ooopss..

Wow I guess its been super long since I've last blogged. LIfe has been kinda crazy lately. But some updates in point form....

-Christmas: Went to Terrace BC for a week, Tumbler Ridge for a week, then Vancouver for a week.
- Went to an AWESOME missions conference in Schroon Lake, New York (5 hours away from the big apple)
- Good friend left Bethel to do missions in Senegal, then Guinea
- Finishing school in April, then going to Regina to stay with my sister Jen

Well yeah, thats basically it. Not to much is new. After my stay with Jen i have no clue what to do. Possibly live with 2 friends and rent a house, Pay back my parents for plane tickets, then no0 clue... I dont really want to stay in Terrace, but after my flight attendant courses i will be working on the planes !

home sweet home

For the past month and a half I haven't been feeling well. It all started out with being oooberly tired all the time... stress, time zone, uncomfortable bed, new place.... yeah the list can go on and on, but then mid way through september i started to become really itchy all the time, no its not bed bugs, and I was constantly hungry, constantly thirsty, always using the bathroom, itchy eyes, when I skip a meal i feel really nausious, if i have to much sugar i feel nausious... yeah those are what i have. I asked my mom of sicknesses that run in our family and Diabeties was one of them. I came home November 7th and will be left again November 11th.

On monday I have a wonderful doctors appointment to get needles dug into me and to get my blood sucked out. I want to know what it is. Doubt that I have Diabeties, but we are just taking a test seeing what it is. When I google Diabeties, in alot of the lists, i have every thing, but rapid weight loss. Yeah i have lost weight since this whole thing started, but its not rapid. I hope the doctors can figure out what it is and give me a cure... thats what they are there for. I pray to God everyday hoping something will be clear to me, but miracles don't happen over night.

How the test went? well i got 6 big tubes of blood sucked out of me and then they gave me not 1 but 6 BOTTLES TO FILL WITH STOOL ! Yeah totally not plesent. I almost vomited... too much info? Oh well if you talked to me i would have told you the same thing anyways :P I also had to do 1 urine sample, but that one wasn't hard. I don't havfe my results back yet, due to yesterday was a holiday and yeah. If they find anything wrong, which i hope they find something, I will get the stuff here in good old QUEBEC ! But yeah, now I'm on the bus going back to Sherbrooke. One thing I love about these bus's is that... THEY HAVE INTERNET ! AND PLUG INS ! It is a wonderful invention for a bus. Wastes time.

I haven't gotten much sleep in the past 2 days... actually none. I woke up at 8, got dressed, went to the airport at 9, took of at 10, landed in vancouver at 11:45, took off out of Vancouver at 1:30 pm, landed in Toronto at 9:00 pm (3 hours ahead from BC) took off from Toronto at 11:45 pm and got into Montreal at 1:00 am. Then i took the 5 am bus to the station, hoped on the bus and now here i am typing on this blog. Well I'm going to sleep. Sweet dreams !

oh before i forget, HAPPY ANNI...... JEN AND NOAH ! i can't spell it anymore... french is colliding with my english. I wish i remembered how long ago they were married... I'm going to go with 4 years. Anyways, happy wedding day !

Love you guys and see you soon ! hopefully

sweet home à Béthel...

Just a bit ago I had a week off. I got e-mails asking about some of the people i saw and the only 2 photos that would upload are these. First off is GLENN! He's my husband on facebook. It was great seeing him. I spent 4 days visiting with him and it was great fun ! I met Glen summer of 2008 in Alberthead, which is on Vancouver Island right outside of Victoria. Its an Air Cadet Summer Training Center. I staffed the Basic course and he was with the Standards department. This past summer he was in Cold Lake so I didn't get to staff with him, but we talked all summer.



Then the next one is Joey. I met him at Honor Band, which is a cadet band of ARMY, AIR, and SEA cadets. He was a drummer and I played the Trumpet. I thought i wouldn't see him again until i went on this trip of wonders, went to visit Glen in Kingston and wanted to see my cousin at RMC. Turns out Joey was there too ! I went to his room, suprised him, and then he hoped into his uniform and we went to the Copper Penny for Supper. It was so yummy !


So how I've been... Kinda alright. I'm not really the kind to get home sick, but being here makes me. Yes I do miss my family, but mostly my friends and my bed... ohh my bed. My bed here is so hard and small, but I got my douvet to make its some what comfortable.

Today was a very "Hermit Crab" kind of day. I woke up at 7:10 to do my culte personnel.. we have a designated time for them, then at 9:15 I started my homework, once i was done watching CARS!

