Explanations to come...
Sorry for the long gap between updates peeps! Much has happened in these last 6 months as you can imagine. My 6th term here at Buckingham wrapped up in the middle of June after my 3 exams. They went alright, would have liked the results to be a bit higher. I will sit my final exams and be all done at Bucks by December 14th. It has gone crazy fast. The last few months have been really great especially thanks to my, wait for it, boyfriend. Been a long time since I’ve had one of those! We started seeing each other during the break in March, and made it official in April. He’s English, also goes to Bucks and things have gotten pretty serious. Not going to lie, there’s been a bit of a learning curve for me having a boyfriend. Bit out of practice. I don’t really mean like I want to see other guys or anything, but being accountable in general has been something to get used to. I have to care about how someone else feels now. What’s that about?! ;) I’ve been single forever! I think I may have been dangerously close to becoming like a bachelor who is so set in his ways no one can ever fit in their life, but obviously not quite as things are great and we’re even officially moving in together. Sounds insane but he hasn’t spent one night at his since like May AND his land lord has decided to kick everyone out of his house as the other dudes he lives with (none of whom are friends with each other, just randoms in a house) leave the place a complete mess. So it just makes sense. Save us all some money! We’re planning to stay together passed December but not stressing yet about where/how etc. Alrighty so on to the other stuff!
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| Zebras at the Whipsnade Zoo |
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| Myself, Dad and Brett in Athens (Acropolis behind us) |
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| Mom, myself and Brett at Greenwich Park |
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| The Needles on the Isle of Whight |
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| Caitlin and myself in Marrakech |
Sorry for the long gap between updates peeps! Much has happened in these last 6 months as you can imagine. My 6th term here at Buckingham wrapped up in the middle of June after my 3 exams. They went alright, would have liked the results to be a bit higher. I will sit my final exams and be all done at Bucks by December 14th. It has gone crazy fast. The last few months have been really great especially thanks to my, wait for it, boyfriend. Been a long time since I’ve had one of those! We started seeing each other during the break in March, and made it official in April. He’s English, also goes to Bucks and things have gotten pretty serious. Not going to lie, there’s been a bit of a learning curve for me having a boyfriend. Bit out of practice. I don’t really mean like I want to see other guys or anything, but being accountable in general has been something to get used to. I have to care about how someone else feels now. What’s that about?! ;) I’ve been single forever! I think I may have been dangerously close to becoming like a bachelor who is so set in his ways no one can ever fit in their life, but obviously not quite as things are great and we’re even officially moving in together. Sounds insane but he hasn’t spent one night at his since like May AND his land lord has decided to kick everyone out of his house as the other dudes he lives with (none of whom are friends with each other, just randoms in a house) leave the place a complete mess. So it just makes sense. Save us all some money! We’re planning to stay together passed December but not stressing yet about where/how etc. Alrighty so on to the other stuff!
After my exams in June I had three weeks off during which we
spent some time at the bf’s mom’s before he went off to Turkey for a lads’ holiday.
He lives south west of London in Kingston-Upon-Thames, which would be
comparable to being in the GTA but not right downtown. It’s only a 15-20 min train
ride to the middle of London. He left for Turkey on my birthday (booked before
I decided not to go back to Canada for the break) so I spent my bday with my
roommate! It was lovely actually. Had a Mexican dinner then went to Whipsnade
Zoo the next day. It’s a small zoo that is incomparable to the Toronto zoo but
it was still fun. Highlight definitely was seeing a turtle fight. Hilarious.
The next day I was then off to Greece!
The trip to Greece was amazing. Brett and I went with our
Dad, his girlfriend and her two daughters who are 21 and 24. We were a bit
nervous about meeting the girls and spending 9 days with them, but we could not
of had more fun. We spent our first two nights in Athens where we did the
history/cultural leg of the holiday. This would have been a bit nicer had my
Dad not accidently booked us a hotel in the sketchiest area of Athens.
Ironically my Dad’s girlfriend is Greek and knows this about Athens but he
booked the hotel on his own… Silly man. It was essentially at the corner of
Crack and Whore. We just had to be careful, never walked far and always cabbed
back at night. One day we did walk a little ways as it was daylight and we were
all together, and we saw someone in the middle of a heroin high for sure. It
was fuckkeedd. And the second night, we’d just gotten back and a couple ran
into the lobby and the woman was balling her eyes out, they had just been held
up at gun point. Ya, so if you go to Athens stay the fuck away from Amonia
(sp?). Other than the scariness of where the hotel was Athens was awesome. The
ancient buildings and artifacts are amazing and so interesting to see. There
are some gorgeous areas near the Parthenon museum that would be nice to stay in
for sure. After our two nights in Athens we then took a horribly long ferry to
Mykonos.
