A Semi-Rollercoaster Life

Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy.  I've been here in Aussie-land (for you Americans, make sure you pronounce that Aussie like Ozzie) for a little over 3 months.  At times I feel like I'm settling in and then other times I feel like I have no clue what I've gotten myself into.

Today has been one of the harder days.  I'm 9,471 miles away from home and today I felt every single mile of it (15,241 kilometers for you Aussies).  My favorite aunt.....the one part of my crazy extended family that has been around my entire life is in the hospital.  What do you do with 9,471 miles and the information that you may lose a member of your family?  Go home would be the logical response but 4 total days of travel plus $4,000 just doesn't make it possible.  So I'm here attempting to process.  I stayed home from my Little League game to be by the iPad for Skype calls (the best going away present ever!).  Luckily I have some amazing friends back home (and some here, too) that have supported me this whole time.  They help me think through stuff when my emotions wipe out my logic (thank you!).

Life here consists of baseball, more baseball and some other things.  You think I'm kidding but I'm really not.  I work for baseball.  I watch baseball when the guys are out of town.  I hang out with baseball players.  I coach baseball (we won our first game today!!!).  For the most part, I'm not complaining.  I love the sport, the guys are cool and I love my kiddos.  I just need some non-baseball time and people.  Which is one reason I'm super excited to head to Sydney for Christmas.  I get to hang out with good friends who know nothing about baseball.  It's going to be lovely!  ;)

I have found a church....ok, well I've been to it once and I really like it (travel, sickness, baseball have prevented me from going back as of yet).  I plan on going back tomorrow night.  I want to go to a Friday YWAM worship time and see Stefani, a former YL leader from Kelso (crazy, I know!) but have yet to be available during that time.  Hopefully I can see her soon.

My relationship with Christ has been interesting.  It's a harder transition than I expected (obviously a false expectation) coming out of ministry into the sports world.  Maybe I just didn't think through what exactly the transition would look like.  It literally feels like a car crashing into a brick wall.  Coming from a world full of encouragement, support, and grace into a world with very little of any of those.......I honestly felt stuck in Jello.  Things are rebounding now a bit.  I'm starting to set up some accountability partners with people back home...people I can be honest with (struggles and all) and can talk Bible with.  I don't have anyone like that here.....yet.

It's not just the career change that makes it hard.  It's the change in cultures.  Sure they speak English here but it's soooooo different.  There are 3 things that stand out about this culture:  1) It's very much a gossip culture.  And no, that's not just b/c I work in a team environment, though that adds to it.  2)  It's very much a mocking culture.  Whole conversations happen where people are mocking another.  Sometimes it hard to find the line where things turn serious and become personal attacks.  3) The US culture has the underpinning Christian foundation, where the Aussie culture does not.  While it may be getting harder and harder in the US to be a Christian and express your faith in public, it is still way more acceptable than here.  Many native Aussies either have a negative experience with a church-based boarding school or just have zero exposure to anything God-related.  It's like seeing snow for the first time it's such an alien concept.

The title of this post is "A Semi-Rollercoaster Life".  Today has been a series of ups and down.  A win by my WSU Cougers in the Apple Cup (in OT no less!) was HUGE....only to be immediately brought down by texts from home regarding my aunt which resulted in not attending my Little League game.  Hard conversations followed until I got a couple phone calls about my team winning for the first time today!  I got a text from one of my kiddos and I called him and his brothers to hear all about it.  Then someone overlooking all of the above hurt more than expected.  To finish the night, the Heat won after dropped 3 straight.  Great to see them pull out the win.

I think you can see why today was a little rough and how emotionally I am just shot.

Thank you for your prayers and love.  I know some of you have asked for a mailing address and I'm not going to post it on a public site like this but please email/message/facebook if you would like it.  Please note that everything takes 2 weeks to get to me.  Don't send wood or seeds of any sort.  It will be easier to get through customs.

