Classy Roadtrippin' with DohGyoung

This past week has been spring break. It's been a lovely much-needed break. I had a couple of plans to travel out of state, but they fell through. Having lived in a big city most of my life, albeit in a third-world country in Africa, I sometimes find myself feeling restless living in small-town Emporia, KS. Thankfully, one of my roommates and dear friends DohGyoung Ahn (Doh) has similar feelings as she grew up just outside of Seoul, South Korea. We both love Emporia, but we concluded we needed to get out of town for the day in order to appease our inner restlessness. We decided to spend the day in Kansas City, doing "classy cultural things"! 

We turned on some great tunes and "went to Kansas City on a Friday Wednesday." (Sorry, couldn't help the song reference.) 

First stop: Target! Of course! Melissa, I thought of you so much as I walked around.

Second stop: 1/2 Price Books! I warned Doh before we went inside that I could spend hours in a bookstore, but we managed to make it a relatively short stop and both left with books.

Third stop, after a couple of unforeseen detours: Chez Elle, a crêperie. We split a ham and cheese crêpe and a chocolate mousse crêpe. Of course we had to order something hot to drink as well, since it was still so chilly outside. Everything was delicious and the café was incredibly cute. It was a fun place to sit and visit.

Fourth stop: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I had never been to an American art museum before and was very much looking forward to this new endeavor--especially since I was going with someone who is studying art and is an artist herself. I took advantage of her knowledge and asked her many many questions. We didn't get to even half of the museum, but spent a good two hours walking around. I pretended to know a lot about modern art. It's all individual interpretation, right?!

 Isn't she just beautiful?! 

(I'm referring to Doh, not Mary in the picture below!)

What made my day was stumbling upon a collection by Monet! I love Monet's paintings! I was thrilled!

 

Fifth Stop: Legends Shopping Mall! We had to take a momentary break at this time to rest and re-group. Doh wasn't feeling well (my driving in heavy traffic, maybe?) and we were a bit hungry. Panera just happened be the lucky spot! 

After some shopping, we decided it was time to head home. It was nearly 9:00, after all. On the way home, we had another mini-adventure. While going 75 mph on the interstate, one of my tires blew out. By God's grace, I didn't lose control of the car. We were still probably 50 miles outside of Emporia, so I called my wonderful Aunt Terry and asked her what we should do. To make a long story short, we managed to get in touch with someone in Emporia who graciously came out to change my tire. It was 27 degrees outside and at least 11:00 PM before we he managed to get it fixed. I was missing a certain tool, so he had to make do with what he had in his truck! Can you figure out what that is in the picture? 

Yep, that's right. It's a deer's antler. The state trooper who came to see if we were alright was very impressed. 

At 11:58 we pulled up to our house in good ol' Empo-town. What a day. We were completely exhausted, but thoroughly enjoyed our time in KC.

15 Things I Want to Tell my Third Culture Parents

Earlier this week, I read a blog entitled "15 Things I Want to Tell My Third Culture Kids." I had tears in my eyes several times as I read. It was well-written and hit close to home. For those of you interested, you can read it here. My parents are not Third Culture Kid's themselves, but they are the parents of 4 TCK's, and it is to them, and to any other parents of TCK's, that I write the following. 

I realize it may appear overly dramatic; perhaps a bit overdone. I will most likely think of things later I will wish I had added and comments I'll wish I had left out. The pictures are old ones, a bit embarrassing, but since this whole writing affair seems a bit sentimental and nostalgic, they seem fitting. Plus, if I don't have pictures, Erika will never read my post! Anyhow, before I lose all determination to complete this task, here goes:

1. Thank-you. Thank-you for allowing us the immense privilege and opportunity of growing up in places that most people can't pronounce or have never heard of  before. Thank-you for making us go to French school, for letting us play in in the red-flooded roads after a big rain when you knew perfectly well what might be in that water, for playing hours of memory on the plane to keep us entertained, for teaching us to read and write in English so we wouldn't be behind, for nursing us through worms, malaria, and the chicken pox. Thank-you for making our home an American-African blend.

2. Your devotion and obedience to the Lord humbles and inspires me. You were, and are, willing to sacrifice comfort, ease, security, and family to move halfway around the globe and raise your family in unknown and often scary places because you knew you were to trust and obey God in His calling.

3. You sacrificed family...in the States. You gave up family reunions, weddings, births, and funerals. Mom, I'll never forget your anguish and agony of not making it back to the States in time to say goodbye to your dear sweet mother, my grandma.

