Wasn't That Fun? Let's Do It Again

The wheel of time has come full circle. It has been a year since I started my adventures in Spain then Scotland, and now, my adventures are starting up again! The "being stateside" prognostication for what would be happening to me in the vaguely looming future came true: this summer, adventures will be had in New York City. It's not being abroad, this is true, but it will still be a new experience, and one I'm very much looking forward to having in the comfort of my own country this time.

This summer is going to be a fantastic one for multiple reasons. Let me enumerate them below with a lovely list of bullet points.

• I'm going to be staying with my sister!!! It will be the first time in a good ten years since we lived together. I've grown up in that time, so this will be an opportunity for us really to get to know each other as adults.
• I have a really phenomenal internship opportunity, doing interesting work with interesting people. Because this is meant to be a personal blog, I will refer to the company only occasionally and as "Company X." But take my word for it, this is pretty amazing. I might revise the statement I just made and drop as many annoying hints as I can to what it is without actually revealing what I'm doing.
• I'm looking forward to the contacts and community which I will make in the City. One of the things I have loved about being LDS (I'm LDS, also known as Mormon, by the way) is the instant community which is available no matter where I go. It has been incredibly important to me over the past year because my life has been a picture of change. Three new cities and two familiar ones in fifteen months means I have practically been a nomad. And in every new geographical place, I've found a social place at Church. Apart from Mormons, I'll have a community of people from my high school and College there, so lots will keep me occupied.
• And lastly, and the majority of what I'll be writing about, is the activities I'll do while living in the City! From watching Shakespeare in the Park to going to the Lincoln Center for Shakespeare, seeing the odd Broadway Play (read: "Book of Mormon Musical"), going to Restaurant week, going to the Botanical Gardens, Coney Island, concerts in Central Park, the Metropolitan, cannellonis (yes, it should count under "food" and/or "restaurant week," but they're so good they deserve their own category. May be expanded to include "Italian food" because I want to make my second home in Little Italy), to perhaps a Mets game and even some Scottish dancing.

Now, I'm still at home in a transitional, incubatory state, prepping for my time in the City, avoiding prepping for next year and thesis, and recuperating from saying my goodbyes to College people. 

If you've just joined 'les aventures' here at spoony driftwood, welcome aboard! To all those who are returning, glad to have you back and also glad to know that I didn't scare you away with poor writing or random thoughts. Thanks for reading! If anyone has any suggestions for things to do in New York, don't hesitate to tell me, or tell me what to check out in the city so I may be your proxy.

<3

This is It

This is the end. My last night in Edinburgh; I feel empty. The flat is silent, everyone has left - both from my block of flats and the friends I've made at uni. It feels like I'm gone, like I'm not here.

Always back to the beginning, it seems. And this is just another ending... endings must happen so that new beginnings can follow, right? Right?

So did Vizzini. When the job went wrong he went back to the beginning. Well, this is where we got the job, so it's the beginning. And I am staying to Vizzini come. -The Princess Bride 

This isn't Scotland or Spain, if you catch my drift.

Walking, walking, and more walking

I am walked out. Before coming to Edinburgh, I knew that I'd have to walk to a lot more places, and that the city was much more spread-out. However, there is a difference between knowing such a fact beforehand and actually having to experience it. Walking is all I seem to do here (gross exaggeration).

Last night, I missed the bus to Family Home Evening for the Young Single Adults, and I didn’t want to stick around waiting for the next one, so I walked. The terrain is completely flat, so it's not hard, it just takes a while, and when my shoes are not very comfortable, it makes me less inclined to want to make the journey.

Coming back after the activity, I managed to catch the bus. It was a mere ten-minute ride. It’s amazing how much more quickly one can get around with a car - and the difference conversation makes, because I met a fresher who goes to Church and lives only a few blocks from where I do (yay a bus buddy!). 

And not to say that I didn’t try to catch a ride home with someone; as far as I know, none of the Young Single Adults who attended tonight have cars. Some will soon have cars, but that is not helpful at this point in my life right now.

So, the take-home point is that the journey to Church is very long. Enjoyable, just lengthy.

Kitschy Pictures

Lately, some readers might have noticed that there are a lot of ethereal pictures of space with too much pastel in their palette. It looks like an amateur reincarnation of Thomas Kinkade got a hold of those pictures and started painting the creation of the universe.

That is what I would have thought, anyway, had I not taken those pictures myself from the Hubble website. I gave credit to the website, so the astute readers among you will note that this is an unnecessary post to calm my insecurities and vent my dislike for overly-kitschy paintings.

At least I don’t have any pictures of dolphins at sunset…

Keep on Dreamin', Boy, Cuz When You Stop Dreamin' It's Time to Die

I seem to have a penchant for using song lyrics as my titles. Aside from being the lines of a great song by Blind Melon, they also remind me of the starry-eyed teenager-I-once-was.

In going to Barcelona, I fulfilled a dream of mine. It was both more and less than I imagined it would be, and even a little bit of exactly what I imagined it to be. It will go the way of all dreams that have been fulfilled - it will settle in my memory until it sinks, dust-filled, to the deeper recesses of the mind's cavern, to wait until I start to forget things and my second childhood comes.

That was rather morose. On a happier note: as one dream is fulfilled and vague, perfect possibilities fade away, another dream is born. This might sound silly, but my newborn dream sounds absolutely lovely to me.

I want to take the trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow through Mongolia to Beijing.

The journey takes six days, and I'm sure there's not much to do other than sit and read and watch as the countryside goes by. It sounds like a perfect occasion to get a Kindle. It also sounds like a perfect worldwide adventure - begin in Europe, possibly London, and end in the Far East. Be a real traveler like the ones we read about in Victorian literature. Think of Anna Karenina every time I see a train or stand on a platform. Get to see China, and perhaps end the journey in Korea or Japan.

When I first heard about the trans-Siberian railroad my sophomore year of high school, I guffawed just as loudly as the other students in my European history class. What a ridiculous - wonderful, Romantic, idle-way-to-spend-your-time - idea.

I believe that we must keep on looking forward and dreaming, because dreams make life worthwhile. We must balance between being content with where we are and wanting more - and dreams are the perfect medium for that.

I don't feel the suns comin' out today 

its staying in, its gonna find another way. 

As I sit here in this misery, I don't 

think I'll ever see the sun from here. 

And oh as I fade away, 

they'll all look at me and say, and they'll say, 

Hey look at him! I'll never live that way. 

But that's okay 

they're just afraid to change. 

When you feel your life ain't worth living 

you've got to stand up and 

take a look around you then a look way up to the sky. 

And when your deepest thoughts are broken, 

keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin' it's time to die. 

And as we all play parts of tomorrow, 

some ways will work and other ways we'll play. 

But I know we all can't stay here forever, 

so I want to write my words on the face of today. 

and then they'll paint it 

And oh as I fade away, 

they'll all look at me and they'll say, 

Hey look at him and where he is these days. 

When life is hard, you have to change.