To be continued

Where to even begin? I just got home from the craziest most incredible two months in awhile. So much happened that even trying to organize my thoughts is quite the challenge. I went into my job as a TA for NSLC expecting to have some fun, interact with some cool high school kids and see San Francisco. Boy, was I wrong. Yes, I did do all those things but I did so much more. As much as I thought this job would be about the kids in all of the sessions, I feel like I benefited more from the entire summer than they did! I’ve never had so many boundaries pushed (again and again and again).  I can’t even remember the person I was when I arrived on campus and I think that’s for the better. I’ve grown as a person in more ways than I’m sure I’ve noticed and I feel more like myself than I have in a long time. I’ve realized its my imperfections that make me who I am and there’s no use tying to change them. I’ve learned to take risks again and roll with the punches, enjoy life as it comes. In the words of Blaken “embrace my inner weirdo.” Speaking of Blaken, now its time for my lovey dovey I love my staff family rant. I remember the very first staff meeting when the site director Jason told us we would love the job and everything that comes along with it but the real bonus was the people you get to interact with on the staff. Let me tell ya, he was completely right. I’ve never been so positively affected by a group of people ever and they’ve definitely become my NSLC family. I was trying to think of a quirky way to describe everyone (I got nada, the whole emotional sobbing thing is really getting in the way of my attempted humor). The best I’ve got is MTV throw back of Real World: NSLC, where people stop being polite and start being real. The only difference is we were never not polite and we were real from the get go. OH maybe it took a few days of warming up to each other but I’ve never worked in such a genuine, quirky work environment with such kind-hearted and sincere people which of course led to such incredibly organic friendships that I’m hoping last a long time.  I guess that’s what happens when you spend basically all day everyday (and nights for that matter if its de-reg day!) together. I noticed the kids would get all “sappy, crying, miss you bffs” after 10 days and I always thought it was so neat, but I never quite picked up on the fact that that was happening to me the whole two months. It makes me think of that song “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”. Except, I sort of knew what I had but it didn’t really hit me how cool and neat it was till I had to leave. A truly stinkin awesome experience. Will my journey with the NSLC be over? Only time will tell but I sure hope not!

Has the world stopped moving?

Nope, but it sure feels like it! My first NSLC session ended on the 3rd, which means break time! Those 10 days were some of the most exhausting, crazy, emotionally straining days EVER but completely worth every second. It was so weird how in only 10 days, I became so attached to the little preshies in my group (give or take one or two). It's definitely going to be weird having to do the whole thing over again with three more different sets of kids but I can't wait.

My first day off involved a lot of sleeping (we basically had to stay up the whole last night so no one could get into crazy shenanigans) then a nice dinner at somewhere other than the dining hall for once. Yesterday was the 4th, so of course I wanted to go into the city. We made our way to Dolores PArk and hung out for a little bit, then went all-american and got ice cream at the Bi-rite Creamery which was worth every bit of that 3 dollars. The hills KILLED me, I definitely got my workout in (for a year). My calves were on fire this morning when I woke up. After walking up hills on hills on hills on the appropriately named "Hill Street", the group headed over towards Union Square which was crazy busy with people. It reminded me a lot of Times Square but it was prettier. After a quick dinner, we walked towards the piers for fireworks and of course they were gorgeous but when are fireworks ever not? So I've crossed a few things off my San Francisco bucket list but I still have a few more things to do! I really want to go check out Golden Gate park and all of those shenanigans and Santa Cruz and Napa. Hopefully I'll knock a few more off the list next break!

Ropes Course Round One

The stinkin Bay Bridge

Some of my little nuggets at pier 39

Sloth Face

Giant bubbles? Alright

Da speedy sloths

Plaidurday Saturday

such a great place to hang out at fishy whart

I'd love to make a living scaring people

High School Musical Style

So onto my next "Start of something new" (get it?! high school musical reference). I'm finally finally finally in Berkeley after waiting for this for freaking ever! I'm about to start my rest of summer job as a Team Advisor (TA) for the Medicine and Healthcare sessions of the National Student Leadership[p Conference in Berkeley, CA. I went to this camp at American University in DC when I was in high school so working for it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something different with my summer.

