The last bite of Korea

So remember how I said I made a quick trip to America? 

Well, I got off the plane and got on a bus.

I got off the bus and got in a taxi.

I got out of the taxi and did this. (So please excuse how tired and unmade I look.)

Indonesia: Mt. Bromo

Most of my time in East Java included getting up incredibly early, feeling sick because of the hour, then hiking somewhere.  I barely recognized myself, because none of those things sound like me.  However, I forgave myself, because I got to see some really cool things.  As well as seeing the Ijen Crater, I went to see Mt. Bromo, a very active volcano/tourist trap.

We actually got hiking before dawn to see the sun rise over Mt. Bromo.  That was a bit nerve wracking, as we were walking up lava-tracked roads in the literal pitch-darkness.  One wrong step, and I would slip down into the deep craters left by lava from a recent eruption.  Considering that I couldn't see anything, that happened really frequently.

At first, I didn't realize we were there for the sunrise, so I got a little frustrated, waiting to move on, but I figured it out eventually.  It would have been really awesome, but the morning was so foggy I couldn't see the volcano.  What I did see was really pretty, though.  

Sadly, the fog turned into rain before I really got going on the day, so most of my photos ended up looking like this:

Look closely and you'll see my first glimpse of Mt. Bromo.

Needless to say, we're going to be relying rather heavily on my descriptive abilities.

I was pretty excited about Mt. Bromo for a couple of reasons.  1. It's constantly active.  The most recent eruption was the month before I saw it.  2. It's a much shorter hike than Ijen.  3. I got to ride a pony for most of the hike.  The negative was that it was below freezing.  Boo.  The hotel let me rent a big puffy coat, but I think I got the one that had been in the rain before, so it was very lumpy.  It was also several sizes too big for me, so it was not my most favorite of fashion statements, but it kept me from getting sick, thus it accomplished its goal.  It did not, however prevent me from getting soaked.

My soaked self, my pony, and a temple near the volcano. 

Incidentally, that was the last time I got to use those gloves.  A man from Portugal now has them, due to a bit of a miscommunication.  It's a bummer, but I hope they're keeping him warm, since my cousin worked so hard to make them!

Since the volcano had recently erupted, the entire area was brown and barren. There were deep tracks from where the lava had been.  As I rode my pony across it all, heading for an active volcano, I couldn't help but feeling like I had landed in Middle Earth and was on my way to storm Mt. Doom.  A 10th grade math test/over-confidence fiasco taught me never to hum epic movie themes in semi-dangerous situations, so I kept myself quiet this time, but, had that not happened, I would have probably been humming some Lord of the Rings throughout this adventure.  (PS. I wasn't the only person who was feeling connected to Tolkien; most people brought it up at some point during their time at the volcano.)

When the pony could go no further, I was presented with a massive set of stairs that led to the mouth of the volcano crater, where I bought a bunch of flowers to attempt to toss into the lake below:

Although stairs aren't my greatest pleasure in life, I think they're much nicer than having to deal with a hill on hikes like these.

The only guard rail was to keep you from falling into the volcano, which, while I appreciated that the park coordinators didn't want me accidentally sacrificing myself, wasn't always helpful when the wind wanted to push me over backward.  Many places were very narrow, so, once I found a spot that felt decently safe, I rooted myself to it and didn't budge until I was ready to go.

A new Korean man I met took a picture of me and my "sacrifice" for me.  Korean is turning out to be a more useful language than I originally anticipated.

Legend has it that there used to be a kingdom near Mt. Bromo.  The kingdom's princess married a young man, but they could not get pregnant.  She petitioned the gods, and they answered her prayer, telling her they'd allow her to get pregnant, only if she agreed to sacrifice her final child in the fires of the volcano.  She agreed and was able to have children.

I didn't hear if she followed through with her promise or not, but now, every year on August 4, the local people have a festival for the legend.  They buy flowers and dolls to try to throw into the volcano so as to protect their land.  (***EDIT 3/4/13: My friend Mark told me the rest of the story today - He's currently living in Indonesia, so I'm sure he's heard this a lot: The queen refused to sacrifice her youngest son, but when he became aware of the deal, he jumped into the crater in order to protect his village/family.***)

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I annoyed whatever god decided we needed to throw stuff into the volcano, because I failed miserably.

My flowers landed close enough to the top of the volcano that I probably could have climbed down, grabbed them, and tried again, like one Korean man near me did.  However, it was very windy, and I didn't feel like tempting Mother Nature, so I left them were they were (the bottom right corner of the left picture).

