Volunteering
for an English Immersion school in Spain turned out to be an amazing,
intense and heart warming experience in the mountains of Corzola….a 5
hour bus ride through the country side through winding mountain passes
of the Andalusia area of Spain.
The most surprising sights for
me were millions and millions of olive trees, miles of them, rows of
them, criss-crossed patterns of them as they
were planted in opposite directions to protect the land erosion or
defining the boarders of different plantations. I was mesmerized with
the patchwork quilt designs as my eyes scanned miles of vistas on the
bus ride up the mountains. Wisconsin has wheat fields and corn field and
vast expanses of soy bean fields. Spain has Olive trees and grape
vines.
Every minute I was learning something new on the 5 hour
journey from Madrid to Corzola during conversations with other Angelo
volunteers from Scotland, Ireland, England, Malta, Canada and only 2 of
us from the USA. Some of them had volunteered before and were giving us
some new insights to get prepared for. We had all stayed 2 days in
Madrid and first met up for lunch of the famous rice and meat pallea and
then a flamenco dance performance before we received our orientation
instructions and preparation for the Diverbo English Immersion
experience. Some of us continued to walk around Madrid and tour the
palace or museums as they are all free and open until 9 pm. I preferred
to mingle and walk the streets of people wandering and chatting as it is
a most social experience to enjoy the “street life” of Madrid. Main
streets are totally blocked off so that waves of people wandering and
laughing and chatting can be totally enjoying the social connection that
happens every evening on the streets of every city in Spain.
I
was thrilled to see thousands of people out walking and enjoying the
brisk, fresh weather and the enjoyable serendipity of stopping to chat
and catch up on “caring” about each other or have a glass of wine and
some tapas together in the joy of the moment and the pleasure of
conversation ….quite unlike the American pass time of sitting in front
of the TV and desperately flipping channels to be entertained….while not
talking to each other.
The very first day we settled into our
rooms and then met up for some light tapas (a variety of appetizers,
wine, olives, cheeses, pates….what wonderful pates. I never liked liver
so much….they are true artisans of liver spreads.)
The most
difficult adjustment for me was eating dinner at 9:30 PM. My usual
pattern is dinner at 6 and I was diligent about eating nothing after
8pm. Aaargh….. Now lunch was at 2pm and nothing until dinner…a big huge ,
3 course dinner at 9:30 to 11pm including salads, appetizers, soup and
then a main course of fish or vegetarian or game with choices of foul,
pork or wild game. This was an area famous for wild game and wild boar
and venison (deer) was on the menu. Every morning we could make our
choices from a nice variety of offerings for what we wanted for the 3
course lunch and the 3 course dinner. Breakfast was a vast array of
buffet at 9 -10 am.
After about 4 days I gave up on eating much
at the dinner meal and just choose a salad course. My body just wasn’t
adjusting easily to eating large meals that late and I sure didn’t want
to waste big portions of salmon or various offerings of other very fine
fish or meats.
These meals were wonderful and accompanied by free
flowing wine and would have easily cost $60 to $100 per meal at US
prices in a fine dining restaurant. But the conversation was the most
nourishing part of every meal. We would take long enjoyable hours for
the meals igniting laughter and chatter about travel experiences and the
sharing our life stories from all the different countries.
Each day would start with conversations only in English at breakfast and
then one on one conversation with a different Spanish person changing
every hour between meals. We could go for walks on beautiful winding
paths through the forests and over bridges to find waterfalls and
awesome scenery that was still tinged with autumn colors. We could also
choose to sit on sun drenched decks or balconies as we chatted and
enjoyed beverages and a good dose of sunshine and vitamin D.
Our
evenings were occupied with fun group activities lead by very talented
and high energy group leaders and an acting coach who would choose some
people each day to create a hilarious skit that always kept the laughter
rolling and our energy high.
I enjoyed every experience and I
never in my life enjoyed so much conversation. Every person was
interesting and eager to practice their English and improve on their
conversational ease and they were happy to be corrected so that their
accents could improve.
Of course they found out about my book
and many of them bought the books I had brought with me and I am
thrilled to say that many more are still ordering the books on Amazon. I
love the e-mails I am getting from them telling me how much they are
enjoying my adventures in Turkey in “Diary of a Turkish Wedding” Thanks
to them my book has now gone International and I am thrilled.
Sometimes we would dance and party even after the 11pm finish of the
evening meal and we often talked until 1 or 2 AM. Salsa dancing was a
great treat after all day of brain grinding with conversation and
problem solving in the evening activities and skits.
For me the
true richness of the travel experience is interacting with the people
and learning about them and the culture. This was a more rewarding and
rich experience than any of the cruises I had ever taken because I was
immersed in the culture and nourished by the warmth and friendship of
the Spanish people. I enjoyed every minute of it and I must admit that
it was one of the most intense programs I have ever been active in. I
will do it again because I enjoyed the energy of the Spanish people so
very much and I loved the culture. I will never do 2 weeks in a row
again. Just too intense and exhausting.
