Classes Make Me Hungry

Today I'm pretty frustrated cuz I'm tired (I guess I didn't sleep much), a lot went on today, and my emotions feel like scrambled eggs.

I hope we don't watch a depressing movie for movie night tonight.

Crazy Stuff

There's some crazy stuff going around here!

Friday one of our seniors robbed a bank and today got taken away by the FBI!

Sunday someone at the shelter broke into the offices at Hannah House (the building across from where I work) and got into the pantry stealing a quarter of the food! I don't know if they stole anything from the offices or not. It was obviously a group of homeless people that live at the shelter, but we don't know who.

Today we start classes again...
And I better clean my room up. Gosh it's cold in here!

Have a great day everyone!

Too Much Olive Oil Makes You Sick

Though really, too much of anything makes you sick. But, at the moment, my cause of feeling ill is olive oil. Why oh why don't I learn? I think that if I cooked everyday I'd become a really good cook, but since I only cook every once in a while, I'm not that good, or at least, I don't think so. Everyone else says I'm good at cooking, but I just made myself sick so I don't think that qualifies me as being a good cook. At least I got to have fun cooking and I finally got to use some stuff from the Dorm Cooking Survival Kit I bought Friday! I'm so happy about that =)
Ok, that was a really weird rant right there. Anyways...
I love Cindy! She's so funny and sweet. It's funny how she reminds me of my mom a lot.
I'm happy everyone's back =) It's weird, I only miss people if they're not where they're supposed to be. Like right now I don't really miss anyone from Europe, but during Thanksgiving break, when so many people that I'm used to seeing everyday here in the community weren't here, I missed them. That makes me feel bad...everyone misses their families and friends, but I don't...I guess I made myself become like this after being so depressed for so long when we moved when I was 10. Becki told me that it could also be that I was just ready to leave, which is SO true. So I guess that makes me feel better. I was beginning to worry that I'm a horrible, inhumane person...
Ok, I gotta go to bed!
Night

Why Don't Things Do What I Want Them To Do?

The hot water in this building gets on my nerves. My shower and heater never stay hot...especially in moments when I REALLY need them to be hot.

Today I worked in the kitchen for the first time from 7am to 12:30. It went well. Though, because I wasn't feeling very well, I felt like I was going to faint twice :-/
I then spent the rest of the day reading/resting/sleeping. I had a really weird dream. It wasn't a nice one.
Right after I woke up I had dinner with the bunnies (you can see them in the picture, along with Kriss' 1900 reconds!Click on the pic to better view it). Dinner was fried fish and french fries. It wasn't very good and it made me feel sick again =( Oh well.I'm gonna take a shower now and then get myself some hot tea. I wanted to spend this evening with Kris (my mentor) and her husband, but I don't really feel like hanging out with people right now and I really need to rest. Plus, I better get to bed early cuz I need to get up at 6am tomorrow again.
At least I don't have to work all morning tomorrow and I get to go to church to see Bethany!! I'm so glad I'm finally getting to see her! I'm also really happy that Ami's going to be doing worship tomorrow! I love it when she sings. And Becca (my "mom") is going to be singing with her! I've never heard her sing so I'm excited =)

I hope tomorrow will be a good day.

P.S. The water finally did listen to me and so I had a nice hot shower and my room is now nice and warm. It's so nice to feel warm and cozy =)

My Heart Goes Out To All The Moms

Truly teenagers don't know what they're doing. We complain too much, we think we know everything, we don't listen and we end up doing stupid things. How do moms do it?
I'm slowly learning how to not take my friends' burdens on me and to leave it all up to G-d. All I can really do is pray.

I need to learn how to manager my time better.


Today was a loooong day. A day full of happiness, excitement, confusion, frustration and love. All in all, it was a good day.


Goodnight everyone!

