Post Europe

I know, I know I haven’t blogged since Europe, and I don’t plan on blogging every day like I did over there. Since I seem to lack time these days you’ll be lucky if you get a 1 post a week out of me. But then remember I am 15 and live in South Dakota, not much to write about. Since Europe, I had about three weeks of summer left, which really wasn’t a lot of time but it was nice to have some time left. Which I might add is a nice thing about South Dakota, it stays nice out side for awhile. I swam, which was awesome since I LOVE to be in the water. I’ve hung out with my friends, and got over jet lag which lasted about two days tops so it wasn’t as bad as going over to Europe. We had some church events, and my favorite was at Wall lake, where my friend Kitty and I swam for like four hours straight (its our new favorite thing). You can see us below Kayaking, which I thought was amazing.

Other wise we have had countless fires and went fishing at a small lake with our friends Don.

Then I started my sophomore year at Roosevelt High School. This semester I am taking English II, Sociology, German, Geometry, Global Issues, and Physical Science. Though school is not my favorite thing, I like high school much better. I also got a job, which I love since I get to work with little kids, and they just kinda rock. But the best thing is we got a new dog. I want to name her Lucy, comment and give suggestions.

For the record

I have been up 25 hours now. I woke up at 5am yesterday in Zurich right when the sun was rising. After a  long drive, a 11 hour flight, 5 hour layover, another 2 hour flight and somehow got here 25 hours later (even thought the math doesn’t work-it happen I don’t have to do math I’m sleeped deprived) right as the sun was setting…i might deserve an award.

I also sat with Thomas. That deserves 7 awards..BIG awards. After thousands of pointless questions (the favorite is the “guess what-chicken butt-you know why cow pie) being poke and touched to the point where I almost went insane, and being snezed on 4 times I think an award is due.

Home

We are after seven wonderful but very long weeks, home. I love Europe, but it will never compare to my flat little South Dakota. I was born in Chicago, but have lived the majority of my 15 years in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I love this state. I love my dog. I love my house. I love the way my house smells. I love the way all the roads are straight. I love the clear blue sky’s. I love my ridiculously bright blue walls. I love my soft carpet. I love my bed. I love the sound of crickets by the creek. I love the quiet. I love Walmart. And as much as I love Switzerland, and it picturesque scenery, this what I’ve grown up with and really grown to love. I’ll go back to Switzerland, I made great friends and the trees, hills, and mountains are beautiful and just plain awesome, but South Dakota will always be my home.

I also love the Church at the Gate people who were crazy enough to wait for at the airport with hugs, and not to mention the balloons Riley and Peyton very kind to hold for me (I missed them!!!) Even though we were half awake, due to 24 hours without sleep we really appreciated it! I am finally home.

On our way

Writing from Atlanta airport…

Yesterday from our last day we thought we’d fill it up and go out with a bang. So we had really like Lucern, Switzerland, which in my opinion is the prettiest major city in Switzerland. We mainly walked around, which I like, because I really like big cities and I love to just walk around and look at the scenery and the people. We we’re still looking for guitar for dad since his was stolen in Chicago, though we saw many cool ones, we didn’t find the one..which was sad. Than we decided to head home, and we’re invited to hang out with our friends the Freys. We had a great time eating fondue, playing with their puppys, and then ended up going to have fire in the Black Forest and ate s’mores. Went and packed and super cleaned the house, and went to sleep around 12:30.

Got up this morning, at 5am Zurich time. Pastor Desmond was brave enough to drive us to the airport that early, we had planned to have coffee but time was short, we’re going to miss that family. Got on the 11 hour flight to the Atlanta airport, though I didn’t sleep I somehow entertained myself. First we ate something (Starbucks would of been better-but we had no control of that oh well) Then we watched a movie called Duplicity, hated it. It was really boring and stupid, but held my attention for 3 hours so I was thankful for that. Then they gave us lunch. Next I colored all of the children’s things, did all the games in the magazines and drew mustaches on all of the faces in the Skymall magazines, ate a snack. Thomas let me borrow his iPod, which thankful he had loaded a girl movie on it for me, so I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, and if you know me you know I get embarrassed during movies…let just say I hid my face under the blanket a few times. Then I took a pen and drew squiggles all over Caleb’s school notes/notebook…not sure what hes going to do and finds flowers and “in case I’m famous someday-Kaitlyn L Hickey” all over his end times notes…maybe he’ll find it as a encouraging little note…doubt it. Next I listened to almost every song on my iPod, and some how that lasted 11 hours. Oh and by the way if you remember flying scared me a little but when we first flew here, now its as easy as walking.
Flying tips:

