New Year, New Adventure

Well everyone, here we are again; on the edge of adventure. Beginning the new year with a silent plea for the grand by diving headfirst into the past made present.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be off again. To explore, to be cold and giggling like a child experiencing the first snow of the year. To wander streets I've never seen in cities where everyone speaks a language I can't understand. To feel utterly alone and yet know that I am not. After a year where I have often questioned what God is calling me to do--I am excited for this chance for a freezing fresh start.

In the past few days I have been thinking a lot about what it means to look at our problems through God as opposed to seeing God through our problems. And as I consider this upcoming adventure I am reminded of what I know will come. The feelings of possibility, of fresh chances, and most encouragingly, renewed mindsets. I am eager to once again come face to face with the reality that I can do anything, and that truly, the only thing holding me back is whether or not I believe that. And so I pray that as I land on foreign ground, that I am able to step back from the worries and frustrations I have of my future. That I see them through the new eyes. That I would be reminded that I serve a God of possibility. A God who calms storms but also a God who calls us both to them and through them. A God who can do IMMEASURABLY more than I can ever imagine.

This trip will be a whirlwind of the most glorious kind. Full of old friends, new places, strange foods, lovely languages, and the snowy quiet of Europe in Winter. Along the way I'll be seeing friends I met in Oz, Thailand, NZ and Germany. All of whom I've never seen in their "real" lives and some of which I haven't seen in almost 10 years.  I am SO pumped for every piece of this trip; but, getting to see people I haven't seen in ages to reminisce on the old while simultaneously taking in the new is utter perfection. And as I sit in my own state of general uncertainty, I am eager to experience the joys of life that come with communing with old friends in their present moments. The reminder that life marches forward and moving with it doesn't mean I'm leaving everything behind.

I will be off to Europe for about 3 weeks. Roughly here's what we're looking at:

US > Reykjavik >London
London >Ghent/Bruges/Brussels
Brussels >Maastricht/Amsterdam
Amsterdam >Prague
Prague > Vienna
Vienna > Munich
Munich > London
London > US


So I will attempt to update as I can, but may end up doing a little post-adventure blogging upon my return depending on time/computer access. Until then--

I don't know what this coming year holds. I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing. And yet I know that I have been granted passions for a reason. That God has given us gifts and talents and joys to be used in order to allow His love and glory to shine brighter wherever life may find us. So here's to this new year. To adventures the world over, to laughing with friends and loving people more deeply. To creating community wherever we are and seeing joy in small moments. But more than anything, here's to seeing our fears through the possibility that lies in God's omnipotence.

Love you all dearly! Cheers to this wonderful new year!

"I hereby command you: be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9 

Lessons in Trust.

Woo. It has been....A WEEK (or two, or three). God and I have been talking a lot lately.

I hate being stressed, but let me tell you--I love the conversations God and I have when I am. At the moment, most of my pressure points are future related. Travel, career, passions and worries all wrapped up in a beautiful mess of emotional outcries. So, given that most of those pertain to my general blogging subjects--I figured I'd share some of what I feel like I've been learning lately.

There are two obscure desires that I have had for a long time. I call them obscure primarily because of their specificity, but also because of what they entail:

1. Adopt kids that are in the 15-18 age range right before they get booted out of the system 
2. Find a way to help under-privileged high school students get abroad

I won't go into the details of why or how I'd like to make these things happen, but I will point out two things about these desires:

•  I don't generally like working with kids. Okay, that's an overstatement. I don't think I'm necessarily GOOD at working with kids, especially not teenagers. Nonetheless, for years these two things have been something I've cared deeply about, and I have often wondered why God would give me such a strong desire to help a group of people that I generally avoid like the plague. (sorry every high schooler I've ever worked with who now think I hate them--I don't, I promise!)

• In order to achieve at least one of these goals, I have to get back into the International Edu. industry and work with students. Most of these jobs require/prefer a Master's Degree, some counseling/advising experience, and previous work in a higher education setting. I don't have any of those things.

As I tried to sort out these thoughts I was reminded by a good friend that sometimes God puts us in seemingly impossible situations in order for us to be reminded that HE is in control. When God met Moses through a burning bush (Exodus 3-4) he commanded him to go to Pharaoh and tell him let His people go. Moses protested with a variety of excuses which God deflected one after another. My favorite excuse however, was this one:

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

In the end, God calms Moses down by assuring him that his brother Aaron will be there to speak with and for him. Summary: God wanted Moses to do something, Moses can't/doesn't want to, God makes it happen anyways.

