this is it. its nearly 5 a.m. on friday july 29, 2011. The day that will change my life forever.  i leave at 5:23 p.m. The 7 days that i had went fast. now ive spend hours packing, weighing, and repacking trying to get everything to fit. i think i finally got it. it also doesn't help that our scale is really old and im not sure if it is right.  so when i first weighed my suitcase it was 65 pounds! so i took a few hours to slim it down a bit, but now i have very little trouble closing the bag... its just that my carry-on is going to be majorly heavy (which dad is going to complain about). but seriously how do they expect you to fill that size of a suit case without going over 50 lbs. its hard. i took everything heavy out and put in my carry-on. it now has all my pins, shoes, books, and clothes in it. but any way... i am currently trying to stay awake to test my theory of anti- jet lag.  the goal is to stay up all night and all day so when i get on the plane i can go right to sleep and not stress out over everything.  but i do think i am going to take a hour and 1/2 nap...
so night :)

******************NEW JACKET ACCESSORY!******************

I LEAVE IN 7 DAYS!

7 days! i cant believe i leave in 7 days! WHAT AM I DOING! everything feels like a dream i cant believe that i am leaving in a week. at this time in 7 days i will be over the Atlantic ocean some where i cant believe it!

so anyway... update time!

web cam is here and works with Skype... yay
picture frames are put together
Pit is here and ready to go.
my going away party is tomorrow... just got all the stuff for that today!
got all my euros yesterday
got my ticket yesterday too
got some luggage tags that say "NOT YOUR BAG!" on them :)
got eye mask and ear plugs just in case for the flight
got a neck travel wallet so i can keep all my important things with me at all times

i was going to actually start packing tonight but considering its 12:33 AM i don't think that i am.  i really need to though. people on my Facebook group aren't leaving for a month and are packing! everybody wants a piece of me right now. mom and dad want to spend time with me, john wants me, tiff wants to spend the night, Hannah wants to hang out. plus my room is trashed and i need to clean it before i leave.

so this is what i am thinking:
Saturday - party
Sunday - laundry, packing, johns
Monday - with mom or packing
Tuesday - tiff spends the night and helps me clean and pack
Wednesday - Shippensburg fair with Hannah and others
Thursday - with john (his birthday), last minute packing
Friday - DC airport ... meeting up with summer at some point

Thats about it... goodnight

So i am starting to get more and more anxious.  i have dreams where i am kind of like watching my life on TV and i am like "wow shes going to Germany" then i realize "wait that's me! HOLY CRAP I'M GOING TO GERMANY!" everything in my life feels unreal right now. I don't know how to describe it. I am happy that i get this opportunity, scared that i have to start life all over again (i have never changed schools so this is kinda hard for me - the whole make friends thing), sad that i have to leave my loved ones behind, tired from weird dreams that don't allow me to sleep, stressed because i want to start packing but don't know where to begin (especially because all the clothes i will take i always wear), and confused because i have no clue where i am in the stage of preparation.  So my mission for tonight is to sort through all my things i have together so far and make a list on here.  (hopefully this will only take a few hours - its midnight)

• Things that I have together

Yesterday i got back from Vacation.  John, Dad, and I went from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin to Michigan and back home.  The trip started Friday July 1 and went until Saturday July 9.  on Friday we left home at 4 pm and i drove the whole way through Pennsylvania 45 miles into Ohio. EXHAUSTED! I was only supposed to drive to the first rest area in Ohio but of course it was closed for construction. just my luck! We were headed to Madison WI, which is about 750 miles and is supposed to take about 13 hours.  well when we stopped we programmed the GPS to take us there and we chose the "shortest route".  BIG MISTAKE! that took us on some tiny highway all the way from Chicago to Madison. when i say tiny i mean single lane, 35 mph most the time. so instead of taking 12 hours (dad was driving and it was night so no traffic) it took us 14 hours! by the end of the trip we were so exhausted that we were laughing at every little thing.  there was even one time that we passed a sign that was for a snow mobile crossing and i called it a jet ski and tried to explain how a jet ski could drive though fields (there's a lot of rain and flooding and so they have to use jet skis to get around and then it gets cold at night so the water on the road freezes a little and the jet ski comes out of the flooded field and slides across the frozen water on the road to the other field).

After we finally made it to Madison around 6 am EST (we did change time zones for those who don't know but ill keep everything in EST) we went to the hotel and crashed... well dad and john did ... of course i was wide awake.   so i stayed up another hour then finally passed out... then the next thing i no someones banging on the door then opening it. Room service trying to clean my room. it was 8 i slept for a hour then dads texting me at 9 to get up and eat breakfast. so no sleep that night.  Aunt Karen met us around 11 and we drove another 2-3 hours up to my other aunt's house.  Those hours were spent playing the ABC game (find words that start with each letter of the alphabet in order). i was stuck on X while we were driving down another one of those highways where all there is are trees on either side of you for 50 miles.

