After my reunion with UVA friends in Charlottesville on Monday, I spent the rest of the week in North Carolina with some friends from Strasbourg.

We stayed at Leah’s mother’s house in a very small “town” (by which I think they’re referring to three farms in a row on a gravel road) outside of Greensboro. The whole area was really beautiful and quiet, and really gave us a picture of the rural South that I hadn’t seen before.

(All week, Leah kept reminding us that she herself did not live on an actual farm… of course, then we’d drive by a cow pond, or she’d open the back of her SUV and it would be stocked with firewood and camping equipment. Nice try, Leah!)

During the day, we drove into nearby cities for more entertainment. On Tuesday, we visited the Barn Dinner Theatre for an all-you-can-eat southern buffet followed by a performance of “Crowns,” a gospel musical about the cultural significance of black women’s hats. It was a really amazing (and hilariously funny) show, and the food was fantastic!

Afterwards, we drove into Greensboro to walk around the campus of UNCG and then spent the evening at my first minor league baseball game, between the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the Charleston Riverdogs.

On Wednesday, we dropped off Mark and picked up Laura at the airport, then wandered the campus of UNC Chapel Hill. That night, we continued our program of re-screening all the Harry Potter films in preparation for the big midnight showing on Thursday.

The morning of the midnight show, we had a memorable brunch at the “Y’all Come Back Café” (no joke) and explored the nearby town of Liberty a bit. It felt a bit like wandering back in time. We found some wonderful thrift shops, and if I’d had a bit more money, I could have put together a fantastically wacky wizard costume!

In the end, we decided not to dress up, but we still had a blast at the Harry Potter midnight show. The organization of the event was pretty crazy, but we still managed to get seats together in a 3D theater, and the movie itself was fantastic! I can’t wait to go see it in IMAX 3D later this week.

While all this was going on, my other big news is that… drumroll… I found an apartment in Boston! I think I’m all set at this point to move in on August 1, so on Friday morning after the movie, I got back on the road up to Annapolis to start saving up money and getting ready to move.

It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, but I’m trying to keep looking forward, and I’m really excited to get settled in Boston. It’s been wonderful visiting everyone this summer, but it’s been more than six weeks now since I left Strasbourg, and I can’t wait to have my own place again so that I can, you know, unpack.

Two more weeks!