| | [summer] spain 
[Leila and I in Avila]
What to say about six weeks in Spain? A good experience, but I am ever so glad to be home. Michael Buble says it so well, "May be surrounded by, a million people I, feel all alone, just wanna go home." If not for Leila, Andrew, Dad, and all those people praying for me back home, those six weeks would have felt like six years. Did I make friends? Many. Did I see lots of pretty sites? Enough catherdals make my heart sing. Did I study hard and learn a lot? Passed the exams with flying colors. Did I eat, drink, and be merry? Enough postrees y cafe for three people. But Dorothy has the last word on this one. "There's no place like home." Guatemala Still 
[Becky, Kelsey, and I at the Guatemala Picnic]
The Guatemala weekend is ever the highlight of my summer. Steve came from Dallas, Becky and Megan from Guatemala, and everyone else from their corners of Minnesota. It was an entire weekend of festivities--the picnic, the reception, the golf tournament. It was so much fun to catch up with my staff girls--chat in campo spanish, crack inside jokes, and laugh about times gone by. There's sort of a missionary syndrome that every staff member gets--a sort culture shock--seeing and experiencing things that you'll never be able to explain to the folks stateside. However different the paths we may take, these girls are my kindred spirits. Who know where "pulmones" really are. Who are eternally thankful for hot showers. Who will never eat another Pringle or PB&J again. And who carry the weight of a thousand blessings of crinkly old grandmothers on their most capable shoulders. Que les vaya bien, chicas. The Oregon Trai l 
[Dad and I on the Oregon Coast]
Dad and I spent a week in Oregon with Uncle Mel and Aunt Karen. A rolling apple orchard in the Willamette Valley, the land of milk and honey for a fruit-starved midwesterner. Blueberries so thick, I could pick them by the handful. Fruit smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Honey for homebaked bread, scraped right off the comb. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. We had a lovely time, roaming berry fields, walking the beach, and playing with the cousins. And of course, Dad and Uncle Mel golfed everyday. 63 holes in four days. Which is precisely 63 more than Uncle Mel had golfed in the preceeding four days. A relaxing trip altogether, and the perfect way to end a perfect summer.
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VIRGINIA This Thursday I head back to PHC for RA training. Then Freshman Orientation, and then a new semester once again. Back to chapel cards, chicken salad, and charting my course--wherever that may be. This time of year is always bittersweet. Leaving a home you love--but reuninting with friends much missed. The college student lives two lives. Thankfully I have people who care about me in both of them. And as long as we're on the subject, this one is picking me up at the airport. 
[the boy, at GG's in Leesburg]
Junior year. Can it really be my junior year? My stars, how time flies...
___________________________________________________________ And that's the Savvy Socialite
Signing out from St. Cloud, Minnesota
Until our next broadcast from Purcellville, Virginia
Wishing you sunsets and sweet dreams,
And God bless you too Meredith     
All summer long, we sang a song, and strolled on golden sand... |
