So many beautiful places...

So the past few weeks have been a ton of fun!! I've been busy traveling all over, and getting to know my new crew at work! Over the 4th of July I visited 2 friend from high school, Lisa and Alyssa, in San Francisco! We laughed a lot, saw fireworks in the fog, ate yummy food, took a hip-hop dance class, ate peanut butter cookies every day, and did lots of shopping :)





Then after a quick 2 days back at work, I was off to the midwest!! I got to fly in to Minneapolis, and spend an evening at home with my dad and kitties :) Then mom and I drove down to Iowa the next morning....my best friend Elizabeth got married on Saturday, and I was one of her bridesmaids!! It was an amazing day, full of yellow! :) Some of the highlights were sweet corn, lemon cake, square dancing, and a concert by my favorite acapella group from ISU, Shy of a Dozen. It was then a quick drive back north, and I was back in Seattle again...






After an exciting week at work, trudging through swamps and getting eaten up by bugs and blackberry patches, yesterday I did some hiking!!...There is an EC crew camping at Alpine Lakes next week, and they needed some extra help to hike out tools Saturday...so I went, and it was STUNNING!!!

so happy!

oh, I'm such a bad blogger....details to come, but here are some photos from my last 2 weekends of TRAVEL! I'm keeping busy :)

the fun continues...

a few pictures to share, of good times in seattle! hope you're enjoying your summer :)

the 2008 class of Krista Colleagues

an extra muddy day at work!

celebrating Gina's birthday!! yay!!

hiking Mt. Si.....oofta!!

my old crew...slammage forever!!!

MY NEW CREW!!

Hello everyone....wanted to introduce you to my new crew members!!

I just returned from a 3 day retreat of bonding time with the new internationals for our program, and then being assigned to our new teams...

The way they did this, we were blindfolded, then spread around and given an animal noise to make. We then made that noise, and listened for others making the same noise, lol. Then we found each other, took of our blind folds, and were given a clue to find our crew leader who was waiting somewhere else.....our noise was a lion ROAR!! So this is our first crew picture...

me and Isabelle on the left...Shanine from Jamaica and Joe from Tanzania in the middle...then Iggy (our crew leader) from Namibia and Ross in the back....and Rior from the Philipines in front

Gonna be a fun year!!!

Iowa and the world...

Hello!!! So first I will say that Seattle finally feels like Seattle...it's been gray and rainy for a few weeks now. Most everyone I know thinks that's terrible, but I'm quite happy :) Better to be wrapped in cozy layers and sweatshirts, than burning up and miserable, lol...oh how I'm dreading manual labor outside in hot weather...

But speaking of hot weather that was in fact not completely miserable because it was in Iowa with my dear friends, and addressed with water guns and swimming holes...I took a 4 day weekend to fly back to Ames and see my college friend Betsy get married!! After a red-eye flight to Des Moines, I was greeted Friday morning by Nick, Chris and Valerie...then we went to a park for grilling and swimming, it was so beautiful, and so Iowa...



...then Saturday morning was the ceremony at my college church, CPC. It was nice to be back, especially for such a happy event!! There was supposed to be tons of rain, but it managed to stay sunny all day (but the humidity had to have been around 200%!!)...Nick and Chris sang a duet with their guitars which was a highlight of the service, and the reception followed at the Arboretum. We were served a yummy breakfast, and there was even a chocolate milk fountain!! Congrats to Betsy and Zack, hope you're having at least a tolerable time in Costa Rica this week...ha ha


After a nice dinner of take out Thai food eaten on central campus in Ames, was my big moment for the weekend...surprising my friend Elizabeth!!! She had no idea I was coming to Iowa, so I decided not to tell her and make it a surprise!! I called her on the phone to talk, then rang her door bell and magically appeared before her eyes, lol, it was awesome!! She was so shocked :) We got to spend the evening in her new house in Ankeny, which she and her soon to be husband just bought. And then the rain started...by morning there was flooding everywhere! Not in her house thankfully, but the ditches, streets, and fields were all overflowing...but in spite of the weather, I had a special pre-wedding day planned for her! (she's getting married in July!) I had been in touch with her good friend Jessica who also lives in Ankeny, and we plotted the surprise...we started with lunch at Panera, followed by getting her nails done, then ice cream, then a little quiz about her fiance that tied into a Scavenger hunt game at Target to stock her up on some fun "married life" items...(for example: pens to write out do-to lists for her husband, ha ha) Then we ended with getting dressed up for a dinner out.


