Cue the Basic White Girls Belting Oceans

There's nothing that makes me feel at peace, joyful, and in awe quite like the view of the ocean. A lot of times I'll just sit and stare out at the vastness without an inkling of how to even describe what I'm viewing. (Which is amazing because it takes a lot to leave me speechless.) It's mysterious and magnificent. 

There's great depth filled with unknown, yet it's so clear that I can see my feet touching the sand on the ocean floor. Seeing it easily reminds me of God and His existence. How could you not look at it and see the handiwork of a great Creator?

My perception of the ocean is much like my perception of God and a relationship with Him. It's mysterious. There's so much I don't know about His Word and there's so much I'll never totally grasp about Him. I'll never be able to wrap my mind around why someone actually loved me so much that they paid the ultimate sacrifice on a Roman torture device in order to have a relationship with me. A relationship with a human being that had no desire to even know Him. Yet, He sought me out. And time after time showed me His love for me. 

But it's magnificent because I can sit in class or in the car or anywhere at all and have a conversation with the Creator of my soul. MY SOUL. We're not talking about the creator of a song, or a theory, or even an amazing work of art. This is the Creator of everything in the universe, from the tiniest creature in the ocean to the largest planet in orbit. And I can have a conversation with Him like He's my best friend. It's magnificent because I can rest in knowing that He has a plan for my life. That He cares more about me and what's going on in the world than I could ever muster up. 




(A little heavy? Maybe. But, I came across this in my old pictures and couldn't stop looking at it in awe so I had to jot down some of my thoughts.)

Time for a Change Up

So I've decided that I'm already sick of blogging solely about my travels and because of that my blog is about to gain a new voice. (I mean obviously it'll still be my voice, just over a different topic.)

In order to continue to enjoy blogging I'm going to start to treat this as a journal of sorts. Just writing about my experiences, specifically those that occur while I enjoy my life just goin with the flow...or as some might say just goin with the Chlo. (Can I say that about my own blog? Too bad, just did.)

Get ready for a view inside my mind (it's weird) and a front row seat to the things going on around me.

I Am a Cultural Pariah

The life of Chloe is full of awkward and laughable moments. Throw in different cultures and I am just one giant accident waiting to happen. Out of all of my social blunders, my favorite occurred while I was in Tokyo. Thankfully, I wasn't alone in this blunder. My whole group went down with me. Here is our bathroom story:

Looking at this picture most people think, "Wow, what a nice Gap ad." (I mean they probably don't, but I know I do so I'm just going to pretend that everyone else does too.) This was taken outside of our Airbnb that we stayed at in Tokyo. We spent a lot of our time inside that Airbnb learning about the culture of Japan, which obviously included the language and phrases that would be helpful for us when communicating with the locals. 

We each had lists of words and phrases that we would either write in a notebook or on the notes portion of our phones so that we were well equipped in the Japanese combat against English. (Some people do know and speak English very well there, but most people that I encountered only spoke Japanese or very broken English.)A few of our words and phrases included: 

Where is the train station? (Crucial for getting place to place)

That's cool! (Our Japanese friends loved when we used this)

How much?

Yes

No

Do you speak English? (Always the first thing out of my mouth)

Where is the bathroom? (The most important phrase of this story)

I mean, we learned more than this, but this is just a sampling to get to the point. 

I wish I had kept track of every person that I asked to point me to the bathroom. Not because I have a small bladder, but mainly because I was fascinated by Japanese toilets. I mean they have seat warmers on them, bidets (yes I am sandwiching the word bidet so maybe people will overlook it), and even music or water sounds (so people don't hear you going to the bathroom).

I MEAN LOOK AT ALL OF THE BUTTON OPTIONS!!!

But, aside from the toilets, sometimes I really did have to go to the bathroom. Each time I asked someone in Japanese, "Where is the bathroom?" I would ooze with pride because honestly, I was speaking Japanese hello! We would all come back each day talking about how well we were speaking Japanese. 

One of my friends from my group had asked a group of girls to point her to the restroom and they all giggled at her but kindly pointed her to the bathroom. When telling us about this, she just thought the girls were impressed and thought it was cute that she was speaking Japanese to them.

Days later we were talking to one of our friends that we had made in  Japan about what all we were learning to say. When we got to "Where is the bathroom?", she laughed. She outwardly belly laughed at us! We immediately felt embarrassed and curious. Like, WHAT HAVE WE BEEN SAYING THIS WHOLE TIME AND WHY IS THIS FUNNY?!?! 

She was very hesitant to tell us what we had been saying the whole time, but after tons unrelentless amounts of time asking her she finally told us. While wandering Japan, we had been asking people, "Where is the $h!tter?"

We had been asking the people whose approval we were trying to gain to point us to the most profane way to say bathroom. And they were happily pointing us in the right direction while most likely thinking, "Stupid American".

I still laugh out loud at this every time I think about it and occasionally I say it to my American friends who are oblivious to what I'm saying.