Well, on Saturday June 13th I finally took my ACT. I have no idea how I did, but I hope I did good (though I keep having terrified thoughts that I didn't do well...and I can't redo it so whatever it is is what I'm getting...). I'm bummed 'cause I know that I would have done better if I would have taken it right after I graduated high school instead of waiting two years...and if I had started studying for it sooner! But oh well...I'm not going to worry about it too much...
This week is our first week of actual summer! Which is insane since it's the LAST WEEK OF JUNE!
At the shelter, on first floor (where I work) it's cold 'cause the air conditioning is on high. On second floor and third floor it's cool 'cause they have fans and air conditioning. But then on fourth floor, they don't have any air conditioning, just a few fans and it's 95 degrees up there! We've had children and older men having to go to the hospital because of it! AND THEN, on fifth floor, where we have the Free Store (all of our donations that clients can go through at a designated time) it's MORE THAN A HUNDRED DEGREES! How crazy is that?? Meanwhile, outside it's 80 something degrees.
Thankfully, someone donated fans for the Free Store yesterday, so hopefully that will help!
I've been trying to get shelter stuff done all week and well, I did the best I could.
Tomorrow morning I leave for Bushnell for Cornerstone Festival (one of the largest Christian music and arts festivals in the country sponsored by Jesus People USA, the community I live in). While down there, I'm going to be working with my friends Ami and Betty at the Project 12/ Grrr Tent and enjoying as much as I can of the festival! PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WILL HAVE GOOD WEATHER!
When I get back here, I'm going to be finishing stuff up at work and sending my quarterly report to DHS (hopefully it will all go well!!) and then I'll be studying and packing before taking my GED on July 20, 21, and 22 and then leaving for Pennsylvania on July 27!
I'll be staying with my grandparents for 10 days before LEAVING FOR PORTUGAL on August 6th!!
I have a lot of mixed emotions about all of this...but one thing is clear: I have A LOT to do in the next month and a half!!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
My Louisiana Trip
For my birthday (May 5th) and Erica and Josh's third wedding reception (they got married in Chicago, then they went to visit his family in California, and this time they were going to visit her family) we went to Louisiana. We had a lot of fun! Erica had her mom get two king cakes, which are actually Mardi Gras cakes, for my birthday. One was strawberry and cream cheese and the other was pecan praline. I liked the pecan praline.
The day after we got there, the three of us went out to celebrate my birthday. We had a picnic by a lake and had crawfish (which we picked up at a crawfish drive thru!), veggies, hummus that Josh made, good bread, guacamole that Erica made, chips, and berries. It was really nice!
The rest of the time we hung out with Erica's friends and family and went out to eat at all of Erica's favorite places. I think my favorite place was Raising Cane's which is a Louisiana take out chain that serves freshly made chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast, their "secret recipe" sauce, and freshly squeezed lemonade. I'm not a fast food fan, but this stuff was GOOD! =)
We also got to go check out the LSU campus, which is where Erica went to school. The campus was huge! And we got to see Mike the Tiger, who's their mascot. (I never realized how huge a tiger is! His paws are probably as big as my face!) I felt bad for the poor thing...
Oh! And the whole time we stayed with Erica's old boss (a veteranarian) who has a very nice home with her husband on a akre property and has a white German Sheperd called Bear, four miniture doxins, and four little Doxin puppies who are so cute! Josh, Erica and I wanted to take two of them home with us!
Here are pictures from our trip...
P.S. Oh! And we also got to go to New Orleans which I really wanted to do again before I leave! (I went there last year for the first time during our missions trip)
P.P.S. And by the way, the day before we left (the day before my birthday), I was having a hard day and I got two surprises! First of all, a friend of mine who is also an MK (Missionary's Kid) in Texas randomly showed up at my office to say hi! It was really weird!
