An Oboe named Ezekiel

Hello.

That’s how people greet one another in America.

That’s where I am now.

America.

I’ve been another Busy Brenda since leaving here:

so to catch you up,

Sometimes when you go to Ecuador,

you see a waterfall,

or two,

you know, you’re right it was three waterfalls.

and sometimes when you go to Ecuador,

you hike up to 16,000 feet with your mom

and your bus driver and tour guide, José

who tells you to keep going even when you feel woozy

and can’t feel the breath on your hand.

and then you run into these indigenous Ecuadorians at the bottom.

and sometimes when you go to Ecuador,

you meet nice young men

who take you up to church towers to see panoramic views of Quito

and when you’re about to leave chases you down the street

to give you a bracelet.

Lucky for me, I have a weakness for such things.

And sometimes when you go to Ecuador,

you go on a canopy tour with your family and two men

who don’t understand your Spanish.

no matter how many times you try.

So, instead they just say ‘¡Qué Cheverre!’

13 times over. give or take.

And sometimes when you go to Ecuador, you spend the afternoon playing with an adorable 4-year old girl.

then visit her school in the middle of the Andes mountains

and have 20 kids come swarm you wanting to take their picture.

And you translate for your parents,

but you get to filter out the extraneous awkward things they say

and sometimes when you go to Ecuador, you find yourself in the middle of a full-fledged Capoiera fight.

then later you find a little town in the middle of a valley

and it’s so beautiful that you just want to marry the mountains

And sometimes when you go to Ecuador,

you like it so much that you decide to study here next year:

CHAO FOR NOW

Saraíta Morrill

PS.

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com?

I thought so.

Just like Back in Nom

Hola a todos.

Well, it’s official. I’ve sold my soul away to airport gate agents.

I wish the filmers of ‘Airline’ were here for times like this.

I’m on hour 22 of bro’ing in airports. in the past 2 days.

It’s a little game my family passed down from the old country.

We call it, how much can we possibly travel on our non-revenue passes as possible before our heads literally implode.

Some people call us crazy,

and they are right.

The rules are as follows:

Jim crunches the times, mostly.

Jane manipulates the phone people, mostly.

and Sara listens to Harry Potter, mostly.

So, that’s good.

So far there’s been a lot of this:

and this:

Dad likes to borrow the customer service counter to figure out the net gate to sprint over to.

Only to walk back where we started, of course.

Rinse and repeat.

And when people come up and ask questions because he looks like he works there, he answers them like a champ.

hahahahaha.

Every once in a while he looks up and shouts things to me

passed out on the floor.

like:

El Paso! 4:15

Houston! Terminal 3! 2 hours!

So, yeah.

Now we’re headed to Kansas City for the night.

“I’ll never travel on Spring Break again,” my mom says.

She means until next year.

So, until then, or when we get there.

Keep it Real

Sara Nicole

P.S. Did I mention I am going to Ecuador?

Cause I am.

Sometimes, I blog.

Hi, it’s me.

Sara.

I just wanted to let you know.

For those of you who are tired of seeing “breakouts are terrible on your face” on your blog roll.

For those of you who are tired of not scratching your Sara Morrill itch.

That’s good. because the boys are back in town.

Not really. I live in a different town now. duh.

I just wanted to tell you to stand firm. be strong.

I do continue to write in this thing.

I am more overwhelmed than I thought possible.

Not just with school. With bliss.

I am having one of those full-circle nostalgic moments.

sitting in the “Mind and Hearth” coffee shop with one of my best Whitworth buds, Kristin.

I flashed back to the coffee shop dates and

thinking back to the that first week of school when we used to spend our school nights in here.

When she cried with me and held me during my third week of school.

How it seems like eternities since then.

When I came to Whitworth, I never imagined that I would become so close to as many people as I have. The lifelong type.  I think I really hit the jackpot this year.  I never in my life thought I would be able to be living my life growing and living alongside so many people the way I have. Everyday, I just wait for the excitement of college to die down. I keep thinking that one of these days I will be walking back from class without gleaming from the fact that I get to be living here; but it never does.

I know that in college your life is in fast pace, but I feel like I will never take granted of all the people I have surrounding with me-- sharing our stories, taking late night hikes, bursting into eachother’s rooms at random moments, crying from hysterical laughter at most points during the day. I only wish this sentiment could be put into words.

I just decided for this one moment. In the coffee shop, I would let this blog take priority over the million other things that need to be done.

I wanted to take a moment to commemorate the last three month gap that has not been codified into blogger.com.

oh and,

Happy Birthday Alina!

this is us at sky high. the jumping arena. you win a matching knee injury. oops.

