Happy Easter everyone! Feliz Pascua de Resurreccion! To start off this post I want to share one of my all-time favorite songs to listen to during the Easter season. I love it because it shows the joy and power of Christ's victory in the Resurrection. It quotes St. Paul's taunting words of "Where o Death is your sting? Where o Sin is your victory?" Ha! Take that Satan! The enemy has been defeated! Enjoy a little listen while you read through the rest.
I have to say that the Easter Vigil here on Saturday night was wonderful! 11 adults, 2 teens and 2 kids became Catholic and were Baptized, Confirmed and/or made their First Communion in our parish. It is almost impossible to describe how much joy this brings me. These 15 people (and the 20 others from the two previous years) make such an impact on me and my faith life during the 9 months that we meet weekly. These are people that have faith and you know it- they're not afraid to show and they're also not afraid to ask questions when they doubt it. But Saturday night there were no doubts. They professed to believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in the Catholic Church. And it was into that faith that they were baptized. What witnesses!
Easter Sunday was also really good. I was invited over to my co-worker's house for dinner with her family and friends. She's like a second (or third or fourth- there's so many kind women here who treat me so nicely) mother to me and it was nice to be included. She'd actually had my parents and me over for Thanksgiving last year and so I had already met most of the people there. I just wish my parents could have joined us again. But it was okay because I got to video chat with them Sunday night! For how much I video chat with Andres, it's surprising how much I don't video chat with my family. It would be so easy but we've never gotten into the habit. I mainly talked with my mom and dad, although I got to speak briefly with my sister too. And I realized something: I love them SO MUCH! I think I pretty much always realize that I love them (being apart from them helps with that) but on Easter Sunday I just felt a great immensity to that love. And that in turn made me very thankful to God for this great gift He's given me in my family.
Lastly tonight I will talk about being thankful for Andres. I was able to video chat with him both before and after talking to my family. Lately, as in the past three weeks, I have been missing Andres like crazy! It's insane how much I miss him and it hasn't been this bad in about a year. It just feels like there is this huge part of me that's missing and that huge part is him. But while all this missing is taking place I've also been growing deeper in love with him. And starting Saturday night and continuing yesterday and today (this Easter season is just magical) I've just felt so thankful for this love I have for Andres and realizing what a great gift it is that God put a man like him in my life. Andres is so good to me and God is so good to me.
With all this thankfulness welling up inside of me, it makes me think that it should be Thanksgiving but it's not. It's Easter, the time of the resurrection and new life! And so with this newfound and deeper sense of thanksgiving I will celebrate and praise the risen Lord! I hope this season also provides all of you with reasons to be thankful. May Jesus Christ pour His Easter graces upon you!
P.S. I hope to include pictures from the vigil soon but I left my camera at work!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Holy Thursday
It's Holy Thursday. That means the three most important days of the year for my job have just begun. That is totally great and totally stressful at the same time. One of my main duties of being a parish catechist is running the RCIA process. RCIA stands for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and it's what people go through to become Catholic and be baptized (Side note: RCIA in Spanish is RICA- Rito de la Iniciacion de Cristianos Adultos- and I find it so funny because rica means "rich" but you can also call a person rica if you think she's hot, hehe). The highpoint of RCIA is the Easter Vigil the night before Easter because it's at that Mass that we bring in the Resurrection and these people get to receive the Sacraments for the first time. It is glorious! This is definitely my favorite aspect of my job- seeing these men and women who have such great faith and have been waiting for this so long to get to finally receive the Sacraments.
The Easter Vigil is in two days. This Saturday. It'll be exciting and H.A.A. (holy and anointed) at the actual Mass which starts at 8pm that night. However, until then I will be busy making preparations and entering into Jesus' death on the cross. I have to say that I've been a little surprised (and not necessarily in a good way) because even though this is my third year doing this a lot of little and big last minute things have come up with RCIA that are STRESSING ME OUT! I still love it but seriously, I need to take a chill pill. Or rather all these things that keep popping up need to take a chill pill. Also, I keep thinking about how this will be my last time leading RCIA for quite awhile. I'm going to miss it and I don't even think they have it in Chile. I'm not sure what they do with adults who need Baptism. Hmm...
But what I'd really like to say in all of this is that I hope you have a blessed Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I pray that you may join Jesus in His death so that you can CELEBRATE the RESURRECTION with Him on Sunday! God bless.
The Easter Vigil is in two days. This Saturday. It'll be exciting and H.A.A. (holy and anointed) at the actual Mass which starts at 8pm that night. However, until then I will be busy making preparations and entering into Jesus' death on the cross. I have to say that I've been a little surprised (and not necessarily in a good way) because even though this is my third year doing this a lot of little and big last minute things have come up with RCIA that are STRESSING ME OUT! I still love it but seriously, I need to take a chill pill. Or rather all these things that keep popping up need to take a chill pill. Also, I keep thinking about how this will be my last time leading RCIA for quite awhile. I'm going to miss it and I don't even think they have it in Chile. I'm not sure what they do with adults who need Baptism. Hmm...
But what I'd really like to say in all of this is that I hope you have a blessed Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I pray that you may join Jesus in His death so that you can CELEBRATE the RESURRECTION with Him on Sunday! God bless.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
April To Do
I'm down to about four months to get ready for the move to Chile. To organize the preparations I made a list of things I need to do each month up until August. Here's April's list:
- Fill out application for passport and get envelope ready for mailing
- Make copies of birth certificate
- Start a file folder that will hold all important documents to take to Chile
- Schedule eye appointment for end of May
- Schedule dentist appointment for beginning of June
- Confirm end date of work
- Confirm how much I will have to pay back my work for the first time I went to Chile
- Call Chilean consulate about getting my degree certified
- Check with parishioners who have so generously given me some furniture to see if they want it back or if they want me to pass it on
- Confirm selling my guitar to my brother
- See if family or co-workers want to buy my TV converter
- Set dates that I will go to MN in June
- Set-up move dates with my parents who will be coming to help get me and any stuff I have to MN in August
These are things that I've already checked off- not enough! April has been so busy!
- Send Andres my contact prescription so he can compare prices
- Ask office manager about what will happen to my retirement account
At the end of the month I hope I can update you that they've all been checked off!
