The Big Move Looms

Less than two weeks until I leave for Spokane! I am ready. It's been busy and fantastic enjoying all that the Twin Cities has to offer--friends, bike trails, ethnic restaurants, pretty drives, Flugtag, art fairs, amusement parks, lakes, vintage stores, coffee shops, barbecues, ice cream parlors, two great downtowns, art galleries--but, as usual, I'm itching to move on to the next thing. And I guess my life has kind of been heading this direction for the last four years.... I finished college, got a few adventures/travels out of the way, and here I am on the last stretch before GRAD SCHOOL.

I'm especially excited for the next step because Isaac will be there with me. After a lot of thought, we both decided we wanted him to move to Spokane too, and we'll be starting up new lives together there at the beginning of September. At times it bothers me how it might look to other people--my boyfriend following me around--but it's what we both want, and I really think it will be the best thing for us. Finally, after a year of dating (yesterday, officially!), we will live in the same place. We've actually been together less than 5 months, and it's been spread out thinly throughout the 12. Long-distance SUCKS. No more looking on the bright side about it--it's over! Anyway, he will be doing his second year of school at Spokane Community College and then plans to transfer to Gonzaga.

And who knew it was so easy to get to Spokane from here? I take one highway the whole way there. Wow.

There's something about this time of life...

What is it about the early post-college years? So many crazy ups and downs, uncertainty and excitement and joy and terror....

Right now I'm in an excitement phase. I'm planning out details for stuff like car registration (lots of money, yuck) and I'm about to register for classes! I got a packet from EWU with a course list, info about Spokane, and a list of my new classmates. It's real--there are 9 other real people with real names starting a two-year poetry adventure with me. (One of them is another Kristina, haha. Great.)

And Isaac and I are tentatively moving forward. We still have things to work through, but I have this weird sense of peace feeling like for whatever reason, God purposely has us in this time of uncertainty. It's not a bad thing, even though it's miserable at times, and it doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with our relationship. If nothing else, I'm learning what it truly means to focus on God and release all my anxieties to him.

An Attempted Update

OK, I'll do my best to catch up on stuff.... The trip back from the Philippines actually went quite smoothly. Total it was about 30 hours, with 4 flights (Cebu-Manila-Hong Kong-Chicago-Minneapolis). Isaac and I were on 3 of the flights together, so that was great. We spent a week back in good old Minnesota (I have to admit...after seeing a lot of different parts of the world, and after being pretty anti-America for most of my life, now I think the U.S. is probably the most beautiful country in the world. Not to mention generally clean, diverse, well-organized, open-minded. Who knew?) and then took a road trip to Maine. We camped at beautiful places along the way (one night by these sand dunes on Lake Michigan and one night in wine country in New York) and had fun with Kara and her siblings and their speedily growing families. I loved meeting Kara's 11-month old, Sammy, for the first time :) :) On our drive back, we went through Canada and then met up with my parents to camp a couple nights on the Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

And then, to make a long story short and to get it over with--Isaac and I decided we are not in the same "place" right now and we need to do some growing on our own, and he suddenly went back to Seattle. It's still very open-ended, and we both feel a lot of peace about the decision, but it's so hard nonetheless and we still both care about each other a lot and hope that it will work out down the road. It's especially sad right now since my parents really like Isaac and we were all looking forward to hanging out in the Twin Cities this summer.

Besides a sense of peace and a new motivation to really refocus my life on God, I have a lot of things to keep me stable and busy this summer. I've been organizing and starting to pack up stuff for Spokane, looking at apartments online, and making lists of all the stuff I have to do to move. And fortunately, I still have a lot of friends in the area, and my calendar is filling up with plans.

I'm REALLY excited (and also fairly scared) to move to Spokane!! I'm finding some awesome studio apartments on Craigslist :) My tentative plan, though I am pretty drained from travel and don't relish the idea of more cars or planes, is to drive to Spokane at the beginning of August, then drive to Portland, take the train to Seattle (Martha and Austin just moved there!), fly to Maui for Maile and Kenny's wedding, fly back to Seattle, train back to Portland, and drive back to Spokane at the beginning of September. Phew.