My pleasure of the
experience was magnified by a generous offer from Susanne to come to her
4 bedroom home in Alicante,….another 7 hour bus ride in the opposite
direction of Madrid. She and I had really connected in a conversation
about the “laws of Attraction” and she had been reading some books and
wanted to learn more about it.
Being with Susanna and her BF
Antonio was like being HOME. I can hardly explain the immediate
connection and totally enjoyable 4 days I had with them as they showed
me every thing they could think of in Alicante and Elce…world famous for
the wide variety of palm trees and the shoe making industry that used
to support the entire area until it moved to China. We walked for hours
on a lovely sunny ,warm day at the Santa Barbara Castle with Montana,
from Canada and Maria from another city near Alicante. We spent hours at
the Castle on the mountain overshadowing Alicante and then walked the
famous Esplanade along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The next day
we walked all over Elce and went to a huge outdoor farmers market (like
7 mile fair) and then they took me for a wonderful dinner at a chinese
restaurant and that was a thrill because by then I was really bored with
the Spanish food. The meals were good but very bland. I always had to
hunt down the waiter to give me pepper and they use white pepper...not
black pepper. They just don't use much for flavor and nothing is spicy.
I couldn’t stop the tears as I said goodbye to Susanna as she
was preparing to teach school that day and Antonio had the day off so
he drove me to the train station for my next big adventure. 360 mph on
the High speed train between Alicante and Madrid. That experience had
been on my bucket list for a few years and now I have accomplished
another milestone. I have now visited 4 more cities than I thought I
would in Spain. I am so very glad that I followed my inner voice and
booked an extra 5 days for magical adventure (unplanned)on my Spain
journey or I never would have been able to spend this very special time
with Susanne and Antonio.
A 2 hour high speed (350 mph)train
ride deposited me in the middle of Madrid and I spent from 1:00 PM to
11:00 PM walking from the Palace around a total circle route on the main
streets circling the city center. I stopped a few times for tea to warm
up and watch the people….the most amazing thing about Spain is the
people and the social culture of enjoyment.
The best part is that I
spent less than $500.00 for 3 weeks in Spain (plus the airfare) the 2
weeks at the resort in the mountains was completely paid for and the
transportation to and from was paid by the English Immersion school.
Returning to Madrid from Alicante I spent $120.00 on the high speed
train for a first class ticket and that included a meal. Spent about
$100 on Christmas presents and the rest was 2 nights in hotels a couple
of meals and taxi from the airport in Spain.
Spain….WOW ! It was a grand and expansive experience.
Read more about adventures in Spain in my book "Mirror,Mirror" the chapter... Majorca magic
http://www.amazon.com/Sunni-Boehme/e/B00A3YGFD4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Friday, December 27, 2013
Finding God in Action 2013
How
did my life get better today?
I met God in Action.
I was walking into Pick and Save and there was a man all bundled up ringing his bells for the Salvation Army with such gusto that it moved me to take action. Instead of waiting until I came out I reached into my purse and took out money to deposit on the way in. the way that he looked directly into my eyes and thanked me just touched my heart. I felt the warmth and energy while I did my shopping and decided to give all my change from the purchase into the red pot again. Again there was a beautiful exchange of gracious humility and thankfulness. I put my groceries into the car feeling so warmed by the interchange that I decided to take some dinner and a hot drink that I just purchased for myself back into the store front and give it to him. The look on his face was priceless and he hugged me and thanked me for thinking of him. It's 20 minutes later and I still feel like I was hugged by God.....and so happy that I took a little extra time to acknowledge the God in him. Give what you can ....when you can and you will be rewarded with riches that will fill your heart with love. I feel richly rewarded.
If you enjoyed this, and want more finding God stories. Check out my book Mirror Mirror - http://www.amazon.com/Sunni-Boehme/e/B00A3YGFD4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
I met God in Action.
I was walking into Pick and Save and there was a man all bundled up ringing his bells for the Salvation Army with such gusto that it moved me to take action. Instead of waiting until I came out I reached into my purse and took out money to deposit on the way in. the way that he looked directly into my eyes and thanked me just touched my heart. I felt the warmth and energy while I did my shopping and decided to give all my change from the purchase into the red pot again. Again there was a beautiful exchange of gracious humility and thankfulness. I put my groceries into the car feeling so warmed by the interchange that I decided to take some dinner and a hot drink that I just purchased for myself back into the store front and give it to him. The look on his face was priceless and he hugged me and thanked me for thinking of him. It's 20 minutes later and I still feel like I was hugged by God.....and so happy that I took a little extra time to acknowledge the God in him. Give what you can ....when you can and you will be rewarded with riches that will fill your heart with love. I feel richly rewarded.
