Day 11 - 10 pet peeves

April challenge
Day 11 - Describe 10 pet peeves you have.

Whenever people talk or write about their pet peeves (me included) it always sounds kind of like they're saying "I think/know I'm right and you're wrong." I know that's probably not what people mean when they write that, and it's not what I mean either. I just wanted to get that out there before I start my list in case, by the end of reading it, you think I'm totally stuck up. I hope you believe me when I say I don't think I am... (Again, this list is made up as I think of things.)

1. Being told I'm a picky eater. I've tried to rationalize my eating habits to people once in a while, but they usually don't like to give me the time of day to explain. So, since this is my blog and I have the time of day to explain, I'm going to. The way I see it, I'm an extremely NON-picky eater because I am quite satisfied with meals that most others would find much too paltry and plain. Give me a plain and nutritious meal (without meat) and I'm happy. Give me a meal filled with weird food combinations (ie. sweet and savoury combined in a dish), slathered in sauces or dressings, or covered in hot spices and I'm not happy. I'm not sure how that makes me a picky eater, but apparently most of the world think it does. But even if I am, I really have no idea why it's other people's business what I do or don't eat. (Well, OK, to be fair, I do think it's a parent's business to help children learn good eating habits, but other than that I don't think people should try to dictate what others do or don't eat unless their opinion is specifically asked for.)
2. Hearing/reading the word 'busy' freely tossed around. I covered this topic in depth on my other blog so I won't say much about it here. I find it kind of amusing and a lot annoying when people say they can't do such and such because they are too busy. They are too busy because they chose to be busy doing the things they are busy at. And I think that's their choice and it's fine, but it's not a reason for people to complain/whine about how busy they are. We're all busy, but we choose to be busy with the things we do each day. I'm trying to ween myself off of doing this myself because I realize how silly it is to sit around exchanging stories about how busy we all are. So now, if I find myself without enough time to get something done, I realize I have to re-evaluate the things I choose to do each day and re-prioritize my life. I know I'm quite guilty of this one, but I'm really trying to cut the often-used word 'busy' out of my vocabulary.
3. Similarily, hearing/reading the word 'boring' freely tossed around is another pet peeve. That word was a no-no in our house (as it had been for my mother growing up) so with a mother and a grandmother who despise that word, you can believe that we kids grew up knowing to avoid it. And if we didn't, we could expect to get some work given to us to keep us from being too bored with our current circumstances. I certainly think I'm better for our childhood Don't Say Boring rule.
4. I was just going to type 'grammatical errors/typos' when I realized that in my line of work that shouldn't be a pet peeve, but something I am grateful for since I wouldn't have a job otherwise. Of course, I myself make a good number of grammar mess-ups and typos, but if I find them, they really bother me and I make sure to correct any I'm able to correct as soon as I spot them. So I'll refine my point #4 to say that grammatical errors and typos really bother me in professionally printed materials. I find no reason that these mistakes should show up in materials printed by large book or newspaper companies that employ probably more than a couple copy editors. Whenever I find mistakes in books that I read, I find a good editing pen and correct them right away. My mind gets too distracted by the errors otherwise.
5. Uncleanliness. While not a total neat-freak, I do like a cleanly-looking space. And luckily I really enjoy cleaning and organizing so that's a plus.
6. Movies being vastly different from the books that inspired them. I think it's an outrage and if I were an author who wrote a book that someone wanted to turn into a movie I would try to make sure the movie stuck to my original story line. There's only one movie that I forgive of this error, and that is my favourite, the Anne of Green Gables series, because I started watching the movies way before I ever read the books. I like both equally, but they seem kind of like two different stories to me, so it doesn't bother me that the movies aren't just the same as the books.
7. (This and the next one might seem like oxymorons, but stick with me here while I explain.) People bugging other people about not saying words correctly. I can't stand people saying that I don't pronounce words right. I'm not sure who decided that the American way of pronunciation was the correct one, but I don't agree with it. I have no problem with Americans / Canadians / Australians, etc. pronouncing words the way they want to pronounce them. But I do have a problem with people telling me that the way I and my fellow countrymates (or other people from other countries) pronounce something isn't right. I maintain that it's OK for words to be pronounced differently, as long as people can understand each other. And I think it's OK for someone to ask politely for something to be repeated if they didn't get it the first time. That's much nicer than just automatically saying "you say that weird/wrong," etc.
8. People who say words incorrectly - as in, not because of where they're from or their accent, but when they actually mix up the order of the letters in their pronunciation. Let's take my good old favourite (or least favourite, as the case may be) as an example. The word 'ask' is much too often mispronounced as 'aks' and it bugs me like crazy whenever I hear it. People who say it like that are completely mixing up the letters. That's the main word I hear messed up like that, but there are a few others as well.
9. People talking about coffee/Starbucks all the time, like in a status symbol kind of way. I confess that I don't drink coffee, don't even like the smell, and will never try it because of the many times my siblings and I encountered coffee grinds spilling out of garbage bags that we then had to sweep up during our stint as janitors at my dad's cabinet shop. Those grinds are disgusting and completely gross me out. I was raised in the era of the no-coffee Adventist church and the sudden rise of coffee to popularity in the SDA church really baffles me. I have no idea why gabbing about lattes and other such fancy and not-particularly-healthy drinks is really all that interesting of a subject. I would never go around talking to people (or writing on Facebook) about my daily tap-water or orange juice intake, so why is coffee so much more acceptable of a topic? It doesn't make sense to me at all.
10. People talking about how bad the economy is and/or never having enough money for things they need/want. Jonathan found a really awesome blog featured on Lifehacker last September and we've been reading through all the posts since then. I'm actually almost caught up with all the posts and have learned SO much great advice on finances, how to be happy with less, and how to retire much earlier than most people think is actually possible. Since I started reading it, I've really started to notice how often people say they don't have enough money for this or that. Mr. Money Mustache, the blog author, has written quite a few articles showing how he and his wife saved like crazy for 10 years while living pretty frugally before both retiring when their son was born and now spend copious amounts of time together as a family. And I only wish he'd started the blog about 10 years ago so I could have copied him. Anyway, if any of you are interested, here are a few of the posts* that I particularly enjoyed about how to gain financial independence: 1) Get Rich With Bikes 2) The Coffee Machine that can Pay for a University Education 3)  The True Cost of Commuting 4) The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
    *Just be aware that Mr. Money Mustache enjoys the occasional swear word for emphasis, in case that would bother you.

