Landed Stateside and hit the ground running...or sprinting, rather

    As many of you may know I got back to the States a few weeks ago, July 26th, to be exact.  Flying through Chicago(where I had a lovely, relaxing, 5-hour layover) I landed in Billings late where Mom and Dad were there to greet me with big hugs and bigger smiles. As we drove the two hours back to Lewistown, I did most the talking as they wanted to hear about everything that had happened since May. After they came to visit at Easter, our communication with each other slowed down quite a bit. We all got so busy and caught up in the end-of-year festivities, it was hard to find much time to fill each other in regularly. We finally made it home safe, I unloaded my bags, went to my room and collapsed on my bed. The next few days were a bit of a blur as my body wasn't exactly up to speed on my travel itinerary(London is 7 hours ahead of Montana).  If you've never experienced jet-lag, let me tell you, it is one of the most confusing but fascinating experiences you might go through.  I was quite impressed with how my body could sleep 15 hours one night...then 2 hours the next. Talk about frustrating.
   Besides the spontaneous bouts of utter exhaustion, the next few days were wonderful as I got to reconnect with friends and family and become reacquainted with life in Central Montana.  It was fair week in Lewistown so I got to see quite a few old classmates, many of whom I'd not seen since we graduated. It was so interesting to hear where everyone has been; it seemed like we were all in such different stages in our life. The ones that I'd talked to that had gotten married and/or had kids already seemed quite keen on hearing about my year overseas. I heard everything from excited questions and hopes of traveling to fear and doubt in their ability to take on such a lifestyle.  I was shocked to hear that some of them have never left the state, or even the town. Of course, it made me realize, again, how I'm in such a completely different stage of my life than a lot of people my age. Some of them said they would be terrified to move to another country for a year. I said I'd be terrified to have kids right now.
   Though I didn't pick up much of the British accent, I seemed to acquire somewhat of a more expansive vocabulary.  My brother Kyle did not hesitate to make fun of me when I asked if he had the same "mobile number" instead of "cell number"...and my friend in Minnesota got confused when I said "I'll meet you at half six" instead of "six thirty."  The first few days back, my brain was hurting. I've never had to think so hard when trying to keep a conversation going. And to think, I was still speaking English!
   I had about seven days home before I left for Minnesota for my brother Justin's wedding.  After a few days full of rehearsals, family reunions, overindulging in fruits and salads, hair and makeup appointments, and a few hours of photo shoots,  Justin and Julie tied the knot on August 6, 2011 at First Evangelical Free Church in Maplewood, MN.  After the ceremony, we headed to Lake Elmo for the reception which was full of delicious food, the best cake I've ever had in my life, heartfelt and helpful toasts, and, of course, lots of music and dancing.

Shobe fam

Shobe kids

Blonde Bombers~
(Cousin Ilsa & niece Hadlee)

   Justin and Julie had chosen "I Hope That's Me" by Brad Paisley for their first dance and then they wanted it to go right into "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet to which they had asked me to choreograph them a swing dance for. We had so much fun rehearsing the Thursday night before the wedding, I was so proud of them and how fast they picked it up! During rehearsal I told them they only got one shot at this so they had to go big or go home.  They gave it everything they had and went all out. I couldn't stop smiling through the whole song.

Welding shop-wedding style

   After the wedding, I stayed in Minnesota for a few days visiting friends from Concordia.  I made my way home on Wednesday and then on Friday I spent the whole day helping set up for the Lewistown reception for Justin and Julie, which was on Saturday. They realized that 13+ hour drive to Minneapolis is rather a long trek for a lot of people so they wanted to have a celebration here as well so everyone could be a part of it.  The reception was held at my uncle's(Tom Spika) welding shop. Sounds crazy, I know. But that place cleaned up well!  The reception ended up being bigger than the wedding with over 300 people(wedding was about 200). It was nuts! But so much fun as I got to see so many people I'd been looking forward to reconnecting with but didn't know when I was going to get the chance to.