John, Chelsea (my cousin), and I hung out in the pool most of that day, after we made many containers of strawberry jam. Then it was off to the hotel with aunt karen.  me and her shared a room. this was another night with out sleep. no not because aunt karen snores or anything, because the air conditioner in the room made a loud, obnoxious rattling noise ALL NIGHT LONG! Up at 11. breakfast, then pool (Indoor with WATER SLIDE) before we left for Aunt Deb's again.  this time instead of strawberries it was a rhubarb day... chelsea and I picked, cleaned, and cut tons of rhubarb and then made a rhubarb strawberry cake. YUM! then Chelsea, John, Holden (another cousin), and I went on a trip to Wisconsin Rapids and went to Walmart then made some pit stops then went home.  then we wanted to get back in the pool.  the day before when we got done we hung out suits on the deck around the pool to dry and chelsea brought them in for us.  I put mine on then i was in the kitchen and i FELT SOMETHING MOVE in my suit! so i run to Chelsea's room and i am flailing around trying to get whatever is in my suit out. after a lot of screaming and crying i finally got it out.  IT WAS A GIANT WOLF SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ran out of the room and was hyperventilating and told everyone else and all they had to say was "hope it wasn't in there long enough to lay eggs" which sent me right back to screaming! Oh, and did i mention during all the flailing i smashed it and i had spider guts on my back and swim suit for the rest of the time! after the pool, we introduced pit to john and my cousins.  if you don't know the game, it's based on the stock exchange and there's a lot of screaming and trading going on just like on wall street.  my dad and his family almost got kicked out of a camp ground when he was a kid for playing this game.  that was something else.  and this wasn't even a week after having my wisdom teeth out so i still had stitches.  not too fun afterwards. after playing for a few hours we went back to the hotel where john and i went swimming again followed but a better night sleep without the AC on.

The next morning we packed up and left the hotel. It was the 4th of July.  We went back to aunt deb's, played more games, made ho bo's and pudgy pies (ho bo - like a grilled cheese except made over fire and has pizza stuff inside, Pudgy Pie - same thing but with marshmallow, peanut butter, and chocolate inside), then John, Chelsea, and I went to the carnival and played games and rode some rides... the one ride was scary... the seat belt was a cut up garden hose that had hooks on it and it didn't even fit John! it flung you around like crazy and if you didn't hold on you would have died! when we got done there we tried to call to get someone to pick us up but no one answered so we had to walk home. it wasn't fat it was just really hot. so by the time we got there we were ready to jump in the pool. everyone else was in there except aunt deb... Kirk (another cousin), Holden, Uncle Jeff, Dad. when we got in we all started playing "see how many hits we can get before the ball hits the water". of course every time i hit the ball it went outside of the pool or somewhere where no one could get to it fast enough... eventually someone just started standing behind me so every time i hit it and it flew backwards they could save it.  after we started getting ate alive by mosquito we got out and eventually John, Chelsea and I went in a car to watch the fire works in a parking lot... Holden came wondering to find us a little later. then we went back and dad, John and I left for Michigan - this time we used the GPS but if we didn't like it we ignored it.  we were traveling at night so there wasn't a lot of traffic so we went kinda down town in Chicago so we could see all the city... it was still dark so we didn't get any good pictures but we did see the sears tower and the other sky scrapers which john and i had never seen before.  we got out of there right as people were starting to get on the road so we avoided all the traffic. we got to Grandma's house around 6-7 and we finally got to sleep again... but of course i was wide awake and sat up and talked to grandma since i got to sleep on the couch. i finally fell asleep and was woke up several times before i finally got up. i don't even remember what time it was.  we spent that day at grandma's. then next was spent in battle creek seeing Aunt Sue then we hit the Hi-Lite in Marshall (a old fashioned drive in kinda like sonic) then went to Coldwater to see my mom's side of the family.  we spend a few hours there with Aunt Dede and Uncle Paul and my 2 cousins Cindy and Seth and Aunt Tammie and my mom's cousin Gabe. the next day was fix it day around grandmas house then we went on an excursion.  we went to Jackson where my dad grew up and went to an ice cream place called the Parlour (formerly Louds) and we ate ice cream... they were huge... me and john eat got a brownie fudge sundae. it had 2 brownies on the bottom followed by 4 huge scoops of vanilla with 2 more brownies on top and a ton of hot fudge and whipped cream and 2 cherries.  I ate half... dad ate the other half (after he ate his parfait) and john, with much encouragement finally finished his.  then when we all could stand up we made our way over to the cascades.  the cascades is a big fountain type waterfall thing that lights up and is synchronized with music.  we walked up and around the fountain then sat in the stands until it got dark and then show started.  we sat there until about 11 then went back to grandmas.  Friday was spent cooking all day getting ready for the dinner with most of my dad's side.  first to arrive was carrie sue (my dad's cousin) and her family.  after they were there for a hour or so i started to feel sick so i took a nap (john was only supposed to let me sleep 15 mins but he fell asleep too) then we woke up after aunt sue (dads aunt) and Grandma BeBee (my great grandma) showed up. i talked with them a little, we ate, then talked some more.  we all spent most the day outside (Because grandma wouldn't let john and I put the AC in the living room because it gives her head aches so we would occasionally retreat to the bedroom where we did put it) and in the shade.  but overall we had a nice time. Aunt Joyce was supposed to come too (dads aunt, spent a few years in germany) but she had a bad day at work and wasn't up for the commute, so i talked to her on the phone for a little bit.  after everyone left it was time to pack... john and i had our room trashed. grandma told us to strip the bed the next morning and our response was "ha it's been striped for days". the sheets had been on the floor along with half the pillows.  after cleaning and packing it was 11 o'clock.  then neither of us could sleep so we were up til like 2:30.  Then back up at 3:30 and on the road at 4.

