Was Inspired By A Friend

A good friend of mine spent the last week doing some heavy thinking about life, the universe and all that; at least, that's how I'm choosing to think about it at the moment (which may or may not be helpful to him). Anyway, a conversation I had with him during that time, and subsequent information, has inspired me to do some thinking of my own. Or at least I'm in the process of thinking about thinking, as obtuse as that is. 

I strongly believe that there are a lot of problems in this world that stem from the fact that we, as a human race, avoid talking about them, avoid talking about our ideas and the beliefs that we hold most dear. I think that avoidance puts a lot of stress on individuals, especially in the most formative years of their lives and that is a huge problem. 

My friend, most of all, has inspired me to talk about these things more with friends and people in general. But, I know most people don't particularly enjoy being caught off-guard, or being herded into a conversation they would prefer to avoid. So, I'm going to start writing about the things I think about, and I think a lot of other people think about as well. Feel free to read the stuff and, if you want to, strike up a conversation about it at some point. I welcome the feedback. 

Note: I miss being in college and doing research, so I plan on reading up quite a bit on topics that I want to write about so it may be a while before my first post but most likely, they will be in the form of a new blog, link to which will be posted here.

Am Coming Back To California

After nearly seven months away, I will be returning to the land of In-n-out, CAMB, and wonderful sunshine, commonly known as California. My mom suggested that I head back earlier than planned in the hopes that actually being in the same state as the jobs I'm applying to will make it easier to land one. And that idea looks promising as I am supposed to have an in-person interview with a company in Berkeley once I get back (fingers crossed that it goes well!).

So, as most things in life, this adventure is due to come full circle and I will be right back where I started from. It's a nice feeling and I think that actually returning to Davis first thing is going to be good emotionally, to bring a close to my college career and whatnot.

Lately, I've been spending about seven hours a day online, searching, finding and applying to jobs. With any luck, I'll be hired somewhere by the end of August.

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I started this blog to catalog my adventures after I finished classes. I suppose, really, that adventures never really end because, well, life is an adventure all its own, but I've been thinking about ending this blog or at least drastically changing it. I really want to write about politics (and join the myriad of blogs about cooking) but I haven't quite figured out if they would be together or separate and all the logistics, so we'll see. But fair warning to anyone who reads this, I probably won't be posting much on here for a while.

Found Some Old Letters

So, I'm back in Atlanta, temporarily living with my mom and step-dad again until I find a job. I've been here a week now, during which I found and applied to what felt like a billion and one jobs, mostly in California because I really really want to be back on the West Coast, at the very least. Yesterday, I was feeling really bored and just wanted to make something with my hands. I get that urge every now and then, unfortunately, generally when I'm broke and don't have any supplies just laying around. I went digging around in my mom's craft supplies and happened upon a box with some old letters in it. Some of those letters were from my dad.

My parents met their junior year of college and started dating pretty soon afterwards, I think. My dad graduated a bit before my mom did and left Illinois for a job in California knowing that she would soon follow him out there. Apparently, he wrote her a few letters. The ones I saw were all from 1982, about five years before I was born, so that must have been a little before they got married. They would've been married almost 30 years now, if they hadn't got divorced. That's just mind-boggling to me. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if they hadn't.

Mom is trying to convince me to live out here for a while. To look for jobs near Atlanta. I have to say, the idea, in itself, makes a lot of sense. It is significantly cheaper to live over here. With a decently paying job, I could probably own a condo in about three years, comfortably. And that's a nice thought. But I've already been away for too long in my book and at the moment I'm too broke to buy a ticket back to California.

Am Considering Moving Back To Davis

My mom suggested I move back to Davis for the rest of summer. I really want to end up back in California and the majority of the jobs that I'm looking at are located there so it makes sense to be closer for interviews and whatnot (fingers crossed on those interviews!). But also on a personal side, it would just be really really nice to be back again surrounded by friends and just be able to call someone up and hang out in a few minutes instead of being thousands of miles away. There's part of me that thinks that if I go back again, I'd never want to leave, which could be bad.

Only problem in all of this is that I'm pretty much completely broke, so I couldn't afford to get there let alone pay rent for a room once I got there. I guess it's mostly a moot point but it would be really nice to be back and be able to see people on a more regular basis.

Was Welcomed Back With Music And Lightning Bugs

Sometimes I forget just how wonderful the world can be and then a day like today comes along and reminds me just how beautiful life is. It took me almost three hours after I got off the plane to get through immigration, customs and catch the subway to my hostel. So I ended up getting there around 6pm or so and figured I'd be tired pretty soon as my internal clock was at about 10:30pm already. I figured I'd go out for a walk to get myself good and tired and went up to Central Park. I was walking around and I guess just happened to walk by all the super friendly people which is always a good thing in my book. Then I passed by the Bandstall and a concert was set up to start in 15 minutes so I stayed for that and it was lovely. As I was walking by to the hostel afterwards I saw a bunch of lightning bugs and it reminded me of a summer I spent building houses in Appalachia and summers spent in Illinois with cousins, both of which are very good memories for me. I actually teared up a bit as I was walking around because I was just so happy and everything was so wonderful, in it's most fundamental sense.

