Wow! Has it really been almost a month since I last wrote? Time seems to have assumed a strange pattern recently: the days themselves pass with all the speed of a congressional hearing (which is to say, not much) whilst the weeks simply melt away. It hit me the other day that it is not only August, but almost halfway through August. Where did the first half of the month go? I'm not quite sure. Perhaps the memories of the first two weeks are hiding hazily somewhere amongst the monotony of the work week. Which is not to say that work is boring, as it certainly is not. It is just the predictability of getting up each day, driving to Greenbelt, riding the metro, and then taking the FSI bus that gets a tad bit tedious. Still, it has been such a wonderful experience. I will miss it when it is over.

In the past month, my parents had their 26th anniversary, my friend Laci moved into her first apartment, both my grandmothers were in the hospital (but are thankfully recovering from their respective ailments), and I went hiking in the Shenandoah mountains with some friends. Quite lovely. More importantly, John bought and installed my new keyboard into my laptop. My previous one had been deterioriating ever since I was attacked in Edinburgh after getting off the bus from London. It had gotten to the point where I could barely type a single sentence without half the letters missing. Being able to type my name is certainly an improvement! The other big news is that I have a car! We are going to pick it up in about fifteen minutes, so perhaps I will post pictures. It will be mine for the next year until I pack up to leave for grad school in the UK (all of this, of course, is assuming that I get in somewhere, a fact about which I am still rather doubtful).,