one week.

In just one week, I will be hosting a birthday party for myself in my garden. We will make a campfire, cook wurst and marshmallow, and have a good time. I plan to invite my host family and close friends in the area. Most importantly, Miriam will be arriving!!! My long-lost and loved mod-mate. A couple other old friends from Bethel might make it, too, if possible. The party will be bittersweet, as I will also be saying good-bye to my best friends in Germany, Anna and Nanna. They are returning to England and Finland, and my life here will be so strange and empty without them. I have a feeling I´ll fill my time with more bike-riding, gardening, and hopefully painting. It is possible that I´ll make new friends, but it is also getting a bit too late in the year to make any connections as solid as ours. I am so thankful that they´re leaving as the weather begins to warm, though. It will make the transition easier, as I´ll have some outdoor activities with which to occupy my time. I would have been severely depressed to find myself alone and without a social life during the dark months of January or February.

Following the garden house party, Miriam will stay with me for a couple days. I am so excited to play "tour-guide" and show her my local haunts, beloved nooks and countrysides. It is also strangely necessary for me to have someone from back home witness me living here. I´m not sure why, but I need this. Maybe just to prove that I can survive somewhere outside Kansas, get around, speak a new language, be responsible, and be happy. I´m not really sure.

Monday, April 6 (day after my birthday) begins my Easter holiday, and Miriam and I will depart from Lübeck for Ireland! We will only be able to stay one week, but I cannot contain my excitement. Going to Ireland has been a dream of mine for so long, and it will be so incredible to spend it with such a good friend. We really need to start making some tentative plans, but don´t want the trip to be too stressful with an overloaded itinerary. Public transportation in Ireland isn´t the best, so we might be renting a car instead of worrying ourselves with confusing and limited bus schedules. This makes sense, but I´ll admit that driving on the left side of the road makes me nervous... oh well. It will be good for us, right? We´re also both REALLY limited with our budgets, so we´re going to do couch-surfing (free!!) instead of booking hostels or hotels. At first this made me a bit uncomfortable, but I´m a member now of a couch surfing online network, and it is very safe. You can choose to stay with fun, young students in a flat, families of all sorts, old couples in their cozy homes - anyone! It also enhances the traveling experience, as the hosts love meeting new people and are happy to give local insight - even provide meals! I think this decision is going to reward us in several unexpected and fulfilling ways! It will be nice to feel like we´ve made some connections everywhere we visit, as well.

Just one week. My life will be quite different in a week.