The DMZ Tour

On Saturday, I got the neat opportunity to do the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) Tour. Basically, I got the chance to cross the border and stand in North Korea. Crazy I know. I honestly didn't know anything about the relationship between North and South Korea (because ashamedly I suck at history). I just knew that North Korea was the bad communist one and South Korea was the good Korea. So I got a little much needed history lesson on the bus via history movie. Amber lives in Songtan which is the same city where Osan Air Force Base is. Amber has a lot of amazing military friends...so they hooked us up with the DMZ tour through the base. It was pretty sweet. Here are pictures.

Amber and I got to crawl through the Third Infiltration Tunnel. This is a tunnel built by the North Koreans to try to get to the South Korean border. The tunnel was discovered before they could use...so now it is a tourist attraction. We had to wear hard hats to go in.

This is Dorasan Station. It is a subway station built for the purpose of unification among North and South Korea. It still does not have any daily runs. We stopped here and got a North Korea "fake" stamp in our passport.

The guards that guard the entrance.

The train headed for North Korea...still not functioning...but ready.

I am pointing towards North Korea and Amber is pointing to South Korea.

Next we went to Joint Security Area (JSA). JSA is the only place on the demilitarized zone where North Korea and South Korea come face to face. There is a neutral area owned by the United Nations Command in the T-4 building where all peace treaties are made. I got to go in this building! yeah! Before we could go, I had to sign this piece of paper saying that basically if I died they weren't responsible. At this point, i felt very sydney bristo like or even better Jack Bauer like....i felt the slight adrenaline of feeling like i was about to be put in harms way. Luckily, I am still alive!

Me standing in front of the T-4 building...North Korea is behind me. In fact that big white building is owned by North Korea.

Me standing in North Korea. If you look at that table you see small speakers that divide the table. The side I am standing on in the North Korea side and the other side is obviously the South. While we are in this building they can hear everything that is being said and they were watching us!

Me standing like the guard. He didn't budge at all the whole time we were in that room.

The monument is where the Axe Murder Incident occurred in 1976.

The Bridge of No Return.

I am moving to Riverside, California!!

I have some exciting news to share with all of you! I will be moving to Riverside, California around the first of October! I have been asked to extend my Journeyman term and to invest in the lives of students at California Baptist University. My job is called J3 and it is new mobilization position offered to journeyman who have served two years and then are asked to extend one more year stateside. The purpose of the job is to invest in the lives of college students, share my experiences, challenge them, and encourage them towards overseas work! I am pretty much getting paid to build relationships, love, and disciple students and get them excited about South Asia!!! The job is a perfect match for me, but will also be a handful of new challenges that will grow me and stretch me!

I need to share with you how amazing it is that I am working at CBU. It is an answer to prayers that I have been praying since April and in the works since the spring semester of 2006! I feel like I would be stealing glory from the Father if I did not share my testimony of how this job is handpicked for me and all small details that make me thrilled, excited, jazzed, humbled, and honored to be moving to Riverside. So please take time to read the bottom part...it might be long...i already apologize.

In the spring semester of 2006, Kim and Lindsey became my indian roommates because they were completing an internship for there degree program at CBU. The three of us were instant best buds and still maintain a close friendship with these ladies. I remember very clearly and very specifically when they left I knew that I would be working with them or along side of them again. I don't know why or when, but I knew that would be a specific part of my life again.

This past January, with only six months left to serve in India, I spent a lot of time praying about what would be next after India. After many prayers, I felt that the Lord spoke to me saying, "Alicia, you aren't going to know what is next when you get back...I want you to be patient." So that is what I have clung too this past semester and hadn't really made any immediate life changing plans for my return home.
This past April, Kim came back (yay) and brought a team from her church Sandals to come and work with us. The team and the church ministered to me very personally way. Our time together was very impactful to me! I began to really learn more about their church and their ministries and fell in love with it.

I remember about a month after they left, Lindsey and I were in an auto rickshaw on our way to English class. I told her that since the Sandals team left, I just couldn't get the church and the Riverside area off my heart. I said, "I know this sounds stupid and doesn't make any sense, but I feel like I am suppose to look into moving to Riverside/Los Angeles area when I go home. I don't know why...I just feel like I need to see if God opens or closes a door there." So I continued to pray and had other people praying for me to see what the desires were there for. I also decided to visit Riverside on my way home to see what I thought.

So this was my current plan till God dumped it over and gave me a new one.... I decided that I would move to San Antonio with my family till the end of the year and love and invest in them while i had the chance and then would work towards what was next.

