hello and goodbye

Here I am! American, land of the free, home of the brave. Suburbs, big cars, gigantic grocerie stores. There are so many weird things... I drove my car all over running errands today, it's all so spread out and it felt so strange to be alone in my little car running around. So...quite and solitary. No wonder americans are so polite and friendly to strangers, we're all just craving human contact! When you are crammed on a train with a hundred other germans everyday there's no need to chat, you're always surrounded by people. Even on a bike, it's not so closed off. I just couldn't get over being alone in my car driving accross town, it seemed like a waste, like I should try to pick up a few other people going my way. And yet, it was so convinient! As is everything here. I could go buy groceries RIGHT NOW if I wanted to. It's open! But yeah. America.

I just had a nice little gathering with my friends. Everyone that still lives in the area at least. It was nice. Alexis is leaving for Venezuela in the morning! :-( I got to see her for like... a couple hours. boo. But I know that she is going to have such a great experience there, I'm a little jelouse I want to do it all again, to be just setting off instead of just getting back.

But it's nice to be back of course. Yesturday my family went up to my grandparents farm. Did a little fishing, a little BBQing, saw my little cousins and aunts and uncles. It was nice. My family is great.

My grandpa asked me what I was going to do after I finish college this year, "so, are you going to be a nurse or a teacher? You'd make a good nurse I think." Great. Well, it's good that I have so many options to ocupy my time until I can snag myself a husband to take care of me....

I want to go back to Europe! I really do. I've already been looking at things I could do next year, there's a fullbright grant to help teach english in germany.

Oh! Spain!! Malaga was wonderful, it was just about as perfect as I could have imagined. i sat on the beach, saw a bit of the town and met some nice at the hostel I was at. There are so many cool people just traveling around Europe. One semester is certainly not long enough.

Ok, I need to sleep, I'm still a bit off. that and I wake up at like 6 in the morning having strange dreams where I think that I need to get up and go somewhere, like to another country, like I haven't gotten home yet. And then I realize that I am in fact here and have a few days before a leave again. And just having to go to richmond feels like a relief because it's not accross any oceans.