OK, that was a book. I'm sorry it was so long. Ugh, I've really got to cut down on my word count or I might lose readers rather than gain them. Anyway, if you haven't yet gotten your fill of Ali-commentary, I had an inkling I'd already written a post about pet peeves in my early days of this blog. So I searched around in the archives a bit and found it. Here it is if you care to look. It's MUCH shorter than this post. I find it rather interesting that a few of my pet peeves are still the same more than two years later.

Day 10 - Most embarrassing moment

April challenge
Day 10 - Describe your most embarrasing moment.

I hate today's topic. Mostly because a lot of really embarrassing things have happened to me throughout my life, but I can never remember them when I'm supposed to tell an embarrassing story. They always pop into my head at times when they're not really needed. Also, I don't like when someone asks for the most embarrassing moment. I mean really, how can you really classify that anyway? All embarrassing moments are embarrassing. For me there's not really one that trumps the others. They're all situations I wish hadn't happened to me.

OK, well this is one that just came to mind so for now let's say it's my most embarrassing. One day a few summers ago my family went boating. We spent a great day on two lakes that are linked through a small channel and did some water skiing and tubing. Toward evening we pulled the boat up to the loading area and started preparing our boat to be pulled out of the water and taken home. I unzipped my life jacket, which I had still been wearing since my last tube ride, and my younger sister stared at me with her mouth hanging wide open. I looked down and realized my swimsuit top was, umm, not quite covering all of the top it was supposed to be, probably pulled out of line from the rambunctious tube ride. In a flash I had the life jacket closed and rearranged my wardrobe before attempting to take it off again. It wouldn't have been THAT bad had there not been a mother and daughter on the shore looking in what seemed to be my direction at the time. Thank goodness the father of that group had been in the water worrying about his boat and not on the shore with the other two! Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing, but at least the people on shore weren't people I knew and therefore I figured I'd never see them again in my life. They might have got a show, but I hope they've forgotten all about it by now.

Day 9 - 10 people who have influenced me

April challenge
Day 9 - List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.

Only 10? Really? OK, here it goes. (These are going to be in no particular order again, just as I think of them.)

