¡Vamos a Chichi!

Gio (the school's coordinator), Edel (fellow student from Ireland), Lynn (student from Germany), and I went to a city called Chichicastenango today (yes, that is definitely a mouthful!). It was about a 2-hour bus ride from Xela and we went to see the market (market day is Sunday in Chichi). Never again. Haha! I mean, it was a great experience, but there were SO MANY booths and they all had pretty much the same stuff and there were so many gringos and when you'd ask how much something cost they'd usually tell you some ridiculously high price (probably because we're white and therefore rich).

Let me start with the trip there. We met at the school at 7am (which really means like 7:10) and headed up to Zone 3 to catch a mini-bus (zone 3 is about a 15ish minute walk from the school, and mini-buses are really just vans that they cram as many people into as they can). We had to take 2 mini-buses because there wasn't one that went directly to Chichi from Xela. The first one was a little crammed, all four of us were on the back bench-seat (probably made for 3 people) and then the second mini-bus was fine for me because I was sitting in the front seat with just one other person and the driver, but I guess it got super crammed in the back where everyone else was sitting. 

We arrived and were instantly overwhelmed by the craziness of all the booths and people, but we commenced our shopping. After an hour or so we were all pretty hungry so we stopped into a typical restaurant (that means typical Guatemalan food, not that it was just like every other restaurant here)...unfortunately we didn't realize that it was still early and they were only serving breakfast. The food was not the best and the coffee was terrible, but it was really cheap so I'm not complaining too much. We recommenced our shopping extravaganza for a couple hours and it's so ridiculous how much stuff was in that market! I don't even think we saw the whole thing and we were there for at least 4 hours. The whole time you're walking around there are people walking up to you with bookmarks, scarves, bracelets, blankets, etc. asking you to buy their stuff, and the only English they know is "buy it for your mom" and "good price." Then all the little booths are packed full of colorful things and the people running those always say (in Spanish) "Come on in, what do you like?". And they all call you "amiga" (or amigo if you're a guy, haha!). 

After a bit more of that, we were all hungry again, so we headed to another restaurant with more substantial food (but still a really good price). All of us girls got burgers (haha! We're such gringas!), but they're way different than the ones in the states. They're thinner and I think they mix their ground beef with lots of seasonings and stuff, so it was super tasty! And after a bit more shopping we awaited our bus home.

To head home we took a chicken bus (old U.S. school bus all colorful and stuff) because it went directly to Xela. Picture in your mind a regular school bus. Now picture that each seat has at least 3 people sitting on it (sometimes more like 5 or 6 if there are little kids). Now picture the aisle full of people standing. Now picture this full bus stopping to pick up more people and they open the front door and the emergency exit in the back to let people on. Now imagine this jam-packed school bus winding through mountain curves. That's what that two hours of my life was like. Haha! Just like going to the market in Chichi, it was a good experience, but not something I'd want to do on a regular basis. 

Today I saw the most white people in one place that I've seen since I got here (and Gio was making fun of them because they all wear the same travel pants that un-zip to turn into shorts). I also saw an actor in the market (Wade from Hart of Dixie)...it was weird to hear him talk without an Alabama accent. Haha! I had my first chicken bus ride. I bought some stuff for some people, although not anywhere near as much stuff as I eventually need to buy (there were the cutest little coveralls that I wanted to get for my nephew so badly, but he's growing too darn fast that I'm afraid they'd be too small for him by the time I got them home). And I got to practice my bartering skills. Overall, I'd say it was a good way to spend the day.

How to have the best Christmas ever abroad

This is the second Christmas that I've spent in Central America apart from my family, and I must say the first one was much more enjoyable than this one, but this one was also quite grand. Would you like the recipe for this grand Christmas? Of course you would (¡Claro que sí!)!
Well, starting Sunday morning my stomach and head and whole body felt pretty awful. Sunday was ok, but yesterday I left school early because I was totally exhausted (even after getting a full night's sleep), so I told my teacher that at the break time I'd need to go home and sleep because I couldn't learn anything (Pienso que después de la descansa tengo que regresar a mi casa para dormir porque no puedo aprender nada). When I got home I slept for 7 hours, skyped with my brothers for a little bit, read my book a little bit, and then went to bed for the night around 9:30. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed the Christmas celebration with my host family because here in Guatemala they celebrate Christmas at midnight Christmas Eve, with a big dinner and presents and tons of fireworks, but it's all good because the fireworks still managed to wake me up at midnight and keep me up until about 12:30.
Anyways, I woke up this morning feeling much better. Only, my head hurt from laying down for so long. Haha! But I actually ate something for breakfast (I didn't eat anything yesterday) and stayed awake for the whole day. I opened a card that my amazing friend Erin gave me before I left, and of course she's going to come visit me if I stay long enough (I hope!). I got to skype with this really great guy in Germany (sorry ladies, he does not have a brother. Haha!) and then I got to skype with my ridiculous family...and a clove of garlic with a face. And the internet actually worked this time (for the most part)!!

Then, get this: I. Left. The. House. WOW! Not only did I eat and stay awake all day, but I also went to a fellow student's house to have some dinner and conversation (mostly in English). We had food that I've actually had before back home (mashed potatoes, soup, ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, etc.) and there were some fireworks shot off...maybe a little too close to where everyone was sitting, but whatevs. ¡Es la vida! (That's life!) Then I got to come home and review the conditional future tense and do my homework that's due tomorrow.