The next morning I spent a few hours with Liz at work, at the Iowa Egg Council, before my flight. Then it was a long day of flying...1.5 hours to Cinncinnati, a 3 hour layover, then 5 hours to Seattle...thankfully Delta has these sweet monitors attached to each seat, so you can watch tv, movies, or listen to music. Also, I got to sit in the first row behind first class, with the extra leg room! After being in Seattle 4 months now, Iowa seemed so peaceful and spread out...it was so nice to go back and be with my friends :) I will be going back to Iowa again in a few weeks (this time flying to Minneapolis and driving down with my mom, YAY!) and will be in Liz's wedding as a bridesmaid! Our dresses are yellow, and there's gonna be square dancing...ahhhh, have I mentioned how wonderful and happy Iowa is to visit in the summer???

As for EarthCorps...Wednesday was our last crew day for a while! The new international participants have arrived, and things are getting all mixed up....today we got to spend a fun day getting to know them, and walking around the city looking at plants...I have this coming Monday off, then Tuesday is an in-house cleaning day, then Wed-Friday is our retreat!! The first 2 days will be just the 13 of us reflecting on the past 4 months, then on the last day the new members join us and we're put on our new crews! There has been much speculation about who will be on which crew, and I'm quite anxious to just know already....the new internationals are SO wonderful!! They are very high energy, and really funny. Already we're laughing, and bonding...they're gonna be a lot of fun to get to know more! Our group comes from all over: Philippines, Serbia, Uganda, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bolivia, Panama, Tanzania and Jamaica.

And then one last thing that's recently started for me...at the Krista Foundation Conference a few weekend ago I met a guy named Tom Norwood, who is married to the program director. In March he opened an upscale, modern spa-like fitness center for women in Seattle...and he asked for someone interested in trading cleaning services for time with a trainer there, so I happily said I'd love to!! My first night was last night, and it was great. I go in for an hour workout with a trainer, and then I clean for an hour. It's a beautiful facility, and I can't decide if I like working out or cleaning more :) They are both so fun!! I will go in 3 nights a week, and hopefully start getting in better shape for work this summer!!

Life is good. I am very happy, and very busy. Only thing is it's tough not having time to keep in touch with everyone in the ways I'm used to...so much is always going on, and this summer is already getting full! There are so many amazing trips to take out here, mountains to climb, and bodies of water to jump in...

So much to say, so much to say...

Helloooooooooo! Happy June, and happy summer! I've been bad at writing this past month, but that means I've been keeping busy...which is a good thing :) I hope you're doing great, too!

Last weekend I had an amazing time with the Krista Foundation at their annual conference, in Spokane, WA. I got to meet 13 fellow 2008 "Krista Colleagues", as well as many other colleagues from previous years....such an incredible community! It's hard to sum it all up...the weekend revolved around a "storytelling" theme, including a keynote speaker, workshops, discussions, worship, inter cultural trainings, etc. We learned a lot more about Krista's life...it is so incredibly inspiring the way her family turned their grief into this beautiful community!!! On the final night we had a nice dinner, talent show, and then danced late into the night/morning...I definitely didn't get much sleep :) Here are a few pictures...



This last picture represents our act for the talent show...Mark played his guitar and sang Bob Dylan's song "times they are a changing" and we did a little interpretive dancing on the side, ha ha. It was so fun!!

...only sad part of the weekend was there wasn't enough time in the days to get to know everyone more! We had a few chunks of free time, to swim in the lake or go for walks, but it was pretty fast paced, and before we knew it everyone was off to the airport or hitting the road back home...I'm so thankful to have this amazing new community of support, and to have met so many wonderful people doing service work all over the world!! Makes me want to do more traveling! Thankfully several of my new friends live in Seattle, so we can keep in touch, and then I'll see most everyone at next year's conference...but some people will be out of the country doing their service so it could be 2 years before we connect again. Kinda sad, but also cool to know that we've got this new connection for life! :) And of course we're all in touch via email, facebook, etc.

Now on to EarthCorps world!! We spent this past week camping on site, near the Cedar River Watershed. As usual it was really fun spending extra time with my crew...and for work we removed lots of invasives like Scott's Broom, blackberry, and then lay black fabric over Japanese Knotweed. The hardest part was hauling out tons of black plastic from deep in the woods, which we replaced with the black fabric. My muscles are definitely getting strong! Our first 2 days were the hardest yet, as well as the muddiest, we were drenched from head to toe...

This picture below is from when we were attacked by a turkey!! ha ha...apparently someone released this one wild turkey, and he's been attacking employees and vehicles in one area of the watershed!! Sure enough we heard him gobbling from a distance, and he quickly got closer. We had to run into our van...he went straight for the tires, and puffed up all his feathers, then he ran after us as we drove away...it was quite the rush!! ha ha

Yesterday I officially went hiking for the first time in my life!! It was really fun, and a good workout...nice training for our intensives coming up this summer!! (when we'll hike into the backwoods with all our gear, tools, etc.) There are so many beautiful mountains and ridges to explore, we've made a vow to hike once a week!! Here I'm pointing to the peak we climbed, and then at the top...

