Monday, January 2, 2012

In 2011...





Currently reading:
Just starting :)


Currently listening to:
sounds like summer, but feels like home
Just watched:
I give it a C+

I am back after nearly half a year. No promises to sticking to this thing, but I thought I could start with an easy recap of 2011.

2011 may have been the most chaotically exciting year of my life.

I don't wish its return, but its memories will forever be ladened in my heart. These memories were some of the best and some of the worst, but all of them pushed me on to something new and undiscovered.

Most of my best memories were spent with the people that I love, and for the early months of 2011, these people had new faces. For in 2011, we...

traveled to The Land Down Under

swam in the Great Barrier Reef

mastered public transport

were aired on national television

ate some really bad food....

but ate some really good food too

we danced...
and danced...

and danced some more

we slept under the stars in the Outback

and jumped off bridges

In 2011 we also had to say goodbye...

to the memories we made in Oz

and from a place called home, we had to say goodbye to a loving grandmother...


In 2011, I spent my summer...

at our favorite beach

but not until I beat mono

I began my senior year of college and....

moved off campus

stayed up ridiculously late, doing ridiculous things...


like discovering Pinterest...

and Skyping until the AM

In 2011 we...

watched our best friends get married


fell in love

made memories in an enchanted lake house


we told stories of the good ol' days

and we reunited frequently


I am thankful for the year 2011, and I already anticipate the moments, hours, and days that 2012 will bring with it.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Summer fill-ins





Currently reading: The Hunger Games (well just finished all three and must say they are the best books I have ever read- can't wait for the first movie in March!)

Currently listening to: Matt Kearny's album - check up on it

Currently digging: Pintrest recipies

here are a couple I have already tried and love:

Spinach and Feta Quesadillas

Mozzarella, Tomato, and Avacado salad


Looking forward to:

Fox's new show, NEW GIRL


ahh, what to blog about when you have neglected to blog all summer...


Perhaps an overview of the past few months, the painless and concise version of course.


A return home from Australia came with minor doses of reverse culture shock and a communicable diseases.


I felt strange being able to drive a car wherever I wanted and driving on the other side of the road at that; Somewhere decided what a waste bottled water was; Started making my bed (thanks mama Marina); Realized how fortunate I am to have a dryer; and started missing some amazing people in the land of Oz (and 20 beauties from the states).


I began working at Allisonville Meadows in July. There, I was helping create and lead activities for dementia residents in the nursing home. After a couple of weeks, the Mono hit. Eight needle stabs and two yellow eyes later, I was diagnosed with Jaundice and had to stay home for several weeks. This was not a pleasant experience, but I was so very thankful to have a wonderful Great Aunt Sue and mother dearest to take care of me.


I spent the weeknights in Westfield with Aunt Sue and weekends in Marion. In the course of the summer all three of us in Aunt Sue's house were in some sort of indisposition. I got the mono, Blue (the dog) nearly lost his life in a high speed rabbit chase across the highway, and Aunt Sue seemed to develop some sort of leprosy. Thankfully, we all survived and only Blue still saunters in a state of disarray with metal rods in his hips and a slight drunken walk. I must say I went out of Aunt Sue's house with a bang....literally. After barely missing my car in the driveway all summer, Aunt Sue finally plowed into it last night. We had a good laugh and sat in lawn chairs while waiting for the police to arrive at 11 PM for an accident report. I won't be parking in the driveway anymore when I visit...


Today was my last day at Allisonville and I must say it was tough leaving those oldies that I have grown so fond of. Working with dementia patients can get quite stressful and often disheartening, but I found myself among some of the sweetest people who make God's love radiate in the darkness of a discouraging illness. Being able to help them remember the good times of their lives makes living mine at this age feel like an immense blessing that I know I do not deserve.


And it is indeed a blessing....I am headed to Anna Maria Island with some of my favorite women this weekend and tonight a little end of the summer celebration with friends at The Jazz Kitchen in Indy.



