One week to go....

d40 States in 40 Days officially started today, although the bus won't actually be leaving until Saturday morning (at 4am....eek!) We are all extremely excited and just can't wait to get on the road. We've spent so much time researching and scheduling great activities in each state -- the time has just flown by and it's hard to believe that we're so close to lift-off.

I'm sorry I've been out of touch the past few weeks.....but here's what I've been up to:
My spring semester finals finished May 12th. I was completely moved out of my on-campus apartment (and moved in with some great friends for the summer) by the 14th, and on a plane to Oregon on the morning of the 16th. Talk about a crazy week! My mom had no idea I was coming; in fact she didn't think she'd get to see me until Christmas, so it was great fun just popping up at church on Sunday morning to scare her half to death. (Quick shout-out: today is her birthday ...Happy Birthday Mommy!)

I got to spend 10 wonderful days with all my little siblings (who aren't really that little anymore...Chase and Jared passed me up long ago, and on this visit I discovered that Cole followed suit and Tori is only a half inch away! At least little Raam is still little for the time being.)
Tori plays on the U-12 Premier Soccer Team (the really competitive traveling team) and happened to be playing in the local Rogue Valley Cup last weekend, so I had the pleasure of watching her win all five of her games and take the 1st place trophy. Way to go chica!

The last 6 months have been especially hard for me to be away from my brothers and sister; every visit home is a reminder of how fast they're growing up. I can't believe Chason and Jared are already out of high school and halfway through college. Of course, they followed in my footsteps and left high school in their Sophomore and Freshmen years, respectively. But still, time just goes by so fast! So it was great to just hang out with all of them for the week.

Now I'm back in Nashville and busy as ever! In fact, I've gotta run....I have an appointment in 15.

In case you're curious what our course material looks like for the trip, here's a glimpse of our highly confidential reading list:

• The Declaration of Independence
  
• Democracy in America (Alexis de Tocqueville)
• Assassination Vacation (Sarah Vowell)
• Thirteen American Arguments (Howard Fineman)
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself (Bill Bryson)
• On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
• Selected Poems 1885-1892 (Walt Whitman)

....and various articles. So you can see we're going to be busy! In addition to all this reading, we'll write an essay on what it means to be a "Patriotic American Citizen," an essay telling a story from our trip that has the power to change America for the better, as well as a longer research essay on each of our host sites. As I mentioned before, I'm doing in-depth research on the Pacific Northwest, the Grand Canyon, and Boston....so if you have any tidbits of information (or even just childhood memories) of any of these places, please share!
The only stipulation: you must be American :)

Even if you're not American, I'd love to hear your stories anyways....I just can't use them as part of my research.

It's a balmy eve here in Nashville, I hope your neck of the woods is just as beautiful!