The excuse (as if one is needed...)

Every story has multiple beginnings. To not start at my birth, I start back in 2009. In 2009 I did a year abroad in Paris, my first time living and traveling alone. (You can read about that year at http://nanceinfrance.blogspot.com). To sum it up, it was the BEST year I could have asked for (minus some drama that I did not blog about). I made good friends and got to experience Europe. I left in the summer of 2009 and returned to Vancouver. As soon as I left Europe, I knew I would have to go back and see everyone I had met, and revisit the places I had seen, and of course, I wanted to see more.

Over the next two years, I did small trips, but getting to Europe is expensive and I had no good excuses to go. Last summer I managed a trip to Thailand and Laos. This September I moved to Montreal to begin grad school at Concordia University, where the year runs all year round, but I knew that this summer I had to make it back to Europe.

The excuse:  London 2012 and a wedding.

During Vancouver 2010 I worked with NBC Olympics, doing the exciting job of logging video. Ok, the job was not that fun, but the environment was amazing and the city lit up and was more vibrant than anything I had experienced. It was great. Adding to the travel bug, I got the Olympic bug. Before deciding on Montreal, I eyed schools in London, just to give me an excuse to work at the games again. Over the past year, I applied to positions at NBC Olympics again, looked for jobs in London and day dreamed about it all. This past winter, I spotted on the Canadian Olympic Committee website opportunities to volunteer for the games, so I applied, and it was through this that I got a position in communications for London. So exciting!

At about the same time as my application, I learned my godmother was wedding in Frankfurt in June, so this was the perfect excuse to actually get over to Europe and spend my entire summer there! While I should be working on my research proposal now for grad school, I could not give up this opportunity to jet back to Europe. I will write about my research through this blog as well, as I flesh it out (exciting!)

So with two great excuses, and plenty of family and friends to visit in Europe, I am here for the summer. The wedding happened this past week and I have plenty to write about Frankfurt, Bad Homburg and all the spargel I ate while there.

I am off to Sicily now, to catch up with a friend at a conference on the Evolution of Morality. People find the location of this conference to be amusing, I will find out in the next few days if the stereotypes are true, and learn the history to contextualize the area.

For now, I hope this RyanAir flight goes smoothly!