GC 2010 Atlanta

A view of Atlanta from the Omni hotel

an empty Georgia Dome on the first evening, before most of the people had arrived. The dome seats about 70 000 people and by the end of the week, it was almost full!

having lunch with Rebekah at the CUC booth in the exhibit hall. yummy :)

an afternoon of Ligretto with Rebekah, Linus and Oona

it's hard to get an accurate picture of the crowds, but this shows a little. The escalators were usually packed. At the end of each day my brain was exhausted from continually scanning the people to see if I recognized friends. On the other hand it was great though :) Running into people I hadn't seen in years and probably won't see for many more years.

Election of the GC president, Ted Wilson, for the next 5 years, until the next GC meetings in Texas 2015.

One of many many booths in the exhibit hall. This was for the ESD, Euro-Asia Division, that Kazakhstan was a part of. Here Rebekah and I are with more friends: Talgat from Kyrgyzstan and Gulya from Uzbekistan.

On the last day the dome was rather full. Trying to get out of there was quite the mission!

a random sight that made us smile :)

Arriving in Atlanta

Wonders never cease :)

One of the main reasons for my trip to the States was to attend the SDA General Conference meetings in Atlanta. I had planned to meet a Finnish friend the first day and stay with her until Rebekah (on the left) came. But Emilia and I had no plans of where or when we'd meet, or how we'd find each other :D Minor detail in a city of 5 million people...

I flew to Atlanta from Baltimore, right into oppressing heat and humidity. Lacking any other plan I decided to find the MARTA, take that to the Congress Center where the meetings were to be held and try and locate Emilia. It felt kind of hopeless, but I decided to trust God anyways. 

I got my bag from baggage claim and was walking down to the metro when I spied a familiar figure. David Helbley (2nd from the left) of all people! He and Gina were very dear friends that I worked with in Kazakhstan last year. I knew they were coming to the meetings, but really didn't expect to see him already at the airport! It was incredible :)

The rest of the day worked out great too. David knew what stop to get off at on the metro, a random guy walked by as we were buying our tickets and gave me one he wasn't using anymore, a Finnish friend walked by when I was trying to find Emilia and carried my heavy bag all the way to his hotel room for storage, I ran into another dear friend from Argentina, one I didn't even expect to see, and I finally found Emilia at the end of the day :)

God is good!

Capitol

Uncle Bud took us on a tour of the Capitol building in DC.

me with the Bond's, visiting from Florida at the same time I was

Capitol dome

Uncle Bud's office in Fredrick

with aunt Rosie :)

Baltimore aquarium

One day Leesa and Clay took me to Baltimore to see the fishies

Rosie and Bud

Flew up to Maryland. Middletown to be exact. To see my aunt and uncle. It was nice to spend time with them and catch up and relax.

Rosie's flower beds

Sabbath lunch with family

with Leesa, my cousin

shopping with Clay

Clay's new toy :)

He found this flower out in the grass. Growing up, it was my favorite flower. 

Kannusruoho in Finnish, I really have no clue in English. I think it might be a weed though :D

90+ F (32 C) pool :)

Taco Bell

One of the first mandatory stops on my visits to the US is always Taco Bell. 

(that might change now that I've been to Moe's though...)

Here we are at one, with a friendly Taco Bell guy :)

reminiscent of the 'good old days'... :D

games of 'who can make Lahja turn red the fastest'

good times :)

Larisa and Mike

Once upon a time... Larisa met Mike. And they got married!

it worked out perfectly that I was able to be there for the big day :)

My other family :)

a little reunion of us 8th grade people, 

Casey, Michael, (Mike), Larisa, me and Jason

... and they lived happily ever after :)