If the capitalization and punctuation is off, forgive me. the shift button on this keyboard is a touch stuck and all the punctuation marks are misplaced thanks to the extra letter on brasilian keyboards.
For those of you that do not know, I left from DTW on Tuesday at 2 pm. from Detroit we, Leah and I flew to Miami where we had a three hour lay over before we flew down to Sao Paulo (which means Saint Paul, should you care to know). What some of you may have heard was that an American Airlines flight (I was on an AA flight) crash landed on a Jamaican beach.
That wasn´t me. We arrived safely in Brasil. To summarize in brief what was a VERY long day... from the airport ~Leah~s parents p icked us up and we took a taxi to the bus station. From there we took a 9 hour bus ride to Londrena where we spent the night. This morning we woke up at drove the last three and a half hours back to the house where I shall be spending the better part of this next month.
As for what Ive seen - city, country, town, country, Brasilian Christmas decorating, another missionary family, banana trees, coconut trees, sugar cane, eggs sold out of the back of a car, fruit sold out of the back of a truck, underwear sold next to the key chains in the bus terminal, brasilian driving, and the effects of 36 hours of travel on my face, eyes, and hair. which is not pretty.
Well, dinner is on and I am hungry!
From Brasil,
-Frank
P.S. cashews down here are fresh and taste better, and cashew juice tastes like non-alcoholic pina colada with a hint of cashew.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Midnight Blogger which Blogs at Midnight!!!
So, I so totally shouldn't blog this late at night... especially considering how drunk I am with sleep... but post I on! And I don't know why! Which means I am putting up my official ramble warning.
Continuing on...
I have had a whirlwind time at home... Tuesday, I leave for Brasil. *insert screaming here* I don't think it has sunk in yet. I think I'll go into shock when it does... or I'll realize what happened after I get back and promptly pass out upon returning to NLand. Or Headquarters, as the Boof has put it. Bwahahahaha!
Interesting tid-bit - packing for any trip with Survivor-man for a dad means you will be told you should pack everything from a headlamp to parachute cord and a 1 terabyte sd card for your camera. Personally, I would pack one weeks worth of stuff and just go from there.
As it stands, people apparently require a lot more to survive than clothes. Between the allergy meds, bug spray, suntain lotion, and everything else under the sun, I've got quite the little list going of things I absolutely must remember to pack. And while I was at it, I decided to throw in my T. S. Elliot book of poetry, my journals, my Bible, and some chapstick.
Why not?
One huge perk of leaving before Christmas is that for me at least, Christmas comes early! Whee! I've already opened my Christmas gifts and am now the happy owner of Photoshop Elements 8, Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis, and an assortment of other happy items (including a hoodie that has headphones in the hood's strings!!!). The other huge perk, is that I'm doing all my Christmas shopping in Brasil... which means no one will get anything from me until mid to late January, and it will be just random little knick-knacks. The real glory of junk you get while traveling is that no matter what it is, people will keep it forever and think it is awesome by simple virtue of the fact it is from another country. :o)
But I probably shouldn't have revealed that little secret. Oh well, too late!
Oh!!! Hugely fun bit of trivia for me! I went to my first Sunday School Christmas Party at the church my parents are now going to. I was sooo tired when I left for it and had no idea what to expect, but by the end of the night I had had one of the best times I have had in ages! It was so much fun! I hadn't realized how many fun people were in my Sunday School class... then again, I hadn't attended Sunday School there more than a handful of times and the same people never seemed to show up twice... However! The people are a lot of fun! Unfortunately, they seem to be scattered around the country for the most part. :o( Ah well.
Well dear blog and all.... 5? 6? readers - This may very well be my last post state side. If I manage to post again before I come back, it will be from Brasil!
Pray we have a safe trip, that I don't get any funky or tropical diseases, and that we have an awesome time!
Continuing on...
I have had a whirlwind time at home... Tuesday, I leave for Brasil. *insert screaming here* I don't think it has sunk in yet. I think I'll go into shock when it does... or I'll realize what happened after I get back and promptly pass out upon returning to NLand. Or Headquarters, as the Boof has put it. Bwahahahaha!
Interesting tid-bit - packing for any trip with Survivor-man for a dad means you will be told you should pack everything from a headlamp to parachute cord and a 1 terabyte sd card for your camera. Personally, I would pack one weeks worth of stuff and just go from there.
As it stands, people apparently require a lot more to survive than clothes. Between the allergy meds, bug spray, suntain lotion, and everything else under the sun, I've got quite the little list going of things I absolutely must remember to pack. And while I was at it, I decided to throw in my T. S. Elliot book of poetry, my journals, my Bible, and some chapstick.
