Family Reunion on Whidbey Island

I got to spend my last week and half or so of summer on Whidbey Island (and a couple days in Seattle) with a crazy and wonderful group of about 18 Klines and 9 Ivanyis. This was a family reunion for Josh’s mom’s side of the family (the Klines). Josh’s grandparents, Bruce and Kay, have a strong connection with the Ivanyi family from Hungary, so nine Ivanyis joined us as well. Whidbey is an island in Puget Sound; a couple hours in the car and a short ferry ride from Seattle and you're on Whidbey. One evening our cousin Karly led us in “Pows and Wows”- a way of sharing our highs and lows of the week. All 27 of us shared a pow and wow of our week; after each persons’ pow we said “kerpow” in a sad voice and after each wow we shook our hands in the air and said “wooo.” It was a silly and fun, but also real way to connect and share how we were feeling. Since positivity is one of my top five strengths, I will first share my pows from the week and then end on a happy note with my wows.

Pows:

My Great Grandma Z died this summer, which is a big pow in itself. The pow this week was that I missed Grandma Z’s memorial service while I was in Seattle. I already had my plane ticket for the family reunion when found out the date of Grandma Z’s memorial service. I decided to stick to my original travel plans because I did not want to miss out on quality time with Josh’s family. Nevertheless, I was sad to not be with my extended family to process Grandma Z’s death and to celebration her life. Her memorial service was on Saturday and the sadness hit me hard on Sunday. Grandma Z (who I also called "Pally") was really special to me. We wrote letters back and forth for most of my life (at least after the age when I could write letters) and I also felt loved and encouraged by her even though we were miles apart. It was quite a bummer to miss her memorial service, but talking with family over the phone has helped me to process. I also read some of my letters from her, which was a comfort.

This is Grandma Z. at her 90th birthday party.

A smaller pow is that Josh left Seattle a couple days earlier than me to go on a 10 day tour with his band, The Radio Soul. I missed having him around in Seattle and I missed him the following week in Wichita. My other, even smaller pow is that I spent a lot of time in the back seat of the van as we drove around Whidbey Island and to different places around Seattle. I tend to get carsick, so that was not super fun. It feels a bit silly sharing these little pows, but I think it gives you a more accurate picture of my experience.

Wows:

Just being on the island was a big highlight for me.  I loved spending a large chunk of each day outside. Some of my favorite activities were waking up and walking along the bluff before breakfast, moonlit walks along the beach, an invigorating bike ride, making a sun shelter on the beach from driftwood and a blanket, hikes along the bluffs, playing botchy ball one evening with 20 people from our group, and hanging out in the open field in the afternoons (kicking the soccer ball around with Josh and Elise and doing a no-handed cartwheel, which I haven’t even tried to do in years!)

We had a morning prayer service each morning with hymns, Taize songs, scripture reading and prayers of the people. I loved the time to connect with God and with everyone in prayer. This helped me feel more like a part of the Kline family.

I loved getting to know some of the Ivanyis better. Josh and I met many of them last year when we went to Budapest, so it was nice to spend more quality time with them. I spent a lot of time playing with little Sari who is three years old and babbles on and on in Hungarian. I had only a few Hungarian words that I could say to her:  béka frog), szia (hi and bye),  jó éjszakát (goodnight). We had a good time together though; we played hide and seek, I spun her around, and we’d take her stuffed frogs for horse rides on our backs. Gabor Ivanyi and his wife Moni stayed at the Cranstons’ house with us for two days after Whidbey, so I got to spend a lot of time with them. They are quite good at English, so we could have interesting conversations and joke around together. They are both hilarious and very good natured. Gabor cracked me up on the first day when we were introducing ourselves. All the men in the Ivanyi family were asked to introduce their immediate family; Gabor stood up and said “I am my wife’s husband.”  In Seattle Gabor and Moni taught us some Hungarian card games and they told us that we must visit them in Szeged, Hungary. 

Josh actually flew out to Seattle a week before I did, so one of my wows of the week was getting to spend time with him again! That week was the longest amount of time that we’ve been apart since we got married and it was hard for me. I was glad to be in his presence again. 

Putting rocks on each other's faces turned out to be very relaxing.

My final wow was doing yoga, led by our cousin April. I’ve fallen out of my yoga habit this summer and it was nourishing to my body and soul to do yoga again. One morning a group of us did yoga in the living room at our place on Whidbey Island and then back in Seattle April, Karly, Elise and I did yoga in Karly’s backyard by the light of the full moon. So peaceful and inspiring!

