Like Christmas Morning

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It’s Sunday morning, which means only a few hours until my friends arrive!!!!! And I can’t wait!!!!

I kicked off this morning with a delicious breakfast (including my favorite mint & spinach smoothie) and a long FaceTime conversation with my mom. I just can’t believe that my friends are going to be here for a week, and then just two days after they leave, I’m off to Sweden. The prospect of doing so much packing and laundry and work before then is a little stressful to say the least, but it’ll be so worth it.

I have plenty of things on my to-do list today, not just in terms of prepping for my friends’ arrival but there’s also some work I have to get done for my research project (figured I better do it today since there’s no way I’ll be disciplined enough to do it at any point this coming week, haha). Then I have to prepare the vegetarian lasagna I’m making for dinner for all of us tonight, so that all that’s left to do once my friends get here is just to put it in the oven. At least now (after days of cleaning) I finally feel like my whole apartment is clean and in order!

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Yesterday’s grocery shopping and the bouquet I put together.

I’ve been thinking a lot about where to take my friends and what to do, since only one of the four of them has ever been to the U.S. before. What should you really show someone, in a country that’s so huge and so diverse, in order for them to get an “accurate” and well-rounded impression of what it’s like here? Hopefully what we have planned will give them some sort of an idea. Tomorrow, we head off to the beach on LBI to stay there for two nights. Unfortunately, it looks like it’ll be rainy and cooler there, but I know we’ll have a nice time regardless. Then, towards the end of the week, we head off to NYC to see the city! There’s another day on our schedule that we have to fill with something, but I’m thinking it’s best to wait and see what the weather will be like and what my friends feel like doing before deciding on anything. Maybe a vineyard in South Jersey?

Anyway, now I have to run and make sure everything is done before their arrival this afternoon! Have a wonderful Sunday!