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