Singleness
I know I just shared our story with you and how you must know I am not single. However, I saw this video today and it spoke to my heart. I waited until I was 23 to have my first kiss and my first boyfriend. I would've waited longer too to wait for the right man. But that doesn't mean it was easy and that there weren't times when I was like "What's wrong with me?!" and "What's taking so long?!" I don't know if waiting is ever easy for the human person. Yes, some people have a greater amount of the virtue of patience but I'm sure it's still somewhat hard on their part. So for any of you out there waiting, especially those of you who are single and are waiting for God to lead you to that man or woman that is to be your soul mate, I hope this helps.
It is a bit long but definitely worth it- I thought it really started getting good around 4:30.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Our Love Story, Part IV
You can read Part I, Part II and Part III by clicking on them.
Okay, we left off with me telling Andrés how I felt about him and then I thought we left things at the mutual agreement of getting to know each other better. Now remember, we had seen each other pretty much everyday for the last week. So imagine my disappointment when I didn't hear from him the next couple of days. I know, I know, you're probably thinking "Two days? That's nothing." But when I only had a total of six weeks in Chile and the first four had flown by and now I'm sitting with two weeks left to get to know this guy and build a relationship- two days was a long time for me! I immediately started doubting what we had talked about and thinking he hadn't understood me and that I had probably misunderstood his intentions. Also, I wasn't going to call him because I wanted to give him the chance to pursue me. Also during these two days pretty much the entire Escuela- both students and professors- knew something was going on between the two of us. I don't know how that happened. I think I had confided in two people and I don't think they would have told anyone. It was a little embarrassing having everyone knowing my business but at the same time I had grown pretty close to them so it was okay. One thing I did NOT like though was having one of my professors going around singing to me "estas enamorada, estas enamorada!" (You're in love, you're in love!) Because I wasn't in love (yet)! I didn't know Andrés well enough to be in love.
This brings us up to Friday. The parish in Concon had a futbol tournament for their Confirmation kids and asked us to participate. Andrés was organizing the whole thing so I knew I would see him there. He says this is the reason why he hadn't called me to do something yet- because he was busy organizing the whole event and he knew he would see me there. Once again though I was so nervous! I couldn't even eat beforehand- my stomach physically would not allow me. When we first got there I think I said "hola" and that was it because what do I say to the guy I had bared my heart to and hadn't contacted me since? It turns out that our gringa team won the championship! And after that Andrés must have been so impressed with my super-slick soccer moves that he stepped up his game (haha, not). However, a huge group of us were going out that night to celebrate Sarah's, one of the gringas, birthday. So before I left the tournament (the boys were still playing, all of us girls were finished) I went to say goodbye to Andrés and he asked if I was going out with the group. I said yes and he said see you there. My heart soared!
That night we all met up on the micro (bus) and it was packed so I wasn't anywhere near Andrés but we saw each other from afar and smiled at one another. Once we got to the club I didn't know what to do. Do I make sure I sit by him or what? Also I doubt they really were but I felt like everyone's eyes were on us. Thankfully Andrés took the lead and made sure I sat by him. Then he offered to get me a drink (I asked him if he wanted money for it, hehe, and he gave me a weird look and then said no). He came back with the drink and let me take a sip of it and then took it away and took my hand and led me onto the dance floor. Then we danced together all night! While we had all arrived together, people were leaving in small groups. Andrés and I left with two others and took the micro back to Concon. As we were leaving he took my hand and put his arm around me on the micro. At that point all my doubts were wiped away and I knew he liked me too! My heart was happy.
Plus... when he dropped me off at my house that night he kissed me! Our first kiss and my first kiss EVER! That's right folks, I was 23 and never been kissed. But hey, the right guy and the right opportunity had never presented itself before so I was okay with it. But now the time had come. It turns out though that I was a pretty bad kisser. I'm pretty sure my lips turned into stone and I was a bit mortified. Also I'm pretty sure that after he kissed me I turned away to go inside the gate while saying something stupid like "thank you" or "buenas noches." Oh my goodness. But then he said "Tammy," grabbed my hand and swung me back to him and kissed me one more time. Still bad but the way he took me back to him could have been right out of a movie.
The following Saturday and Sunday we had what we called "Completomania." It was kind of a nightmare being surrounded by those giant hot dogs covered in mayonnaise for two straight days. The deal is that in a week we were going on a mission trip so we had to fundraise for it. How did we fundraise? That's right, by selling completos! Honestly, I had liked the things, but after Completomania (which was two years ago) I have only been able to eat one of them since. The upside of Completomania is that I got to sell them with Andrés- we had lots of time to talk and get to know each other as we went around Concon asking la gente if they wanted a completo. And I mean we really talked. Andrés asked me some of the hardest questions I've ever been asked (no small talk for us), such as what is my viewpoint on war and torture. Also at night he would "kidnap" and take me driving (I said driving, not parking. Although I'll admit at first I also thought he might have ulterior motives) to see more sights and to talk. It was lovely.
Monday of the next week we got the day off from school to relax after the madness that was Completomania. So Andrés, John, Kayla and I first went to see a beautiful cemetery in Zapallar, close to Ventanas, that is right on the ocean. Then Andrés gave us a guided tour of his favorite city Valparaiso. Tuesday I didn't see Andrés and on Wednesday we had our first official date of just the two of us. It wasn't totally date-like because we ended up running a ton of errands getting ready for the mission but it was still really good. You'll also be happy to know (because I sure was!) that this was the first time we shared a good kiss- meaning my lips did not morph into cement. Thursday night we went out to celebrate another gringo's, Jake's, birthday. We had fun having a couple of drinks and dancing. Then Friday it was off to the mission.
We were on mission in Lagunillas from Friday through Tuesday. On the way there was the first time people saw us publicly acting like a couple (meaning they saw us holding hands) and I guess it caused a little stir. I was told recently that Stephanie was freaking out- I'm assuming it was a good freaking out, hehe. During the days and evenings we tried to immerse ourselves as best we could in the group activities and the mission work and then at night when most had gone to bed Andrés and I stayed up on the couch talking. It was nice to have some privacy yet to know there was accountability too. On Sunday morning (because I was leaving in two days!) I told Andrés we needed to talk soon about what we were. He thought I meant that I needed to put a label on us but I just needed to know where we stood for when I left. That night on the couch we started out talking about our relationship and then we got onto other subjects. I kept praying, "Lord, I really want him to ask me to be his girlfriend but I don't want to outright ask him to do it. Please let him read my mind!" And guess what? The Lord worked that little miracle for me! On that Sunday night (technically Monday though because it was about 3am) Andrés said, "I don't know how they do this in the U.S.... but will you be my girlfriend?" That was good enough for me and we have been together ever since!
