So I ran into the rudest boys ever today. This story really isn't relevant to why this blog was made, but I'm extremely disgruntled about this and feel like telling the internet about it.
Today after church I went to lunch with a friend and as we were walking out a group of boys passed us and said "'Sup hoes?" and other offending things. I just came from church so I obviously tried to dress as classy as Durango would allow. I wore jeans with a black tee and some pearls my Dad gave me for Christmas. Of course, I didn't know the boys were talking to us at first because we weren't dressed trashy in the least so it took me a few seconds and asking my friend to figure out they were talking to us. After I figured it out I turned around and began to chase them down to chew them out and punch them in the face for being jerks. But my friend convinced me not to. I wished she hadn't though. I really wanted to give them a piece of my mind. Ain't nobody call me a hoe and get away with it. Stupid boys...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Final Philippines Blog
Okay, this is the last blog about the Philippines trip.
I loved having the opportunity to get to know so many amazing people. They really made a huge difference in my life. I wish we all could have stayed a lot longer so I could get the chance to talk to each person individually to get to know them better, but that's the bummer about short term missions trips. At least I have Facebook to keep in touch with all of them.
I loved having the opportunity to get to know so many amazing people. They really made a huge difference in my life. I wish we all could have stayed a lot longer so I could get the chance to talk to each person individually to get to know them better, but that's the bummer about short term missions trips. At least I have Facebook to keep in touch with all of them.
White Lady On the Inside
This is another post about my experiences in the Philippines with the amazing people I met on the breathtakingly gorgeous islands. One of our guides was named Vladamir and he was pretty much the coolest guy ever. He would always joking with us on the long boat rides from island to island. He even gave some of us nick names which were, of course, hilarious. The nick name given to me was "white lady on the inside." and I will explain this all in the next paragraph.
Vlad, as he told us to call him, was taking a group picture for us. One thing I hate about group pictures is everyone hands the picture taker their cameras so that there are at least ten photos we have to pose for. So to make things entertaining I like to make a silly face on the last one. Usually nobody notices until later when the person goes through their pictures, but this was not the case with Vlad. He finally snapped the last picture "1...2...3". On three I struck a silly pose. Right after he snap the picture he exclaimed "Oh no! Do again." and pointing at me said "White lady on the inside." Thus I have a new nick name. I'm not sure what it means but it makes me laugh.
Vlad, as he told us to call him, was taking a group picture for us. One thing I hate about group pictures is everyone hands the picture taker their cameras so that there are at least ten photos we have to pose for. So to make things entertaining I like to make a silly face on the last one. Usually nobody notices until later when the person goes through their pictures, but this was not the case with Vlad. He finally snapped the last picture "1...2...3". On three I struck a silly pose. Right after he snap the picture he exclaimed "Oh no! Do again." and pointing at me said "White lady on the inside." Thus I have a new nick name. I'm not sure what it means but it makes me laugh.
St, Paddy's Day
Last week I had the amazing opportunity to travel half way across the world to the Philippines for a missions trip. It was definitely the best thing that has happened to me this year. I had the pleasure of meeting any people who I will most likely never forget. This blog, however, is going to be about one in particular who has made a great impact on my life.
You would think, after my last statement, the person whom I am referring is a Filipino orphan or widow living in the slums with no hope in the world. Their lives utterly terrible and no way to ever overcome their poverty and misfortune. But this is not the person whom this blog will be about, even though, those people's grief will never escape my mind. Peter, is a nutty Irishman who has a passion for loving and caring for those people. At the tender age of 24 he has visited 41 different countries, most of which were on missions trips, and spent a great deal of time trying to change poverty stricken family's lives. Being raised by a medical missionary in the Congo, his father would let Peter assist him with gruesome surgeries, most of which consisted of amputating cancers from varies parts of sick bodies. Currently, Peter, is working for International Care Ministries in the Philippines organizing missions groups to come in a build houses, assist in the medical and dental clinics, and play with children.