As I reread that recently, I was reminded not only God's faithfulness, but also that in all things I can trust him. Perhaps sometimes God puts desires in our hearts that don't make sense so that we are reminded that He is capable of anything. His strength is made visible when we do things that are seemingly impossible otherwise.

So, I guess that's where I'm at. I have no idea what the future holds or where I'll be next. I don't know who will hire me or when. What I do know is this: God is good all the time. And today when I have an inevitable moment of despair thinking about the impossibility of everything I want out of life I will take a step back. I will remember that I serve a God who is able to do immeasurably (let that sink in) more than I could ever ask or imagine, and I will rest in that.

Ephesians 3:20-21
الحَمْد لله‎‎

Wandering Home

I've been home exactly a month now, but still have yet to be fully "home". I have spent each weekend gallivanting to new places and catching up with friends in an ongoing attempt to prevent early-onset adulthood. While most of these adventures were of the ordinary, fun sort (trips to New York and Princeton, Charlottesville, and NOVA) one of them was quite extraordinary and deserves at least a little mention. The Roadtrip to Texas.

One of my best friends the stunning and adventurous Amanda Hall, had gotten a  job in Texas saving some sea turtles (as you do), and needed someone to roadtrip down with her. Well, seeing as I was desperate to ignore the looming pressures of adulthood and I hadn't seen my Austin-residing sister Tess in about 2 years this seemed like the PERFECT excuse to say UHH HELL YEAH. And so we were off.

I won't bore you with crazy details but here's basically what our life was like for 10 days.

Mar 10: Amanda and I left super early in order to make it to Nashville by early evening. Pit stops were of course made for Foam Henge and Chic-fil-A. Once we arrived we ran to the Grand Ole Opry to take pictures and then wander around the Opryland Hotel which has a RIVER in it. Because you know, MONEY. After proceeding to get desperately lost, we went to downtown Nashville grabbed a delicious dinner and enjoyed hearing all the live-music pump out of the nearby bars. Eventually we made it to the lovely Taylor's house. Taylor, an awesome friend of mine from high school offered to put us up for the two nights we were in town which was SO great. She gave us a list of great things to do and places to go which was super helpful.

Mar 11:NASHVILLE Day 2 in Nashville was PRODUCTIVE. Like, touring the Grand Ole Opry, taking pictures at the Ryman, listening to live music downtown and visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame. Then, just to top it off we got to go watch a friend of Taylor's sing the public debut of her own, original songs. SUPER cool. We also made sure to enjoy what have been voted the country's BEST Biscuits, and some supah good southern BBQ.

Mar 12: MEMPHIS Originally the plan was to wear Elvis wigs and tour Graceland. But, instead we wandered the city a bit, went to the National Civil Right Museum (which was AWESOME and everyone should go to), enjoyed delicious catfish and po-boys, took pics outside the gate of Graceland, and went into a hotel that kept live ducks in their indoor fountain. Classic Memphis. Then we drove until we could drive no longer and crossed into Mississippi and then Louisiana before stopping for the night to sleep.

Mar 13: NEW ORLEANS It took some figuring out, but Amanda and I eventually made it to New Orleans and checked into our hotel after getting some delicious Vietnamese food at this super sketchy back alley place. We spent the majority of the day just wandering the city, enjoying the ability to drink and sightsee simultaneously. After singing along with the dueling piano's at Pat O' Briens, set off on a haunted tour of New Orleans with Amanda's cousin and her bf. Alright, it was a bit expensive for just storytelling, but the stories were creepy, true (or were they?) and the guide was engaging. No complaints from me. Plus we topped it all off with some phenomenal Jambalaya. BOOM BABY.

Mar 14: NEW ORLEANS Saturday was probably our most unexpectedly enjoyable day. We found out the day before that there would be a St. Patty's Day Parade, and we though 'eh? why not give it a go?' and so off we went. walking miles downtown, worried we were going the wrong way, only to find the most EPIC St. Patty's Day Parade ever! Beads, cabbages, potatoes, flowers (but only for a kiss), lucky charms, garters and whatever else people considered "Irish-y" got thrown at the crowd. I swear the people next to us thought we were drunk due to the large amount of screaming and giggling Amanda and I were doing (don't worry you concerned citizens--we were pretty friggin sober). It turned into a competition to get as many beads as we could until the end when our necks could barely sustain the weight of them all. But after jingling our way to the car to dump our prizes, we wandered to the French Market to look at all the fun market-y things and enjoy some more po-boys for our last evening in Louisiana!

