2009..... so long!!!!!!!!!

A year in review!

Soooo it’s almost 2010 and I’m finding it hard to believe a whole year has passed by! I don’t know it anyone else feels this way but sometimes when I try to contemplate how time goes by it seems totally unreal. Like dreamy thing that didn’t really happen. And the speed that it went by is ridiculous!!! Shame!

So last year around this time I was oh holidays at my parents celebrating Christmas and new years. We had the whole shebang, fireworks and all and we were all together as a family which was awesome. We knew that this year I would be in Africa at this time; I had just got the confirmation that I was accepted by Botshabelo to come and so we knew that we wouldn’t be all together this year. So it was a special time. We had so much fun. Lisa and Riqui came aswell and we all had a blast playing games and carrying on!

After the holidays I started working and saving for my trip. Everything this year was focused on getting to Africa. I knew I was coming sometime in September or October and the planning began in earnest. Planning and saving. I had already done a bit of saving for sure but this time it was serious hardcore J

I also got into the Vancouver Island University and did my upgrading so that I could get into the LPN program. (Licensed practical nurse). I was one of the older students doing my Biology 12 and it was actually a lot of fun. I discovered my inner student after being out of school for 6 years and had a great time sitting at the back of the class and paying little attention but still getting good grade. J I passed with an A- grade and challenged my grade 10 math test and past with a higher than average score so I definitely felt that God blessed me in that. I’m now in line to take the course in 2010 if I so choose. I don’t know for sure what God had planned for me just yet but it’s an option now. Those three months while I took the course was hectic because I would work in the morning, go to school in the afternoon, and then come rushing home to work again till 9 at night. Then I would study in between. I did that schedule four days a week and it kept me very very much out of trouble!!! Lol

In May I took a trip for 10 days to Toronto to go to an LTT (leadership training time) with a whole bunch of churches relating to mine. I also got the chance to stay with amazing and wonderful friends there and we had the best time getting to know each other better. I ended up renting a car and three of us drove to Niagara Falls. It was totally stunning and awesome to see the splendor of Gods great creation!!!! Walking around the city and seeing all the old building and the history was amazing as well.

My sister got engaged early in the year and shortly after one of my best friends/roommate also got engaged. It became wedding madness all around me! Bridesmaid AND maid of honor in the same summer kept me very much out of trouble!! The spring was full of wedding dress shopping trips and all talk was either wedding or Africa. There wasn’t much else on our minds!!

My roommate Lisa and I had a hectic time at the first half of the year with our landlord. We lost our good awesome landlord when he sold the condo we were living in and the new landlord turned out to be very very very challenging. We had to start looking for a new place because of the trouble that he was giving us. We found an awesome one for the beginning of June and moved into the basement suite of the same house that another one of my best friends lived in. ahhhhh heaven to live with nice people again! With the move I didn’t bother unpacking all my stuff. In fact when packing boxes they were often labeled “don’t open till 2010” and then when my daddy came to help us move we put all those boxes into his trailer and sent them to Victoria to be put into storage till I came home again in January 2010. It was a very strange feeling I’m telling you!!! I can’t remember where most of my stuff is now and I’m just hoping that my winter clothes are with my parents so that I can bundle up when I get home. As I sit here writing this in my tank top and capris I know that in 12 days I’m in for a rude shock!

June and July were pretty much all dedicated to the weddings. Between showers and stagettes and other people’s weddings it was madness!! Lol. Sooo much fun actually!

This year was also the year that I got to try out a relationship. It wasn’t particularly successful…. (Still single ;) ) But it taught me a lot about myself and what I really wanted in life and a life partner. I used to have a conception that life would be perfect and amazing the moment I found someone, got a ‘boyfriend’, but actually, when it’s not the right person (which it wasn’t, only took me three months to sort that out, and a little help from my good friends! Lol) but when it’s not the right person it’s actually not good and worse than being alone. I was, at the end of the relationship, actually more unhappy than happy and when I did finally break it off, although I was completely heartbroken at first, I also knew an incredible sense of Gods peace fill me. So, it sucked at the time, but I’m glad I got the chance to sort that out and see for myself. In the end, I was always accountable to and eldership couple in my church and was totally protected in that way. God is so good and HIS love never fails.

