Home Sweet Home, Kinda…

I was greeted with the snow upon my arrival back in the Pacific Northwest. Usually, the clouds dump rain and the north sends gusting winds, but this winter, powdery flakes layer the ground with over a foot of snow! All throughout our time in Australia I had told people who asked about Seattle’s winters and I responded, “No, it usually just rains for all but two or three months of the year.” and “No, it doesn’t snow that often.”  Yet, just after my first week of school, the weather reports began to predict 9 inches of snow on Monday, then more on Tuesday! Commuting from Bellevue in the morning to arrive at school on time, (7:30) is not a piece of cake, even on a nice sunny morning. Driving on ice-covered highways with heavy traffic is not any better. Cars are slipping on ice, spinning off the freeways, and some aren’t even able to pull out of their driveways.

I started at Redmond High School on Monday, January 28^th feeling groggy

and very appreciative of my coffee-filled thermos. I was not late to any of my classes and thankfully only made a few wrong turns. All of my teachers knew me as ‘the girl that lived on a boat.’ I guess news travels fast amongst the faculty and chatty teachers. The hallways are crowded during passing periods and full of kids looking at their phones causing unnecessary blockages and collisions. Everyone has a place to be and a time they have to be there, very different and unlike to the leisurely cruising lifestyle that I had embodied for over a year.

While our house remains unavailable for us to occupy, I spend lots of time at my best friend’s house just across from the high school, doing homework and being a model to fuel her photography obsession. I’m already making friends at school and within a week of returning from Australia, have rejoined Columbia Choirs and auditioned for a teen talent show at a theater in Seattle. I wasn’t invited to the call-backs, but I think it worked out, as now I have time to help Mom pick handles and tiles for the house remodel and get our all-time favorite Paseo sandwiches. I mean it’s all about the food, right?! I just received my learners permit, attend Drivers Ed classes on the weekends, and am learning to drive, as Mom and Dad make time to take me around town!

The sun shines on the snow in the afternoon making everything sparkle and I spend my time reading, eating, doing homework, and on my social media accounts posting pictures and reminiscing on the warm weather and fun times in the South Pacific, oh and of course, playing in the snow!