HEARTC♡RE

I should really be sleeping.

This Sunday was exactly three weeks before I leave. On Saturday I said it a couple times and it really felt light years away. Then on Sunday I really thought about it by days and. .. . . . .. it's so soon. Honestly, I go back and forth from far and soon. It's about the way you look at it, you can say "oh, it's 18 days away" and it feels far. Or you can take it week by week see how busy you are and how you really only have 2 weekends left. Voila, my schedule:

Week of 7/20: This week I have work till Thursday. On Friday morning I have to take my mom to renew her passport. There is an Eid potluck at work around 1pm, then right after I will go to my friend V's house for a sleepover.
Week of 7/27: It's the same week schedule, but Friday morning I am leaving to go to South Carolina. I'm visiting my old youth minister to help her lead a retreat for her new church group. This retreat has been in the work for several months and I initially didn't want to go. This was due to the fact that I wasn't feeling mentally well. Now, some months later, I am feeling much better and they were short on people, lucky for me. I am excited to spend time with old friends and make some new ones. I have a small part in it, so I need to practice that before I leave. We come back Sunday afternoon and that evening is the Nicki Minaj concert!!! I am so excited!! I went her concert, where she opened for Britney Spears, almost exactly four years ago.
Week of 8/3: On Wednesday I will have dinner with some Legacy members as a goodbye, Thursday will be my last day playing of work at the IRC and my last soccer match with them. Friday I may spend with my girl friends, and Saturday I will definitely spend with my family.

SUNDAY 8/9 Then it's wakey wakey early to catch my 8AM flight for my new home for the rest of the year. And do my first solo travel trip. The nerves wouldn't be bad if I was going to let's say Mexico, where I know the airport and it's a straight shot. But this. . . This is a full, 24 hr day of travel, 3 cities, 3 countries. My generous host parents purchased my ticket and the travel is the best I saw. I saw some for 40+ hours and more cities. And I already looked at the seats and ALL good. I'm on aisle for the 14 hr flight and although window view would be cool, it's not as cool as NOT having to crawl over 2 sleepy people to go to the bathroom. All in all, I am excited to put myself in this position of solo travel and see what I got.

So after this riveting and exciting sneak peek to my last weeks in the states, seems pretty quick no? Feels good to be busy.

I am still in need to get my things together. I know I can take two 50LB bags with me, but will it be necessary and can I even carry those around the airport? 5 months is quite a minute though.

I am not very nervous. but the natural worry is there. I hope I adapt and learn quickly. And make as little mistakes as possible.

I will update probably once a week before I leave, then hope to maintain a steady flow of posts while abroad to document and share my experience.

my longer posts take the shortest time to write,
melissa

(PS. Hope to improve my writing)

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with Legacy on my calendar. After 40 minutes of rain and traffic, and a text letting them know I would be late, I got to the restaurant. We met at Blue Moon Pizza, which thankfully was/is not too far from my house. It was our coordinators R & L (husband and wife), Y and myself. We sat outside, under a cover of course, and had a couple hours to catch up over delicious food. Of course the topic of my trip to abroad came up, as we hadn't seen each other for a while. When I kind of finished speaking about it and mentioned where I had been, L asked Y where she had traveled to and if there was any place she was interested in traveling to. She said it wasn't something that she necessarily thought about or was keen on. That reminded me of even further back when I was chatting with another friend, K, about goals and dreams. She said her fear was never traveling and seeing the world, and I thought "well that's a good point". Back to dinner after the two seconds it took me to remember that time and dwell on Y's statement, it came to me that "traveling" was also a thought I hadn't necessarily thought about often.

