Happy Birthday Joel!

Well today's Joel's birthday. So Happy Birthday Joel! Sorry I can't be there to celebrate with you.
Other than there wasn't much going on today. It was my day off and since it was rainy and cold (typical Dutch weather) I stayed in most of the day. I did have my Dutch lesson this evening which I always enjoy. I feel like I'm actually getting good at it. It's amazing what you can do when you have to do it. All lot of the people in my class have been here for months or even a few up to 5 years and they are at the same level as I am! I've been here the least amount of time of anyone in the class. Everyone else in my class is working here and is quite a bit older than me which is ok but a bit of a bummer as well. We don't have a whole lot in common. It's really hard to be here and have the values of not smoking or drinking because it seems like everyone else here goes out and drinks and smokes all the time. I struggled with it a bit when I first got here, whether or not it was ok for me to have a drink or two in a social setting. Smoking was never a temptation because I think it's gross but it's really hard to be out and say that you don't drink. In the end I decided that it really was my value not to drink and I even made up some personal "rules". It's very different being all alone in a foreign country and suddenly realizing that there is absolutely nobody to tell you what to do. Then what you were brought up with your whole life becomes real or disappears. I guess it's something you technically know but you don't really realize until you actually are on your own. Luckily I had good parents and they raised me with the right values. It really gives a whole new meaning to the verse "Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it." Well I'm "old" now and the values I've been raised with are good and they stuck. The only thing I really need is to find a good church here and while it's important to me, I think it's almost good that I haven't yet because I've been doing what I'm doing because it's right and not because someone is going to check up on me. In other words, I think my life is more real now than it's ever been and that's definitely a good thing.