While I was in Thailand, I was approached and asked if I was interested in doing a mobilization job. I would travel a lot but under the assumption that I could live at home and travel with San Antonio being my home base. About a month later, I finally got the "real" job description and it was nothing like what i originally thought and I would have to live on campus somewhere and there was no openings in Texas! They had some in Arkansas and Louisiana, Washington, some in California, and then possibly CBU.

My heart was already prepared, excited, and ready to live at home with my family so when I heard this i had pretty decided that I wouldn't take the job unless it was in Texas or at CBU. But I still not that convinced because I didn't want to let my family down by moving away so fast after getting back and my heart was set on being near them again. Then my dad and I talked and he really encouraged me to look into the job even if it wasn't Texas of California because it was such a great opportunity. My parents were both soo supportive and they thought I was being slightly unreasonable for not looking into the job more. So once I felt the peace that my family was ok with me going and their support and affirmation, I got really excited about the job...especially CBU.

The Lord really brought everything to FULL circle with the prayers and desires of my heart. I realized that my "Alicia" desires to move to Riverside were specifically placed there by the Father. They originated from the Father and He was faithful to then GIVE me the desires of my heart! It is soo beautiful to me - the Fathers love for me and his plans to give me a hope and a future.

I feel there are so many more random details I could share to show how God is all up in my grill about this, but this is already too long... Please praise the Father with me as I plan to move to Riverside!! Also please ask for God to begin to prepare me for the next chapter of my life!

Thanks for reading all of this!

Rain... Rain...GO AWAY....

The rain was successful once again at ruining our plans! Boo. We headed out to see this cool fortress today. You have can take a trolly around the fortress which takes about 30 minutes OR you can walk it in 2.5 hours. So...we chose the trolly but we missed the last one before lunch by 10 minutes! dang it. We waited a whole hour and a half. In that time of waiting it just rained and rained and rained. By the time the trolly was scheduled to do runs again they said it was canceled due to the heavy rain!! grrr...

This picture is PRE-rain obviously. And these are the stairs leading up to the fortress. Fun huh?

What to do?


We headed home and I ate my first traditional Korean Meal! It was very good! I am learning to really love ethnic foods!

Alicia is back.

I did something liberating today. I bought a watch!!! You must be wondering...how is THAT liberating? Let me explain.

Alicia is a time oriented person and India is NOT a time-oriented culture. After about a year of pure frustration with people being late...I gave up and stopped wearing a watch. For the sake of personal sanity...I chose to stop caring about time and stopped wearing a watch.

After purchasing my new watch, I surprisingly felt this liberation. The time-oriented Alicia was allowed to come back. I think one thing that I really struggled with while in India was truly being Alicia. There are so many things about "me" that had to die to while living India. When I bought a watch it was a tribute to Alicia fully coming back!! I am excited to live in America again and just be ME, ME, ME!!! I think the older I get the more and more I discover who had has truly designed me to be!!!

Next time you see me...ask me what time it is because I have a watch!!!

Chillin' with my homegirl

Amber is my hero because she gets up at 4:15 AM to run with her friend Sarah. Usually after her run she is "Miss Super Productivity", BUT when I woke up Wednesday morning at 11:00 and I didn't hear her...I thought something terrible had happened. But all was good...she took the time to catch on some very necessary sleep because we have been staying up late watching movies. I will explain our day through a photo journal.

Event #1- Amber took me to a Thai restaurant in downtown Songtan that was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!! I have been craving Phad Thai since I left Thailand a month ago. I would also like to say that this is where I was attempting to work on my my Chopstick skilz. I was so proud of myself that I asked amber to take a picture. Then when it was time to take a picture, I had stage fright. Sad. But in the end, I pulled myself together and grabbed those noodles! Here are my attempts and my success! Wahoo.

Event #2- We took a Taxi ( a big deal...amber always walks but made an exception because of the rain) to the Subway station where we traveled to Suwan for the second day in a row! Suwan is about a 30 minute Subway ride from where Amber lives. Suwan has a really nice mall that carries Clinique make-up (the reason we made the trip). Here is us waiting for the Subway to come.

Event #3- The best thing about Suwan is Starbucks of course! Amber does not have a Starbucks in her town...so of course we made a stop. I got a White Chocolate Mocha which i have not had in two year because Thailand never offers that flavor. Way to go Korea Starbucks!

Event #4- Amber doesn't really care much for coffee so she got herself some Baskin Robins ice cream...can anyone say yummy? She brought it to Starbucks to eat with me, BUT she had problems eating it and made a mess. She did however enjoy it to the very end...even though it ended up all over her hands and shirt. Silly ambo.

