home sweet home

Home finally! I miss Blacksburg and everyone there, but I am so happy to be here with my family and to have a bit of time to chill out. Today was Victoria's (my middle sister) 18th birthday so we celebrated that. Actually, both my sisters and I returned from trips this week, so it's kind of a special time for our family. This is the first time we've been all together in over a month.

The last week of REU was especially memorable. After an incredible weekend in DC our adventures continued for our final four days. There was an ongoing battle between Meeks/Tim and Soo Been/me for various possessions that spanned the entire week, and that was a lot of fun craziness involving stealing keys, kidnapping basses, Nerf weaponry, photoshop deceit, and IM negotiations. It ended in a ceasefire until next time.

Other activities included making/eating dirt cake, a surprise water balloon fight, card games, a dressy dinner & movie, building a raft out of water bottles and sailing it, and early morning goodbye breakfast.

I miss everyone. Somehow life's not the same when I'm not running down the halls hiding from someone attacking me with a Nerf gun every night...

Anyhow. So this summer culminated in 3016 lines of code, a bunch of new friendships, and a whole bunch of fun. I feel like I've grown up a lot over this summer. I've learned a lot technically and personally. It's been good.

As for the remainder of the summer, here is my TDL:
- Google Code Jam qualifying round, July 16
- Beach with my family last week of July
- Prepare presentation for SLC conference
- Go to SLC conference
- Decide which grad schools I am going to apply for
- Tie up loose ends of the summer project
- Finish Invention 13 (Bach) on piano
- Begin Danzas Espanolas, 2:Orientale on piano
- Buy a laptop

Probably some other stuff too. That's just off the top of my head.

Well...more later!