And after that, Erica decided that the two of us were finally gonna dye our hair (we had been talking about it for a long time) and she payed for me, telling me that it was by birthday present. So now, instead of being a dark blond, I'm a reddish blond, and instead of being brown-haired Erica is now black-haired!
The day after we got there, the three of us went out to celebrate my birthday. We had a picnic by a lake and had crawfish (which we picked up at a crawfish drive thru!), veggies, hummus that Josh made, good bread, guacamole that Erica made, chips, and berries. It was really nice!
The rest of the time we hung out with Erica's friends and family and went out to eat at all of Erica's favorite places. I think my favorite place was Raising Cane's which is a Louisiana take out chain that serves freshly made chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast, their "secret recipe" sauce, and freshly squeezed lemonade. I'm not a fast food fan, but this stuff was GOOD! =)
We also got to go check out the LSU campus, which is where Erica went to school. The campus was huge! And we got to see Mike the Tiger, who's their mascot. (I never realized how huge a tiger is! His paws are probably as big as my face!) I felt bad for the poor thing...
Oh! And the whole time we stayed with Erica's old boss (a veteranarian) who has a very nice home with her husband on a akre property and has a white German Sheperd called Bear, four miniture doxins, and four little Doxin puppies who are so cute! Josh, Erica and I wanted to take two of them home with us!
Here are pictures from our trip...
P.S. Oh! And we also got to go to New Orleans which I really wanted to do again before I leave! (I went there last year for the first time during our missions trip)
P.P.S. And by the way, the day before we left (the day before my birthday), I was having a hard day and I got two surprises! First of all, a friend of mine who is also an MK (Missionary's Kid) in Texas randomly showed up at my office to say hi! It was really weird!
And after that, Erica decided that the two of us were finally gonna dye our hair (we had been talking about it for a long time) and she payed for me, telling me that it was by birthday present. So now, instead of being a dark blond, I'm a reddish blond, and instead of being brown-haired Erica is now black-haired!
The Adventures of Whitney, Brach, Hannah, Carolyn, and Tyler!
I was waiting to get pictures from Brach before posting this, but we've both been really busy lately so I haven't been able to get them from him....so I guess I'll just have to do with Carolyn's pictures...
After Easter, me, Brach and Hannah, and Carolyn and Tyler went up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to our friend Sarah's wedding. I had a few times of feeling like a fifth wheel and there were also a couple of times that I didn't feel well, but other than that we had a lot of fun. It was so nice to be out in nature and it was nice to see Sarah again and to meet and get to know Travis, the man who is now her husband. Here are some pictures from the wedding. While driving back we had fun stopping in front of some of the giant "statues" (or whatever you want to call them) that were on our way home. Apparently, people in the U.P. like to make giant statues of random things and put them around their land as tourist attractions or something.
Going up there was definitely a culture shock...not only do they speak funny (kind of like the people in Fargo, if you've seen that movie) but they also have their own culture (there's a lot of hunting, drinking beer, playing snow-centered sports when there's snow, eating mostly plain tasting food, and a lot of people are still stuck in the 90s hair-style wise...haha). It was fun =)
Some time after our U.P. adventure, the five of us set out for "Little Italy" one nice Sunday afternoon.
About a year ago, my friend Brach promised me that, before I went back to Europe, he would bring me down to Little Italy. So, when the weather finally got better, I had him finally take me and we brought Hannah, Carolyn, and Tyler along with us.
Unfortunately, we discovered, Chicago doesn't really have a Little Italy! haha
There's a street with an "Italian Lemonade" place, a few Italian restaurants (with different Asian restaurants in between), a pub called "Irlandese" which means "Irish" in Italian, which I thought was funny, a little Italian grocery store (which actually did have some real Italian stuff in it which was exciting!), a statue of Joseph Di Maggio (an Italian baseball player for the New York Yankees), and a statue of Chistopher Columbus. And that was it. haha
We did have a lot of had fun though. It was nice to be out =)
Here would go the funny pictures we took in "Little Italy", but I guess I'll just have to show them to you some other time!
