Happy 4th Of July!
Well, it's quite interesting being away from America on the Fourth of July.Isaac, the other BR Intern, and I were talking about how we're not exactly homesick, but we're really more like America-sick today. No fireworks. No celebrations. No American flags. No freedom on some days. No American pizza or frozen yogurt. No Doritos Nacho Cheese chips, no water from the faucet. No Snapchat, No YouTube. 7 hour time changes. No texting on my phone, no going over my data limit. No music. The list of "no" could go on and on. Not being home to experience it and the day of patriotic music is weird. Reading the countless Facebook and Instagram posts and photos is like seeing the celebration from the outside looking in, instead of experiencing it myself. It's strange and you won't know what I'm talking about until you experience it yourself. The things you miss aren't the things you expected to originally. The food - I am so excited for the food back home! I miss my family and friends and animals, too, don't get me wrong. Little things that did not seem to matter, like food and wearing shorts in the summer and being able to ride a bike and kayaking, mean a lot more now that I am away and don't have the same access to them. It is weird to go on Facebook and have every American post followed by a tiny "us" at the end. It is inconvenient that some of my favorite apps won't work and that my computer keeps breaking. But, I know it could be much, much, much worse and for that, I'm proud to be an American. The fact that I get to spend my summer in Kenya, somewhere I would've never imagined going, makes up for the 2 months without Snapchat, buffalo wings, and swimming. I face-timed my family over the weekend (Hunter was home from school) and they said that it has been raining quite a lot. It's only rained here once, but I hope no holiday plans back home get cancelled because of the rain!In my article for The Advertiser this week, I talk about the random walking we did over this weekend, but otherwise I was mainly in my room reading about aflatoxin to better prepare to analyze. I'll keep you all updated as the week goes on. We had every intention of starting to teach at the school last week, but we kept returning back too late to get started each evening. We WILL do it this week though, I promise!Wishing you all the best holiday weekend and I hope my blog helps bring about a new appreciation for our country. It certainly has with me!ALSO -- BREAKING NEWS! Did you hear about Kevin Durant leaving Oklahoma City Thunder? AHHHHH! I don't care from the basketball standpoint (you do you, KD). But, Joey and I celebrated one of our anniversaries at an OKC Thunder game over Easter break and KD was one of the biggest reasons why Joey wanted to watch OKC in the first place. It's sad that he is leaving, but I'm glad the timing worked out to where we could see KD at Thunder before he left.'Merica,Holly