abbey abroad :)

This weekend was great! I went to Virginia Beach with some friends, and it was so pretty! We got back pretty late, but it was so worth it. I'm posting pictures on Facebook right now! (Does anyone else think it's gotten harder to post pictures on Facebook? It always takes me a few tries now.)

Sunday nights, we have cultural worship. Did I tell you about this already? Well, basically, Sunday night worship is focused on a different affinity group every week. We sing songs in different languages spoken in the affinity group, and the speaker speaks in a different language, too. It's really neat. The only one that hurt my head was the night we did South America. The speaker was talking in Spanish. Usually, I just kind of read the Scripture in my Bible along with the speaker and then tune out, since I can't understand anything, anyways. But I know enough Spanish to understand when I pay attention... I don't know enough Spanish for it to be easy. So I left with a headache! I'm sure that will be happening to me in Macedonia in a few months. Last night, the focus was on North Africa and the Middle East. Women had to wear long skirts and shirts with a head covering, and we couldn't look the men in the eye (which is so much harder than it sounds). We had to come to worship in small groups of one or two so we wouldn't draw attention to the meeting place, since people in that region have to meet in secret. We sang songs in Turkish, French (because of people going to work with Muslims in France), Ethiopian, and several other languages. I really like cultural worship nights. :)

In other news, I found out last night that one of my best friends is expecting a baby! It seems so strange that she's only two years older than I am, but she's at a completely different stage in her life. It made me think more about how I never thought I'd be doing this. I thought I wanted to be like my friend--marry relatively young and have kids! And I still think that's awesome. I just know it's not what God wants for me right now. And I am so happy to be where I am. His ways are definitely higher than mine. :)

Why do I end every paragraph with a smiley face? Weird. Oh, but that reminds me--last week, we got our results from the Myers-Briggs (Did I spell that correctly?) personality test thing. Mine said I'm an ESFP, but I'm thoroughly convinced I'm an ESFJ. Plus, I was only one point "P". So I must have answered some questions in strange ways or something. And if you don't know what those letters stand for, it's Extrovert Sensing Feeling Perceiving. (J is Judging. Which is what I am.) Let me tell you the description of an ESFP and tell you why I think I'm a J:

• Practical, realistic, observant, and focused on the present. (I can see that.)
• Generous, optimistic, and persuasive. (Hmm... yes. Okay.)
• Able to "live in the moment," find enjoyment in most aspects of life." (Again, sure.)
• Focused on getting the task done with a maximum of fun and a minimum of fuss; show less concern with following the rules. (Whatever. I am all about following the rules. To a fault.)
• Guided by personal values in decision making; able to identify and empathize with others. (Well... that's me.)
• Good at personal interactions; often play the role of peacemaker. (Peacemaker, yes. Probably because I'm a middle child.)
• Usually seen by others as resourceful, supportive, gregarious, fun loving, and spontaneous. (Some of those, yes, but I don't really think I'm spontaneous.)

Before I came here, I thought about how I would miss being with my family on my birthday. I love to wake up and go downstairs to see that my mom has set out a special breakfast for me on our red "You are special today" plate that we can only use on our birthdays, next to the pile of presents that I'm supposed to wait to open (yeah, right). And then we all go to dinner together and tell the story that begins, “What were we doing exactly 23 years ago?” So I was a little disappointed when I realized that I would be at orientation on my birthday. But it turns out that this is the BEST place to spend your birthday! Let me show you why:

I had to add the E myself, but I wasn't offended. :) I then proceeded to the back dining room, where we had a Eurasia service team meeting. When I walked in, everybody surprised me by singing Happy Birthday! It was so fun! And one of my quadmates had made a cake!

I must say, I usually guess surprises, but they got me!

After dinner, I got to play with my very very favorite baby!

Isn’t she beautiful?? Her name’s Annabelle.

