August 11, 2009

Walking out of the airport I followed Krysta’s directions and turned right, (“it is less crowded” she explained over the phone).  Before I could make it through the glass doors I saw her face.  On the tip of her toes she waved her hands above the heads of the crowd, smiling and calling hello.  We met in the swarm of people and with a hug she took my bag and led me to the car.  The drive through San Jose was filled with chatter, updates, excitement and a tinge of nervousness as I took in my new surroundings.  After a pit stop at the Janzens (a family working with Krysta and Cailah) where I met several new people and we picked up Cailah, we were on our way home. 

Home has a huge gate with a series of locks that need to be opened to gain access.  Home is in a neighborhood through windy streets that I am convinced I will never be able to navigate successfully.  Home seems to be massive:  two stories, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room, storage room, kitchen, dining room and living room.  The walls of this home are painted every color imaginable, in no apparent order.  This new home of mine has lots of character.  The shower never gets too warm, and sometimes it just doesn’t get hot at all.  It is electrical, so to avoid a short we must not forget to unplug the fridge before we shower.  And to plug it back in when finished…this is important!  The water gauge on the upstairs toilet needs to be manually turned on after each flush and back off once the tank is full.  And never, never, put toilet paper in the toilet, just don’t do it.  The windows upstairs display views of lush green mountains and colorful houses stacked like building blocks.  And when the front and back doors are open, a breeze plays gently and wonderfully throughout my new home.

Getting a tour I follow Krysta and Cailah upstairs to my room.  The walls are baby blue and there is a bed made especially for me, built by a person I have never met it has been awaiting my arrival.  The newly bought mattress is dressed up in sheets and blankets of Krysta’s, on loan until I can purchase my own.  Lying on the pillow is a postcard of Costa Rica, a welcome note from my new roommates.  In the corner, tucked against the wall, is a blue bin covered with fabric of paisley print.  Placed carefully atop is a green olive oil bottle serving as a vase, a vase for a daisy whose white open face greets me when I enter.  Treats of chocolate and dried fruit lay by its side.  This room has been cleaned and scrubbed, it has been carefully and lovingly prepared for me, it is simple and it is beautiful…and I love it.

Today we did something that made this house our own.  Paint.  We painted the kitchen, laundry room and arches leading into the living room.  Covering tan, white, orange and a dark forest green we cut the color selection down from four to two.  It is now a combination of “Lime Burst” and what looks like a chocolate milk shake.  It is very Andes Mints.  And it looks delicious. 

And tonight Krysta and I did something I have been looking forward to for months:  a long conversation over a cup of hot tea.  Sitting in our new kitchen, the walls still drying around us, and the furniture along with our bodies all huddled together at the center, we sat, sipped and spoke.  It feels good to be here.

California Dreams...

And this is the last one.  The last photo tour chronicling the months leading to the present. After L'abri and traveling Europe a bit, we are now in California in the month of May.  I had the joy of spending this month exploring the Golden State with my dear friend Helen.  It was so fun to be a tourist in California, we tried to experience all it has to offer.  Which I was reminded... is a whole lot.

This was our mode of transportation and in many ways our home.

Making s'mores in Arroyo Grande.

Doing something on the beach in Pismo.  

(dancing?  jumping?  unclear...)

Kayaking in Morro Bay.  Which, by the way, is so much harder than it looks.

This is where our kayak took us... sand dunes.

We drove and walked around the beautiful Montana de Oro.

Then we headed down to Santa Barbara for Westmont's graduation.  Here is the bird and I post-graduation ceremony.

Lauren, me, Helen and Linnea for a picnic at the park with Lauren's family to celebrate her graduation.  yippee!!

Then, because of Nease family connections, we got to take a yacht (yeah, I said a yacht) out into the Pacific.  We saw seals and dolphins.  Quite successful.

Down to Los Angeles.  The Getty.

The Hollywood sign seen through the smog from a gas station.  So glamorous.

Helen and the Village People.  I can't even explain to you how excited she was about this.

Disneyland!!!

The whole family was there.

And it was SO much fun.

Bubby and AP snuggled on the Matterhorn.

And the girls got ears.

Next we continued on south to Lauren's hometown of San Diego.  Here we are at the cliffs watching the surfers and the sunset.

