the US of A

I love it here! Mostly because of the great food, friends and family. I'm about halfway through my trip home, made the rounds in New York and Boston and head tomorrow to DC to start wedding-ing. Highlights so far:

-cousin Peter's engagement party with family I haven't seen in years, AND the most delicious little crab cakes and seared tuna and pineapple sauced cheesecake
-spending time with mom and grandma and pa
-visiting my old high school, talking with the kids about Paraguay and successfully avoiding my old supervisors
-hearing news of the high school Model UN team, which travelled to the Netherlands this year and won its first award at the national conference this month! I'm so proud!
-lunch and beers with teacher friends back at Mugs in Brooklyn
-TWO beautiful Thai restaurants, pad thai noodles and penang curry
-meeting Ben, my friend Carolyn's fiance and likely visitors to Paraguay next February
-keeping up on my spanish with Amanda
-shoe shopping on 14th Street
-finding two potential wedding dresses at the mall in Nashua
-staying with Anna and catching up on her pregnancy excitement
-playing cards at home in Westford and trying to get caught up on Lost before the season finale
-driving my little brother's car
-going to Target and only buying a handful of things - I really am not of the consumer mindset anymore
-discovering dark chocolate M&Ms
-sharing terere wherever I go
-knowing that even though I'm happy here, I'll be ready to go back to Tacuati in 10 days too