Tiny Paper Tree Advent Calender: Day One

Happy first day of December! Gooligan opened her first little paper tree today and inside was...

a coupon for a movie date! Good for one matinee or any showing at the local $3 dollar second-run theater. Second run movie theaters are lifesavers for people on a budget by the way. I think Gooligan wants to wait until Thor 2 shows up at the $3 dollar theater, because we both love superhero movies and we haven't seen it yet. (We decided to see Catching Fire with some friends last weekend.) But I'm pretty excited to take this special lady out to a movie soon. I feel lucky to be dating someone who is just as interested and excited about stories and storytelling in any form as I am. Gooligan is one of the biggest supporters of my writing and I am so grateful that she understands my passion and holds it in such high regard. I know a lot of people do not have such supportive partners. So thank you, Gooligan, for being such a swell gal.

Holiday Festivities and Advent Calendars

December 1 is a mere twelve minutes away, so I felt that it was time to update this blog again! November was a heck of a month. Gooligan and I are settled in after our mad dash around Europe, on the job hunt, doing odd work where we can find it, and trying to take advantage of our copious amounts of free time by enjoying the holidays this year. 

In between tutoring and a part-time internship writing online petitions, I've been wrapping up my last semester of graduate school. December is going to be a big month for me school-wise. There's all the standard work that the end of any semester entails (turning in my last packet, preparing for workshop by reading everyone's stories and writing comments on them), but there's a lot of additional work, too. I have to turn in my creative thesis, which includes 140 pages of my polished fiction. It's pretty exciting, though.

This past month, Gooligan and I also competed in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and I'm proud to say that we both won! As of just a few hours ago, we both hit our goals. Gooligan, who has never written a novel before, wrote 50,000 words over the course of the month. I pushed myself a little bit, and wrote 80,000 words--and finished the first draft of my third novel.

I'm glad that we both did NaNoWriMo this year because it was incredibly fun to participate in a creative venture together. I am excited for Gooligan to edit and let me read her novel, since I think it sounds amazing. But I am also glad that I accomplished my goal this month, because in about five weeks I'm going to graduate with my MFA, and ideally I'd love to be able to work on getting something published while editing something else while generating new writing (either short stories or novels). 

While writing is my main creative pursuit, I enjoy a good craft day as much as anyone else. I stumbled across an amazing post on the Etsy Blog with a free template to make an advent calender of trees! Paper crafts aren't my strong suit, but I had everything I needed to make them: lots of different light card-stock paper and a scoring tool, so I went ahead and made them!

These are the first twelve lined up on the window sill in the dining room. The templates include three separate sizes. I decided to mix things up a little and include some pattern card-stock in addition to plain tree colors.

Since Gooligan and I are still looking for consistent full-time work, I'm working with a limited budget, but I've already filled the first seven trees with free and/or inexpensive items (date ideas, coupons, tiny trinkets). While I would love to give Gooligan everything her heart wishes for, my goal for this advent calendar is to let Gooligan know how much I appreciate her on a daily basis by doing activities together that we both love, trying new activities, and anything else that celebrates our common values/interests.

I plan on updating this blog each day for the next 24 days to let you know how it goes.

Wednesday + {Day Thirty-Seven: Paris to Iceland to Seattle}

Today was the big day! We got up early, dressed in our best PNW grunge hipster fashion, and headed off to the airport. We had to take the metro to a more central location, then catch a train out to the CDG airport.

We spent a lot of the day waiting and sitting. We made it to the airport with an hour to spare before check=in began. The CDG airport has these cool futuristic tubes to take you up to the security area!

On the planes, they had all these cute little sayings.

Personally, I think it was a ploy to distract from the fact that they don't serve food on their flights, even if they're 9+ hours. Hmm.

They did serve very delicious soda, though.

With more cute napkins.

And then we saw it.

The glowing beacon of home! The flight home was the longest of my life. The last three hours in particular crawled by. But I read Margaret Atwood's entire The Year of the Flood, so it wasn't entirely wasted time.

My dad picked us up from the airport! And he brought the dog! It feels so unreal to be back in Seattle. After a quick stop to see Gooligan's family, we went out to eat at a decent Thai restaurant and headed home.

Tuesday + {Day Thirty-Six: Paris}

So after lazying around yesterday, Gooligan and I decided to spend our last full day in Paris going back to Versailles. Sure, we could have experienced something new, but we had both enjoyed Versailles so much and, frankly, the place is so big that it takes more than a single day to explore.

