A Day in Seoul

I arrived in South Korea!! This picture to the right is the downtown area of my sisters hometown. This is what most of Korea looks like. My time here is really really short so we decided to take a quick trip to Seoul (the Capitol). We found this aweseome tour bus in Lonely Planet. We chose the downtown line and it stops at every major/important place in Seoul. It takes about two hours BUT you can get off and get back on at whatever place you want! It was a pretty sweet deal.





Look...It's Ambo and I after a year long absence and me beside the bus!

One of my favorite stops was the Seoul Tower. It is sometimes called the "Needle". This reminds me of the Reuion Tower in Dallas and the Tower of Americas in San Antonio. You go up the elevator, your ears pop, and then you get to see the whole city from the observation deck.



Look! I found India in Korea?! Pretty crazy huh. I still haven't quite figuired out why they list different cities ..but it made for a fun pic.











Amber and I decided to eat lunch from the street venders. The pineapple was a success, but the hot dog wasn't so much...I am still trying to figuire out what kind of meat it was.


Palaces in Korea are pretty popular. Amber has never been to one and supposedly she has gotten a lot of flack for it. I went to a palace and wasn't all that impressed honestly. I thought their palaces were religous...not so much...really its what it says it is... a palace.


Tomorrow I am going to my sister's school and meeting some of the teachers she teaches with! I am excited...then we head out for America!!! I can't believe it.

Pray for my luggage. As I was boarding the plane in Chiang Mai they took my carry on to put in the cabin...I haven't seen it since then. They lost it. Since it was my carryon it had everything important in it!! Pray they find it please!!!

Happy Birthday America!

This is the first FOURTH of JULY that I have spent out of country. But the wonderful thing is that I was surrounded by hundreds of Americans!! We had early morning sessions but then they took us to Grace International School. It is the coolest school I have ever been to!

There was everything but fireworks to enjoy. We had basketball court, softball, the world's largetst swimming pool, cold drinks, and lots of the typical fourth of July fixin's. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, corn bread, snow cones, punch, and etc!! It was awesome!

We even took the time to sing America Happy Birthday!! It was a pretty fun fourth!!

The JOY of Thailand

I took the midnight flight from India to Chiang Mai and arrived at 7:30 AM. Needless to say, I was pretty tired when I arrived. Instead of sleeping the next day- a group of us decided to spend the day pampering ourselves!!! We got pedicures, haircuts, ate beef, and drank Starbucks!!

YES... THAT IS BEEF!! We were reunited after 6 months!

I have been attending lots of meetings, workshops, enjoying some coorporate worship and catching up with old friends! The new prez of teh SBC is heare talking to us and its been nice having the time to sing in my heart language and hear some good teaching! I got to hear Gary Chapman speak to us singles on the Five Love Languages. What is your love language? Can you guess mine?



This for all you FBC Irving folks! All of us are finally reunited!!



Me at STARBUCKS!!! Let me just say i was giddy!

Summer Vacation is HERE!!!

My Bags are packed and I am on my way to the airport!!

SUMMER VACATION has ARRIVED!!!!

Keep me in your prayers as I travel. I could definetly use them

Mona is coming out of surgery today. Please keep her recovery in your prayers also!!

Love you all and see some of YOU very very soon.

My Roomie's Blog

Lindsey is my roomie and she is pretty much amazing. That is the best word I have to describe her.

She finally started a blog and now I have competition. Just kidding. She posted some great entries about Anita my house helper and our visit to her house. She also has some great entries about teaching English.

I was going to blog seperately...but honestly she did a great job and I am tired...so i will send you to her blog! Enjoy.

http://outtakesfromindia.blogspot.com (there is also a link on the top right...click roomie)

Weekend with the Maholtra's

This weekend I spent the weekend with my neighbors the Malhotra's! Mona will be having surgery and I will be leaving the country so we thought we should spend some quality time together.

We went to a Country Club Resort!! It was so wonderful! I went swimming for the first time in India and even got to lay in a Hammok!! It was pure BLISS!!!

Lindsey and I were talking about how easy it is to spend time with the Maholtra's. They aren't the typical Indian fam and we feel totally at ease with them! They are family to us both and we adore their daughter Erica. I think she's the smartest four year old i know!

We enjoyed many things together... food, swimming, talking, laughing, spades, and the wonderful game of UNO.

