An Ode to Clara

Well, okay. Not quite an ode. More like a tribute. Or a love letter.

Clara is a ball of sunshine. She's always ready to give advice and listen to my ramblings. She's a great late-night working partner and is always keen to share a bowl of spicy ramen. Clara is a deep, thoughtful, caring human being. She has a way with words-- written words-- and can write the socks off almost anyone I know. She is a genuine person and is fun to be around. She makes me feel like a real person when I want to curl into ball and let the world spin around me.

Clara's blog is as adorable as baby shoes. Her posts are always insightful, thought-provoking, and deep. Her ability to find images to go along with the posts is astounding, and she is a GREAT regular poster (something I aspire to be!). She is not afraid to write her mind, even if it's a one-line appeal, a journey, or a heartbreak. Clara, half the time I read your blog I want to reach through the screen, across the country, across the world, and give you a gigantic bear hug. And because, Clara, for some reason your blog won't let me post, I've written you this ode. Or tribute. Or love letter.

It's to let you know that I'm here for you, no matter what. It's to let you know that even while you're in Denmark and missing everyone just like I am, we still have each other. And when we go back to school for the spring, you and I will be the people with the stories to tell, the life experiences, and the battle wounds to show for our trips. Plus each other. 'Cause you'll always have me. So don't fret, enjoy your trip, and cheer up some! Because even though it's a terrifying new experience (at least for me, it is), you're there to have some fun.  :)


Also, an aside: no worries. There is no before and after; there is only now and what comes next.

Midwestern Grocery Stores vs Argentina: A Comparison

Alright, since I drafted that post yesterday and didn't post it only because I forgot, I'm calling it yesterday's post and writing another one for today.

Today's post is dedicated to travelling. This is not only because I leave for Argentina in a little over a week and am completely freaking out about it; we went to visit my grandparents earlier in the summer and I found some photos I'd forgotten about, so I figured today was a good a day as any to lump everything together under one heading.

So, to get this over with: Things I Like (warning, it's a little picture-heavy today)
 
3. Midwestern Grocery Stores
Yeah, I know, it seems like a pretty strange thing to find on this list. Really, we didn't do a huge amount of grocery shopping so I'm talking about one in particular: Woodman's. I can tell what you are thinking. You're calling up all sorts of stereotypes about the kind of people who live in the Midwest, the types of food they eat, and the kind of things they might have (and not have) in their grocery stores. I can tell this because I was the very same way until actually experiencing one of these behemoths.

I can honestly say that I was so astonished by the Woodman's we went to that I just had to add it to the list. This grocery store must have been the size of a small castle. You could probably jog around the place and call it more than a mile; this place was GIGANTIC.

They even had crazy things like okra pickles!

And they had everything in there! Their selection of hot sauces alone was larger than any I'd ever seen outside a hot sauce specialty shop. They also had huge containers of things, like jars of pickles and olives bigger than my head.

Hell, this store was so large they had to organize the aisles with numbers AND letters!

Madman and I got separated from our parents at one point... and were afraid we would never find them again. Don't lose your kids in here.

It was great. I'm sure you could find just about anything in that store (except, strangely enough, plastic serving platters). It was AWESOME. I maybe even for a second considered moving to the Midwest... but only for a second.


Moving to Argentina, however, is a completely different story. I really like travelling but I think it's the whole idea of going somewhere for five months that's freaking me out. And I am really, supremely, and completely freaking out about going to Argentina. I've mostly just avoided thinking about it; I only started thinking about packing yesterday which is bad, considering I leave in a little over a week. Whoops.

I don't know. I guess what's getting to me the most is the fact that I'm going to be away from everyone I love for half a year. More than the thought of being in a completely foreign environment, more than the idea of getting used to another language, even more than the idea of having to pick up tons of strange customs and live with a family is the stress of being away from everyone. If I were going on a summer program it would be completely different. I don't see a lot of my friends during the summer to begin with; while some of them do live close to me a lot of them live on the other side of the country or places where it's just not convenient or practical to visit. I do get to visit people some, but my parents are really big on spending time with me (I am NOT complaining about this, but it's hard to balance family time and friend time, for sure).

Mostly I think it's the thought that the semester will still go on without me that is making me hesitate so much. People will still take classes, have parties, and get to know each other without me. Life as usual will go on without me. And I'm going to miss everyone so, so much, but I can't do anything about it. And I think that's what's killing me a bit inside. Is that normal?

Things I Like (and then some)

First of all, I just found this lovely new song from Mumford and Sons called Lover's Eyes and gosh, it is wonderful.





Second of all, I found a lot of unloved pictures on my phone that, oddly enough, represent things I think are awesome. So I've decided to showcase them in a list of things I like and do not like. To start it off...

Things I like:
1.  Boxes as tall as my mom
This one doesn't include a picture for the sole reason that she would kill me if it ever saw the light of day, so, to make up for it, number two on the list...

2. Pancakes the size of Texas

Yeah, that's right. That pancake is just shy of a foot in diameter, covered in sugary, baked apple-y, wonderful goodness. The one in the background, in front of Miss Roomie, is a Dutch Oven pancake filled with strawberries and powdered sugar and was also scrumptious! I stayed over at Miss Roomie's house for her birthday and we went out for pancakes that morning, and gosh, were those pancakes worth the 20 minute wait. Mine was a baked pancake-- they cooked the apples, lined a pan with them, poured an eggy batter over it all and baked it-- and I don't even like egg but I thought it was delicious. IHOP has nothing on these pancakes. We only ate about half of them but they were so, so good.