Back from Abroad

Wow, really missing my family right now. When I walked into my house it felt so brand new! Complete with gray/white tile floors, funny furnished, air conditioning. Wow, we are REALLY rich here in this country. It feels surreal to get into my fluffy warm bed in my room that has everything I could ever need with my "giant" tv and decent entertainment center. Then I go to the bathroom and there is warm, filtered water! I even went to the store Friday afternoon and I could drive! lol It's been so long that it felt a little like I was in drivers' ed again. There is the Philippines it's a 3-car lane with 4 cars on it, motorcyclist/bicyclist, and pedestrians shoved in whatever crack is left! And everyone just turns whenever they feel like it, totally going over the double line and straddling the boundaries. Wow, how do you not get scratched up?

Went to church for the first time back home yesterday. It felt so weird to have the entire building and breezeway rooms air conditioned and with lights! And, of course, our young adult room (the best classroom of all ;-) ) has a fridge full of food and drinks in it. Usually my praise team Resonance has a pre-performance breakfast in our room and we leave the left overs there for who knows how long. But this week there was actually new, unopened stuff and the whole top shelf was bottled water. Juice on the side door. We also have a piano (but it's old, out of tune and sticky keys). And we even had a new art piece - an anonymous painting. And the artist wants to make some more for our class too. So, of course, now I'm hearing it from Marlon (our associate pastor) because he's been wanting me to do some art for our room for the longest time. And I wore the dress I got from People Are People at the Mall of Asia. And, of course, I got a bunch of nice comments about it from my church family. I just smiled and told them, "I know! Thanks, IT'S FROM THE PHILIPPINES!! :-D " I'm glad to say that my silver, hand-made Indian shoes and silver clutch made a good touch to the dusty-blue dress. :-)

Well it turns out that on Saturday afternoon my car battery died. Very strange since I went to get a fully maintenance check before I left....? What do you think might have happened? Well good thing I took my cousin's advice on driving before I left (haha). When I was abroad only my uncles drove or we had a chauffeur. And most of the time there is someone there to cook, do the laundry and dishes and ironing. I do everything myself in the US - that stuff is expensive here! I even wash and vacuum my own car and completely sanitize my bathroom.


Yesterday I was an audience member for my AY (Adventist Youth) program. I got there early at my usual time and they were already harassing me to do things. I told them I was going to be a spectator and I wanted to see what they've done with the program since I've been gone (haha). It was interesting. Don't worry guys, I thought of some awesome ideas while I was at PI! Got you covered! Get ready for a new AY in the next couple of weeks! ;-)

That about sums up my thoughts for now. Will blog about my other experiences abroad over the next couple of wks. Please check out pictures from the trip on the Flickr link located on the right side of this page.