Howdy, all. It's about 10 am Sunday morning in Nottingham GMT, so 4 am in Arkansas, and late evening in Western Australia (I've got so many numbers in my head-- translating temperatures from centigrade to Fahrenheit, miles to metres, pounds to euros to crowns to dollars, that I've forgotten the time swap to further locales than the ones I'm typically concerned with). I've got a few hours free before I head to frisbee practice, and as I've got access to a free computer with internet, thought I'd take some time to get you fully caught up on what the devil I've been up to the last few weeks.
I reckon I'll just start with the day I left Northwest Arkansas. I've been gone a month now, so rather than write an elongated dissertation on the previous four and a half weeks, I'll only give you the first week now, and post more later.
Tuesday, September 12: Breakfast with my folks and best friend Brandon at my grandparents Sharp's house, flight to Atlanta, Georgia, four hour layover, overnight flight to London Gatwick. While boarding the plane, I met a brother and sister heading home to, of all places, Nottingham. Their names were Alan and Elena, and had been visiting their grandparents in Colombia. I do not know what my magnetism is for meeting Colombians in Atlanta, but that's two for two. Alan had recognised my University of Nottingham T-shirt, and I spent an hour or two talking with his sister as we made our way over the north Atlantic.
Wednesday, September 13: Arrived into the city of London around 9 am, met up with my Colombian friend Yeny (whom I met in the Atlanta airport one year previous when we were both heading for England). I spent the better part of the day fighting off jetlag, we walked the city a bit, and called it an early night.
Thursday, September 14: Late brunch, early afternoon train to Nottingham. Went round to my old digs at number 49, Claude Street in Dunkirk, where I found my old housemates Juan, Giuliana, and Alexis in conference with Tung, my replacement 9 months ago, settling up final accounts, as Juan and Giuliana were moving house, just around the corner. Juan, Giuliana, Alexis and myself went out for Kebabs at the Beeston Charcoal Grill, and then I met up with my frisbee flinging mate, Dave, for a pint or two of Kingston's Press Cider.
Friday, September 15: Met up with my friend James, from Fling, late morning to chuck a disc around and catch up a bit, then made my way from main campus to Jubilee campus, the satellite location of the University of Nottingham, where my Greek friend Lilian had lived for the last year, to help her pack for her flight home the next day. Walked around with her for a bit, met her friend Andriani, who for all of her being Greek, could be Angelina Jolie's sister, and then went back to Juan and Giuliana's to celebrate Mexican Independence Day with the two of them and their friends Marcos and Melissa. Then, around 9.30, I made my way back to Lilian's and we went out to a club with Andriani and her boyfriend Demetri, for Lilian's last night in Nottingham.
Saturday, September 16: Left Notts at the crack of dawn, up with sparrows, to help Lilian haul all of her stuff down to London Heathrow. I realised at some point in that 3 hour bus trip that I was probably never going to see this amazing friend again, and it was an incredibly bitter, tearful ride. Perhaps one of the worst days I can recall. After I left her at the airport, I had to find a little out of the way corner to hide in and recuperate, before I headed back into the city to meet up with Yeny again. We walked through Soho, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden, where there was a phenomenal guitarrist entertaining the other tourists. It was nice, but it was a day that simply couldn't end soon enough for me.
Sunday, September 17: Sunday was relaxing. We all got up late, and I made French Toast for Yeny and her roommate Angelica. Just the doing of that is enough to lift my spirits from any point. Learning to make French toast is one of the rites of passage for the males in my family. My grandfather Brown, 'B' I call him, is an absolute master and can turn out heaps of the stuff quicker than my 4 cousins, their combined families, and myself (totalling a good baker's dozen worth of ravenous mouths) can put it away. My dad is pretty good too. French toast for breakfast was always a big occasion growing up. Knowing that I'm now capable of the feat is a very satisfying realisation. I've fixed it for Yeny before, and know she likes it, but it was nicely comforting to see Angelica's enjoyment for the first time. They spent the day studying, I read Oliver Twist out in the back garden, and then after our dinner of Chinese takeaway, spent the evening in conversation with their Turkish housemate, Basak.
Monday, September 18: Got up early (-ier) and made my way south to Gatwick airport, where I flew out to Budapest to meet up with my French friend, Celine, whom I met in Spain back in January while traveling with my Australian friend Lisa. While in queue (waiting line) in airport security, I noticed that the girl in front of me was absolutely awash in tears. She'd caught the attention of a few other passengers-to-be, and after a moment of following her eyes through the crowd, we all saw what we expected: a young man with an equal amount of saline streaks and rosy cheeks, well out of the queue, with no luggage, obviously waving goodbye. Unfortunately, the poor girl was fairly short and her vision kept getting blocked by the hundreds of people between, so I tapped her shoulder, and told her to clench her fists and hold her arms straight down tightly. This done, I grabbed hold of her tiny hands and lifted her up as high as I could, to the amusement and applause of those around us, about 2 and a half heads higher than my own, so that she could get a last glimpse of her beau. Of course, then I realised that she couldn't wave at him.
That notwithstanding, I could see by his smile that he was as appreciative as she for the last light-hearted parting shot, and he turned to go as I let her down. She introduced herself as Andi (her boyfriend, I found out later was an Englishman named Robert), she was Romanian, heading home to Transylvania via Hungary. We sat together on the flight, talking of I don't even remember what all, and then she helped me to find Celine upon arrival, and then helped both of us into the city centre towards our hostel, as Andi spoke the local tongue (among about 4 others, fluantly) while we did not. We parted ways at the station and I haven't heard from her since.
Celine and I made our way to the hostel, then went out for a walk through the newer half, Pest, of the Hungarian capital, and had dinner in a quiet little locally flavoured restaurant, where I feasted on a dinner of pork roast and lentil stew.
So, to recap that first week lest there be any confusion, that was Arkansas, London, Nottingham, London, Budapest. In order of appearance were: Mom, Dad, Brandon, Jay, and Nana (from Northwest Arkansas), Alan and Elena (from my Transatlantic flight, from Colombia, Nottingham, and London, variously), Yeny (from last years's eastbound Atlantic flight, from Colombia, in London), Juan (former housemate, from Mexico), Giuliana (former housemate, wife of Juan, from Peru), Alexis (former housemate, from Mexico. He's in Wales for the weekend with the University of Nottingham Caving Society, and I'm using his room and computer in his absense), Tung (my replacement at 49 Claude, from Malaysia, I believe), Dave (from Stoke-on-Trent, Frisbee teammate), James (from Petersfield, also from the frisbee team), Lilian (from my [unfinished] English Literature program here, Greek, the best friend I had in Nottingham, and perhaps a broader area even), Andriani (Greek, friend of Lilian), Marcos (Mexican, friend of Juan), Melissa (Mexican, girlfriend of Marcos), Demetri(Greek, boyfriend of Andriani), Angelica (Colombian, housemate of Yeny), 'B' (grandfather Brown, northwest Arkansas, former Postmaster, gave me the ring you might've seen me wearing), Basak (Turkish girl, housemate of Yeny), Celine (French, met in Spain while travelling with...), Lisa (Australian, met while travelling Europe with Topdeck Tours last year), Andi (distraught Transylvanian from my flight to Budapest), Robert (whom I've only waved at, distraught English boyfriend of Andi).
There we are, hope you've all got that filed away into memory, as some of these names, if you've not bored out of your ever loving skull, will repeat in chapter 2. Cheers for now.
jeff
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