Belated Gratitude

So the unclassy second half of my post yesterday has got me feeling bad. I was quite ungrateful; what a horrible thing to be on the day before America celebrates Thanksgiving.

My money has not run out. I guess there are a several things that have me scared. First of all, simply living without any steady money coming in is scary. Then, getting to the conference in Istanbul is important for my academic career, but it's not going to be cheap. Additionally, applying to get a PhD is not cheap and may not pay off. Because of visa stuff, I have to move somewhere next year, which is going to be extremely hard if I don't find an apartment that is already furnished (which is highly unlikely), and the places I'm looking at are much more expensive than Leipzig--at least quadruple as much for rent. However, these things don't give me reason to be ungrateful or to start begging when I'm so blessed.

My life is actually quite comfortable when I think about it--I live in an apartment that has everything I need, including bookshelves, couch, desk, armoir, mirror, washing machine, dishes, utensils, internet that works sometimes, etc. I can't imagine where I would be at financially if I had had to purchase all of those things (or similar items) last year. What a blessing it is to be able to live here and experience so much! Leipzig is not expensive, even travel is amazingly cheap (for Salt Lakers, think of getting a ride to Pocatello for five bucks). Additionally, I'm not starving and I haven't gotten sick of the basics yet. I'm medically insured. My health is usually pretty good. I have many supportive friends here. Opportunities to earn a little bit of money show up here and there--on Monday, I'm even going to start selling plasma twice a week.

More importantly, my family is well and I have the gospel.

Faith + tithing + thriftiness + gratitude will do the trick.

So, to apologize for my ingratitude and to distract you from it, here are two pictures to show 1. how I've become the layering queen to stay warm in the cold (in the first picture, I have on the following: wool socks, normal socks, thermal pants, jeans, fleece pants, undershirt, shirt, dress thingy, zippy jacket, a heavy sweater, coat, scarf, fleece gloves--the second picture acts as contrast) and 2. my cute little bandage from my appointment at the plasma place. Instead of first taking blood from my finger, they took it from my earlobe, which I think is brilliant--it doesn't hurt as much (then or later), and my fingers are always cold and thus hard to get blood out of. The lady there told me to eat heftily and to drink "up to here," signaling the neck, before coming to my appointments.
















Also, here's a nice Thanksgiving clip from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (oh how I used to love that show, and as an American Studies student, it could totally be some good material) wherein Johnny Cash sings.



Happy Thanksgiving!