Juice Fast - Day 2

This morning I woke up late. Well actually Jenn woke me up as she was leaving for the school building. My roommate Ellen is gone, and she would make sure I am up if my alarm doesn't go off or something. Where's Ellen when I need her...  By the time I got down to the cafeteria Jenn had already made all the juice. What a sweetie.

Breakfast Juice
Ginger
1 Lemon
Carrots
Kale (put through the juicer this time)
Pears
Parsley

Juice Fast - Day 1

So I've decided to do a 10 day juice fast. Well I want to do a 10 day juice fast, but I think I'll go for 5 days first and see how I feel. Now don't think that I'm doing this to loose weight or anything and think I've gone crazy...no I'm simply doing it for the health benefits. Think of it as a kind of spring cleaning...or winter cleaning rather. I also want to do it to help overcome appetite and improve self-control.

The night before Day 1, Monday night, I decided I might as well eat a nice last supper. So I had chips, an orange, ramen, teff pudding & some raw chocolate desert balls, and some real chocolate. Yum. I'll have to hide that chocolate away now. =)

My juicing buddy is my housemate Jenn. Since pretty much everyone from Fountainview is gone on the California Christmas tour, we figured now was a good time to juice and there are no convenient cafeteria meals.

Crazy 60's Hair Day

Hair by Emma, Makeup by Alexandra, Photo by Ellen

Sinking at Seton

I huddled at the front of the speedboat, bouncing along with the waves of Seton Lake, head down against the wind and biting rain, when I heard a commotion at the back of the boat. Straightening up, I leaned back to see what was wrong. To my dismay water was rapidly beginning to cover the floor. Someone opened the engine compartment to find the engine engulfed in water and quickly filling higher! The engine began to bear down and Ellen revved it higher to maintain speed. The gravity of our situation began to sink in. Someone yelled to quickly get to shore! Although we were not in the middle of the lake, we weren't exactly by the edge either. Cliffs rose up sharply from the water's edge leaving little place to moor. A million scenarios rushed through my head, most included the boat sinking and us all frantically struggling through the frigid waters to what little shore we could find.

My thoughts drifted back to the idyllic beginning of the day, Saturday had dawned fresh and bright, blue skies and a few clouds outlined behind the mountain ranges outside my window foretold of a beautiful day. After church and lunch had been taken care of, I piled into the car with my three housemates to head out to the lake. My best friend Ellen had been asked to drive Mr. Lemon, Mr. Meservia and some other church members across nearby Seton Lake to a Bible study since she had her boater's license. The rest of us girls were just going along to keep Ellen company. It was her birthday after all and we didn't want her to be bored. We managed to get the speed boat off the trailer and we all piled in. There were more people than we had expected; eight in total, more than the speed boat was supposed to carry, but didn't we always carry lots of people? So we set off.

We were a couple miles down the lake when the wind started to pick up. The sky was now overcast and starting to darken. Rain drops began to pelt down, slowly seeping into our once dry clothes. It was then that we realized we were taking on a lot of water and was our boat starting to sink?!

The Leap

I stood there, toes barely hanging over the edge, breathing so fast, heart racing, palms sweating, mind frozen with fear, staring down 200 feet to the river rushing below. Could I jump, would I jump? I inched forward, though almost paralyzed by the fear. No I couldn't do it! I just couldn't! It was too much. I almost tried to push backwards, but he stood behind me, urging me forward. It just wasn't in me to jump, but it was too late...

Pizzarama

I quit work early today to come home and cook pizza for the birthday party we had tonight, or should I say birthday parties. When we young staff at Fountainview have birthday parties we have it for whoevers birthday was during that month, makes things easier. Ellen had been working with me, but she had to run get some pizza sauce.
I was chopping away at my mushrooms for the pizza, when the phone rang. I picked it up answering, "Hello."
There was a young guy on the other end, who sounded like one of our young staff on campus. He asked "Hi, can I order a pizza?"
Thinking it was one of the guys coming to our party who was just joking around, I answered enthusiastically, "Coming right up!"
He seemed a bit confused and then he asked, "This is Pizzarama right?"
I laughed, "You're kidding right?" I asked incredulously.
"Uh no," He replied sounding even more confused. It was at this point that I began to realized that he was actually serious!
"You totally have the wrong number!" I informed him. "But the funny thing is, I'm actually making pizza right now!" I laughed. He didn't.
"So do you have their number?" He questioned.
"No, sorry I don't." And with that our conversation was over, and I had a good laugh.

The Letter

Cold, biting winds whipped around Ceri and me as we struggled to pull the small boat towards the frigid dashing waves of the ocean inlet. Snow crunched under our feet and I clutched my jacket closer to me. With the salt water spray stinging our eyes we positioned ourselves in the little dinghy and began rowing on our treacherous journey. Again I double checked to see if I had the letter. That letter was the whole reason for this foolhardy trip.

Had it really only been yesterday that we had realized that the letter must get to our contact many miles away at the opposite end of the inlet, near the sea. Sending it by regular mail service would be much too slow at this point in time and possibly compromisable. Flying it in was out if the question as severe winter storms quickly arose at this time of the year, and well hiking in would take much too long. So here we were rowing amid the icy ocean waves. "Alissa," Ceri called, "do you think perhaps our boat will not be able to withstand all these waves?" fear laced her words. I too was worried. If our small boat capsized there would be no way we would be able to swim to shore without dying of hypothermia, being smashed by the towering waves, or drowning. As the waves continued to roughly toss the dinghy as though it were a toy boat, Ceri and I desperately attempted to make some headway. It seemed our rowing was doing no good. We quickly discussed our dire situation and decided that despite the extreme importance of the letter, we simply could go no further. If we did, we would die and the letter wasn't worth dying for. So maneuvering our craft around we headed back to shore, though we could hardly see it for the waves. With a death grip I clutched my oar, silently willing us to move more quickly towards the safety of solid ground. And then I looked up.

Adventures in Peru: Airlifted!

The Peru trip was nearing a close. Everything was winding down and I was preparing myself for the long trip home. First there was a 16 hour bus trip from where we were in Arequipa to Lima the capital of Peru. Then from Lima we would have to drive an hour to our hotel, then the next morning an hour back to the airport and then our flight home which was around 9 and a half hours long. The worst part would be the bus ride. I was not looking forward to that.

So we were just chilling in our hotel, which was not a normal hotel let me tell you. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. It was like an old castle, but it smelled musty and our room door didn't exactly lock and my bed was really hard, but hey, it looked cool..

And that's when we heard the news. The miners all around Peru had just started a strike. They were blocking roads and burning things. They had blocked the road between Arequipa and Lima. For the rest of the afternoon we heard bits and pieces of more news. No vehicles were getting through the road block. A bus had tried to drive forward and the miners attacked the bus, beating it and killed several people. Some said the roads would be open the next day, the day after, in a week. Who knew.