1. My parents. They are, without a doubt, the most influential people in my life so far. Their careful guidance and support throughout the years has definitely moulded me into the person I am today.
2. My grandparents. Even though I didn't get to know my paternal grandparents as well as my maternal ones, I have wonderful memories of Sabbath lunches at their small house with the interesting backyard. My Grandpa Q. was always going to auctions and buying new and interesting, and probably most of the time not-very-useful, stuff. But we always thought it was great fun to root around the toy box in the living room and find new acquisitions whenever we came over for a visit. The items around the backyard were fun to play with, too. There are pictures of us climbing and playing around the big willow tree (the site of one of my first bee stings), pretending to ride the old rusty bicycles leaning against the garage, and pulling each other in the wooden wagons. And of course the always-filled glass candy dish on a bookshelf near the living room always held a lot of appeal for us youngsters as well. One of my favourite and most cherished memories of my Grandma Q. was on one Sabbath afternoon (or maybe another day, but we seemed to mainly go there to visit on Sabbath's and holidays). That candy dish was tantalizing, but I was too scared to pop open the lid and grab a piece myself. I walked back and forth in front of the dish with a hungry look on my face while the ladies were preparing Sabbath lunch in the nearby kitchen. I think my parents told me not to get any ideas because I should eat my lunch first before scarfing down any candy. But later, when no one was looking, my Grandma Q. showed up, gave me a knowing and conspiratory smile, and sneaked me a piece or two of candy. I kept that special secret for quite some years before sharing it with my parents. And I'm quite sure I ate a hearty plate of Grandma's amazing gluten steaks despite the couple pieces of candy. And then there's my maternal grandparents, the set I was much closer to after my Grandma Q. died when I was eight. They only lived a 5 minute bike ride away from our house and I have so many great stories of my times of them babysitting me and my siblings while our mum went out to do errands. I remember the great sandbox/play house my Grandpa W. built with the help of my cousin. The wonderful canned peaches my Grandma W. served at many meals. The fun Christmas Eve's exchanging gifts with our relatives at their house. Oh, so many things. They were always my biggest fans and still are!
3. My grade four teacher, Mrs. Halravich (no idea how to spell her name anymore...). I will always remember post-lunch-hour reading time in her class. She introduced me to so many of my all-time favourite books and for that I will always be grateful.
4. My grade five teacher, Mr. C. He was my first male teacher and in my opinion he did a great job. My favourite memory from his class was a social studies unit on the forts that Canadians used to live in back in the day. Our group project for that unit was to make our own model forts and he encouraged us to use things we could find outside. It was the most fun I've ever had in a socials class (and that's saying a lot since it's one of my favourite subjects) and our groups had a great time learning to work together (and to safely wield hot glue guns) to design our own old-time Canadian forts.
5. Mrs. Smith, my high school home ec teacher. While cooking is definitely not something I really enjoy, I did like all of the classes I took with Mrs. Smith. She always had a bright smile on her face and had such a positive personality. Even the kids who didn't like school liked Mrs. Smith as a teacher and enjoyed her classes. The only thing I wasn't crazy about in her class was the rule that we weren't allowed to taste our food while we were cooking, only at the end when everything was finished. I had no idea how we were supposed to know if we liked how our food tasted or if the dish needed more seasonings without being able to taste it. But that was just a minor inconvenience, and the food almost always came out tasting amazing, a true testament to her wonderful teaching and cooking skills. And I was always amazed that even in a cooking class, her love of God shone through everything she did.
