becka lippy

Sebastian cannot speak English very well, but there are a few words that Ashlee and I use too much, and believe it or not there is no translation. SO these become the vocab words of the house. Here we have random, awkward, and the phrase "that's a bummer". Here we are on the mirco on the way to the park for my friends birthday... little did we know that my friend had cancelled his party earlier that day! This is the family we were adopted by at the park when we couldn't find the party. Here is the lovely Birgit (our German roommate) and I with my favorite cereal. If you guys want to read Ashlee's blog go to ashleembodenhamer.blogspot.com

Today we are moving into our new apartment. And last night we went out for dinner and later to a bar to celebrate our move. Upon returning hime, Sebastian, Ashlee, and I made our way over to the living room where we have been spending the majority of our time together. It seems that every night we stay up way too late (usually about 2am). But it is hard to say no to our silly ridiculous times together. I wish I could show you guys a video of the conversations we have. Last night, Sebastian and Ashlee were playing telephone with each others feet. At one point they made up some silly story about going to another planet. Sebastian held onto Ashlee's foot as if it were a telelphone and had a crazy converstaion with "out travel agent" about which planet we would be going to. The phone conversation ended with him agreeing that the moon is a much better vacation spot than Jupiter and Ashlee and I rolling in our laughter. We are SO odd in this house. And the sweet part is that th

Here is a blog entry from another blog i was looking at in my boredom (if you go to the top righthand corner you can surf the blogs) It is called, "things you don't want to hear while you are in surgery": Accept this sacrifice, O Great Lord of Darkness! Oops! Hey, has anyone ever survived 500ml of this stuff before? Damn, there go the lights again... You know, there's big money in kidneys. Heck, the guy's got two of them. Everybody stand back! I lost my contact lens! Could you stop that thing from beating; it's throwing my concentration off. What do you mean he wasn't in for a sex change... Anyone see where I left that scalpel? This patient has already had some kids, am I correct? Nurse, did this patient sign the organ donor card? Don't worry; I think it's sharp enough. She's gonna blow! Everyone take cover. FIRE! FIRE! Everyone get out of here. Funny, eh?

So it is 3:30 in the morning and I can't fall asleep. It is one of those nights when you lie in bed for 2 hours before giving up and doing something productive. I guess all the sleeping while I was sick (I slept for 34 of the last 48 hours!) and the latte I had earlier tonight is not helping me fall asleep. So what do I do when it is 3:30 am and I can't sleep? I read Augustine's Confessions and drink some good ol' rosehip tea.

So I haven't written in here for quite some time, but I finally back. This weekend was crazy... we lost the apartment we had, we found another apartment and were trying to settle accounts with the rental agency, we found more cochroaches, we went to an underground party with great 80's music, we had a few roommate issues to take care of, we spent a night watching movies over brownies and wine (followed up by watching SNL at 2 in the morning!), and finally we went to a potluck at our international church where we sat around and discussed all the bad words that sound funny (like the Australian whose mother wouldn't allow him to say "bugger"). But sunday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. I tried to pass it off as nothing but by 10am I was shaking pretty hard core. So I went to bed and slept for a while, only to get worse. When I woke up about five hours later, I was much worse and my roomates got worried. I told them I was okay, I just had a fe

I need to confess something to my friends and family (and anyone else) who reads this blog. I do not love the way I should. I am not horribly selfish(although, in truth I am) but I am certainly not unselfish the way Jesus was. You might respond to this by saying that Jesus was perfect and I cannot ever be perfect. But still God uses His people here on earth to show us what a life looks like when it is dedicated to Him. The life of Mother Theresa has and always will exhort me to live a life more dedicated to Jesus (and to think that one day I get to stand next to her and praise our Lord!). So I was reading about how Mother Theresa would go through the piles of donated shoes and choose the worst pair for herself. Years of this practive left her with knarled feet. I cannot imagine how much her feet must have ached after hours of walking from bed to bed in the hospital, yet she loved. And she loved unselfishly. You might be thinking that this is a nice story, but how does it apply? Well, I

Do you ever feel like you are doing all the right actions, amd moving through your day, but without really living it? Like today I am just going through all the actions, but I haven't thought about them. I am just moving. It is not upsetting or disturbing, just odd. Maybe for today, my soul is taking a rest in the rhythm of life. Like when you just lie on your back in a lake and let the current carry you, not really caring where you go, but enjoying the soothing movement of the water under you. I wonder how long it will last before I start swimming again?