We also had a required fellowship tonight, and it was great. I pretended it was for my birthday. :) We even had ice cream! I really like talking with older people who have been on the mission field. They have the neatest stories!

And last but not least, I got another birthday package! This one was from my family. It had a few cards, and my mom had made a “port-a-party”. She is SO creative! Best mom ever!

I don't know if you can see, but it included Happy Birthday candles, a Happy Birthday sign, Happy Birthday napkins, a pin the tail on the donkey game, balloons, and those little noise things with the streamers on the end. She also sent me a link to a personalized birthday song: Abbey's birthday song Hilarious. Really.

So even though my birthday was definitely different today, it was still great. Really, really great. 

I. Am. Sleepy. I had a busy weekend. Saturday, I went with some people to a Caribbean music festival in downtown Richmond to share the Gospel with people there. We did the same thing yesterday at a nearby mall. It was hard at first because that's a big stretch for me, but it got easier as the day went on. I'm so glad I went! But I still shouldn't really be sleepy. I slept in Saturday (I won't mention what time I got up... but let's just say it was close to lunch time!), Sunday I got up just before house church, and then I got eight hours of sleep last night. (I wasn't supposed to get quite that much, but who needs breakfast, anyway?) So I had a pretty restful weekend. And still, I feel like I need sleep! It's probably because we sit in sessions almost all day, every day. I actually really enjoy the sessions--I like classroom settings, and I like taking notes! But it still makes us all feel kind of lethargic. Really, it feels like all we do is wake up, eat, sit, eat, sit, eat, sleep. It's hard to find the energy to exercise! But I'm really trying to get into a routine this week.

Something you probably don't know about Macedonia (if you know anything about Macedonia): Coffee is a huge part of their culture. They drink it all the time. It's not uncommon to have three cups of coffee when you visit a friend--a welcome coffee, a conversation coffee, and a goodbye coffee. Crazy, right? It makes it sound like Macedonia is full of hyped-up people with twitchy eyes and really brown teeth.

I, however, am not much of a coffee drinker. I enjoy the occasional Starbucks (white mocha, hello!), but I never make any at home. And if I ever do have plain coffee... I add a whole lot of sweet stuff. My goal for these 8 weeks at FPO: Become a coffee person. A real coffee person. Because, sure, I could just carry around my own French vanilla creamer and inconspicuously add it to my mug, but I think the Macedonians might notice when their coffee is black and mine is... brownish-beige. So allow me to share my coffee-darkening strategy with you.

Stage 1: (Completed.) During the first week of FPO, drink coffee during the first session each morning, adding as much creamer as necessary to make the coffee delicious. (6 little creamer cups--4 cinnamon and 2 French vanilla. Delectable! I should be a barista.)

Stage 2: (In progress.) During week two of FPO, decrease the number of creamer cups used in coffee by one. (Still delicious.)

Stage 3: (Daunting.) Each week, continue to decrease the number of creamers used by one until I am using only one creamer.

Stage 4: Final week--add no creamers to coffee... but compensate with sugar packets.

So there you have it--my plan to accomplish my goal of becoming a grown-up coffee drinker. The next time you see me, I will likely have developed coffee-stained teeth and a caffeine addiction. This seems backwards.

I've been so busy since I got here last week! Our sessions started Wednesday, and we are basically in sessions 8-5 Monday through Friday. We have the weekends off, but there are usually a few optional workshops. Last weekend was great. Friday night, we had about thirty people over to our quad for game night--it was crazy fun! (Who knew spoons could cause puncture wounds??) Saturday, I with some friends to a nearby city called Short Pump. (I know, I laughed the first time I heard it, too.) There's a girl here from Canada that had never had Chic Fil A (sad!), so we wanted to take her. And we did. And she loved it. :) Then we went to R.E.I., this outdoorsy store I had never heard of. And then we went to Barnes & Noble. I bought a journal, which I seem to do every time I enter that store. Oops.

