Born to travel

      As I'm laying in bed foreseeing what I assume will be a sleepless night all I can do is think about how lucky I am to be traveling so soon after my big trip this past winter break. I have been chosen to be a co-trainer at the AFS Returnee Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. Along with going to Washington D.C. for the first time I'm heading out there a couple of days early. I am going to go visit Claire and stay with her there for a couple of days. For those of you who have read my whole blog you'll remember she was one of my good friends in Berlin. We actually met through our blogs! She saw my blog and contacted me there shortly after I moved to Berlin and then we connected and started hanging out a lot!
      The last time I saw Claire was a time I couldn't blog about. There were so many emotions about going home I wouldn't of even been able to put them into words if I had wanted to. Now its much easier to talk about the reverse culture shock! The last time Claire and I saw each other was in Washington D.C. where the CBYX kids had to stay in DC and go down one hallway and the students who were continuing home that day had to go through another hallway. We had been together that last day in berlin when we both left our families and friends and even on the airplane we sat next to each other recollecting on our past year and experience. We never really realized that'd we be leaving each other. We knew we had to leave our families and friends but it never registered that she was going home to Pennsylvania and I was going back to Missouri. We had talked about s both taking a gap year and heading to South America to have another exchange experience, but that didn't work out the way we had planned! We have always stayed in touch here and there. She's actually the one who recommended me for the AFS internship after she had been working there with the Returnee Initiative as well.
      So here we are almost three years after the day we parted from each other in Washington D.C., and tomorrow we will be reunited in Washington D.C.
We both think that this will end up like the sleepovers we had in Berlin whether it be at my family's house, her family's, or Uscha's. I can't wait to see Claire to catch up with her and then add another city to my list of places I've visited.
     After I hang out with Claire I'll be heading to the Leadership Summit where I'm excited to be able to lead many more returnees in the direction of taking on the role of Returnee Coordinator!