August came with all its weddings and fun. The month went by super fast and before I knew it, Mary and Dallas were married and then Lisa and Tony. After their wedding, another one of my bestest amazing friends, Riqui, moved her little self to Edmonton, Alberta to start school there. And I moved out of my basement suite and lost my roommate. It was a hectic end to the summer and I’m not gonna lie to you, a LOT of crying was done! I moved in, for my last three weeks, to Mike and Tanya’s place. They offered their home up to me and let me live in their basement suite for the last few weeks before I left for Africa.
The last few things had to be done up including getting my visa and saying all my goodbyes and quitting my job. I applied at the beginning of the year to get the time off from work for my trip to Africa but the job I was in denied me the time. They said it was too long for me to be away as a casual employee. So I quit. I definitely felt Gods plan for me was Africa and so I know with all my heart that when I get back there will be something for me, something awesome! Then my car decided to die two weeks before I was to leave and that of course had to stress me out. Lol. Thankfully it was fixed for 100 bucks and I had amazing friends take care of me and I didn’t miss any work or anything so that was pretty awesome. I winterized my car and got it ready for my return and payed all my bills and put my cell phone on vacation disconnect…… every little thing that had to be done got done.

September 22 I left Canada and flew to South Africa. And you all know the rest!!! I’m on the tail end now of my time here. I leave in 11 days or so. It’s gone by like crazy fast and I hardly believe sometimes still that I’m actually here. This year has been amazing and full of adventures. Growing in God, building friendships, and doing awesome things!

I got to pet a lion and a crocodile this year people!!!!!!!

lonnnnnng entry.... sorry... lol

Twas the night before Christmas and I forgot to write…. And then four thousand years later I decided to sit down and have a go at it. Lol

Shame. I’m so bad at this lately. Lol. I have a life now you see and more things to do that write. J totally a good thing!
Christmas was amazing considering I was totally homesick and expecting it to not be that great…. But it really really was. God blessed this season totally!

Christmas eve was spent working the morning shift and then cooking my sweet potato recipe for an amazing Christmas eve dinner with Sidney and Janine. Janine is Canadian and she KNOWS how a Christmas dinner is supposed to look. We had the works and it was stunning! We had mashed potatoes, my sweet potatoes, ham, green beans, veg with cheese sauce, bread, stuffing……. We ate and ate! And for pudding (desert) we had Nanaimo BARS!!! Whoot!!! It was so nice. After dinner we played a game and then went to the 10pm evening service at church. Soooo nice. We sang our hearts out caroling and the preach was good. Lattteeee late I made the dough for sticky buns so that it could sit overnight in the fridge… and that was Christmas eve.

Christmas morning started VERY early as all the volunteers decided to work the whole day together. So Me, Amy, Taylor and Lauren worked from 6 am with the kids. It was sooooo awesome to be there with there. They didn’t have presents or anything because all of December they have been receiving presents through donations. In fact, it seems every day they got something new to play with. So the actual Christmas morning they didn’t have anything to open. But it was fun because we were all there to play with them. We had a great time. Each of us taking turns to run back to our place to shower and get ready for the day. I made the rest of my sticky buns. We had a group potluck Christmas breakfast with all the people on the property at 10 am. We brought most of the kids down to the breakfast with us and it was a yummy feast! Mom, your sticky bun recipe is just as popular in Africa as it is in Canada! They went over VERY well, even with the security guards who came to find out why the gate alarm got set off and ended up with a plate of food each! J it was a wonderful way to celebrate with all our friends from the property!!!

After breakfast it was nap time for the kids so we all went on break and opened our Christmas presents from each other. It was so sweet. I got a great book from Amy and Lauren about safaris and a huge bar of chocolate from tay tay! Yay. At half twelve Adrian pitched up to drive us to Christmas lunch at Catherine’s mom’s place, Elma. We had a huge feast with homemade Christmas crackers for all of us and stockings as well full of candy. the dinner was amazing and we had such a good time. It was wonderful to spend Christmas with another family and just feel so blessed! At four we had to be back at the baby’s home to get the kids through their baths and dinner and bed!!! At seven when we were all done our shift we high fived and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Lol!!!! It was such a great day but oh so tiring.

