In a nutshell…
Its difficult to identify myself with anything but feeling rotten right now. I’m pregnant and morning sick and my life revolves around adequate rest and my next mini-meal. But I’ll try and muster up some info here in an attempt to remember who I really am.
I currently live in Albania, which fulfills a lifelong desire to live overseas. I’ve also lived in Germany, Fiji, and I served a full time mission in the Dominican Republic. I have travel logs from Guatemala, Honduras, China, Indonesia, Australia, and Europe. I used to say to myself that I wouldn’t get married until my passport was full. I changed my mind when I met my husband who insisted we could do it better together.
As I live life overseas in a developing county, I encounter the challenges of raising kids in the church without aspects that I take for granted in the states, ie. no nursery, foriegn language, dysfunctional primary. I cherish my relationships with fellow Albanian members, however there are things I miss about my ward family back in the states. I turn to the bloggernacle for my personal fullfilment of gospel discussion in English.
I graduated from BYU with a degree in Biology Education. My Biology classes rocked at BYU. My professors did not shy away from what would otherwise be controversial topics in mormonism. I enjoy discussing ethics and evolution from an LDS persective, and add women’s issues to that and you’ll have yourself a real chatterbox.
I currently teach part time pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Music at my daughter’s international school. I enjoy working while both my children are in pre-school, but I find that for some reason I still have to explain/make excuses to fellow mormons why I’m not a 100% SAHM.
I’m really mediocre at piano, guitar, violin, and voice. My husband and I have fun writing mediocre music together. We have an extensive CD/MP3 collection (and can’t help but take advantage of the pirated MP3’s here in Albania that have like 10 albums on one disc and cost three dollars…).
It’s great to be in your company, and I look forward to getting to know you all better.
March 26th, 2006 12:04
Jen, *I* look forward to getting to know *you* better. Your reality is like so far outside my own, I can’t wait to read more about it and how you deal with it. We are a global church, or at least really becoming one, and it’ll be neat to have a peek into ‘how the other half lives,’ y’know?
Take care of you, and your incubating wee one. Write when the mood strikes, and just sit around and be pregnant when the mood strikes. I remember how that can be. (I was wicked sick with my daughter.)
:D
March 26th, 2006 12:14
Oh, and there’s nothing mediocre about being able to play all those instruments, at all! Simply being able to make even mildly pleasing sounds on that many different ones in and of itself is exceptional!
Me, I have to comfort myself with being able to do little more than ‘make a joyful noise.’
March 26th, 2006 15:57
Is your morning sickness one that passes, or does it stay for the whole thing? Either way you have my sympathy.
I second Naiah’s curiosity about living internationally.
March 26th, 2006 18:29
I think it is neat you are teaching, makes for a good role model.
March 27th, 2006 17:51
Ooh, I hereby put in a request for more details on the travels/experiences…
How long do you anticipate living in Albania?
What’s it like teaching at an international school?
Hmmm, I have a sneaking suspicion that we have differing definitions of mediocre musical talent, both in the performing and the writing…