Event #5- We got back on the Subway and headed back to Amber's home town so that she could get her hair trimmed. Due to unfortunate events (they were busy) it didn't work out ....Soooo.... we went to hang out with Amber's community of believers. It was pretty fun. We both got suckered into a game of spades pretty quickly...and lets just say....Matt and I made beautiful spade players. Together we were UNSTOPPABLE. Seriously. It was a lot of fun.

Event #6- After Matt and I dominated at Spades we decided to all play a game of Pictionary. Can I just say that I have a fear of Pictionary. I make stick figures look RIDICULOUS and have always been ashamed of my lack of drawing skilZ. Really it is embarrassing. I seriously almost refused to play, but I thought I should face my fears and own up to them. All I have to say is compared to the others around me...i seriously am not THAT bad! ha ha. Amber and I were partners and we were able to use our super sister pshyc power to win some rounds. I would also have to say that I haven't laughed so hard in a long long time!

You might ask...Alicia how are you adjusting to all this American fellowship? Can I just say that I am trying really hard to be "normal" and not say weird things...here are a few random cultural things...

1. Before we ate our meal...we had to hold hands with the people next to us while we prayed. I had to hold two men's hand. I was freaking out!

2. I had to stop myself from saying Hindi all night long.

3. I was with more males than females...j-peeps...when does that ever happen?

4. I had beef in my spaghetti.

5. I ate strawberries and whip cream for the first time in two years. I let ppl know i was excited but suppressed my pure enthusiasm so people wouldn't think I was "too" weird.

6. I was actually able to engage in conversation with the male species rather than just meet them and never talk to them. It was weird to actually have brothers in Christ to interact with.

When it Rains...it pours....

It's raining... it's pouring...the old man in snoring.....

It has been rainy pretty consistently since I have arrived here which has hindered our plans of seeing Korea. Amber and I tried to go to Everland today BUT it was raining and we couldn't quite find the right bus to get on. Therefore we have chosen to do things inside....

starbucks. the mall. sticky photos. watching movies. decorating. cooking. talking. Outback. drinking coffee. subways. walking. catching up. rearranging classroom furniture. meeting people. relaxing. pizza hut.


Outback

Me in Starbucks...happy. happy. happy.

Pizza Hut

amber drinking coffee...i mean water

amber rearranging desks in her classroom

amber in at...no other than STARBUCKS!!!!


On the Subway

A Chapter Finished.

Many of you might want to know how my last HOURS were in Delhi, India?! Well, they were joyful on one hand and really emotionally rough on the other. I felt like celebrating and yelling from the roof tops because I finished this leg of the race! Lindsey and I received such great encouragement and affirmation among our co-workers the night before we left and it just reminded me of the Jesus' grace to let us finish strong!! Thank you Jesus!

Lindsey and I didn't leave for the airport till late Saturday (August 4) so we had almost the whole day to blow. We kept busy by saying goodbye to our students in the morning, helping Laura arrange and settle into her apartment, say goodbye to Mona, turn in our keys, and have dinner with the Fudenna's for the last time. The day was filled with many good-byes and many many many tears. Lindsey and I cried tears of sadness, tears of joys, tears of love for our friends, tears of laughter, and tears of closure. Saying goodbye was more difficult than Lindsey and I anticipated or expected but it made us realize the depth of relationship and love we have experienced in India.

Lindsey and I were dropped off at the airport at the same time because our flights were only within an hour of each other! What do you say to your best friend, co-worker, and roomie after two-years of falling in love with India together? I still can't believe that Lindsey isn't around to tell EVERYTHING to and to experience this next season with. I am already DYING to hear from her!! We parted ways very reluctantly but happy that we will see each other again in September!!!

Since I boarded the plane to come to Korea I have been pretty numb and not sure what to think about "no longer living in India." I have realized now that so many things are about to change and how much I am going to miss the people and culture of India and the life I lived there. I long for the day when I can go back!! I pray that it is sooner than later.

These thoughts are pretty random, but I hope they make sense. I still can't make sense in my mind what these past two years have meant for me and how I should feel right now. I am praying through what India has meant for me what is next! India definetly will leave its mark on what the next chapter in my life holds!!

For those of you wondering...I will be continuing my blog...don't worry!!

Together Again!!

I made it safely to S. Korea and I am united with my sister for the next 15 days!!! I didn't get to my sister till about 4:30 so we are just hanging out at the house tonight and catching up!

I am feeling pretty emotionally drained right now. Leaving was a little harder than I expected and still not sure what to think now that India is not my home. Pray for me if you think about it.