After that we all made our phone calls. I talked to my entire family and then Lisa and then I got sweet phone calls from Angela and mark and jen! It was so cool!!! it made me totally homesick to hear everyone’s voices but it was so nice at the same time!!!! What an awesome day!

Boxing day was another work day. Everyone was super tired from the day before so we just dragged ourselves through our shifts!! Lol.
Sunday night Amy, Lauren, max and I went out to a pool bar and I learned that im not totally rubbish at playing pool. We had a nice time seeing as we were almost the only people there. There was one other couple playing and a guy sitting at the bar who ended up being invited to join us and play with us. we played probably eight games at least! And I made friend with the other couple who turned out to be a south African and a Scottish lady who enjoyed picking the music with me from the jukebox! J

Today was my day off and I went with Taylor to book my tattoo appointment. I’ve decided to get a tattoo in Africa as my ‘souvenir’ of being here! Taylor got one last week at the same place I’m going and it looks really good so I know its gonna be a good place to go. My original piece was going to be pretty big but I have zero dollars left so I’m going with something fairly small. It actually pretty much the same price to get something here as it would be in Canada so that’s cool. I’m excited!!!I may not buy groceries this week to pay for it but I’m excited!! Hehe.

Afterwards we got lunch and I got stung by a wasp at the restaurant. That REALLY hurt but considering last time I got stung I got toally ill and swelled up majorly, this time was pretty good. I didn’t even have to take a Benadryl. I was sure that I would, but by the time we got home an hour later the swelling had gone down and my arm wasn’t’ hurting anymore. So. Phew. Apparently African wasps are better for me?!

We went out tonight to the movies (where else would we be going? ) and saw avatar. That was a GOOD movie. I totally enjoyed it. We saw it in 3D which made it all the more amazing. The colors and ideas that are behind that film are pretty amazing. Very much enjoyed it.

Btw I saw a movie called ínvictus the other day, and I can’t remember if I wrote about it. But if you get the chance, go see it, it is a brilliant movie. Probably my favorite one of this year. And a lot of the scenery is totally what I see all the time here. Probably one of the main reasons that I enjoyed it so much actually. For my family, WAIT TO SEE IT WITH ME!!!! Then I can point out things that are familiar to me now!!!

Apartheid Museum and Soweto

http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/

Amy, Lauren and I went to the Apartheid Museum today. They have a special temporary exhibition on Nelson Mandela and it was soooo cool. the whole place was very cool. we didn't have as much time to go through it as i would have liked but it was very very interesting. i have an even more profound respect for this country and the struggles that it has gone through.

http://www.anc.org.za/people/mandela.html

after the museum we went into Soweto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto) and explored. we saw Winnie Mandela's house, Desmond Tutu's house(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu) the Mandela's family house and we got our pictures taken in front of the Orlando Towers. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Towers). it was totally cool. we ended up at the Hector Pieterson Museum http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/hector-pieterson.htm we didn't go in but we spent some time at the memorial. it was very moving actually. a very good and historical day!!!

AFRICA i love theee

Ok. I know I know. Its been forever and a day since I’ve updated. Lol. I’m so busy its been crazy. I’m not going to even be able to remember everything that has been going on the last week or so since ive updated. Shame!

I went away for the the weekend to the Vaal Dam with a bunch of friend from the church. It was amazing. 11 of us in one house just swimming and braaing and jumping into pools with our clothes on. Lol (that last one was my idea, us girls did it when we went for a random walk late at night. ) I got to drive a Jet Ski by myself for the first time and had a blast doing it! I am sooooo sore from death grips on three seater tubes and choppy wake while trying to hang on to the Jet Ski. We spent the whole weekend pretty much in the sun and because I had the best head start I hardly burned at all, just the top of my head. It was an amazing weekend and I had the best time!!!!!

It’s winding down to my last three weeks here in Africa. I’m so thankful for the friend that have been calling and keeping in touch!! I got mail today from riqui!!! That made my day!!! And the random phone calls that cheer me up and keep me going in my homesickness. Thanks tope!!

