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Those Two Months Since London

It's now been two (almost three) months since I returned from London, which means it's been two (almost three) months since I last blogged. I'm making a goal to blog more this semester. I know I won't be perfect at it but I'll try my best. So here's some of my favorite things that have happened since I've been back in the U.S.A.

1.Summer Job. Literally the morning after I got home from London, my jetlagged self showed up for training for my summer job working as a camp counselor at the Herndon Community Center. I was the head counselor over the 10-11 year olds and I absolutely loved it. It was a summer filled with intense games of dodgeball and knockout, getting to know my campers' interests and their sweet personalities, story time, weekly trips to the Farmer's Market/Dairy Queen, and of course field trips! As an added bonus, I had the best co-workers ever!
 One day a bunch of us were wearing light blue and we had to take a picture!
 My job really wasn't so bad after all...

Oscar Selfie with some of the kids on the last day!

2. Family Time. I loved getting to be home for 8 weeks or so and being able to spend time with my family.  We went to the top of the Washington Monument for the first time after living in DC for 18 years, celebrated my 21st birthday, Jenn's 17th birthday, Amy's 19th birthday, AND my dad's birthday, watched lots of movies, took several shopping trips to the Leesburg Outlets where my mom and sisters helped me pick out clothes for Practicum while my dad waited patiently, had family dinners at Grandma and Grandpa's, went to a Nationals game when Jonathan and Phil came from Kansas to visit, and at the end of the summer Grandma taught Matthew and I how to make homemade bread! The loaves were gone in a day!

 Amy decked me out at work for my birthday!


After one terrifying elevator ride, we made it to the top of the Washington Monument!

3. Cross Country Road Trip. Last week we embarked on our third annual cross country road trip, this time with Jenn along to look at colleges! We spent a fun night in Kansas catching up with the Shipps before heading to Rexburg! Jenn got to tour BYU-Idaho, then we headed down to Ogden, Utah where we attended the open house of the newly renovated temple! It was so cool to get to walk through it before it gets dedicated in a couple weeks! We spent a day at Temple Square and City Creek, with an extended stop at Deseret Book of course. We also visited beautiful Sundance, and my family helped move Amy and I into our apartments! It was a wonderful trip!






4. New Apartment, New Ward, New Classes, New Job. I LOVE my new apartment! The ward is wonderful, my roommates are wonderful, the location is wonderful, and I'm so excited to get to know everyone better! I've also been able to spend time with my wonderful friends from London as well as friends/family from home! It's good to be back! It's also so nice to be only taking major classes which I love! It's going to make going to school every day a lot more fun! I have 8 weeks of classes, and then my classes all drop for a month for Practicum, which means we work in a school all day with a mentor teacher in either a kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade class! I am beyond excited for Practicum, but since our classes are so condensed, the assignments are already piling on! One of my classes took up a paragraph in my planner just writing down everything that is due for next class! Today I was offered a job working in the International Studies office on campus! I'll be working in reception and helping students who are applying for study abroad programs! I am beyond excited!

So in short, it's been a great two months! I can already tell this is going to be a great semester!


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