San Diego- My Home!!

From karaoke to line dancing to running 10k's along the beach to go-carting to Sea World to laying out at the beach to Matisyahu and 311 concerts, I've done it all here in San Diego. And I LOVE it. It's one of the most perfectest places I've ever been to. It has the warm weather (because cold weather makes me grumpy), an amazing church (The San Diego Church) that I absolutely love and feel more at home there than ever before because it's small and the people are so welcoming and include everyone. I'm currently living with my cousins Tilly and Nate (who are so much fun!) until I actually find a job that I love and that will pay the bills. After trying out previous jobs here for awhile, I've decided to pursue doing random jobs (have you ever seen "Monster-in-Law?") to make some money while continuing to pursue finding a job working with abused and neglected children or with the homeless. I have faith that God will show me exactly what He wants...He's already shown me so much while I've been down here about what direction He wants to lead me in. I'm excited to see what He has in store. The people here are amazing...I have gained so much wisdom through being with my cousins and my good friend Heather (the picture at the top), who all love the Lord so much and love to seize the day just as much as I do :) I feel so blessed. So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it ;)

Dublin!!

From St. Patricks Cathedral to bonding with the locals in the Irish Pub and trying a Guinness and White Russian to wandering all over Dublin in the rain to sleeping in a hostel, we did it all. Dublin was amazing and I hope to go back to Ireland sooner rather than later. It was nothing but fabulous, and now we're back in London and just finished celebrating Valerie's 23rd birthday today! And tomorrow I fly back home to San Diego, which I'm excited for. I miss America and I miss spending only $2 on an iced americano instead of $4 on the same one here in London. Europe was amazing with my bff and this was the perfect time for me to go visit her but it's time to go home and buckle down now and get a solid income :)

To look at my pictures of Scotland and Ireland, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/danaverburg

Living a Nightmare...

Have you ever watched those movies that just get worse and worse and the problems just never seem to end? I got the privilege of living one of those movies. Lucky me.
I bought a flight to Scotland from London (I've been living with my bff Valerie and her sister Jade and her sister's friend Rebecca for the last two weeks in their flat and going around with them to Bath and Notting Hill and all over London) and was just going to meet the girls in Glasgow, Scotland because they already had their rail passes and we were going to fly out the following night to Dublin from Scotland. So I decided that, instead of going to sleep, I'd just leave at 2:30am and have plenty of time to make it to the airport at 6:40am. Little did I know that what should have taken about an hour and a half took 4 hours and I still missed my flight. So like I said, I left at 2:30am and walked to the bus station that this supposedly "correct" website told me to go to, only to find out from the bus driver that i was supposed to be at another one across the street. He told me he'd just "loop around" and drop me off at the other one, but instead he took me on his whole route through London! He told me he was just dropping me off at the other coach bus station that would take me directly to the airport. He dropped me off at the coach bus stop and told me the bus would be coming any minute. I looked at the sign and there was not even any mention of any airport drop-off and not any mention of any of those buses even running at that wretched hour of the night (it was 4am by now). So there I was, unsure of what to do next after waiting for at least 45 minutes for the bus. After asking a few clueless bus drivers, I finally decided to leave and go find someone who actually knew some right information. I happened to see a police car in the park, so I went up to them and asked them if the coach buses even ran at this hour of the night. The buses didn't, of course. Just my luck. They told me what bus to catch and what train to catch to get to the airport, but I had no clue where this bus stop was, so even though they said they could get in a lot of trouble, they had me hop in and turned on their lights and drove me to the stop and made sure it was the right bus for me to get on. Riding in the London police car was definitely the biggest perk in that 24-hour period... After getting on the right bus (finally), we were once again stopped multiple times because a drunk guy kept pushing the "stop" button and yelling who knows what and kept prying the bus doors open. Finally someone had to physically hurt him to get him off the bus. I couldn't help but almost laugh at how much bad luck I could have in one night. I was pretty confident that I was already going to be too late to get on my flight. Then I missed my bus stop because the signs weren't readable and the bus driver wasn't clear about when i was supposed to get off, so I had to get on another bus and travel 15 minutes back and catch the train to the airport. It was 5:55am by this time...the exact time that i had to be checking in for my flight before it was too late. I decided to just take the train anyway...I had hope that maybe my flight was delayed (which it wasn't of course). I got to the airport at 6:40am, the exact time that my flight was taking off. So there I was, not sure whether to laugh or cry. I booked the next flight out, which cost another $100 because I missed my flight (policy), which was more than my actual flight had cost! Then I headed straight to security and got searched and had to go back out of security and come back in again only to be searched again. Unbelievable. Then I got to my gate and was one of the last people to board! I almost missed that flight as well!! Finally I got to Glasgow, Scotland and it was rainy and dreary and not the greatest city to be alone and cold and tired in. But I made the most of it and went on a double decker bus through the city. I had to take a train from the airport to the actual city (I had to meet the girls there) and I passed a lot of cute Scottish towns but wasn't able to go to them. Next time. Then because of the rail system and a whole 'nother ordeal, Val barely made it on our flight that night out from Scotland to Dublin, Ireland. She made it with about 5 minutes to spare but had to take a $170 taxi ride to make it to our flight on time.
When we finally made it to Dublin, we had to sleep in the Dublin airport because there was absolutely NO accomodation anywhere in Dublin because it was the biggest weekend ever for the Irish because there was a soccer event going on. So we slept in the airport cafeteria and had the pleasure of waking up to people eating all around us. What more could we want?

My Spring Break Experience...

