Twin Travel: January 2014

Hellaw Hellaw Hellaw

I write this from the first airport of my journey, NEWWCASSTLEEE, and it is 4am on Saturday. I don't know how I got up! I've just left my family, after persuading them to buy me a Greggs pasty (yes, Greggs is open all night!), and now I'm chilling waiting for my first plane to Amsterdam. In this post I will tell you all about my amaazinngg winter break back home and all the many things I have been doing.

I'll be telling you about the main things I have done as I've forgotten most already. If I'm being realistic about it, a large majority of my time was spent sleeping to recover from the months at UWC where I have not been getting much sleep, and to recover from travelling and to recover from the MAJOR jetlag I acquired flying home. I can't tell you how nice it was to have a couple of days just not moving from my bed, they were much needed! And now that I'm on my way back to Costa Rica I can already sense how much I'm going to miss those 'lazy days', but I know I have only a little amount of time to cram by Costa Rican experience in so I will just plan on hibernating through summer.

When I came home I was greeted by my family and my friends, Martha and Hazel, it was really nice to see them again. And these meetings and greetings didn't end there. I tried to make as much time to see my friends as possible and this was the highlight of my break, getting to see them all again. I went back to my old school to see my friends and old teachers which was weird but nice. Just general shopping trips and house visits with my friends was dead nice and something I'll try to do more of in the summer because I know I would love to see some more!

On the first week back I had multiple appointments... dentist, doctor, hair , passport, you name it! I was shattered but all very necessary, this was basically my first week back in a nutshell.

I got to go back to Woodcraft Folk woo and see all my friends from there. I went to my session on the Wednesday and then the little ones (Elfins and Pioneers, where I help out) Christmas pyjama party and then on the weekend Tyne Ventures and DFs went for a weekend away to Minsteracres which was full of fun such as running about in the woods, walks, secret Santa and quizzes. I also went for another excursion with Woodcraft Folk on the weekend beginning the 27th with the DF's (ages 16-21) . Our Tyne DF's gallivanted all the way down to Bristol for Winter Wonderland, which is a national even ran by DF's for DF's! It was amazinngg and so nice to see all my friends from previous events again. Fancy dress was a must, each evening had a different era where you could so all hippy, retro, punk, whatever you fancy, accompanied with evening entertainment like open mic and DJs. Can't wait for the next event!

If you haven't noticed already, I love ma food, so I couldn't go home and not go to my fav all you can eat restaurant, Taybarns. Don't you just love those words 'All you can eat'!! The Murrays, The Bradders, The Tynes and a Tyne's Malaysian friend all hope along to stuff their faces. It was truly yummy! I also did buy a lot of Greggs pasties whilst being home.. gotta love them!

Soo the big festive event of the year, Christmas. It was so nice to spend time with my family, especially at this time of year and all we've been through. Christmas decorations and the tree were up and shining pretty soon after I returned home. I attended midnight mass to welcome in Christmas Day as I do every year and then after a lovely sleep I awoke to the gorgeous smell of food throughout the house and presents under the tree. I was so pleased with the gifts I was given especially bits and bobs from India off my sister and tickets to my favourite festival!! Thank you to everyone who gave me something!! The family came round to ours and we had a massive delicious meal with the traditional turkey, pigs in blankets, sprouts, parsnips, roasties etc. This was followed by most of us falling asleep on the sofa, lots of telly, lots of music, lots of chocolates, more telly, more chocolates, then tea followed by more chocolate and telly watching. Safe to say we were very full and we were still having turkey sandwiches for a week! And on boxing day I had a nice lie in!

For New Years Eve my friends and I went round to the Tyne household for a Vegas themed night. We dressed to the nines in our best cocktail dresses or tuxedos and had a merry night of poker and cocktails. We also did the more traditional activities, we watched of fireworks, we sung Auld Lang Syne, we watched Jools Hootenanny and someone came to the door with coal to welcome in the new year all before dropping off to sleep. It was nice to welcome in the new year with friends and family. Our family and the neighbours then had our annual new year's Chinese, we ordered in and ate so much food and topped it off by watching Sherlock. All round a lovely day.

The days running up to going back to Costa Rica were fun, emotional and stressful. Trying to get everything ready in time but also enjoying being here still. My friend Cameron came up to stay the second last night which was dead nice and we got together with a group of our friends for a last evening together to celebrate Christmas and us all being together.

Overall I have had an amazing time and it flew by so quickly, I wish it could be longer but I'm also ready to go back to college and see everyone there and continue my Costa Rican experience. England has been very cold but I have loved seeing familiar sights and faces again, despite being in an out of hospital visiting people.

I am now at Schipol, Amsterdam when I write this and I am already so tired. Let's just hope none of my flights get cancelled or very delayed. I'll see you on the other side, and I'll post again in a few weeks and when I have time!!

And I'm now in Panama.. nearly there now!
And now I'm finally back in Costa Rica wooo!

Happy New Year!
Ali