Long story short, I'll be living in the dorms here and working 4 different 10 day sessions with a few days off in between each one. My days are going to be exhausting (especially until I find a new eye sleep mask). It's definitely a 7 am (if I want to run at least) to 11:30 pm kind of shindig. Let's hope the coffee is always a flowin'. I'm beyond stoked though, I can't wait for the first session to start on Monday. The past few days have been just a bunch of staff training so it's been fun getting to know all the other staff and exploring the city a bit. I've been going running every morning in different directions (ok, it's only been two morning since I've been here so basically one day I turned left and the next right), so I can sort of get a lay of the land. THERE ARE SO MANY RESTAURANTS. Like no lie everywhere. And lots of ethnic cuisines too which I cannot wait to try! It's also kind of nice because the area is definitely very gluten-free friendly. There is even a ice cream shop, C.R.E.A.M. (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me) that has gluten free cookies and they make ice cream sandwiches, um nom.

throw back pics with Caitlin before I left, if only we still had the plaid shirts!

A busy day at the Norfolk airport?

The typical tourist attempt of pictures of famous things (can you see the golden gate way back there?)

CREAM

All that legit staff business

Who doesn't love TOMS?

All the Med girl TAs looking snazzy in our polos!

On to the Next

So I took a few days off from keeping track of anything. Why you may ask? Because I was at the beach thats why! And to me the beach I have an excuse to eat lots of sugar laden junk and do absolutely nada. Jealous?

Before the beach, I spent a few days in Virginia Beach and got to hang out with family friends who used to live in Fort Smith, the Crocketts. That meant a week of cuddling/sun baking/divalicious cool girl time with this beaut, Caitlin. We go WAY WAY WAY back and our cool girl shenanigans deserve an entire blog post on their own!

of course photo-bombed by my own dad

The morning we (the "we" being my mom, dad, and myself) were going to the beach, we got to participate in a 2-mile walk to support CHKD (it's a hospital that has a kick booty PICU). We were walking to support two of my cousins and their family and to honor their sweet little angel baby girl that passed away a few years ago. We all wore our matching "Team Taylor" shirts and walked our little booties off! The walk was fun even if it started at SEVEN THIRTY AM! Yep, which meant a nice little 5:30 wake up call for this girl. But before and after they had lots of food so I got a chance to eat breakfast numero 1 and 2 of the day! Basically right after we crossed the finish line, the whole beach crew (cousins, aunts, kids, the whole shebang) started to round everybody up to make the annual caravan. EVERY HAS TO FOLLOW EACH OTHER TO THE BEACH, it's basically an unwritten rule (well now I just wrote it). You'd think after probably 25 years, the directions would be engrained in everybody's head, but just in case. Nevertheless, we made it to the beach and even stopped at a farmers market (breakfast number 3) and LOADED up on fruit. The peaches were TO DIE FOR. The whole week (or half week) doesn't need a recap other than I ate lots of homemade ice cream, went to the beach, got some Tommy Hilfiger jeans for SEVENTEEN DOLLARS, and oh yeah i ate more ice cream=) The worst part is always leaving and it was doubley tough because I had to say goodbye to my parents for the next two months so of course I was all blubbery and embarrassing but I guess if I hadn't been embarrassed by the no makeup/tornado hair I had been rocking all week it wasn't too bad.

Now I'm back at the Crocketts and I'm having a minor panic attack over how to fit everything in my suitcase for my trip to California. Yikes.

Early morning snoozin'

I could live here...

candids at their best

One Suitcase and Two Months

So now that I'm back from Sweden and (semi) well rested, I've realized I kind of missed blogging the last few days. It was weird not mentally recapping my day every night. So, get ready for this, I'm going to keep on keep on blogging! The rest of my summer is looking like it's going to be pretty nutty anyway, so hopefully I'll have some good stories! Now onto my current crisis of the moment...

