Talk about high turnover

It's the Baha'i World Centre way. Every month there are people arriving and others departing, some who have been here for 12, 18, 30 months, or even longer.

Just days after my orientation week ended (the first picture is my orientation group), Corrine, Katherine and I had a going away party at our flat (second picture; mostly neighbors in the Blum) for three of the coolest Brazilians I've ever met and unfortunately had only a few weeks to get to know.

We'll miss you Thomas, Ivan and Milena. Thomas, I'm sorry I beat you at Hokm the first night I was here!

By the Numbers

I'm here, y'all! I've said fervent prayers for each of you at all the Shrines and you've been with me as I've gone through miraculous experiences here. I can't describe them, but you do the math:

25 new staff members in the December orientation group

12 different counties represented (they counted me as Guatemala)

9 members of The Universal House of Justice greeted all of us today

8 hours time difference from Haifa to Central Time Zone

10 hours difference from Haifa to San Diego

1 very excellent view (that's right, the Dome of the Shrine of the Bab and across the bay to Akka and Bahji)

0 jet lag

17 hours traveling from New Orleans to Chicago to Madrid to Barcelona to Tel Aviv

4 seats all to myself to stretch out and sleep on the transcontinental flight

8 a.m. dawnbreak?! in Madrid

2 very cool flat mates (and neighbors!)

30 minute walk to the Seat of the Universal House of Justice

Passing of my Maman Bozorg (Grandmother)

Dear Friends,
Please keep in your thoughts and hearts my grandmother, Marjan Greengani Rahmatollahi. She passed on to the next world yesterday. My family is grieved, but we remember also to be thankful that, after 27 years of being far from home, my mother was able to visit her family in Iran in September of this year. Although my grandmother was in advanced stages of Alzheimer's and hadn't seen my mother since she was 18, my mom felt that her mother recognized her.

Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation from the body, will continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God - Bahá’u’lláh

Also, at 11 a.m. today I fly out of New Orleans. There are people I should have called, letters I should have written and probably bills I should have paid. But what ever I've forgotten, I promise I'll take care of it when I get back in two and a half years!

You heard it here first

No surprise here that UNC freshman soccer player Casey Nogueira (No. 23), who graduated high school a year early because coach Anson Dorrance couldn't wait another year, led the Tar Heels to national title No. 18. With a header goal and a left-footed assist in yesterday's 2-1 win over Notre Dame, Nogueira, only 17, is fulfilling what I wrote back in August.

"At 17, Casey is the youngest player on the U20 roster. She graduated from high school a year early to join coach Anson Dorrance at the University of North Carolina, just like Mia Hamm.

Sockers legend Brian Quinn likened Casey to Hamm in other ways, saying the rising star will be part of the next crop of elite players.

Another similarity Casey shares with those players who rose from the 1999 World Cup to be household names is playing their formative years of soccer with the boys. Quinn said there is a 100 percent correlation between playing against boys and being one of the country's top female players."

To read more about Nogueria's stellar performance in the NCAA Women's College Cup and her game-winner to help UNC advance from the semi-finals, click here.