Visiting Dignitaries My sister Becca is here till Sunday morning, and I have to say I am fairly exhausted. Who knew that going downtown could be so tiring? Plus it's been so incredibly hot here. I'm going to struggle with going back to Nebraska and 90+ temperatures and 80% humidity if I think this is bad. I guess it doesn't help that I got baked by the sun the other day and now I feel like a lobster. In any case, it's been interesting having Becca around. She is sleeping on the floor; we've somehow managed to squeeze a mattress into the remaining space in my already tiny room. Which means that it's pretty cramped in here. And my room feels really messy, which makes me feel a little stressed out... but it's not. It's just full. Beth and I have been playing guide to Becca's tourist, which has been fun, but a little difficult after awhile. I keep forgetting that this is her first time to this city, and these things I've been staring at all semester are new and exciting to her. I loved the look on her face when she came around the corner and saw Big Ben for the first time. Her jaw just dropped. It reminded me of the way I felt the first time I looked down past Trafalger Square and saw the gold gleaming off the towers of Westminster. All the postcards were true. And it filled me with such a sense of awe. But now that I've been here for five months and I've been downtown countless times, I tend to think "Oh, it's just Big Ben again." Don't get me wrong, I still can't believe I'm here, that I've been here for so long. I guess it's just all part of the process of feeling at home in a place.

Fifteen Days It seems crazy that I'll be leaving England for who knows how long in only two weeks from tomorrow. I finally start to feel at home in this country, and then I have to get ready to leave it. I started sorting through papers today. They had grown from little stacks into mountains on my desk. I look around my room, and I wonder how I'm ever going to fit all of this into three suitcases. I was dreading living in a room by myself after two and a half years with roommates, but now I'm dreading going back to school in the fall and not having my own space. Fortunately, there will be that in-between time, the transition period where I readjust to my own culture. The image of my grandma's house sparks another set of thoughts. Questions about fitting in, about whether or not I will be different or the same, if I want to be the same. So much of this semester has altered the way I think about life, the way I see myself, the way I see others, the way I see my country, the way I see my family. How can I have these experiences and not be different? There have been people in my life this semester that have become a part of me, and inevitably, I'm not the same person as I was before I met them. They've influenced me, whether for good or for bad, and either way, even if it's a minute shift, there's a difference. The interesting thing will be to see how much others see it in me, if at all. I've warned my little sisters to keep an eye out for changes and to let me know. I'm sure my mom will notice if there's anything out of the ordinary. I'm trying to pin down the change here, and I think I probably won't be able to figure anything out until I get back to the States. I will still be learning from this experience years from now.