Thursday, March 27, 2014

that thing known as "Work"

Graduating from college brings the importance of a job to a whole new level. As last November and December evaporated before me, my lack of an idea of what to do next grew solid and too apparent to hide from. Now, three months after graduating, I find myself in much the same place, with the only difference being that I am now working somewhere. I'll keep the name to myself for now, so as to write more freely about my experiences and what I'm learning while there. 
Here's a basic overview though: I work at a chain restaurant that you have almost surely heard of before, because they are everywhere. The individual stores are not too large, which I like. There are usually around fifteen employees there during any given shift. I work mornings and afternoons in food production, making and serving sandwiches, salads, and soups. When I started the job, a coworker told me that soon I would be able to build the specific sandwiches in my sleep. I thought this was a joke until I one night as I was falling asleep I realized that my hands were moving to reach for the prescribed two tomatoes per half sandwich.
I can't say I enjoy the work, but I have met several interesting and wonderful people. Two of my favorites so far are Patty and Erin. They have worked together for eight years and have amazing rapport. Patty graduated from high school the year Erin was born, a fact that Erin loves to remind mention to us. Despite the gap in years, the two are always near each other, creating chances for laughter and lending a hand.
Patty is the heart of the the store. Everyone likes working with her, and all the repeat customers ask where she is if she's in the back of the store. Patty remembers the names and quirks of all the regulars, asking about nephews and how the trip to the zoo went yesterday and trading facts about the upcoming Cardinal baseball season. Her St. Louisian accent peppers my daily routine with reminders of how much is happening in the life of every person who walks in the door to buy breakfast.
Erin is spunky, always ready to break out the happy dance or sing the line from whatever song is stuck in her head. She's one of the most diligent workers I've ever met, and gets twice as much done in half the time. It's obvious how much she loves her two daughters from the way she talks about them. Not stopping there, she shares her good-heartedness with everyone willing to work together. After a month and a half of knowing her, Erin has changed my perspective on the nobility of working hard with a cheerful disposition.

These are just two of the people I have met as I work. There's more to come, I'm sure, and I look forward to it all.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Looking back, looking forward

This last month has been one of looking all directions to try and figure out which way is backward and which forward. 

I am a planner - I love mapping out where I want to go next or what area I want to grow in more. This can be a very good thing; indeed, I think of it as one of my strengths. However, as the last few months have reminded me, our great strengths are always two-sided coins, and the flip side shows our great weaknesses. My beautifully mapped out plan for this semester was completely trashed in the space of three days, leaving me bewildered and frustrated. Instead of living and working in Georgia as I had planned, I moved back to St. Louis to live with my family and got a job in food service. 

In short, I have been blessed, but have not wanted to recognize it as such.

After being back in St. Louis for a few weeks, I met up with a good friend. As we discussed the recent drama of my life, he asked a question I wasn't prepared for. "Sonya, you're a planner. How are you doing with your plan not working?" I had to admit that I was doing poorly, and that the change-up had left me without knowing which way was forward and which back.

Until that conversation, I had not realized how much of my frustration was aimed at God for not using what I had thought was such a well-planned map for my next few months. My plan had me close to people who are dear to me, and involved plenty of hard work. Surely this was what God would want for me, right? 

Yes and no.

My entire plan revolved around me and what I most wanted to claim: Independence and control. I wanted to work things out to prove to myself that I could. To my surprise, God said no to that plan. Instead, he put me with other people who love me and gave me other hard work to do. Not what I wanted. If I'm honest, it's still not what I want. However, I  know that through this I am being blessed and grown. This last month has not been an easy or enjoyable one. I'm still not sure which direction is forward and which is back. But I am beginning to ask for the courage to look at the place I'm standing right now.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Switzerland and France

Switzerland and France came after Scotland! Katie and I had a bit of a rough time making it across the Channel - we didn't realize until a little too late that you have to make reservations for tickets in advance. Oops! So instead of going through Paris, we took a roundabout trip through Brussels. 

Switzerland was beautiful! Everywhere looked like a photograph. We stayed in Lauterbrunnen, a small ski town near Interlaken.





The view out our window! AMAZING!

The first day, we walked up to Isenfluh. After spending all day walking on the West Highland Way, the hike felt quite short. It was beautiful, with patches of snow still on the ground, and the mountain air smelling so fresh and whole. I was amazed at how steep the mountains were, with houses nestled into the flat parts of the mountain, and in the valley below.
The woods were amazing, different from Scottish woods and English woods. Once we reached the village, we sat for awhile looking across the valley. I am in love with Swiss houses - the brown against the green is an amazing contrast! The houses look like they belong on the landscape.
We spent most of our two days wandering around Lauterbrunnen, enjoying the houses and scenery, and marveling at the majesty of the Alps.
The day we left Lauterbrunnen, the clouds burned off and we could see the tips of the mountains against the blue.

