Unintended Consequences...

Well, reality's definitely starting to set in.  5 days left in London, and then I'm hoping on a plane back to Boston.  At this point, my mindset is that I'm ready to go home, but don't really want to leave.  Right before I left, one of my friends who went abroad last fall gave me some advice that has really stuck with me.  He asked if I was bummed out to be leaving Stonehill and home, and I said naturally yeah.  He told me that he was the same way, but leaving Europe to come home was so much harder than it was to leave home in the first place.  I didn't really believe this until a few days ago, when it started to hit me I barely had any time left.

This has been the most insane 3 1/2 months, and I'm barely beginning to process all of it.  I've done so much crazy shit and made some amazing memories, but this trip definitely has had it's unintended consequences...

1. Liking Rugby

I came to London with the intention of getting to as many soccer (for blog purposes I refuse to use football) games as possible.  And I did just that, managed to get to 3 different games at 3 of London's biggest stadiums.  But what I definitely didn't forsee was going to more rugby matches than soccer.  I guess I never got into the sport because I couldn't figure out the rules for the life of me.  But having a roommate who plays rugby and was interning at a pro team definitely changed that.  We managed get free tickets to 5 games, and each one was sick.  I have the utmost respect for rugby players now, the shit they do is unreal. 

     2.  Toblerone

There are three undeniable truths by which our world operates: America runs on Dunkin, Sundays are for football, and Toblerone is the best candy bar ever.  Somehow the first 20+ years of my life were spent unaware of the greatness that is Toblerone.  On our trip to Switzerland, they were giving out free samples in the airport.  From that moment my life was forever changed.


      3.  Prague & Skydiving

When I got over here, it was always my plan to travel to Florence, Ireland, and Paris.  Those 3 places are where a lot of my friends are studying, and so those were the three trips that I booked right away.  The other two trips, Prague and Switzerland, really came out of the blue.  Really if it hadn't been for my roommates I don't think I would've gone on either of those trips, I never had any interest to go to either of those places.  Looking back those two trips were some of the best days of this whole trip. 

      4.  Walking Way Too Fast

Living in the Sem freshmen year was a struggle, I tend to take my time getting from my room to class.  Even though I'm tall and have long legs, I never really walk quickly.  What's worse is that the majority of my friends in the Sem were pratically professional power-walkers.  But living in London, and walking everywhere, has definitely changed that.  The normal walking speed here is a lot faster than back home, everyone looks like they're running late for something.  So if you see a tall, lanky kid who's power-walking in and out of Stanger next semester, it's more than likely this guy...