Bon Apetite

I watched "Julie and Julia" last night, and for those of you who haven't seen it before I would recommend it to those aspiring cooks out there, or those who just like food. It's two stories, one of Julia Childs and how she came to be famous, and on of Julie who creates a blog and endeavors to complete all the recipes in the Julia Childs cookbook in one year. I was inspired.

Although with a very limited student budget for groceries, and some picky eaters in the house, I'll have to scope out a different cook book. But the idea was the aim. One cookbook, a set amount of time, and a blog about my experience. Sounds wonderful right? So, for those of you in the greater Nashville area if your interested in stoping by for a meal, let me know in advance so I can prepare correct portions!

In other news, I have declared a business major at CState and my dream is to someday open my own grilled cheese shop! Thinking about the name Shmeltz.. Alright, I may start with a food truck, and who knows may franchise the Grilled Cheeserie, but the point is, this is my passion! So far I have experimented with: pesto, pickles, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, apples, jelly and jam, different cheeses, cinnamon, and sugar. Of course there will be holiday specials, Thanksgiving on a grilled cheese, Christmas on a grilled cheese... you name it. Also my wonderful different homeade soups will be advertised with these unique sandwiches..

If there are any gooey new ideas for grilled cheeses, shoot me some suggestions. I plan to name them after the inventor or the muse. 

Tid-Bits

This blog is funny to me. Nobody reads it except when I am daily informing of being overseas or big things that happen! The "BLOG" favorited tab always intimidates me. I feel like I need to be profound or write a ton of stuff, but I like using a blog to simply document little things as well, you know like a journal.
I'm attending Columbia State Community College. General Education classes right now. Wellness, Art, Spanish, History, and English. I will be starting this season assistant volleyball coaching for ClubWest on the 12-1 team. I'm excited to get plugged back into the sport that I love so much! The opportunity to pour into young girls who are in similar shoes I was at their age. What a God move!
I have entered into adulthood, 20!!
My mom will be coming into town next weekend to help me find and buy a car! And the Lord strikes again!
I was so blessed with friends and love on my birthday, meeting lots of new gals and blokes at school that I just really like. I will be having a fall party next weekend as well with a bonfire and pumpkin carving contest! How sweet is that. Well hopefully lots of people will show up!

I'm in love with fall! the colors, clothes, food, smells, just everything about fall! Thank you Lord for Your unending beauty in creation

Sweet Water

Hey Hey Hey!
Been a bit since my last update, but I have had so much stuff going on. I officially moved with my dad. We are now living in the upstairs portion of my aunt's house. And my grandparents are living in a connected "cottage" that just passed inspection and is livable! I'm liking the new arrangement very much.
Right after graduating from GBC I was hired by Sweet Water Pools, and now I am a pool monitor. OK the job is pretty chill. I get to sit in a shaded area, help people sign in, and try to keep the pool area clean and orderly. Simple. It's one of my favorite jobs so far. I love being outside, and in all the down time I have I get to read, and do other things ;) I'm enjoying my summer so far. It's always nice to jump into my little white Honda and cruise over to Sonic for a daily treat with dear Zachary. We had a grilled cheese off! That was deliciously fun! Mine was a creation with pesto, mozzarella, and sun dried tomatoes. Zack made this whole new invention with french toast as bread, incredibly sharp cheddar, and a crispy fried tortilla in the middle dusted with cinnamon and sugar. And then dipped in jam. May sound interesting, but they were both delectable. What fun adventures await this summer!

graduation

ENO loving

Zack's 18th birthday, Melting Pot

My first day!

Home On The Range

O it feels good to be home. My own bed and room feel wonderful!
GBC is not complete yet. I officially graduate from the Global BootCamp program May 24th. The rest of this month is debrief time, classes, and a few outreaches. This Sunday I get to speak to the church about a few things that happened and things God has done and is doing, so that will be exciting.
Re-entry wasn't too difficult for me, I can eat whenever, and whatever I want, I can drive my car to go where I want when I need to, and I missed my family and friends quite a bit. It's weird to actually see how life has gone on without me. Lot's of things have changed as well as me. I'm working on reestablishing my routine. I'm getting excited for Lee, gonna work on finding a job for this summer, and hopefully have some fun as well and enjoy this summer at home!
Thank you for all your support, but most importantly prayers.

I'm Home

WOW, WOW, WOW, it's happened, I'm actually home. We packed our bags and on Sunday morning the youth who wanted to say goodbye came to the house and did just that. I was of course the only one to cry, but I'm ok with that. We headed to the airport, and I began to think of all thes lasts: last car ride, last breakfast, last hugs, last breath of filthy air... just so many lasts. I'll spare you the boring traveling deets, but we made it from Kathmandu to Mumbai. Then Mumbai to Newark, where we were so blessed to travel VIP style and spend our layover in the United Club. How nice was that, too nice. Then the painful 2 hour flight from Newark to Nashvegas. It was wonderful to see my family waiting for me! We all went out for lunch and I was so happy to fill up on chips and salsa! I ended up staying awake until 9:30, which means I was awake for 50+ hours. Crazy what my body can do. I slept so so so so good in my own wonderful bed, and was able to take a hot, high water pressure shower, and seeing how I live with many blessings.

Now I do realized I didn't blog the last week or so of my trip, well Pastor John arrived, and the family took a trip to Chitwan. Very jungle, rural, and there was a huge (bad) religious festival going on with lots of poor goats going in, but never coming out. We went and visited elephants that give rides, and got really lucky that day. We went down to the river to play in some water, and they began bringing the elephants down for their baths. After some Nepali jabber with the owners, the agreed to let us help them wash them! I jumped in and was so in awe of this really cool animal. They then let us all have turns climbing up the elephant and sitting on its back while it sprayed us with water. Lauren and I got a chance to go together, and it was so cool. We did fall off though... Not badly, the elephant went down on its knees, then laid down, and rolled to the opposite side of what we thought, so we essentially took a bath with elephants ;) Elephants were the highlight for me, we also got mendi again, slept with mosquitos, cultural show, long jeep rides, what an adventure.
This is my quick update, but when I have processed and begin to think of more things, I will update more. I am back from Nepal, Have one more month of GBC before I graduate, and will continue to keep posting things going on, pictures, and my learnings! So glad to be Bibek!

You know, life in the dust

Air dying on the jeep

Elephant Safari

Nameste Pose

Feeding bananas to my new friend

Last sunday school

girls

Subbu

Gorima, Peace

Baby in boots

Lauren feeding bananas

Pinwheel fun

My view

Bath Time

Saroj, Teacher

Sunil-Bean

Our dear friends

Shriju

Mexican with the family

Daddy's coming home gift

Family

Fishing Teacher

OK, so we didn't actually fish, but our guitar teacher always says "if you give a man a fish he will eat for the night, but if you teach a man to fish, he will never go hungry." So, I like to call him our fishing teacher. We have had a good few months learning from him how to read music, a pick, but most importantly how to worship the Lord. We have had our last lesson today and we just spent time worshipping together and he left us with this:
Psalm 144.1
Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle..

What a wonderful verse to leave with us!

Three crazies ending our time together

Sunil-Bean who works where our lessons are

10 days

Seriously, 10 days left. Pastor John will be here in like four, and then it's all fun and games till we depart. I'm gonna miss the new family I found here so very much. They will always be in my heart!!