countdown

countdown to india: one more day.

i leave at 6:30 in the morning to head to the omaha airport to meet swasti, the plane leaves at 12:05, and thus begins the long journey to india, the 6 weeks there, and the long journey back home.

send me an email at leishajo@hotmail.com if you want me to send you a postcard while i'm there, and include your address in the email.

i hope to blog while i'm there, but i'm not entirely sure how often i'll be around a computer with internet service. every once in a while, at least, so i'll be sure to update when i can, if for no other reason than to say i managed to avoid getting a case of delhi belly and i haven't been run over by a cow on the street.

back to school

just about packed up, but dead-tired so here i go... a few hours of sleep then packing things into the car...

man it seems like i just got here, and now i'm leaving. total exhaustion is what i feel, and a longing to stay here just a bit longer. buuuuuuuuuut "a seguir adelante"....

6am taking off, picking up shaun in omaha, then onward to bv........ can't wait to see you, jodes, and my other friends!

happy resting

oddly placed posts

my past 5ish posts all claim that they were written on the 9th of january. that's wrong! they were written on different days and even in different orders but apparently blogger's going to say otherwise, so,... just so you know.

this is my last day before heading back up to bv and by no means am i ready. it's going to take a miracle of God to get me there. mom, dad, and i leave at 6 tomorrow morning, we'll be picking up shaun in omaha, and then heading to school to check-in/eat at la juanita's/pick up my stuff from bev's house and move in. wheeeeeeee!

everything went very smoothly this week with grandpa's funeral. lots of family came in and it was a time of celebration, more or less. grandpa lived a good life and he's no longer suffering so the way i see it, that does call for celebration.

ate at el maguey last night with my parents and my friend (the waiter guy-- juan) i met right before i studied abroad was there and instantly recognized me and immed asked how my time was in guanajuato! was so much fun talking with him in spanish, and with a couple others. i felt right at home there............

can't believe this is my last day at home. good grief, i just got here.
*sigh* must move along, must move along.
hair cut today, POR FIN!
all for now, love you all, i be bloggin' it up once i'm back at school i'm sure!

pensamientos profundos

si cambia el corazon
cambia la accion
si cambia la accion
cambia el medio ambiente
si cambia el medio ambiente
cambia la personalidad
si cambia la personalidad
cambia la vita cotidiana
esto es revolucion humana

__________

si hay rectitud
habra belleza en el corazon
si hay belleza en el corazon
habra armonia en el hogar
si hay armonia en el hogar
habra orden en la nacion
si hay orden en la nacion
habra paz en el mundo...
depende en mi
--proverbio chino
__________

si cada uno de tus dias es una chispa de luz,
al final de tu vidas habras iluminado el mundo.
--tecla merlo

__________

i ate off of a surfboard today! (thanks, scott and tracy, for lunch!)

it took...

...over a year,
a day with his family, particularly his mother
chatting it up, cutting up summer sausage, cheese, and apples, setting out the crackers, preparing coffee with lots of sugar
as a part of the family again, thank you God, how good that felt
and
laughing together
and
looking at pictures-- of my travels, of their family events, and
seeing pictures of him for the first time in over a year--
talking about him with her--

to realize,

thank you God,

i believe i'm finally over him


... and it sure does feel good,
that sort of realization


it sure does feel good
you know?

and to heaven he goes!

grandpa finally let go this afternoon.


i knew he'd wait til i got home, i just knew it! (thanks, grandpa! i love you, see you on the other side!!!!!)

mother

she puts her oatmeal in a cup and drinks it on the way to school

then says,
"i think i'm ingenius."

wow.

congrats, steve and eva!

you guys, my great buddy since like jr. hi, steve moore, is now engaged!!!!!! to his loooooongtime fabulous girlfriend eva stephens (who i used to dance with in, like, 5th grade! whoa!)!!!!!!! i promised i would share it with the world that he's getting married, so, there we go. many congrats to you both!!!!!!