I hope to be back writing more regularly!

Thanks for reading friends,

Hannah


ps: after a 10 year battle, I stopped biting my nails.... incase you wanted to know

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Al



My dearest friend Allison Dowell is to be married to Jordan Shepherd come this weekend and I must say I value both of their friendships so very much. I have been preparing to give a toast to them and have had plenty of time to reminisce about all the good times together and I look forward to many more. According to facebook, Alli and I have 111 photos together, I think that probably says something about our friendship.

I love you Al, and I am so so happy for you and Jord. You have such a beautiful heart and I count myself a very blessed person to have you in my life.








Thursday, June 23, 2011

some clips from dance this semester




the first clip is from hip hop class which was a total joke- since no one had hip hop background (all americans)

The rest of the clips are from my technique classes with Aussies who are in the dance courses. We made this video for our American class to see what we did all semester. Apologies for the crappy video quality.

Monday, June 20, 2011

farewell Oz







Four months ago I flew to a country I knew nothing about and was somewhere close to being very alone.
Two days ago I flew home with 25 American friends who I practically call my family.

I cannot put into words all of the things I learned while being in Australia this year, but I can tell you it changed my life for good. Every mountain and valley brought me to a better understanding of myself and who I want tobecome. I had so many amazing adventures and met so many incredible people from all over the world. Australia is full of beautiful souls with beautiful stories, I am so blessed to have shared in a small portion of that this semester.
Instead of writing out a long entry of what I learned (you are more than welcome to ask!), I am going to sum it up by telling you just a few of the amazing things God allowed me to do this semester:

-Was in a live audience for 2 national TV shows (XFacotor, Australias Got Talent) and received 5 seconds of fame on national television (also was 10 feet away from Scary Spice!)

-danced with world renowned choreographers four days a week for 4 months

-dove in the Great Barrier Reef with some of the most beautiful creatures known to mankind

- Shared lives and stories with natives from Slovenia, Egypt, Italy, Ireland, India, Norway, and Australia

- Walked the Harbor Bridge and watched the Sydney Opera House dance with colors

- Watched a State of Origins game in the Anglican Archbishop's Castle

-Slept under the stars in the outback

- got to lead and hang out with Australian teens for a week (and watched some turn their lives to Christ :)

- had the privilege of living and learning with a Maori tribe in New Zealand

- Bungy Jumped off the Auckland Habour Bridge in NZ

Petted a kangaroo, ate Vegemite, lived with Greeks, mastered public transport, threw a boomerang, played a digeredoo, sand surfed, parasailed, went to Luna Park, chilled at awesome beaches, danced the night away, met Australian senator, put up with dirt coffee, learned to appreciate a dryer, gained 10 pounds, ate too much Nutella





Wednesday, May 25, 2011

she wore slippers for a year

Next week will mark my last week of classes here at Wesley Institute.

How did we get here already?

Just yesterday it seemed I was pulling off links on a paper chain to mark the start of this trip, and now I am anticipating its last days. Well, at some moments I am.

I am beginning to see time slowing down in front of me, as if I need to capture some last moments and memories for the sake of recollection in my homecoming. I thank God he is making (most of) these moments precious ones- I would like to share one with you.

During my time in Australia I have been volunteering at Saint Mary’s Parish at their nursing home. I lead my last exercise class there yesterday; I will miss teaching and telling stories and pretending to row a boat across the pacific…

After exercise yesterday, I was in charge of getting some information for records purposes from a resident by the name of Karla. Karla, like many of the residents from other countries, speaks very broken English. At first she didn’t seem comfortable telling me her family history, and when I asked her what her life was like in Slovenia she said, “the past is a horrible thing that I wish not to talk about”.