After Easter, me, Brach and Hannah, and Carolyn and Tyler went up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to our friend Sarah's wedding. I had a few times of feeling like a fifth wheel and there were also a couple of times that I didn't feel well, but other than that we had a lot of fun. It was so nice to be out in nature and it was nice to see Sarah again and to meet and get to know Travis, the man who is now her husband. Here are some pictures from the wedding. While driving back we had fun stopping in front of some of the giant "statues" (or whatever you want to call them) that were on our way home. Apparently, people in the U.P. like to make giant statues of random things and put them around their land as tourist attractions or something.
Going up there was definitely a culture shock...not only do they speak funny (kind of like the people in Fargo, if you've seen that movie) but they also have their own culture (there's a lot of hunting, drinking beer, playing snow-centered sports when there's snow, eating mostly plain tasting food, and a lot of people are still stuck in the 90s hair-style wise...haha). It was fun =)
Some time after our U.P. adventure, the five of us set out for "Little Italy" one nice Sunday afternoon.
About a year ago, my friend Brach promised me that, before I went back to Europe, he would bring me down to Little Italy. So, when the weather finally got better, I had him finally take me and we brought Hannah, Carolyn, and Tyler along with us.
Unfortunately, we discovered, Chicago doesn't really have a Little Italy! haha
There's a street with an "Italian Lemonade" place, a few Italian restaurants (with different Asian restaurants in between), a pub called "Irlandese" which means "Irish" in Italian, which I thought was funny, a little Italian grocery store (which actually did have some real Italian stuff in it which was exciting!), a statue of Joseph Di Maggio (an Italian baseball player for the New York Yankees), and a statue of Chistopher Columbus. And that was it. haha
We did have a lot of had fun though. It was nice to be out =)
Here would go the funny pictures we took in "Little Italy", but I guess I'll just have to show them to you some other time!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Things I'm Excited About
I'm excited about being on European ground again!
I'm excited about seeing my friends whom I haven't seen in two years!
I'm excited about seeing my family again and Maya (my dog whom I haven't seen in two years!) and meeting the new puppy, Bilbo. I hope Maya remembers me!
I'm excited about eating good and healthy food again!
I'm excited about seeing old buildings and old narrow streets again!
I'm excited about going to an open market again!
I'm excited about being able to take a walk without having creepy men eying me and treating me like a piece of meat!
I'm excited about going to the ocean and breathing in the salty air!
I'm excited about seeing my parents' new house!
And I'm excited about seeing what God has for me in my new adventure!
I'm excited about seeing my friends whom I haven't seen in two years!
I'm excited about seeing my family again and Maya (my dog whom I haven't seen in two years!) and meeting the new puppy, Bilbo. I hope Maya remembers me!
I'm excited about eating good and healthy food again!
I'm excited about seeing old buildings and old narrow streets again!
I'm excited about going to an open market again!
I'm excited about being able to take a walk without having creepy men eying me and treating me like a piece of meat!
I'm excited about going to the ocean and breathing in the salty air!
I'm excited about seeing my parents' new house!
And I'm excited about seeing what God has for me in my new adventure!
Monday, June 22, 2009
I'm Back From The Real World
Ok, readers (and by readers, I mean Mom, since really you're probably my only follower....Hi Mom!), I am really sorry that I've been gone from blog world for so long! I've been busy and/or lazy.
Sooo even though it's almost JULY, I want to tell you about Easter.
Easter was a lot of fun. Here at JPUSA, they have Fest For Us, which is a big celebration that goes on in the house for three days. We have all kinds of stuff...concerts, a coffee shop, a guest speaker, a cotton candy stand, a snow cone stand, a talent show, movies, treats, and much more!
