Greetings from Hawaii! (after the fact)

I had intended to actually post some pictures and fun stories while we were in Hawaii, to gloat and whatnot, but didn't get around to it, since I was busy loafing on the beach and swimming and eating tropical fruit and hiking. So, we are back on the mainland now (North Dakota at present), so I'm finally getting around to posting.

By the way, we both survived the semester. Both of us did well in language classes, and I'm waiting to hear back on my Exegesis paper. Hopefully it will be graded by the time we get back from Vancouver in early June. Anyhoo, on the the stuff from Hawaii...

We visited the island of Kauai. There was an unexpected visit to Oahu as well... more on that later. Kauai was much more easy-going than Maui--still a lot of tourists, but a lot less ritzy and very friendly. It's a smaller island, but there's still lots of stuff to do.

Snorkeling and Swimming

We went snorkeling almost every day! There's such an amazing variety of sea life! I didn't spring for the underwater disposable camera this time, so you just have to believe me on this one. Keith enjoyed seeing the fish, but not having salt water in his mouth. I guess it takes getting used to. I got to swim with sea turtles! That was a major highlight.

Usually after swimming in the ocean, a rinse in the pool or hot tub was nice to get the salt off. Although a lot of other people had the same idea... the pools at our hotel had a very high salt and sand content!


Hiking

We went on two major hikes, and a number of shorter walks. The first hike was along the wild and rugged Na Pali Coastline, and up to a spectacular waterfall. It was amazing how hearty we felt because of the oxygen-rich rainforest air... until we ran out of water.

The path took us over spectacular headlands to a beach...






...then up through a forest where coffee trees were growing wild. We met some people along the trail who taught us how to gather coffee beans! We've yet to see if the beans we collected are any good.


At this point, we were extremely hot and sticky, so the waterfall and pool were most welcome. Dad looked for frogs while I got pummeled by the waterfall.



Our other hike was into the world's highest swamp, near Waimea Canyon. We experienced some of Kauai's famous red dirt, some fog, some small lizards sunning themselves on the path, and eventually a great view, albeit still a bit foggy! Keith and I tried to take the shorter, better trail back, but found out at the end of the trail that it came out at a 4 mile long 4-wheel-drive only road. Whoops. Our hike ended up being longer (and possibly muddier) than everyone else's.




We also went on a lovely walk down the coast near our hotel at Poipu Beach.


Boating

We took a catamaran along the Na Pali coast, which is not accessible by car. We went snorkeling, saw beautiful scenery and some interesting sea creatures (dolphins, sea turtles, and a shark), and (most of us) enjoyed the wild ride on the way back... sitting at the front of the boat was like constantly having buckets of water dumped over our heads! Unfortunately Dad got rather seasick...





Wildlife

In addition to an abundance of tropical fish, we saw spinner dolphins...



...sea turtles...


...lizards...


...a big nasty centipede...


...and... chickens?! A bunch of chicken coops blew open during a hurricane a few years ago, and they thrived in the wild. They were everywhere, even on the beach and on our porch.



We have a tradition of "frog hunting" while in Hawaii. A favorite evening activity for Colin and I when we were younger was to search for frogs in the garden of our hotel.


Cooking and Eating

This was a big part of our trip! Most of the time we made our own meals, using fresh, local ingredients. We started with a trip to the farmer's market, fighting the crowd for the freshest pineapples! We sometimes had a list, but often our menu would revolve around what was available at the market.



Sometimes unusual things were at the market, such as raw macadamia nuts in the shell. We quickly discovered that our kitchen was not very well equipped... no nutcracker! Dad and Colin improvised.


Keith was our grillmeister (as usual). Highlights were kalbi chicken, fresh fish (wahoo and mahi mahi), and grilled pineapple.


Our best/most elaborate meal featured mahi mahi with fruit salsa, grilled pineapple, purple coconut rice, grilled corn, and salad!


