Oh, hello!

Hello! I'm planning my return to blogging land pretty soon, and for now here is a tantalizing teaser: I've started a tumblr account!!! I don't even understand it, loads of people use it and I'm just figuring it out, but I think the design is pretty cool and I like that I can just post pretty pictures and stuff like that. Anyhow, here is the link.

And with that, I'm off to (re)watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! I can't stop, I have to postpone the inevitable feeling of grief and emptiness after realizing there are no more Harry Potter movies (after tomorrow at least).

Kisses!!!!!

ANTI-CLIMACTIC

I'M BACK!!!!!!!

I know, I've pretty much disappointed myself and the entire concept of travel blogging over the past half year. Well, I have one thing to say about that. OH WELL. Maybe one day I'll do a post on What I Learned In My Year Abroad, or Cultural Insights. So far, though, I've found that other people are doing that better than I could (see cakelyn.wordpress.com or monica-egypt.blogspot.com, two lovely ladies who I sincerely wish I was able to spend the year with).

So what is left, if I'm not giving you choice cultural gems of information or deep thoughts about my life changes? Well, you might get that anyway, just not right now. For now, I'm back home, living in Mahomet, taking care of the awesome dogs my mom got in the Spring, and generally just relaxing. I'm working at Applebees, and it is okay. I'm getting that travel urge REAL bad, so we'll see what happens. I think I need money first, though, so I'll probably be here for a while.

In the meantime! I love you! I miss you! I hope you are having a wonderful time! I hope you are feeling the festivities of the impending holiday trifecta (Halloween, Thanksgiving, CHRISTMAS!), and I hope you are able to drink some tasty spiced cider or warm fall beverage of your choice. Hopefully I'll be posting more interesting things in the future? Anyway. Kisses!

Endless Apologies

I am a terrible updater of blogs! I'm so sorry. But fear not, my lovelies, I promise to be better from now on ("yes what empty promises!" I'm sure you are saying. Well we shall see!). For now I am doing homework (quelle surprise!) but here is a little sign of life to let you know that I still care! This is one of my favorite poems of all time, the one I have memorized best (I will recite it to you at the slightest encouragement). I like the imagery and most of all the sounds that it makes. You should read it out loud, it's more fun that way.

God's Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

That is all! Happy Tuesday. Oh, one more thing. I think it might be spring? Or at least that spring might be doing her best to show up in Egypt? Anyway. Kisses!