I’ve been home now for a couple of weeks (so yes, I know that I’m posting this way too late) and I cannot describe how happy I am to be back home. Back to the normal life, back with my friends and all the time we spend with each other. Even though I am so happy to be back in this little and oh so cold country does not mean that I do not treasure my time in the USA, because I do. And I think about my life there everyday, and sometimes it feels like it was all a dream, but I know it isn’t. I met all those amazing people and I cannot wait to see them again.
We had field day at the beach, so we had to team up with our class. We were the CPE Preppies aka the nerds.
Last time IV with my amazing roommate ❤
Together with some people from my house we went to Los Angeles. We drove through Malibu, went to see the Hollywood sign and we continued to the Walk of Fame. Afterwards my crazy Finnish roommate got a tattoo at Venice. I really loved Venice, you could just walk there and look around a bit, watching the street performers do their thing. We also decided to check out the shopping streets at Santa Monica, it was absolutely amazing.
We had our graduation a few days before I left, I got my diploma with C2 on it (the highest level) but I still have to do my Cambridge exam in December.
My crazy homeshare, I had such an amazing time there. I had the best house boss ever.
My friends and my family picked me up from the airport. They organized a surprise party for me, so when I came home I heard “sssh” from the other room. All my friends were there, I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t even know what to say, I had the most happy welcome home.
Right now I am enjoying the festival season and tomorrow is my first day at work. I am probably going to school after summer, the plan is to work and learn so than the real life really starts. I am looking forward to all the new adventures and what life is going to bring me. After 9 months away from home I know I will survive, so bring it on.
We had a students night at a club, it was a lot of fun. The music was really good, the only bad thing was that we had to stand on seperate sides because of my drink…
I had to make dinner for my houseboss Alfredo, because I lost a bet. We got a new girl in our house, and she is Dutch. The bet was that I wasn’t allowed to talk Dutch to her for 2 days. But… I said one Dutch word (because there is no English word for it but okay). And just because it was one word, I only had to cook for him one day instead of two.
I got a haircut, going with short hair throug life now!
Sitting at the beach, and just enjoying the weather and the beautiful ocean is one of the best things that you can do here in Santa Barbara.
I spend a week in San Diego, to visit my friend Fleur who lives there at her uncle’s house. It was a great week and for the rest of the pictures you can take a look here: 
I FaceTimed with my friends, because they were celebrating a birthday. I miss them a lot and I cannot wait to see them again!!
We have a small bar close to our house, and of course we thought we should race with the shopping cart on our way back.
We had a barbecue at the beach, it was a little bit windy that day but it was still so nice.
It was the last night of one of the guys in the house, so we played a drinking game before going to IV (Isla Vista).
This was the attraction ever!
We played beerpong because two girls were leaving, and yes I even won a game.
We went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, it was so impressive. We had a lot of problems before we left, but we solved them all and we had an amazing time! At first we wanted to take pictures at the desert, because we had never seen anything like that. When we arrived to Las Vegas, we saw all those amazing hotels that were based on countries/cities. We went to the Las Vegas sign and it was so different than I expected, there even was a queue. In the evening we went to Old Town, which was really cool there were light and music everywhere. After that we went back to the strip to go into the hotels and check the casino’s. We also went to the wedding chapels, in the hope to find the one from the Hangover, but we couldn’t find it. The next morning we went to some hotels again, the Venetian was really cool with the sky on the ceiling, and the gondolas that were floating around. After that we went to the Grand Canyon, we drove past the Hooverdam but it got really dark after that we drove via Route 66, we were literally in the middle of nowhere and that while we were starving. Luckily we found a place were they could make some pizza for us. It was a real American bar and there were also a few Cowboys. We went to our hotel and the next morning we went really early to the Grand Canyon. One of my friends was going by a helicopter over the Grand Canyon, and we went around by car. We were lucky that we were so early because when she was done with the helicopter flight the weather got really bad. The Grand Canyon itself was so impressive, this was really one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.
Simone Bruin 