After countless days of me annoying Laura with countdown updates ("Hey Laura! Guess what! Thirty days until AMERICA!"), I finally went home.
And it was awesome.
I spent two weeks in the States, and didn't take a single photograph. I was having way too much fun.
I spent the first week in Houston, seeing all my friends and catching up. Luckily, I happened to be in town for Willy Week, the week before Beer Bike, so there were lots of other Rice alumni in town. I even got to meet up with two of my RPCV friends and talk about Peace Corps.
That weekend, I drove down to Brownsville with my friend to be maid of honor at my friend Lindsey's wedding. Lindsey is one of my closest friends, and being there for such a big moment in her life was pretty cool. I didn't get any pictures because I was in the ceremony and couldn't take pictures, but once I get some from the photographer, I'll post them.
After the wedding, I drove up to San Antonio with my college buds, Rachel and Nazish. We spent the evening at my parents house before they went back to Houston and Fort Worth, respectively. We spent the whole day catching up on much needed bestie time. It felt good to have us three together again.
The second week, I spent entirely at my parents house. Relaxing, watching TV, eating delicious home-cooked food, and shopping. I stopped in Austin to see my brother for an evening, which was nice. On the last day in Texas, my whole extended family came over for dinner and my dad made delicious flank steak. YUM.
The next day, my mom and I flew to Colorado. (Those Rockies sure are gorgeous!) My mom is a talented artist and one of her embroidery pieces is being featured in the national exhibit of the Embroiders' Guild of America, so we went to the opening, in a cute little town just outside of Colorado Springs. It was a nice way to end my trip!
Early the next morning, I got on a plane to Houston, where I'd catch my return flight to Johannesburg. Two weeks went by much too quickly, but so much happened. It made me excited to be back in America in eight months, when I'm done with Peace Corps.
For now, though, there's still so much to do. REDES has started up again, and I'll be starting on grants for both that and our community library. The trimester's almost over (how did that happen!?) but look for updates on both of those things in the next few weeks!
Most importantly, I'm back home and back to blogging, and there's a lot to talk about! Até já!