But first: breakfast! Since my dad had asked us previously if we'd had a truly fantastic croissant yet (sadly we hadn't), I felt obligated to scope out the best croissants in Paris. All the reviews told us to go to Blé Sucré because their croissants are simply incredible.

Unfortunately the map we were using on the TripAdvisor app listed their location incorrectly, so we had a lot of trouble finding it. But Gooligan asked a really nice pharmacist who looked the address up on our computer and helped point us in the right direction. From there, Gooligan found it! My hero!

Blé Sucré was as cute inside as it was on the outside. It was busy and all of the desserts, sandwiches, and pastries looked like they would be perfect. Because it had taken us so long to find the place, we decided to buy two sandwiches for lunch (that's how long it took), and also five croissants.

After we finished eating our sandwiches, we hightailed it to the metro to go to Versailles! With a brief stop at Starbucks, since we were falsely lured in by their Pumpkin Spice Latte sign. We didn't get Pumpkin Spice Lattes because they had sold out in all of Europe, apparently. But we did get some coffee for the road.

Happy coffee camper!

Since we saw the chateau itself last time we decided to just go to the gardens. Which involved getting back onto Le Petit Train.

Technically you can just walk, but the gardens are huge, and it's really nice to have a train ticket back after you're done exhausting yourself exploring!

The hamlet was just as beautiful as we remembered it. We ate one of our croissants while surrounded by this beautiful nature.

Totally worth it.

 
We explored the same area, but also went further this trip! It turns out that there's a farm with animals!

Gooligan befriended this donkey. My donkey friend, naturally, was so much cooler.

We took a lot of silly photos, too.

And then headed back to Paris! The line to buy tickets was crazy and chaotic and when we got all the way up to the ticket machine we realized that they only take coin, so Gooligan had to run and quickly break a bill. Very stressful!

 

After a grocery store dinner, we packed and hit the hay early, since we have a long, long day in store for us tomorrow.

Saturday + {Day Thirty-Three: Venice}

On Saturdays, Venice's famous Rialto fish market is open, so naturally Gooligan and I decided to go check it out. On the way there, however, Gooligan spotted a beautiful mask shop. We popped it--just for a minute--and the owner of the shop came over to talk to us. She asked us where we were from and showed us several of the masks. She was so nice, she even let us try the masks on and took our picture!

There were so many amazing masks. Gooligan fell in love with two of them and had to pick. The owner offered us a substantial discount, which was very generous, since the masks were definitely worth more than she was charging. 

We had considered going on a gondola ride on our last day in Venice, but we had been wavering about it all trip for two reasons. First, gondolas are fairly pricey (eighty euros for forty minutes), which works out to around a hundred dollars. And second, we felt a little uncomfortable, since it's such a romantic activity and we didn't feel entirely comfortable holding hands or otherwise being visible in Venice.

So we decided to skip the gondola ride and invest in a more permanent memory. I'm so glad we did, too, because the mask Gooligan ended up picking is beautiful.

Anyway, we eventually made it to the market, which was fabulous. The fishy smells and people selling their vegetables and fresh catches reminded me so much of Pike Place Market. I felt right at home.

Fish!

Vegetables!

There was a restaurant near the market selling fried fish, which would have been delicious, I'm sure, but we ended up going to a small popular local restaurant that sold cicchetti and spritz.

I had been wanting to try the spritz--a local venetian drink. I had mistakenly assumed it would be sweet, since it's orange-colored, but in reality it's actually quite bitter. Spritz is made-up of wine, soda water, and a small of some kind of bitter liquor (such as Aperol). The more you know! 

After lunch, we walked around and looked for souvenirs for Gooligan's family. Then we stopped at a café for some cappuccinos, hung out for a bit, and headed home!

Friday + {Day Thirty-Two: Mestre}

Today Gooligan and I decided to take the day off. Instead of going to Venice, we stayed on the mainland (Mestre). We slept in and then got up and walked to the grocery store to pick up supplies for lunch and dinner. After eating so much pasta and seafood and pizza, we have been craving other types of food a lot, so we tried to make some nachos for lunch, working with the meager and unsatisfying supplies at our disposal: namely chili beans and mozzarella cheese. Cheddar cheese does not exist in Italy. Personally, cheddar cheese is never my go-to cheese when I'm home, but I'll never take it for granted again.