So that was my week on Whidbey with all the ups and downs. It was a beautiful week!

our long weekend in seattle.

Josh and I were fortunate enough to travel to Seattle a few weekends ago. Our trip was a combination of investigating grad. school options/attending the discernment weekend at Seattle Pacific Seminary (SPS) and visiting Josh’s family. We packed a lot into our four days there, and while it didn’t feel like quite enough time, it was still amazing to see our far-away family in early February.

Neither Josh nor I are ready to jump into grad school immediately. Josh is currently finishing up his Master’s thesis from the University of Oslo, so he is eager to take a break from school. We do, however, both have some academic aspirations/interests and it was cool to take some time to investigate our options. I want to be an Elementary ESOL teacher, so I need to find a way to get my teacher certification. SPU has a Master’s in TESOL, which I could combine with a K-12 certification and an ESL endorsement. It’s kind of complicated and I met with four different people at SPU to talk about the TESOL part of the program, the Elementary Education part of the program, and about applying to grad. school in general. I learned a lot and feel better able to look around online at different grad. school programs. 

Josh is interested in studying theology, so he signed up for the discernment weekend at SPS. Each potential seminarian can bring along a family member, so I got to participate in the discernment weekend with Josh. Celeste has recruited a handful of Greenville College students to come to the discernment weekend over the past couple years; this time she just so happened to recruit our good friend Mikey Ward and my cousin Maria Koppelberger!  The discernment weekend was Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. We heard some interesting presentations and panels from professors and students from SPS, we went to a Taize prayer service, ate a couple meals together, and had a couple bible studies. It was good!

One of the most interesting parts of the weekend for Josh and me was a presentation/ discussion with an SPU professor Doug Koskela who talked about vocation and discernment. What we found really helpful was his distinction between the three categories of calling from God. 1) General Calling from God to all people to love and follow God. 2) Missional Calling, which is a person's guiding purpose, mission, or vocation and is usually connected to a person's gifts, talents and interests. 3) Direct Calling is a direct call from God to do a particular task and may not have any link to one's gifts or interests. It was really encouraging to us (especially Josh who doesn't have a crystal clear understanding of his vocation) when Doug said he believes everyone has a missional calling which may take time, prayer and some trial and error to figure it out. Furthermore, not everyone has a direct calling and this is not something that we should spend time seeking. Doug said, "with direct calling, it's best to think in terms of confirmation rather than discernment." With direct callings, God will make it clear to us (think of stories like Moses and the burning bush or Jonah and the Whale).  And that is a relief. As a young person I think there is some pressure to figure your life out and to be a successful, contributing member of society. It's quite a relief to realize that success in God's eyes (which is what matters to me) can mean doing something meaningful that I love and feel drawn to do. 

After the discernment weekend was over on Saturday we had the rest of the day to hang out in Seattle with Mikey and Maria. We walked around Queen Anne Hill, where the Cranstons live, and we hiked through Discovery Park, a huge public park in the middle of Seattle on the shores of the Puget Sound. Since I didn't take my camera to Discovery Park, I am borrowing some pictures from the internet so you can see this awesome place:

(source)

Do you see those mountains?! I just love mountains. A little side note about Discovery Park: when I first visited Josh in Seattle the summer after our sophomore year of college we spent a good three or four hours exploring Discovery Park. We hiked all over the trails and then scrambled down to the shore where we wandered for a while, only to try to climb back up to the trails by way of something that resembled a bluff.  We crawled up that rocky butte, which turned into a forest of tangled vines and brambles. We were hoping that our trek would led us to the trails, but it was all for not. We ended up sliding back down the rocky hill and found the trail via the well-traveled route, but for a while we felt like explorers. 

(source)

It actually snowed on Saturday night and didn't fully melt until Sunday, which is pretty unusual. There was some concern that our Greenville people wouldn't catch their flights home, but they made it just fine. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning we hung out at home with this furry guy below (who is quite hard to photograph!), Elliot, Josh's best friend from childhood, and with some extended family. We ate Sunday lunch with Grandparents Cranston, Christopher and Ali (cousins), Aunt Paula, and Uncle Frank and Aunt Rhonda. We hadn't seen most of the Seattle contingent since last Christmas and we hadn't seen Paula since our wedding, so it was a real treat to spend time with them.

Our little jaunt to Seattle was encouraging, invigorating and down right fun. We love you family; thanks for making our time in Seattle wonderful!

summer reflection.

