And so we have entered April. It's crazy to think that I only have a little more than two weeks left here in London and to be honest I am really excited to go home. Don't get me wrong I love the city and I don't want to leave but at the same time I'm anxious to be home. Not to mention seeing Serendipity pictures at Guilford makes me wish I was there with my friends. Furthermore I'm at the point where I'm just frustrated with school and stuff happening with next year such as uncertain housing arrangements. I want to be in the States and able to take care of it in person instead of being helpless on the other side of the world.
Aside from getting ready to leave, I have been having a lot of fun the past few weeks. During St. Patrick's Day I watched the parade that went through Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and that weekend in general I was out having fun. It was most likely my second favorite weekend I've spent here. As for Easter I didn't do much. I didn't have work on that Friday and Monday which meant I could focus on a paper that was due on Tuesday. Therefore I was a bit of a hermit. However I did go out on Friday night with a girl from Marist. We went to a concert in Stepeney Green (kind of a sketchy place) and the band was called The Gaslight Anthem. I hadn't heard of them but I am never one to turn down a good rock concert. And man was it fun! There are pictures up on my Facebook and they were the only good ones I could get. Other than that one night out, I only went outside to go run.
Speaking of running, on Easter Sunday I decided it was a day where I needed to get out of my room and what better way to blow off some steam than go for a run in the park? Well while I was doing a loop around Kensington Gardens I thought I would shake it up a bit and go somewhere else. So I ran to the tube station and hopped on the District Line to St. James' Park. In that little park you had an excellent view of Buckingham Palace when you crossed a little bridge placed idylically over a flowing brook. When I ran around the park I realized from street signs that Westminster wasn't too far from where I was so I thought why not take a run past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament? That led me to Westminster Pier, with the London Eye right in front of me, and running along the Thames. But it doesn't stop there. Oh no, I decided to be a full on nutter and take the tube to South Kensington station and finish my run around that area before heading back to Metrogate. In total, I did almost two hours of running. It seems like a half marathon should be no problem after all that but my legs were hurting me later on. Still it was nice to get the chance to run around the city even if it was windy and cold.
I have been a running machine lately though. I'm not sure what has gotten into me but I think that really long run, partnered with the stress of school, made something click inside me because anytime I think "I'll go for a nice, easy run", I end up wanting to go longer and even at work I can feel my legs twitch, wanting to go run around the area where I work. But hey if this gets me through conditioning in the summer I have no qualms about it. Also it now feels more like something I need to do rather than what I have to do. Running allows me to let my mind wander and release everything I am feeling. If I'm angry or happy I let my body fly because if I don't I feel ready to spontaneously combust. I have always been one to love running for the sake of running. I don't like competing because then I feel like I have to prove something to everyone instead of just myself. Of course that isn't to say I'm not a competitive person. Get me angry and you'll see just what I can dish out. But I think running is something that should allow you to feel unrestricted by everything else in your life and not cause added stress because you have to win a race or beat somebody. There is nothing worse than having what you love turn into something you despise because others think you should take it just as seriously as they do. What's the point of working hard at something when you don't even have the desire that drives you forward?
Sorry for the small digression but when I get a thought I just go with it. I guess that's why I have tons of notebooks at home filled with unfinished stories.
Anyway, this week at my internship the full-time runner, Luke, had the whole week off and headed back home up north so on Wednesday I had to work with someone else because that is the day where he and I are the only runners. On the one hand I was glad to have someone there and not have to do everything myself. I was also grateful that it wasn't very busy that day. However she was very new to running and had only had one running job before this so she was still searching for something permanent. I had to step up that day and take the lead because I was the veteran. It wasn't as terrifying as I thought it would be and my co-workers were really impressed with how I handled myself, which was fantastic. Also the girl, Alice is her name, and I got on really well. There was a lot of laughing going on and we were the main cause of it. Thursday and Friday, however, I was really glad that I had Brad to help because he has been there a month longer than I have and so it was nice to have someone I'm comfortable with there to help. But I am super excited to see Luke on Wednesday because the place is definitely not the same without his wacky personality.
I will definitely miss both of those guys when I leave and I will also miss working at Lucky Cat because everyone there is really chill and it's a great atmosphere. I was so excited that I got to help out with tapes coming in because it gave me the chance to work with the program Avid a little bit and I hope I can do more of that before I leave.
As for my remaining time here, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do because it feels like I have a lot to on my plate in order to finish up the semester and get ready to head home. Plus it's hard to figure out what else there is to see when you've already seen so much. Today I just walked around Covent Garden and Leicester Square because it was sunny and blue sky (compared to the snow we got earlier this week) I couldn't waste it indoors. I ended up finding this place called Cyber Candy where it sold sweets from different countries in the world. I had found one in Camden but this is the store Luke told me to go to. Both stores have pretty much the same products but the one in Camden had Cheerwhine! You can't even get that in New York, it's pretty much a southern thing. Also there were biscuits called Tim Tams from Australia that looked really good and also Korean watermelon flavored bubble gum and even Japanese cereal. However I will say the shop in Covent Garden had a giant Willy Wonka gumball machine right in front of the store as soon as you walk in. It took some restraint to not buy everything there.
But I did end up buying a MoonPie from the shop because I had to see if it was "nummie nummie". If you understand that reference and aren't my parents then we need to be best friends. A MoonPie is essentially a biscuit topped with marshmallow covered in chocolate. A huge mallomar if you even know what those are. I may have to get more at some point, which reminds me that I need to start making a box of things to send home that won't go in my suitcase. Ugh so much to do! I am ready to shut my brain off for a long while. So fair warning Mom, once my head hits the pillow of my bed, don't expect me to wake up for a week.
Just so you know there will definitely be a couple more posts before I head home. As for the content, you and I will both have to see what I have to talk about.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment