Two Roads Converged

~Robert Frost

This past weekend is definitely one I won't forget. But that's how it's supposed to be right? After spending so much time working on the thesis, traveling to Spain, and just generally wondering what the future holds, I was very much looking forward to spending the weekend with the boy and celebrating his birthday. Little did I know what was in store.

Friday my journey began with about 2 hours worth of trains to get from point A (where I live) to point B (where he works). The first train was late by 8 minutes, then got stopped along the way because of signal malfunctions. When I arrived in Derby I had to run up a set of stairs, across a bridge connecting 4 platforms, and down a set of steps to barely catch my connecting train. Luckily I made it, or I'd have been waiting there for an hour. Made it down to the next stop only to miss the connection and have to stand on the platform breathing in lots of diesel exhaust. Not much fun. Caught the next train about 10 minutes later, made it to his stop, and the doors would not open. Talk about frustrating. So, I took the train to the next stop, ran up the ramp, across the tracks, down the ramp, and onto the train to go back one stop. Finally, I made it there! Trains are sometimes just not that much fun.

Saturday morning he took me out to the countryside. It was so beautiful. While we were walking, I told him how this park reminded me of the one where I had run my half marathon. We talked about trail running and the reasons why I loved that more than running on roads. He joked about getting lost in the woods. It was about that point that he decided to veer off the trail we were on and go up a different trail. After a few minutes he stopped, dropped his bag to the ground, got on one knee, and asked me to marry him. I haven't stopped smiling since.

The rest of the weekend was just icing on the cake at that point. He loved his birthday present, but said that my saying yes was the best present anyone could ever give him.

So, there you go...'Two roads converged in the wood.' This year just keeps getting better and better.

Siesta Time!

Yes, I'm still way behind on keeping this thing up to date. I have 3 weeks from today until my thesis is due. 3! So, it's high gear from here on out. Luckily I am already over halfway through, but there's still a lot of important things to do...like another case study and write my conclusions. But I have a few things I felt should be shared on here...in the series of a couple posts.

First...Spain was awesome! I went a couple weeks ago to Nerja, Spain. I highly recommend it if you like crystal clear waters, warm sunny days (with no clouds in the sky), and a laid back lifestyle where it's perfectly acceptable to take a nap from 2-4 PM everyday.

Despite all the wonderful things about being over in Spain (like meeting the boy's mom and stepdad)...I got real life experience about what I have been studying all year. You see, they have running water in all the houses there. But the first thing I was told was to not drink the water. Apparently there are way too many minerals in the water so you end up getting sick. Makes you wonder what people did prior to having bottled water so available. They also don't have constant water supplies. Monday morning we had to wait to take showers because the water was not working. Great fun!

And now, some pictures!

Peaceful reflections

I woke up this morning only to realize that I have 2 months left. 2! That's not a lot of time. That also means I have 1 month left until my thesis is due. But I'm not too worried about that...yet.

It's been quite the interesting 10 months here in England. Lots of highs, lots of lows. And looking at what I've experienced, I wouldn't trade any of it...well, except I'd give anything (including this past year) to still have my grandmother around...but that's understandable.

A year ago I was worried about how I'd pay for this whole thing. Now, I'm worried about how I'm going to pay it all back. I thought my dreams were about to come true. But now my dreams are so jumbled I don't really know what the real one is anymore. I've learned more than I thought I would, made some amazing friends, meet people from all over the world, met the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with, seen various places in England, been to Scotland and France, and as of today, going to Spain. I couldn't have imagined half of that a year ago.

So, with my last 2 months here I hope to take in everyday and experience as much as possible. It's going to be tough leaving this place. But I can't wait to get to land back home and see my parents are the airport. That moment will be one of the greatest.

It's like a heat wave

~Linda Ronstadt

I have a new appreciation for air conditioning. Really. When it's 80 degrees with over 30% humidity and there's no a/c, it's rather miserable. But since I'm from the south and supposed to be used to this kind of weather, or worse, I try really hard not to complain around those that aren't used to the weather...ie. the English. But man, they do love to complain about the weather here!

It's been a great couple of weeks, despite the weather. The boy took me to his hometown to visit the zoo and castle (which is a part of the zoo grounds). It was a lot of fun, even if we spent more time looking at empty cages. We did manage to find very playful meerkats, sea lions, and the giraffes.

