One is the loneliest number

TODAY
One more night in historic, beautiful Europe then I´m taking off to the great Northwest. There have been two days on the trip that I´ve been by myself; the first was the day becca and hillary went to Disneyland Paris and at 4am this morning they left for their flight to London while I slept in and thought of ways to get the most out of northern Athens on my last day here without melting. For the past couple of days it´s been hot as ____ (fill in the blank) here in Athens and today was no exception. I headed out to a green area on the map but had to stop about 30 minutes after leaving the hotel to get a genuine greek cup-of-joe at a place called ´Jean´s Coffee´. Although I didn´t have anyone to talk to, I was accompanied by some old friends eddie, ben, sufjan, jim james, jenny lewis and the like all day. I continued to walk about 30 more minutes with no sign of said green spot on the map and i felt as if i had literally walked off the map which was scary for a bit, until i turned around and chilled at a pretty fountain. After some time I headed back to more familiar territory and accidentely ran into the National Archaeological Museum. Since i had 2 more hours to kill and was in desperate need of AC, i decided to hand over the 3euro and explored the Louvre-esque rooms filled with old marble sculptures and artifacts. My favorite was the Egyptian rooms. I headed out of there about an hour and half later and now I´m back in the cute hotel that Hillary found for us near the metro station. I´ll take off for the airport in about 30 minutes for my flight to London that doesn´t leave for another 4 hours.

LAST WEEK...
was the UPC sponsored portion of our European trip and it went spectacularly. Highlights were increasing our group size 11-fold (the more the merrier) , watching 6 of our members bungee jump into the Corinthian Canal and, of course, seeing the sites that Paul walked through and understanding the ancient culture that he was preaching to.

As our journey comes to a close, I just want to thank all of you readers and prayers. We couldn´t have done all of this without the support of our friends and patient families :) peace.

Where did you get that scar?

Yay! We're here in 3 respective pieces sitting in the lobby of our Austrian hostel. We flew into Vienna this morning, put down our stuff, ate at a local Turkish eatery then headed to the city center to look at old buildings and crazy eurocup fans lining up for the fanzone - zones. As we were lounging on the stairs of the national library the weather suddenly turned sour and we were bound to the covered entry way until the lightning, thunder, monsoon rain ceased. no problem, we found a comfy place to sit, whipped out our books and read for the 30 minute storm duration. Becca has a friend that lives in the city so she’s here now, listening to all of our crazy stories and telling us some of hers as she’s been living abroad. (pictured: proud of my recent tall latte find, sunglasses #2 & #3 after the first broke in my bag)

Let me rewind a bit… a time ago we were in Salzburg, Austria and there are 3 things you need to know about that place. 1) W.A. Mozart was born there and we saw the doors of the two places that he lived, 2) ‘Sound of Music’ was filmed here and we saw some of the sites of the film and watched the entire movie at our hostel, 3) Spain and Greece played a Eurocup 2008 game here which was VERY hard to forget amongst the thousands of red/yellow and blue/white sea of fans. At least we were sure that we were not the only foreigners in town. (pictured: the ubiquitous Mozart balls)

Next, we took a gorgeous train ride from Salzburg to Zagreb, Croatia. We met up with some of Hillary’s missionary friends from UPC , then had dinner and ice cream with them and their two adorable daughters. The family went to their home and the 3 of us planned to be close behind on the bus to their neighborhood to catch the Croatia/Turkey game that night. The main plaza was the site of our bus stop and the raging fans ready to watch on the city’s big (huge) screen. The bus came, which Becca and Hillary easily hopped on, but little ol' me got swept away in the crowd and the doors closed right in front of me and drove away. Personality check: you’re standing among hundreds of drunk, rabid soccer fans, you have no Croatian money (kuna) on you and the only other English speaking people in town just boarded a bus that’s driving away at a speedy pace. I laughed for about 1 full minute, re-did my hair (I guess a psychological re-grouping mechanism of mine) and remembered the very helpful lost school kid motto of “hug a tree”. I stood there, facing the direction the bus drove away and waited for about 10 minutes until I saw Hillary jogging around a corner, which spelled ‘r-e-l-i-e-f’ for me. We watched the game in the friend’s neighbor’s front yard and wallowed in the collective grief that swept Croatia that night.

