Living in the States Again

It was weird to be back. Well, only for the first 2 hours I was home in the states before I fell asleep.
English, english all around and not a drop of French. It makes me feel a little sad and slightly useless for having taken French, but alas, what do you do?
Lights. Artificial, neon, fast food, and basically aesthetically screaming lights. They are everywhere. I could have swore that Paris was the city of lights. But, at night, you only have the sweet glow of street lamps, other than that, it is pretty dark. Paris is...strict?...on their lighting. Less is more kind of concept. I know it is stupid be talking about the ambiance that lights bring and the difference between us and Paris, but still, it was weird.
I have definitely gained weight being home. Despite my eating at least one pastry or dessert every day, all the food is so much healthier over there. Even though I ingested a lot of pizza, mcdonald's, wine, pasta, and a plethora of other seemingly unhealthy foods, I actually lost weight. And I really didn't run as much. I wasn't burning nearly as many calories here. I take in so much more in calories, fat, and carbs here than there (and I even spent a good bit of my days practicing the "art of doing nothing").
My short trip back in Orlando was just that. A short, surreal, blur. It was great to be back and go out to Jellyrolls for the first time (if you are ever at Disney definitely make a trip over to the Boardwalk to hang out, maybe get a kitchen sink, and end up a jellyrolls for a great time), but overall, after my first 2 hour emotional frenzy of being back, it was pretty calm. No rushing around trying to do things one last time. After the emotional rollercoaster I just got off of, I wanted to cry as little as possible, so (and this is very out of character for me) I tried to avoid things that were sentimental.
I was ready to get back to Memphis and tackle this year. And I was going to try my best to leave without leaving so much of my heart behind. It helped that a fellow Hospitality major was down on a internship to kind of give me a Memphian presence and remind me that I had to go back and finish what I started.
And so I have.
I even left Orlando an hour and a half earlier than anticipated, leaving my roommate with a quick and sleepy hug so we both didn't get hysterical. I wanted to drive as if I was just going out for the day, returning soon.
And I did.
A quick hug goodbye.
Be back later.
And being back in Memphis has also been a surreal blur of a week. Rushing from class to class, catching up on what I missed and catching up with people I haven't seen since May. Returning to those relationships and spending the time to catch them up and get them back on track to strengthen them. As much I as just want to stay away from them and purely focus on getting done, I have to remember I still have another 8 months here and, really, there are some incredible people here.
My friend asked me the other day why I wasn't going to the football game. In all honestly, Memphis isn't all that great, so that's a lot of time and effort to watch a sport that I think is slow and boring just to watch us lose.
"But it's your senior year."
Holy Buddah.
It is my senior year.
This is it.
This is my last labor day weekend. Only one more Fall break. One advising session. One more semester to plan. One more Thanksgiving and Christmas in Memphis. And I may not even be here for Christmas.
I can't believe it's almost over. There is so much I still want to do.
The race is almost over.