6. My violin teacher, Bev. I learned more from Bev than from probably any other person not related to me. Probably more than all of my school teachers combined. Not only was she an excellent violin teacher, but she also knew a lot about kids in general. She did an early childhood education degree before deciding to get her RCM certificate (Royal Conservatory of Music - it's a Canadian thing) and teach violin. And I think that was what made her so amazing. She realized that not all children learn things the same way. And she formatted her teaching style to fit each and every student she taught. I've never known another teacher to do this and find it truly remarkable! Whenever I see highlighters I think of Bev brandishing a multitude of colourful highlighters and markers on enlarged photocopies of music to visually show where we needed to shift into another position. I could go on and on here, but I could never do justice to how big of an influence Bev had in my life. One thing I will say, though, is that she was instrumental in discovering that my sometimes-lazy-eyes were the reason I had such a hard time reading music. Once we figured that out, we could be proactive in trying to fix the problem. Without Bev I might never have known why I could play a piece through so easily after listening to it, but struggled for so many hours trying to learn a piece by only reading music.
7. Mrs. Semiotuk, a professor and later chair of the journalism department at Walla Walla College. A fellow Canadian, I felt I had a connection with her that some of the other students didn't have. Even though my time doing journalism at WWC was tough, she never doubted that I could make it in that major if I decided it was the one I wanted to pursue. She was also one of only two teachers in all my time at WWC who held a class somewhere other than in our classroom. The one time we had class at the bakery down the road from campus will stick in my mind as a very creative teaching opportunity and to this day I really appreciate it. I've kept that textbook, too, and plan to someday go through it again and redo the course on my own. The only thing is, I have to wait for a time when I know I won't need to read anything because one requirement is taking a week off from all reading (to enhance your own creativity). It was terribly hard to do once, and I don't know if I'd have the fortitude to do it again.
8. My sociology teacher from WWC (can't for the life of me remember her name right now). She was the other teacher who taught a class somewhere other than our class. It was a three hour once a week class on Monday nights about race and ethnicity. And for one of our final classes she had everyone over to her house near campus and made us Ethiopian (I think) food since she and her husband had been missionaries there (or some other nearby country...man alive, what's wrong with my memory right now??). It was a fun evening with every class member bringing a dish from their heritage for a big potluck. She wasn't in my life for very long, but I enjoyed her class and her method of teaching.
9. Mrs. Ball, my adviser and journalism professor at Southern Adventist University. She is a wonderful lady and her classes were a joy. She was also a great adviser and worked hard with me around some pretty tough circumstances (such as me losing credits for transferring from a quarter system school to a semester system one) to try to get me graduated as quick as possible. Whatever we came up against, she always found a solution, and she always listened to my ideas as well. I suspect she's the one behind getting a bunch of useless and not-needed classes waived for me, even when the ones I took at WWC didn't exactly match up perfectly to the ones at Southern. I thank the Lord for her!
10. Ms. Chamberlain, another journalism professor and my boss for my last semester at Southern. She was probably the hardest teacher I had in my whole college career, but I learned so much from her. I'm not a designer, in any sense of the word, but somehow I passed her design classes, even pulling an A (a very rare thing apparently) in her web design class. (But I think I owe that mostly to the TA who put in a lot of time and work helping me on all my websites, especially my final project.) Ms. Chamberlain was a journalist in the true sense of the word. She was passionate about unbiased journalism and correct AP editing. And through her teaching, I too, became passionate about those things. It also didn't hurt that her office was always pristine, while also being aesthetically pleasing to look at. That designer thing again, I guess.

