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!!

3 days and counting....

So as I have only 3 full days left in India...I want to hear from YOU my readers! yay for my readers!

Is there any last minute posts or questions you would like to see on this blog about India?!! Let me know and I am all yours.... Only 3 more days of Indian lovin'!! tear.

Tomorrow, we are moving Laura into a new apartment with all our furniture- including my bed, kitchen stuff, and fridge. So we are going to be camping out the next 3 days...it should be fun. I will try to post pictures tomorrow!!

If you are wondering how I am holding up...I am honestly pretty sad but equally excited (can that be possible?)!! Keep praying for us in our last days. Thanks readers! You are the BEST!!!

More Goodbye's....

Julie (my best friend in India) is no longer in India. She left tonight to visit a college best friend in Africa and then off to see her man...Jared in North Carolina. Soon she will be a resident of Missouri which is pretty far from Texas. booh. Anyways... as many of you know... Julie was my roommate during our 7-week training at the farm. It is amazing how God put us in each other's lives. We definitely COULD NOT have survived this place without each other. We had some great time today to really reflect our past two years together and I am amazed at our growth and all the different places the Lord has taken us (including Singapore, Thailand, Bali, and Malaysia). We have been through a lot of challenges but also laughed till our bellies ached. I am glad I had a kindred spirit to go through this journey with. Julie is a precious jewel and I am sad to part ways BUT I am excited to share her with Jared (her way serious boyfriend). Jared...its your turn - you get to treasure her now!! I know that Julie and I will always be lifelong friends (BFF)!!!


So...Most of these posts lately have been more for me than for you! So thanks for still reading and commenting. I too am like many of you, I will be sad not to post my wild and crazy adventures in this place. Will life soon get really boring?!

I would also like to apologize to all you English majors out there. I would like to first say, that before I moved to India, I had AMAZING grammar and punctuation skills. But after living in India and being around HORRIBLE English speakers- everything has gone down hill. So please forgive my ridiculous writing skilz and grammar mistakes. Thanks for your grace!! ha. I need it!!!

A "Classic" Indian home visit

Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to be in many many home of Indians. Saturday, Lindsey and I, were invited to Deepa's aunt's house for dinner. We had such a great time and it the was the most "classic" Indian visit. Let me try to explain to you what a classic Indian visit is like...I hope that this comes out good enough through words...because if I could tell you about all this in person...you wouldn't be able to stop laughing. It's pretty good stuff.

First 30 minutes-

This is the most awkward time of the home visit because you don't really know anyone and everyone is being a little shy. They first bring you water to drink. Then a few minutes later comes a cold drink (coke or limca) and biscuits (cookies). While we are sitting here enjoying our coke, random neighbors from everywhere come in and just gawk at us. Some get the guts to actually introduce themselves. But then they leave. Its like we are on display and they said, "The American girls are here...go look at them!" Sometimes we even get asked for a few photographs. Pretty much the first 30 minutes is you getting stared at but not really talked to.

The Photos Albums Come Out-

An Indian visit is not complete without looking at photographs! This is also kind of when we can start to relax and we are figuring out everyone and the fun begins. So Deepa pulled us into a different room and we started looking at pictures for awhile. Then the cousin-brothers (there are 3) come in and start talking to us. And of course the camera comes out!! Then we are told that Deepa's cousin-brothers are dancers and that they should dance for us. They are at first a little shy, but Deepa is pretty bossy...i mean... convincing. Before we know it, we begin to see CD's come out. We are then asked to move to the other room to watch her cousin-brothers dance!!

Dancing!

No true Indian visit is complete without dancing or some type of singing!! Music and dancing is a core part of the Indian culture. This time it was nice because we got to watch her cousin-brothers dance so they were distracted from asking Lindsey and I to dance. Two of Deepa's cousin-brothers choreograph their own dance moves and actually teach dance. (I uploaded a video of them dancing below this post...go there NOW and let it stream so you can watch it...this post would not be complete with out watching it). I was super impressed by their dance skillz and it was sooo fun!

Dinner-

In India, the very last thing you do is eat. Pretty much once you finish eating, you have permission to leave and is usually expected. The awkward thing about eating in an Indian's home is they don't eat with you. They serve you and watch you eat. It is kind of awkward to eat and have 6 people stare at you and then have those same people try to stuff more and more food down your throat. Oh... and you almost always eat on the floor!! All things that I have adjusted to now.

Here is us sitting on the floor about to eat with two random neighbors that wanted to meet us and take our picture.

More Photos-

Usually right before we leave the camera comes out again. Pretty much any combination of picture that CAN be taken is taken. It kind of makes you feel movie star-esque. Sometimes it gets a little humorous. I am pretty much just told WHERE to be...Indians can be quite bossy...i mean convincing.

This is the family that we visited. We took about 20 different variations of pictures...I however will spare you!

Gifts-

Sometimes, but not all the time you get gifts. Usually they are T-A-C-K-Y!!! But it's always the thought that counts!! The oldest cousin-brother is an amazing artist and during our visit we were looking at his artwork and many of it is displayed in their house as decoration. Well as we leave, we see them looking at the walls and whispering. Yes, they really did it friends...they took their decorations off their wall and gave them to us!! Indians have nothing but they give so freely from what they have. We could all learn this lesson!!!

Leaving-

The family walked us out to the rickshaw and the minute we were out of their site Lindsey and I laughed for like 3 minutes straight!! We had such a great time and everything we did was so typical India that we couldn't help but enjoy ourselves! Indians are AMAZING. They have the best hospitality on the planet...sorry Mississippi (the hospitality state). It has been amazing to experience the best that India offers and that is their people. I have fallen in love with the people here...and it is the people that I will miss!!!