Snail Mail

My Grandfather is 77 years old and he is my most consistant letter writer! Every month or so I usually receive a letter that has been written on his type writer. My grandfather is like many in his generation that is content leaving computers to be and sticking to his trusty and well known type writer. I never got personalized letters from him in the states- so moving overseas has benefited me and helped me get to know him better! It's amazing the different perks there are for moving half way across the world. Here is his most recent! It is precious and I had to share it with you!!

Dear Alicia,

Just a note to say I missed you in May,

as well as in other months every day.

Although soon you will on your way,

coming to Texas without delay.

With many thing from your adventures to say,

by your family you will leisurely lay,

Be with your friends becausethere will be time to play.

Then back to the place God wants you to stay,

from here and there people will pray.

The Lord is with you and will not sway,

from the promises He made today.

Love, Grandad

Happy 23rd Birthday Angela!

This is my beautiful cousin Angela. Both of our moms were pregant at the same time and Angela is only 4 weeks different in age than me (I was born on July 18). Therefore- as cousins we have always shared this special bond. We both went to the same elementry school, middle school, and part of high school. Not only were we in yearbook together, but as kids we use to play barbies, house, and dress up in her mom's closet. We have some great memories as kids but unfortanetly not that many recently.
Unfortanely over time we grew apart from each other and I missed out on having a great friendship with her from high school till recently. The older I get however, the more and more I appreciate her. I hope that we can start a new friendship and be the "best friends" cousins we were always meant to be. You are amazing Angela and I want you to know that!!!

These are the things I love about Angela.

1. She has an amazing heart for people! She loves even at the risk of getting hurt.
2. She loves people and people love her!
3. She loves to have fun and socialize (just like me).
4. She has a heart the size of India.
5. She loves to sing ( i remember listening to country music with her)
6. She loves to talk and talk and talk.
7. She is very artistic and uses her skills well.

I love you Angela! Happy 23rd Birthday. I am looking

forward to seeing you SOON!!

Saying Goodbye...AGAIN

I am learning that saying "Goodbye" is a normal thing around here. It seems like people are always coming and going. You automatically develop close bonds with people overseas because you both have the same interests and heart for the work. I feel like all I do these days is say goodbye. So tonight, I had to say goodbye again to 3 friends.

This is Kenny, Heather, & Megan. They have been working with university students in my city and now it's time for them to back to the good ol' USA. They will all be pursuing some type of higher education in the future. Megan and Heather throw the BEST parties ever! Your presence will be greatly missed here!!! I love you all!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

These are some pictures that show you INDIA. Pictures that captivate my heart!

Women Making Roti at Sikh Temple
Me in Puja Practice A Slum
An Auto Rickshaw...My form of daily transportation
A school in the slums
Shoes!!
My favorite lane to shop
An Indian Fire Station
Old Delhi...Chandi Chokh
My helper Anita's children
A Tailor in Kullu
Chaudry...writes bhajans and sings beautifully

Card Night at the Caskeys....

Jonathan and Kelley are some of my closest friends in my city. Recently, I discovered that J&K along with Lindsey and I had something very fun in common... A PASSION FOR CARDS!! So last Friday night we had "Card Night at the Caskey's" that went till the wee early hours of the morning!K&J prepared delicious mexican casorole and we had queso for a midnight snack! Yummy. We played several games of SPADES and NERTZ!! It was soo much fun. I think we might make this a regular event. Next time we are thinking of starting earlier and ordering out!


The following evening I came home from a long day of shopping and running errand and put on my pj's and got settled in for the evening. Then I heard the door bell ring. Lindsey answered the door and it was Ericka. She said...I need to speak with Alicia. So I came to the door and she asked me if I would play Uno with her. I have a really soft spot for Ericka...so I went and played cards with them till midnight! Two late night card games in a row!! SO FUN.

Adventures in Kullu

Sit back and enjoy the City of Kullu in Himachal Pradesh. Located in the valley of the Himalaya Mountains... ye bahot sundar hai (it is very beautiful).
















Here is the hotel we stayed at. It was 500 rupees a night. About $12. It had really nice facilities- t.v, room service, western toilet, and carpet!!


















This is not a touristy town like Manali (where I went earlier) that has a British influence. It is very Indian.



The monkey's in India are PURE EVIL. That's why signs like this exist.