It is pretty much my favorite movie. Not too sure if the picture worked though, but oh well. After watching Cars I attempted to do homework. Its really hard to do it when your head feels like 1000 pounds and you feel nausious everytime you try to speak or try to think to hard. So i finished my 2 page assignment and then went to sleep from 1:30 - 5:30 or 6:00... not sure. Some where between there. I gave my homework to my room mate to give to Mariette (my teacher) and then went to bed. I woke up to dinner on my desk with MORE HOMEWORK ! agghhh it doesn't end. Thank goodness for the weekend. I don't know what I've been feeling so sick, but its true. I think its a mixture of food/lack of sleep/over workness. Those three mixed together equals me missing class because I'm too sick to go and don't really feel like vomiting all over my classmates ( sorry if that was a bit too much... ) but oh well. Thats my life now.

This morning also I was feeling sick. Before i fell asleep a girl came in wondering where my roommate was. I was thinking of my friends and fam jam and was about to have a break down, then she told me she was leaving to go back home for the weekend. People here complain that its too far for them to return and they don't want to spend $100 for a round trip bus ticket. I told them they have it good and told them that if i wanted to go home it would cost me $1000 for a round trip... gahh.

Update on next year. I'm not going to come back, but work in Terrace for a while, do online courses for the flight attendant, and once i have enough money, a car hopefully, and I'm done my courses, I will treck down to Vancouver and do the hand on training and hopefully be living with My brother and sister-in-law. It would be so much fun ! I wanted to come back next year, but its hard being here and it gets to the point where I don't really want to be here all that often. Yeah its great fun, good school, but too many rules and I get tired sometimes.

Anyways, I gotta stop being anti-social and go play some french games.

Please pray for me as its really rough right now. MERCI BEAUCOUP !

october letter

Every month I have to write a letter to my home church updating them on how I have been lately. Well its below if you feel the need to read :)

Hello :)

This month has been going by so fast! Looking back, it feels like I just arrived at the school. Each day has a new adventure tied in with it. I have class from 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm on Monday and Tuesday and then 1:30 - 4:30 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the end of the class my head aches from overload, but I'm getting used to it now. Every morning we have to do devotions. At the beginning of the year we got given a devotional book, "Culte Personnel". There is a scripture passage that you have to read everyday and then you have to write about what the author is saying and how you can use it in your life. A few weeks ago Psalm 77 popped up and verses 1 - 5 reflected my life.

Psalm 77
For the director of music. For Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm.
1 I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands
and my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
Selah
4 You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.
5 I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;

Before coming to Bethel, I had hit so many bumps in my walk with God and didn't know how going to bible school was really going to go. Even though I'm not in the bible school, doing the devotion every morning has really helped. After thinking and thinking about this verse, the next day Ephesians 2:8-9 and Philippians 4:8-9 popped up.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Philippians 4:8-9
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me,put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Like seriously? These 3 passages have seriously made me take a double look at my life and made me really think differently about everything in my life and how I should be living my life and praising God. A few days ago my friend was wondering about God and what God has done for me in my life, and then Philippians stuck out. "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice." I remember how Jesus would go out and speak Gods word to the people and I started to tell her about God and all the wonderful things He has done for me. She started to think about her life and how much its been like mine. She asked me if her life would be like mine and answered her that everyone is different, but if you press into Gods word and talk to God, your life with start to find changes, but it takes time.

Now she is going to church and its super awesome to hear her story. God truely does work miracles in peoples lives doing different things. I never realized it until coming here to Quebec and having to live my own life and see things differently.

What I've done this month so far? At the beginning of the month the students in the dorms got split into 2 groups. One went to Patmos (North of Quebec City) and the other group, the one I was in, went to Villa du Carmel (South of Montreal in Shawinigan). We had speakers come and preach and then we played games, ate food, and worshiped God IN FRENCH! It was such a cool experience. Then we, the choir, sang 2 songs. Combien Dieu est Grand (How Great is Our God) and Temoignage D'Amour (Testify to Love). It was an awesome experience. I didn't understand what was going on, but I got the drift of it sometimes.

We just had a week long break where I went to Kingston and Ottawa to visit friends and a cousin. It was really relaxing, great to see people, but now its time to buckle back down and learn french again. Thank you for the prayers and I always appreciate them.

God Bless,

Erica Braam.

i'm here!

So my trip here went well. I finished class at 4:15, got changed, went to the bus station, got a ticket, hopped on my bus at 5:00 and away I went.

At 7:30 i hopped on the greyhound and at 9:30 i made it to Ottawa. We went out with her friends and had a jolly old good time. We ended up getting back to her room at 4:30 and went to sleep at 5 or 5:30 am. Yeahh life good :) Then the next night we went out again and got back in at 4:30 and hit the pillow at 5 am. Yesterday we did some food shopping and decided to get Kraft Dinner. THe only thing we had was a skillet. Jess made me cook it and didn't really know if it would work . Well here is the adventure:

Beginning with bowls, spoons, white cheddar cheese mix, and noodles

The Skillet of wonders and the white spoon

All ready to go :)

Right when we thought it wouldn't work, the water started to boil

Stiring in the noodles

Draining the water out

Adding in the cheese

Mixing it all in and scooping it out

and in the bowls it went!

