Spanglish

Today was so nice and relaxing. I slept in and didn't pay attention to the alarm clock. I finally got up and stayed in my pj's for a couple more hours. I organized things in my room (yes, still some of Haidy's leftovers) and my new roommate was moving some of her things in. I really enjoyed welcoming her although it seemed like such a quick turnover from Haidy leaving. This roommate is Stephanie from Taiwan. I knew her before because she is in the same program as me at Gonzaga and she's friends with the girls upstairs. She is very sweet and I think we will get along well.

While hanging out in my room doing pretty much nothing (well I was working on a powerpoint for my program), my friend emailed me to ask what I was doing today. I had been telling him I was so busy and couldn't hang out for almost the past two weeks as I was swamped being Haidy's personal assistant, so I felt relieved to say I was doing NOTHING :) It was a little chilly to play tennis and I rain clouds were looming above, so we decided to go to Starbucks for a cafe. By the way, this friend of mine is from Mexico and he talks to me primarily in Spanish. It's definitely good practice for me. He is a seminary student at Gonzaga and he just graduated from our English Language Center (where I tutor).

Anyway, we went to Starbucks and sat and talked in Spanish for about an hour and half. It was so fun because I've always been so jealous of people in public places having conversations in languages that I couldn't understand, and now that was me! hahaha We had a good time. During our conversation, food came up and we started talking about favorite Mexican foods. I love tortas and I remembered that Isaac told me that he would make me a torta sometime. Well, as it was close to dinnertime, I suggested that he make one for me tonight. Yes, I can be a little direct haha So, we went to a Mexican grocery store and the butcher joked around with us in Spanish and we shopped for the ingredients to make our tortas. We came back to my house and started making tortas. Isaac took on the meat, while I cut up the onion (had to stop because I started crying haha) and then I cut the avocado and tomatoes. He cooked the meat and onions together and then I lightly toasted the bread in the oven, spread some mayonnaise on it, and then avocado. The meat was done so he put the meat and onions on the bread, then I put tomatoes and lettuce. Oh my gosh they were SOOOO delicious!!



We were of course full beyond belief and chatted for awhile, in Spanglish, because after talking in a second language for that long it can be very tiring!! Then I taught him a saying I like to live by: "No matter how full you are, there's always room for ice cream" :) So, we made some ice cream sundaes of course. We then parted ways because although it was a fun day, I was extremely tired! This was a good kind of tired. A tired that leaves you feeling happy and like you have accomplished a lot. After all of the crazy busy weeks I've had, this was a good kind of exhaustion. I'm really looking forward to making tortas again, so let me know if this blog made your mouth water :)

Craziness!

So I took Haidy to the airport yesterday (Thursday) morning and let me just tell you that day was a disaster! The night before Haidy decided she was going to stay up all night to finish going through the mountains of papers, clothes, books, etc. in her room & our living room. I stayed up until 5am with her & then had to get some sleep because I had to work & go to class that day so I needed to take care of myself. I slept for about 2 and 1/2 hours & then got up and realized that Haidy was far from ready to go. Two of our friends were coming by the house at 8:30am to put her bags in the car & take her to the airport. Well, in Haidy's time, we were of course late. We had to force her to get dressed and leave things behind in her room (for me to take care of later).

We got to the airport around 9:30am for her 10:30am international flight. We had called Lufthansa and Horizon before to check on baggage policies, etc. to make sure she would be able to take the most for her money. However, there was a big mis-communication. Horizon told us that they would honor any of Lufthansa's baggage policies (since she was flying from Spokane to Seattle on Horizon, then Lufthansa from Seattle to Germany, then to Egypt). Ok, that was fine; however, apparently Lufthansa changed their baggage policies in the last two days (not really--we were told the wrong information by TWO different ladies over the phone) so Haidy had to change her plans. We were told that she could bring 2 free bags, and then each additional bag would $150. If the bags were overweight or over-sized, it would be $50 for each of those conditions. The total weight could not exceed 218 pounds, meaning that we could pack on bag a little heavy & just pay $50 extra (much better than shipping through the mail). Well, apparently this was NOT correct. The Horizon lady (not very friendly) told us that only one bag was free, until we insisted that this was an international flight & Lufthansa told us 2 were free. THEN, she proceeded to tell us that each additional bag (after 2 free) would be $250! Then, the overweight bag would be $500!!! Ridiculous!

