is there a place i can go? is there a light to get me there?

location: gramma and poppa's house :)
song stuck in head: tiny little fractures-- snow patrol
mood: feeling oldddd

i feel like such an old fart!! jamie and steven's graduation mass was tonight at church.  they just get recognized for being graduates. not a crazy big deal (the graduation ceremony is not until this friday), but i remember just 3 years ago when i was the one sitting up there in my cap and gown counting down the days until i got to cofc... ahhhhh and here i sit counting down the days until sas now!

a week from today i will be on a plane beginning my road trip to nova scotia, and in only 15 days i will be on the ship!! 

kyle and i made an awesome excel workbook with ideas for itineraries for each country including links to hostels, plane or train tickets, and other exciting things we might do. like hot balloon rides in Egypt, zip lines in Morocco, and day trips to Pompeii, Italy! like i said, exciting :) anywho, none are definite plans. we just wanted to get some ideas on prices and locations so that we wont have to waste time on the ship or in the countries searching the internet.  of course we want to maximize our time for EVERYTHINGGGGGG. haha

well, i just wanted to give a quick update!! now i'm finally heading to bedddd soooo tired from a busy weekend in aiken! until next time...
:]

full stops and exclamation marks: my words stumble before i start

hahahahaha saw this floating around somewhere and thought it was appropriate :]

yes, they do! its called semester at sea!!

so, by the time i finish this post it will only be 21 days until i am sailing away on a ship! and even crazier is that i will be on my way to halifax in only 13 days!!! soooooooo soon!!! i am freaking out! so many plans and details to make and dont even get me started on all the packing i still have to do!

my calendar for the next couple of weeks is awesome.

• got back from visiting nina in chesterfield yesterday evening. went to myrtle beach for the weekend with her family. it was soooo much fun! and i got to see miss liz(ard) too! we had dinner at senior frogs. was hilarious. they made us these balloon hats and then we ended up having to do this ridiculous dance on the top of our chairs followed by a massive conga line... yep. true story. besides that adventure, the beach, hot tubs, and sun rays were calling nina and my names all weekend!
• now im home for a few days, then i head to kyle's home in aiken to visit. ill be there either thursday-saturday or friday-sunday hopefully depending on what kacie (my best friend since 5th grade) plans to do the days she comes home. she is only home for a few days, so i REALLY dont want to miss seeing her before i leave :( if i do, then we wont get to see each other until christmas time most likely. and thats just not acceptable. haha.
• when i get back from kyle's, my family will already be starting to arrive for jamie and steven's graduation from high school (twin siblings). their graduation is June 5th.
• June 7th my mom, grandmother, and i board a plane from charlotte to boston! in boston, we are getting a rental car and from there driving the rest of the way to halifax! we're just going to take our time and see some sights as we drive up and stay at whatever hotel we are near when we decide to crash for the night. should be some good times!
• we're aiming to be into halifax june 12th or 13th, and from there explore that area of canada until june 15th!
• june 15th i board the ship at 9:20am and set sail!

like i said, awesome 21 days ahead of me.
im trying to utilize the maximum amount of time i can see everyone before i leave. its gotten intense trying to make sure i see everyone, but it has probably been my favorite summer ever so far and it can only get better from here. :]

anywho, in general just been trying to get things together! im addicted to facebook semester at sea discussion boards... its official. i have been looking at them allllll night. i helped jamie skip school today and go shopping with me. we felt so rebellious as we walked around super target during school hours. though i guess karma got us in the end: it started DOWNPOURING as we checked out and so we got soaked in just the minute and a half it took to sprint to the car. it was totally worth it though :] got some cute clothes and shoes and other random entertaining stuff. score!

so yep. thats the update!!