Why not?
One huge perk of leaving before Christmas is that for me at least, Christmas comes early! Whee! I've already opened my Christmas gifts and am now the happy owner of Photoshop Elements 8, Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis, and an assortment of other happy items (including a hoodie that has headphones in the hood's strings!!!). The other huge perk, is that I'm doing all my Christmas shopping in Brasil... which means no one will get anything from me until mid to late January, and it will be just random little knick-knacks. The real glory of junk you get while traveling is that no matter what it is, people will keep it forever and think it is awesome by simple virtue of the fact it is from another country. :o)
But I probably shouldn't have revealed that little secret. Oh well, too late!
Oh!!! Hugely fun bit of trivia for me! I went to my first Sunday School Christmas Party at the church my parents are now going to. I was sooo tired when I left for it and had no idea what to expect, but by the end of the night I had had one of the best times I have had in ages! It was so much fun! I hadn't realized how many fun people were in my Sunday School class... then again, I hadn't attended Sunday School there more than a handful of times and the same people never seemed to show up twice... However! The people are a lot of fun! Unfortunately, they seem to be scattered around the country for the most part. :o( Ah well.
Well dear blog and all.... 5? 6? readers - This may very well be my last post state side. If I manage to post again before I come back, it will be from Brasil!
Pray we have a safe trip, that I don't get any funky or tropical diseases, and that we have an awesome time!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Waiting for the Parentals
While waiting for my parents to get here, I find I have few minutes to kill. So, this is my last Northland post for the year! It is also my first opportunity to get reflective and sentimental. I know, you all enjoy these sort of posts so! The whole two of you that pay attention...
Alright, where was I in September? Well, I came back up here wanting nothing more than to turn around and go home. I was struggling with a lot of things, ranging from rules books to being dateless and generally dissatisfied with life.
Circumstantially, absolutely nothing has changed. However, I am no longer quite so hateful of rule books (we are back to distasteful) and I am more than happy to leave to my relationship status on Facebook as single. I know, it sounds so lame and cliche: "I'm satisfied in Christ, I'm content being single" yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. I'm pretty sure it's not that so much as acceptance of circumstances and being "content with my station in life." I'm okay with the fact I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. I am fine with having no career plan outside of getting a book published.
In short - I have grown.
Don't you love how people always say in short after a long, boring schpiel?
Anyway, I have struggled a lot this semester with whatever craziness and stuff that has gone on. The insanity of class scheduling and trying to graduate on time... ugh! I still shudder when I think about it, but at the same time, I know I SCARE'd and I know it was all God rearranging everything.
Looking back over four years, I am starting to see how God is tying together all these random things that just seemed like an unmitigated pain in the butt, thorn in the flesh, and general bit of obnoxiousness into something greater. I still can't see the picture He is weaving, but I'm starting to see that there is a theme.
Once I again, I find myself haunted by something the student body chaplain said my sophomore year: God is sovereign and it is perfect.
Between that and SCARE (See Christ Arrange Remarkable Events), I think there's a theme going on and I'm starting to pick up on it -- God is sovereign and He arranges remarkable (and unremarkable) events in ways I cannot even begin to understand.
So, to wrap up this school semester (and all of college thus far: God does not have contingency plans. He is not late nor is He early. He acts precisely when He means to; which is seldom how or when I expect.
Merry Christmas!
Alright, where was I in September? Well, I came back up here wanting nothing more than to turn around and go home. I was struggling with a lot of things, ranging from rules books to being dateless and generally dissatisfied with life.
Circumstantially, absolutely nothing has changed. However, I am no longer quite so hateful of rule books (we are back to distasteful) and I am more than happy to leave to my relationship status on Facebook as single. I know, it sounds so lame and cliche: "I'm satisfied in Christ, I'm content being single" yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. I'm pretty sure it's not that so much as acceptance of circumstances and being "content with my station in life." I'm okay with the fact I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. I am fine with having no career plan outside of getting a book published.
In short - I have grown.
Don't you love how people always say in short after a long, boring schpiel?
Anyway, I have struggled a lot this semester with whatever craziness and stuff that has gone on. The insanity of class scheduling and trying to graduate on time... ugh! I still shudder when I think about it, but at the same time, I know I SCARE'd and I know it was all God rearranging everything.
Looking back over four years, I am starting to see how God is tying together all these random things that just seemed like an unmitigated pain in the butt, thorn in the flesh, and general bit of obnoxiousness into something greater. I still can't see the picture He is weaving, but I'm starting to see that there is a theme.
