Genius.

So I saw this ad in one of marketing classes, and I thought it was simply genius. I couldn't find it anywhere on the web but here, so just ignore everyone's negative comments. They obviously aren't marketing or advertising students...what would they know..

Hopefully you know that I am just kidding. But seriously...genius stuff.

Epiphany

I had one today.

Let me clarify: Jesus gave me an epiphany today.

I often mull over how much I love being a goer, how I love being used by the Lord to share the Good News with those who haven't heard. I get to hear about it from the Bible and people with crazy awesome experience at Perspectives, and also from a lot of my close friends. I have also been blessed to be a goer myself at times, most impactfully (?) to South Asia.

Here is my faulty thinking. I often say I'd love to return to South Asia as a goer and reference my love for the people there, the culture, etc., and that I want to share the gift that is Jesus with them. But I've got it all backwards. I need to love Jesus first and more. Why should I be a goer? Because Jesus is my Saviour, my treasure, and my pleasure to share and I want bring Him glory.

Seems so simple, and my head has known this for a long time. But in the action of loving internationals here as I would those nationals overseas, my heart lost track of the ultimate treasure. I began to love internationals from my own limited supply of human love, instead of being filled with His love through meeting with Him. I shared him as a gift, not a treasure.

Now, the adventure begins again. I get to re-discover my King as the indescribable beauty He is.

How did I just do that?

two equally great things happened today.

firstly, I was walking in Gerdin with my snazzy leather boots from Ireland that click and clack all teacher-lady like. I always get alot of 'looks' when I wear them (pretty much every day) because I'm so noisy, but dangit, I like them! today, however, the tiny half-inch heels revolted. I was going around a corner, and I suddenly--magically--wiped out. pretty sure it looked like i slipped on the ice....inside. nicely topped off with a comment from aside, "I promise I won't tell anyone." who makes that kind of promise?! seeing someone do that pretty much makes my day...which reminds me that my friend Nattie made my day pretty hardcore on Monday. best wishes for your bum-healing!

to make my day immensely greater, I was walking into Gerdin in the middle of class time, so there were only two other people in sight on the sidewalks. as we are about to merge into one path up to building, the guy in front on my sneakily takes a look over his shoulder at the girl who just passed him, ignores my presence and starts running really strangely. it looked exactly like this:

to top it off, I caught up with him and recognized him from various classes and things throughout my time at ISU. Most notably when we saw him creeping on layla's apartment from his apartment last year...through like 3 different windows.

good day, and it is promising to get better with TSC tonight!

I just did alot of things this year.

So blogspot, old friend, I'm going to dare to declare once again that "I'm back." But as its been so long since I have been consistent, I'm going to try to appease the bitterness of our separation by updating you on what I've been doing.

I know you're really only interested in the good stuff, so heres a compilation of my last year in a nutshell:

I lived at home this summer. One day I wore my shirt backwards all day long. I had a sweet internship with Every Ethne (everyethne.org) in Iowa City and did graphic design work. I left my power cord home once and drove an hour each way to do two hours of work. I was blessed to teach an amazing Sudanese woman to drive. One day we had a shopping lesson instead. I was able to go to Cornerstone Festival and blow my ears out listening to music for a week. I fried in the sun.

I had the coolest opportunity to study in Ireland this fall. I didn't compensate correctly for my connecting flights and missed my London-Cork flight...by a day. The first four weeks I took an intensive culture class, met amazing friends, and traveled a bunch around Ireland. I left my memory card at home the day I kissed the Blarney Stone. I was able to go to Paris last minute, see a friend, and stay with some awesome Irish students (and of course see the city). I left all my purchases at a restaurant one night. My roommates and I got to spend a couple days in Tenerife, Spain (one of the Canary Islands) off the coast of Morocco. We waited for two hours to get into our 'condo'....that we booked the night before.

My parents got to come visit me and see the beautiful Emerald Isle. I took them to see Harry Potter 7 on Thanksgiving. We were able to go to China to see Gabe and some friends. I left my passport in my apartment 4 hours away in the middle of a snow storm...and realized it at 11 p.m. the night before our flight. I got to see the Great Wall of China! I puked for over 48 hours, got dehydrated and ketonic, and came off the airplane on a wheelchair. I spent my first night in China in the hospital.

Ireland eventually sent me back home. It took a train, bus, 4 flights, and a taxi to get me home 2 days late due to closed airports all across Europe. I'm now enjoying life back in wintry Ames. I slipped on the same piece of ice twice in one day. Family Group with internationals and Salt Company with 800 students has blessed my life so much in the last month. I hit Collin with my car today.

But if you didn't want to read that huge post, what you really need to know about my life is none of that. In a sentence, the last year has been God stretching me, pushing me, and loving me so that my life would be more about His glory.

HSBC does that.

Ok, so I'm going a little crazy blog posting. But I have two hours on my hands, and danget, I want to blog! Not to mention I wanted to beat Gabe to the punch on this one. We sat down and watched a bunch of these the other day, and being the suave cultural adapters we are (a.k.a. we have some pretty awesome cultural no-no stories) we enjoy laughing at others' mistakes.

I hope this can happen. Next time I ride the subway somewhere...its happening.

Germans vs. French. I bet you want to see what happens.

And Chinese conundrums are always super entertaining.

I'll limit myself to just four, but there are plenty of good ones to go around. Heres one for animal lovers. And sports lovers. What? You'll see.

Go ahead. Look up more. I know you want to. Start with swings, washing machines, my world, and shopkeepers. Break!

Affluenza

I am starting to really enjoy my marketing classes. I get to watch videos a lot (which is fantastic unless you are tired) and I learn some amazing things about how people think and behave.

Every once in a while, I come across something really depressing about our culture. This is one of them.

Chocolate Chips

Baking is fun. Let me correct that: baking is fun when you decide what you're going to make, when you're going to make it, and how exactly you plan on doing it. My roommates Amy & Chelsea and I decided that today we were going to make chocolate chip cookies. You know, as a housewarming gift...to ourselves. Easy as pie, right?

Well, apparently pie isn't so easy to make around here, because chocolate chip cookies from scratch REALLY aren't easy. Chelsea and I set out on an adventure (little did we know) to get what you would think are the easiest ingredients to find.

Sugar? Check.

Flour? Check.

Brown Sugar? Um..is this brown sugar or just sugar that is brown? Check.

Eggs? Check.

Butter? Check.

Vanilla? 4.50 EURO?!?! What?! It had better be a huge bottle...Check.

Baking Soda? You mean Bicarbonate of Soda? Oh, of course. Check.

Chocolate Chips? (10 mins later) Seriously? (5 mins later) Does anyone here make chocolate chips cookies?!

Eventually, we found a package of cake decorations containing sprinkles, candy pearls, and about 20 tiny chocolate chips. So we caved and bought a chocolate chip cookie mix for 1.50 euro. 3x less than the cost of the vanilla alone. I'm beginning to wonder what ingredients the Irish DO put in their cooking...especially since I can't find ranch dressing ANYWHERE!