This is our friend Acharaya Ji! He is the friend we went to go visit. We were able to tape some teachings to use in the future. He is 94 years old and his mind is still as sharp as a tac!



We weren't too far away from my friends Julie and Emily so we went to their city for a day! Julie and I carried on our tradition of making chocolate chip cookies and sweat tea which started at the farm (we always miss you amanda and chesi). We decided to be very indian and mix the cookie dough with our hands and on the floor.



I spent the night in the Kullu hospital! My co-worker Nancy was admitted because she thought she had an apendicitus. So I stayed the night with her. She flew back the next day to my city. She was in the hospital for a few days but they didn't find out what was wrong. Its some crazy virus.



Yep...its what you think it is. It grows naturally. Another reason why this part of India is popular.



Joanna, Lindsey, and I being silly. This was a great trip for Lindsey and I to bond with the Ingold family. We had some GREAT fun.



This is Lindsey and I right before we got on the bus to go home. Notice we are smiling. We didn't know what type of bus experience we were about to have!!



Normally when Lindsey and I travel to the mountains we take the Sleeper Bus. It leaves in the evening and arrives the next morning. Usually a 12 hour ride. This was our fourth and most memorable bus ride. We were double booked on our bus, AC stopped working, got a flat tire at 1:00 AM that put us back three hours, and we arrived about 4 hours later than anticipated!! It was definetly memorable.

Thanks for reading this LONG post. I hope you enjoyed! Lots of fun memories. I love comments on any of my entries...it kind of lets me know who's reading this!! So leave a comment and say hi!!

Kullu, Camelbak, & Treadmill

I am back from Kullu! My time in the mountains was amazing. I spent a lot of time being an introvert which means that Alicia was in rare form. I had a lot of down time to watch t.v. (big deal...we don't own one), read (i got 3 books read), and spend some great time with Yeshu! It was soo nice. I even got to visit Julie and Emily who live near Kullu!












So here is a pic of the King of Nalgene bottles. Its a Camelbak nalgene. It is great because it has a straw and a the poplular bite mouth that "camelbak" is known for. You don't have to open the lid everytime!! Its pretty sweet. Amanda and Christy from the MC teamleft their's for Lindsey and I to enjoy!! Isn't that sweet of them? Thanks ladies.


A few days before Lindsey and I left for Kullu we bought a treadmill!! We are super excited. It is almost impossible to work out in my city. I attempted an aerobics class but it was too early and distance wise inconvenient. You can run here outside but the mix between the heat, polution, and time of day makes its pretty difficult...almost impossible.

You also can't really do outside sports. Boys are constantly playing, but its such a male dominated society that you never see girls out. And people walk but its at 5AM or 10 PM at night...and no one ever runs...weird huh?

We are excited because now we can work out! You don't know how big of a blessing this is. Some friends were leaving to go back to America...so we got a very very discounted price!! I really am thankful to God for it. No more excuses!!

Dualism and the DaVinci Code

Should Christians see the movie the DaVinci Code?

A friend of mine recently told me that her pastor back at home preached a sermon on why Christians SHOULD NOT go and see this movie. I wonder how many other preachers are out their promoting this same message. I think that I would have to disagree. In fact, I think that as a Christian you SHOULD go and see the movie.

Why is it that as followers of Christ we are constantly leading dualistic lifestyles? We have a church in one bubble and "pagans" or "non-Christians" in the other bubble. What should happen if these two bubbles should ever collide?! One might judge the other and say "they are worldly". In fact, Christians spend their entire lives trying to avoid contact with the non-Christian bubble.

I think Christ has called us to live wholistic lifestyles. We should be embracing the culture around us and looking for opportunities to bring truth into every life situation. We should never compartmentalize our lives thinking that this is sacred or non-sacred. Christ never did.

In our culture and post-modern world, we must begin to think outside the box if we want to reach a lost world. Movies have such a strong influence in our day and age. We need to be looking for bridges to bring people to Christ. The DaVinci Code is on the hearts and minds of so many...think of how willing and open people will be to discuss the person of Jesus Christ. It is our job as His followers to expose the lies of this movie and share the Truth of who Jesus really is!!

So brothers and sisters....I urge you to use this movie as a bridge rather than a hindrance to the gospel. Use it to expose the Truth of who Christ is historically and how He personally has radically changed your life. See what happens!!!