I just got accepted at Calvin Seminary. Im pretty excited about that. It is going to be fun... I hope.
Im looking forward to taking classes again and spending time with professors. I have REALLY enjoyed living a non academic centered life. Ironically, it has provided me with even better opportunities to learn than traditional college life. I have been reading a lot of mind-opening books. Good stuff.
By the way, it is pretty awesome living just down the road from Phil. He never says "bizzabt", but he has some other catch-phrases that are almost as good.
Finally, my decision to work with MCC is one of the best things that I have ever done. It has worked perfectly on so many levels. It is an organization that honestly tries to reflect the words of Christ. Such an organization is rare, especially one of such size and scope.
I think of you all often,
Micah
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Next move for Margie
While this blog may be dying, I still feel an obligation to update. In the past year I got my masters in International Development from Eastern University in Philly, went to the Philippines for 10 days or so, moved to DC and worked at Trader Joe's grocery store, and now I'm moving to Amman. I will start off working for ptee.org in communications and hopefully will get involved in some other non profit work there. Tory is there right now, apparently also doing some work for PTEE, so I will be seeing her soon! I also know my undergrad school, Taylor University, takes spring break trips there and have been getting names of people and organizations from random people. Let me know if you have any contacts there but more importantly if you are ever in the area! Hopefully I'll make it over to Cairo to visit the girls living there. I hope all you reading this are doing well! If you think of it, I leave Thursday, so any prayers are also appreciated. I have a one way ticket and hope to be there for a while. We'll see how the visas and income work out. : )
Monday, December 15, 2008
Grad School in Egypt
So I thought all of you may deserve an update about grad school in Egypt. Let me preface this post by saying it is 2:30 in the morning. Graduate School at the American University is always an adventure, and as alissa says while this may led some to drinking it has led me to fine dining. The best part is living in a flat with three amazing women, and no, i'm not just saying that because they may read this. They have been my compatriots here. helping me through my ups and downs...so much so that I find myself wondering what i will do when they leave Egypt (I'm still trying to convince them to stay...so far unsuccessful...the economy in the us may be on my side though). Migration and Refugee studies....sucks. it's the most depressing **** I've ever studied. If you were frustrated when studying the Israeli Palestinian conflict then you don't know the half of it...o no my friends o no the israeli palestinian conflict pails in comparison to many of the wonderful subjects to which i have paid 9 grand. To add to my delight to the subject, thus far all classes have been taught from the perspective of anthropology, sociology, statistics or law....myself being a poli sci fan, i have been finding myself frustrated and led astray by professors, advisors and colleges.
i have developed friends here...from the young man who (i think actually helped ext. invisible children) who randomly sneaks of b/c the orphanage in kampala needs to speak to him about the children or b/c of his friends in zimbabwe to the man who has worked with refugees every where from afghanistan to sudan....or the white south african refugee who gradutated from cornell...to the egyptian from helwan who already has a Ba and MA in English literature and is not receiving her second MA after working with refugees in cairo for almost ten years ... the social group is always lively fun and ever changing.
the fun social life has been accentuated by my ability to explore parts of egyptian culture which were forbidden to us before...such as bars called hurriya (beer for 10 le) hotels with resturants on top of them...drinking wine in cairo (i think my fav. thus far) and dating. that's right kids. becca has been dating in cairo. an atheist as well. a french artiest. who actually began our relationship by running away from me.. haha. funny story which if i will have to share in person for all of you to appreciate. anyways, in cairo of all places, i find myself dating an atheist. he's a nice french man who teaches french and philosophy in local french h.s. along with private piano lessons. i think it's cute to make fun of his accent and his stubborn french ways, but i actually appreciate the fact that he's making me think about things that i previously took for granted...surprisingly enough not about christianity but about islam....my views of G-d and Christ remain unchallenged. (he does at times challenge them but these questions don't actually challenge me mentally or spiritually) it's the questions about islam that challenge me the most. the other night we had a debate/argument about the appropriateness of the niqab which was so enthralling that two egyptian men stopped their meal and spent their time listening to us....at the time it wasn't so much enthralling as frustrating and annoying. anyways...while dating french man who will remain anonymous to all of you (we call him french kid) i have also had a bit of an internet fling (could we call it that kirsten?) with an israeli guy (we call him israeli kid) okay so tech. he's not israeli yet...he's converting....that has not/cannot go anywhere b/c he's about to officially become a jew, and the type of jew that does believe that non-jewish women are not kosher...but i will admit to all of you right now here on this blog that if he did not view me as being non-kosher (which i find extremely offensive by the way) i'd be the first in line to date this kid even though we'd probably argue more than the french kid and i do now...hehe (*smile*)
this is all summed up to say that in three days i return to the states for holiday. this is after my computer crashed last week...yes my mac of one year old crashed...bye bye finals and papers...yes that's right kids all my papers seemed to disappear. i spent several days mourning the loss of my papers (quite literally) to find out that the great apple store here in cairo was able to save them for me. so here's were i stand with graduate school: I turned in my first final paper this past friday. i just (literally just) finished two of my rough drafts for two other classes) I now have one other paper (which I have an introduction for) which needs to be 10-15 p and a 3-5 p paper along with a final exam to complete all by thursday! (It's now 3 am tuesday morning).
