Here I am!

Hello all!

Just wanted to let you know that I have arrived safely in Oaxaca. As my plane left Denver headed for Houston, I overheard the stewardess say to a passenger, "Things sometimes just fall apart." Hmm... Prime example of why you should not listen in on conversations ;-). But, nothing fell apart and it was a fine flight. I was able to relax in a Houston hotel last night, and then bright and early this morning I got on a small plane to Oaxaca.

Jo Ellen met me at the airport, I made it through immigration and customs fine, and am now free to roam about. Well, I'll roam about Jo Ellen's house for now anyway - I've had enough adventure for today, lugging all my stuff from last year down a small spiral staircase ;-). Tomorrow will be spent moving into my apartment.

I'll try to post more 'reflections' on being back later, but for now I am here and doing well. I hope you are doing well where you are.

God bless!

Postcards from Laura - Lincoln Park Zoo

Hello from Chicago! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 17th, 2007
I managed to squeeze in some traveling before I leave for Mexico, and part of that was spent in good old Chicago. As you can see from the picture above, I went with a friend to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The weather was beautiful, the funnel cake was very tasty, and they were practicing for an air show overhead. Fun stuff.
It was interesting to see how the animals reacted to hearing the loud jets fly so close overhead. Some just lazily glanced up, the younger ones tended to run around (or fly or swing or whatever). Although it was a good day, some of the animals began to make me kind of sad - their cages seemed so small. But, I perked up when I saw the polar bears. They kept swimming around, having fun with the kids standing outside their window. It made me wonder who exactly was 'on display' for who.
Well, you may have noticed the delayed date on this postcard. I am actually packing for Oaxaca right now, so I better get back to it. Thanks for checking in! God bless.
With love in Christ,
Laura :-)

Postcard from Laura - Colorado

Maybe now that I'm heading back to Mexico, I'll have more of my postcard posts. So, in the spirit of things, here is a postcard from Colorful Colorado. This photo was taken off the I-70 scenic byway on a trip home from my grandparents. Oh what a beautiful morning ;-).

By the way, support update, I now have 75% of my support pledged. Yay! I will be leaving for Mexico on August 30th. Here we go again :-).

Titanic thoughts

Last weekend I went to the Titanic Exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with my mom and sister. It made for a good way to spend an evening – made better by it being a stormy night. There’s just something exciting about not being home during a thunder storm. As we went through the exhibit, I learned many things – things that probably won’t be too useful for any particular reason, but I could feel my mind growing ;-).

Interesting details that stood out for me:

• First class tickets on the Titanic were over $2,000 for the 4 day trip (that amounts to about $48,000 today). Wow.
  
• As we walked through different hallways we saw the rich construction of a first class hall and heard the rumble of the engine as we walked through the third class hall. Those were my favorite parts of the exhibit.
  
• The men on post/watch did not have binoculars the night the ship sunk. In fact, the binoculars had been missing the whole trip, misplaced in the rush of packing.
• Although percentage wise the first class had a larger amount of people saved, each class had roughly 200 people who survived (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and crew).
• The water that the ship sunk in that night was below freezing. There was a huge piece of ice at the exhibit that you could touch, and it was beyond my abilities to imagine drowning in water that was even colder than that.
  

The individual stories were so interesting to read about. Stories of heroism and life and stories of loss and tragedy. I never quite wrapped my mind around the fact that the articles we were seeing had belonged to people who set out on an exciting and unknown voyage nearly 100 years ago.

One thing that did cross my mind was to wonder how God was working that night. Not in a hopeless, “Where was God?” way, but more of a curiosity, I guess. Here’s some points that stood out in my mind:

• Sometimes when I lose things, I think about the fact that God knows exactly where they are – and God knew exactly where the misplaced binoculars were that night. Hmm...
  
• It is kind of crazy that it was the maiden voyage of the "unsinkable" ship when they happened upon icebergs. It wasn’t it’s third or tenth trip, but the very first when it sunk.
• It is interesting that they came upon the icebergs in the darkness and still of the night - there wasn't any sunlight at all to show that there might be danger ahead. And, they hit the icebergs in just the right way to scrape open the base of the ship beyond what the design could recover from.
• And, off topic from the museum, but one thing that stands out from the movie for me is the image of the ship going down in the sea. When people onboard are experiencing such chaos and destruction and are fighting for their lives, the rest of the world around them is completely calm. It's like a storm, with no actual storm.
  

I’m not one for “what if’s”, but the story of the Titanic sure presents a lot of them. I don’t have any answers to my ponderings, just thought I’d share them with you.

If you're interested in reading more about the Titanic, here's an online exhibit of it: www.britannica.com/titanic. If you live in Colorado, the exhibit will be here until January 2008 if you'd like to check it out. I recommend it :-).