OhHey beautiful people!
Over the past year, lots of things have happened and changed in my life. I have now been to every hospitable continent other than Australia. However, right now I am in the same boat as most of my friends.
I am beginning my next educational endeavor, the period of life which many people have told me will constitute some of the best years of my life. That's right, I'm starting college. That is to say, I am beginning the period of my life which will revolve around University of Alaska Anchorage. I guess that there's no looking back now, right? My dorm room is set up, my roommates seem pretty cool (Wassila, Juno, and Indiana), my textbooks are bought, and my mom just left to catch her plane home. Classes start Monday, so the roiling in my tummy needs to end pretty soon. I honestly just want to be done with all of this already so that I can look back on the experiences and say to myself "that was so fun." Hopefully, everything will go swimmingly.
Oh dear, I've forgotten my pocket handkerchief!
All aboard the Hogwarts Express!
Elena

Hey beautiful people,
So, this is going to be a little rundown of some of the adventures I have had since we last talked. I think the last thing I told you was that I was heading to the DR for some R&R right? Okay, so I was in transit for somewhere around 23 hours to get to Santo Domingo from Cusco. First, I flew from Cusco to Lima, then Lima to Mexico City, then Mexico City to NYC, and then finally the flight to Santo Domingo. The flight attendants on my last flight were amazing and the food was some of the best (wait, the best) food I have ever had on an airplane.

My Dominican family are some of my favorite people in the entire world! I love my god- siblings (J, J, J, and J)! They are all wonderfully sweet and we get up to all sorts of adventures. One of the highlights of my time there was lifting the middle J into the air with a scarf around his neck and pretending that he was a superhero because he was flying. Then he got to defeat me and his ten year old brother, J when we pretended to be villains. I also went with some of my family to a beach called in a town called Barahona, where, in my typical fashion, I forgot that beaches can be made of rocks, so I ended up with scratches and welts all over my body from being thrown around by the waves. To add insult to injury, my hairband was also stolen from around a bun of my hair by the waves. Ah well, I suppose that really, the whole thing was fun! I really love all of my family down there, especially as things begin to improve for them where they live. In factm there is a natural hair movement that just started, which is an interesting development, as well as the addition of a couple of highways that make life easier for everyone. My dad also decided to come down for three days (in insanity), and that was really fun and great too! The sun was strong, the heat was potent, the pools were great, the fried cheese was crispy, dancing around with my godbrothers was fun, and I just adore the mangoes.

In the interest of honesty, there is another kind of adventure that I have recently been going through, one that began while I was still in the DR. The girl who was my best friend from the time we were 1 1/2 and 2, respectively, just passed on, Navigating my way through the unexpected death of someone a half year younger than I am has been really difficult. She was  a bright light in my life, and even though she and I were not really close friends in the last couple years of her life, she really mattered to me, and the memories of her are things that I will keep holding near my heart in her memory. This is an adventure that I could have done without.
Lots of love,
Elena Giselle