Oh, before I take off.  I went to South Korea with the team at the beginning of November.  Korea is a more reserved culture than Taiwan, Japan or China.  We didn't see the over the top desire to serve and provide as some others had experienced in previous visits to various Asian countries.  The standard Asian issue with female authority figures still rings true so it was fun navigating that.  We traveled enough around the city that I totally get what it means to be a tourist in a country you don't know---where you can't read signs or subway/bus maps.  Luckily there was always someone around who knew enough English to help us find our way.

Riverside Drive, downtown Perth

And a picture to leave you with.  I need to download more Korea pics so you all can see them.  I'll get there...soon, maybe tomorrow.  :)

Hard Questions

UPDATE!!!  Our guys won their first series in a sweet.  I leave for Korea on Monday for the champions tournament   I found a church I've only been to once but I really like.  When I get a Thursday off, I'm going to go play beach volleyball.

Ok moving on....I wrote a letter to a friend of mine the a month or so ago and said this:

"There's a difference between guard your heart and build a castle around it. One is wisdom that only comes from the Lord and the other is a man-made structure designed to keep us from being hurt. But God makes beautiful things from ashes and broken pots."

And then I wrote this:

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that while I wrote it down it was truly the Lord speaking.  Mainly b/c it sounds so darn cool.

I wrote it b/c my lovely friend and I have often talked about the fear of jumping into something (a relationship usually).  It's interesting to sit back and process where that fear comes from (b/c it is fear, let's be honest).  Is it the fear of being hurt (duh!), the fear of walking outside the Lord's will (Well...), the fear that it's all too good to be true (ha!).....You're worried that at the end of the day, the bottom is going to fall out and you'll feel broken and disappointed.  We've felt that raw emotion and want nothing to do with it again.  The Bible tells us to "Guard your heart for everything you do comes from it" (NIV).  Personally, I've interpreted "guard" with "build giant castle with moat, a drawbridge and dragons" but that's just me.

It's hard to draw the line between guarding your heart and keeping others out.  I can't sit here and tell you what that line is but I do know that any luck of finding that line rests solely on my relationship with Christ.  Which is easy to say b/c I know that's the right answer.  It's the living it out thing that I have an issue with especially b/c I have the hardest time letting people in.  I can't even tell you exactly why.  Sure, I could throw up a few educated guesses....actually, off the top of my head it's b/c I just flat don't trust people (perhaps?? and that includes myself)...ah, thinking out loud on my blog.  Good times.

It's a balance between wisdom and courage.

Now, for various reasons, I'm really wondering where that line is.  How do you trust others when you don't trust yourself?  I really don't know where to go from here.

Life in Aussie-land

I know you're all expecting a rundown on how life in Perth is going.  However, a reminder that Perth has a zoo and the Perth Royal Show (American translation:  county fair) has gotten me thinking about animals.  I have no idea why but I want to introduce you to a new favorite animal that I've met here in Australia...the Lorikeet. I've never seen so many colors on one animal before.  It's amazing. Love love love them!

Anyway, life here is good for the most part.  I need to find a church and some friends outside of baseball if only to vary the conversation a bit.  I'm settling into the routine, which is a bit too routine for me so I need to find a way to mix it up.  A bit hard when you work 6 days a week.  I am coaching Little League and loving it.  I may end up coaching all summer, but probably not playing.  I need some serious shoulder work before I could consider jumping back into play seriously.  I've started running 3 days a week but that hasn't done a thing for my shoulder.

Ok, it's short and sweet.  And I wrote it a month ago.  I'm pathetic.  I know.

Aussie-isms Part II, plus an update

Thought I'd take a few minutes in this calm Saturday night and share a few more Aussie-isms that I've learned (and have slipped into my daily vocab).

Mate:  Mate this, mate that....the history behind it ---> click me!  do yourself a favor and go to this YouTube video which is Australian with a American English translation at the bottom.  I still find myself staring at people every now and again absolutely clueless at what they just said.  I will admit I said it this week without even realizing it until after I said it and now it's coming out more often.

Howyagoing:  American translation:  How ya doing or How's it going...totally say this more often than not now.

What you chasing?:  translation:  what are you looking for?

