I Think I'll Go to Washington Part 1

You know, since the last time I saw that boyfriend of mine was in March. Last Wednesday I got up bright and early to fly up to Tri Cities to spend a week with Tad and his family.

My trip got off to an interesting start thanks to a mix up with security. The man standing on the other side of the metal detector either didn't understand that when Valencia set off the alarm he could just check her, or was too lazy to do so. Thus, a very flustered me got patted down and wanded. My flight went smoothly. I was fortunate enough to have been seated next to a man who trains search and rescue dogs, so he's used to flying with dogs at his feet.

I had a two hour layover in Salt Lake City, enough time so I could relieve Valencia and get some lunch. Valencia's favorite part of the SLC airport was getting to ride on the little carts they drive around. We rode on one to get out of security to relieve her, and another when I accidentally went to the wrong gate section. She thought that was the best thing ever.

I got some lunch from Quizno's and found my gate. I happened to meet an older couple whose daughter has raised dogs for gdb. Flight from SLC to Pasco went well and Tad picked me up. When we got back to his house, it was discovered that the crockpot had not been plugged in. So dinner was out at a Mexican restaurant. after dinner we went to youth group at tad's church. He helps out with the kids, and is a general punching bag/tackle target for the boys, lol

Following youth group (about 10) we went over to his friend Paul's place. I finally got to meet Paul and another friend Theresa. We hung out, talked, and I watched them play DDR.

Thursday Emily drove down from Spokane and we went out to lunch at Red Robin. It was great to see Emily again, and Red Robin is always a tastey lunch option. Poor Tad though got patronized by our waitor. *every 5 minutes* "Do you want a box?" "No, I'm just a slow eater." "Oh, no worries man, me too." oh goodness

After lunch we piled into the Tilden's minivan and set off for Seattle. We arrived around 7 and met Tad's Uncle Dave at a restaurant called Thirteen Coins. His uncle was really nice and seemed to like me, which we always count as a good thing. By the time we were done with dinner it was time to head over to our hotel and get to sleep.

In the morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and made our first stop of the day at Uwajimaya, a giant Japanese food/gifts store. I picked up some Pocky and Mocchi and looked at their paper lanterns. When their bookstore opened Tad and I took a quick look through there.


I do love me some Pocky :o)

We met my Aunt Diane at Duke's Chowder on Lake Union for lunch. It was great to see her again and for her to meet Tad and his family. The Hastings and Tilden families are quite alike in personality and humor, so everyone got along great. Mrs. Tilden's favorite thing to do in Seattle is browse through the giant Good Will Outlet store. I tend to be a bit germaphobic, so I didn't do much looking, though I did find a cute mini deck of Hello Kitty playing cards.

Once the Good Will shopping was done it was time to head back to the Tri Cities. We stopped at the SuperMall outside of Seattle and then at Jack in the Box in Ellensberg for dinner. It was on the way home that Tad was given the new nickname "Puddin Head" by his dad. ;)

Saturday we had a leisurely morning and lunch and then got dressed up to go to a wedding at Tad's church. He and his family have known the groom (Jake) for years at church and Tad knows the bride (Heather) from NNU. Needless to say, he was very excited to have so many of his friends from home AND from school in the same place. The ceremony was beautiful, had I not been wearing mascara I probably would have cried through most of it.

The reception was in the church gym. They had icecream, punch, and cake and cute little bride and groom rubber duckies. I got to see several of Tad's friends who I had met before and meet a lot of new ones. Favorite moment of the wedding was probably when Tad's sister Jeana caught the bouquet.


so cute!


me with my love


Jeana with the bouquet

We had dinner at a nice Chinese place, came home, changed, and headed out for another party. I finally got to meet Tad's other friend Lindsey, a birthday buddy for me. Theresa, Paul, Trevor, and Jason were there, as well as friends Molly, Kyle, and Jessica (Paul's girlfriend). There was some volleyball and badmitten played, some hanging out and talking, and bbqing. Later, after it got dark, we hung out in the basement and some people watched a fiarly inappropriate sounding movie. Before we headed home we stopped with the group at Safeway and got mini Ben&Jerry's icecreams.

It was great meeting so many of Tad's high school friends. Though it's sad that most of them aren't Christians, and it sounds like they've had pretty rough lives. Makes a lot to pray for. :)

5-28 Open Air Market and Lessons at Peris

Morning devotionals on Thursday were out of another Max Lucado book (they are big fans of Max Lucado, I think I should get some of his books, I've never read very much of his stuff) "Grace for a Moment". It described all the things hands do, and how everything your hands do should be ministry.

