Transforming... Slowly.

I'm a bit over a month into STP now. I would say that in general things are going well. It's hard, but I think that's kind of the point. It's a transformational hard. I have good days and bad days, but then I always have good days and bad days. My team is fantastic, which helps a lot, and I've made a couple of other great friends.
I'm struggling some with the fact that pretty much everyone else is working at Dollywood or Splash. I feel a bit excluded when they come home with stories about the funny/awful/nice/scary people they have encountered. Not that they don't include me, but I don't have any stories to add. "Oh, I folded sheets by myself in the laundry for hours. Barely talked to anyone." And when someone does come to visit it's usually one of the maintenance guys. I talked to Jason for a bit the other night, as I folded my 11th load of sheets. It was nothing major, just small talk. But then later, when everyone shared work stories I felt weird, talking about this one guy so much.
I guess that's another struggle. They're encouraging us to hang out with our teams and the other girls a lot, and not to spend too much time with the guys, particularly alone. I get where they're coming from - the guys here are all incredible and it would be so easy start 'sharing hearts', develop a crush and get really distracted. We're not here to form those kinds of relationships - we're here to build and develop our relationship with God. But it's hard for me, because there's only so much girlynes and screaming at bugs that I can hack. I like hanging out with guys, because it's different and I'm used to it. But I don't want to get in trouble, and I don't want to get any of the guys I hang out with in trouble.
Last night we did impromptu swing dancing after Nav Night which was fantastic, because it was an appropriate opportunity to hang out with a bunch of guys and girls. Also, I LOVE dancing. We learnt all kinds of flips and tricks because everyone knew something different.
But I'm enjoying my time here. God is teaching me a lot about patience and contentment. And also the importance of time with Him each day and extended prayer time. It was interesting talking to a couple of people this morning. Each has their own struggle with some aspect of what they're doing this summer. A lot is with work. One guy likes to be able to worship God with action - working hard for His glory. But he works in a slow area of the park, so he's spending a lot of time with nothing to do. I love talking to people, but I spend 9 hours a day, twice a week completely by myself. God is sovereign, and definitely growing us all.
Obviously, I'm also learning to be more open about my faith. To live it out in all aspects of my life, not just the church-y areas. To talk about God is all conversations, not just the religious ones, or with my Christian friends.
My summer is going well.

It's a Funny Thing...

I'm at STP in Tennessee, which is my excuse for not writing much. Mind you, we've only been here for a week and a bit, so I should have written before.
It's been good so far, generally. Not particularly challenging, though I'm sure my time will come. It's interesting being one of the older girls, without being one of the more spiritually mature. Even though I'm the same age as most of the team leaders, there's no way I could be one. I still have a long way to go, a lot of growing and a lot of learning to do. One thing I've been trying to do more is quiet times. The idea is to spend time each day dwelling with God - reading the bible, journalling and praying, listening to what he wants to say to you. I want to make it a habit, but a habit I enjoy, before I head back to Australia and lose some of the support I've built up here.
I feel weird writing this in a public place, but there's no internet in our rooms. If someone comes in this room I'll be quickly switching to another window. How crazy is that? I'm writing where the whole world can see, but I don't want anyone here to see.
The place we're staying is beautiful. It's in the mountains a little, so it's a bit of a hike from building to building. I haven't been on the net much because I'm too lazy to drag my laptop up and down the hills. We're in chalets, so that there's a team (4 girls) to a room/bathroom, then three teams to a kitchen/common area. It's working well so far. I haven't had much of a chance to explore the area yet, but it's really pretty. It's like being back in Tassie in some ways... with the trees and the hills.
While everyone else works at Dollywood I've been given a few different jobs. There were a couple of days where I had nothing to do, which now makes me incredibly grateful for whatever they find for me to do. Yesterday I spent 9 hours in the laundry; washing, drying and folding sheets and towels from other guests at this place (we aren't the only ones staying here). I'm not getting paid or anything, but a few of us who can't work at Dollywood are helping out around the site so that our 'rent' is not so expensive. Tomorrow I'll be back in the laundry cos it's Nav laundry day. 100+ sets of sheets and towels. I'm going to take my ipod, because I was going a little crazy by the end of yesterday - racing the dryers (they dried and I folded) and singing songs to myself.
Today I did some admin stuff to help out the directors. It's nice to have the variety.
I don't really know what else to say at this point... hopefully I can write more here during the summer - chronicle my stay for the world/noone. It's a funny thing, having a blog that noone reads.

