countries visited, updated!

create your own visited countries map

photos, finally!

pics of morocco can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090383&l=577fa&id=9605288

pics of italy and spain can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090171&l=80007&id=9605288


pics of the rest of europe (norway, sweeden, denmark, netherlands, belgium, germany, and switzerland) can be found here
http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090148&l=85288&id=9605288

enjoy!
(for those of you who have been subjected already to the printed photos, these are the same ones.)

TX and OK

ahhhh... it is so great to visit with old friends! i have gotten to see and really talk with some old friends that are so near and dear to my heart. there are also many that i wish i could see, but without a car it's a little difficult.

so gabe gave us a tour of the new weather center. ah-maze-ing. that's what they mean when they say a "state of the art building". and luckily for me, and unluckily for them, both the seniors and grad students had a test monday, so they were all in the building studying on sunday. which worked well for my social schedule! fun times.

i also got to see a lot of people at rachel and chris's wedding on saturday. it was good times! and of course, the wedding was beautiful. it was really cool to see touches of rachel all thru the ceremony and reception.

out here at HGM, i've been able to catch up with some of my friends on staff, and get to meet some of this year's boot camp class. it has been way fun catching up on what everyone from our class is doing, since we all don't keep in touch with each other. and a lot of workers from all over the world are home right now, so it is cool to see them and get to know them better, too. but campus is crazy! not only is this the biggest class they've ever had (by about 15), with all the workers home, and classes being slack this (last) week, there are people everywhere, all the time. and so many are sick! it is hard to find a quiet place to hang out or have a private conversation. but it has been good.

i'll be flying home tomorrow... see you then!

voting today

i'm not sure how to vote. even on the marriage amendment. and i am so ridiculously sick of all the political mud-slinging i have experienced in the 5 days i have been home. i have watched a bit of tv since being home, and i have yet to see a commercial that is FOR a candidate, and not against one. rex said he heard somewhere that their objective is to get you not to vote. it's working. i don't want to vote for any politician that has so little integrity that they allow their supporters to write ads like this, much less endorse and pay for them. it makes me sick.

so maybe i'll just vote on the other 2 amendments.

in other news, lunch with scott and my dad today. mexican. mmmmm. so excited. and i also plan to print some of my europe/morocco pics, too. eventually i'll upload them to a website so those of you i won't be seeing physically in the next 2 weeks can catch a glimpse of my travels. trust me, you just want a "glimpse" = 150-200 photos, not all = 4500. yeah... my little camera had quite a work out, and is showing worse for the wear!

i definitely owe a lot of people a long detailed "dianne-styled" email. but i'm hoping to see a lot of you in the next week as i go to texas and oklahoma, so if i don't see you and have a conversation face-to-face, i'll try to send ya one of those emails.

i'm going to texas and oklahoma!! somebody better give me a ride to rusty's!! mmmm... pumpkin custard. goodness in my mouth. can't wait!

home... sort of

well, i am back in VA. thank you so much to all my friends and family who have welcomed me so well! i truly feel loved and am so blessed so much to know you all.

on the other hand, i don't want to be here. my heart is a mess and i don't expect it to be "put back together" anytime soon. rachel mentioned re-entry culture shock being much worse than she expected, and i guess that is the best way to describe what i am feeling. i feel myself slipping back into old habits from when i lived here before, even tho my thoughts and attitudes toward those actions have changed. for example, having lived out of a backpack for more than 2 months, i realize i don't need most of what i own. i am thankful to have my material possessions, but they shouldn't and don't own me. yet as i drove thru hilltop this afternoon, i was very tempted to go into target, just to see what they have that i might want, and possibly buy it.

one thing that is hard is that my favorite part of my trip was the last part... the backpacker's tour in morocco. i absolutely loved it and "came alive" in a sense... i loved the people in our group (even tho a few got on my nerves at times), especially the aussies ;-). i loved experiencing another culture so different from my own, and different from most of what i saw and experienced in europe. i loved travelling in a new way (africa! not quite as easy as europe...). i loved the food; it was probably the best i'd eaten my whole trip. i loved the sense of expectation every corner held, the beauty of just about every moment, the fullness of living life that i felt. i was basically in love with it all. (minus the unwanted advances of a few men.)

i know that life cannot be lived on a "high" like that trip was, but man, i want to try! i got up early my first morning home and went down to the beach for sunrise, and went jogging. it was amazing. it was sort of a continuation of "living life to the full" that i started thinking about 5 years ago. (remember, shane?)

so now i am here, sorting out what my life should and needs to look like. i am trying to figure out who i really am, and what i am really called to, and how to love living this life, and not just "get through" it, as i had basically been doing before i left. and yes, some seasons will be hard and worse than others, and i don't expect to be living the dream life forever, but man, something out there has to be better than the existence i was eeking out before.

now i just have to figure out what that is.