Random Memory Mondays

Let's see if I can keep this up, and write a random memory every Monday. :)

-----------------

The summer that I turned 18, and graduated from high school (Class of '05!) I also packed up all my personal belongings into totes and cardboard boxes and shoved them into a little used cupboard.

I was leaving for Germany.

But, before I graduated, turned 18, and left home for a year, I spent a weekend in New Mexico.

Where all the kids in my exchange met for the first time, and we began discussing what to expect.  (It was also where our program decided exactly who would be going, and who would not be joining us. So we had to be kind of careful and not make a total ass of ourselves.)

Some of the kids from that weekend didn't end up coming to Germany with us (there were some really, really* weird kids). But for the most part, our group of 50 was decided upon.

We spent the weekend in German lessons, discussing our expectations, discussing what we hoped for, discussing what to do in certain situations. Preparing us for something that we had a hard time wrapping our brains around.  But it wasn't all doom, gloom, and scary stuff. We had fun too. During breaks there was always a group of kids playing volleyball, or other games.  A bunch of us would go for walks together, and get to know each other. At nights we would stay up past curfew talking, and there was even a night of Truth or Dare (which, I kind of regret not participating in).

On our last day, we packed up our crap, cleaned up after ourselves, and did a service project for the camp that we stayed at. We had lunch, hung out, took group pictures, and boarded the bus for the dreaded long trip back to Albuquerque so we could all fly home.

After pictures, and before boarding the bus a big group of us were playing on a Merry-Go-Round*. 

(Image taken from here)

We spent about a good half hour twirling, screaming, and horsing around.  We would get super dizzy, try and stand still, and usually end up giggling in the dirt. And repeat. Multiple times.

And I ended up really motion sick. For the 3-4 hour drive to Albuquerque. For the 2-3 hour flight from New Mexico, home to Utah. For the 2 hour drive from the airport, to our house. For the rest of that day I was pretty miserable.

------------------------------

* One boy talked about guns, and shooting guns, and cleaning guns, and guns guns guns. Pretty clear why he didn't end up going... And there was a girl that hung out with gun boy.  And they talked about... some... pretty bizarre topics.

**And because of this experience, I think that merry-go-rounds are the freakin devil.