Six years ago, today

Another year. Another year full of events you should have been here for.

もう１年。もう１年のエベント一緒にいるはずだった。

6 years ago, today.

６年前の今日。

Just one day earlier you came in the door and showed off your new glasses. You were so excited.

１日前帰ったら、新しいめがねを見せた。あなたは楽しみだった。

Just over 24 hours later, you were gone.

２４時間後になくなった。

Despite that, it occurred to me this week, if I hadn’t had issues and had to re-do student teaching, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to live with you before you left us. I would have likely been in Japan when I got the news.

これにもかかわらず今週考えた事は、もう１学期必要じゃなかったら、私たち一緒に住んでいなかった。多分その時に日本で要った。最後の３ヶ月に一緒に住んでいた事が感謝している。

Even though we argued sometimes and had differences in opinions often, I’m glad I got to spend the last few months of your life as your roommate.

I’m thankful for our years of Girl Scouts together.

一緒にガールスカウトした事感謝している。

The years of picking on our little sisters.

一緒に何年間妹たちをいじめた事感謝した。

The summers spent in your swimming pool.

何回も夏にあなたのプールで遊んだ事も感謝している。

The winter when we got a ton of snow and we were actually able to build a snow man.

１つの冬にたくさん雪が降ったから、雪だるまできた事も感謝している。

So many good memories. I wish we could have more, but I’m thankful for the ones we had.

たくさんいい思い出があった。もうたくさん欲しいけど、あったの思い出が感謝している。

Five years ago

It was at about this time five years ago that I woke up to the phone ringing again and again and again. My foggy Sunday morning brain realized that no one calls so many times at 6 am unless there is a problem. My mind immediately flashed to my mom a mind sisters - it was my dad calling.

When I finally made my slow morning brain work to answer the phone, I got my mom. She didn't want to be in charge of telling me the news, so she passed me off to dad.

That's when I got the news - Cara and the other girls were in a car accident. I expected my dad's next words to be that they were fine, that I would see Cara and the brand new glasses she was so excited about on Friday night very soon.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the news dad had for me. The girls had been in an accident on the split section of 99W when someone driving the wrong way hit them. Cara died on impact. Arianne, Kim and Faven are alive, but hurting.

Five years ago. I still can't believe that my friend whom I had been friends with since kindergarten, with whom I had giggled about boys and gone to summer camp with is gone.

We were practically sisters growing up - complete with the arguments. Out families did practically everything together - from Girl Scouts, to sports, to lazy summer days off.

I struggle with what to say. I don't want to forget Cara or the times that we had together. I was thinking today about how easy it is to forget the names of people that we did something with after the fact, merely because we don't see them everyday. I don't want to forget.

HEC Replacement Therapy, part 2

After camping at the beach, we headed into Sapporo to go hang out around the beer festival.

R was of course rolling her eyes at the cameras coming out.



Camera war! I think we were both going for the same shot and then shot each other instead, when we realized the other would be in the background.



N, the creeper.



Not sure what L & N were doing, but it was cute.



Being creepy again.



I think she hurt her finger.



H taking her own self-portrait.



Here’s mine.



Another fun shot.



In the end we did get to meet some HEC students, they were doing their own HEC replacement therapy with their ALT – an English dinner at a burger place in Sapporo. It was fun to talk to them and even crazier to find that their school is bigger than my town!



It’s sad to see so many of my friends leaving Hokkaido and moving all over the world and to have to say goodbye. Even so, I’d love to travel all over the world and visit all of them in the future.

The 9 things platter

R, H and I were quite undecided as to what to order for dinner one night at an Italian restaurant on our way to a friend’s house.

We decided to share pasta, a salad and the 9 things platter they suggested as an appetizer.

The platter was full of delicious foods that came in tiny sizes such as this:


Each looked amazing, but we debated the best way to share a platter of 9 tiny things.

After a bit of debate about asking for a fork or trying to use a spoon to cut it, we decided the easiest thing was going to be for each of us to take a bite.

And so, R, H and I shared 9 tiny things.



Squid is not so easy to eat with braces . . .


And then we got dessert . . .


Cheesecake, apple tart, and caramel ice cream – yum!

Friendship

Today I had another epic skype conversation with a friend. She and I talked for a total of 6 hours (we got disconnected once). Last week we talked for five. How do we do it? Where does the time go? Neither of us really knows. We talk about everything from social justice (something that’s big on both of our hearts), to boys (duh, we’re girls), to our faith, to every and anything else.

She and I have decided to do a blog once a day for the month of November (now that I’ve admitted it publicly I’m going to have to hold myself to it). We didn’t start until the third, so it may be a little less than the full month.

She mentioned tonight as we were getting off (at 4 am, her time) that she had intended to write today about To Write Love On Her Arms*, something we both decided to do and according to the facebook invite, it was to be celebrated today (her time) or yesterday (mine). Anyways, because of the late time, when we stopped talking, she just wrote a short blurb and went to bed.

Did she really miss celebrating it by not writing about it? I think she chose to live it instead. She spent the day totally loving on the middle school students in her youth group. Then she spent the time to talk to me for an insane amount of time. Sounds like living it to me.

For me, my biggest love language is quality time, time when I really get to talk to someone and hear their heart and open mine to them. It can take the shape of real conversation, texts, crazy facebook notes, letters, instant messenger, or tons of other ways. For me, it can’t be forced into a short conversation in a few minutes. I don’t open up about deeper things in short amounts of time.

Being so far away from everyone and everything I know has been hard for that reason. It’s hard to spend quality time with people, when there are only a few odd hours when your free (non-work/sleep time) matches up and weekends for both ends are spent doing things that are not around the computer. That makes me feel the distance more. I feel more distant from friends when I don’t talk to them regularly.

Anyways, she showed me this website and I realized I needed to share some of the things it was talking about with her. I needed someone to know some of the deeper things that were going on with me, so that I would truly be known and so that someone could lift me up in prayer. After sharing with her, I didn’t feel like I was really so far away from everyone. Also, being a verbal processor, some of the problems that I thought seemed so huge, seemed so much smaller.**

This particular friend showed me true friendship by willing to sit and listen, to share her heart. I am so thankful.

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*Please note, that while this site is aimed at people “struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide,” those are not things I’m dealing with. However, I have been dealing with the distance from home (some homesickness) and making friends in a new place. It has not been easy, but the Lord has been holding me up and providing new friendships in unexpected places.
**Also, please note that this is not a cry for help, but a way to say thank you to a friend, a chance to reflect on the way I spent my day.