Boot:  either the trunk of the car or shoes (ie footie boots=cleats)

Footie:  Australian Rules Football.  Australian obsession....

Gridiron = American football.

Bikkie:  biscuit.  can be sweet, savoury (I'm in Oz which means it needs the extra u), or anything else.

comp-puh-sit:  We would pronounce it com-poz-it.  Composite bat.  Took me a couple times of hearing it before I figured out what they were talking about.

Give Way = Yield sign

Other random sayings: Cheers, Too easy

Plastic money:  No really.  The money is plastic...it doesn't wrinkle nor fall apart when wet like the paper money in the US.  It has a hole cut out of it with a plastic window in it.

I'm really enjoying my time here.  Too early to look ahead to next year yet.  Going to explore the city with Chelsea on Tuesday.  I'll have pictures from that posted shortly thereafter.

AUSSIE-LAND A'HOY!!!!

Brisbane

Land hoy!!! Yeah, that's right.  I said it.  After a ridiculous amount of flying, I finally made it to land.  The picture to the right is taken in one of our circles around Brisbane on my way from Fiji (don't get too jealous, I didn't leave the airport).  A lot of the land around Brisbane was rather shallow, creating beautiful arrays of color on my flight in.  Even so, I was more than happy to get off the final flight and go home with my beautiful friends!  A week in Brisbane was fantastic!  I gained a shadow (Scott & Kate's daughter Jemma) who always seemed to follow me around no matter where I was.  I held a koala, hand fed kangaroos and wallabies, rode in the Wheel of Brisbane (a large wheel sort of like the London Eye), ate fried squid rings and chips (i.e. fries), walked around the revamped city (massive floods in 2011), then missed my flight on Saturday night got to spend a beautiful lazy day on Sunday before I caught my flight that night and arrived in Perth.  More pictures of my vacation in Brisbane can be found here (you'll need facebook...or if you let me know, I'll drop a bunch in dropbox so you can peruse them).

Life here in Oz has been awesome.  My host family is super nice...not that I've seen them much since I've been here with my crazy work hours.  Work has been great.  I have the perfect combination of the Perth Heat and Fielders Choice, a retail outlet where I base most of my work.  What exactly is my work?  You have no idea how good of question that is......and how I really can't fully answer it.  The fact that I'm here to do a grad school internship changes most of what I do.  I base out of Fielders Choice because I am a group sales rep (translate:  I put together ticket packages for various groups).  My goal is to get all the t-ball and little league teams into the ballpark, along with any other group that would frequent the retail store.  Not only that but also make sure they have a super fun and memorable experience.  I also work with the Baseball Ops (Operations) committee and the High Performance guys (read: coaching plans).  Yeah, it's a lot and we're still working out exactly what it all means.  I could also coach any level I wanted (baseball or softball) and play....both of which I'm avoiding right now just due to the fact that I refuse to sleep less than 7 hours a night regardless of what my crazy co-workers claim they can routinely pull off.

Literally my entire life right now

The thing about Oz right now is that there are too many jobs for the amount of people that live here.  Not only that, there are so many jobs that are filled with people who just don't have that little something extra to turn the results into something excellent.  So if you're considering a career move, you should seriously consider Oz.  I'm not even kidding in that.  Once you figure out how to navigate the accent/slang, driving a car with steering wheel on the opposite side you're used to, driving on the opposite side of the road and how to pay with plastic money (literally) then you're good.  Only downside is that it is crazy expensive to live here and you constantly have to translate Celsius, kilometers, kilograms (b/c seriously, 5 kilos means NOTHING to me)....oh and I hear it's going to get crazy hot.

Anyway, back to my crazy life.  It's officially my 5th day in Perth and life is so fun right now.  It's long hours but the time in the shop is honestly fun, regardless of how many American jokes Leigh works into conversations with customers (only got 1 yesterday, I was rather disappointed).  I can't understand half of what people say on the phone and routinely just take a message for someone else to call them back,  Maybe that has to do with whatever is going on with my ears, which, by the way, are better yet not.  They itch all the time (the canal itself) and there's that crackle that tells me that the drums are still swollen.  Plus I usually have a headache but that might be from my lack of chiropractic, too.  Why can't I ever have a normal sickness?  Seriously I'm weird.  Anyway, please pray for my ears (again, I am so weird).  They are the most annoying things ever.

