It must be a European thing....

On the third day of camp, our dishwashers came. I guess normally the dishwashers are typically guys from Texas or Mexico just looking for a summer job, but this year they decided to look elsewhere and hired four guys from Hungry, the country, the one in Europe, where they don't own proper bathing suits, yes that country. How do I know that they don't wear proper bathing suits you ask...WELL let me tell you:

When they arrived, we stopped what we were doing and met them, exchanged names, shook hands, that whole ordeal. The whole time I could not understand a word they were saying. They speak a limited amount of English, although now, I can understand them much more clearly, at the time, I was in total shock. We had to write their names down so we could remember them, they are: Lazlow, Gabor, Arpod, and Zoltan.

The whole time we were meeting them, and the camp supervisors were giving them the rundown, they would not stop staring at us, which made us a little uncomfortable, but little did we know that the level of uncomfortableness (is this a word?) was about to magnify by about 534%!

So a couple of days later, Katie and I decided we need to work on our tans and head down to the river. As we are walking down, I see some guys ahead getting ready to get on these large surf-board-looking things at the same spot we were going to go lay out. As we get closer, I said something along the lines of, "Hey Katie, I think those are the dishwashers" two beats later, "Oh my gosh, I think they are wearing Speedos...ahhhhhh!" So we take a hard left and find another spot down river away from their ummm selves...

Right after we lay down, we hear "MOOOORRRGGGAAANNN" in a sing-song tone, and not just once, no, they kept saying it over and over again. Both Katie and I didn't know what to do, so we just stayed there and tried to pretend we were sleeping, but we were laughing the whole time. All of a sudden, we realize they are coming down the river on their surf boards, and the laughing stopped and panic swept over our bodies. By this time Madeline, the third intern, is with us, and we are all sitting there, whispering, "Oh crap, what do we do??"

As they get closer, they start talking, and not wanting to be rude, we sit up to say hi, and what do we realize, oh no they aren't wearing speedos, which at least are meant to be in the water, they are wearing just their undies, and not boxers, because that would just be too nice, no they are wearing tightie-whities, that are ummm, how do I say this, clinging to certain areas. And to make matters worse, they are sitting on their boards with their legs dangling in the water. Trying to not throw up in my mouth, I am trying to answer questions they are asking, while Katie is sitting quietly in shock and Madeline is giggling. The whole time, I am either looking up at the sky or down at my fingernails, or giving Katie sideways looks. Finally, we get up to leave and basically sprint away from the river.

The whole time, we just kept saying, "Maybe it's a European thing, and they don't realize that you don't wearing your undies to go swimming at kids summer camp!" Oh well, it sure was an interesting to meet someone, and in this case, all of them!

a letter

Dear Kansas:
Oh how I miss you! I miss how your McDonald's has the Big N' Tasty on the dollar menu. I miss how people wave, smile, and ask how your day was. I miss your gorgeous sunsets. I miss your subtleness, like your too shy to let the other states know how amazing you are. Shipoopi misses your small, rolling hills and absolutely hates these steep inclines here.

Speaking of her...

Dear Shipoopi:
Thank you for bringing me to Texas and please make it back to Kansas with me safe and sound. I know your getting old and your knees are tired, but I promise sooner rather then later I'll get you to a nice retirement home, where you'll no longer have to try to make it up hills or deal with my crazy lead foot...BUT....you have to get me back home first, or else missy!

Dear Manhattan:
Are you still doing construction everywhere? If so, can you please make it go away before I come back! Oh and can you work on the whole draining issue because it rains a lot and you flood way to easy. Also, Shipoopi, my roommates, and myself would greatly appreciate it if you could make our alley flat, no pot holes, and preferably paved!


Dear Fiance:
Mmm I miss you, I miss your smell, your smile, your ears, how you understand that my toes get cold and I need someone to sit on them or how I get all stressed out and freak out and you always come me down. I miss the way you make me laugh to tears, I miss our comfortable silences, our movie nights, our late night WalMart runs, everything..basically I miss your you.


Dear Family:
I miss you..do you miss me? I was hoping to have a call, a text, or an email from some family member every once in a while, but nothing. I am the only one who hasn't got any mail, but that's okay, I know you guys are busy. I love you all to pieces and can't wait to see you. It's weird to think you guys are getting ready for the fair, or going to the lake, or the pool, or going on vacations, or moving on, or catching up, and I am not there to see it all happen. I pray for you all and hopefully everything is good up north! I love you and can't wait for a big hug from each of you!


Dear Camp:
I dislike you, I am sorry to say, but shortly I will break up with you and it'll be one of the best days ever! I dislike that there are only a handful of other females. I dislike how all these males have more drama then an all-girl high school. I dislike how the campers are rude, don't know the words please and thank you, and complain about everything. I dislike how you took me away from my family. I dislike how you make me work 12 hours a day in a kitchen that has no A/C, old equipment, and mean Hungarian dishwashers who wear only their tighty-whities when they go swimming, gross! (This will be another blog for another time). I do like the fact, though, that you have taught me I can handle work in tough situations, i.e having two supervisors go through in less than 4 weeks. I also like the fact that you brought me a new friend, whom I love! Also, I guess, I like the fact that you pay me, so that I can get married woot woot!

On Sunday, I made my way to camp! I had a fun time on this part of the road trip because I didn't have to hurry and get there and was able to enjoy the ride. During this 5 hour drive I saw:

• a crawfish festival (the town was packed and their downtown was full of tourist shops)
• the pecan capital of the world (the town's symbol was a pecan tree colored like the Texas flag, go figure hehe!)
• a winery (I regret not stopping)
• huge pecan tree groves
• Dr. Pepper's hometown (I shed a few happy tears when I passed through)
• about a million cemetery's
• plenty of dead armadillos
• extremely high fences (this can only mean they are raising giraffes right?)
• a motorcycle rally
• a quirky thrift store on the side of the road called Wispey's
• gorgeous wild flowers

I loved the whole trip, and it made me really excited as I was heading down to camp. So excited, that I wanted to move here, but we'll just have to see what I think at the end of the summer!