 

And here is Helen petting Lauren's dog Sasha.  Which if you know Helen, you know this is a big deal.  For some reason the friendly fluffy Sasha fell outside of Helen's general fear of dogs.

A night out in San Diego.

And then we headed north again.  We stopped in Long Beach for a couple of days and stayed with the incredible Jason and Marta Jones.  Sadly, I have no pictures.  But the highlight of Long Beach had to be Helen's reaction to experiencing her first earthquake.  After the trembling stopped she began bouncing in her seat and excitedly offered high fives all around.  

Then it was Six Flags.  Which was great because the lines weren't too bad and we both love roller coasters.  But which was not so great because of the 100 degree weather.  I had to actively focus on keeping my complaining about the heat down to a minimum.

And then... Sky Diving!!!

Somewhere in between San Diego and Long Beach we got to talking about how we both went through a period of creating lists of "things we want to do before we die."  We were agreeing how these lists are kind of silly and how their content would have changed drastically from then to now.  But we discovered that one thing we both had on our list, and both still had a desire to do, was sky dive.  So...we did it.  

Back in Arroyo Grande.  Expressing our love for the place.

We then took a drive up the scenic and famous highway 1.  Going at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently to simply stare, it took us the full day, 7 hours, to get to Monterey.  One of our first stops:  The Elephant Seals!

This is Harry.  He is the man who created this beautiful arrangement of flowers alongside of the 1.  He was a cute old gentleman who told us sweetly, "geez, I think I may love you both."  The feeling is mutual Harry, it's mutual.

 

One of the sights in Big Sur.

And here we are in Monterey.  Walking along the wharf posing with the plethora of statues / carved inanimate objects.

We also went to the Aquarium and explored Canary Row of course.

We then continued our journey North heading to San Francisco.

Here we are toasting ourselves in the luxury of the St. Regis Hotel.  

Thank you dad.  And thank you points!

Helen insisted that we take this picture with flowers in our hair.  Fulfilling her dream of living the lyrics "if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."  So we rummaged through the weeds and made it happen.

This is just before going to a show at the Independent.  Ever heard of the band the Dears?  We hadn't either.  You probably shouldn't bother.  But we still had a good time.

Back down to Fresno and then a day trip to Yosemite!

They're cute.

So we went up to this place called Glacier Point, it is supposedly absolutely beautiful.  But because of the cloud coverage, the raging thunder storm and the amazing static electricity in our hair, we didn't really take in much of the view.  We spent a good 30 minutes simply looking at each other and laughing at the ridiculous sight.  We then became part of the attraction, tourists were asking to take pictures of our rising hair.  It was hilarious.

And that was our trip, which was officially entitled:  California Dreams, after a television show Helen watched growing up in Scotland.  She sang the theme song frequently, often to my embarrassment.  This month of California travel was an incredible time, one that I did not want to end.  When it was time for Helen to leave it was quite traumatic.  Because who knows when I will see her again, and after living together and being connected at the hip for the past 7 months, quitting cold turkey seemed like a horrendous idea.  And, also, because her departure seemed to truly mark the end of a chapter.  L'abri is over and I am forced to move on, to look ahead and to take new steps.  And that is what I am trying to do.  

Continuing on this journey through the last six months...next up is the month of traveling post-L'abri.  Once again I'll share by way of photos.

Dorset

Immediately following the end of term, nine of us traveled to the southern coast of England for a weeks stay.  We rented a cottage and spent our days wandering through fields and pastures and coastlines.  Now I will try my best not to romanticize this time in Dorset, but really, it was incredible.  I enjoyed every moment of it and was so thankful to be with friends from both of my terms at L'abri.  It was the perfect way to gradually ease me out of that community.  

Here's our cottage.  It was beautiful, in a great location and three stories - plenty of room for all nine of us - and best of all, it was cheap!

Here is how we would start each day...with a feast!  Different people would rotate preparing breakfast and dinner, this morning was french toast with eggs, and here we are eating together around the table.  

So here is how we spent the majority of our days:  walking...

 

Along the cliffs and down to the water...

Steven dances at Dancing Ledge.

We would break for a picnic lunch usually of cheese and bread.

More walking...

