Muscle Memory.

 It's 5am here, and jetlag reminded me I haven't wrote on here in a while and now would be a good time.

I just got back from visiting family and friends in the states. It's over five  months since I left Atlanta frozen in a sheet of January ice. Going back to my house was a strange experience,  I felt like a visitor at a friends house. I was told e that once you leave home, you never really come back. I can honestly say that that's completely true. Right now, home for for me is a house on 12 Westwood with a wicker hippo on the porch and an American flag proudly hanging in the dinning room. But I don't think I will ever fully have a place I fully feel at "home" till I start a family of my own.

 I started noticing little details as well. Like how Georgia has a certain smell. It's an earthy, farm like smell of thing growing I guess. I also realized how many red clayed dirt roads there are, all over grown with thick green foliage and protected by rusty gates that have long since been forgotten.

Something else I found bizarre was how quickly I picked back up on things. Friends I haven't seen in 1/2 a year I could just pick back up a conversation with like no time has passed at all. I could hop in a car and drive back on the right side of the road without a problem ( I did hit the windshield wiper for a turn signal a few times however). It was almost like muscle memory of my old habits and rituals had just kick started to life once my plane touched the ground. 

I did manage to get a lot in while I was back. I got some more winter clothes, which is nice because I didn't bring near enough. I went fishing with my dad and Papaw, I normally don't fully enjoy fishing trips but this one was pretty awesome. I got to go out to eat with heaps of people and get to get my fill of American cuisine at the same time. One of the highlights, was going rock climbing with my sister. I had never thought I would enjoy scaling walls high above the ground, due to a past phobia of heights, but I actually did! It's a sport I want to get more into when I come back. 

I'm debating on whether I should come return state side for another visit next month. I feel like I should just stay here, seeing as I spent a year just trying to get here. But it's kind of all up in the air now, and heaps of people are expecting me to come back.

The next few days look a little are going to involve a good deal of studying and typing up assessments that need to be turned in on Monday by midnight. Then, the rest of the week is going to be a breeze seeing as there is we don't have any tutorial classes. We have also decided we want to try getting plugged into a connect group.  I have been feeling like we have been getting left out of the Hillsong community by not belonging to one.

Fireworks and and fried chicken.

We went to the city again last night to see some street performers (dancers and jugglers mostly), drink chocolate, and watch fireworks. Today, is mother's day, so we cooked up some fried chicken and french fries for our adopted  Mexican "mum" here. As great as she is, she can't compare to my own one and only real mother back in the states whom I looking very forward to seeing and going out on one of lunches with when I get home. I know she doesn't fully understand how much Josh and I appreciate the long night shift hours she works at the hospital to support us and our family. But we do, and and are so grateful to have such a loving person in our lives that supports our dreams.

Highlights:

-One of the things we talked about in class over the week is why prophets seem to always die violent deaths. A good deal of people seemed confused and disturbed at the thought of this, but what I found strange is the fact that the notion didn't really bother me. To me, a martyrs death has always been the most honorable to way leave this earth. I would rather die a young martyr, than old and withering away in my bed.

- I have spent a good bit of the week tilling through the immense heap of footage I was given to make a video out of. I have a pretty good idea how I'm going to put it together, but unfortunately, the Final Cut program I "borrowed" has decided it wants to me the serial number that came on the box it came with...which I do not have. So it looks like I'm going to be spending a good bit of this week in the Mac lab at school cutting and pasting a rough cut together to show my director by the next Monday.

- Also, I miss my dog....

-I have been studying about angels and the unseen realm lately; halfly for devotion and partly for a novel I'm researching for. I have unearthed  heaps of information that has been sitting right in front of me. For instance,  when angels make an appearance on earth, they are usually described as being 12' tall men in shining robes. Why so tall? and why do they appear to look human, when other verses  describe them as not looking human at all (multiple animal like heads and wings)? I believe that the form the appear to us is just one that we could handle and yet still contain their heavenly glory (hence the 12' frame). I know a lot of people are reading this and thinking "Who cares?", But honestly I feel like the more I study about the things of God, the more real God becomes.

-This is my favorite video from the Exchange festival a few weeks ago. It took me awhile to find it, I believe this is the one that truly deserved to win (don't freak out, just click on the link to right if you want to see it >>) http://vimeo.com/22278917 

Sigh no more

This past week has been our break, and seeing as were traveling all over  last week, we decided to stay home-side for these past few days for the sake of finances.

Started running more. I discovered the route to a park with a track that loops around its perimeter. It's a bittersweet feeling running again,  especially when considering the 12 miles I was running this time last year with no problem...now it's about six laps before I head home.

I have also taken up prayer walking. Prayer has usually been something I have done off the cuff when I thought about it, most of the time when driving. But lately I have found sacrificing a few minutes unplugged from my ipod and with God to be worth it. I was inspired after running into a girl from school "prayer walking" on the side walk. She asked me if I needed her to pray for anything for me. It really stuck with me, so now I prayer walk too.

I did some job hunting over the break. I asked around in a knife shop, but the owner told me he was barely making means end as it was. Plus, even though I knew just as much as he did about a lot of the knives in the shop, he wanted someone with more selling experience. The next place I tried was an outfitter's shop (like an Australian REI), they told me to come back in June. That's defiantly a job I would LOVE to have. 

Yesterday, we had our first official camera class at noon. Most of it was spent showing us how to do things I already knew how to do, like setting up tripods. But our teacher is the best in the industry over here,  we consider it a real honor to be learning under him.

We had another moment of patriotic pride when we heard that bin Ladin had finally met his demise. I have to say though,  it was a struggle for me to keep from out bursting at a few of my international peers who were against the celebrating of the taking of another's life. I was actually shocked at the amount of disapproval of my country's handling of the ordeal.  However, most of them aren't the ones who have lived in a country that has been so viciously attacked as mine. Half my life time, my country has been trying bring him to justice, it's such a relief that it's over now.  I think once most of my international friends realize we aren't  blood drunk celebration of the killing of another one of God's children, but that justice has finally been served to monster who had been terrorizing the world for far too long.

By the way, sorry these entries are so scarce now a days. Our schedule is under construction and we have a handful of big assessments looming over us that take some time to work out.

I don't know if I have posted this song before...but it's this live version.