Bin Your Rubbish, Your Mother Doesn't Live Here (#5)

In the course of the trip thus far, I have realized I take several things for granted at home, namely: my cell phone, my car, a personal shower, a grandma who makes my coffee in the morning, food whenever I would like to eat it, a grandma who makes tasty cookies, easy access to friends and family, conveniently placed stores, and a closet full of clothes... among other things! I have not had very much trouble adapting... although the shower situation is a little bit like being in college again. I have not missed wearing a bathrobe and shower shoes to tromp down the hallway to a shower where inevitably I will not be the only one and it has great potential to be awkward! My daily routine has not changed that much. The days we have morning classes I wake up early- other days... not so much. Even overseas I am not a breakfast person. I think I have made it to breakfast twice (and I made myself an Uptown Cafe "Breakfast Bagel." Thank you college, for the realization of the truly delectable toasted bagel with peanut butter and green apple slices. Only thing I'm missing is the granola, but muesli just doesn't cut it).


It takes A LOT more planning to be away from the conveniences to which I have grown accustomed. When we were in Scotland the group divided into two different hostels. We planned to meet up in roughly an hour (or at least so my group thought) outside our hostel. We ended up waiting a decent bit for the other group and had actually given in to our stomachs and started walking to find food by the time they came (sorry... my loyalty lies to my stomach- no offense). Without cell phones, you really have to plan ahead and BE SPECIFIC (how did I live before I had mine???). We had planned to meet the following morning at Starbucks, but LUCKILY upon further discussion, found that the locales we were describing did not match up. There were TWO STARBUCKS on Royal Mile! Who knew?! On the contrary, now that I have gotten use to not having my cell phone with me at every possible moment, it is a freeing feeling (although I must confess I still hear phantom phone rings occasionally).


I still have delusions of grandeur about all of the runs I am going to take. It would be a GORGEOUS area to go for a run... but for some reason, it just doesn't happen. This is exactly how I am at home- I love to run; life just gets in the way. Not having control of a lot of my schedule means that whatever plan I had in my head ends up going out the window because I take too long to do something or someone asks me to join them and I ditch my athletic thoughts. I haven't minded the millions of steps in the building or the hike we took in the moors. Somehow chasing my runts around all year prepared me for moving around a lot and it is the times when I am supposed to be sitting (particularly in class- oops) or waiting for something that I randomly start stretching, dancing, or wandering. I am enjoying all of the free space the Manor offers to move about!


Traveling anywhere is about being flexible and adapting as best you can. People deal with new situations very differently and I hope I am being patient and easy going to make other people feel as comfortable as possible with being out of their daily routines. I will have to remember to thank Grandma for being flexible with all of my random habits next time I speak to her!