{Ryan, Ian, Elizabeth, Alina, Giles, Sara, Alden, Nick, Nathan}

It’s just nights like tonight when you hear someone say “I used to pop and lock then God did a work in me.”

That you know you are having fun.

Keep it Real

Sara Nicole

Break outs are terrible on your face and from jail.

Hi there,

Sometimes it makes me sad that I don’t write for real like I used to.

Admitting it is the first step.

I was folding my socks one morning when I heard some screaming from next door.

I arose from my room to see what was a matter with the clatter.

Emily’s boyfriend flew in from Fairbanks to surprise her. That’s in Alaska.

Micah. He’s such a tool caddy.

A few of us went out do Frank’s Diner because it reminded us of Luke’s Diner from Gilmore Girls. Then, when they had a Star’s Hollow gazebo it was just too much for words, so we took a picture instead.

{Emily, Micah, Sara, Cara}

Then we took Micah to Target because tights were on sale. But we came home with headbands instead. No harm no foul.

Back at the ranch, we’ve been doing a whole lot of bro’in.

There is perpetual studying to be done. Homework to compute. Applications to apply.

After dance today, I went on an adventure with Micah and Emily into town.

They decided to take the typwagpic. (typical wagon picture)

It was only moments later that a small child creeped out of the wagon wheel and asked Emily where her where daughter was.

She told her she didn’t have one. because she didn’t have one.

At this point, we thought we had avoided anything serious.

I mean, things are pretty caj (casual?)

It wouldn’t have been so funny if moments later a man lurked up behind Emily, while she was singing no less and whispered:

“Are you trying to follow me?”

You know when you watch a scary movie,

or you avoid a near death experience,

and for the next little while you feel a little bit shaken?

a little bit sick inside

some might go as far to say a little bit violated.

That’s kind of what it’s like.

In short, that’s one more reason why we love downtown Spokane.

I am excited for:

- ecuador this spring

- warm weather

- my knee to be healed

- outdoor rec leadership

- jubilation performance troop

-dorm davenport date

- summer staff

- meeting my world relief refugees

-opportunities

-groundhog’s day

hot dang.

Happy Valentines Day!

Buy Fair Trade

Sara Nicole

Exploiting the Bachelor for Board Games

Alright so buckle your seatbelts.

Hold on to your helmets.

Scoop up your satchels.

Harness your horses.

This is going to be quite a post.

I know it’s been a while and blah blah blah, but I’ve been a pretty Busy Brenda if you know what I saying.

No, no not with studying. Who are you kidding? Really?

Jan Term has come and gone, and I’m going through mornings of mournings, and evenings too.

Soon it’ll be back to regular human length naps each day.

Wow, I can’t help but thinking what a great month this was, though. It’s such a great time for bonding. The more I learn about Whitworth, the more I realize how great it really is. There is just a spirit of love and security. I love it more exponentially everyday. I just think that it is so essential to be in a place of freedom and unconditional love--a place that drives you to pursue your passions rather than constraining you to a mold. There are some instances where something just clicks, when you instinctually know something is right. Whitworth is definitely one of them.

Anyway as far as what has been going on with me. Sara Nicole Morrill.

I’m still hobbling around on crutches with a maybe torn ACL. I’m still waiting for my doctor, Dr. Bone to call and tell me whether I’ll be needing surgery

Literally, his name is Dr. Bone.

Lucky, for me I have lots of people to take care of me, pick me up when I trip down the stairs, hide ibuprofen in my applesauce. The uje.

The whole thing is more upsetting to me than I put on the face for. I get so much fulfillment from my dance class, tennis, hiking and other things that I haven’t been able to do. One of my best Whitworth friends, Kristin keeps telling me that my knee is God’s way of telling me to slow down. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. It’s such a common theme in my life to measure myself based on the activities that I do and I guess I never realized that until now. hm.

Anyway, this past weekend, I spent the day preparing mealbags for the homeless in Spokane with some people from my dorm. Jeremy Affeltd, the pitcher for the Giants has been sponsoring different Spokane events, and I guess he’s kind of a big deal.

Except, I accidentally called him Jereld at the beginning because I couldn’t see his whole name tag.

Bottom line is, I take any opportunity to sport a hairnet.

It didn’t take long to realize that signing up to be a food scooper meant business.

Later that evening, our dorm had a formal mocktail party called Fenton’s. It was one more of those things that were way more fun that it made sense to have actually been.

Duvall events are great.

Emily tries and sneaks her face into every shot. She jostled her face into this one when she thought I wasn’t looking. Okay man, you will win the battle, but I will win the war.