Turkey, Coffee and Whip Cream

The Thanksgiving dinner was great! It wasn't at all loud and crazy as everyone expected, but very nice and enjoyable. The food was really good, the decorations were really cool and a lot of people got all dressed up for dinner. I tried cranberry sauce for the first time and I actually liked it. Ami was able to get me to turn red cuz, when I walked in after going to get myself some hot tea, she yelled out that I looked beautiful (even though I didn't really dress up or anything). That's the second time that I've blushed since I've been here...
Oh yeah, during dinner I got into the conversation with Matt about how everyone thinks I'm so weird cuz I don't like meat, coffee or whip cream and he said that what everyone says is true haha

So it was a very nice evening indeed. I'm SO glad that I don't have to get up at 3 am anymore cuz Eve's gonna pick Tiana and I up at 9:30am. I need to look through my banking account stuff with Cindy now....this stuff is bringing out my blondness and I don't like it.

Crazy Pregnat Women

Tonight's gonna be crazy! First of all, I'm gonna be having my first Thanksgiving dinner with the Switajs, the Moss' and the Kaisers. Anyone who knows them will understand. I've told some people in the house about it and they told me "that's scary...good luck!" haha. It's not that we don't like them. It's that it's gonna be crazy, loud, funny and very entertaining hehe
THEN, at 3:30 am I'm going shopping with Eve and Tiana cuz tomorrow there are sales all over the city since it's black Friday, the day after thanksgiving. People have told me that it's insane and that even at 4am the stores get packed of people. It kind of scares me and the whole thing sounds really crazy, but if two 30 year old pregnant women can do it, then I can, too =P
I don't know how Tiana's gonna do it because she is VERY pregnant and can hardly walk. Well, it will be interesting.
Today is my first day being completely free! Though, since there aren't many of the people I hang out with around and I have tuns of stuff to do, I'm going to be busy anyway. I need to finally look at all my banking account stuff (yes, I STILL haven't done that :-/), I need to clean Dora and Hannah's room, water their plants and move my stuff back in my room (Hannah's getting back tomorrow and she's having friends stay here). I then need to feed Kriss and Mellie's bunnies, put away the clean laundry that has been sitting in my basket for a LONG time and give Carolyn her clothes back...and THEN, if I have time, I really need to clean my room. I hope I can do all of this stuff today. I'd like to be able to have all Friday off from stuff to do and just hang out with people. Saturday morning I have holiday work to do from 7am to 12:30 working in the kitchen. I won't complain about it cuz everyone's supposed to work 3 slots of holiday work and Cindy's letting me just do one (it's a long story), which makes me feel kind of bad, but also happy.

Ok, I better get out of bed and get dressed and then go downstairs to see what's for lunch.
Have a great day everyone!

Bunny, Plant and House Sitting

Today Dora, Kris and Mellie left, so now I'm babysitting Hannah and Dora's two plants and Kris and Mellie's two bunnies.

Yesterday I finally got to hang out with the Switajs! I've never hung out with just the two of them so I was really happy about it. This morning was my last day of work! So now I'm off till Monday (I think). I'm hoping to be able to spend time with Azaria tonight cuz she's leving Friday and I don't know if I'll ever see her again (she's not sure what she's doing) =(

It's really weird not having all the people I usually hang out with around. Fortunately there are still some people I know around here. I have a feeling that tomorrow's dinner's going to be crazy...it's gonna be my first Thanksgiving dinner!

Ok, I better go.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Nutella Is Good For The Soul

I'm ridiculously out of shape.

My mood swings scare me.

I complain too much.

I need sleep.

Night!