This past week was extremely productive for my thesis. I finally got a chapter written and feel pretty good about my time management so far. I do have to check my schedule and make sure I can finish a couple more chapters before I head to Spain in a couple of weeks. Must stay on top of things.

Saturday, we took the train to Stratford-upon-Avon. It's Shakespeare's birth place. That was a lot of fun and I loved the scenery. I like the tudor style house anyway, so being in a town with all of that was wonderful. It ended up being a beautiful weekend for weather too.

From here on I'll probably be posting less and less, except pictures. Mostly because everything in my head is centered around the thesis and more time must be spent typing that than updating the blog. But fear not, I'll share photos as much as possible.

Aliens and Rainbows

~Ferras

It's been a great couple of weeks around here. Great in the sense that I don't have any more classes or homework or exams...beautiful weather on the weekends...and lots of productivity on the thesis. However, working on my thesis means weekdays where I don't leave my room...which is starting to get to me.

This weekend was a blast. I headed out for dinner on Friday with the twins and one of the other Americans from class. The twins left Saturday for 2 weeks to work on their projects back in Sweden. It feels strange not having them around to waste time with. But they'll be back soon. It was so nice, we really should have eaten out in the Beer Garden at the pub, but because nice weather doesn't happen around here very often, it was too crowded.

Saturday I got to spend walking around town with rem. We looked at the random merchants in the market, took a walk through the park, and then tried to make a decision about watching a movie. We ended up not watching a movie and I headed home to relax.

Sunday he decided to take me for a drive around the area. We had the intention of finding a random village pub to go sit outside and enjoy the weather...but an hour and a half later we still hadn't found a place. It was fun just getting out of town though and seeing the villages in the area. Eventually we found a little pub that he passes on his way home. It was fun minus all the green flies. After beating flies off us for about 45 minutes, we decided mother nature had won and we headed back to town. Then we hit up one of the local pubs and enjoyed the fly free sunny weather of their beer garden. Great fun!

Today was very very productive and I now have a much better feeling about my thesis. I just hope the rest of the week is just as productive. The highlight though was the awesome thunderstorm tonight. I haven't seen lightning at all since I moved to this country. I was very excited by it and stood at the door watching the lightning and downpour. When I got back to my room I saw the most amazing rainbow over the countryside and along with my neighbor, went to capture the beauty of it. I really miss home, but I'm glad I get little reminders every now and then.

Before colors broke into shades

~Josh Groban

Days are long here, nights are way too short. It's strange how different things are when you don't realize just how much farther north you are from what you're always used it. It's been quite a week for weather. I really think I'm just getting spoiled. It's been sunny and in the 70's. Beautiful weather for having the windows open and having the shades open. But it doesn't make it very difficult to focus on the task at hand. Somehow I am managing though.

Strangest thing by far has been the sun not setting until about 9:45 PM. (Note that it's 9:36 PM right now and the sun is still setting). And the sun rises around 4:00 AM. This fact was discovered this weekend when I had to get up to investigate a strange noise in the night. Granted, seeing the sun rise that early was really rather cool. I hope there are more days like these this summer.

Good times never seemed so good

James Taylor

This past weekend I traveled down south of uni to visit Birmingham and Dudley.

The boy showed me around his hometown and I realized how much bigger "small towns" in England are from small towns back home (like where I'm from). I can't tell you much of the history of the area, but it was very pretty. We headed out to see the Priory ruins. That was interesting but I forgot to get the camera out to take any pictures. Then we headed out to Himley Hall. It's built on the Earl of Dudley's land where his home used to be. It's a medieval manor house. Very pretty...After Himley Hall we headed over to the Crooked House. It really is crooked. Basically, it's an old house that started subsiding (lots of limestone caverns under Dudley) so they built some supports on one side, made the floors even, and turned it into a pub/restaurant. Pretty neat...but it makes you feel a bit dizzy when walking inside. Plus the doors either have to be pushed or pulled upwards to get them to open.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend. While everyone around me kept complaining about the heat (it was maybe 70 degrees!!!) I reminded them that it's much hotter than that back home. So, another quality weekend spent seeing new parts of this country. Hopefully more of those will come.