Look forward to more fun adventures with amber and I soon!!!

Breaking Language and Culture boundries.....

First of all...for some reason today...I have been super giggly. I woke up on the giggly side of the bed. I have laughed so hard tonight I have cried and almost died because I couldn't breathe. This Post is just killing me. Everytime I look at the photo and read the comments I bust out in PURE laughter! I think me and the roomies are delerious. Here we are camping out enjoying each other and making each other laugh rediculously.

Ok..so now for the purpose of this post.... SPOONS!

We taught my indian friends how to play cards this week! I kind of wish we would've done it earlier. We haven't really gotten to spend as much time with Deepa's brother and sister because of the language barrier BUT passing cards around, fighting...eh uh..i mean grabbing spoons breaks cultural barriers!!! Wahoo!

A Funny cultural note: Indians think that all card playing is associated with gambling...aka.. only pagan heathens or christians do that!! I think they asked me if I learned how to shuffle in a bar! ha ha. Also...Sh*t is not a bad word in the indian culture. SO every few minutes during playing cards I would hear them say "sh*t". Hence more giggling today. Lindsey and I just laugh everytime. I told you I was giggly today!

Many many lasts....

I can honestly say that these past 3 weeks have been absolutely amazing. I don't think I could have asked for a more perfect close to my two years of serving in South Asia. I have eaten, laughed, talked, visited, and loved! The fellowship among my Indian family has been soo soo soo sweet. I have been encouraged as I see the love these people have for me. I don't deserve their love, but I willingly receive it!! I feel like these past three weeks Jesus has been intentionally filling my love tank through allowing me to see sooo much fruit and through His personal encouragement! I am leaving India with such joy and lots of love for this place. Friends...this is direct fruit of the Spirits work!!

At Sonni's (a past English student) house! Another meal on the floor and this time there were only 10 people watching us eat!

Deepa's House-We had a great feast last night! I love love love indian food and the food they cooked last night was seriously some of the best indian food I have had in months! They had sooo much food and I truly felt like a queen eating in their home.

Chai and biscuits...i will miss chai!

Sweet rice, Chole, puri's, rice, bhindi, and paneer dish....yummy. yummy. yummy. yummy.

More eating on the bed...will anyone eat meals with me on my bed when I move to America?!

We got to worship together a little through song and prayer! Precious times!

This is us walking out the door. Fun shot.

Outing with Mona and Ericka-

We use to have a tradition of going with Mona once a week to pick Ericka up from school and then we would go and do something fun! We kind of stopped doing that but decided to go out together one last time. We went to this new place called Choka la. It was so American and girly!!! Mona is actually handling us leaving pretty hard...so it was hard because Mona was pretty quiet all day today and fighting tears through out our whole time. Pray for her. She has had some rough couple of months and I think is kind of struggling with depression and is afraid about being lonely when we leave.

Tomorrow I am spending the day with my American friends....We are having a par-tay tomorrow night!

Notice anything funny and familiar about this photo?

Discuss. (Click on the photo if you need to make it bigger).

Moving Day!

Today was moving day and I didn't lift a single piece of furniture!! I don't really have that great of pictures...every time I thought to take a picture, I was in the middle of something. ah well.

Today was actually pretty busy and random. It started in the morning with our typical Wednesday prayer time for South Asia. I have grown to love this time with my teammates! Today was extra beautiful as we worshipped and prayed together for the last time. Then the moving/chaos began! At one time, we had about 6 movers in our house, a pastor and a sadhu (hindu holy man) watching chronicles of narnia on my computer, a tailor dropping off my stuff, and all of us frantically trying to finish up everything! I am just glad we paid people to move our junk from one flat to another.

Just for the record, our current landlord decided to sell our flat rather than continue renting. Therefore, Laura had to find a new flat very quickly! She seemed a little stressed today. We are still in our current flat, but just kept three mattresses and are having one BIG slumber party for the next few days. There is literally nothing else in our flat- including no refrigerator or stove. So we will be ordering out a lot and borrowing water from my neighbor.

I am thankful I wasn't the movers. Laura's new flat is 5 stories up and NO elevator. It started to rain and the furniture got all wet. Pretty sure it is ruined and that they knicked up everything. What to do?! I wish i would've taken a picture of the truck...you would understand why our furniture is in the poor state that it is now...until later my friends...peace out.

This is a horrible picture of me with my fed-ex boxes. BUT today I shipped off the rest of my stuff to the Americas. The fed-ex men made me cry, but that's ok. It was definitely one of those moments where I was thankful I was leaving India and the male dominated society!!