Next we boarded a plane to the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia called “The Pearl of the Adriatic” for good reason. It is a tourist paradise with the fun Old Town surrounded by the just as old city walls. Rocky beaches, ice cream at every corner and a monk’s island only accessible by boat. Of course, we did all three. The last was the site of my most recent injury, a 1.5-inch long gash under my left knee. “how did you get that scar on your knee?”, “Oh, this one time I was swimming off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea…”, I guess that’s worth the hour of worrying about stitches, applying diligent pressure, and a lack of health insurance.

Today we got up early, said goodbye to beautiful Dubrovnik and flew away to Vienna, Austria where we still sit in between weary travelers, newbies & veterans alike, free wireless and a nice pillow waiting for me on the second floor. Thanks for keeping up on us. We’re having a great time learning about ourselves, Europeans, maps and about how small this world actually is. Peace.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Here is a link that will show you some pictures from the trip thus far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2276160&l=8ca58&id=10702280

Right now we're still in the Loire Valley, Fontevraud, to be specific and about to celebrate at a friend's wedding reception. Tomorrow afternoon we will be driving up to Paris and flying out Monday morning for Munich, Germany. So much to see... time running out... Greece, getting closer.... I love all of this traveling and meeting new people. I recommend it to all who are thinking about such an excursion. Pick some funny/trustworthy travelmates though, they make the trip fun :)

Here I Am

Alright, we're still in Paris having a blasty blast. Read Becca's blog, shown on the last entry, to read about the interesting events that occurred at our first hotel which led us to this wired, clean and, most importantly, bug-free hotel that I sit in now. The train from Luxembourg to Paris was a trip too (literally and figuratively) as we had no idea that we had assigned seats on the TGV until an angry crowd (mob even?) stood in front of our seats and sweetly demanded that we vacate them. We acted quickly, gathered our backpacks and started walking... and walking... and walking until about 12 trains later when we finally found our correct seats. "where are our suitcases?" someone innocently poses, "hm, back at the wrong seats". This interaction concluded with Hillary and my excursion, like salmons swimming upstream, to get back to the old seats, gather 4 pieces of luggage and rolling them back to the correct seats. This sounds easy enough but when this maneuver is attempted while a train completely full of passengers traveling at 200mph is taking turns like a bat out of a hell and children are free to frolic in the aisles because they don't have real seats, then let's just say that Hillary and I personally experienced what it would be like to be characters in a video game where the goal is to avoid touching or rolling over as many Parisians as possible. I think I got to intermediate level. Read Becca's blog to discover what awaited us at our final resting destination... (http://www.beccarrow.blogspot.com/).

So, everything is going well here and I thank God for keeping us safe (from crazy French motorcyclists who believe that honking their horns at someone walking on the crosswalk will magically make them disappear... needless to say pedestrians do not get the right-of-way in Paris) and watching over our domestic situation by providing two great hostels in Brussels and Luxembourg and providing an out it in the form of my parents when our accomodation plans for Paris were unsettleing. I'll post some pictures from 1. Bruges 2. Luxembourg and 3. Cathedral ceiling in Paris. Keep us in your prayers and I'll keep you updated on our whereabouts.

love, b.

Belgium & Luxembourg

Honestly, I will get back to this and write a real post but for now i just wanted to show some pictures and give you one of my travel mate's blog to look at pictures....

http://www.beccarrow.blogspot.com/

Hope to hear from you soon.

Here We Go Again!

Today is probably the last mellow and somewhat "boring" day that I'll have in long time. I'm at home on Bainbridge Island with my dog contemplating really hard about packing without actually putting anything in a bag at all. Tomorrow I take off at 6:40pm from SeaTac to Brussels, Belgium which will start the 6 week European adventure that is the crux of my summer. My two traveling buddies have been in Europe for 4 days now and I'm excited to see them in completely new scenery. They are Becca Arrowsmith, artist extraordinary and future fellow Princeton seminarian and Hillary Holman, travel-planning guru who set up this whole trip for the three of us in the past couple of months.
My last excursion was a lengthy two years in San Antonio, Texas and alas that has come to an end. My internship was up in early May then some people from the ministry came up to Seattle to partake in this years Ascent Leadership Conference and to experience the greatness that is Northwest living. I had a great time hosting them on BI and showing them around the big city too. I'll miss them and everyone else I grew to love in Texas immensly but as a wise man once said, "what lies ahead I have no way of knowin' but under my feet the grass is growin', it's time to move on, it's time to get going".
I'll try my best to keep you all updated on what we're up to in Europe and of course I'll post copious amounts of pictures in case you're not much of a "reader". Thanks for venturing with me again and I hope you are doing well wherever you are.