September generally marks the end of summer. For a while now, like since the beginning of July, I’ve been planning to write a reflection on my summer, but I haven’t found the words to start. How do I sum up in one blog post the experience of moving back home after a year abroad? How do I say what home is? How can I describe what it feels like to be a married adult living with my parents again? How do I pinpoint what it’s like to see my best friends again after only talking a handful of times in the last six months? And what about the friends that I no longer get to see everyday (or every year, for that matter) now that I’ve left Norway? How can I share the significance of those friendships with my old friends in Greenville and the new friends I’ll make in Wichita?

I suppose feelings can translate into words more easily for some than for others.  Sometimes my jumbled thoughts don’t come out as nice, eloquent paragraphs, but I do have the desire to remember these moments and the people that shaped my life in Norway and that filled my summer to the brim. So, I will attempt to put words to my experiences- to write what I feel and what I felt. The words that immediately come to my mind are these: bittersweet, good, bad, hilarious, frustrating, comforting, loss, hope. It was bitter to leave Norway and to know that I may never see some of my friends again, but it was sweet to return to friends back in the U.S. It’s sweet to know that Benny will probably be able to visit us in the U.S. this summer.

It was good to see Jana’s home and Benny’s home in Germany before we left Europe. It was good and often hilarious to spend time with Kelly, Michael, Niqui, Jordan, Mikey, Wes, Caleb, Kelly, Erica and Cait over the summer. While good, it often struck me how much we missed out on while being away from Greenville. What seems to be the biggest loss is missing out on the daily lives of my friends. But now, at times, it also feels like a loss to not be in Norway. When you’ve put roots down in multiple places, it’s inevitable that you’ll miss out on something. Yet I don’t want to stop putting my roots down in every place I go because those roots make life good.

Several times I found it quite frustrating to be living at my parents house as a married adult. I felt like I was acting like a kid in the house because I had only been a kid in that house. But I wanted to act like and be treated like an adult. I was often most frustrated because I kept being asked to do chores, which felt pretty childish. I knew how to do chores and take care of a home, but I just didn’t want to be pestered about it. Thankfully my parents care about our relationship so they worked with me on how to live together given this new territory (me being an adult). I realized after a while that I was unsure about how to relate to my parents now that I’m an adult, have lived on my own for a year and am married. I was used to being closest to my parents, but now I am closest to Josh. That’s a good thing, but I was sad to realize that I didn’t need to rely on my parents as much any more. I do still rely on them, though, and they are definitely necessary to my life. Being at home was frustrating at times, but also immensely comforting most of the time. It was good to spend so much time with my parents and to live our daily lives together again. Some of my favorite parts of summer were eating meals on our back porch, playing cards, taking evening walks and watching “Orange is the New Black.” 

As I’m taking time to reflect on my summer, I am increasingly thankful for the time I had with Josh in Norway. Thankful that we grew closer to one another, that we made so many good friends, and that I see ways in which God was with us in Norway. I am also so thankful for our time in Greenville. Reconnecting with friends and family (grandparents, cousins and aunts included) was reinvigorating. As I think back on our start in Norway I recognize that God was with us and that now, as we start life in Wichita, God is still with us. For that I am also thankful.

our trip to santorini, greece.

After my family’s stay in Oslo we all went to Santorini, Greece. Ever since I saw the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie, which is set in Greece, I have wanted to see the beauty of the Greek isles with my own eyes.  It's a pretty amazing place and it was incredible to swim in the warm sea after a winter in Norway. The only swimming I did in Norway (besides at a Spa that Fulbright paid for) was in Sognsvann and the Oslo Fjord- both were very chilly. Santorini is one of the Greek isles and was formed by a volcanic explosion. The crescent shaped island surrounds beautiful blue water called the caldera. We stayed in the small (very touristy) city of Oia, which looked exactly as I pictured Greece to look. We stayed at Oia's Sunset Hotel with a view of the ocean and a refreshing pool. It's centrally located and the guys who work there are very friendly. 

In Santorini we met up with some family friends, the Keillors. In total we had a group of nine which could make decision making tricky, but we seemed to all have very similar desires for this trip. We pretty much rotated between swimming in the ocean, swimming in our hotel's pool, eating delicious greek food, playing "up the river/ down the river,"relaxing/reading and eating gelato. We ventured out to several of the island's popular beaches and even dove off one of the docks. One day we took a catamaran trip which included a ride to the volcanic remains, swimming in the hot springs, snorkeling and a delicious lunch. I love boat rides, don't you? 

