I’m back in New Jersey, recovering from Germany. Just kidding. Kind of. My last night in Munich was wonderful. It made me sad(der) to leave. Except I couldn’t wear the dress I wanted to for my going away party because it was too cold. This is in July remember. When I checked into my flight in Munich (in German of course), the guy was like, “Um…why do you have an American passport?” and then when we were about to land in New York, the flight attendant was passing out customs forms and asked me what kind of visa I had to enter the US. It’s flattering, but I don’t like having to admit nationality out loud in public.  

My mom was waiting for me in JFK. After so much traveling alone it was nice to have someone waiting for me at the airport. I just collapsed onto my bed my first night home. It took me literally the whole next day to unpack, or I should say it took me a whole day to figure out how to get all my clothes into my already overstuffed closet. That night we went out to dinner in Atlantic City with my aunt and uncle who were visiting. We had Cuban food and it was lecker. I’m still getting used to this whole English thing.

My best friend, Katie, came down for the weekend. The clouds ruined our beach plans but we had fun on Saturday night, once we got away from the sketchy men at the bar with comically strong Boston accents who wanted to chat about NASCAR. Monday I finally got my beach day with my friend, Emily. My mother had warned me about staying in the sun too long and of course I didn’t listen and now I have sun-induced blisters all around my lips. We went in the water and I thought it would be a great idea to keep my sunglasses on. So now they’re gone. God, my problems are all so first world. Anyway, it was a good beach trip. Scratched that itch, as my mom would say, if she would stop lecturing me about sun damage.

Monday evening I went out to get my split ends trimmed and buy myself some new cheap sunglasses, without my license. That part I realized after I got back. I had given it to Katie to keep in her purse when we went out and forgot to get it back. Oops. At least I got away with it. The rest of the week I spent catching up on my social life here. It’s a good thing I have a pool to invite people to and a father who is willing to drive me around like I’m still a freshman in high school. And since my group of friends who still live here gets smaller every time I come home, I’ve had time to think about law school (scary) and moving to Miami (exciting). I have a stack of books of “suggested summer reading for 1Ls” which I will tackle as soon as I finish choosing pictures to print and hang on the walls of my new apartment.