a true Turkish delight

funny story...
Grabbing this little bottle was one of the best mistakes I ever made. At our mid-year conference in Spain, STINT teams from all over came together for a week and one of the fun things we did was a Bazaar. Every team brought cultural things from their country and got a chance to trade with different countries. The catch was, each team had 30 seconds! I like to think of myself as a good shopper, but I'm bound to make some bad decisions in 30 seconds!
I quickly grabbed this bottle thinking that I was getting some great olive oil from Greece or Italy...but it turned out to be body wash from Turkey....like I said, best mistake ever!

My roommates and I fell in love with this so much so that when we traveled to Turkey at the end of the year, our goal was to find this body wash!!

I have very sensitive skin, so I'm picky when it comes to skin care..but here's why I love it:
it's NATURAL
it lathers really well with only a small amount
no oily residue...you feel clean and smooth
very light fragrance

I bought two bottles to last me a while...but I'm already searching the web to find more online...no luck yet, but i'll keep you posted because it's a must try!!

I'm home!...?

hopefully this doesn't come across as too much of a “downer”...I really am so happy to be home. Catching up with friends, home-cooked meals, walking on the beach, playing with my 2 dogs, driving my car with the windows down and music up...♪these are a few of my favorite things♪

However, this “reverse culture shock” thing is real! As much as I prepared myself for what to expect, it's a whole different reality once you're actually back.

I've been back in America for a little over 1 week and the best way to describe the transition is: weird.

There are the typical cultural differences like:

*everyone speaking english...much louder
*friendlier service....no one does it better than chick-fil-a
*bigger portions...Big Gulp? Really? Do you really need more fl.oz. than your stomach can hold?
*bigger people...everyone really seems huge after being in France
*driving everywhere...love this, but learning to walk everywhere in a city was the best lesson for me...I guess i'll have to park at the back of the lots to at least walk some ;)

but the biggest shock for me wasn't actually cultural...it was just being home.

For 308 days my home was Paris, for the next 37 days it's Ponte Vedra, and after that it will be Irvine, California.

Talk about change! My “home” is changing, people around me have changed, and I've changed! And to me, that is the biggest adjustment.

For 308 days I was in a different reality. I was aware of the fact that I was changing, but it was harder to prepare myself for the changes happening in a reality far away from me. My mom is more laid-back, my dad is changing jobs, my sister became a doctor and moved away, I have a new dog, some friends have moved for jobs, some are married, some are out of the country.

Basically, life went on.

Duh! Right? But it's a stranger concept than I ever expected it to be.

This is a fun, fast, exciting, challenging, and humbling time in my life...with lots of changes along the way. Whether they are easy or hard to cope with, I'm so thankful to be able to rest in the solid, unchanging truth that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

He loves me unconditionally, will provide for me, strengthens me, and is my source of joy regardless of circumstances. This--is la joie de vivre