OK, well if you look at that list, it seems parents, grandparents and teachers are the biggest influence in a child/teenager/young adult's life. I was so surprised to get up to 10 so fast. I hadn't even gotten to my church family yet. All you Orchard City Church members, you're all really specially and influential to me, too. I love you all! Wow, I'm so blessed to have all of you really wonderful influential people in my life! 

Day 8 - 5 passions

April challenge
Day 8 - What are 5 passions you have?

Ack, this one is going to be difficult, I think. But here I go. (These aren't necessarily in any particular order, just as I think of them.)

1. Well, first of all, one passion I have is working with children, especially less fortunate children (as you saw in my Day 6 post). On all the short-term mission trips and long-term volunteer positions I've been involved in, I've made it a point to spend time with the children. I love the way children accept others. They don't care how old someone is, what colour their skin or hair is, what language they speak or how their accent sounds. Children just want to be loved by anyone who will spend the time and energy to care for them. As one of my friends reminded me in a comment, "Spending time with [children] always reminds me that 'of such are the kingdom of heaven.'" She's so right and it's one reason that wherever I am, I am constantly watching the children of the culture. They're all so unique, so different and individual, but still so alike in all the best ways!
2. Another passion I have is literacy. Being a bookworm, I want everyone else to love books as much as I do. This was a subconscious passion until my last semester at Southern. That semester I took a class called Literary Journalism. It was an amazing class* where my five classmates and I had to read three types of journalistic books** (immersion, reporter, and experiential) and do a 20-page paper in one of the three styles. I decided to do immersion and chose the topic of illiteracy. So for that semester I immersed myself into illiteracy in Chattanooga. The most startling part of the project came when I visited an adult literacy class to observe the class and interview the students. Some of the things they told me were shocking and just downright unacceptable. I wrote my paper and finished the class, but my heart still longs to help the many people all over the world who struggle with illiteracy. One of the most interesting things I've learned about South Korea so far (and this may extend into North Korea as well, but I'm not completely sure about that) is that nearly 100% of the population is literate. This is because of King Sejong, the fourth king of the Chosun Dynasty. He gathered a group of scholars and together they worked out the current Korean written language, Hangul. It is a symbol-language and very scientific based. And because of the hard work of this king for his people, it is probably one of the easiest languages in the world to learn to read. Last week Jonathan randomly came across a series of graphics someone made up that can teach you how to read Hangul in 15 minutes. Truly. 15 minutes! Now is that remarkably amazing or what! I have half a mind to bring Hangul back to North America and revitalize our archaic language into one that actually makes phonetical sense... But in all honestly, one of my life dreams is to teach someone to read. Yes, I think it will be pretty cool to teach my children how to read, but I also want to teach an adult, someone who may have suffered hardships and humiliations throughout their life because of their illiteracy, to read sometime in my life.
3. My third passion is mission work. I'm currently in my third long-term (which I define as anything longer than a two-ish-week mission trip) mission position. I think missions, whether short-term or long-term is so beneficial, not only for the people being served, but also for the person serving. Each time I've gone on mission trips or SM positions I've grown and learned so much. And not only about the country I'm in or the people I'm serving, but also about myself and God. Each position has had different challenges and hardships, but each has brought so many rewards to my life. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything!
4. I also am passionate about family. Apart from God, I think family is the most important thing in this world. I love my family, both immediate and extended, so much and have learned so much from my older and wise family members and also from my younger ones. I don't know what I'd do without my family. They are truly my heroes!
5. The last passion I'm going to mention (but for sure not my last passion) is writing. I've been doing creative writing since I started grade one, but I didn't do too much of it outside of school until I was 9 years old and in grade three. That year we had moved to Lacombe, Alberta and I spent a lot of time writing letters to my grandma, back home in BC. Along with the letters, I liked to include short stories written on tiny notebook pages. My grandma is a lovely and kind woman and always encouraged me to keep writing. She kept all of the stories I sent her and later gave them back to me to keep and read over. Boy oh boy, when I did read through them again, I giggled like crazy! They were the most hilarious stories I had ever read. One story had a mother giving birth to her baby after a "long, hard two-month pregnancy." Hahaha, like I said, hilarious stuff. I bring them out now and then whenever I need a good laugh. But I'm so glad my grandma kept the stories and always encouraged me to keep writing. I'm also so glad my mum kept my elementary creative writing journals and also encouraged me to keep writing and doing what I loved. I'm sure I wouldn't be where I am today without their encouragement and support.

Huh, turns out it wasn't really all that difficult. And now I've even thought of more than five passions I have. But we'll just leave it at these five for now.

*Just went digging through this blog and found some interesting posts about the class here, here, and here, for anyone who cares to learn more about it. You probably won't be able to understand everything in the posts since I was writing them to fulfill a requirement for my Creative Writing class (write at least three sentences every single day of the semester) and not to be particularly explanatory. But I find them amusing and you might as well.

**For anyone interested, the books were "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe, "Oranges" by John McPhee, and "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs (reporter, immersion, and experiential respectively).  I loved the first two, but, as a Christian, found the last one a little bit offensive and derogatory for my tastes. I haven't read any of Jacobs' other books, but I have a feeling I'd like them better since they are not trying to show the ridiculousness of other's religions.

Day 7 - My dream job

April challenge
Day 7 - What is your dream job, and why?

Oh man, if you read my post for Day 1, you probably noticed my mind was constantly changing on the topics of future careers. And just in the past few years, my brain has changed so much on this topic. When I transferred to Southern, being a magazine writer or editor was my dream job. Two years later, during the first semester of my last year at Southern, I was convinced I wanted to be an author, specifically a children's author. I even went so far as to take Survey of Children's Literature that semester. It was one of the most fun classes I took during my whole college career! I learned so much, and had so many things reinforced that my mum had told me throughout the years (she's the one who recommended I take the class because it was her favourite college class, too).