So here's the recipe for a great Christmas abroad (the condensed version):

 1. Get sick a day or two before

 2. Wake up feeling better

 3. Eat something!

 4. Chat with you most favorite people in the world (and maybe a clove of garlic)

 5. Get out of the house

When all is combined, it makes for a really great Christmas. Different, but still great (I mean, this is my year for all things different, right?). I hope you all also had a great Christmas and I hope that your New Years is a fantastic one!!

Allow me to introduce you to Xela

I've realized that, unless you've done your own research, you probably don't know all that much about Xela (a.k.a. Quetzaltenango). So allow me to introduce you to my new city:

First, let's orientate ourselves with where exactly Guatemala is and where Xela is in relation to the whole country

As you can see, I'm not too far from Mexico, which is great because I'll have to border hop there every 90 days. El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala have an arrangement so that travel and trade is really easy among these countries, but this also means that going into one of those other countries will not renew my visa. 

This is the city. That top orange dot is my church, the orange dot on the left is where I live and the other orange dot is my school. My school is about a 10 minute walk from my house and church is about 15.

The city has a population of about 225,000 people and it's in the mountains so the elevation is 2,330 meters (which is about 7,600 feet)...which means it's a little harder to breathe here than in T-town. The elevation also means that in the winter it gets really cold here at night (around freezing or just below), but by the afternoon it's around 70F. Everything I go to is within walking distance and I've heard that you can walk from one end of the city to the other in about 40 minutes (but I'm not sure that's completely true). It's a great city, but it's also WAY different than anything I'm used to in the states. People drive like maniacs, and yet somehow manage to not crash into each other. The sidewalks are usually too narrow or they're all broken up, so I generally walk in the street, always watching for crazy drivers. There are tons of cafes and bars and restaurants that are really cheap, so eating out isn't really an extravagance. The buildings don't have heaters and they're all made of cement, so when it's hot out it feels really good in my room, but at night I get really cold...I usually wake up from being really cold, but I don't think it's that I need more blankets, it's just cold. Everything is in Spanish, of course, so I often feel like such a foreigner! There are tons and tons of Spanish schools here in Xela and pretty much everyone who's traveling is in a Spanish school, but there are so many that if someone tells me the name of their school I just nod. Guatemala time is a real thing...everything starts about 15 minutes after it's supposed to, which is good for me when I'm running late. Haha! Most of the people here are Catholic, so it's really common for people to talk about God, church, or the Bible...it's almost odd to me how it's not a taboo subject here. Most of the television is dubbed from English to Spanish, which is pretty comical sometimes...but I've found a channel that plays things originally in English, dubbed into French, and subtitled in Spanish. Everyone here loves soccer (fútbol) so I feel like the worst fan ever because I only brought one jersey and I don't know much about world soccer. There are tortillas or bread with every meal...even if the meal is pasta. And apparently foreigners almost always are just passing through; everyone is really surprised when I tell them I'm here (only in Xela) for at least three months, but hopefully a year. Women here carry huge things on their heads...like today on the way to church I saw a lady carrying a table on her head.......a table!! And the lady behind her had a big box on her head. I think I should learn how to do that. 

Anyways, yeah, it's way different here, but I love it. There are plenty of really helpful people here for when I'm lost or confused, and I really don't think it's as dangerous as people think. I mean, yes, having caution is really important; it's not like I carry my money out in the open and wave it around or stumble home from a bar alone at 2am....but what I'm saying is that I think as long as you have some common sense and caution it's not such a dangerous city. Es la vida. (That's life)

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis.

Have you ever used a word so often that it's lost it's meaning to you...or it doesn't even feel like it's a real word anymore? I've been saying "hola," "gracias," and "sí" with my friends for as long as I can remember and now, when I use them here in Guatemala, I feel like they're fake words. Haha!  I think I've used Spanish in jest so much with my family and my friends that it's sometimes weird to me that it's a real language. Do you ever wonder if in other countries people say "hello," "thank you," or "yes" to each other? I wonder that all the time. I still love it here and I'm still alive and well...I just sometimes feel like I might be speaking a fake language. (Are you satisfied now, Erin? You can lay your head down to sleep tonight knowing that I'm still alive. Jajaja!)

Life as usual

I’ve been in G-mala now for almost a week and it’s pretty fantastic! The food is great, the city is beautiful, the people at my school are great, and I even understand most of what people are saying when they talk to me in Spanish. I got a great deal on a cell phone here (Q89, which is about $11.50) and it came with Q200 of free credit (which is like 275 minutes) plus 2000 free texts (but they all expire in a month) and free internet for a month (but it’s the worst internet ever so I don’t use it). So now if I get lost I can call someone to help me find my way instead of just staring at my map hoping something I see on the street will match what I see on my map. But I’m getting pretty used to the area between where I live and where I go to school, which is great because I can find my school, the book store (with the American owner), the post office, and a couple other shops/restaurants on my first try!

With the purchase of my cell phone I got a free picture with Santa! And the guy with me is Gio, one of the school's coordinators.

