Living the High Life

I admit: this post will be pointless fluff about my amazement with flying and my new-found addiction. Flying is simply amazing. First off, I made it all the way from Minneapolis to Dallas in less time than it would take for me to drive to the Minnesota border. That is just plain crazy. I also felt like I was on a roller coaster swooping up and down and rotating side to side, it’s like a thrill ride! And the views? Spectacular!! The clouds are mounds of whipped cream that I could just stick a spoon in and lick clean. The thinner clouds are powdered sugar dusted over a green serving platter with roofs like chocolate flavored graham cracker. The trees are a rich green velvet that seems like a luxurious carpet. They are spread out among the grass like the vines on a leaf. Tree-ception! The cookie square roads are straight out of a dollhouse, and the clouds shadows really show you how high you are.

Somewhere over a state south of Iowa (not sure where we were at this point. Planes move so fast!)

Take off from Dallas, TX. It was way cooler than this picture shows. The ground was the aftermath of either a drag show or a Ke$ha concert. Way cool.

       
          Flying into Santiago, I had the Pacific coast to my right and the Andes mountains to my left. What a view. Looking up, the sky is a deeper, richer blue than on the ground. If my wild, fantastic dream of going to space remains ungranted, I’d accept a lifetime of free airplane rides to random places, just so I can fly.

I woke up after a mini-nap and immediately thought: "What weird terrain is this??"

It was just clouds. But they were over the Pacific. Still cool, right?

The bottom of the Andes! And the coastline way at the top under the wing of the plane.

The view from my 3rd floor apartment homestay. I can see the mountains!

Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye, Hola!

So I definitely did not post as much this summer as I thought I would. My bad!

          The past few days have been a blur. Since when did I arrive at camp, then all of sudden (it seems) I need to turn around and leave again? After building almost 40 campfires, cleaning countless plates and forks and spoons, grilling hundreds of hot dogs and hamburgers, getting soaked almost every day leading the kids in water games, and praying thousands of prayers, I guess I lost track of how much time I had left here. Every once and a while though, I would stop and look around at this place and think about how many people have depended on this place for peace, faith guidance, and connection. I can tell I’ve grown stronger in my faith, by listening to other people’s perspectives and testing my own beliefs. I’ve learned more about my denomination and its role in the world and how it differs from other denominations. I’m very proud of the church I’ve grown up in and the churches I’ve participated in at camp and around Iowa. I could go on and on, but I don’t want to get boring.

          As I prepared myself to leave camp, the interns went to explore more of the campground through trails that have overgrown in the past several years. We crawled under branches, got caught on thorns, and ultimately ended up wading through a beautiful creek that ran through our property. I’m glad I got to experience the parts of camp that I wouldn’t have been able to as a camper or counselor. One other thing that was significant in my internship was when I shared my faith story at campfire to the camp that helped form my faith. I felt like it was what I needed to do for both myself and some of the campers. Once again, I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to spend most of my summer at church camp. Then I stopped home for less than 3 days to have a relaxing barbecue and desperately find a way to ride the Log Chute at Camp Snoopy (we failed). Now, on to the next adventure! Santiago, Chile.