:]

summertime and the wind is blowing outside

second day of summer 2010, and oh my goodness, i just love my friends these days. for some reason i feel the need for that random shout out. haha. nina and i said goodbye to kelly house yesterday... it was so sad. :( that room has been our home for two whole years, and we have had so so so many awesome adventures there. but we know we are going to both have amazing summers (hello, ill be on a ship!!) and then we will have all new adventures next year in george! oh and of course ill have SOOOO many stories to tell from sas i am sure of that :)

came back to fort mill yesterday evening. as for now, i am currently unpacking all my stuff from charleston, and from there i have three piles: stuff i don't want, stuff that goes with me to sas!, and stuff that goes back to chucktown for next year. i have to basically have everything packed up for fall 2010, because we do not get back from sas until august 21st... dorms at school open august 20th and classes start pretty soon after that.... so basically i will be fresh off the ship (nice and tan of course) and head straight to school. should not be too bad though, i just hate packing haha

so to avoid packing i do things like download music and play with cameras. i am pretty much a music addict and live off of pandora (which i wont have on the ship). since i usually just crank up the pandora or youtube videos, i have not really updated my itunes library in a while... so i am frantically trying to get music to listen to while i work out, study, sleep, and even chill on the ship. as for playing with cameras, my camera managed to break this past semester at school :( :( so sad. i love my camera. thankfully, my parents are letting me borrow theirs instead of me going out and throwing down a couple hundred bucks for a new camera. thanks mom and dad! :) so i get to save that "cash money" for traveling instead. score! but i do need to do things like figure out how to work the new camera, get additional memory cards, maybe get an additional battery?, and find not only the battery charger, but also the cord that hooks it up to my computer.... wish me luck!

was talking to my mom last night. i do not know if i have mentioned this yet, but my mom my grandmother and i are roadtripping down to halifax to drop me off. totally exciting, i know! anyways, we contemplated taking my grandparents camper, but we decided it would be easier to just take a car and stay in hotels. now my mom and i are looking into plane tickets.... we think it might be faster, easier, and cheaper to just fly from here to boston and then rent a car to go the rest of the distance. it would take off about 2/3rds of the driving and we do not really want to stop much until we get up towards boston anyways. my mom found some REALLY cheap flight tickets too. it would only be 60 bucks to fly from charlotte to boston (vs about 250 to fly to nova scotia). makes sense because they are both in the usa and also it is flying from one major airport hub to the next. basically, that is a tank and a half of gas for each of us to fly there. not to mention it would not put the miles on our car. and it would save even more money and time when my mom and gramma are driving back without me. still in very early planning stages, but we should figure out the rest of those details within the next couple of days. i'm crazy excited though!!

but for now, i should get back to unpacking/packing... totally lame, i know.
did i mention the countdown is 1 month and 8 days!!!!? so close i can almost feel the ocean breeze!

:]

let's see how far we've come

i cant believe it! i am officially a college senior :] :] just wrapped up my final exam of the semester, so it is officially SUMMER 2010!!

oh... HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!
and we all know what that means.... GIANT MARGARITAS! no, seriously....

1 month and 10 days until the best adventure of my life!!!


i am so excited i could practically pee my pants! (not really. that wouldnt be good.... especially since i realized this morning that i sent all but one pair of pants home with my mom and grandmother yesterday as i was moving out of kelly house.... oops. epic packing fail.)

anyways,
i can finally start REALLY making plans for the trip and that is totally exciting. last week kyle and i were looking at lots of travel possibilities, and i have been doing nothing but thinking about them allllllllll exam week. still have a lot to look into, and really want to make sure i don't make too many plans. this is mainly because i am hoping to meet people that want to do similar things, and i do not want to end up changing plans and losing money... haha

on another note, went to health services yesterday. got a prescription for the oral vaccine for typhoid fever (fun stuff) and a hep A shot. apparently i'm the 1 in 2 that get soreness cause MAN my arm freaking hurts :( stupid shots. oh and yet another packing fail.... sent home the advil too. darn. might have to steal some from ninabina.... wow im going to have to start making a packing list for sas. leave it to me- ill probably forget something crucial like underwear.... story of my life. hahaha

anywhooooo some things i need to do before i leave because if i write it here i might actually remember to do them:
--call sas and ask them questions
--look into textbooks
--download a crap ton of music because i NEED MORE MUSIC and have been living off of pandora, which i wont have on the ship :( :(
--call credit card companies and let them know im going on this crazy cool adventure aka ask them to be nice and NOT cancel my cards the minute i get to Barcelona...
--figure out more lists of what i wanna do in each country
--get computer stuff figured out (another battery and other stuff)

wellllllll nina's cousin just showed up and wants me to go celebrate with them, so im headed out!! ill write more later of course ;)

:]