Now that I have given some background on Peter, I will explain how I met him and how he changed my life. It was my fourth day being in the Philippines, which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day. Our group was grabbing some breakfast before heading to the building site to floor some buildings, when I noticed a man wearing a bright green shirt with "Ireland" written across the chest. "That is so awesome. I have to meet this guy." i thought to myself. After breakfast we were walking to the building site when I noticed the Ireland guy in front of me, so I jogged to catch up to him and said in a friendly voice "Hey, I'm Elisabeth. I don't think I've met you yet." he turned to look and laughed "Funny how you don't meet someone 'til the fourth day of a trip like this. I'm Peter." He spoke with an Irish accent, which was awesome. When I learned he was from Ireland, I informed him I am half Irish and he became very excited. We talked the rest of the way to the building site and he told me a little about himself. I decided he was definitely the most interesting person I had ever had the pleasure to talk with.
Later that night at dinner, I decided to sit next to him to hear more about his intriguing life. I told him of my desire to be a medical missionary and his face lit up as he informed me his father is a medical missionary in the Congo. For the rest of the week I asked him so many questions and would listen as he told me disgusting stories of surgeries and encouraged me in my walk with God and following my dreams. He even offered for me to travel to the Congo and work with his dad. What an amazing opportunity!
Meeting Peter really encouraged me in my life to follow my dreams and passions with all of my heart and never give up. It also made my goals seem much more real and attainable. I could write pages on my conversations with Peter and the impact he had on my life, but it's very personal and I would feel awkward sharing it over the internet.
You would think, after my last statement, the person whom I am referring is a Filipino orphan or widow living in the slums with no hope in the world. Their lives utterly terrible and no way to ever overcome their poverty and misfortune. But this is not the person whom this blog will be about, even though, those people's grief will never escape my mind. Peter, is a nutty Irishman who has a passion for loving and caring for those people. At the tender age of 24 he has visited 41 different countries, most of which were on missions trips, and spent a great deal of time trying to change poverty stricken family's lives. Being raised by a medical missionary in the Congo, his father would let Peter assist him with gruesome surgeries, most of which consisted of amputating cancers from varies parts of sick bodies. Currently, Peter, is working for International Care Ministries in the Philippines organizing missions groups to come in a build houses, assist in the medical and dental clinics, and play with children.
Now that I have given some background on Peter, I will explain how I met him and how he changed my life. It was my fourth day being in the Philippines, which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day. Our group was grabbing some breakfast before heading to the building site to floor some buildings, when I noticed a man wearing a bright green shirt with "Ireland" written across the chest. "That is so awesome. I have to meet this guy." i thought to myself. After breakfast we were walking to the building site when I noticed the Ireland guy in front of me, so I jogged to catch up to him and said in a friendly voice "Hey, I'm Elisabeth. I don't think I've met you yet." he turned to look and laughed "Funny how you don't meet someone 'til the fourth day of a trip like this. I'm Peter." He spoke with an Irish accent, which was awesome. When I learned he was from Ireland, I informed him I am half Irish and he became very excited. We talked the rest of the way to the building site and he told me a little about himself. I decided he was definitely the most interesting person I had ever had the pleasure to talk with.
Later that night at dinner, I decided to sit next to him to hear more about his intriguing life. I told him of my desire to be a medical missionary and his face lit up as he informed me his father is a medical missionary in the Congo. For the rest of the week I asked him so many questions and would listen as he told me disgusting stories of surgeries and encouraged me in my walk with God and following my dreams. He even offered for me to travel to the Congo and work with his dad. What an amazing opportunity!
Meeting Peter really encouraged me in my life to follow my dreams and passions with all of my heart and never give up. It also made my goals seem much more real and attainable. I could write pages on my conversations with Peter and the impact he had on my life, but it's very personal and I would feel awkward sharing it over the internet.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Adventures in Moab, Utah
This past weekend was spent camping and jeeping in the great Moab, Utah with a handful of my college age friends. Unfortunately, I do not own a Jeep so I rode in my friend, Tyler's, and the boy I met two Fridays ago, Mike. I made a few new acquaintances, but it's very hard to get to know people very well when you're riding in separate Jeeps all day. But I did get the chance, however, to get to know Mike better because, of course, we were in the same Jeep. Though, I am going to take this opportunity to diverge from the purpose of this blog and tell you the story of an experience I had with Mike instead of talking about my thoughts and feelings about getting to know him. This is because the story is awesome and the later is boring and I'm not particularly in the mood for writing about boring stuff.