I went to church Sunday at a church with an English service (some missionaries who I was in contact with before coming said it was the only one with an English service that they knew of), and it was super tiny, and the sermon was (I’m not kidding) 7 minutes long. It’s an Episcopalian church so it’s super liturgical, which is a little different than I’m used to, but I was surprised at how many of the things we do at First Pres the same way (like the same[ish] prayer of confession and after finishing a scripture the reader says “This is the Word of the Lord” and everyone says “Thanks be to God”), so it wasn’t totally strange to me. And I thought the church was a lot further from my house than it actually is so I was a little early…which means I was really early since most of the people at the church are on Guatemalan time (which means everything starts 15ish minutes later than it is supposed to). It was pretty funny, when I walked into the church the pastor introduced himself and then he said, “We start every week precisely at 9AM. That is, if you’re using a Guatemalan clock.” Hahaha! Good times.

Spanish class is going well. It’s so much information at once that I’m really tired all the time, but I’m learning a ton! I love practicing my Spanish with people who work at the school because they’re really good at explaining things to me in a different way if I don’t understand a word, and they’re really patient with my slowness at conjugating verbs in my head or stumbling through words that always mess me up (like caricaturas, amplificador, and anaranjado [cartoons, amplifier, and the color orange]). The family that I live with is really great about it too, but I don’t feel quite as comfortable practicing with them.

Every day there is an activity that the school facilitates and I guess Monday nights are almost always salsa class because there’s a local studio that has classes Monday nights, so that’s something easy to plan since all they have to do is take us to the studio. Well, I decided to go to salsa class last night because I figured, even though I don’t really like dancing, I’m in Guatemala, I had nothing else to do (besides study a million irregular verbs that my teacher taught me…), and I’m pretty sure some part of my tuition goes toward organizing the events, so I went. Never again. It wasn’t the worst thing ever, but I’m pretty sure they had me dancing with a 15 year old who probably weighs 30lbs less than me, didn’t really talk and didn’t seem like he knew what he was doing much more than I did. Plus it was in a pretty small building with too many people in it, so I kept bumping into people. Now I can say I’ve taken a salsa class (as in: been there, done that).

There’s a big market here which is made even bigger because people have set up booths to sell Christmas stuff and it’s super fun to walk through and see all the stuff that people are selling. There are tons of nativity sets, but it’s kinda weird because the most common is just Mary and Joseph together….like, not with Jesus. And then most of the little baby Jesus’ have the ugliest faces, like their faces got squished so they’re long and thin. But there’s also tons of fruit that people are selling, so I definitely plan to go back before it’s all over and buy a bunch of star fruit and maybe some apples (the apples in the grocery stores here are from Washington). It’s pretty funny to me how you can buy pretty much anything here and it’s so much cheaper than in the states! I mean, I know most of the clothes are knock-offs and stuff, but even the apples are cheaper here than in WA and my $11 cell phone and I bought a scarf for $6 that would have been like $20 at Target or wherever. Even the McDonald’s here is cheaper than in the states…for the exact same stuff!! But gas here is expensive, it’s like $4.20 a gallon. So far that’s the only thing I’ve found here to be more expensive than it is back home.

Last night I watched the fútbol final on television. It was the two Guatemala City teams playing (Las Cremas and Los Rojos) and las cremas won. I love how important fútbol is to the people here! Pretty much every restaurant has a TV and they always have fútbol on and then after the match was over last night a bunch of people shot off fireworks in the street (including the people I live with). And I just think it’s cool how it’s not just a sport for young people to enjoy, I was watching at my house with 3 generations. Maybe it’ll be like that one day in the states…but probably not since we have all of those other “super important” sports. Haha!  

Well, I think that’s pretty much it. I love it here and I’m stoked that I get to learn tons while I’m here and……yeah. Oh! There was a little earthquake on Saturday night (well, Sunday morning…at like 4) and I wasn’t sure if it was an earthquake or just a big truck going down the road outside my window, but then lots of people were talking about it and asking me if I felt it…so I guess it was an earthquake. My teacher said it was probably due to volcanic activity, but it’s actually better to have little earthquakes with some frequency than for all the energy to get stored up until there’s a huge quake like the one about a month ago. Anyways, yeah, my life here is getting pretty normal…I mean, I’m still loving it all the time, but I can actually sleep now because I’m not crazy excited just to be here like I was the first couple nights.   

¡Bienvenido a Xela!

After leaving Iowa I had a 4 ½ hour layover in Houston, which turned out to be incredibly boring. I must say, traveling alone is way more boring than it is stressful. But as my plane was starting its descent I decided to look out the window to see if there was anything to be seen, but all I could see was the light at the end of the wing...until I saw a huge flash of lightning! So I kept watching and the lightning continued in the same spot and it lit up that whole part of the sky. It was so cool!! When I stepped off the plane in Guate it instantly got muggy and I could smell it in the air and I started to get pretty stoked. I mean, I’ve been stoked ever since I knew I was going, but the whole day of traveling kind of got me more bored than stoked. Anyways, everything with customs went super smoothly and I got my luggage and walked outside. If you’ve ever been to the Guatemala City airport you know that when you walk outside there are tons of people standing around a fenced perimeter waving, calling out names, taking pictures, and holding up signs with peoples’ names on them. I got a little worried when I saw only Hispanic names, until I saw a little white board with light blue ink (terrible color choice for optimal visibility!) that looked like a name about as long as mine. So I walked up and, sure enough, it was my name. We got in a van and headed to the guest house. When we got to the guest house (only about 7 minutes from the airport) I was shown my room and where the bathroom was and I was given the wi-fi password. After letting the internet know I was still alive I tried to get some sleep. Impossible. It was muggy and I was super excited to be in Guatemala. But eventually I fell asleep because I knew I had to be up by 6:15 so we could leave at 7 so I could make my bus.

