That end of the year post...it was a doozy!

It's been quite a year, and who wouldn't want to reminisce about it? ;) Let's begin this obligatory post with December of '08, just because that seems to be when all the fun began. It's like a 13-month year in review. Kind of like a 16-month calendar, which makes no sense either.

December 2008 ~ the month I moved to Greece. It was a day later than intended, because of an air traffic controller's strike, but I made it. I moved into a tiny room below a family with three cute little boys in Piraeus and celebrated Christmas with my new Greek friends. This is where the photo in my banner came from, a five minute walk from that house.

January 2009 ~ lots of adjusting! Had visitors from Talbot and spent a day with them at Corinth - so good to see familiar faces. Later in the month I left for Thailand to visit a couple of anti-trafficking & prostitution ministries. That was such a great trip on so many levels, from being with a great group of women from the US, to learning so much from the ministries we visited.

February 2009 ~ kicked off with a solo trip from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Can't say I'd recommend that as an on-your-own travel destination, but still learned a lot and visited another ministry there. Started making friends in Athens, taught the first Greek Hands That Heal course in Thessaloniki, and was traumatized by the Greek health care system! This month I also started volunteering on outreach with Nea Zoi.

March 2009 ~ Just the general hum-drum of trying to settle into a new place. A bit of loneliness and discouragement, boredom, language difficulties, and cultural frustrations. I was growing frustrated with where I lived outside of Athens and not having much community around me. Did have a lovely day trip to the island of Hydra - my first Greek island. :)

April 2009 ~ This was a crazy month. I still remember, and I'm not sure I would ever choose to repeat it! Except the part where Janell came to visit! And the part where I got my own apartment in a great neighborhood in Athens...except for the moving and delivery nightmares surrounding Easter. Anyway - we kept busy: first a quick trip to Istanbul for a visa trip for me, then a couple of days on Santorini which were not restful in the least. :) I was so thankful to have her visit for a few weeks! April was also Easter week, in which the whole country shuts down and I skipped town again like any good Athenian for a couple days in Crete. Ok, so April was a bit of a nightmare.

May 2009 ~ But May was worse. For some reason, this was by far my worst month of the year. A number of things happened with family/friends, or at home, or to me in Athens, etc. etc. to make this a really difficult, lonely, and depressing month. I did get to go to France for an anti-trafficking conference and a weekend in Paris (paid for by a supporter - thank you!). I also made some friends at the gym :) and start spending more time with one of the girls we were working with. We also started teaching Hands That Heal for a second time, this time in Athens.

June 2009 ~ Recovering from May (this took several months). Took a visa trip to Albania.

July 2009 ~ I enjoyed summer in Athens. Lots of swimming in the sea, turning 30, making friends, and of course, Sakis. We did some intense street outreaches in July which were pretty exhausting, and I started a three week intensive language course. (I guess it was an intense month!)

August 2009 ~ Vacation month! Athens shut down and we were left in this "ghost town" of a city. I finished up my intensive language course and spent 5 days in Cyprus, learning about trafficking and trying to rest there. (Ha ha - what is rest?)

September 2009 ~ Things slowly begin to start up again in Athens after a month off in August. I watched the city fill up again and come back to life. We started regular outreaches again and began to plan for the third Hands That Heal class. I was sick, questioning the meaning of life (my life in particular), and trying to figure out what exactly I was doing in Greece.

October 2009 ~ Still sick, started Hands That Heal with a great turnout, had a weekend away with our friend who had left prostitution, and escaped with a few friends for a weekend to Meteora. There were rumblings inside and outside of me about my future in Greece and what that could look like. Lots of prayers and tears and questions. :)

November 2009 ~ My trip to Amsterdam, where it all began to come together for me to make the move to join International Teams. Also had probably the best visa trip ever to Jordan, courtesy of Andrea. :) Had a great Thanksgiving with neighborhood friends and realized that Athens has begun to feel like home.

December 2009 ~ And here I find myself back in the States, for Ramesh's wedding and the holidays. It has been a whirlwind - not relaxing by any means!!! It's good to be with family and friends, though, and I am realizing that I will be sadder than I expected when it's time to head back to Athens in mid-January. But I think I'll be ready.

