Much has happened in the last month, the biggest event of
all being a surprise visit back to ENGLAND!!
I only booked my flight a couple of weeks before; I was supposed to be
going for a week away skiing, but plans changed when I realised the mountain of
destination was the mountain I’d be going to the week after anyway. I let Tom know and my Mum – my Dad and sister
never ever get surprised so I thought it would be nice to do that for a change. Also my Mum would 100% have a breakdown if I
turned up on the doorstep. And I wanted her to get me in lots of nice food and
tidy my room. Selfish behaviour.
I called my Mum to let her know, and her reaction was a
disappointing ‘right, ok’. In fact she even sounded a bit mad. I was like ‘Mum
no I’m actually coming home in a few weeks, it’s a surprise for Dad!’ ‘So
what happens about your year abroad now then?’ ‘It’s just a reading week…’ ‘So
you’re going back?!’ ‘Yes I’m going back!’ ‘Oh good you aren’t pregnant then.’
SO MUCH FAITH. Me and Jenny spent the week leading up to going home forcing ourself to the gym at 7am
trying to prepare ourselves for jet lag – 10 days is very little time and we’d
heard horror stories of feeling sick and lying wide awake at 4am for days. I also tried my very hardest to get on the going home song on Greg James' show on Radio 1 but clearly coming home all the way from Canada wasn't enough to get me on JUST LET ME SING ON THE RADIO PLEASE. My Dad kept calling every couple of days making it very difficult
to hide the secret, and asked me every single question on the planet about my
ski trip – every time I go skiing he thinks it’s to Whistler so I just let him
believe that. Because I live in
Vancouver obviously.
Getting into England was WEIRD – everything seemed tiny and
it was so lovely to not have people stare in shops every time I spoke. My Mum was in floods of tears picking me up
at the station – Tom told me she’d even started crying driving up the road so I
believe my decision to not surprise her was definitely the right one.
Surprises were the best – I just sat in the living room and
when my sister got in my Mum just said a weird shaped package had come for her.
Hehehehee. She sort of stared at me until I spoke, and then cried a lil
bit. We pissed my dad off by leaving the
key in the door meaning he couldn’t get in, and let him storm around the house
angrily for a bit before finally coming in the living room – he completely
looked round the room and missed me before doing a double take. So much fun!
The 10 days absolutely flew by – I don’t think I had a
minute to myself! I managed to cram in
trips to Lancaster, Leeds and Manchester, a few days with the family and a few
days seeing everyone at home, and before I knew it Sunday had come round again
and I was off back to Canada. Lancaster
involved drunk bowling and FINALLY drinking cider and black, breaking lent
promises and a 2 hour trip to find blueberries. Leeds involved SO MUCH LOVING
AND REUNITING, stealing cats, 5am trips to Sainsbury's and beloved pub lunches. Manchester involved CARL reunited, Just Dance, a horrendous Gangnam style that I hope never makes it onto Facebook, Alex’s embarrassing interpretation of Revs as ‘Revolution de Cuba’
(no it’s the same thing) and 100000 people in one bed. And home involved drinking
so much Prosecco vomming occurred, snuggling with my favourites, piercings and
bridesmaid dress shopping!
One big reason I wanted to go home was due to my attempting
to get a job out here for summer – whilst I didn’t feel homesick then, and I still don't now, I would
hate to go another couple of months and feel that way and have to come home
early, or to feel like whilst I’m travelling I’m counting down the days.
I tried my hardest and managed to get my absolute dream
job! It’s at a summer camp in Vancouver
for the summer, the money is amazing, the location is stunning and the timings are
perfect. But things are never quite that
easy are they? Turns out visas for working in Canada are NOT easy to come by
for exchange students, meaning that my last hope is clinging to some phone
calls this week – and it’s looking like the job is going to have to be turned
down. I am beyond devastated but still
proud I managed to beat off the competition, and there’s always next summer!
I have also now learnt a new meaning of the word poor after
booking my travel plans for when school ends, but need to keep telling myself
that the debt is worth it and opportunities like this don’t come around again! Life in London has been crazy as usual with
midterm after midterm, as well as surprising Tasha for her 21st this
weekend AND St Patrick’s Day yesterday.
It was potentially one of my favourite days at Western this year, we
were blind drunk at an incredible kegger, it was sunny and the last thing I
remember is eating sushi. I HATE SUSHI.
Today also marks 6 weeks until we leave London for good and
I’m actually beginning to feel nostalgic and a little sad at the thought of
leaving the place – the town itself is
nothing in comparison to Leeds but the people and the places have made it the
most incredible year and I’ll be extreemelyyyyy sad to say goodbye to Western.
Life stahp going fahhsstttt.
