Not all those who wander are lost...: June 2012

(Congratulations to the class of 2012!!)

After being away for about nine and a half months, I'm finally back in the States! It's strangely normal. I guess I've only been getting homesick for Paris when I'm alone and away from people I know. And so far that hasn't been very often at all, which is nice :)

mt. rainier - flight from seattle to spokane

welcome to oxford :)

exam period for the oxford students

The beginning of this month has already been exciting and packed! After leaving Paris on the 31st of May, I traveled to London before my flight back home on the 6th of June. I was able to spend a couple days visiting my wonderful friend, Helen, in Oxford where she has been studying at Oxford Brookes for the last couple of years. It was so good to see her again since January in Stockholm. I also got to spend a couple days in London, including a day with Helen where we watched the flotilla and the royal barge carrying the royal family (Yes, we saw them all!! :D) float down the Thames for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. How exciting!!

oxford pictures

tea time with helen! :)

On the 6th of June, after a couple days of staying with a wonderful family in London, they sent me off to Heathrow so I could catch my flight home (with a layover in Iceland! :P). I'd told my parents and my little sister that I wouldn't be arriving until the 11th of June and had planned with my older siblings to be on the same flight from Seattle to Spokane so that I could surprise them! It turned out very well! They were definitely surprised, especially since I had told my little sister that I would not be making it to her high school graduation. I can't believe she's already going off to college! After many weeks of choosing between UC Berkeley (like my older sister) and UW (like my brother and me), she finally decided to become a Husky! I'm excited that both of my sisters and I will all be in Seattle together!

the tree under which draco malfoy was transformed into a ferret in the fourth harry potter movie! (new college, oxford)

the corpus christi college side of the door that inspired lewis carroll's alice in wonderland

the lamp post that supposedly inspired cs lewis to write the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe

the fauns that also inspired cs lewis' character, mr. tumnus

It's good to be home, but the blogging isn't over quite yet! I'll be spending most of my summer in Spokane, but hopefully I'll be able to get a bit caught up with some trip posts that I didn't get around to during the year so that my parents can see what I did :P And in August and September, I'll be traveling to Ireland and the Hague in the Netherlands to do a program in international justice!

But for now, these are pictures from the UK and Spokane! :) Profitez bien!