travel mercies

After a mere 6 weeks at home, I'm already back in East Asia! My time at home flew by but I enjoyed every minute of it. For example, my last day at home I took  paddle boarding lessons! My mom got a group on and my brother and I decided it would be a fun activity for my last day. When I hear the word sports or fitness, I immediately cringe. Needless to say, I was nervous about paddle boarding. Thankfully I survived and only fell over a few times.

it actually wasn't as hard as I expected...until a small wave comes

before heading to the airport, Belle wasn't ready to say good bye obviously

When I left Alabama, I headed to Chicago for a week long briefing. It was great to hang out with my new team and meet other people headed to East Asia. I think the conference also allowed me to get in the mindset to head overseas again. I hadn't begun to process the fact that I was leaving home for another year. Only a few of us from our team were in Chicago...but during our free day we took a few pictures in the city. Meet the new team!

meet Sean, being as awkward as possible

and Tyler setting the peace sign trend

oh and me too

then there's Scott, team leader

and my BFF and roommate SAM!

view from the Navy Pier

the night before the dreaded travel day/s

Through the jetlag I am trying to formulate my thoughts. First and most importantly, I am excited to be back in EA! Especially after the nearly two days of traveling. (At least we got the exit row for the 14 hour flight.) Honestly, my heart started beating so fast as our plane finally flew over our foggy city. I couldn't wait to set off the plane and breathe in the toxic air. (But seriously!) I love our community here and I can't wait to reconnect with my Asian friends. We won't start language classes for a few weeks and all of the students won't be coming back for at least a week. So far my roommate and I have unpacked, cleaned and organized our apartment. Now we are also working on doing some redecorating...I'll upload pictures of that later!

Already missing these people...

One of the first days back, Sam and Beth and me decided to head to the junk market. It's about an hour away, into the downtown area. We found some shutter-ish things we loved but couldn't fit them in a taxi. So we ended up in this vehicle seen below. It's basically a truck bed on top of a motorcycle. (I just hope my mom and dad don't freak out about this...) We rode up the mountain and back down again on some bumpy roads...and laughed the whole time. My arms were sore from holding on to the railing so tight!

 

This last picture is just for kicks. Sam didn't know I was taking it. I went with her to the ER to get an infected earring removed on her ear. After trying the Piercing Pagoda, a tattoo shop and an Urgent Care, we were forced to go to the ER outside of Chicago. It was true roommate bonding. It's been an eventful week or two!

 Praise God for his protection and sovereignty. I am thankful for his presence that follows me wherever I go. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for this year.