Can you take off the keys to laptops? I’ve noticed recently that there’s a lot of junk down in there – hair and dust and a few crumbs – and I’d like to remedy that situation…

I’ve been busy helping Robin with her blog for the past couple of days; check it out if you have some free time.

I’m listening to Jimmy Buffett to put me in the Florida mood, haha... is he touring this year?

I’ve got to e-mail Linde and see if we’re still going to the beach tomorrow; they’re predicting storms and lower temperatures.

Martin and I went to CenterParcs yesterday to swim – they’ve got slides and a wave pool and a ‘wildwaterbaan’ where you get swept along all kinds of slopes and bumps and then land in a whirlpool. That’s the coolest thing there, even though I hurt some different part of my body every time I do it. :) Yesterday it was my hand; I was swimming away from M, who was chasing me, and we were in a dark cavelike place, plus I had my goggles with the sun protection on, so I couldn’t see anything at all, and I swam into a wall and scraped up the back of my hand. M laughed for about ten minutes.

I wonder how much extra I’m going to have to pay on Monday? Mom, did they count that scooter box as a piece of luggage when you guys came, or was that in some other category? I hope I run into some other people at Schiphol who are going to Jacksonville, haha – then I can see if I can con them into checking one or both of my travel backpacks for me.

It’s hard to adjust to going back home. I think I’m going to have a harder time ‘fitting in’ in America than I ever did before. It’s not just that I’ve learned new ways of thinking and new ways of life, but that I have in many respects lost the old ones. I’m sure it’ll come back fast, but it’s strange.

Plus, leaving just sucks. Next week is the finale of GTST, for example, and I’m going to miss it. That’s a very small thing, but it’s just an example. Life is moving on, the Dutch world keeps turning, and I’m ‘stopping’. Going home isn’t all bad – I get to go to camp, I get a new cell phone, I’ll get my car back, I have a new job, I get to do a bunch of new classes, I can look for a UF basketball league, I can see my baby second cousin (that’s what he is, isn’t he? The son of my cousin?) whom I’ve not yet seen, my aunt and uncle and cousins will be in their new house in Jacksonville, I’ll of course see my own family again... yes, there are lots of reasons to be glad about going back. And I’m not as torn up about it as one might expect. But I’m going to miss Martin and all my other friends terribly, and I’m really going to miss the free, open attitude of this country. As I’ve said before, I know not everything here is perfect and not everything there is horrible, but half the people of America are walking around with sticks up their asses, and it drives me nuts.

Martin’s at work now, and his sweaty, dirty parents just got back from a bike trip to work in their garden (it’s not usually possible to have a ‘real’ garden in your backyard here, so they have a plot in a ‘group garden’ about twenty minutes away). He’ll be back around nine, then tomorrow I go to the beach with Linde (going to SMS her as soon as I’m done here...), then Saturday Alette picks up my bed and I come back to Emmen, then I go back to Utrecht late on Sunday and Linde and I take the car to pick up my suitcases from Rheyngaerde, and then we wake up early Monday morning and I go to Schiphol... and sit for nine hours in a plane... and go home.