like a melody in my head.

Haha, so I officially stink at blogging. the end.

Anyway. Since I posted last I have....

moved. moved away from my best friend/next door neighbor. but it's okay! house is beautiful and I love it. here are some randoms of me and and amy, my love..

^^amy and I before homecoming

^^we made cookies. ALL the time!

^^and when we were bored, we'd go dillydally at firewheel.

Nothing super spectacular has happened recently but man oh man. I feel like I'm being squeeezed. I can't breathe (or sleep for that matter). I hope that once I finish these haauuuge papers that I'll be able to function better :). Here's some senior pics:

life.

So I decided that I missed blogging! Not that I was able to blog that much in London.. but I still miss having the little outlet that a blog provides. I'm writing to you if you read it, and if you don't.. then who cares. :) So now that this isn't for keeping up with me while in London, it will be for keeping up with my senior year. sound good?

Sooo what's happened since London. Let's recap. well.. I started my senior year. It's fantastically busy.. seriously. I have SO much going on. I don't even know how half of it gets done! I made captain for cheer! I love it so much. I love the girls, I love the football games, I love practices, I love the gym.. I just love it. I really do! Other than that school work is keeping me busy. I've never written so many papers ever in my life. they say it's a college prep school...! OH! And just as of the beginning of this week I received my acceptance letter to Hardin Simmons University!! I'm so excited! That's where I wanna go - no doubt in my mind. Major in speech pathology.. minor in.. business administration? Maybe.

I'm writing this to Owl City.. it's put me in a super chill mood.

I should probably work on German homework.. here are some pictures since I've posted last:

almost over :(

This was my Falls Creek B trek.. We had an interesting week but it definitely reminded us that flexibility is the key. We started out in South Acton doing more cheer clinics but on the second day we got a call saying it was cancelled for the rest of the week. What to do? Well, we joined up with the Limehouse team who was working with Charles at Departure cafe and promoted the art show that was happening that weekend. We got out into the community and cleaned up the youth center one day and we went into the parks and got to talk to a lot of people. I got sick for two of the days and had to stay home but I heard great stories from my team :)

We left London on yesterday morning to take a two hour train ride to Paris for some debrief time. Basically what we're doing here is doing some paperwork.. filling out evaluations for our teams, saying what worked well and what didn't work so well and focusing on re-integrating into American culture. Reverse culture shock isn't something you think about too much when going on a trip but it is a big deal when you've adapted to something totally different for 5 weeks. It is more likely to be harder going back home if it was easy to adjust to life in London they say.. it sounds about right. I just have to remember not to get frustrated at the things America does differently and enjoy the things that I missed :)

they say time flies..

I feel like a bad blogger.. but. life is busy! This past week was our week off.. a week to rest and get ready for the next batch of one-weekers. A few of us decided to take a train to Edinburgh, Scotland just for fun... here are some pictures:

We have to be walking at 6:45am tomorrow to go to the airport to pick up everyone.. and then the week is crazy from there. Just like week A, all of the students are already placed in groups, but since the ministry with the cheerleading was so last minute there isn't a team for it... which means I have to make my team at the airport by pulling people from their groups. IF there are even any interested girls. Hopefully once we're done with the airport and getting everyone settled in at the university we'll have time to make it out to Acton to catch the end of cheer camp for the day. On Wednesday there is no cheer camp and we will spend the day with Rachel and Casey's group in South Acton.. then on Thurs/Fri we will be at Twyford high school doing cheer stuff all day! Sat/Sun will be spent with Rachel and Casey's group in South Acton again and then Monday is the touristy day.. and then everyone leaves on Tuesday and all of the JSI's leave Wednesday morning for Paris for some debrief!

just for laughs..

and this is Andrew and Garrett working out.

when you have 5 hours a day on the tube..