We had a great dance party Saturday night which was a lot of fun and for which we got all dressed up....I love dancing with my girlfriends! Especially to 80s' music, it's great =)
For Easter Sunday's after-dinner party a bunch of people did a couple of funny skits that really depicted our community haha
The first one was of a bunch of guys sitting at a table together. They're playing cards when, all of a sudden, sirens start going off, a bunch of weird noises are heard in the background, and they all get text messages saying that the city's getting bombed and that they need to go somewhere safe. The guys say that the building is safe enough and they get back to their game. Then, someone walks in saying, "Guys! Guys! I just went down to the dining room and someone's moved the dinner line to the other side of the room!!!". All the guys throw down their cards, get upset, start yelling and complaining about it, and run out the door.
The second skit was about an inspector coming to our house (which happens once or
twice a year, I think). It started out with "the inspector" coming into our lobby where "Lia McCoo" (a lady who at the time worked at our front desk and who is a very talented musician pictured on the right), played by one of our teenage boys, is sitting at the front desk in all her glory playing her flute. The inspector asks her for Ron Brown (one of our pastors, also pictured on the right). She answers him singing and calls Ron on his phone. "Ron Brown" then comes down, introduces himself, brings the inspector up to 7th floor (our 8th, 9th, and 10th floors are for our senior program and then 7th through 2nd are floors where community members live) and leaves him there. The inspector notices that the floor is very 
clean and very quiet, so quiet, in fact, that you can hear wind blowing in the background. He then takes some gum out and throws the wrapper on the floor. Immediately, a siren goes off and a bunch of children jump out, clean the floor, and disappear again. A very weird creepy guy in an interesting costume comes out mumbling something about children and the inspector runs away. (7th floor is the nicest floor in the house, very clean and very quiet with hardly any children on it, so they decided to explain this fact by saying that it's because of the creepy Child Catcher from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie...though I've never seen it, so I didn't really get it)
The inspector then goes to 6th floor. He says it's not too bad and is about to leave, when Dorena (played by herself) comes out of her room (Dorena is another one of our interesting characters ... here's a picture of her on the left. She likes to wear parts of animals [bones, furs, eyeballs, claws, etc] and during Easter she went around with a knife sticking out of h
er chest and fake blood on her) and invites him into her room in a very witch-like way. The inspector freaks out and runs away and Dorena starts crying dramatically saying "They never want to stay for dinner".
He comes to fifth floor (my floor! Which is the craziest floor in the house). The inspector notices the toys on the floor, the dirty walls, and then, all of a sudden, a person in a straight jacket runs down the hall way chased by two other people who are screaming and they trample the poor man.
The man gets to 4th floor and notices the scent of spices in the air, "Hilde" (played by her daughter) is playing her chello, little "Sarah V.A." (played by another one of our high schoolers) comes out with a big pot of lentils and asks him if he wants some, "Scott Ingerson" comes out singing a hippy song, and Martha Rice (played by herself. She's a nice mom with long curly hair who just wears homemade Lond-of-the-Rings-style dresses) comes out saying "Let's all start some interpretive worship dancing!".
The inspector gets to 3rd floor (which people call the "ghetto floor" because it's falling apart) and three of our teenagers (two of which are black) come out acting very ghetto and grab the man and start beating him up while gun shots and hip hop music is heard in the background. "Connie" (played by my friend Michael dressed in one of Connie's crazy and fun outfits) runs out and starts yelling "Anthony!! Stop that! Leave that poor white boy alone!! Didn't I tell you to stop that! Go clean your room!". The poor guy gets up with his clothes all ripped up and runs away. He then runs through 2nd floor tripping over toys, boxes and strollers and finally gets to 1st floor in our dining room. Heidi (played by herself) is down there and she is not in a good mood (and believe me, you do not want to cross Heidi when she's in a bad mood). She grabs the inspector and starts yelling "Are you the new guy?!? Come here, do you see this?? Someone made a mess in the dining room again and didn't clean up!! Don't you know we have an inspector coming??? Come here, here's a rag and some bleach. Start cleaning!" and she walks out (Heidi is in charge of the cleaning crew and she hates it when the dining room is dirty). Soon after, "Freddie" ( an older man who comes into our house all the time and who has mental problems) comes up to the man, shaking his hand and starting to talk, but the man runs out of the building.
