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

Espana es muy bonita!

Sad.  One thing I love about this blog site is that it automatically saves your post every couple minutes so you don^have to be an idiot and lose everything you just wrote, but as has been my luck the last week or so with computers and internet, I managed to mess things up anyhow.  So I just deleted 4 fat paragraphs and since it is already 1 am and I have a plane to catch tomorrow, I will give you the summarized version of Spain:

It^s rad.  I climbed.  I picked delectable midget plums on a farm.  I jumped off a sweet waterfall.  I made my ugly Spanish a bit less ugly.  I laid on a beach.  I read some books.  I climbed limestone.  I cartwheeled in the night.  I hung out with some cool Spaniards.  I climbed conglomerate.  I danced the night away.  I celebrated in a teepee.  I climbed my hardest routes ever.  I slept in a cave.  I slept in front of a church.  I slept on the side of a cliff.  I made a 113 Euro phone call to my wonderful mother who continually complained by e-mail that I hadn`t called in so long.   I pulled weeds.  I watched the moon in a giant telescope.  I climbed with Araceli Segarra who is a local climber who just happened to be in the Everest IMAX film.  I dug holes in the ground and made circulos around cilantro. I started a list of things I want to do the next time I come to Spain :).  

I am flying back to Innsbruck, Austria tomorrow (the 8th) and Allie is meeting me there on the 10th when we will embark on a bit more adventuring, hopefully mostly climbing :)  and then on the 29th--less than a month!!--I will be home SSWWWWEEEEETTT home.  And I^m ready for it, especially after traveling solo for a month.  

Highlights from Barcelona and prayers

Barcelona is great. So far the highlights have been consistently pleasant weather, warm and suny but not too hot, always a nice sea breeze. Relaxing on the beach yesterday afternoon. On my walk back to town, coming across a rad local band playing in front of the harbor for free. Starting up a conversation with some guys from the US and Austria and hanging out at a park with them and some folks from France, Spain, Austria and slack lining. Super laid back, super fun. Going to the fresh market for breakfast, oogling all the beautiful new produce I've never seen before, sipping a coconut-banana-chocolate fresh fruit smoothy shake thing. Yum.

As I embark on two months of travel I would very much appreciate prayer. Some ideas for you:

Pray that whatever I do, whether in word or deed, that I do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through him (Colossians 3:17)

Pray that I am purposeful and prayerful throughout my days beyond just looking at old buildings and taking pictures: Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful...be wise in the way you cat toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. -Colossians 4:2, 5-6

Pray that I wouldn´t feel too alone or isolated as I travel alone and that I would get the chance to meet and be a friend to other travelers.

Pray that I would learn more about God, about this world, about humanity, about justice, about loving...the things that will help me live fuller, and love God and others better.

Thank you friends! Know also that you are also in my prayers. Let me know if there are specific ways I can pray for you.

¡Soy en Barcelona, Spain! ¡Soy Feliz!

I made it safely to Spain yesterday. Woohoo. I haven`t done much yet because I got here in the evening but I walked down to the harbor in the dark. Beautiful. I`ve got a few days here and then on Sunday I`ll be heading a bit west to where I will be WWOOFing.

Do Cows Attack? and other Tirolean Tales

This week we had another 4 day weekend, sad (and yet not). On Thursday I decided to explore more on my beautiful borrowed bike. So I headed towards Italy. Unfortunately the trail ends up joining the twisty mountain highway with a super narrow shoulder so it was at that point that my helmet-less brain decided it was time to turn around. Sad. But on the way back I encountered a small heard of cows on the trail. I didn't think cows were violent but I haven't actually ever been near cows not behind a fence. My first inclination was fear since in Alaska, anything as big as a cow is usually something you don't want to get near, but as I thought about it, I decided that cows were not dangerous after all. I survived.

It had been overcast but pleasantly warm the whole day and then I felt a raindrop, then 4, then within a few minutes it was absolutely pouring. So I had a half an hour of rain riding. Luckily it wasn't cold but after my rainy bike accident a few weeks go, I was super careful when making turns or going over bumps and lumps.

On Friday I got tons of stuff done planning my trip to Spain, and then I rode my bike to Imst (1 hr one way) to hang out with my friend Raphi. The weather was nice so we sat outside at a cafe and had ice cream and "Suesser Weiss" a "sweet white", which is white wine with some sort of sweet soda or something, super good, you can get it with red wine too. She gave me a beautiful book of the 40 coolest mountains in Tirol and a CD. So cool, she wasn't sure if I'd like the book, but she couldn't have found something more perfect. It is big an had great photos. We've actually got plans to head to one of them on Monday. The Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany but it is right on the boarder of Austria so the summit ridge is the line between the two countries. It's only a 30 minute drive from Imst. I guess you can take a cable car to the top (wow! That is weird) and then hike around from the top. I told her that in the US we usually have to start our mountain hikes at the bottom. But it is pretty common here to have something like a lift or cable car at least part way up. Oh, yeah, and after the hike we are going to go to the best ice cream shop in Tirol.

