Goodbyes, New Features, and a Hodgepodge of Other Things

Let’s start with the easiest item first:  You can now follow my blog by email!  A few of you are already gmail followers, but this requires a gmail account, and if you don’t have one, you can’t be a follower.  Now, however, you can submit your email address on the upper right side of the page, and you will automatically get an email notification when I post something new.  Pretty cool!

Springtime at Uni

Some friends at a barbecue in Castle Irwell

Next, I’d like to note that England is not holding up to its reputation as being a gloomy, cold, rainy nation with no good weather.  The England of this semester has been stunningly beautiful.  It has been sunny almost everyday with temperatures around 20°C (70°F) since mid-March.  This has been great for me, because it has allowed me to train outside for the 20km (12.4mi) race that I’ll be running in Brussels at the end of May.  I run through Manchester’s city centre 3-4 times a week, and I’ve gradually been building my endurance in preparation.  I love seeing the city by running through it, and I’m learning a lot of cool things about it!

Another cool thing:  I went to a football (soccer) game.  Yes.  I attended a sporting event.  And I liked it!  The atmosphere at football matches is really powerful.  The crowd cheers and chants and sings the whole way through the match, and it really makes the whole experience so exciting, a lot like an American high school or college football game.  Anyone could get swept up in the momentum of it.  Plus, I was incredibly lucky to see this game because it turned out to be uncommonly exciting and ended with a satisfying 1-0 score in favor of the team we supported.  

Finally, I had to say my first goodbye last week.  My friend Charlotte, one of the closest I’ve made here, finished her module and her exchange period last Friday and she flew home on Saturday.  In classic Castle Irwell fashion, we celebrated her time here with a party (the fabulous weather allowed us to make it a barbecue), a chocolate cake, and one last night out.  We all stayed up with Charlotte to catch her 5am taxi to the airport, and standing by the gate was the moment the goodbye became very, very real.   These are really good friends of mine, and really wonderful people, but once we all go back to our respective countries, it will be insanely difficult for me to see any of them again.  It’s not like the end of the school year, where you know you’ll all be back come September.  No, once everyone leaves, it’s never the same again.

German Chocolate Cake for Charlotte's last night

So this was an important lesson, one I’m trying to take into account in everything I do.  Every moment is a last moment, every moment is precious.  And that’s not to say that I’m gripping onto the time I have here in a fearful apprehension of what’s coming; it just means that everyday I take a second to appreciate the moment I’m in, fully and deeply.  Stop and smell the roses and that sort of stuff.  Really I’m just taking a second to remember that I’m glad I’m here.  So goodbyes are sad, but everyday here I remember that there are far more things to be incredibly, terrifically happy about.

Me and Charlotte out for her last night in Manchester