Watch out world!

Toronto airport- can’t believe I’m already off starting my new adventure as an international college student at Lund Univeristy. I don’t know what happened to this summer, it flew by so quickly!

For those of you who had followed my blog last year, I have decided to keep up with my writings. I found out that I really do enjoy writing, and I figure that even if I’m not traveling as much as my blog desires- I am still going to be experiencing many new and exciting things over the year and I’d love to keep you all updated. Thanks to all who showed their appreciation for my blog. It really means a lot to me!

For new readers, let me catch you up on a few things. My name is Corianna and I graduated from high school in the spring of 2011. Instead of following the traditional route for an American student of going straight to college after high school, I decided to take a year abroad to work as an au pair for a family in Helsingborg, Sweden. Of course I took a few online courses from a university back home but my main focus last year was to live abroad and really find myself and find out my direction. You can read previous blogs for more information of my adventures then but a long story short is that whist over in Sverige I found Lund University, and absolutely fell in love with it. I applied for a bachelor program in Development Studies, and after much stress and uncertainty got accepted!

So here I am, in Toronto airport waiting for my next flight to Copenhagen.

Before I get ahead of myself, I can fill you in a little about my fantastic summer at home sweet home.

I recall that my first two weeks back home seemed like a month. I was doing so many things, from going to the Sangamon county fair and attending concerts to reuniting with everyone I hadn’t seen for a year.  I was so jet-lagged and I also was very pale… compared to everyone else! We’ve been having a warm summer back home, a historic drought even! The first days back I got so sunburnt you could have put on a bib and served me with butter!

Things kept active as I drove up North with my family to visit our cousins in one of my favorite places in the world, on the shores of Lake Superior. Being in nature and on the Lake is truly an amazing thing. We went kayaking and biking, and genuinely had a great time.

Things got even more exciting when my mother and I drove up to Chicago to pick up my ‘sister’ from Holland, Vera. I had re-united with her last summer in Europe, and now it was time for her to come back to the home where she spent her exchange-year as a student.

Soon after, our family drove down to Florida to visit my Grandma and catch some rays on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We spent a week there and were happily joined by my Aunt and Uncle, and I was so happy to be able to see everyone while I was back in the states!

Of course because of the heat it was difficult to do everything outside like we’d normally do, but that lead to other projects, such as totally cleaning out my family’s home and re-organizing a whole room. Because of a wonderful idea our t.v. room is now a plush, deluxe home theater.

I got enough delicious food, we hit all of my favorites and more! And the surprising thing is that even though I was eating ‘Horrible American Food’ in real American quantities, I lost weight! Goes to show that the American diet doesn’t wholly amount to obesity!

Along with getting dressed up in my cowgirl duds, riding my horse, going on a few bike rides, and really just living my life on our family farm- I had a wonderful visit back for these past few months. Wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world!

I ended my trip by welcoming in the newest exchange student, Andre from Sweden. Welcome to our home, and have a great time!

I finished this blog right in time. Now boarding passengers to the flight to Copenhagen!

Fill you in with the latest next week.

Cori