Eventually when we got on the subject of her only child, Steven, Karla began to let little bits of her story seep through her information giving. Karla escaped from Slovenia with her husband in 1951. She came here to Australia knowing no English, and she was given a job at a hotel where she was told to just remember two words: “coffee” and “tea”. Times were very difficult in her transition to a foreign land, she tells me there was no where to buy shoes and she resorted to wearing slippers for a year. She would often feel so overwhelmed by the disconnectedness that she would just break down in sobs while in public. “But the people here, they wanted to help me learn, and they were so patient,” she said.

You see although she felt completely alone in a country where she could not speak the language or afford to live really at all, she came from a place where warfare ran rampant. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, Croatia on the south, Hungary on the northeast, and Austria on the north. During WWII, Slovenaia was occupied and annexed by ALL of the bordering countries. Karla did not wish to speak of the hard times, but at one moment she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “We would run….we would have to … in order to hide in the forest to stay away from danger. Days would go by of hundreds of corpses just scattered on the streets.” More than 63,000 Slovenes we taken to Nazi concentration camps because German rule got the northern and eastern parts of Slovenia where Karla lived.

14,000 people were killed immediately at the end of the war.

Karla still faces many wars internally. She told me how much it pains her not to see her grandchildren, and pains her more that they don’t visit simply because they don’t care to. She told me how her son has taken advantage of her and she has only raised him on love and generosity- and now that he husband has died, she feels she is fighting alone. I asked her if she prayed for her son. “What does prayer do anymore? Nothing changes.” My heart broke for her. I told her about the importance of faith and I told her that God’s love is unending and he longs for us to talk to him. Even though she seemed to have lost her faith in God a long time ago, Karla broke down when I told her I am going to make it a priority to pray for her. I knew that she knew God was ultimately in loving control of her life. I reached for her hand and we just sat for a few silent moments crying together.

I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to listen to Karla yesterday, and although I may have brought up some painful things, I think it was a time of growth and encouragement for both of us.

I hate that loneliness has to penetrate lives, but I love that we are not alone in our loneliness and pain. Don’t lose the fight, the one who loves you most will sustain you.

I’ve always loved this song, and it is pretty relevant to this story… thank you Sarah Groves and good music for relating to us when we need it most :)

"What Do I Know?" (click title to listen)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Great Barrier Reef


I should be working on one of three papers I have due in the next week, but for my mother's sanity (love her heart) I am updating my blog :)

This weekend I traveled to the Great Barrier reef with 9 other Americans from my program. Our flight was due out at 6 am and public transport does not run in the wee hours of the morning, so we got the bright idea to sleep in the airport. Well, when we got there at 11 pm, we were promptly kicked out because apparently airports close at night in Australia. To Maccas (Aussie name for McDonalds) we went! ...and spent 5 hours waiting there

Once we arrived in Cairns (3 hour flight), Becca Aubrey and I went to find our hotel. Big shout out to Penny and Gary Towler for the hotel, it was a fabulous sleep our first night :)
On Saturday we all boarded our boat for the reef. There were roughly 100 on our boat for the day. We made stops at two different reefs. I signed up for an introductory scuba dive where you go down linking arms with 4 other people and an instructor. The three other people in my group weren't feeling so comfortable with going down, so I got my own little private tour with the guide and I absolutely loved it. I got to swim around on my own and touch clams and coral, and I even found Nemo :) I did lots of snorkeling too- thanks to my roomie's awesome camera, I got lots of pictures of the reef.

We flew home Sunday morning so that we could get back for classes on Monday. I wish I could be back in Cairns, it is a great place and a phenomenal little holiday spent with friends :)


So it is about 55 degrees here and I feel like I am dying of cold. Sadly Sydney has spoiled me into thinking it can be warm all the time. I am wishing I brought warmer clothes right about now. Becca and I do our best to keep warm (and well fed) by eating lots of Nutella and leaving our layers of dance attire on until the morning.

The adventures are still going strong here in the Land Down Under- I do miss home for all new reasons each day. Today it is mostly for mom's cooking and a warm house to come home to. Some days I am ready and other days I think it will be pretty tough to leave this place... I have six weeks left to enjoy it!