April, really? You want me to tell you everything that's happened since April? Ok, brief but amazing:
-I decided to stay a second year as the University Ministries intern at First Presbyterian Church San Antonio. There's just too much new stuff and too many great people to leave so soon.
-My cousin Carlos got married here in SA on June 2nd and my whole family came into town. It was really fun to show them around the city that I've lived in for 11 months.
-Flew home to Seattle on June 6th. While I was there I just saturated my time with all of the things that I missed about living there. Block Party Weekend on Capitol Hill, 4 Mariner games at Safeco Field, spending the night at Carmen's, Aissa's and Caitlin's respective houses, riding the metro bus, sitting at coffeeshops and talking, Taco Thursdays, Game Night at Duane's, movies at the Crest, riding the ferry copious amounts of time (sometimes on one day), Trivia Nights at the Ram, Irish Emigrant and Red Hook Brewery, hanging out at "the trailer" and UPC, Costas... the list just goes on and on.
-Went to the Dominican Republic for one week in early July with a group from FPC San Antonio. It was a young group but we bonded quickly and I was happy to make some new friends and get back to the country that I love.
-Thursday, August 2nd Caitlin, Gretchen, Steve and I ventured to Chicago, Illinois in order to participate in the Lollapalooza Festival that happens at Grant Park. Awesome bands, awesome friends and awesome city.
-Tuesday, Aissa flew into Chicago, we rented a car and drove south to
Indianapolis to visit Tia Tita, Tio Michael, their three lovely daughters, Kelly, Molly, Jacky and their 3 beautiful granddaughters Tori, Anna and Lily. What a great time just relaxing with some great family. I love the Scanlans.
-Saturday, August 11th, I flew into San Antonio greeted at the airport by Jason and his little brother to get whisked away to dinner with Malia, her brother and sister-in-law, then to see Bourne Ultimatum. Good flick, better company.
-Highlight of the whole week occured the next day, Sunday August 12th, when I got to see Zeke after a whole summer without and we played together for a long time as he told me everything he has learned.
Which brings me to here and now. I just moved into my permanent host family's home off Thousand Oaks exit on 281, consumed with the thought that I have a lot of stuff. I didn't realize how much I've accumulated over the year and how much unneccesary stuff I brought to Texas with me. I should do some kind of drive or something. The new University Ministries intern, Stephanie, came into town yesterday so let the new year officially begin! It's shaping out to be a good one.
Anyway, that's me. How are you? drop a line so I know you're still out there and we'll keep in touch.

Check-in Time

Alright, alright we know it's been a while since I have last posted but thanks for checking up on me. We're closing up the school year right now in central Texas which also means I'm gearing up to move back home for the summer. First Pres. has decided to make my internship into a 9 month deal so I'm waiting around here until June 2nd when my cousin gets married in San Antonio and then head back to the Northwest for a Seattle summer (a.k.a. heaven on Earth). I know life will be different than when I was a student there but the people are the same so I know good times will be had. There is one definite mission trip to the Dominican Republic that I am going on with some First Pres. members from June 30-July 8th but besides that I'll just be lounging at home on Bainbridge Island and painting the town red in Seattle. Oh yeah, there's one more weekend trip to Chicago in the works for the Lollapalooza festival (that Pearl Jam will be headlining) but I'm sure you will be hearing about that later with pictures and everything.

So, since last entry in January I have been here in San Antonio with some short trips out of town to visit family. January 22nd was my 23rd birthday and the Griffice's gathered some of the coolest people in town to come to our house and celebrate with me. As a trio we also road tripped it up to Austin for some late night grub at Kirby Lane Cafe and a concert in town. Good times with great people.

