Activity vs. Rest During Spring Break!

At the beginning of this semester, I had a big snafu and had to conduct a major operation on my academic schedule. Because of this, I have had the great fortune of getting to take a global religions course called “Judaism in America” where we have been learning about Jewish history and different Jewish opinions about what it means to be Jewish and how Jewish philosophies apply in different areas of American life. Needless to say, this has helped to make my semester extremely interesting and has made me change my perspective on several things.

Unlike most classes I’ve had, I was required to take 24 hours out of my spring break and do… mostly nothing. One of the focuses of this course has been understanding what it means to practice Shabbat (the Sabbath) and there is no better way to do this than viscerally. So, with my mother, I prepared during Thursday and Friday for a day of rest, which began with an extremely rushed dinner preparation and ended with a slow reintegration back into actual “work.”

Shabbat begins on Friday at sundown and doesn’t end until the following Saturday at sundown. It entails an investigation of oneself moving through time and there are many rules as to how one should appropriately do this. My mother and I decided on a few activities to do in those 24 hours: we made challah, mejadra, and latkes (all with varying levels of success); we slept in, dressed up, ate all day, read for a lot of the day, gardened, and enjoyed each other’s company. This was possibly one of the nicest days of the year so far and I felt that I was able to still experience a lot without having to fill my schedule like I do at school.

I’m hoping to somehow incorporate the ideas of Shabbat into my life moving forward and am glad that I was able to make it a part of my semester this year!

Also, there are currently a lot of dogs at my parents' house. They were very involved in Shabbat.

American Sport: Track and Field

I’ve gone through quite a number of shifts in priority during my time at PLU. The spring of my freshman year, I was debating whether or not to finally to declare my major in music performance (I didn’t) and was overwhelmed with campus life, along with preparing for a summer of rafting and mountaineering, specifically an attempt on Denali in Alaska. The spring after that, I was out of school, traveling in Europe and Asia in various capacities. This spring, I’m on the track and field team.

I participated in track and field for 3 of 4 years in high school, running the 100m, 200m (and 4x400m relay about twice, it was really hard), and competing for one season in long jump. I fell in love with track and field when I began long jumping. But after I graduated and went through the summer and moved into the dorms at PLU, I felt extremely intimidated by college athletics and pretended that I didn’t want to do track because I was “too busy.” I ended up having some amazing experiences because of this lack of commitment to track and field, most of all my time out of the state and country.

One morning at practice

However, the time has come to give in again to the call, and I am overwhelmed with joy in learning to perform in the heptathlon. The heptathlon is a special component of track and field. Heptathletes compete in seven different events: 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter sprint, long jump, javelin, and 800 meter sprint. This is really hard. I’ve only ever competed in 2 of these 7 events, so this season is taking on an even more humbling form. We started team practice on the first day of school in January term and since then, every day has been hard, extremely educational, and has surrounded me with a supportive community that is my team and coaches.

Every morning, I wake up at 5am, go to practice from 6am to 8am, and work hard and thoughtfully among a bunch of people who are doing the same. The events that make up track and field are exceptionally complex and the art in this sport is filling your performance with grace. More than anything, I’m glad that we have practice in the morning. We practice largely outside, which means that we get to see the sunrise over Mt. Rainier every morning and hear the birds start to wake up. Again, I find this sport humbling, and feel that every day I’m driven to learn about my body, my soul, and my mind.

Yay college sports!!

-Frances

P.S. Since it's black history month and she was an amazing athlete, here's a picture of Florence Griffith Joyner, fastest woman in the world. She set the current world record for the women's 200m sprint in the 1988 Olympics.

http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2006/145/6706_114868108640.jpg

Back Home!

Hello! Grüße aus Tacoma! I am not currently studying abroad! I was born in Seattle, Washington and lived there my whole life, until I came to Pacific Lutheran University. I had my first study abroad experience this year - I spent January in Berlin with PLU’s J-term program, February and March on my own traveling around Europe, and April and May in Nepal and Tibet with an organization called Cascade Leadership Challenge. Although it was the majority of my travels was away from an academic setting, I received some of my richest education (so far) during the months February through May, as I met a large amount of people with very different perspectives and temporarily threw myself into other, concurrent realities. I’ve returned home with a much richer understanding of the world and even the people I know and continue to meet at home. Already, I’m looking at international travels for after I graduate so as to further my education outside of school, always with the goal of experiencing parts of the world that are new to me.

A normal train commute in Rome, Italy

Right now, my German host mother is living in Berlin with her children, her boyfriend, and her midwife practice. My friends in Europe are working, going to school, and traveling on their own. In Nepal, I have friends who are building new businesses in the mountains, building a home, continuing mountaineering enterprises, and recovering from a terrible natural disaster which occurred this past May. I say this to point out that my understanding of my own reality is no longer just defined by those people whom I see everyday or even solely those who live nearby - there is a myriad of narratives being built all over the world which, amazingly, have a connection to me as I go to school in Tacoma.

Breakfast with our friends in Namche Bazar, Nepal, a few hours before the second large earthquake on May 11

A lot of people I know don't know where Nepal is. It's squished between China and Nepal, but in its entire history it has never been successfully invaded. The politics are complex and not in anyway friendly, but we found as we went into the mountains, where people are increasingly politically independent, there was an obvious community of hospitality and resourcefulness. We were only in the Khumbu for a few days before a 7.8 earthquake struck and we stayed several more weeks with Nima and Lhakpa Sherpa, doing our best to help from our position. We stay in contact and continue to learn from our friends in Khumbu. Not to mention it's indisputably in one of the most beautiful regions of the areas - the Himalaya.

Florence, Italy; a Napoli woman I became friends with who I sorely miss

Currently, Europe is going through a transformation as immigrants from the Middle East are immigrating to European countries. I was able to experience Europe on the brink of this change, right before its tipping point, and heard many different opinions from people in different countries on the issue. Experiencing other countries’ politics and social atmospheres first hand is helping me to understand my current course work on a deeper level, especially in my Modern World History course where we are currently learning the history of the Middle East. It’s one thing to learn about disparities around the world - it’s another world of experience to meet people on their own turf who are products of those disparities.

Photos with me and my German host family. I felt at home as soon as we met :)

I felt hospitality in every city I went to and feel it a necessary value to continue emphasizing at home. It's a big world out there and we aren't doing much if we aren't jumping into it.

Thanks for reading,

Frances