A Jewish Pope

Tigers doing the tango in party hats. Newborn babies shooting machine guns. Cacti growing in Antarctica. Joel Osteen's face not on one of his books. A white girl on crutches in Palau. All these things are similar because they have never been seen before. I am a huge attraction. People literally congested traffic by rubbernecking as the drove past me this morning. I woke up early to go see the specialist from Taiwan. As I was waiting for Eunice to take me, I stood out in front of SDA. So many people looked at me like I was something so weird! It was quite hilarious to see every single person's face and wonder what they were thinking. After about 15 minutes of this fun game, we headed to the ER. We signed in at 7:35, and I finally got around to seeing the specialist around 9. The ER was packed! There were at least 30 people waiting there with me. When I talked to the specialist, he said that I have an allergic reaction to something in the water and need no antibiotics, juts steroids. He also told me that the previous doctor had misdiagnosed me and I was taking useless medication. Great... He seemed really confident in what he was doing and really sure that I'd get better soon. He gave me medicine, the same medicine that is used to treat anemia, leukemia, migraines, and other heavy duty things. He told me that it was "the strongest medicine in the world" and if it doesn't work he would be shocked. If it doesn't work, they will put in an IV and just filter it in! Something I do love about Palau, my total for the hospital visit and medicine was $6!
After getting home from the ER I decided to start taking my medicine! Side effects include heavy insomnia, hyperactivity, increased appetite, and susceptibility to germs. I made lunch and waited for the other SMs to get done with school so we could go to scuba! We finally got to head out, and even though I can't go in the water, I was so excited to not be alone in my apartment. We went to Sam's and took 4 quizzes, which was the reason I came. Oh! Apparently "Sam" is the father of a kid in my class, Max. Who knew! After the quizzes we went out on the boat so everyone else could start diving. One of the instructors duct taped a plastic bag around my foot so it wouldn't get wet. It looked so funny! I just stayed on the boat and chatted with the boat driver for the rest of the 3 hours. He was so nice and told me a lot about Palau and things to do and places to eat! When they were finally done we returned to the dock and went back to SDA. When we got back, Jeanine, Tammi, and I found out that we are doing song service tomorrow! Talk about short notice. We were all so tired that we decided to wake up early and do it before church. Hopefully everything turns out okay!
I've been missing home so much recently. There has been a bit of drama back home and I am so happy to have friends to talk to that understand what I'm going through. Sometimes making hard decisions is part of life, and it's not fun or fair, but it has to be done. I tried to eliminate extra stress in my life, but I just added tons. Turns out I should have taken Jeanne's advice back at WWU and not dated this year. I suppose she could say "I told you so".
I've been listening to praise music for a while now and it makes me miss the Awakening at Walla Walla. It's so sad to think that school will be starting without me. I hope that I can grow a lot this year in so many ways. A quote from Lost, "On this island, you can be whoever you want to be", has been stuck in my head. But who do I want to be? I want to be happy and content. I want to be grateful and friendly. I want to be loving and Christ-like. I want to be adventurous and spontaneous and try new things. Fortunately, I'm like that right now, but can I hold on. I know this year, this island, will change me. How do I control it? It's scary to think that I'm already changing. I smashed a whole row of ants with my hand today! And I made a delicious meal out of rice and eggs. We even made home made bread!
I pray for peace in the storm. I pray that though the world is crashing down around me, I will be protected. I pray for my kids. I pray for assurance that I am doing the right thing. I pray that people and home won't forget me...