Saturday night, I went to the quad of some friends going to Africa, and we played Banagrams. (Best. Game. Ever.) Then we watched Hotel Rwanda. BAD IDEA. I've been avoiding that movie for years because I knew it was too sad for me... and I was right! I'm glad I finally watched it, and I would definitely recommend it, but man. Tough stuff. It's hard to believe that I was alive when that happened and had no idea. And it's hard to believe that nobody did anything about it! It was so frustrating. But then we talked about how things like that still go on today, and still most people do nothing. It's so easy to forget all the horrible things that happen in the world when we don't see it every day, but those are real people over there, people with families, and they deal with terrible heartache every day. It was definitely an eye-opener.

I had a really dramatic moment when we left the quad. It was about midnight, and it was raining, and we had no umbrellas. (This, of course, is the ideal stage for a dramatic moment.) I ran back to my quad with my jacket over my head, thinking about the Africans in the rain in the movie we had just watched (I think very dramatically sometimes), and I got to my door--but the door was locked! The door is NEVER locked! So there I was, standing in the rain, and in my mind I was banging on the door with both hands and yelling for my quadmates to let me in... but in real life I just pulled my key out of my bag and unlocked the door. Sometimes I make a big deal out of really little things just to make my life more like a movie.

Last night, we had our mapping ceremony. Each person got up in front of everyone and said where he was going, and they shared a prayer request for their time here at orientation. Then, we each went up to a map of the world on the wall and put our pictures on top of our countries.

I am just loving my time here so far! It's like being in college again (which I love!), but it's all about sharing the Gospel, and you're with 150 of the COOLEST people you will ever meet. It's actually been really hard managing my free time, because I just want to hang out with people all the time! But I think I'll get the hang of it. The main focus here is prayer. We've already talked so much about how important it is to keep up with your prayer partners and to keep them connected so they'll keep praying. There's also a huge emphasis on our personal relationships with God. Friday, we had three hours to go off by ourselves and just spend time alone with God. Then, we came back together and talked about what God showed us. It was great. What an awesome way to begin this time of transition and learning--by focusing on the One who's sending us and making sure we're listening to Him above everything else.

Sorry this is so long! I'm going to have to start blogging more frequently so I can say the same amount of information without overwhelming my readers with tons of stuff at once. Let me know how you're doing! I miss everyone back home!

I'm here! Here in Virginia, that is. I'll be here for about eight weeks, learning and training for cross-cultural missions. I've heard it's an awesome time of growth--and very challenging. A few other jmen and I arrived last night, and everyone else will get here today. We start sessions tomorrow morning. When we checked in, we were given a schedule of every single day we're here. Needless to say, it's a little overwhelming! But exciting, too. Through this whole process, I have developed such a huge appreciation for the International Mission Board. What a great organization! They are so efficient and practical with everything they do, and they really take care of their employees. I've seen this already, and I've heard it gets even better once you get to the field.

The place we stay during training is like a small college campus, with several learning facilities, a cafeteria, dormitories, and small apartment-type buildings called quads. I stay in a quad, which is like four mini-apartments put together with a big common area in the middle. Each of the four sections has two bedrooms, a mini-kitchen, a bathroom, and a laundry area. Each girl gets her own room, and since I'm the only person going to Skopje, I get my own little apartment. :) The other girls in my quad are also going to Europe. So far, it's me, two other girls going to a different city in Macedonia, and a girl going to Russia. We'll get our other three "quadmates" later today. I LOVE my roommates! I met the other two going to Macedonia at my interview back in February, so it's been great to see them again.

I'm enjoying today as one of my only free days while we're here. They've given us a few assignments to complete before Friday, so I'll probably work on those today. Other than that, my main priority is to take a nap! It's been so hard to fall asleep these past few nights--even though I'm tired, my brain just won't turn off! And I have a feeling that living with six other incredible girls that all like to talk won't exactly encourage me to have the best sleeping habits these eight weeks. :)