In the end, "the inspector" calls "Ron Brown", saying "I'll do anything you need me to do as long as I don't have to come back there ever again!". After they hang up, "Ron" smiles and says, "Works every time!".
All of us in the audience could not stop laughing. I think I was bent over with tears in my eyes. Of course, knowing the people and the floors makes the skit even funnier, but I think it's funny anyway. Hope you enjoyed it =) Wish I had a video of it!!
Oh, our pastors also made a video that was shown that night as well. They basically thanked everyone for helping out in all of the different work areas, from doing dishes to working at the shelter to working at one of our companies. At the end of the video, all of the pastors did a bollywood dance which was hilarious!!! I'm trying to get the video from someone so I can show it to you all!!
Ok, gotta go. Will post more later!
Sooo even though it's almost JULY, I want to tell you about Easter.
Easter was a lot of fun. Here at JPUSA, they have Fest For Us, which is a big celebration that goes on in the house for three days. We have all kinds of stuff...concerts, a coffee shop, a guest speaker, a cotton candy stand, a snow cone stand, a talent show, movies, treats, and much more!
We had a great dance party Saturday night which was a lot of fun and for which we got all dressed up....I love dancing with my girlfriends! Especially to 80s' music, it's great =)
For Easter Sunday's after-dinner party a bunch of people did a couple of funny skits that really depicted our community haha
The first one was of a bunch of guys sitting at a table together. They're playing cards when, all of a sudden, sirens start going off, a bunch of weird noises are heard in the background, and they all get text messages saying that the city's getting bombed and that they need to go somewhere safe. The guys say that the building is safe enough and they get back to their game. Then, someone walks in saying, "Guys! Guys! I just went down to the dining room and someone's moved the dinner line to the other side of the room!!!". All the guys throw down their cards, get upset, start yelling and complaining about it, and run out the door.
The second skit was about an inspector coming to our house (which happens once or
twice a year, I think). It started out with "the inspector" coming into our lobby where "Lia McCoo" (a lady who at the time worked at our front desk and who is a very talented musician pictured on the right), played by one of our teenage boys, is sitting at the front desk in all her glory playing her flute. The inspector asks her for Ron Brown (one of our pastors, also pictured on the right). She answers him singing and calls Ron on his phone. "Ron Brown" then comes down, introduces himself, brings the inspector up to 7th floor (our 8th, 9th, and 10th floors are for our senior program and then 7th through 2nd are floors where community members live) and leaves him there. The inspector notices that the floor is very 
clean and very quiet, so quiet, in fact, that you can hear wind blowing in the background. He then takes some gum out and throws the wrapper on the floor. Immediately, a siren goes off and a bunch of children jump out, clean the floor, and disappear again. A very weird creepy guy in an interesting costume comes out mumbling something about children and the inspector runs away. (7th floor is the nicest floor in the house, very clean and very quiet with hardly any children on it, so they decided to explain this fact by saying that it's because of the creepy Child Catcher from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie...though I've never seen it, so I didn't really get it)The inspector then goes to 6th floor. He says it's not too bad and is about to leave, when Dorena (played by herself) comes out of her room (Dorena is another one of our interesting characters ... here's a picture of her on the left. She likes to wear parts of animals [bones, furs, eyeballs, claws, etc] and during Easter she went around with a knife sticking out of h
er chest and fake blood on her) and invites him into her room in a very witch-like way. The inspector freaks out and runs away and Dorena starts crying dramatically saying "They never want to stay for dinner".He comes to fifth floor (my floor! Which is the craziest floor in the house). The inspector notices the toys on the floor, the dirty walls, and then, all of a sudden, a person in a straight jacket runs down the hall way chased by two other people who are screaming and they trample the poor man.
