My summer. An anthology.

This summer has been a journey! I've been to several new places, visited amazing people, and been gone almost every weekend! I literally have only been to my home church 2-4 times since graduation! 

Here's the short list of everywhere I've been this summer:

  • Drove to Virginia and hung out in Richmond for 2 weeks with Esther and her family! We went through Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia both ways.
  • Came back home to Chrisman, Illinois to watch Brittany graduate High School.
  • Roadtripped out west with Esther hitting up amazing sights (details in earlier blog). We drove through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah on that epicness. I flew back home to Indy.
  • Got LASIK eye surgery. Highly recommend- one of my best decisions. 
  • Drove up to Grand Rapids, Michigan to spend time with Ashley (aka soul sister).
  • On my way back, I went to General Assembly in Indy and visited my grandma in the hospital in Terre Haute. Ended up driving back to Indy to spend more time there that same weekend.
  • Drove up to Bourbonnais to dye my hair super super blonde and visit a friend! 
  • Spent a weekend at a family reunion. (Love them!)
  • Spent the 4th of July in Linton, IN with my dad, grandparents, and sister. (I was way too tired to function while I was there) Also, got to meet up with my Aunt while I was there.
  • Left the next day from home to drive up to Chicago to fly out to New Orleans with Mariah. 
  • Spent 3 nights in New Orleans with Mariah. We saw everything the first day.

  • The second day, she got food poisoning. Not my favorite city, but awesome company! 

  • Got back to Chicago July 8th in the morning, spent time with Mariah and her family.

  • Drove later that day to Lexington, IL to visit Ellie (and Jon), spent that day and the next with them. Had a lot of fun just hanging out.

  • The next weekend, I drove up to Freeport, IL (4 hours away) to spend the weekend with Careena. We also drove up to Madison, Wisconsin where I got to eat some awesome cheese curds and get a new tattoo!

  • I was able to have lunch later that week with Ashley (grew up together) and eat some yummy Mexican food.

  • The 22nd I drove over to Champaign where I met up with my freshman roommate, Kyndall, for some deep dish pizza!

  • The day after that, I drove back up to Bourbonnais to meet up with Dan and Emily and hang out with them. We got coffee and the strongest pop-up storm happened, they even closed the Starbucks we were in! I spent the night with my aunt in the bourb.

  • On Saturday, I met up with my cousin Amanda and we drove over to Linton, IN to visit our grandma in the nursing home. They both won at bingo and I didn't, slightly bitter. But I had a lot of fun spending time with them both!

  • Add in there a couple of more trips to Indy for eye appointments and normal driving to do stuff and I've put well over 5,000 miles on my car! 

Now I have only 5 days and 14 hours until I leave America. But even though I'm moving to China, I'm not going straight there and I'm not going alone. My brother will be joining me on a globe-trotting adventure. 

Caleb has never left America before and the longest flight he has been on was 2 hours down to Florida. That's about to change. We will be flying to London and visiting Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris (France) before flying out of Milan to Guangzhou! This whirlwind trip is going to only be about 6 days! But, I'll be sure to keep you in the loop!

Then, I'll be in China. 

Victoria Hess