One Year Ago Today...(A Summary of Time Past)

Oh my, how time flies!!! To think that one year ago today I was a on a plane ride getting ready to stir up the saddles forever. Not sure what exactly I mean by that, but just know that Im trying to convey something exciting and life changing. Rereading my many experiences from studying abroad is just intense. It's like a dream where I did all these amazing things, but now I'm stuck back in reality (which is still quite fun, but it's different from Glasgow-fun). I miss all my crazy, random, fun friends and the people I met. Just looking back at my blog, I remember all these memories that I don't even have written down any where, but I can still replay them in my head because of how great they were. And pictures help bring back those good times too. The pub culture changed my life! I now strive not to take my work/education TOO awful seriously! Because as my good friend paul once explained to me--years down the road I wont remember that one paper or that exam I had to do, but I sure as heck will remember: the time we all sat out in Birkbeck court and jayden threw all his bedroom belongings (desk chair, melon, trash can, beer bottles, phone, desk lamp, guitar, new shoes....to name a few)out his window on the fourth story, or the time where we visited a sex-toy history store in prague, or the time that aimee, jen, myself, and ian, jayden, and brian all took many many shots of absynth and could breathe like dragons, or when aimee jen and I took turns licking the salt cave walls in krakow, or the much needed beauty treatment time we spent at the spa in budapest, or the pictures of the old men playing chess, or buying the most gorgeous hand crafted meaningful painting (again in prague), or getting off on the wrong stop in the czech republic after eight hours on a train and the mean train station lady refusing to help you because you speak english also being naive and continuing to talk to the mean lady and instead of thinking she hated us kept pointing to a picture we drew of a metro with a number three and a question mark to no avail, or the most DELICIOUS food eaten in slovakia and stealing a menu only to find it written in bratislavan language, or the gluwein (warm cinnamonie wine)we drank in prague YUM, or all the beautiful amber and garnets a girl could ask for, or that old man in krakow who so ardently tried to give me orange juice for "gratis!", or going to that really classy club "the common" haha, or wagga-mammas, or on the day carrie was leaving she gave me her favorite book Ishmael and a special letter and I had no control over the tears, or when lyric and I strolled the streets of paris and drank cheap wine and ate fancy cheeze and met julia from germany and the members of the band fleet foxes randomly at a cafe and not knowing who they were but talking to them for a while, or going out on a date with a very special and attractive french man who at the end of the night announced 2 things: he liked me and we should see each other again, and even more memorable, that he had a girlfriend!, or all the times carrie and I spent training for our marathon and then finally completing in the Edinburgh Marathon on may 25th, 2008 with all of our flatmates there to watch and cheer us on (and they made shirts), or the time when someone was stabbed and subsequently died fifty feet (or less) away from my dorm step and when we walked to the pub the afternoon after it happened having to step over and around the massively large puddles of blood and splotches, or the time where all of birkbeck had an outdoor party, or not having a cell phones at all for basically six months, or the time linz taught us that there is no such thing as "bullet proof" vests in Scotland...just "stab proof", or the time when we went out to eat as a flat at the union and they had the best spicy bean burgers, or the time where I attempted to make fudge and instead produced a kind of syrup that we still ate and then stored in the freezer for a while, or the moment where I realized that I actually like tea so I must be grown up, or the time where I got my children's literature essay back and the professor questioned my ancestry asking me if I was sure I wasnt from france...not understanding what his interrogation was about until I got home and read his comments on my paper that said things like "this sounds very, almost too scholastic for a non-native english speaker" etc, or for doing the best in british politics and scottish history and the worst in american politics, or the two months that I was "surra kina" a vegetarian to help support the healthy habits of my flatmate, or all the times where I learned to cook real food, or the Scottish food tent on george square where you could try large amounts of every scottish food and be drunk in one hour, or all the times (way too many to count) jayden went streaking, or the most amazing country side bike rides that carrie paul me rhea johan and jayden took in isle of bute, or the most mouth watering savory fresh taste of fish chips and malt vinegar, or the first sip of cider black, or the very very last moments when the girls started to leave, the boys started to leave, when linz walked lyric and I to the bus station as we were on our way to the airport leaving for home on that last day...waving goodbye to her from the back of the bus as we were driving away, or all the other memories that will randomly pop back into my head because it reminds me of something I experienced in my home away from home, Scotland. Clearly these priceless moments happened because at one time or another, I was willing to ditch sitting in a class I need not attend or because I allocated my free time to not extensively studying and writing papers but to having fun hanging out with friends and making this whole thing called life worth it ...so, until I travel again, cheers.