Most of what we were doing all day Saturday was called rock crawling. This consists of driving Jeeps up ridiculously large rocks and hoping you don't roll while doing so. If you have a Jeep, however, that is made for rock crawling, like Tyler's, you don't do as much worrying as you do climbing. It had been a long day of crawling and we were heading back to our campsite before our daylight died. I was sleepy and a little chilled because Tyler had taken the front doors off of his Jeep and the warmth of the day had vanished, causing cold air to fill Vanessa (Vanessa is what I named his Jeep). I was seated in the back so at least doors were protecting me from the frigid air, unlike Mike and Tyler in front, but I was still cold and tired. Anyway, coldness really doesn't have anything to do with my story... So we're coming up to this rock about to start climbing and, overcome with tiredness I opened my mouth to let out a big yawn. Mike glances back at me and exclaims,
"Did you seriously just yawn?"
"Yeah. I'm really tired." I say with a smile.
"Do you not see what's in front of us?!" He was obviously very concerned about this.
"Yeah, I'm just not that worried about it. Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?" Sometimes I'm a little too laid back.
"Uh, we die?"
"Psh, then I die." I spoke a little too soon...
We were climbing and all of a sudden Vanessa starts to slide down the rock and before we knew it, she rolled completely over and back on her side. We were about to go over again and off a steep decline but last minute she slammed back down on her passenger side. I began to look around to make sure Mike and Tyler were okay. Tyler glanced back at me to do the same. Everyone was fine. Our friends outside were in a panic and leaped out of their Jeeps to come help us. Mike, being a firefighter yelled to our friends on the outside "Is it stable?! Is it Stable?!" I start to unbuckle to begin to climb out when I smelled smoke and I heard a voice exclaim "It's on fire! Get the @#%! out of the Jeep!" All in a panic Mike unbuckles his seat belt and notices that Tyler's is stuck. He begins to help him but Tyler yelled "Get Elisabeth!" because he's sweet and was worried about me and obviously didn't think I would be able to get out by myself. Mike flew out over Tyler to get to me. By that time I already unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door over my head. As I'm climbing out I see Mike standing below with his arms held out yelling "Elisabeth, jump!". Yeah, there was no way I was going to leap into his arms, so I flung myself out of the Jeep and ate it when I landed. Mike did get the chance, however, to help me up. Tyler had already managed to undo his seatbelt and was searching for a fire extinguisher.One of our friends ran up to put out the flame, but his fire extinguisher had expired and didn't work. By that time, Tyler found another one and extinguished the flame.
We were all okay and no one got seriously injured except for poor Vanessa. She was seriously the coolest Jeep ever. The next five or six hours were spent in the dark putting Vanessa back on her tires and getting her back to town so she could be fixed. The whole trail was on sandstone, so it was very difficult to find the trail in the dark, so the passengers guided the Jeeps on foot by flashlight. It was midnight by the time we got back into town. We were all exhausted and famished, so instead of heading back to the campsite and attempt to make food for ourselves, we went to Denny's and kicked back with some burgers.
The trip was unbelievably awesome. I wouldn't give it up for the world. One always grows so much closer to the people they're with when they go through something traumatic or stressful. Life is indeed an adventure.
Most of what we were doing all day Saturday was called rock crawling. This consists of driving Jeeps up ridiculously large rocks and hoping you don't roll while doing so. If you have a Jeep, however, that is made for rock crawling, like Tyler's, you don't do as much worrying as you do climbing. It had been a long day of crawling and we were heading back to our campsite before our daylight died. I was sleepy and a little chilled because Tyler had taken the front doors off of his Jeep and the warmth of the day had vanished, causing cold air to fill Vanessa (Vanessa is what I named his Jeep). I was seated in the back so at least doors were protecting me from the frigid air, unlike Mike and Tyler in front, but I was still cold and tired. Anyway, coldness really doesn't have anything to do with my story... So we're coming up to this rock about to start climbing and, overcome with tiredness I opened my mouth to let out a big yawn. Mike glances back at me and exclaims,
"Did you seriously just yawn?"