Well there you go.  Let me know if you have any questions or want me to explain any Aussie rumors and I'll get the answers for you.

Some random Aussie things:
chips:  hot chips are fries, cold chips are crisps
It's possible to play t-ball till you're 13....don't ask.  Officially I don't have an opinion.

That's a converter so I can use my American plug.
And yes, you have to turn on every outlet.

Miss you all.  Love you more.
Jaymie

I once started a 30 days of Photos on FaceBook.  Day One required 15 random facts.  I just happened to look over that today and started laughing:

1. I'm in a Master's Program, getting a dual degree in Sport Coaching and Sport Management.
2. I desperately desire to live overseas.....and soon!
8. Places I'd love to visit: the UK, Denmark, Australia, Kenya, US Virgin Islands, and anywhere in the French Polynesia


Bahahahahaha!!!  Posted January 26, 2011. Don't believe me?  ---->O Ye Of Little Faith

All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.

Psalm 38:9 (NIV)

The Lord made it very clear (one of the clearest things I've ever heard from Him) that I was going to be in Longview-Kelso as long as it look for me to learn the stuff I needed to learn.  Him and I have much different timelines (6 months v. 8 years).....or is it that I have a slow learning curve?  We'll go with the different timeline thing.  However, no matter what the Lord know the deepest part of our hearts.  Those little longings, desires, and preferences.  The things you don't tell anyone else.  The things that sound silly to put voice to.  But our Daddy God, our Abba, he knows them and he delights in watching us get so excited over his gifts.  

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Matthew 7:7-11 (NIV)

This isn't the first time the Lord has fulfilled a longing of my heart.  Most definitely the biggest one.  If you have no idea how this all fits together, then you've missed the last couple posts.  Go back and read.  ;)

I'm so thankful that we have a Father who delights in the smallest of fleeting thoughts.  Thank you Lord for your gifts and blessings, large and small.  Thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves....that you know the things we want, the things we need and everything in between.  Thank you for knowing the big picture and for not bending to my whims.  Amen.

Oz Update!!!

I sincerely apologize for all those waiting for an update on my trip.  There totally has been some major updates, too.  Ah!  Again, forgive me.  Now let's get on with it.

By the way, I just have to share this....I'm writing this with a quarter of my hair in curlers as I'm getting ready to chaperone Kelso High School's prom (photos later...not of the curlers, but of prom).  I also did this last year and LOVED it.

Ok, focus.  Oz update.

First, my learning objective and mentorship contract was accepted by the school on the first go-around!! No revisions, just an a-ok.  WOOO!!  That may or may not happen all the time but regardless, no revisions on a grad school paper??  I'll totally take it.  On the other hand, I found out my mentorship advisor is the only grad school professor to give me a B.  While I totally earned that grade at that time (it was a darker period of my life), I still have a slight apprehension about having him as my advisor.  I was really hoping for my favorite professor, but such is life.

Second, I bought my ticket.  Booked and paid for.  AH!!!  Now I have a timeline which I can share with you all:

:: August 10th :: Last day of Young Life work ::

 :: August 11th :: Going away party at the Prothero's ::

:: August 12 or 13 :: Leaving Kelso and going to Spokane (Medical Lake) ::

:: August 18th :: Family going away party / Dad's birthday party at Mom & Dad's house ::

:: August 19th :: Fly out of Sea-Tac at 6:30pm ::

::  August 22nd ::  Arrive in Brisbane at 10:30am ::

:: August 25th ::  Arrive in Perth at 11:55pm ::

:: August 27th :: Start my internship with the Perth Heat ::

Seems like it's so close yet so far away.....

I've been ask about 30 times how am I feeling about all this so let me answer it here.....

