Hosting

As some of you may know, I am a part of a community called "Couchsurfing" (www.couchsurfing.org).  This is a website where people from all over the world sign up to host or travel, or maybe both. This is how it works:

I'll be traveling to Austin, Texas, in November. I want a place to stay. I log onto couchsurfing.org and browse the hosts in the Austin area. If I find someone whom I may want to stay with, I contact him/her and send a request.  He/She reviews my profile and decides if he/she wants to host me. If so, we contact each other more and work out the details.

A lot of surfers bring food, recipes, a bottle of wine, or something else to thank you for hosting. I've been a part of this community since 2009, but I never had anyone surf, and I never surfed while I was in college. Now that I have my own place, I've had 3 couchsurfers in Charlotte. One, Daniel, was from San Diego and was doing a cross country trip. He was a great surfer and LOVED Stoli.

I currently have two surfers, Julia and Becky, from Germany and Malaysia respectively.  They are great girls and I'm having a blast. It just so happens that my work schedule this week was easy so I've been able to hang out with them.  Yesterday, we went to Reed Gold Mine and mined for gold. Julia and I did not find any gold, but Becky had a little flake.

Julia and I in front of the underground portion of the mine

Julia and Becky panning for gold!

Yay for meeting awesome people from around the world! I now have a free place to stay in Germany, Malaysia, and Canada. (Becky is from Malaysia, but is studying in Canada).

Drone

It's back to the grind, here. I took a bit of a vacation last week - Thursday through Sunday I was at the beach with my family.  It was a great break from the every day monotony of my life in Charlotte.  I find myself thinking about my times in Korea more and more frequently these days.  I think about the food I ate, the places I went, the conversations I had with Trisha, the fun things we did. We were always going new places, painting pottery, seeing a movie - and it seemed like I was living the good life. I think I have a case of Stockholm Syndrome (of sorts), haha

Maybe I just feel I need something new. Although, I absolutely cannot complain about my life. I have a job where I make enough money; I have amazing roomates (and an awesome boyfriend), a wonderful little pup that is cute as can be, a supportive family, and fantastic friends. So in the grand scheme of things - I am doing quite well.

I hope to take Stoli to the groomer today (apparently she smells), get my oil change (a whopping 4,000 miles overdue), and do some grocery shopping (I've been eating bagles since I returned from the beach). One thing that is super exciting - FOOTBALL SEASON!! It's right around the corner. With that comes cooler weather!! I can't wait.