I was served the best breakfast ever! Watermelon, papaya, banana, pineapple, toast with raspberry jam, and tea. So much yum! Then we headed to the bus station and I got onto a big charter bus to wait out the 4 hour ride to Xela. It was really entertaining to watch this guy hanging out of the door at every bus stop area yelling out “Xela! Xela! Xela!!!” and waving people on. It was also fun to watch the bus driver make the signal to passing drivers to call him and then his phone would ring 5 seconds later...he signaled at a lot of passing drivers, I have no idea how he knows all of them! Well I arrived in Xela and had to take a taxi to my school. Taxis are way more expensive than buses, even the nice buses! It cost me 57Q (approx.. $7.25) for the bus and 30Q ($3.80) for the taxi. But whatevs, I got to my school and it was great! I drug my suitcase up the stairs (the school’s on the second floor of a really cool building) and Francisco showed me around the school and told me about a bunch of stuff and then the lady that’s hosting me came to pick me up. If you find yourself thinking that you’d like to travel around Guatemala, let me give you one piece of advice: don’t bring a rolling suitcase! The sidewalks are only wide enough for 1 ½ people at their widest points, but they get narrower, and if you try to walk in the road you’ll either get run over or your suitcase won’t roll because the roads are funky. But anyways, we got to the house and had some lunch and then I chilled in my room for a while and decided to do some exploring. I asked the lady hosting me where our house was on the map my school gave me and then I headed to the bookstore (Steve, you were right. I should have brought the pocket dictionary also...but I didn’t, so I bought one for 24Q). I knew I loved it instantly because it’s tiny and full of books, and the guy who owns it (or at least the guy that was working) speaks English (I think he’s American). I’ll definitely be frequenting that store.

Well then I headed to my school because they have activities every day and tonight was going to this restaurant for a marimba concert and Mayan dances & songs. One of the school coordinators, Gio, his mom, who just so happens to be who I’m staying with, and three other students, Ryan (England), April (Australia), and Leslie (England), all went and it really wasn’t that fun. By the time we got dinner it was around 8 and we were all super hungry and it wasn’t even good...plus all the marimba music starts to sound the same after a while. But it was still great to get out and be around other people kind of like me and even greater that the lady I’m staying with was there so that she could guide us back home.

All in all it’s been a crazy couple of days and I still can’t really believe that I’m here in this beautiful place. In the morning I start classes and from there it’s 4 weeks of hard-core Spanish learning. I really hope I can pick it up quick enough that by the end of the 4 weeks I don’t feel overwhelmed to be here anymore...otherwise I’ll just have to hang out at the bookstore all the time and talk to the guy who works there.

Iowa in a nutshell

We came. We ate. We slept. We visited. We left.

Ok, so we did a bit more than that. We got to spend time with our grandparents every day that we were here and it was great to see them so often, even though they told us the same stories every day. We got to spend a bunch of time with our Uncle Bruce & Aunt Janice and our cousin Sarah and her daughter Maddison (and a little time with Sarah’s husband Nate, but he was gone most of the week for work). We even managed to go out to lunch with Lyle (the farmer that my dad lived with when he first came to this country) three times, usually we only get to see him once when we visit because he’s so busy all the time. We got to go see the Omaha zoo on Saturday, but since it’s winter only the indoor exhibits were open, which actually was the best thing ever because it was so, so, so cold out! Lyle took us on a tour of his farm and showed us where he and some other guys has to blow up a levee last year to save the town of Missouri Valley from flooding (and by blow up I mean they hired a guy who brought in 800 pounds of dynamite to make it go ka-boom).

Everything this week was wonderful and we have been so blessed during this visit! It’s been really hard to watch my grandparents be old people, watching them not be able to remember whose children Steve & I were when we first arrived, not remembering that they’d told us the same stories multiple times, spending most of their days sleeping in their chairs because they just don’t have energy for anything else, and seeing them both use walkers when they go out of their room. But it’s also been great to be around their sense of humor (my grandparents have the best jokes!) and hear them tell us stories from the past that we hadn’t heard before and hear them sing together and see how much they care about us and how much they love having us visit.

This week has gone by quite fast and I’m sad to realize that it’s already over, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything! We’ve had a great time and as I sit here reminiscing over the last week I also look forward to my next trip. Tomorrow I fly from Omaha to Houston and then from Houston to Guatemala City. Once I arrive in Guate there will be someone from a local guest house to pick me up and I’ll be staying there tomorrow night. Wednesday morning they will take me to the bus station where I will take a 4-hour bus ride to Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela, pronounced shay-la) and that’s where I’ll be for at least the next 3 months, but hopefully for the next 11 months. I’ll be sure to post something as soon as I can once I get there just to let y’all know I’m still alive!

Jenna, Jaxon, Steve & I in a tractor at Lyle's farm

Day 1

Our first day was a pretty standard travel day: wake up at 3am, eat a quick breakfast, and head to the airport (by the way, why are there so many cars on the road at 4 in the morning?!). Everything with security and checking in went pretty quickly and Steve & I got on our plane to Denver. In Denver we had an hour layover, during which we ate from the copious amounts of snackies we brought with us (home-made beef jerky, sticky rice, apple slices, fudge, and cookie crumbles (they were cookies, but they got a bit smashed in Steve’s backpack). In the Denver airport I was a little worried that the men’s bathroom doubled as a tornado shelter….do those happen a lot in Denver? It’s like in Oregon when you see all the tsunami escape route signs on the side of the road; one would think I would have heard about tsunamis frequenting the state just below mine.