Once I again, I find myself haunted by something the student body chaplain said my sophomore year: God is sovereign and it is perfect.
Between that and SCARE (See Christ Arrange Remarkable Events), I think there's a theme going on and I'm starting to pick up on it -- God is sovereign and He arranges remarkable (and unremarkable) events in ways I cannot even begin to understand.
So, to wrap up this school semester (and all of college thus far: God does not have contingency plans. He is not late nor is He early. He acts precisely when He means to; which is seldom how or when I expect.
Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Yes, you all are cows. Happy?
After much thought, observation, and having the bejeebers annoyed out of me I think I have finally cracked the female mind in one area: weight.
According to most female minds - she is fat. She could weigh nothing and she would still be fat. A woman is always fat. Always. And no matter how many times another girl tells her she is thin (and I dare say even a guy can tell her as much and she won't care) she is still fat.
Skinny or thin is consistently one to ten pounds less than whatever a girl currently weighs. It doesn't matter whether or not her current weight is perfectly healthy and she looks fabulous - thin is one to ten pounds away. Girls can only manage to be thin for one, maybe two days in a row, and "thin days" have nothing to do with weight, but perceived skinniness.
Her friends are thin. Even if it her friend who is three inches shorter, weighs ten pounds more,
wears bigger clothes, and could stand to lose a few - she is thin. Always thin. She always looks just fine just the way she is. Now, if said friend decides to take off five or ten pounds the girl may say something like, "No, I think you look fine just the way you are, but if you are only losing like five or ten pounds, that's not a big deal. Either way, you'll look great!" The only way a girl's friends are fatter than her is if they are substantially overweight, and even then they only need to "lose a few pounds". Unless her friend looks comparable to Violet Beauregard, she is not fat.
The crucial thing to understand here is that everything to do with the "fatness" or "skinniness" of any given girl (within a healthy average weight range) is all in her head. It has almost nothing to do with the scale or the way her clothes fit. It has everything to do with her incredibly skewed misconception of herself.
For those of us in the world that figure if we're a reasonable weight we're fine, the typical female's perception of her fatness is utterly obnoxious and irritating. Unfortunately, there is no way to respond to a girl when she says "I'm FAT!" that will convince her otherwise. Once a woman has determined she is fat, she is hopelessly fat and there is no chance of persuading her otherwise.
So, what is a girl to do when she is stuck in a dorm full of whiny, skinny women whose constant cry is, "I'm SO FAT!!!"? Personally, I'm contemplating one of the following solutions:
1. replying: Yes, you are a cow.
2. rolling my eyes
3. quietly handing them a box of donuts so they really do get fat.
4. Gibb's slapping them.
5. Hand them a girdle.
6. Giving them such dirty looks that they start to cry.
7. Throw carrots at them.
8. Start eating a chocolate bar, just to taunt them.
9. Start gloating about how "skinny" I am and about all the delicious fattening foods I eat. (the hope being that they'll get so mad with me that they'll go away.)
10. Say, "Shut up and do something about it!"
11. Start screaming and don't stop until she goes away.
What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome! :o)
According to most female minds - she is fat. She could weigh nothing and she would still be fat. A woman is always fat. Always. And no matter how many times another girl tells her she is thin (and I dare say even a guy can tell her as much and she won't care) she is still fat.
Skinny or thin is consistently one to ten pounds less than whatever a girl currently weighs. It doesn't matter whether or not her current weight is perfectly healthy and she looks fabulous - thin is one to ten pounds away. Girls can only manage to be thin for one, maybe two days in a row, and "thin days" have nothing to do with weight, but perceived skinniness.
Her friends are thin. Even if it her friend who is three inches shorter, weighs ten pounds more,
wears bigger clothes, and could stand to lose a few - she is thin. Always thin. She always looks just fine just the way she is. Now, if said friend decides to take off five or ten pounds the girl may say something like, "No, I think you look fine just the way you are, but if you are only losing like five or ten pounds, that's not a big deal. Either way, you'll look great!" The only way a girl's friends are fatter than her is if they are substantially overweight, and even then they only need to "lose a few pounds". Unless her friend looks comparable to Violet Beauregard, she is not fat.The crucial thing to understand here is that everything to do with the "fatness" or "skinniness" of any given girl (within a healthy average weight range) is all in her head. It has almost nothing to do with the scale or the way her clothes fit. It has everything to do with her incredibly skewed misconception of herself.