Dancing Is Good For The Heart

I love how I spend almost every weekend with a different group of people. I spent this last weekend with Kris, Mellie (they're a young newly wed couple) and Dora. We mainly hung out in Kris and Mellie's room or in the kitchen. It was fun cooking with Kris. We've really connected in that department cuz he's a vegan and I'm a vegetarian and we both love to cook.
Saturday night I went to my first Leper show (band in which both Kriss and Mellie play)! It was my first goth concert. It was very interesting and a lot of fun. Dora and I went up front to dance and we just went crazy and didn't care that we were pretty much the only ones up there =)

Today was my first day off from Project 12! I still had to go to work this morning though because the JPUSA vacation days aren't the same as the Project 12 days. It was kind of hard going to work since last night I hardly got any sleep. Since Hannah isn't here Dora had me sleep in her room, but for some reason I wasn't really able to sleep (no, we didn't talk all night). Therefore, I spent the afternoon napping =) I just ate dinner and soon I'm going to go with the Claytons to Drexel's school's open house. Afterwards, I'm going to visit my family since I haven't hung out with them for about 3 weeks!

Cindy is so sweet. Today, at lunch time, she came up to me and gave me a hug and said that she missed me during the weekend. She then said with her big pretty smile "I know that the Switajs are back...but if they're not doing anything for Thanksgiving your welcome to come to ours". The people at our table said that she's trying to steal me from my family and adopt me haha

Ok, well, I better go!
Have a great week =)

What Makes a Great Day

Today (Friday) was a great day and I feel happy.
Here's what made my day a good one...

_Having Bente do our devotions this morning. She is a funny Danish woman who gets very excited when she does devotions. You can hear how excited she is by the tone of her voice and from the words she chooses to use and you can see it by her facial expression and the way she stands up and keeps moving around. I like listening to her do devotions.

_Having the internet work in my room

_Walking to work with God

_Realizing, once again, how I love all the people that work on my floor at the shelter and how they never stress out, but can get pretty silly.

_Enjoying a cookie (that Stuart made) with Skot (a goth guy who's very interesting, but with whom I don't speak much) in the kitchen at the office.

_Seeing all the preschool kids going around in their pijamas because of pjs day

_Having lunch with a bunch of people that I like and laughing at them being silly.

_Having Jack tell me "You look really nice today, but then again you look pretty everyday". Jack and Jim are two seniors that always hang out in the lobby and who spoil me with complements and gifts. They're great.

_Going out for a very enjoyable walk with Dora after lunch even though it's freezing outside and having the cutest squirrel ever follow us around. I've never had a squirrel walk with me right next to my shoe!!! He was adorable. We named him Pete.

_Seeing Tiana in the lobby when coming back from my walk and getting to hug and talk to her. She is so beautiful! I can't wait to go to her baby shower!

_Talking to Annica on Skype for the first time!! It was nice seeing her and speaking Italian again =)

_Being silly with Azaria and Dora between and after class.

_Watching The Phantom of The Opera with Dora and Michael and seeing how Michael loves the movie so much.

_Hanging out with Betty (Bethany) since tomorrow she's leaving for 3 weeks and having Nutella freshly bought by Michael (even though I felt like I was going to explode cuz I ate too much, again..)! I missed Nutella...

How could the day be less perfect? =)

Thanksgiving Break!

Yay! Today is my last day of classes and then I have Thanksgiving break!
Hannah and Sarah are going home today and Dora's not too happy about not having a roommate so she wants me to move into her room till she leaves to go home on Wednesday.

I'm so glad that I finally feel better!! All last week I was really sick and it wasn't at all fun =(
My friends really took care of me though, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Well, Friday was really bad cuz I had a really hot fever and was throwing up and was all alone in my room for the whole day, but then Saturday morning Dora had me come in her room and lay in her bed while Dora and Hannah painted their room. (It's pretty funny how we've been here for two months and yet we're all still working on our rooms). Saturday morning I was supposed to go to Target with Eve to get a bunch of stuff that I've needed for my room, but I was still sick so I didn't go... Then, all of Project 12 left in the afternoon to help out at a Glenn Kaiser concert so I spent the rest of the day with Cindy which was great! I think she's probably the "older woman" (she's 33 so she's not old) here that I get along with the most (probably cuz she's a lot like me). It was awesome just chilling out with her (Eric was away again for another The Crossing concert) in her room, watching cartoons with her kids (Kolya is 7 and Drexel is 5), talking about all kinds of stuff, crying, laughing, etc. And then it was a lot of fun when Cindy, Nate and Jesse came back from the swing dance they were at and I hung out with them and Marty (Jesse's husband) till 1:30 am listening to their stories about when they were my age. I love listening to people's stories =)
I love it how I have two groups that I hang out with the most and one is of 17-23 year olds and the other is of 29-33 year olds. Unfortunately I'm not spending much time with the people I'm supposed to spend time with and I'm not really getting to know the people who I like who aren't in the groups I hang out with the most =/ I need to work on that.

