BALI-licious Beach Babe Escape!!

Don't be jealous...but in just 72 short days, I will be lounging on the beaches of Indonesia with my five closest friends on this side of the world!!! This week, we have moved forward and have book our 7 day 6 night stay at the "Villa Baliana"!! The Villa Baliana is great because it is two-story with our own private pool, garden, and terrace!! We will be only about a 3-5 minute walk from the "Legian Beach". But if we want to go for a midnight swim we can just swim in our own PRIVATE pool!!

Our villa is also a great location because it is in walking distance to all the restaurants and shops as well...which to me translates as Starbucks!! sigh...I can't wait to go!!!

Let me introduce you to my 5 other traveling buddies....
Lindsey (my roomie), Julie (she lives in the mountains) Me, and Stephanie (she lives in the South).

April and Emily (both live in the mountains)

This is the biggest vacation I have ever planned- needless to say- I am really really really jazzed about it!! It will be such a special time with these ladies who I met just almost 2 years ago and got to start this journey with. We will definitely be celebrating the completion and success of our journey together!!

Transitioning...

Just for the record this POST is my 200th post!! I have really enjoyed having this blog and using it as kind of an online scrapbook for my time here. Thanks for your faithfulness to read my blog and to comment!! It's always fun to post something and to hear back from you..it's kind of like my reward for posting!! So happy commenting friends.

As the month of May approaches and I have less than two months of actual "work" left my mind has started to transition into America. The California team was the last big thing on my schedule- so once they left and the dust settled my brain started the transition. It's crazy how quick it happens. It's strange how your mind forgets out of necessity. Well this week, I have been remembering so many things about American that I am looking forward to. Here they are....

1. getting to say "I would like a number one combo with no pickles and a large sweet tea"
2. voicemail on your cell phone
3. walking outside and getting into my own vehicle (no bargaining or finding a ride) and DRIVING
4. my mom's home cooking- especially her vegetables- I have been craving her squash...yummy
5. sitting in my dad's office and having our deep religious or philosophical discussions
6. drinking milk from a jug (yummy)
7. wearing shorts and t-shirts and flip flops in PUBLIC
8. strawberry-limeades from Sonic
9. switching radio stations while driving in my car
10. central a/c
11. sitting around the table with my family eating dinner
12. calling my friends on my cell phone with no time difference
13. getting to pet my own cat JOEY again
14. Hugs and kisses from my family!! I get to be touched again!!!


This is such a great picture of HOME...I can't wait. I added a countdown to the right of my blog!! Check it out!!

American's Vote for Jez

I was randomly looking around on facebook and came across my old neighbor Jez. The boys and him used to live in the apartment next to us. They were crazy fun neighbors. Supposedly, he is trying to be in the show "The Biggest Loser". Good Morning America is previewing his audition video tomorrow...so vote for Jez!! If he wins he will get to actually be on the show!! Good Luck Jez!! If your in America vote for him!! He has a great personality... you would enjoy watching him on the show!!





www.votejez.com

Kiran!

I haven't posted a picture of Kiran in a long time! I am absolutely in love with this kid!! She is amazing!! Today, I had the joy of seeing her and she was so JOYFUL!! She is now 7 months old and one of the most happiest, giggly, and cackly babies!! I took a picture with her because I bought this cute outfit for her in America last year!! Yay for Old Navy!! Shanny do you remember this one?

California Lovin'

I have been reminded this past week of the effects that living in India has taken on me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I have been challenged and stretched in these three areas more in the past year and a half than I have in my entire life. Because of this stretching and growing- I was dry. God used the Sandals India team to minister and speak into all three of these areas... specifically just for me. Is it possible God sent them here just for me?!?




This is Dave who was also the team leader. Dave is awesome and the only phrase that comes to mind when I think of him is "bad ass". If anyone knows him, I think you will agree. He is the type of man that typifies what God intended real men to be... a little rough on the edges, a man after God's own heart, and a strong sense of justice and doing what's right. God really used Dave in my life this past week. He took time to know me, to listen to me, and meet me where I was. He asked me the hard questions and invested in me. He was also intentional in specifically affirming me and telling me who I was in Jesus and the gifts and talents that he saw in me this week. I feel encouraged and affirmed ( my love language) so I feel so overwhelmed with God's love. God used Dave as an instrument to bless me and speak to me. I also got to hear about his amazing wife Dawn and their three kids. I can't wait to meet them in four months. Oh and Dave thanks for your explanation on "hips don't lie" I now know all my options.

Some of the other girls that I fell in love with!

The boys saying goodbye...

My roomies....

