"Oh! 'Recently'..."

I suppose I’ve become a bit of a slacker. And when I say bit, I mean lot. Lot of a slacker. I think I feel like the only time I should write is when I have something extremely intellectual/existential to say OR if I’ve been on some major trip. Hence me writing now, because I went to South Africa. I kind of respect Philip’s idea though, because he writes every other day or so and keeps people updated about what’s going on on a regular basis. I don’t really do that, but it’s a good idea. Anyway. So after I got back from my spring break travels, life slowed down tremendously, as it is wont to do in Swansea. I worked a couple times a week, which I so enjoy. There’s some sort of rhythm to grinding espresso, tamping it firmly, pulling a shot, and foaming milk. At around the 3rd latte order, you feel like you should give that rhythm a name—sort of like a runner’s high, except a barista’s high. I love it. I love the routine. I think I also love the exchange rate between the £ and the $ and how I feel like I make bank every time I work (I don’t. But when you’re down to an embarrassing amount of money in your bank account, very small amounts of income feel quite large.) Perhaps there’s also a thrill in the realization that I’m doing something illegal because I do not have a work visa, I’m not extremely proficient at understanding British money, and I get paid under the table. That’s enough about work. Amidst the slow pace of life and work, I watched several movies, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Last Song, Julie and Julia (with Hope when she came to visit me in Swansea), and I can’t remember what else. I am writing this on the beach, because I am finished with finals, and it is 75 degrees and unbelievably sunny. As I speak, there are two small boys running around stark naked with orange ball caps on, accompanied by their fully clothed daddy. Confession. Sometimes I wish the human race would disappear for maybe a day, and during that time, I would visit rare places and do this without clothes. Is that weird? I think some things would be so much more fun if clothes were not mandatory. Moving on…
About a week before I left for South Africa, Hope and I ventured to Oxford, England. Side note: I have learned sort of to defeat the train system. If you buy a ticket to one place and then buy a separate ticket from that place to your intended destination, it’s usually much cheaper to split it up. The one place I haven’t figured out is trains to London. Splitting it up doesn’t usually matter. Which is sort of my dilemma now trying to get back to London cheaply at the end of this week in order to fly out on June 1st.
Anyway, at Oxford, I met up with Hope early in the morning, and despite the rain that insisted on falling all day, we were so excited to see each other. She is really one of the greatest girls ever, and I’m so glad we have become friends while studying abroad. We went to the Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met often with their group of friends, which they nicknamed the "Inklings". They both taught at Oxford. Lunch was good, and Hope and I ate with her friends from Prague. Then we walked around visiting cool shops, taking pictures, seeing the important sites, like Christ Church (the inspiration for Hogwarts in Harry Potter movies) and searching for C.S. Lewis’s grave. We found it.




After buying a large comfy Oxford sweatshirt, my train was due to leave, so I headed back to Swansea. That week I wrote my final story for my creative writing class, and it was not my best work. I got a B on it, so I think my professor wasn’t so impressed either. He did say however, “You have a natural, very appealing flair to your writing that I really like.” He thought this story was too flat though, and that I should find an area of writing that better “suited my talent”. Teachers don’t really compliment my work ever, so hearing that he likes the way I write was very encouraging. It is something I’ve done since I was a kid, after all. On Thursday, I walked around campus with my ginormous suitcase, turning in final papers and making sure my library books were turned in. Then I headed to eat lunch with Melanie before getting on a train to Heathrow airport. Melanie left two days after me, so a final jacket potato with tuna at Café Olé was just the sort of goodbye we needed…