It's nice to finally be back to writing about life a little bit at a time. Whenever I went on the biggest adventure of my life last year, there was so much happening, and there were so many things I was experiencing that it became impossible to slow down and write out each individual thing. I wish I could have captured the sensations and experiences during those amazing times while they were still fresh in my mind and heart, but there were so many for me to pin point and re-live.
Though I miss the life of constantly going on adventures so much so that I can't even get the time to sit down and write them all out, it's nice to be able to go on smaller adventures that I actually can record.
The smaller trips I've been on since Ecuador have each been great in different, unique ways. With this recent one to Chicago, the biggest thing I think I've realized is that I can have a great adventure even if I brave the city streets solo.
Day 1 -
My bus left from Kansas City at 11:40am, Saturday May 12th
I just barely made my bus. The attendant who let me on said if it weren't for the lady who came before me, I would have missed the bus. So I was the very last person to get on, and as soon as I sat down on the bus we left. I was trying to calm myself down from the bitter frustration I felt as my parents got stuck in one-lane traffic, and I was on the edge of my seat, trying to form words into a prayer in my mind for us to be able to make it. It took me a little while to calm myself down as we were departing.
We arrived in Colombia two hours later. I had enjoyed the bus being only a quarter full, but after that stop it was completely filled up, and a young Mexican gentleman by the name of Adrian sat down by me.
We ended up talking through half the trip there, and had some great conversations. He was telling me about how he is studying Forensic Science, about how he was going to Mexico to visit his grandparents in a week, and spouting off random facts he knew about reptiles due to his fascination for them.
He also was telling me about how his whole family was Roman Catholic, and about the five steps necessary to secure their salvation. I decided to use the evangelizing technique I've been learning in a class at church, and it went pretty smoothly. We didn't end up getting in a heated debate over it, and it was a good sort of discussion. He asked me a few questions he wasn't sure about, like if the Christians that were apart of the crusades held the same beliefs as the Christian faith I was telling him about, and if I believed there were a such thing as a just war.
He had a suit he had taken on the bus that was what he was to wear for his sisters' "confirmation", which he explained to me that it was a confirmation of her faith, and that was the fourth step out of five.
Through that sparked a topic about salvation based on works. After I explained to him what us Christians believe about our salvation, and about how good works flow from it, he told me that that made more sense to him, to my surprise.
We were also speaking Spanish to each other here and there throughout the trip...and he told me he was surprised with how much I knew, and even asked me a bit about how life was in Ecuador.
Later on, it was starting to get dark, and Adrian asked if I wanted to play cards. We played a couple of games for a while, until it got so dark that we were squinting and couldn't see anything. Then he started to tell me about different restaurants and places in Chicago I should go to as we were arriving to our destination.
I also brought out my Bible later on, and he was showing me a couple of his favorite verses, and I showed him a couple that I loved as well
We got off the bus, and wished each other well. I was picked up by Chris, who I haven't seen since August, and on the way he was telling me about how his life has been and the different things he had been studying. We arrived to their little apartment, they showed me around briefly, and then I crashed in the little guest room they had for me to stay in. I felt very content to be there. I slept soundly and peacefully, and sighed happily.
During my thoughtful walk in the park, I came across this tree that seemed to me the most beautiful one in the park.
This was in the awesome little used book store that you had to practically weave your way through because the aisles were so small
