Happy Anniversary!

Last week we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Can't believe how fast it went. A lot has happened over the last two years. Just for fun...how about a "then" and "now" comparison?

Then: August 16, 2003

Now

Liverpool and the Beatles

Yesterday Jeremy and I headed off to Liverpool to check out the birthplace of the Beatles. We visited the famous "The Beatles Story" museum. Sorry guys, cameras not allowed inside.

Entry to the Beatles Museum.

We also spent a lot of time just walking around and checking out the city. There are a ton of old buildings (as there are in EVERY city in Europe). Just a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Crystal by the Liverpool Military Memorial.

Floral wreaths left at the memorial.

Liverpool is a pretty cool little place, right on the River Mersey, that feeds into the Liverpool Bay. So it has this cool San Francisco feel, but it's much older and not so hilly. It's also not as windy because it's not directly on the bay, but still has the coastal city feel because the river brings the boats in.

A cool water fountain, as Jeremy was taking the picture I was getting sprayed from the fountain, hence the funny look on my face.

Today is my last day in Manchester, I will head home tomorrow (my Tuesday). It's been a great trip and I am glad to have experienced it, and the timing of coming home is great as I am starting to miss my hubby and my family and friends. Peace out guys!

Something to look forward to, getting back to Scotty and our "child" Joei.

Chorlton, Manchester, England, World.

So in our venturing today we stumbled across a nice surprise..Chorlton Street. There is also a district of Manchester that is called Chorlton--for those of you who don't know/remember Chorlton is my maiden name.

Crystal under "her" sign.

We also went to downtown today and saw some nice churches, one of which was in the middle of its bell chiming. This was quaint, we thought it would last like 5 minutes, we left a good 30 minutes later and we could still hear it, walking through downtown you could still hear it a good 30 minutes more.

Manchester Cathedral an Anglican church

Cross in the courtyard of the Manchester Cathedral.

Also, while in downtown we saw the coolest thing in the world (Scotty will be jealous)...rock climbing ON buildings in down town. Apparently there are two organized extreme sport competitions going on this week, both involving rock climbing called Manchester Urban X. I guess the idea is to bring these extreme sports into the urban community.

View from the courtyard of the building that was part of the climbing competition.

Some random guy climbing the side of this building in center.

He's really hard to see, if you see the window on the front of the building that has the red on it, he is at the same level on the left face of the building.

And closer...

and closer...now can you see him?

We also did just a lot of walking around, I have included some pictures from the city I thought were cool and gave a feel for the vibe here. It's very culturally diverse here, lots of people from all over: West Indian, East Indian, Middle Eastern, Greek, French, Germany, Asian, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Spanish Portuguese, Brazilian, , and a few Americans and Canadian (there you go Jenn). Hope you all enjoy these. Much love!

Manchester City Hall

City Council building

A cool local pub.

Graffiti by a community boxing school.

Everybody loves allyes.

Manchester is nice.

I have arrived in Manchester, England with little trouble. Passport control was fun...I was the ONLY one comming in who was not from England, so I am standing in the "all other passengers" line, all by myself, feeling a little examined there. I felt like I did really well on the whole question/answer thing but the lady was really concerned that I was only staying for 4 days. In your best British accent "That a bit short, don't you think so? Why that's not very long.". She asked me this at least 3 times, very concerned. But I must have convinced her because she let me into the country.

Jeremy and I went to the University of Manchester Museum today. They had a VERY cool section on ancient Egypt and mummies. They actually had 5 or 6 real mummies in the museum. Some of them were wrapped, some were partically to fully unwrapped. There was an young boy all the way to an elderly woman, pretty amazing. They had the painted mummy cover things also on display, it was unreal to be right there with something SO old, some dated back to 1200 BC. That's pretty old, eh?

Jeremy in the museum, he apparently found the best exit in the house.

Things I have enjoyed already so far:

• driving on the left side of the road (dont' call it wrong you WILL be physically destroyed)
• no exit signs only "Way Out" (much like a bad prison movie)
• you don't yeild you "Give Way"

I'll let you know as I find more cool stuff...peace out!

last day in Riga

Today is my last day in Riga. I leave early tomorrow for Manchester. These last several days have been wonderful to spend with my brother and other friends.

Crystal getting some lovin' from Spike.

Probably one of my favorite funny experiences was with my brother in the cinema. We were watching the previews and a movie came on that looked like a French version of the movie "Jack Ass", Brian and I were laughing SO hard, at the end of the preview we noticed that in the entire theater NO ONE else was laughing. Dead silent. This in itself is funny, but when you are already giggly it's trouble. We tried as hard as we could to stop laughing but we couldn't, we were crying we were laughing SO hard.

Beware of Dog!

So the next few days after this experience we tried to blend more and be a little more culturally sentative. Here are just a few pictures from around Riga, hope you enjoy.

...and I am still wise?

Yesterday I had an appointment to get my wisdom teeth pulled, but...there is always a but(t); the dentist told me that my teeth were too complicated...hmmm. So I am still wise, eh? This is fine, it gives me more time to spend with staff and my brother.

Brian and I in old Riga.

all gone

BBI's summer projects, both Art Camp and teRiga have closed. The American team have packed their bags and headed back home to the US. It was sad to see them go because such good friendships developed during the week.

Saying goodbye is hard, last night of teRiga. (from l-r: Crystal, Gita, Keren, Zita)

A small team of BBI staff will stay to do final wrap up, please pray for clear understanding and communication as we complete our work here.