For those of us in the world that figure if we're a reasonable weight we're fine, the typical female's perception of her fatness is utterly obnoxious and irritating. Unfortunately, there is no way to respond to a girl when she says "I'm FAT!" that will convince her otherwise. Once a woman has determined she is fat, she is hopelessly fat and there is no chance of persuading her otherwise.
So, what is a girl to do when she is stuck in a dorm full of whiny, skinny women whose constant cry is, "I'm SO FAT!!!"? Personally, I'm contemplating one of the following solutions:
1. replying: Yes, you are a cow.
2. rolling my eyes
3. quietly handing them a box of donuts so they really do get fat.
4. Gibb's slapping them.
5. Hand them a girdle.
6. Giving them such dirty looks that they start to cry.
7. Throw carrots at them.
8. Start eating a chocolate bar, just to taunt them.
9. Start gloating about how "skinny" I am and about all the delicious fattening foods I eat. (the hope being that they'll get so mad with me that they'll go away.)
10. Say, "Shut up and do something about it!"
11. Start screaming and don't stop until she goes away.
What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome! :o)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Posting... because I can...
Well you dear blog, you! You are just over four years old and I totally didn't mark the anniversary! Come next summer, you will have survived college with me.
I will be heading to my thirteenth Artist Series come tomorrow night. To answer your questions - no, I do not have a date. I never have a date because nobody ever asks.
This being said, I will be wearing an awesome outfit tomorrow night. It is... slightly unorthodox in that no shawl, bolero, shrug, wrap, or sweater will be worn with it. *GASP!* If I can get my make up to look how I am hoping it will look, it will be AWESOME! Possibly ground breaking. If nothing else, it should look original.
I plan on wearing a fuller satiny cocktail length black skirt with a red top that has sorta-cap-sleeved (the sleeves on this stick out in a very... sharp way...) with a scalloped hem. I plan on wearing my thick black belt with the top. For earrings, my spirally gold looking ones. For a necklace - the original thin black satin belt converted into a choker. hehehe! Shoes - a pair of killer red platform sling backs with a red satin flower on the open toe and gold on the platform sole and heel. They are amazing! The twist to the outfit is going to be the black long sleeved shirt I'm wearing under the scary stick out cap sleeves. This is going to give the outfit an interesting twist. I'm thinking perhaps just the slightest bit punky, but whatever. It'll be different!
Besides my punky outfit, there is not much new or interesting in my life at the moment. Besides the fact I think I have finally settled on how I want to make my nouns plural. Next I'll work on possessive and then I'll start looking over my verbs.
For the record - iTunes seems to have a knack for finding the most uninteresting 30 second clips of songs to play for preview.
I will be heading to my thirteenth Artist Series come tomorrow night. To answer your questions - no, I do not have a date. I never have a date because nobody ever asks.
This being said, I will be wearing an awesome outfit tomorrow night. It is... slightly unorthodox in that no shawl, bolero, shrug, wrap, or sweater will be worn with it. *GASP!* If I can get my make up to look how I am hoping it will look, it will be AWESOME! Possibly ground breaking. If nothing else, it should look original.
I plan on wearing a fuller satiny cocktail length black skirt with a red top that has sorta-cap-sleeved (the sleeves on this stick out in a very... sharp way...) with a scalloped hem. I plan on wearing my thick black belt with the top. For earrings, my spirally gold looking ones. For a necklace - the original thin black satin belt converted into a choker. hehehe! Shoes - a pair of killer red platform sling backs with a red satin flower on the open toe and gold on the platform sole and heel. They are amazing! The twist to the outfit is going to be the black long sleeved shirt I'm wearing under the scary stick out cap sleeves. This is going to give the outfit an interesting twist. I'm thinking perhaps just the slightest bit punky, but whatever. It'll be different!
Besides my punky outfit, there is not much new or interesting in my life at the moment. Besides the fact I think I have finally settled on how I want to make my nouns plural. Next I'll work on possessive and then I'll start looking over my verbs.
For the record - iTunes seems to have a knack for finding the most uninteresting 30 second clips of songs to play for preview.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
A Very probably-should-have-happened-sooner kind of post
And that title is way too long but I like it, so deal. Anyway! The Christmas season is officially upon us, with snow threatening to fall as much as eight inches deep (though, I suspect it will be more before long) and all Ni! students campused. To add to my seasonal delight I recently learned that my door won the hall Christmas door decorating contest, which makes a very very happy girl!
I've been mulling this over for... well, since the start of this blog, and I have reached the very shaky decision of starting to post some of my poetry on it. This decision was swayed by another blog called RhymeWritteninRed and Alexandra.