Anyway, Gooligan made an amazing Italian-style nacho lunch. After we ate, we walked to the park, where we sat under the beautiful fall trees and in the sun. I read while Gooligan listened to Harry Potter. We're both reliving some fond childhood memories via the audiobooks during this trip. I know a lot of people who dismiss these books and frankly I can't fathom why. Obviously they mean a lot to Gooligan and me because we grew up as part of the Harry Potter generation but I think it transcends us, too; J. K. Rowling does an incredible job at capturing the complicated feelings of children and a lot of writers could stand to learn a thing or two from her since so many people oversimplify their characters who are children.

After we were done sitting in the park we went to a cafe and drank cappuccinos while Gooligan finished writing her postcards. Then we went home and I wrote for awhile. I started a new novel project, since I finished writing my previous novel. Obviously I have a lot of editing to do on my old novel (which I will start as soon as we're home, since the polished novel will be part of my creative thesis for grad school), but there's a huge difference between writing and editing. I love editing and finishing things, but I love the creativity and fresh energy that comes with first drafts, too. The possibilities and nerves and excitement.

But enough about that. We had salami and bread and mozzarella and cooked zucchini slices for dinner. Then we hung out in the living room with our hosts' dog (they were out for the evening) and watched a little television before crawling in bed. A slower day, but a nice break. I, for one, feel relatively refreshed for the last few days of our trip!

Wednesday + {Day Thirty: Venice}

Today is Gooligan's birthday! After letting her sleep in a whole ten minutes, I woke her up! We had breakfast (cereal and toast provided to us by our lovely hosts.

After breakfast I gave Gooligan her gift! It was a disposable camera! 27 pictures. We've taken a lot of pictures of our trip with my phone and our camera, of course, but there's something special about film. Having to line up the perfect shot and come to terms with the inevitable imperfections. When we get back I'm going to develop them for Gooligan and frame some. So we have an extra special reminder of today/Venice.

After breakfast and gift giving we had to spend some time doing laundry. Unromantic but necessary.

Then we walked to the bus through these beautiful crunchy yellow leaves. It really feels like fall here.

Once on the island we took a vaporetto (a waterbus) around the island to the restaurant we'd picked out for lunch.
Probably the fanciest place we've eaten this trip (but not unreasonably fancy), the food was completely worth it. Gooligan got the spaghetti and clams and I got the seafood spaghetti. Both dishes were perfection. They also served their Coke lemon slices, an odd European touch I've grown to love. We've been drinking a lot of Coke here (unlike at home) but it tastes so much better made with real sugar.

After lunch we wandered the streets and Gooligan happened to spot a mask shop she liked. We went in and the woman was so nice and let Gooligan try everything on. She picked out a gorgeous mask, her main birthday present!

Then we went to Doge's Palace, where the rulers of Venice operated while in power. It was gorgeous. We rented an audioguide and shared it as we wandered in awe from room to room.

After the palace we walked around until we were exhausted and then found this little restaurant on the canal where we had sparkling peach wine and tiramisu to celebrate Gooligan's birthday! Because no birthday is complete without cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday by yours truly!

Once dessert was over we headed home on the bus and after a brief detour of getting lost we made it home! For dinner, with the assistance of our host, we ordered some Chinese food that arrived on a Vespa!

After we ate we curled up in bed to watch Sleepy Hollow and I promptly fell asleep. All in all I think Gooligan had a pretty good day!

Sunday + {Day Twenty-Seven: Florence}

Today was a slow day! After spending the morning sleeping in, showering, and doing some homework, Gooligan and I headed down the hill on the bus to the city center. We were fairly hungry, so we headed to this sandwich shop for lunch right away. All'Antico Vinaio is this little sandwich shop that was so bustling the line was stretched across the street, several people wide. Ordering was a little chaotic, but for five euro each Gooligan and I got some sandwiches! Gooligan got Tuscan bacon, truffle spread, lettuce, tomato, blue cheese, and marinated eggplant or something, and I got spicy salami, artichoke spread, tomato, and some kind of cheese. The sandwiches were amazing. Completely worth the huge line we stood in.