thankfully, my lovely french....dare i say boyfriend (OMG please don't hurt me alissa) brought me back a bottle of wine from his trip in israel. it is an incentive for me to finish my papers. along with the fact, that if i am able to accomplish all of my work by thursday after my computer crashing, i'll be a bit proud of myself! yay! feeling proud of my work would be nice considering that thus far...i've felt a bit overwhelmed and unqualified for graduate school. let me say from my experience of course readers which if stacked are taller than myself and all contain depressing, depressing information, graduate school sucks! also...for those choosing graduate schools....be wise as to how you choose. i chose by location. i have learned the best way to choose is by researching the professors of whom you will be studying under. if you have similar research interests then that's a positive note for that grad school if not move on....i chose by location...and i don't recommend it (grad school wise). love you all and i miss you all...also for those of you who have my cell number you can still call me on that number with no extra cost to you or to me yay...for those of you who don't have it...i think its on facebook...yay!
i have developed friends here...from the young man who (i think actually helped ext. invisible children) who randomly sneaks of b/c the orphanage in kampala needs to speak to him about the children or b/c of his friends in zimbabwe to the man who has worked with refugees every where from afghanistan to sudan....or the white south african refugee who gradutated from cornell...to the egyptian from helwan who already has a Ba and MA in English literature and is not receiving her second MA after working with refugees in cairo for almost ten years ... the social group is always lively fun and ever changing.
the fun social life has been accentuated by my ability to explore parts of egyptian culture which were forbidden to us before...such as bars called hurriya (beer for 10 le) hotels with resturants on top of them...drinking wine in cairo (i think my fav. thus far) and dating. that's right kids. becca has been dating in cairo. an atheist as well. a french artiest. who actually began our relationship by running away from me.. haha. funny story which if i will have to share in person for all of you to appreciate. anyways, in cairo of all places, i find myself dating an atheist. he's a nice french man who teaches french and philosophy in local french h.s. along with private piano lessons. i think it's cute to make fun of his accent and his stubborn french ways, but i actually appreciate the fact that he's making me think about things that i previously took for granted...surprisingly enough not about christianity but about islam....my views of G-d and Christ remain unchallenged. (he does at times challenge them but these questions don't actually challenge me mentally or spiritually) it's the questions about islam that challenge me the most. the other night we had a debate/argument about the appropriateness of the niqab which was so enthralling that two egyptian men stopped their meal and spent their time listening to us....at the time it wasn't so much enthralling as frustrating and annoying. anyways...while dating french man who will remain anonymous to all of you (we call him french kid) i have also had a bit of an internet fling (could we call it that kirsten?) with an israeli guy (we call him israeli kid) okay so tech. he's not israeli yet...he's converting....that has not/cannot go anywhere b/c he's about to officially become a jew, and the type of jew that does believe that non-jewish women are not kosher...but i will admit to all of you right now here on this blog that if he did not view me as being non-kosher (which i find extremely offensive by the way) i'd be the first in line to date this kid even though we'd probably argue more than the french kid and i do now...hehe (*smile*)
this is all summed up to say that in three days i return to the states for holiday. this is after my computer crashed last week...yes my mac of one year old crashed...bye bye finals and papers...yes that's right kids all my papers seemed to disappear. i spent several days mourning the loss of my papers (quite literally) to find out that the great apple store here in cairo was able to save them for me. so here's were i stand with graduate school: I turned in my first final paper this past friday. i just (literally just) finished two of my rough drafts for two other classes) I now have one other paper (which I have an introduction for) which needs to be 10-15 p and a 3-5 p paper along with a final exam to complete all by thursday! (It's now 3 am tuesday morning).