Roadtrip

I headed out towards my internship yesterday, and I am half way there. I left my house at 8:30 and arrived here in Fort Worth around 5 last night. I stopped to say bye to the fiance and then stopped again another hour down the road to say bye to my father and little sisters for the summer. That was basically my only stops except for a stop in OKC for a free lunch at a McDeli and about 59 bathroom stops, I swear my bladder shrinks when I get into my car!

It was a nice day for a long road trip though, and I saw some animals who were enjoying the ride too. On a back of a motorcycle, I saw a dog hanging out on his homemade seat, enjoying the wind in his face, with some sweet sunglasses on. Also, I saw a horse who was sticking his nose out his window of the trailer and letting his bottom lip flap with the wind. Every once in a while, he'd bite at the air and then go back to flapping his lips.

When I got to my hotel, and I was pretty tired and really excited to see this waiting for me:

I was so excited!! I jumped, I rolled, and finally I plopped down and sighed in lovely bliss! This was such a huge bed, when I stretched out, I wasn't even close to touching the ends..mmmmm so nice!

When I opened my curtains to let some sun in, I was surprised when I saw this:

It was still here when I woke up. I was going to ask Snoopy if I could catch a ride down south, so I didn't have to drive, who cares if it'd take a couple days longer to get there, but he just took off..bummer!

Goodbyes

From telling all my friends who graduated this year to telling the fiance, I've learned that I am horrible at goodbyes. I think they suck actually, and I would rather just not go through them at all. With most of my friends, I tried avoiding it all together; I know that sounds horrible, but goodbyes scare me, and I start to panic, get sweaty, freak-out, and could possibly faint (okay so they aren't quite that bad, but you get my point). My friend Bethany came into the McDeli before she left the little apple, and I ended up hiding in the back and came out to give her a quick hug and then I dashed off, that's how bad I am.

Saying goodbye to the fiance for the summer was even worse! I always pride myself in not crying, but oh boy, the waterworks never seemed to quit this week. All of a sudden I would be laughing one minute and the next, I would start having tears sliding down my cheeks, and I could not make them stop. The fiance would just chuckle and say something like, "Gaw, grow up, you're such a loser." Okay.... maybe he was more like, "It's okay babe, it will only be for the summer and it will go by quick, plus think about what a great experience this is for you." He was my rock all week.

I was a blubbering mess last night before he left my house. It was really quite funny because I would try to stop and then all of a sudden I'd start sobbing all over again. This morning, when I went to see him at work, I did my best to keep it together, and I was doing really well. We talked a bit, kissed and hugged, and I was getting ready to get in the car, when he went and got me something and dang it, the tears started coming up again, from where I do not know because I thought I was all cried out. He handed me a CD with a paper that had all of the songs he had put on it and why he chose those songs. That's when the waterworks started up and just when I was getting ready to pat myself on the back for doing such a great job. Luckily though, he threw some songs in that made laugh like Crocodile Rock and Pinball Wizard. After my first few tears, I was able to stop so I wouldn't wreck and just started jamming out to my new CD that was made specially with me in mind and was reminded of how great the fiance actually is and it helped me forget all about that awful goodbye.

Texas on My Mind

This summer I'm going to Texas!! I have an internship in the middle of nowhere at boy's summer camp where I will be helping run the foodservice operation. And when I say "helping run", I mean I will be a lunch lady. But as my sister said, a hot lunch lady! Booyah, I'll have a bunch of 8 year-olds having crushes on me, can it get any better?!
In the beginning, I was supposed to go to an awesome internship in Virgina, a short drive away from D.C. where I would be at a large conference center, but after a couple short-lived promises and a lot of bad communication, that fell through. At first, I was heart broken, mainly because I was so psyched to go to this place and be on the East Coast, but also because I was not sure what I was going to do. For my major, we have to have a 400hr internship to graduate, so basically you have to do it over the summer, or take a whole semester off. At this point in time most places already have their intern lined up and since I am getting married next summer (woohoo!) I started freaking out. But God has his own plan and his own timing and always looks over his people, so now I will be fighting off bugs, sleeping in a bunk, and having a great time lying by the lake all while getting paid and getting credit for school!
I know it isn't really what I expected to get as an internship, and I am not sure what it will be like, but I know God will teach me as I am going. Plus, I get to wear a hairnet all summer!!

Stormy Morning

Today is Thursday, which means I have a 6:30 AM lab that lasts 3 hours. Yes that is correct, a very, very long 3 hour lab which starts at 6:30! Since the fiance loves me, he so graciously gets up at 6, comes and picks me up, and takes me to my lab so I do not have to walk the 20 minutes to get to the building.
WELL...today started as any other Thursday, he came and picked me up, dropped me off, and as I was getting out of the car, walking into the building, it started to thunder, which at 6:30 am, doesn't trigger the fact that it is probably going to rain. Then, in the middle of class the storm hits, and I all of the sudden realize, I have neither a jacket nor an umbrella with me!
So as class ends, I had to walk all the way across campus in the rain with only a newspaper to cover my face.
I just got to my class, and I had to spend 5 minutes washing my hands of all the ink that was on them from holding the paper and when I looked up into the mirror I realized.......

THE NEWSPAPER INKED ON MY FACE!

Peeeerrrrrffffeeeecccctt!