But later that year, I discovered my real joy and passion. At the end of that semester, one of my journalism teachers asked me to be her grader for two classes she was teaching the next semester - Publication Editing and Advanced Reporting - both of which I'd taken the year before. That spring semester I realized how much I love editing. I really enjoyed and valued the time I spent sitting in her neatly organized office correcting assignments and articles. To me, it never even seemed like work, but was relaxing and soothing. Working alone in her office and being able to concentrate in the silence and solitude gave me such peace and tranquility, and I began to understand how much I desired to have a work environment like that. By the end of the semester I'd realized how much more rejuvenated I felt doing editing than writing. How happy I was by the time I'd finished all the grading for each particular session. My other student job that year, Southern Accent News Editor, Southern's student newspaper, was also fun for me. But it was a lot more hectic, time consuming, and stressful. I think I did both jobs fairly well, and both certainly pushed me to improve my skills, think outside the box, and grow journalistically. But I was always much more excited to go to the journalism department and edit than I was to go to the Accent office on Tuesday evenings and fix mistakes and problems in the news section of the paper. I do think working on the Accent gave me a lot of things being a grader didn't. First, I had to work with other staff members, particularly the editor and managing editor. We had to brainstorm together to work through problems that came up. I had to deal with underclassmen who wrote the news articles for their News Reporting class. I had to write any extra stories that weren't assigned to the NR class. I had to constantly keep my eyes and ears alert for any news item on campus that needed to be written about. That job was a great experience and I made a lot of closer friendships with my journalism department staff members than I ever would have just in classes together. But I definitely realized I could never work as a journalist for a full-time job. And, I discovered that editing is in my blood. It makes sense, really, since one of my uncles worked as a copy editor at Pacific Press for many years before retiring and still does some occasional copy editing jobs for them when they ask him to.

All things considered, I really think my dream job is to do the kind of work I'm doing right now (you could have known this already from reading my post for Day 5). While I loved editing news articles, editing for ESL materials is just so much fun! I really love my job of assisting with the development of ESL textbook materials. I know some of my career choices have had to do with writing, and I do really love writing, but I think editing is really where my heart lies. Right now I am really trying to find somewhere to work when Jonathan and I get back home and somewhere that God wants me to be. Even though I'd love to stay in the editing field, if he wants me in writing, I won't hesitate to do that. But I think copy editing will always be my favourite job in the writing/editing field.

But, like Olivia, I also have to say that, ever since I was a kid, I've always known I want to be a mum someday. I think it's one of the hardest jobs on this planet, but just from the work I've done with other people's children, I think it's probably one of the most rewarding. I just hope I can do the job justice. I have some pretty amazing people to follow (my mum, my grandmothers, ladies in my church, etc.).

Day 6 - Hardest thing I've experienced

*Note - Jonathan and I are heading off to the annual SDA Language Institute teacher's retreat in a few minutes. We won't be back until sometime on Monday and I have no idea if we'll have internet. But Jonathan is bringing his laptop so I'll be sure to make time to write about the daily topics and post them all when I get back, if I can't do it sooner. Sorry for making you wait... But, in the meantime, you can read this post from our Korea blog and watch us try to sing in a Korean choir. It might make you smile. :)

April challenge
Day 6 - What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

This is the easiest topic for me to write about so far. But the hardest to think about. When I looked through the list on Day 1, and saw the topic for today, I instantly knew what I would write about. The hardest thing I've ever experienced is saying goodbye to children that I love.

When I worked at Hogar Los Pinos Adventista in Guatemala City I fell in love with a beautiful baby boy on my first afternoon at the children's receiving center. His name was Dani and he was instantly "my" baby. A month or so after I arrived at the hogar, I talked to Anabela, the director, and learned his story. I have it written down in a notebook somewhere in my bedroom and can't remember all the details right now, but I do know he was abandoned by his mother when he was only a few weeks old. Health testing soon after showed he had inherited an STD from her (my brain can't recall which at the moment). He was about four months old when I arrived and I just realized last week that he is six years old now. I can't believe it's been six years since I last held him, since the last time I kissed his perfect cheeks! I often wonder what he's like now. Where he lives. If he got transferred to the ICC (International Children's Care) children's village several hours out of Guatemala City. Or if he got adopted and is living a happy, healthy life with a family somewhere. Or if one of his own biological family members found him and took him home to live with them for good. I don't know if I'll ever find out on this earth. But wherever he is, I'll always love him.