February and March were spent looking for fearless applicants to consider our summer mission trip opportunity, DEX. Now I am happy to announce that we have two awesome freshmen going to Bolivia this summer! In mid-March the Well hooked up with another campus ministry to serve in Mississippi by working for an elderly couple who wanted to build a new house on their property but had to get rid of the afflicted house first. That's where we came in and leveled the moderate home to scraps for FEMA to haul away. It was a great road trip and eye-opening experience to how much people are still in need throughout the gulf area. In late March I headed even more south to my Tia Monica's ranch, El Canelo, where the American Heritage Gala was held for 600 guests including our large family. It was a re-energizing visit with my aunts, uncles, cousins and especially my mom who came down for the event. Too fun.

I thought that this Easter I would have to do without our annual family cascarones hunt but in good spirit the Griffices and family friends, the Richards, decided to oblige me and let their little ones hunt for the hollowed-out, confetti filled, colored eggs that I hid AND let their kids crack them on their heads just so I wouldn't have to give up my favorite Zarate Easter tradition. I thought it was a blast (and i think the kids liked it too). Thanks guys.
Last weekend I went up to Dallas for the second time since moving here to see my dad and his family. This trip it was just him, my stepmom, Ana, and stepsister, Lizette (no Alex, he was in Arizona that weekend). We went to the Latin Kings of Comedy show at the Nokia Center on Friday and then trecked it to Fort Worth on Saturday for a day at one of the best zoos I have ever seen.

Like I said, I'm winding down my time here in Texas and gearing up to head out in a couple of weeks. I'm preparing myself to see some old friends and to live at home again. I'll have eight weeks to pack in 9 months of lost time and I'm so ready to let the fun times begin. I love what I have learned in San Antonio and all of the great people that I have met here but I know that I need this time to recharge the batteries and come back roaring for a second intern year in the Alamo City. (Oh yeah, I've signed on to be the Univeristy Ministries full-time intern again). So, there's the news. Let me know how you are doing and I hope that we see each other sometime soon.

Globetrotting

Alright, without my personal laptop and plethora of personal pictures this entry is going to be a bit verbose (and wordy). October was marked by the exciting road trip that was the Lone Star Tour 2006. The journeypeople included my boss, Jason, a young adult from FPC who already knew a lot of the students we were visiting, Ann, and myself at the helm of the church Blazer (the 4th man). Everything went without barely a hitch. We visited 11 students from 8 different Texas campuses, bought them meals, walked around their campuses and scoured for the coolest music/book stores in their respective towns. I had a blast getting to know my traveling compadres and reveling in the hardy laughter that accompanied every single meal on the trip. Good times.

So, I haven't necessarily traveled the globe but I still consider the past couple of weeks as a state-to-state canter at the least. Since December 12th I've been in five different states and functioned in four different time zones, getting to know major U.S. international airports very well. First I went to Denver, Colorado for a reunion with an awesome group of like-minded twenty-somethings that independently decided to put the corporate world on hold right after college graduation and explore what it's like to move to an unknown city and learn to cooperate with a large church, a boss and numerous stressed college students for one whole year. A.k.a. University Ministry Intern Retreat in the majestic rolling hills of the Rocky Mountains where the beer flows like wine. Listening to other people's experiences in their ministries really opened my eyes to see how lucky I am to be at First Pres. San Antonio and with the people that God has surrounded around me during this trying year. It was also nice to see some familiar faces and just get back to being me without explaining "me" first. I got a little nauseous from the altitude but nothing that two hours of 'Arrested Development' couldn't handle. The whole weekend was quite a time and here's a picture of my two roomies Jessica "what is office magic?" Lazdins and Emily "innertubing bunny" Fleming. This was a well needed retreat that I am very thankful for.

Next a short two-day stint in Seattle with my sister before we caught a plane to the beautiful Hawaiian Islands and I gained another two hours. The Adkins/Quezada clan stayed on the lesser-known Kauai island where the film makers go when they need a more 'prehistoric' look. We saw the production spots of such greats as 'King Kong', 'Jurassic Park I, II & III' and 'Six Days, Seven Nights'. It was an awesome week away from... land and I realized I couldn't have asked for a greater/funnier family to enjoy this gorgeous part of God's green Earth with.