Costa Rica and Back

Yeah, oops.
I'm back from Costa Rica obviously. Had a great time, though being the only white and blonde person in the entire town (it seemed) took a bit of getting used to. When we went into the town (I never went alone cos apparently it's somewhat dangerous) I had to walk on the inside of Jose to show that I was unavailable, and I still got lots of honks and whistles. I'm not the biggest fan of being the centre of attention, but other than that it was ok. I didn't feel unsafe or anything.
We spent most of the time visiting Jose's friends and family. Which basically involved a lot of speedy spanish and me sitting there playing word games on Jose's iphone. I didn't have much of a chance to use my spanish because my speaking and listening skills suck eggs. I learnt how to say "I'm full" and said "nice to meet you" and "thank you" a lot.
On the Saturday we went up to a volcano called Irazu, which was very cool. It wasn't active but the view was incredible and the crater was impressive. When I say 'we' I mean J, me, J's best friend F (who's family we were staying with) and F's brother LD. After the volcano we visited a hydro-electric dam, because three of us are electrical engineering and LD is a civil engineer. We stood on this road bridge to look at it, which shook like crazy every time a car drove across it. As cool as the view was, I spent most of the time remembering how afraid of heights I am.
J, F and I hung out a fair bit too. I really hope J doesn't think that I stole his best friend, cos I feel like F and I got along really well. I may have developed a slight crush, though I could blame that on the fact that F was the only other person who spoke english to me. Anyway, we had fun.
I'm staying with SS at the moment. She has work and volunteering and classes, so she's out quite a bit, but I don't mind because I kind of need the alone time. I've packed and repacked a couple of times, because I decided I couldn't leave so much stuff behind, so I bought a cheap duffle bag and filled it with stuff I won't take to Tennessee (surprising amounts of my clothes aren't really 'nav appropriate') but will take back to Oz.
Since we got back I've been catching up with friends some as well. Carolyn and I went shopping the other day as I need to buy a 'modest' swimsuit for STP. I get why they don't want the girls wearing bikinis, but it's kind of annoying having to buy a new suit just for the trip.
Probably more to report, but that's enough for now.

Packing

My last exam at USF is tomorrow. I haven't really studied, or even finished the homework that's due. It turns out that I really like packing. I'm leaving on Saturday, which gives me a day and half to get everything packed and cleaned, but instead I started when I still had three exams to study for. I thought it was just another form of procrastination, but I've discovered that I actually really enjoy it. It's probably a combination of the involvement of clothes and the necessity of getting a lot of things to fit nicely into a small space - like stacking dishes, the engineer in me loves it*.

So yeah, headed for Miami on Saturday. Staying with J's mum, which will be fun (aka awkward). Then Costa Rica on Monday. I can't wait for that bit, hope it all goes well. What I'm really praying for though, is smooth sailing when I have to get back in to the US. Praying that I've done everything right, that it's ok in the first place, and that customs isn't obsessing too much about the whole swine flu thing.

Speaking of the pork illness, my mother is Very Worried. In fact, all of Australia seems Very Worried. A lot more worried than the US, which strikes me as odd. So I keep sending reassuring emails about the lack of Florida/Costa Rica cases, and the fact that noone's died in the US yet (straight after I wrote that email ABC news informed me that the US had had it's first death. Thanks ABC).

Not much else to report. I've been procrastinating a lot lately by reading the Stuff Christians Like website. Yes, it's a clone/ripoff/whatever of Stuff White People Like, but it's funny, and insightful, and quite often hits home. It's what I like to call the 'Kath and Kim' brand of humour. You laugh and say 'I would never do that' outloud, while quietly vowing never to do 'that' again. The author also uses my new favourite words: 'sucktacular' and 'skanktacular'.



* Dad told me when I was about ten that I'd be a good engineer because I could stack the washed dishes so high.