thankfully, my lovely french....dare i say boyfriend (OMG please don't hurt me alissa) brought me back a bottle of wine from his trip in israel. it is an incentive for me to finish my papers. along with the fact, that if i am able to accomplish all of my work by thursday after my computer crashing, i'll be a bit proud of myself! yay! feeling proud of my work would be nice considering that thus far...i've felt a bit overwhelmed and unqualified for graduate school. let me say from my experience of course readers which if stacked are taller than myself and all contain depressing, depressing information, graduate school sucks! also...for those choosing graduate schools....be wise as to how you choose. i chose by location. i have learned the best way to choose is by researching the professors of whom you will be studying under. if you have similar research interests then that's a positive note for that grad school if not move on....i chose by location...and i don't recommend it (grad school wise). love you all and i miss you all...also for those of you who have my cell number you can still call me on that number with no extra cost to you or to me yay...for those of you who don't have it...i think its on facebook...yay!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Hello! Long time no speak....
I am not sure if anyone reads/checks this blog anymore, but I thought I would put this out into the universe.
I am in desperate need of prayer at the moment. Grad school had definitely gotten on top of me among other things. Losing hair and sleep! :) You may or may not remember one of our first nights together as a group. But, we went around the group and we stated certain things that we were unhappy about ourselves, and areas in our lives where we wished to grow etc. I had said that I make bad decisions. And these bad decisions usually root from my low self esteem and my inability to respect myself. I find myself in a position where my past actions have taught me nothing. Without going into too much detail, what I do reflects how I feel about myself and the lengths I will go in order to form relationships of all kinds. I am not myself at the moment.
Still, please keep me in your thoughts. Pray for me.
I know this is abstract, but please pray....in a general way, I guess!
Hope you all are doing well. I do miss our group!
Love, Kaitlyn
I am in desperate need of prayer at the moment. Grad school had definitely gotten on top of me among other things. Losing hair and sleep! :) You may or may not remember one of our first nights together as a group. But, we went around the group and we stated certain things that we were unhappy about ourselves, and areas in our lives where we wished to grow etc. I had said that I make bad decisions. And these bad decisions usually root from my low self esteem and my inability to respect myself. I find myself in a position where my past actions have taught me nothing. Without going into too much detail, what I do reflects how I feel about myself and the lengths I will go in order to form relationships of all kinds. I am not myself at the moment.
Still, please keep me in your thoughts. Pray for me.
I know this is abstract, but please pray....in a general way, I guess!
Hope you all are doing well. I do miss our group!
Love, Kaitlyn
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
My Dear Friends!
Hey all!
I thought I'd drop a quick line with a few thoughts, some updates and the like.
First, I am so excited for all of you who are getting married! Emily and Anna, you both will make beautiful, beautiful brides and wives and my heart literally swelled I was so happy when I read your posts. Alissa, Julianna, Becka, Tory, Kirsten, Micah, Jon and Phil...(is there anyone else), I am so so so jealous and excited for all of you! You get to go back and have all these experiences that hopefully will make our experience make more sense and bring clarity to your lives. Sarah and Kaitlyn, EUROPE is crazy awesome! Congrats! I wonder about the rest of you who haven't blogged in a while...how are those crazy Gruelkirks, Margie? Matts? Hermerding? Heidi is going to Egypt...what about Miss Dena!? Please, update me on your lives! I need it!
I know a lot of you have been thinking and praying for me lately, I appreciate it more than you know! For those out of the loop, my dad has been in some poor, poor health. He had another heart attack, two heart surgeries and a stroke and is currently in a rehabilition center in Cleveland learning how to lift his right arm again. It's strange. I know when people go through these kinds of things they are supposed to feel far from God, or close to God, but I don't really feel anything about it. I mean, I am upset about my dad, I cry a lot these days, but I don't really feel emotive at all toward my Maker. Any Psych majors out there? =)
I ended up taking that job I was telling you all about. I'd love to tell you all about it, but they have searches out there on google and the last time I posted, they found it and my boss hounded me mercilessly about blogging about not wanting the job I took...thus, I cannot say much about it. Although, I will say it's not really enough for me. It's an AmeriCorps position, and that's cool--I work for an organization that promotes and convenes colleges toward the end goal of creating civically engaged and socially responsible students and people. That's great, right?! I mean, that's what I wanted my whole time at Spring Arbor...and I am resourcing and overseeing 12 people who directly work on college campuses and work toward that same goal. But I sit in a cubicle and help some people with their payroll, others I help find more service-learning opportunities in their area, but it's different than what I thought Iwould be doing. I thought I would be doing this great, big thing that worked this great, big idea and had a great, big impact.