right where i am

i'm inspired enough right now to create the world's most amazing blog post, yet it probably won't happen that way, as i'm not quite articulate enough in any language to express myself in any particularly amazing way. but, nevertheless, i can try.

i woke up this morning at about 8am-- nobody was at my house, as my parents had both already gone to work-- i felt cold as this house is normally kept that way by a mother who has the most insane body temperatures in the world-- yet as i walked into the living room and saw all the christmas decorations, grabbed my cereal and came downstairs to do the old famous check my email thing in the computer room, things felt just so right. right where i am, is where i want to be.

so i got home a few days ago to a family of 7 (mom, dad, grandma, scott and andy, tracy and emily) greeting me at the airport with sombreros and ponchos on and arms out to give me the greatest hugs of welcome, ever. what could have possibly been an embarrassment turned out to be such a laugh, such a fun time, that i didn't even care what others in the airport were thinking about us crazy people. it was my homecoming, we could celebrate it any way we wanted. ;) i was home, really home. kansas city, missouri. i told mom that as much as i didn't want to return to the states, i was mostly thankful that the place i DID return to is kansas city, and to the family that i am from, because neither could be any greater. i could see the smiles on my fam's faces, and it made me feel... just so right. again. home, really home.

got home, had great homemade mom food (man i missed that stuff), opened very unexpected christmas presents (thanks to everyone who remembered me for christmas!!!!!, my goodness i have an amazing family, tracy and emily completely included in on that), watched a good movie, had some laughs and just a plain ole' good time... the next morning, church at chapel hill, with a big smile on my face and immediately welcomed back by a clapping congregation when i said i made it home safely the evening before. dottie found me first thing when she walked in and asked if we could sit together-- the service was great and talking with her afterward was just like good ole' times, sharing about families and everything-- she invited me to go to darby's dedication at mike and carla's church next sunday with her, just as though we'd lost no time together, just as though i were still a great part of the family like old times... she about got tears after asking how the family was doing, saying she just thinks the world of my family, and i said "you know that goes both ways completely." who would have thought, who would have ever thought. what a beautiful woman, what a beautiful mother, and friend. another instance where i was so glad to be right where i was at that moment and time.

after church-- talking with mom, watching movies, playing games with mom, grandma, and sarah (scattergories-- with the classic grandma story-- we were on the letter A, and the number said automobile. mom says, "whatcha got, mama?" and grandma replies, pretty sure of herself, Oldsmobile." and we laugh, and mom says that that'd be great, except we were on A and not O....... good times, had to have been there though, i suppose). more movie watching, more eating, more game playing. still have crap alllllllllll over the floor of my room but it doesnt matter much. i'm with my family and that's what matters. so glad to be where i am.

i've been receiving emails from great people i met this semester, and have been writing more emails than usual, as well. it's been so wonderful, such contact. friendship is truly so important so with every email i receive, i am thankful.

sigh. so there it goes. not as profound and not as meaningful as it is up in my cabeza, but at least i tried. the gist was mostly that i'm glad to be right where i am, with a wonderful family and with wonderful new, and old, friends.

am finally home.
can't believe it.
thank you to everyone, and i really mean thank you........ mom, dad, grandparents, scott and tracy, andy and emily, dottie, joe, jody, dawnielle, mari, allen, jonathan, mayumi, naoko, shaun, rocky, ethan, ........ everyone.

blessings and peace to all!

home

will be there in about 30 hours.

whoa.

