Moi Meme... Tag, You're It!

I was tagged by Donna to participate in this "let's-get-to-know-y'all" blogging exercise. It's called a "Meme."

"What's a Meme," you ask? Well, you'll see... Here are the rules:

"For this meme, each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog."

And so ... TAG to:

Patrice
Ann
Elena
Kate
Pat
Genevieve
Danielle
Vicki

So ... here are my eight facts/habits.

1. I spent a year in Senegal, West Africa as a short-term missionary, teaching English and playing keyboards for a band of African college students. During that year I developed a weakness for freshly baked baguettes and yoghurt with peanuts.

2. A few years later, I directed a group of college students on a bus tour across Poland. Half the team was Polish/charismatic (NOT Catholic), and half the team was American (NOT charismatic, mostly Quakers). Our bus driver was Hungarian, and the only language we had in common was German. (I had two years of it in high school.) At the end of the summer, I decided (a) I was not cut out to be a missionary and (b) Hungarians make the best ice cream in the world. (Our tour originated in Budapest.)

3. After graduating from Bible school (1987), I decided to take a trip by myself to spend time thinking and praying about what direction God wanted me to go. I hopped a cheap flight (from Mpls) to Aculpulco, and spent several weeks traveling by Mexican bus to the northern region of Matehuala, where I stayed with missionary friends. I knew exactly five phrases of Spanish, and packed my backpack with apples (to bribe the little old ladies to let me sit next to them) and toilet paper (need I say more?). To this day, it remains of the greatest adventures of my life.

4. My husband and I met at the University of Michigan Ballroom Dance Club. He asked me out because he liked my lemon tarts. I knew he was the one when he went out of his way to impress my dog. (see photo).

5. I'm the oldest of four girls, and was the last to marry (at age 35). If Craig hadn't shown up when he did, I was thinking about joining the Daughters of St. Paul.

6. My vocational aptitude test in eighth grade indicated that I should become a minister, a missionary, or ... a nun. (My Baptist parents were SO proud!) I studied Korean for two years to become a short-term missionary at a blind orphanage ... wound up in Africa instead when my student visa to Seoul was denied.

7. When I was eighteen I was seriously injured in a car accident. I still get nervous riding in snow storms.

8. White roses or gardenias, dark chocolate, and high tea with girlfriends: three indulgences I'm most likely to turn to when I need a little TLC.