I have officially been informed that this season is not called Fall, and should henceforth be referred to as “Autumn”. Though, I still argue that “fall” is more appropriate considering that the season is pretty much recognized by the presence of leaves falling, and it being rainy, and slippy, and hence making people slip and fall (or is that just me)? We also discovered that because it also doubles as a verb (handy!), you can change the name throughout the year – so, before it’s “fall”, during it’s “falling”, and after it’s “fallen” – which makes it exceedingly more awesome. I rest my case.
Anyway, we decided to go on an adventure to enjoy the loveliness that is leaves (which we also happen to have a distinct lack of in Arizona… have to make up for it now!). There’s a beautiful place called Botanic Gardens here in Belfast. I believe I’ve posted pictures of it before, but basically it’s a massive garden, with various patches of grass, some pretty plants, a rose garden, greenhouse, and some other stuff. Needless to say, it is thoroughly sprinkled with trees, so that is where we went on our leaf-enjoying adventure!
That’s one thing I do quite love about Belfast, that there are rather distinct seasons (though they do all definitely share the commonality of rain). Even within the same park, the look can vary so drastically. I think the extent of our seasonal changes in Arizona was that our grass turned from green to brown during winter (or was it the other way around?)…
Wow, where has this week gone?? I’ve pretty much not done anything of much substance, and yet time flew. Weird how that works! Let’s see… Exciting things that have happened this week. Hmmm.
Oh! I have come to (somewhat of) a conclusion as to further summer plans! I’m going to try to stay here in Belfast, and hopefully get some sort of temporary internship or placement at a design or advertising agency. I sent out portfolio/CV’s to several places I liked here in Belfast (along with a few others in various other UK places), and will probably send a few more out next week. So far I’ve just gotten one response (from a small agency, but they were super helpful!), but there will (hopefully) be more to come. We shall see! I made this little “penfolio” thing, just as something tangible to leave behind with contact information (and pretty visuals!). It was a pain to make, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out!
Last Sunday, after church a few of us went to the playground area in Botanic Park, which was sort of random, but rather fun. Being in Belfast, this was naturally followed by torrential rain resulting in us being completely and ridiculously soaked. Seriously, I don’t think it had rained that hard in like, months. Go figure! Anyway, we went to Starbucks afterward, and were completely dripping as we waited for our coffee, haha. Here is a bit of our pre-soaked-playground-related fun.
In other news, just two more days until my family comes! I will be venturing down to Dublin to meet them on Monday morning, which will be lovely! I’m not entirely sure of our agenda, but I do know it involves Ireland (obviously), Scotland, England, & possibly Wales, in a mix of big cities and rural towns. Hopefully the weather will not be rain filled as it has been these past two days!!
Last, but not least, some pictures from the PANI night were posted (click for bigger) -
I left Arizona late Wednesday night, with a final destination of Belfast. I had a bit of a layover (~13hours) in NYC, and despite a bit of a luggage setback, I went and explored the city a bit.
It was absolutely frigid (I even had 7 layers on!), and snowed for most of the morning and was exceptionally beautiful. Granted, it made for difficult/slippery walking (which, mind you, I did not fall once). I did my fair share of getting lost, even though you’d think when the street names are numbers it’d be easier, but clearly, no.
I went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre just before sunset as well, which was quite lovely. By then the snow had stopped, so the view was swell. (While I didn’t know what was going on at the time, apparently if you looked through the zoom-viewer-binocular-like-things you could see ferries attempting to remove the Hudson-plane-crash-plane from the water. I should’ve caught on when everyone was looking that way, but alas, I did not until later.)
While exhausting, it was a nice adventure in NYC! I’m now in Belfast at a coffee shop (is it sad that I went online to find coffee shops with wireless before looking up a grocery store?) attempting to dodge the cold. It’s in the mid-30’s today, and looks like it will rain at any moment (or perhaps, as some are forecasting, snow). I’m staying at a hostel until I can find somewhere more long-term (which I believe I have, just waiting on finalization stuff). Perhaps my next post will be from somewhere more permanent!