• Don’t look at the wings-they move up and down a lot
• When you are experiencing turbulence don’t began questioning how the plane works and begin thinking “hmmm I’m 10636m over the Atlantic going 854km/h and the plane is shaking”
• Instead turn on Matt Gilman or Justin Rizzo really loud on your iPod and drowned out the plane noises-it helps
• Don’t sit next to Caleb-though he can be nice also very irritating…I’m not going to expand on that one.
• Bring something to do so you don’t plan your escape if something went wrong-it gives redbull to your nerves
• Think about Jesus a lot and amazingly the plane will stop shaking
• Don’t let your brother lean his seat back when you are sitting behind him

Those were just things I thought of-I really did have a good flight though and wasn’t afraid though it sounds like it-I just had a lot of time on my hands, and thats what I came up with.
We’re in the Atlanta airport now then we get on a flight to Sioux Falls. It will be nice to come home after 7 weeks away, but then I kinda consider that home now too…delima. I have loved this trip, it was amazing and I am so thankful I could go since many people don’t get oppertunitys like this. I love Europe and plan on coming back! We’ll have been going 24 hours by the time we get home and I plan on staying awake…I love to travel

I went to France & ate snails

Tomorrow is our last day in Europe, which is very sad. Lately we’ve just been hanging out around Kandern, hanging out with our friends the Freys, and taking little day trips to random places. Today we went to Colmar which is a little town in France. Colmar is the town where the architect who designed the statue of Liberty lived, and we even saw a smaller version of the statue of Liberty.

But the part of the day that I am most proud of is that fact that I ate snails, three to be exact.

They look horrible, but surprisingly really good. I’ve gotten very use to it here, and am sad to go. So use to that walking through Germany is pretty normal I don’t even think about it anymore. Though at the same time we all are missing home, and our dog. I’ll be home soon, not much else to blog about (its actually sounded pretty boring lately hints the silence). And I can’t wait to see my dog and Jen and Julia, who heads up we’ve been talking about going to Chili’s when we get home (we miss American food!). Hope we get to come back next summer made some really good friends!

Places I’ve been

So I’ve been a little bored lately, and to fill my time I’ve marked down all the places I’ve been.

US States:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Overseas:
Austria
France
Germany
Great Britain
Ireland
Nigeria
Switzerland

What it takes to take a yellow shoe picture

As many of you know I take pictures of my yellow converses every major place I go. This can be quite hard, because you have to be able to have the place reconizable and get your feet all the way up in the air, and yes I look like an idiot every time I take one. So heres a picture that will show you much better then I can explain it to you.

What it looks like in the end

Here we go again!

Getting on a train tonight headed for Berlin. Hopefully we can meet up with our uncle!

Its back!

Thanks to Carter, I have gotten the majority of my posts back (which is good, because I was to the point of frustration where I didn’t want to blog again). We’ve been just relaxing lately, which is what we came to do. Dad has read probably more books in the span of a week than I’ve read in a year, Thomas & Caleb have most likely watched every episode of the office, Mom just reads her bible and writes, and I just finished a book on Esther. In the evenings Dad brings out all six seasons of Hogan’s Hero, which are surprisingly funny. We’ve learned some things about are family, for one we all like personal space, and if Thomas doesn’t get the front seat he apparently gets really sick, and many others. Tomorrow I think we are finally going to Berlin. Dad who has been driving all the very difficult roads, decided to take a break so we’ll take the night train, so we get there in the morning and have time to do everything we want. I pretty sure we’ll go to Wittenburg while were there, but I’ve also heard things about Belgium. Then we head back and I think we go to Paris. Believe it or not, we only have little over 2 weeks left…very sad day!