Finally after the fifth time our apartment has flooded, after a random man walks into our apartment without knocking (our landlord gave him the keys!), and after finding a cochroach last night, we are offically moving! We, meaning Sebastian and I and more recently Ashlee, have been apartment hunting for weeks. And we have finally found an apartment that is close, secure, and furnished. We are picking up the papers tonight and returning them signed and all on Thursday. By the first of April we will be out of here! This is such a blessing from God because I am not sure I can take much longer living in this apartment. Our new place is on a main street, but half a block past the busy part, so basically it it much quieter there. And the security is much better than our place. Of course, the funny part is that it was the home of this elderly couple who passed away and now all the furniture is hard core gramdma style. The wallpaper screams 1950's, but it is classy right?

Someone on eharmony (the on line dating service) asked me what were some of the simple pleasures I had in life. And this morning I realized what one of the greatest simple pleasures is (oxymoron?): sleeping in. This mornign I disfrute (enjoyed) this pleasure. Last night we, the four roommates and another friend of mine (a Jewish girl from Queens!) went out for dinner. We got home from our "family" dinner at about 1 in the morning, and yes, that it normal for Chileans to get home from dinner that late! By the time we got to bed it was already almost 2 am. I didn't have any clases for the next morning so i decided not to set my alarm and just to enjoy the sleep I could get. And boy was it sweet. It was so beautiful to wake up at 9am and then go back to sleep and just enjoy my bed without worries of time constraints. I laid in bed until 10 am and fell in and out of sleep. I guess now, now that half the day seems to be gone, I will get ready. I think Ashlee and I have a date

I decided a few days ago that I am not going to wait to live the kind of life I want to live, I will start now. So I bought a bunch of speghetti and cooked it up today. Why? Well, I was thinking how nice it would be to have lunch with some of the homeless guys who hang out behind our apartment building. So with Ashlee carrying all the bowls and forks and I the big pot of speghetti, we ventured downstairs to find some new friends to share lunch with. I am asked for money by homeless people SO often in this city, but of course the one day I am looking for some hungry person to share food with, they are out of site. We basically walked around for 15 minutes looking for anyone who looked even slightly hungry. But to no avail. I had prayed as we began our adventure that this would be glorifying to God and that He would bring the right people to us. And I also prayed that I would not be discouraged if it did not turn out the way I wanted. So as Ashlee and I returned to our apartment in defea

I apologize for not writing earlier but after being sick, and Ashlee arriving, I have just been exhausted. But things are begining to fall into place here and I have to admit that I am once again feeling so extremely blessed. I was getting a little worried last week when I only had 4 hours of classes and my institute had not given me news of any more classes. I began to doubt that I would have enough hours of work. But by Thursday my schedule went up to 8 1/2 hours and by friday it was up to 10 1/2. And today, as Ashlee and I had lunch with the managers of the institute, I saw that by monday I will most likely have 20 1/2 hours which is exactly how many hours I want. So once again, I lived out the story. God tells me to trust Him. i worry anyways and doubt His provision. He comes through and provides regardless of my lack of faith. Really it is a beautiful circle we do. So Ashlee came on friday and I was still getting over my cold so we both just slept alot. We had an interesting time

Here are some of the thousands of photos taken on the trip (these come from Rachels blog, you can see all of the pics if you go there www.rachelrathburn.blogspot.com)

I am sick right now, like the whole head cold fever thingy. And when I get sick, two things happen: I call my mommy (yep, even here in Chile I still call her) and I get very emotional. This might explain the following blog...

