New Year's Reflections

Alright, so sue me - we're some 4 weeks into the New Year, in reality, so it shouldn't really be referred to as anything vaguely relating to the New Year, but ... well, I haven't blogged in absolutely ages, not since I had my accident in Ecuador. A lot has happened since then, most of it good.

The first amazing thing that happened was meeting Andrea, my current girlfriend, who was working as a barmaid in my favourite nightclub in Cuenca. I won't bore you with the details - or should that be sicken? - but suffice to say she's someone very special to me, even now when I'm living so many thousands of miles away from her. We spent a lot of time together, including a whole week in Quito and most of my waking hours outside of class in Cuenca. In the end when I had to leave it was, well, quite hard to do, but we worked through the hard times together and we're still at that stage, despite being so far away from each other.

All this means I get to go back to Ecuador, erm, this Summer to spend a few weeks with her. I know, I know, environmentally-speaking relationships like this are a disaster, but I think I need some Love Miles as they're referred to somewhere by somebody. Gracious knows I'd been single for long enough prior to that moment. So yeah, I deserve it.

Life didn't really return to normal once I got home from Ecuador. My chin did scar over, unexpectedly, I maintained contact with some of the lovely people I met on my trip, I spent 3 weeks in my parents' house in Nottingham before I sped off up the motorway to Sheffield to embark on my Civil Engineering with Structural Engineering course. After a ... pretty hectic Fresher's Week I found myself settling in, slowly, to the old academic routine which I had been out of for so damn long.

And it's great! I really do love it. True, some of the cultural things about being a student don't really appeal to me. I'm not a great one for drinking, for example, since I don't like the effect it ultimately has on me, so some of that I've had to abandon. And as always my social life has been very different to the typical student stereotype - as opposed to meeting hundreds of new people (which I suppose I have, in reality) I've made very good friends with a hardcore clique of about four people. That's always the way I do things anyway, since I was a youngling back in the day. And I imagine it'll continue like that for years to come.

Civil Engineering is also something that has come really naturally to me. I love this course - I love the way I can see the interlinking bits and how everything affects everything else and ... Oh! It's simply marvellous. True, I get driven mad by having to write coursework and do exams and have early starts and stuff, but, well, it's all jolly good fun. And that really is what counts, since I know I'll enjoy doing it all in the future.

Right now I'm supposed to be revising, but there was a party in our flat last night and I don't feel up to doing any work right now. It was a good party, dino-themed, but some things are just tricky to come down from. I imagine I might go out later to the library to do a bit of studying, but it's always a challenge to motivate oneself. Plus Andrea might come online later.

So as it stands, that's my life. I don't do New Year's Resolutions, so I can't tell you about them. The immediate future is full of revision and exams - three in the next week and another the week after - and after that, back to the daily grind of lectures, tutorials and labs. Oh, and all that social stuff too, and finding somewhere to live next year. And blogging occasionally, I would imagine. Getting on with roleplaying on Adellion, PanEarth 2040 and at NoDDSoc. Watching anime. You know. Life.