Falls Creek A left yesterday morning and wow, what a week! We had several people want a relationship with Gd and many many conversations that planted seeds. My trek's schedule was split between working on cheer stuff with the girls at Twyford and joining up with Rachel's trek in South Acton. When we weren't at Twyford we were out on the streets and in the parks trying to start relationships. It was an awesome week! We have a week off and then Falls Creek B gets here and it will be crazy all over again!

exhausted?

squished

snoozin and snuggin

jammin

walking to Departure for morning session

hanging out with some kids at the youth centre

all things cheery :)

This is our routine! We performed it at the evening session tonight :)
***make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and pause the music***

Me, Keele, Alex

Blaine in an extension

Blaine-cradle

This is my Falls Creek A trek! We taught them this routine on the day they flew in and caught on really quickly. We have been at the school the past two days (all day) teaching the girls some cheers/chants and this routine. They feel so honored to have a team of American cheerleaders at their school just to teach them how to cheer, so it's really cool to work with such motivated and excited girls.

look at all these girls!!

first stunt all by themselves!
practicing a prep/half extension.. and spotting!

doing the "matt dance" ... go to youtube and type in matt dance.. and watch the greatness.

Flexibility is the key...

frustration..

Sooooo... today was our day off. And we learned quickly that flexibility is the key to everything. Seriously. I typed up our whole day and then erased it because it was so long and obnoxious haha... basically, anything that could possibly go wrong happened. I think every tube station we (Rachel, Casey and I) went to today we had at least some sort of problem.. We were going to learn our route before next week when our 1-weekers get here but it didn't look like it was going to happen today. But, the good thing is today was our day off and we had no set schedule. After a full day of frustration we got some shopping therapy at Oxford Circus.. H&M, Topshop, Urban Outfitters... yeah it was amazing. Right now we are having a semi-free schedule.. but starting Tuesday the first batch of one-week teams get here and we are trying to enjoy our free time while we have it:)

Ok here's some more pictures!

Casey, Me and Rachel after shopping in Oxford Circus

Where's Ben?!

Me and my good friend, Ben.

And a few pictures from yesterday.....

We had to have our heads covered when we went into some temples and mosques.

awkward jumping

more awkward jumping...

At an Afghani restaurant.. trying new foods.

Dance routine practice video

Here is a video of what our dance will look like. This is Sarah and Kim just practicing then I will have to learn it to teach next week. yay!

In London!

Hey guys! We arrived in London yesterday morning.. and hit the ground running. The whole goal of yesterday was just to stay awake. We moved into our apartments which are really neat.. a lot nicer than I was expecting. We have 18 interns and 2 people to a room. The rooms are really nice... they each have a bathroom and full kitchen and stuff so it's pretty cool. We've been walking several miles a day so far and riding the tube and the overground everywhere.. I love it!

Today I learned a lot more of what I'll be doing while I'm here.. I'll be working directly with Kim and Sarah at Twyford high school with the cheerleading club. We are going to there lunch club/practices and teaching them basic stuff and then after school we are doing a mini-cheer camp where we are going to teach a dance routine and a couple of cheers and chants. I will have 2 iGo teams for weeks A and B, but the thing is.. they haven't been created yet. So we are pr that we can get some cheerleaders out of both weeks and make a team! Me and my teams will also be working with Rachel and her teams in South Acton where we will be meeting people and hanging out at the youth centre etc. There are about 10 locations that the interns are splitting up and working in and each intern will have a 1-week team of somewhere around 8 students. Our schedule right now is crazy but when the 1-weekers get here on Tuesday it will be insane..!

Okay it's a little after midnight here so I'm going to bed.. but I'll be sure to post some more pictures later! Hope these will hold you over until then:)

Just a fun picture at base camp.. Elizabeth, Me, Erin, Lindsey and Lauren

Rebekah, Jessica, Rachel, Lindsey and Garrett, Lauren, Me and Elizabeth at the airport:)

Andrew, Austin, Casey, Rachel, Me and Garrett at the theater watching Transformers:)

Lauren, Rachel, Maddie, Elizabeth, Rebekah and Lindsey on the Thymes river

Wylie iGosians at base camp