I went today out with a girl that I met when she was dropping of donations for our baby’s home. She is a Canadian girl who has been here for seven years working in another, much larger, babies home, called ‘the door of hope’ (Google it) its way bigger than our babies home (52 kids!!!) and they have way more babies. So she picked me up today and I went to check it out. They have soooo many babies and all of them are way smaller than our babies. Lots of them are preemies and just tiny. I saw one today who’s little tiny head was no bigger than a tennis ball!!! And her body was barely there. Just so small. They also have a new program just starting for special needs babies. It was so cool to see it and get an idea on a different home. Very cool. I also ended up at joberg hospital to visit four of the homes babies that are in there. Now that was grim. The hospital is massively huge and no one seems to be doing anything constructive. Its dirty and sad looking. Very sad looking. I wouldn’t want to be in there for any reason at all. And the little ones that are in there are so so so small and helpless. They leave people there on duty watching in case the babies stop breathing because the sisters(nurses) don’t check the kids that often. Every three hours pretty much. So. If your not there keep watch, then no one is…. Its very strange. Coming from a place where everyone in a hospital seems to be running and moving, to a place where everyone just sits around and doesn’t do a thing. Very frustrating.

As I said before I’m home in three weeks. I need some prayer.

PRAYER REQUESTS!!!!

-A JOB!!!!!!!

-$$$$$$$$$$$

-I have been blessed with a place to stay for free for my first month back, after that I need some accommodations… and I need them cheap cheap cheeeeeeaaaappppp

Thanks be that I serve an amazing and huge God. This is like nothing to him. So just pray into it for me.

still kinda blah!

ok. sorry that i've not been updating. i've been sick. and sick some more. and then i just plain have been lazy. lol. life here is
not as fun when your sick. but life isn't really fun anywhere when your sick is it? after my three days of fever, i got a strange rash and nausea thing. i was sick saturday and sunday with the rash. it was like a strange thing cause i've never had a rash in my life before and all of a sudden i was cover head to toe pretty much with red bumps. it was odd. and then i had this nausea where i felt like i was going to barf all the time. pleasant hey"? :) sorry for the detail. anyways i didint'much feel like updateing.
beside feeliing under the weather its continuing to be busy life here. a lot of people have gone on vacation. i'm now in charge of when people bring in donations to the babies home, making sure they get put away and i have the storeroom key and everything. lol. it seems like a lot of reponsibility but its not. still im taking pride in it! :)
Gordon taught me how to make proper south african pancakes last night.(including his secret ingrediant and i'm not telling a soul! ) and i actually learned to flip it in the pan without a flipper or spatula. jsut 'flip'! lol. small things make me happy as you know. south african pancakes are an amazing thing and i love them. you dont'just have syrup on them and call it a day. they are bigger and thin and you can do anything with them. last night we had them with sugar and cinamon. and gordon made me one with peanut butter, banana, nuts and syrup. mmmmm sometimes i put cheese in them. hazelnut spread is yummy in them too. they are very very yum!
my time here is go;ing fast now that i'm on the tail end of it. i have less than a month to go now and i'm feeling the time slipping away so very fast. i want to get as much as i can in now before i got. its hectic tho because everything is quiet and people are all on holidays and away. but i have lots of christmas plans. dinners and goings on so its gonna be fun. i'm missing snow, i know you all think thats a crazy thing to miss. but its 10 days till chrismas eve and i don't even feel like it! the weather is either hot hot hot or its crazy storms. we have had hail here the last two days. and when i say hail i mean we have had twoonie sized chunks of ice falling from the sky denting cars and cracking windshields!!! its so so so cool to watch. but not fun to be out in!
i decorated the tree today. its just a tiny little thing and we have hardly any decorations but i used what i could find and its very cute sitting in the corner of the room.
anyways if you think of it please pray for me. i'm stuggling as you can tell with my health. i now have a sore throat and a drip back there that usually means a cold is coming on. its so dumb to get colds in the summer!!! lol i'm also trying very very hard to keep a cheerful spirit of adventure and fun in the holiday season. missing home an aweful lot and its not getting any easier day by day.
also another one of the kids left the babies home over the weekend and she was my favorite girl and i cried and cried. i didn't cry in front of her or the kids tho which i was proud of. we had a prayer time for her just before she left and i did my praying in my inside voice because i knew if i spoke she wouild hear the tears in my voice. i'm not going to lie, i have some heartbreaking stories that i just can't write on here but if you think of her, prayer would be great. (maybe this is whyy i'm getting sick now, i'm stressed out a bit...lol ) so now we are down to 12 kids which is, i must say, a more managable number.
happy birthday today to my mommy!!! i got to talk to her for 10 minutes on my airtime before it died. lol
thanks for those who call me over here. *cough lisa cough* i really appreciate it. and thanks for my mail *cough carin cough* it really lifts me up when i hear from home. God has blessed me here with amazing and fun friends and thats why i think i've made it this long without having some sort of a homesickness melt down. i'm going to hate leaving here more that i hated leaving canada when i came...... . i now truely love two countries. :)