So, one more extended set of days on Bainbridge Island with the fam to celebrate Christmas until it was off to the central time zone again. This year St. Louis was the host of the Urbana conference which is a missions conference held once every three years and put on by Inter Varsity ministries. I met Jason and one of our student interns, Jacky, there along with some of my aforementioned UMin intern brethren from Seattle, Chico and Berkeley ministries. Let me tell you what, if you have never seen a football field of 22,250 hungry college students empty out on city streets toward unsuspecting food vendors then you have not lived. There were so many people at this conference but once I got past the sheer humanity I actually enjoyed the seminars (especially on the American Christian's responsibility to be better stewards of the Earth) and the overall message of mission. It was another great experience and I am confident that God is working in the young people of this generation to save this ship before it's too late. Another worthwhile venture on my time away from Texas.

Which brings us back to now. Me in my parent's home enjoying the free food, internet, pets and love for another two days before I hop over the Sound to spend some more time in Seattle with friends before the departure back to the 'real world' that awaits me in San Antonio, Texas. So, I hope everyone is well but let me know how you really are and I'll try to do better about the frequency of entries from now on.
Go Hawks!

Three in One

You may think I'm talking about the holy Trinity, but for once, I'm not. I'm talkin' three entries in one day. Crazy- I know. I've been living and working in San Antonio for two and half months now and I just wanted to give you a little taste of what I've been up to thus far...

THE WELL

This is our Tuesday night worship service that we hold on Trinity campus. We have 4 awesome student interns (they're all seniors at Trinity) that we meet with once a week and they help corral the students and get the job done where the rubber meets the road. Along with these four there are a group of student leaders who are mostly juniors, seniors and some sophomores who are just excited to help and they meet us two hours before the Well to help set up sound equipment and pray over the room. They are also incredibly awesome. At the Well we sing songs, announce some outreach/mission/bonding opportunities and listen to a message from the director, Jason. Then we break down all of the aforementioned equipment, talk and head home. Home for me is a whole 'nother story- but briefly, I recently moved from this home 25 minutes outside of the city (the city where the church and universities are)

to this home which is two blocks from Trinity campus and a five minute drive to the church. I'm settling in. The Well is where a majority of the work load goes but at "the office" there are still phone calls to make, meetings to go to, bible studies to prepare and fliers to design, just to name a few jobs. BUT, i love it

ACL

Yeah, that's Texan for "Austin City Limits" which is a three day concert-festival that has been held in Austin for the last 5 years. Luckily, I know the right people and I was able to get a ticket for a sold out Sunday line-up. I met some friends there and throughout the day saw KT Tunstall, Matt Costa, Jose Gonzalez, Matisyahu and the big guns, Ben Harper then Tom Petty. Afterward we hung out at a real-life Austin apartment (kinda like 'Reality Bites' but in Austin, not Houston). The whole day rocked and I am so glad I was able to go to ACL since I couldn't go to Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival for the first time in 9 years. Good times.

FALL RETREAT

Our first big event went off with barely a hiccup. We had been planning for this weekend since the former intern, Lindsay, left in July. This was just a time for us to take the students away from the city, school and stresses to a ranch 1.5 hours northwest of San Antonio (a.k.a. Hill Country, a.k.a. where the trees are) and provide them with three days of sports, relaxation and a good lesson on remaining in the journey rather than being focused on the destination. Our leadership team, along with the guest speaker (Jason's old Cali buddy), hit it out of the park once again and people left with smiles on their faces and a skip in their steps. If you've never played Around-the-World ping pong then just stare at thislast picture andyou'll figure out how. Very fun. I was able to throw the softball around for a couple of hours on Saturday, which was nice, especially with the cooling jump in the river afterwards. I'm paying the price tonight with soreness in muscles that i didn't even know i had. Overall, a successful trip and I'm excited to see the students I met this weekend at The Well on Tuesday.

I'd be remiss if I mentioned all of this fun stuff without including how much I miss everyone in Seattle/Bainbridge. I knew it was going to be hard to move away, but some days are harder than others. I guess it took this big move to realize how much I love everyone over there, and it's a tough lesson to learn when you're in it. So that's it for now but as soon as more events come up I'll write more about my Texas adventures. I hope everyone is well and that I'll hear from ya'll soon.

Alamo City

I've been in San Antonio for almost a month now and feel like I am really settling in, meeting some new people and getting acclimated to the job and church. Overall, feeling pretty good about the move. But in order to get here, first I had to drive... Beginning on Sunday, July 2nd my friend Peter and I drove from Seattle to Ashland, Oregon then San Francisco then Los Angeles then Phoenix then El Paso to finally arrive on the river walk on July 7th. We stayed with my old friend Jason and his wife in Oregon on the first night then we went to San Fran where we spent the day with our friend Ashlee and her family in the city and then met up with some more friends at her house. Next was the drive to Hermosa Beach via what was supposed to be a brief stop in Los Angeles. To make a long story short we were lost/detoured/frustrated/confused for about 2 hours on the 4th of July in Santa Monica amidst drunk, bicycle riding revelers. No worries, we made it out alive and enjoyed the empty beach the next morning. We got into Phoenix the next night to stay with my dad and his family, which sounds easy enough but not when you're driving into the city at 50 mph on a spare tire on a 80 mph highway. Survived that too. It was a nice visit and I learned that they will probably be moving to Dallas soon which is pretty close to San Antonio. The spare tire was replaced the next morning which made our departure time later than anticipated so we decided to scrap a night in New Mexico and drive straight to El Paso. Not much to say about El Paso. The next days drive from there to San Antonio was a lesson in endurance, when all I wanted to do was get to the city I had been thinking about for the past couple of months while there was still 540 miles of desert (then prettier Live Oaks) between me and my destination. Anyway, we made it and did some touristy things for a couple of days, like stand in front of the Alamo and float down the Guadalupe River.
So that was the journey in a nut shell but I have a feeling that there will be a lot of events through my new job that I will dutifully update you on in the future. Like, my mom is coming into town tomorrow and I'm excited to see a familiar (familial) face- especially hers. My new boss, Jason (bottom pic), and his family are really awesome and we have a lot of fun things planned for the year like a week-long Texas road trip in October, retreats and mission trips. I hope everyone is well and that I'll get to hear from you soon but until then, keep the wind at your back and the sun on your face.

A Whole New Adventure

I know this started out as a record of events during my Chile trip but I have been asked to extend this blog to include the Dominican Republic trip that I just returned from and perhaps impending adventures in the south come July. We'll see about the latter, but I am happy to oblige the former. I'll start by saying that I was a student leader for this trip so my duties began months before departure in the form of weekly leaders meetings, weekly 2-hour big group training meetings and copious hours spent opening contributions letters and recording each students financial progress. Since I was not attending classes during Winter quarter and only working part time at a daycare then I was able to commit to all of this work with minimal stress. Some facts about the trip:
-We left March 16 and returned March 26th
-There were 66 of us all together; 5 DR coordinators, 7 other leaders, 54 students (all of whose first and last names I know by heart)
-We served in 3 Haitian refugee villages in southern Dominican Republic; Los Robles, Algodon and Don Bosco
-We worked under the organization of Children of the Nations (www.cotni.org)
-This is the best spring break mission trip ever
So, I was glad to have spent 5 weeks in Chile not that long ago (see previous entries) because I was more confident in my Spanish skills and became one of the groups go-to translators. Everyday my fellow student leaders (shout out to Jeff Hoover and Kirsten Hawkins!) and myself received about 45 questions a day and, on average, 20 requests that we were about 95% equipped to answer or fulfill. If anything this trip has really honed my leadership skills which wil be helpful next year in San Antonio where I will be an intern in college ministry for 12 months. Here are some highlights from each day of the trip; we left Seattle on Thursday night, arrived in the capital of the DR, Santo Domingo, then drove 4.5 hours west to the city of Barahona on Friday afternoon. On Saturday we saw two of the three villages and prepared for Monday's teaching lessons at the hotel where we were staying while the boys played their first of five baseball games. Some more memorable moments were attending a very lively Pentacostal church service on Sunday where loud music and 'slaying of the spirit' were the prominent manners of worship. On our first official day in the villages, Monday, all of the busses were 2-3 hours late picking us up from each village, but that lowlight was quelled by the fact that most of the kids in Los Robles whom I had known for three years remembered my name. Tuesday we watched the boys play their third baseball game that had to be paused on account of a run-away horse entering the outfield. On Wednesday some of us girls played a competetive softball game versus the reigning Dominican champions and I had some sweet catches at third base. Thursday I slept after teaching. On Friday we met the older kids of Los Robles at a water park about an hour and half from where they lived that most of them had never been to. After taking a big group picture we left for the capital on Saturday morning and toured the city that afternoon. We spent the night in a NICE hotel and woke up Sunday for another day of travelling toward the Northwest. Our flight to Atlanta was 2 hours late which made them have to hold our connecting plane there to Seattle. Unfortunately they didn't tell us that they had changed our gate in Atlanta so when we got there half of us rushed... to the wrong terminal. My only thought was that we had come so far in the trip for there to be a snafoo literally minutes from our last leg, but the airlines knew it was their mistake so they waited for our entire party to be informed, take the shuttle to the right terminal and run to the right gate. So upon arrival in Seattle there were only two students who had to go to the ER, which in my book still constitutes a successful mission trip. (One guy had gotten hit by a wheelbarrel earlier in the week and didn't realize that he had fractured his ankle while still doing construction the remainder of the week while the second victim had a cut on the bottom of his foot that got infected by the DR shower water.) They're both doing better today.

