All About Me

1. All About Me Elyse Allen

2. Things I Like I met Gow while on a tsunami relief trip in Southern Thailand. She lost her home and her family in the tsunami of 2006, and she now lives in a temporary housing camp. She has the most wonderfully encouraging spirit! In August, 2008, I got to teach English to a class of 14 Turkish teenagers at Walt Disney World. They have such an interesting culture, and I loved hearing about it! I love to meet people from different cultures and learn about who they are and what their lives are like. I love to do this while travelling, but the truth is, you don’t have a travel to a foreign country to meet interesting new people from different cultures. I consider it a great day when I get to meet someone from a different place and hear about their way of life. I got to hang out in the Disney parks for 2 weeks with 9 Japanese girls. They taught me to bring “peace” to every picture!

3. Things I Like I really like to laugh. One of my favorite things is something I call “craughing”, which is laughing and crying at the same time. I agree with Dolly Parton, who once said, “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.” This picture is of me and my best friend, Jenny. We have been laughing together for 10 years. I loooooove coffee, and I probably drink too much of it. It just smells, tastes, and feels so good. To me, there’s nothing better than enjoying quality conversation with a friend while sipping from a great cup of coffee. I love music, and I like listening to and supporting people who make their own. I played piano for 9 years and guitar for 4 years. Although I’m not exactly first-rate at the guitar or the piano anymore, I really appreciate music and can’t imagine my life without it.

4. Things I Dislike I HATE all things pumpkin. I don’t like pumpkin pie. You could not make me eat a pumpkin muffin. I would NEVER light a pumpkin-scented candle in my house. I don’t even really like the color orange! Eww…pumpkin. I wish that I liked to eat yogurt because it’s so good for you, but I really can’t eat it. I have this weird texture phobia of the way yogurt feels when it’s in my mouth. I’ve tried on several occasions to eat it, but it always makes me feel like gagging.

5. Things I Dislike I don’t like that I live so far away from my family. My sister, Lauren, lives in Chicago, my grandparents live in Pennsylvania, and my new baby cousins, Nicholas and Willem, live in Colorado. I love travelling to see them because they all live in fun places, but I wish we could be together more often than a couple times each year. It distresses me to hear of poverty and injustice issues going on in our global community. I am always looking for books and articles to read about injustice issues around the world and what we can do to put an end to them. A couple of years ago, my sister introduced me to an organization called the International Justice Mission, which offers legal aid, advocacy and international awareness of injustice issues all around the world.

6. What I L k Like My hair has transformed like a chameleon over the years, back and forth from long to short, curly to straight, and blonde to brown. Although it is naturally curly, I usually straighten it. When I was little, it was naturally light from the Florida sun, but I’m not exactly sure what its natural color is now. I like to play with the way my hair looks by changing it often because, after all, it’s just hair and it will soon grow back. My eyes are a delightful mixture of green and brown. My mom always says they’re like a forest filled with trees, but I like to call them “baby poop green”. My vision is not perfect, and when I’m not wearing contact lenses, I have a pair of ruby red glasses that I like to wear to help me see a little better. Because of my love of laughter, I also love to smile! A smile can instantly brighten someone’s day and bring encouragement to a friend. My smile has never been touched with braces, but you may be interested to know that my two front teeth are fake because of some stains left from strong antibiotics I had to take as a young child.

7. My grandparents have done so much for me, and I aspire to be just like them. They are healthy, active, and eternally positive and encouraging. The greatest compliment I could receive is that I act like them. How I Act I have lived my entire life as a perfectionist. It used to take me hours to do my homework when I was younger. Since then, I’ve calmed down a bit, but tedious tasks like cutting things out, making posters or drawing something still take me forever to complete because I cannot say I’m finished unless it’s perfect. I love to be spontaneous, and I love to take road trips! Spontaneous road trips are the best! My best friend Jenny and I counted the number of road trips we’ve taken, and the total was 13! This picture is of a road trip I took with my sister, for which we decided to spontaneously dress in costumes!

8. What You Should Know About Me I really value deep relationships. I like to embrace honesty and be completely open with people. My philosophy: let’s be real with each other. I care genuinely about people, and I hope you know that when I ask, “How are you doing?” I very much want to know your honest answer. This picture is of me with two of my very best friends, Amy and Ren. I love love love to be in the presence of children! Whether I’m teaching, playing, or just talking to them, they always know how to bring great amounts of joy into my life! I know that whatever I do, I will always find a way to surround myself with children. This picture is of me with a Pre-K class I got to substitute teach for a week a couple summers ago. We had a blast!

9. What You Should Know About Me Before attending ASU, I went to nursing school for two years at a college in Lynchburg, VA. When I started my clinical rotations in the hospital, I realized nursing was not for me, and I decided to transfer to Appalachian and switch to Elementary Education. I still really love math and science, and I will always be fascinated with medical science. I hope to inspire my future students to explore the wonders and workings of the human body. In January of 2006, I fell in love…with Thailand. When I decided to study education, my goal all along was to use my degree to teach there. I’m so excited to be less than a year away from returning to the country and the people I love so much to teach English in a school in the capital city of Bangkok! This picture is of me with three girls named Goong, Kwan, and Bo. We met while I was in Thailand on a tsunami relief trip, and they are very close to my heart.