Brian got back from India on Friday and the Switajs got back from their 10 year anniversary trip on Wednesday! The Switajs got my "brothers" some Egyptian knives and gave me, Max and Bethany (and probably someone else) European chocolate =) I'm glad they're finally back. Cindy said she isn't too happy about it because she says that now that our "parents" are back we're not going to hang out with her anymore haha I love her. However, Michael and her have been a bad influence since they kept me awake till 2am Wednesday night!

A Nice Evening

Even though I'm sick, I have to say that I had a very nice evening today. I made our "orphan dinner" which turned out actually tasting good even though I got kind of stressed about it and all the guys loved it, too. Then for DM we had a drum circle which was SO much fun! I absolutely LOVED it!! =) And then after that we watched a movie.
Ok, I better get to bed now cuz my body really needs to sleep. Wow today I took A LOT of pills....I took vitamins that Bethany gave me, I took some allergy pills, some benadryl Becca gave me, then some vitamin C Taryn gave me and THEN some tylenol Eve gave me. I shouldn't take so much stuff like that! I have been drinking a lot of tea with honey and lemon in it though =)
Thanks to all of those who've written to me in the last few days! It's always nice to hear from you.
Yesterday I had my family meet a bunch of my friends through Skype which was a lot of fun! If any of you have skype, please add me. I don't get on it very often cuz I'm so busy, but it would be awesome to talk to you if I ever catch you online.
Ok, goodnight!!

The swing dance!

It was fun =)

So Many Hopes And Dreams

I have so many hopes and dreams...
*traveling around the world
*learning other languages
*visiting and working at different ministries and/or communities around the world
*learning how to sing and starting a band
*working in a third world country (which is what I've wanted to do since I was little)
*having a family of my own
They're A LOT and some are kind of crazy, but yeah, those are my dreams...

Tonight I went to the Bardic Circle that Leah Grover (she's on P12 staff) organized and I LOVED it! There were about 10 of us and some read something, others played something and others more sang and/or played a long (for the first time I saw and heard a friction drum and it's awesome!) . In addition, Frank brought some Snickerdoodle cookies he made which were delicious!! It was a great variety of art that mixed together so well and made me feel happy. Art is such a wonderful thing =)

At noon, I had my second One on One which went great. This week God has really spoken to me about not complaining and being patient with others and loving those whom I don't like and who get on my nerves. Obviously I screwed up big time in both things, especially the second one...but that's what happens when you live in a community.

Last night (the Halloween/costume contest party) was a lot of fun! Carolyn came in first place (and therefore got the 50$ Barnes and Noble gift certificate) dressed up as Frankenstein's bride, Lyle came in second as a big bucktoothed fat guy, Hannah came in third as her mother when she lived here in the 80s and I came in fourth as a fat, ugly gypsy. It was so much fun dressing up! =)
Other great costumes were Sam and Erica who wore each other's clothes and Bethany who came as the bride in Kill Bill with her wedding dress covered in blood! When she walked in everyone just stared at her dress with shock on their faces. Michael's was hilarious, too, especially because he acted the part during the whole party. He was awkward man haha.

Here are some pictures from halloween, Hannah and I making stuff for Brach's birthday, and last night's party...

