Getting back to normal life (whatever that is...)

I would explore this building
and others like it

For the last 4.5 months of my life, if I was bored I would do something along the lines of walking inside the giant hundreds of years old buildings, exploring the antique oldest part of the city, or eating a bratwurst I bought at the street shop in middle of the very old but beautiful city center.  Or maybe I'd just sit at Starbucks and get to know the many international people who stopped by there.

Today, here I am sitting on a couch in my regular American home...with absolutely nothing to do for the first time in about 6 months.  I've been reading a book all day, Facebooking, doing laundry and planing my next international adventures.  (I am only looking into going to one new continent and two or three new countries this year...that's not too many right?? :D)

Ya...my car broke down :/

I've been back from Germany for one month.  In that one month I have been stranded in both San Francisco and Grants Pass, directed two church camps, hosted six people and had only one car break down....needless to say, I haven't quite gotten back to normal life yet.  Whatever that is.

In 11 days I start  my senior year of college.  Well not officially my senior year seeing as school hasn't really finished in Germany yet, and grades definitely aren't done, so my credit from there hasn't transferred...but once all of that happens, it will be my senior year!!  I'm not sure how I feel about being done with college, all it means is that I have a slightly higher possibility of getting a higher paying job, and real life responsibilities start....oh and it means I'm done with homework and tests.  Possibly for ever, but most likely just for now.

I guess I should go back to my boredom...maybe I'll finish this book today.  It's called "The Hunger Games".  I started it yesterday while stuck in Grants Pass.

Apparently I have a tendency to get stuck places...

In case you missed it, exactly one month ago I was stranded in San Francisco, California for about 12 hours due to missing one flight and the rest being delayed/canceled.  (Read all about it here)

Today, I am stuck in Grants Pass, Oregon!  Earlier this afternoon, my boyfriend (Jake) and I left my parents house in McKinleyville, California and took off for his parents house in Hillsboro, Oregon.  After about four hours of traveling we stopped in Grants Pass for gas.  Then about ten miles outside of Grants Pass something kind of funny happened.

Broken down :(

First my car started making weird noises.  Within a minute or two of the noises starting the check engine light came on.  Naturally, as most college students would, I called my dad.  (what's the age that you can no longer call your dad when you have problems?)  As we were talking, the car started slowing down, and Jake, who was driving, said he couldn't get it to speed up.  So he pulled over.  As soon as we stopped, the engine started smoking like crazy.  We both jumped out and opened the hood to find the engine leaking some sort of green liquid.  This was leaking both all over the engine and all over the ground...

At that point, realizing we were stuck, I called a tow truck.  Luckily our insurance covers that and they got us a tow truck with in 20 minutes.  At this point it was 5:30, and the Honda Dealer we wanted to go to was closed.  This is when we started seeing God supply for our needs.

Tow Truck

As the two truck driver was backing our car into the parking spot, this nicely dressed man walked up to me.  He had a name tag that said "sales manager".  He said they were closing up the shop, but wanted to know if we wanted a rental car, or needed to know where hotels were.  Before Jake and I could make a decision on what to do, he said he would go get a pen so he could write down our number and call us in the morning with information on our car.  When he came back, he had brought the form and key drop packet that we needed to fill out.  And he said that he would make sure our car was a priority in the morning.  Then he offered to drive us and our luggage to the nearest motel.  He also handed us his business card in case we needed anything.

Us, sadly waiting for the Tow Truck

When we got to the motel, he saw Jake's Bible and said that he was also a Christian.  He's not just a Christian, he's also a Christian singer.  (Check out one of his music videos here) I had been suspecting that he might have been a Christian...its awesome when God sends his people to help his other people out :).

While we were trying to figure out where to stay, my mom remembered some old old friends of ours.  They had moved to Grants Pass years ago and became the manager of Motel 6.  So she called the motel to see if they might be able to help us out.  Ends up they no longer worked there, but because we knew them, the motel offered us a two-bed room for about $45 off.  Again, it's awesome how God supplies!

So, for now we are in Grants Pass.  It's certainly not where we planned to spend the night...but hey, you gotta make the most out of what life throws at you.  God has already shown us that He is with us through this, so I'm not worried.  It's just another one of life's adventures :).  I am slightly concerned about what it might cost to fix my car...but God's in control of that one too!