In addition to swimming, we love to eat. In Santorini we usually ate a low key breakfast and lunch either at our hotel or a restaurant close to the beach. Dinner was our big meal of the day; we made reservations for a different restaurant each night and ate around 8 or 9pm. My favorite meals were greek yogurt with fruit and honey, greek salads (tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, red onion, olive oil and capers) and ravioli. Maybe ravioli doesn't sound too exciting, but it was incredible. I wanted to lick the plate after I ate all the ravioli because the sauce was just so good. I also greatly enjoyed getting gelato everyday. There was a great gelato shop very close to our hotel that made their gelato by hand. My favorite flavors were melon, banana and dark chocolate. Mmmm.

There are 300 steps from the port to the top of Oia. Many tourists enjoy a donkey ride up the stairs, but Layla, Josh and I decided to run up these steps a couple times. That was no easy task. Although I had to stop to walk several times, I felt a great sense of accomplishment at the top of those stairs. Oia is such a cute place. There are lots of shops lining the cobblestone paths. I enjoyed wandering around, checking out Atlantis Books , and helping Josh pick out an icon to bring home. The layers of shops, houses and hotels are so amazing. We'd often look out over this little city (like the view below) and decide which nook or cranny would be the coolest place to live. There are so many beautiful rooftop pools and restaurants tucked into the hillside.

I never got tired of the view. I loved looking at the village of Oia with all the blue domed churches and I loved seeing the blue, blue caldera. But, I must say that it's good to be home.

Are you getting in any last vacations before summer ends?

norway in a nutshell.

Hello, hello! It's been rather quiet on this blog lately due to the fact that June was a crazy month! I was bustling around Norway with visitors, then took a quick trip to Germany, hosted more visitors, moved out of our flat in Oslo and am currently on vacation in Greece. I have never done so much traveling and vacationing in one month! When Josh's family + our friends the Kurtz-Shaws were visiting us in June we took the Norway in a nutshell trip from Oslo to Bergen. The trip included many forms of transportation (3 trains, 1 bus and 1 ferry), which gave us many different views of the Norwegian landscape and the fjords. The journey took all day (from early morning to late evening) and it was fun to read, do crosswords, chat and look out the window. Norway is just beautiful!

The halfway point between Oslo and Bergen is a unique place; it's snowy and sparse with some lakes and hills. Apparently part of a Starwars movie was filmed there. The range of scenery we saw in one day was pretty incredible. Several people in our group decided that their favorite part of the journey was the bus ride, which took us up a windy narrow mountain and then back down. We saw several waterfalls and views of the fjord. Oddly enough, I found it really fun to make our dinner on the train. Elise, Celeste and I made a little assembly line where we cut cucumbers and cheese, put dressing on the bread and put the sandwiches together. I like taking note of the little things that make me happy. We were on a trip to see the stunning Norwegian fjords, but I also found joy in making a sandwich. 

We spent about two days in Bergen before heading back to Oslo. We hiked to the top of Fløyen, the mountain right on the edge of Bergen's city center. Of course, on the way back down we got rained on. I guess it wouldn't be an authentic Bergen experience without rain. One of my favorite parts of our Bergen stay was relaxing in a coffee shop with Elise and Josh during a very rainy part of the day. Josh and I don't usually feel pressured to see all the sites or do lots of touristy things. It was fun to do crosswords, play nertz, read and drink good coffee. We got back to Oslo on a regular NSB train, which was also very scenic and a bit quicker than Norway in a nutshell.  Overall, a great trip! Josh and I didn't travel around Norway much, so it was really great to see other parts of the country. 

Middle three photos taken by Gary Cranston. The other two are by me.

our trip to paris, france.

After our time in Taizé, we spent two days in Paris.  Both Josh and I were pretty exhausted from camping, walking and just being in Taizé, but we managed to have fun in Paris. That's not really a difficult task, though.  Paris is pretty large and has awesome architecture around every corner. Since we had our camping gear with us we decided to camp just outside of Paris at Camping Indigo . This saved us some money and made us feel like it was really worth it to lug all the camping gear.

We had no plan for Paris. We had some things in mind; Josh wanted to see Champs Élyseés and Notre Dame and I wanted to see the Eiffel Tour at night.  Each day we packed a bag and set off on foot.  For food we usually found a boulangerie where we bought baguettes and a grocery where we got cheese, tomatoes and peaches.  Seeing Paris on the cheap was our goal and it worked out well.

Day one included: croissants and pan au chocolate for breakfast, walking along the Champs Élyseés (of course we sang the song), picnic lunch in a park, hanging outside and inside of Notre Dame, enjoying a bread festival, eating 23rd birthday cake, walking along the Seine River, picnic dinner in front of the Eiffel Tower (we saw it blink once), avoiding the PSG celebration/riot, and finally flopping into sleeping bag at the end of a nice, long day.