And we were off to Nice, France! Lots of time in the train. We arrived in Nice late at night, and it was a bit scary after dark, so it wasn't until the next morning that I realized what a beautiful spot we had come to. On April 24th, I touched the Mediterranean sea for the first time! The water is incredibly blue, and you could see so far down. We sat on the pebbly beach, I got sunburned, and it was a lovely, lovely day.

The water was quite chilly, so we spent most of our time looking at it instead of swimming in it :)


The bus and tram system around Nice was very well organized, so Katie and I made a few day trips. My favorites were Eze and Monaco.
Eze was a delightful medieval city full of narrow and windy streets. We wandered around for a few hours, and had lunch looking out over the water in a garden where we realized later we weren't supposed to be....oops. But it made for a wonderful lunching spot!

In Monaco, we wandered around the harbor, which houses one of the most exclusive yacht clubs in the world, we were told.

We both tried Pistachio Gelato (so delicious.....), wandered around streets where Grace Kelly had walked, and saw the famous Casino. My favorite part of the city was the old area near the palace - the colors of the buildings were beautiful.


We stayed for several nights in France, switching between days by the water and day tripping. A wonderful time, but too short! After Nice, Katie and I said goodbye, and I headed back to London.
Nice was fun; quite the contrast from the UK and Switzerland! ....and so nice and warm :)




Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Scotland


Well..... I have proved myself a not-very-faithful blogger this semester. So much happening all the time, it's hard to decide now how to summarize! But anyways, I will (hopefully haha...) put up a few posts that give a short look at the traveling I did after term ended, starting with Scotland.

Leaving Oxford on April 15th was dreadfully hard, but going to Scotland helped make it more bearable! I think Scotland is one of my favorite places I've been; the colors were astounding. A friend from Covenant, Katie, and myself walked part of the West Highland Way. We started in Milngavie and walked to Drymen. The first day of walking was quite rainy and cold, and I wondered if this was going to be as fun as it had originally seemed...but as we kept walking after a lunch rest, the rain stopped and enjoyment of our surroundings took over! Sheep, sunshine, and a time with wind strong enough to lean into made the afternoon glorious. 

The second day, we walked to Inversnaid, which was about fifteen miles. We started walking around around Loch Lomond, and I touched it for the first time! Much excitement! The woods and walking path around the lake were gorgeous. Scotland has a wild and untamed sort of beauty that catches you by surprise every time you stop to take a good look. We stopped for lunch at an Inn, and had conversations with a British lady on holiday with her husband, and a mother and son from Colorado who were hiking together. I really like the way that traveling breaks past normal conversation boundaries. It rained again all day, but after reaching a certain point of being wet, I realized the freedom of knowing that you were wet and couldn't fix it...so you might as well enjoy it! But really. Being dirty and being okay with it is one of the greatest feelings. I stopped trying to avoid the puddles and instead splashed through them, and began to notice how much the rain highlighted the differences in the colors around me. There were so many different types of forest that we walked through in each day! It was a good feeling to get out of the rain though! We stayed in the coolest hostel, up a mountainside in an old church. One thing is certain: getting thoroughly wet makes you appreciate being warm and dry.

 Touching Loch Lomond for the first time!
 
 My feet were overjoyed to get out of my boots :)

 Our third day was shorter, only seven miles, but was my favorite. The path was more challenging, requiring scrambling over rocks and careful crossing of swollen mountain streams. Thankfully, it didn't rain, which made the going quite pleasant. The scenery surrounding was spectacular; we passed through fog-coated woods, saw wild goats, and numerous waterfalls. While walking close to the water, I decided that Loch Lomond would be a great place to explore in a canoe. So...new ambition. :)


The path...
And....the path.
The flat part! So we took a picture :)


We celebrated our last day on The West Highland way by....not walking. The weather was perfect, and we sat beside a stream in a sheep pasture and soaked up the healthy feeling of being outside. You could tell spring had come to Scotland by the number of lambs gamboling around. In real life, they are even cuter than I had thought! 


Scotland was an incredible experience from beginning to end. I enjoy exploring cities, but there truly isn't anything close to experiencing the wildness of woods and lake. Rain or shine, The West Highland Way is a winner!







