yay for skype

S-K-Y-P-E

skype. there's nothing like it. 

nothing like awkward pauses while you wait for the person to hear what you said 5 seconds ago. nothing like blurry faces and interrupted connections. nothing like talking over each other and then asking them to say it again. nothing like getting your face frozen in an awkward position.

skype has its own quirks, but overall i would say it's one of the best modern technological developments. and i am very grateful to have it especially since i miss these people a heck of a lot. 

i got to have the best skype date with three of them on friday and it was simply the best. 

distance sucks, but modern technology makes it better :)

i'm in the costa rica nostalgia phase (and in many ways, i hope i always will be). i find myself sad and happy and confused and grateful and overwhelmed and frustrated all at the same time because a year ago i was with these friends, living with a host family, talking to the man at the cigar shop in cuba, riding the bus, wearing $2 sunglasses in nicaragua, processing the things i didn't get, and laughing and crying at random times throughout those four months. a year ago i never knew what time it was and i learned not to care. a year ago i ate every single thing on my plate and my friends were convinced that i should become president despite getting food all over my face after every meal. 

so sometimes skype is the thing that makes you feel better. skype is the way i talk to my host family and my friends. skype is the way you see someone's face no matter how many miles apart you are. 

all photo creds go to the amazing, wonderful, beautiful, fabulous photographer allison jean. check out her amazing photography here!! 

special birthdays

what are birthdays for? i think birthdays give us the opportunity to stop and celebrate life - no matter if it's been a hard or easy year, a year of change or monotony...birthdays remind us that we're special, we're loved, and we're cared for. that's how i have come to know birthdays (and i know that this is a unique gift). i have come to love birthdays because of how my parents taught me to celebrate. and this month, it's my turn to celebrate them.

i could write a list of all the reasons they're special. i could tell you stories about the hours they spent helping me with my math homework or holding my hand when i had to get a shot at the doctor's office or cheering me on at my cross country meets or driving me all over down town for flute lessons. i could tell you about how much i missed them last semester or how much happiness i feel when i hug them for the first time after months of being apart. i could tell you about when i turned 10 my dad sent flowers to school for my birthday and my mom surprised me with a special note in my lunch box (no PB&J that day -- we went out! :)).

i could tell you about the things i have learned from them. when i make pizza for my apartment or come up with some creative craft to do on a saturday night, i know i'm my mother's daughter. she taught me to cook, to take care of people, to be a thrifty shopper at the grocery store and to have fun with paper and stamps and paint. i know when i get excited about school and reading books i'm my father's daughter. he taught me to love reading and learning and how education is something to truly value. he taught me about laughter and that there's no shame in laughing so hard no one can hear what the movie is saying anymore.

i know more about loving others because i watched my parents love and care for me and my sisters. i've watched them let me go and explore new places, and i've watched them welcome me home again. i have watched them work hard and persevere. i have watched them be generous and serve the Lord and listen expectantly to what i am learning and doing and seeing as i grow up.

i am so thankful for them and for the opportunity to be a part of and celebrate their lives.

happy, happy birthday dearest mom and dad!

a case of the winter blues

these past few days have been final confirmation that i am not in latin america this semester. no mangoes on the street corners, no warm oceans to swim in, no 45 minute walks in flip flops, and more significantly, no temperatures over 50 degrees.

yep, i am back on the east coast.

today i am writing with an inclination first to complain about this terribly cold weather. so i'll let myself run with that inclination for a few sentences. it's been two years since i lived in a massachusetts winter and i honestly forgot how cold it is out here. it's not just the cold that bites your nose and ears and sometimes makes you want to cry when you see the distance between you and the next door, but it's also the cold that makes your skin so dry and your thin hair go haywire static-y. and sometimes no amount of layering will prepare you for the blustery wind. long underwear doesn't even cut it.

on the other hand...
it's magical. waking up to trees covered in white makes me happy as do rosy pink cheeks and walking in the woods dusted with white. and i feel like an accomplished independent woman now having removed snow off my car for the first time and successfully driving a few miles down the road (granted it was only an inch of snow, but i still feel quite proud).

i become even more grateful for a roof over my head and hot soup and fruit tea in the winter. i can't imagine living on the streets of boston during these chilly days.
so to move my mind from the cold and dry skin, here's a few things i am looking forward to this winter:

