A Peek Into My Mind

Where have my soccer posts been? Didn’t I say I was going to post photos from every game I play? No, I didn’t quit. I have actually BEEN at all the games. Unfortunately, a lot of the girls stopped showing up. So, with no substitutes available, everyone (including me) was forced to play the entire games with no rest. Therefore, there were never any opportunities to take photos.

There’s that saying, and you all know it- “You can’t win them all.” Being a new team, I knew this was going to be true. But you can certainly LOSE them all. Luckily for us, we actually won a few games! It’s such a rush when your team scores a goal!! I don’t know about you guys, but I start clapping!

This was the very first I’ve ever been on a team for sports. I’m proud of myself for playing the entire season and not giving up. I fell alot through out the season that I easily became the MKAP (most knocked around player), but I kept getting back up.

I tell you guys the truth. I suck as soccer. Out of all the girls, I was the only one with no soccer background. But, my team was always so positive and supportive of me and each other! I think about my first game and how extremely, super scared I was of the ball. But as the weeks progressed and I had to play even more, I started to slowly lose the fear. My friend Jeane told me, “We can see the change in you, Irma. You were really afraid of the ball before, now you’re not. You’re getting there and making plays.” One of my pals, Ada even called me “ballsy”.

Do you guys know what a “header” is? It’s not just text that is put on all Microsoft Word documents, it’s the technical term for when a player his the ball with his or her head. Guess who totally got the header during last week’s game. ME! THAT’S RIGHT! IRMY! (no, mom… hitting the soccer ball with your head doesn’t hurt, if you do it right.) Anyways, the ball was already being “header-ed” around from one girl to another when it was hit to the other side of the field. I had no plan on hitting the ball with my head, until I realized that I was the only one in the general area, and the only way TO hit the ball, was with my head. So, I “flicked” it and ran off. All the girls on the team were cheering me on! SEE, guys! The positiveness of my team!

I’ve been playing with more aggression, putting “pressure” on girls. I run along side them really close to the point where they have to pass the pass the ball to someone else. I don’t think I played very well in our last game. I had no energy whatsoever, but I tried my best. I played with all the aggression I could muster up. I actually blocked a goal kick!! And could you believe it, I got a technical foul?! It makes me smile to think about how the girls were happy when I got the technical.

This is Team Fusion after our last game, which happened to be the last game of the recreational season.
Irmy, Carrie W., Lisa, Katy, Ada, Tiffany, Carrie G., Kim, Aimee, Victoria and Stephanie.

We were missing 6 girls- Katie, Shay, Mary, Hailey, Stephanie and Jeane. But, hey! There’s finally a soccer photo of me! And here’s a funny photo we took-
We all really DO have fun togther.

I’ll miss Soccer Sundays. I’ll miss all the girls who made my first time playing soccer an enjoyable experience! But we’ll see each other soon… we gotta gear up for the Fall season. The COMPETITIVE SEASON. YIKES!

Our stay in Israel was ending on Day 10.
We started our day by having mass on the Sea of Galilee. We got on a boat and set sail to hit the open, rough waters!
The boat ride was definitely a thumbs up experience! It was quiet and peaceful. We were asked to reflect on our journey to Israel up to that point.
Here’s another picture of the fisherman I encountered while I was at the Sea of Galilee.
He’s cool and a very nice person. Thanks for the photo opp, sir!
After this, we loaded our bus and traveled for a few hours until we reached the Jordanian/Israeli Border. The border was not a nice, friendly place. I had taken my camera out to take a photo of OUR bus driver when someone yelled at me, saying I wasn’t allowed to do that. It made me sad and very regretful that I did not take a photo of our amazing bus driver, Majit.
And that’s it! Once at the border, we said goodbye to our knowledgeable, patient, Israeli tour guide, Munzur and hello to our Jordanian tour guide, Fatty. Holy Land Day 10

Our 2 days in Jordan were pretty short. Day 11 took us to Petra! If you guys didn’t know, Petra is the site for the number 2 Wonder of the New World. China’s Great Wall was chosen as number 1.

Petra is known for their pink caves. Here’s my mom walking in between the walls.
The walls don’t look too pink though, right?

But what makes Petra and the Pink Caves to “wondrous” is the Treasury. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed there. Don’t tell me what happened in the movie, because I haven’t seen it yet. I may Netflix it, though.
You know what’s cool? Jumping photos! Like this one, especially!
After so many tries, my mom was finally able to get me jumping in the air. Look at the people staring at me in the background. hahah!! And i’m holding my mom umbrella! She almost lost it in Petra!

