i get to see travis tomorrow!

and i am so excited. i have not seen him in over a month now, and that is the longest I have not seen him in two years.

this pretty much sums up how i feel right now:

my name is erika, and i have a problem

i'm addicted to korean dramas.

clean start

i am still unpacking and putting life together, but here are some photos of my house, campus, and the city

welcome rug

campus (hogwarts)

flowers on campus

view of adams outside union station

art institute museum

evening falling

the magnavox 

putting the bookshelf together

buckingham fountain

fortune

hi again!

so i quit my job at the translation company and i went back to iowa to help my parents pack up our old house. it was hot as the dickens. i wore the same clothes every day and enjoyed the air conditioning while looking through childhood memories.

now i am back in hawaii, spending time with friends, the sun, and the ocean.

and in two weeks I will be living in Aurora, Illinois. and two weeks after that i will start grad school.

here is a funny picture of me sneezing in iowa:

also, in the past year and a half in hawaii i have lost 30 lbs. bodies are weird!

in photos

oh, and here's the past few months in photos:

 haleiwa eats for trav's birthday

 zombie attack

 massage school graduation

 our second valentine's day (he loves me)

 kelli left for fashion school, but not until we all sang karaoke

 my mom came and we hike to makapu'u lighthouse

 and we had a room with a pretty city view

and we went to a skate demo to see super cool pro skate boarders

and so on, and on

since january i've probably worked more hours that i've worked in my life to this point. i am so glad our office gets along so well, or all those 50-60 hour weeks would have been miserable.

now it's may.
in the past months i've listened to some new music. bought some new clothes, gave away some old clothes. spent time with my friends. said goodbye to friends. i've eaten out several times a week and have managed to never get enough sleep. i've played zombies with children and read books with my mother. i've spent rainy days in bed and some sunny days at the beach. and i've been making plans

and now i have one more month of work at the translation company.

and then i'll return to iowa to help my parents pack up our house. my dad got a new job and my mom is retiring, and they are moving. and i got into a graduate program in illinois.

and travis and i are moving there this august.

in the next months i expect to do lots of packing. i hope to spend lots of time with my friends and at the  beach. i want to eat lots of food that i won't be able to eat in illinois. i want to stock up on hello panda, pocky sticks, sour hula keiki, arare, li hing mui, and hi-chew. i'm really excited to spend a good chunk of time back in iowa. i'll be sad to say goodbye to the house we built when i was eight, but my parents already have plans to build a new one. they are moving on and so am i.

i look forward to being able to take road trips to see my friends. i look forward to seasons, to good ole midwestern food and milk and grocery prices.

i'll be seeing you soon, chicago!