Greetings from the Great White North

Things I have discovered:

• Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan do get a fair amount of air time.
• People do say "eh," in much the same way we ended half our sentences with "hey" in Zimbabwe.
• Americans have a pretty well universal reputation in Canada for being rude.
• Canada is well and truly multicultural. I have never seen so many people from so many different places in my life.
• The sun rises at about 4/4:30am and sets at about 10/10:30/11pm, which messes me all the heck up.

I'm currently sitting in a basement apartment in Surrey, BC, typing on a keyboard that has Arabic letters in addition to English letters. It's pretty fancy. I'm staying with a truly wonderful couple from Iran, who are currently out of the country visiting family, and I am here to make connections. This morning I found my way from the apartment to the church via bus and skytrain by myself for the first time, and I'm kind of proud of that. One of the things I do here is simply to ride around on buses, etc., and meet people. Got to have a Spanish conversation yesterday, which was pretty stinkin' fancy.

Not much to say on a blog, I think. The things that have really meant a lot to me have been late-night conversations with my Iranian hosts, who hold a near and dear place in my heart, and they have been an incredible encouragement to me this past week. I am currently in charge of keeping their fish, Mahi, alive. Please pray for the fish. I did tell them that if he died, I'd go to a pet shop, find a fish of the same color, use fingernail clippers to trim one of its fins down, and a Sharpie to put a stripe on its back, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

If you happen to see this:

• pray for divine opportunities to meet and share with people
• pray for wisdom for me and my teammates in engaging so many cultures
• pray for Royal Heights Baptist Church, the group I'm helping to represent
• pray for Canada; it's about two percent Christian (by name)

My current schedule:
Sunday:
Morning: attend church at Royal Heights, assist with the older children's Sunday school class
Afternoon/evening: assist with youth at an Arabic church
Evening: weekly debriefing
Monday:
9:30-5:30ish: Discovery, which entails riding around Vancouver and intentionally making conversation with strangers
6-?: Bible study at my supervisors' house
Tuesday:
10am-12pm: leadership development with the RHBC pastor
12pm-7pm: Discovery
7pm-?: conversation help with Korean students at the Place of Loving People, downtown Vancouver
Wednesday: Adventure day (free day!): usually this will involve hanging out with my supervisors in different areas of Canada.
Thursday:
9:30-6:30ish: Discovery
7-?: help with youth at RHBC
Friday:
?-7:30: prepare to help with youth at the Jesus Way Fellowship
7:30-?: help with youth at the Jesus Way Fellowship
Saturday:
?-6pm: hit the parks, trolling for people to talk to
6pm-?: help with youth worship, RHBC

It's fun but exhausting.