July 10, 2011

I found this in a file titled "All I Want To Do Is Be Above The Treeline" in a folder on my laptop earlier today.

July 10, 2011

This morning I woke up on a mountain. I woke up 5,000 feet in the air, above the tree line in a small, orange tent I borrowed from Dave. The wind was blowing at a million miles an hour, and fog was rolling across the valley.

But I was so happy, sitting there eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, soaked to the bone with bugspray and sweat, hair unbrushed for nearly a week.

And that’s what I like about Coldfoot. The fact that the simplest things make me happy here.   I’ve been sleeping in a tent for seven weeks now.

There was more to it.  But that was the best bit.  The part that brought me back to what seems like just a really weird, wonderful dream of a summer.

Midnight sun

"NOOOOO SCOOOOOOOOTERRRRRRRRR!!!!"

LCC4LYFE

Adorable Italian children are adorable

When I first showed up in Italy, I signed up to do some sort of volunteering at the school I attend here.  After a few weeks of filling out forms and doing interviews, I was assigned "teaching English to kids."  Which I was SUPER excited about.

Until I showed up, and found out "teaching English to kids" meant making sure a bunch of 4-year-olds don't hit each other.

But they're still really cute.

This is Flauvia.  If I had favorites, she would be my favorite, because she always hugs me when I show up, and she likes to send Tonka trucks down the slide.  The boy behind her is Leonardo, and if I had favorites he would be another one of my favorites, because he always pretends he is an airplane.  Also, he is best friends with Alex, who I call Little-Charlie-Bone in my head because he looks exactly like what I imagined Charlie Bone would look like at age 4.  Little-Charlie-Bone is another completely hypothetical favorite, by the way.

Also, Italian children say "mamma mia!" all the time.  Heart melt.

A weekend in the Tuscan countryside

In the last year and a half, I've gone from living at home, to living at school, to living in a tent, to living in Europe.  And lately, I've been filled with a whole lot of questions.

That's really why leaving home is hard.  Because when you're surrounded by your best friends and your favorite flannel pillowcase and the soccer field you've been playing frisbee on for a while, it's easy to know who you are.  You are exactly who you have been for as long as you can remember.

But in a new place, in a dorm room far from your bedroom, in a tent in the woods, in an apartment in a different country it's harder to know exactly how you fit into the fabric.  It's enough to make you reexamine a lot of basic things you thought you knew.  To pull up roots you thought were sure to stay firmly in the soil.

I spent my weekend in the countryside.  I miss leaves and grass and fresh air.

Pictures of Madrid

Pictures of dawn

Guys, I'm really sorry there's been a lack of blogging lately.  Like I mentioned before I'm sorting through this really big, potentially life-altering decision and its requiring a lot of research and time and effort.  And I've also been writing these long novel-length emails full of inquiries and intentions, and at the end of the day I just don't have it in me to write up blog posts about how cool Madrid was, even though I know you want to hear about it and see pictures.

Luckily, I have the best, most supportive family in the whole entire world.  When I send them emails full of crazy ideas, they don't just write me off.  They make me evaluate and question what I'm doing, and push me to look for more than just the easy route out.

Also, sometimes my Dad sends me pictures like this:

And then he says stuff like "I took this pic for you earlier today!  I was thinking how this is the dawn of your adulthood!"

I really miss dawn in Alaska.  And I really miss my Dad (also, you too, Mom!  And you too, Zayn).  But for the first time in two months, I don't feel like I would rather be in my mountainous winter wonderland state than here.  It's kind of a big shift in my perception of life this year.

I promise I will go back to my regular routine of blogging nearly everyday about things you couldn't possibly care about in a week or two.  But for now, I need this time for myself and my own thoughts.