I'm scared to death about half the time I think about it and super excited the other half.

I guess it depends on what specific aspect I'm thinking about.  I had one of my first of many "lasts" this week and will have another one next week.  We have a staff women's overnight for Young Life and this last Thursday-Friday was my last one.  The women in our region are AMAZING.  They are strong, tender, honest, open, beautiful, kind, accepting, loving with hearts that are bent towards the Lord and overflowing with love, grace and faith.  It's been such an honor to be a part of this group and I will deeply miss them.  Definitely top 5 on the things I will miss list.  

Next Tuesday is our last ministry center, our region's quarterly business meeting.  There I will say good-bye to many of the fabulous staff in our region.  I get to share about what I'm doing and where I'm going.....I currently have no idea what I'm going to say.  I definitely won't even come close to topping Kent Williams good-bye when him and Aaron Rauch sang a duet.  I am so not that cool.  

I think those are all the updates.  Regardless, I have to go finish getting ready for Prom.  Funny how I enjoy Prom way more now than I ever did in HS.  My junior Prom was the worst experience ever.  The drama was ridiculous and lasted the rest of the school year.  Sigh....again, I would NEVER go back to HS.  Ever.  

Until next time....

A Little Fun

Saw this over at Summer Pennington's blog today....decided it would be a little fun to have on this lazy Sunday.

Age and/or Anniversary: 30

Bed size: I believe this is a double....

Chocolate: Yes, please.

Dessert: chocolate anything, though I like a good lemon sweet.  

Ethnic background: Native and Danish.  Never been to Denmark....add it to the bucket list!

Fear:  Failure or not living up to expectations (mine or others).  Worst feeling in the world.  

Graduation: High School: 2000, College: 2004, Grad School....2014??

Hometown: Medical Lake, Washington.  Proud Pacific Northwest Girl.   

Instruments: I played clarinet from elementary school to high school...still own one.  I've dabbled with alto clarinet, piccolo and bass clarinet, too.  

Job title: Mission Staff, Kelso Young Life.  AND Lead Staff, Youth & Family Link.  (This will all change in August!! yay!)

Kids: Technically you need a boy in the picture before this can happen......

Laughs: Telling college stories with friends.  ;)

Middle name: Louise after my Aunt Mae and my Aunt Louise.  

Natural hair color: Medium dark brown

Overnight hospital stays: No overnight stays....plenty of ER visits, surgeries and outpatient tests.  I lived a rough and tumble childhood.  :)

Past time: Reading good books, scrapbooking, working out, hiking

Quote: What's worth the price is always worth the fight. - Unknown.  (I'm also partial to:  Ever notice that 'what the hell' is always the right decision' by Marilyn Monroe.....some technical issues with it but I love the spirit of it .)

Right or left handed: Right 

Siblings: 2 younger brother.  

T.V. Show: NCIS, NCIS:LA, Grimm, Bones, Hart of Dixie, One Tree Hill (followed it from the beginning...don't judge), Whitney, Castle, Hawaii 5-0, The Finder.  

Unique gift: My amazing mother has given me many unique gifts over the years...just looking around my room shows a cheetah necklace and a framed print with a "She Who Believes in Herself" poem.  One of my favorites.  Also, my TRCS VB teams put together a scrapbook for me my last 2 years coaching them....LOVE them.  

Vacation spot I love: I don't have ONE spot I love to go as I just really enjoying going anywhere....I have a long, long list of places I'd like to go someday.  

Weather right now: Well, our bipolar weather today has shown snow and blue skies with sunshine today with more snow overnight.   

X-Rays: haha, the list is long and gets longer is you include MRI's (see: rough and tumble childhood that really never has worn off).  X-rays that I remember off-hand:  index and middle finger on right hand (HS BX*), both wrists (HS volleyball), middle finger on right hand (softball 2011 - dislocation)....that's all I remember off-hand.  I'm sure my  mom could add quite a few to this list.  

