I don't know if I'm feeling very reflective or anything, so we'll see what happens.
Anyway, might as well start with what happened after that post wayyyyy back at the beginning of June.. when I was still on the other side of the world..
There it is. Everything I owned in England packed up into a couple bags and a guitar case. It's so small and empty without all my stuff!
And so I ended up grabbing that last pint, saying goodbye to some friends, some of whom I may never see again - but some that I'd like to reunite with sometime down the road. I'm all for keeping in touch with every single one of them, and hope that our travels may someday bring us all back together. Just as we managed to accidentally run into friends in Florence, Italy, I'm sure we'll randomly see each other around the states..
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On Saturday morning, I awoke for the last time in London to a beautiful blue sky and warm weather (which, as great as it was, was not very conducive to lugging all my things around!). After that last look-around through my room (funny how small you remember it is, when you'd been passing it off as 'cozy' for the last 5 months of your life), double- and triple-checking for last minute things. Eventually, it was that time, so I slung the bags onto my shoulders, grabbed my duffel, and locked up room 20E for good..
Down Stamford Street, onto Waterloo Road, onto the London Tube for the last time; slowly making my baggage-laden way to London Heathrow and that long plane ride home.
Shovin' off for that long plane ride home..
No problems getting through security, to my gate, and onto the plane. So now it's down to 'what will entertain me for the next 7 hours?'
Well, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't throw movie reviews in!
Being the middle of the day, there wasn't going to be any sleeping, so I thought I'd take advantage of the free onboard movie selection!
To put it simply, I was able to watch about 2.75 movies, before the third was cut short by that silly stateside landing!
Anyway, 'The King's Speech', 'Paul', and 'Due Date' rounded out my plane ride - and made it quite enjoyable as all three brought their own fun to the table. King's Speech was just as great as all the reviews said - with the superb acting putting the exclamation point on one of the year's best. I'd read some reviews about 'Paul' when it first came out, and heard good things. I'm a big fan of Simon Pegg and his films, and I heard this one was a pretty good sci-fi comedy, with a lot of great nods to other sci-fi classics. It didn't disappoint! Last was 'Dude Date', the 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' reboot with the hilarious duo of Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifinakis. It was pretty good-had me laughing a couple times-but I missed the end due to the flight landing..
I wasn't too bummed - I was finally stateside again for the first time in five months.
After getting all my things together in the Newark airport, went on over to the airport Marriott to stay the night in preparation for my early morning flight home!
Ahhh a real bed and big room all to myself for the first time in 5 months!
Got to watch most of the Vancouver-Boston game that night - I was glad to be back watching hockey on a big screen!!
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In the morning, for the second time in a couple days, I gathered up all my things to go hop on a plane - but this one would be my last for a while!
And so that was pretty much it! After landing in Pittsburgh (home sweet home!), it was just a car ride away with my family before stepping into my house, and room, for the first time in what felt like forever! And let me tell you, that first sleep that night in my big ol' bed was just heavenly..
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Since then, I've just been working at the new job, which is going well, and hanging with all the pals I missed while overseas. This weekend, I actually went to visit Brittney in Kansas, which was just a fabulous time! I definitely missed her tons!
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And so I think we might be coming to the end, for what seems like the second time. I may be repeating myself, but who knows if and when there will be another post. Perhaps a final one to just list the highlights of the blog, making it easy to jump to the good stuff, rather than having to sift through all my silly nonsense posts.
But for what it's worth, I bid all you lovely readers adieu. It's been fun, and I hope you've enjoyed my adventures quite as much as I did myself. Thanks for your love and support, and maybe invite me along on your future travels! Cheers!
Good music for the long ride home:
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - "Home"
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