Mar 15: DRIVING I'm gonna be honest, nothing all THAT exciting happened this day except that we entered TEXAS and at the info center got to see both an alligator and turtles. Then we took jumping pictures. ALSO I got to see my sister for the first time in 2 years. So that was cool I guess. Other than that we went to go get some Texan toast burgers (which Amanda ate with a fork and both Tess AND Amanda cut in half. What i'm trying to say is i'm the most American one here.) 

Mar 16: AUSTIN The only truly important part of this day was when we went to Banger's, which is a restaurant that pretty much only sells sausages. While there we listened to live music, enjoyed our first Lone Stars, contemplated getting the free tattoo offered by the restaurant and generally enjoyed the Austin atmosphere.

Mar 17: AUSTIN FOR ST. PATTY'S This night was hilarious. We spent the majority of it at an Irish bar on 6th Street dancing with a dude who looked like and artsy RDJ and discussing the best Disney Channel movies while people 15 years our senior attempted to flirt with us. SOLID night of st Patty's

Mar 18: AUSTIN FOR AMANDA'S BIRTHDAY! YAY! AKA THE BEST NIGHT EVER. Okay, maybe not ever but it is the night we ran into Shia Labeouf and his girlfriend. So, PRETTY FRIGGIN GOOD. Basically, we had decided that we wanted to do two-stepping while in Austin because, well, why not? So we found this tiny yet well-known little dance hall and headed there around 8pm. The first hour we were there was like a two-stepping lesson where we just watched people figure out how to do this whole thing until the band came on. So Tess got called up cause someone needed an extra partner--so amanda and I are just chilling on the sidelines watching people dance when this kid shows up who vaguely looks like Shia. SO I turn to amanda and was like 'Amanda! Doesn't this dude look like Shia Labeouf?' Then, upon noticing his rattail which Shia has been prominently displaying as of late, I thought to myself 'wait. No way this is ACTUALLY Shia. It can't be. That doesn't just HAPPEN. But wait, it's SXSW. MAYBE?!' And it was at this point I started to mentally freak out JUST a tad. And by a tad I mean I may have started shaking a bit out of excitement (i'm basically a puppy it's fine). THEN HIS GIRLFRIEND CAME UP BESIDE HIM AND I LOST MY FRIGGIN MIND. Because I had just recently seen a picture of them together, the MOMENT I saw her I knew it was him and flipped completely. At this point Amanda and I, who had previously decided not to dance til the band came on, were losing it and decided WE MUST DANCE NOW. And so we got up and pretended to know how to two-step right behind Shia and his GF. Eventually we were able to call this whole situation to Tess' attention, who also freaked out. And so that was our night. Amanda remained on Shia watch the rest of the night, we accidentally ran into them a few times on the dance floor, but generally pretended to remain totally cool and not ruin their little two-stepping date night even though there was a general understanding that he knew that we knew who they were and were casually watching them the entire night. It was glorious and i thought....WELCOME TO SXSW BABY. BOOM.

Mar 19: AUSTIN This day we wandered around a bit, had the third round of breakfast tacos for the week, and ended with a sweet outdoors concert for SXSW.

Mar 20: AUSTIN AND DALLAS AND TESS'S BIRTHDAY! YAY! Unfortunately I couldn't stay in town for the whole of Tess' bday and Amanda had to run off to her ACTUAL job location that morning. But, I did get to grab a last lunch with Tessie before I headed off to Dallas to hang out with the FANTASTIC Anna and her plane-flying lover boy Zack. I found out SUPER last minute that Anna lived in Dallas and she was kind enough to let me barge in on her life and crash at her place even for a SUPER short time. Literally though like I showed up for an hour, hung out, made her drive me to the event I came to Dallas for, got back to Anna's at like midnight, chatted, then was like 'right. So I need to hit the airport by 6am.'AND THEY TOOK ME. LET IT BE KNOWN ANNA AND ZACK ARE THE BEST. Also I was really excited to catch up with them after 1.5 year abroad. But wait....I forgot to mention why I was actually in Dallas. Two of my absolute favourite  people from when I studied abroad in Egypt GOT ENGAGED!!! And I was lucky enough to be out there at the same time so that I could be apart of the excitement. So Congrats to the stunning ANJANA and phenomenal JOHNNY! SO Pumped for them both.

All that to say, it was totally the best road trip ever. We went into it just hoping to see Tess, get to an engagement and see some cities. Instead, we saw friends, cousins, live music, a celebrity, danced with strangers, saw a weird kiwi comedy that we loved, caught SXSW, ran into St. Patty's Day in New Orleans, almost got tattoos in Texas and generally lived it up for 10 days.