taking-on-europe-blog

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Through Sickness and Health

The past couple days have been a whirl wind of running around trying to fit in everything we wanted to do, and trying to make as many connections as we could. Today we are traveling back to Chicago and are currently waiting at Gatwick Airport in the U.K. after an all-nighter, two flights and two time zone changes already. We keep joking that we're going back in time all day, since we gained an hour when we landed in Denmark, and another hour when we landed in London, and we will be gaining 6 hours when we fly to Chicago.

To say this morning started out a little rough is an understatement. Since we had to leave for the airport at 1:30 a.m. it made more sense to just stay up since we still had to pack anyways. However, that meant at approximately 2:30 a.m., not only were we crashing, but we were both struck by food poisoning from our dinner the night beforehand. The first flight was both painful and unsettling due to our flight attendants being unsympathetic in every regard, and all but yelling at us along with punching us when we didn't move fast enough.

Denmark was truly beautiful from what we could see out our plane window, and our second flight went a lot more smoothly and despite them not having proper food and drink supplies, the flight attendant brought us some water which we appreciated a lot since we were unable to bring what water we did have through security.

Although we have loved seeing Europe, even if parts of it have been through a plane window, both Melissa and I are ready to go home and sleep in our own beds, even if it'll only be for a day or two. Our favorite parts of this trip have included sleep deprived laughing at nothing and everything, getting to meet the kids at the Kosovo Leadership Academy, the scenery and overall just vibrancy in all the colors in both Kosovo and Greece, and getting the chance to try so many new things that it's hard to keep track of all the things we both did for the first time ever in Europe.

Although we have both had on and off issues with altitude sickness or the like, it has made us all the more appreciative of when we've been healthy throughout this trip. I feel like every trip, business or vacation or family-filled always has it's downsides, but I think thats what makes the good parts all the more special and memorable.

Melissa and I are so incredibly blessed to have been a part of the first international Mastermind Seminar, and hope that there will be many more to come! We are so thankful to each one of our contributors for making what seemed like a pipe dream 12 weeks ago, into a very real reality, and for believing in us every step of the way. I will hopefully be able to post pictures from the trip sometime this weekend, so that every one of you can see what you helped make possible! Less than 5 hours until we're on our final plane and headed back to the States!

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Day 5 & 6

Going with the Flow 🌊

A lot of things keep randomly not quite going in our favor here, and I distinctly remember one thing my father told us before we left (aside from safety being the top priority) along the lines of: Don't stress when things don't go according to plan, just take the twists and turns as life throws them at you, and you'll find you'll probably have many more memories come out of it than you thought possible.

I'm actually rather proud of Melissa and I as we seem to be following my dad's advice better than I thought we'd be comfortable with. Melissa and I don't like things being out of our control or not go according to our plans, so the past 2 days have been both a good, but hard lesson in that.

Thankfully, we have had an amazing hotel employee helping us through the twists and turns Greece seems to like throwing us, which has helped this all seem a lot less intimidating. Melissa actually had a chance to talk with her today and found out she's going to school for a Marketing Degree. We're hoping we might be able to connect with her more, and possibly find more connections through her.

This place is a photographer's dream as well, and I'm hoping when I get home some of the photos I've taken both here and in Kosovo, will be able to make us more connections so we can fund future trips and have many more Mastermind Seminars throughout the world.

This whole trip, we've had to work on just living in the moment and not focus on getting the perfect picture at the perfect angle as well. I thought I would have more issues with that, since I'm always looking for an angle for the right picture, but surprisingly, Melissa has seemed to have more difficulty in that area. Either way, the things we're learning about each other and the memories we're creating this entire trip, are memories we will cherish forever, as every lesson we've learned, no matter how hard, is a lesson that's also helped us to think differently, and in turn, practice the things we "preached" in Kosovo.

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Day 4: Lessons vs time

Well sadly this morning we had to say goodbye to Kosovo. I stayed up late having a date night with my husband over skype but Angela went to bed and somehow we both woke up early due to THE most obnoxious rooster you have ever heard in your entire life, crowing so loudly he could’ve woke the dead. He was not our favorite in that country lol. We had to say goodbye to our friends at the Kosovo Leadership Academy but was able to connect with some of them on facebook so I’m excited to see where life takes them next. Especially after applying what they learned this past week. It was a pleasure to be able to come here with them and hear their dreams and goals in life.

