Helloooo!

There's been nothing too exciting to post, so I've had trouble posting. On Friday, my oldest brother, Dave, arrived from Germany with his two kids, Zoe and Lucas, and his wife, so there's a little more to report on now. The two kids talk just like i did as a little girl: with a heavy German accent, and tons of direct translations or randomly inserted German words. It's really sweet, and so much fun to get to talk to kids in German again. I hadn't realized how important that language is to my own sense of childhood--reading kids books in German just feels so much better! Zoe is also very into being treated as an adult and taken seriously, which I remember perfectly from when I was that age, so we've had some really fun conversations.

Oh, before I forget, some tips for summer reading: I read The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham and The Garden of Eden by Hemingway. The second left me in a daze for a few days; it's confusing, but in a good way. The make-you-think way. Also, I read Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote, which was great. And a book of short stories about Panama called "Come Together, Fall apart". Just in case anyone's bored!

Other than reading, I've been going to Laguna a lot. I saw dolphins there last week, which was really beautiful. There's always something so magical about seeing them jump out of the water. Ariel and I spent a few hours singing on the beach, trying to figure out guitar chords to old 60s songs. then today, we dragged all four kids (Shawn's two girls and Dave's kids, plus all the so-called adults) to Laguna. It was fun, if slightly overwhelming. Who knew that all Winnicks had strong personalities? Izzy and Maya staunchly affirmed that they had never, Hannah-how-could-you-even-THINk-of it?-put on sunscreen in their lives. The total conviction was pretty funny. Having this many people around has been good in other ways, too: my dad's overzealous organizational urges (which mainly come out as super controling) are now distributed among far more people, so that the overall tolerance level seems to have increased. I was beginning to wonder if I would make it through the summer.

This is the first time in years--maybe a decade--that I'm together with all three of my brothers, so it's been a pretty special time. On Wednesday we're leaving to spend a few days on Catalina Island. We'll stay in some cabins, go snorkeling, my brothers will probably go scuba diving...it should be fun.

Other than that, I'm starting to get really excited for next year. I got into the English teaching course in Lisbon for September--after an intense 45 minute interview and a long application process. So I'll be doing a month of pretty intensive coursework to get my CELTA certificate, while living in Lisboa! From there...I don't know. I'm missing Maicol a lot, even with all the distractions, so perhaps the DR will need to be on the destination list somehow. We'll see.

That's enough for now: big hugs to all!