July 29, 2010

Minnesota - No Matter Where I Roam, You’ll Always Be My Heart, You’ll Always Be My Home

Thirty-six days after I walked through the doors at Hubert H. Humphrey terminal at the Minneapolis – St. Paul airport, I am headed back to Cali, Colombia for my second year of a two-year contract teaching 8th grade math. While I am leaving only a mere eight hours earlier (to the day!) than I did last summer, I feel completely different about it. I am leaving Minnesota knowing that the relationships I have here can stretch across any ocean, mountain range, gulf, or border - after all I have already had a year to test it out. I leave without a sense of anxiety about what Colombia will look like, feel like, be like, etc. I leave with the comfort of knowing I can do this whole teaching thing, and that most days it’s a pretty sweet gig that I usually don’t mind getting out of bed for in the morning. (And a whole summer off only improved my outlook on the teaching profession!) Somewhere along the way I seem to be developing this “It will work out”, “Live in the moment”, “No regrets” attitude and although I definitely have a long ways to go from letting go of my Type A natural stress mentality, things seem to be going pretty well right about now...

Here are some pictures to recap the rest of my summer in Minnesota.

Visiting with my goddaughter Stefanie. Kids grow so fast - I cannot believe how big she is now!! And she carries on entire conversations and its just fabulous. :)
Visit to my college town of La Crosse, Wisconsin where my brother Joe is living for the summer. Nothing like a little Wednesday wing night and a few games of bags!
Grand Ole Creamery with my friend Liz. If you live in Minnesota or ever visit in the summer you should probably go there everyday.
Night game at Target Field!!! Minneapolis skyline + sunset + outdoor baseball + a win against the White Sox!

Father/daughter trip to Al's Breakfast for a some short short WW wally blues. (AKA one giant whole wheat blueberry pancake with walnuts AKA heaven on earth) You should probably go here too. Although expect a wait because there is one counter and 13 stools in the entire place. In fact, this photo captures about 40% of the entire restaurant.
Country themed going away party for my friends Anna and Andy who are moving to Thermopolis, Wyoming so Anna can teach 4th graders how to be awesome.
Visit to Target Field with Alex during his quick 36 hour visit to Minnesota. And the Twins had a walk off win against the White Sox in the ninth. I am going to refer to it as the game of the year, and I was there. WIN.
Pool time with the ladies!
Going away dinner. Mmmmmm pasta.
Saying goodbye to brothers who are 15 and now taller than me and think that makes them cool. (HI D BABES!)

1 comment:

Bethany said...

I'm glad you had a great time at home! Enjoy your 2nd year in Colombia!

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