Made My Way to Dublin

So that was Oxford: I left pretty early the next morning. Took the train up to Holyhead, stopping off in Birmingham for an hour or so. I’d like to go back and check that city out at some point. It has the potential to be pretty cool from what I saw. I got up to Holyhead (on the western coast) around 3pm or so but all the ferries to Dublin were canceled for the day so I had to wait until 2:40am the next day to cross the sea. The left luggage station closed at 4pm so I had to bring my huge backpack wherever I went, which thankfully I’ve pared down on the amount of stuff I’m lugging around so it wasn’t too bad. I ended up walking around the town for a bit and a lot along the seaside. I found some old castles and a beautiful national park. It was lovely; I could have stayed there so much longer but I didn’t want to get caught in an unfamiliar place after dark so I headed back pretty early.

I got dinner in the café in the ferry station around 6pm or so and settled down for a long wait. An Irish guy, David, from Waterford, joined me after a bit. We had a good talk and he was pretty interesting so that was cool. Eventually around 9:30 or so I just got really tired so I dozed for a bit on the seat I was in until 12:30am when the café closed. Then waited in the lobby for an hour before we started boarding the ferry.

Now, when I hear ferry, I think of the little boat maybe twenty yards long that goes to Catalina but this boat was more of a ship. It was huge, I’ve never been on a boat nearly it’s size! There were eight decks just for cargo, which included hundreds of eighteen wheeler trucks. The passenger decks were awesome and there was even a movie theater! I just ended up sleeping at a table for the two hour trip. I was a little worried about the immigration entry because going through it in the UK was slightly terrifying but he just opened up to the page with all the other stamps, stamped it and handed it back without saying a word. There was a bus into the city and the driver was kind enough to point me in the right direction to my hostel.       

Went to Oxford

After I finished with London (which is kind of overrated from my experience, or maybe it’s just not my type of city) I headed over to Oxford. I took the bus there which was a really pleasant experience (I was able to just go up to the stop, pay the driver 11 pounds and get on, baggage and all. The bus was super clean and there was free wifi. When we got in, there were quite a few stops and I didn’t know where to get off and the driver was kind enough to help me out). I’ve never taken Greyhound in the US but from what I’ve heard/seen it doesn’t seem like it’s quite as nice, inexpensive and awesome.

My hostel was just a few blocks from the bus station (which was right in town) which made things quite nice. I stayed at the Oxford Backpackers Hostel and if you ever stay in Oxford, I seriously recommend staying there. You walk up the stairs and are immediately greeted by the sounds of people and a cacophony of colors that is just really welcoming. There is a huge common room to the left with a few couches and comfy chairs, a pool table, a few picnic tables, a bar (that I never saw open but I didn’t stay there on the weekend so it might just be then) and a decently sized kitchen that is fully outfitted. The room I stayed in had eighteen beds so it was a little crowded but it was super cheap (less than 10 pounds I think) and was really comfortable (especially after the bed I’d been sleeping on in London, absolutely worst bed ever).

When I went to leave to go out for a walk after I’d gotten settled I realized that I’d left my water bottle on the bus. It’s a really cute metal one that I’ve had for about six months now so I was pretty bummed about it but I went to the bus station and it was there so that kind of made my day. After that I just walked around town, familiarizing myself with the general layout. It’s a rather centralized town that is quite small and the university takes up about half of the area, I’d estimate. I hadn’t eaten lunch because I’d been on the bus so I had a really early dinner (around 4:30) at this nice café (Coco, I think). I don’t remember what I had but at that point anything would have tasted good, I was so hungry. Later I went out for another walk and found this little street that seemed pretty trendy, northwest of the major thoroughfares. It seemed like that’s where a lot of locals were; there were lots of cute little restaurants and cafes but not too many shops.


The second day, I walked all about the campus. It is a thoroughly confusing maze of old buildings. I accidentally found this super old tavern that my dad recommended to me, the Turf Tavern. It’s from the 13th century or something like that and is in the middle of the campus. I ended up going there for an afternoon drink later. For lunch (this was on a Tuesday), I went to the Eagle & Child, which is where the Inklings went ever Tuesday for lunch, and sat in the Rabbit room, possibly in the same place as Tolkien or Lewis! I got the vegetable melt there which was bizarre because they put the cheese on top of the sandwich instead of inside (maybe that’s normal, idk) and this drink called Pimm’s. I have no idea what’s in it but it was quite tasty.

After lunch, I went to the Bodleian Library and drooled over myself for the hour long tour. If I could live there I would; it was absolutely beautiful. They filmed the library scenes and medical wing scenes from Harry Potter there. And the books were absolutely gorgeous, some of them were housed in these special boxes that I know how to make from working at Shields, lol. I think I’d be willing to pay the tuition at Oxford just so I could use the library; I wouldn’t study anything, just go there and marvel.

That night I went to a fabulous restaurant, called Zizza’s or Zizzi’s, something like that. It’s wonderfully decorated, there was a really good crowd there and the food was amazing. I got the spinach ravioli, which was good but the dessert, omyg, the dessert: the chocolate melt with marscapone, to die for.