Before I post one rhyme however, let me first explain something about poets (or at least this poet) and poetry: most people are under this delusional impression that poems are just these boring things that rhyme and make you want to say them in a sing-song voice. Some people even seem to equate poetry with rap. This insults me.
Poetry, for me at any rate, is how I express my feelings when something has touched me deeply. Indisputably, anything deserving to be called a poem, is a blend of rhyme, meter, and emotion; crafted in such a way that the reader has no choice to but to be drawn in and held captive in a dream-like world as real or more so than the one in which we live. But this is just the good poetry. Most of the stuff of mine I'll put up I would, by my own definition, be forced to call a rhyme, and naught more. However, for the hang of it, I'll call it poetry... to flatter myself...
My poems are how I view the world or saw something at a given moment. They are an extension of who I am... well, more like me; and I take them quite seriously. So whereas I do not mind you giving a critique of the rhyme scheme or pointing out where the meter had a hiccup - I beg you please do not laugh at the topic (about it, if it is humorous is obviously fine, but no mockery, I beg!) because, "...I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; tread softly because you tread on my dreams." - Yeats.
I'd explain this more, but quite frankly there are not words to describe how insanely personal my poetry is (and sadly you the reader will probably never understand or pick up on the finer, underlying threads that reveal it. This is not to insult your reading comprehension, rather to ironically and idiotically highlight how cryptic I can be.).
Oh, and for the record - any idiot who attempts to rip off my poetry will be hunted down like the dog that he or she is and then will be drawn and quartered and have their entrails taken out and hot coals put in, in their stead. :o)
Without further ado, a poem:
I've been mulling this over for... well, since the start of this blog, and I have reached the very shaky decision of starting to post some of my poetry on it. This decision was swayed by another blog called RhymeWritteninRed and Alexandra.
Before I post one rhyme however, let me first explain something about poets (or at least this poet) and poetry: most people are under this delusional impression that poems are just these boring things that rhyme and make you want to say them in a sing-song voice. Some people even seem to equate poetry with rap. This insults me.
Poetry, for me at any rate, is how I express my feelings when something has touched me deeply. Indisputably, anything deserving to be called a poem, is a blend of rhyme, meter, and emotion; crafted in such a way that the reader has no choice to but to be drawn in and held captive in a dream-like world as real or more so than the one in which we live. But this is just the good poetry. Most of the stuff of mine I'll put up I would, by my own definition, be forced to call a rhyme, and naught more. However, for the hang of it, I'll call it poetry... to flatter myself...
My poems are how I view the world or saw something at a given moment. They are an extension of who I am... well, more like me; and I take them quite seriously. So whereas I do not mind you giving a critique of the rhyme scheme or pointing out where the meter had a hiccup - I beg you please do not laugh at the topic (about it, if it is humorous is obviously fine, but no mockery, I beg!) because, "...I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; tread softly because you tread on my dreams." - Yeats.
I'd explain this more, but quite frankly there are not words to describe how insanely personal my poetry is (and sadly you the reader will probably never understand or pick up on the finer, underlying threads that reveal it. This is not to insult your reading comprehension, rather to ironically and idiotically highlight how cryptic I can be.).
Oh, and for the record - any idiot who attempts to rip off my poetry will be hunted down like the dog that he or she is and then will be drawn and quartered and have their entrails taken out and hot coals put in, in their stead. :o)
Without further ado, a poem:
World in Gloam
Falling shadow, mist and shade
Dreams swirl in forgotten glade
Truth and tale mingle sweet
When in twilight's gloam they meet.
In twilight's gloam so dark and fair
Swirl ancient stories in the air
that seem to fade with passing night
But this is just illusions might.
Nothing is at it would seem
As if a dream within a dream.
But if tis so - tis more than if -
Then live we in a world of myth.
(9/4/2008)
So there it is. First poem I decided to put up on my blog for no real particular reason.
And now I am going to hastily publish this post before I change my mind...
And now I am editing this post because I see I have posted one before... Click on the tag to read it!
Falling shadow, mist and shade
Dreams swirl in forgotten glade
Truth and tale mingle sweet
When in twilight's gloam they meet.
In twilight's gloam so dark and fair
Swirl ancient stories in the air
that seem to fade with passing night
But this is just illusions might.
Nothing is at it would seem
As if a dream within a dream.
But if tis so - tis more than if -
Then live we in a world of myth.
(9/4/2008)
So there it is. First poem I decided to put up on my blog for no real particular reason.
And now I am going to hastily publish this post before I change my mind...
And now I am editing this post because I see I have posted one before... Click on the tag to read it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)