Newsletter

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Stressing about Stress

Today in our session on cultural change and adjustments as we move to China, we talked about what things stress us out (especially at this point), how we react, and what helps us get over it or process it.  It is so good to be forced to think about, although it honestly does add a bit of stress, oddly enough.

So what do I do here in the States when I have a bad day.  

1 - Drink a Snapple.  I don't know if it's the flavor, the random facts, or the great memories from teaching over the past few years, but Snapple really does make everything better.  I have instant Snapple powder to take with me, so at least I'll have a bit of it with me when I relocate.

2 - Call a friend.  Sometimes this friend is in the same time zone, sometimes they're on the other side of the world.  Oh wait, I can still do that when I'm in Chengdu.  Thank the Lord for the internet!

3 - Find out where my friends are and get to wherever that is as soon as possible.  There is something about friends that makes everything better, even if we just sit around and watch TV.

4 - Kick a soccer ball...against a ceiling...with semi-excessive force.  Now I haven't really done this since Ethiopia days, but boy oh boy it was effective.  I wonder if my school will have a gym with a high enough ceiling for this...

I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them at the moment.  Thankfully, most of these do translate.  It'll be interesting what gets added to the list in the next six months or year.

 

 Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to say Happy 4th of July!  Hope it's a great one, wherever you are and wherever you're from.

Location: Houghton, New York

Local Time (EST -- GMT-4): 9:07 a.m. (7/2/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 6:07 a.m. (7/2/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 9:07 p.m. (7/3/2012)

Niagara Falls

Not going to write a whole lot about this, but I had a marvelous Canada Day with my big brother yesterday.  He was a champ and drove all the way to New York to see me!  Parting was, as always, such sad sorrow, but I'm so glad that we could experience Niagara together!!

 

I was in the US and Canada at the same time :)

The American side of the falls

All set to ride into the falls on the Maid of the Mist

After our boat ride

This may be the best part of a store...ever!

Horseshoe Falls

 Both :)

Look at that mist!!

Oo...a rainbow!

Good Canadians on Canada Day

Walking back over the bridge

Location: Houghton, New York

Local Time (EST -- GMT-4): 9:35 p.m. (7/2/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 6:35 p.m. (7/2/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 9:35 a.m. (7/3/2012)

Sky

I'm sitting in my room at a college in Western New York, staring out of my window at the sky, which is currently the perfect shade of blue.  You know, that lazy summer afternoon blue?  It's fantastic.  Take a while this week just to stare at the sky...you won't regret it!

I've been in New York for almost two weeks now, enjoying the solitude of a small town while attending sessions on various transition issues and getting to know some of the people that I will be working with next year.  There are several teachers from my school here, which has been fantastic as I've been given a glimpse of the great people that I am so excited to spend more time with in the coming years.  They are a great group!

At the moment, it is less than 3.5 weeks until I fly across an ocean.  I can't believe how quickly time has flown!  When I get back to Washington, there will be a plethora of details to wrap up, people to see, things to pack, items to stock up on, and so much more it seems.  Definitely my least favorite part of moving to another country!

But it all certainly is an adventure, isn't it?  Things will be different, the world around me will shift, with a new time zone and new surroundings, but as long as I see it as an adventure of delightful proportions, I have absolutely nothing to fear!  Thank you for going on this adventure with me, at least vicariously!

Take care, wherever you might be!

A bit of blue sky the other day :)

Letchworth State Park is known as the Grand Canyon of the East.  It really is gorgeous!

Of course, I had to try out the panorama view on my camera on the bigger of the falls at Letchworth.  Absolutely marvelous!

Location: Houghton, New York

Local Time (EST -- GMT-4): 5:41 p.m. (6/30/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 2:41 p.m. (6/30/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 5:41 a.m. (7/1/2012)

Summer

It's the beginning of another week and things are starting to pick up as I prepare to go at the end of next month.  School got out on Friday, which was bittersweet.  My students this year were definitely the best I could have imagined, so leaving was hard for all of us.  We know that there are bigger things for us to accomplish, though, and a long way for each of us to go.