Colin and Dad picked wild strawberry guavas on a hike, which I made into jam.


Waikiki Detour

So, we thought we were leaving... but the plane on our flight from Honolulu to Seattle decided we would stay for a few more hours. I noted that we did not seem to be climbing... that was because the flaps refused to retract completely. So, we circled for a couple of hours in order to lighten the plane by dumping and burning off fuel (meanwhile we became more and more nervous, the more the pilot tried to reassure us), then returned to Honolulu. Due to what happened next, I would heartily recommend Hawaiian Airlines... They shuttled us to Waikiki Beach (here we are waiting for the shuttle) and fed us dinner at a hotel! Meanwhile, our plane got fixed.


We had several hours to wander around the beach.


Keith enjoyed the Banyan trees... and the Japanese tourists! All the signs were bilingual.


So, the second try (on the same plane) got us all the way home, albeit 11 hours later than expected. After a couple of days to recover (and can some of the pineapple we brought home), we set out for the geographical center of North America... more on that soon! :)

Taste of the World... and procrastination.

Right now I'm taking a break from writing my exegesis paper. It's going to become a great paper by tomorrow at 4:30. That means that from the present moment, I have almost exactly 24 hours. I'm upstairs at school, eating my wasabi cashews and pb and celery (the pb and cel go together, but not the cashews) and drinking my coffee, since they're not allowed in the library, but I really needed a boost in brainpower. I was writing great guns this morning, but I've definitely slowed down. I think I'm at about half my word-limit, with a little less than half of my content in. It's looking like I won't have to do too much cutting... this is good. There's nothing more frustrating that cutting major points out of your paper to reduce the word count.

It just so happens that our school, a lot of the population is from somewhere interesting. 40% are American (shocking, for a Canadian school!), 30% are Canadian, and 30% are from elsewhere in the world. In addition, a lot of the Americans and Canadians grew up in another country.

So... that means a potluck can be really fun! One of our favorite things about our school is meeting people from all around the world... and also learning to cook their food. We've especially learned a lot from Carla of the Jungle (she's from Brazil... and her house there is full of plants)...


...and also from Izumi of Japan's Great White North (she's from the island of Hokkaido).


I've learned a lovely way to prepare salmon with onions, miso paste, and mirin, and I am now able to assuage my ramen and/or udon cravings with a healthy vat of miso ramen or something like that. (I'm not talking about the icky packaged stuff that college students usually eat. When you eat ramen with meat and veggies and good noodles and miso broth, ramen cravings are pretty understandable...)

So anyway, we have this fun potluck every year called "Taste of the World": everyone brings their native food to share! I don't really feel that we Americans have much to offer in terms of "native food" since we borrowed from everyone else, and there are a lot of us, so, like last year, I joined Carla and the Latin American group!

Carla and I got together to cook all afternoon! We made feijoada, kale, and farofa, and also took some time off to drink Brazilian coffee out on the porch, since it was one of the first nice days this year (March 1).



Our table was the most popular again!



(Although I did particularly enjoy the hand-made spring rolls at the SE Asia table! Those were awesome! I guess I need to make friends with some more Malaysians and Singaporeans.)


Keith brought spam. Again. That's right, representin' the good ol' US of A. (Thanks to Keith's mommy for the can of spam and the recipe book.) The funny thing was, he wasn't the only one.


The wasabi cashews were delicious, by the way. Okay, enough procrastinating, and back to the library I go. Toodles!

Waiting to take a final.

My studying is done. I'm all set... and I really don't feel like getting out all my stuff to work on the paper that's due on Tuesday that I haven't started yet. So, I thought I would write a little message on my poor neglected blog. I have lots of interesting pictures and other such things that I could post, but it just hasn't happened. It's shaping up to be a busy summer, too... 3 classes (for a total of 5 credits, 2 of which will be for audit), TA for a Hebrew class (and Keith will be doing Greek), continuing to teach cello and plan worship services at church, while trying to get started on my thesis and going on vacation a couple of times. Yay! Oh well, it's all stuff I like, so hopefully it won't be too overwhelming.

