Over the pond #1 & 2

In November (2014) and February (2015) I took trips across the Atlantic to see some of my American friends that I met first in South Africa in 2013! I went to North Carolina and New York and took many many pictures - only a few of which I'll put up on here because otherwise it becomes mostly a picture blog..

At some point in the future we will all have a proper reunion somewhere - i'm sure of it! I hope so anyway - I really miss all of these people and it's always great being able to catch up when we can.

This man comes and reads Harry Potter aloud
for hours at a time on Duke campus

(I'm not sure why the photos go into the format that they do.. I can't seem to make them arrange themselves sensibly.. sorry about that)

GRADUATION

In September 2014, after 3 years of messing about and living with all my friends hard work and long nights in the library, I graduated with a 2:1 BSc in Marine Biology & Oceanography!

Amazingly the weather held out - one of maybe 30 super sunny days without gale force wind that i've experienced in my years living in Plymouth!

The trio successfully completes university!

I recently found a diary from 1996 (when I was 3) in which my nursery recorded my daily exploits - amazing to think that i've gone from secret chalk eater to qualified marine biologist in 18 years!

Catching up

Hello!

Well it's been a while since I last posted on here - but I have been reliably informed that I have at least 2 faithful followers (thanks mum, nana) wanting to read more about my life. So in the little free time I have I thought i'd have a crack at catching this up to where I am right now.

So what have I been up to?

Well I can't quite believe it's been nearly 9 months since leaving Sherkin, and almost a year since finishing my undergrad degree! In that time I have had 3 jobs, been on a small Eurotrip, visited America twice, graduated, moved house, and begun planning what's next for me - I've been fairly busy!

I'm going to post a quick series of catch-up posts, beginning with..

Eurotrip (August 2014)

Almost immediately after leaving Sherkin I flew off to Croatia to meet my friends (Caz, Rach, Bimms, and Clara). We travelled around through Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Venice and Amsterdam. We only spent a few days in each place, and although I think I would prefer to have stayed much longer, we got a nice snapshot of each different area, and it was great to see my friends after 3 months of being away in Ireland.

There was much exploring and many shenanigans (and many pictures were taken)..

This is Hodor, our irritating gnome mascot,
with our carton wine in Venice. Classy Hodor.

Lovely weather for exploring in Amsterdam

Rach feeling at home in miniature Holland 

Hodor again at Lake Bled in Slovenia

Pit-stop in Austria!

Our home just outside of Venice!

Exploring camera modes

Feeling like explorers after clambering mountains (small hills) in
Slovenia

Caz kept a tiny diary of the happenings of the trip (re-reading it now is very amusing) - some samples:

At the hostel in Slovenia we had a small (alcohol fuelled) panic about what careers we were going to end up with (classic post-uni panic). We apparently decided to make a table listing our best and worst traits in order to think of ideal professions for ourselves..

Caz:
Best traits: Willing to do anything to help animals. Scientific writing ability.
Worst traits: Animals dislike her. Poor spelling.

Chaz:
Best traits: English. Weather hardy.
Worst traits: Incorrect use of semi-colons. Sock thief. Denies friendship with Caz.

Rach:
Best traits: Compact. Linguistics.
Worst traits: Sharing. Pronouncing things.

Bims:
Best traits: Maths. Good hair products.
Worst traits: Terrible at directions. Addicted to internet.

Clara:
Best traits: Big eyes. Good at finding things.
Worst traits: Things stick in eyes easily. Steals things.

Listening to music in Venice at night

I don't even know what is happening in this picture.

Dinosaur Caz emerges from her cave after hibernation

Another exert from the tiny diary: "STICK WARS (Caz is defeated). Clara steals some wishes. Caz eats a panini. Bims and Chaz trapped (in rainstorm). Unsuccessful attempt to steal a lily - failure (defeated by hoard of cyclists). Walk to castle Bled (huffing and puffing). Excellent view from top. Go exploring in the neighbouring caves and chance upon a GEOCATCH - steal tiny pig but leave a playing card, a cigarette, and tiny origami ball. Make some friends on journey back. Eat most garlicy pizza EVER. Forced to leave pizza place as strange man will NOT stop staring at caz. Thunderstorm and lightning very very frightening. All enjoy bar Bims who has an early night to counter-effect hangover/man-flu. Pack before bed. Stupidly early start."

After a long day's hard work visiting EVERY glass shop in
Murano

 A lovely time was had by all - minus the 18 hour bus from Amsterdam back to London (that was not pleasant). I would love to go again, take less stuff, and stay for longer in each place - and definitely visit a bit more of Eastern Europe! A foundation has been built for Eurotrip 2 (dates to be confirmed..)!