Day two included: More bread, more cheese, more walking.  We had croissants for breakfast again.  Yum! We walked towards Montmartre/Sacré Cœur thinking it's the super cool artsy area of Paris only to find that's is pretty touristy.  Josh misunderstood some advice from Elliot about that area.  Whoops. After eating a small lunch of bread and cheese, we decide to not eat any more bread for the rest of the trip. Promptly after that we found ourselves in a cozy cafe ordering a lunch combo of bread, nutella, cheese, cake and cocoa.  I guess it's unavoidable in Paris.  This cafe was one of the highlights of Paris for us. We really needed some time to rejuvenate; we ate, drank cocoa and coffee, read, I wrote in my journal and Josh wrote ideas for a take home exam.  Our cafe was uncrowded with only a friend of the owner, two American tourists and a French woman with her grandson coming in during our 4 hour lunch break.  We saw the Sacré Cœur, walked down the street with Moulin Rouge (pretty weird), stopped to watch some people play petanque and finally headed back to our campsite. Another good day.  On day three we took down our tent, ate breakfast, took a bus to the airport and flew home.

France was good, but we’re glad to be home.  And it’s cool that Oslo is our home for now. 

Oh yeah, I was actually in Paris too!  Here's proof:

our trip to taizé, france.

For Josh's 23rd birthday we planned a trip to France to visit Taizé, a monastery in the countryside of France where anyone can come for a week or so to spend time in prayer.  Josh went to Taizé two years ago with Dan Overholt, his cousin.  Their experience at Taizé made a big impact on Josh and he really wanted to go back with me.  So we went!  (We also spent 2 full days in Paris, but more about that later.)

Our experience was very different from Josh's first time at Taizé, which is understandable.  Josh is at a different point in his life now, his reason for being at Taizé is quite different this second time around and there was a different group of people at Taizé this past week. We actually heard a couple people say that each stay at Taizé has been completely different for them.  I wasn't totally sure what to expect, but  I had an idea that our visit to Taizé might be quiet, reflective, slow and that we maybe we'd meet some new friends. My expectations were partly true; we prayed a lot, had some quiet time and met some nice Dutch friends, but to be honest some of the time we felt distracted, frustrated and uncomfortable. There were 5, 000 people at Taizé, which is an unsually large mass of people; plus, most of those people were teenagers coming with there youth group. There was a lot of noise and a lot of cigarette smoke. I'm apparently allergic to French trees or flowers, so I was sneezing a lot and had some asthma trouble. And our tent was a little leaky. Yeah, these things are kind of bad, but I am regretful that these factors distracted me more than they should have. I really enjoyed praying and walking through the countryside, but I didn't feel at peace during our stay in Taizé. Josh and I were talking about the experience while we were in Paris and he responded to my thoughts by saying, "so maybe your time at Taizé is not over yet?" I think maybe that's true.  The songs we sang while at Taizé were running through my as we wandered the streets of Paris. I hope to continue singing them with Josh now that we're back in Oslo.

While at Taizé we prayed three times a day before breakfast & lunch and after dinner.  Prayer was what ordered our days and I loved that.  The prayer service was mostly singing chants and songs, along with some scripture reading, a time of silence and eucharist in the morning. The church can be expanded to accommodate 5,000 people and we generally had to get to church 30 minutes early if we wanted to sit near the front or on the stairs. The brothers all sat in the center of the church. I loved the songs. Some moments were really powerful- like when we were singing "Bless the Lord my Soul" and taking communion.  After that I was really hoping we'd sing that song again, but we never did. The church itself is really cool to be in, with stained glass and icons decorating the walls.

The other highlight of our visit to Taizé was wakling around the countryside.  On Josh's first visit to Taizé he actually stayed two weeks; the first week was normal, but the second week he spent in silence.  During his silence week he took long walks through farm country and to the tiny villages scattered throughout the countryside. We set aside two afternoons for really long walks.  Each day we walked for about 5 hours, resting occasionally in small villages or on a conveniently placed bench. We passed through fields, saw lots of cows, made wildflower bouquets, sang, made grass art, talked and walked some more. On Josh's birthday walk we came across a goat farm where we stopped to buy cheese.  That was the best goat cheese I've ever had! These walks were fun (exhausting by the end) and gave us time to talk and think.  

A prayer from Taizé in Spanish:

Dios de consolació 

aunque no sitiéramos nada te presencia

tú estás ahi.  

Tu presencia es invisible

pero tu esperitu santo está siempre en nosotros.