Back at Penn: Weird, but cool

So I'm back now, and finally starting to actually feel like I'm back. It took a few days, and took finally seeing people I knew and not just running around with Mom and Dad trying to get settled and get everything I needed.

So Thursday I moved in. It went pretty smoothly. Friday morning I had coffee with Karolin, my German teacher from sophomore year at Penn who now teaches at Cambridge that I visited in her hometown of Lübeck during my year in Berlin. (That was a complicated explanation!) That was really fun. Karolin is cool and we got to speak German and talk about all the things about America that seem weird to us.

Then I met up with my parents and we ran around getting stuff for my room. I took them to Ikea for the first time, which was fun but took awhile! After a long day of shopping and a nice dinner, I spent the night in the hotel with them so we could sleep in the next day before heading off to Maryland for my grandparents' big 60th wedding anniversary party.

That was quite fun. Saturday was pretty chill; we just hung out a bit, had dinner at their "dining hall" and then presented them with the incredible quilt that my cousin Emily made (though we all had a small part in it! - we each made a square). They loved it. We let Grandma and Grandpa get to bed early, but the rest of us (minus Ann and Jim) hung out at the guest house where everyone else was staying. It was quite fun, especially the part where Emily and I realized that we both sneeze like crazy when we pluck our eyebrows. We suspect that it could be hereditary, but we haven't figured out who we inherited it from. Probably the best line of the night though was my dad's: "I get the hiccups when I clip my toenails!" That's what happens when too many Lordemans hang out in the same room for too long...

Sunday was the big day. In the early afternoon was a reception which they had invited all their friends too, and that was fun. Then there was a brief break in the action before a fancy dinner at their favorite restaurant, Normany Farms. After dinner was more chatting at the guest house, though this time many of us were much more tired, so less hilarity ensued.

Monday morning my aunt Jane graciously drove me to the D.C. metro stop nearby so I could take a train from D.C. back to Philly. I arrived a little before noon and had time to chill before the Campus Crusade meeting at 1.

Between that and a cookout tonight, I've been reunited with tons of friends and met lots of the sophomores (whom I of course hadn't met yet because I was gone last year when they were freshmen). There are some cool new people! Good times. In addition to that, me and Shannon have been goofing off together like we always do, so Penn is starting to feel more comfortable and normal and fun. When I first got here, it was mega weird; it was like having been in a time warp or something. You don't often go somewhere for a few years, then leave it for a year, and then go back. Usually when you leave, it's either for a much shorter time (like the summer) or for good. But I'm adjusting now.

Classes start tomorrow. I hope they will be good. I also have to meet with lots of advisors to figure out how to get my credits from Berlin transfered and to apply for Fulbright and to line up an internship and yada yada yada...

That's what's new!