Kim is the type of friend that we could not talk for a year and pick up right where we left off. I realized after her being here...that I really needed a friend. I am blessed with amazing friendships here, but Kim's friendship just ministers to me in a unique way- and I just needed her. The Lord knew that. I know that the Lord has been incredibly intentional in placing her in my life...I just feel like he is going to allow us to be a part of each other's life for a long time.

If you can't tell...I am revived!! My cup is overflowing. My house seems really empty right now, but I am thankful for the time I had to latch arms with people I had never met before and love them and have them love me. The community that we have among believers is priceless. What a sweet God we have that He knows what we need and generously gives to us!!

On my way back home, I am going to stop and visit Kim and Derek (her soon to be hubs) and Coop in Riverside. I look forward to seeing the Sandals Team India on August 26th!

California Challenge

This week, a group of 15 people are here from California. It has been challenging, encouraging, and refreshing to have them here as they see India for the first time. There hearts have been broken for the people of this country in a way that has been missing in my time here for awhile now. They have been challenging me to open my eyes again and to try to see this country with new eyes. It’s amazing how desensitized I have become to human suffering, poverty, and lostness in this land. It has become common place and normal. My heart right now is overwhelmed with a new heart and love for the people here and for the faces and families of the people I have been allowed to invest in.

If I were to be completely honest and vulnerable I would have to confess that the good parts of me have died in this land and that I have just been barely surviving and holding on to the faith that I have known my whole life. For several months now, my heart has been in rebellion against the Lord. I have questioned the Christian culture in which I have lived my entire life and found myself doubting the Church and the way things have been done my entire life.

But today, the Lord revealed my sin and my rebellion. In order to work out my salvation, I began seeking other worldly desires. My heart began to stray and I wanted to do everything opposite of the church and culture I grew up in because I doubted its effectiveness and ability to change lives. But in my desire to be just a follower of Christ and to look different than the church- I began to look too much like the world. My heart began to stray and I was becoming someone that I didn’t like. I feel like I am learning for the first time the balance of what it really means to “be of the world but not in the world”.

I have been reminded this week, through the team here that it’s ok to be different. The life I live as a follower of Jesus sets me apart. The journey here is making me become authentic in my faith and is defining what Jesus meant when He said “follow me.”

I know that the Lord sent me to this land so that I would no longer follow a religion but that I would genuinely follow the teaching and life of Jesus who has radically changed my life and has the ability transform people of all cultures and nations.

Some fun pics with the California Sandals Team...

Me at the Taj Mahal for the third time!

Me, David (the team leader) and Kim at the Taj Mahal.
At the Agra Fort. The girls are on the white onyx queen's throne
The Men on the king's black onyx throne

Laura and I at the Agrah Fort with the Taj Mahal behind us

Some of the boys doing their own modeling shoot

Estimated Time of Departure

As of 3:00 PM this afternoon, I have a permanent and official leaving date for India. I will be leaving India on August 5, 2007. This is only 117 short days from today. When I received my final e-ticket and saw that my ticket was purchased I got a knot in my stomach. Part of me is really really excited and part of me is in pure denial. The ticket and the date brings a whole new realm of finality to the fact that my time in India is truly coming to an end.

My days in Delhi recently have been some of my most joyful and peaceful days in Delhi. This place is home now and some days it feels so right just to be here. Naturally however, I am also starting to transition in my mind knowing that this season is soon ending. All good seasons in life are really painful and hard to say goodbye too. The thought of uprooting myself makes me almost sick to my stomach, but I am also excited to see what the next step is. I know that India has prepared me for what comes next which by the way ... no solid plans just ideas and dreams.

Please keep me in mind as I try to live fully in India...and pray for my future as I need a job, car, and a new focus of ministry!!

On my way home, I plan to do a little extra traveling... I will be in South Korea visiting my sister for 15 days and then Southern California visiting friends and family!! So I will leave India- August 5th but won't arrive in Texas until August 29th around midnight!! I am trying to get all my traveling out of my system...cause I won't have so many awesome opportunities in the future!! Can't wait to see some of you on the other side!

Good Friday Celebration

Our house has been bustling with guest after guest. Lindsey's parent's left yesterday for America after a very event filled 10 days! Now we have a team of 15 from Southern California. Every night they have been coming to our home and having dinner. My poor house has been in shambles but it has been encouraging to have so many young people around.

We took the opportunity to celebrate the Easter season with our neighbors and friends one last time. We unfortunately didn't have the best turn out- but we had a lot of fun dressing up in our sarees one last time. Here are some pictures from the event.

Making Rangoli with colored rice. A traditional way of decorating.

Lindsey's dad and my landlords.

Worshipping together.

All us ladies together in our new sarees!

