Finally, an entry! It's not that I haven't had the time recently, I simply haven't had much writing fodder. I hardly think you'd like a daily recounting of how I slept too late, drank too much coffee, and hung out with friends. A few days ago, it occured to me that I had stopped thinking. I haven't, of course, but as I've said, I miss having purpose with each day. Perhaps I ought to decide that putting up an entry each day is my purpose; that'd solve both the "no entries" and the "no purpose" problems!

In the spirit of New Year's Eve, here's a short list of changes in my life over the past year:

Figured out that I'm sick of the humanities and became a Psych major with a Computer Sci. minor.

Realized that I'm bisexual.

Lived in a not-so-great house in the summer and learned very quickly how and with whom I do not want to live.

Went to New York, Boston, and DC for the first time over spring break.

Recieved my first standing ovation since high school, along with the rest of Macalester's concert choir.

Became an RA

Met some of the best friends I've had in my life so far.

Found Mindspace and got to know some fascinating people.

Came out to most of the world, excepting only my dad, grandma, and younger siblings.

Since that's the short list, I'll stop before I fill the page...

Jenna, my 14-year-old sister, left for London on Sunday along with 200 hundred of her marching bandmates, assorted parents and tagalongs. All her preparation and excitement has led me to think quite a bit about my trip to Germany at about the same age.

Right about now you might be thinking: "What? Flighty 14-year-olds going to Europe? Just how spoiled ARE these people?" Well, we have sort of a tradition in our family that each child (four children is enough to establish a tradition, isn't it?) may go on one "adventure" during high school. My older sister went to Belize on an environmental education program, I went to Germany, and now Jenna is in London. Believe me, the "adventure" is not exactly dropped in our laps: I worked hard for over a year to save money for my trip, cleaning houses for elderly family friends, babysitting for seemingly endless weekend nights, even folding laundry for my mom at $1 a basket. As I'm sure was my parents intent, I probably learned as much from the preparation for the trip, working for so long towards such a singular goal, as I did from the actual travel.

Not, mind you, that the trip itself wasn't spectacular. It was quite a different experience than Jenna's will be, I'm sure: There were just twelve of us, 5 girls, 5 boys, and two chaperones. While Jenna and her cohorts are setting up camp for a week in a hotel, we spent a week touring southern Germany by bus and then stayed with host families for two more in a city outside of Frankfurt. Jenna will speak English the entire time, while I had an intense whirlwind of German. Jenna will see the sights with her closest friends, I made new ones, including my host sister with whom I still keep in contact.

My teacher bought us beer at the Hofbrauhaus :-)

My three weeks in Europe rank pretty high in my list of most important life experiences. Since there are far too many stories from that journey to put in one entry, I think that, over the next week or so, I'll toss an anecdote in with each day. I do believe my journal from the adventure is in a box somewhere around here; perhaps I'll add in some excerpts from that, as well.

Baking: Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Listening to: Sweet Honey in the Rock, _Still on the Journey_