So...it's been a while

I just realized my last journal entry was from LAST September - scary, yeah? I guess school took over majorly. Last fall I was buried in applications for summer programs and stuff starting this spring, a lot of which went my way, but just not the way I thought it would. I was accepted by Peace Corps to teach in Western Ukraine but turned down the invitation in the end, which was really hard, because I so wanted to go. It's just that I figured I've put so much work into my Chinese in the last two years, and I didn't want that to go to waste in E Europe, where I'd be learning Hungarian (so epic!) and teaching English but have no time to keep my Chinese from disappearing.

I was *this close* to being awarded the Blakemore-Freeman Scholarship to study in China; I was *the* alternate! And you know, even though everyone ended up accepting their offers, I'm glad I was considered. Maybe next time? I was also accepted into the State Department's internship program for the National Passport Center, which could have been really fun, but I ended up turning them down for family reasons.

What ended up panning out was Middlebury, so I was there for their immersive language program for two months this summer. Talk about intense! My Chinese has really grown from the experience. There were a lot of people who were returnees from previous years, and at the time, I couldn't figure out if they were just masochists or straight up insane (plus rich)...but now I think I would return if given the chance (for mostly free? ).

I'm back in Maryland working at my old company on a new project. It's eating up all my time and makes it so my procrastination tendencies toward my thesis are just that much easier to give in to. But the people are great, and I'm slowly finding time to add exercise and, you know, responsible adult stuff back in to my schedule. I'm thinking of starting up my own editing business in August or before, so we'll see how that goes!

There hasn't been a whole lot of time for photography or drawing, sadly, but I haven't forgotten I have those hobbies. :awww: I'm going through photos from the summer and will post stuff in small surges.

As always, thanks for watching!