Springtime in the U.S.

After arriving home on Christmas Eve, I went straight into holiday festivities and didn’t even have time to be tired… until later. I also became a temporary narcoleptic on the plane ride home and couldn’t even hold a conversation with Andrew, but that’s a different story that has to do with me being physically incapable of saying “no” to anything in Hong Kong. Christmas was great with everyone back home for the holidays and being able to come home directly into a celebration! It was also exciting to pass out all of my fun Asian gifts to everyone!

The Welcome Party at the Airport

SNOW!!

Over the coming months, a few key points changed in my life and here is a very abbreviated version of my spring semester.

Coming back from HK, the Trio expected to be going to Australia for the spring semester and planned on flying out in a little over a month. Well did that ever change? In the span of 24 hours we rerouted our entire program to Europe, specific country unsure, but Europe nonetheless. This meant changing pre-purchased flights, signing up for US classes, and trying to understand what was going on in general.

We got it worked out (sort of) and started off by skipping the first week of classes to go on our already planned trip to NYC to meet with Industry. We met with Gerber Childrenswear, VF Corp, Gap Inc., Cotton Incorporated, Welspun, and Polo Ralph Lauren. Awesome! The week was packed with meetings AND some exploration around the city. Overall it was a really a great trip and we were able to experience NYC during it’s typical winter weather which although painful, was pretty neat.

In Central Park

Top of the Empire State Building

Having not expected to be in NC for the semester, my mom and I had already penciled in a road trip to Philly to see Taylor before I left for Oz. So my semester was on a roll with another great trip! We drove up so we could cart way too much stuff up to Taylor’s new place. While we were there we ate lots of good food, met some of his co-workers for homemade pizza night!, checked out a few furniture stores and had an overall great time hanging out in the cold. Philly is really growing on me as a city and I definitely wanted to go back for another visit!

Dinner with Tay and his friends

Eventually things started to settle and I began to feel like I was actually in school for the semester. This was difficult for all three of us to really comprehend for quite a while. I took 4 classes: Marketing Research, Sustainability, Product & Brand Management, and Strategic Technology Management. The semester ended up being really busy with schoolwork, planning for Europe (Manchester vs. Copenhagen), eating lots of sushi, hanging out with the rents, occasionally going to Raleigh Times, Michael Jackson Tribute band show, Holly Hike for Mr. Bradley Bushman’s birthday, and meeting new fun textile friends (Sarah and Richard).

My gfs before MJ Show

Bear Hug from Bradley

Mags and I on the Holly Hike

Sarah, Richard (he's British) and I at COT

During the semester, another trip was planned to Philadelphia for Spring Break. Mags, Moser, Brad, and I went up to visit Taylor for the weekend. Most of you know, but I love my brother. So what a better trip than having my brother AND our friends in one place. Epic. Highlights include celebrating St. Patty’s day and Mags almost got in a fight, having a Philly cheesesteak rival competition, participating in an extremely extreme dance party, and spent lots of time and laughing and chatting away.

St. Patty's Day Party throughout Philly

The next big event in the semester was the annual SPCA K9-3K. This is my little Fredward and I after the walk.

All the dogs were adorable and it was another great success. Unfortunately, the night of the walk, a series of tornadoes came directly through downtown Raleigh and surrounding areas and did lots of damage. The clean up has been a process, but things are starting to look back to normal. It was just such a weird experience and unexpected by the whole community really.

Finally, the semester wrapped up with a typical Medlin gathering with lots of food and games and friends! The Saturday Night Dinner was super fun with our own violent Easter egg hunt and outdoor dinner. Great chance to get everyone together one more time before leaving for the summer. More to come on that topic…

Easter Egg Hunt getting serious

After the main event

Time to Eat!