On Tuesday we left straight from Lagunillas to the airport. Thankfully Andrés was able to come with and we got to spend a last couple of hours of quality time. That first airport goodbye was the easiest one we've ever had. I think it's because we had just started dating and neither of us knew where it was going to lead. It was sad at the actual goodbye but I didn't cry (every time since I've bawled my eyes out) and afterwards I just felt kind of numb. I wasn't much into laughing or hanging out with the other gringos and I slept the entire 9 hour flight back to the U.S.
That was August of 2009. Since then I've been back to Chile twice- once for eleven days and once for three weeks- and Andrés has been here once for two months. Other than that we keep our relationship strong through lots of communication using Skype, gchat and MSN Live. God bless technology. Thanks for tuning in to read our story. Coming soon... Part V: Engagement! ;)
Okay, we left off with me telling Andrés how I felt about him and then I thought we left things at the mutual agreement of getting to know each other better. Now remember, we had seen each other pretty much everyday for the last week. So imagine my disappointment when I didn't hear from him the next couple of days. I know, I know, you're probably thinking "Two days? That's nothing." But when I only had a total of six weeks in Chile and the first four had flown by and now I'm sitting with two weeks left to get to know this guy and build a relationship- two days was a long time for me! I immediately started doubting what we had talked about and thinking he hadn't understood me and that I had probably misunderstood his intentions. Also, I wasn't going to call him because I wanted to give him the chance to pursue me. Also during these two days pretty much the entire Escuela- both students and professors- knew something was going on between the two of us. I don't know how that happened. I think I had confided in two people and I don't think they would have told anyone. It was a little embarrassing having everyone knowing my business but at the same time I had grown pretty close to them so it was okay. One thing I did NOT like though was having one of my professors going around singing to me "estas enamorada, estas enamorada!" (You're in love, you're in love!) Because I wasn't in love (yet)! I didn't know Andrés well enough to be in love.
This brings us up to Friday. The parish in Concon had a futbol tournament for their Confirmation kids and asked us to participate. Andrés was organizing the whole thing so I knew I would see him there. He says this is the reason why he hadn't called me to do something yet- because he was busy organizing the whole event and he knew he would see me there. Once again though I was so nervous! I couldn't even eat beforehand- my stomach physically would not allow me. When we first got there I think I said "hola" and that was it because what do I say to the guy I had bared my heart to and hadn't contacted me since? It turns out that our gringa team won the championship! And after that Andrés must have been so impressed with my super-slick soccer moves that he stepped up his game (haha, not). However, a huge group of us were going out that night to celebrate Sarah's, one of the gringas, birthday. So before I left the tournament (the boys were still playing, all of us girls were finished) I went to say goodbye to Andrés and he asked if I was going out with the group. I said yes and he said see you there. My heart soared!
That night we all met up on the micro (bus) and it was packed so I wasn't anywhere near Andrés but we saw each other from afar and smiled at one another. Once we got to the club I didn't know what to do. Do I make sure I sit by him or what? Also I doubt they really were but I felt like everyone's eyes were on us. Thankfully Andrés took the lead and made sure I sat by him. Then he offered to get me a drink (I asked him if he wanted money for it, hehe, and he gave me a weird look and then said no). He came back with the drink and let me take a sip of it and then took it away and took my hand and led me onto the dance floor. Then we danced together all night! While we had all arrived together, people were leaving in small groups. Andrés and I left with two others and took the micro back to Concon. As we were leaving he took my hand and put his arm around me on the micro. At that point all my doubts were wiped away and I knew he liked me too! My heart was happy.
Plus... when he dropped me off at my house that night he kissed me! Our first kiss and my first kiss EVER! That's right folks, I was 23 and never been kissed. But hey, the right guy and the right opportunity had never presented itself before so I was okay with it. But now the time had come. It turns out though that I was a pretty bad kisser. I'm pretty sure my lips turned into stone and I was a bit mortified. Also I'm pretty sure that after he kissed me I turned away to go inside the gate while saying something stupid like "thank you" or "buenas noches." Oh my goodness. But then he said "Tammy," grabbed my hand and swung me back to him and kissed me one more time. Still bad but the way he took me back to him could have been right out of a movie.
The following Saturday and Sunday we had what we called "Completomania." It was kind of a nightmare being surrounded by those giant hot dogs covered in mayonnaise for two straight days. The deal is that in a week we were going on a mission trip so we had to fundraise for it. How did we fundraise? That's right, by selling completos! Honestly, I had liked the things, but after Completomania (which was two years ago) I have only been able to eat one of them since. The upside of Completomania is that I got to sell them with Andrés- we had lots of time to talk and get to know each other as we went around Concon asking la gente if they wanted a completo. And I mean we really talked. Andrés asked me some of the hardest questions I've ever been asked (no small talk for us), such as what is my viewpoint on war and torture. Also at night he would "kidnap" and take me driving (I said driving, not parking. Although I'll admit at first I also thought he might have ulterior motives) to see more sights and to talk. It was lovely.
Monday of the next week we got the day off from school to relax after the madness that was Completomania. So Andrés, John, Kayla and I first went to see a beautiful cemetery in Zapallar, close to Ventanas, that is right on the ocean. Then Andrés gave us a guided tour of his favorite city Valparaiso. Tuesday I didn't see Andrés and on Wednesday we had our first official date of just the two of us. It wasn't totally date-like because we ended up running a ton of errands getting ready for the mission but it was still really good. You'll also be happy to know (because I sure was!) that this was the first time we shared a good kiss- meaning my lips did not morph into cement. Thursday night we went out to celebrate another gringo's, Jake's, birthday. We had fun having a couple of drinks and dancing. Then Friday it was off to the mission.
We were on mission in Lagunillas from Friday through Tuesday. On the way there was the first time people saw us publicly acting like a couple (meaning they saw us holding hands) and I guess it caused a little stir. I was told recently that Stephanie was freaking out- I'm assuming it was a good freaking out, hehe. During the days and evenings we tried to immerse ourselves as best we could in the group activities and the mission work and then at night when most had gone to bed Andrés and I stayed up on the couch talking. It was nice to have some privacy yet to know there was accountability too. On Sunday morning (because I was leaving in two days!) I told Andrés we needed to talk soon about what we were. He thought I meant that I needed to put a label on us but I just needed to know where we stood for when I left. That night on the couch we started out talking about our relationship and then we got onto other subjects. I kept praying, "Lord, I really want him to ask me to be his girlfriend but I don't want to outright ask him to do it. Please let him read my mind!" And guess what? The Lord worked that little miracle for me! On that Sunday night (technically Monday though because it was about 3am) Andrés said, "I don't know how they do this in the U.S.... but will you be my girlfriend?" That was good enough for me and we have been together ever since!
