First week of work and another vacation

I survived my first week of work and resisted taking work home with me this weekend...old habits die hard. This time though I wanted to see the verdict of my analysis not that I was behind in my work. I was actaully working so hard that I forgot about the birthday celebration/staff meeting. I had to set an alarm for 5pm so I would go home at that time. I think I found something that interests me. Granted it has only been one week, but I am enjoying being back at Dade Moeller & Associates. I am down in Hood River, Portland, Vancouver area visiting with my brother, grandma and aunt. Mt Hood is beautiful this time of year and the view from my brother's house is awesome. The drive was nice and I am looking forward to getting some picture frames at IKEA. Back to visiting with family and watching ESPN at my Grandma's house ;)

Did that really happen?

Hey everyone, I made it home safely and have had a few helpings of Mexican food which I totally missed. When I walked in to Mike & Melissa's house it was as if I never left...and my bed was awaiting me. After a good night's sleep I woke up and began thinking about the wedding cake I would be making. I had to go to Dade Moeller to borrow my Aunt's vehicle and said hi to people there. Again, another place that looked as though I never left. After almost 2 hours I finally left there and started to get things ready for baking.

I baked like crazy for the next two days and had an interview. I got an offer letter on Friday to be the Assistant to the CFO at Dade Moeller & Associates. (BTW, the cake turned out ok on the outside and fabulous on the inside---so many compliments)


Not that my decision needs justification, but I thought I would let you all in on why I accepted...Five and a half months ago I gave notice at Dade Moeller & Associates for my trip to Europe. I was definitely unhappy in my job because it was not the kind of work that I enjoy and I never felt that I had completed enough. Over the last four years I have continually worked hard to conquer tasks and obstacles, to achieve more, to learn more, to improve until I felt satisfied. It was not enough though...I never felt satisfied. I left town and went to Europe and found my smile (and the since of peace I used to know) in Switzerland. I can remember the train ride when I first saw the Alps and how excited I was to be getting closer to them. I did not think about things here...I was lost in the snow covered mountains and beautiful reflective lakes. ------>I enjoyed my time and eventually made it to Poland. Somewhere in the next two months I realized how much I missed my family and friends back at home. I had such an amazing time exploring Europe and plan to go back in August, but this is my Home right now. I could have come back and settled in New York, Denver, or Spokane --probably finding a decent job without too much stress, but then I would miss out on the lives of people who are important to me. Not that I am trying to put others' happiness above mine to my detriment, but I am happy when I am around those I care about.

This job opportunity is one that I think will help me grow and will at times challenge me to use my accounting knowledge and verbalization to teach others. This is what I am passionate about---boring to some of you, I know, but anaylzing things and making sure things are accurate and getting to the root of why things are happening and how to improve things. While there is not much room for advancement...where do I need to go? I assist the big cheese when it coumes to the financial aspects of the company. So far I am not bogged down with excess baggage (it has only been one day). The company is a good company though I cannot compare it to when I first began five years ago, Today! I have built a network of work friends and people who are more than acquaintances. It is like home. I do not feel like I am settling into a place because it is safe and comfortable. This opportunity is something I have prayed about for some time and decided was the path I wanted to take. While this can be seen as the path of least resistance, I think it can be the opportunity to use the knowledge I have acquired in a place where I can be of service...a place where the learning curve is not as steep and the efficiency if greater. This is not a perfect place or the perfect job...but Bloom where you are Planted!!

Flowers in Bloom

When I arrived in Poznan, there was a message on the whiteboard as you walk in the door that read "Bloom Where You Are Planted"...with a cute little blooming flower. I erased my name this morning, but I left the message because I think we all need that kind of reminder. In our chaotic lives are we a wilting flower or one that cannot even break through the soil? Things do not have to be perfect for us to Bloom. We do not have to go halfway around the world to see the beauty of life. We can have a servant's heart and a good attitude in every situation. We all take things for granted --and things could be so much worse. We can bloom and choose to be happy wherever we are. We can influence others by our body language (or be misinterpreted) and maybe a smile will make someone's day or a dirty look crushes their enthusiasm. Step outside the box and think about the good you can do in your community or your home. I admit that my sarcasm is still alive in me, but try to only let it come out around people that understand it is sarcasm rather than being rude or derogatory.

I will have you also know that I kept plants alive while I was in Poland. Maybe I will try to have an aloe vera plant when I get home. LOL, the nice garden man in Kennewick told me you just have to show them love and feed and water them...hopefully a slow goodbye to my black thumb.

The countdown has commenced:

31 hours until I depart Poznan, Poland
12 more train rides
11 people that will be hard to say goodbye to
10 new friends on facebook--and thousands of pictures
9 am--one more day of being able to wake up at 9am
8 hr workday--something I am not looking forward to
7 hours until I have to say goodbye to my friend Emma
6 days until I reach American Soil
5 currencies left in my wallet
4 days travelling with a friend
3 castles to see
2 plane rides left
1 excited girl to see her friends and family

