Daheim is where das Herz is...

As I said in my last post, I have now been home for officially over two months. I can't believe it was only 8(ish) short weeks ago that I was walking through the soaked streets of Hamburg or hanging out with my Fulbright girls. Sighhhh... Nostalgia. Let's relive my last few hours of European bliss by looking at my pictures from my stop over in Iceland. Oh, did I not mention that I had a SEVEN hour layover in Reykjavik? I did, and it was awesome.

Flying over Iceland

The Moon? Nope, Iceland.

The Blue Lagoon, where I enjoyed a relaxing layover.

A geothermal heated "natural" swimming pool, the Blue Lagoon.

Underground Moon parking lot

Icelandic money

More moneyz... lovin' the Icelandic hats/beards.

But anyway, getting back to the point: though I've mostly been working my butt off trying to save money the past few weeks, I have had a couple chances for fun. The weather has been great here (especially in comparison to northern Germany) and family visits have made for some enjoyable weekends. At the beginning of August my sister and I drove a couple hours north to go to a Mumford and Sons concert. We had lawn seats, and even though I could barely see the stage (at all) it was still amazing!

Another big highlight was the trip of my boyfriend, Matthias. He arrived in mid-August to Upstate New York and we spent some time with my family. Afterward we visited NYC and Washington DC together. It was really fun and super great to see him, but the week simply went by too fast! :(

Contemplating America

Awwwww

Brooklyn

The day we were in Brooklyn it was really hot, so we decided to beat the heat by taking a ferry ride down to Wall St. and back.

Manhattan

After spending the day in NYC laying in parks and hanging out with some of my friends from high school we retired semi-early to prepare for the next day. Saturday (which was the next day) we took a Chinatown bus down to Washington DC. Matthias had never been and I hadn't visited in over four years, so it was an adventure for both of us.

The Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial

American Museum of Natural History

The Burger Joint... to die for burgers and shakes!

Just under a week after he had gotten off the plane, Matthias was off again for Chicago and the west coast. Unfortunately I had to work, so I couldn't come with him. I trudged back Upstate after a ridiculous 3 hour delay and 45 minutes plane ride. In the month since then I have been trying to keep myself occupied. Though during the week work usually gets in the way of most things, the weekends have afforded some nice distractions.

Last weekend my mom and went hiking in Watkins Glen. We had had a grand scheme to hike in the Finger Lakes every weekend over the summer, but this was actually only our second time. Oops... It was still really fun though!

Happy Hiker!

This past Saturday we went to one of my niece's field hockey games. I think everyone in our family was surprised to learn that they even have field hockey for 8 year olds, but boy did they ever. It was a huge 4 hour long tournament! Even though her team didn't win any of the games we watched, they sure did play well!

Purple shirt and hot pink short/socks/shoes/stick? That's our girl!

Allie and friend... how cute are they??

Sunday was the day of the long awaited (by me) German festival at the Lucas Winery on Cayuga Lake. Two of my favorite things together: Germans and wine! Oh joy! Though seemingly small, with only a few booths, food, wine and a band... it sure was gemütlich.

dog! in an Oktoberfest hat! cute!

Bavarian dancers

Bavarian dancers (doing Schuhplattler!)

"German food"

As for now, I have about three months until I'll be back in Germany and I have a lot of preparing to do. From university applications to scholarship applications, apartment hunting and trying to enjoy things here, I think the time will fly rather quickly.

To put off that future just a tad, let's reminisce on the past... I had a disposable underwater camera developed last weekend and the resulting pictures (from Macedonia, Portugal and Iceland) are a wonderful bit of nostalgia!