photos thus far.

I lived here. 

See that very tip-top room? That was mine.

{Bradford}

this is the place we saw a woman walking her ferret. 

it smelled. 

{Hilversum}

you turn left right at the shadow to get to our house.

{Hilversum}

this is the first house I lived in, in the Netherlands. 

we had the top floor, and 

see the little rectangle window, right behind the street lamp? 

that's where Abigail was born.

{Hilversum}

we visited a Scots church today. 

and after a short discussion, we decided that this was a fragment

of the bomb that blew up the original church 

during WWII. 

{Rotterdam} 

{Skipton}

fish and chips, of course. 

{Skipton}

I've been to Skipton Castle so many times. 

Beautiful, isn't it? 

{Skipton}

{Skipton}

My friend Claire and I bought some rhubarb and

custard last week. 

It's now my favorite candy. 

{Skipton}

a little off on the focus (silly 50mm lens), but it gives you

an idea of how many bikes there are. 

{Hilversum}

this was the park directly behind our house on Laangstraat. 

so many hours spent there. 

{Hilversum} 

overlooking the Yorkshire area.

{Bradford} 

{Bradford}

{Bradford}

this is the pub in Skipton that we used to eat at. 

one of the places I remember well. 

{Skipton} 

{Skipton}

of course, the quintessentially British phone booth. 

{Skipton}

a refugee fair in Bradford. 

that's Sambalifax on stage.

{Bradford}

downtown: charity shops, charity shops, and more charity shops.

{Bradford}

this mosque is new and massive and beautiful. 

{Bradford}

  

just outside Lister Park. 

{Bradford}

we might have walked through a wedding/wedding photos. *cringe*

{Bradford}

more of Lister Park. 

{Bradford}

we only lived in Bradford during the winter. 

consequently, I had no idea that you could play in this water. 

{Bradford}

the water is so green.  

{Bradford}

again, the boats were always in during the winter, so it was never like this. 

{Bradford} 

this was always my favorite swing at Lister Park. 

{Bradford}

so yeah. that's been my week. we're here in Holland until Sunday, and then we head on 

to Brussels. It's been great so far. 

back home at last.

I'm in England now. There's 15% battery left on the laptop; I'll keep this short. It's 53 degrees and drizzly outside. Uncle Bruce is roasting coffee beans while I'm curled up on the couch trying to stay awake. Seriously jetlagging. We're going to go pick up our rental car in an hour or so in downtown Bradford, hopefully stopping in at some of the charity shops. I'll spam you with photos tomorrow.

How have you been in the past week since I've talked to you?

where no one knows my name.

listening to: Boston, by Augustana. 

lyric love: "She said I think I'll go to Boston/ I think I'll start a new life/ I think I'll start it over/ Where no one knows my name." 

It's a little eerie. I remember last year, counting down the days, posting the blog posts about how only eleven more days. 

And now I'm starting that over, except this time it's France, and I'm feeling so, so ready to leave.

Incidentally, my cousin told me today that I'll fit right in in France, which was sweet because, 1) I was wearing a very casual knit dress when he said that and 2) I had swimming hair haphazardly thrown up in a bun on the top of my head.

But yes, just ten more days until I leave, and I cannot wait and I'm so exciting and it's gonna be so amazing and really, I get to go to all the places I used to love and I haven't been there in years, so I could not be more excited.

Please bear with me as I get increasingly excited.  

"Leaving feels good and pure only when you leave something important, something that mattered to you. Pulling life out by the roots. But you can't do that until your life has grown roots." John Green, from Paper Towns.

smiling so hard it hurts.

This is metaphorical photo throw-up. I've let a busy, fun-filled week go past without any real update, so here's that.

On Sunday afternoon we hit Goodwill (new leather belt- $0.99) and explored the Children's Garden. Eighty-nine cent slushies and blue tongues for the win.

While we were wandering around Minnetrista (the "cultural center" of our town) the stage was just sitting there empty...and of course we couldn't pass up an opportunity like that.

Ummm, yes, that would be me, as Peeta, defending Katniss while she's in a tree. I'm not sure about the first one though. Maybe me as the tribute Peeta killed, and Shaina as Katniss, taking the bow and arrows from me?

I'm deathly afraid of koi...this picture took some guts.

On Monday we drove up to Indy with Shaina's family. Her mother had surgery (she's fine, but prayers are appreciated!) and we tagged along to spend the day shopping. We hit a billion stores, including Forever 21, Borders, and 2 different stores looking for TOMS. We finally found the right pair in the right color at Nordstrom's. No picture yet, but I can promise there will be some soon.

Have you seen the new program TOMS announced yesterday? You can check it out here. So far, I'm loving my shoes. I'd love to get a pair of their sunglasses, but $135 is just a wee bit pricey for me.

How's your summer break been going? Two more weeks until I leave.

i love this.

"Point to your eye," I told her. She wrinkled her nose and asked me why. "Just do it, ok? I'll show you in a second." She pointed, I snapped a picture. "Ok, now make a heart with your hands," I demonstrated, "like this. No, okay, stop pointing to your eye and just make a heart. Awesome. Now point to me."

And then I made my first gif. 

Happy summer, dears. Here's to new skills, late nights, and summer music.

this is my face and my voice.

You should probably expect a lot of these in the future. Crazy enough, I like this whole vlog thing. 

Please note the way I say 'town' at one point. I promise I don't say it like that in real life. 

And. Clearly I was nervous. I rarely, if ever, ate the fish in my fish and chips. So let's revise that to say, "hopefully we'll get some chips." And if we're lucky, some bacon crisps. 

Have a lovely weekend.