I have a couple new photo albums:

Philippines
Summer in Minnesota and Maine

Last Thailand Pictures

I made the final additions to my Thailand album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047257&id=110900370&l=28b002e483

Philippines pics to come.

Philippines

Our last week in Bangkok was interesting. The violence kept getting worse, so they issued a city-wide curfew between 8 and 6 for a day and then 9-5 for four more days. It seems like it worked, because Bangkok is a lot calmer now. On top of that, I got really sick (sore throat, cough, fever), so I spent most of my last few days there in our apartment. I did manage to finish teaching my class (though Isaac had to come in and do the final because my voice was cutting in and out) and had several goodbye parties with classes and Santisuk staff. Rung, Nan, Awn, Kwang, and Tai brought us to the airport late Saturday night, and I'll admit there were several tears shed (including mine).

And then it was off to the Philippines! We took off in a thunder storm, and it was super turbulent. I really thought we might die. As soon as we got to Cebu, Martha and her Ate (who took care of all the kids when they were little and now is still a good family friend) picked us up and we took a beautiful van ride and a ferry to Bantayan Island to meet the rest of the family. The Nordines are having a family reunion for Martha's parents' 40th anniversary, so we got to join in with all of them (Martha, her two brothers, sister-in-law, and two little nieces). It was relaxing and fun until I got even sicker. Today is our first day back in Cebu City, and I've been staying inside sleeping all day. :( Tomorrow I'll go to the hospital, because it's just wrong to be this sick for two whole weeks.

From what I've seen of the Philippines, I love it. I immediately thought it was more beautiful than Thailand, and it reminds me even more of Kenya. I especially love the unique varieties of...cars...they have here. The public transportation is jeepneys, originally old military jeeps turned into buses. They're like matatus in Kenya, colorful and crowded. And then there were all these tiny car/motorcycle/bike contraptions on the island.

It's great to see Martha again. It's been a year and a half! The group dynamics have worked out pretty well--me, Isaac, Martha, and her brother Will get along and have fun together.

And I am still really eager to get back to my parents in Minnesota! The end is in sight.

Smoke over Bangkok

I realized I haven't been updating much about the political riots over the last couple months. In case some of you don't know anything about the situation in Thailand, the "red shirts" are a political group who side with the ex-prime minister, Taksin, who was ousted from office by a military coup a couple years ago. The red shirts started peaceful protests a while back trying to get another election, and it has slowly turned into a huge fight between them and the government, plus a bunch of people who seem to be taking their own sides. Since April 10, over 40 people have been killed and tons of people injured. The last few days have been the worst since April. Down town there's a lot of gunfire and it's totally closed down. The sky train and some buildings are on fire. From here we can see thick smoke clouds several places over the city, the closest one being at Big C Mall about three miles down our road. I'm glad to be leaving soon, nervous that something will prevent us from flying out, and sad for all the Thai people who are being hurt in so many different ways. Pray for the peace of Thailand.

I added some pictures to my album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047257&id=110900370&l=28b002e483

And I made an album for Laos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047596&id=110900370&l=e000c91d24

Good news--I got the GSA in the Writer's Center at EWU!! The interview was only OK, so I was surprised to hear back quickly. What a HUGE blessing and relief. I'm sure it'll be a big job (tutoring and being the administrative "go-to" person organizing workshops), but it'll be worth it not to have to worry about finances.

Had a good, short trip to Cambodia last weekend. I got a beautiful one-page visa for a five-minute stay in the country, haha. My passport is overflowing with pride these days.

Last night my small group had a goodbye party for me. About eight of my students came, and it was really fun. Isaac and I have three more goodbye meals/parties this week. What a crazy week this will be.

Lately I've been struggling a lot with uncertainty, particularly about my relationship with Isaac.... We have a lot of ups and downs trying to figure out what comes next, and I'm often frustrated that even when I think I'm trusting God, he doesn't reveal his answers to me. I love these quotes by Oswald Chambers:

"God does not tell you what He is going to do--He reveals to you who He is."

"Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life."

"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring."

"We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises."