2 DAYS!

Two more days in LA.. that's absolutely insane.  It still doesn't quite feel real yet but rest assured I will be boarding a plane to Mexico Saturday morning.  I found out about my host fam last week.  Apparently it's a mom (in her fifties.. I don't remember her exact age), a grandma, a daughter/son in law (both about 28) and their two daughters (both 1 year old)! I'm so excited the family I'm staying with has kids AND they're girls, which if you ask me is so much better than crazy little boys on the brink of the terrible twos.

I've just about gotten everything on our packing list (plus a lot extra, cause unlike the superpowers Lauren thinks I possess, it's virtually impossible for me to like something in a store and then walk away without buying it).  Needless to say, I've spent an absurd amount of money in the last couple weeks but I like to think it's all for a good cause. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the bank and exchange some money so I'll actually have some pesos when I arrive.  Also, apparently we need white pants for one of the clinics but I have yet to find nice white pants being sold anywhere right now.  I guess I shouldn't have waited til after labor day to shop for those. Haha

Anyways, I thought I'd catch you guys up on my summer.  It's actually been a pretty good one. Though, I have to admit, super random. Here's a little photo montage to sum it up:


Right after spring quarter finals I hopped a plane with my mom, Jonny, my uncle, and 3 of my cousins.  We spent 2 weeks traveling around Italy and France. This is me trying escargot for the first time in Paris. Surprisingly, I liked it.

After that I left my family and met up with Lauren in Spain.  We spent some time with my host family from when we both studied in Spain summer '08. We went to my host sister's wedding which was a lot of fun.  Then we headed up to Madrid and stayed with Violeta and Alba. Violeta is honestly my sister from another mother.  Love her. We had a lot of good times.. spent a lot of time exploring the city, we got to celebrate Spain winning the world cup, and got tickets to the musical, Chicago, in Spanish (which I can honestly say I understood a good 10% of).  All together we spent about 3 weeks there.

Lauren, Violeta, and Me at the wedding

Lauren and Me before the semifinal game

When I finally got back home, I was kind of bored. I decided to take some cake decorating classes which I've been wanting to do for awhile.  I decorated this cake.

Then, with Viva's help, I managed to secure a job as hostess at this cafe.

Back on the Beach Cafe, Santa Monica

Which was great until I got laid off a couple weeks ago when business got slow.

We ("we" being me, my mom, and my brother) also took a trip to Tennessee to visit my grandma on my dad's side for her 90th birthday. Here's a bunch of the fam outside the restaurant my grandma chose for her bday.

Great Uncle Frank, Andrew's girlfriend, Cousin Andrew, Jonny, Me, Mom, Aunt Betty, Uncle Jessie, and Mamaw

Anywho, it's really been a great summer (minus the awful weather we've had in LA). I'm a little sad to be saying goodbye to all of this soon but I know Mexico is sure to be amazing. :)

(BTW I'm sorry this post ended up being so long.  I think I got kind of carried away with Blogger's fancy photo embedding thingy. ;P)