Adventures in Helen, GA!

Well, I sometimes like to think of myself as an outdoorsy girl. I mean, I do own a North Face backpack and Chacos. That counts right? Well, when in Helen for our scavenger hunt, we saw that many people go tubing in this city. So, on our free afternoon, we decided to go. We went with like 4ish teams. It was so much fun. We all tried to stay hooked together, which made tubing all the more extreme because it is hard to navigate so many people hooked together through the various rocks and obstacles that were in the river. At one point, my tube was vertical…..yes, vertical. I ended up jumping into Devan’s tube…it was quite funny. It was not the relaxing experience I was expecting…but was super fun!

After our 2 and a half hour tubing adventure, we went and ate at a Mexican restaurant. Now, when I walked in, I was excited about it. We were all starving, and we all were excited for Mexican food. Well, we ordered our drinks and when they were delivered, we began to figure out why there were not too many people there. In my glass of water there was the paper covering of a straw in my glass as it was being delivered. Josh Jack then looked in his glass and saw some nastiness at the bottom of his water glass. He then looked at mine and realized in was in mine as well. Devan then looked in her water and saw a bug…..so gross! Josh Jack politely asked for new drinks for us, and they were delivered in seemingly clean glasses. We stayed there because we were starving and we were a pretty big group of people. But we all checked our food before we ate it. I am proud to report that none of us got sick, but I don’t think any of us will ever eat there again. That concludes our adventures in Helen!

Ok, so this is the only pic I captured in Helen.This shows the architecture of how EVERY building there is. It also shows their crazy sense of humor. Once we got into the super touristy part, I didn't have my camera on me!

Remeber that one time at training....

I flew into Atlanta on a Sunday, that afternoon was the official check-in day. After I checked in, I met my team. Our team seems to mesh really well. I think we will work quite well together for this summer. After we met, we went on our first adventure together. We had an “Amazing Race” in which we were given riddles about places we had to go and things we had to do. These places/things consisted of shooting archery (Devan did this), going to McDonald’s and chugging a largish size “suicide drink” (Jared did this challenge), shooting a half court shot in basketball (Logan), “borrowing” a tube and sitting in the river (me), counting parking spaces at the bowling alley and multiplying and dividing them by a certain number (team work), etc. It was a lot of fun! At one point we were in first, but we lost our lead when we went to the wrong Putt-Putt place. Oh well, it was still fun! We also got to go to this CRAZY little town called Helen. Everything in this town screams tourist trap. Plus, when we were there, it was Memorial Day weekend….so there were TONS of people there. Let’s just say this….it is not a place I would choose to vacation at, but it was very interesting. All of the architecture was “German” inspired. Like I said, I have never seen anything like that! Later on in the week, we went back to Helen with a group of Summer Staff and went tubing in this little town. That deserves a post of its own later on!

Other fun stuff that we did at training was that we went bowling. Every year there is some kind of challenge between Summer Staff and National Staff. From what I have gathered, National Staff normally wins….because they cheat. But this year, the Summer Staff won. We went by averages, and our team’s average was seventy-something….not impressive! But, the Summer Staff team with Lewis on it had a large average. I believe Lewis bowled like a 224! Needless to say, their team won…thus making Summer Staff beat National staff! It was a lot of fun, even though I am not a bowler at all!

Now training was fun…but it was also a lot of work. Each position had over 28 hours of position training over the span of a week. By the end of the day, I was pretty much brain dead from the vast amount of information that was conveyed to me each day! It was crazy! We also had driving school where we learned how to hook up our trailer to our Expedition. We then each had to back up the trailer, as well as drive around with it attached. Now, I am used to my cute smallish Red Honda CRV….so driving an Expedition is very different…much less an Expedition with a trailer attached. Luckily, I am just a secondary driver (because I am not 20 yet) and my other teammates are all primary drivers. So chances are, I will never have to pull the trailer. I will get to drive once we get to our sites and get to drop the trailer. But, you should be happy to know, that our whole team passed driving school!

Once we were done with all of our position training, it was time for “Mock Set Up.” We had our mock at a church in Cumming. Our team went and set up just like we will at the camps. Our National Staff member, Jon Hodge, then came and inspected! He said we were the best of the day out of the teams he was assigned to check. Everything went so smoothly. That night, another team came and stayed with us. Our team leader Logan, is very good friends with their AV Blake….they are pretty much in a bromance. They stayed with us the second night in the church we were at. Our two teams did a lot together over the span of training. That night, we went out to eat with a few other teams and then went to the movies to celebrate our last night together. You could either see the X-Men movie, or Pirates. Since I have already seen Pirates, I saw X-Men. I have never seen any X-Men movies, so I got the run down on it from Blake and Michael. It was actually a pretty good movie….even if it didn’t end until after midnight. 

Training was super fun, but it FLEW by! Even though there were busy and long days…we still got to hang out with and meet a ton of people. I am so thankful for the people I have met. Training was a total success! Bring on the real deal now!


I love these ladies!

Sorry there aren't more pictures on this post! I didn't have my camera on me most of the time!

The Midwest Team...aww how sweet, we are all matching!

This is just so you have a visual of the team I am serving with! More info coming soon!

 Jared (Music Leader), Devan (Missions Communications Specialist), Me (Office Manager), and Logan (AV/Team Leader)

 

Traveling to Summer Staff Training....it was not boring!