Basically, Bromo was this incredible experience.  Ever since I was a child, I had a ridiculously irrational fear of volcanoes (I blame it mostly on the movie Volcano and some children's book I read, which, in combination, left me thinking that a volcano could randomly sprout under my feet at any given moment).  I still vividly remember some of the nightmares I had about volcanoes.  I swore to myself that one day I would face that fear, and I was able to do that with this trip.

I touched the acid like and handled molten sulfur at Ijen.

I climbed up the side of an active volcano and threw things into its depths at Bromo.

I am one volcano-fear-conquering lady, and I'm incredibly proud of myself.

I just danced around my office.

Because I booked my flights for vacation in record time.

I'll be going to Vietnam to see my friend and fellow Orioles fan, Danielle.  It'll be great to see her, although it might be weird with no baseball around us.  The last time we did that, I think we were in high school...  Oh well.  It's clearly long overdue.

After Vietnam, I'll be heading to Indonesia, where I'll hang out in the capitol for a while, then head east, where there's, apparently  a volcano that's CONSTANTLY ERUPTING!  Volcano eruptions were my deepest fear as a child (one too many late night viewings of Volcano and Dante's Peak, I guess).  I had horrible nightmares about them, one of which I remember distinctly: I was trying to save my cousin from the volcano which had opened up into my church.  He was at the very top, and the volcano kept spraying lava everywhere... which was mac and cheese yellow with hairy tentacles.  (Aliens were my other big fear, also blamable on TV - you guessed it: Unsolved Mysteries.)  So, I'm putting my TV-crippled days behind me, and I'm actually very excited to go face this fear... maybe a little too excited.  Somebody should probably go with me to keep me from falling into the volcano... although, if you didn't, it would be a good way for me to prove once and for all that lava and aliens were different...

Additionally... Volcano-seeing may or may not be on my bucket list?  I don't remember... I'll have to check and add it if it's not.

But yes, I'm excited, and I'm going, and I'm (hopefully) returning to work afterward, when I will be happy, sunburnt, and maybe less jet-lagged than before.

Leave your Vietnam and Indonesia must-sees here.

Love you!

Vacation: Istanbul

A long, long time ago, I sat next to Mr. JoshTaylor (of Blimey Cow) in Fine Arts class, where he criticized my eating habits a lot.  Somewhere along the line, his message got through to me, and I now adhere to many of the rules he tried to instill into me, but I wouldn't dare then!  I'm not one to do what I'm told. ;)  But my obnoxious stuborness isn't the point. While JoshTaylor and I were in that Fine Arts class, we were shown pictures of many things that I thought for sure I'd never get to see.

Things like

Westminster Abbey

The Wedding Feast at Cana

The Code of Hammurabi

But, in the end, I clearly saw them, and that realization was so overwhelming that I cried.

So, when my search for plane tickets to the U.S. turned up the chance to stop in Istanbul and see Hagia Sophia, yet another item that made my Bucket List, thanks to Fine Arts, I jumped at the chance (plust the $1,000 cost reduction from what I'd been looking at beforehand).

The results were two new friends I made on the plane and coerced into joining me, an invitation to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and THIS:

Entering Istanbul at sunrise

My first glimpse of Hagia Sophia

Alman Çeşmesi (German Fountain)

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia again

The ceiling of one of the mausoleums in Hagia Sophia

A beautifully spirited street vendor

At this point, I would say that Istanbul is neck and neck with Mainz for my favorite city that I've visited.  I would surely love to try living here sometime.  What a breath of fresh air to start out my journey!

Istanbul layover

I made some new friends, and we're currently checking out Istanbul, meaning I can cross one more thing (Hagia Sophia) off my bucket list!!

July Goals

This month, I plan to:

1. Drink 1.5L of water before indulging in other drinks.
2. Practice my violin every day.
3. Go out with friends every week.
4. Work on my story (almost) every day, with the goal of finishing the first draft by the end of August.
5. At least think about doing Rosetta Stone once a week.
6. Make a hot-months bucket list.
7. Shrink my "to mend" clothes pile.  (Maybe even just finish one???)
8. Kick my summer camp's butt.

We're going to call this my version of KelliTaylor's monthly goals list.  Her's is cute, mine is... sarcastic.  As it should be.

This may impact the number of blog posts I put up, but please stay with me!  I promise I won't forget you!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday, I slept in for the first time all week.  I was excited.
Today, I woke up to my alarm so I could watch the full solar eclipse.  I was expecting everything to go dark like it did in Heroes.  It didn't, so I didn't see the full eclipse, only the partial ones.