We were traveling with Senior Citizens, so we couldn’t really go any further than the Treasury. Its okay though. After this, we headed back to the bus and traveled almost 2.5 hours back to our hotel. Holy Land Trip: Day 11

And that’s it, guys! The next day we flew back to Dubai for a 5 hour lay over and then headed back to the United States! After 14 hours in the plane, 2 hours at the LAX immigration & luggage claim, it felt sooo good to finally be home. Sleeping in your own bed is one of the best things in the entire world!

I was wrong about this trip.
I thought we’d be praying all day long… not really talking about anything else. While we DID go to church everyday, and even sang prayer hymns on the bus, we didn’t pray as much as I expected. This wasn’t a vacation for me, because when you’re on vacation you get to sit back and relax. It was a pilgrimage and meant we had to suffer along the way. Each morning we were up by 6am, if not earlier, we’d travel around from place to place, getting on and off the bus, usually not returning to our hotels until 8:45 or 9pm. We’d eat dinner quickly and return to our rooms. We’d sleep and wake up in the morning and do it all over again.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me, and i’m glad i went.
Part of my “Creating 2010″ goals was for me to get to know Mom better. I think I got to know my mom a little better by traveling with her. I hope she had a good time with me as a travel buddy.

My Holy Land Trip- Fin!

I’ve been back from my trip for 6 weeks now, so its getting more and more difficult to remember where we went. I know that by day 7, i was getting a bit bored of taking photos of things. Not that the journey was boring, but I like taking photos of people more than I like taking photos of buildings and whatnot. I’m going to put photos that I think looked nice from each day.

The Western Wall- the mens side.
Things in the Middle East are always divided. I stood on a chair on the womens side of the wall and took this photo. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get in trouble doing so, but my mom said, “NO! YOU CAN!” so, i did.
Here, men and women pray towards to wall. Praying can get very intense, that some people start to weep and wail… hence the other name for this wall is the Wailing Wall. People (like myself) leave prayers at the wall. I wished it was easier to stick the letters on the wall. But there are hardly any crevices to place the notes, and it would be really rude to use gum to stick the notes. I found a small spot on the bottom of the wall to leave letters that Paulette, Chinky, Me and Alejo wrote.

Here’s my mom in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque with that dang umbrella! Do you know how many times my mom lost that thing while we were on the trip!? YEESH! Surprisingly enough, umbrella made it back to the states. Her eyeglasses, on the other hand, were left on the Emirates plane.

This is a fun photo of our priest that accompanied us. All the moms on the trip always told him smoking was bad. Day 7

I started feeling exhausted on Day 8. Not just from all the traveling we had been doing, but exhausted from the people and all the commotion that would happen. Everyday, someone had to complain about something really silly. But, nonetheless, we pushed through…

This is the Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
It was at this location that our group ran into another pilgrimage group from Tanzania!! Our friend, Moises started chatted it up with the Tanzanian priest, Father Tim! He was such a jolly, friendly guy!
Here’s our priest, Father Thinh with Father Tim!
Even from the other side of the world people love Jesus!
I had a good time taking photos of our friends from Tanzania!
Here I am with Father Tim. I told him I would sent him the photos when I got the chance. He told me, “When you send these photos to me, you will one day go to Tanzania!” I’m looking forward to seeing Father Tim, the friends I met through him… and TANZANIA!! Who wants to join me?
Me and my mom standing at the edge of the Sea of Galilee.
Yep! She’s holding that umbrella!!
I got baptized in the Jordan River on Day 8, too. The water was really cold!!

After we got back to the hotel, I actually felt refreshed. I decided to forget about all the drama that had been going on and on for the past number of days. Day 8

Yep, i’m doing it! I’m posting photos from Day 9!!
We all traveled to a church in Canaa. This is where Jesus turned the water into wine and got the wedding reception STARTED YA’LL (You know, the Wedding in Canaa?)!!! Just kidding. Jesus never got drunk in his lifetime. He responsibly had 1 glass of wine at dinner whenever he ate red meat, or sheep.
Anyways, at this church, if you went on the pilgrimage with your spouse, you got your wedding vows renewed! I served as the “event photographer”. Instead of posting photos of each person, here’s a photo of all the couples that renewed their vows.
I’m posting the photo below because I like the nun standing behind my mom. My mom is more in focus, but you can see the exuberant smile that the nun has. She seemed so happy to be there with us. She’s sweet… whoever she is.
I spent time waiting for everyone to clear out of the photo below.
I like this photo because it is VERY clear! You can zoom into the photo and see how clear it is! I’ll let you all in a little secret, there was actually one person standing in the middle of the photo. I used Photoshop to erase him out. Hehehe… I can’t remember the name of this church, though… Day 9

bye!

