Climb a Mountain: Check!

Okay, so it was more of a hill than a mountain, but it was still pretty damn big! And intense! We were actually climbing a lot of the time-- no namby-pamby path for us to follow!

Isn't that kind of a metaphor for life? Hmm, maybe.

It felt so good to be out of the city and see Edinburgh, which is so much cooler than London. I wish they still had a program that went there! It was the perfect combination of old, pretty, and wild! Hardly modern at all, and hardly metropolitan like London. It had the benefits of a large city, plus the beautiful hills, mountains, ocean, and castle! Oh, I miss it already. It really felt like home, though maybe that's just because I supposedly have ancestors from Edinburgh?

Anyway, next week is our trip to Ireland, another one of my ancestral homes. I hope it will be just as cool as the wee bit of Scotland we saw (lol, wee). When I get back from that, I'll be swamped with papers again. In fact, I should be working on them now, both for this week and for the next couple weeks, but I feel I've been neglecting my blog shamefully. I can't promise regularity, but I will promise to write a guilt-driven little update every once in a while.

So yes, I've climbed a mountain and found a place I'd love to call home. I feel like I'm really living. It's kind of odd, actually. I am usually 'meh' or carefully guarded about things, but when I was on top of that hill overlooking the city, the sea, and seeing snow-capped mountains in the background, I was just in awe and crazy happy and proud of myself for hiking up that far. I felt my spirit of adventure had returned! It's a wonderful feeling!

Still, it will be just as wonderful to see all my friends and family again. I do miss Manitowoc, and even Point a little. It will be nice to return home, having done all that I've done. For a while there, I felt like I wasn't doing enough here, but now that I look back at all the pictures and stuff, I'm starting to realize how much I've done.

I wonder if this experience has changed me. I wonder if people will say I'm different once I get back. I don't feel changed, but I'm sure that if I have changed, it would have been a gradual process and I wouldn't have noticed. Hmm. You should all tell me if I have when I get back. I would be interested to know.

Here's to all the places I've been, the places I'll go, and the people who've been there with me, both at home and abroad!

<3 <3 <3

P.S. I signed my name in the toilet of the Elephant House, but you could barely see it... Oh well, I know it's there :)