Cultural experience for the day would be the largest open air market in Bucharest (possibly in all Romania, I don't remember). We were informed that this would be the most likely day we would get pickpocketed, were that to happenon the trip. Thankfully it did not. Since a group of 15 Americans would draw too much attention, and we would inevitably get separated anyway, we divided into smaller groups. I was with Amanda, Andrea, and Sanda (our translator and guide).

The market reminded me a lot of the ones I've been to in Mexico. Jim mentioned later that most open air markets are the same no matter what part of the world you're in. A difference I noticed between the Romanian one and Mexican ones really surprised me though. The Romanians don't barter over prices. I tried on a lot of cute skirts, but didn't buy any because most were way too small for me. It didn't matter much that there wasn't price negotiating because everything was so cheap. I bought 2 mugs and a wooden spoon for 10 lei (about $3.50 American).

After lunch at the team house, it was back to Peris for more lessons. The classrooms are a surprising contrast to the rest of the orphanage. The orphanages receive funding from two departments: child protective services, and the department of education. The department of education does a lot more for the children than the child protective services do. The classroom was small, but clean with desks and a chalkboard and several computers.

We taught the same lesson to two classes: 1st and 2nd grade and 5th and 6th grade. There's a pretty wide age range in the classes though. For our lesson we introduced the children to the clarinet and taught them about musical tempos. Katie Feher made up this amazingly cute story to teach the lesson through, kind of like Peter and the Wolf. It was about a little girl who met a bird (flute) a cat (clarinet) and a bear (saxophone) while walking through the forest. The animals taught her about music, and through what she learned she was able to wake up the queen who had been put under a sleeping enchantment.

I got to be the queen, though I didn't do much, because the little girl didn't yet know enough music to wake her. The kids gave lots of suggestions to try to wake me. The cutest one was to ask nicely, and the little boy came up and asked me very nicely (in Romanian) to wake up. The funniest came from a 12 year old boy named Aline. Aline and his twin Florine are two of the more difficult children at the orphanage, they get themselves into a lot of trouble.

The previous day, when the queen didn't wake up, Aline suggested that they kiss the queen. Fairly standard method of waking sleeping royalty. Well, Katie asks "are you volunteering?" Wrong child to make that suggestion to. Aline got up, walked over, and gave Rachel (the queen on Wed) a very long kiss on the cheek. This story at Night Light Wed night prompted Jim to make the new rule: No making out with orphans.

In any case, since we were a different group of ladies on Thurs, Aline thought he should make that suggestion again. "Perhaps we should kiss the queen" As soon as Sanda translated that I began panicking, oh snap, I'm about to get kissed by a 12 year old Romanian orphan. Luckily Amanda was looking out for me and quickly said "oh, but you tried that yesterday and it didn't work, remember?" Thank goodness for friends! haha

We played several clarinet quartets for them, which they loved and kept asking for more. Florine even told us that he wanted us to play forever so they could fall asleep to music. Then we handed out tambourines we had made from paper plates and popcorn for them to decorate and play with.

After lessons we had more playtime outside with the kids. This was the day I met little Ana. Adorable little 6 year old who's favorite thing is piggy back rides. She doesn't do much talking, the staff said she gets some amount of speech therapy and they think she has some developmental issues. A very sweet little girl though. I also got my hair done by Alina and by Flori (Ana's older sister) and played a very vigorous game of tag with a blonde boy of about 12 (I think) named Alexandre.

When it came time to leave we had a bit of excitement. As we got back to the vans we noticed there was someone in the driver's seat of one: oh, it's Aline, surprise surprise. We all start yelling and running to get him out, and as Amanda and I pull open the side door, he manages to unset the parking break and put the van in neutral. Great. The van starts rolling down the hill towards the lake.

Luckily Stephen had already been in the van and was able to save the day. He pulled Aline out of the driver's seat, jumped into it himself. His eyes near about popped out of his head when he put his foot on what he thougt was the break and the van didn't stop. It was the clutch, he tried again, and this time succeeded in stopping the van. Whew!

This was actually the second time that Aline nearly sent the van into the lake. Several years ago he managed to get it rolling, but with no Stephen there to save the day, the only thing that saved the van from the lake was the tree it ran into.

Anyway, we certainly had a lot to talk about at dinner and Night Light. Ho Seat was fantastically amusing thanks to Elayne. Pretty much everything she says is hysterical, but the winning quote of the night was "I dig guys who don't have all their teeth."

Classic

A random note I included was that our "This is the day the Lord has made" devotional in the morning, really helped me think about my issues with change. *This* is the day the Lord has made. Not just yesterday, or 3 months ago, today, no matter what today holds, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

The trip itself really helped me transition from Biola into the next thing. I had great fellowship with everyone, but it really helped me see that God still does great things and brings great people into my life regardless of where I am.