On Tuesday we left straight from Lagunillas to the airport. Thankfully Andrés was able to come with and we got to spend a last couple of hours of quality time. That first airport goodbye was the easiest one we've ever had. I think it's because we had just started dating and neither of us knew where it was going to lead. It was sad at the actual goodbye but I didn't cry (every time since I've bawled my eyes out) and afterwards I just felt kind of numb. I wasn't much into laughing or hanging out with the other gringos and I slept the entire 9 hour flight back to the U.S.
That was August of 2009. Since then I've been back to Chile twice- once for eleven days and once for three weeks- and Andrés has been here once for two months. Other than that we keep our relationship strong through lots of communication using Skype, gchat and MSN Live. God bless technology. Thanks for tuning in to read our story. Coming soon... Part V: Engagement! ;)
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| Gringa girls rule! We won the championship! |
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| What we sold for Completomania |
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| Meeting Andres' parents for the first time- I wasn't expecting that! |
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| Beautiful scenery at the cemetery in Zapallar |
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| At the absinthe bar for Jake's birthday. No absinthe for me though! I had to concentrate that night... on Andres! |
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| Out dancing later on |
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| On the couch in Lagunillas- look how cold it was! |
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| Our last group photo together |
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| Our first ever (and unfortunately not the last) airport goodbye |
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Our Love Story, Part III
In Part I you learned how we met, in Part II how we became friends, and now in Part III you'll get to hear how I bared my soul to Andres.
After a great night with friends, Andrés and completos, I saw him again two days later for our futbol taller (soccer workshop). About four chilenos came to play with us and make the teams more even and then about 10 more came two watch and make me feel nervous. When I saw Andrés was there talking with his friends I knew I wanted to go start a conversation with him but a) I didn't know what to say to him in Spanish and b) even English I didn't know what to say to him! So I ended up saying "Hola, como estas?" and that was it. We played on different teams and I halfway collided with him once, but that wasn't on purpose but rather due to my terrible futbol skills.
Now we get to more of the good part. On Friday school went super late (to about 8pm when it was supposed to end by 5pm) and the plans I had then had to be cancelled. That ended up with me walking home with John and John mentioned that he was going out with Andrés and some of his friends and he asked me if I wanted to join them. Of course I did! So I continued on home, had dinner with my host mom and got ready to go out. Andrés and the others came to pick me up in the truck at about 11pm and as I hopped in it was pretty full and there was a couple of people I didn't know. John quickly introduced me to Daniela, Andrés' sister, who I had seen before but not been introduced. And then he introduced me to Carol, whom he said was Andrés' girlfriend! It was a little heart-crushing. And even though it hurt a little bit, I thought to myself "this is good, now I can just concentrate on the my Spanish and mission work." Now, when John said this though, he had a smile so I thought maybe he was joking. So during the night I would glance at them sometimes to see if they were actually boyfriend and girlfriend. Conclusion: Undecided. They sat pretty close next to each other, but we all did, and I never saw them hold hands or anything. That Friday night we first joined about 5 other gringos at bar for beer and conversation and later we split off from them and went dancing for an hour or two.
Next comes Saturday. On Saturday I spent the day with my friend Jared's host family (they were so welcoming and fun!) and I enjoyed myself, but to be honest I was thinking about later that night when we had all made plans to go out again. It was finally night time and about 12 of us headed to Valparaiso (a city about 45 minutes away) to go dancing. Except we accidentally left two girls behind! Uh-oh. By the time they caught up with us they weren't in the mood to go dancing anymore so they went back and the remaining ten of us couldn't come to a consensus on what club to go to. So we ended up splitting into two groups and when I was asked which group I wanted to go with I (of course) said I wanted to stay with Andrés' group which consisted of: John, Andrés, his sister Daniela, our friend Daniella, and Carol, his supposed girlfriend. Except by this time I was pretty sure they were not dating. We ended up going to my favorite club called La Locomotora and I had such a good time. The night before we had danced mostly in a group but this night, while we stayed close to each other, we were kind of paired off. So guess who danced with me all night? That's right- Andrés! It was after this night that my heart was pretty much his.
Sunday came I didn't see Andrés this day. But something had happened to me. I constantly had butterflies in my stomach, I couldn't sleep very well and I didn't have much of an appetite. I've never had my body act in such a way before! Oh, being in love. These physical manifestations just deepened throughout the week. On Monday Andrés came to La Escuela after classes and ended up helping me for four hours on a project. Four hours! Just out of the kindness of his heart. On Tuesday I was invited to go to the movies (Transformers II!) with Andrés, his brother Michael, John, Daniela and Daniella. So up to this point I had seen him almost everyday for the past week, and I knew that I liked him a lot but I did not know how he felt about me. On the one hand, he gave me no signs. On the other, he was spending a lot of time with me! I mean, he had danced with me for a whole night and then had helped me one-on-one with my project.
And this brings us to Wednesday, which was a very important day for us. Starting Sunday I had been praying hardcore. In my mind and heart I was talking to God asking what I should do about this situation with Andrés. You see, I wasn't sure how he felt about me, I wanted him to make a move and I am of the persuasion that the man should do the pursuing so if he didn't make a move what should I do? I realized that it was July 22nd and we had only two weeks left. So I asked myself: If I left without saying or doing anything would I regret it? If I said something and it didn't turn out in a positive light would I be embarrassed enough to regret it the last two weeks in Chile? The answers respectively were yes and no- and so I decided to tell Andrés how I felt about him. He was worth the risk.