Although we enjoyed Kosovo, we headed out on our next adventure to go to Istanbul, Turkey with a small layover then went into Athens Greece. Athens...well, let’s just say we won’t judge Greece based on the 7 hour experiences we had in Athens. The few amount of greeks that we associated with were not the most pleasant individuals and being Boersma blood...we didn’t quite keep our thoughts and frustrations to ourselves haha. But on the plus side, we did have some fun stories to tell people later lol. I think we struggle alot with not being able to communicate properly in Europe altogether so sometimes we just need to be patient and wait to figure things out one step at a time. I think we learned some lessons today though which made the experience of traveling into a foreign place all the more exciting. We also experienced an excessive amount of bipolar moments. One minute we would both be silent in confusion and concern for what to do next. 10 minutes later we would almost be crying from laughing so hard at some inside joke we’ve invented thousands of times since we’ve arrived in Europe. I do love our sister moments. Going to remember those for years to come!

We finally arrived in Santorini Greece at 11pm tonight after some delays throughout the day and an exhausting day of traveling all over. Somehow we got delayed in Athens by an hour and 15 minutes and arrived 25 minutes later in Santorini...the time travel in this country is impeccable! Every flight we’ve had has been delayed but somehow we end up only arriving 15-30 minutes later than our estimated time of arrival. It’s quite mind boggling actually.

So even though it’s 1am and our bodies are probably dying from the inside out from all this inconsistency in sleep...we’re heading to bed and probably sleeping in tomorrow. We have had an exhausting few days so tomorrow is our designated relaxing day. We have an absolutely beautiful hotel right on the cliffs in Santorini and we’re excited to see what all we can accomplish here in Santorini because we will definitely be wanting to return to this place!

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Day 3: The Purpose!

Well today was the big day!! The whole reason in coming to Kosovo was focused around today. The MasterMind Seminar happened today! I personally woke up at 3am and could not for the life of me fall back asleep. But we started our day off at 6am when our “taxi driver” who is also a former friend and student of Kosovo Leadership Academy picked us up and brought us to the school to prepare for the day. His car rides have always been adventurous as Europeans drive very differently than the US lol. They have more “suggestions” than “laws” when it comes to rules of the road. So things can be a little rocky at times. Motion sickness has kicked in multiple times the past few days but nothing Tums can’t cure.

Anyways, a short review on how the MasterMind Seminar went! We had a pretty good turnout, it was mostly parents of the students though. We had our 3 main students that assisted throughout the entire day and they had invited all their friends to attend but sadly none of them came. I could tell the students were discouraged at this but it helped that we had about 15 parents there to learn more about what we were speaking on.

Angela spoke on the DNA for Business & I spoke on DNA for People. Angela was incredibly nervous leading up to it but she got so many compliments on how great of a job she did. Nadine told her she had a natural talent for public speaking. :) I think I talked a little fast and a little long but overall, speaking on the personality masteries came pretty natural to me as well. We got connected to some of the parents as well which was awesome. Everyone filled out the Action Card which will help us get connected with them to help them with their biggest challenge in their lives right now. They all seemed to really be interested in trying to help the next generation with their future.

After the seminar, we connected alot of the parents then the whole team and Nadine went around downtown Mitrovica and tried this incredible italian restaurant that Nadine took us to. The food here has been an amazing experience altogether honestly. And I don’t think either of us are used to drinking so much espresso haha. They have these “coffees” that are super cheap and delicious and pumped with a ton of caffeine. I believe I’ve had probably at least 8 of them in a 3 day period lol. Probably why I woke up so early this morning. :P

Our next adventure of the day was something Angela was very set on making sure we do in Kosovo. So we set out on a mission that ended up very differently then what we had planned in our heads. We found directions to walk to the NewBorn monument in Pristina, Kosovo, about a mile away from our hotel. We walked for about a half hour until we realized we probably walked a little too far. Finally ended up finding it as we were racing for time before the sunset. It was funny trying to get selfies with it until a group of girls walked up asking in Albanian if they could get us to take a picture. We didn’t really understand but got the point so said yes and the look on one of the girls faces when she exclaimed “oh my gosh you speak English too! YES!” was exactly how we felt when she said that haha. So we got each others pictures in relief knowing there’s another american out there feeling just as clueless in a foreign country as we do lol.

We did finally make our downstairs waiter smile!! After 3 days of him absolutely scolding at us because we’re ignorant americans who ask stupid questions, we finished our pizza and thanked him with a good size tip, only to see him genuinely smile at us instead of the sarcastic smirk he’s been giving us the past few days. He continued to smile every time we came in there and we realized waiters here might be more alike american waiters than we realized lol. It was cool to see the transition though and its a good lesson learned.

