Area Director School

6 days after I got home from Europe, I left for Area Director School in St. Augustine, Florida.

It was class inside a hotel for 8ish hours a day for like 8 days. Surprisingly, I loved it! It was full of good practical job training. The other bonus was that all training (New Staff, Winter, & ADS) held in the same hotel! I got to see so many friends that I rarely get to see and met some new ones. This also lead to some awkward interactions.

YL Assignment + Facebook + Time = Awkward

Level 1: "Hey! How are you? Where are you on staff? Cool, we should eat a meal together and catch up" This is clearly the least of the awkward. You both remember each other and the conversation is generally pleasant.

Level 2: "Hey! How are you? Remember, we did ________ together at __________! Where are you on staff? Cool, we should eat a meal together and catch up!" I have this conversation a lot. More often than not, I am the one who has the confused look on his face forcing the other person to explain how they know me. It's always awkward and I usually find out later that we are facebook friends.

Level 3: Awkward eye contact. "Hey, you look familiar. I think I know you. Have you ever been to ______? Do you know _______? Oh, we were at ________ together!" This level isn't so bad because neither party feels obligated to try and extend the conversation past placing each other.

Level 4: Awkward eye contact mixed with trying to avoid eye contact. You both know each other but neither can place the other nor are either willing to enter into a conversation about it. This surprisingly happens a lot to me and generally results in :

Level 5: Everything about level 4 but then you later find out you are facebook friends.

Anyway, my favorite part of ADS was our free day where a few of us trekked to the beach. It was so good! I literally was yelling that the entire time we were there playing in the water!

Everyone was surprised that I jumped the highest. I told them how in college people described me as "surprisingly athletic." They (especially Brit) thought it was hilarious and referred to me as such the rest of the day. Jerks.

Europe

Today a friend told me to stop being a bum and update my blog. So here it goes. It is long and short all at the same time.

Europe was AWESOME!! I will try to squeeze 2 weeks into a few thoughts and highlights.

Vienna was beautiful, very clean and felt proper. It was best described to me by a friend's mom as a "wedding cake" city. Let's just say its not on my list of cities that I want to revisit. I was in the boot the whole time so getting around was a little difficult. My foot wasn't the problem but walking in the boot messed with my hips and back because I didn't have any shoes of equal height. I also discovered that traveling alone is my favorite thing until about 8pm. Once I had finished dinner, all I wanted to do was find a nice quiet bar to have a drink and relax. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find were crazy discos and those were also the place of choice for everyone in my hostel room. My favorite part of Vienna was the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery). It is one of the largest cemeteries in the world and is the final resting place for almost all famous Austrians. Sounds morbid but I spent an entire afternoon there and could have stayed longer.

Parting thoughts from Vienna:

The cathedrals were beautiful but I was surprised that they didn't move me as much as my first visit to Europe. Round one brought with it a revelation about how Jesus is Lord and He is worth the extravagance of European cathedrals.

The public transit is on the honor system and I'm a sucker. I've traveled enough to know that you don't want to waste your money buying a ticket each time but get a longer term pass to cover the time you'll be there. I purchased a nice 72 hr pass and to my surprise, there weren't any gates to go through nor people checking your pass.

The next stop was Budapest. Unlike Vienna, Budapest is close to the top of my list of cities I want to revisit! It might have been one of the most gorgeous cities I've ever been to. Seriously. Its packed full of great history and great people. It also helped that I had an expert tour guide and great friend show me the city. We didn't do a ton but ate a lot and the food was cheap! Budapest was the gathering place for everyone before we headed off to Nyiregyhaza for the wedding. It was a wonderful time with friends. Favorite part of Budapest: The hot springs!! We spent an afternoon relaxing in debatably the most beautiful hot springs resort.

Wedding time!! Hungarian weddings are my new favorite thing! They start in the afternoon with a pre ceremony buffet. Perfect. Then we headed off to the ceremony which was in a 400 year old church and was done by a bishop. Perfect. Now reception time! Starts with a 5 course meal. Perfect. Now around 6 hours, yes 6, of dancing to a live band who was mixing traditional Hungarian jams with American hits. The dancing was stopped very few times but each time was awesome. First, the groomsmen and groom's friends kidnap the bride. The groom then has to win her back. We opted for an epic sword fight. (The master of ceremonies (wedding planner) liked it so much he is going to suggest it to his other clients.) There was also a dollar dance, first with the "country bride" aka the brides brother in a dress then the actual bride. The last break in the music was for midnight dinner!!! Perfect. The night rolled to an end about 4am. The band played their last song and was about to leave when I ask them if they know September by Earth Wind and Fire. They laugh and play it just for me. I mom danced the crap out of that song and was laughed at by the few remaining Hungarians. After a short jaunt to the horse stable to give them a well deserved midnight snack it was time for bed.

Overall, this trip was awesome but next time I go to Europe it will be in the Summer and I will see a beach.

Booting Across Europe

In about 40 hours I will be boarding a flight to Europe for a little vacay. It will be 10 days full of adventure starting with 3 days by myself in Vienna before heading over to Budapest for the wedding festivities (college roomie is getting married). Needless to say, I've been pumped for this trip since I booked the flight back in October. Unfortunately, there has been one small set back. I will be wearing a boot. Womp womp.