Yummy meal I make: chicken parm over spaghetti. :)

Zoo Animal: I like a lot of the animals for different reasons.  The majesty of the eagle and lion.  The playfulness of the sea otter and monkeys.  The awkwardness of penguins.  The variety of frogs, fish and sea plants.  The sheer size of giraffes, bears, and whales.  The uniqueness of the red panda and caracal.  The grace and power of cheetahs.  Our Lord is an amazing creator.  

*BX = Basketball in my geeky statisticians head

Aussie-ism's Part 1

While I'm here getting a package together for a dear friend in Japan, let me share with you some of the Aussie-ism's I've learned so far.....though I'm super tempted to make y'all guess.  Maybe I'll just keep the guessing to a couple of the weirdest ones...

Oz = Australia
sunnies = sunglasses
arvo = afternoon
journo = journalists
on holiday = on vacation.  Australians get 4 weeks federally mandated leave a year.
words that end in 'er' such as burger, now end in 'a' like burga.  Why?  b/c Aussies are too lazy to actually say the whole word!  (Yeah, Scott, I said it..)
aluminium is pronounced al - you - min - ium.  Yep, al....I'm going to have no clue what they're saying.
chemist = pharmacy/drug store
biscuits = cookies

*Pretty much anything two syllables on up gets shortened.  For example, Freemantle, a suburb of Perth, is Freo.
*They have traffic cameras everywhere....speed cameras, red light cameras and even road side breath tests (not sure how it works exactly).  Funny to think how Longview voted down red light cameras!!  haha.  They wouldn't do well in Oz.
*Oz is part of the Commonwealth and is not an independent nation (just like Canada).  One bonus...they get the Queen's birthday off from work.
*The peace sign with palm towards others is ok however turn your palm towards yourself and now you're flipping someone off.
*You HAVE to vote.  Vote or get fined $20.
*Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox, is Aussie.


For your guessing pleasure:
fanny =
rooting =

Enjoy!!!

A Big Change

So if you haven't heard yet, then here's the big announcement:

[drum roll please...]

In August 2012, I will be heading to Perth, Australia for an internship with the Perth Heat.

[pause for the **GASP**]

That's right.  I'm leaving Kelso-Longview, Washington and the good ole US of A.  That's not to diminish my time here (i.e. K-LV).  God has done a great work in me and I suspect He still has some stuff to do before I leave.  To think back when I first came to this town and to think where I am now.....I am so thankful that the God I know doesn't give up on seemingly hopeless projects.  :)

Now to the why.  Why am I leaving?  Well, there are a few answers.  When I first came to K-LV, I knew full well that this wasn't the place where I would forever stay.  I could attempt to explain how I knew but you'll need to either just be content with the explanation that there are some things I just know and can't explain how or attempt to have this conversation with my best friend, Kim.  Good luck on either pursuit.

So I knew I would leave eventually.  Originally, I thought this meant 2-3 years.  haha.  I graduated college in 2004 and have lived here ever since.  Do the math...I'll wait.  Yep, 8 years.  Slightly different than 3.  My life here has been great.  I've been on Young Life staff for 6 years, volunteered for a year before that (or was it 2?).  I've done 3 summer assignments--2 as Camp Director.  I've coached HS & club volleyball and been very successful on both fronts.  I have very, very good friends that will be lifelong friends.  I've learned who I am in so many different ways.  I don't regret any part of my time here.  I just knew it wasn't forever.  The funny part is that if you talked to me last June, I had a 2 year plan to leave Kelso and move on.  Funny  how our plans are different from the Lord's.

Why Australia?  Well, it's a place I've always wanted to go.  It's really a question of 'why not?'  An opportunity came and I'm going.  I'm all about the experience....some might say it's an adventure addiction and so be it.  My history certainly points to that fact.  I'm ok with the label.  ;)

There you go.  Feel free to ask questions or comment.  My next post will be "Things I've already learned about Australia."  There are some large differences that are more than amusing.  It will be the first of many "How to Speak Australian" posts...so stay tuned.  When I get there, I'll include pictures.

In the meantime...some Perth links.  :)

City of Perth
Map of Perth
Adventures of Western Australia