18 Days!

Yes! I am counting down! Eighteen days left in the US! On the 12th was my birthday, I turned seventeen. I didn't have a big celebration or anything, but the night before I went up to a friends cabin with her and her sister. They call it "The Mushroom House" because the building is shaped like a mushroom, apparently. It was good. We spent the majority of the time cooking and cleaning, and wishing that we hadn't forgotten the butter, or oil. And I got a birthday card in the mail from my host family, they are so sweet (:

I should probably talk about the Central States Rotary Conference in Grand Rapids, MI. First of all, the actualy conference was absolutely a blast! But, not so much the drive. It was like a fifteen hour drive one way, pretty intense. I managed to sleep for most of it but it was still such a pain. There is only so long that I can sit still in a car without much movement and then it just gets really, really hard.

I think there were over 1250 people at the Central States conference. Thats like the size of Grand Marais! It was crazy! Crazy & fun and exhausting. The days went by so fast, we would go from group meeting to meeting to food to a Brazil VS The World soccer game, to pin exchange, to dances for the inbounds, outbounds, rebounds, and yo-yos. It was incredible. Coming home was a pain in the butt... Grand Marais life seems so boring after all that. Not that I don't enjoy living in Grand Marais, but changing it up a little here and there is nice. I left Grand Rapids at 6 in the morning, so I didn't get to say goodbye to as many people that I had met in my district and at the conference than I wanted to. Oh and I was able to make connections with kids that are living in district 1940 who I will be on the plane with.. yes :)

I feel like everything is finally coming into place. I got my suitcases open, ready & waiting on my floor, my airline ticket should be coming very soon from IYWT, I got my schedule for my last day at Java Moose (the 24th), I'm working on a slideshow for my host club in Germany, I've finally come to terms with saying goodbye to my close friends, and they are just starting to realize that I'm actually leaving :( 

But I am so excited!

I don't actually know how appropriate the music video is for the 18 day countdown - but this songs been stuck in my head since I started this post --> 18 Days - Saving Abel

Counting Down :)

My departure date is (almost) official - I'm leaving August 2nd, flying to Newark Liberty, NJ, and then flying from there to Berlin. Facebook has made it possible to connect with some other exchangers that will be on some of the same flights as me! yay! Summer is fantastic, even though I have been sick since the last day of school :( My doctor says it's "allergies" but I think she's just being lazy. Whatever - the freedom that summer brings makes up for it. I've been spending as much time as I can here doing stuff I like & hanging in the sun. Of course working gets in the way of that sometimes but it's not so bad. A rotary conference in MI is coming up and I am so excited! The worst part about all this is the waiting. I wish that I could just get to Germany already. Get the goodbyes over with. I hate goodbyes... Ugh I'm so dreading those. Is there any way I can just skip them? I'm Still working on getting gifts for my host families in Germany.. which is a lot more of a struggle than I thought it would be initially lol. Peace <3