Anyways, we got to Omaha and I was amazed at how small that airport is. I was trying to find our flight on the reader board so I could figure out which carousel our luggage would be coming out on until we looked to see that there are only like 3 carousels and only one had luggage on it and, big surprise, all the people from our plane were gathering around it. So we got our luggage and found our cousin Sarah and her super cute new daughter Maddison and we were off….well, sort of. Steve brought his mandolin and broke a string re-tuning it when we got off the plane so we had to stop by a music store to get new strings for him. After another quick stop at Target, we headed to Missouri Valley and Sarah showed us the nursing home where our grandparents now live and showed us how to get there from her house (she and Maddison couldn’t come in because our grandpa has been fighting a cold). So Steve and I headed over to visit our grandparents. It’s really weird to see them just sitting in a room all day, they used to always be go, go, go. But I guess that’s what happens when you get old. After hanging out with them for a couple hours we headed to my aunt’s house in Logan where we’ll be staying for the week and Steve and I promptly fell asleep after eating dinner. Hahaha! Ok, not really, but I fell asleep for an hour or so and finally went to bed around 11 and Steve went to bed around 7:30 (for those of you keeping track, that’s 5:30PST), so we were pretty tired.

All in all, it was a great day. We got to see all of our family here and since we traveled at such a weird time we’re pretty much used to the time change now. Tonight my sister-in-law, Jenna, and my nephew, Jaxon, fly in and they’ll be around for the rest of the time Steve and I are here too. There’s been talk of going to the Omaha Zoo, which is apparently the nation’s best zoo (for those of you who don’t know, I love the zoo!!), and we plan to get dinner one of these nights with our old family friend, Lyle (he sponsored my dad to come to the United States….so basically, without him I wouldn’t be here writing this blog). It should be a really fun week!  

My last day at home

In just 16 short hours I'll be on the first plane in the biggest adventure of my life. You know that feeling like you're going to forget something really important? Well I don't have that. Which makes me think that I must be forgetting something monumentally important...like, so important that I don't even know I'm forgetting it. But I made my list and double, triple, quadruple checked it and even added a few things, and my suitcase is still only 35-ish pounds. 

This is everything I own for the next 11-ish months

So clearly, something must be wrong, right? None of my bags are bulging like they do when I go on little 10-day trips, my mind isn't racing with panic and excitement, and I don't feel like there are a ton of things I'm forgetting to do around the house before I leave. My room is clean, my bed is made (that never happens!), my laundry is done, and I don't think I've left anything lying around downstairs.
Is it possible that reading all of those articles online and in travel books about packing light and preparing for a trip have actually paid off? Maybe. But I think that the bulk of my peace is from the knowledge that God has prepared all of this before me and that countless people have prayed for me in the past couple weeks and will continue to be praying for me throughout my trip. I can't wait to start my newest adventure, dark and early tomorrow morning, and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you!

¡¡Bananas!!

My wonderful friend, Erin Sweeney, came over to my house today to hang out with me and it was great! We hit up the Goodwill Outlet and the St Vincent De Paul thrift store (thrift stores are kinda our thing), got some lunch, and watched the terribly amazing (minus the amazing part) Breaking Dawn part 1 (we're saving part 2 for when she comes to visit me in Guatemala). And we finished off our day together with a quick round of Spanish Bananagrams (minus the quick). It took us so long to just do one round and most of that time was spent with us looking up words that we could use in our Spanish-English dictionaries. I quickly realized that word games are hard enough in a language that you speak fluently (for the most part) and that playing in Spanish (even when the letter frequencies are calculated specifically for Spanish) is crazy hard!! But so fun!

                   

                                                                                        

As I already said, Erin's awesome, and saying goodbye (well....more like "see you when you come visit me") sucked! This whole week has been full of see-you-in-a-year conversations and there are more to come this weekend. I hate it! Can someone just hurry up and invent teleportation, please? Thanks! 

I know that God wants me in G-mala for this next little while in my life because He's been showering me with blessing upon blessing in relation to the trip (which, if you've read my post about One Thousand Gifts, has made having a heart of thanksgiving [eucharisteo] quite easy), yet I can't help but be sad that I'll be without all of my favorite people for a still undetermined amount of time. I'm incredibly excited for this upcoming chapter in my life and I can't wait to see the things that God has planned for me, but as I lay here in my bed, surrounded by the walls that have contained my life and all my stuff for the last 20 years, I am comfortable and satisfied. What could be better? I love how God always catches me off guard. :) 

Two birthdays and a farewell...

My family is awesome. This is only the second time we've ever all been together and the first time it's been just us. We all got together today to celebrate Mina and my dad's birthdays and so that everyone could say goodbye to me until March. There was delicious food, way too many laughs (but is there really such a thing?), and more kiwis than I could ever imagine being in my kitchen (thanks again, Susie!). The two most adorable kids in the whole world hung out with me in my room: 

And ever since Lake Chelan there's no way we could all get together and not play Taboo with my dad. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to play with him, he's the most fun person to play this game with ever...that is, unless you're really competitive and you want to win and he's on your team.

Then they will know that I am the LORD...

