Organizational Day.

I'm definitely the kind of person who likes to have an organized environment to help me feel like my mind is organized. Today has been a huge organizational day so far. I am in the process of deleting my facebook account, which is turning out to be quite a lot of work - but at least it is rewarding work. In order to be all done with facebook, I wanted to get the contact information of the people that I actually count as real friends from the massive list of "my friends" on facebook. After sending around a mass message, typing in tons of email addresses and Skype names into my phone, I started on the process of downloading all the pictures from my facebook account, because there are many more pictures of me there than in any other location, tangible or online. After I downloaded all of them, I just spent about three quarters of an hour sorting them into relevant folders on my computer.  I thought I'd share just a few of those pictures here, since it really has been an interesting time looking back on all of them!

To start with, some of those early days in Meadville - back when C was an exchange student and graduating from Meadville:

 Through the Thailand days:

And then to my own graduation:

After that, there were pictures from my first few days at Mills and all through my adventures this year in Mainz. It was kind of neat to see everything laid out in front of me like a timeline.

Okay, this seems non-sequitur, doesn't it? I haven't written for weeks and then I blabber on about deleting a facebook account.  Sorry for that weirdness. The fact is, it's very strange to be back here in the states, even more so now that C isn't here. She was my anchor in a lot of ways - my proof to myself that I really was away for a year. Now she's gone and I'm in a familiar house with a dog and a family and about to start my senior year of college. Senior year. It just all seems a bit surreal.

Our time together in the states was a lot of fun, though. California was beautiful and serene and full of good food and laughter - Meadville was a whirlwind of seeing old friends and (believe it or not) helping out at a Harry Potter camp at my church a few nights during the last week (Claudia and I were Professors of Divination, and also tried our luck as Beaters for a Quidditch team), and then it all ended with frankly the best drive to the airport to say goodbye that I have ever experienced.

And now, she's back in Mainz - I have to keep telling myself that Mainz still exists - still there, still the way it was - the squeaky floor in our apartment and the loud trains outside, the Quarktaschen from our favorite bakery and all of my friends at the university. It's there, but I'm not right now, but when I go back, it will be waiting for me. And I am so glad.