becka lippy

I think Im in a bit of culture shock. There are supposed to be two waves of culture shock (or so said my prof in uni). The first is that initial one, usually the first few months in a country, where everything is new and you don't understand much of what goes on around you. The second one is a bit more subtle, it happens a year or two into your stay in a foreign culture and it has less to do with not understanding what is happening, and m,ore to do with understanding but not feeling comfortable in what is happening. I am there. I understand fairly well chilean culture. And Im not so much homesick for another culture, because I still love it here. But I am definitely aware of how different I am. I am much more comfortable with being alone. Anyways, this week, some of those differences came out and I took some time to write down some reflections: Tonight (Friday night) was a night of reflection. I learned some new lessons tonight, saw some realities about my life here as a foreigner,

I was randomly craving some carrot muffins, so I looked up a recipe online, it seemed easy enough, and I went at it. Mixing all the ingredients together Trying to keep the kitchen clean Waiting with anticipation..... and.... Done and DELICIOUS!

I’ve been listening to a bunch of sermons on unity in the church and they have been reminding me of a topic that Ashlee and I discussed recently. We were talking about the need to be in community in order to experience grace. If you’re a Christian, you believe that you have received the grace of God. You believe that His grace has some power in your life, and maybe you even feel at peace in your soul. This is good, and I need to be careful not to diminish the true experience of the grace of God. But I am not writing this blog post to just affirm our supernatural experience of grace. I am writing to call us to live courageously in community. It is in the community of the Church, among those who have received the eternal grace of Jesus Christ, that you can experience grace here on earth. There is a movement of people my age that believe that they can be Christ followers on their own. While I will agree that it is possible, I also argue that it is not normative. It is not how God wants Hi

Short version: Yesterday was Valentines Day. I took a trip out to a little surfer beach town and spent the day wandering around by myself. I ended up spending some time with a random guy who was hoping to make me his valentine. I wasnt interested, and was grateful that God gave me the grace and wisdom not to be foolish. In the end, I found myself breathing a prayer of gratitude, thanking God that He really is enough for me. Of course a valentine would have been nice, but I don't need to make anything happen. I have all I need in Jesus, and in His timing, a valentine will come. Long version: Yesterday was Valentines Day. The holiday is really annoying when I live in the States, there is all this pressure to have a date, to do something with someone, or if all else fails, to have an anti Valentines Day party. In Korea, it was so outrageous that I was able to almost just laugh off the holiday (they extend the madness into three holidays stretching over 2 months!) It's actually not

La Magda y yo The group as we waited for our bus to return to Santiago

My brother came for the weekend. He's been travelling around South America for a month or so and decided to come pay his sister a visit. We spent Friday in Santiago and headed out to Vina and Valpo for the weekend. Here are a few photos to share with you... La casa de Pablo Neruda. I love Valpo, especially the colors and street art. My brother, the photographer We found an awesome place for some Peruvian food, which was the winner for both of us in the cuisine category.

Some of you may know, that for all the maturity in my life, I have some definite moments of little girl-ness. Take my taste in music. I have some major teeny bopper music on my ipod. Also, in terms of tv, shows like One Tree Hill and Vampire Diaries are at the top of my list. And this week a new girliness has popped up. There is this cafe that I love and it was definitly part of my daydream while I was planning my return to Chile. So I have begun to come here quite a bit (I am in fact sitting at this very cafe as I write). In my multi-weekly visit to this cafe, I have become recognizable face to the waiters. I think they sense my gringaness and they haven't tried to really talk to me yet. Except one. Here is where I become a 14 year old girl. There is one waiter who I one of the most attractive guys I've ever seen. Just pure ol' eye candy. And to make matters worse, he is really nice and always smiles at me. One time, he tried to talk to me, asking me if I liked the lemonad