Great success!

Tonight we tried to master something else. Tuna melts, bacon and chicken fingers. Jess made the chicken fingers and bacon and i attempted to make tuna melts without and oven or cheese. They didn't turn out that bad, could have been better, but oh well. It turned out wonderful and we were satisified :)

Well thats my adventures so far. Have a good weekend! Tomorrow I'm hittingup the mall for some new pants... and then walking around being a tourist ! Life is good!

ottawa here i come

Today i start my grand treck/adventure to Ottawa. I'm going there to visit friends and then on the 22nd head up to Kingston and visit more friends and my cousin LISA! :) Totally stoked to go

am i nervous?

uhhhh yea!! I leave at 5 pm, get to Montreal at 7:30, then find the bus to Ottawa, and once in ottawa attempt to master the city bus.. Maybe i will take a taxi, but who know what could happen. I hope i don't get lost, but if i do its all part of the adventure right? I'm trying to keep my spirits high so i don't freak out... I love traveling, it just comes with some flaws. I'll update you once i get to Ottawa about my adventure.

Villa du Carmel

This weekend I worked at a weekend camp. It was outside of montreal, by an hour or so and it was so fun! Despite the fact that I worked in the kitchen and washed millions of dishes by hand, it was great. It was so beautiful there. We got split up into 2 groups, one to Villa du Carmel and the other to Patmos. It was sunny, except for like 2 hours one day.

Moi et my best friend Olivier

My pastor, found a picture in of when he was at Parole de Vie Bethel

Vanessa!


CATHERINE! my fellow english speaker

DIEU EST FIDÈLE! (God is faithful)

Moi et ma soeur et ma coloc Sheila.

C'est très beau!

Kitchen Team numero un!

People playing Rudgee. Its like rugby as they say, but really it isn't, and its called Rudgee because the guys name was Guy but they spell its like gee for the game. There are no rules. You have to get the football and make it touch the pole with you holding onto it. You tackle anyone that looks like they might get the ball, that has the ball, or is just standing around and you want to tackle them. It became violent, but thats how the french like the play i guess. I got attacked even though i was sitting watching... i got in the way of them running for the ball. The guy with the orange hat is our school director. He's quite the guy

Friends

Oliviers little brother Jeremie. We're special :)

Some of my favorite people, Olivier, Jeremie, and Catherine

Well today is Canadian Thanksgiving and i have so much to be thankful for! One being the fact that i am here at Parole de Vie Béthel, my fam jam! Jen + Noah + Kaylie + Liliana, Nich + Teresa + Eva + Kaitlyn, Brandon + Roxanne, and My mommy and daddy, friends all over the country, the bible, DIEU!, the fact i have a life, my english and french church familys, and so much more! Now i am going jogging to loose what i gained at thanksgiving dinner : )

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Pourquoi?

Quand je suis dans le dorms, je peux parle français bien! J'ai etudié pour mes examen et je comprend l'information, mais quand je assez dans le classe, je ne comprend jamais que j'ai etudié. C'est très irritating. J'ai etudié et etudié et etudié et je connaite l'information, mais quand ma prof donne moi un examen, l'information alle POOOF! JE SUIS TRÈS FACHÉ! C'est ma vie :(

Si tu comprend, BRAVO! :)

DIEU EST FIDÈLE!

This past week I got an email from a scholarship fund. It was for anyone who was going to a french bible school.... ding ding! C'est moi! When my mom I applied for it, it was only $1000 but now when they e-mail back, it turns out to be $1250... HOLY! its so great that I got this scholarship. I had enough money for school back in the day when the stock markets were up, but now they are down, the money went down too :( So therefore I was short a bit. At graduation I got 3 scholarships which totalled $1833.33 and boom! Now I have enough and more :)

From the 17th to the 27th of October we have congé mi session... basically a week off. I'm going to Ottawa with my friend Jim and he's dropping me off at University or Ottawa where I am going to stay with my friend Jessica! Then 2 other friends, who I met at an Air Cadet camp in Quebec in 2007, and they are going to pick me up and hang out for a while there. After that, on the 22nd, I'm hoping on a bus and going to Kingston, Ontario, where I'm going to visit my husbandfriend who is at Queens University. While I was thinking what I would do there, I remembered I had a cousin, Lisa, at Royal Military College who I haven't seen for 2 years. I called her up and I'm going to go visit her now :) She invited me to a Martini and Manicure night at RMC and then get the grand tour of the place.

I'm looking forward to next month!! and in 71 days I'm hoping on a plane and going back to BC!

Oh and I looked in the mail the other day and found a wonderful package. It was from my TERESA! I looked inside and found a wonderful pair of slippers. They are so warm and squishy. I am greatful for them. Thanks Teresa :)