So what a crazy year! Ten countries, I counted; lots of work, lots of learning, lots of amazing opportunities, and lots of processing yet to be done. Maybe I'll actually get to rest and think when I get back to Greece. ;) It's fun to look back over this year with thankfulness and a strange sense of awe, and I am really excited for what's to come with International Teams. So, stay tuned, I guess. :) And happy New Year!

Christmas (and Eve, and the rest of the week)

awkward!!

I was just looking through pictures and had a laugh. Here are two very awkward photos from a few years ago that I didn't realize were awkward until I saw them (after the fact). Guess I should be more conscientious in my posing!(Shame on you Jorge for taking that second one without telling me what it looked like!! Ha ha)

portland

Went to Portland over the weekend to visit Kristin and her family! We have been friends for 12 years (!). Thanks for a fun weekend, love you :)

happy birthday linders

Lindy's 28th birthday celebration - unexpectedly in the urgent care center tonight! Our grandma got a little bump on the head that turned out to need a few staples. She is ok, but we had quite the adventurous evening!

photos

A few photos from Ramesh's wedding are online. Go to amberfoxphoto.com, click on "blog" and then click on the photo under "Ramesh and Allen Wolf" to see them.

processing

Kristin and fake snow at The Grove shopping center, Hollywood, CA

I've been back a week now. Seen lots of people, driven on 8 freeways (most of those in one day), gotten used to throwing my toilet paper in the toilet instead of the garbage, eaten more than my share of all that food I've missed out on this past year.

And, through talking with people and answering their questions, I think I have processed more about the last year in this week than in the whole year itself. It's really quite different being removed from it - when it's your daily life, you often don't think twice about things that I am now realizing are horrendous and not part of other people's daily lives!!! I often need the reminder "this is not normal," and I get that when people respond in shock to things that I just breeze right over. Oh yeah...they aren't used to these things. Really, I shouldn't be either.

But I have realized things like when I don't really feel much emotion when I find out about the death of one of the Nigerian girls, but then I weep for days at the plight of women in the DRC that I will never meet, I really am processing things. It just comes out in other areas that are not my daily reality that I must cope with. I detach from the streets of Athens so I can work every day, so the emotion comes out in other areas that I don't have to deal with personally.

It's really fun to be concerned with what restaurant to eat at and shopping for makeup for a change. Ha.

ramesh got married.

It was a CRAZY weekend. Spa and bachelorette stuff Friday, rehearsal stuff Saturday, hotel in Santa Monica, wedding yesterday. Persian dancing, a professional makeup artist for us (she has an Emmy!) :), Buster from Arrested Development!, more than a couple freak outs, very sore feet, amazing gluten free chocolate cake, lots of laughs and prayer ... She was a beautiful bride! I am so happy for Ramesh and Allen, and now we can all begin to recover. :)

I made it!

Today was a long day. About 26 hours long, so far.

First impressions of being back in the States for the first time in a year: So much English everywhere! I understand what people are saying all around me! People patiently wait in lines, walk in an orderly fashion, and when someone said "excuse me" to me I nearly fainted (not sure if it was because it was in English or if it was the politeness of the statement).

Americans are goofy. I remember my German friend Claas in Athens telling me that their impression of Americans comes from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Americans shouting "Move that bus!" all together) and Obama's campaign (Americans shouting "Yes we can!" together). This is what they think of us in other parts - patriotic, cheering ourselves on, lots of team spirit. I remember climbing a big hill in the center of Athens a few weeks ago with a friend and passing some Americans on the way down who said "You're almost there! You're so close!" We didn't know them, of course, and my friend and I were amused and thought they were a bit silly. No one else in the world really does these things. So tonight when the customs officer started doing a little dance to get the attention of the next person in line, I marveled again at the "friendliness" and cheer and even camaraderie of Americans, like you find nowhere else. It makes me laugh, but after getting used to opposite behavior over the past year, I kind of like it. :)

And Yogurtland. Went straight from the airport. God bless America.