We walked around Florence a lot today, just kind of window shopping and browsing stalls. It's such a great city to walk because everything is beautiful and nice and relatively clean. There are a lot of people on certain streets and today there was a fundraiser for cancer, so there were hordes of people wearing yellow t-shirts. At the time, we had no idea what it was for, since there was a wide range of ages and people who were wearing them. But there were a couple different races--one 14km and one 5km. Pretty neat! 

We also spotted this really cool carrousel while walking around. Around three, we decided to call it an early day. Gooligan and I walked around a ton the last two days and were feeling pretty tired.

We headed back to the train station, where we bought day passes for tomorrow. Day passes are good for twenty-four hours here after the first time you use them. In some places they expire at midnight.

Anyway, while buying our tickets I saw the BEST PRESENT EVER for Gooligan. It's her birthday on the sixteenth--just three short days away!--and I had been wondering what to get her. I can't say what it was yet, because sometimes she reads my blog, but it's pretty great!

After we got back to our place, we rested for a short time, then had dinner just past eight with our hosts. Dinner was amazing! It was nineteen euro each and we were a little unsure. It's more than we normally spend on food for one meal, but it was completely worth it. Our hosts were great and fed us so much. We ate a light amount of pasta, appetizers (chicken liver on bread and salmon on bread), a delicious chicken salad, grilled zucchini, spinach, wine, and a lemon liquor made from lemons in their very own yard! And then for dessert we had crème brûlé and cheesecake made by Mario himself! Perfecto. It was so nice to eat with a family, too. They have four sons between them, but only two live with them. Everyone was so nice and we had a lovely conversation about a huge range of things. Mario speaks the most English, I think, but the entire family understands a certain amount of English, and we had little problem communicating.

Overall, a very wonderful day and we look forward to our last day in Florence tomorrow. Mario gave us another map and circled some places worth checking out!

Sunday + {Day Six: Sligo}

Since there was an overbooking at our hostel-like place, we had to be moved. Again. The first time we were moved, it was only seven minutes away (walking) and not that big of a deal, since we hadn't even arrived in Dublin yet.

This time, however, we're out by the airport rather than near Dublin center. Again, not that big of a deal, since we've seen most of what we wanted to see in Dublin anyway and are leaving in two days. But it's frustrating for two reasons. The property manager was shady about the whole situation originally, telling us that we had to move because of scheduled maintenance. 

Then we're informed that it's because a group of 10-20 Spanish men have booked the place solid for a really long time. (They're here on a construction job.) 

The manager did give us a ride to the new place this morning to drop off our bags and then dropped us off at the airport so we could catch a Bus Eirann to Sligo. It was a terrifying ride, to be honest. Both the property manager and his business partner were really misogynistic and racist in their remarks.

I'm just happy we only have a couple days left here and that they don't stay at the places they let. The new place is definitely an upgrade, but it would have been inconvenient if we were staying here longer since it seems to be designed with a car in mind. (The place in a decent walk to the bus stop and then it's probably a half hour ride into the city.)

Enough about that, though!
  
Today we took a day trip to Sligo. It cost about 21.00 euro for a same-day return ticket. Not that bad for a four hour bus ride across the entire country.

The countryside was beautiful. We snapped a lot of photos in-between reading, napping, listening to music, and working on homework.

When we got to Sligo, we found a cute café to eat lunch at. Gooligan and I split a warmed chicken ceasar salad and a mozrella, pesto, and tomato panini. Hands down, some of the best food we’ve eaten so far. We also had a pot of earl grey tea.

After lunch, we strolled through the city. Situation on a river, Sligo is absolutely beautiful. I’m envious of Maddi staying here for three months. There’s also an apparently stunning (from the looks of Maddi’s photos) town nearby on the beach called Strandhill with surfing lessons and a spa that does seaweed baths (50 minutes for only 25 euro). If we were here longer, we definitely would have tried that out

Then we walked Maddi to her hostel where she’s staying for a church program she’s participating in and headed back to the bus with a detour to the grocery store to snag food for dinner and breakfast.

The bus ride back to Dublin was long—about four hours—but we made it back to our hostel just past midnight. The only problem is that the property manager never gave us the wi-fi password so I'm posting this from Bus Aras, the main bus station in the Dublin city center.

Overall, Gooligan and I are grateful to have gotten out of Dublin and see another part of Ireland, since Dublin is huge and very urban.

