The Summer Trip Begins

So, my year in England technically ended on Friday June 27th. It was the last day of term, and amount of people leaving college had been growing exponentially, day by day. After dinner that evening, I said goodbye to my friends who hadn't already gone home. It wasn't easy. I'm normally not very good at goodbyes, but this was worse than ever. It wasn't simply "See you next fall!"; there was an unspoken, yet implied, permanence to it. I really hope to go back and visit next year, but you never know.

I returned to my (mostly empty) room, and did some last minute packing while waiting for my family to arrive in Durham. They had landed in London that morning (after a 12 hour, overnight flight), rented a mini-van, and had spent the entire day driving North, jetlag be damned. They arrived in Durham around 8:30pm and I met them at their hotel.

I gladly played the role of navigator as we drove from the hotel back up to college so I could officially check out of my room, and hand in the key. After a 'very scenic' drive, about 30 minutes longer than necessary and involving 250 stressful yards in reverse, we made it (I'm not used to driving in Durham, I walked everywhere!). I checked out of my dorm room that had been home for the previous 10 months, and moved into the hotel with the family.

We spent the next two nights in Durham, as I showed off the city that had been home for so long. It was really fun for me to play the role of tour guide, because I'd gotten spoiled and the city didn't seem that amazing to me anymore. But being with people who'd never seen any of Durham before made it seem refreshing and new, even to me. Things I had begun to consider 'old hat' and mundane were apparently worthy of hundreds of photographs from my parents.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll ease off a bit, and let the pictures do the work.

(Adrian and Anna helped me to carry my three giant boxes to the post office. It wasn't too expensive to send them home, but lets just say they didn't come out in the same shape we sent them. Note the before look above for comparison to a later blog)

(Adrian and I take in the view from the top of Durham Cathedral. I'd never been up there before, because of a superstition amongst students that those who go to the top won't graduate. Obviously I didn't plan on graduating from Durham, so it didn't apply to me, but I couldn't get anyone to go up with me!)


(The view from the top)



(Me, Anna and Adrian on one of Durham's many bridges)

(I'll miss seeing this view every morning as I walk to class...)

(Durham Cathedral as seen from the riverwalk)

(Eating pasties for breakfast, which you may remember me talking about here, while waiting for a tour of Durham Castle)

(Resting. We established the precedent of engaging in ridiculous amounts of walking early in Durham, and would continue this for the rest of the vacation)

(More resting. Me and Adrian noticed Mom, Anna and Dad's outfits seemed to match perfectly with the building behind them)

(So naturally we made them pose)

Clearly this is going to take a while. I've only gotten through the first few days of an 18 day trip. I'll try to put up a bit more every day, or every few days, so keep checking regularly. Until next time.