One last blog from Amsterdam... I hope.
Drama! That is what has been. I am not feeling well today, so the crankiness and the bad grammar will probably come across in this little story, or report...something.

My pody is hot, but there are chills on the top of my skin. I woke up today feeling aweful. I wanted to be gone to Paris yesterday, but I have been held up. On the first or second day that I was in the hostel cleaning, there was an announcement that my room...with over 13 beds in it, had an infestation of bed bugs. So our things were left in the room, our clothes were washed and a shower was had by all. The room was vacated and sprayed with our things left in the room. After the spray, the room was to stay vacated so that they could spray again in a couple of days. In the midst of this, there was a lot of poor communication between staff and workers, and the end result was that my Arteryx Bora 80 back pack was thrown away, along with its contents and other things left in the room. So the last 3 days, I have been running around town on a huge shopping spree, and holding on to the receipts for reinbursement. Yesterday, well maybe I am being too melodramatic with this, but all I know is that my right shin is really sore. Yesterday, I developed shin splints from running around the city too much. Someone offered me his bike to use a couple of days before, but I did not take it....mistake! I admit it. Meanwhile, as to my cleaning experience at the Shelter, my allergies finally were activated my first day cleaning, and havn't slowed down. So now I can trully say that I am allergic to cleaning.

Well, now I have all the things I need to get back on the road except for reeibursement, and health. The reeimbursement is happening this evening, and I hope the health catches up by tomorrow morning. I feel that I need to get out of here though, and get well further south. Barbara from The Mount of Oaks community and I are hitting it off well with e-mails.

As for the shopping spree, I did not originally see this as a blessing. It has been a pain. There are things that I have lost with some sentimental value, and some things that are irreplaceable because you can't buy them. What I have gained, however, is a cool backpack. Since I did not have time to shop around, and did not know what to get, I got the same one again... a brand new Arteryx Bora 80. It is a very expensive bag. It has new features on it that the old one did not have, so it is a little bit different. Even when I still had the old one, I had thought I needed to get a new one that was smaller, and could not be overstuffed. Thus heavier than I should carry. This one is probably still just a little too heavy, but I think the changing of sleeping bag and coat that I carry could help that out in the future. Any way, a new bag is like a promise of new travels. I don't expect that the Lord would use The Shelter's money in vein. I expect this expense to come back and be a blessing to both the Shelter and I in the future.
There is probably more to say, but I can feel my head getting hotter and hotter, so I just want to go sit somewhere and take it easy. Let me close by giving glory to the Lord. We should count it all joy when we are faced with traials, tribulations, and troubles. For to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Therefore, may I go on with the glory of the Lord singing in the innerman, that my heart be joyful, that it may doeth good like a medicine to my natural body. Why so downcast oh my soul, put your hope in God. Let your spirit sing from out of the catacombs of its very dead skin. That victory, whose name is Christ, may come and bring resurrection.