Thursday + {Edinburgh: Day Three}

Today Gooligan and I pried ourselves out of bed, dressed in as many layers as we could, and headed off for the Hairy Coo tour. The Hairy Coo runs a free Highland tour (light on the highlands, heavy on the hairy coos), but it was filled up by the time we tried to book it so we opted for the £39.00 tour (student price), with an option £11.00 one-hour tour of Loch Ness. Completely worth it. Our tour guide was fantastic. 

While there was a million things Gooligan and I wished we could have done or experienced while in Scotland, I'm glad we spent our last day seeing the countryside and putting Edinburgh in context. Plus our tour guide explained so much of both historical and contemporary Scotland, including the movement that is coming up to vote next year about Scotland's independence from the UK.

The highlands were gorgeous. It was rainy today, so everything was super green and the rivers and waterfalls were a little higher than usual. The mountains were a little hard to see sometimes, but the mist obscuring them made them almost more magical in a way.

We stopped at this tiny village and on Donald's recommendation we ate at this tiny mom and pop bakery. We had a quiche and a macaroni pie and both were incredible.

Then we hurried back onto the bus to make it to the 1:00 hour-long boat cruise on Loch Ness. The Loch was gorgeous, choppy, and dark--and terrifying. Apparently anything that sinks to the impossibly deep bottom is permanently petrified!

We didn't see Nessy, but we did see a lot of stunning reviews. Unfortunately there was a mix-up in the bookings and our tour guide couldn't get us into the whiskey distillery, but he took us to a free whiskey tasting and bought a bottle to share on our way to Glen Cloe.

One of the best parts of the tour, however, was the end. We got to see some hairy coos (AKA Highland cows) which are the most adorable animal in the world. We both fed the cows, too, although I dropped my piece of apple. (Cows don't have very much agility in their mouths.)

Apparently Hamish (one of the cows we saw) is so famous that the Queen herself spared his life when there was an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease and all cows over seven were supposed to be slaughtered!

Once we got home, Gooligan and I heated up some soup, showered, and hung out with Ritchie and another one of his friends again. I'm really glad to have had such a wonderful experience for our first Airbnb place.
 
Anyway, just a brief update before hitting the hay. We have to be up in five hours to catch a series of buses to get to the airport. Both of us are madly in love with Edinburgh (and Scotland in general) and want to come back as soon as possible. One of my favorite things about our few days here, though, is hearing about the locals discussing the Scotland Independence movement and hearing the people for, against, or undecided. The States isn't quite in the same situation, of course, but in a lot of ways we can really sympathize with how removed and unlocalized the politics are; I'm definitely going to keep tabs on this issue and see what comes of it.

Wednesday + {Edinburgh: Day Two}

The buses in Edinburgh are so great! Not only are they cheap (£1.50 one-way or £3.50 for all-day), but they run 24 hours a day (midnight-4:30 in the morning is a little more expensive), go everywhere, and they're double-deckers. Needless to say, Gooligan and I like to sit on the top level and soak up the city from up high.

On our first proper day in the city, we walked to the supermarket just across the street and bought a ready-made sandwich and a pair of apples. Then we took the bus to Holyrood Park, where Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags are located. We were going to hike up Arthur's Seat, but after we crested the Salisbury Crags we decided that we didn't quite have it in us to do a second big climb.

But we saw some amazing views from the Crags. They really do provide an incredible view of the city. 

After our hike, we took a break and ate lunch outside, then wandered back up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. On our way we popped into a few free museums--one had a lot of objects from Edinburgh's history, including Robert Louis Stevenson's golf ball (!) and one was a wax museum of history. By the time we reached the castle, I was nearly asleep on my feet at this point, so we skipped going inside. Next time we're definitely going to spend an entire day inside; one of the employee's descriptions of it made us really disappointed that we hesitated to go see it. But it was an important lesson for us--and a good one to learn early on in the trip: no hesitating if we think we're going to regret it later.

After a brief detour back to our flat, we went out for gelato and dinner. In that order, of course. Affogato closed at eight and the pub we went to dinner at was open until one in the morning, so we decided to mix things up. I'm so glad we did, too. The gelato was delicious. Gooligan and I split a gingerbread/bacio bowl and it was perfect. (Bacio is a light chocolate hazelnut flavor akin to a light nutella in taste.)

