"Kate, your life has been soooooooooooooooooooooo bland of late. I mean, really, I would describe your life as the typical life of a 20 year old American. I'm worried you don't have enough excitement in your life."
Well, rest those fears, dear reader. Let's see a little update about April. Hopefully, that will change your mind.
Alright. So, April began with Easter Break. For me, it wasn't so much of a break. I had some days off, but other days I put some serious work into a conference I was administrating. [Hold on for that information later.]
Because I am extremely lucky, I got to see my aunt and cousin over my break! Sure, it might have only been about 24 hours, but seeing Beth and Mary really brought a breath of fresh air. I realized when I with them that I hadn't seen any family members in real life in 7 months. That is a long time. Thanks to a friend of Beth's who lives in Brussels, I got to spend the night with them. The next day, we went to Antwerp. Really, it was just some shopping, talking, and waffle eating. However, to me it was rejuvenating.
Next was Easter. We celebrated Easter Mass together as a community on Saturday night. There's really nothing like an Easter vigil followed by a feast of Belgian chocolate. Easter Sunday, myself as well as a handful of others were all invited to the Vanderstuyfts for Easter dinner. It was lovely. A great dinner preceded with some trampoline antics and followed with playing cards made it feel like I was at home.
Home.
That was the first time in my entire stay here that I had felt that feeling. I missed it. It hurt. I didn't want to leave when it came time to do so. But, I found myself lucky to have felt that way.
The quiet, relaxed feeling that was the product was soon washed away in the swell of work that was to follow. Monday was technically a day off, but I began to go into overdrive. That weekend, the SWOT conference was being held in Leuven! I was the administrator. Essentially, this meant that I was the one to sort out all the practicals. Accommodation, Transportation, Food, Handouts you name it. Because of some different circumstances, I was under a lot of stress, even though I had planned and executed that plan well ahead of time. However, in the end, it all went off without a hitch.
The best part about SWOT, at least for me, has always been the friendships that are grown between these student outreach leaders. Since this was the third of these conferences, I have had ample time to become friends with the different Europeans who attend. Even though I felt swamped with work, being with some of my favorite people around the continent brought peace, and I think a bit a of sanity as well. It made the work I was doing seem so much more real. Putting it in the perspective of working so hard for my friends is what I'm sure made it bearable.
The day following the SWOT conference, I was in charge of what was called the Gappers' Day Out. Most of the Gappers around the region attend the SWOT conference, so it's easier to do something together as regional Gappers when we're already gathered for something else. I had planned on visiting Gent, my favorite Belgian city. But after talking to my fellow Gappers, I realized all we wanted was a day to relax with no big plan. This didn't break my heart too much since I had been so worn down from the conference. The results were a picnic in a park in Leuven. Plain, simple, and yet, a wonderful time. Sitting on a blanket in the rare Belgian sunshine, eating sandwiches, drinking juice, attempting to catch little ducklings, making jokes, and taking silly pictures, watching someone fall into the pond. Just what we all needed, I think.
Two days after this, Pharos held it's last Life in the Spirit Seminar session and a social event. The event: Clue (or Cluedo if you're European.) This was an idea that I had way back in February. I wanted to make Clue into a life-size, interactive, team board game. And that I did. I changed some of the pieces and messed with the strategy. The goal was the same: accuse correctly the person, weapon, and the place the crime was committed. After adjusting the board a little bit, I knew that I was going to have to make the game a bit harder so as to last longer. Everyone ended up placed into randomly selected teams. Each team was represented by one of the characters, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, etc. Each team would nominate one person to stand in as the character piece on the board. Easy enough, right? Here's the trick: The team and the person on the board were not allowed to communicate. How does that work, you ask? Well, this meant that the team had to plan ahead. They were allowed to meet with their board piece. The board piece was in charge of where to go, while the team made all of the suggestions and accusation. I relieved some of the added challenge by allowing the teams to switch who was on the board after a set amount of turns. I was concerned that this game wouldn't go over well. Two hours and two accusations later (one incorrect and one correct) everyone seemed to have a great time.
Next on the agenda: Household week.
The following week, our household and the guys' household open up our doors to fellow members of Pharos. The goal was to introduce these people to the idea of household, to give them a chance to live it out, and hopefully, to attract people to live in household next year. We hosted three Belgian girls for the week. A few things changed, but nothing major. Just morning prayer getting moved 2.5 hours earlier and adjusting cooking to twice the normal amount. All in all, I think it went well.
"Ok, Kate. This has nothing to do with your title."
Yeah, yeah, I know. But, let's put some perspective on this. All of this happened in one month. Add on to that fact that we had the rest of our Pharos events running at the same time. To say that I was busy is an understatement. This month has been one of the most difficult of my time here for one reason or another. I've been so stressed and busy that I haven't been able to even think half of the time, just do.
The other day, my household was given a bunch of tulips. It was a super sweet gesture. Of the flowers, one was deformed, and jokingly given the name the mutant tulip. One of the leaves was also one of the petals. I was really drawn to that flower. It wasn't the prettiest of the blooms. In fact, it never bloomed. But, I still found it fascinating and the most beautiful. As much as one could relate to a flower, I felt like that flower. Still a flower, but somehow, extremely different. In the end, that doesn't, or rather, shouldn't take a way the beauty of the flower. Who knows the actual purpose of that flower. Maybe it was to help me stop and reflect in my insanely busy life. All I know is that somehow it's given me some sort of respite, if only mental.