Smiley Dani-boy

Last year I worked in Tanzania, not at an orphanage, this time, but with ADRA. But, as luck would have it, the ADRA TZ campus happened to house an orphanage started up by the ADRA director's wife. So as soon as work was done for the day, I quickly changed my clothes and headed up to Cradle of Love for my fill of rambunctious, noisy, usually dirty, and completely adorable babies and toddlers. Since I didn't spend all day with the kids, I didn't form bonds with them as fast as many of the Cradle volunteers, but around late November I started forming an attachment with one precious little girl, Nina (you can read more about this here). Nina is an identical twin within a triplet set. I loved all three girls, but Nina quickly became "mine." Her story was quite different than Dani's. Nina and her sisters, Anya and Tessa, are Maasai and were born in a Maasai village along with their brother, Quinn. Their mother couldn't provide enough milk for four babies and they were taken to Cradle of Love to be cared for until they could return to their village. Sadly, Quinn died (I think of pneumonia) while at Cradle, but the three little girls grew and thrived. When I left they were two and a half years old and ready to move on. They were some of the most westernized kids at Cradle and we volunteers worried about them transitioning back to their Maasai village. All three girls were terrified of their father every time he came to see them and shrieked throughout most of his visits. And they were also afraid of the dark (or at least Nina was) and that could be a problem in a Maasai village where all the huts are small and dark, even in the daytime. This past fall all three girls were accepted into a Maasai boarding school in the city near Cradle and they'll grow up there together with other Maasai girls. I know it's not the same as being with family, but they'll have a good upbringing and lots of love and care. The good thing about this is that current volunteers and former ones who go back to Tanzania for a visit should be able to stop by and see the girls and give the rest of us updates on how they are doing. Unlike with Dani, I might be able to watch these three grow up, through pictures, videos, and stories from those who go to visit them!

L-R: Nina, Tessa, me, and Anya at Cradle of Love Baby Home

I know it was probably cruel of me to keep tickling Nina, but her laugh was just so adorable I couldn't help myself!

There's one more child I feel I have to mention here. And this one might have been the hardest experience of them all. I spent three and a half months with Dani and eight months with Nina. But I spent a year and a half with this boy. It was a fun time, and also a very hard, tough time. But if I had the choice I wouldn't go back and live that time without him. The boy was my brother Jeffrey and he came into my life when I was around 10 years old and he was six and a half. He fit into my family right between my younger sister, Bryna, and my youngest brother, Tyler. And for a year and a half he called my parents Mum and Dad and my siblings and I sisters and brothers. But, for many reasons, the adoption didn't work out between our family and Jeff. And when we were just getting used to him being in our lives, he was gone, back to living with his previous foster family. Our family had hurts then. Ones that didn't heal overnight or even over several months. Eventually, over the next few years the hurt dulled, but the memories never did. I haven't spoken to or heard from Jeff in 16 years. Now he would be nearing 24. I have no idea where he lives, what he does, or if he's even still alive. But in my mind, he's still my little brother. And I hope somewhere in his heart he still thinks of me as his older sister.

Q. kids 1995 Christmas picture

Day 5 - 5 things that make me happy

April challenge
Day 5 - What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

Oh man, I have to limit myself to just five?! I feel like I could mention 20 or 30 or more. But, I'll stick within the prescribed amount.