4. You sacrificed family...on the field. You gave up goodnight kisses, Saturday morning father-daughter errands, late-night mother-daughter talks, and much much more, as giving my older sister, Melissa, the best education meant having her attend school in a completely different country. 

 (Trying to sleep and stay warm in the Paris Airport.)

5. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for blaming you for the unwanted yet constant change in my TCK world. I'm sorry for shutting you out when you were the only people around who knew me best and loved me the most. I'm sorry for unfairly accusing you of never understanding me, when you were trying so hard to do so. I'm sorry for thinking my pain was your doing. I'm sorry for the times I wished I had been raised in only one place.

6. You made home about the people and not the place. You made our family a safe and fun place to be. Whether I was sleeping on the top bunk of my bed in Bangui, on a cot in the French army camp, in a hotel room, in what felt like the tenth strange person's house on a support trip, in my shared room in Ouagadougou, or in my very own room in Kansas, you were there to tuck me in, sing to me, pray with me, and I felt secure. You showed me that my siblings are my playmates, my confidantes, my best friends. You proved to me that a family that prays together stays together. 

7. You were always there...especially when no one else seemed to be. You made sure you were the one to drop me off and pick me up on my first days of school when everything in my world seemed scary, unknown, and shaken. You were there to defend my arithmetic when my teacher took off points because I wrote my 1's the French way, and my teacher thought they were 7's. You were there to help me with my French when I felt so lost in school because I couldn't fully understand the teacher.

(This was taken for my grade 8 graduation.)

8. You showed me the importance of scripture. I never read Psalm 91 without thinking back to the night before my junior year of high school was about to start. I was crying. I was terrified. I was still grieving over the loss of my friends and was not ready to meet new ones. You comforted. You opened your Bible. You read Psalm 91. 

9. You allowed me to grieve. You didn't push me. You didn't rush me. You didn't tell me I should be over it by now. Every year, for many years, when June 28 would come around and the same familiar feelings of sorrow and anger and frustration would overwhelm me, you let me cry. But you never let me cry alone; you cried, too.

10. You helped me embrace my TCK tendencies. Although you may have sometimes disapproved, you allowed me to be stubbornly different in an effort to not lose ties to my host culture; whether it was wearing flipflops during winter or willfully trying not to grow accustomed to American milk. You let me keep dirty old nick-nacks, books, and clothes when we moved back to the States because you knew they were physical reminders of a place that I loved so dearly.

11. You explored my cultures with me. In Africa, you helped me see first-hand "the utter poverty of the masses" while we drove to the 3rd largest Basilica in the world. You showed me giant anthills, helped me not to take the grandeur of a Baobab tree for granted, watched wide-eyed with me as wild elephants cooled themselves off in a lake after sunset, walked with me across the canopy of the rainforest, somberly looked through the narrow door of the colonial slave castle in Ghana where thousands of African slaves, including princes and chiefs, ripped of human dignity, were pushed through without hope of return. In America, you stood with me in the bread aisle, dumbfounded that there was actually a whole aisle devoted to bread. You reacted incredulously to stand-up staplers, so I didn't feel so bad when I though machines in bathrooms that blew hot air on your hands to dry them were SO cool! You showed me your love for the Kansas country and farms, and helped me learn to love it too, without feeling like I was betraying my other home.

12. You prayed for me. You prayed for healing when I was hurt, boldness when I was shy, love when I was bitter, and forgiveness when I was resentful. You prayed for friends at all of our new schools. You prayed for patience and help when your kids seemed so complicated and closed-off. You prayed for our salvation and sanctification.

13. You walk by faith more than any parents I know because you are willing to put your family on the line for the sake of the Gospel. You are willing to raise Third Culture Kids with all of their intricately weird complex tendencies and mood swings! You are willing to watch your daughter start and almost complete college from across the Atlantic. 

14. You have shown me the Biblical perspective of home. Because you have raised me in multiple countries, I have no one physical home on earth. I am a restless person with wandering tendencies, but it makes me long for my heavenly home all the more. It causes me to rejoice in the One Unchanging Father who will be there. In Heaven, all of my cultural backgrounds and homes will be perfectly mixed.


15. I wouldn't change anything. Although there were times growing up I wished I could be like my American friends and live in one place my whole life and have the opportunity to excel with all of the possibilities surrounding me, I am glad I have lived where I have and have done what I've done.