We were really hungry by the time we headed off to the pub. We ate at Nobles--a slightly nicer pub about four or five miles from our flat. Gooligan got the Pan Fried Wood Pigeon and I had fish and chips. The food was much better than our first night out and we ate to bursting--which was good because the walk to the bus stop was cold.

Back at our flat, we hung out with Richie for a short while before we both had to call it a night due to early mornings.

Tuesday + {Edinburugh + Day One}

Well, I'm in Scotland! As promised. Getting here was an exciting trip. No crises, thankfully. But there were a few eventful moments--when security at Sea-Tac shut down for a moment due to a false alarm, a forgotten water bottle delaying us at security at Heathrow, and a delayed plane almost tipping me over into panic mode when, twenty minutes until our plane was supposed to take off, no gate had been announced yet.

Waiting to take off from Heathrow.

 Overall, our flights and bus rides were relatively good: Gooligan didn't get much sleep on the flight to Heathrow due to an upset child, but she napped on the second leg and the excitement of finally being here has kept us going until it's a respectable time to go to bed. It's almost eleven p.m. here; about three p.m. in Seattle.

After we arrived in Edinburgh we caught two buses to get to Morningside, where the flat we're renting a room in is located. Our host (whom we connected with via Airbnb) is absolutely great. He's given us a lot of tips about the area and provided us with maps and really made us feel welcome. 

The view from our room.

Then Gooligan and I took a brief outing to walk around the neighborhood, snap a few pictures, and grab something to eat.

The food could've been better, but it was alright and the first decent meal we've had since a late lunch on Monday. After dinner we came back and watched a football game with our host and his friend and stayed up late (for us) talking about politics, travel, and the world.

Tomorrow we're going to check out a Highland tour, maybe see some art. Expect a lot more pictures coming your way! Edinburgh is beautiful.

Sunday + {H--30}

In 30 hours our plane will take off! I'm mostly excited at this point (probably 99% excited, 1% nervous). I know this is going to be an amazing adventure for Gooligan and myself and I'm so happy to be able to share it directly with Gooligan (and her sister and her sister's friend), plus indirectly with all of my friends and family.

When we first started planning this trip, Gooligan and I worried that maybe it was irresponsible or self-indulgent. We thought it would be more responsible if we immediately launched ourselves into the next stage of our life: found jobs, found an apartment, starting pay off student loans, etc.

But through the astounding response of everyone, whether they've generously donated to our travel fund, offered us a place to stay, offered to connect us with friends abroad, or even just wished us the very best, I've come to realize that this trip is important in a lot of ways.

Gooligan and I have both grown so much emotionally, mentally, and spiritually in the last four years. We've engaged with the world, meet a wide variety of people, and been shaped by everything that happened during our time in Bellingham.

Hopefully this trip will add to our understanding of the world. Hopefully the people we meet and the experiences we have will round us out a little around the edges and give us a larger context to think about as we grow into ethical, strong, and loving adults.

But none of this trip can happen until Gooligan and I tie up the last few loose ends: we've got to pack, clean, and run a few errands.

Next time I update I'll probably be in Scotland! So until then, fly high and seek peace.

Saturday + {Summertime}

After we got back from the Color Run, life has been non-stop. Well, I guess, technically, life has been non-stop ever since Moving Day. We spent a week sharing a twin mattress on the floor of our otherwise furniture-less apartment, intermixing our last few days of work with cleaning marathons, utilities-disconnecting, errands, last-minute socializing, and copious amounts of television watching in the wee hours of the evening when we were too exhausted to look at another cleaning rag.

Then, as soon as our apartment inspection was over, we got in the car and drove straight down to Portland to meet up with Maddie & co. for the Color Run.

Which was a blast. We were coughing up color for days, but it was well worth it. I've never had so much fun running. There were so many people and everyone was in such high spirits; even though we only ran for about two-thirds of the actual race, it was amazing. I felt strong, energetic, and felt like I pushed myself.

As you might have noticed, amidst all this chaos, I stopped updating this blog for awhile. So what have I been doing?

Well, during our week in-between getting back from Portland and flying to Scotland on Monday, I've been finishing our itinerary and enjoying the last few days of Seattle summer. When we get back, it'll almost be the end of October, and fall will definitely be here with winter on its way.

On Thursday, I went for a bike ride to a park about five miles away. It was an absolutely gorgeous day; the park is beautiful, too, and I had it almost all to myself. Well, myself, a sack lunch, and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Then yesterday, Alex, Gooligan, and I went hiking in St Edwards State Park. 