Monday, March 4, 2013

Dublin, Part 2



…We were in Ireland, but the adventure hadn’t ended.

We stepped off the plane, elated that we had made it so far. Since the flight was short, no one had rested much, and there was a general feeling of tired-ness in our group. Inside the airport, we all decided the wisest move would be to sleep. So, we found a nice corner of the baggage claim floor to call ours, and I’m pretty sure I started dreaming two minutes after I put my head on my backpack. We weren’t allowed to stay in our spot for long, though, because a security guard came through and told us “Excuse me… but you aren’t allowed to sleep here.” We got up and apologized, but were all refreshed from the twenty-minute nap. The next order of the day was to find the hostel! Katie had checked Google Maps, and we were about an hour and a half walk from downtown Dublin, so we had decided before hand to walk to the hostel so that we could see more of the city. Although we had written directions to get there, we had no map, and at 8:30am after a night of very little rest and much stress, none of us were thinking very clearly. However, we set off from the airport full of confidence in our abilities to find Dublin. After all, how could we miss it?

We walked alongside the road, enjoying the scenery and appreciating the fact that it wasn’t raining. After walking for nearly an hour, we discovered that we were in a small town called Swords, so we found a place to get breakfast and then explored. We walked around the ruin of an old castle and a park, enjoyed the different architecture, and the Saturday-morning-friendliness. 



After walking around Swords for two hours, we came to the realization that we had walked in the completely wrong direction from the airport to get to Dublin, and we were now two and a half hours away from our hostel. Taking a bus was quickly decided on as the best route at this point, and we all loaded up, ready for the hostel and warmth and sleep. Apparently, all of us were a little too ready for sleep, and all fell asleep on the bus ride into Dublin. It’s a good thing our stop was the end of the line. After a much needed nap at the hostel, we went to dinner at a pub called O’Neills. Hot food and good conversation are the greatest way to unwind from the scheduled-ness of college.

The next day began with several hours of uninterrupted journaling time, which is the other greatest way to unwind when your mind is quite full. Without actually discussing it, the five of us had agreed that this trip was meant to be one where we avoided locking ourselves into any “activities” and where any adventure that presented itself could be pursued. We spent nearly all of Sunday walking around the city of Dublin. We saw street performers and a covered market, had lunch in a cozy cafe away from the main streets, and I took pictures mainly of doors. Ireland has such fun colored doors! 

 Lunchtime was full of good conversation and good food. The best way to describe it that I can think of is "And a good time was had by all", which I'm sure must be a quote from something...but I can't remember what at the moment.
                                                      Katie and I split lunch. Delicious.
                 Coffee is a serious matter after walking in the cold. At least, according to Ryan.
                         However, Austin was not in any way changed from his normal self.


Some of my favorites of the places we saw were Trinity College, St. Stephen’s Green, and the view down the River Liffey in the center of Dublin city. 


 
                                                                   Trinity College

                                             What window is complete without rubber ducks?

                The five of us! From left to right: Katie, Sonya, Ryan, Austin, and Aaron

                                              St. Stephen's Green was completely lovely
                                                The River Liffey, running through Dublin

All in all, a most lovely and relaxing day.

There’s nothing like walking around a city for getting a feel of its life and vibe. More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that I would love to always live in a city where my primary mode of travel is walking. You have so much more time to see and smell and listen to the sounds of people talking and living around you. Walking around Dublin was a good balance to the studying at Oxford, because walking around a new city reminded me again of how much there is to see and to know in people and culture as well as in all of Oxford's wonderful libraries.


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Dublin, Part 1



One night around 3am, there was a group of SCIO students sitting out on a couch who decided that it would be a great idea to go on a weekend trip. Destinations? Any ideas? Dublin was suggested, tickets prices were checked, and plans were made.

These five students were Katie, Ryan, Austin, Aaron, and myself. We picked a flight and got our tickets, well prepared for the most relaxing weekend ever.

We had to check in to print off our tickets the evening before leaving, and as we put in our passport numbers to check in, Katie reminded us all that we needed to bring our passports with us. Our flight left from London at 6:30am on Saturday, and we planned out the bus route we would need to take to get there on time leaving plenty of “wiggle room” between stops (perhaps I should mention that we had planned the bus route at 3am as well…but anyways). The first bus to London left at 12:10am, so we wanted to leave the Vines at 12. At 11:45pm, Austin still hadn't packed, and we had no idea where Aaron was. As we were walking out of the door at The Vines, Aaron came walking in the gate. We told him to hurry up and pack and run to the bus because it was leaving in five minutes, and we headed to the bus stop.  As the bus was pulling up, Aaron came SPRINTING down the street! We cheered, happy that our adventure was going to be so easy.

