friday letters

dear spring break, thanks for showing up finally!  i wish you could stick around longer (long enough to actually warm up) but i guess i should get this semester over with, huh?
speaking of the semester...
dear school, i'm so tired of you and your shenanigans.
dear family, i love you. i'm so thankful for the time we had together this week. playing on the beach, and our annual easter egg hunt were the highlights of the trip. oh, and taco night.  it's always a highlight. the next time we'll be all together is for my wedding!!! eek!
dear derriere, sorry about the road tripping that happened this week.  i wish you would stop falling asleep though.  thats just weird.
dear Pop's resturant, your fried pickles. are. da. bomb. which brings me to...
dear working out, it's just you and me now, pal.  no exceptions.   i've got a wedding dress to wear this summer!
dear exam.... i'm going to kick your little tush this next week. just wait and see!

Waitng.Worring.Praying.

Boyfriend is en route from ghana to dubai to new york, and fiiinally home on baltimore! but i've got this thing, when anyone i love is flying, especially internationally, (especially when its boyfriend who has neen gone for 6weeks!) i'm a nervous, fidgety, excited ball of nerves. But mostly i worry. my mind takes off with every possible worst case scenario, and thats all i can think about until i know for sure my loved one is home safely. its awfully tiring when the said traveling takes 27 hours!
i must stop worrying and trust God that he is in control and, if it's his will, he will deliver whom ever it is home safely.

NYC with this guy.

Trevin and I found it hard to think of Christmas gifts to each other this year, so we decided to have a combined gift and go to New York.  I might venture to say it was the best idea ever... 

love this guy :) 

I love this city in the winter.  The coooold city, bundling up, grabbing a hot cup of something every other block, and if you time it right, the Christmas decorations!  Unfortunately this year, because of our school schedule, we didn't make it for the Christmas stuff, but regardless, it was a great 2 days with my guy :) and boy did we cover a lot of ground! 

We saw a wedding at Grand Central Station

We strolled through Central Park

Got suckered into buying tickets to a comedy show...
Something neither of us would usually do.

He pretended to be a super hero in the Subway Station (also a first for both of us!)

Stumbled upon Argo tea, which I've read so much about on Elm Street Life.   

yeah.

Loved Greenwich Village and it's charm.  Oh, it was just so wonderful.   I wish we had more time to explore, and visit SoHo!  Thankfully we had great advice from Trevin's Uncle who is practically a local and gave us the must see spots.
I say that's enough reason for a trip back, huh? yes :)

Ate THE BEST PIZZA ever at Joe's. Seriously, so good!
After pizza, we also went to the Blind Tiger just a few blocks away... the coziest little tavern
with a fire place and some delicious beers on tap. And by some I mean 37.  

Almost froze waiting for the bus. 

Ate a street vendor dog. (I did not participate in this part of the trip)

There were so many other great things we did but it was so darn cold we kept our hands in our pockets most of the time and didn't take as many pictures as usual.
NYC, we will be back very soon.

Watch out India: Here we come!!!

Some background info:

One of my closest girlfriends, Laura Wilson called me one rainy afternoon with a wild idea... her first words were "ok, is this a good time?" "uh..I'm driving. whats up?" "lets go to India this summer! Seriously. Wanna go?" Yeah, talk about surprise!! I told her that in fact it was not a good time and I would have to call her back. Two days later she was at my house with a spread sheet of all the info plus some! From that point, we had only one day to decide before air fare went up! The next afternoon we sat down and bought our plane tickets exactly one month before we would leave. I couldn't believe this was happening!

Laura's Grandfather is the founder of an organization called World Class Cities Ministries, and one of their closest family friends is the India Field Director. His name: Jaideep Jesudoss. Location: Bangalore, India. We would be staying with Jaideep, his wife Yamena, and their daughter Aiyana for one week while we toured India, and were involved in their thriving, God glorifying ministry.

Over the next month, we mailed support letters, gathered travel-sized everythings, got our shots(4!!) and did everything else required before traveling to the other side of the world. Before we knew it, it was time to pack our bags, and say good bye to our comfortable homes, and familiar faces.

So, with bags packed, and passports in hand, we said our last goodbyes. Both of us being SO excited, the goodbyes weren't all that difficult.(dont tell my parents!) Standing in Dulles International air port, it finally hit me. We were on an adventure of a lifetime! So excited to see what God had in store for us there was little room for doubts or second thoughts. We were going to INDIA!

Our first leg of the trip took us to Frankfurt, Germany where we had our first taste of international airports, broken English, and unusual smells. Our first priority, to find a bathroom, where we could brush our teeth, and freshen up!
It took us a while to get checked in, through security, and to our next gate but once we got there we had time to relax and write in our journals a little bit. It was there, at the gate that it hit me. We were the only 2 fair skinned, blond haired, blue eyed girls in sight, and this is how it would be for the next 8 days. I knew we would be, but when I actually realized it, "oh my gosh, what are we doing???" ran through my head over and over again. There was no turning back! The plane parked out side was there to take us to Bangalore, and I couldn't do anything to change that. Little did I know, this wouldn't be my last mini-panic attack!


More to come... Finally in Bangalore!