So, that was my trip in a nut-shell and I know I left a lot of details out but for the most part it was a trip that taught me a lot about my abilities as leader, how to stay calm in uncontrollable situations, how to be confident in decisions, how to maintain relationships with students even though I had a million things to do before the next day, which leads to, how to function properly on a maximum of five hours of sleep per night and most importantly how to trust the Lord in the small and big things. Thanks for all of your support.

Vamos a la playa

Thanks for all of the birthday well-wishes from all you well-wishers. I indeed had a great birthday here with a lot of family that came over for a barbeque on Saturday night of the 21st. I guess it was supposed to be a surprise birthday party even though my little cousins talked about it non-stop for a week and the cake was obviously in the fridge but they dutifully waited until midnight to uncork the champagne and let the festivities begin. Some of my cousin, Jose´s, friends came over too and one played the guitar for us from 4 am until I called it quits at 6:30 am because I was exhausted. The next day some Tias, cousins and myself did the have-to trip for Santiago up a large hill in the middle of the city with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on top. Since we were with little ones we took the steep miner´s cart thing to the top and back, plus I already did the hike on my last visit here and I didn´t really feel like testing my capacity for passing out again in the 33 degree celsius weather, "now it´s my nausea". The view of the city was great and as you can see, we were a very happy clan.

Today my tias and I made one more final trip to the beach, this time to Valparaíso/Viña del Mar which is just west of Santiago. We did the miner´s cart thing again to the top of a hill to check out the scene over the port and some touristy browsing. Then to this huge garden/concert arena place in the middle of the city where they have an annual 5-day festival in February that apparently every Chilean attends every year. Since it was a lull time we got to walk the grounds, see cool trees from all over the world and tour the museum. After this we sprawled out on the beach until we couldn´t stand the heat and took cover under the shade with these tasty pineapple/icecream combo delicacies straight from heaven (only 2 bucks). I include a pic of me on the beach in case you don´t believe that I am actually living the life. If you ever find yourself in the area, I definitely recommend this city.
Alright, so tomorrow night I head back to the great northwest (cue the countdown music). Although I will remember my family and the places here fondly as I have recorded them in this blog for you, I am ready to head home to drink some real coffee, see some familiar faces and actually talk when I have something to say instead of letting the conversation pass by while I try to find the right words with this elementary vocabulary. Thanks for following me through this journey and I hope to see or hear from everyone once I am back in Seattle. Que lo pases bien.

