10 reasons I'm excited to go back to civilization

1. Sleeping inside.
2. Normal internet. Limited bandwidth sucks hella balls.*
3. Not spending 10 minutes punching in calling card numbers for the weekly call home.
4. Mooses Tooth.
5. Movie theaters. And driving to Century with the windows down singing along to the radio at the top of my lungs.
6. Looking like a normal teenage girl that does things like: wear makeup, brush her hair, put on nice clothes.
7. Not working 900 million hours a week cleaning toilets and making beds.
8. Buying things.  In stores.
9. Having the option of taking a bath.
10. The Elika-Valerie One Week Together Schedule of Events. Which includes but is not limited to: pizza eating, movie watching, tie dying, mountain climbing, and dying blue streaks in our hair.


*A Jeremyism I've picked up.

27 days

I'm a countdown enthusiast.  So that fact that I haven't been counting the hours until I leave Coldfoot is kind of a miracle (instead, I've been counting down until I move to Italy and then subtracting 7, so I'm not exactly innocent).  But I officially have less than four weeks left here, and I am mega super ridiculously excited to go home.

I like Coldfoot, I've had a great summer, and I'm ready for it to be over.   I've spent a lot of time hiking around, reading books I never would have gotten around to, writing a lot, and generally sitting around staring at the mountains and thinking.

But the truth is, I do not belong here.

And I'm ready to return to a world where the newspaper on the table won't be from four days ago.

27 days 27 days 27 days.

Arctic Ocean

Jumping in the Arctic Ocean.

These two actually jumped in the Arctic Ocean.

Zayn got a certificate.  BOOM.

Sloooowwww down

For the most part, I am one of those people that's just a bundle of energy.  When I was at school I was taking 19 credits, and playing two intramural sports, and working for the paper, and playing in the symphony and the band.  I was extremely busy.

And I'm okay with that.  I thrive on having too many things to do.

So being in Coldfoot?  Not the easiest experience of my life.  When I showed up here and walked into my tent for the first time, I sat down and wondered why on earth I thought this would be a good idea.

This is the most laid back, calm atmosphere that I think I've ever experienced.  And for me-the poster child for leading a busy life-it's hard to handle sometimes.  Sometimes I get excruciatingly bored.  I want to drive South forever, until I reach home where there are stores and people and pizza and libraries.

But earlier I was sitting outside drinking chamomile tea, and talking, and laughing.  With nothing to do and nowhere to go.  And I was the most content I've been in a long time.