When I got up this morning, I was surprised to see that it had snowed a couple of inches last night. It won't last, though, since it's a beautiful, sunny day. But, to prove that it is, in fact, spring here, here's a couple pictures from a recent walk in the park. Actually, it wasn't all that recent; it was over a month ago. It smells really good outside in the spring. I like to pet the daffodils. Sorry, random thoughts from one who spent all day yesterday translating some things from Isaiah from Hebrew into English. Isaiah, which you may know is mostly poetry, is not exactly easy to translate; weird vocab and whatnot. Okay, it's time to me to go take my final. Wish me luck!

The trash tree.

This showed up at school. Actually, it was not at all surprising, since several friends of ours were instigators. This "trash tree" is an artistic display of all the paper cups accumulated over the course of one week at school. It was intended to be an encouragement for the students to bring their own mugs to the coffee shop, or to use the mugs provided there. I think it made some difference, but both of us were frustrated at the conversations we overheard is the course of the next week, as students tried (in vain) to justify and defend why they did not use reusable cups. Sad. Not to make light of the situation... it's not easy to give up conveniences which save time.

It's Lent again, and I'm learning to plan ahead. Little by little, I'm trying to change destructive habits. This year, among other things, I gave up the drier. That means there's usually a load of laundry drying on the rack in the kitchen... since that's really the only place it fits... and since we only have one rack, and it takes a couple of days for stuff to dry in our basement apartment, we really need to plan ahead, and only do one load at a time! But really, it's a very small sacrifice. It's much nicer not to have to deal with two or three loads at once. I was actually inspired by my mom, who dries stuff on the rack inside, even in the winter. :)

Well, life is good. I think Lent is a time to form new habits. I really like this not-using-the-drier thing... maybe I'll keep it up!

p.s. Incidentally, this picture was taken on the day Keith wore his tux to school to advertise for his Latin class. Doesn't he look sharp? :)

Just an update.

Hi! I realized that I have not posted for a long time... Ilene probably thinks we're dead. We are not. We are just students, that's all. I wanted to do the "update" post today, since later today is "Taste of the World," and undoubtedly there will be pictures and stories to post.

So, what's up with us? School! I'm taking Hebrew and Exegesis this term. I've been busy translating lots of things from Hebrew to English, and it's a lot of fun! This is what I came here to do! During a moment of insanity on Wednesday, I thought maybe I would get an Old Testament degree when I'm done with my current degree... then I realized I would need three semesters of systematic theology. Never mind... I've been working with Psalm 2 for Exegesis class, and I'm really enjoying it. I just finished writing my proposal for my thesis! The end is in sight! I'll be writing on the use of instrumental music in worship, and preparing a series of worship services.

Keith is taking Greek, Hebrew, and a seminar on the book of Acts. He's done with his seminar paper, so he thinks he can coast until the end of the term (ha ha). He's also teaching a Latin class for interested students at our school.

I wanted to post some pictures a while ago. We went to North Dakota in January to visit the family and attend our nephew, Michael's baptism. He was born the day after we left on our last visit... They poured water on his head in the usual manner, and he cooed and smiled. It was very sweet. Most babies scream. Here he is at that moment with his godparents, James and Terry.


And here's the family. Both sides. EVERYONE was there.


Afterwards, Keith was holding Elizabeth, our niece, and she... um... urped. Keith found it amusing.



Anyway, I'll post more soon. There hasn't been much news. We get together with friends and talk about school. Very exciting.

Paperless Christmas Letter...

Merry Christmas from the Olsons!

We decided to go electronic this year to save paper...

Our year, once again, has been school, school, and more school. We’re still at Regent College, probably until spring of 2009. Keith is working towards a career teaching Latin, Greek, and the Bible at a private high school. Celia is expanding her knowledge of liturgy and worship, while studying Hebrew on the side; she will be starting her thesis this spring.