a glimpse of the celebration

  Pastor Paul Seastrand gave a short blessing and Kyle and I sang the song which we sang at the ceremony("I Will" written by John Lennon & Paul McCartney, also sang by Alison Krauss). After the food was served, Kyle, Jodie and I shared a little program we had put together to tell the story of Justin and Julie(which they had no idea was coming).  As J.R. Lund (groomsman & Justin's best friend since childhood) and Steve Astrup(Concordia buddy) read the story, the rest of us added in a little musical flavor.  We had rewritten the words to some songs to make them more fitting while trying to keep the embarrassment at a reasonable level.  It wasn't perfect, as we didn't have much rehearsal time, but we sure had fun with it. 

Justin & Julie performing their
swing dance in Lewistown

  We really did party til the cows came home. It was about midnight when the dancers began dwindling and the music faded. What a wonderful night!  My family felt so fortunate to have so many caring people there to show such love and support.
I'll be honest, the whole week was quite a whirlwind yet it was one I'll never forget.  Though I had people asking me about England every chance they got, I felt so blessed to have the chance to share my story and be a witness to the ministry of YAGM and SPEC.  I also have to say that I'm forever grateful to Justin and Julie(I don't know if they're reading this) for putting their wedding plans on hold until I returned.  I know my being gone kind of got in the way but I was so happy to be able to be a part of their special day and share in the love and joy of their marriage.


 

A Wee Trip to Northern Ireland

   I had a week from the time we finished at SPEC til my flight home on July 26 so Erik(fellow Minnesotan) and I decided to head to Belfast, Northern Ireland.  We stayed with our friend Franclin who is from Cameroon and had come to SPEC in May to work with us for a week.  Franclin works at a center called Corrymeela (look it up!) in a little village called Ballycastle, just north of Belfast about an hour. It was there that I decided Ireland has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

   The first two days we spent in the city, exploring the streets and shops.  Thursday we were lucky enough to meet up with fellow SPEC-ies Amelia(American) and Jess(Kiwi...from New Zealand)and Jess's parents who were visiting for the month.  They joined us for a "Hop-on Hop-off Bus tour" of the city; what a great way to learn about the city!  Jess's parents were a hoot; they were both born and raised in South Africa and moved to New Zealand when Jess was ten years old.  I was fascinated by the stories they shared about life back in South Africa.
   I don't know if you know much about the rather recent history of Northern Ireland and the conflict that they've endured. It's referred to as "the troubles" between Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists, or the republicans and the loyalists.  Starting back in the 1960s, the conflict continues today, though not to the same degree that it was even 15 years ago.

  As we were on the bus tour, we saw hundreds of murals painted on billboards and the sides of buildings crying out for peace between the two peoples.  We saw several paintings that were memorials for those who had suffered or died from the conflict, expressing the great courage and perseverance their lives displayed.  Some of the paintings gave me chills, as they depicted men dressed in black with machine guns, with a message written about their intent. I've never been in a place like that, so affected by political conflict that you see it on every street you walk down, and practically every building in sight.
  One thing that I saw that took my head for a spin was the children that were walking up and down the street where we were staying.  Franclin had warned us as we walked to the house the first day that we might see these kids out, declaring their unionist support.  I wasn't quite sure what he meant until we actually saw the kids. Sure enough, they were marching up and down the street, banging their bass drums and yelling some chant(which we couldn't quite make out the words to). He said it seems to be something so engrained in them, it's a pasttime that has been passed down to them from generation to generation.  It gave me goosebumps when I first saw them as I really had never seen anything like it before.  It still blows my mind how much political conflict can truly affect everyone and everything and in ways we never expect to see it.
   Also, if you brush up on your Irish history, you will discover that the Titanic was actually built in Belfast(how cool is that?!) so as we were on the tour, we got to see the building sight as well as the new museum that is being constructed to be finished in the upcoming years. We also passed the Royal Hospital, where the portable heart defibrillator was invented. Our tour guide said this made Belfast the best city to have a heart attack in, and the city most likely to give you one. At one point, our tour guide had told us we were about to pass the house of the most optimistic man in Belfast("how do you measure that?" I thought).  And sure enough, just as we drove by the house, we saw an outdoor swimming pool in his backyard.  Apparently it's the only one in the whole city. 

