On my way

I'm writing to you from the Chicago O'Hare airport with very bloodshot eyes - I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night, but I'm trying to stay awake until I board my flight to Paris in a few hours. I arrive in Paris around 8:45 AM, so sleeping on the plane will be ideal for warding off jet lag. As long as I don't pass out in the terminal, I think I'm good to go! :-)

I am super excited about this trip!!!! I will be spending 2 days in Paris, then three weeks in Morocco, then 9 days in Egypt before heading back to Paris and the U.S. What an amazing life I have!

Not sure if I will be able to charge my laptop while in France because I don't have the correct power adapter. But in Morocco I will have wireless access for at least the first two weeks and I'll be sure to update my blog often with pictures and stories.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support - especially my dear husband who is staying home with our "kids." I love you, Buddy!

I'll be talking to you from across the pond....

My Volunteer Placement: Teaching English

I received my placement information for Morocco! This is going to be quite a different experience from Tanzania. For one, I will be staying in the city (in Tanzania we were in a rural area). Also, it looks like I will be working with adults who speak some English already. I am keeping an open mind and heart...

Here it is verbatim from CCS:

Teaching Conversational English at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco

Mission and Needs of the Partner Program
Mohammed V University is a Moroccan university which was founded in 1957. It was split in 1997 to become 2 independent universities, Mohammed V University at Agdal and Mohammed V University at Soussi.

Volunteer Activities / Duties
• Support Masters and PhD students in improving their English speaking and comprehension skills
• Engage in discussion and exchange ideas on issues such as culture, music, movies, daily life in your home country, etc.
• Teach specific vocabulary and pronounciation – especially colloquial phrases and idioms
• Teach comprehension through reading articles and engaging in discussion to give them opportunities to speak English in the class
• Teach grammar points like prepositions, and verb tenses
• Correct articles written in English
• Answer questions about your home country and culture

Goals for the Volunteer from the Partner Program
Long-Term: Improve the English-speaking ability and comprehension of the students through discussion and cultural exchange.
Short-Term: The volunteers teach students from the Chemistry Department conversational English and help them improve their comprehension and English-speaking abilities, as well as learning grammar points to help them be
understood. There is a wonderful exchange of cross-cultural information and conversation.

Wake Up Widdle Weasel

This weekend was spent doing a lot of trip planning. On my way to Morocco I will be spending two days in Paris, France. Never been to France before, always wanted to go, took 4 years of French in high school and college but have never had the chance to use it, about to jump out of my skin with excitement! Yesterday I purchased my ticket to the Louvre, a place I've dreamed about visiting since the first time I heard about it. I know that two days won't even scratch the surface of Paris, but I am excited nonetheless.

I'm also planning my side trip to Egypt. A climb up Mount Sinai and a float down the river Nile sound like a good time, don't you think? More details to follow...

The Weasel Stirs

At the end of this month I will be traveling to Africa again! Morocco this time for another volunteer trip through Cross Cultural Solutions.

I won't find out about my volunteer placement for a couple more weeks, but I'll let you know when I do!

Amose & Happiness

I received this email from Tanzania this morning. My heart is heavy.

Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:15 PM
From: tafcom tafcomtanzania
To: Kimberly Stroup

Hi

Its our hope that this email finds you well, here things are moving on slowly though we have lost one of our client Amose who died two days ago living her wife Happiness in deep sorrow. This event has touched our hearts and he is the third person to die since we started. His death make us feel that we still have more to do to the community considering that poverty has contributed a lot to his death , May God rest his soul in peace.

Best regards

Jonas and Nie

T minus 7 days

One week from today we will be boarding our plane to Japan!

We have decided to backpack it through our trip, which will be a first for me. Buddy already purchased his new backpack, which I also like and will be ordering sometime today (the female version). Because we will be traveling by bus and train throughout our trip, we thought backpacks would be the easiest type of luggage to deal with.

