San Juan, Puerto Rico

Wow- I know I do a lot of posts about traveling, and boy do I know I'm spoiled in that area. Humor me for two more before I leave on my mission.
Once upon a time 5 years ago my mom started working for jetblue. I immediately set to work researching all the places they flew and discovering that if I could only go one place on that list I wanted it to be Puerto Rico. I set to work writing essays for my parents of why we should go, why it was the best place to go. After a while I was convinced that it was pretty much out of the question. 5 years later I find myself at the end of my flight benefits, but with a last minute plan to finally go to Puerto Rico. So was it all that to get my hopes up about? Yes, I believe it was.
It kind of reminded me of Hawaii, except everyone spoke Spanish, the food was Mexican, and it was much less touristy.


Meet the party bus. You thought school buses were just for children on field trips? Well this one travels downtown blinged out and looking for people who want to party- I actually don't know it's real purpose, but everyone cheered each time it passed.

 Streets full of little taco and churro busses and all sorts of snacks. The best tasting is awarded to the dulce de leche churro. The weirdest snack eaten out of a bus goes to....strange fried banana scone filled with unknown fish and what tasted like tomato paste. Not bad though.

 What a better way to spend a Saturday than walking around Old Historic San Juan- filled with people flying kites on the open grass, statues, many many island cats, beautiful views and cemeteries, and an old fortress (who's pictures are scattered).

Now it's occurring to me that I probably should have turned some of these into collages...oh well. 

Many colorful simple houses packed everywhere. 

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Seriously, there are cats running wild everywhere. We even saw the policeman playing with one- of course when he saw us he went right back to his post. 

people flying kites

 Best statue award goes to the sheep with the flag.

Erika- these sheep statues remind me of something you would like.

 If you stare at this tower too long- you will be convinced it will fall on you.

Another day of boogie boarding and being lazy on the beach. 

 A day of hiking and driving through the jungle and finding waterfalls and great views.

And then the last day which includes no pictures of zip lining and midnight kayaking at  the bio luminescent bay. 

Zip lining for me certainly shoved out the door the possibility to still be afraid of heights. Especially in those moments when I got stuck hanging above the canyon and would either have to pull myself in or wait for someone to come get me. But I love that feeling of flying through the air over the canopy of lovely trees and smells and rivers. 

And the bio bay- in case you don't know what it is, is a river covered by mangrove trees and lake full of these micro organisms that glow when they are moved. They light up like little stars under your hand- it's incredible. Really it's  an awesome experience that I can't quite explain. 

And here's a video of some music being played on the streets (which really was everywhere, the people are just so happy!) But be warned, you should just listen to it, and not actually watch it, because it will make you motion sick to watch- I wasn't quite paying attention to holding the camera.

Oh, the things you can learn in a year

Warning: this is my cheesy new years post. Mostly written for myself. And kind of long.
One year goes by quickly. But thinking back to what was going on at the beginning of a year- it was so long ago. I've learned so many life lessons in that short/long time. So life lessons/ high times of the year in pictures and words. The year has three parts to me: Winter semester, summer, and Fall semester.

Heading back to college after a particularly challenging first semester where I found myself still determined, but a bit discouraged. I moved in- still quiet, unsure, and wanting to restart again- to an apartment of loud, fun, confident, kind girls. Learned that people I'd always imagined were a certain way were just like me. In fact they all were just normal people like everyone else.
This is where I most felt self worth. This was a home where love was commonly told and shown instead of just assumed. This was a place where I was pushed out of my shell and decided it was okay to like myself and what I was becoming. I learned a good deal of social skills so that when I met people the first word used to describe me would not be: shy. I was taught that any dream I could come up with can be achievable and I gained friends that constantly built me up and allowed me to become who I wanted. I felt wanted.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I found my love for floral arranging and that my medium of art is flowers. 

And I found that peace and closeness to God is easy to feel in the fields of Rexburg in the quite, and under a star filled sky. 

The Summer where I learned the importance of being friends with your family, I creatively explored crafts and floral arrangements of my own, traveled to my hearts content, found out how to create my own adventures and learned how to be content on my own, gardened, learned I didn't need to put quite so much time into my looks in order to feel good about myself, worked on a hot catering bus of crazy women who taught me to take everything with a grain of salt, and worked delivering sandwiches and made friends with people who didn't have the same standards as me and made me realize I had some figuring out to do to find my own personal testimony of the gospel, and saved up a enough money for the next bit of college. 

And then in a return to college I figured out how to make friends with teachers and get through days of insane amounts of studying- I figured out how to get by the weather and the homework loads. I learned how to make time for the people that I cared about, people that taught me lessons of trust, service, and more confidence. And on my own as I searched for answers I really found my own testimony and love for the gospel. Which came just in time as I figured out I was supposed to start my mission papers. And I started to see that God has a plan for me even before I know why or can give up my own stubbornness and go with it. 

And most importantly- it all, always works out.

I learned how to cook a lot more things, despite a couple of failed attempts, became obsessed with family history, and stepped away from some time wasting habits on the computer. I traveled to Hawaii, spent a lot of nights wrapped up in warm sheets out of the dryer in the laundry room to friends and family far away (first semester in college with no family around), and I had way too many corn experiments and late nights in the library. The adventures continued....

sledding on cookie sheets

the corn experiments winner

A whole year summarized in one. 

Next year will be full of lessons from my mission in Japan. Starting February 20th.