Back to School!

Yesterday, after an absolutely amazing summer, I officially returned to school. Although I'll miss the unlimited laziness of summer, I'm actually looking forward to this school year - I'm starting lots of new classes, and they're all still far enough away that I can focus more on the exciting parts (new notebooks! new pencils! yay!) than the awful parts (...homework).

To wrap up this awesome vacation, here are my top ten summer memories:

1. Spending 3 weeks with Maereed, my best friend from Indiana. She came to Austin to visit and explore the city with us for a week, and then she, Benja and I flew back to Indiana to hang out with their family and go to the summer camp that they direct - we spent a week in Adventure Camp, where we went caving, canoeing, ziplining, pontooning, and generally having a great time.
2. Swimming in the lake near Mansfield Dam practically every night with my family. Even though the lake is more than half empty, we can still swim (and explore the islands that only appear during droughts). This weekend we went to the hot air balloon launch held there, which was amazing (despite having to get up at 5 A.M.!)
3. Spending hours (and hours) (and more hours) (and pretty much the whole summer) with Adair and Simone, my blog-writing besties. 
4. Baking cookies every. single. day.
5. Reading! So much reading! I reviewed Eleanor & Park and The Book Thief on the blog, but I also loved The Disenchantments, Are We There Yet?, Beauty Queens, An Abundance of Katherines, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Last Days of Summer, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
6. "Faffing." This is a British slang word (that I know because obviously studying British slang words is a good use of my time) that means to hang out, doing lots of little menial tasks that don't amount to much. However, Benja and I use it to mean sitting in our pajamas for hours at a time, eating dry cereal and Netflix-marathoning. This summer I got some quality faffing in, and I finished watching Freaks and Geeks, which is one of the best shows I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it stopped filming after the first season, so there isn't an official finale, but oh my god it is so good. You should definitely check it out - just prepare yourself for a premature ending.
7. Settling into our new house. Benja and I returned from Indiana to find our entire house unpacked and set up for us, with friends waiting inside! It was an amazing surprise (thanks guys! you're the best!!) and we've been able to spend the past few weeks hanging out and getting reacquainted with all our stuff (some of which we haven't seen for two years).
8. Having "Austin Days" (also known as Ferris Bueller Days) where we go downtown, explore the city, and try to find even more things to love about Austin. This summer we've been to Barton Springs, Bookpeople, Blues on the Green, and Guero's at least twice - not to mention just wandering around the streets, finding really cool street art and, of course, very interesting people.
9. Swimming in at least one pool practically every day. I've been so chlorine-drenched I don't think I'll ever recover (and it was amazing!)
10. Writing for this blog, of course! (Awwww)

I can't wait to see what the school year brings!

~Maya