This is a photo taken by Adam Thomas.  Like I said, it wasn't actually dark outside, so I'm assuming he played with his settings a lot to make it look like this.  You can see the rest of his eclipse photos HERE.

Yesterday, I started my day with a full breakfast and a pleasant walk to church.
Today, I started my day with breakfast on the bus and the realization that I was going to have to deal with drama from two different continents.

Yesterday, I stood up for myself.
Today, I broke up my first fist-fight.

Yesterday, I joined my friends at Awesome Place for some coffee and laughs (true to Project: 물 주세요, I drank a kiwi-yogurt smoothie, which I figured would have less sugar than a green tea latte).
Today, I realized that that rolling pain across the crown of my head was a chronic tension headache.

Yesterday I finished LOST for the second time.  (I don't care what you say.  I still adore the ending).
Today, I started watching Alex McKenzie and Jesse Page's senior project.  This is Alex's first full-length film that he's scored, and Jesse did an amazing job with the sound editing, too. (I was thrilled to be able to cross "Be the voice of a cartoon character" off my Bucket List with this project.)

Yesterday, I pretended to clean my apartment.
Today, I plan to make an actual dent in it.

Yesterday, I wrote three pages.
Today, I have a feeling I'm going to be struggling to make the one-page quota.

Yesterday, I bought some nutmeg - ON SALE! :)
Today, I will be eating it on a sweet potato. :)

Yesterday, I let go of a lot of things.
Today, I think I snatched them off that shelf I set them on.  Ah well... we all have those days.

That my friends, was my yesterday and today, which happens to be one of my favorite albums, so I'm going to leave you with a song from it, documenting a problem that I do NOT have:

How about you?  What's your yesterday and today?

Vacation: Natthida (Taeng)

My whole reason for this vacation, and especially for going to The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Thailand was to see this lovely lady:

My sponsor child - Taeng - and me, outside her home

I've been sponsoring Natthida (Taeng) for about five years now, and the story of how we got started is definitely one near to my heart.  Before Taeng, I had been sponsoring Raquel of Honduras for quite some time.  I had been wanting to sponsor another child, but I wasn't sure I could afford it, so I started hosting Compassion events, when I presented Compassion to churches or even concerts and festivals, trying to get children sponsored that way.  At the start of every event, I made it a habit of picking up every child packet and praying over them.  At smaller events, I'd try to get to know something about each child.  It made things feel more personal, and, as a result, it got more children sponsored.  But still, I couldn't shake the desire to sponsor more.  So I prayed:

 G-d, if there ever comes a child across my table who shares my birthday, I'll sponsor him or her.

And then I continued my habits.  I can't tell you the number of April 22nds and April 24ths that crossed my table, entered my hands, almost had my name on them, but then I'd think of my bank account and my deal with G-d, and I'd wait.

Then, once day, it happened - the packet was there.  Terrified, I put the packet on the table, and prayed a new prayer:

G-d, if this is what you want, confirm it for me: don't let anyone sponsor her.

A copy of the first letter I ever sent Natthida,
which was found in a binder, holding copies of all
of our communications.

But halfway through, I new I was being foolish and cowardly, and I picked up the packet, wrote my information on the form, stapled my money to it, and added it to the stack.  Never before and never since have I encountered a Compassion child packet that shared my birthday.  For some reason, G-d specifically paired Natthida and me.  In meeting her, I began to realize the magnitude of the amount of responsibility He has placed on me and the amount of trust He must have in me, because I am now one of the maybe 6 Christian adults with whom she has contact.

Me and Taeng

For a while, Taeng was attending church and writing to me about what she was learning, but that has stopped.  Her community being mostly Hindu and Buddhist, her family began to fear neighbors' reactions to her church attendance and have had her stop.  She now sells (delicious) deep fried pancakes on Saturdays (which is when her church met) instead.  She does not believe in Jesus' salvation.  For a while, I know she was ripe to believe, but now, I know I must redouble my efforts.  I hope you will join me in praying for her and her family as well as for me - that G-d will give me the right words to write to her to lead her in the correct direction.

Taeng's house.  There are two beds in the house.  Taeng and her sister share one bed, their mother sleeps on another, and their father sleeps on the floor.  If you look to the left of the blue present on the shelf, you will see that the only framed picture in their home is of me and my father.  (I won't lie, I started crying.) 

We went to the zoo, which turned out to be Taeng's favorite spot in town.  I really liked finding that commonality: we both really enjoy zoos!  We also found another commonality: we are both the fast-museum kind of people (unlike my father, who likes to read every word on every sign).

