Malta for the weekend?

So the biggest even that has happened in the last 24 hours: INTERNET! Finally! So we have taken full advantage of it and booked a trip to Malta!!! It is an island halfway between Italy and Africa. We were able to get cheap flights, a place to stay called Dunka Guest House. The advertisement went something like this "Whats life if we cant party?
Dunkahaus is brought about by Dunka, a young sailor who loves to go out clubbing and have a great time together with dunkahaus Guests of course!" Soooo I think it will be a place to remember. There is a beautiful view from the guest house that you can view to the right :)

It is going to be about 75-80F while we are there so I am bringing my bathing suit! We are going to visit forts and lay on the beach and enjoy the fact that we have 3 full days in an incredibly sunny and wonderfully incredible place. MALTA HERE WE COME!!!

Cliff jumping to a sunken ship

Yesterday we went cliff jumping next to a sunken ship that we swam over to. It was...exciting? BEtween thinking seaweed eats people and not being able to forget that sammy the seal and all his family was swimming in the same water as we were...I was very "excited" Is one way to put it. I jumped off the cliff first in order to show Andy how to do it (joke, his family does it all the time but he thought it was too cold so I had to show him how Alaskans jump in freezing water) then we braved the black water together to go to the sunken ship. Exciting times!

WE also went for a hike up into the mountains to a place called "the fairy lochs" and found a crashed WWII airplane! It was really neat and soo beautiful. We finished it off by collecting old broken fence posts and prepared an absolutely massive bonfire on the beach (to be used later).

After all of our arobic entertainment of jumping, swimming, climbing, and fence post collecting we went back to the cottage, got all dressed up and had a romantic candle lit steak dinner with "mood music". We left the dishes unwashed and went straight to the beach where we lit off the bonfire and watched the sunset (we would have eaten cake but somebody's cute 3 month old puppy came up and ate it! hehe). It was absolutely amazing. What a good end to the day.

Today is back to book reading, sun soaking, and flat hunting (boo on the flat hunting). It would be great to know where we are living next week but hey, all in Gods timing right? Yeah, we're just gonna keep working away at it and hopefully God will bring one about for us. Keep praying! :)

Tomorrow we are off the the Isle of Skye (supposedly the most beautiful place in Scotland, wikipedia it!) for some swimming, hiking, making fires, and two nights of camping. Should be fun times.

A wee post from the highlands!

So Andy and I got married for the last and final time last Saturday. WHEW! Never having another wedding ever again! It was great fun and lots of laughs but I have never been as tired as I was Saturday night. Thank goodness we are done :) This is now Wednesday and is the duration of our 3rd day in the highlands! We are staying at his parents cottage in Gairloch. At this very moment we are sitting in one of the coolest restaurants complete with beautiful seaside view out of the conservatory. This morning we had incredible pancakes, a good long run and then canoed around an island in the sea. After this fantastic latte we're going to go cliff jumping!!! Whoop whoop! Best honeymoon ever!!! We did get stalked by 4 seals during our canoe and that was unnerving.

I have to remember that all animals in Scotland are not out to eat people unlike Alaska ;) The last few days have been filled with walks along the beach, some hill walking, and cycling.

We've both really just needed rest. I think 4 consecutive days of sleeping 12 hours a night have helped a bit with that.

Our flat is a different story. Not quite so positive. The day before we left for our honeymoon we got a message saying that our flat had been flooded and that we would have to find a new place to stay. So we have been attempting to arrange viewings and peruse flats via internet borrowed from hotels around the area. Having no cell service at the cottage hasn't helped much. We're remembering that God has a plan and that if we didn't get the flat we wanted it is because God just didn't want us there and He has something better in mind for us. We have had to pray a lot through this entire ordeal. The visa issue is still there aswell. That has had to been given up to God completely and I think we have both finally gotten to that point. God will have the last say and even though one application has fallen through so far we know that God is watching us and loves us and has our best interest in mind. He always knows best and as long as we open ourselves to anything He will come up with the best plan. Until then we are just calling flat after flat and arranging meetings...just the thing you want to be doing on a honeymoon...not so much...:S

hmmm....bored?

Amsterdam airport...it was exciting for the first 3 hours, the remaining 5 that I have had to wait have been very very longggg...I have even lost excitement of people watchign because I'm so sleep deprived (due to not sleeping more than 1.5 hours in the last 39) that I cannot even look at faces clearly anymore. I should mention that there are only two other instances in my life that I remember where I was actually technically bored. There is not even carpet here to curl up and sleep! Their chairs are made of hard plastic. You can probably buy some for yourself just look in the "most uncomfortable plastic chair" section of your local grocer :P Andy and I got separate halfs of the airplane from Anchorage to Minneapolis and then from there to Amsterdam (a 9 hour flight btw) we have two different planes taking off 6 hours apart from eachother. Can I please here a LAMESAUCE!? So...I'm tired, hungry, and bored :( I would be more excited at the prospect of free wifi but...there isn't any, I get a half hour to check facebook, email, and post this blog then they kick me off. Not to mention that netflix and my Gilmore girl resource do not play in Europe. Urg, only another 45 minutes before Andy shows up in his very own jet (complete with probably 200 other passengers...hehe) and we fly off to Edinburg!!! There is a huge pot of coffee that will be waiting with Andys mom upon our arrival. I can't wait! I just want to not sit in these awful chairs anymore :)

On the major upside along with finally getting to Scotland in the near future we made orange juice ice cubes. Everybody should do this. It made me smile :D

mmm...3am...

