Nearing the End...

So tomorrow is the last day of Project. I can't believe it...wow. Kinda speechless actually. I feel like it's been too long to update on everything that has gone on but I'll hit a few highlights.

-CalPI Prom including pictures, dinner, games, and a dance kind of

-Calmed down weeks at work

-Hanging out with Mercedes a lot

-Taking pictures of lots of random things

-Laying sod at a local church

-Lots of application points from sessions at night

and much, much more but I'm worn out and trying not to be too sleep deprived for the drive back home to Kansas.

Some thoughts

It seems that each new week here brings a whole different set of experiences. Ok, so that seems probably pretty obvious but really, it's true. Work finally slowed down last Tuesday after a crazy week before with a humongous order that was stressful to get finished. The fun thing is that I got to see the house with all of the furniture in it. It's looks like a magazine. Even though I don't do any actual upholstering I still feel proud of the quality of work that comes out of the shop. All of the workers are hard-working. They are also helping practice my spanish. It's a fun environment and I'm going to miss them all. I only have this week and then Mon and Tues of next week. 

I've been able to hang out with my boss' oldest and youngest daughters quite a bit lately. They're so much fun and I'm sad that she was gone for two weeks when I was here. We get along great and would be good friends if I were able to stay here. Hopefully we can keep up the friendship. Praying for that at least. 

Here's a list of new things that I've learned to like to eat in California:

Coffee

Sour cream

Chile pepper on fruit

Peanut butter and ground cinnamon oatmeal

fish tacos from Wahoo's 

mango smoothies with lychee 

And a few I don' t like:

annoying bumpy things on the road that divide the lanes

boba (tapioca balls at the bottoms of smoothies...)

And some things I wasn't expecting:

cold nights and mornings

needing a jacket at the beach in the middle of July

Oh yeah, for work, I also went to this cool house to pick up some outdoor seat cushions. It was sweet! It was all single room width in a U shape with a pool in the middle. It looked like a magazine as well and I wonder if the people who own it are actually able to live in it. I'd definitely take my Kansas farm house over a magazine any day. 

There's so much more that goes on here but I'm tired and not typing so well any more and taking little naps in between sentences. Time for bed. 

Mastercard Theme

Worship + Prayer walking + Surprise bonfire at the beach + Hot chocolate + More worship = one amazing Thursday night. 

The week in review...

I wanted to write last Sunday evening because I knew if I didn't then I wouldn't have time till, well, now. I've had a couple of full-time weeks at work lately. It's good and I've been able to get to know my coworkers a little more despite some language barrier difficulties. Work has been kinda crazy but the girl whose job I'm working is coming back either Monday or Tuesday. I'm excited to get to have a little less responsibility as to what gets worked on next, although I do feel that I'm finally getting the hang of it. My boss and his other daughters that float in and out of the shop are so encouraging to me. They're awesome. Today we had a fiesta for one of the workers because it was her birthday. So much fun, not that I understood a lot of the conversation. :P 

But to back track a little. Last weekend we had a Missions Conference. It consisted of four sessions on Friday night and Saturday morning. Brian Zunigha spoke and he was with the Traveling Team for a few years and so his first talk was very similar to that. Then we spent a lot of time on the history of missions, which was so awesome to see how God totally brought lives together and influenced others. It got me thinking again about my heart and responsibility to world missions. It's so easy to get caught up in my own little world of homework and social time. I'm really going to work at living out some of what I learned last weekend. You are all welcome to ask me about it if you want. Then, to top off the weekend on missions, we went to a memorial service for Ralph Winter. I didn't know who he was except that he had coined the concept of unreached people groups (and this I'd only learned that weekend even) but I was excited to go and hear about his life. His service was awesome. So much said about him but mostly it was more about how God used him. The icing, though, was getting to hear John Piper and Rick Warren speak in the same hour. They had both been greatly influenced by Ralph Winter and it was cool to get to hear them in person. Some of us even got a picture with Rick Warren who then told us that he was going to, "Say something profound. Um...Live life on purpose and...it's not all about you." Sound familiar? Wonderful weekend.

I had some interesting experiences at work this week. On Tuesday, I was able to go with to take measurements at a multi-million dollar house on the bayfront and see how someone could spend thousands of dollars to just decorate their house that they weren't even going to live in. Wow. So crazy and different from small town Kansas. I haven't felt much culture shock here. I just can't quite grasp the concept of spending that much money; however, I also enjoy thrift shopping so I guess that's not too much of a surprise. I also got to see two completely white sofas made this week (there aren't couches here). I don't grasp the concept of white furniture either. Just some differences I've noticed here. 

One last thing, Wednesdays are our "real life" nights meaning we learn some skill useful and practical in the real world. Last week was about sewing. I learned how to hem pants by hand. I have a hunch that I won't be getting much taller so this will be a good skill to have. What's funny is that of the 6 people who learned how to hem pants, 5 of us were the shortest girls here. and the other person was a guy. 

Time Flies

Wow, in just a couple days I'll have been gone for a month. It's FLOWN by so quickly! I'm loving it though. Every single one of us was able to get a job. Totally God's doing considering the economy out here right now. I'm starting to get a better handle on work duties since I had to step into a receptionist role because the main one had to leave for a week or so. It's interesting and I'm kept on my toes all the time but my boss is awesome and very encouraging. He's always saying that everyone who works for him is his family. 

One humorous story, tonight I went to Walmart for the first time since coming here. I bought a kiwi strawberry sparkling water and while I was waiting for my friends to check out and absently opened up the bottle and was abruptly sprayed with carbonated water. So I played it off as cool and started walking away with echoes of my friends laughter following me. Then, back at Vanguard, I was talking to a group and absently opened the bottle again. I discovered that the carbonation in sparkling water is more powerful than pop because it sprayed again...silly me. Anyway, I hope I humored you a little. 

Tonight we had a role play followed by discussion on how to disciple someone. It was really cool and I learned tons more than what I had known before. I think I'm going to be processing this summer for a long time. 

Wonderful. 

CalPI '09 rocks!

and people here really do drink "wheat grass shots." Hmmm....

Everything Girl

So I don't have an official title at my job but if I did I think it would be "Everything Girl." This week I have sorted fabric in order to catalog it, answered the phone, made a curtain slash wall, cleaned slipcovers, ate tamales, touched up a big painted that had been sewn because of a tear, logged incoming fabric, swept, dusted, organized nail heads, and wrote a business letter. I'm sure I'll probably be doing even more by the end of my time here.

Oh, and, I revisited a bagel place that couldn't hire me because I am leaving so soon and got a hawaiian bagel, meaning it had pineapple baked into it. It was scrumptious but I fear I have spoiled my supper. Enchilada soup tonight. Yeeesss!

That's all, folks!

Now let me clarify this...(for all who have seen The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) 

So I realized that you may be confused as to the title of this blog. Or maybe not. Perhaps I'm not giving you enough credit. CalPI stands for California Project Impact. Get it? Cal P I - Kinda sounds like cow pie, but it's not, which is what makes it fun.