Wednesday was to be the day I talked to him, but it wasn't so easy getting him alone. On Tuesday I had asked him if he would mind taking me on a tour around Concon since I hadn't had a ton of opportunity to explore the city I was living in. He said yes... but then invited others with! We were to go after school Wednesday in between classes and a folkloric dancing taller. Unfortunately I had to cancel because we had to do something for La Escuela instead. I was bummed because I had worked myself up into telling him and then I wasn't even going to see him. But it turns out he had been asked to come to the taller because we were short on men for dancing partners. The one dance we had together that night was the Cueca, Chile's national dance. I sucked at it! It was interesting making a fool of myself in front of him with his national dance yet I had fun with it. After the taller, even though it was already 10:30pm, Andrés asked me if I still wanted to go on my tour- he would take me driving. I said "yes!" and thought this was my opportunity but then again he invited John to go. John said no because I had asked his advice earlier in the day about this whole situation. While I got my stuff together I guess Andrés kept asking John to go and finally John told him that I wanted some alone time to talk to him. So John was out of the picture but then another friend, Laura, stepped in. She heard us talking and said she wanted to go too! Again, my alone time with Andrés was shot down.
Andrés took us on our tour and it was interesting but I wasn't very into it by that point. I had let Laura sit in the front seat because I had pretty much given up. While I sat in the backseat I think I only said a couple of words the whole time and I was praying saying, "Lord, if you want this to happen, it's up to You. If he drops Laura off first, I'll tell him. But if he drops me off first I'm not going to tell him ever." Well, God worked his little miracle and Andrés dropped Laura off first. As soon as I had climbed into the front seat and shut the door he turned to me and said "So John says you have something to tell me." I was shocked! And I knew that this was it. I told him first that I really grateful for all the times he had helped me (Colmo, school project, dancing) and that I was thankful to God for having met him and his friendship- then I told him that I liked him first in Spanish and then in English so that he would know that I knew what I was saying.
Now it was his turn to be surprised! I mean, who wouldn't be surprised when someone says something like this to them, but it was a double shock because when John had told him I wanted to talk with him he had assumed I was angry with him- but it was exactly the opposite! We ended up talking for about an hour and he started off by saying how great (and full of surprises) I was but he never said how he felt about me. I was wondering, is this the gentle let down or is he saying this because he feels the same? Well by the end we had worked out that we wanted to keep getting to know each other and we'd take it from there. I was content with that and happy that he hadn't laughed in my face. I went home that night in a good mood and yet I still couldn't sleep! My goodness.
Coming up in the fourth and possibly final post find out how we went from "I like you" to dating!
After a great night with friends, Andrés and completos, I saw him again two days later for our futbol taller (soccer workshop). About four chilenos came to play with us and make the teams more even and then about 10 more came two watch and make me feel nervous. When I saw Andrés was there talking with his friends I knew I wanted to go start a conversation with him but a) I didn't know what to say to him in Spanish and b) even English I didn't know what to say to him! So I ended up saying "Hola, como estas?" and that was it. We played on different teams and I halfway collided with him once, but that wasn't on purpose but rather due to my terrible futbol skills.
Now we get to more of the good part. On Friday school went super late (to about 8pm when it was supposed to end by 5pm) and the plans I had then had to be cancelled. That ended up with me walking home with John and John mentioned that he was going out with Andrés and some of his friends and he asked me if I wanted to join them. Of course I did! So I continued on home, had dinner with my host mom and got ready to go out. Andrés and the others came to pick me up in the truck at about 11pm and as I hopped in it was pretty full and there was a couple of people I didn't know. John quickly introduced me to Daniela, Andrés' sister, who I had seen before but not been introduced. And then he introduced me to Carol, whom he said was Andrés' girlfriend! It was a little heart-crushing. And even though it hurt a little bit, I thought to myself "this is good, now I can just concentrate on the my Spanish and mission work." Now, when John said this though, he had a smile so I thought maybe he was joking. So during the night I would glance at them sometimes to see if they were actually boyfriend and girlfriend. Conclusion: Undecided. They sat pretty close next to each other, but we all did, and I never saw them hold hands or anything. That Friday night we first joined about 5 other gringos at bar for beer and conversation and later we split off from them and went dancing for an hour or two.
Next comes Saturday. On Saturday I spent the day with my friend Jared's host family (they were so welcoming and fun!) and I enjoyed myself, but to be honest I was thinking about later that night when we had all made plans to go out again. It was finally night time and about 12 of us headed to Valparaiso (a city about 45 minutes away) to go dancing. Except we accidentally left two girls behind! Uh-oh. By the time they caught up with us they weren't in the mood to go dancing anymore so they went back and the remaining ten of us couldn't come to a consensus on what club to go to. So we ended up splitting into two groups and when I was asked which group I wanted to go with I (of course) said I wanted to stay with Andrés' group which consisted of: John, Andrés, his sister Daniela, our friend Daniella, and Carol, his supposed girlfriend. Except by this time I was pretty sure they were not dating. We ended up going to my favorite club called La Locomotora and I had such a good time. The night before we had danced mostly in a group but this night, while we stayed close to each other, we were kind of paired off. So guess who danced with me all night? That's right- Andrés! It was after this night that my heart was pretty much his.
Sunday came I didn't see Andrés this day. But something had happened to me. I constantly had butterflies in my stomach, I couldn't sleep very well and I didn't have much of an appetite. I've never had my body act in such a way before! Oh, being in love. These physical manifestations just deepened throughout the week. On Monday Andrés came to La Escuela after classes and ended up helping me for four hours on a project. Four hours! Just out of the kindness of his heart. On Tuesday I was invited to go to the movies (Transformers II!) with Andrés, his brother Michael, John, Daniela and Daniella. So up to this point I had seen him almost everyday for the past week, and I knew that I liked him a lot but I did not know how he felt about me. On the one hand, he gave me no signs. On the other, he was spending a lot of time with me! I mean, he had danced with me for a whole night and then had helped me one-on-one with my project.
And this brings us to Wednesday, which was a very important day for us. Starting Sunday I had been praying hardcore. In my mind and heart I was talking to God asking what I should do about this situation with Andrés. You see, I wasn't sure how he felt about me, I wanted him to make a move and I am of the persuasion that the man should do the pursuing so if he didn't make a move what should I do? I realized that it was July 22nd and we had only two weeks left. So I asked myself: If I left without saying or doing anything would I regret it? If I said something and it didn't turn out in a positive light would I be embarrassed enough to regret it the last two weeks in Chile? The answers respectively were yes and no- and so I decided to tell Andrés how I felt about him. He was worth the risk.
