Blogs from Essex, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 8

It’s 2am, on Monday 21st November 2011. Suddenly it’s the date that we had been planning for since January of this year, a date that always seemed so far away and didn’t really ever seem real. I am sitting up avoiding sleep, trying to do up the clips on my purple backpack, the same one that the pair of us have spent a full day packing, unpacking and re-packing and that finally, at 2am on departure day, now holds what will be my life for the next 6 months. In January this year, myself and my friend Lauren figured there was a bit more to life and decided we wanted to find out what else the world has to offer…what better way to do that than go on a little trip around the world? And that ... read more

So today was a work day. Working from home, and finishing off jobs which have to be done. The car was collected, and the main work of the day done. The afternoon was fairly busy, with getting all last minute packing done, and making sure everything is sorted in the house too. Plus taking a few photos for the record. Tomorrow is the real start of the trip - we set off at 04:00 hours to meet up with the other van. Then off to Dover to catch the ferry. ... read more

I saw something rather cool earlier. Smoke trails from the end of what I might describe as a massive hunk of metal drifting through the sky. As this beast of a machine was travelling through the air at a ridiculous speed it was leaving behind it these elegantly soft strings of white, slowly playing and dancing around each other until they calmly dispersed into nothingness. What stories do the people have to tell and what lives do they lead. The people that have made that trip possible in order to create such a beautiful impression on me. In a matter of months I will be one of those people. I will have the opportunity to change peoples lives, to help, to laugh, to cause mischief, to create happiness or sadness. To flourish in an unknown world ... read more

Here I was, with 2000 raving Tottenham fans, surrounded by 72000 jeering Manchester United followers. All adorned in their proper colors. I'm not in America anymore. But I'll back up. I left America, which was very tearful and depressing. It's hard to imagine how long this year will be, how much will change in this year. How much will stay the same at this time of “transition” for all of us? All my friends will live yet another year without me. I'll come back home and need to be prompted of a whole years happenings in a few meager hang outs and then go back to Purchase, where I'm sure even more of my friends will have dropped out or left. But I have to stop thinking about that. I'm doing awesome things. I'll be ... read more

AA flight was delayed a few minutes. Keen to be puntual (or to give a hard time to those who are late) might still be a good thing. Anyhow, the flight was fine; a bit cold, a bit hungry, a bit bored. That's the AA experience anyhow. Arriving Stansted airport, we ran into huge queues in immigration. Looks like 4 or 5 plane load of people arrived all at the same time. When confusion threw you having to take the little train from a building to the main building to get to your luggages, coming out of the train and seeing this sea of people really not moving much is a good start to your holiday! Anyhow, what seems like half a day, we finally reassembled with our luggages. Only to face an impossible task of ... read more