tell the world i'm coming home

 

Well, I'm home. The summer of a lifetime has flown by and before I knew it, 3 months were up and I was boarding my flight at JFK airport. I've met the most amazing people and made plenty of unforgettable memories! Summer camp was a strange experience. It was exhilarating yet exhausting and by the end of the summer, I felt physically drained of all energy. But as soon as I left to go traveling, I missed every little aspect of camp - seeing your friends all day every day, singing songs round the camp fire, kids saying little things that would absolutely make your day. It was hard work. I was generally working from 9am until 8pm every day and even once your day was over, there was always something going on that you should be involved in - hosting sneak outs for the kids, working on duty until 1am, or simply taking the time to socialize with people. As hard as the work was at times, I loved every part of camp. You're living and working with the same people 24/7, it's hard to not feel like you're part of a little family away from home - it's an amazing atmosphere.

After spending 10 weeks working at camp in Wisconsin, it was time to start the real adventure - traveling. If it hadn't been for lack of both time and funds, I would have spent longer traveling and visited a lot more places. But I made the most of what I had! Straight from camp I headed to Chicago and spent 10 days there exploring the city. Chicago is definitely one of my favourite cities - it's pretty chilled out for a city which I loved. The sheer contrast of metropolitan city to the picturesque beach on the lake is something I adore - you can lay on the beach with the huge Lake Michigan lapping at your feet, then turn your head and see the Chicago skyline towering behind you. It's pretty surreal. I spent my 21st birthday there at the beach before enjoying a legal drink!

From Chicago I jumped on a plane to Pennsylvania and stayed with my friend there for a further 9 days. I have to admit, this was one of the craziest and most amazing weeks of my life. I started talking to my best friend online when we were both 11 and from then, we sent each other emails containing 1000s of words several times daily. We wrote each other letters, web chatted, talked on the phone. We pretty much grew up together in a really dysfunctional way. And this summer, I met her for the first time. The whole experience was crazy - it would take me far too long to consolidate it into words without writing an entire book.

Finally, I spent 2 days in New York City before heading back to Scotland. In all honesty, I was a little underwhelmed by NYC. Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I'd watched too many films and I was expecting something unrealistic. It was too hectic and crazy and I just never felt at home there. Some parts were very cool and I would go back to visit because I didn't get to see half of the things that I wanted to, but it's not somewhere that I felt an urgency to explore. Perhaps it didn't help that NYC was my last pitstop before home and by that point, I was shattered, skint and ready to go home. I can't wait to get back into blogging and show you my USA beauty purchases and share more of my summer stories with you! I'm also pleased to say that I lost almost a stone and a half whilst I was in the USA (around 20lbs) so I might be delving into the world of outfit posts in the near future because I'm feeling 100 times more confident now...

So here I am! Back in sunny Scotland and in approximately 6 hours, I'll be hopping on a sleeper train down to Bournemouth where I'll be making my new home for the next 3 years. It's been a crazy few months, but I'm feeling ready to get settled and get back into a normal routine. Who knows what the next year has to offer...