changes

changes.
there´ve been a lot of ´em this semester, and especially recently, post-semester.
for instance, i´m currently staying in a hostel in guanajuato instead of with the vasquez family. ¿que pasó?
perhaps a misunderstanding, a realization that my staying there turned out to be more business-oriented (i.e. the money mattered more than anything else) than family-oriented whatever it was, i know i´m where i should be.
how do i know?
this evening as i was making myself dinner here in the hostel (by the way, how fun that was!, cooking for myself for the first time in mexico after going grocery shopping at the market, FUN!!!!), there was a whole group of people sitting around the table-- turned out they were mostly all people who work at the hostel or people who know people who work at the hostel (read: all locals: good stuff). i ended up getting invited to sit with them, and once they realized they didn´t need to translate from spanish to english for me (we had a good laugh about that), it turned into about 3 hours of conversation. these people are so awesome. the best conversation, or most helpful, had to have been with a woman (who has a daughter my age) from d.f., about why i´m not staying at the house anymore. i explained everything the best i could, saying that i feel awful that it happened, but she said i had absolutely nothing to feel sorry for-- that i was wronged-- that i did and said everything i should have done and said, and that for sure, i´m better off where i am now. (never thought i´d say that. it´s weird, but this place already feels like family. funny how that happens. there are some really buena onda here.)
so after talking, some of us went for a walk through guanajuato... ate some tamales... saw some new sights, walked through the callejones, talked with each other more and more... and what would you know, i fell in love with guanajuato one more time. it seems to happen a lot for me, and it takes almost nothing except a few moments of walking through the streets or plaza or jardines and there you have it.......... guanajuato. me encanta.
welp, time for a good night of sleep.
love you all, see you so soon!

bienvenidos al año 2006

rang in the new year in guadalajara, mexico, with-- what would you expect?-- mariachi music (the best of the best from mexico, i was told), a few fireworks, a piñada (not a piñata, mind you-- but a virgin piña colada--piñaDa), and hours of great multilingual conversation with a bunch of cool folks in the hostel (didn´t get a wink of sleep the whole night!). and who could forget my first real tequila shot (the other time in the mercado was just a sip-- an awful sip), complete with lime and salt and a little funny looking coffee artisan-ist mug (hey, it was all they had at the hostel). whew, 2006, the first tequila shot, now we know what this year is going to look like for me (the big 2-1 is coming up, you know). ha! but really, what a great way to celebrate the new year, with truly GREAT company (chilling with people from mexico, canada, sweden, japan, france, germany...!)...... was really glad that i didn´t return to the GTO for the new year after all (heard there wasn´t much of anything going on here, and who knows if i would have seen or talked to my friends to find out about anything before-hand).

so, made it back to guanajuato (enjoyed the hours of sleep on the way, on the most comfortable bus in the world! seriously!, mexico has amazing long-distance buses, i always feel so spoiled riding in them) on sunday afternoon, right in time for lunch (whence i said hook me up with lots of mexican food, linda-- because the last time i was at the house i was living off of apples and bananas as a result of being sick-- they really went all the way with making sure i had nothing that could keep me from getting better!). turns out that there´s a new girl living in the house for a few months now, her name is stephanie, and she´s from holland. we get along GREAT!!!!, we´ve already sat for hours talking over coffee/hot cocoa/lo que sea and we´ve seen a movie... and tonight... DANCING!!!!! it´s wonderful to have great company! so this week (what little bit of it is left now, good grief, i just realized i only have FOUR MORE NIGHTS! and then it´s A CASA PARA MÍ!), dancing is on the agenda, without a doubt. (because you know, where there´s dancing with locals, there´s great spanish conversation. see, it´s like classes, except for free, and there´s even more spanish conversation involved than what takes place during a semester at college-- so bam, there you go! why NOT?)

the weather remains perfect here.

i went to the mercado hidalgo today, ended up talking with a local for about 20 minutes, and at the end when i tried to buy something from his little area of the market, he wouldnt take my money! he gave me the little guanajuato flower vase i wanted, for free, and said it was a pleasure to talk with me (buddy we talked in spanish-- you, sir, already know spanish well-- me, well, i´m in need of improvement-- so for WHOM was it a pleasure?, man, let me pay you the measly amount of money!, but nope, he wouldnt let me!). people. friendly people. i love ´em!

saw ¨más barata por docena 2¨ today at the theatre-- translation: cheaper by the dozen 2. it was FABULOUS!, and ever so in spanish (loved that part, too!). lots of laughs and even a couple tears at the end! haven´t seen the movie? go, go, gooooo now!

all for now, not too exciting of a post, but you know, i try.

love you all. see you so, so, so soon!