We had an exciting year—we went to Europe and Boston, and made trips to Seattle and the Midwest to spend time with our families. We became godparents to Elizabeth Ann, our niece, daughter of Keith’s sister, Sarah, and her husband, Nate. Please look further on our blog; there are many more pictures and stories from this year!

We had a wonderful time catching up with our friends in Europe. Traveling overseas helped us appreciate some things we take for granted in our own culture, for example free toilets (the sit-down kind), soap, and running water in public bathrooms. We wish, however, that wine and cheese were as delicious and cheap here as in France and Germany!

Recently, I (Celia) began work as a cello teacher and as a worship intern at our church. I teach three students who live in inner-city Vancouver. At church, I plan worship services and work with musicians in preparation for the services. Recently, I have been busy planning advent services, for which I wrote the litanies (responsive prayers) myself. This has been good training for my intended career, and a welcome chance to serve the community.

This last semester, I (Keith) have been translating the Christmas story from Luke in the original Greek. The thing about trying to read the Bible in a different language is that it makes you slow down, a lot. I could go on about several different things that stood out to me from this often heard story, but I'll just talk about one. Without diving too far into the Greek, we all know they put Jesus in a manger because there was no room in the inn. The Greek word for “inn” is the same word for the “dining hall” where Jesus had his last supper. I would not make too much of a deal that Luke uses the same word in both of these cases, but it is a subtle allusion that the foretold birth of the Messiah needs to be held with his foretold death and resurrection.

Blessings to you this Christmas and in the New Year!

Love, Keith and Celia

Some highlights from our year...

I threw in my lot with the Latin Americans at our school's "Taste of the World." Our table was by far the most popular!

We attended the baptism of our niece and goddaughter, Elizabeth Ann.

We spent four days hiking in Derbyshire, England!

New Work

Greetings!

Guess what? I have a JOB!! Two of them, actually.

First, owing to the fact that one of our pastors is on maternity leave (and the other pastor is her husband), I am now the worship intern at our church! This means I get to plan our worship services, and schedule and work with musicians who play for the services. It is exciting, challenging, humbling work, and I really enjoy it. Last Sunday we celebrated All Saint's Day with Genevan Psalms, sung by choir and congregation, and played by Keith, Dad, and I on organ, baroque guitar, and viola da gamba. Mom joined the choir for the occasion. It was a lot of hard work, and I learned a lot from the process.

Second, I'm teaching cello in an inner-city music school. It's a class of three students, co-taught with Catriona, a friend from school. This is also a learning experience, as I have hardly taught before, and never more than one student at a time. Click here to see an article about the program... and a picture of Nepewisk and Mercy, two of my adorable students!

We won, finally!

A few weeks ago, Keith and I visited my parents in Seattle in order to make chili and attend the 19^th annual Easter Acres Chili Cookoff! (I can’t believe it—it rained for the first time ever, but the cool weather made eating chili even more desirable!) We entered two chilis, one hot and one mild. The hot chili was based on a marinated, slow-cooked brisket, and the mild “chili” was actually a Brazilian bean dish called Feijoada, which Carla taught us to make. That brought the family total to 5: Dad contributed two (one of which had blueberry-marinated meat!) and Colin contributed one. Luckily there were leftovers.

And guess what? Our Feijoada won in the mild category! It was very popular! (But there were still leftovers—hooray!) I’ve entered chili in about 12 of the 19 chili cookoffs, even once by proxy, but I’ve never won until now. We finally got to sign the winner’s apron!

Anyway, there have been requests for the “recipe.” This recipe is what I wrote down after I helped Carla make it, and I edited after subsequent batches. There are no exact proportions, so use your head and have a good time!

