Presently, the future

The past couple weeks have all seemed to blur together in a swirl.  I’m not sure if it’s because I have more of a weekly routine than I did before or because I’ve done so much.  Either way, I would greatly appreciate if time would slow down and give me an opportunity to take everything in.  

Cait and I have planned a few trips for the up coming months, each will be quite exciting and will undoubtedly yield postcards for numerous parties.  CIEE is sponsoring our first trip two weekends from now.  We’ll be in Edinburgh, Scotland for the premier weekend in March, which I trust will be green, lovely and still bitterly cold as it is here, although mother nature is extremely deceptive in presentation - you can look out of your window, see sunlight, think to yourself that it’s a marvelously wonderful day, walk outside in a winter coat and regret not putting on about six layers more.  I’ve been keeping an eye on temperatures in the states, and although I’m comparatively lucky, the wind is bitter enough to be mentioned nonetheless.  

We’ll be given the entire weekend to roam about Edinburgh, so I’ll hopefully have dozens of pictures, etc.  On the 13th, Cait and I will be off to Dublin and will be staying until St. Patrick’s Day, when we unfortunately have to leave to return to work the following morning.  We plan to partake in the festivities regardless of the hour, though, so our flight and my tube ride home should be quite interesting to say the least.

The middle of April has the promise of Parisian sights and wonderful food with a hint of touristy indulgence and romantic language.  I’m rather looking forward to our long weekend in Paris since I have only seen the airport, the train station, and the inside of an unimpressive hotel.  I know that the lovely French city has far more to offer me, and I intend on not missing a beat.

 

Upon the arrival of May, we’ll be jet-setting off to Amsterdam to take in a bit of the Netherlands and once again be immersed in foreign atmosphere.  We’re trying to work a trip to Prague into the mix, but coordination is quite difficult since I don’t know when my final exams will be taking place; I only know that over the course of two months, I’ll be in class for two days, so I definitely need to plan an excursion of sorts.

Lately I’ve been taking in the museums; venturing out on tours; spending time with the boys on the Westminster rugby team; and hanging out with my absolutely fabulous Canadian flatmate, Meghan, and a few of her friends, so all in all it’s been quite the February.  I’m going up in the London Eye with a CIEE group on Tuesday, I might attend the rugby match on Wednesday, and I have the Jack the Ripper tour on Friday, so this week will unquestionably fly by just as the last few seem to have done.  It’s a same that the good times must fly by so quickly.

We learn to live, we live to die

I've just received word that my beloved cat with whom I had the pleasure of spending 19 glorious years, Mugsey, passed away on Thursday night.  

Although it rips my heart out, I know that he was loved immensely by many, myself above all, and has been and will forever continue to be greatly missed.

My darling, Mugsey, 1989 - 7 February 2008

Navigation

I spent the majority of my day walking about London and the most amazing thing (you probably won’t agree, but I thought it was interesting) happened.  On my way to Gloucester Road on the Bakerloo line, I sat across from a suavish looking guy in a black trench.  He was presumably of Brazilian descent and had a very sweet smile.  We made eye contact a couple of times by chance and then went our separate ways in the Picadilly Underground station.  I surfaced at Gloucester Road and walked around London according to my brilliant time-killing, exercising encouraging method of navigation featuring glancing at the tube map and using the stations as sign posts for where you are as opposed to properly mapping out walking routes.  I’ve found that this method allows me to do what I do best (reads: find neat things by pure chance and be pleasantly surprised and ultimately excited at the sight of said destinations) and is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday in London.  I wanted to get to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and I knew that it was a bit of a walk and that I had never actually been there on purpose before, so it would be a great venture to take on.  I walked from Gloucester Road up along Picadilly, up to Tottenham Court Road, over to Holborn, across to Russell Square, up to King’s Cross, down to St. Paul’s Cathedral, across the River Thames, along the northern edge of southern London over to Westminster, and finally to Victoria Station where I caught a tube home.  As I was walking around in Westminster, though, I came across the beautiful suavish stranger crossing a random street.  I immediately recognized his cute grin and Burberry scarf and thought to myself that it was all marvelously serendipitous.  Honestly, what are the odds?  Sweet coincidence is such a lovely thing.  

Okay.  Lame story.  I thought it was neat.

I’ve supplied a tube map if you’d like to applaud my city hike or plan your own for when you come to visit.  :)