Now tomorrow we head off on our next big adventure!! Our flight to Athens, Greece is early in the morning so we’re going to head to bed. We have alot of follow-up to do the next 24 hours so I’m hoping to get that done between layovers and such tomorrow. We’re enjoying every part of this experience an we’re excited to get some pictures up for everyone can see the beauty of Kosovo!!

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Day 2: Atmosphere

Not only is the atmosphere different here culturally, but it is VERY different physically. The air pressure as we drove through the "hills" (they're not quite mountains, but definitely not as small as what we'd consider hills in the U.S.), was crazy. Along with the air pressure, the driving here is less driving and more like riding a roller coaster.

After our roller coaster of a drive to the Kosovo Leadership Academy, we finally got to meet Bashkim, Era, and Anida, who are amazing. Their passion towards having a brighter future and persistence to making this Mastermind Seminar happen, just astounds Melissa and I. They seem to not only have a passion to better their future, but also to pave the way for future generations as well as make an impact on this generation. Anida and Era especially seemed intrigued by Melissa's stories of the Amish community. Bashkim does some work for his father, although, we found out that generally the teens cannot work (outside of doing work with their family), until they are 18. His father distributes beverages, and Bashkim often helps by driving (although the legal driving age is also 18).

So many things here are unlike the U.S., but it's incredible to hear from Bashkim, Era and Anida how much things have changed from how their parents lived their lives when they were younger, such as the fact that there is no longer as much arranged marriages as there used to be.

The restaurant saga continues as we were uninformed on how tipping goes, and the waiter already thinks we're unbelievably stupid, and we didn't want to tip and get yelled at... so we didn't. And quickly found out we should have. We plan on making amends towards the end of our stay by tipping really good.

The sky and scenery here are truly breath-taking, obviously partially literally, but also figuratively. Sometimes it seems the sky is endless, and for most of the day it was blue with perfect fluffy clouds. While it did start raining on our drive back to the hotel, the weather here is still perfect, nice enough for shorts, but cool enough to wear a jacket and be comfortable. Their coffee (which they call macchiato, but we'd consider a latte I believe), is delicious and life-saving against the jet lag. Overall, today has been a pretty full day, and we're very much looking forward to the Mastermind Seminar tomorrow!

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Day 1: Lost in Translation

Well we are finally here in Pristina Kosovo! After a 10 hour flight of feeling like royalty because of Turkish Airlines (5 star review thank you), a 3.5 hour layover in Turkey, then a 2hour flight to Pristina, we finally arrived safely at our hotel which is absolutely incredible. It’s a small little mom&pop hotel in the city but it is so quiet and peaceful. Not to mention the room is huge! We have a sauna in our shower too! And the pizza here at the hotel restaurant is absolutely delicious.

But we are learning some hard lessons lol. First off, we should’ve prepared more with the exchange rate here but that’s just a lesson we figured out a little too late. :P Secondly, the language is a HUGE barrier right now. We have tried really hard to explain what we need in a way they’ll understand but sadly that is not seeming to be the case. As a people person, not being able to communicate with the locals is so frustrating. Not to mention we look like stupid americans because we have no idea what we’re doing when it comes to certain things lol. But hey, it’s a learning process. As I’ve been telling Angela “it’s all part of the experience!”

Our fun parts of the trip so far was being stuck behind a woman in customs that had to remove all her eatable items from her bags...which legitimately took 35 minutes to remove every snack, candy or long john she had stashed away in her kids suitcases. It was entertaining to see this is what people enjoy about America haha.

Secondly, we decided to go back down to the hotel restaurant for a midnight snack since we’re slightly wide awake at this moment, and we asked the woman there if we could get some ice cream and tiramisu, since it was in the menu. She spoke pretty decent English and apologized profusely that they didn’t have tiramisu. So instead she sweetly offered us banana splits with ice cream, which sounded great to us so we said yeah sure! So we sat and waited, about 20 minutes or so, figuring out restaurants here in Europe are very different than ones in the states. After about 25 minutes or so, we saw the girl come back, plastic bag in hand, and watched as she and another staff member took bananas, whipped cream and chocolate out of the bag and prepared the americans, a beautifully made Banana split.

She literally went to the store simply to make us a banana split. I ate that Banana split with so much passion haha. We feel like we’re being spoiled here but we don’t know how to communicate differently! It’s a challenge for me but it’s fascinating to see their culture and how different their minds and actions are from what we’re used to here.

Tomorrow’s another day! Pray for us as we meet up with Nadine and the kids of the Kosovo Leadership Academy!

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Smiling so wide because Mel and I are headed to Kosovo!!!! #FirstInternationalTrip #TakingOnEurope #KosovoBound #BoersmaBlood #PassportStamping #BoardingSoon✈️

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Less than 12 hours to go!