Wednesday was to be the day I talked to him, but it wasn't so easy getting him alone. On Tuesday I had asked him if he would mind taking me on a tour around Concon since I hadn't had a ton of opportunity to explore the city I was living in. He said yes... but then invited others with! We were to go after school Wednesday in between classes and a folkloric dancing taller. Unfortunately I had to cancel because we had to do something for La Escuela instead. I was bummed because I had worked myself up into telling him and then I wasn't even going to see him. But it turns out he had been asked to come to the taller because we were short on men for dancing partners. The one dance we had together that night was the Cueca, Chile's national dance. I sucked at it! It was interesting making a fool of myself in front of him with his national dance yet I had fun with it. After the taller, even though it was already 10:30pm, Andrés asked me if I still wanted to go on my tour- he would take me driving. I said "yes!" and thought this was my opportunity but then again he invited John to go. John said no because I had asked his advice earlier in the day about this whole situation. While I got my stuff together I guess Andrés kept asking John to go and finally John told him that I wanted some alone time to talk to him. So John was out of the picture but then another friend, Laura, stepped in. She heard us talking and said she wanted to go too! Again, my alone time with Andrés was shot down.
Andrés took us on our tour and it was interesting but I wasn't very into it by that point. I had let Laura sit in the front seat because I had pretty much given up. While I sat in the backseat I think I only said a couple of words the whole time and I was praying saying, "Lord, if you want this to happen, it's up to You. If he drops Laura off first, I'll tell him. But if he drops me off first I'm not going to tell him ever." Well, God worked his little miracle and Andrés dropped Laura off first. As soon as I had climbed into the front seat and shut the door he turned to me and said "So John says you have something to tell me." I was shocked! And I knew that this was it. I told him first that I really grateful for all the times he had helped me (Colmo, school project, dancing) and that I was thankful to God for having met him and his friendship- then I told him that I liked him first in Spanish and then in English so that he would know that I knew what I was saying.
Now it was his turn to be surprised! I mean, who wouldn't be surprised when someone says something like this to them, but it was a double shock because when John had told him I wanted to talk with him he had assumed I was angry with him- but it was exactly the opposite! We ended up talking for about an hour and he started off by saying how great (and full of surprises) I was but he never said how he felt about me. I was wondering, is this the gentle let down or is he saying this because he feels the same? Well by the end we had worked out that we wanted to keep getting to know each other and we'd take it from there. I was content with that and happy that he hadn't laughed in my face. I went home that night in a good mood and yet I still couldn't sleep! My goodness.
Coming up in the fourth and possibly final post find out how we went from "I like you" to dating!
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| Warm-up for futbol |
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| Friday night having fun with John and Daniella |
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| Good memories |
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| The girls learning their part of a folkloric dance |
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| La Cueca- thankfully I'm hidden and you can't see how bad I was. Instead you can see how great Kayla and John were! |
Friday, April 15, 2011
Our Love Story, Part II
As I look back on this post after writing most of it, I don't want to write under false pretenses anymore. Consider yourself fair-warned/forewarned that these posts about how we started dating are going to be longer than normal. You can just skim through them or skip over them, but I don't want to leave out details that are special to us! Thanks for understanding. :)
In Part I of our story I left off with our night at El Huevo and Andrés not wanting to dance with me. Well, as I said, we left the club at around 4:30 I didn't get home until about 6:30am. I got a little bit of sleep but then I got up and was excited to go... because I was getting a tattoo!!! I mean, who doesn't go to a foreign country to get their first tattoo? It turns out that seven of us got tattoos together that day (a few weeks later two of the seven got another one and one other gringo got his first. I guess it's true what they say about tattoos being addictive), which just happened to be the 4th of July. It was my way to celebrate my independence! John was one of the gringos to get a tattoo and when he got home he showed it to Andrés and told him the names of the seven of us who all got tattoos. Andrés has since told me that although he's not a big fan of tattoos, he was super surprised (in a good way) that I was one of the gringas who got one. It's one of the things that made me stand out in his mind.
Our next big opportunity to spend time together and really where we got to know one another was a week later on our one-day mission to Colmo. La Escuela is not your average immersion school, rather it was a Catholic school for those of us who needed to learn the language to do missions in a foreign country or to do ministry with the millions of Hispanics in our own country. And so not only were we immersed in the language but also the culture and the Hispanic way of being Catholic. During our six weeks in Chile we went on two missions to learn how to do them the Hispanic way- the first mission was for one day in a little town of Colmo and the second was for five days in a little town called Lagunillas. The mission to Colmo happened when we had been there for about two weeks. For the mission we went door-to-door evangelizing! Oh my goodness, that took a lot of courage, not only to walk up to a stranger and say "Hey, I'm a Catholic missionary, can I share a Scripture passage with you?" but also to do it in Spanish!
They split us gringos into groups of two and then put a native Chilean with each one of us. I was placed in a group with my close friend Stephanie and then Andrés joined us as our native speaker. Stephanie already had a pretty good handle on Spanish but she wasn't feeling too well that day and so Andrés did most the speaking to la gente (the people) and then I got to read from the Bible! I was so excited that he made sure I got to participate even though my Spanish was pretty bad at that point and seeing the Holy Spirit work through this guy who I had thought was shy but was now willingly extroverting himself to share God's love with others was amazing. I actually wrote in my journal that he was a rock star that day, hehe. Also, as we would walk from house to house, which usually took a few minutes since we were in the country-side, he seemed really interested in getting to know me. He asked me where I was from, what the land was like, what I did for work, etc. And he was very kind to explain words to me I didn't know and to speak slowly so I could understand. It was this day that I started to develop a crush on Andrés.
We did the door-to-door in the afternoon and then we had the evening to hang-out, eat dinner, have a prayer service and then play around with the guitars and practice music. During this time I paid a little extra attention to Andrés but at the same time I was telling myself to NOT DO IT! I mean it was just a little crush at this point but I kept reminding myself that I was there to learn Spanish and be a missionary and not to find a boyfriend. But I guess my heart would just not listen to my head.
Our time in Colmo took up Saturday and Sunday and then Monday we had only a couple of hours of school in the afternoon so we could relax (also, I think half the teachers were sick). After getting out of school early I went to the sand dunes on the edge of Concon with John and my friend Kayla and then we went to the market in neighboring Viña del Mar for a little bit and then afterwards to a prayer service in Reñaca. It was a glorious afternoon/evening which would get even better. One of the great things about hanging out with John, besides that John in and of himself is awesome, is that I would usually get to hang out with Andrés and that Andrés had a truck. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the public transportation in Chile, but at night it's nice to have a ride. After our prayer service Andrés came to pick John, Kayla, Daniel and me up and instead of going home we decided to go out for completos. Yum. My yum is half sincere, half sarcastic. You see, completos are like giant hotdogs (ok) on homemade buns (yum) slathered with avocado (yum), ketchup (ok), tomatoes (yum), sauerkraut (yum), and a HUGE amount of mayo (nasty).