Now the latest excitement at EC has been over our international participants!! They've arrived in the country, and we got to meet them briefly on Friday. They have several weeks of training before regular work, but in mid-June we'll go on a retreat together and they'll split everyone up into our new crews!! Pretty exciting...

I could say more about that, but I'll save it for later!! Time to relax now...

Peace and LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I love my job!

Last week was incredible!! My crew worked and camped on San Juan Island, for 5 days. We cut down Hawthorne trees, which are invasive to the island, and have many battle wounds to prove it! The thorns are nasty, and scratched up our arms, legs, and faces real good :) We lucked out on some beautiful weather, lots of sunshine and cool breezes from the ocean surrounding us...it was ideal! The island is so beautiful, and even though we didn't see any whales, it's my new favorite place. I can't wait to go back, and just relax there. I could go on about how pretty it was, but here are some pictures. And as usual our crew had a blast together!! Camping, cooking, fires, our stupid jokes, laughing, walks along the beach...so much fun!!











Looking ahead...I've got 2 "typical" work weeks, then a long Holiday weekend that I'll spend in Spokane with the Krista Foundation (see previous post!) and then another camping week, at Cedar River Watershed! Temps are warming up, expected to be 84 this coming weekend....definitely time for more camping trips, hiking and SWIMMING!!!

Love, love, love, me :)

Krista Foundation

I got a call with some exciting news this afternoon!! I was nominated by someone at EarthCorps and then applied for a grant through an organization called the Krista Foundation (which I'll explain below) After an interview last weekend, I got the call today that I was accepted!! It's a $1,000 grant, but even more so it's a community of support that I am now a "colleague" of. I am so excited!! The big kick off will be a retreat over Memorial Day weekend in Spokane, WA, where I'll meet the rest of this year's class, 15 or so other young adults doing service work, as well as the alum....their hope is to keep the participants involved for up to 3 years, attending the annual retreat in May to help mentor the new people joining each year. I believe it started in 1999 and there are now 120 "Krista Colleagues"....here's more about it...

www.kristafoundation.org

The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship was inspired by the life and vision of Krista Hunt Ausland, who was killed at 25 while volunteering with her husband, Aaron, in community development in rural Bolivia. Believing that one's twenties offer an ideal time to practice the ethic of service, her family, friends, and colleagues want to continue Krista's desire to "show God's love in actions" by providing encouragement and grant support to other young adults who choose a journey of service.

The website has so much more info you can read, about Krista's life and the foundation...it's such an honor to be involved now!! The committee that interviewed me was so kind. I left with lots of good feelings, and really hoped to be accepted. I'll get to meet so many new people, and learn about their own experiences. How incredible that Krista's life continues to touch so many, I'm so fortunate to become part of this community/family...I can't wait for the retreat!! :)

San Juan Islands!

Hello!!! How are YOU??? I haven't written in a while, so here's the latest :)

Work is delightful, and I'm learning new things every day. My crew is so much fun, it's ridiculous. We work so well together, and are laughing all day...it's the best job ever!!

Here are some random pictures...

April was EARTH MONTH!! So we had lots and lots of volunteer events, and far less normal work days. We worked with different ages of kids and adults at events across the city...even though it's less physical work, days are a little more unpredictable and can be stressful. I struggled most on our day working with high schoolers. All they wanted to do was sit in the grass and talk...but my favorite days were working with the real little kids, or adults.

This past week was our first true, 5-day work week in a while, and it was definitely our hardest! We spent 4 days resurfacing nearly 800 feet of trail on Tiger Mountain. Gravel is heavy, in case you didn't know...we had to load gravel into a machine that we would slowly drive down the trail, then we'd dig out huge pits of mineral soil and mix it with the gravel (75% gravel, 25% dirt) and then lay it on the trail 4 feet wide and 3-5 inches thick. Gravel is heavy!! There were definitely moments I thought I couldn't go on...what a workout, for 4 days in a row. Mixing the gravel and dirt was the hardest part. It's a very tedious job, as each load only covered about 6 feet at a time....but the trail looks great now!! Come to Seattle and we'll go for a walk :)

Now I'm VERY excited to say that all next week is our first overnight work week, where we'll be camping!! On SAN JUAN ISLAND!!! It's gonna be so much fun, and such a beautiful place to work. I'll take lots of pictures!!! Hopefully our crew is still speaking after 5 straight days of bonding. We'll be pretty stinky by Friday, that much is for sure, lol.

That said, I won't have my computer all week!! I'll have my phone, but probably won't be able to charge it, so we'll see how well I can ration out my battery...it will be a nice break from electricity! I'll get lots of reading time :)

Last weekend I volunteered with friends at a local organic farm, planting green and potatoes...it was so much fun! Here are a few pictures. I wanna be a farmer now!! We plan to go back atleast a few times a month in trade for food!




Hope you have a nice week!!!!!! LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)