See ya later USA!

Well it seems it's time for my vacation to end today. I am flying back to Canada this afternoon after an action packed time in America. This past week in DC has been amazing. I flew in on Wednesday evening and met my friend Emily, we got our rental car and took to the streets to go meet our friends Maddie and Ed for dinner. DC is probably the biggest city I have driven in and the traffic and highways were insane. I opted out of the GPS for the car because I wanted to save money, but I definitely regretted that decision after the 3rd or 4th time of getting lost and having to back track.

On Thursday Emily, Ed and I spent the day being touristy and visiting all the monuments and government sights in downtown DC. We took our friend Morgue along with us for photo ops. 

Thursday night we headed out to run with a hash group in DC. The Everyday is a Wednesday Hash House Harriers were an awesome bunch. The pack of about 40 was large by our standards, but apparently the smallest they've seen in awhile. I loved the trail. The pack was fast, much faster than we are used to, it was tough to keep up, but we had a blast. When we arrived I was surprised to meet up with a hasher I knew, Yari Ben, whom I met while he was visiting Korea from Japan this past summer. I love how small the hashing world is! 

Emily and I spent Friday wandering around some of the Smithsonian Museums. We had a great time exploring and wandering. I loved being able to spend time with my Korean friends outside of Korea. 

Saturday was the big event we all came for. Our friends, Ed and Maddie were getting married! We were so excited to be able to go and we would be reuniting with some friends from Korea while there. We got all fancied up and headed out to the venue. It was absolutely gorgeous. Maddie looked stunning and the boys didn't look so bad either. I felt really honoured to be part of their special day, they are so in love and I know they will have a wonderful life together. I found myself in tears pretty quickly once the ceremony started. Just being able to be there and experience the love they have for each other was amazing. 

They had a delicious dinner and then we spent the night dancing away. Our crew basically owned the dance floor until they literally kicked us out of the building! 

Meeting up and hanging with the hashers was awesome and today I am really depressed about leaving and heading back to Canada. The prospect of having no planned visits or future trips with hashers is terrifying. Emily just left on her flight and I am sitting here, alone again, wondering what the future will bring. Plans for school are progressing but I am still waiting to hear if I will get a student loan for the program. If not, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe head to Vietnam to try to teach there, or I've been really leaning towards perhaps joining the military. Either way it is all new and I am scared. I have been blessed to have met so many awesome hashers who I know call family, I just don't know what I am going to do without them around all the time. This trip has been an awesome time of reunions, new places and closure. I've been on such a high being around all the people I love that I am afraid of the low that will come this week when I'm back in Bathurst, in the midst of the horrible winter. I'm trying to take it all as it comes. It will be a new challenge that's for sure.