For the past while my foot will randomly decide it wants to hurt to the point of almost being immobile. This will last anywhere from a day to a few weeks depending on how restful I am. Well, Saturday, it began again but this time it hurt far worse than any other time. My parents urged me to go to the doctor so they could take xrays and whatnot. So after being convinced and bribed with breakfast, I went in today. The ER doc I saw this morning thought he had narrowed it down to Morton's Neuroma and referred me to a Podiatrist. Thankfully, I was able to sneak in an appointment today. After going through the typical Dr office trick (when they take you back to the room on time then make you wait an hour to actually see the Dr.) I was able to chat with the specialist. He was old, nice, excited about my trip, but utterly confused by my hurting foot. He instantly ruled out Morton's Neuroma (Thank you Jesus!) in a that-guy-has-no-idea-what-he-is-talking-about but wasn't certain about what was wrong.

His best guess is a stress fracture that isn't showing up on the xrays or some strained ligaments. Either way, he threw me in a boot wrote me a prescription and sent me on my way.

I will now be booting across Europe with a nice stash of percocet so I can't complain!

Field Staff/ Service Center

Every Monday, I get a copy of YL's Monday Mornings which is a mission wide email that is full of little diddies about being a YL leader. This also includes a spotlight on a job opening each week. Today made me ashamed of my organization.

"Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Office of the President"

To me that reads: Denny's secretary's secretary. Really? There is enough work that your secretary needs a secretary? Obviously I inquired further and checked out some of the job description.

Here are a few of the responsibilities listed:

Upkeep of the Office of the President — supplies and refrigerator.

In-office lunches.

Desk preparation for the president and DOP.

Maintain a positive, warm, personable manner with flexibility and a desire to answer "Yes!" to all requests if possible

And... you don't need a college degree.

Hilarious. But the sad part: they probably make more than me and get those sweet YL benefits without worrying about their area moving into deficit. The cherry on top: no fundraising. Womp womp. Maybe this is one of those reasons some field staff don't love the service center. Jobs like this make me mad when I look at the 22ish% service charge that goes out of my account each month to pay for their salaries and services.

Wife Swap

When I think of one show that I watched the most in college, it has to be Wife Swap. And no, I'm not one bit ashamed of that. I would literally sit for hours with my friend Ehren judging the crap out of the families each episode. You're probably wondering what warrants this bit of confession time. Well, I have a lot of reading to get done by 9am and I'm looking for anything to distract me. Fortunately, I can always count on Lifetime to have at least one episode of hilarious family swapping for me to enjoy.

The only requirement for watching Wife Swap is that you have to choose which family you would rather be raised by. Generally, I choose the more strict family and tonight is no different. I choose the Dragos who are workaholics void of much affection over the Camerons whose mother is consumed by her doll collection and shopping while leaving her kids to do whatever they want.

Good thing there is only one episode on tonight so I can get to that reading...

Thanksgiving/Black Friday

Yep, its my second favorite time of the year.

It all Wednesday night. We make the stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake while drinking wine.

Thanksgiving day at the Brinck household is quite the tradition. First, you have to know that we aren't exactly a formal family. Basically, if you shower on Thanksgiving you have gone above and beyond all expectations.

I got to Larry and Suze's around 10am for some delicious Monkey Bread (cinnamon sugar biscuits). Now, nap time. Things pick back up around noon when its time to prepare the Turkey for the oven. In the past few years I've taken on a more prominent role in the kitchen, AKA I make pretty much everything. We don't do anything special with the bird. Just cover it in butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and rosemary. Put all the chopped veggies (onions, celery, and carrots) in the pan the pop er in the oven. This is also the time we start the stock for the giblet gravy.

Now we nap and watch some football.

We start up again around 4:30 prepping everything else for the sides. Kaluha yams, mashed potatoes, bacon and shallot green beans, and rolls.

Dinner is at 6 and we feast!

The only problem is that I've been snacking so much on everything I've been eating that I can only eat one full plate of food.

Nap. Clean. Dessert.

Bed.

Black Friday.

We are sometimes the crazy get in line at 3am people but this year no one wanted a door buster so Suze and I went to the mall around 10:30 for a day of shopping. This basically turned into me picking out everything I want for Christmas and having Suze buy it. Perfect.

Practice Thanksgiving

Since as long as I can remember my family has always had a practice Thanksgiving. It generally happens sometime in October and its our chance to try out new recipes so that we don't bomb on real Thanksgiving. This tradition really took off while I was in college because Suze knows that Thanksgiving is my favorite. Every time I came home we had a practice Thanksgiving! I had at least 3 Thanksgivings each year!

Clearly I would brag to my friends about how many Thanksgivings I would have each year and I was shocked to find out that my family is in the minority with practice Thanksgiving. Most of my friends had NEVER heard of a practice Thanksgiving?! What? I always thought this was the norm.

So for all of you reading, I hope that you would adopt the practice Thanksgiving tradition. It just might change your life..