Oregon- The Sand, the Surf, and the Sunburn

I just got home late last night from a week on the Oregon Coast- well just over a week, I guess. It was very relaxing and yet COLD! Here I was looking so forward to playing in the waves all week and turns out that the water was fuhreezing and I only dared to go in once- Ange Mandel Style- which we all know is the coldest of all ways to be in water, but it was sure worth it. Although I couldn't warm up all night even with 5 shirts on or something ridiculous like that. I must admit that Lisa upped me for sure in the picture taking department so these are just a few snipits from my camera while I wait 0n the rest. For some reason I was obsessed with taking falling pictures so we have tons of me pretending to fall off random cliffs, rocks, etc.
Some highlights from Oregon
- hanging out at the beach- and getting sunburnt too!
-going to a Christian Leadership Conference while we were there- great speakers like a former L.A. PD Assistant Chief who had some great police stories to share with us
-seeing the film - "The End of the Spear"- SUCH a good film
-hanging out with Lisa's cousin Byron and his random surfing buddies- they were goodtimes
-tons of campfires and conquering the tentpegs with our HUGE muscles:)
-driving with great tunes, reading, and relaxing... goodtimes

Just found out that I have several job offers for teaching with various districts, etc- praying for wisdom:)

On a side note- been having wierd dreams again lately... hopefully they will help me to continue to sort out my head:)

Mexico - mi amor, mi casa

So the past week I have been in Mexico, on a whirlwind trip down to the Orphanage in St. Vincente de Geurrero, Mexico. I flew down to Sandiego and then had a bus ride to the trolley, walked across the boarder (they don't even need passports there!) and then another couple of buses until I arrived 12hours later to Matt's smiling face at the bus stop. Sweet deal.
Some highlights:

• The kids- so cute and lovable- It felt like the first time that I've genuinely laughed and laughed in a long time. Just seeing their beautiful smiles and getting to chase them around!
• Meeting the other staff and volunteers- yeah for cool people... I met some rad folks that I just loved hanging out with- Esther and Mark, Jen, April, Brianne, Matt, Mark, and Time, Lic, and whole gang
• Speaking spanish - after 5 weeks of French it was funny trying to be in another culture was headspinning but rad. I just kept saying a lot of French words with a spanish twist and sometimes it worked!
• The outreach times- so many times in the past while I've been growing more and more cynical and skeptical of Missions and evangelism but here it actually works! I heard so many stories of God's faithfulness, saw people respond in powerful ways to the gospel, being fed and clothed and getting saved- not like the Hard shells of North America.
• Being at peace and living the simple life- I loved just riding around in the back of the trucks, getting dirty ( by the end of the week I had gotten used to it), boogie boarding at the beach, etc
• The adventures - I can laugh at them now- falling asleep on the bus and missing our stop and having to spend the night at the bus station, our plane getting cancelled but getting to spend the afternoon at the beach in Sandiego.... good times!

Sweet deal, now I'm off to the Oregon Coast for some camping/surfing/hanging out. Cheers.

Footloose and Fancy Free

Today was a day of firsts for me...
1. The first time I've cried about learning French- I totally blanked in an oral exam today and I left and I just couldn't help it. You know those times when a person asks if you're ok, and you appreciate it, but you also don't want them to cause that's when the water works start? Yup- that was today... probably helped out by PMS and the emotional struggle of everything radically changing again in the next few days. It's good, I'm starting to recognize that about myself- some people's legs hurt when the weather changes, I think I just become more sensitive or something. Anyhoo, it just sucked because I know I could have aced the test- I studied the hard stuff and then got in there and forgot the simple things that I have known since grade 8. Argh! Ahh, well, the second test was much better so that's that.
2. I OFFICIALLY FINISHED my BEd today. I wrote my last unit plan up and tidied it up all spick and span for my distance ed education class and closed my lap top and closed a chapter of my life as a PDP student... but also opened another one for whatever comes next!
3. I ate dinner in a fancy revolving restaurant to celebrate (both my BEd and the finishing- well almost, I have 2 more exams tommorow morning) with some friends from SFU. All in all we had a fabulous evening and stretched it out as leisurly as possible. Some of us girls were saying that we felt like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" when she gets to be all fancy and doesn't know what cutlery to use:) We ordered the buffet and had all sorts of delicious delictables- from peppercorn chicken and smoked trout, to creme caramel and chocolate mousse, c'etait fantastique!
4. I shampooed my hair with soap because I ran out of shampoo and didn't remember until I was in the shower. I may have done that one before, I can't remember, but it reminded me of my Grandpa from Alberta who used to do that all the time. My hair went strangely curley after that experiment so maybe I'll try it again when I feel the need to Betty Boop it up!

You snooze... you cruise!

Monday night we got to take a boat cruise around the St. Laurence goodtimes... dancing, partying, chatting with the amigos... all in good fun.

Pics: Me and some good peeps- oh and on another random note... I get this message on my answering machine the other day and it's Andy (I feel like I've already written this blog... have I?O) and he's all, "Uh, Hey Ange... just wondering how you were doing and, uh, I'm in your lobby!" Crazy. Who in the world just shows up in your lobby in Quebec? Anyhoo, he was on a mission's trip in Montreal and then just hopped on over. Good times.

Let's see, what else can I say... I'm tired and my head hurts from French. Yesterday I could barely order a hamburger my brain was so fried. And then I got fries to boot- haha! I'm so drole. No, not really:) Come on, photos, publish already.

You see, this time thing at the bottom is still set on Pacific time, so it's really almost 1am here... I've just been to the Spectacle Francais- the last little show of the school. It was good times- I was a part of the theatre presentation so we were clowns- blacks and full makeup including the nose- but it was fun cause I got to be the trickster clown who plays all the jokes on everyone. And the only black t-shirt that I had was my one that says "Secret Identity" on it which made me happy:)O
I was just talking to Matt Street on msn and he told me that the beach- a clear, clean, swimming, boogy boardable beach is only 5 minutes away from where we will be staying in Mexico. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, I am so ready for some non-action. Some crazy rest on the sand, swim in the water, drink a margarita laisez-faire good time. Not that I'm saying that Quebec hasn't been RAD- I'm just starting to feel like I need a vacation from my "vacation/studies". Plus, I am like a fish- I need to be in water:)P
Some essential downtime, good time, rest time, reflect time, breathing time. Some singing, playing an instrument time where I get to breathe in the air with my whole body and bask in the peace and contentment of a natural day, evening, and on into the night. I hope that there is a full moon when I am down there... I think that would be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen- a full moon on the beach in the south with sand and surf and the background hum of distant latin music and laughter.