Afternoon Bloggers,
I have a confession to make, a sort apology i guess....Well here it goes, I have been a bad blogger! And for this i apologise sincerely, i don't know what has got over me... oh wait, maybe it was Football Manager :/
But after a few weeks of regular updates, maybe it was time for a short break so we could both collect our thoughts, i mean not a break like Ross and Rachel in friends, but more of a break as in a bit of time apart, we were talking things way to fast, and well, if i had to admit it, however hard for me it is, but, well, i got spooked, there i admitted it, you came on way to strongly, i rushed things, i let far to much out in a short space of time, but for me, this time apart, well it could only be for the better! I mean look at it this way, you had time to browse other internet sites, to read other peoples work, and maybe see what you were missing you know the whole 'The grass is always greener' motto, and me, well i had time to collect my thoughts and ideas on the world, on my time here, and what i'm going to make of my next (this) blog. I mean they always say that a writers comeback piece has to be something special, right?
But what to write about? Has it been too long.... has it balls! Ok so it has been over a week since we really connected, but we still have that chemistry right? I mean comeon i write,you read, we feellike we connected, you give me constructive criticism, i take it badly, and we move on?!
So i have chosen a topic close to my heart, and an important one for this year. And that is friendships. You see iv just finished writing my part of an assignment we have to submit back to Northumbria Uni in order to pass this year, and i had to write about 3 topics; Student Life, Food and Important People. These were seemingly 3 seperate topics, not much linking one from the other, and so they are set apart in the assignment, however when i got to writing them i realised something, one vital part that joins all 3 together, and that is Friends.
Before i came to Cadiz i planned the year out in my head; A luxury pad with rooftop terrace and pool, a job working behind a cocktail bar flaring and wowing the local senoritas with my long pour, shaker spins and colourful creations, beach by day, uni by evening, and by night, collect up the amigos and hit the old city in true British style. When i arrived in Cadiz i looked to set such plans in motion, so we got a flat, a nice flat, luxury, however, just wasn't the word, i mean sharing a room, now unless its with an 18 lingerie model from Brazil, just aint luxury! So we got the rooftop terrace, but only to dry clothes on, but hey, we've got 2 balconies, enough room to swing a cat? sadly no! But the job hunt, oh the job hunt, it amounted to heading to Bar Cuba each night and pestering our very own 'Uncle Rich' for a job, i got it, and i love it, but i'm just not quite seeing 'Cocktails and Dreams' in Pink Neon lights yet (Tom Cruise-Cocktail durrrr). Now the final three desires, now these we have managed to pin down, and we have them to a T. When the sun comes out, or did :/ we would hit the beach, hit the waves and we would be living the dream. And uni? well we have the luxury of all but one of our classes taking place after 3pm, brilliant? mhmmm! And the nights out, well i think we have heard enough of those already? (But one word that will surely haunt my next blog.... Halloween!! Pictures will tell all!!!)
Am i sad that it hasn't quite lived up to my expectations, maybe that isn't the right word, how about dreams.... Ok so as of yet i haven't had the luxury pad, i do have a nice homely flat sharing with 4 pretty sweet people and 2 others who are always here, (i mean my umbilical cord [LAN] aint just attatched to some randomers laptop!), and i cannot complain! And the job, i love every minute of being behind that bar, ok so i don't like working, but who does, and maybe its not a beach front bar with senoritas lining up to see me sparkle with bottle and shaker in hand (I have yet to actually see myself do it properly hahaha) whilst i shot vodka caramels off of there toned latina bodies, but it's a bloody good place, where i can proudly say, thanks to Rich, i am making cocktails from the best recipes in the world, and the people in the bar? Well i wouldn't go as far as to say the likes of seeing the gang, Alcon, Tom and Rich night in and out beats the lucious latina bodies you can spot on the beach, but they're not half bad!
So am i sad, or dissapointed that my dream of Cadiz is not quite what i built it up in my mind to be? Am i balls! I mean what ever does live up to what you build it up to be? Its a human nature to expect more of something, we live to be disspointed, its called optimism!!! But i can safely say, with hand on heart... I am not even slightly disspointed! And you know why?! Because its a whole lot better than i ever expected!