If you enjoyed this, and want more finding God stories. Check out my book Mirror Mirror - http://www.amazon.com/Sunni-Boehme/e/B00A3YGFD4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
4 Levels of Conscious Creation
4 levels of Conscious creation
There are four levels of consciousness. Most people
never make it out of level one and are condemned to suffer in this self-imposed
hell of an inner world. Here are the four levels of consciousness:
1. Unconscious Unconsciousness
At this stage you are not even aware that you are
unconscious. You attract negative things into your life at a rapid pace, as if
you have developed a negative ball of energy rolling down hill. Nothing is ever
your fault and you are always looking for someone to blame.
2. Conscious Unconsciousness
Here you are aware of your negative thinking and
the consequences that it might bring. You might see your negative pattern and
have become aware of what it is that you are attracting. You may not like what
you are attracting, but you have taken responsibility for it.
3. Conscious Consciousness
You
deliberately decide to focus pure and positive thought on something and remove all resistance to its arrival. And, sure
enough, it arrives. Your creation might be something as simple as visualizing a
parking space opening up for you at the mall. You deliberately intended it,
allowed it to come to you and acknowledged it when it arrives.
4. Unconscious Consciousness
When you get to this point, you do not have to work
so hard to create things in your life. You are a believer in how the mind game
is played and you spend conscious time each day making your mind important. New
creations come to you easily and quickly. You have built a positive ball of
energy that continues to roll forward in your favor. People call you the
"lucky one".
example: People who watch TV stay
stuck in level one ..the level of drama/Victim
It is a Choice to take the time to learn and grow to level 4…..and it’s another choice to maintain it
and stay focused on creating more good.If you want to get on the launch pad to get off dead center of level one call me for an Introductory coaching session www.sunniboehme.com 414-482-8971
work with a coach that has 30 years experience as a Life Coach and Trainer of coaches
Monday, September 2, 2013
review "Turkish Wedding" from Tammy O'Connell
Diary of a Turkish Wedding not only tells the saga of
experiencing cultural differences first- hand, but despite a language barrier, the author is intuitively
able to understand and respond to the complex family dynamics unfolding around her. For those who have not yet traveled to remote Turkey,
this is an eye-opening journey for the reader to journey back in time as the
author contrasts their ancient lifestyle
and customs with that of modern America.
Tammy O’Connell
Tammy O’Connell
Monday, August 26, 2013
Waves of Angels...scuba diving accident
Title: WAVES OF ANGELS
Searing pain hits the center of
my chest. I can’t breathe! Is this my heart? Is this a heart attack 60
feet underwater?
“Stay calm, breathe calm”, I told myself. I breathed and the pain struck again. My eyes
searched for the dive master. I must go
up. I grabbed for Steve my dive partner because he always stays near me. We saw
the dive master 10-20 feet beneath us.
I closed my fist and pounded the center of my chest, right under my
breasts and motioned that I was in trouble and had to go up. I trusted that Steve would know what to do
as he had been scuba diving for over 30 years and he would regulate my ascent
so that my lungs would not explode by ascending too fast. I was terrified. I couldn’t breathe. I told myself to stay calm, knowing that I
must exhale as I ascend or I could burst my lungs. The pain struck again and I was afraid to
breathe through my regulator---- it hurt too much. Though this was only my fourth dive, it might
be my last. We were 5 miles from land
and diving off a small rock formation.
I can’t breathe….. I feel the panic and I remembered what I did
so very wrong in my diving class ……I commanded
myself to Focus. Just exhale
Sunni…all the way up.
A few months earlier while taking
my scuba diving training I had panicked in the pool at 14 feet down. I knocked the regulator out of my mouth and
struggled crazily toward the surface by trying to swim. I did everything wrong and I learned a very
tough lesson but, in this current moment of crisis I remembered to stay calm
and exhale to the surface and not panic.
I had to completely surrender
and trust that Steve would take care of
me.
(Steve) I saw Sunni signal that she was in trouble
and I looked into her eyes and recognized that there was something seriously
wrong. She had been diving perfectly
for about 15 minutes. She was relaxed
and we had just seen a beautifully colored eel and touched a surprising black
rock that turned out to be a sponge. I
took her arm and began the slow ascent when I saw what looked like blood begin
to fill her mask and come out of her nose.
I knew we were deeper than she had ever gone and I saw the fear in her
eyes. If this really were blood she
would be lucky to last 30 seconds when we reached surface. Blood usually means a burst lung and that
means death. We were near a rock
outcropping that we grasped for when we reached surface. It was covered with sharp coral and slippery
algae that made it difficult to hang on to.