Little did we know...

The bus ride from Oxford to London is about an hour and a half, and after being on the bus for an hour, Austin sat in the seat behind Katie and I and said that he had forgotten his passport. We spent about five minutes  in a group panic session, because there's absolutely no way that he could get on the plane without his passport, and to catch the 6:30am flight, he wouldn't have enough time to go back to Oxford and then to London and then to the airport. After having the panic session, I remembered that I had my phone! I only have two numbers of people living in The Vines, because most of us don't have phones. I called the first girl, let it ring for five minutes, and she didn't pick up. I called Mer (roommate!), and she did! There was great excitement as she talked to Jared, who agreed to meet up with us in London at Victoria's Station, where our bus was leaving. We enjoyed the rest of the bus ride, sleeping and talking about the undeniable fact that Jared is the awesomest person any of us had ever met.

We got to Victoria's Station, and it was freezing outside, at about 1:30 in the morning. Jared's bus wasn't going to make it to London until 3:15, so we had nothing to do but wait until he got there. There was a tiny Pasty shop outside the station that was heated, and we ended up cramming in there with a bunch of other people to wait. We waited there until 3:10, and then went to the bus station where we had been dropped off, in hopes that we would find Jared there. But... there was no Jared. At 3:30, we decided to start checking different stations, and we ended up getting separated, so that Austin and I ended up in Victoria's Station main, not knowing where Katie, Aaron, and Ryan were. It was 3:45, and we were almost out of time for catching the bus that would get us to Stansted Airport in time to catch our flight.

And then, wonder of wonders, Ryan came running into the station with the passport in his hand! The other three had found Jared, and now we were all together and all in possession of passports. The five of us went to the bus station, and waited for the 4:05 bus to come. We saw it turn down the street, Aaron stuck out his arm, and............The bus didn't stop. We all stared after it in shock for about three minutes. We now thought we wouldn't be able to make it to the airport in time for our flight, so we were trying to come up with second options of action, since it just so happened to be 4am. I remembered that I had a contact in London from my church at home, but in attempting to call my family to get her name, my phone was dropped and was reset, and (of course) I didn’t have my PIN number memorized. With that plan out of the way, we decided to see if we could catch the next bus and still get to the airport on time. 



                                                 Photo credit: http://katiebeth-katie.blogspot.co.uk/
This describes the emotions of all parties pretty accurately....


There was one scheduled to come at 4:25, and we made it on there with no issues. I fell asleep on this bus as well, and when I woke up we were at the airport. It was still freezing outside, so that woke me up some as we rushed into the airport. We weren’t sure where to go, because the airport was organized like a warehouse, and as we pull out our tickets to check, we come to the realization that it is 5:45am and the plane stops boarding at 6. So: We don't know where to go, we don't know what the gate number is, and we haven't gone through security.

But hope is not lost! We’re all so tired at this point that we assume we can probably make it. Perhaps. We figure out where to get our passports checked, and we get in line for security. It is now 5:55. Katie and I ask everyone in the security line ahead of us if we can pass, since our flight is leaving in ten minutes, and everyone lets us. However, Katie forgot to leave her shampoo on top of her backpack, so she gets stopped in security and they take everything out. I had my liquids on top, so I got through, ran to check the gate number, and ran back: "KATIE! I'm going to run to the gate, and make them hold it for us, because the sign says it’s still boarding!" Austin had made it through as well, so the two of us took off to find Gate 53.It was rather crowded, and we were literally running and trying to elbow our way through people to find Gate 53, which ended up being THE FARTHEST gate away from security. Austin and I made it, and there was still a line to board, so we both thought, "We're going to make it!" Katie showed up three minutes later, holding her shoes and most of the contents of her backpack in her arms. The line was starting to thin, and then it was just the three of us with two people ahead and one behind, and still there was no sight of Ryan and Aaron. At this point (first time during the evening) I started to get stressed. I was purposefully stalling while handing the lady my passport and ticket in hopes that they would show up, because by this point we had all decided that if all five of us didn't get on that plane, none of us were getting on that plane. We had just finished getting our tickets checked when Ryan and Aaron ran up, and we all started cheering. Literally.

The British guy behind us was very confused when we all started yelling and cheering "WE'RE GOING TO IRELAND! WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT!"

Too much emotion, I suppose.
We all made it on the plane though! And we made it to Ireland.