our mission was to get to Cedar Point (an amusement park known for roller coasters)in Sandusky Ohio. the park opened at 10... we arrived at 8. so we got front row parking at least.  we stood in line for an hour then we got to go in. All the people ran to find out that we were still blocked in. they made us stand there another hour! so while waiting i sat on the ground and played with my stitches in my mouth enough to get them to fall out.  then we finally got in at 10.  we went and rode the blue streak first (a old wooden roller coaster that the park is famous for). Now me and dad are definitely not roller coaster people. we don't like heights at all. so going to this park i promised john that i would try to ride roller coasters with him.  so we rode it. i hated it. i don't like the ups and downs. then him and dad are both like "it wasn't bad but it kinda throws you around. if you ride this one it won't be as bad." So i said i would go on the Raptor. this one is one where you feet dangle and its got loops and upside downs and everything - the windy type of roller coasters. so we wait in line for like an hour then we make it to the end and i'm almost in tears. they latch us in - closer to tears. then there was no turning back. click click click click click - i'm dead. dads strategy was to close his eyes and hold on  - as long as he couldn't see it coming he was okay.  so i tried it. i could stand the click part then i saw we were almost to the top so i closed my eyes. i heard the train go off of the clickey thing and we are going down. i kept my eyes closed and ended up leaning my head down (apparently you aren't supposed to do that). i'm screaming and just want off. i could tell when we were upside down and that just made it worse. then i felt the breaks ... so i started opening my eyes... bad idea... i heard john say no its not over... then we are going down again and i am screaming even more. by the end i was crying. i got off and walked as fast as i could to the exit.  needless to say it was not a good experience and i am NOT a roller coaster person. after that we went and got slushies and went and sat under a tree for a while. john and i went up in the tower thing to see all of the park and lake Erie.  then we tried to go to the water park... turns out you have to pay an extra $22 each for that. then we went to the bumper cars, walked around to see if the lines for the water rides were long (they were), and started to head for the car. on our way to the car we stopped and played some games. john hit up 2 of the places where they try to guess you age... both guessed he was 17 and hes only 14 so he got a funky hat and a pillow that had a peace sign and said cedar point.  then he played then one where you hit the thing with a mallet and he won and got a tie that said "i'm with stupid --->" which of course pointed to me. a lot of people found that funny and someone even took our picture.  we bought souvenirs and left. then it was 5-6 hours home. john and i passed out as soon as we got in the car.  then dad was having trouble staying awake and john stayed up with him. when we stopped to get gas, john told me he couldn't stay up any longer but i passed out before we were even back on the road.  i slept the whole way home.  we got back and dropped john off then unloaded. our adventure came to an end.

now i have 17 days left until i leave. i have to pack and i am still trying to get last minute things together. i think i am going to ask dad if i can buy a game of pit for each one of my families. they all have kids and it would be fun to teach them how to play.  i also want to see if i can throw together a last minute going away party on the 23rd... maybe with a inflatable sumo wrestling thing and a inflatable rock wall. but  I've got to ask still.  the time is flying by so fast. i already know that i am going on a boating trip to the Netherlands with my school some time after i arrive.  oh and summer (the other girl going to Germany from my district) got the same flight as me so we wont be alone.

until next time,
I'm off to bed... well probably Facebook :)