Rachie, this blog is dedicated to you... I loved that term when i was studying communication. The term means that a person holds two beliefs or ideas that are conflicting. I have felt it for a long time when it comes to the economics of my life. Live like Mother Theresa, or the California dream. Rachel brought me a few fun things when she came(like reeses peanut butter cups!), and one of the items was a new that was just released by a man named Shane Clairborne. He basically wrote a book about how he came to live in this program called the "Simple Way". They are revolutionary in their honest aaproach to following Jesus. I can't go into details but basically the book is bringing me back to the dissonance that has rested in the back of my mind for years. I remember when i wanted to spend a year homeless in the streets of San Francisco (Ashlee, stop laughing). Or the just the fact that I came down here. I just feel so uncomfortable with the life that the American Church seem

I am currently trying to bring down the puffiness in my eyes since I have been crying. Why, we might ask, was I crying? Well, after a week that I thought would never come, I finally spent time with some of my closest friends. Erin and I had some amazing talks as we walked along the beach, Carleigh offered to defend me from a 106 year old man who was mad at me, and Rachel just was her beautiful self. I said goodbye to them tonight as we enjoyed one last ice cream (it was our goal to eat an ice cream each day). And as I hugged each of them goodbye I started to cry. I am just so grateful to have them as friends, but at the same time I feel so much more like my life there in California is so far away. I know these girls will be in my life no matter where we end up, but I am just sad that I cannot have them every day. Well, Ashlee is arriving in a few days so I should be okay, but still... it is just sad. On a nice note, Sebastian has been so good to me. He invited a bunch of his friends la

Hola mi familia y amigos!!!!! We have arrived in Santiago por fin!!!!! The flights went very smoothly (despite the lack of sleep). It was about 16 hours total travel timel, so needless to say, I´m happy to finally be here. It was such a joy to see Becka´s face when we made it through customs (tears and all). Alright, I must be going because Starbuck´s is calling my name.....I´ll keep this updated as much as I can...tomorrow we are going to La Serena (a little coastal town). Adios! Gracias para tus oraciones!!!!!!!!! Love Rach, Erin, Carleigh, and Becka!!!!!!!!

Hola!!! How is everything en estados unidos? We had a great (tiring) day. We took a two hour bus ride to a coastal city called Viña Del Mar. It was muy Linda (beautiful). We took another bus to a city called Valaparaiso.....even more beautiful! It was the cutest city! Lots of colorful houses, and LOTS of hills. We found the cutest restraunt where they served us fantastic VEGETARIAN food (needless to say, I was relieved). We then came back to Viña Del Mar and walked and walked and walked, and sat in the shade to recover from our exhaustion, then walked and walked some more. We mainly walked up and down the beach. It was really great to watch everyone....una problema is that you ahve to pay to use the bathrooms...hmm...those who know me know where I was spending my money...hehe... Anyways, we then went to dinner at a nice place and walked some more, and here I am. That was our day....WALKING. It was great though, and the cities are so cute and beautiful. I do love it here. Mucho !!!!!! T

Hola!!!! Sorry we skipped a day, but yesterday we just couldn´t make it to a computer. So here we are!!! No worries. Yesterday was a great day!!!! After taking our overnight bus ride we arrived in La Serena after about four hours of sleep....so we took some naps. Then we went on a coffee hunt, because we hadn´t had any coffee for 48 hours!!!! I know, I know.....I bet you´re feeling really sorry for my fellow travellers having to put up with me on no coffee. It was great because finally that pounding headache that I had come to know so well was on it´s way. We then rented a car and headed to a ferria where we bought tons of wonderful fruit and avovados. It was great!!! It was the cutest little market. We then headed out into the country in the rental car, pulling over on the side of the road to take pictures of goats and other random things. We went to this little town and ate our lunch on the steps of an adorable church. We then headed back to La Serena and went to the beach. It was ni

Hola!!! Just thought we´d check in again and fill you in on our Wednesday. We woke up after a nice sleep in a bed at the hostel in La Serena. We rushed to return the rental car, went to the post office, and had a nice brunch at a cute little restraunt. We then just roamed around the city for a couple of hours. La Serena is such a great city...it´s very charming. After our brief romp through La Serena we went back to the hostel. Becka showed us around, and took us up onto the roof of the hostel where they have family barbeques. We decided that we want to have those on our roof too..hmm...no problema, ya? We then headed to the bus that would take us to Santiago. After seven hours, and three movies with muted english and spanish subtitles we arrived in Santiago. We then had to catch anther eight hour bus to Mendoza, Argentina. When we got on the bus, we noticed two of our fellow passengers. They were an old couple, the man was 107 years old and the woman was 103. They proceeded to scream