Hey followers!
It is July 19th and I have 19 more days in the US. I fly away to my first country, Ukraine, on August 7th. (!!!!!!) I am stating this partly to get it into my own head as well as inform you all. Let’s just say time is going quickly these days.
Throughout this next year, I will be posting blogs about what my day to day life looks like. I am sure these future posts will be very exciting and new and foreign. They will be interesting to read. However, I wanted to start this by writing about my somewhat mundane life in Tampa preparing for this trip. I want you all to get to know me and know my normal life before things get crazy while traveling! Plus, you can know that posts will only get more exciting from here! So keep reading 🙂
My life at home for the last month I would describe as “tampa prep” (its funny cause that’s the name of a school hah). So my life has included…
– fund raising primarily- this involves sending letters, calling people, working through my anxiety and taking several deep breathes before calling people, and sending thank you’s
– unpacking college stuff- a more time consuming task than expected!
– trying to put structure in my days- wake up at a decent time, get tasks checked off my list, work out, get to bed at a reasonable hour, etc….something that needed to be included because things were not very productive the first week I was home
– working on my awesome Beth Moore bible study called the quest- “an excursion towards intimacy with God”
– catching up with friends on the phone- before leaving for a year…
– listening to a good book on fund raising called the God Ask- very helpful, called out what is hard and what is so good about fundraising
– working on the world race curriculum that is due by the time we leave- includes risk and safety, finance, spiritual formation training sessions, and quizzes
– reading up on the countries that I am going to- looking into culture, politics, history, language, adventure spots
– going to so many appointments- dentist, eye doctor, lady doctor, psychiatrist, vaccinations, primary doctor (where I just found out that I have anemia)
– trying to gather all that I will need to live out of a backpack for 11 months…- lol this one is particularly overwhelming and I am very much still avoiding
– going to counseling to work on my ish lol- shout out to Michelle Horton!
– hanging out with friends- very occasionally
– playing with dogs at home- so cute!
– trying ethnic food restaurants to prepare me for some new foods this year- including Bar Asia, Happy Feet Peruvian restaurant, and more to come!
– …and spending good time with my parents watching movies, going to Hyde Park market, world cup watching, playing tennis, lingering at the dinner table, and enjoying our nightly low cal dessert (aka Yasso or Skinny cow 🙂
So now that you are filled in on the day to day tasks of my life, my next post will bring you inside the mind and heart of Genna within the last month. Stay tuned!