Lindsey's family. They reminded me a lot of my family so it was fun to have them around!

Me and Lindsey! Look at how much volume my hair has! It's crazy. Lori (a very talented hair dresser and Lindsey's sister) fixed it for me!!

Happy Resurection Day friends!!

Isaiah 53 (NLT)

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? 2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. 3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away.[b] No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.[c] But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. 12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

East Delhi Hotel

My friends in my city like to call our house "The East Delhi Hotel". Lindsey and I LOVE to have people come and stay with us when they pass through the big city - so we are constantly having friends from everywhere (literally) come for several days or even weeks. We have been blessed with lots of space and lots of beds, so our motto has become "the more the merrier".

From volunteer teams, to California interns, to Germans, to family, to other workers in India- our B-603 apartment flat stays occupied in all seasons. In fact, Karen once said, "You be havin' forty million people staying up in dis hizzi (said in her ghetto accent of course)." I think that when our security guards just see white people they just point to our apartment. There are two ladies that actually live in our city that want to just come and stay the night because they have heard so much about the "East Delhi Hotel." I guess we leave some kind of impression on people.

This week, I think the East Delhi Hotel will have maxed out!! After two months of living in an Indian home to help her Hindi- Laura has officially moved in and occupied our third bedroom!! Along with Laura moving in, Lindsey's parents and sister came to visit!! And tonight, I am going to the airport to pick up Kim (the California intern from last year) and she is also going to be staying with us!! So this next week will be like one really big party in B-603!! I love having all the extra people around. Our poor refrigerator is having to work extra hard to keep all the extra water and food cold! It definitely is not used to having so much stuff inside it. On Friday, we are expecting 14 other friends visiting from California to help us out. So in these next two weeks there will be about 20 different white faces passing through!

So will any of you have the privilege of staying in the "East Delhi Hotel"? You just tell me when you are coming and you are guaranteed a bed!

A Princess Road Trip

On Sunday, me and five other princesses (friends) rode in a chariot (Toyota, Innova) to Neemrana Palace in Rajastan, India. Neemrana is this beautiful palace that was built in the 14th Century and is currently a hotel. This hotel was absolutely breathtaking with its seclusion from my big city, the fresh crisp spring weather, the amazing gardens, and the beautiful architecture. I was in heaven. Because we were going to a palace for the night- we decided that it would only be appropriate to refer to each other as Princess. So that's exactly what we did!! Call me Princess Alicia.

I felt like the Lord filled my love tank all day. I was blessed with great sisters ( i mean princesses) to spend the day with, good looking British boys with amazing accents that played amazing jazz music in a concert that evening, a chance to work on my tan and be in the sun, and some sweet and refreshing time with the Lord. The day in the palace was just plain perfect!

For MORE PICTURES of the palace click HERE.

Catch Up Post

I have been a little absent on this blog lately. I apologize. I have actually been busy which is kind of a rarity, but I am enjoying it! Here are some random pictures of things happening in my city!!

Some friends that I got to teach this month! I love all the colors!

Me teaching.

Yep...we are acting out the Creation story. Yep Adam and Eve, an orange tree, and a black sneaky snake. If you look closely they are using pillows as "leaves". ha ha

My friend Natalie went back to America. We had one last farewell luncheon.

It was Debbie's birthday. She is the most amazing lady in my city. She makes my life simple!!!

Debbie and I on her birthday.

Yep. That's hail. I have never held hail like this before!!

My Sunday Afternoon

This week, I had the joy of purchasing my plane tickets for the "BALI-licious Beach Babe Escape"!! Me along with 5 of my best friends are spending our last 8 vacation days in Bali,Indonesia-- one of the most famous vacation spots in the world!!! (Bali is an island on the southern tip of Indonesia). The AMAZING thing is my plane tickets only cost me $215 round trip with two overnight layovers in Malaysia !! (Is this really my life??)

The next step in the planning process is deciding where we will stay. We decided as a group that we didn't want to stay at cheap hostels, but we wanted to spend some money and actually stay in some nice resorts. So I spent about 4 hours today looking at Resorts, hotels, and villas in Bali. Can I just say that I am sooo in love with Bali. I have seen so many breathtaking resorts and villas (and of course I can't afford most of them), but April and I just clicked in links all afternoon saying things like "oooh" "lets go there" "um...sold". However...everything we really liked is just a little pricey because that 21% added tax just kept throwing us off. So we still have no clue where we will stay, but we have some better ideas!!

So these are pictures of April and I over the progression of FOUR HOURS!! ha ha. We pretty much didn't move. In fact, Lindsey left my apartment for several hours and came back and we were in the exact same position as when we left. I don't know...we thought it was hilarious.


hmmmm....

