So, since my last post about my travels in Europe with the school, I've kept extremely busy! After stressfully and frantically finishing that first summer class, I breathed a sigh of relief for about three seconds and promptly started the second summer class...I spent two weeks on Sanibel Island with my grandparents. My grandma and I spent a lot of time scrapbooking together and taking breaks in their pool.
I also watched the World Cup, and obviously rooted for Germany the whole time. In true me-fashion, I painted my nails for the final game to show my support :-)
Then Dorina, my roommate from Switzerland, came to visit for three weeks! It was the perfect amount of time to show her my hometown, where I studied, and where I currently live. A few days after she arrived (to let her acclimate to this time zone a little first!) we drove to Michigan--all 13 hours. It went by fairly quickly, and we shared the driving, so it was really great.
My brother had his graduation party, for which we made most of the decorations.
Then we went to Grand Rapids for a few days. Some sweet friends were gracious enough to open their home to us so we could avoid hotel costs. I showed her Calvin, some of my favorite places in GR, and we ventured to Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, it was a cooler day and super windy, so the beach was not as lovely as it normally is. Nonetheless, we enjoyed ourselves :-)
Back in Waterford, we hung out with my family and helped my brother shop at IKEA for college dorm things before beginning our return 13-hour drive.
And back we went, with a car stuffed full (I can never seem to leave with only the things I brought!) and my cat.
Once back in Columbia, we mostly did what we love to do: hung out together. Some of our favorite memories together from my year in Switzerland was watching movies and talking for hours. So we did just that! Some might think that's boring or think we should have done more sightseeing or something, but for us, it was perfect. In between movie and chat sessions, we went to the movies and in my apartment pool with a friend of mine, had a girls night with some girls from church, took her to see my school, went to church and lunch with friends afterward, and went shopping lots.
We also ventured to Charleston for a day. It was cloudy and full of predictions of rain, but we managed to miss the rain. We ate at Hominy Grill for some especially Southern cuisine, walked up and down King Street for some window shopping (and a little real shopping mixed in ;-D), and to Sullivan's Island, one of the many beaches in Charleston. Although it was cloudy, it was quite warm and perfect for sitting on the beach and not sweating our faces off :-)
And then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye! The time was perfect, but (as usual) not nearly enough. It was fun to show her all the things that make up my life, to show her the little and typical American things, and to spend so much time with one of my best friends. After spending a year where we lived and traveled together, and spent almost all of our time together, three weeks was a wonderful gift.
And, to answer the most common questions:
1. Yes, we spoke mostly in English. Normally, we switch off and on, but before she got here, I thought to myself "If I were spending three weeks (or any amount of time, really) back in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, I know I would want to speak German as much as possible" and knowing that Dorina likes to speak in English, I decided that I would intentionally talk in English with her, for as much as she wanted to. Of course, we had random sentences or words that were in German, and yes, when we didn't want people to know what we were talking about, we would often switch to German :-)
2. She really enjoyed being in the US. It was her first time here, so it was fun to show her all the little differences. She loved Target and Hobby Lobby, just like I knew she would and was as amazed about our "low" prices as I was about the exorbitant prices in Switzerland. She enjoyed the food we ate and restaurants we went to.
3. The differences I think she was most surprised/impressed by were: free refills at restaurants, the number of lanes on our streets, and our typical greeting of "Hi, how are you?" where we don't really care about how the other person is--it's just a part of the greeting.
And now, I'm enjoying my last few days of nothing, while my brain begins to remind me of all the things I could have (and maybe should have) done in preparation for this school year, but I don't really feel bad. This summer was full to the brim, but so perfectly full and just the break I needed.
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