sickness

sooo monday after life group was over i started feeling worse and worse. i had slept for three hours after getting off shift monday afternoon and had taken a LOT of medication to stem that yucky feeling just so i could get to life group (it was the last one of the season!!!) but as soon as i got home it all came over me and felt sooooo rotton. so i went straight to bed after taking a few over the counter sleep assitance things... tee hee. i slept for 12 hours straight and woke up with a high fever, headache, aching pains all over my body and the general feeling that death would be the better option!

i layed on the couch for the better part of the day in major pain and feeling horrible. my fever broke sometime around 9pm ish. i had passed out on the couch watching tv with Taylor. he claims that i was snoring but doubt that.... ;) i'm feeling much better this morning although quite worn out.


i don't know how i got this or where but Aimee and Geoff are both feeling the same way so i wonder if we picked it up on our picnic on sunday. its the most random thing.

hopefully its gone now. :)

beautiful sunday....

i love sundays here. i didn't have to work this week so that is always nice. i got up at the crack of dawn and did two loads of laundry and updated my blog before church! :) thats impressive yes? :)

church was awesome. we had PJ Smythe in the flesh preaching the last of the series that we have been working on, Jonah in Jozi. i've ordered the whole set of it so that i can bring it back to canada. its very applicable to any country/city. i brought one of the babies down with me and he fell asleep during the worship and proceeded to sleep right through all the preach. i was happy about that! :)

after church BeeJay and her daughter, amiee, geoff and one of the kids from the babies home and I all went for a drive and a picnic. we spent the whole day out and the kids played in a pool and we watched mokeys eat the garbage out the cans. its so funny because what i think is cool and neat, everyone else thinks is a pain and pest. lol. monkeys are way cute in my books...

we have a new pet on the property. i found a large tortoise yesterday walking along behind the bathrooms by the water pumps. we are now keep the gates shut in the volunteers areas and we are keeping 'speedy phobe'for a pet. she is super cute and super fast. she gets all over the yard at a great rate of speed. its very cute. and she is pretty big too! she is about the size of a rugby ball.

today i worked. and had a hard day aswell. i haven't been feeling very well all day and i'm not really sure whats wrong with me. i'm feeling very very very tired and i think i had a fever aswell. i got off work and slept for 3 hours. first i was burning hot and then i was freezing cold and i felt like i couldn't move an inch because of how much i was aching. i feel better now but not a hundred percent so ... i don't kn ow.... i'll have to try to get to bed early tonight i guess.

hi..... for anyone who reads...

soooooo its been a while. but not to worry! i've just been insanely busy. :)

i went to Pilanesberg for my camping trip. it was amazing. the drive down i got picked up by Kerryn and toby and then in four square area we traded all vehicles into the bigger suv/truck ish cars. i drove the rest of the way to the campsite with brad and chanee. it was super fun and we chased bad weather all the way down. it was like we would run into rain and then we would drive out of it, only to run into it again. all the way there pretty much. we stayed in covoy with the other vehicle so that was nice. when we got there it hadn't rained yet but we could see it was coming. so we picked out our campsite and then beat a hasty retreat to the restaurant for a cool drink till the rain sorted its self out. there is no point setting up your stuff while its raining african style. seriously the rain here is drenching. there is no chance of quickly running out of it and staying dry, if you step out the door, you are wet! so we waiting for about thirty minutes and then when it was pretty much done we started setting up camp. now the people that came with us are major major major campers. Ian and his wife, Katie, well actually mostly Ian are so set up its not even funny. Ian does lots of trips into Zim so he is well prepared for pretty much anything. We set up so much electricity in the campsite that we pretty much glowed. He had a fridge and a freezer, a microwave and and then the usual kettle and stove top!!! lol. haha. it was so awesome. it took forever it seemed to set up camp but once we did we were well sorted! i'm telling you!