Andy and I are sitting in the Anchorage airport. He is currently jumping up and down on a baggage scale measuring his weight in pounds (new concept, lol) and filling out id tags for far too much luggage ;) We had a lovely afternoon with Bob and Joe LaRue yesterday eating steak at the Brewhouse. I love them so much and cannot wait to visit with them again.

OH! We also got married 3 days ago! That's exciting :) The wedding was so much fun and beautiful. Andy's famiyl joined via skype (the internet is a good friend). We left the next day saying goodbye to Lily, Isaiah, mom, dad, Juaquine, Mandi, Grandma, and Grandpa. It was a happy goodbye knowing I will be back in only 4 months for Christmas. Our new adventure starts today

when we actually begin our trek to Scotland. In 26 hours I will be landing in Edinburg airport greeted by Mike and Linda and hopefully coffee since we only slept...1.5 hours last night...ugh...3am....too early!

Anyways, more on our trip later. Right now I seriously need some coffee!!!

Biggest changes in my entire life

Today is Sunday. Next Saturday I am having a wedding with the lovely Andrew Hayes. I will officially become Mrs. Hadassah Silveira Hayes! It is incredibly exciting and thrilling and the most life changing experience of my life.

I have decided that after 3 years at UAF perusing a BA in Music Education I am going to quite school, get married, move to Scotland and follow God with all my heart. I do not know what this entails but I know it is what God has planned for me. I am not able to get a marriage visa at this moment so I am leaving next Tuesday at 4am to go into Scotland as a visitor until Christmas. Between now and then i will attempt to acquire a marriage visa so that the next time I attempt to enter the UK in January I will show my marriage visa to border control and be let in with lights, buzzers, confetti, and balloons (possibly minus the flare but you never know).

I have no idea what this new adventure looks like but I know I am doing what God wants me to do and I am going to be loving my husband for the rest of my life. I am so excited for what might happen and I plan to blog along the way to see what sort of adventure I get involved with and what God has gone before me to plan out.

Lets see what's God has planned for us!

Community among the dismissed

As my life goes on, I travel the world, and meet with people from other cultures I am realizing that there is so much love and acceptance among the rejected and that those who may be forgotten tend to be the ones remembering others. I worked at the soup kitchen in Fairbanks this morning, Stone Soup, and got to hang out with the homeless in my city.This is something that most people in Fairbanks either do not know exists or they do not take the time to find out about. The workers at this soup kitchen I have had the privilege of getting to know and hang out with a bit. Seeing how hard they work with absolutely nothing of monetary value in return and not any recognition of the hard work that they do except from the people who are getting a warm meal (and in Fairbanks sometimes something warm is the most treasured gift) has really given me a reality check on loving others. I come from a Christian family and I have several Christian friends and they tend to talk about love a lot. God loves us more than we could ever imagine, so much so that He would send his only son to get beaten, scorned, separated completely from his father, and killed on a cross to provide us with a way to be with God for ever in heaven. As a Christian who loves Jesus I try to love others the way that Jesus loved us and many of my Christian friends will agree with me that this is important. But then I go to the soup kitchen...as far as I know, none of the workers are Christians and yet the love that I see coming from them is so immense and so unconditional. They live off of hardly more than the people they are serving, put in hours every day to help others and they do not expect a big paycheck, recognition, or a promotion. The people who work at the soup kitchen refer to the work team as a "family". They notice when a volunteer has been gone for a while and they do everything they can to make sure that they are okay and they want to know what is going on in their life. They take care of eachother, support eachother, eat with eachother, and give so much of their lives to strangers. This is what Jesus did when He was on earth before he died, rose from the grave, and eventually was taken into heaven. God tells people who want to follow Him to engage in community not only with other Christians but with people who just need to be loved. It makes me sad to see people come in and out of church every sunday just to go home and live their lives for themselves forgetting about God or even the people that are around them on a daily basis.

A person does not have to travel the world to find those in need, they are in your town. They are in your workplace, they might live down the road. But it is not always easy, nice, warm, or fuzzy to go and help out those in need. We have to step out of our comfort zone and reach out to the people around us that hurt them. So if you are still reading this I would guess that you want to love people more and so I just want to encourage you to step out and love the people around you this week. Look for somebody lonley, hurting, in need, or just wanting a friend to talk to. It could be anybody anywhere at anytime but if we're not looking for ways to love then chances are that those chances will not walk up to us and smack us in the face. Be intentional and LOVE PEOPLE!!! ;) <3