I’ve been having a hard time trying to write this entry. I have 2 other versions of this entry saved as a draft. But, I think I’ll just show some photos that highlight each days activities.

Day 5 turned out to be Easter. We woke up early to make our way to Masada. This is the place that Herod the Great retired. LOL. They have a museum at the top of Masada. I couldn’t find any souvenirs over there, but I couldn’t find any in any of the the other spots we visited.
I don’t know who took this photo of me and my mom, but it’s actually one of my favorites from the trip! I like the clarity of the photo and also the composition, although I would have places us off-center. I also think me and my mom look really cool with our hats on.
We visited the Dead Sea that day, too. Enjoy some fun photos of the pilgrims!!
Here’s my mom laughing with Aida. My mom struggled to help Aida float because she was so scared. It was funny because they were both screaming/laughing at one another. LOL.
GOOD JOB, mom! It really isn’t that difficult to float in the Dead Sea. The water is so salty, everyone is very buoyant!
Yo! Moises!
It’s actually very common to take the mud from the Dead Sea and put it all over yourself!! They encourage it. People take the mud home! They say that the mud is very good for your skin because there are no chemicals added… everything is 100% natural. I just hope no one was LEAVING anything natural in the ocean… if you get what i mean!
Yes, I did it, too! Yes, I’m wearing a bikini! YES, i’m wearing a tank top and shorts! My face was burning a bit while I kept the mud on… I hope it was ONLY mud i had on my face. YIKES!
After the Dead Sea, we went to Mt. Temptation. My mom took the photo below, I think it’s one of my favorite photos of me ever! I like photos of me where i’m taking a photo… or, maybe I just like the way my Cortezes look on me!
Believe it or not, Day 5 was very exhausting. We had to wake up early to get to Masada and we spent most of the day traveling in the bus.  Holy Land: Day 5

Day 6 was a downer-day. This was only because we visited the Via Delarosa, and this was the path that Jesus took when he was being crucified.
This is my friend, Andrew. He’s a cool dude. Funny guy!
Each of the pilgrims took turns carrying a cross down the street. Most of us had to partner up, because the cross (seemingly light) was pretty heavy.
I wanna tell everyone that the people that persecuted Jesus are the biggest jerks in the entire world and they make me sooo angry!! They were mean to him… and mean to his mom… and that is just NOT cool! Yeah! I’m emotional! This was the one spot on the trip where I was actually crying because I was so sad! ARGH! Sigh…

The Holy Sepulchre Church is also the Church of the Resurrection. ALOT of people visit this place. Certain parts of the church have sooo many visitors, lines form around the church!
This is the Anointing Stone. People lay on this stone hoping to be healed. I put my camera on it, hoped and prayed that all my photos taken with the camera (during the trip and after) would come out looking nice. What do you guys think? Have my photos been nice?
Here’s me and my mom outside of Lazarus’ Tomb. This place was really tight. I’m not talking about, “tight-AWESOME” but, “tight-i can’t breathe”. We had to be very careful not to slip while walking downstairs to the tomb, and we had to wait by the side for people coming up the stairs. There was no two-way traffic happening.

I would say these 2 guys look normal. They’re cool. I didn’t talk to them, but they were nice to us. We went to the older man’s house for lunch. The guy in the photo is his kid… his 17th kid! YEAH! That guy has 4 wives! The son, on the other hand has NO wives… yet! He was eyeballing your girl, though. Seriously, he was.

Two more photos, ok, guys?
I can’t remember where this photo was taken, but I like my composition. The colors and the arches make this an interesting photo… in my opinion!

Around the Via Delarosa was an Ethiopian Church. We walked in to observe their mass and I saw this kid standing next to his mom, looking at us. I like this photo. I feel like I should donate to an Ethiopian Relief Fund.

Holy Land Trip: Day 6
BYE!