After weighing all of Haidy's bags, we found that they were ALL overweight :( We scrambled at the ticket counter, sorting through "necessities" in all four checked bags & two carry-ons. Ugh! We managed to talk Haidy out of several things because two of her friends would be taking suitcases for her in the fall to visit Egypt. Finally, we got all the bags down to 50.9 pounds (the maximum weight they allow--so strict!) and Haidy said goodbye and went to security at 10am, for her 10:30am flight. Yikes!! Did I forget to mention that it was pouring raining that morning? So, I trudged through the rain (no covered airport walkways here) with a trash bag (thanks to the airport janitor) of Haidy's belongings and drove home, rather stressed out and in dire need of sleep. On the way home all I could think about was my nice warm bed & how it was calling out to me to sleep.



I got home and realized how big of a MESS our house was even though Haidy had already left. I instinctively started cleaning, while in my head I was telling myself I needed to take a nap before having to go to work. While I was cleaning and contemplating sleep, our building manager came to check things out. She was going to shampoo the carpets that afternoon because another girl would be moving in this weekend...um, not happening! Fortunately, she is a merciful woman and she said she would come the next morning. This still left me worried because I had to work soon and then class until 7:30pm and still NO sleep :( I decided to power through and move all of Haidy's things out of her room and clean out her stuff in the bathroom. I managed to do this, but left a lot in the kitchen, my room, and the rest in the living room. I did throw SIX trash bags of donations into my car to take to my wonderful friend who works with immigrants and refugees in the area.

I went to work, then planned for a phonology clinic to work on pronunciation with some students, then class. Almost fell asleep and promised myself that I would go to bed right when I got home, after eating of course. This, however, did not quite happen. I got home, ate dinner, and then moved all of the stuff out of the kitchen and proceeded to go through Haidy's things, throwing stuff away, adding the the swelling donation pile, and recycling several bags of papers. I also tried to rearrange things in Haidy's two suitcases and add things she took out at the airport, but I had to remove a lot in order to make things fit and weigh under 50 pounds. This is difficult because they weren't my things to decide... Needless to say, the people we are donating to will be well dressed this year :) So, I finally went to bed around 11 something or close to midnight and slept until 10am. It felt truly wonderful to finally get some rest.

I got an email from Haidy's program director asking when he could pick up her car. Well, I hadn't had time to clean it out yet, so...I had to stall, but I quickly got all the trash out and made it look somewhat presentable. He came and got that (check one thing off the list for today). Then, I decided I better get to work to make sure that I got more things taken care of. Haidy had put together a box of books that she wanted me to ship to her. I got that all taped up and hauled it over to the post office. It weighed a whopping 27.3 pounds & was $120 to ship! Thankfully she had left me money for this. Then, I got home and sorted through more things. One of our friends came and picked up a couple of boxes of stuff Haidy left for her and a suitcase to take with her in the fall to Egypt. I then ran a couple other errands to take care of some things and now our living room is fairly clean. We have about 8 trash bags of donations for me to give to my friend, one suitcase for Haidy's friend to pick up someday, and a printer that another friend is coming to pick up.

I did finally get home and enjoyed a nice "skype dinner date" with my good friend from back home. Here's to a less-stressful weekend :)

Haidy, the Egyptian Princess

So my roommate (or housemate) Haidy, who is from Egypt, is leaving on Thursday to go back home after being in the states for 3 years. For the past 3 weeks or so I've been helping her get things together to leave, but now I'm starting to finally realize that she really is leaving. I'm sad to have to say goodbye because she is a really good friend and I'm not sure when I'll get to see her again. She has offered several times that I can visit her in Egypt, which I would absolutely LOVE to do after I get a paycheck ;)

The other night we seriously considered having me fly over to Egypt with her so I could take her extra suitcases (she has accumulated a large amount of things over the past 3 years)... I thought, well sure I could miss my classes for just one week and make a quick trip to Egypt to check it out, I mean she did offer to buy my plane ticket. After entering back into reality, we decided that wouldn't be the best decision, but we're going to check out some other shipping options for her luggage...cargo, media mail for her books, etc. Hope we can get everything figured out soon! Anyway, just wanted to write something about my special friend and how I'm going to really miss her. She has said that she really wants to go home and see her family, but is really sad to leave all of her friends, classmates, and students. This foreshadows what I assume I will feel after two years in Nicaragua. The bittersweet end to a beautiful journey.

