Last Work Site for the Summer--Charlotte

I've been working in an all-Latino clinic in Charlotte for the past week and a half, as I said last post. It's continued to be extremely slow, but at least I've gotten to read Obama's first book, and sometimes when the waiting room is empty, the secretary lets me have the television remote...so that helps. After finishing my Obama book, I decided I needed to brush up on my European history. Being in Europe made me want to understand how it all fits together...sooo I bought a 1300+ page book about European history. I started that today, and didn't get toooo far, but at least I started.

Last week I managed to hang out with Dave another time, and then one of my friends from App, Liam, came down to visit from Greensboro. I ran into him in the airport on the way to Europe completely randomly, and we agreed to get together when I got back. So we went out Saturday night and found some sort of interesting things to do. Earlier Saturday, I took advantage of the tax-free weekend and having some cash to get some more business clothes and comfy sweat pants, etc. Sunday I went to buy my book. Monday was more or less boring...I came home from work and just got online/watched tv. Yesterday I went to dinner with Amy, a friend from Chapel Hill (Carol Woods) and then App. She just moved here to go to graduate school, and it was really nice to see her and talk forEVER over dinner & cheesecake.

Today was horrific as far as work, and then I headed to the mall again to walk around & people watch. Now I've got to pack all my stuff up to head back to Chapel Hill tomorrow afternoon. I've been looking still at housing in NYC and still haven't found anything for sure. But there's a lot of options and I think I'll be able to find something that is acceptable at least.

I've been feeling more and more like I have really suddenly grown up. I think going to Europe really gave me a lot of confidence in myself & my ability to survive/do things by myself. I'm getting much more excited about going to New York, but also aware that I'm sort of standing on the edge of something huge. I've managed to live in the moment more than ever before I think. My job has been something of a test of my patience, and I've really learned how to keep myself busy when I'm really bored, without complaining (I read something that said it takes just as much brain energy to be bored as it does to do something...). I've tried to catch up on news--getting podcasts from NPR and CNN, watching Colbert Report. So I feel like I've actually become more aware, more interested in learning things because I feel free to do that. Buying a 1300+ page book on European history made me acutely aware of my desire to learn being completely unrelated to school. Which I'm really excited about. Sooo I'm totally nervous about moving, but also feel like it is the beginning some totally new chapter in my life--I'm also really excited about having all my friends from around the world come visit me. Anyway, I'm starting to blah blah blah, so I'll leave you with that.