Getting antsy

One of my friends is leaving for Italy tomorrow and I am so envious of her. I don't leave for England for another 28 days and it's starting to get to me...You know that antsy feeling you get. That feeling that makes your leg start to bounce up and down at the table. Your nails start to drum on the counter top. Your lower lip becomes riddled with teeth marks because you've been chewing on it a lot, deep in thought.

No? That's just me?

Figures.

I bought power adaptor plug ins for my laptop so that I could go to the UK and Continental Europe and still be able to get on my laptop. Buying these have started the chain reaction of events that will make the next four weeks really short...and by really short, I mean it. I am visiting school next week. I'm house sitting the week after. Packing the week after that. It's just all events that are going to make things go by much faster (thankfully.)

Doesn't make me any less antsy.

<3,

Dre

Planning, per usual

This entire summer I've been looking up places to go, eat, and visit while I'm overseas in England. I like being spontaneous but it better be planned spontaneity and, yes, I do believe that can happen. Anyways, I also like knowing of places to go. I'm sure whenever I get to England there will be friends I make over there who will offer ideas of places to go but I'd also like to take trips with just my bestie, Nekol.

Of course, we won't -just- be staying in England. Oh no, we have very much planed to go to France, Scotland, and Ireland at least once; what is the point of going to Great Britain if you aren't exploring all of Great Britain? (France isn't a part of GB, I know, shhsh, was making a point.)

Since Nekol and I will be over in England during the Fall Semester, that means we're missing out on one of our favorite holidays Stateside: Halloween. So, I've been looking up different places where we could go to celebrate Halloween. We were rather intent on visiting Scotland for Halloween because of the saying I heard; in Scotland, instead of saying "Trick or Treat" the children say, "The sky is blue. The grass is green. May we have our Halloween?" I thought that was so exciting and neat that I started looking for places to celebrate Halloween in Scotland; there are disappointingly very few places in Scotland that celebrate Halloween with the intensity Nekol and I were looking for.

Then I started thinking, the Halloween I know so well originated in Ireland. Yes other countries have such traditions, I've seen the Pumpkin Tree, but the carving of Jack o' Lanterns and the Halloween that Americans celebrate (the trick or treating mainly) is closer to that of our Irish neighbors. So I started to research Halloween in Ireland. Now, when you search for Halloween in either Scotland or Ireland, you have to wade through many pages of "traditions and folk lore" because just one page wouldn't be enough. Eventually I found a page worth looking at: Derry Halloween Festival.

They haven't put up much for this year but in years past there has been live music, games, fireworks, and many other things to do. I remember a school I went to always had a Halloween Carnival and this definitely reminds me of all the cool things we were able to do. I'm still looking and plans can change once we're overseas and someone has a better idea but for right now I'm going to keep investigating Derry's Halloween Festival.

<3,

Dre

Isn't this MY trip to England?

Going abroad gets closer and closer everyday. I'm absolutely thrilled about going and I can't stop thinking of all the places I want to go. There are so many cool places in London and cities in England that I would die happy to visit. Like getting to go to Oxford and Cheshire to visit all the places where Lewis Carroll got his imaginings from and where he worked. I mean, I've wanted to visit England since I learned about it and so I have a ton of plans I would love to go through with.

People also seem unable to STOP telling me where to go. I understand that they know of "really cool" places for me to go but this is -my- trip and I'd like to make it the best as possible for me...not to rehash someone else's trip. I was appreciative at first, I really was, and I love hearing stories from other people's adventures.

You do learn from people's mistakes but I'd love to be able to make my own. I don't want to be kidnapped or anything like that but I want to look at a pub, think it's a great place to eat, and find out it's bad. I want to think a small town would be great to visit and then find out it's a tourist trap. I want to go to Scotland for a visit and get caught in the rain. It's all a part of being young and traveling; learning for yourself.

I was talking the other day with my best friend, Nekol, who will be going with me. She has the same feeling as I do about the whole entire thing. It was nice to hear stories and adventures from other people but we're tired of being told, "You have to go here, here, and here! Oh DON'T go here, here, and here." Our trip shouldn't be black and white. Go here and not here. We would like to go wherever we please.

However, if someone wants to tell me a story about how they thought they bought tickets for Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and took some of their class mates to the show and it turned out to be a Burlesque show then by all means tell me. Leave the rest to me.

<3,

Dre

The Final Count Down!

Well, not really the -final- count down...there are still a ways to go but hey I'm still excited!

Countdown:

6 wks and 2 days

That soon and I'll be on an airplane to England for a semester! I'm so beyond excited I can hardly contain it! What I'm even more excited for are all the pictures, videos, and whatnot that Nekol and I will be posting on here! It'll be a blast!

<3,

Dre