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"Hey what's your name?"

"Christine, you?" 

"[insert name I will probably instantaneously forget]" 

"Cool, where are you from?"

"[insert city and state I will definitely instantaneously forget], what about you?" 

"Southern Oregon." 

Now press eternal-repeat on that conversation, and that is my life. 

Don't get me wrong, it's great. It really is.

Someday I'll write up a post about the awesome people I've met here and the things I do and places I go and midterms I'm supposed to be studying for. 

But for now, at 1am on a Saturday morning (!), as my alarm clock goes off in 5 hours, I think I'll google image "Southern Oregon" instead. 

I don't think it's homesickness, I think my love has just been more deeply rooted.  

Next time someone asks me where I'm from, I'm going to say: 

"Southern Oregon, and even though the fall leaves in Utah are gorgeous, I miss it dearly and I just want to take my bike up Roxyann and hike McLoughlin and drive past pear orchards and look out at an expanse of valley and see mountains painted with evergreen and you should really go sometime because it will change your definition of beauty, I promise."