Finding Hogwarts

This past weekend, I set off to find Hogwarts. In case you haven’t been paying attention, I am one of the biggest Harry Potter dorks ever. Just for future reference.

This past weekend, I hopped on a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland, the very place where Harry was born, nurtured, and where I’ve grown up with him all these years. I finally got to see the place I’ve only seen in my imagination for the past twelve years.

Oh. My imagination did not do it justice.

lunch inside a postcard

Today, I had lunch inside a postcard. No, not literally, although I honestly don't think that'd be a bad idea.

For the first time since probably September, the weather was warm. Not just warm, but also sunny, breezy, and generally perfect. Il faisait beau aujourd'hui.

I had lunch at one of the many cafes in the place des heros which faces the Arras belfry. Despite the warnings of radioactive clouds, there were none in the sky which was a picture-perfect blue. I also flanne'd (wandered) along the many clothes stores. Everyone seemed to be out today, especially at the park where I witnessed a group of boys doing some very strange things involving cigarette smoke, each others' mouths, and jerking each other off the ground. I didn't ask.

A lovely day in the Nord pas de Calais.

sometimes I clean

Sometimes I clean. Sometimes I decide I need to clean everything in my room/apartment/house/wherever I happen to be at the time (including but not limited to offices at work and refrigerators, especially the big walk-in ones). I usually only do this on days where I am so utterly bored that it's the only thing left to do. Oh, sure, I could be writing or editing one of the many crappy first-drafts I have in My Documents, or perhaps I could even be doing something productive like planning my future, but I'm lazy and apathetic, so cleaning is what I do.

The problem with cleaning is that once you do it... you can't do it again until things get dirty.

la vie en rose

I spend too much time on the Assistants Forum and I'll be glad to delete it off my favorites list once France is done. Why? Because half the people on there only complain. "I hate my town. My teachers are mean to me. The weather sucks." Blah blah blah.

Since I booked my plane ticket home the other day, I've been wondering if I'm going home too soon. I know logically it makes sense to go home when I am because I probably can't fiscally afford to stay in Europe much longer, but that doesn't mean I'm not still questioning my decision.

I came to France with this wild idea that I would somehow make much more out of it than I did with China. I told myself I would talk to people, join a group of something, I don't know, take a cooking class. Granted, I've talked to people. My French has improved - I think after the last break, it somehow got a boost. Maybe it was just the time away I needed.

I'm still left wondering, though, if I did everything I could to make my time here memorable and useful. I suppose we always have regrets when things end but the level of the regret varies person to person and thing to thing. When I go back, I still don't know what I'm doing. Someone wrote to me the other day, "What is on your agenda for next year?  Something exciting, I hope." The real answer to that question is that I have no idea, and whatever it is, it probably won't be exciting. 


Those people who complain on the forums, I wonder if they've done everything they can for themselves. I'm not a real go-getter myself, so everything I'm lacking is my own fault. But I wonder how hard they tried or if they're just content to think the past six months have been a waste of their time. Even if you hated it, at least it taught you something. That's how I prefer to look at it, although I've far from hated my time here. A part of me wishes it would go on longer and another part is ready for it to be over. I honestly don't know which side is winning at the moment.

not with a fizzle, but with a bang

My life at work:

Me: *sits at computer*
Random person: Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous savez...
Me: Non.

The end is nigh! As you may have guessed from my outburst the other day, the CAF has finally come through and I have some money in the bank. My dad advised me to buy my plane ticket home ASAP as the gas prices are apparently about to shoot through the roof. So.

May 7th. That's the day I'll be back in the US. It seems so soon when you look at it. Less than two months away already. Oh boy. Where did the time go?

Before I go home, I would like to travel some, of course. I'll have about three weeks to travel before heading home. The only definite stop at the moment is Iceland. I'm flying out of Reykjavik (well, Paris to Reykjavik then home) but because of the flight times, if I flew straight from Paris, I'd only have one hour to go through security and all that junk in Iceland. So instead, I'm flying to Iceland a few days early, have a little time to see it, and then I'll be going home. 

I really don't know where I want to go. There are still so many places I haven't been. Too many options!

I am, however, going to Edinburgh in a few weeks! I decided to bite the bullet and spend the money. If I don't do it now, when will I? So I'm off in search of Hogwarts, and I have a friend who lives in Scotland that I might see if schedules permit. So, the end is coming, but I will leave with a bang. Only two months. Let's see how much trouble I can get into within that time.

gravity don't mean too much to me

My senior year of college, I had a dilemma. I was required, for my scholarship, to be a full-time student with twelve credit hours. The problem was that I only had one required class left to take and it was worth a whole one credit. This meant I had four classes to fill up, four classes I didn't need but would still have to pass in order to graduate. My sophomore year, I had taken Greek Mythology as a random class, so I thought I'd take something else along that line and ended up with History of Rome. I also took a gen-ed class called Eastern European Film in which we watched many movies and talked about communism and its affects on art.

This past week and a half, I relived my last semester of college.