Oh Canada...

Well folks, part of my journey in Germany is over... I'm done school! I picked up the last exam of my undergraduate career on the 23rd of July. And I've got one word for you:

Woohoo!!

Only problem was that the exchange students wrote their exams the second last week of class and then picked up their report card in the last week of class. This meant that while I was finished, all my friends taking regular university courses hadn't even started their exams yet. So I pulled out my trusty calender to check how much time I had before my new job started. 1 week... 2 weeks... 5 weeks... 7 whole weeks of hanging out in Bamberg while everyone else studied. Not exactly my idea of a fun time. So, I hopped on a plane and spent 3 glorious weeks back home for a visit.

Now, one of my sisters is currently studying at the University of Pittsburgh (and a rather brilliant member of their volleyball team if you ask me... What can I say? Sisterly pride) so we don't often get to spend a lot of time together as an entire family. Who decided to have Thanksgiving on two different weekends?! But with my suprise visit home and Amy's short break before training camp we actually got to hang out, all 6 of us!

And since it was summer, what better place to go than the cottage! There we are - hanging out and walking down memory lane

Now, one of my favourite parts of our cottage is the waterfront. We don't have any place to stand in the water, it just drops off a good 20 feet where the rock hits the water. My sisters and I spent hours as kids "diving down deep" to see if we could touch the bottom... not that we really wanted to anyways. It was super gucky... eew. But we also spent hours jumping off our towers. Up and jump and up and jump and up and jump with your eyes closed and up and jump down deep and up and jump... It never got old. And still doesn't. Below we've got Kristi on the diving board, Amy on "Big Townie" (if you jump off this one you get your name on the list!), Kim on the little tower, and I'm jumping off the railing. Cowabunga!


Here's a nice up-to-date shot of the four girls: Kim, Amy, me and Kristi. No one ever believes that I'm the oldest... sigh...


And when we're not swimming there is only one thing to do. Assume the position!

Book? Check. Comfy chair? Check. Cold drink? (Umm... we'll assume that it's hiding behind the chair) Check.

Reading and swimming weren't the only events of the weekend. We also went paddle-boating, watched the waterfalls (unfortunately they were too big to swim in this year), took the daily morning dip, had the neighbours over and went waterskiing! Only problem... I haven't been waterskiing in a year. I could barely move the next day!

It was a little cold hopping in... Brr!

And since we were fortunate enough to spend a week together as an entire family, we just had to get a picture of us all. And I do believe this is the most cottage-y picture a Town could take. Sitting around a table playing "Crazyoli".

(Mom, Amy, me, Kim, Kristi, Dad)

Now, I suppose I should tell you a little bit about Crazyoli... Well, it was a card game invented by grandpa Town. You play with 2 decks of cards and it's a mixture of Poker , Ramoli and Crazy 8's (but with Town family rules for what the cards do). I'd tell you more about the rules, but I really don't want anyone's head to explode. It's the most fun card game I know, but your first game is always a little difficult.

My mom can be a bit of a goof-ball... And it provides the whole family with buckets of laughter. This particular game of Crazyoli, Mom got delt a hand that was all red cards (we had one red deck and one blue one) so she decided to go into the poker pot "blind" (without looking at her cards). When it was time to show your cards we ended up with the usual. A few people had pairs and one person had 2 pairs. Meanwhile, Mom was frantically picking up her cards and thinking "Shoot... I don't have a pair! I don't even have a face card!" Then she took a closer look: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... Holy cow, she had a straight! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! It was the hand of the night.

Needless to say, Mom was quite pleased.

Here we are again, peacefully enjoying a beautiful summer day on the end of the dock.

(Kim, me, Amy)

And then Kim threw us in.

I love my family - what a bucket of laughs.

On top of hanging out at the cottage I got to spend some time in Waterloo with my cousins - they were up visiting from the States. It's great, when I'm around them I feel positively short! Could be the fact that they're both 6'7"... We spent most of the afternoon climing trees (which was another trip down memory lane).

I also made it up to Medeba, where I was reunited with the camp crew. It was absolutely fabulous to be able to spend a couple days with my friends there.

It really was the best vacation I could ask for - practically perfect in every way. Until the day came to catch my flight back to Germany... Boy was that a loooooong day.

Mom, Kim and I showed up at the airport 3 hours early, just like you're supposed to for international flights. At 1:00pm I was standing in line, waiting to check in for my 4:00 flight. While we were waiting there, one of the Airtransat ladies came by telling us to come back in 30 minutes - they were only checking in the flight to Italy. We duly left the line and decided to say our goodbyes - there really was no point in the two of them staying as I waited. Wrong! Within 5 minutes of their exit I was back in line. When I got up to the desk I found out I was the first person to check in for my flight. Woohoo, that meant extra leg room AND an aisle seat. What's the catch? Hmm... could it be that the flight actually didn't take off until 11:30pm? Yep. I think it could. I wasn't 3 hours early, I was 10! Luckily enough, Mom and Kim came back to the airport later on and took me out for dinner. A good meal sure can make up for a lot of things :)

So there you have it, my summary of my spiffy summer vacation.

Cheers,

Sandy