-crafts on pintrest (i finally caved...and i love it)
-SOUP ..my mama got me the best soup cookbook + an apron so i am all set
-ice skating
-lazy days like this morning where drinking coffee and watching a movie before 11am is perfectly acceptable
-enjoying my pink fluffy down comforter
-my mittens on a string so i never lose them...a little dorky? yes. but i love 'em.

merry merry

just a few pics to show off the fun times i had during christmas with my family in sunny southern california :) 

 steph & mac (with his cute red vest)

 my beautiful sisters 

 my grandparents treated us to a gondolla ride around naples, long beach. it was really fun to see the lights and to boat ride through the canals (sort of italian style) 

 three generations :) 

no white christmas for me, but i'm perfectly content with this beauty

dear 2011: looking back as i look forward

a month or so ago i had a conversation with my friend hilary about having the courage to do the things we're often reluctant to do. i was telling her about a difficult situation i had just faced and she stopped me after i finished my thoughts and said "wait, stop. do you realize what you just did? do you realize what just happened here? you did something, alyssa, you faced something hard and you have to take a second to recognize that before moving on."

i think i live my life this way - moving from one thing to the next, two o'clock to three o'clock, monday to tuesday, october to november, never taking the opportunity to pause and think about what just happened, what good things i experienced, what hard things i was able to overcome or the footsteps i left in the dirt behind me.

so i'm doing that now. we think of new year's as the time to think about all that's going to happen in 2012, the things we're resolving to change, but what about 2011? what happened then? there's thousands of memories and special people and places and tears and laughter and heartache and joy that we don't want to forget that happened in 2011. so maybe i'm a little behind as it is already january 1st, but i'm not ready to let go of last year quite yet - first i want to remember it for what it was...

~~~

dear 2011,


i think i have a love-hate relationship with you because the journey has been a bit of a roller coaster. i started the year off in a different country, i spent a summer at home processing it, and then somehow managed to get on a plane to study once again at a place i have come to call home. 
i lived in costa rica, paid 250 colones for every bus ride, walked 45 minutes to spanish class every day, ate more meat in four months than i did all year, carried my little coin purse every place i went and memorized the music rhythms of car alarms. i held a new born baby and tried really hard to learn how to cut plátanos and how to teach math in a foreign language. i lived in nicaragua for 10 days and learned in the shortest period of time what "going with the flow" really means and how to live in a state of constant confusion. i learned about bus rides where "the eye of the tiger" is playing and women are selling bread and another man is preaching in his loudest voice about Jesus and another man is trying to sell medicine -- all within about a 100 foot bus. i went to cuba and laid on the beach and drank espresso and listened to politicians and educators and doctors. i laughed with my friends as we attempted to learn how to dance and move our hips. 


i came home and processed some of those questions with family and friends. i worked with senior citizens and spoke spanish at work which brought the biggest smiles to my face. i ate birthday cake with my grandparents and went to spinning classes and grocery shopped and vacationed in the mountains. i did finances with my dad and drank coffee with my mom and laughed until my stomach ached with my sisters. 


i came back to massachusetts and learned about the middle east and pan-arabism and the country of lebanon. i struggled for hours writing papers in political theory and was troubled by the words of philosophers who influenced the founding of my country. i talked about women and feminism in spanish and learned about the devastating civil war in spain. i learned about theology: about the trinitarian unity and the importance of community and relationships which we see in the essence of who God is. i learned about ecclesiology and eschatology and how it all comes back to the question of how i am choosing to live these lessons out in my life. i learned about being a TA and how to write better and help others write well. i learned from books, from professors, from speakers, from art, from friends, from family. 


it was a full year. i made a lot of new friends, had many good conversations, and learned a lot. it was a year i can't capture with words or pictures or sounds or smells. but i know i'm a different person because of 2011 and i know i'll be a different person at the end of 2012. i am gearing up for the journey - preparing myself for what i believe is going to be a good but challenging year as i transition from college and say goodbyes and welcome new people into my life.


i'm thankful for you, 2011. thankful for what you taught me, what you showed me, and the memories i have of you. i'm thankful for the footsteps i traveled with you and am praying that i don't forget where they took me. 


love, alyssa