Moving away from Bellingham is tough, in part, because of all the stunning nature that is so readily available to you. We used to be able to literally walk out our door, cross the street, and disappear into the woods. Or hop in the car, drive five minutes, and arrive at a gorgeous lake or park.

But the last few days has been an important reminder that we still live in a beautiful place: we just need to invest a little time into (re)discovering it. Whether it's hopping on our bikes to go for a ride, or going for a walk or a run in the winding streets nearby, or driving somewhere for a slightly bigger adventure, we're still blessed to live in an incredibly nature-rich area.

Friday + {Saying Goodbye}

Tonight, Gooligan, our wonderful roommate Maddi, and I are throwing a goodbye potluck. AKA a housecooling party. Our apartment is striped bare, but decorated beautifully, thanks to Gooligan's hard work. Boxes are piled high in every corner. The cake is baked. (A delicious graham cracker whole wheat and lime cream cheese frosting, courtesy of my favorite cupcake blog, Ming Makes Cupcakes.)

The last time this apartment looked so bare was the day we moved in two years ago. My dad helped us assemble our IKEA bed frame as we ate Chinese take-out. 

It's so easy to say hello. To reach out and meet new people. Establish friendships. When you don't have an end date in mind, it seems like time stretches forever, syrupy and light.

But saying goodbye, that's hard. For two years, this two-bedroom apartment has been our home. Our base as we've grown into the people we are now.

I've met so many people in Bellingham and had so many wonderful experiences. But many of my friends have also moved on already--graduated and waltzed off into their next big adventures. Or they've just moved here and are putting down some temporary roots. It doesn't matter. The point is, I'm so proud of all of these people. They're living life, stretching themselves.

I read an article recently that one of my friends posted on Facebook: 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself. The article urges people to "stop thinking you're not ready." If an opportunity is right, it'll feel scary. Because if you're already comfortable, then you're really not pushing yourself far enough.

This is the number one thing I'm keeping in mind as we prepare for our trip, our move, and our uncertain future.

Whether we're still here, just arriving, or getting ready to leave, we all have a ton of growing still to do. Who doesn't? But with so many adventures lined up and yet to come, I'm sure we'll get there some day!

In the meantime, we'll eat cake and see a few friendly faces one last time before we pack up on Saturday and make the big move.

Gooligan cooked a delicious feast for our last dinner as roommates!

Thursday + {Your Itinerary: Part One}

This is going to be a multi-part blog entry, simply because if I created my entire itinerary for a 39-day trip in one sitting, I might explode. I've broken it down into a couple steps, mostly for my sanity, but also to make the process easier if anyone else is in a similar predicament.

STEP #1 ORGANIZE ALL YOUR INFORMATION

As I mentioned before, I approached the financial side of organizing our trip in a pretty roundabout manner. Whenever I bought anything, I took a screencap of the confirmation page, though. I remember thinking to myself, "a-ha! this will make it so easy when I organize this information later." Unfortunately, I failed to name the files with descriptions that might actually help someone locate them later, so they were just called "Screenshot 1" through "Screenshot 1000." The other night, however, I went through my entire folder of screenshots and wrote what the relevant leg of the trip on them. Now my folder looks something like this:

A peek at my amazingly organized folder of confirmation #s.

I repeated this step for all relevant information: for us, that included collecting all of our Airbnb reservations into one spot. Luckily, if you use the same website to make all your reservations (whether it's Airbnb or Couchsurfing or something else), most of your information is collected into one spot for you.

STEP #2 MAKE A NEW WORD DOCUMENT

Once your information is collected into one easy-to-access pile (whether it's still on the computer or printed out in hard copies), it's time to start making your itinerary. 

Earlier in our trip, we simply took a calendar and filled it out with the cities we wanted to go to, our host's names once we confirmed them, and how we were going to get between cities. That system worked really well for that stage of our planning, but when it comes to an itinerary, I personally need a lot more detail.

I ditched the calendar idea and simply wrote the date and then all the relevant information for that date under it. Each day is organized by time--what time we need to catch the bus to get to the airport to be early enough to check-in, etc.--but I included a lot more information under each day, too, such as our host's direction of how to get to the place we're staying, their contact information, confirmation or reference numbers, bus routes, fares for buses, etc.

