So I came home, right?

Wow. That is the best thing that I could say to describe the last week.

I decided to go on a study abroad before I had met Hayley Burch. But then in the course of my preparation I started dating her. Of course, she is the coolest thing since , but I still decided to go to Vienna. It was scheduled to be a 3 month and 3 day trip, but at about a month I was feeling pretty anxious to get home. Talking for hours a day on Skype is great but it isn't the same as being in person and being able to hold the person you love. So I figured it all out, I got in contact with the BYU travel again and I was surprised that only 75 dollars to switch my ticket around. I also figured out with enough time to spare that classes could be dropped and I wouldn't have any black marks on my transcript.

At first I didn't want to get Hayley's hopes up by telling her I was thinking of coming home and then not being able to, but then it turned into me wanting to surprise her. Of course. And it was a full two weeks of me trying to not tell her anything as I spoke with her almost every day on Skype for about 3-5 hours. The study abroad group new after about 4-5 days and then I also had to have someone pick me up from the airport so I had to tell someone at the apt. I asked Joseph Seth and Janette and they figured out to come get me at 11:30 at night. Of course, anything to help me surprise Hayley :)

I flew out of Austria on the 7th and got here 26 hours later even with the hour and 15 minute delay at JFK. Not much could get my spirits down. After getting home at 2:30, staying up for another hour and getting only 3 hours of sleep I was ready to go see Hayley.

I knew that she goes for a run with Canada every morning at 7 so I got out of the house at 6:30 and bought some flowers (orange roses). I had already brought home 2 pairs of earrings and an orange scarf from Vienna but needed a way to wrap it so I got a bag as well. I set all that up and then before Danny went to work I asked him to do some reconnaissance and he found out that at 7 she was still in bed. I wasn't sure what to do but I got online and looked to see if Canada was there but she wasn't so I went over to her apt. She was still asleep and her roommate didn't want to wake her up so I just went home to wait and worry. Well, I saw that she was online about 15 min. later so I chatted with her and went told her to stay in her apt. She knew then that I was going to be coming over and that I was back from Vienna. At her apartment we said that I would watch for them to leave to go running and then I'd catch up.

I waited and saw them leave, took the flowers and the present and put them on her table, then I took off after them all sneaky-like. Quite as a mouse and only taking steps when Hayley was talking, I came up behind her and put my hands around her waist. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not but after she turned around and looked like she was going to die she was just so excited that it didn't matter that I am a creeper. :) She couldn't believe it! I was there and she had just been chatting with me about 10 hours earlier. She said, "This is so surreal...you aren't REAL!" So she had a hard time looking over at me as we were running, or at least she was just so blown away that she had to look over every few seconds to see if I was still there. She even hit me in the arm to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. I was very happy with the whole event.

When we were done running we got back and she loved the flowers. I mean, she LOVES the flowers. I am glad, and she loved the other gifts as well. It was funny because she was really happy to get them but I think that she was just so overwhelmed by the fact that I was back that the coolness of the presents was toned down a bit. Be that as it may, I think that the last 3 days have been the best days of my life!

I love you, Hayley Burch.

Rain and dessert

Today is a fun day. I am first off, thinking of Hayley, and then I also went out in the rain and walked around. It looked like rain when I left today but I just brought my umbrella. I wore shorts and flip flops and the rain wasn't cold. It was fun. The umbrella is broken a little bit, luckily there wasn't a lot of rain. Then I decided, what the heck, I'm going to go get a bit of Appel strudel since the several that I've had until did not give me a good impression. I went to a place that got high marks in Megan and Chelsea's book and I was surprisingly won over. The strudel was excellent and it came with vanilla sauce that was also amazing. And because it was raining I also got a bit of Hot cocoa that was, of course, awesome. I went a little earlier to the museum that McKay and the others went to as well. The ancient instruments/weapons/armor museum in the National Library. It was pretty radical. Now like most evenings I am wasting time at the institute before FHE starts. But of course it's not a complete waste because I get to chat with Hayley! ;)