Ben Michael Jackson Jr.

Thursday the heavenly storehouses of snow dumped a good 10 inches on Emporia, which meant no school!!! This French teacher was very happy. With the roads in such bad condition, school was cancelled on Friday as well! 

This is what I woke up to Thursday morning. What a beautiful sight! I took these pictures from inside--on the warm side of the window.

I did not venture out at all on Thursday. Friday, however, I took a little stroll around the 'hood. There is something breath-taking about heaps of spotless whiteness on fence posts, stone walls, evergreens, etc. I felt like I was walking through a Little Women scene in Concord. 

 

Dad, do you want to please fly back to Kansas to help me get my car out?!

I decided to have a little fun in the snow. 

(Thanks, Doh, for taking the pictures!)

First, a snow angel. 

Second, a snowman.

I was so proud. 

He took a lot of work.

 He gallantly stands stood watch over our mailbox.

 He had a cute hat...but it was too girly.

It's hard to find good quality hats in his size.

 

I decided he needed better arms than just sticks.

 It's hard to tell, but he has mini-chocolate chips for hair.

I am so proud.

We became good friends.

The candy had a hard time sticking, so I placed them colorfully at his "feet."

I had a hard time coming up with a name. 

Doh suggested Ben, because she kept singing the MJ song while I was working.

"Ben, the two of us, need look no more. We both found what we were looking for. With a friend to call my own, I'll never be alone. And you my friend will see, you've got a friend in me."

I didn't want to simply name him Ben. To boring...no offense to my 3 cousins named Ben.

But somehow...Ben Michael Jackson rolled off the tongue rather nicely.

Add a junior to it, and the name was perfect.

Ben Michael Jackson Jr. 

February 22, 2013-February 23, 2013

A friend to all.

It's the Little Things

I have been on a granola kick for the past several weeks months. 

I love granola. 

About once a month (sometimes more often), I make a big batch of it and eat it every morning for breakfast. 

Scrumdiliocious!!! 

I have yet to get sick of it. 

I love the smell of granola flooding the house when I bake it. 

I like trying new recipes, too, but lately I've been making the same one because it's simple and makes a smaller amount.

I love writing notes on my bananas and my roommate loves taking pictures of them. 

The picture is from her.

It makes life so much more exciting!

The other night, as I was about to brush my teeth, my roommate told me I'd better not use my toothbrush as the plumber, who had been there earlier to work on our sink, had said on his way out, "I would clean the toothbrush. I might have spilled some stuff on it." 

GROSS!!! SICK!!! NASTY!!! 

Since my toothbrush was reaching the end of its lifetime anyway, I threw it away and went to go ask for an extra one from one of my roommates. I live with 4 girls...surely one of them had an extra unused toothbrush on hand. 

Not so. 

It was very late. I was very tired. I had no toothbrush. 

I resorted to plan B.

Rest at ease. I made an early Walmart run in the morning. I bought a new toothbrush and a spare...just in case the plumber came back. 

Like I said...it's the little things...

Somebody Loves Me

This year, I received an incredible surprise on Valentine's Day. I had parent-teacher conferences in the morning, during which time one of the school secretaries told me I had a phone call. (I had a moment of panic, thinking something had happened to my parents in Africa.) Upon picking up the phone, I discover it's a local florist who had a Valentine's surprise to deliver for me, but wouldn't be able to make it to the school in time. She needed to know where she could deliver them in the afternoon. Well, that certainly sparked my curiosity. I had NO IDEA who had ordered flowers for me. Several hours later, back at the house, I heard a knock on the door and was given these:

Aren't they GORGEOUS?!?!?!?!?!

I LOVE THEM!!! 

They came with a card that said, "Happy Valentine's Day from Uncle Gordon, Aunt Terry, and boys." 

The referee valentine that you can see in some of the pictures came in the mail from Uncle Gordon. He wrote a nice little note, which included some French! 

Super impressive, Uncle Gordon! 

(Did Troy teach you that from his travels?)

I was so surprised by all of it.

I felt very special. 

Very appreciated. 

Very loved.

Thanks, Uncle Gordon.

I also celebrated the day with some chocolate covered strawberries made by Sherlynn...

...and some Jungle Speed with the roommates. 

We were too engrossed in the game to manage a picture.

The next morning I had the day off, which was lovely. 

I spent some time reading the Word, sipping on coffee, writing in my journal, and admiring my beautiful surprise. 

 Thanks again, Uncle Gordon.