♫Everything in life is only for now♫

That blog title loses a large proportion of its somewhat philosophical quality when you know it's taken from Avenue Q doesn't it?  Sorry about that, but I feel that it is particularly relevant to me at the moment.  As a lot of you probably know, I went up to Lancaster for the weekend as it was the only chance I was going to get whilst I'm back at home.  I won't bore you with all the details of what we did but needless to say I had a lovely weekend as ever and I've realised how lucky I am to have friends that I can just fall back into place with as if I never left.  Being in Lancaster is a little strange though, I do feel weird going onto campus to an extent I feel as if it is completely normal but on the other hand I feel a bit like I shouldn't be there when I had to go into my department and went to say hi at work.  The problem is it is all over with far too quickly and before I've even realised it we're at Monday and I had to go home, luckily I got to do my goodbyes in stages so the waterworks didn't come all at once!  The thing I need to remember is that last semester absolutely flew by in the blink of an eye and as long as I try and fill up this one with plenty of things (and maybe some classes, work, dissertation and exams...) I'll be back in England at the end of June sooner than I think.  The hard thing is saying goodbye to people and knowing you're not going to see them for 5 months, last time it was a lot easier to just pop back to see everyone but what with Granada not being the easiest place to get to and most of my friends being in final year it's just not practical at all.  The other thing though is to keep things in perspective, I was sat telling a friend how hard it is for me to say goodbye for 5 months and then remembered that he spent the whole of last year in America... talk about complaining to the wrong person!

For now though I'm still in England for another couple of weeks but once I do go I know its only a matter of weeks until I'm off on holiday and get to see some of my friends in Majorca for a week, another few until my parents come out and then a few more until home time again...I really shouldn't wish away time like that, the next thing you know I'll be writing my first blog post from the house in Lancaster!

I'd better love you and leave you now as I have some serious work to be done on my essay if I have a hope in hell of getting it done before I leave for Granada!

I'll leave you with the song I quoted in the title.

 ♫ Everything in life is only for now ♫

Am I really half way through my year abroad?!

So that's it, the first half of my year abroad is over, I'm done in Belgium, I've finished studying at ISTI and I won't be going back, it's scary to think how quickly the last 4 months or so have gone!  Our journey out of Brussels wasn't without trauma as the Sat Nav decided that it just didn't want to work!  So we started off somewhat following our noses before remembering that I had a couple of Brussels maps in one of my bags.  We eventually got out of the city and from there it is very straight forward all the way to Calais.  Today was spent unpacking everything, not a quick task I must say!  I'm back in England now until the 13th of February when I head off to Granada until the end of June.  I think my time at home is going to fly by seeing as this weekend I'm off to Lancaster from Friday to Monday, the following weekend Katy is down from Lancaster and we're off to see Olly Murs in London and the final weekend we have a party of a family friend to go to up t' north.  I've set myself the target of conquering DELC 310 in the time I'm home, it's do-able seeing as I've done a lot of the preparation for it, but it just seems so far away.

As ever we spend one stage of our lives thinking of the next, and although I'm off to Granada after this- and really looking forward to it too- I'm spending my time umming and ahhing about what on earth I'm going to do in the summer!  It's all about weighing up the value of experience vs earning money, going away vs staying at home.  It's all a bit of a nightmare, but I'll let you know when I've got more of a clue what is going on!

♫ I left my heart in San Francisco ♫

So I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, I've never been there, but I do feel like I have left a significant portion of my brain in England and another part of it has already packed and left for Granada, not hugely helpful when I could do with a generous portion of brain remaining here to get me through these exams!

I realise this is my first post for 2012 and the first post since I have been back out here, but I've not really had anything interesting to talk about, anyone that is following my 365 project certainly knows that nothing has been going on in my life that doesn't either involve revision, cough "potion" or anadin!

Being as this is my last weekend here I guess I could be spending it doing exciting things, but why change the way I've spent all my time out here?  I've enjoyed my few months in Brussels but there are some things that I wish I'd done differently that I will be trying to learn from in Granada.

1) Speak the lingo!  It is what I've come out here to do and I've hardly done it.  I've been too easily pushed into just speaking English because that's the language other people insist on speaking to me in.  Well I should've just kept replying in French until they got the hint.  Granada change 1: Speak Spanish as much as possible (living with 3 Spanish girls this should presumably be achievable...) and make some French friends to make up for lack of practise here.


2) Get out and see things.  When I got picked up in the taxi to go to the station before Christmas it dawned on me how little of my own area I know.  I know the area around me if I turn right from my flat, the route to ISTI and the supermarket, how to get into the centre and where the public transport can take you but what if you turn left?  It became quickly evident that I didn't have a clue!  There were shops and all sorts that I'd never seen before.  Granada change 2: Wander round the area, get to know where I'm living, take it all in!


3) Get a social life.  One of the hardest parts of being out here has been the lack of social life.  In Lancaster I do plenty to keep me busy and meeting people all the time, last year I was doing something most evenings whether it was work, LUSU, Swing Band, Glee etc I was meeting people and I had a social life.  This concept became alien here, I didn't just instantly make friends and for some reason gave up really easy.  I've also managed to build this image of myself as someone that never goes out, which actually isn't true and I'm not sure how I've managed it.  At the start I think I was too worried about spending too much time with English people, well now I've just ended up spending loads of time on my own instead so that was a silly decision! Granada change 3: Socialise with people,  if invited out for the stereotypical tapas and sangria go for it and enjoy the chance to meet new people.


But despite the changes I want to make in Granada I don't regret the way I have spent my time here, I have still seen plenty of what Brussels has to offer, as well as making the most of being able to travel to other places by visiting Lille and Luxembourg and flying to Madrid to see Ellie.

As much as this appears to be a bit of a round up of my time in Brussels I am sure there will be another post right at the very end/once I'm back at home next week preparing for that next chapter!

Did the last 4 months even happen?

I realise it's been quite a while since my last post, but seeing as I've been at home there hasn't been anything year abroad related to write about.  I had a lovely Christmas and then for New Years Eve 4 of my friends from Uni came down and we went into London to see the fireworks which was nice.  Since then I've been quite unfortunately revising for the exams I have to take when I go back to Brussels, and my return to Brussels is what I want to write about today...

The idea that I'm going back currently seems very odd to me, I think the problem is that this is the longest amount of time I've been away from Belgium for, yes I've been away for 3 or 4 days travelling or visiting Lancaster but never for more than that, now I've been here for 2 weeks and I'm not leaving until Monday.  I think I've got used to being here, it's not that I don't want to go, it's just that the whole idea feels very odd!  I think my mind has decided that I've moved out of the flat in Ixelles and won't be returning to ISTI again, especially not to take exams, and that the next move for me is to Granada.  In fact, to be totally honest, coming back here has just totally wiped my memory, the last 4 months seem so distant that it's hard to realise I've not just imagined the entire thing!  I think it's just because the time is passing so quickly, and it is only now that I am beginning to wish it would slow down a little!  When I go back to Brussels I will be there for just 12 days before my parents come out in the car to take me and all my stuff home, at that point I really won't be going back...! (Well not as part of my YA anyway, I'm not psychic, who knows about the future?)

Being home has given me a chance to have a good think about the last few months, what I wish I'd done differently etc, but I'll tell you all about that later, I'll write a Bye-Bye Brussels blog or something and bore you all with it then.

Whilst I've been home I've started up on the 365 (although this year 366) project, which means taking and uploading a photo every day for a year.  I have no idea if it will last but I didn't think that I'd manage to keep up this blog and well- so far so good eh?!

Here is the link to the project-
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