Grand Finale

I just had an aha! moment. For the past many years I have been waiting for my life to begin. A BIG part of what I was waiting for was a wife, in part because that would give me something to live for besides myself. But based on decisions that I have almost made (I'm giving myself a week or two to decide) I realised that I'm already in life, I just need to start living.
Something I've often heard is that God should be in the driver's seat of my life. I don't think that is quite right. When you visit somewhere you've never been before, the driver is relatively unimportant. Any idiot can drive. But if you want to get where you need to be as easily as possible, then you need a good navigator, and God has given us the best guide possible in the HOly Spirit. So now I have to get in hat driver's seat and tromp on the gast (making sure to buckle the (seat)belt of truth first - HA!). Along the way I may pick up passengers, but only when I'm ready.

Yesterday the kids left camp. Today everyone else leaves except for a couple of us. Tomorrow I go home. I've already cried my tears for the week, but now I feel sad and energyless. I don't want everyone to elave. I will miss them. It's hard to say goodbye. I also missed my Grandpa's funeral - that's contributing to my lack of energy. It's been a long and tough two weeks, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. It may have been the best two weeks of my life.

I'm sitting at the train station at 5:30am, waiting to head from Neuchatel to Geneva. I'm mostly confident I'm at the right track. I'm really quite tired, but we didn't get to bed until around 1am, and then I was up at 4.

All right, I'm on the train. Or, I'm on A train. We'll see if it's the right one [it was]. I'm by myself, and that's kind of sad. I miss everyone already. Sayinggoodbye was hard. I miss the kids, even the slightly surly ones. But I really miss the staff. I made some really good friends that I will miss greatly. I really love it here.

The conductor (or some train official) just came by and told me that '2me classe est en dernier' (which is French for 2nd class is at the back)(or something like that). So I grabbed my backpack and went the direction I though he had indicated and ended up at the front of the train in very nice seats. I was confused until I realized that the conductor dude had been standing with his back to the front of the train, so when he said to go to the back I just translated that as towards his back, which was the front. And then I realised that I didn't have my other bag with me, I had left it at my ill-begotten 1st class seat. So I had to go back and pick it up and continue to the 2nd class at the back of the train. I am now in my proper class.

I made it to the airport and now I'm on my wat to Toronto, and from there to Calgary. While at the Frankfut airport (I flew from Geneva to Frankfurt) there were announcements about a direct flight to Calgary. I was jealous.

We are over water north [that sentence doesn't make sense to me either], quite likely the water between Eurpe and teh U.K. Not the English Channel, though. Much further north. It honestly looks like the sky is just spread out below us. It's pretty cool.

I'm still feeling down about leaving my European friends. It's sad. And it's not like coming back home is full of joy right now. There is still some sorrow to be worked out. I need to remember the good times and to look foraward to seeing them all again (my Eurpoean friends and Grandpa) some day, even if not until heaven. That's exciting, I will wait with great expectations.

I'm in the toronto airport now. Let me tell you, it was an interesting landing. We touched down, and then as soon as the pilot hit the brakes, it felt like we skidded a little bit. It would have been fun in a car, but was rather disconcerting in an airplane.

There's a woman sitting in a chair not far from me, and she is intently looking at something on her laptop. I'm assuming a movie of some sort because she has headphones on. I have also noticed that she isn't wearing her shoes and it got me thinking - women do that alot. It seems like the first thing a woman does when she gets anywhere is remove her shoes. At hte movies, church, the airport, school, anywhere. I thik that explains why there haven't been any female astronauts on the moon. The second they got out of the shuttle onto the surface, they would remove their shoes and get sucked out of the bottom of the suit.

Well, I'm on the home stretch. As I near Calgary, I look back at the past two weeks, and I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry. Maybe a bit of both. I have made friends that I will hopefully keep for the rest of my life. I went to teach and cousel, and it was I who learned and was comforted. God works in funny ways, heosn't He. So I sign off thies travelogue, and though I return in body to Calgary, my heart and my prayers reamain in Switzerland for a little bit longer.

Darrell Ulriksen
July 16-31, 2006