Last night we had a good chat with a friend who spent a period of time living in Japan - he had some great tips for us! The one that resonated with me the most was "in everything you do, just lead with your heart and you will be fine." I hope that's how I live in my day to day existence, but what a beautiful reminder it was.

The past few days I've been finalizing some of the day tours we plan to take while there - one is called "Dynamic Tokyo" and takes us to the observatory on Tokyo Tower (Japan's version of the Eiffel Tower), to a traditional Japanese garden and tea ceremony, into the Imperial Palace, on a river cruise through Tokyo Bay, through a visit to Kannon Temple in Asakusa, and then a drive through Ginza (the famous high-fashion shopping district).

Getting more excited by the day!!!!

Japan-o-rama!

As of midnight last night, we FINALLY have all of our lodgings in Japan booked and confirmed! What a relief!

Here is our itinerary: two nights in Tokyo at The New Otani in the Akasaka region, then travel to Mt. Fuji and Hakone with one night at Fujiya Hotel in Hakone-machi, then on to Kyoto where we'll spend three nights in a ryokan called The Three Sisters Inn (this is traditional Japanese-style lodging where you sleep on the floor on tatami mats and a futon!). After Kyoto we have one more night in Tokyo at the Shinjuku Prince Hotel right in Kabuki-cho!

Buddy and I had fun looking at all the options, but it's really overwhelming. I'm sooooo glad that we made the decisions and now we are done. We did most everything over the internet, with the exception of the ryokan. It was recommended in a guide book we're using and we found great reviews online, but they don't even have a website. So Buddy called Japan to make the reservation (plus some email exchanges to finalize it) and we were both nervous for some reason. It was pretty funny - my heart was beating really fast and Buddy was sweating like crazy. I hope that's not how we feel when we're actually in Japan! :-)

We also purchased our Japan Rail passes to get us around the country on the bullet trains, and we've narrowed in to a couple of day tours that we might want to book. All in all things are coming together and it's very exciting!!!!

I Heart Travel

This November we head to Japan, which I am sooooooo excited about! I love traveling, but I love traveling with Buddy even more! Unfortunately we haven't had many opportunities to travel together - this will be our first overseas adventure.

I've been reading about the places we will visit and I am most looking forward to Kyoto. Whenever I picture Japan in my head, I am drawn to the temples, shrines, and natural beauty of Kyoto. Don't get me wrong, I certainly love the excitement of big cities such as Tokyo, but I have a special attraction to Kyoto. Hopefully we will get to see the autumn foliage during our visit!

Reflections

Fourteen years ago today I was on a serious mission to end my own life. Not knowing how to cope with the emptiness and despair that I carried on me like a lead blanket, the best solution I could conjure was to 'make it stop' with one final and desperate act. I remember waking up in the hospital some time later with the greatest sense of hopelessness and defeat I have ever experienced, before or since. I felt that hopelessness, the crippling fear, utter desperation and loneliness to the very tips of my toes; I lived in it, walked in it and breathed it.

What I did not know at the time was that that incredibly selfish and fear-driven act would lead me into a beautiful life - the life I always wanted somewhere within me but which I was completely incapable of working towards (or even imagining!) as the person I was back then. Attempting to commit suicide turned out to be THE pivotal moment in my life, a desperate action that started a chain of events which, in the end, healed and saved me.

Of course there has been much work along the way...and heartache and loss and sadness and joy and wonder. LIFE has happened - that amazing, tumultuous, roller coaster journey we each get to walk through. But today I get to walk through it, today I choose to experience it, and today I am full of love, serenity, and peace of mind. The beautiful life I have today is not one that I've earned, it's a gift that I cherish and nurture.

And to think I almost missed it!

Next stop....Japan!

Buddy and I have decided to tie the knot and we've already booked flights for our honeymoon to Japan! In November we will be flying in to Tokyo and using the famous Japanese bullet trains to travel across the country - Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima are all on the agenda. Stay tuned for updates!