"Yeah. I'm really tired." I say with a smile.
"Do you not see what's in front of us?!" He was obviously very concerned about this.
"Yeah, I'm just not that worried about it. Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?" Sometimes I'm a little too laid back.
"Uh, we die?"
"Psh, then I die." I spoke a little too soon...
We were climbing and all of a sudden Vanessa starts to slide down the rock and before we knew it, she rolled completely over and back on her side. We were about to go over again and off a steep decline but last minute she slammed back down on her passenger side. I began to look around to make sure Mike and Tyler were okay. Tyler glanced back at me to do the same. Everyone was fine. Our friends outside were in a panic and leaped out of their Jeeps to come help us. Mike, being a firefighter yelled to our friends on the outside "Is it stable?! Is it Stable?!" I start to unbuckle to begin to climb out when I smelled smoke and I heard a voice exclaim "It's on fire! Get the @#%! out of the Jeep!" All in a panic Mike unbuckles his seat belt and notices that Tyler's is stuck. He begins to help him but Tyler yelled "Get Elisabeth!" because he's sweet and was worried about me and obviously didn't think I would be able to get out by myself. Mike flew out over Tyler to get to me. By that time I already unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door over my head. As I'm climbing out I see Mike standing below with his arms held out yelling "Elisabeth, jump!". Yeah, there was no way I was going to leap into his arms, so I flung myself out of the Jeep and ate it when I landed. Mike did get the chance, however, to help me up. Tyler had already managed to undo his seatbelt and was searching for a fire extinguisher.One of our friends ran up to put out the flame, but his fire extinguisher had expired and didn't work. By that time, Tyler found another one and extinguished the flame.
We were all okay and no one got seriously injured except for poor Vanessa. She was seriously the coolest Jeep ever. The next five or six hours were spent in the dark putting Vanessa back on her tires and getting her back to town so she could be fixed. The whole trail was on sandstone, so it was very difficult to find the trail in the dark, so the passengers guided the Jeeps on foot by flashlight. It was midnight by the time we got back into town. We were all exhausted and famished, so instead of heading back to the campsite and attempt to make food for ourselves, we went to Denny's and kicked back with some burgers.
The trip was unbelievably awesome. I wouldn't give it up for the world. One always grows so much closer to the people they're with when they go through something traumatic or stressful. Life is indeed an adventure.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Drugs and Alcohol in Result in Jail Time
Another typical Monday, sitting at my favorite coffee shop, Joe's, finishing a paper for class. I was sipping on my skinny vanilla latte when a girl, about 19 years old, walks up to me and asks to use my computer to activate her phone. I was really confused about the situation, but I agreed to let her use my computer anyway. She thanked me extensively and offered me money, but I refused to take any type of payment. I just wanted to be a nice person because it makes me feel really awesome. We got to talking a little bit and asked me what I was doing at Joe's. I explained I go to do my homework after class everyday. To be polite I returned the question. "I just got out of jail a few hours ago and I'm here for an AA meeting." I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that because I'd never asked someone that question and gotten that response. So my reply was "Oh cool." We talked for a little longer when all of a sudden she asked if I did drugs. I was also caught off guard by this question. I told her I didn't and she got really excited and asked if we could hang out sometime. Again, confused as to what was going on I replied "Yeah! Totally.Sounds awesome." Apparently, she's quite the trouble maker and needs to hang out with people who will be a good influence on her and, since I look like such a good kid, she wanted to hang out with me. So she got my number and said she would text me sometime.
I'm really quite astounded with the situations I get myself into. The most random stuff happens to me. She hasn't text me yet, but I hope she does and I'll be able to get to know her better. She looks like she really needs help. I like helping people a lot. I'll be praying for her. Maybe I can be a good influence on her and get her back on track with life. Life is so interesting.
I'm really quite astounded with the situations I get myself into. The most random stuff happens to me. She hasn't text me yet, but I hope she does and I'll be able to get to know her better. She looks like she really needs help. I like helping people a lot. I'll be praying for her. Maybe I can be a good influence on her and get her back on track with life. Life is so interesting.
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