Coming Home

I come home next week and am really looking forward to seeing eveyone! I have missed my family and friends and some of the things you find predominantly in America or in Tri-cities. I realize I will be going through another culture shock coming home. I was talking to the missionaries here and a couple of things they mentioned is that when you go home street signs and billboards seem like they are yelling at you and you hear conversation you do not need to know about. In Poland, we live a life of little communication outside of our English bubble. When we walk down the street and see signs we cannot read them...except for a word here and there...and when we go out to eat there are conversations all around us but we do not understand what they are saying. I am not used to being silent so much..haha I know. I am enthusiastic about what I have been doing these past four months and have to bottle that enthusiasm for the sake of those listening. I have taken thousands of pictures to remember the places I have been and to share them with others but more importantly, I feel that I lived the moments and saw the immense beauty of parts of Europe. I have been excited, scared, full of energy, dead tired, saddened, disappointed, anxious, fulfilled, I have met new people, said goodbye to friends, found my smile and ate lots of strange food. I have adapted to this way of life and I think it will be really hard coming home and getting back on a schedule and seeing the same things each day. There are so many things to do and people to see, but I need to remember not to get back into the same pattern as before of overextending myself and trying to please others all the time and still have a place for me. These next seven days are filled with two emotions: excitement to be coming home and sadness of leaving this life I feel I was just beginning. I started packing up yesterday and it is really hard to do! I will not miss the city trams running all night long outside my window or going to the grocery store lost because I cannot even read the food labels. I have learned so much since I have been here and I will look back years from now and hopefuly say, "That experience was a turning point in my life."

Lots of new posts

For you avid followers I posted lots of pictures today...they are in more of a chronological order by city so look at Berlin, Krakow, and Prague. I got my photobook and got confirmation that my Europe book is getting shipped today. I am sacrificing the last two weeks in my book to hopefully have it in hand before I leave Europe. I can do the last few places on my own and put them in the back of the book. Hope everyone has a great weekend planned! I am spending my last weekend in Poland (I have another weekend in Europe but I will be heading to Rome for the last few days). That is all for today as I am going to get on the tram and head for the grocery store. Tacos for dinner...the best I could find in Poland were the ones coming from my own kitchen. I cannot wait to go to Fiesta, La Fama and Avocados when I get home!! Seriously been missing those places among others.

Travel Tuesday

I made it back to Poznan, Poland in one piece even though I was almost in tears a few times yesterday. I had a beautiful morning looking out my hotel window at a cloud covered Mt Blanc...still a gorgeous view. I made my way to the train station with my handy dandy researched timetable. After a few bad looks from the girl looking at her screen she tells me that I will have to wait until Switzerland to buy my overnight train to Poznan. I was not too worried at this point because I had a stopover in Bern and I knew there were lots of info points there. I got on a train and then three more before I finally arrived in familiar Bern. I went to the ticket office that I had been to many times before and the guy looked up my itinerary, got a weird look on his face and said he could not help me and that I should go upstairs to the international travel desk...after waiting a few minutes upstairs I get to the counter and the girl was optimisitic but later ran into a problem with me using my rail pass and having to buy the Switzerland and Poland pieces separately...gets help and then finds she cannot make the reservation at her terminal and tells me I can try again the next day...she then tells me I can get on the train and see if a conductor will sell me a reservation if there is room...I travel to another town an hour away and go to the ticket window there, having to wait a half hour just to talk to someone...that guy speeds through and clicks on get a reservation and the same screen pops up that was in Bern and he tries something else and then tells me that reservations are closed but the train would be arriving in 5-10 minutes--find a conductor and see about getting a ticket then...As I am waiting for the train I look at the schedule and notice that the train I would be getting on scatters in the middle of the night and only one car would be going to Poznan so I find that specific car and get on. I see three people in uniform and ask each f them if they speak Englilsh and none do..I hand them my timetable and german rail pass and they say buy from conductor...I thought I had done a lot of searching for a conductor so I sat down in the dark sleeping couchette...after about an hour the conductor finds me and I get a reservation but was told that I would have to buy the Poland portion from a Polish conductor in the morning. I would have to wake up between 5 and 6 am and find the conductor. I had dinner on the train and it was actually good! When I came back, there were other people in my couchette. By the time it was time to go to bed there were three other older men that did not smell so lovely...and none of them knew English and one kept trying to talk to me in Polish. At 10pm I gave up and climbed to the top bunk and went to sleep the best I could. I set my alarm and in the morning I could hear someone saying passport control but nobody ever looked at my passport. I got up after a while and searched for a conductor...never finding one. I made it to Poznan 35 minutes late and was extremely happy there was someone waiting on the track for me!! Long travel day lasting a total of almost 21 hours and now it is morning and I will camp outside the building door until UPS brings me my package!!! This is the second time they have tried to deliver this package...meaning they tried three times last month and then sent it back to Spain...it got lost on the way back and the publisher made me a new one and I am really anxious to see what it looks like!! So I am going to relax today and enjoy the beautiful sunshine here...maybe go to the market and get some food to eat after my book is delivered.

Chur--->Zermatt Glacier Express

Today I took a train through some of the most beautiful mountain countryside in the world. We traveled through the bottom of a gorge and looked down into ravines. The train used a cog wheel to go up and down the steep clifsides. The flowers were in bloom and the water was rushing as the snow melts off the mountains. I saw glaciers in vibrant blue and animals grazing in the green pastures. I traveled in a panoramic train car so I could see all around and experience everything. The portion I chose to experience was a five hour train ride ending in Zermatt.




I am staying at the Youth Hostel with an amazing view of the Mattehorn Mountain...reminds me of Disneyland. There are mountains all around me...some still covered in snow and some displaying rocky cliffsides and others covered in green grass and yellow flowers...some places have fields of dandilions. There are no cars in Zermatt...there are electric taxis and a village bus that haul people around. I hear that everything in the town is expensive so I am glad dinner and breakfast are included in the price of the hostel. Have a Blessed Lord's Day!!