My Time in York

While in York I saw people...

My stealth photo of this boy, this little boy already in camo. They start them young! At school they also sell USC hats in camouflage....ones for boys and pink ones with rhinestones for girls.

A man fishin' on Lake Colvin. This lake happens to be a reservoir where you cannot swim, boat, or fish. And he's doing two of the three no-no's - what a rebel ;)

This lady had a mattress on top of her van. And she gave me the hairy eyeball when I whipped out my camera and took a few pictures of her and her mattress. But I mean she has a MATTRESS on top of her van and she was on the HIGHWAY! Did she really not expect to get people doing double takes (or take pictures)?

and animals...

Almost walked right into this baby.

Goats and the turkey Num-Yummy who thought he was a goat. This is one of the last photos of Num-Yummy, he soon after went off to the giant turkey pen in the sky.

and this.

It looks like a normal building right? WRONG.

It's the old jail! Now it is apartments. As in people live in the old jail. It is a pretty building, with a nice brick front and sturdy looking door, so I can see why people live there.....but I would still be scared to live there!

York! Part 2

Whenever I see the little license plates, or the coffee cups, or the pencils with names on them I always go look for my name. I know that my name has a funky spelling, so the likelihood that I will actually ever find anything with Sydnie on it is very slim, but I still look. You never know!
Now with years of experience looking at everything with a name printed on it I can tell you that if your name is Alex, Susan, David or Chelsea you are going to be able to get everything labeled with your name. But we went to Walmart after the Dollar Store and I found a name on a license plate that I never expected to find, and certainly not a name that I expected to find before finding my own!

Can you find the one I'm talking about?

What about now? Can you spot it?

It's Bubba!

Only in the South :)

York!

So my first night in York we ran into the Dollar Store first. I learned that some of the things you can buy there include...

Lots of fake flower...

an amazing parrot hat (for only a dollar!!)...

and this? Well it does have a "Pleasing Lemony Flavor"....???

From Kollweiler to York

What a difference a year makes. Last year I was still a senior in high school, just finished AP exams and had prom, and was worrying about my team playing in a soccer tournament that wasn't going well at all. Last year I was in Kollweiler!

In Germany I lived in a small village. Small as in we knew pretty much everyone in the village by sight, there were only 10 high speed internet hook-ups, and other than houses we only had a family run restaurant, a volunteer run fire station, a bakery, and a deer farm. It really is the quintessential little beautiful village with old water pumps, fests where villagers sold things they made or cooked, and that one old man who was always outside reading his newspaper with his dog. I love Kollweiler, and our amazing neighbors who invited us into their lives and culture.

Entering Kollweiler

Look at the solar panels!

Windmills

This was the view out my window - Green :)

Fest sign

Germany

Now I'm enjoying my summer break soaking up the sun and sitting by the water in Florida after my first year at USC, and looking back at all that has happened this past year! Like my trip to York, South Carolina...

Easter weekend I went home with an awesome friend to her place in York, South Carolina. She told me it was a small town, but let me tell you a small town isn't like a small village! I had a fabulous time with my friends and adopted family for the weekend, and also got lots of culture shock! More to come :)

Thank you Google Maps

Southern Veggie

Do you know what okra is? 

I remember when I was little and people would ask me what my favorite veggie was. They expected my response to be corn, carrots, or something of that sort, and were always so surprised when I told them artichokes and okra! It was funny to watch the peoples reactions I have got to admit. But there were quite a few times when people wouldn't even know what okra was! Growing up visiting family in the South fried okra was a staple supper food, and we even had "slimey" okra as my mother calls it once in a while too. 

Now I realize that other parts of the country, and world for that matter, do not value okra the way the South does. And when I saw this it made me smile, knowing that I was somewhere that okra was well known enough that they could put it on packaging and people wouldn't be confused as to what that green thing was.

Okra. Yum.

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes

Shopping! I love it, and I don't feel the need to add any qualifiers to that statement. There was a time when my mother literally had to drag me to go buy back-to-school clothes, but times have changed and I'm always up for browsing the shops.When we were in the Azores, we lived in a shopping wasteland. It was pretty much only online shopping, which was tedious and time consuming; having to figure out what size fit you, return the ones that didn't, and oh ya, pay the postage both ways. Then we moved to Germany. At first glance I wasn't thrilled; there weren't any stores that I was familiar with. Then I realized that those stores didn't matter because my new discoveries were SO. much. better! Ultimate favorites are H&M, Zara, and Mango. Of course I have my high fashion designers that I love, but these three stores could get me through the rest of my life. They have cheap trendy pieces, good quality classics, and everything in between. Did  I mention fabulous accessories and shoes too?

:)

When I moved back to the United States, and I really didn't think twice about shopping options. I was going to a capital city, and I figured it couldn't be that bad! (What can I say, I'm an optimist) Sure I would have to probably go to a major city to find an H&M, or a Zara, or a Mango if I was really lucky, but I didn't think that I'd have to travel a minimum of FOUR hours to get to one of my favorite staple stores! (I have mentioned that I don't have a car and can't drive...) My main backup shop that I thought could sustain me through sporadic H&M trips was Forever 21. Well guess what? The first Forever 21 store in the state of South Carolina doesn't exist yet. And I have moved to a place dominated by men in short pastels shorts and women in neon Lily Pulitzer dresses, (which I'm growing accustomed to) but are definitely not a part of the European style I've grown to love!

LillyPulitzer.com

So until I can finally visit H&M, Zara, or Mango once again, I'll have to be content with flipping through magazines and seeing their clothes in ads and spreads.  My ability to spot an H&M item on someone (or folded up on a washing machine as recently happened) is remarkable to some, but it offers me a constant reminder that I need to go shop at one of my favorite three stores soon. This way I can have my own clothes to get excited about, instead of seeing other people's H&M apparel...and running up to talk with them about the joys of one of my favorite stores hahaha.

:)

One good thing that my fabulous roommate recently told me - that Mango is doing a line with JCPenny! Good news? NO, great news!! There are JCPenny's in South Carolina and in Florida, and they aren't four hours away. :)

:)