Not really, good joke though.

{Alden, Emily}

It was one of those nights that I fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning laughing and woke up still laughing.

For Jan Term break, my mom flew up to Spokane and treated me to an MRI with Dr. Bone. Then she and one of my friends, Cherise and I flew down to San Diego to visit my brother and his wife.

My mom flew back to Phoenix to visit some friends and Cherise and I stayed and spent some time in San Diego.

It was just like always.

Maybe better. Maybe worse.

I guess it would depend on who you are. But in our case, it was a whole lot better.

It was, in fact, wonderful to shed some sunlight on this alibino skin that I have developed over these harsh winter months.

For the second part of the trip Cherise’s sister picked us up in San Diego and we drove two hours to where her family and my grandparents lived in Redlands. Cherise wanted to surprise her family so we came up with an elaborate plan. All I really know was that I was a pseudo-exchange student from Korea.

It ended up working like a charm. What a beautiful moment and a beautiful family. The trip truly truly could not have been better. I am so blessed to know such an incredible lady.

Oh, and I fed this llama.

And this micro mini baby goat.

And this pig was diseased.

I don’t like to talk about it.

On a more serious note, it is good to be back to Whitworth. I feel joy radiating out of my body. It’s times like these--when things are coming to an end and new things are beginning, I find myself going back to the place I was as I was leaving high school: so contemplative about life-- so overwhelmingly grateful and nostalgic about the still frames and memories that mull around in my mind. In the rush of school I am so caught up in the things in front of me. I forget to look at the place I am at and how far I am coming. It’s nights like these when my mind starts to wander off to the days of high school. I think I am finally at that point where high school is a memory. Those times stand in my mind only as emotions and feelings rather than details. I’ve barely begun, yet in a way I have come so far. I think about how different things are now realizing that today too, will someday be a memory. It’s a sentiment I have thought back to at so many times in my life-- simply put, how quickly things really are changing.

Oh, and I’m a working girl now. No, that’s not a euphanism. I have a real live Whitworth job. Basically, I get to hang out with prospective freshman for the day, showing them around campus and why I love it here so much. And to think that that was me only one year ago. hmmm.

I couldn’t be more excited about classes tomorrow.

One more thing. Fire drills seem to follow me wherever I go. Yep, you guessed it. That’s three 3:30 AM fire drills. I have a dream that one day freshman girls will be able to pop popcorn without burning down the building.

I haven’t checked the weather yet, but I forsee a great semester.

And as always,

Keep it Real

Sara Nicole

Awk Soup

So, it’s kind of like this.

You know when the ski patrol give you a ride in their tobaggan? I do.

It happened like this.

I was enjoying a typ weekend in Spokane.

i.e.

Metaphotography: Pictures of people taking pictures of people taking pictures.

This is how we choose to spend our Saturday mornings.

Oh Alina. She’s so funny. She doesn’t even try. She just is.

“Guys, am I driving on the right side of the road?”

Anyway, sorry for interrupting. I was talking about my skiing incident.

Worst case I have a torn ligament. Either way, it looks like no more dance, frisbee, tennis, skiing, insanity, or impromptu Alaskan tribal dance parties for quite a while.

Meanwhile, I am in good hands here. Times a million.

Jan Term is the best thing to ever happen to me.

Friends are great. In every sense of the word.

Keep it Real

Sara Nicole

Breeves are Auss.

As it turns out, I am a blogging slacker.

That’s all there is to it.

I won’t try and catch you up on the last month of my life.

No, no only the parts I have pictures for.

obvi.

Since we last spoke, I spent Christmas break in Prescott, AZ:

and in Mary Esther, FL:

went to tea parties:

played ten thousand games of Settlers:

Don’t you judge us. Don’t you dare judge Monica and I. It’s really hard to take pictures without our heads floating about like that.

took lots of pictures with my fancy Christmas camera:

took over the world with these fine folks:

After leaving the 2 feet of snow and freezing temperatures,

I came back to Spokane only to find that there were 2 feet of snow and freezing temperatures.

But, it’s so beautiful here. I could marry the mountains.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of spare time that January interum equals.

If ever there were a time to write the next great novel or build a raft or learn to waltz. It would be now.

Don’t get me wrong though. We’ve come up with plenty of ways to make our own fun.

Tonight we’re off to treat ourselves to some women’s basketball, then to Whitworth Unplugged to see these guys.

{Emily, Kristin}

They are fun.

Please, if you are able, sign up for oral spanish.

best decision I ever made.

Keep it Real

Sara Nicole