Packed up my room today in under 3 hours thanks to the help of my bestie, Rachel. Funny how many things you can get done with the help of a partner! Including sucking down a whole pot of chi... Lol! Thank you Rachel!
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Shout out to another awesome cousin for saving the day! This weekends main focus is packing. Making sure I have everything, it is packed so if I lose a piece of luggage I would be shirtless, I won't exceed my weight limit, and is easy to handle. Well last night we got everything around and in the suitcases then this morning my mom took them into work to weigh them to make sure they didn't exseed 50 pounds. Well... My large suit case weighed in at 78 pounds and gave my mom a hard time transporting it. Mom texted me and said that there was no way I would be able to drag it through the airport. Going to be honest here, I was at a loss as to what to do next, with 3 days left and only one suitcase to pack with. Cue the cousin!
My cousin Nathen, the man that inspired me to go on this exchange, offered me his suitcase that he took in his exchange to Taiwan. This wasn't just a nice gesture this was a selfless sacrifice to his inconvinece to lend his suitcase to me. You see, he is moving down to north Carolina for college the same day I leave for Peru and already had this suit case packed and ready to make the move down. But when he heard my suit case wasn't working out he offered his up and packed in trash bags instead. All hope for humanity is restored! Thank you Nathen for saving the year and my tighty whities! It's funny how something so terrible, like a car reck, can bring a family and community closer. Wednesday I spent the day at deep river water park with my shortrigde cousins and Cameron my Jagger cousin. Perfect weather with my favorite people! The best part was seeing Cameron goof around with Paul and laugh so much that his stomic would cramp. Smiling, laughing, and being with good people really is the best medicine around!
I've never been more ready to leave yet so ready to stay. To be completely honest with the world this summer hasn’t been an easy one, especially now. Nothing has happened to me, but the loved ones around me have gone through some difficult times. Sometimes I wonder which would be harder to cope with. Watching your loved ones experience pain or just experience the pain yourself. It certainly makes it hard to think about leaving. But that’s being vague.
It started one 15 hour work day when I returned from work to find my mom in pain on the couch. Literally ten minutes later me, my dad, and my mom were in the emergency room waiting for a diagnosis of pancreatitis and appendicitis. Granted, my champion of a mom was in and out of the hospital within 24 hours without any problems but that didn’t mean recovery was convent. I'm sure anyone that has ever moved out of their parents' home can relate, that once the parents are out of the picture surprisingly things aren't magically done. The breakfast dishes are still there after dinner. The Landry pile can be compared to Mt. Everest. The cupboards grow bare without someone to restock them. It's almost funny how much a family misses one person. Then I was put on 3rd shift. Those of you that have, kindly, followed my blog for the past month probably noticed that some posts don’t really have any relation to my exchange (*cough* An Island in the Sky). You see, I would write poems and such in between cars when I wasn’t doing dishes back on drive through. I have a blogging requirement to fulfill, but what do you say when you have nothing to say? I wasn’t excited about my exchange. I was dead beat tired from working, coming home, cleaning and being step-in-mom, sleep for a few hours, then repeat the process. I didn’t want to blog about that. I wanted to escape into an island in the sky. But that's not reality when people need you. Things did start to look up. Mom's recovery started to pick up, I got off of 3rd shift, then the unimaginable happened. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins were in a horrific car accident on the way to vacation. People say that life can change in a blink of an eye, but nothing makes that saying more true than a car accident. My Aunt was pinned in the car and had to be removed, suffering damage to her leg and ribs and my cousin Alissa is facing traumatic spinal cord injuries and paralysis. My Uncle and my other cousin, Cameron came out with only bruises and scratches on the outside, but their hearts are worn from watching their sister and wife go through so much pain. The love and support that our family and this community has poured out on them in their time of need is so encouraging. I only wish I could be here to hug them and tell them I love them when they are finally able to come home. Leaving in a week, during the biggest tragedy my family has ever experienced, will not be easy. They tell us these things do happen when you're going on exchange, but you never believe it will happen to you. Not when you’re a corn loving Jagger. Yet here I am. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Right now, I'm answering questions. People call and want to be updated so we relay what we know. Facebook helps. We direct people to Facebook to find comfort in what my Aunt and Uncle are saying themselves. One thing is certain. Never stop smiling. You never know when tragedy could strike. Sometimes I wonder if life is out to bite. Of course, it says many times that life was never made to be easy. But that's me being selfish. Life is stormy to make skilled sailors. Never forget that!
