Moving... again

I have already moved once since coming to Philly. The first place was a beautiful room in an old Victorian house, with tall ceilings and slender windows overlooking a street lined with trees. It was pre-furnished with gorgeous antiques: armoirs made with real wood, desks with carvings on the drawers, mirrors decorated by intricately carved frames. I stayed there for less than 3 months before I fled. Reason: I almost had a nervous breakdown thanks to the obsessive compulsive tendencies of housemate #1. The hour long conversation about "how to throw garbage" and her belief that bathrooms needed to be cleaned every two days because "we're from different cultures and I don't want our germs to mix" are just a few of the tamer examples of what I had to go back to everyday. I actually didn't mind her excentricities. After all, we're all "weird" in our own little ways. It was when she started to impose her lifestyle on me that it became intolerable. Waking up everyday to some sort of "note" reminding me to clean things immediately after use, to wipe the microwave and the fridge handle after touching them because "that's where most bacterial contaminations can happen", and oh... the 3 page long "note" on how I should clean the floor (from the type of detergent allowed, to water temperature and something about 98% oil for the hardwood floor?) was a nightmare. Since her parents owned the place that I was renting, I broke the lease and fled for my life, for my sanity.

After a rather enervating house-hunting experience, I found a pretty nice place far far away from housemate #1 (and work unfortunately) in what you could say a "sketchy neighborhood" called Fishtown. Several people advised me not to move there since Fishtown was rather infamous in Philly, appearing in the radar when several local teenagers planned and executed the murder of one of their peers. Stubbornly (or stupidly... you choose), I moved there thinking 1) "hey, I grew up in Guatemala, have been assaulted at gunpoint, how bad can Fishtown be!?" (I can sometimes be SOOOO naive) and 2) "I don't really care about the location, I just want a nice housemate." (see? very naive...) Well, after three cases of domestic violence erupting into a mini-riot outside of our house, after seeing police cars racing one after another towards the direction of a chopper's limelight shinning on something just a few blocks away, and after losing count of the many disgusting things that were said to me by the guys on the streets and the subway, I kind of lost that "I'm so tough" mentality.

Then, an unexpected surprise. A room located within 10 minutes walk from work, and 2 minute walk from church (as opposed to the usual 45-60min commute from Fishtown) practically appeared out of nowhere and fell on my lap. Xueyuan (my lab manager and one of my closest friends/older sister/mentor in Philly) literally took me out of work one day and took me to see this apartment. There, we met up with two other friends whose persuasive powers led me from "I'm not too sure if I should do this", to signing the lease, and having all the logistics of the move worked out (ie they volunteered their husbands and cars to help me move!).

So... I moved this Saturday! It was quite a busy and exciting day since it was also Ruth's bridal shower. After a fun afternoon of showering Ruth with gifts, of good fellowship, great food, and plenty of "girl talk," my army of movers (7 able bodies and 5 cars) got busy. Everyone was soooooo nice and incredibly helpful. They didn't even get upset at me for "forgetting" to mention that I was moving from a third floor bedroom to a second floor apartment with no elevators in either place. I was very touched and extremely thankful for the kindness that all these amazing friends showed me. I guess God is watching over me after all!

I do miss my housemate #2 and #2.5 (Joy and her little son Luke) since they are wonderful and we had a great time living together (btw, the guilt mentioned in my last entry had to do with what I did to them... but thankfully, everything worked out well in the end). I specially will miss the very insightful conversations that Luke and I used to have. He thought "moms are pregnant for FIVE years befor having a baby" but he still wanted his mom to "grow him a little sister."

I'll end with some pictures that we took earlier this year when Min-ching came to visit Philly :)

And for the records, the 7 months that I lived with Joy and Luke has been the longest I've stayed in any one place since Sept 2003! Hmmm... I guess I'm rather nomadic after all.



This is my most favorite picture with Luke. It was taken right after we had a huge dinner at a Mexican Restaurant :) Probably not the best time to be upside down, but it was still fun! And thankfully, his food didn't come back out.







Luke took this picture of me with Min-ching, my housemate from Kingston and Joy, my 2nd housemate in Philly (ie, his mom).






And here's Luke the cutie. We were playing with the camera while Joy was driving.