And now the busy-ness just escalates, even with that huge part of my life done.  I am working on packing and making many a list of things to do, people to see, and places to go.  Tuesday, I'll be heading to Buffalo for some pre-departure training, so pictures will start popping up on here, soon!

Hope you are well, whatever corner of the world you might be in.

Location: Auburn, WA

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 11:50 a.m. (6/17/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 2:50 a.m. (6/18/2012)

Cleaning...

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not one who likes to clean...or sort...or pack.  Definitely not pack.  And so, as I sit in my classroom after the last full day of school, surrounded by all of my little piles that I have attempted to avoid packing for weeks, I find myself writing and trying to get all of the bits and pieces out of my page and onto the screen.

I am absolutely no good at letting go.  Personality issue number 27, or 369, or whatever it is :)  As I contemplate tomorrow, 3 hours with my students and then a quick hug and sending them off for the summer, I am totally and completely heartbroken.  Even if I were staying in the same place next year, they wouldn't be my kiddos anymore.  A year old, a year wiser, and a year further along.  They will have passed 5th grade, and here I would be, starting with a new group.  Every new group is, of course, marvelous...but there are those few weeks at the start of any new thing where you are comparing every facet of it to that which once was.  I'm sure that my first few weeks in my new home at the end of July and beginning of August will be that.  No matter how hard I try, the differences are the first things that generally come to mind.

But for now, I sit in my classroom...gazing at my somewhat neatly stacked desks and seeing the emptiness on the walls...mourning the end of another wonderful year.  Thank you 5th graders, for making this yet another best year ever!  You will all always be in my thoughts and on my heart!

Location: Auburn, WA

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 4:28 p.m. (6/14/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 7:28 a.m. (6/15/2012)

The CRAZY In-betweens!

It seems that the trickiest time in any transition is that in between time, where you know things are changing, but they haven't quite changed yet.  You know it's coming, you're prepared for it, your mind and heart have already started to transition, and yet you haven't actually moved yet.  The changes have started emotionally and mentally, but not quite physically.

That's the stage I'm at now.  I've been grieving the loss of a life here, and will again at some point, I'm sure.  However, at this point I haven't actually lost anything yet.  I still have all of my bits and pieces around me, my local places where I am known and recognized and run into friends, and my job and routine to rely on.  I can feel that wind changing though as I anticipate the last week of school, the last moments to pack things up, and then the departure.  But wait, that departure won't be the final one.  Oh the change that comes in whiffs and then disappears again.

The thing is, that change will come and stay, or rather I will go to it and stay.  And then it'll be a whole new something.  Wow.  I know it seems a simple thing to be in awe of, but my life is going to be radically different in two months than it is today.  I can't even begin to imagine it, and when I do I'm honestly overwhelmed.  Excited, but completely and totally overwhelmed.  He knows what He's doing with me...so here I am, ready for whatever the ride might bring.  

Location: Auburn, WA

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 4:00 p.m. (6/7/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 7:00 a.m. (6/8/2012)

Nature

I’m reminded now how much I love nature, and just how much I interact with it.  Every morning on my way to work in Auburn (as long as it’s not cloudy/rainy, that is), I see Mount Rainier.  There are always beautiful green trees somewhere close by.  Right now, I’m sitting with my aunt and uncle by a beautiful lake in Alberta, listening to the birds sing and the loons call out their claims to their territory.  Nature…everywhere.

Next year it will definitely be different.  Instead of mountains and evergreens, I’ll be in the largest city I’ve ever seen, surrounded by skyscrapers and millions of people.  It will be a different kind of nature…that which is the result of many people in a confined space.  There will be different sites that I marvel at.  Different mountains to adore, both figuratively and literally.

Different isn’t necessarily bad…just an adjustment.  Adjustments, here I come!