Two summers ago I read Ezekiel and it was probably the most depressing book of the Bible I've ever read. There was so much destruction and it was all at the hand of God. His people had gotten so far away from what He wanted for them that He sent disaster after devastation after awesome display of destruction. It was a really hard book for me to get through because it was a side of God that I didn't want to see. I wanted God to be the God of grace and mercy, the God of love and forgiveness. I wanted to limit Him to His attributes that I find pleasing or attractive. After I'd gotten about a third of the way through the book I had to stop and question God. If He is the same yesterday, today, and forever then where was the grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness in Ezekiel's day? I asked Him to show me His heart for His people at that time, to let me see this destruction from His point of view. After that I started to feel God's heartbreak for His people and how His extreme love required extreme discipline. Towards the end of the book I was struck by how often He would say He'd do something, and "then they will know that I am the LORD." I started to underline it every time He'd say it. Then I forgot about it.
In church yesterday my pastor was preaching on God's holiness and he had a passage from Ezekiel. I saw a place that I'd underlined "then they will know that I am the LORD" and I remembered how I hadn't noticed it until the last few chapters of the book. So I made a note to myself to look on Bible gateway where it occurs in Ezekiel so that I could underline all of them. There are variations of this statement (i.e. "then you will know that I am the LORD," "then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD," "all flesh shall know that I am the LORD," "all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD," etc.) all over the book. God says it over 70 times! The book only has 48 chapters. God did all of this to prove that He is indeed the Lord God and that He deserves our love, obedience, and our everything.
So here's what I've been thinking about since I finished marking up the book of Ezekiel: how often has God proved Himself in my own life? Countless. So then why is it so hard for me to trust Him? I know that He's God and I know that He can do anything and I know that the only way for my life to mean anything is for me to give up my will, my power, my dreams, my grudges, and my hurts and let Him take over. I know all of this. But when it comes down to acting upon this knowledge, I find it really hard to believe that it's all true. So yeah, I can read Ezekiel and shake my head at the Israelites for their ignorance, for their refusal to return to God and let Him take over. I mean, c'mon, it's so obvious that He's God and they're really still doing whatever they want to do? Dumb!! But I'm in the same boat as them. Why is it so hard to believe something that you know is true? Maybe God shouldn't have said "then they will know that I am the LORD," maybe He should have said "then they will believe and act like I am the LORD."

One Thousand Gifts

You know that moment when you finish a really, really, really good book that took you forever to get through because you had to put it down every 2 minutes to copy down some mind-blowing thought recorded on its pages? I just had that moment. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is the best book I've read in a long time. There are multiple pages in my journal filled with quotes from this book that made me stop and think. There have been so many times since I started reading this book that something has made me think of one of those quotes or concepts recorded in my journal. There's so much simple truth in the pages of this book. I don't even really know how to describe it. The overarching theme of the book is having a heart of thanksgiving (eucharisteo). She was challenged by a friend to write down 1000 gifts from God and in the process she began to see how, when you're looking for gifts, they are all around you. 

You know how there are some books that you finish and think, "Wow, that was a really good book," and then you just go on with your life? This is not that kind of book. This is the kind of book that you finish and think, "How did I not know all of this before? And how can I not begin to practice the concepts of this book?" and then your whole way of thinking about things is changed. Forever. 

Read it. It's amazing. Ann's writing style takes a little getting used to, but the things she has to say are well worth it.

The fall of man

Just the other day I started reading the book of Genesis and today was chapter 3: The fall of man. I know that traditionally everyone likes to blame Eve (and women in general) for the world being the way it is today, because Eve was too dumb to see through the devil's lies and stay away from that stupid fruit from the tree of  the knowledge of good and evil. And people have argued back that Adam ate the fruit too, it's not like when Eve tried to give it to him he protested. So I've always had this view that it was both of their faults and if Eve hadn't done it that day Adam would've done it a different day...it was bound to happen, basically. Well today I noticed this: "she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." (v. 6b) For some reason I've always pictured Adam off doing his own thing the whole time the serpent was talking to Eve and he just happened to be walking by when Eve offered it to him, or she called him over to try some or something....but I never pictured him standing right there next to her the whole time.
First, I think it's interesting that the serpent never addressed Adam, only Eve. But more importantly, I think it's weird that Adam never said anything during this whole conversation; he never corrected Eve when she said that God said they'd die if they even touched the tree, he never questioned where the serpent was getting his information, he never said, "hey Eve, maybe we shouldn't because we don't even know who this serpent is, but we do know that God created all of this wonderfulness and He probably said we shouldn't eat from this tree for a reason." He never stood up for his wife when she was being deceived. No, I'm not going on a rant about how men are terrible, because I don't think they are. My point is that I think we often over-romanticize the garden and what people were like before sin entered. I think that we think that if Adam and Eve had never eaten that fruit then everything in the world would be peachy. But even before sin entered the world humans were still humans, they still had free will and I don't think they always chose to do what was good, they just chose to not do what was wrong. I think there's a big difference between doing no harm and doing good.
I guess I was just struck by the fact that I also fall into this trap of wondering what life would've been like if they'd never eaten that fruit, if no one had ever eaten the fruit. I find myself thinking that everything would've been peachy, but now I'm thinking that may not be true. People are still people. Maybe that sounds depressing and cynical to you, but I actually find comfort in that. I never have to wonder what could have been because I think we would've ended up in the same place we are today with or without the fruit, which makes the idea of God's love even crazier to me. I mean, I know that He knew everything before He even made us, but that's really hard for me to wrap my head around so I still find myself sometimes thinking that maybe when He created us He had a twinge of hope that we'd always obey Him. But no, He always always always knew that we'd screw up and that He'd have to give up His Son for us and that we'd continue to turn our backs on Him even after all that. It makes me think about this song that stops me in my tracks every time I hear it: "In wonder and fear You knit me together. You should've been scared when You breathed into me. I have a feeling You knew what I'd say and what I'd do, but Your love said do it anyway." How crazy is that?! We've never been perfect, even when we thought we were, but because God's love is so unfathomably huge He still made us.
I think the dumbest part about all of this is that even though I realize how huge God's love is for me, I'm still going to screw up and do stuff that He's told me not to do. I'm still going to do things that show that I don't really rely on His love to sustain me. I'm reading this book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (super good book, but I can't read a lot of it at a time because every other paragraph had some sentence that punches me in the face) and there are these two parts that I think of a lot when I think about how I live my life, the things that I think about, and how they reflect what I believe about God.