P.S. On Saturdays we have hot dogs for lunch. Therefore, yesterday, I made myself a salad and for the first time since I've been here, I was able to put olive oil in it! In addition, Chris (who's a vegan friend of Dora) let me have some of the hummus he made. It felt soooo good having a healthy meal that I made that felt like something I'd eat at home...aaaaah =)

So Many Dress Up Parties!

For the first time in my life, I was in the States during Halloween! Project 12, however, had movie night that evening so we didn't really celebrate. Rich and Andrew, however, did go around all day dressed up as rappers which was hilarious!!! Therefore, us girls decided to dress up anyway, too. Dora wore Jesse's wedding dress and went around as a fairy and I dressed up as a gypsy pirate or something like that. Carolyn, Amanda Sue and Sarah had the best costumes ever! They all dressed up as old ladies and it was awesome!!! I wish they would have decided to do that before I got dressed up so that I could have been old, too! It was funny when we went downstairs and no one could recognize them haha. Tomorrow we have another dress up party!

About two weeks ago Brock, Brach or however you spell his name told me that his birthday was coming up, but that he wasn't going to tell anyone what day it is and that he hoped that no one would do anything, especially because he's turning 30. Well, living in JPUSA, if it's your birthday, people will do stuff. I told him that I'd find out the date and I'd dress up as a bunny and follow him around all day singing happy birthday. Then, on Sunday, at church, we all looked in the Rev Rag (a thing they give out with the message of the day and a whole bunch of info, including birthdays and prayer requests) we saw that his birthday was Nov. 1! Therefore, after we had (halloween) movie night on Wednesday, Hannah and I came up with a plan and ended up in her "family's" room to print out stuff and blow balloons up. Jesse and Michael helped us out, too. Then, when we were sure that Brock wasn't around, we sneaked into his office (Hannah got the key from someone) and put bunny rabbits and balloons all over his desk. We then put "Happy Birthday" signs up all over the building (each one having his name spelled differently since everyone gets it wrong and I still don't know what the right one is) which had funny pics of him that he had taken himself with Hannah's camera. The next day, Cindy (Hannah's "mom") let me borrow bunny ears and I went around all morning with them on looking for Brock (I didn't go to work with them on though). He finally saw me when he came in the dining room for lunch and not 10 seconds went by before he ran out cuz he thought that I'd actually follow him around haha =P

Thursday morning when I went to work I did my first intake by myself (since Raye's sick)! I was kind of nervous, but fortunately, I had decided to look over all the forms and stuff before I did it and the guy was really nice. I was so happy and proud of myself =D
Thursday was also All Saints day and for DM we all helped out with the different activities going on for the children.
The evening, however, was probably the worst I've had since I've been here and I was pretty down for the rest of the day. I then ended up in Hannah's "family"'s room again, which kind of cheered me up. It was so uplifting to hear from Cindy how she went through the same stuff I'm going through, only worse. She told me how JPUSA used to be even more disorganized and conservative than it is now and how, when she came here 15 years ago, she slept on a mountain of blankets for a whole year because no one ever gave her a mattress and she didn't know who to ask for it. She told me that she was also 18 at the time and that she had a really big problem with all the rules because she also didn't know any of them. She actually had thought that they would kick her out cuz of all the times she would unintentionally break the rules! That makes me feel a lot better.

Today I also hung out in Cindy's room cuz she had a bunch of people over to watch a DVD of a really funny stand up comedian.

Oh, yeah. I've decided to go decaf now. Have been doing it for about a week. Aren't y'all glad? haha Now you don't have to worry so much for me João =P
Now I just have to start eating less and start having later dinners and cooking more. I think I've gained wait since I've been here and I know it's cuz I get big quantities of food without realizing it and I eat a lot during the day cuz my body's just not used to having a big meal at 5pm. Also, weekend dinners consist of meat, buns and ice cream so, like yesterday, I end up having two buns and a bowl of ice cream for dinner =(