http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/travelchick/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from travelchick en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:53:20 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:53:20 +0000 I've been back for a week now and I'm able to stay asleep all night. That's always nice. I still have some kind of funky thing going on with my stomach but I plan to bombard that with charcoal for a few days and see what happens. Maybe I just need to get back to my little home in College Place and return to my little routine. I'm currently on the bus with my sister on our way to the northwes http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/blog-294633.html After a horribly long Tuesday during which I traveled solid for at least 31 hours following a mere 5 hours of sleep I finally arrived back at my parents' house in Texas. I proceeded to sleep that night and all the next day. During the one hour I was awake I felt horribly sick a feeling I'm still struggling with. Somehow traveling forward in time was not nearly as difficult as traveling bac http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/blog-294631.html Words can't describe how I feel right now but they can try. I'm sitting on a bed in a room that I'm not sharing with anyone. I'm in a real house. With nothing but a ceiling fan blowing my environment is at a comfortable temperature and humidity. I'm eating coconut pie. It's only 930PM and I don't have to be anywhere until 10am tomorrow. There's everything I need in the fridge to make pan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-294630.html Today I became a part of the first graduates of Walla Walla University as I joined fifty others completing our field school of evangelist and church growth. It was a long graduation but delightfully punctuated by performances from a really wonderfully talented group called the Asidors. Their music is beautiful and I believe they are true Christians in their hearts. I bought their CD. Today whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294628.html We had a really full day today. It started at 745 am when we left for the international fish market here in Gensan General Santos City to attend the annual Tuna Festival. There were paddling races and swimming races. That part was really hot even though we were sitting under shade. I took some video of the racing but most of the time I wasn't sure what was going on. Then we moved to anoth http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294627.html Today at lunch I sat with David and Brittney and listened to Dave Thomas talk about the animals of Africa. He grew up there and he knows so much about animals that we've had absolutely no experience with. It was completely enthralling and little scary since he mostly talked about the animals that can kill you easily and stuff like that. We did learn though that cheetahs can be domesticated. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294626.html I had a wonderful Sabbath After changing my mind several times I ended up going to the town of Malandag where our teammate Emmanuel preaches every night. On the way there he was like so do you know who is preaching at this church today You are they said. Oh that's funny He replied and started preparing his sermon. He ended up basically telling his personal story and let me tell yo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294625.html There's so much I didn't even say about yesterday You may be inquiring as to why we're under such close scrutiny such protective security. Evidently or so I've been told the people are rebelling against the government and we know rebellions are generally not safe even for locals. According to the government travel website communist and terrorist groups here have made threats and acts of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294624.html I had so many ups and downs today. Right now I'm so tired that I feel like my eyeballs are going to pop and my back is going to crumble but I just have to write about today. We went to the fruit festival in another town called Kidapowan about 2 hours from here. There was a record 3 km of free fruit. We found out that the fruit wasn't to eat really but to throw at passing traffic when a sir http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294623.html FoodIn addition to strange dishes that I've never tasted before like the seaweed on Sabbath the different fruits are just overwhelming. So far we've had at least one or two new kinds of fruit at every meal. And most of these are fruits that I've never heard of before and most of us don't know that names of. We've had Jack fruit and mangosteen bananas and papaya passion fruit and guava pi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294622.html If you've ever heard stories of Philipino hospitality it's all true. If you've never heard of it let me tell you. These people are so happy to see us that it'shellip crazy It's like we're celebrities. When we got off the plane in GeneralSantos pretty much everyone in the church was there to see us. Someone said it was like Old Testament times when Paul came off the ship and every single http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Mindanao/blog-294620.html I think it's August 17 anyway. This time travel thing is really messing with my head. I'm currently in the air between Manila and General Santos City. In the last 24 or so hours I've spent at least 17 hours in an airplane and gotten about 5 hours of sleep. Oh and I've skipped half a day. I left Dallas at 9am Wednesday morning and flew to Detroit. There after a severalhour layover I got o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-294619.html Well after almost two weeks with my parents I'm on the move again currently in the Detroit airport. My plane to Manila leaves in three hours with one stop in Tokyo. I'm sitting in front of the gate for a flight going to Paris because that's the only place I could find a free outlet. We laptop people fight over them.Across from me are two orangeclad monks eating hamburgers. They'll have fu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Michigan/Detroit/blog-294617.html Thinking back on my trip down here I realize that God answered some prayers. They were simple ones but important to me. Like when I prayed that creepy people wouldn't sit next to me. God send me a little girl a friendly middleaged woman and the aforementioned Whitney. Leaving Dallas I was really afraid I was too far back in the line to get on the bus. Scared that I'd have to spend that http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/blog-294616.html 3PM central time in Dallas TX. My bus was two hours late getting in causing me to miss my connection. The next bus leaves at 715PM. Here I sit for another four hours with a measly meal voucher as a consolation prize. I won't get to Marshall until at least 10PM at which time my poor parents will have to come pick me up. I'm beginning to lose my faith in Greyhound. The low price of the tic http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Longview/blog-294614.html I'm sick of sitting on the bus I hate it because my long legs spend all their time curled up into little pretzels I desperately want to brush my teeth but can't and all this time to think is making me depressed. Isn't it seriously sad when a person can't have too much time alone to think without feeling despondent What's worse is that I'm worrying about the same exact things I worried about http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Denver/blog-294613.html I'm on the bus to Texas from where I will leave for the Philippines on August 15. I just have to say that Greyhound transports some of the most interesting passengers. Interesting here is not supposed to conjure up an image of persons you'd delight to converse with for hours mesmerized by their wit and class. No rather it is meant to be in connotation with people who talk about their drug a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Kennewick/blog-294612.html Sally and I decided today was the perfect day for a trip to the beach. I had hitched a ride to the Portland area this weekend and I suppose itrsquos my little vacation before starting a summer of lab research. Anyway I ended up at my friend Sallyrsquos house in Laurelwood last night a place Irsquod never been and now wonder why. I was entranced by the house itself which is half of wha http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Portland/blog-294266.html The bus Last night I finally got so sick feeling and tired that I laid all our luggage down in the bus station and sprawled out across it. And I actually fell asleep. Around 1am we finally reboarded our bus. I was so thankful to be one of the few people on the bus without a seatmate. Unfortunately my sister had someone sitting next to her which made me feel really guilty. Still I fell fas http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-294161.html The busI like learning about people by listening to their conversations without the inconvenience of having to take part in them. No thatrsquos not a fancy way to say I like to eavesdrop. I merely appreciate the auditory diversions that are offered to me. Itrsquos fun to try imagining a visual representation of the person based on their voice and story before actually seeing their face. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-294158.html