Sticky Apple Kisses

We will be sleeping in our beds the last time before heading for Iceland! And then we head to Hamburg for 2 days before catching the ferry across to begin our next adventure! And sleeping we will be doing, I am exhausted! Truthfully part of me wants above ground pools just so we can relax and lie about, but that is the best thing about having parents obsessed with the Caribbean. I can go on adventures with my motorcycle and my German, and then meet them for 2 weeks of sleep ins and sunbathing by the pool.

Seriously, I no longer need TV since Alix came to visit and has shown me the wonders I have been missing:

I am getting a little excited at the idea of going to Iceland here, I just went back and recounted the days because 9 days seemed to be TOO close. Its 12 days. And then we head to Hamburg for 2 nights, and one day (one day will just be driving on the highway) and we can visit Patrick’s cousin there, and then we will spend my birthday in Denmark and board the ferry the next day. Wheeee!!!!! Until then Im researching convex mirrors. You don’t even want to know.
I really am starting to feel a little overwhelmed, I need a break!!!!!

And I am counting down like a madwoman, I decided not to drop the last module in order to be finished in November with my courses as planned. But now I am wondering if that was the smartest move for me sanity…….

Tomorrow is hopefully my last test of the year, and then we shall see if I take another module or not. I am registered for it because I want to have all my courses finished in November so I can start working on my thesis early and then I can be finished in time for us to start our world trip next June. And then hopefully I will have more time to start doing things like checking out term life insurance rates, that I need on a longer term basis, but is quickly moving into pressure for short term!

But despite the stress of this and last week (minus the awesomeness of sailing) there is much to look forward to, Alix comes on Monday all the way from Canada!!! I am so looking forward to seeing her, so really I just need to get through the stress of the rest of this week and then all is fantastic again! And I need to look into NC health insurance to find out about travel health plans!

It is not 1 year, but 6 weeks should be enough to tide us over I hope!!! woot

Putting up those pics of Japan made me remember my time teaching there, I no longer teach kids but rather adults. And both have positive and negative aspects. Adults are much easier to control, but kids and teens can be so much more enthusiastic. But when I think about how much it sucked to be a teenager (best acne treatments anyone? oh wait, that continues to plague me as an adult as well!) I guess I cant blame them for being so uncontrollable.

Despite the fact that I spend my days in a puddle of goo of my own making, I am having difficulty accepting that it is in fact summer. There was just no transition time. I use to think it so strange when the Japanese staff at the school I was working at in Japan would go on and on about how Japan has 4 seasons. Now I fully understand the attraction of 4 seasons, going from rain every day for a month straight into 30+ messes you up just a tad. Through in work and school and it might as well not apply at all.

4 seasons in Japan:

Winter:

Totoro and cute kids:

Spring means cherry blossoms!

Summer means heat!

And Fall is nice for hiking!