Yes, I know. What?? & I mentioned that, that I hadn't given traveling too much thought. And I want to know why? I initially said it was because I was more interested in culture through people. But I am not sure that is necessarily true. I think to fully understand a peoples' culture, you have to see their country. Their history, politics, landscapes, architecture, even weather affect the evolution of their identity. When you're put in the middle of it all, you can see the why and have a deeper personal understanding. But, I digress. I am still young, and I think after I hit that initial wave of self awareness and clarity of my interests, I worked then on a basic understanding of Middle Eastern (for lack of a better word?) culture. In my opinion, and maybe not everyone else's, I did it in a very natural manner. As opposed to introducing myself academically, I did it through blogs, Netflix films, YouTube documentaries, and following simple news stories. Not only because the latter is more accessible, but I can barely read academic papers assigned to me in class. And this was over the course of a year and some change, where the information came to me gradually. OK, so I did that for a year. Then came my interest with Oman and I think I really just devoted my time to that and day dreaming of traveling there. So there wasn't much room for thinking about other countries and say "oh I want to visit here and see these peoples and landmarks." But now, thanks to being able to mark Oman off the list and people at the IRC who have mentioned details of places I think I would really enjoy visiting. I present to you my (very short) list.

(just a BTW I've visited to Germany, Belgium, France, Argentina, Nicaragua, and of course Mexico)

1. Ethiopia, why? well I want to visit an African country next. Just this Thursday too, I read an email from someone who is currently there. Blogging style, it was so well written I wanted to just appear in Ethiopia in the middle of a herd of cows. I heard the food is bomb. It's one of the few countries not colonized by Europe (except for like mid 20th century) and it'll have a very distinct culture than to what I have encountered thus far.
2. Nepal, why? I have a friend at work who is from there and of course I hear all the good things. I also think it would be a country to expose me to a new culture. I really want to witness the landscape and monuments first hand. It looks like, and I'm sure it is, such a beautiful country. I'd like to do more rural and nature tourism, and if I'm not mistaken that is there specialty. Especially after the devastating earthquakes and what followed, it wouldn't be a bad idea investing into their economy and get it back to it's formal glory. So, let's go soon yeah?
3. Spain, why? This is a trip I'd like to take a little later in life (5 or 6 yrs?). Everyone knows I have no big interest in Western Europe. Mainly because I want to deviate from Western culture. I know every country is unique and has something to offer, but it is just not a priority for me. Plus with my winter trip to Europe I feel I got that little bug out of me and I am satisfied. I would want to take a all inclusive European trip in the far future though. Anyways, Spain is some place I'd like to travel to with my family. I remember my dad mentioning wanting to visit Spain when I was little and it has been my dream for us to all go together. It'd be cool to see Spain in concentrate. That makes no sense, but what I mean is because I'm Mexican and because of Spanish colonization, we speak (mostly) Spanish, are (mostly) Catholic, and the rest of our culture has Spanish characteristics, but isn't Spanish. And believe it or not, it's easy to forget that. It'd be interesting to see the differences in culture although sometimes we believe we know what it is. Also to visit Basque Country and Barcelona and see their rich and unique culture in comparison. And it wouldn't be easy, but in a dream world we would separate and leave our parents in Madrid, and go, with my then older siblings, to spend a summer night in Ibiza. 

This weekend I went camping with Legacy (college ministry). A quick recap of the weekend. I carpooled with our ministry leaders, R & L, from Atlanta to Mountain City. Left around 12pm and arrived around 2pm to Black Rock Mountain. We arrived to our camp site, picked our three sites, set up camp, and left one more time for the nearby town for last minute supplies. Later that evening Y joined us, and in the morning K and Y joined us as well. We had breakfast, visited the Visitor Center, where we got an awesome view of the mountains, then visited a few overlooks around the park, returned to our site and had some lunch. We hit a couple hiking trails. The first was a beautiful loop around a lake. We definitely took our time with that one, saw the different fish, flowers, and different streams. THE SECOND WAS A STRAIGHT SHOT DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, GOING DOWN WAS FINE, BUT MAN GOING BACK UP. KICKED ALL OUR BUTTS. We got back to camp set up for dinner, played cards, roasted marshmallows the whole ~camping experience~.