Family dinner

   After the bus tour, we invited the others to join us for dinner so we all headed back to the house we were staying at and Erik and I cooked delicious stir fry for everyone. As we sat around and chatted about life in England, Cameroon, and America, there were a few moments I just found myself sitting there, soaking in everything around me. I thought about how lucky I am to be blessed with such wonderful friends. How lucky I am that I get to meet people from every walk of life.  How lucky I am that I get to explore this beautiful world. How lucky I am to be alive. (sounds cheesy, I know. But it was just one of those moments.)
   After a few hours of laughing and storytelling, we waved goodbye to Amelia, Jess and her family as they had flown into Dublin, hired a car, and were planning to continue their drive up north. Then Franclin, Erik and I decided we wanted to take in some traditional Irish music so headed to a pub in the city center for the evening.  Franclin's friend, Owen, came and joined us and we had a blast.  Owen was born and raised in Holywood, just outside of Belfast, where Rory McIlroy, PGA golfer who won this year's U.S. Open, is from.  Owen said he's even talked to him several times before! I had Erik take a picture of me enjoying a Guinness(of course), with a ginger Irishman, while listening to the beautiful Irish music...I was lovin' it all.

Franclin & I at Queen's University

   Friday morning we made our way towards Queens University (beautiful campus!) and the Corymeela office.  We were very grateful that two of Franclin's co-workers offered to give us a ride out to Ballycastle and Corymeela, so we wouldn't have to make the 2-3 hour long trip by bus.  It was such a beautiful drive! 

The view from Corymeela

  As soon as we got out there, Franclin gave us a tour of the site and then it was lunchtime.  After having a little time to relax, we decided we wanted to go out for a hike and Franclin said "I know just where we'll go...Fairhead."  Sounds great!  So we set out our our afternoon excursion.  We come to discover that Franclin had only ever walked this trail once before, and that was way back in October.  Though the path was pretty easy to follow as it was guided by the shoreline, there were some parts that were a bit overgrown by bushes and were about 3 inches deep with mud.  I thought it made it that much more entertaining.  We finally made it as far down as we could go before we had to start climbing up the big hill to the rocky ridge of Fairhead.   

Franclin thought about trying to catch one...
but decided against it.

   At one point we passed a herd of sheep and I thought to myself, "How the heck do you take care of your herd if they're way out here?!"  I definitely didn't see a road anywhere close and the closest house was at least 2 miles away. As I was contemplating the logistics of keeping a bunch of sheep so far away, we reached the top and as I turned around to see the view, it completely took my breath away.  As I looked straight ahead, across the water, I could see an island.  To the right were the mountains of Scotland and to the left was the village of Ballycastle.

View from Fairhead...
or what I could capture of it.

I took so many pictures but none of them could truly capture the beauty that was before us. We agreed that we deserved a break so we sat there for awhile, just soaking in the majestic gift of Creation.