Mykonos was a party. This is where Brett, myself and the
girls really bonded in the typical way, by getting absolutely smashed. Dad had
brought two 1.5L bottles of Costco vodka over with him and we polished all but
a couple shots of one of them the first night. It was messy. And the rest of
the week there continued in the same fashion. Sleep till noon, tan, nap and
drink. We always did dinner with Dad and his gf but did mostly our own stuff at
night. Dad and his gf had been to Mykonos the year before and made friends with
these two brothers who ran a bar so we could go there and drink and then Dad
would come pay the tab off the next day. Pretty sweet deal. Mykonos is amazing.
I would highly recommend it. Little bit expensive for students travelling,
especially the drinks in some of the clubs, however the food was amazing, and
the town was so cool. All stone streets with white buildings. Lots of partying
till the sun came up. Only thing I don’t like about Greece after now being
there a few times is that the beaches aren’t sand beaches, well where I’ve been
anyway. It’s nice as sand doesn’t get everywhere, but hurts the feet a bit. However
guess I shouldn’t whine about being in paradise.
After Mykonos Brett and I returned to the rain and chill
that is England. It was apparently the wettest June they’ve had since records
have been kept. Oh well. I was back at school starting my 7th and
second to last term at bucks. My courses this term are actually pretty great. I
have Law of Evidence, Law of Trusts and Sports law. Of course trusts can be a
bit boring, but the other two are fascinating. Sports is obviously right up my
alley, and is really what I’m hoping to pursue as it’s a big thing in Canada,
and the US and is starting to become bigger over here too. It’s been poignant especially
with the Olympics! The Olympics were really great to be here for. I think everyone
in England was shocked at how awesome it was. There were ads earlier this year
say “stay in England for the summer” as people were all booking holidays to
gtfo as they were anticipating insanity. It didn’t really happen. Maybe that’s
partially because so many people left, or maybe the city just handled itself
really well. I applied for tickets last year and was allocated some for
Dressage. We spend night before our event in London at Brett’s and went to see
Spamalot. As a Monty Python fan I fucking loveeedd it and even my bf enjoyed it
not being a MP fan. Next day off to Greenwich Park we went as that’s where all
the Equestrian events were being held. It was so cool to go and see. It of
course poured rain on us and we were soaked to the bone, but the sun came back
out and all was right with the world. Definitely an awesome experience. Mom
actually came over for two weeks to see Brett and I but also to attend the
games with us. It was really nice having her here again! She met my boyfriend
and says she loves him (yay!). We spent the first weekend bumming around bucks
but then the second weekend her and I took a road trip to Brighton and the Isle
of Wight. Very cool places that I would definitely recommend anyone to visit.
The Isle of Wight is this tiny little island off England which is part of the
UK and gets the most number of sunny days of anywhere in England. Lovely little
place. There’s something called the Needles off the coast which are chalk
cliffs. Sadly when we went the area was closed so we couldn’t get a down to the
beach across from them but they were still neat to see. Mom then headed back to
Canada last Tuesday. I wasn't still for long as myself, and 6 friends had
booked a trip to Morocco for last weekend (August 10-14, 2012) long ago.
Morocco was unlike anywhere I’d been except maybe the brief time
I spent in Egypt during the cruise in December 2010. We stayed in the city of
Marrakech. It’s a Muslim (mainly) country so we tried to be relatively respectively
when outside of the hotel with regards to our clothing. But there are tons of
tourists and we weren’t stared at too, too much… We spent our days at the hotel
lying by the pool in the gorgeous sun getting our tan on then went into the
city at night. There’s a huge market called Medina which we went to each night.
It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Crazy busy from after 10pm till at least
midnight, as that was the latest we stayed out in that area. There were far
fewer tourists out at night, and we did feel a bit of the cultural differences.
Being grabbed and harassed to come into stores, or into cabs was not our scene.
The last day we were there we also went on a camel ride which was disenchanting
in my opinion. Couple of the girls loved it, my stomach got upset and I just didn’t
feel well overall. Got some great pictures though, and discovered that I
actually like mint tea. We were served the tea which is made with fresh mint
and a ton of sugar with some delicious crepes. The tea and crepes were my
favorite part of the camel experience. Surprisingly my weak French skills came
in handy on occasions as almost everyone in Morocco speaks French. This actually
makes me want to go live in France for a month or two just to become fluent. I
was amazed at how fast it was coming back. However I do find Parisian French must
more difficult to understand so it might be a bit trickier.
Now it’s back to the grind for a couple of weeks until two
of my besties come for two weeks during my next break which is Sept 7- Oct 1st.
Pretty damn excited!! Bit of sadness today however as Brett flew back to Canada
and then is off to the land down unda, and I’m not actually sure when I’ll see
my baby sister again!! Miss you kiddo and miss all of you back home. 4 months
then I’ll be home (maybe) for good! Hope you’re having an amazing summer, I
certainly miss the Canadian weather but not the mosquitoes!
Much Love,
Ash
xxx