was on i still wanted to spend time with him so i tried to have him sit on my lap and watch it. nope, he wouldn't have any of that, he wanted to watch it ALONE!! and hes strong for a one year old. so he pushed me away and i left him to watch it, feeling thouroughly dejected. and hes still watching it, he cries if we turn it off, hes addicted.

anneli commented on my blog, which i must say to have a girl as absolutely geourgous as her comment on my blog is an honour i am not worthy of...or maybe i am, how should i know ;)? now one thing i believe i should explain right now is that some people have assumed from the way i write on my blog i am absolutely nut about girls! but, dude, i'm not. it's a little thing called sarcasm. i'm still reeling from the fact that i only hang out with girls and so i still think the whole things a joke. i still find it's hard to believe that a girl would look at me, let alone spend large amounts of time with me. so basically no, i am not a girl crazy freak. so please if you have been assuming up to this point that i am, then i must tell you that YOU ARE SO WRONG, BOY!!!

well i'm tired now and theres this movie on called "grumpy old men" (i know a few of those, and plan to be one someday, and by that i mean that i'll be one of the cool grumpy old men who act like kids, not the boring kind who are mean to everyone) so i'm gonna watch that and then konk off for a good nights rest becuase tommorow i go to finland!! so goodbye.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

today was tuesday, tuesdays i play yugioh, need i say more?

today i played yugioh, i lost most of the time but WHO CARES!!!!! why focus on the negative right? i did win once at least. and i was talking to this one kid and he was telling me that on saturdays at juku (big toy store, kinda like a small toys r us) is a FREE yugioh tournament where they GIVE YOU CARDS just for participating. im in finland this saturday but after that...i am so there!! that should be fun. hmmmm, let me see...i don't have much else to write about. oh ya, in every booster pack of yugioh cards comes a tip card, which is a good idea in theory but...all the tips suck, the tip cards are a joke. so this one guy had a big bunch of tip cards in a rubber band that he didn't want so we were all tossin them around becuase nobody wanted them and i ended up with them, so now i have some nice cardboard for hamsters to chew on but besides that...its crap*. and what else...i did some real good trading and had a good time joking around about how loud and obnoxious americans (like me) are. so thats it for today, i'm gonna either chat online or play x-box or sumthin now, Cya.


*isn't putting an asterisk next to a word and then putting a note down here cool? i might do that more often...ok, ok, the note. some people might not like, or might even be offended by, the way i talk on my blog (like saying "crap", or "that sucks", or "oh my god", or "oh my god, that crap sucks") well if that type of thing bugs you i'm sorry. but thats how i talk in real life so thats how i talk on my blog (and if you don't like it you can shove it! lol, i'm joking!!! put down the knives guys, it was a joke!!!). so please don't be offended, i just type how i talk.

Monday, May 02, 2005

my first estonian class!!!!!!

i just finished my first estonian class!! here are some ineteresting things: i learned how to say "i want to buy" and how to say "i took the book". i told the whole class i wanted food and, the 11 year old american girl whos been here less time than me totally spoke better estonian than me. she would say "when i speak estonian i have problems with blablab and huh-wha" and then i'd go "...huwha...? who to the what now....?". i felt sooo pathetic. so thats it for my first estonian class. i have a ton more to write about but i'm still all excited about the class and that makes it hard to think and write. so i'll write more later, Cya.

dude, i've been, like, writing more and more inconsistently right? that like totally sucks, man. (notice the californian accent)

don't ask why i wrote that like i was some teenage surfer punk, i just felt like it really. i am wicked mad at myself becuase i had this wonderful plan for last weekend, do you want to hear it? no? who cares i'm writing it anyway. i was going to: bring many, many school books with me to tallinn and read them on the 2 and a half hour trip. and then i was going to hang out with all my friends and have a great time. and then i was gonna play the bongo at the tallinn corps (church) on sunday (if they wanted me to that is). and then i was gonna read even more school books on the way home. all in all a good plan right? well it woulda worked out perfectly except...i just had to go and get sick. why, oh why do i always get sick right before something i've been looking forward to? this is the third time since coming ot estonia that i've gotten sick when it was horribly inconvenient. and now that that i think about it it was always when i was looking forward to spending time with annely or meaghan or both. now don't that just suck? because even though if i had been in tallinn i wouldn't have been parting and playing video games i would have at least been with my friends, which is always really nice. so now i'm really mad at my whole immune system for letting me get sick. but whatever nothing i can do about it now. but better this weekend then next weekend. oh, and by the way, next weekend i'm...

...pretty sure i'm going to finland!!! i don't know all the details yet but i think it's gonna involve me walking to tallinn, sleeping in a tree, and then swimming to finland...no!! that can't be right! well nevermind, i'll figure out how and when i'm getting there later. for now i'm just wicked excited!! it's gonna be awesome (by the way, i'm going with the mission team, doesn't it make more sense now? i mean i wouldn't just swim to finland for the fun of it!) i'm gonna hang out with the mission team people, miika (my finnish friend from the mission team) has said hes gonna show us around and translate, which should be fun. and when i'm not swimming i'm gonna hitch a ride on a ferry, which means i'm gonna be trapped on a boat with the whole mission team, sounds like a crazy party already, huh? and then once we get there we're gonna finally (hopefully...) see all the practice we did pay off. it's probably gonna be extremely hard and lots of work but i'm sure it's gonna be the most fun i've had in a while. man!! now i'm all hyped about this and i can't stop thinking about it!! i seriously can't wait.

now i have a little thing i want to put in just 'cuase i was thinking about it. my musical taste seems to be stuck in an endless cycle. this has been the music i've listened to since i was 12...:first i was into jump 5, then POD (how do you suddenly jump from loving jump 5 to POD? the world may never know...), then i liked relient K, then justifide and POD and TonyMac, then relient K yet again, then evanescence and whatever else was on the rock radio stations, then "wierd al" yankovich (how on earth do you jump from evanescence and hard rock radio to "wierd al" yankovich? there is no answer to this question, it's just pure insanity!), then back to relient K again, and then i got the evanescence and relint K CDs for christmas and loved both, then mostly evanescence, then just now got new TobyMac and 12 stones CDs and love 'em, then once again i put in my relient K CD. and then i started thinking, "always in my life i've come back to relient K, why is that? i know!! they rock!!".

so that whole thing there was more for my benefit so that in 10 years i can read that and laugh, it probably made no sense to any of you. i just wanted to put it on my blog so i can read it years from now.

ok, let me see...nothing else to write about? thats upsetting!! well anyway i'm getting tired now and can't think of anything more to write...so sad...goodbye.