Current Location: New York, NYI know, I know. I've gone 3 weeks without a post. Thing just keep happening so quickly that I barely have a chance to breathe, let alone write a blog post! Since I wrote my last post, I have had two extremely
exciting trips!
About 2 weeks ago, for the first weekend of October, I had a trip home. Getting home was a bit of an issue. Right when I was coming home, a tropical depression that had been making its way up from the gulf came to New York. My first flight out was cancelled, and I was rebooked. The rain was unbelievable - it was POURING. On my cab ride to the airport, there were flooded streets that we had to drive really slowly through. I got there, and ended up making an earlier flight to Atlanta! The flight was terrible though. The first 30 minutes the plane was bouncing around so much, I was majorly freaking out. I'm not the best flyer to begin with, but after 4 great and long flights this summer (round trip to Paris and round trip to Ghana), I was feeling a bit more comfortable. I think the guy next to me on this flight thought I was crazy! I was gripping my hand so tightly I ended up leaving some major claw marks that took about a day to disappear. Thats how bad it was!
While home, I spent most of my time seeing my family. I had not seen my dad or my grandma since before Paris, in June. We had some great family time, but I also managed to sneak a few other things in there. First, Friday night I was able to catch up with Meg, who also had some exciting international adventures this summer. We swapped stories and caught up with each others lives, which was great. It had been a while since I had seen her, and we have similar interests in travel, so it was great to chat! Then on Saturday morning, I was able to attend Caraline and Patrick's wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful ceremony at the Thomas Center. The ceremony was outside, and it couldn't have been nicer! It was a sunny warm day, gorgeous. Afterwards we had the ceremony inside, and it was great for me to catch up with so many people that I hadn't seen for ages. Whenever I am in Florida, it is rarely for more than a week, so its hard to fit everyone in. I managed to see a bunch of friends from high school at the wedding which was great. Caraline was such a beautiful bride, as were Liz, Lauren, and Rachel beautiful bridesmaids! I know that Caraline and Patrick will be so happy together!
The other exciting adventure I undertook was this past weekend - I got my scuba certification! Scuba diving has been something I have really been wanting to do for some time, and I finally did it this semester. It's a pricy hobby, but I really haven't been happier or enjoyed a hobby more in a long time! For our certification dives, we went to Pennsylvania to a place called Dutch Springs. It is a really cool area - they have all sorts of sunk vehicles in the water to go down and explore. I felt really at home while scuba diving. Having grown in with the water, I felt no fear going in there, and felt surprisingly at home underwater breaking off a mouthpiece. It's a weird thing, but I really love the feeling of seeing this whole other world that has yet to be discovered. I am already looking at places I want to go diving (Hawaii, Australia, and the Galapagos Islands are top of the list!). I am sure some of these future posts on where in the world I am will contain scuba stories - I just have to get the money first!
Oter than these exciting adventures, I have been planning and organizing for others in the future. I have been working on my Grad School application list. I am getting it narrowed down, but I still will be applying to between 5 and 10 schools. It's a lot, but I have to keep my options open. I have also completed my Peace Corps application. I am really excited about that possibility - it would truly be an adventure and experience unlike any other. However, there are a lot of issues and concerns that would need to be addressed for me to go for 2 years to a country alone. I will certainly keep everyone up to date as that progresses. Finally, I finished up my application for the field methods program in Chile over winter break. I should hear back by the end of this month - less than two weeks! Fingers are crossed!
In other news, GRE is Wednesday so I have been prepping for that. My mom and dad come up on Thursday, so I have an exciting weekend with that, and then the following weekend is a trip to Chicago with my mom! The following weekend I might be heading to Tennessee to visit Nick. I am a busy busy girl! Along with classes and research, I rarely have a moment to breathe! I am enjoying every minute of it though
I wil try to update this sooner than last time, but no guarantees - I am busy after all!