The man gets to 4th floor and notices the scent of spices in the air, "Hilde" (played by her daughter) is playing her chello, little "Sarah V.A." (played by another one of our high schoolers) comes out with a big pot of lentils and asks him if he wants some, "Scott Ingerson" comes out singing a hippy song, and Martha Rice (played by herself. She's a nice mom with long curly hair who just wears homemade Lond-of-the-Rings-style dresses) comes out saying "Let's all start some interpretive worship dancing!".
The inspector gets to 3rd floor (which people call the "ghetto floor" because it's falling apart) and three of our teenagers (two of which are black) come out acting very ghetto and grab the man and start beating him up while gun shots and hip hop music is heard in the background. "Connie" (played by my friend Michael dressed in one of Connie's crazy and fun outfits) runs out and starts yelling "Anthony!! Stop that! Leave that poor white boy alone!! Didn't I tell you to stop that! Go clean your room!". The poor guy gets up with his clothes all ripped up and runs away. He then runs through 2nd floor tripping over toys, boxes and strollers and finally gets to 1st floor in our dining room. Heidi (played by herself) is down there and she is not in a good mood (and believe me, you do not want to cross Heidi when she's in a bad mood). She grabs the inspector and starts yelling "Are you the new guy?!? Come here, do you see this?? Someone made a mess in the dining room again and didn't clean up!! Don't you know we have an inspector coming??? Come here, here's a rag and some bleach. Start cleaning!" and she walks out (Heidi is in charge of the cleaning crew and she hates it when the dining room is dirty). Soon after, "Freddie" ( an older man who comes into our house all the time and who has mental problems) comes up to the man, shaking his hand and starting to talk, but the man runs out of the building.
In the end, "the inspector" calls "Ron Brown", saying "I'll do anything you need me to do as long as I don't have to come back there ever again!". After they hang up, "Ron" smiles and says, "Works every time!".
All of us in the audience could not stop laughing. I think I was bent over with tears in my eyes. Of course, knowing the people and the floors makes the skit even funnier, but I think it's funny anyway. Hope you enjoyed it =) Wish I had a video of it!!
Oh, our pastors also made a video that was shown that night as well. They basically thanked everyone for helping out in all of the different work areas, from doing dishes to working at the shelter to working at one of our companies. At the end of the video, all of the pastors did a bollywood dance which was hilarious!!! I'm trying to get the video from someone so I can show it to you all!!
Ok, gotta go. Will post more later!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Finally Home Again
Hi everyone! I'm back! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time!
I have been SO BUSY lately! It's been about 6 weeks of craziness!
First I had reports due and so for that week I was super busy, always at work. Then, there was Easter and everyone was busy for that week. After that, I was gone for a week for the DM (Discipleship Ministries) leader retreat. Then we had Invisible Children's The Rescue event. The week after that, I went up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to Sarah's wedding. And yesterday I got back from my week down in Louisiana for Josh and Erica's third wedding reception and my birthday....phew!
So yeah, this post is just to let you know that I'm still alive and well, but have been real busy, and will write about all the stuff I've done in another post (don't worry, I won't make it super long =) ).
Hope you all are doing well!
I have been SO BUSY lately! It's been about 6 weeks of craziness!
First I had reports due and so for that week I was super busy, always at work. Then, there was Easter and everyone was busy for that week. After that, I was gone for a week for the DM (Discipleship Ministries) leader retreat. Then we had Invisible Children's The Rescue event. The week after that, I went up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to Sarah's wedding. And yesterday I got back from my week down in Louisiana for Josh and Erica's third wedding reception and my birthday....phew!
So yeah, this post is just to let you know that I'm still alive and well, but have been real busy, and will write about all the stuff I've done in another post (don't worry, I won't make it super long =) ).
Hope you all are doing well!
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