Location: Stony Plain, Alberta

Local Time (EST -- GMT-6): 7:29 p.m. (5/25/2012)

Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 6:29 p.m. (5/25/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 9:29 a.m. (5/26/2012)

To Narnia and the North...er...just the North

After a momentary period of silence, I’m back.  And guess what?  I’m traveling.  I’m currently on board a flight from Seattle, WA, to Edmonton, Alberta.  It’s off to the Great White North for me for the long weekend to spend some time with my Canadian side of the family before I head off to the Far East.  I’m excited to see my wonderful grandmother, aunt and uncle, and a few friends from Ethiopia days.

Life is exhausting these and I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open past 3 o’clock when school gets out.  I always seem to have just enough energy to do what I need to and then the inevitable crash of my systems follows.  I certainly hope this isn’t a long-term state of being that I will just have to get used to.  Perhaps I’ll finally have a chance to breathe once I make it to my new home in July.

Speaking of exhausting, I feel as though as I simplify my life in preparations for my journey, it just gets more complicated.  I am finishing up the school year here in Washington, attempting to stay sane and have memorable moments with my nineteen students that I truly adore.  Simultaneously though, I’m attempting to put all of the material possessions I’ve accumulated into boxes based on when/if I actually need them.  In my China trunk, it seems to be an abundance of cooking materials, clothes, and miscellaneous things that I may or may not have an inkling for at some point in the next two years.  At the same time, I’m trying to put all of my thoughts in order for the coming school year, planning lessons, writing units, and preparing for the different demographic of the school that I will be entering.  Oh, and I’m trying to get support taken care of and finish up all of the paperwork that I keep procrastinating on.  Who ever said moving was easy?

On a relational note, I find that I am doing well with making friends where I am going, communicating often with the teachers that I will be working with next year and getting to know what will inevitably be my group of friends.  They all seem wonderful and I’m excited to finally meet them in July or August.

But then there is life here: friends, family, work.  It truly is a beautiful life that has come together around me for the past three years, and the reality of leaving it in just two short months is heartbreaking.  To add to that impending misery is the reality that my friends who haven’t dealt with transitions like I have really don’t understand the leaving process.  Or maybe they do and I don’t.  Who knows.  They are shutting down and shutting me out, which makes total sense. But sense never relieves heartbreak, now does it?

Oh the joys of being a Third Culture Kid, torn between a wonderful international upbringing, a great American life, and the new adventure that is to come.  Welcome to my world.

Location: Somewhere between Seattle and Edmonton

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 3:00 p.m. (5/24/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 6:00 a.m. (5/25/2012)

Life - The Art of Getting Comfortable with being Uncomfortable

Things I've done in the last 48 hours that I'll miss:
 - Sat in the foyer of one of my favorite buildings watching the world go by.
 - Enjoyed the sunshine reading a book in a beautiful green Pacific Northwest backyard.
 - Had the barista at Starbucks know my name and my coffee order.
 - Walked around Warm Beach Camp and enjoyed the quiet stillness of Creation.
 - Two words: DQ Blizzard.
 - Young Life club at Olympic.  Those kids have my heart.

There are so many more that I can't possibly list them all.  But that's what life is all about, isn't it?  Being comfortable where we are, and then realizing that things will never be the same again.  And that's okay.  Life should change.  We should grow.  Places should come.  Time should keep moving.  Freezing it all would be perfect, but how on earth would we decide where it should be frozen?  There are dozens of moments that I wish could have lasted forever, but if they had, how many more would I have missed?

And so I've come to accept that I shall always be a bit uncomfortable, perhaps in a good way and perhaps in a not-so-pleasant way, but hey, I'm comfortable with that.

Location: Auburn, WA

Local Time (PST -- GMT-7): 8:57 a.m. (5/13/2012)

Chengdu Time (CST -- GMT+8): 11:57 p.m. (5/13/2012)