Feijoada

Soak 1 kg of black beans in water overnight (they expand, so leave lots of extra room!) Boil beans and garlic in water for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker, or 2 hours (or longer) in a regular pot, until they are soft, but not mushy (they should still look like beans). Meanwhile, cut up smoked sausage (6 small sausages would be good) and bacon into small pieces, and fry in olive oil with garlic, 1 onion, cilantro, green onions, and some of “Carla’s Special Mixture” (see below). You can also add pork short ribs if desired. Add meat mixture and some cut up beef jerky to the bean mixture and cook for an additional half hour or so to allow the flavors to blend. Season to taste with crushed red pepper flakes and salt. Serve with Brazilian rice, vinaigrette salad, and farofa or cassava flour.

Marinade: Carla's Special Mixture

Blend the following in blender or food processor until smooth:
Olive oil, Cilantro, Parsley, Green onions, Garlic (lots), Onion.
Store extra in the freezer.

Vinaigrette "Salad"

Finely chop green bell peppers (1 ½), tomatoes (2), red onions (1), green onions (2), parsley, and cilantro. Mix together with water (1 c) and balsamic vinegar (1/2 c)

Brazilian Rice

Heat olive oil in a pot, add some of Carla’s special mixture. Rinse long grain rice in a sieve. Add rice, fry for a little while and mix to combine with oil. Add water (1 ¼ cups water for every cup rice) and cook (usually between 15-25 minutes).

Farofa (I didn’t have this at the chili cookoff, but it’s really good!)

Saute sausage, eggs, red onion, and cassava flour (or crushed saltine crackers) in a little of "Carla’s Special Mixture."

For Dessert: "Brigadeiro"

Mix 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, 2 T butter, and 6 T cocoa powder. Bring to a boil, and cook until it becomes sticky and thick. Allow to cool partially. Roll into small balls and dip in chocolate sprinkles or shredded coconut. Serve with coffee.

Something I should have posted a while ago

Greetings. I wrote this a few days ago while I was on the plane, then forgot to post it. Oh well, here it is anyway. We started school today...
***

Hi. I’m typing on a plane (flying the rest of the way home, having stopped for a few days in Iowa with Keith’s parents), and I have realized that this is a difficult task in coach, when the person in the seat in front of you puts their seat back. The screen is tilted towards me, so I can hardly see it. Otherwise it would be too close to type.

Anyhoo, I realized that I never bothered to put up any pictures of our new god-daughter, Elizabeth! Well, I did, but that was from before we went to meet her. She’s very cute (I would have said “sweet,” but that joke’s getting old), and I managed to hold her without her screaming! Yay! We went to her baptism and had a very nice time with the family.

I also gave her this sweater that I made. Hopefully it will be the right size later this winter, or maybe around Easter. That would be appropriate, since it’s yellow.

We’re looking forward to being back in our own apartment, sleeping in our own bed, using our own kitchen… I really missed my kitchen and our nice closet, where I can put my clothes so as not to be constantly packing and unpacking.. I also missed cold coffee (frappucinos and the like) and Mexican food, but I had Mexican food for lunch and went out for coffee with Ilene on Wednesday, so I feel better now. I will, however, miss German bread and breakfast, the ready availability of cheap, excellent wines (other than the 11 bottles we brought home with us), bratwurst, French farmer’s markets, and the beauty of the towns in the countryside in all three of the countries we visited. Of course we will also miss our wonderful friends in Europe!

That’s about all for now, I’ll post this when we land…

Home again (sort of)

We're back in Iowa with Keith's parents again. It's a nice, relaxed place to recover from jet lag and general weariness of traveling... although I will be very glad to not be living out of my hiking pack any more. Same old clothes all the time! I figured I'd better get my last Europe-themed post off before school starts next week. I look forward to it (school, that is) and dread it at the same time. We've had a really good summer with lots of traveling, so being back in our own apartment and with friends will be great, but I'm still not sure if I'm ready for studying again just yet. Luckily, I have learned to knit without looking, so that means I can knit while I read my textbooks, thus keeping me awake. Very nice! That reminds me... I need to do another knitting post soon!