"All fear is but the notion that God's love ends.

Did you think I end, that My bread warehouses are limited,

that I will not be enough? But I am infinite, child. What can end in Me?

Can life end in Me? Can happiness? Or peace? Or anything you need?

Doesn't your Father always give you what you need? 

I am the Bread of Life and My bread for you will never end.

Fear thinks God is finite and fear believes that there is not going to be enough

and hasn't counting one thousand gifts, endlessly counting gifts,

exposed the lie at the heart of all fear? In Me, blessings never end

because My love for you never ends. If My goodnesses toward you end, 

I will cease to exist, child. As long as there is God in heaven, 

there is grave on earth and I am the spilling God of the uncontainable,

forever-overflowing-love-grace."

"If authentic, saving belief is the act of trusting, 

then to choose stress is an act of disbelief...atheism. 

Anything less than gratitude and trust is practical atheism."

I have a lot to work on in my life. But I find comfort in the fact that God is showing me new things because it means that I'm hearing from Him, it means that I'm still listening for His voice...or maybe He's talking louder. Either way, I know that God is real and that He loves me more than anyone else could, and while I don't always live in a way that shows I believe that, He keeps reminding me.

Self-defense class

Today was my self-defense class and it was super legit! I was a bit skeptical before it all started; first, when you register they have you choose a name that you'll go by during the seminar (something or someone you aspire to) and I thought that was kinda weird because it just seemed irrelevant. Then, I never heard anything back from them after I sent all my stuff in, but they cashed my check, so I was really hoping I didn't just get scammed out of $75. And finally, it's just a one-day program and I was really unsure as to whether or not I could learn everything I needed to know in one day. Wow!
I can't really say a whole lot about the program details because I signed a confidentiality thing so that it doesn't get ruined for other people who want to do it, but it was so great! I learned so much and now I really feel like if anything happens to me in Guatemala I'll know what to do. Basically, all I wanna say about it is that it was amazing and even though it seemed sketchy at first, it was 100% worth it! If you're in the Tacoma area and you want to spend a day learning how to respond to dangerous situations I totes recommend the Courage Quest class at SFPPS (I think it's only for ages 18+, but you don't have to be in a specific physical shape to totally rock it).

Wisdom from the Proverbs

For graduation a couple at my church gave me a devotional called Wisdom from the Proverbs and everyday there's a verse from Proverbs and then a story/lesson with each one and a prayer at the end. I like it because it's short, but good. I've had devotionals that can get pretty lengthy and make me feel ADD, so this one's great. Today's was especially good and I'm mostly posting it here so that when I look back on it I can remember.

Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul (22:24-25)
Their boy had always been a good one. Even until high school he had helped around the house, he had been respectful, he had cared for his younger sisters, and he never talked back. He was the perfect boy, and he seemed to be happy. Then, in high school, he had started hanging around with a pair of boys from the center part of town. They were always in trouble or causing it. They cursed, and fought, and they vandalized town property. Everyone knew the kind of trouble they caused. And it was rubbing of on their son. He had started talking back and throwing his weight around, and he was impossible to speak with. Thirteen years of upbringing wasn't enough to protect him from a couple months of bad company. It was hard to see him so bad after he had been so good.
As Christians, the company we keep is extremely important. If we spend our time with people who embrace sin, then we will be more tempted to do likewise than if we dwelt with others who are trying to live good, righteous lives. There is safety in numbers. Fellowship is a way that we can grow strong in our faith. With others to support us, and for us to support, we find additional strength during difficult times. Where two or more are gathered, there the Lord is with them.

The reason I liked this so much is that I've been thinking a lot about when I'm in Guatemala, what if I don't make any friends? And reading this made me realize how amazingly blessed I've been throughout my life to have friends who are such great influences on me, friends who are a constant reminder of the kind of life that God wants from me. So now my prayer for Guatemala has changed from, please let me be able to make some friends early on in my time there, to, give me discernment to find the right friends who will encourage me in Your ways and who I can also encourage in Your ways without feeling like I must dance around who You are. 
So if you're sitting at home reading this and wondering how you can pray for me before I even leave, this would be a good thing to pray for.

Anxiety Dreams

You know that dream right before your first day of school where you oversleep and miss class, or you can't find your classes, or you can't find your locker, can't remember your locker combination, forget to bring your lunch, etc.? 