We went to the Sibaritico in Viña to get the completos and while we were waiting for them, even though I was wearing two jackets, I was freezing. Andrés, being the perfect gentleman that he was, offered me his sweater. I tried to say no at first but he insisted. On the inside I was saying "Don't accept it!" because I knew my feminine heart would be greatly effected by this gesture and it would grow my crush on him rather than help me suppress it. Anyhow, we got our completos and sat together talking. One of the guys asked me what the men in Wyoming were like. I replied something like there weren't a whole lot of good guys for me (please don't take offense Wyomingites, notice I said for me). Well then John says something similar to "Here's one sitting right in front of you" while pointing to Andrés. As I write this, I'm starting to think that John was possibly the mastermind matchmaker behind all of this...
In post number three learn how we picked up the pace when I realized we only had two weeks left together and how I confessed my undying love (or something like that) to Andrés.
*Note: I would like to say the aforementioned tattoo was well thought out on my part and not a rash decision. I had been wanting and planning to get one for awhile and to do it in Chile seemed like a great opportunity and adventure. Plus it cost less than half of what it would in the U.S.! Win-win-win.
In Part I of our story I left off with our night at El Huevo and Andrés not wanting to dance with me. Well, as I said, we left the club at around 4:30 I didn't get home until about 6:30am. I got a little bit of sleep but then I got up and was excited to go... because I was getting a tattoo!!! I mean, who doesn't go to a foreign country to get their first tattoo? It turns out that seven of us got tattoos together that day (a few weeks later two of the seven got another one and one other gringo got his first. I guess it's true what they say about tattoos being addictive), which just happened to be the 4th of July. It was my way to celebrate my independence! John was one of the gringos to get a tattoo and when he got home he showed it to Andrés and told him the names of the seven of us who all got tattoos. Andrés has since told me that although he's not a big fan of tattoos, he was super surprised (in a good way) that I was one of the gringas who got one. It's one of the things that made me stand out in his mind.
Our next big opportunity to spend time together and really where we got to know one another was a week later on our one-day mission to Colmo. La Escuela is not your average immersion school, rather it was a Catholic school for those of us who needed to learn the language to do missions in a foreign country or to do ministry with the millions of Hispanics in our own country. And so not only were we immersed in the language but also the culture and the Hispanic way of being Catholic. During our six weeks in Chile we went on two missions to learn how to do them the Hispanic way- the first mission was for one day in a little town of Colmo and the second was for five days in a little town called Lagunillas. The mission to Colmo happened when we had been there for about two weeks. For the mission we went door-to-door evangelizing! Oh my goodness, that took a lot of courage, not only to walk up to a stranger and say "Hey, I'm a Catholic missionary, can I share a Scripture passage with you?" but also to do it in Spanish!
They split us gringos into groups of two and then put a native Chilean with each one of us. I was placed in a group with my close friend Stephanie and then Andrés joined us as our native speaker. Stephanie already had a pretty good handle on Spanish but she wasn't feeling too well that day and so Andrés did most the speaking to la gente (the people) and then I got to read from the Bible! I was so excited that he made sure I got to participate even though my Spanish was pretty bad at that point and seeing the Holy Spirit work through this guy who I had thought was shy but was now willingly extroverting himself to share God's love with others was amazing. I actually wrote in my journal that he was a rock star that day, hehe. Also, as we would walk from house to house, which usually took a few minutes since we were in the country-side, he seemed really interested in getting to know me. He asked me where I was from, what the land was like, what I did for work, etc. And he was very kind to explain words to me I didn't know and to speak slowly so I could understand. It was this day that I started to develop a crush on Andrés.
We did the door-to-door in the afternoon and then we had the evening to hang-out, eat dinner, have a prayer service and then play around with the guitars and practice music. During this time I paid a little extra attention to Andrés but at the same time I was telling myself to NOT DO IT! I mean it was just a little crush at this point but I kept reminding myself that I was there to learn Spanish and be a missionary and not to find a boyfriend. But I guess my heart would just not listen to my head.
Our time in Colmo took up Saturday and Sunday and then Monday we had only a couple of hours of school in the afternoon so we could relax (also, I think half the teachers were sick). After getting out of school early I went to the sand dunes on the edge of Concon with John and my friend Kayla and then we went to the market in neighboring Viña del Mar for a little bit and then afterwards to a prayer service in Reñaca. It was a glorious afternoon/evening which would get even better. One of the great things about hanging out with John, besides that John in and of himself is awesome, is that I would usually get to hang out with Andrés and that Andrés had a truck. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the public transportation in Chile, but at night it's nice to have a ride. After our prayer service Andrés came to pick John, Kayla, Daniel and me up and instead of going home we decided to go out for completos. Yum. My yum is half sincere, half sarcastic. You see, completos are like giant hotdogs (ok) on homemade buns (yum) slathered with avocado (yum), ketchup (ok), tomatoes (yum), sauerkraut (yum), and a HUGE amount of mayo (nasty).
We went to the Sibaritico in Viña to get the completos and while we were waiting for them, even though I was wearing two jackets, I was freezing. Andrés, being the perfect gentleman that he was, offered me his sweater. I tried to say no at first but he insisted. On the inside I was saying "Don't accept it!" because I knew my feminine heart would be greatly effected by this gesture and it would grow my crush on him rather than help me suppress it. Anyhow, we got our completos and sat together talking. One of the guys asked me what the men in Wyoming were like. I replied something like there weren't a whole lot of good guys for me (please don't take offense Wyomingites, notice I said for me). Well then John says something similar to "Here's one sitting right in front of you" while pointing to Andrés. As I write this, I'm starting to think that John was possibly the mastermind matchmaker behind all of this...
In post number three learn how we picked up the pace when I realized we only had two weeks left together and how I confessed my undying love (or something like that) to Andrés.