Feeding the MASSIVE fish in the lake near the zoo

Next, we made a quick trip Natthida's grandmother's house, where Natthida helps to make these delicious, deep-fried pancakes and walks around selling them.  She wanted to make some for me, a request to which my taste buds were more than obliging. 

Trying to find more common ground, I noted how this was similar to my job making omelets in college, which was answered with an invitation to give the pancakes a try.  Natthida was giving me instructions over my shoulder.  Apparently, she was impressed with my results. :)

Natthida's little sister kept trying to sneak into pictures, so we just welcomed her in.  I never figured out how the boys were related, but I'm assuming they're cousins.

with Natthida and her mom

Then, we went to the Big Pagoda (I told you the better pictures would make sense here).  The Compassion people seemed very uncomfortable, as they kept insisting that they were Christians, so they knew very little about it, but it's a huge landmark in Nakhon Si Thammarat, and they wanted me to be able to see it and be impressed with it.

It was right about here that Taeng looked over at me and said, "You skin is so pretty!  My skin just absorbs the sun, but yours reflects it.  You're kind of hard to look at."  I laughed and reassured her that in a couple of hours it would be bright red.  This intrigued her a lot, so she asked me to lie down in the sun and show her.  I politely declined and attempted to distract her by buying her things. hahah.  I'm so American.

Exploring the pagoda

Saying goodbye was definitely the hardest part of the trip - having to release this beautiful girl (who's already sick) back into the care of people who, although well meaning, cannot provide all the medical treatment/advice she needs.  She cannot get all the religious encouragement I would want for her.  By no means do I think I could provide a better home for her, but I'm so used to being the kid who takes over the project when I feel like it's not being done to the absolute best of it's potential.  I'm a micro-manager, and I can't micro-manage this.  I have to trust G-d.  I CANNOT be in control on this one, and that's so scary for me.

One thing I will always take with me, though, is the memory of the sound of this sweet child's voice as she called out her classroom window to me, halting my progression to my ride back to the hotel.  I looked up, and there she was, leaning out the window for a third goodbye.  Maybe she didn't specifically mouth the words, "I love you, too, and I want you to be safe, too," but I feel like they were implied.

Going in circles

You know, when you're a kid, it's fun to go in circles.  For example, see my third graders in the video of today's "snack party" below:

However, when you're adult, it usually isn't all that fun.  In particular, I despise running in circles, like on a track, but I've always hated that.  "It's just that I'm not GOING anywhere!", I'd always say.

It's funny, though: My life seems to be circling back around to some old plans that I had made but never had the nerve to throw them on my bucket list, and, for once, I'm decently excited about it ("it" being the act of circling).  It would be nice to have some long-term goals again.  For now, I'm still in the planning stages, so I don't especially want to say too much about it, but I would (as always) appreciate your prayers for wisdom, guidance, and a child-like faith that's not afraid of enjoying the circles.

<3

Today was an excellent day.

Today was so good that I'm not even going to try to mask that fact with a confusing post title.  I'm just going to come right out and say it.  That way, you will have no need to sing THIS (also excellent) song to me.  (And yes, the only reason I didn't embed the video into this post rather than linking it is because I don't want it to be the profile picture for this post.  Yes, I AM that superficial.  So click on it and feel connected to me, because I'm listening to that song while I'm typing.)

Okay, I have a lot of things to say about today, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm just going to post the step-by-step of my day in photos:

The day started with 6th graders... having FUN??!!!...

...Probably because this was the basis of the lesson...

And we very happily played a game...

That I originally prepared for the fourth graders.

(Look familiar???)

But Shhhhh!  Don't tell them, please!  (Plus, this photo is too funny not to share with you.)  :)  I'm so sneaky.

Then, a 3rd grader (I think...) gave me this.  It's pretty, it's cute, and it's my first gift from a student.  I will treasure it (forever, probably, knowing me).

Then, a third grade homeroom teacher brought this lovely piece by (Ms. Gu - my head teacher - and I at 3/4 of it by ourselves).  Someone, somewhere was listening when I did my introductory PowerPoint and explained that my favorite foods are sushi and pie.  YUM!

Finally, here are some pictures of projects by my 6th graders.  They're not from today, but they're related to THIS post.  These did, however, contribute to my good day, because today I showed them to my head teacher, who loved them.  :)  I love them too, and I'm willing to bet that you will join the ranks.  So, without any further adieu, here are our bucket lists (from class 6-3):

 :)

Love you!