inside the wonderful world of vee

man, nearly forgot to mention james’ wedding this past weekend…

james and grace got married at some random church in the south bay (i know not what city even). hip-hop wedding. they met on hip-hop dance team, so they interjected a lot of hip-hop dancing into it… for example, during their first dance, they danced like normal, and then during the hook, broke down into a hip-hop routine… then went back to normal… then more hip-hop… then normal. amusing.

during grace and her father’s dance, grace’s dad had a headpiece with a mic attached to it and he sang, “the way you look tonight,” which was very impressive cause he actually had a good voice. ridiculously talented wedding.

the night closed out with another dance… they brought their church’s hip-hop dance team and all did a routine together. grace is goooooood dancer.

you know what’s cute? grace is a teacher and evidently all her students were invited to her wedding… lololololol. young, elementary school students. how ridiculously cute.

and finally… pastor jack’s marriage message. :D

he started it off by saying that when he first became the youth pastor of tcbc, james’ parents asked james what he thought of the new pastor. james was about 12 then. james said, “he’s alright. he plays basketball at least.” so… pastor jack decided to use a basketball analogy. HAHAHA.

three tenets of marriage, as it is compared to basketball:
1) never give up. in basketball, you always play until the end. don’t even think about the d word. it doesn’t exist. everything can always be worked out. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
2) the third quarter is the most important quarter. your first quarter is your life with your parents, your second quarter is your life in college, and the wedding is half-time. the next day is the first day of the third quarter, your marriage. fourth quarter? he didn’t mention that. what’s that? death and sucky oldness? no idea!
3) dream team. the cheesiest of all. prefaced by something like, in the 1960’s, the u.s. brought their basketball dream team to the olympics. this is the dream team — grace and james. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

*__* hilarioso.

september 7th, 2008 - traveling / copenhagen, denmark.
- fly out of seattle at 7:35am -> washingto -> arrive in copenhagen at 7:15am
- explore copenhagen on our own.
- board cruise sometime before 8:00pm.

september 8th, 2008 - at sea.
aka boring? maybe.

september 9th, 2008 - stockholm, sweden.
- arrive at 10:00am.
- visit:
   - the vasa museum (warship museum)
   - royal armory (battle gear!)
   - old town (where stockholm began)
   - coronation church (where people get coronated and married, too)
- leave stockholm at 5:00pm.

september 10th, 2008 - helsinki, finland.
- arrive at 10:00am.
- tour visit:
   - porvoo (historic district)
   - temppeliaukio rock church (church carved into bedrock)
   - senate square (neoclassical buildings? sure!)
- opportunity to go shopping for 45 minutes. mer.
- pass the suomenlinna fortress but don’t get to go in (unfortunately) :{
- leave helsinki at 6:00pm. i wonder what happens if you miss your boat?

september 11th, 2008 - st. petersburg, russia.
- arrive at 6:30am.
- tour to visit:
   - peterhof palace & grounds (built to rival versailles)
   - peter and paul fortress (russia’s tower of london)
   - st. isaac’s cathedral (220 pounds of pure gold on its roof?)
- 60 minute canal tour. oOoOo.
- hopefully go to the catherine palace, although i doubt there will be time. fuck. :{
- do whatever we want for a night. opera, perhaps? dance, perhaps? long live mother russia!

september 12th, 2008 - st. petersburg, russia.
- tour to visit:
   - http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html”>hermitage (winter palace)
   - yusupov palace (site of the assassination of rasputin)
   - the church of the savior on spilled blood
- leave st. petersburg at 6:00pm, which is no doubt going to be cold as fuck at this time of year.

september 13th, 2008 - talinn, estonia.
- arrive at 7:00am.
- tour to visit:
   - toompea hill (upper town? whatever…)
   - alexander nevsky cathedral (russian orthodox cathedrals are LOVE!!!)
   - dome church (elaborate sarcophagi and more than 60 coats of arms!)
   - town hall square (whatever…)
   - holy spirit church (ancient woodcarvings?)
- leave talinn at 1:00pm.

september 14th, 2008 - gdansk, poland.
- arrive at 9:00am.
- tour to visit:
   - malbork castle (one of poland’s oldest surviving castles!)
   - gdansk main town (arches, fountains, merchants’ palaces…)
   - st. mary’s church (brick gothic?? church!?)
- eat lunch while students from the gdansk music academy perform to us hahahahahahahahha.
- leave gdansk at 6:00pm.

september 15th, 2008 - at sea.

september 16th, 2008 - oslo, norway.
- arrive at 7:00am.
- tour to visit:
   - viking ship museum (home to three viking long boats.)
   - vigeland sculpture park (iron and bronze sculptures?)
   - holmenkollen (cradle of ski jumping in te 1952 olympics?)
- leave oslo at 2:00pm.

september 17th, 2008 - copenhagen, denmark / flying / barcelona, spain.
- arrive at 6:00am.
- explore.
- fly out of copenhagen at 2:20pm -> arrive arrive in barcelona at 5:10pm.

september 18th to 21st, 2008 - barcelona, spain.
- do whatever in barcelona.
- picasso museum? maybe.
- la rambla is apparently right up my alley.
- la padrera. (jesus, did the word gaudy stem from the man gaudi???)
- park guell.
- la boqueria.
- casa battlo.
- museu nacional d’art de catalunya? maybe.
- soccer game at camp nou? maybe? if they have soccer at that time?
- … barcelona sure would be boring if not for gaudi. lolol. jk. but maybe 1/2 as interesting for sure.
- torre agbar… no, it’s not a penis, it’s a skyscraper… with LEDs in it.

september 18th to 21st, 2008 - madrid, spain.
- prado, which houses the world’s largest collection of paintings :0
- madride pubcrawl? :0
- garden of earthly delights.
- el rastro — open air flea market? i’m thereeeeeee.
- reina sofia. the “guernica” is here.
- botin, the oldest restaurant in the world.
- puerta de europa.
- i wanted to see a bullfight but apparently the one weekend i am there there are none… :[ yeah yeah inhumane, blahblah. need to see for myself before making that decision :0 :0 :0

september 22nd, 2008 - madrid, spain / ireland, dublin.
- fly out of madrid at 6:35pm -> arrive in dublin at 8:10pm.

september 23rd, 2008 - flying.
- fly out of dublin at 6:45am -> london @ 10:05am -> vancouver at 1:45pm -> arrive in seattle at 2:35pm.
- jet lag ain’t shit; go to work.