I've got bad news and good news

The last 10 days have been crazy. Of course I've been enjoying plenty of the good side of moving home: seeing old friends, visiting old places, enjoying being home. But it's also been incredibly busy.

Last week I had 2 and a half days of orientation activities before diving right into classes on Monday. Wanna know what I've already learned about grad school after two days? There is a lot of reading! These are the books I've got for one class alone (plus 5 more that aren't in the picture).

So here comes the bad news: posting is probably going to be sparse till I get into the swing of things.

But the good news (which is actually a little bit unfortunate for me): I'm way behind on my posting from the last 6 weeks of Germany, which means I have lots of exciting things to write about.

So for the coming months, instead of boring you about my reading lists and lesson planning, I'll be playing catch up with everything from Matthew's visit to Dortmund, our trip to Italy, my Scottish adventures, the return to Franken, Gemma's visit and the great journey home!

the last three days and the next three weeks.

Oh hey! So it turns out, I was way better at blogging when I was busy and doing awesome travel adventures! Well, for the last three days I was doing awesome travel - not to new, far off places, but rather to an old home!

Katharina and I headed down south to Nürnberg and Forchheim to visit Gemma, say goodbye to friends there, and get our Annafest on. 

And in case I wasn't getting behind on blogging enough, I'm afraid I can only predict it get worse for the time being. See, in the next three weeks I have to pack my whole life into two suitcases, try to sell/get rid of what I can't take, make an almost 48 hour transatlantic Journey to get home, unpack and re-assimilate, and start my masters. 

But I'll do my best! And you can sleep peacefully at night knowing that Annafest and Franken and visiting everyone was just as amazing as I could have hoped! I'm so glad I made it back down for one last goodbye. 

Can we talk about how excited I am?

Once upon a time I saved up a lot of money because I thought I was going to be spending a month or two on the unemployment list in Germany. When I found out that wouldn't be the case, I decided the best way to handle all my saved money would be to blow it on lots of summer travel. 

And the travel times are nigh, my friends. On Wednesday my good friend Matthew is coming to Germany for 10 days. I've known Matthew for 15 years (and for about 14 years and 10 months our collective friends and family have been planning our wedding). But you'll learn more about Matthew later. On July 1st, he and I are heading off to Italy for a week - my first trip there! Guys. Words do not begin to cover my excitement of going to Italy. Before I ever thought about living in Europe, before I even started learning German, the only place I ever wanted to visit was Italy.

During what we've dubbed as Italyfest 2012, we'll be spending 3 days in Florence and 4 days in Rome! On the 7th we head in different directions - Matthew to Vienna for a summer program and me to Edinburgh with a 4 hour layover in Mallorca (that's enough time to lay out on the beach, right?)

I know, I know! I should be visiting new places, but people - I can't get enough of that city! Also, since I'm heading back to the other side of the world, I need to get in some quality Shahida time before there's an ocean between us again. Plus, we've got some big plans!

namely, The Great Highlands Roadtrip

Shahida, Simon and I will be renting a car and heading up into the north from July 13th to 15th.  We'll be hitting up places like Mallaig, Isle of Skye, this place (OMG!), Gairloch, Ullapool, and Loch Ness. Seriously, if those awesome names aren't enough to get you excited, nothing will! The route isn't 100% set yet, but I imagine it will end up looking something like this...

On July 17th I fly back to Germany, but don't think it's over there! On the 19th, Katharina and I will head down to Nürnberg for 4 days to hang out with Gemma and catch the beginning of Annafest! 

Finally only the 22nd I come back to Dortmund for the last 2 weeks - which I'm sure will be full of last minute shopping, packing, and frantically selling everything I own on ebay. 

I don't really know what else to say except - I'm so freaking excited!! 

9 things

Oh hey! I'm back after an unexpected 2 week blogging hiatus (ok, I had 1 post in the last 12 days, but that hardly counts). I guess I wasn't busy by any normal standards, but between getting used to a new class schedule and watching a whole lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, blogging just fell to the back burner. So what's been going on in the last couple weeks? 

 

Honestly, not too much. But in the coming week or so you can look forward to reading about a few of these things that did happen (and are about to happen soon!):

leap year frogs from my 5th graders || battle scars from my latest fight against the sidewalk || awesome letters from 6th graders

Some uniquely delicious Milka flavors || Waffles on a stick || German Fruit Loops

3 Generations of Gallo/Gauld women || all 7 seasons of Buffy || My favorite brother

Welcome Back

What does one need after a week trip to Scotland that included:

an afternoon in Amsterdam

a very rocky ferry ride

beer-tasting with Budweiser on the menu

canceled trains

unexpected nights in England

fake mustaches

saying goodbye after a 3 week visit from my sister

afternoon tea 

pub crawls

marathons of the best TV show ever*

and

smuggling luggage over the weight limit on Ryan Air?

Oh, just a little US-imported comfort food. 

Don't judge me, I'm nothing without my Velveeta shells. 

*Nothing to Declare. Look it up, you'll thank me!