Life is finally starting to calm down. I had my last night at McDonalds, spent the weekend at Calvin Collage in Michigan, just about have all my thank you letters done for my graduation party participants, and, most importantly, I got my laundry done! Today I received my flight itinerary and found out I will be flying out of Fort Wayne on July 27th at 2:49 pm. Definitely nice to know! Now it's just a matter of packing and finalizing. Oh, then of course there are the farewells… not looking forward to those. So far I haven't cried but I haven't said goodbye to the "core" members of my life. I have no doubts about going. It will just be hard to walk away. Well I'll leave you with a poem I wrote the other day in the thick of… everything. I'll be blogging later about past events just not now. Thank you for reading! She WorksShe works tirelessly into the night
For her dreams to unfold Will her hard work pay off? That is yet to be for tolled. She obeyed the call Putting aside the risk of a fall And steered herself towards her destiny Despite the reactions of all. Her energy is spent, But that doesn’t mean she will relent Not destiny's daughter, For she will not let fear taunt her. Dreams trickle in And work spills out But she has no time to pout She cannot waste a moment For the future she will bring about. I visited there once
An island in the sky It was hanging there suspended in the air Clouds surrounded it Soft and puffy Floating without a care While the wind tousled my long hair The wind swirled and twirled in joyful delight Trees reached to the sun bathing in daylight And off, just past the mist A castle stood. Tall and adrift. Wreaths of oak adorned the doors And Willow trees brushed the moors Upon my entrance a bell tolled Ringing out the mystery within Fine jewels and golden rope glistened in the halls But the wind calls Bringing with it smells of earth Like a sense of rebirth And there I left the island, Towards earth I fly, And glace once more At the Island in the sky. I wish the world had an end. How romantic would it be to walk to ends of the earth. Someone should write a book or make a movie about a flat earth. I wonder what it would be like? How would the water cycle work and could you really just walk off the end. Or even the side! Would it be square or would it be like an island in the sky just floating there, in the air, without a care. I'm going to write a poem now about an island in the sky. I'll put it on my blog after I've written it in all my spare time. -The random thoughts by Carmen written on the back of a napkin I found in my lunch box… Still don’t remember when I wrote it or put it in there…
Last night was probably the worst night I have ever had at work. Not that every night working McDonalds drive through is good, it was just that one was particularly bad. First of all no cleaning was done when I got to work then we were so busy with customers that we couldn’t do any cleaning anyway so that was a great way to start my shift. Then of course it was a holiday which means the drunks and druggies roll in sooner than 2 am. Usually l prefer the D&Ds to normal grouchy customers because they are polite and happy about getting food but last night a different kind, all its own, rolled in. He was a big man with his wife or girlfriend in the passenger seat. I had already predicted that he was drunk or high because while he was in line he was blaring his music and revving his engine for no apparent reason. When he got to my window he cranked his music even louder and yelled for me to dance. I find the best way to deal with customers like this is to ignore their bad behavior and just hand them their money and move on. Unfortunately the money that he handed me was in a giant wad and I had to separate and count out what he had to see if he could pay for his food taking extra time, forcing me to stand at the window longer than normal. Once he figured out I wouldn’t dance he started to call me vulgar things and cursed my boyfriend for caging me into a relationship. Jokes on him, I don’t have a boyfriend but I wasn’t going to tell him that. After I figured out how much he had handed me I handed him his change and recite and told him to have a nice night as flat faced as I could muster after being called such horrible things. He rolled his eyes at me, dumped the change and recite all over the ground in front of my window and stormed off, his music louder than life.
Now, I know that I'm not any of the things he called me or tolled me to do. But still, the fact of the matter that someone was thinking of me in that way weights me down. I must have looked as drained as I felt because another customer a few cars down asked if I was okay. He definitely was an angel wearing street clothes. I confided in him that I just had a rude customer call me some rude things. He nodded politely and said "well, you're alright now. Never let words from people that don’t matter effect you." he smiled. I gave him his change. And off he want. An angel in street clothes. I wrote this blog on the back of a McDonalds tray liner… talk about desperate! Had an awesome last 3 days. Ed Sheeran, fireworks, raspberry pies, and getting the horses hooves trimmed. All this and only 10 hours of sleep… got 'a love night shift! Well I'm too tired to write much more. Here is a little tribute I wrote to Ed on the way home from his concert.
"And for that still moment there is nothing else but him. He doesn’t know your name but he knows your soul. There isn't any research papers. No 3rd shift. No Landry. No chores. No drama. Just you and him. The reader of souls. " Now it is time for some much needed sleep! Happy Independence day! |
AuthorJust a country girl from Indiana about to embark on a trip of a life time with Rotary Youth Exchange! Blogging Action
June 2016
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