One year ago today...

... I was heading off to Honduras.

One year ago, I was heading off on an adventure in which I would...

... fly for the first time (my first flight was a 10-hour long haul to Houston... talk about throwing myself in at the deep end!)

... trek through a cloud forest

... view breathtaking scenery across two countries (Honduras and Guatemala)

... try new food (yes, that is a banana, just wild one with giant black pips)

... discover a whole host of wild and exotic creatures

... climb an insanely tall tree

... make new friends (Chepe!)

... sleep in a hammock

... a hammock over a river!

... learn to scuba dive

... experience a new culture

... discover that McDonalds is literally EVERYWHERE

Looking back at these pictures now makes me desperate to go back there. The brief 2 and a half weeks I spent there do not seem like long enough, and if I ever get the chance to return I will jump at it. Any reservations I had about the trip before I went turned out to be completely unjustified, and I can honestly say I it was the best experience of my life. It really opened my eyes, and it's made me long to get out and discover the world.

I still can't quite believe it's been a whole year, the time has just flown by. Makes me wonder where I'll be and what I'll be doing this time next year...

Goodbye Glasney

My poor empty room :(

After moving everything into the new house on the 1st of July, all that was left was for me to get everything out of my room and head home.
On the 2nd of July, after many, MANY trips up and down the countless stairs from my flat to the car and much squishing and rearranging of boxes to make everything fit (which it did, just) the car was packed up and we were ready to leave.

My room looked so horrible and empty with all my stuff gone :(. Even though I felt like I didn't enjoy most of the year, I was still sad to leave somewhere where I lived for 9 months. Knowing that I'll never set foot in that room or that building ever again is a really bizarre feeling, and it makes me feel strange and a bit choked up whenever I think of it. That's probably a bit of an overreaction, but I've never experienced something like this before so I don't really know how to deal with it. But it's going to be exactly the same at the end of next year, and even worse the year after that when I finish uni, so I guess I just have to man up haha.

Mum and I then headed off to Devon to see Alan for a few days, in which the glorious weather of the previous couple of weeks disappeared almost completely and we were left with the typical British rain. Didn't stop me cramming in as many Hocking's ice creams as possible though!

I think this is one of those "the picture says it all" moments...After pulling out bags of clothes from the very stuffed car when we arrived in Devon, saying we had trouble getting everything back in again would be an understatement. The puzzled expressions on the faces of Dinny, mum and I are priceless, all of us wondering how on Earth all of my junk was ever going to fit and the car still be drivable. But we managed (phew!), and we made it home in one piece (after getting the car stuck on a huge rock when we pulled over to let someone pass on the lane... it took the 3 of us in the photo plus another neighbour to move this huge rock far enough away from the car for us to be able to move again, argh!).

Lessons learnt:
1) Don't own so much crap
2) Don't try and fit all of said crap into the back of a car. Endless headaches will be caused.





Going back to lesson number 1, I've been home for 9 days now and said crap is still swallowing my bedroom floor because I'm too lazy to unpack. *sigh*. I really need to downsize...