looking back

I was greeted at work this morning with an e-mail from my boss. "Hey Danielle! Just wanted to pass along that everyone keeps telling me what a great writer you are!  Apparently your... [private, sorry,] have been fantastic! Keep it up - so glad to have you on board!" is it possible to have started my day off any better? I think not! I am loving the feedback from my internships, I really feel like I'm improving and getting some great experience. But before I get too ahead of myself let's start from the beginning, breakfast. I fully intended on having a green smoothie and then I found out that we didn't have any bananas left. Change of plans!I ate an apple while making my to-go breakfast and packed lunch. Breakfast: farmer's market strawberries, purple grapes, and ground flax. Lunch: spinach and arugula salad with yellow pepper, broccoli, spring onion, avocado, and cucumber topped with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Both were absolutely delicious. The small container is hummus, which I dipped two carrots in for a snack... it was around this time that my cloud 9 Tuesday took somewhat of a downturn. It's not my place to share any details but it made me very nervous and upset. And although everything seems to be working out okay at this point, I haven't quite left that place.

So, since I'm not really in the mood to "talk" much tonight, I thought I'd share some recent photos that my Chilean host-mom just posted on Facebook (yes she has one, she's that cool.)

They were taken with la familia the night before I left Santiago, right after I finished my fantastic dinner of fresh salmon and a beautiful array of salads.

Going back to the U.S. at that point felt surreal and I was almost numb to the fact. I couldn't say that I exactly felt sad, silly perhaps, but not too sad at all :).

Now I figured it'd be nice to also feature a few photos to from Strasbourg. Here's my French host mom at the "fashion for disabled" charity event sporting her artistic neck brace.Fast forward another two months to another event we attended ensemble, this one in honor of the new Mini-Cooper. She has all the connections :).

Last but certainly not least is my host-sisters 21st birthday party. She'll be headed to Sydney, Australia in the fall to spend a year abroad... just, like, me.