24.8.05

1:15am....

alright, alright... i'm on my way to bed... sleep twisted my arm.....

unbelievable.....

isn't it great to have folks like pat robertson speaking on behalf of christians.... (note the sarcasm!!!) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9047102/

when is the christian community going to wake up and realize (or actually listen to) what is being said under the christian guise??

under pressure....

why is it that i always work best under pressure???

here it is 5 days before i have to leave and i haven't packed a single thing... i haven't finished my readings.... i haven't completed important paperwork... and i'm just cruising along.... tomorrow is already wednesday... wait - today is already wednesday.... it's 1:00am and instead of going to bed, i'm sitting around writing about not mucho! guess the pressure just isn't great enough yet!!

procrastination.... sigh!

22.8.05

mexico 8/05: Arches









def of home?

sometimes i wonder what/where home really is.... is it a place, a memory, a person?

sigh.... back in michigan as of last night and in a sense, i really wonder if i was ever gone for two weeks.... my little house in the woods is home... my cats are here... and yet, my heart is somewhere else... and my mind is trying to prepare itself for the move to vermont in a couple of weeks.... my 2 year housemate is moving out... i feel pretty scattered....

my time in mexico was a blessing and a gift from above.... it was HUGE to see rodrigo on his own turf and in his own surroundings... and to know what his environment looks like. but it almost seems like a dream that i was there.... did it really happen?? both of us need to keep our heads up, focused on the face of our Redeemer, and trusting that He will continue to lead.

So, CHIN UP! (and time to find some food....)

16.8.05

lost....


it´s amazing how you can get lost in someone´s eyes.... buildings could have come crashing down around me yesterday and i don´t think i would have noticed....

(sorry, didn´t mean to get all mushy on you guys!)

i´m just amazed by this overwelming feeling that i never understood when everyone else was going through it...

now I totally understand why one of my dear college roomies, who loved headbanging music, suddendly had only mushy love songs playing on her car radio... Jim was the reason!

now I totally understand why people can´t focus on anything else that they need to do.... distracted by someone else....

one of my married friends once told me that i would be missing out on the most amazing experience by not allowing myself to fall in love.... at the time, I laughed about it and told him to scrap it! now, i´m a believer... some of you (including myself) would have never thought it would be possible for ms. otis to ever let her guard down..... wonder how i ever managed to be so cynical about love....

(again, sorry to be a sap.... i´m just trying to process this new experience..)

15.8.05

bus drivers with a death wish.....

i don´t know why it is that i always seem to end up with either taxi or bus drivers who have some sort of a death wish.... last week friday i took a bus by myself to the university area.... about a 30 min. ride....

the morning started with the bus barely coming to a stop long enough for me to climb on board, press 5 pesos into the drivers hand and find the next seat before the bus continued a full speed across the cobblestone streets.... i kid you not when i tell you that i could have been flung from one end of the bus to the other in a matter of seconds if i hadn´t hung on to the railings....

thankfully i found a seat that i could barely fit my knees in.... right above the back wheel cover! lucky girl!!!

the driver continued racing (imagine racing in a bus!!) down the road in order to beat whatever time he was supposed to... at one point he carried a full blown conversation with a bus driver next to him at record speed.... quite impressive for how narrow some of the roads are here.... you would have thought you were on a racetrack for buses!!!

in the midst of the insanity and speed, i look down and see a poor struggling cockroach meandering down the aisle.... another critter with a death wish..... it wasn´t long before a little girl´s sandle came crushing down on the poor thing that had no hope to begin with.....

sigh.... such is life, no?? don´t think i would want to be a cockroach..... la vida de las cucharachas....

anyway, 30 min later i gathered up enough courage to take the step out of the moving bus.... and manage to not trip and fall....

here's my preferred method of transportation (see below):

11.8.05

GRINGAS

as of yet, only rodrigo´s grandpa has called me a ´gringa´ ...

let me tell you guys... meals are on a whole different time table down here.... last night we walked around the corner to a little taco/gringa shop at 11:00pm. both rodrigo and his mom didn´t bat an eye at the time, although i kept wondering how my indigestion would work at that time of the night... hmmmm....

what is a gringa?? (besides a north american chiquita??) well, for those of you familiar with kebabs where you shave meat off of a huge chunck of rotisserating meat... it´s that, just in a taco, mexican style... very, very rico!! you put pineapple, onion, guacamole, and other stuff on it and eat it taco style.

while rodrigo and i ate gringas, his mom consumed three `tacos de cabeza´ and one ´taco de seso´ ... cabeza=head and seso=brain.... yep... very impressed with the variety of tacos available... (other interesting items that come in tacos are eyes and stomach...). i tried the `cabeza´ and it really didn´t taste that bad... i´m more curious to know though where all that head meat comes from.... guess it´s better to use ALL parts of the critter than to waste...

as for indigestion... well, i slept like a rock last night.... no complaints... (thank the lord that my stomach has been in fairly good condition!! kari-i´m hoping i don´t experience the wrath of montezuma as you and ryan did a few years ago... yikes!)

10.8.05

buenos dias de mexico, amigos!!

i wish i could describe what an incredible day yesterday was... but it´s hard to put it all into words until i process it all .... mi caballero and i celebrated 8 months of getting to know each other... it was a beautiful evening of qualtity time together... muy muy romantico!! :) muchas gracias, amore mio!

i also had the opportunity to see my friend mo'pete who is teaching in the durango area... she is such a stitch and it was great to sit in a cafe and near fountains and just talk, talk, talk.... mo´pete, it was great to catch up with you!!! you are a riot! hope you survived the evening with brent! hahahaha
mo´pete and i walked all around downtown.... you guys should see the colors of the buildings... and the way people just sit in the plaza, relaxing, taking siestas, and just being part of a community.... often i felt like i was walking the cobblestone streets of europe... and being in a southern mediterranean atmosphere.... so far i´m not getting hassled, so that is a good thing....

it´s weird... in a way this place is a combination of so many places i have visited.... there are scenes, buildings, people, smells, sounds, animals, etc that look familiar from my travels in europe, bosnia, afghanistan, malaysia, china.... and for the first time in a long time, i get the chance to just sit and soak it all in.... so many of my other trips have been agenda and purpose driven... God is blessing me with time to sit, rest, reflect, grow, and of course, get my grad school readings done!!! hahahahahahahah

8.8.05

mexico....

buenos dias de mexico!!!

what an incredible place this is.... am having a grand time here..... will try to keep you all posted in the next few days of what´s going on.... the biggest surprise??? it definitely feels like home... sam´s club, office max, walmart, home depot, mc d´s, kfc..... weird... the other thing is that hearing spanish 24-7 doesn´t seem to bother me as holland has definitely prepared me for it....

as for my caballero.... it´s good to be with him!!! :)

adios muchachos!!

2.8.05

sunflowers 07/05