i got so major help setting up my borrowed tent, which was nice because it turned out to be a massive thing and i didn't have a clue how to get it up! it was funny to be the only single person on the trip with the biggest tent! it was so big , it felt like it was the size of the two of the other tents put together. lol. it was nice i had lots of room for all my stuff.... .... ... and then some to spare.

the next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and at the gate to the reserve by six. you have to get on the road early if you want to see thing. the animals take shelter from the heat after a certain time in the morning and then you won't see anything. we had a GREAT first drive. we saw elephants and zebras and rhinos and impallas galore. we got to see a jackel, and he came pretty much right up to the car. we think he could smell our billtong or something. i spotted a croccidile. we saw hippos and turtles and waterbucks. we saw tons of birds aswell. which was really cool because often we would stop to look at this amazing bird and then something else would catch our eye. we saw an ostrich and giraffes as well. it was totally amazing. i got to see elephants to my hearts content. i mean they were so close to the car that i could smell them and hear them eating. at one point we saw this one bull all by himself and he walked almost right up to the car. chanee had to keep telling me to stop hanging out the window cause i was so excited!!! it was very cool. at about 1030 we headed back to camp for 'breakfast'. and then we chilled out for the afternoon. there was a big swimming pool at the campsite so some of the gang went for a dip. i was boiling hot so i went to the showers and had a very lonnnngggg cold shower. swimming would have felt good but it was so flippen hot and i had been up so early that i just need some chill by myself time.

we went back out on another game drive at 4 and saw lots more stuff. i got nominated an honerary south african when i spotted sternbucks hiding in the grass. apparently they are hard to spot! so yay for me! :) i was happy because i was seeing lots of stuff and i "got the eye" really quick for finding thing. we also got to see a cheetah! apparently there is only one in the reserve so that was pretty sweet!

we had a braai when we got home but and listened to an elephant screaming in the bush. don't know what was causing the trouble but he was upset. it was pretty cool to hear him!

the next morning we got up super early and broke camp and then headed back out for a final drive. we had late breakfast in the reserve in a designated area that was supposed to be fenced off and electric set up, but the elephants had been in and there was poop everywhere. so we kept our ears open for trouble and had a nice breakfast. lol.

all in all we saw so much stuff and got lots of pictures. it was an amazing trip!

i got home sunday afternoon and after doing laundry i begged Antoine to take me to the movies. Taylor caught a lift with us and we met a bunch of people from church at the cinema and we all saw twilight.

Monday i still had a day off and so me, amy lauren and Antoine went to the Lion park. it was so fun because they let you pet the baby lions. so we went in the cage and had a great time with the little cubs. sooooo cute. and then we got to feel a giraffe named Gambit. they are so gentle when they eat out of your hand and their tounges feel so cool!!! i got totally covered in slobber. :)

then you go on a min game drive and the lions are so close to your car that you could reach out the window and touch them if you wanted to. but of course you don't. lol. your supposed to keep the windows shut.... but of course you don't! lol.

monday night was life group. i love my life group here. we had the best laughs.

tuesday Aimee and antonie and i went back to the movies in the evening. its so nice to get off the property and get out and about that even if all it is is going to the movies its awesome. :)

wednesday we had a massive storm come through and the power went out from 7 and didn't got back on all night. so we went next door to Beejays and danced around singing christmas carols with her and Aimee. then we sat in the dark back at our place till like 1030 and tried to tell scary storys.... didn't go very well cause none of us know any. lol

thursday we lost power again and this time on friday they had to call an electrician in to fix the problem. lol. this is africa baby.

friday we had a farewell braai for the dutch volunteers. it was awesome. we played drums and made a massive racket. so much fun and dancing around.

yesterday was urban market and i worked the morning shift at the babies home. by myself, i took nine kids to the market in one go. i stayed down there for almost 2 hours and i was so proud of myself. this was my third market and two months ago when i had first gotten here i could only handle taking 2 kids at a time to the market. now NINE. haha!

after market, Sdu and Gershwin took lauren and i bungee jumping. i DIDN"T jump people. no freaking way! but i got great video for lauren of her jump. it was pretty cool!

last night we all went to the cinema again. :) its the thing to do here. turns out, movie going is a universal form of entertainment. :) who knew! :)