headin home

   When we finally caught our breath, we started back towards Corymeela, this time staying on top of the ridge to make our way back, but still not really sure where we were going. Let's just say, we had a good time making our own trail. 
  We made it back just in time to catch the tail-end of dinner. Even though I was rather toasty from the hike, the beef and vegetable soup tasted so delicious!  The potatoes were rather tasty as well (Franclin had warned us about the overload of potatoes he'd gotten this year, they have them EVERY day!).  After dinner, we had a little time to relax before some of the volunteers started heading to the pub in the village.  We walked about 35 minutes to Ballycastle(which made the 15 minute walks at SPEC seem like a piece of cake) which was absolutely beautiful.  We walked by the edge of a golf course, which was right along the beach and as we got closer to the village, we could see all the lights, shining bright and reflecting on the water.  As we made our way into the village, we found a very traditional, very small, Irish pub.  As we walked in, I felt like I was stepping back in time.  It was one of the oldest pubs in the area and the people there made it feel like we'd been family for just as long. Of course, there was live traditional Irish music that night (which happens almost every night, I'm sure) but it was the real traditional kind, meaning it was just instruments and no singing.  So here were these three men: one playing a fiddle, one playing an accordion, and one playing a drum and they weren't on a stage(there was no room for a stage in that pub) they were just sitting around their table like they normally would, just playin' away, and of course, a few pint glasses there, ready to nourish them when they needed it.  I was just captivated by the friendliness of the place, by the music, and by those three men, they didn't stop smiling the whole night! What a perfect way to spend our last night in Ireland.
   As it was getting pretty late(11 pm is late for pubs in the UK...that definitely took some getting used to) we pooled our money together with some of the others and got a cab home. When we got back, everyone pretty much went to bed but I still had so much energy from experiencing some true Irish culture, Erik, Franclin and I ended up sitting and talking for a little while, talking about our day and how we didn't want it to end.
   But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.  Saturday morning we had to wake up by 5 am so we could make the trek back to Ballycastle and catch the bus to get back to Belfast.  We actually ended up having to get on 2 different buses, which took about 2 1/2 hours to get us to the city, longer than the car ride up, but shorter than walking all the way!  As we got into Belfast, we had about an hour until Erik and I had to head to the airport to catch our flight.  We bid farwell to Franclin and thanked him abundantly for being such a fabulous host.  He'd made the trip so enjoyable, we were so incredibly grateful for his generosity. We made one last stop at a Irish souvenir shoppe (where the bulk of their merchandise was Guinness labeled stuff) and then made our way to the airport.  We had just enough time to grab coffee and a sandwich before we had to get on the plane and before we knew it, we were in the air, London-bound.  I couldn't believe our trip was over already. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it was so worth it.  I decided that if/when Franclin moves down to Dublin next year, I'm going to go visit him there too. That's the wonderful thing about making friends with people from all over the world, now I have lots of places to go visit! The thing about the friends I've made this year is that they feel like they are more than just friends, they feel like family.

My brothers

In the past month...

My deepest apologies for my lack of communication over the past month. Once June hit, things went off the wall.  We were busier than ever with end-of-the-year work, play, and celebrations.  Here's a quick overview of what went down.

    At the beginning of June, we had our third and final TFG Conference.  All nine of us YAGM, plus the three 2nd year ELCA volunteers, headed up north to Doncaster for four days of sharing stories, relaxing, and, hardest of all, saying goodbyes. Everyone was asked to give a short presentation about their placement and what they learned which was wonderful because we got to hear how the year has changed every single one of us.  Hearing stories about mistakes we'd made as newbies to the English culture, to stories about struggling with our identity and our faith: we felt such a sense of connectedness, knowing that we were never alone through it all.  One of the moments I will always remember about the conference was the last evening where we had worship together and celebrated Holy Communion.  With Erin showing her skills on the piano, we sang some familiar Lutheran hymns that seemed to tug at everyone's heart; a lot of us had felt a yearning for songs like that for quite a long time.  Communion was done a bit differently as we pushed the tables together and all sat around the big table together.  Donald Scott, a man from Glasgow, Scotland who's on the Board of Trustees for TFG and also a minister(he has done a lot of work in prison ministry) served us Communion and it was one of the most powerful Meals I've ever experienced.  Looking across the table, through the candle light, I could see a reflection of God in the faces of my brothers and sisters. As we ate the Bread and Body, I imagined that was what it must've felt like to be eating at the Last Supper; sitting around the table with your closest of friends, sharing a most sacred meal.  It's moments like that which are impossible to plan, but will never be forgotten.