Well, I had that dream last Saturday night, except about church. It was super weird! I dreamt that I went to the early service at First Pres and got really distracted afterwards talking with people I hadn't seen in a while and then for some weird reason I thought I had time to come home in between First Pres and South Lakeshore but when I started pulling into the garage it was way smaller than when I'd left that morning (true story: I'm already freaked out I'm going to bump into something every time I pull into the garage). I somehow managed to get the car into the garage, but then I couldn't really get out of the car so I climbed out of the sunroof. When I checked the time it was 10:43 and church started at 10:45 so I was like, "Crap, I have to leave right now....actually I needed to have left like 15 minutes ago!" So I start climbing back into the car and my step mom comes out and asks if I like how she'd fixed the garage and says she and my dad need the car so they can go to their church and they're already running late because they were waiting for me to get back with the car (true story: my step mom is in Laos right now, so it kinda freaked me out that she was back without me even noticing). So I'm pretty sure I just decided not to go to South Lakeshore in the end of that dream because I was already so late and I remember my dream-self thinking "How could I forget what time church started? And how could I have talked to people at First Pres for so long without realizing how late it was getting?"

When I woke up it was super weird because I realized that it'd been so long since I'd been to church (I didn't go all summer because I was at camp) that it was like the first day of school again. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat right now wondering if I made it to both churches on time and the answer is yes. But, funny story, I thought I was going to be super early for South Lakeshore because I went straight from First Pres so I stopped at Winco to get some cookies (I promised I'd bring someone cookies) and when I pulled up to the church I saw the sign saying the service is at 10:30, not 10:45...so my dream was partially right in that I would have been late if I'd relied on my own memory. Anyways, I thought it was super weird to have that dream about church. I've had it about school before the first day of every new quarter (and even once this summer, weird!), but never about church. I don't think I've ever gone so long in my life without going to church. It was great to be back! I hope I don't have any more weird anxiety dreams like that, although I'll probably dream about missing my flight to Guatemala (which I bought my ticket for this last weekend!!!!!) and getting lost on my way to Spanish class. Actually, I bet I'll have a ton of anxiety dreams in the next year. Maybe this one was just a test.

Lake Chelan with the fam

My niece, Mina, and I being silly

My brother, Tim, and nephew, Jaxon

Have you ever had that moment where you realize that you're crazy spoiled? Well, I had that this weekend with my family. Thanks to my mom's amazing bosses, we all got to go stay at this beautiful home a block away from Lake Chelan. We arrived Friday evening and got to tour the house....it's amazing! I mean, there were 12 adults and 2 small children and we all had plenty of room to stretch out. My graduation party was the first time we were all together, but that was only for a couple hours, this time we got a whole weekend! 

The view from the deck

So after we got all settled in, my mom and her boss, Laurie, and I ran to the store really quickly to pick up some things and then Laurie was going to make dinner. But you must understand this  first: my mom told us that food would be provided and to me that means that my mom has a super generous boss who is not only letting us stay at their house, but also going to pick up a Costco pizza or something. So we brought snacks and stuff because we didn't want to impose on them more than we already were......oh boy! Dinner was definitely not a Costco pizza. Laurie grilled us up some thick chunks of steak and baked us some little potatoes and made a salad and, oh my goodness, it was delicious!! This was my first hint at just how spoiled I am. 
    Honestly, everything was perfect. The house was amazing, my mom's bosses were the most generous hosts I've ever been hosted by, the time we got to spend together was full of laughter and downright craziness, the food was so so so soooo good (example: tonight's dinner was my belated birthday dinner and I said I wanted chicken alfredo, so Laurie made pasta from scratch [yum!] and made the sauce from scratch [double yum!]). This weekend I got to hang out with my family, the family that I so often think of as messed up and broken, and it was the most fun I've had in a really long time. I mean, all my life God's been showing me how much He loves me by blessing me with amazing things, but I think this weekend He was just like, "No, really Lisa, look at all that I have for you. And there's so much more!"

The sunset before the lightning

Last night we were out on the deck and there was a beautiful sunset and then we could see lightning over the hills and as it got darker the lightning became way more dramatic. It was positively amazing. I mean, yeah, it resulted in a bunch of wildfires that caused the highway to be closed so we had to take a longer way home, and of course just the fact that there are crazy fires is bad, but the lightning was crazy awesome! You just don't see this kind of stuff in Tacoma. I just got to spend a weekend taking in so much beauty...yeah, outside was gorgeous, but mostly just watching my family. Just seeing how we've all grown up, yet we're still goofy and crazy. Seeing my brothers as dads is just crazy. And being able to see how Mina and Jaxon are growing more and more every time I see them. Getting to hear Mina call me "auntie Lisa" and want to have conversations with me and tell me about her favorite animals and give me kisses goodnight is like nothing I've ever experienced before. 

My family is crazy. My family is messed up. But my family is the greatest family ever and God has spoiled me rotten with them and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've taken the time to fully realize that. I've been on tons of trips before, but I'm gonna have to say that this is by far my favorite one so far. I'm reading this book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and there's a line in it that I just can't get out of my head that seems so fitting to sum up this last weekend: "God is always good and I am always loved."

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I hope this is easier for me to use than my other blog was. For those of you who don't know, I'm not the most tech-savvy person ever, and technology often frustrates me by its non-user-friendliness. So, we'll see. I look forward to sharing my adventures with you here!