What Now Wanderers

by Sarah
Sorry it seems that we skipped a few days along the way. Those of you who were following our blog hopefully didn't think we were stuck in the Motel 666 all this time. We escaped/ ran out of there as quickly as possible the next day and then went on the road again.
Those who know me know that the way I tell stories is in a way that sometimes lacks chronological order. Many times I may also leave out or forget the "punch line" of the story. (I know this is enticing you to read my blog post more and more as I keep writing). Its one of my quirks aka personality flaws... So, instead of boring and confusing you with my storytelling disabilities, I'll write a series of lists that will hopefully convey the trip in a compelling way.

I feel that whenever I travel, there seem to be many common themes that are present. These themes occur while traveling abroad as well as domestically. Here are some observations and themes that I experienced along the way.

1. Irony. Any time I have traveled, irony seems to be a common theme i.e a middle of nowhere town in Illinois called Metropolis with a population about the size of my high school. Another example was talking about a international city or country like Paris, Mexico, or Italy and then seeing signs for it less than a minute later (in Middle America). In the middle of nowhere we saw signs for "New Florence," Mexico, Paris, Tuscany Condominiums, and Vienna. There were actually any points when Lauren was talking about Brent, who was in London at the time, and then we would see these "England" trucks every half-mile or so. Crazy coincidences like these happened all along the trip. I wonder what God was trying to tell us... maybe that I need to travel soon (or maybe that's just how I interpreted it). Another extremely ironic event was during our stay at The Inn at Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge, TN. Since the hotel was all Christmas themed, Lauren thought of the great idea to do secret Santa. We each drew each others names from a hat (that Nicole made during the trip). I picked Lauren, Lauren picked Nicole, and Nicole picked me. We went to a store where you could buy leather, tshirts, fudge, and bathing suits. Can you imagine a store like this that is not called Wal-Mart?! Well, we dispersed in the store and picked out quirky gifts for each other. The next morning we opened our gifts. The craziest thing happened- I had actually picked out the same gift for Lauren that she had picked for Nicole. A key chain with a pocket knife on it with the name "Bubba" etched on it. Of all the names to pick, we picked the same exact name! Alanis Morissette would have thought that was surely ironic. Another example of this was seeing a wooden bear walking down a pathway and thinking it was real. Later on that day, we did in fact see a real bear in the smoky mountains! I wouldn't be surprised if "Ironic" came on in the deep forests during our bear sighting.

2. Going full circle. Not only was our route around parts of the country routed in a way which made a circular path, but it was evident that our conversations, locations, people we met, etc. all went full circle after a certain amount of time. What I mean by this is many times a conversation we had earlier in the trip was brought up later on in the trip by a complete stranger, such as a person we interviewed. We'd be talking about our life goals, or direction in life, and then our interviews would give us just the guidance we needed. I heard common themes during the interviews over time and now that we're home, I'm starting to forget who said what, but I still remember the themes of persistence, determination, and courage coming through in the interviews. While playing "Psychic Radio" (a game Lauren introduced to us later in the trip), we found that many of our questions were answered by asking the radio a question and then strategically holding down the "seek" button for a designated number of seconds then releasing and seeing what song is playing. I don't really believe this is going to give us huge life advice, but its fun to play on a long road trip. Along the trip we saw signs for "Emma." Some middle of nowhere town. The coincidence being that we had just visited with my cousin Jean's new baby Emma in Indiana. I also saw signs for "Norwalk" (the city I just moved to in Connecticut). While in DC, we passed the Peace Corps building, the building in which I had corresponded with handfuls of people over the last and sent numerous documents as I waited in anticipation for my placement. It was interesting that the last day of our trip, we passed by this building. It was hard to see, because it was just a reminder that I wasn't there ("there" being in my placement, the Dominican Republic). It was also a reminder, and sign, to me that I still need to pursue my dreams of going into the Peace Corps and reapply next year when they may reevaluate me. To me, it was a sign and reminder that God was saying, "Don't give up. Continue to work towards this." The irony was that the Peace Corps building was actually right around the corner from the National Geographic building where we met with Chris Johns, the editor in chief of the magazine.

3. Quirks. Just as we found quirks in the strange towns we went to, we also couldn't help but notice each of our own quirks. We established my story telling tendencies to often include the phrase "OH MY GOSH" (spoken with the perfect voice inflection sounding surprised and excited). We found Nicole's quirk to be in her conversation skills. Many times, Nicole will ask questions along the lines of: If you could be any (fill in the blank), which would you be... and why!? She has a way of asking such unique questions it gets you stumped and really makes you think. Many times these questions will come out of no where (but are surely connected in Nicole's train of thought). Lauren tends to be a dream crusher and cannot suspend disbelief. This happened a couple times during the trip.

Thats all I got for now, and I should probably get ready for work. I'll write more observations as soon as I can!