Sweet Home Washington

This is just a copy of the e-mail I sent to most of you but I think some of the addresses aren't good anymore, so just in case you did not get this:

Dear family and friends,

I’m back! I returned to the country of my birth last week, stopped on the east coast to visit my friend Kristin for a few days and am currently hanging out at my parent’s place in Tri-Cities, WA. In case you forgot, or were perhaps in therapy to try and block me out of your memory, let me help you refresh it. After graduating last June with my degree in German and (almost) a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try and use my degree, improve my German, and travel a bit. So I went to Austria (not Australia), conveniently a German-speaking country, and worked from September 2007- May 2008 as an English teaching assistant in two public secondary schools. I was able to use the job as my practicum for the TESOL program and now have my minor/certification in TESOL.
I lived in Landeck, a town of 8,000 squished in a valley between the Austrian Alps west of Innsbruck. I had a nice (although retro looking) basement apartment under a sweet family that brought me apples from their garden, homemade desserts every once in a while, and invited me up to try homemade Schnapps too. The social scene left a bit to be desired so I spent lots of time reading, visiting people in Innsbruck, or people from my church in another nearby town, and trying to play outside. There were great places nearby for trail running, hiking, snowboarding, and rock climbing so I tried to take advantage of those opportunities as much as I could.
When I finished my job at the end of May I packed up and headed to Spain-alone-for a month. It was my first time traveling alone for more than a day or two and my first time in a country where I didn’t speak the language for more than a few days. But I guess that makes a good combination for learning the language, which was one of my main goals. I spent two weeks working on an organic farm through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and living immersed in the language and then two weeks traveling and climbing in the Northern half of Spain. At the beginning of July I flew back to Innsbruck to meet Allie and travel for three weeks before returning to the states. We started with a hut to hut hike for 3 days in the Alps near Innsbruck and then from Slovenia to Northern Croatia, climbing and running from bad weather as we headed south.
And now I am back. Even if I could use as many pictures and words as I wanted, I would not be able to adequately encapsulate my experience in its fullness. It was good, it was hard, I learned new things about myself and the world. I’m glad I went but I’m glad I’m back. Here’s a few tidbits from the last year…
The greatest joys: not being crazy busy for once (time to read, journal, talk with God), living between beautiful mountains and rivers, all the visitors (Allie, Mom and Dad, Kurtis, Jason and Thom, Allie again), being affirmed in my ability to teach and speak German well.
Challenges: getting bored and feeling purposeless at my job about half way through the year, not connecting or having many opportunities to connect with people.
And here are a few leads to (hopefully interesting) stories you can ask me about:
· How trying to turn the hallway light on turned into a party with wine, traditional Tirolian songs, and an ice climbing partner
· Near Burgos, Spain: the Battle of the Wine, jumping off waterfalls, camping 40 feet off the ground and in caves
· How I got to go climbing with the Spanish lady who was in the Everest IMAX film.
· Covert camping with scorpions in Croatia
· What would lead us to say things like this: “I don’t think the evangelical reformation is a huge draw on New Year’s Eve…except for us” –Allie, “I look like a naked business man.” –Becca, “If you’re going to travel with me, you’re going to eat mold.” -Becca
· What to do when your tent rips open on day 2 of a 2 week camping trip
I hoped that doing the TAship would help me decide whether I want to be a teacher or not. I have gathered a lot of information and experience, but alas, my mind is still not made up. Some of my biggest passions in life are God, people, and adventure; so based on that and after much prayer and consideration I decided to do a yearlong internship with Youth Dynamics Adventures (YDA) starting in the fall. This is the adventure-based youth ministry that I had served with for two summers and I’m looking forward to exploring what it’s like for a longer period of time and in the off-season. I’m so excited to get to serve God in this ministry for a whole year and see if it is something I should be doing in the long-term.
Over the next month I will be up in Alaska to visit my dad and brother and will be also be wandering around Washington to visit people and prepare for my internship. I am so excited to get to see a lot of you or at least talk on the phone for those of you who are far away. I am still using the same cell phone number (if you need it, let me know, I don't want to post it on the internet). Hopefully I will finish putting pictures up on Facebook in the next week or two and then posting the link to my blog which you can find at: http://beccawholehearted.blogspot.com/. So if you want to see pics but not be forced to look through all my photo albums, feel free to check that out at your own pace.
Drop me a line and let me know what’s been going on in your life and if you will be around in August (for the Washingtonians) for me to stop by and harass you. Also, once I start the YDA internship, I will be sending out a newsletter every few months, so let me know if you would like to hear some stories.
Wholeheartedly,
Becca

"This is what it means to be an adventurer in our day: to give up creature comforts of the mind, to realize possibilities of imagination. Because everything around us says, ‘no you cannot do this, you cannot live without that, nothing is useful unless it's in service to money, to gain, to stability.’ The adventurer gives in to tides of chaos, trusts the world to support her -- and in doing so turns her back on the fear and obedience she has been taught. She rejects the indoctrination of impossibility." -Unknown
“The value in experience is not in seeing much but in seeing wisely.” Sir William Osler