Cramped in our micro-campervan with no way to move around but only spoon…what more could we want? Jaimers, Leeners and I couldn’t sit up in our “home” and even if we tried, we would hit the smeared bugs on the ceiling and get them in our already dirty and un-showered hair. I guess it wouldn’t really make much of a difference if we got a few bugs in the mix of our already nasty hair.
As for nighttime, who knew we needed flashlights? We would have to drive fast to find our new parking lot or sketchy street to park our “home” on. When we finally found a place, we would set up our little table and chairs in the middle of a parking lot and cook our soup or pasta in the freezing cold as the sun began to set. We didn’t understand why random passerby’s would give us odd looks as they walked by our dinner table in the middle of the parking lot. After dinner we would find the nearest sprinkler system or other source of water (outdoor showers etc.) to rinse off our pots and pans as good as we were able to... Then we would climb into our little 2-person bed to get all snuggly at 7:30 at night because we had nothing better to do than sleep when we had no light be able to entertain ourselves. That, my friends, was my spring break of 2007 :)

It really was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had because we were roughing it big time :) We found creative and cheap ways to have fun, like hiking in one of the most beautiful parks in the world called Abel Tasmen, kayaking there (in the frigid cold I might add...we felt like we were seconds away from getting hypothermia), karaoke with the 50-year old locals, various coffee shops and libraries to stay warm because we had no other place to hang out than our car...as well as many other "interesting" experiences... We were literally homeless, which was definitely an experience I will never forget :)

FiaFia!!

So here is Samoa...the dancing picture gives a little taste of what the Samoan culture is like...dancing and REALLY brightly colored outfits (called Pulatassi's) in front of large crowds. If you get "summoned" up there to dance in front of the whole village, you have to... The week before in Savaii, a different island of Samoa, we had learned how to do the Samoan dance, but I unfortunately lack the graceful moves that you need to be truly Samoan ;) So I was summoned up there in my dress (most hideous I might add...it's like putting every single wildflower together and adding puffed sleeves to the mix) and danced my heart out...and now my peers daily remind me and everyone else of the "Dana dance" that I so eloquently performed :) The night of this dance party celebration called the FiaFia with the whole Faga village (where we stayed in Samoan homes) was one of the best nights that I have ever had. I think I should bring it back to the states... ;)

Lack of Mail...

So here I am, back in New Zealand, and alas, my mailbox is seeming rather empty... My address here in New Zealand is:

C/-CCSP
218 Bamfords Rd.
RD1, Lyttelton, New Zealand 8971

Cards, Snickers, Licorice, Letters, Poems, Gum are all greatly welcomed ;)

From Kiwis to Samoans...

So i'm off to another foreign land...the land of Samoa! Glorious! The Kiwis will surely miss us all as we embark on another adventure for a time. We're all so excited for the heat! If you all could just be praying for this hard time as we go and have to struggle through our class where we have to snorkel all week. It'll be truly rough having to go study the fish down under. And laying on the beach will be equally hard. And dancing with the Samoans and living in little huts. Hard times lay ahead my friends. The hardest thing though (in all seriousness) is that we'll have no form of communication with anyone for 3 weeks. Don't despair when you don't hear back from me right away ;) (because i know you'll all be despairing;) By the way, in the picture up on the right, on the far right is my one roommate Ashley, who is SO sweet and seriously identical to me. It's kind of weird how twinnish-like we are. My other roommate Colette will be shown in another blog. I know you're all dying to see "this other one" who is equally amazing. Anyway, I'm off. I love you all!

Bonding with the Livestock

The other day a few of us went into the fields of New Zealand and tried to catch a sheep to put a jersey on it. Who ever knew that sheep were such little racehorses! Never let appearances lie to you...that was my profound lesson of the day. We never did attain our goal...which means that we won't be getting treated to ice cream any time soon by one of the staff workers. Sad day. Ice cream and sweets come few and far between here where we live. We eat all organic food and are constantly hungry. It's pathetic. We're all dying 1/2 hour after we eat a big meal of vegetable soup. I'm so glad to be eating healthy and the food is delish, but I feel like I'm eating way more because I'm always so hungry! And civilization is a half-hour away, so there is no hope of buying food. The only time we're in Christchurch is on Saturday or Sunday. We all love being in the rainforest-type atmosphere with a ton of outdoor things to do, but at times I feel a little trapped because I have no car, no cell phone, no friends outside of my 15 friends here, and only monstrous hills to have to climb back up if I want to run or bike down to civilization ;) Oh the woes of Dana ;)

Glorious Hot Days + Glorious Views

So here is my typical day. Soaring in the wind above the herds of sheep as they graze below me on the hills of New Zealand. There has never been a more beautiful place that I have ever laid my eyes on. Seriously. It's incred. We've been lucky to have good weather...I heard that they didn't have a summer until the week that we showed up. Thank God for warm weather...for those of you who know me well (even semi-well), you know that this is the biggest blessing that God could ever give me ;)
As for my kiwi adventures...they have definitely been brill. I couldn't ask for a more gorgeous place to live in. The 15 other students from all over the U.S. that I'm living with never cease to amaze me. It's been really cool getting to know people that I wouldn't necessarily be friends with otherwise. We all feel that way...that we're all really different but are able to come together and realize how similar we really are. This is such a good test for all 16 of us to show Christ's love when we're with each other 24/7 (literally).

The Night of the Irish

So this, my friends, was the night of the Irish. It was a truly glor time. Actually the most fun night I've had in New Zealand so far. We got this strong urge to go (Jamers and I) up on stage at the Irish pub in Christchurch. We didn't expect to go there, but alas, the Irish music called us in. It has been so much fun meeting people from alllll over the world (literally) with all different kinds of accents. I wish that I could pick up the Kiwi accent...but alas, I don't know that it will become part of me because I would probably sound Amerikiwi or something. No good.