Rest & Relaxation

Well, my "summer break" went by way too quickly and classes have already started again. I finished the spring semester the first week of this month and then relaxed a little, but felt more lazy than anything. I just really like having a schedule full of things to do, a plan for the day. Sometimes it is nice to decide what to do that day and just hang around the house, but I end up feeling like I haven't gotten much accomplished.

This past weekend I drove over to Washington Family Ranch (formerly Wildhorse Canyon) in central Oregon for the Women's Weekend retreat. I ended up going over there a day early to stay with my friend Sabrina, whom I had done summer staff with 3 years ago at the camp (we worked at the camp). Because I went early, I made the 6 hour trek by myself, but it was a good trip. I had a lot of time to listen to music and really think about life.

I had such a great time being back in the canyon seeing old faces and meeting new ones :) Sabrina (the marathon enthusiast) talked me into going for "just a 4 mile jog" before everyone came in for the weekend. Ugh! I could definitely feel those 2 weeks of not working out haha I pretty much dragged my body through that and barely made it back--I did pick up my pace as I passed by two unidentified snakes and the fear of a cougar jumping out of the tall grass near the road. Fortunately, I was fine and I headed back to camp. Then, my mom and some friends came to start the retreat. I had a wonderful time, but it also felt somewhat odd being at Wildhorse and only seeing women... It was certainly refreshing though. I felt comfortable being myself and enjoyed the time with my mom and her friends. We did the zip-line, big swing, walked around, sat on the little beach, had ice cream, went shopping, and other fun girl things.

I was sad that Sunday came so quickly, but I knew I had to leave the Wildhorse bubble sometime. My mom drove my car with me 2 hours of the trip before we parted way in the gorge and she went back to Keizer with her friends and I went back up to Spokane. After the long drive, I was glad to be back with my roommate Haidy. She's leaving soon and I'm really going to miss her. We've been having some fun shopping trips, getting her necessities to take back to Egypt with her since she won't be coming back (at least not for a long time). Also, as I mentioned, my summer classes have started so I've been busy with that and I have a cold :( I guess my "rest & relaxation" will just have to wait until August...

Counting down the days...

Well, here I go starting my first blog ever. Have I really been that out of touch with the world? :) As I am preparing to set out on an adventure of a lifetime (teaching English in Nicaragua with Peace Corps), I decided to set up a blog a little early to count down the days.


I leave for staging somewhere in the U.S. in the very end of August and then on September 1st, Nicaragua here I come! I am so excited to go and I've been reading many Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) blogs to get some inside info about what my life might be like in about 3 1/2 months. As I think about it and read stories from PCVs, I experience many different feelings--excitement (looking forward to a completely new place, new people, new everything), anxiousness (wanting to leave ASAP to begin this adventure), worry (will I be able to handle the challenges), fear (hearing about rat home invasion stories--yuck!), and finally peace (knowing that God is with me wherever I go and He has led me in this decision).


Although I still have a little while before I leave, I have come to the realization that there is really nothing I can do to completely prepare myself for this adventure. This is sometimes difficult for me to admit because I like to plan out everything. I've been trying to be more spontaneous and seeking out new things to experience. I feel that the Peace Corps will certainly blow my mind. I know that it's not going to be easy and there will probably be days where I may want to come home, but I know that there will also be a lot of times that I will be in awe of the incredible place that I will be in and the people I will have met.



Here's a picture of me after the Social Justice Missioning Ceremony at Gonzaga. They had a ceremony for students going abroad to serve in various countries. I'm giving the peace sign for Peace Corps.


So for now, I'm counting down the days and ask you to join with me. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers :) Only 111 days to go...