So, first some pics from England, which I never managed to do before, due to slow connections and lack of time... Unfortunately, my camera was on the fritz for most of the trip. The exposure was all messed up, and I don't think it had to do with my skills as a photographer. Just about every outdoor picture was over-exposed. Need to get that fixed! Anyway, enjoy the pictures. :)


My first act upon starting our 4-day, 35-mile walk was to put Keith and Rebecca in the stocks... just kidding. We walked through the Peaks District National Park, through farmland and wilderness areas, and made stops in the towns of Tideswell, Eyam, Bakewell, and Monyash.


We saw lots of sheep. The sheep themselves were fine, but certain parties who had never had the pleasure of cleaning up after horses disliked all the poo. I, on the other hand, really didn't care.


We also saw lots of heather.


On day 2, we walked along a ridge (Froggatt Edge) with some spectacular views.




We visited Chatsworth House, where Elizabeth Bennett went on her summer vacation.


Day 3 of the walk was very wet. The next morning, our clothes still weren't dry!


We did, however, stop for crumpets and tea, which made everyone feel better.


Some cows decided to follow us on day 4. They were curious, we think. This did not please Rebecca.


Every morning, we had a lovely English breakfast! Keith and Rebecca, the non-eaters of breakfast, discovered that a hearty breakfast really does get you going in the morning. They are now reformed in the ways of breakfast eating.


Back to where we left off last time... In Trier, Germany we visited Roman baths, gate, basilica, and amphitheater! There were fun tunnels in the baths.


This is the Roman Amphitheater. The evening before, when we first tried to visit it, it was full of goths attending a concert. Keith expressed his interest in attending said concert wearing a green and white striped shirt with Tigger on it.


Keith with a beer. This picture is for Joseph. (Oh no, don't show Mom! Rebecca has one too!)


We visited the Mosel River valley, where vineyard after vineyard of Riesling grapes are grown to make wine! We picked up a couple more boxes. They grow grapes in some of the craziest places!


We had dinner in Cochem. It was very pretty there.


In Köln (Cologne), we visited the cathedral (the tallest in the world) and the German-Roman museum, which contained Roman artifacts from the area. In the cathedral, we climbed up into the tower, stopping to visit the belfry, where the world's largest swinging bell is! (It's supposed to be in the background of the picture below.)

Also in Köln, we visited a bakery selling "Berliner," a type of jelly-doughnut. JFK made them famous (at least to German students) by calling himself one in his speech in Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner!" He should have said "Ich bin Berliner," thus calling himself a citizen of Berlin rather than a jelly-doughnut. The indefinite article makes all the difference. Incidentally, I taught Keith to conjugate the verb "to be" in German using this phrase. But I digress...


We visited Familie Kabelitz in Wernigerode and Kassel! We met Fabi (René and Helge's baby) and Dominic, Franziska's boyfriend. It was great to see the rest of the family too, as we had not seen them in several years! We also played a special German game a couple of times. Perhaps some of you have heard of it? It's called "Die Siedler von Catan." :)


So, the impetus for the whole trip: Rene and Helge got married! We had a lot of fun all weekend long, since many of the family and friends spent the whole weekend in a castle together celebrating. The ceremony was at the Rathaus (town hall) in a nearby town; in the picture below, they are arriving at the Rathaus. Fabi is in the carriage. Following the ceremony was a happy (noisy) caravan back to the castle, then lots of food and various "tasks" for the bride and groom to complete...


In this task, René tried to pop coin-filled balloons, while Helge caught the coins with a bucket. Other stuff happened too, but I don't have too many pictures, since I was busy eating and talking to people. There was a lovely buffet and a roast pig! Wow! So delicious! (So, if you are reading this, René and Helge, congratulations again! We were so happy to see you, and we had a great time!)