Catching up on what I should have written while in Abilene

Life has been slightly busy over the past few weeks and so today and tomorrow during my "days off" I am going to try and get caught up so that I can write about what I'm doing now...I know you all want to know how things are going in Brazil. So let's take a step back in time to while I was still in Abilene...

Tuesday evening after class Mike Coghlin picked me up and took me over to his and Trina's place. Trina and I graduated from WCC together in 1999. Mike came for college 1 or 2 years later... I can't remember exactly. On Wednesday May 16th, Trina gave birth to Rebecca Grace Coghlin via c-section. I was pretty excited to be the first of their Canadian friends to get to meet miss Rebecca. It was so nice to visit with Mike and Trina. Their two year old, Jesse, has grown so much since I saw him last in Regina. Children really are amazing. Mike and Trina were busy getting ready to start their journey back to Canada the next morning. They will be spending the summer with family in Canada. They are either really brave or just downright crazy to attempt a trip like that with a two year old and an infant one week after a c-section.

Me holding Rebecca.

Jesse looking completely adorable!

I think it was on Thursday that I had lunch with an old friend of mine, Shelley Doremus. At the time that I met her she was Shelley Prather. It is kind of a long story to tell but Shelley and I met through a mutual friend back in 1999. She was going to school at Oklahoma Christian University and I was attending the World Mission Workshop there. We spent the weekend getting to know each other a bit but it was once I came home that our friendship really started to flourish. Shelley and I became what you might call email pen pals. Since that first meeting in 1999 Shelley and I have spent a lot of time visiting and sharing stories but all through email. It was only last month when I came to Abilene that we were able to see each other again. The day we had lunch Abilene experienced a torrential downpour and so we both look a little like drowned rats in this picture but we had to record the occasion!

Pamela and Shelley looking a little water-logged

My trip home was somewhat of an adventure. It began with simply trying to find the airport in Abilene. My new buddy Andrew offered to give me a ride to the airport. I was very grateful but never really stopped to think about the fact that neither one of us are from Abilene and so have no idea how to get to the airport. Thanks to a visit to Google maps we only got a little bit lost before eventually making our way to the airport. My adventure continued when I got to Dallas and discovered that my flight to Memphis was delayed. They had already started rerouting people with connecting flights by the time I made it to my gate. With no options to be able to get me home that night the airline put me up in a hotel and I flew home the following morning. My luggage then met me a few days later...oh the joys of air travel!

I really enjoyed my time in Abilene. I met a lot of new people and got to visit a lot of old friends. I thoroughly enjoyed my class and learned a lot of useful things for my future cross-cultural experiences. The trip was long but totally worth while!