Trains & Boats & Planes

A Very Merry English Christmas

And the Many Things that Followed

Good Evening Readers (or it could be morning... afternoon...),

Once again, its been a while since I updated, which seems to happen a lot. The last thing I really posted was back in very early November. So for those weirdos who actually enjoy the random little updates into my life/world/head/city/adventures, I apologise. I promise I have plenty of those to tell now that I really am adding something new. 

Holidays are the strangest time of year. They begin, everything is exciting and you're so glad for a break, even if you're only doing four hours of classes a week and your usual day composed of sitting in a cafe reading books and drinking tea. All you want is that 'well-deserved' break.Yet by the time you're meant to return to daily life, be it school or university (or work? I'm not sure yet.) it's almost like you need a holiday from your holiday. 

Or maybe it's just me. I turned up at home and slept for ages, turning my light out almost four hours earlier than I had been here in bonnie Scotland. I flew back here after a weekend with Aony and her demon tiger cat and suddenly the first week of university is all about early nights and catching up on sleep. 

Christmas was wonderful this year - we had a visitor from Australia, we met the Tenth Family (the massive assortment of second(?) cousins on my uncle's side of the family, we sang plenty of carols in and out of tune, drank far too much over four days, saw my godmother in Wiltshire and had granny to stay for four days. In my case, I also read twelve non-compulsory novels and wrote another 13,000 words for Festival, which now sits at a comfortable 64K and is probably nearing first-draft completion. I also reconnected with Kate, a brilliant friend who certainly knows some tasty places to eat and WAY too many statistics about Carnaby Street. Plus there was coming back up to Edinburgh for a second awesome Hogmanay, completed by good company and an unprecedented clamber up Arthur's Seat to peer over shoulders at the fireworks. And that's before we even mention my spontaneous delivery of chocolate poptarts to Paris to satisfy Alex's craving for non-French foodstuffs. 

All this chatter is to make up for last year, when I promised an add about the 'Very English Christmas' after my 'Very American Thanksgiving' ... only I never actually wrote the post. I did start it but I thought that what's quite nice now is that I'm actually "re-acclimating" to the British Isles. Yes, you've read all about reverse culture shock, I won't bore you with it again. BUT - and that but really did need capitals - I think what Christmas really demonstrated was how everything is sort of synthesising. For one, the endless conversations about America and how it was are slowly petering out, which is strange and satisfying at the same time because it reminds me that it's over but also allows me to finally find that point where Second-Year-Me and Third-Year-Me become Fourth-Year-Me. Does that make sense? Probably not. 

Whether you quite figured out what that gibberish was about or not - let me offer some examples of how the two are coming together:

1.We had sweet potato and marshmallow mash with Christmas Dinner. As first demonstrated by the wonderful Hart family, those sweet sweet potatoes were scrumptious alongside our roast this year (admittedly the macaroni cheese hasn't quite made it but let's not ponder why).

2. I no longer have a tan but I do have better hair and people notice that instead. 

3. Americans are everywhere and now I tune into their accents the way I did with British ones in Chapel Hill. 

4. I love home and I love my family and I love my bed but a year later and yes, I think I'm quite happy to come back to university after the holidays without the sensation that made it so difficult to board the flight taking me back to Carolina (and no I don't mean sobriety in the face of an aeroplane).

5. I called American and English phone numbers on New Years. Thank Apple for FaceTime. 

6. I no longer want to put the warning (Year Abroad Not For Everyone) before telling people about my time at UNC. And I'm happy to talk to people about the differences between the UK and US without too much bias on either side.

7. Airmiles have become my lifeline. Despite a long-lived fear (read: phobia) of flying, the jetset life is probably going to kill us. My itchy feet have taken me back and forth from London and Edinburgh, to little towns with and without universities, to Paris and I have a feeling the trend will continue. Travel More is certainly big on my list of New Years Resolutions. 

Anyway, now I'm home, New Years has passed. It is officially 2013. We survived the latest vision of the apocalypse and the next one is predicted for sometime next year when the moon is meant to explode. It's hit off to a great start too with Mineta visiting us all from Paris and Jessica's fabulous 21st giving all of us excuses to dress up as pretty as peaches.

And so here is my conclusion - just to keep me writing (and to keep me doing something somewhat useful with my awesome procrastination abilities), I thought I'd do the THIRTY DAY SONG CHALLENGE - day by day, putting up a song and maybe a short post to go with it. There's no real reason why you should follow or bother reading - most of you probably have a tonne of stuff to do too. But if your bored you might find a new song you like, or find out something about me, or realise I'm referencing you, or you might just stare and go 'HUH?' - but I hope it at least it'll waste your time enjoyably. 

Here's DAY ONE: a song that makes you happy.

HUEY (PIANO) SMITH & The Clowns - Don't You Just Know It (as heard in Snatch because it's the only non-gravelled version I could find)...

Je serai poète et toi poésie,

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