How could it get any better? A day in the mountains with friend and ice cream afterwards!

I also got to go climbing with Johanna on Saturday. We met halfway between Innsbruck and Landeck. We led some fun routes and then got to share a few ropes with another group and so we got to try some hard stuff on top rope. What a good challenge.

I can't believe I won't be here in a week. I am just starting to realize it. When I went on my run today and looked around at the mountians and my regular trails and the river, I realized, I will only run by this river on this trail a couple more times (assuming I am not too lazy this week). And I'll only go to the bank where they actually remember my name one more time, and I won't get to stick around till mid June when they finally open the mountain huts behind my town. And I have to start saying good bye. Hmmm.

My Plans...to infinity and beyond

In exactly 11 days (5 days of actual class) my mission as an English TA in Austria will be complete. Wow, that's crazy. I actually started saying goodbye to people at church since I will probably be out of town the next two weekends and have started gathering my possessions to see if they will all fit back into two suitcases. Oh yeah, at this point, if you were thinking of mailing something, you should maybe not send it after all.

My plans for the next couple months just so ya'll know:

May 29 Last day of work
29-June 2 ? Play, pack, hang out, climb ?
June 3 Fly to Barcelona, Spain
June 9-20ish Work on an organic farm near Barcelona, get dirty, learn cool stuff
June 20-July 7 Climb, travel, eat Tapas, drink sangria, learn Spanish, ....
July 8 Fly from Barcelona back to Innsbruck
July 10 Allie arrives from the land of fast food and apple pie.
Go climbing and travel with Johanna
July29 Allie flies out of Innsbruck at 6am, me at 1pm.
She goes to Portland, I got to Boston, spend a few days with the Getbeheads.

Not entirely sure yet, but I will probably be in WA between the 2 and 5th of August. I might be attending a training for my YDA internship on the 2-3 of Aug in Florida but I don't know yet. Especially while I'm in Spain, I will probably not have much access to Internet or other forms of communication. I will have my Austrian cell phone with me if there is an emergency.

That's all for now. I will probably write some more in the near future but I've got a cold and need to get into bed.

Spring and Lederhosen are in the air

Sorry it's been so long. I've been keeping busy but I guess I also felt like the "Adventure" post was so well thought out, that I wanted to follow up with something decent. But alas, I don't think I have any huge thoughts this time, just some updating.

First of all, I hope this works again, I've posted photos from the last month of so on Facebook, including a traditional Austrian dance with Lederhosen and me in dirndl, as well as beautiful mountains. Check it out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113644&id=25913493&ref=share

And now a different format; a list of things I'm currently stoked about:

Today I saw my least favorite class for the last time! There are some great and nice kids in this first period class but some of them just have nasty attitudes, don't listen, throw paper and other stupid things. But now it's done!

One more period of class today and I only have three weeks of school left. The funny thing is though, we have several 4 day weekends and since the graduating classes are writing exams, have fewer classes per week.

After very volatile but warming weather, it has started to stabilize more. It's been 70+ degrees the last week or so and sunny almost the whole day. I'm losing my winter translucence and discovering new freckles every day.

My landlady let me borrow an extra bike the family has, so I've been scooting around Landeck and riding to Church in Imst (about an hour one way) for the last couple weeks.

The outdoor swimming pool, that's only a 5 min walk from my house, opened so yesterday I went and froze my buns off in the still cold water, but was able to jump out and lay in the warm sun afterwards. I would have swam longer but I kept getting leg cramps. I'm not sure why, maybe cuz it was so cold?

I bought a plane ticket to Barcelona, Spain! Woohoo! I will be in Spain from June 3 to July 8. i am in the process of trying to plan a two week stay at an organic farm with the organization World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). You can find out more about them at http://www.wwoof.org/. I will spend most of the other two weeks rock climbing and am trying to figure out if I can meet up with some of my German relatives who will also be in Spain around that time.

I have a four day weekend this weekend so I am leaving this afternoon and hiking up into the mountains behind my house for a four day four night backpacking trip. Alone. This is the first overnight trip I've ever done in the back country. Another TA was considering coming but got a cold and backed out. So I'm armed with all my gear, my Bible, Spanish phrase book so I ca practice, and a climbing book in German by Reinhold Messner-good inspiration while in the mountains.

I've got to run in a minute, but for the praying types out there here are a few prayer requests:

Thanks and praise for my fading homesickness and down-ness has given way to enjoyment of spring and excitement for my coming adventures. Also for the cool stuff I've been learning in the word.

Purposefulness this weekend hiking alone, in my final weeks in Landeck and with the relationships I've built here.

For the coming transitions from work to play and culture shock from Austria to Spain, new language, etc., then Allie's visit in July (yes, that's right, she's coming again) and then again when I return home at the end of July.

OK gotta run to class. Don't forget to check out the funny pictures!