A Final Thank You

I have now been back home for two weeks and I think I am mostly adjusted. It has been a mixture of emotions being home. There are days when I am so happy to be home and around my family and friends again but other days when I miss my new family and friends and just being able to talk to people who went through the same things I did. God has been great with helping me adjust and getting involved with different programs. I am currently looking for a full time job and just plan on saving up money, no school for me this year. Hopefully next year! I want to thank you for reading my blog. I loved updating you on what I was given the opportunity to do. For those of you who supported me financially, thank you thank you thank you. I would not have been able to go without you. I know that a lot of you were praying for my safe return and I thank you for all those prayers! This is the end of my Cambodia Adventures, I can't wait until my next adventure! :)

The ending is near...

The last night in Cambodia was the perfect way to end. After our amazing dinner with our team, Heather, Kayla, Kristin and I took some pictures together and had a fun girly time. Then Justin, Taylor, Heather and I went down to the beach. We just sat on the sand, listening to the ocean and looking at the stars, talking about how amazing our time was. The next day and a half was so hectic and confusing because of the 14 hour time change. We took a bus back to Phnom Phen to catch our 6 hour flight to Korea. We had a 12 hour layover and I, along with 10 others, went into the city and shopped around. I got to see Nanhee who showed us around Korea last time. It was a great day and then it had to end by us getting on our 10 hour flight to Seattle. It was hard. We left Korea at 6pm on Friday and arrived in Seattle at 1pm on Friday. Yes that's right. We went back in time. I am surprisingly not really jet legged because I didn't let myself sleep until the normal time when we got home. I stayed up by going to Seattle with Kayla and going to her place and out for dinner. Then yesterday morning we had our final meeting all together. We all met and had brunch with our major sponsors and thanked them for everything they did. After that the leaders all got to say something to us students. Oh my gosh I am going to miss everyone so much. I’m not too freaking out about leaving them all, because I know without a doubt that I will be seeing them again, probably soon. After our meeting I drove Kayla to the airport and Heather came with me. I love those girls like crazy, can’t wait until we meet up again in 3 weeks. Today I went to Seattle with Heather, Jenae and Taylor to go shopping. I’m just about to go to church and then everyone is going their separate ways. Ill be back in Canada tomorrow and have mixed feelings about it. I can't wait to be home but I don't want to leave. My body is beat up so I'm happy to go finally go to a doctor and get everything checked out. Ill make sure to write in here at least one more time. God has been so amazing this summer. My world was turned upside down for the better, despite how hard some of it was.

Team=Family

Tonight my outreach team went out for dinner together. It hit me how much I love them and seriously view them as my family. The 11 of us decided to tell each person one thing that stood out to us about each other. Staring with Patrick we all said one thing about him then moved on to Heather and so on. It made me realize what I have learned from each person over the last 3 months and how much they have impacted me. It was also SOOO encouraging hearing what they had to say to me. I'm so thankful that God had our teams perfectly planned out because we worked with each other so well. The ease in which we make fun of each other and yet the seriousness in which we build each other up was amazing to observe at dinner. Today was really cool because 6 of the students got baptized in the ocean. Tonight's debriefing was really good and kind of in an open mic setting. Some people encouraged leaders, some asked bible questions and other asked practical questions. It was a really good ending to our last night it Cambodia. Tomorrow we leave in the afternoon for the airport, our plane leaves at 11pm. We have a 12 hour layover in Seoul, Korea and then we begin our flight back to the U.S.A. See you soon!

Sihanoukville

Our concert at the crusade

The boat we had our tour on(sketchy!)

Snorkeling!


Sorry that I haven't updated in awhile! This week has been fantastic. Today was our day off as it is Sunday and we all went on a snorkeling tour. It was crazy! The boat (as seen above) had like 25 or more of us on it. We went to three different locations to snorkel and swim though and it was beautiful. I freaked out at the first place because I couldn't breath properly and there were sea urchins about a foot under us. But then I got the hang of it and stayed away from the urchins. My friend Lauren got poked by one and has its spike in her leg. :( We flipped and dove off the boat into the Gulf of Thailand. It was really a once in a lifetime experience. The weekdays here we have stayed on the same schedule each day. We meet for breakfast at 9 then have two hours of devotionals. We meet for lunch at 12 and then after that we do some kind of group activity. We've spent some time with the local people here, and because its more touristy they speak English quite well compared to the villages. We meet for dinner which is always fun and go off in different groups. At 8pm we always meet in one of our hotel rooms and sing a worship song or two then we do some debriefing. Adam will ask us a question and it has been really good to go over what we have learned and are still learning. He's taught us different things some of the nights as well. This usually lasts around two hours.I absolutely love our group and I cant believe the school ends in exactly one week :( This last week has been very different from the rest of the trip, but then again every week as been very different from the next. I have learned a lot about myself this week more than the others. It's time for me to go get ice cream for 50cents with Heather and Kayla. See you all soon!

Hospital

Hospital!

Flowers from my team
Late on the 15th I began to have extreme body pains so I stayed at the hotel all day on the 16th. They took me to the hospital early on the 17th and I stayed there for 3 days. After blood tests and x-rays doctors told me I had influenza A which is pretty much H1N1. Andrea and Tony took me to the hospital and Andrea stayed with me all day then Lauren came and stayed with me all evening and night. The 18th Steph stayed with me all day and then Kristin stayed with me all night. The 19th Kayla stayed with me until I went home. I can't believe how amazing they were. They all missed some really cool activity to be with me and I love them so much for it. My team sent me flowers and snacks it was so sweet of them. Im still taking my medication which makes me nauseous but Im almost completely better, my WBC's just need to increase. I wore a stupid hospital mask for 2 days after the hospital so I wouldnt get sick. I still will if I go to the markets. I finally got to go to the last night of the crusade because I was sick the first 4 nights. I'll upload a video and pictures when I get a chance. So because we came a week early to Cambodia we have an extra week with nothing planned. We are at the beach. It was cheeper for all of us to drive 4 hours and stay at a hotel by the beach then to stay in Phnom Phen or even to go home. Thats how much more it costs to fly in Aug instead of Sept. Today we left Phnom Phen at 6 am and drove for 5 hours. I just got back from jumping in the waves and body surfing and am now sitting by the pool. We have one more days of rest and hangingout before they tell us what our plans are for the week after. Over and Out. Your tanning friend, Calsie.

Conference

Time is flying by! Last monday we went to a youth drop in center and just spent time hanging out and playing ping-pong and other games with them. We held our "Catalyst National Conference" from the 11th-14th. There were 100 young adults from all over Cambodia who we had brought in to do it. It was really good to hear everything we have already learnt again. I learnt so much from hanging out with the people here. We had a major thunder and lightning storm the other night and it was purple. So cool! We haven't had team time with just our 11 for days and it makes me miss the smaller team dynamic. We're going to go check out the venue that we will be using the next week for the crusade we are having. I'm so excited! 1200 people each night. Ill let you know how it goes...love you all!

A few pictures

Shrines by a palace Phnom Penh

In Phnom Penh visiting the Mekong river

The homes we visited in Krotches

Playing with kids while in Krotches

Heather and I arriving in Cambodia.