So with all the packing, repacking and triple packing we’ve done the past two nights, I didn’t get a chance to post last night.

But I wanted to let everyone know that you are all the reason we are able to head out on this trip tonight!! Each one of you had some sort of participation in this trip that made it possible for Angela and I to get on that plane tonight.

As nervous as we are, with a 11 hour flight ahead of us and lots of things that could possibly not work in our favor...we know that God is in control! He is going to take care of us and I’m confident that he is proud of the work we are going to achieve there! Somehow I slept so soundly last night, which is unusual for me because I always struggle with sleep the night before something big happens. But last night I didn’t wake up once with fear or doubt or anything. God wanted me to feel safe and he did just that. Angela didn’t sleep as soundly though, as I know she’s incredibly nervous for her first international trip! So just keep her in your prayers as we head over there. She’s so excited and I’m so happy I get to be with her on her first big adventure!

We’ve connected with our people in Kosovo and everything seems to be starting up Friday morning! We’ll be hopefully arriving into Pristina Kosovo at 7:35pm tomorrow night. Friday morning we will be getting together with our contact in Kosovo, Nadine to meet the kids from the Kosovo Leadership Academy and get shown around the area as to what we will be doing this weekend. Nadine has worked very hard to get this Academy up and running and we’re very exciting she invited us to be there and speak with the kids and teachers on what we want to help them with in their futures!

I’m just finishing up some last minute details before my husband gets home to drive me to Chicago and meet up with Angela. We’re both wishing that more people could come along this trip, but we’re hoping that we can pave the way for future trips and more people to come next time.

Our father, Mark Boersma, many years ago, assigned each one of us 7 children a continent to reach with the Gospel of Christ. GingerAnne, 30, the oldest, got Asia; in which she traveled there 18 years ago with Mark! Jonathan, 28, got Africa; who also traveled there with Mark about 14 years ago. Me, the third oldest, being 27, I was assigned Europe. And now after years of hoping, my younger sister and I can finally start living out our life vision of reaching the world! Katrina, 23, got South America. Angela, 22, got Australia, praying that we get that next opportunity in the next few months or so! Benjamin, 19, got North America, & just recently graduated high school, I know he’s going to accomplish so many great things as he moves onto greater adventures. And the youngest, Timothy, 17 got Antarctica, along with helping his big sister with Asia.

That’s our Boersma Family Life Vision and I know with these kind of trips, we can accomplish so much more together than we can ever do on our own!

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T-Minus 48 hours!!

Here we are, only 48 hours away from our flight taking off on our biggest adventure ever!

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I am insanely nervous excited. How many people in the world can say they get to travel to one of the newest countries in Europe to help bring a business mindset to the hearts and minds of children of all ages?!

Like to me, that seems crazy. Good crazy, bad crazy, however you want to look at it, it’s a very different perspective then just your regular missions trip. We actually get a chance to talk to kids at the Kosovo Leadership Academy about how they can make a difference in their own country, and maybe even other places as well. Some kids out there have no idea there is other ways to make money other than working your average job and living paycheck to paycheck. How cool would it be to simply just touch ONE child? One child that ends up taking his/her talents and treasures and turning them into a successful partnership or business and assisting other kids to help have a more entrepreneurial mindset!?

To myself and Angela...that is our goal. For both of us to simply touch ONE heart. To make a difference in one person’s world. Because that one person can touch another 2, and those 2 can touch an 4, and from there, you have the Atomic Ripple Reaction Principle! Crazy how effective touching one person can be!

As we stay up late 48 hours before we walk onto that plane, packing last minute things into our suitcase and preparing ourselves mentally, emotionally and physically for this long flight ahead, we’re praying that God somehow allows us to turn some of this craziness and confusion, into the most incredible trip we’ve ever been on. Last minute details are rough, and sometimes we just have to accept the fact that things don’t always go as planned. But the most exciting part of life is the things that come unexpectedly. So pray for us as we continue packing! Pray that we are able to achieve our goals. Pray that we arrive safely. Pray that God opens up the right doors to bring this trip together in the right way. Pray for patience if things don’t go accordingly.

Simply pray, because prayer is far more powerful when it’s coming from many.

Love you all! Looking forward to updating in the next 24 hours as we finish up last minute details! :D 

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T-minus 15 Days!

While there are merely 15 days left until we make our way to Kosovo, there is still so much to be done! This blog will be our outlet to let everyone know what we are doing to prepare for our journey to Kosovo, as well as be a way for us to update everyone on what we are doing while in Kosovo! Feel free to follow and share!