Bad Guides

"So you're not coming with us," my aunt said to our tour guide, Kevin. It wasn't a question.

"No, he's coming with us," I assured her.

"No," said our guide. "I'm not."

I finished slurping my noodles through sunburned lips and winced. "You're not?" I was the only person in the room naive enough to still be phrasing my sentences like questions.

"Something has come up," he non-explained passively in that thick Chinese accent that always sounds too dynamic to our Midwestern ears. My aunt looked unsurprised by this completely unexpected turn of events. Then again, she'd never really liked Kevin and we always suspect the worst of people we don't like.

Sometimes with good reason.

Did You Miss Me?

Hello, loyal readers! I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post (or since I left London, for that matter). In that time I've had many the random adventure. Unfortunately, I will be unable to tell you everything, but never fear because I will be entertaining you with several stories from my most recent trip to Asia. So stay tuned for The Random Adventures of a Young American in China and Kyrgyzstan!

I may want to come up with a shorter title...

Sex (Appeal) in the City

I believe that in the same way someone can be attracted to a person, they can be attracted to a place. And in the same way one can’t be held accountable or necessarily even explain why they are attracted to a person, sometimes you have a hard time figuring out why you’re drawn to a place. This “city sex appeal” happened to me in Amsterdam. It’s partially because of this immediate infatuation that I haven’t yet blogged about my trip to Amsterdam, despite the fact that it’s one of the first places I visited in Europe.

So I noticed that it's been over a month since my last blog post.

All I can say is: wow. I can't believe it's been a whole month. That being said, I can't believe I've been an ex-patriot for 5 months. Time has stopped making much sense to me outside of so-and-so is leaving in two days etc. The most frightening acknowledgment of time is that I leave in two weeks. Back to the reality and responsibility of work, school (because who am I kidding when i say I'm "studying abroad"?) family, and relationships that last more than five months. And as my extended vacation draws to a close, I have inevitably been thinking about what my time in London has been worth. Not just because in order to get credit for this semester, I have to write a paper about this, but also because reflection is one of those habits people stumble into when they're about to make a big change in their life.