This past summer has been one of the longest holidays I've had but one of great holidays, many firsts and of many (which I say I will never have because I promise myself I'll fill them with many exciting things) many bored days.
The highlight of my holiday was at the very beginning and so set the standards for the rest of the summer. On June 3rd my parents, my brother Andrew and I had arrived at Heathrow Airport after travelling down from Lancashire the day before and staying with my great aunt for the night. We were flying out to Chicago America and then getting a connecting flight down to St Louis where we would meet up with my brother Mark, his fiancee Dani and her Mother, Robin. We were going for a week for one of the most important days of Mark and Dani's lives, they were getting married. It was a very interesting week, we had never met Dani's family face to face before and we would be staying with her grandparents Jackie and Dave. They were such lovely people and it was fantastic meeting them and getting to know them. The weather over there was like nothing I had ever experienced before, another first, sitting in 100 degrees F heat just waiting for the next air conditioned building we could step into. Dani and Robin had the entire week planned out for us and we had a fantastic time being tourists and hanging out with the family, though the heat was even unusually hot for them and it was hard to stay outside for long without looking for an air conditioned building to step into. An exciting first was that I got to have a go on a motor scooter which was brilliant. The big day came along on the Wednesday. It was a very, very hot day but it was a beautiful occasion. More firsts. I signed as a witness to the wedding. I got to go into an American courtroom. I had a sister-in-law and a whole new branch to my family. I had toasted ravioli. On the Thursday we went to the City Museum which is the best museum I have ever been to, it was more like a playground, it was amazing. It was the first time I had ever been on a ten storey slide, on a Ferris wheel that was 12 floors off the ground, got a bruise from landing so hard on my backside on a slide. However the week had to come to an end and for the first time I had to say goodbye to my brother without knowing when I would see him again.
The rest of the time I spent about 3 weeks in tents at the christian festivals New Wine, Soul Survivor and Momentum where I had a really great time with wonderful people. I learnt so much about myself, my friends, God, about my faith and that actually, I could do things I previously believed that I couldn't. It was the first time I had worked at New Wine, I had been a steward, I had someone tell me I could actually moon walk, even if I only did it the once and wouldn't do it again in case it was a fluke.
It's been a great time to spend with my friends from home after being at university away from them for a year. Though now September has rolled around again the excitement of starting a new year back in London is drawing me in and I can't wait to be back to start busy city life all over again.
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