I came here with the list above set in my mind, money in my pocket, and the world at my feet, i stand here today, (thats just for visual purposes, don't anybody worry that im stood up writing to you, i mean come on, iv moved from my usual couch spot, to laid on my mattress on the living room floor, a whole 50cm from my usual spot!), i lay here today a happy man, with money in my pocket, a good job at hand, the world at my feet, and most importantly, some of the best people a guy could ever want to know, only a mere phone call or text away:
Let me introduce you to the gang:
Firstly we have Mateo; a nice lad, a bit vertically challenged but he doesnt let it get him down he never worries about such little things as that! You can usually find us attatched at the laptops by a short umbilical cord known as our LAN cable!
Then we have Kike; Kellie and Mike, the inseperable starcrossed lovers, swept away by the Cadiz romance, and who love nothing more than romantic walks on the beach and to stare longingly into each others eyes as they recieve endless amounts of 'Banter' from all angles :P
On top of that we have Ash and Sam, the 'opposites'; Live with them, Live by them, if its not one complaining, its the other! They couldn't be more opposite of people, Ash is a big lad, Sam looks like he got smuggled from the Shire, Ash is into to House music, Sam loves nothing more than a bit of Glee and R n B, but in the same breath you could immediately go on to say how alike they are, both take a year to get read as me and Kellie twiddle our thumbs waiting for them to be ready half an hour after we gotta be somehwere! They both enjoy excercise, and well, to be honest, they're both a bit special :)
Then we have Kate and Katie, and Max of course for good measure; Housemates and crackers, Kate and Katie, both in fact called Kate, but to make life easier for everyone, one of them is a Katie, at least for this year. Mad as hatters, stroppy perhaps, love 'em, of course!!! And Max, don't fprget Max, built like Peter Crouch but lacks the robot skills to pull it through! Smooth operator with his masculinity destroyed by the feministic charms and stories told by Kate and Katie!
Tash and Sarah can never be forgotten; as ditzy as they come, but as loveable as anybody else. Two terrors from Brum Uni, rarely found without a drink in hand. The creator of such great lines as 'Sam you were in the cupboard?' Tash helped us win the Pub Quiz, and then Sarah, oh drunky drunk drunk Sarah, T-Total to her may mean a night in with a glass of wine with dinner! Couldn't live here without them!
Thats the usual English Gang, we also have such great additions to the group as 'The Germans' including DJ Stephen Miene!, 'Geff' the French housemate and a true servant to the english tradition of The Inbetweeners! 'The Bar Cuba Lot'; Rich, Alcon and Tom. Then we have the like of Alex, Jackson, Taylor, Joe, Ruben, Bee, Maisy, Moll, Martha and Nana always making up the numbers on a night out!
Wherever you look, you will find a freind. Whether its stumbling home alone and bumping into the Americans, Italians or French, or pre lash with the Germans, you are never lonley here in Cadiz, a friend is never more than a stones throw away!
So at the end of the year when i am askes the inevitable question, 'Did it live up to everything you hoped it would be?' I will answer NO! No because i could never have dreamed of it being as good as it has been so far, i could never have hoped to have met such amazing people i have been introduced to, and i couldn't ask for anything more than what i have got here right now.
I will forever remember my year in Cadiz, the places i have been, the people i have met, the sights i have seen. And i will never forget that this year was not just about going to Uni, not just about learning the language and experiencing the culture, it was also about meeting new people, people from around the world, across Europe and the US, and it is about forging relationships with people that will las a lifetime.
On a year abroad one may think they are leaving behind the ones they love, but to be honest, you are meerly expaniding your friends list, Facebook appreciates it :) get connected!!! hahaha but too all those back home, i salute you, in freezing donny, newcastle, nottingham, or wherever you may be, i salute you and i miss you, and all those on exchanges across the eu and us i too miss you, but this year isn't about missing people, no matter how much i do, but its about making new friends, not to replace, but to expand, and to that, i shall drink.
My year abroad. Created by Northumbria. Imagined by me. Moulded by those around me.
Friends, It's becuase of them that i am me.
I love the use of 'Kike'!!!! :-) xxxx
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