trips and last minute things

Hello everyone! I'll be using this blog while I'm studying abroad this school year in Rome to stay in touch with all of you! Rather than trying to keep in touch and email everyone individually, I'll write on this about everything I'm doing. I would loooove if everyone commented on the entries every now and then so I know who's reading, what you think, and to stay in contact with you! You can comment on an entry by clicking the hyperlink at the end of an entry that says something like "0 comments" or "3 comments" or whatever. Type in the empty box and then select Name/URL for your "identity" and you can write your name. Of course, you guys can always email me at NightSparkle24@aol.com ( I'm not going to check my school email over there as much), I'll be on facebook every now and then, and use skype if you have it! It's free video chatting, you just have to have a webcam w/ a mic- download it off of skype.com and search my name.

These last couple weeks at home have been a mix of short trips and rushing around to make sure I have everything I need. In August, I visited Kristin at her school in PA- Susquehanna. we had a good time-- I'm glad I finally got to see where she lives and goes to school! I love you kj. Then I had my wisdom teeth taken out (YUCK) which was awful and sucked and was really stupid and I hate being drugged and am never going to be drugged again. Haha. But I'm glad I got them out and they healed in time for me to go to Rome and.... South Bend! I visited the weekend of the Michigan game, but didn't go. I had such a blast visiting all my smc and nd friends. It rained buckets the whole weekend, but it was fun anyway-- catching up with my (old?) roomie amelia, seeing tara all grown up as an RA, staying with annie, hanging out with my dad kyle (haha), chilling with hannah and katie, catching a glimpse of the smc dance classes I'll be missing while I'm gone, riding blinkie over to nd once again, to hang out w/ all the awesome alumni guys in the two quads, and going to alumni mass. Thank you so much to alex, molly, and alyssa for giving me some tips about going to rome-- I don't know what to expect yet, so I'm glad I got to talk to you guys. I'm really glad I visited school to see everyone before I left.

This past Friday my family and I drove down to Harrisonburg, picked up natalie, and headed to West Virginia to go whitewater rafting on Saturday. Uncle Tom took us down the Lower Gauley river- it was awesome!! We had 10 people plus him in the raft, pretty full. The two couples that came with us were real Virginians (aka they had strong accents, unlike the rest of us nova people), and were nice. Scott, chris, and I all "rode the bull" a couple times: you climb up front and sit on the top of the raft w/ your legs dangling over and hold onto a handle-thing, stick one arm in the air waving, and hold on for dear life while you go down a rapid-- SO FUN. After several weeks of being home with out all of my friends it was so good to see natalie! I also got to see her apartment... of course her room looks exactly like it does at home, for those of you who know what that means :) Tonight aunt mary, uncle al, peter (yes, baby peter kristin haha), and the little love of my life kathleen came over. I made dinner and it was good to have both our families around together before I left.

Right now I'm a little nervous because I haven't had time to think about leaving all that much and prepare myself.... I'm focusing on getting everything together. If I think about leaving my mom and family for so long too much, I think I'll get much more sad so I'm not letting myself get to that point. Saying goodbye to aunt mary, who was my second mom for half of the summer, was hard but I just tried not to think about it too much. I have so many groups I have to say goodbye to for the year: my family, all my awesome aunts, uncles, and cousins, my amazing friends here (well, scattered throughout the country these days), and of course school friends! :( I leave Tuesday night, and I'm pretty sure some other smc girls will connect from detroit to my flight, so I'll be the only one flying out of my area, but hopefully have some people to sit with! We'll all meet up in the airport in Rome and take a bus to Assisi for a 4-day orientation. Then classes start monday I think. It's crazy to think that in one week I'll 1) be in classes once again and 2) BE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY.... crazy.