Guilt

I'm feeling very guilty right now. I will elaborate more on a later post (maybe), but I don't feel like a very good person at all.

As much as I sometimes think that I don't really like Philly... it's definitely been a good experience since I have learned so much about myself since I came. While parts of this self discovery has been positive, there are clearly many things that I don't like about myself and want to improve on.

Have to say that I am very thankful for all the family, friends and all the unique people that God has strategically placed in each stage of my life to help me through these confusing times. Thank you guys!

Let me end by sharing pictures of some of the friends that I've met since coming to Philly (for those of you that are far away and can't meet them in person...)

Tid bits

Most important things first, a few long overdue congratulations:







To Kendra and Brad for the birth of their incredibly cute and adorable baby son Daniel Rohan King!! Lots of hugs and congratulations to abuela Doris too! I imagine that Daniel must be going through some major spoiling right now with grandma visiting from Honduras :) Wish I could be there playing with him too.





To Maya and Chris for their "amazing" engagement!! Chiqui, I'm so excited for you! Name the date and time and we'll go dress shopping together in TO or Philly or India or Spain (you know? have to keep the "international" theme from your engagement going)! We can make it into a party and get Min-ching and Zahra to come from Kingston :) What do you think?





To Min-ching on the successful completion of her MSc Thesis. You're done!! No more histamine and its effects on LTP in the brain of urethane anaesthesized rats... well, until your Phd. And congrats on the NSERC scholarship!





To Ron on finishing his PhD and getting an awesome new job in Bowmanville! Dude... or should I say Dr. Dude, congratulations on all your achievements. Sorry I couldn't make it to your good bye party but hope you liked the card. Wish you, Sarah and Evelyn (the cutie!) the best in your new home!


Okay, so scratch the whole idea of writing every two or three days... I should have aimed for a more realistic goal: once a week... or a month perhaps? Mayo, have you not kindly reminded me of my blog, this post would not exist. Sighh... I've actually been rather exhausted over the past weeks. I've been making up time at work for all the days that I took off in August by coming in on weekends and holidays... and it's starting to catch up on me. Work has been unusually busy, with a sudden explosion of studies that require specific things to be done at various time points, compounded with the unwelcome realization that I'm in dire need of some major studying for the GRE (which I'm signed up to take in a month), is not making me a happy person.

Granted, I've only started studying a week ago, but my practice scores are beyond pathetically awful. Tomas couldn't have phrased it any better: "Agueda, it's not your fault that they're testing you on all your weakest points. You have no critical thinking ability, your math sucks... and you can't write. If I wanted to design any test to really mess you up, it would turn out to be just like the GRE! Your only hope is for me to go take it for you!" (what a nice brother eh? Sadly, there's so much truth to what he said)

Agueda... writing!?

     Anyone who knows me well can attest to my deep, intense, and raw hatred for writing.  There is no activity that depresses me more, completely frustrates me and brings out the worst in me like writing does.  Just ask anyone who was around me during my thesis-writing days.  I’m surprised that they’re still my friends.  I hate writing (hate is a strong word... but trust me, that is in fact what I feel).  It takes me so long to piece my thoughts together and put them into words, and the whole process just makes me so unhappy.  

     Then, why I’m I keeping a weblog and torturing myself with writing?  Here are some of the main reasons:    

1. I have not used my brain since graduation.  I can feel it shrink!  So I’m hoping that by forcing myself to process and organize the convoluted mess that are my thoughts and attempting to express them in some coherent manner, I will still have a few useful neurons left at the end of the day (thankfully, I don’t have to worry about Alzheimer’s because I drink coffee, right Rachel!?)  


2. I’ve been inspired by other webloggers and gotten to know friends at a much deeper level by reading up on the status of their thoughts.  Tina’s xanga site is worthy to be published (I’m serious!)


3. There’s been a lot in my mind lately and so many stories left untold about Honduras, Mexico and what God has done in my life.  I really want to share them.


4. It’s a great way to stay in touch (right May?)… plus, I can’t keep up with all the emails that I owe, I’m so sorry!!!


5. I need to practice writing for the GRE and the sooner I overcome this aversion for writing (and math… but that’s a whole different story), the better!

     My goal is to have something up at least every two or three days, so come back soon and any feedback is highly welcomed (