Today signified the end of an amazing two weeks of doing nothing that resembled being responsible or working. I loved every minute of it.
This past week after driving to Nashville for my Master's program orientation I then completed eight hours of boring, redundant presentation on the importance of being responsible while in grad school and where I could make copies. I entertained myself by making side comments to the girl sitting next to me who seemed to think I was pretty funny. Making friends in grad school, check. I started to worry that I was going to be bored the first year of school considering it's the 'foundation year' so basically it involves me learning about the process of social work. Hmm. Someone should have applied for the accelerated program. I'm guessing the first year should be pretty smooth sailing as long as I don't get arrogant and start thinking I know everything, which I began doing tonight while doing my readings for my first classes tomorrow. Oops.
Anyway, after orientation I drove straight back to Louisville so that Jason and I could leave for Michigan the following morning. Jason packed everything except for the kitchen sink, and I thought I over-prepared. We got on the road and decided that we didn't want to be in a hurry or have a schedule. It's vacation, we don't wear watches! We stopped more than enough for random things including slushies and laffy taffy, yup the kind with the jokes. We arrived in Grand Rapids around 6pm and went straight to J's friends so we could head out for Ethiopian food. It was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We spent the rest of the night with his friends playing games and hanging out. I really like his friends. The following day we slept in as per usual and then headed out to a 'secret' beach that his friend knew about which meant driving to Lake Michigan just South of Holland. The 'secret' beach was actually on private property and not only did we end up trespassing and following a trail to the beach but we also were confronted with a massive dune that was unavoidable and our only way (that we knew of) to get to the beach. The dune looked like a white wall when we walked up to it and took all of my effort, including sweating and heavy breathing, to make it up. The boys even had some trouble getting up it. Luckily we had the foresight to buy a mini-keg of Oberon and were rewarded with beer after reaching the top. The view was incredible and the water was freezing. The hike back went much easier (comparatively) after we found out about a set of stairs (nearly 200) about 1/2 mile down the beach. J and his friend had to take the adventurous route to get the cars and picked us up. He picked Caroly and I wildflowers along the way. That night we headed to Founders for drinks and food and to enjoy the last night in GR with his friends. The next morning we went for brunch and spent a good chunk of time in a record store that he used to frequent while living there. We ended our time in GR with a parking ticket, awesome.
Next was Lansing where I got to spend time with some very amazing people including my best friends. We made necessary visits to Biggby's, Stober's and Pizza House. At Pizza House we discovered that Jason's friend knew half of the people I used to work with (small world) and I spent time hopping around the huge table catching up with people. Two of my friends drove over an hour to see me, which is pretty much the coolest thing someone could do. I love and miss my friends soooo much. Time in Lansing was fantastic and I wish I could have spent more time there but alas, the trip continued onto Breckenridge (where Jason grew up) then onto Yale and finally Sunday was spent at Cedar Point. The weather didn't cooperate and we spent a lot of time waiting around for rides to start back up after the rain stopped. We drank extremely expensive beer and got loopy on empty stomachs toward the end of the night. We then headed to Toledo to stay at a friend's so we didn't have to drive all the way back to Louisville. I spent one last night in Louisville being lazy and learning how to make curry and watching Lost on Netflix. Any time spent doing anything with him is amazing.
Yesterday officially marked one year living in Tennessee. Since moving to the Bible Belt I have learned a few things about what it means to live here.
-'Bless your heart' doesn't mean what you think it does.
-Southern Hospitality doesn't seem to apply to large cities.
-The sunshine and warmth agrees with me.
-I function pretty much the same as I would in Michigan, just with a more sunny disposition.
-New places can drive a person to really put themselves out there and Southerners seem more receptive.
-People from the South have a tendency to flake out on social obligations.
-I like Atlanta more than I like Nashville and I like Louisville more than I like any Southern city I've been to thus far.
Like I had said, school starts tomorrow and I'm not feeling nervous or scared which could be a bad thing. I guess we'll find out soon how much I really know about this field I'm delving into even further. Class bright and early, these early mornings are going to be rough getting used to again. I wish I had another two weeks in Louisville on vacation. Boo.
Have a great week, I hope that I will.
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