   Brightlights!  July 1-4 we went up north for a young adults Christian music festival which has always been held at SPEC in the past but this year was moved to Aylesford Priory.  What an amazing place to have a festival!  I have to admit, hangin' out with a bunch of Friars, in a place that was built in 1281 was one of the coolest experiences ever.  Especially when they had come to the "disco"(dance party) we had the last night and they all rocked out to a medley from Grease, Grease Lightning moves and all!  It was a wonderful weekend full of music, incredible speakers, and time to reconnect with fellow volunteers we'd met at the conference in January. Most of us took tents and sleeping bags and camped out in the nice field they had; I'd forgotten how much I love camping out!
   I absolutely enjoyed all three of the main speakers that were there, they had so many good stories and inspirational advice surround the theme of "Just Love." The theme was so fitting as it focused on the social justice aspect as well as the idea of love alone being the most important thing we are given and we have to give.
   Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow is the Scottish founder of Mary's Meals, an organization he started in 2002 after watching on tv the conflict in Bosnia.  After making the trek to Bosnia with a Jeep full of donations of clothes and food, it quickly grew to an aid effort to get more children to school, where they would be offered at least one good meal for the day.  Currently Mary's Meals serves in over 16 countries, costing £6.15 to support each child for a year.  His story was one of true perseverance and dedication.
    The second speaker was by far one of the most captivating and honest speakers I've ever heard.  Abuna Elias Chacour is a Melkite Catholic Archbishop born to a Palestinian Christian family in Upper Galilee. He experienced the tragedy of eviction from his village by the Israeli authorities in 1947 and became a refugee in his own land.  In 1965, Abuna was appointed priest of the village church in Ibillin and has been there ever since.  The stories he shared about the things he had experienced showed that his work and ministry went far beyond the reaches of routine priestly duties.  He has written 2 books and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace prize.  He talked about how we are "living stones" and that only together are we stronger than anything. He started his talk with what was one of the most powerful things I heard all weekend.  He said, "Stones can speak and they can speak eloquently only if we know how to listen.  So get up, go ahead, do something, you who want to be peacemakers."  As I glanced around the audience, everyone, I mean everyone, was absolutely captivated by this man's presence, hanging on to his every word. It's not everyday you get to experience something like that.
    The last speaker was Fr Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk who is famous for his appearance in the BBC 2 television documentary The Monastery as well as The Big Silence.  He shared with us his studies and exploration in the value and challenge of silent meditation.  A lot of what he had to say related to what I'd learned(and loved) in my Religion and the Body class last year at Concordia. He offered some different practices that can help us to focus and re-center ourselves; it's all about finding balance, finding quiet in a world so full of noise.  Amen, Father.
     Overall, the weekend was a great time of reconnecting, relaxing, and re-energizing. The sunshine was abundant, as was the fellowship. I had been asked to help lead a workshop with a game I'd help write a few months ago that was all about saints of the Catholic church.  I have to admit I never expected to learn so much about the saints, let alone find myself teaching others about them! I actually quite enjoyed it, I've always found sainthood rather fascinating.
     As the last day of the festival was on the 4th of July, us three Americans ended it by standing in the dining hall at breakfast showing our patriotism by singing the Star Spangled Banner.  Though a number of the people had already left the evening before, we did get a round of applause from the few that were still left in the room.  And that was the extent of our 4th of July celebration.


    After Brightlights, we had only a few days left of work.  My last day of retreat was with a year 8 group(7th grade) and they were lovely as ever. A perfect way to end the year!  After our last day of work on the 8th of July, we had a week and a half of community activities and time to finish documenting things we'd done and changed over the year.   Within the week and a half, we had a 24-hour retreat(similar to the team retreat we'd had before Easter), went golfing at the driving range(SO fun, especially because I was one of 3 people on the team who'd ever golfed before...I had a grand time teaching the little I remembered about how to swing), went to a pottery shop and painted mugs, had picnics outside, had a recap of the year in photos,  watched movies, played ultimate frisbee, had a baby-photo contest, and ended the last night with a dance party.  We pretty much tried to spend every possible moment with each other because for a lot of us, it's hard to know when we'll see each other again.  I think it's safe to say, the friendships we built this year are friendships that are going to last a lifetime.  I feel so blessed to have been part of such a beautiful community.
      There were quite a few more things that seemed to fill up our last month together but I just wanted to highlight a few so you could get an idea of what it was like around SPEC at the end of the year. Who would've thought the end would come so quickly?!