Very Depressed

How in the heck do you say goodbye to friends that you will likely never see again in your lifetime?

Or other people you have become super close to and hung out with every waking moment for 4 months and will now only see (maybe) once a month because you live just far enough away?

I don't really know, and it is making me VERY sad.

Most of our group left about an hour ago. I'm leaving in about 2 more hours.

Goodbye London and London friends.

I love you all.

Sardinia!

Well, maybe I lied on the fact that I wasn't going to post anything until I got home. But I have a good excuse! I forgot to write about Sardinia!

Basically this was one of the coolest trips I've ever been on in my life. Sardinia is an island off of the Western coast of Italy. We camped in bungalows in a little town called Alghero that was right on the beach. There still were not too many tourists since it is not quite summer. But the weather was still absolutely amazing! We did alot of laying out on the beach, letting our deprived bodies soak up the sun. The sand was white and super soft, and the water was so clear and blue.

On Saturday we rented bikes for the day for only €8, really good deal, and road up along the gorgeous coast for nearly 2 hours before getting to a more secluded beach called Porto Conte. We found a jetty that went out into the ocean and we took turns jumping off into the clear water, attempting to avoid rocks and little schools of fish. We then went out to a bay that was surrounded by the island on either side, but if you looked out straight ahead you could see nothing but ocean. We played among the rocks and just enjoyed the beauty. We explored an old light house and part of what I think was an old castle.

Finally we started the trip back so we could get the bikes back in time. On the way to Porto Conte the end of the ride was down a pretty steep hill. Going there that was nice, but coming back it was a little more difficult. Lets just say we definitely got our work out for the day! After the steep hill though we had a very gradual hill downwards. Enough to the point where we could just glide down and enjoy the gorgeous Italina scenery.

We had a few little bumpy moments on the ride. A chain coming off a bike, a scraped toe, riding with a brake permanently on. At one point we accidentally went on a round about. Round abouts are similar to what we call a traffic circle and are everywhere in Europe. They're scary enough going through in a car, let alone a bike! But we managed to make it through ok. Before we reached the more quiet areas we were also constanly honked at. Probably for a number of reasons. 1... sometimes we were probably in the way, or crossed a street when we weren't supposed to. But the main reason was probably our clothing. See the Italian women dress VERY conservatively. Even though it was a good 80 degrees outside they were all wearing jackets, shoes, and scarves. Seeing us in short sleeves and shorts, or even just flip flops, was something that they find very "slutty" I guess is the only word I can think of? Although I found it funny because on the beach they tan and walk around topless, in only bathing suit bottoms. Just one of those cultural things that is hard to understand I guess.

Anyway... the bike ride was one of the coolest things that I have ever done in my life. And the trip made me love Italy even more! It is definitely my favorite country!

Sardinia

Until Friday

Well, I come home on Friday. After about 20 hours of travel time (getting to the airport, flying, driving home from San Diego) I should be home!

I have pretty mixed feelings about coming home. I am way excited to see my family and friends that I haven't seen in 4 months, but I'm not sure I'm ready to leave London and this life yet. This has by far been the most amazing 4 months of my entire life, and I can't imagine having anything like this come up again in my lifetime. And I'm only 21.

Besides that I have made so many amazing friends here. Friends in London, friends from home. It's hard to explain just how amazing the people and the experience has been. But I am very sad to be leaving it all.

I guess we'll see how things go when I get home? In the meantime I am trying to soak up as much of London as I can in my last few days. I truly do feel like I live here now, which is a really cool feeling.

So yes... next time I write it will most likely be back from the States!

I had a really good day today. After class a few friends and I went to Greenwhich and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful weather. Then we went to dinner in Canary Wharf and sat out on the water and had a very nice meal.

And then as I get home I'm watching TV seeing that 31 or 32 people have been murdered in a campus shooting at Virginia Tech. The worst campus shooting America has ever seen. Please pray for the families of these victims... I can't even imagine having something like that take place on my campus. It's absolutely horrible.

Amsterdam

I just got back from an absolutely amazing weekend in Amsterdam. The city is so gorgeous. The people are very friendly and the atmosphere is just so relaxed and fun. The fact that the sun was out and we could walk around in just a t-shirt instead of 3 layers of clothes helped to make it even more amazing. We went to the house that Anne Frank hid out in, walked along the canals, saw the smallest house in the world, took a 4 hour bike tour through the countryside, went to the Heineken Brewery, and a ton more!

One fun story:

At the airport when we went through security my friend Amanda had her bag selected for a random search. The securtiy guard that went through her bag looked like a body builder with a tight shirt and huge biceps and an army hair cut. As he's pulling stuff out he gets to her cosmetics case. As he pulls it up she sees her black thong wrapped around the case. He lifts the case out and the thong is stuck to something in the bottom of the bag. Instead of removing it he just pulls the bag harder to get it out as the thong snaps up. (By this time we're trying really hard not to laugh with the serious security guard). He kind of works around it to open the case and as he opens it her eye liner pops up and gets stuck in the thong... just to make things worse... or funnier. Finally he puts it back after checking everything with the thong still wrapped around the case....

Aww, good times.

My Family!

Is almost here! Did I even mention that they're coming? I don't think so...

Well my sister has spring break this week. Right after I got here, with the idea from friends, my family decided to come visit me!

What better excuse to go to London huh? Their flight comes in at 12:25. They should be here soon! I'm super excited to see them. It's been exactly 3 months since I've seen them. And we barely talk on the phone because the time difference makes it so difficult.

So yes, I have to go get ready so I can go retrieve them from Heathrow Airport!

45

If I calculated it right I believe I only have 45 more units to graduate! Which means at 15 units each semester I should be able to graduate in 1.5 more years instead of 2, which I thought before!! Yah!!!! It's only 1 less semester but it makes a big difference anyways!

So altogether 4.5 years of college, assuming I don't fail any classes. Not bad not bad.

Spain

Was AMAZING. Katie and I just got back about an hour ago. Now I need to write 2 papers before 2... so gotta go! But I'll write more about the amazing trip later! :)