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One of the great things about living in Edinburgh, is the international community. I love the fact that I can meet people from most any part of the world in most places. There is a large Australian & New Zealand community not only in Edinburgh, but in the UK in general. I am guilty of doing one of the things in a relationship that one should never do - I spent way too much together time with my Ex and neglected doing the things that made me happy. In my defense, I spent half of last year recovering from a life threatening illness (I had a kidney infection which subsequently turned into sepsis when the Romanian GP I went to incorrectly sent me home with 40c/104F degrees fever instead of the hospital - went into cardiac arrest the first day in hospital as a result). I was also still doing the MBA and managing to work - which left little time for interesting Jennifer pursuits. Well now that I am feeling better and the Ex has departed, I have again started going out and having fun. One website that makes this possible is www.meetup.com. On this site, you can meet like minded people who like to get out and meet new people for whatever reason. One group I belong to is the Intrepids - a group of people who like to do anything from snowboarding to meeting up for drinks. I decided to go to Australia Day at the Walkabout bar, http://www.walkabout.eu.com/. It was so much fun! I danced and partied and drank Foster's (which in Australia, I have been told means "Australian for piss" - so popular outside of Australia but not quite the case for natives- perhaps this has changed?).
I left thinking that I should pursue my dreams - that passing through such a rough year last year surely is meant to tell me something - is someone above shaking me to tell me to wake up to my life and what I should be doing while here? I don't know - but what I do know is that I am listening now and great things lie ahead - I know it like I have never known anything before.
Okay, so I have been a few weeks since the break up with the Italian. I have done the usual things that girls do when being dumped by a guy - cried, listened to songs that make me sad and cry more, read articles online about how to get through a break up and have kept myself insanely busy.
In the meanwhile, I attended a residential week for the MBA I am completing, www.euromba.org. This time it was in Maastricht in the Netherlands. What a beautiful city! Not only was the city gorgeous, but the people were too. One of my girlfriends on the MBA is trying to convince me to move there as the guys seem to be so hot. Hmmm, the old Jennifer might not have thought twice, but I guess I am getting to the age where I really have to consider other things like having a stellar job and more depth to my relationships - not that being a hot guy means you're stupid. It's just that I of course cannot pick up and move country because the guys are hot. Hmmm, or could I ;)? Well, no for now. I need to stay in grown up Jennifer mode and finish the MBA modules in May in Warsaw - and then of course the thesis defense in September in Nantes. Once done, the world is mine. Yes, the world is mine - this is one of those positive affirmations I tell myself everyday since the break up - I am a total saddo I know, but it's important to do this kind of thing when you have recently split up with someone - or more to the point, they have split with you.
One thing that constantly happens is that I wake up feeling wonderful. Maybe those affirmations are working! The only difficult part is the nights. They seem to bring the crying. I have told a good guy friend of mine how I just get home after keeping busy ALL day and then it just starts - not for hours, not even half, but maybe 15 minutes or so and then I am fine. He is so sweet - he tells me to just call him when this happens. And he tells me to text him when I feel like texting the Ex. What a cool friend! But of course I don't take him up on his kind offer (most of the time) as who wants to hang around crying friends? It's the economics of relationships and friendships - demand is only created when people WANT to be around you. So, it's me and every single break up site against the tears. I am getting there slowly and am mildly excited about the possibility of dating again.
Well, it's cold and it's January. Looking out into a dark and grey sky, I saw huge fluffy snowflakes falling down. They were the kind that hit your face like those wet and sloppy kisses you dreaded from your grandma - or at least those were the kind I used to get from my late step-grandma. Edinburgh has a mysterious feel to it. It's hard to describe. It's as though any creepy old world thriller could be set in Edinburgh. In fact, I think that the film Dracula with Gary Oldman (one of my favourites) could have been filmed here instead of London. The snow falling just added to this mysterious feel - but it also made me immediately want a hot cup of cocoa and to find a huge log fire to sit in front of. Sadly, it only lasted an hour or so, but the feeling it brought about lasted for ages....
Well, what can I say, I had the time of my life on Hogmanay in Edinburgh. I had heard what a wonderful celebration it was, but was pleased to find that it exceeded my already high expectations!
As stated in an earlier post, I had flown home to Mississippi for Christmas. It was a wonderful time with family as I had not seen them in a year. My mother fed me delicious home baked sweet potato pies, pecan pies, peanut butter cups, Martha Washington balls, the list goes on and on. I did the best I could and restrained myself to one treat a day.
The Christmas holidays were also tweaked with a storm of sadness. My Italian boyfriend and I broke up over the Christmas holidays. We had been together for about a year and living together for 4 months. Old Santa up there was my boyfriend for Christmas last year and ended up being my boyfriend again this year!
I returned to Edinburgh to an empty flat and lots of crying. I was however bound and determined to have a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration as 2009 just has to be better! I therefore went and stood in a huge queue (line) of people for over 3 hours to get tickets to the Hogmanay Street Party on New Year's Eve. I cannot remember the last time I stood that long for anything? Maybe Guns and Roses when I was like 16 or something.
While in the queue, I made some nice friends. There were 3 people who lived in Cardiff, Wales and had flown up just for the night. They worked in social services and the guy was from Germany and 2 girls were from Portugal and Romania. After playing chirades with them for a few hours and hearing them call every hotel in Edinburgh for a room (the person they were supposed to stay with left the keys with a Bolivian girl who was no where to be found), I felt sad that they might have to sleep on the street, so offered to let them stay at my flat - after all, it was empty due to the recent departure of my boyfriend back to Tuscany. They were of course over joyed and decided to join me to a party thrown by some of my friends. We went and had some great wine and food and then off to the Hogmany Street Party.
It was an amazing night. I had heard about how cool Edinburgh can be for New Year's Eve, and had celebrated in cities like New Orleans and NYC before, but nothing prepared me for the atmosphere and cool factor of celebrating in Edinburgh. I had the time of my life. We watched some AMAZING fireworks, danced to Groove Armada and hugged tons of people wishing them a Happy New Year - the mood was wonderful and I left knowing that 2009 would be a wonderful year for me. I am SO excited.