My time is up in July, and I'm looking to the next step already. Maybe grad school, maybe Egypt, maybe moving home to take care of my dad--although I can tell you what I'm hoping for... =) We'll see.
I love you all and thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, and cannot wait to hear what all ya'll are up to!! Much love from Lansing, Habibiim! (I think, I can never remember...)
I thought I'd drop a quick line with a few thoughts, some updates and the like.
First, I am so excited for all of you who are getting married! Emily and Anna, you both will make beautiful, beautiful brides and wives and my heart literally swelled I was so happy when I read your posts. Alissa, Julianna, Becka, Tory, Kirsten, Micah, Jon and Phil...(is there anyone else), I am so so so jealous and excited for all of you! You get to go back and have all these experiences that hopefully will make our experience make more sense and bring clarity to your lives. Sarah and Kaitlyn, EUROPE is crazy awesome! Congrats! I wonder about the rest of you who haven't blogged in a while...how are those crazy Gruelkirks, Margie? Matts? Hermerding? Heidi is going to Egypt...what about Miss Dena!? Please, update me on your lives! I need it!
I know a lot of you have been thinking and praying for me lately, I appreciate it more than you know! For those out of the loop, my dad has been in some poor, poor health. He had another heart attack, two heart surgeries and a stroke and is currently in a rehabilition center in Cleveland learning how to lift his right arm again. It's strange. I know when people go through these kinds of things they are supposed to feel far from God, or close to God, but I don't really feel anything about it. I mean, I am upset about my dad, I cry a lot these days, but I don't really feel emotive at all toward my Maker. Any Psych majors out there? =)
I ended up taking that job I was telling you all about. I'd love to tell you all about it, but they have searches out there on google and the last time I posted, they found it and my boss hounded me mercilessly about blogging about not wanting the job I took...thus, I cannot say much about it. Although, I will say it's not really enough for me. It's an AmeriCorps position, and that's cool--I work for an organization that promotes and convenes colleges toward the end goal of creating civically engaged and socially responsible students and people. That's great, right?! I mean, that's what I wanted my whole time at Spring Arbor...and I am resourcing and overseeing 12 people who directly work on college campuses and work toward that same goal. But I sit in a cubicle and help some people with their payroll, others I help find more service-learning opportunities in their area, but it's different than what I thought Iwould be doing. I thought I would be doing this great, big thing that worked this great, big idea and had a great, big impact.
My time is up in July, and I'm looking to the next step already. Maybe grad school, maybe Egypt, maybe moving home to take care of my dad--although I can tell you what I'm hoping for... =) We'll see.
I love you all and thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, and cannot wait to hear what all ya'll are up to!! Much love from Lansing, Habibiim! (I think, I can never remember...)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Hey!
So I've been in the West Bank for the past month and a half studying Arabic and doing campus ministry. It's been awesome and crazy and I totally miss you guys but realize more then ever how awesome our experience together in Cairo was. Anyway, last night a Christian village near us had an Oktoberfest festival and I went with a friend of mine. And, my friends, I saw dabke and table playing that kicked ours in the butt. Holy cow, it was AMAZING!!! And it brought back such sweet memories of dancing on the roof. Guys, I really wish you could have seen it. My friend and I committed to enrolling in a dabke class in Ramallah next week it was so good. So now I get to experience dabke again, and believe you me, I will be thinking of you whenever I do.
I will be in Cairo at least for the begining of December, and then will probably be back in the West Bank after that. I look forward to seeing everyone in Egypt then! Insha'allah I will get to meet up with the MESP group when they come through Jerusalem--Austrian Hospice bread anyone?
Love you guys!
I will be in Cairo at least for the begining of December, and then will probably be back in the West Bank after that. I look forward to seeing everyone in Egypt then! Insha'allah I will get to meet up with the MESP group when they come through Jerusalem--Austrian Hospice bread anyone?
Love you guys!
Monday, October 6, 2008
England!
I have been in the UK at the University of East Anglia for the last month. I am here for the next year working on my Master's in Museology. If any of you will be anywhere nearby, it would be great to get to see you!!!
-Kaitlyn
-Kaitlyn
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