1. Being married! That's number one for sure. Being married and actually living with the person you love is by FAR much, much better than being separated by an ocean and a continent like we were last year when I was in Tanzania and Jonathan was in Maine. It was a hard year for both of us, but so many great things happened during that year, too. But nothing can top living in a cramped little Korean apartment together!
2. My job. I absolutely love my two original coworkers and I am really enjoying getting to know the other people in our new integrated office. It's really a pretty perfect job for me. I get to sit at a desk for four and a half days a week and use a bright red pen to edit page after page of stuff other people wrote. Occasionally I'm called upon to write some passages myself, but those are fun, too, because I can be completely creative as long as I'm sticking within the subject matter of the chapter (for instance, today I wrote passages about Music & Art, Studying English, Modern Electronic Devices, Rainforests, and several others). Although I'd never have known it when I came to Korea, editing ESL textbooks is probably my dream job. It's fun (like phonics!) and interesting and actually quite informative. I've learned a lot of interesting material since starting to work at the textbook office. I have no idea where I'll find a job to equal this when I head back to North America in the summer.
3. My new-found favorite beverage, honey lemon tea. Ever since I randomly happened across a very easy recipe for this wonderfully relaxing drink, I've been partaking quite often (mostly because both Jonathan and I have had colds back and forth for the last month or so). One of the best things about the tea is how simple it is to make. A cup of hot water, 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. And voila, you have yourself a mug of yummy warmness slipping down your throat. Bliss! And I'm not even a big tea drinker. I usually prefer hot chocolate. Well, hot chocolate, move over, there's a new drink in this apartment. (Recipe from HowDoesShe.com)
4. Relying on my own two feet. Since coming to Korea I've walked most of the places I need to go. To the institute, to the store, home again, etc. When we lived in Cheonan we did take the city bus once, the subway into Seoul once, and a taxi a few times, but for the most part we walked when we needed to get somewhere. And since moving to Seoul, we've been walking more than ever. We haven't yet taken a taxi here, and while we regularly use a bus to get to Costco and a subway to explore the city, when we're in our neighbourhood we walk everywhere. It's wonderful to know I'm getting around on my own steam, and I really want to keep it up when I get back to North America.
5. Seeing tiny green buds on the trees! I've been waiting and watching for spring to arrive for what seems like months now. I really expected to see the start of spring sometime in February. And now it's the beginning of April and it is only just barely starting. You'd think that coming from Canada I'd be used to spring taking a while to push winter out of the way. Well, I am. But I'm not used to winter being so dull and brown. At home we have evergreen trees covering our mountainsides. So when the snow melts, the dark green trees keep things from getting to drab. Here there are many trees all over the city and countryside, but very, very few of them are coniferous. I am just itching for the brown to turn into green. It's coming, though, slowly but surely. All the rain we had on Monday and Tuesday have opened the buds and every time I walk outside I notice more colour. I couldn't be more thrilled!

Day 4 - 10 things to tell my 16-year-old self

*Note: So I've been kind of behind in this challenge so far since this blog is set to Eastern time and I'm over here in Korea. I know I could change it over to Korean time, but lots of the posts on this blog were written during my last year at Southern and I'd hate to change the time zone and have all the posts end up on the wrong day and such. So I've decided to just write each day's challenge on the correct day in my current time zone and then publish them. They might end up out of whack compared to North American time, but it's too hard to try to figure out what time of day it is back home otherwise, and I don't want to keep posting behind schedule.

April challenge
Day 4 - List 10 things you would tell your 16-year-old self, if you could.

Wow, this one is hard. I can't think of any at the moment. But I'm sure that once I get typing I'll come with a few. Let's see...

1. Don't stress about school or practicing. Even after a bad day, it will always be there again tomorrow.
2. Don't fight with your siblings about what bowings to do for pieces you are going to perform together. Or who gets to do the melody/harmony for different songs. And for goodness sake, figure out what you're going to play for special music before late Friday night!
3. Take a French class somewhere other than at your high school. You're going to regret your lack of French-speaking abilities for the rest of your life. (Or just spend a summer in Quebec, New Brunswick, St. Pierre/Miquelon islands, or France.)
4. Have somebody fix that silly old edgebander once and for all so you don't have to stop every few hours to jiggle a few parts and get it working right again. (If you don't get this taken care of, you'll be ironing off a bunch of wood tape that got ruined by the machine and having to retape it all.)
5. It's not the end of the world if you get a learner hair stylist who botches your hair cut. It'll grow back, eventually... (But do try to find someone you trust with your hair as quick as possible.)
6. Don't bother buying too many new clothes. You'll still be wearing some of the same ones you have ten years from now.
7. Spend more time with your Pepper-dog. She's pretty special. And maybe buy her her own personal soccer ball so she doesn't keep wrecking all the family soccer and volleyballs when you play soccer with her.
8. Push harder for Dad to get all the old home videos put onto DVDs.
9. Don't expend too much energy figuring out your future children's first and middle names. Your husband may have vastly different preferences. (PS people - no we're not pregnant, nor are we planning for it in the very near future.)
10. Don't buy books you haven't read before. Always get them from the library for the first read through. THEN, if you know you're going to read them again (and again and again) buy a copy.