As I saw Sunni’s face in the sunlight her lips were completely dark
blue, a sign of no oxygen. I grabbed
her mask and pulled it off. She gasped “
I can’t breathe.” I flipped her weight
belt open and let it drop to the bottom to take the pressure off her waist while trying to hang on to her because she
kept loosing consciousness. I opened her
BCD jacket. I could hear her breathing
gurgling like a person possessed. Her
lungs were full of salt water. She wasn’t having a heart attack. The regulator had malfunctioned and she had
inhaled salt water. This causes great pain and often causes vomiting. She coughed and sputtered and threw out more
blood through her nose and mouth. She
passed out. I didn’t know if she
died. I pounded on her back to get her
to cough out more fluid but, my BCD (air vest) was not holding air and I was
sinking myself. I was struggling to get
some kind of hold on this cutting and slimy rock surface as the water washed
over my face because I was sinking. My
air vest was leaking and I couldn’t stay
afloat with my weight belt on. My constant
thought was to keep her face out of the water and now I wasn’t sure if I was
going to go down with her. Exhaustion
pulled at me as a big wave hit me from behind and tore both of us off the
rock. She slammed into my chest and
luckily I had just released my weight belt so that I could float more easily
and I grabbed her to me. The undertow
sucked us down into a washing machine tumbling us under the water twice and
swished us 15-20 feet to the right. When
our heads popped out of the water we could see that we were going to be slammed
into a rock canyon. She screamed. at
least I knew she was still alive. We hit
the end of the canyon.
(Sunni) I opened my eyes just in time to see the
boulders of the rock canyon coming toward my face. I screamed. Terror hit me again….. I can’t
breathe!!! I knew that I couldn’t live through a wave pounding like this,
especially if I hit my head or broke a leg.
Slam!!!!! And then I felt myself tumbling under the water again and
being sucked back out to the sea. I knew I could die. I was paralyzed. At least the wet suit was doing a very good
job of keeping me buoyant. I couldn’t
think and I had not been able to move my arms or legs to help myself in any way
since I had surfaced. . I was terrified! As scared as I had ever been in my life. Now I could feel Steve at my back as we were
tumbling under the water and suddenly the wave reared up and spit us up onto a
rock ledge 10 feet above the waters surface.
Completely out of the water.
. Me sitting on my butt and Steve
right behind me and as the wave washed back over us it split and went around us
so that we were not pulled back into the Agean Sea..
As it receded he realized that he had perfect grasp handles for both of his
hands and a good place for his feet. I
choked on the water and spit it out and said “Honey, if I don’t make it let me
slide into the water and leave me here” I felt totally sure that if another
wave hit us I would die here and I was at peace with the thought of death. I
was scared but, ready to let go.
He shouted, “I love you and we are not leaving this
rock”. And he continued to pound on my
back and lean me to the side to cough out the liquids in my lungs. He told me “ We are safe now, I have a good
hold on these rocks”. I braced myself
for fear that another wave would wash
over us and take my life. I grabbed for him and told him that I loved him. The wave had not hit yet, I felt I only had a
moment to tell him. Another moment
passed and still no wave. We both
looked behind us and the sea had returned to perfect calm. There had been only two waves on an
otherwise perfectly calm day. Those waves
saved my life. Like the sea said,” It is
not your time just now,” and spit me high up onto the rocks where I could
rest until the dive team came to pick me up.
Steve said,” Your angels are really looking out for you’. That was your angel who threw us up on this
rock and gave me this perfect handhold” I felt myself sigh and my eyes welled
up with tears. I could feel his love and the love and protection of the angels,
and I passed out.
(Steve) Sunni always talks about her angels and how
they protect her. Well, now I believe
her. That wave had to be angels. The sea has now returned to perfectly calm
and I know she is still alive and I am just going to keep pounding on her back
to get her to release the fluid in her lungs until the dive master comes with
the boat to take us to shore. Sunni always talks about Miracles and now I believe in Miracles. Thank you,
God!
“I’m getting better every minute”
“ The doctors will be amazed at
my miraculous healing.” . I thanked God
and my angels for saving me. Now that I
finally had oxygen my mind was beginning to clear and I knew I had to focus on
a positive and desired result. I
decided that I was on holiday with 7 days left and I wanted to see Athens and the other
islands that were scheduled on my trip.
The doctor. had advised me that I should stay a week. By the next day the doctors were
amazed that I was remarkably better. I
continued to pull in the healing energy and the second day they let me go. I
had a full recovery! We left the hospital on a motorcycle and I asked Steve to
take me to the church I had seen from my hospital window because I wanted to
light candles and thank God and all my angels for the miracle of my life.
Sunni Boehme
Phone 414-482-8971
e-mail: sunniboehme@hotmail.com
Nancy Freier http://theinnervoicemagazine.com/ ... then, click on August 2013 issue and your article is on page 8! Spread the word!!
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