Oooooooh! Me likey!

looking....and looking....and looking

at a point of a little frustration

Where should we stay?????

Look how dirty our feet are...sick.


Here are some of my favorites...not that I can afford them, but definitely favorites.
1. Bali Villa (this is actually my top choice of options right now...i hope it works out)
2. Aston . Bali My favorite Resort but just barely too expensive
3.The Four Season- $500 a night, but AMAZING....
4.Another favorite that I can't afford.

My Mommie is the BEST!

A month back, I lost my wallet which resulted in canceling my credit cards. So fortunately for me, my mom had to mail them to me! So she decided to add a few fun Easter surprises and pajamas!! Receiving packages are a simple joy...it's almost like celebrating a birthday cause you get all these awesome undeserved gifts. My sister Shannon was also amazing got me a new Nine West wallet. Wallets are another simple joy of mine and I look forward to falling in love with this one like I the other one...may it rest in peace.

Thanks fam...you are the greatest!!!

My blog in a TEXT cloud!

isn't this cool? Its called a Word Cloud and the website analyzes your blog and make a visual depiction of the most frequently used words. I thought you might enjoy!

A Day in My City

I thought I should do a little more exploring in my own city today. There was one motivating factor to go TODAY and that was the weather. We have several visitors coming in the next month or so from South Carolina, Mississippi (Lindsey's parents) and California. And once all our fun teams leave it will be too hot to run around my city "site seeing". So this was the last weekend we (the Lindsey's and J, K & Little K) could see some last things in comfort.



This is a picture inside the Lodi Gardens. They are beautiful. Don't be fooled...this is unique in that it is green, clean, and beautiful.



Lindsey and I at the Lodi Gardens.





Some ruins close to Hamyan's Tomb. Another uniquely beautiful place. I didn't know such places existed...so easy on the eyes!





Hamuyan's Tomb. I am not exactly sure who Hamuyan was, but obviously someone important enough to get such a massive tomb! Seriously. But this Tomb was what the Taj Mahal was modeled after. They are almost identical in structure except for the Taj Mahal is like 100 times more ornate and of course is ALL marble. (I am in this picture...you can barely see me).


"The Lindsey's" and I met up with Jonathan, Kelley, and Kiran at the President's house. This was the last weekend his gardens would be open! They wouldn't allow any camera's so unfortunately I don't have any pictures. But the gardens WERE beautiful...they were filled with all kinds of flowers! I love flowers...so it was a little piece of heaven for me!



Here's a picture of Lindsey and I at Safardung's Tomb. Yep, another tomb and they all look the same. We took the opportunity at this tomb to take some fun pictures. Here is one of the many....we are doing the Indian squat...kind of.

I have a really busy week coming up this week...so I hope to spend tomorrow resting and marking lots of things off my to-do-list!! Yep, I am the type that finds joy in making a to-do-list just so I can mark things off. Gotta love being a J!


My roomie posted a HILLARIOUS blog...you should click on it and read it.
It's entitled.... I Learn Something New Every Day

Update - Weather, language, and family

Hello friends! Well, things here in India are GREAT! The weather is starting to warm up and right now it is PERFECT. It is the ideal hammock weather. You know that kind of weather where you could wear shorts or pants and the sun is out but not blaring...? yep PERFECT. I think that the weather here is being kind to us. Usually it warms up pretty fast but it seems like the cooler weather is sticking around!! I have still been sleeping with no fan and pajama pants. Soon it will be fan, shorts, tank tops, and cold showers before bed. Oh...the things to look forward to.

So lately, I have been forgetting all my English words and am getting better at speaking Hinglish rather than English. You might even notice this in my blog posts! ha. The more I hang out with my English students the worse my English is getting because their grammar is AWFUL therefore my grammar is awful. I have even had several people tell me lately on the phone how different my English is sounding! HELP!

Examples:
Hinglish: My stomach is paining me.
English: My stomach hurts.
Hinglish: I go to marriage.
English: I am attending the wedding.
Hinglish: It's she's sister book also...same same
English: It's her sisters's book- they are the same.

My South Asia Friends...do you have any phrases that you catch yourself saying?!

My cousin Angela is getting married! She got engaged shortly after Valentine's Day to Jon Schneider. Welcome to the family Jon! Yesterday, she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! I can't wait and feel so honored to be in her wedding. The big day will be November 10 in Austin, Texas. Angela is the first of all the cousin's on my mom's side to get married. Almost all of us are in our twenties now...so it's just the beginning of many!!

Picture taken after their engagement. Notice the bling bling on her finger! Congrats Jon and Angela!!