Good things come in 3s

These past couple of days have brought three great events during my visit here. The first occured on Monday afternoon when my cousin, María Soledad, gave birth to her second child, Sophía Antonia. We went to visit the family in the hospital on Tuesday and this is a picture of the newborn. She looks really big but she really is just a day old. The second and third events occurred yesterday and are represented in the second picture where clearly my friend, Melissa Kagele, came to visit the house on her brief stop in Santiago. She and Tricia are travelling on an 8 month journey hopping from continent to continent exploring this great planet and, coincidentally, Chile at the same time I am here. My Tia Ximena and I met them at the Plaza de Armas and we came back here for lunch and 5 hours of conversing. My family really liked having the gringas here and were impressed at their bravery to undertake such an adventurous expedition. The third event is inconspicuously represented in the second picture too where you can kind of see my right arm is no longer in a cast but an elastic wrap thingy that is not nearly as bothersome. We went to the clinic yesterday morning where I anxiously waited to be freed from that torture device. The nurse cut it with this saw-looking thing and I guess I just wasn´t prepared for all the grossness of pale dry skin, plaster and loose hair because I got light headed and fainted right there in the clinic. Apparently my aunt called over for the doctor who was just across the hall but he looked over and said I only fainted because I am "norte americana" and didn´t come over to help. I must add that this doctor hasn´t liked me from the beginning when I first came to see him a month ago, but nevertheless after I came to my aunt was angry with him for being so discriminatory but he didn´t even look up from his papers. When my other aunt, Tia Cecilia, found out she was furious and called the clinic to protest saying that I have a step-dad in the states who works for the government so they should watch out (he works for the IRS-- so his occupational influence doesn´t quite extend as far as international injustices regarding inconsiderate doctors). Anyway, we met the girls at the plaza afterward and now the wrist is still in some pain when I try to move it past where the cast restrictions were but given some rehabilitation I will be "all right" again in no time (incorporating Arrested Development lines is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be). So, I hope everyone remains well and I will see most of you next week. Later.

From Sunny Santiago

So, it has been a pretty busy week away from Santiago and lounging on the beach. It´s a tough job but somebody has to do it. I left Friday the 6th with some family for San Sebastian where we went to a different beach everyday and ate ice cream as full meals. The first picture is of me, my cousin Paulina´s husband Keko, and cousins Paulina, María Paz, Juan Enrique and María Soledad waiting for pollo asada. I don´t know if you can tell but Sole is very pregnant and due on January 22nd (an excellent day to be born) . The boys know some English but they are trying to practice their accents and on this night Keko wanted to know the word for ¨print¨so I said ¨pr-i-nt¨and he responded with ¨tr-ee¨it was hilarious, but I´m sure I sound the same way speaking Spanish sometimes. On one drive we passed by the house of Pablo Neruda but it was full of touristas so we didn´t stop, the places we did stop though were beautiful. btw-I heard about the 33 straight days of rain over in Seattle so I´m sorry if this news of endless beaches and sunshine from 6am to 9pm is hard to take... it will be summer over there soon enough. Oh yeah, we beat the ¨how-many-people-can-we-stuff-in-this-car¨record with 10, the 9 in the second picture plus me taking it.

So we returned from San Sebastian on Tuesday the 10th, unpacked and washed our our clothes then packed them up again for our next excursion to Coquimbo up north. This trip was just Tia Ximena, María Paz and me mostly to see Cerro Tololo, a huge observatory with 7 telescopes, but we did the toursity things too. We spent a day in the neighboring city of La Serena, visited the Cruz del Milenio which is a huge cross on the top of a hill that was built as a place to pray at the sanctuary there ("It´s a cross" "Across from where?") and walked around the downtown and port. Then on the 14th we took the 2 hour drive up to Cerro Tololo to tour the facilities. From the top of Tololo (cerro=hill) we were surrounded by more hills as far as we could see. Although they should be considered more of mountains because we were so high up that we were continually warned about altitude sickness but everyone remained fine. The view was incredible, the telescopes were massive and it was totally worth the near 8 hour drive from Santiago. We left Coquimbo at midnight last night and returned home at 6am this morning for my family to vote in the presidential elections. The winner should be known tonight, surprisingly they don´t have to wait months before a new president is named. So I had a great time on the auxiliary vacation but I am glad to be back in the city to get this annoying cast off on Wednesday and get ready for the family party on Saturday. Hope everyone is well and don´t let the rain get you down. Chau.

Update: The woman candidate, Michelle Bachelet, won the elections. The house where I am staying is only about 10 blocks from the city center and we can hear all of the honking cars on their way downtown. The family here didn´t vote for her because she was supported by communists among many other reasons but some other family members love her and what she can do for Chile. It has made for some pretty tense meal time conversations that will either be amplified or diminished by the recent outcome. We´ll see.