It was stunningly beautiful.  Pictures simply do not do the landscape justice.  

In England all footpaths are public, going through people's pastures and fields, we were free to roam them all.  This allowed us to see lots of animals.  My favorite - the little baby lambs! 

A wise looking goat.

Kari found a friend in this baby miniature pony.  So cute.

Once again, I must emphasize  how beautiful this was!  See those castle ruins way in the background?  Well that's Corfe Castle and one of the days we made the trek there.  We then road the steam train half-way back to save our feet.

Steven found a rope swing.

And I found a friend at a local pub.  His name is Nobby and he is amazing.

We flew a kite.  This picture is perfect.

And on one of the last nights we lit these Chinese paper lanterns and sent them out to sea.  

I loved Dorset.

Holland

From Dorset Kari and I flew to Holland to stay with our friend Laura.  We were there about four days and Laura was an amazing host.  She showed us a night in Amsterdam, a day in Utrecht and a day in her hometown of Rotterdam.  I kind of blew it on the whole taking pictures front - but here are a couple.

This is Kari (on the left) and our friend Laura.  Here we are in a park in Rotterdam.

And now this is me, on a Pancake Boat.  Yes, it is called a Pancake Boat, and it is a big tourist attraction, and it was amazing.  You ride this boat throughout all the dams in Rotterdam and have all you can eat pancakes with endless toppings.  I'm enjoying my pancake with a Hoegaarden beer - when in Holland, do as the Dutch do.

And here we are riding bikes.  Rotterdam has got to be the most bike friendly city I have ever seen.  The bike lanes are huge and equipped with their own streetlights.  The weather was beautiful so we took a bike tour of the city.  Stopping at all of Laura's favorite spots along the way.  We also managed to see a few windmills!

Hungary

Next Kari and I were off to Hungary.  We were meeting up with some of the friends we had left in Dorset and also with a few of our Hungarian friends.  There were five of us visiting, and the magical Marta was able to get us a flat to occupy.  Marta's gracious friend (who was living out of town) let us stay in her centrally located flat for the week.  It was incredible.

Here are Fruszina and Alida, two sisters from Hungary who visited L'abri throughout my time there.  They were our hosts and tour guides.  Both of them were wonderful in showing us around Budapest and the surrounding areas.  They took time out of their busy working schedules and showed us such an incredible time.  After my short 3 days with them in Hungary I was desperate to stay longer - there was so much to see, take in, and enjoy.

 

This is the Opera House, which is gorgeous...

And this is the finale of the opera we went to see.

Here I am on the famous Chain Bridge.  It connects the Buda and the Pest sides of the capital city.  It was so beautiful at twilight.

This is Kari and I being serenaded at a gypsy restaurant.  Notice the disparity in our responses - Kari loved it, and I tried to hide under the table.

The Baths!  A favorite local past time is going to the Baths.  This place was huge.  Here we are in one of the several outdoor baths, the temperature of this one was lukewarm.  There were other outdoor pools all at varying temperatures.  The warmest one was equipped with built in chess boards, these were all occupied by old Hungarian men.  There was also a huge building which wrapped around the pools, this building was full of baths and saunas of different temperatures.  I've never seen anything like it.  This was a girls day full of baths and sunbathing.

Well, I just think these pictures are funny.  Kari and Fruszina had a dandelion war.  Then they turned on me.

And here is the whole crew - well almost, Marta and Danny are missing.  This picture was taken right after the oh so clever Fruszina tried to sneak us into a historical church.  She thought we should see it, but none of us wanted to pay the fee.  So she attempted to lead us through the back door as some other tourists were headed out.  Fruszina pushed all the Americans in first so that when the security guard came (which he did, immediately) she could distract him while we looked around.  I have no idea what she was saying to him, but it gave us a good five minutes to look around at the beautiful architecture before getting kicked out.

Hungary was a great time.  Being so brief it left me aching for more, I would love to go back someday.

And so there is my post-L'abri traveling adventures.  I can't believe it has already been two months since I arrived back to the great state of California.  Although these posts are quite delayed, and are recording the recent past rather than the present, I think it is a good exercise for me.  A way to begin to process and document this time of my life.  These last few posts have been my virtual scrapbook - and I love scrapbooking.