I have to fit the next two months of my life into one suitcase. For a normal person, that might not be such a huge issue, but I have a lot of clothes. A lot of clothes. Oh and, I'M GOING TO THREE DIFFERENT PLACES WITH THREE DIFFERENT CLIMATES. Ugh, thats annoying. I guess I should set the stage a little bit. First, I'm leaving tomorrow for a 2 week trip to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks to soak up a little sun on a family beach trip. Then, I'm flying from Virginia to California to work as a Team Advisor for the National Student Leadership Conference in Berkeley (I know, you're probably thinking "huh?" but I attended the camp in high school so it's not completely random). From there, I'm flying directly into Fayetteville THE NIGHT BEFORE RECRUITMENT STARTS! So technically I'm not even coming home before I have to be back up at school. Which complicates things even more because I won't have time to come get my things for school so I sort of have to pack now so I can do those slightly important things like oh, um, SLEEP ON A BED, and maybe SHOWER! LOL

Needless to say, I should be being productive and packing right now....

The opposite of Hej

It's been the best last two days in Stockholm. Like borderline perfect. I don't know how it's possible to be so ready to go home yet so sad to leave at the same time. That's what I'm feeling for sure.

SO yesterday, I got to sleep in a little bit (we didn't have to be ready till 11), so I woke up and went for a leisurely (and I mean leisurely) run along the water. On my way back to the boat, I stumbled upon a grocery store that has ended up being my favorite yet. It had a flippin moving walkway to take you up to the second level, too legit. And it had lots of Swedish chocolate (which KLAPROCK be prepared, you're all getting it as souvenirs). Then came the best part of the trip so far, the boat ride. You're probably thinking "what's so special, you're living on a boat?" but this wasn't just any boat, it was some sort of cool sightseeing/lunch cruise/island tour boat. The boat went an hourish out to an island (where people could get off if the wanted), then back to where it left from. We ate lunch on the boat and it was a Swedish smorgasbord with everything you can think of. I miraculously managed to not accidentally eat any pickled herring so it was a success for sure. And then came the dessert buffet, yes dessert buffet. Anyone that knows me can guess how that went...The weather was beautimous too, like seriously perfect, no words can describe it! After the boat ride we had free time so some of us went and hung out on a cafe along the water for awhile. Stockholm is basically like Lake Ouachita on steroids because everywhere is surrounded by islands so its like the lake smack dab in the middle of the city. I even got to take a little cat nap on the grassy bank, once again-perfection. The group I was with all thought we knew where we were meeting for dinner but whoops, WE DIDN'T! Thankfully we happened to see the group through the window when were walking down the street or else we would have stayed lost for quite awhile.

The weather stayed perfect for the last day too. First up was the ABBA museum. I had been kind of museumed out so I wasn't exactly looking forward to it but it was SO fun!! There were all kinds of interactive things like music videos and singing. The cool part was that once you scanned your ticket for the interactive things, you can log onto the website with your ticket number, it saves all your "performances." We even got the professors to bust out their favorite ABBA songs. After that, free time was on the agenda. A few of us went and had a nice little lunch outside before I split off to pick up some last minute things. I felt really comfortable finding my way around and I didn't even mind being by myself. It was a teeny bit nice to be able to do all the things I wanted to do at my super fast shopping pace! I headed back to the boat for a little bit then I went to wander around the Sodermalm district. It's right up the hill behind our boat, so it was that I could explore but still be close to where I knew. I even went thrift store shopping (with $20 in my pocket). Then came the rain...thankfully I had my umbrella because I got caught in a freaking downpour. The group met for dinner at the same place we ate the first night in Stockholm, O'Connells. Not my favorite food but it was free so that's good! Of course we HAD to get ice cream on the last night (just like every night). I stuck to my guns and continued my different flavor every night tradition. I couldn't tell you what it was called but it was YUM! The taxis are coming at 6:15 (AM) tomorrow so the whole group is just taking it easy and hanging out tonight.

This trip really has been spectacular and I'm so beyond thankful I've had this opportunity. I'm ready to be home but I know the second I get back home, I'll just want to come right back=)

my room...my whole room

the walk to our boat

the Nobel Museum square

hungry?

Just call me royalty

Yep, I love fish

The Vasa Museum

Dinner the first night in Stockholm

Gorgeous church in Uppsala

How I entertain myself at museums

oh just stop it

The view from the city hall tower

perfect timing?

Obsessive

The site of my afternoon nap, jealous?

ABBA shenanigans 

Yep.

cool girls at the museum

Peace out Stockholm, it's been real!