Windows and Mirrors

I'm hanging out at Earth House Cafe right now. It's a sweet little fair trade/organic coffee shop/cafe. They have an art exhibit up right now called Windows and Mirrors with really sad but thought-provoking paintings on the war in Afghanistan. 

I'm missing my DR families and team today, more than usual. It's just hard since there's no easy way to see them again in the near future. Hopefully someday I'll be able to afford a plane ticket, but until then I want to write some letters.


It's also a little bit sad that my immediate family is spread out over four states currently. There are only five of us, but we have somebody in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Texas. Crazy. It'll be great to have a family dinner all together again, and vacation in the second half of the summer.


Also, my sister just went through an appendectomy like a champ. Wish I could have been there with her, but she's got my mom and grandparents so I think she'll be alright :)


The hummus, veggies, and flatbread I ordered here was pretty good. But it didn't taste quite as good to me as my eggs and biscuit dinner from last Saturday...

I'm in Indy

And this internship is the beeest.
The people I'm working with here are fantastic. I watch Monk with Heidi, my supervisor, sometimes on our lunch break and last night had Indian food with the Pastor's family and went to a movie with the ladies.
[I actually do work here too, I promise, this is just the fun stuff]


A little bit of my work is keeping up with this blog for the summer camps:


http://lynhouseinc.blogspot.com/


We start camps for the kids next week. And I'm pumped.

A couple observations...

1. It is an absolutely wonderful thing to get one of your best friends back from a foreign country. I highly recommend the experience if you ever get the chance.


2. In talking with said world-traveling friend, I came to the beginning of a realization. Alone time in Latin America was coveted and wonderfully refreshing. Alone time here on the other hand, is sometimes just lonely. I'm still not exactly sure why it has been like that for me. But as much as I thoroughly love and cherish social times in both of my worlds, I want to recover the sacredness and joy of alone times as they were in the DR, regardless of where I find myself in the world... 

Oh the Wonderful World of Homework....

I would like to be doing what's in this awesome picture I found on earthshots.org:

But instead, this is my lot for the night:

I hope my summer is full of things much more like running around in the beautiful sunlight, than staying up late writing research papers.

Younger than Springtime

This weekend was be.a.utiful.
Nothing like cooking out and playing baseball with the fam to cure the sickness brought on by the world's longest winter. It was SO nice Saturday, and having so many people here hangin out was the best. The only downer of the weekend, [besides some people missing who I wish could have been there, *cough, cough* JJ] was the fact that all my little cousins like Jordan more than me. But I'm over it, because its really cute to watch them be in love with him. 
Now, after the full bellies of a weekend of wonderful eating, [cookout, Mario's pizza, and Hibachi's] the kids are down for the count and Aunt Annie, Mom, and Maria are passed out on the couches in the living room. Great people, great laughs, great food, and great sleep. Can't beat that.

But ya gotta have friends....

I need to take a minute to brag about my friends....


Ok, seriously? How in the world do I get blessed with so many of the world's greatest friends?  Is it really fair for me to get the world's greatest boyfriend/best friend plus 47 [ok, maybe not quite that many] other incredible bestest friends? 


Homework has taken over my life lately so hanging out with people today has just made me wake up and re-realized how unbelievably blessed I am. Started off the day right with brunch and Prison Break with Jordan. And then Andrea came over to work on Spanish and even though we were doing homework, it was just refreshing and wonderful to get to hang out with her again. Also, my roommate is the best and we got to go to the city museum together tonight. Plus, if there were such a thing as a remedy for the pain of the homework I've been avoiding today, it would probably be laughing and eating ham and cheese sandwiches with Megs. The other day I went into Jo's and I almost cried because of how long it had been since I'd seen Hannah Ruth. Fortunately, we're gonna hopefully double date at Hibachi's and road trip soon. Road trip to see Sarah Dawn. Gosh I miss that girl. And Corrie and my DR peeps. AND, I really miss RACHEL. Rach, you should probably come back from Costa Rica. Soonish. Like real soonish. And hanging out with Kelly Baker on spring break was wonderful. The list goes on and on and on.... 

Soy Dominicana...un chin

Sitting in Pauline Epistles today made me realize how Dominicana I've become...


We split up into groups and once we got situated, I looked up from mi yogur congelado, prepared for a laid back conversación, to see all my group members with paper out and labeled to take notes. Whoops. I'm still a little out of my element here, trying to be in traditional student mode. But I'll get there.


Guess. What. 


I just got to talk to my Dominican bros on the phone!!! Wonderfulness. Chi-Chi asked me when I was coming back. I don't know yet, but I can't wait :)


Also, I'm so glad Jordan's car is fixed. I didn't know if that guy was going to make it out of the shop alive this time. And I was worried. I wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. So thank you Chad. 


Now its time for a little letter-writing and hulu-ing and relaxing with my Megs.