Well, I left for training on Sunday. I woke up at 3:10am in order to meet Rebecca Henderson at the airport to fly out together to staff training in Cleveland, GA (outside of Atlanta). She is a fellow Unionite, however we didn't know each other until the WC interview weekend in January! We both arrived at the airport at 4:30 because our plane was scheduled to leave at 6:05. So we got there and told our goodbyes to our parental units. We then went through the ever so lovely process of preparing to board. Once we got boarded, we realized that the plane was full, so therefore we could not move to sit next to each other. Bummer. But I did sit by a really sweet family from Memphis. Once we landed at the airport, we went and found a WC Staff member to give us our next directions.

Oh...this was taken about 4:30 am...little did we know about our adventures to come!

Once we landed in ATL, we navigated the airport subway and eventually found him! He told us to get onto the Marta, a public transportation train. Well this little train ride turned out to be about an hour long.

We got on at the very bottom of the line and had to ride to the last stop at the top!

What fun, right?!?! It was really fun to people watch while we were sitting there. I am sure we looked ridiculous...two little white girls hauling around 2 huge suitcases a piece. I am sure people were watching us and getting a kick out of us as well! Then something cool and memorable happened...we met Yoseph. He is from Ethiopia and has been in the States for close to 6 years now. Yoseph struck up a conversation with us by asking us if we could tell him what certain words mean. It turned out he was preparing for an interview. We helped as much as we could and then just small talked with him. He was so nice and so smart. He taught me and Rebecca some nifty math tricks. (I still have them written down in my notebook! They are so cool!) Well, before Yoseph's stop, I asked him if we could pray with him before he got off. Rebeca and I had the opportunity to pray with him, and he seemed really appreciative that we took the time (like 30min.) to talk to him despite a language barrier, as well as the fact that we prayed with him.
Well after the hour train ride, we met Alex (another WC staff member) at the parking lot of the stop we got off at from the Marta. He kindly loaded our luggage into the expedition and took us to the WC warehouse.  He said on the way that he had saved the expedition with the sun roof for us, he then said something to the degree of "when we get to the warehouse, it's all yours".....I thought he was just being silly....he wasn't. When we got to the warehouse, he handed us some directions to Truett McConnell College (where training has been held) and told me and Rebecca to have fun! Neither Rebecca nor myself wanted to drive a HUGE NEW expedition...but thankfully R stepped up and offered to drive! She did great while I navigated (hahaha...me navigating? What has the world come to?) So we may have taken one or two wrong turns, but we got there! It took about and hour and 15 minutes...which is about how long it took everyone else. Once we got there, we checked in and met our teams! It was much more complicated trip to take it to ole Truett McConnell than I originally thought..but it was definitely an adventure! More "catch up" blogposts to come!

Hey! We should be pen pals!

If you would like to, you can totally write me letters of encouragement this summer! It would mean so much to me! I can only get envelopes forwarded to me….so no packages please! I won’t get them until debriefing! I love getting letters! Who knows? I might get crazy and write back! Haha! I love pen pals! The address is:

North American Mission Board

ATTN: World Changers

Carly Silas, Midwest Team

4200 North Point Parkway

Alpharetta, GA 30022

So...I come with baggage! (Ok, it is baggage for 10 weeks!)

So today I packed! Last minute, I know! All of my stuff for 10 weeks fits in a large duffel bag, a suitcase, backpack, and carry-on tote! This includes towels, bedding, air-mattress, clothing, toiletries...etc! It was a challenge, but I did it! Now I just need my bags to weigh under 50lbs. apiece tomorrow at the airport! It is 10:31PM right now, I fly out tomorrow at 6:10AM in the morning! It is sooo close! I have so many emotions flooding my body right now! I am SOOOOO excited! I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do this summer through me! Ahh! So exciting!

The suitcase and carry-on tote (aka purse to the airport people!)! I couldn't get the pic to flip....but you get the point! It is a large piece of luggage

The duffel! I got it at Ross! I really did! But there is a funny Ross rap out there! Here is the link...you will laugh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yKyhgOIuY 

The trusty North Face Backpack! We have been on many-a-adventure together!

Not too shabby for ten weeks of stuff! (ok, ok...I can wash my clothes and re-wear them...but still! I am impressed with myself!)

Hey There Summer Hair

So, last summer I got a "beach wave" in my hair because it was sooo easy to take of! Well, I decided to do the same this summer because not having to blow dry and straighten my hair every day sounded so appealing, especially with all the humidity I will have to deal with this summer! Yuck! So I went to Styling Castle (duh!) and had Fred work his magic. I told him to make it curlier than it was last summer....and boy did he! I love it! It is so low maintenance.  BTW, this will be my first summer in 4 years to not work at Styling Castle, very bitter sweet! I worked there is High School and have filled in over breaks this past year! I love my Styling Castle family! I am going to miss them, but they are SOO supportive of me this summer! I love working for Christian bosses! Here are some pics!

Fred took this on his iPhone after he finished "rolling me up." He is getting to be so techy these days!

I had to go show Ashley my hair, oh, and I had to hold my sweet sweet niece! She is 8lbs. and 10 ounces now! Such an oinker! She is still a "little little" though! :)