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| Grimace of pain during tattoo. Thankfully I had support from Jenna and Sarah- and my rosary! |
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| Francisco and I showing off our awesome Marian tattoos. |
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| With la gente of Colmo, after Mass. |
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| Covert picture I took of Andres. Hehe. |
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| View of Concon from the top of the dunes. |
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| John and Kayla sliding down the dunes. |
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| Having fun and freezing while waiting for completos. It's hard to believe I wasn't even seriously thinking about dating him yet. |
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| Look at those giant mayonaise covered hot dogs. Also notice that Andres is now sweaterless. Que hombre! |
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| Sardines squished into the truck. |
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Our Love Story, Part I
When someone finds out for the first time that I'm dating someone in Chile they ask two immediate questions:
- Is he Chilean? (Sometimes quickly followed by, is that the right way to call someone from Chile?)
- How did you two meet?!
It all started in that fate-filled June of 2009. My parish had sent me to Chile to learn Spanish in a 6 week immersion program at a school we will call La Escuela (literally, the school). La Escuela was located in an oceanside town of about 30,000 called Concon which just so happens to be the same town that Andrés lived/lives in! It also just so happens that Andrés and his family had signed up to be hosts for one of us gringos. Do you know who got placed with them?... Not me! (Were you surprised?) A great guy named John was place with Andrés' family. I had briefly met John before in college but I don't know if I could say we were even acquaintances at that point. The day we arrived in Chile we were driven straight from the airport to La Escuela where we were split up and taken to our host homes. When we reached La Escuela I was shaking like a leaf because I was having to split off from the 13 gringos I had traveled with to go to my host home where my host mom didn't speak English and I didn't know any Spanish really except "Donde esta el baño?" During this leaf shaking I remember seeing Andrés standing next to John and I thought he was one of our teachers. I didn't say anything to him or really to any of the chilenos- I was SO nervous!
Flash-forward about a week to our first meeting where we actually spoke to one another. The date was July 1, 2009 (Is it sick that I know all the dates? The truth is that I promptly recorded all the dates I could remember of our "firsts" right after we officially started dating so that I could remember them forever!). Every Wednesday night La Escuela had a cultural taller (pronounce tah-yair and it means workshop) and usually they went pretty late into the night. Our first taller was contemporary dance- we learned salsa, merengue, other things I don't remember and my favorite: reggaeton! I think we got done sometime between 10 and 11pm and since I lived farthest from La Escuela (a forty-five minute walk if I was alone, over an hour if I was with others) Andrés kindly offered me a ride home when he came to pick up John in his family's truck. During that 10 minute car ride I think I learned his name, how old he was and that he was in college. He was not extremely talkative but I was very grateful for the ride home and at this point in time I didn't really have an opinion of him.
The next time I saw Andrés was two days later. It was Friday night and all of us (16 gringos, some host family members and some Escuela teachers) were going out to El Huevo to celebrate our teacher Daniel's birthday. El Huevo (Mr. Egg) is a giant nightclub that has five floors and each floor has a different type of music to dance to. We got to the club at about 11:30pm and stayed until 4:30am! That was my introduction to Chilean nightlife and although I was extremely tired at some points, I mostly had a blast. One minor downer of the night however was my interaction with Andrés. Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure Andrés does not remember this but it did happen. Andrés and his sister Daniela had come with and for most the night we all danced in a group together but at one point I was dancing just with John. Then he gave me over to Andrés who had been with Daniela and John took her to dance. Andrés danced with me for a total of maybe five seconds and then dropped my hands. It was so awkward! And so I walked away and danced with the rest of the group. I was a little upset but didn't care too much that this chileno didn't want to dance with me- I didn't even really know him. Little did I know...
You'll have to wait for Part II to learn how we actually built a friendship and to see how I started falling for him. Until then I'll leave you with a couple pictures.
Starting off school with some morning prayer and praise
Dancing at El Huevo- both Andrés and I are there
In the next post find out...
How I surprised Andrés with this
And how we bonded over completos! Yummy.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Out of the Loop
I haven't posted in the last few days because I am convinced the internet is against me. Yes, this lovely technology that wants to connect everybody in the world, for some reason, wants to exclude me. Why am I convinced of this? Well, the answer my friends, is that since getting the internet in my apartment last September so that I could video chat with my boyfriend my computer has totally quit on my once (for a period of one month until my amazing boyfriend was able to bring it back to life!), my power cord has gone completely kaput two times, and then on Sunday my modem crapped out on me. What is this nonsense?! It makes me feel totally out of the loop. But now my modem has been replaced for free (yay for a warranty I didn't even know I had!) and I'm back online. :)
Speaking of being out of the loop, I've come to realize that when come back from Chile (months and months from now) I'm going to feel out of the loop in one of the places I feel most comfortable: Mass. You see, for you non-Catholic readers or for you Catholic readers who are currently out of the loop, starting the first Sunday of Advent this year (November 27, 2011) changes are coming to the wording of the Mass. The Mass has been totally re-translated from the Latin into English and is set to be implemented in November... when I'm in Chile. Tonight I just got done with my last class of a five-week course where I taught parishioners about these changes that are coming. And then I realized I won't even be here for them when they start up! I'm a little disappointed about this because I was really excited about the changes and the opportunity to be drawn deeper into the Mass. The implementation starts in November and I won't be back until the following June at the latest- by which time everyone else will already be used to the changes and have the new responses memorized, and I'll be like a lost little puppy having to read from a missalette still. Oh well, I'll get over it because Mass is Mass AND I still get to receive Jesus AND I love going to Spanish Mass which I'll get to do all the time in Chile!
Speaking of being out of the loop, I've come to realize that when come back from Chile (months and months from now) I'm going to feel out of the loop in one of the places I feel most comfortable: Mass. You see, for you non-Catholic readers or for you Catholic readers who are currently out of the loop, starting the first Sunday of Advent this year (November 27, 2011) changes are coming to the wording of the Mass. The Mass has been totally re-translated from the Latin into English and is set to be implemented in November... when I'm in Chile. Tonight I just got done with my last class of a five-week course where I taught parishioners about these changes that are coming. And then I realized I won't even be here for them when they start up! I'm a little disappointed about this because I was really excited about the changes and the opportunity to be drawn deeper into the Mass. The implementation starts in November and I won't be back until the following June at the latest- by which time everyone else will already be used to the changes and have the new responses memorized, and I'll be like a lost little puppy having to read from a missalette still. Oh well, I'll get over it because Mass is Mass AND I still get to receive Jesus AND I love going to Spanish Mass which I'll get to do all the time in Chile!
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