STEP #3 BREAK IT INTO SMALL STEPS

Since Gooligan's sister and her sister's best friend are meeting us in the middle of our trip for a couple weeks, we're lucky enough to not have to do all the work ourselves. They've agreed to take on a lot of our mutual trip places, which means that Gooligan and I are mostly responsible for the beginning and end of our trip. I would suggest just taking it a few days at a time. Spend no more than an hour or two on the project of building your itinerary, since staring at all the information can get overwhelming.

STEP #4, which I'll blog about next time I talk about next Tuesday, is about the fun stuff: figuring out what you want to do in Europe once you're actually there!

Wednesday + {The Color Run}

Call us crazy--we probably are--but in-between moving and our trip to Europe, Gooligan and I are competing in a 5k. In Portland, Oregon. We signed up months ago, sometime during Winter quarter, and we got our old roommate, her girlfriend, and her parents on board with us, so we qualified to sign up as a team.

I'm so excited about this 5k. It's our first official race and it's a color run, too, something that has been on my bucket list for quite a while. The official website calls it "the Happiest 5k on the Planet" and describes it as "a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back to the community."

The track we're running on September 7.

Part of the reason that I am so excited for this race is because it has been a while since Gooligan and I have seen our old roommate. After she graduated, she moved about 250 miles away. Not impossibly far, but not a convenient distance, either, when you factor in arranging three work schedules, gas money, etc. to make the trip. But plans have been made and we're ready!

The other reason I'm so thrilled to be participating in a color run is because it will mark a year since I started running. I don't remember the exact date of my first run; I'm notorious for not making a big deal of beginnings of new habits, in case they don't stick. But I started running in September 2012. 

At first, I used a couch to 10k program on my iPod. That was a lot of help, since it helped transition me from zero running experience to regular running experience in short bursts of walking and running. Since I didn't have a smartphone at the time, though, I had no clue how fast I was running or how far. Not a huge deal, but I was really interested in improving my run and striving for consistency, so I signed up for a gym membership for the quarter.

It was at the gym that I made two discoveries: one, I hate running inside. And two, treadmills are super unreliable.

Luckily, about a month later, a classmate told Gooligan about this Nike+ chip you could put in your shoe and it would sync with your iPod. It tracked mileage and pace and synced with the Nike+ website to show you a handful of other stats.

I ran 62 miles using that app. Then I got a smartphone in November and started using MapMyRun because it used GPS to track where I ran in addition to how far, how fast, how many calories burned, etc. The coolest part of the app, however, is that you can set it to chime in periodically about how you're doing. Right now I have it set on two-minute increments. So every two minutes, it lets me know my average pace in those two minutes and how far I've run collectively. A great tool if you're trying to work on running at a steady pace.

Using MapMyRun, I've run 124 miles. Which puts me at 186 miles total. Not bad for a kid who was adamantly opposed to running the weekly mile in high school P.E.!

I won't lie, though. I fell off the bandwagon once. When it started to get cold, running became harder. Then I went to my third residency at VCFA and my schedule got disrupted. My third semester of grad school was my worst. I was in an emotional sinkhole. But then, in March, one of our friends casually messaged me on Facebook about how she was starting a running group and wanted to know if I would be part of it. I said yes. Gooligan got on board, too.

Even though the group disintegrated pretty quickly into just Gooligan and me, we've stuck to it. Sometimes we don't run as often or as far or as fast as we'd like but we're still running. 

Yesterday, Gooligan and I laced up our shoes and forced ourselves outside. Just for a mile. But we did it. We've made a commitment to each other and ourselves: at least a mile every day this week no matter what.

It doesn't matter how well we do in our 5k. Any time will technically be our best time, since this is our first official race. But it's not about time or distance. It's about having fun and seeing our old roommate again and getting absolutely covered in paint!

Tuesday + {Organizing Your Finances For Your Trip}

Do not do what I did. The moment you buy anything for your trip, write it down. And write it down in the same location. Make a giant chart on the way if it's more convenient. Use an app on your phone. Write it in a word document or an email to yourself. Whatever it takes so it's all in the same spot.

Trust me: you'll thank yourself later when you don't have to dig through hundreds of emails trying to find your one Ryanair itinerary.

Granted, with so many things online these days, a copy of practically everything is sent to your inbox. And you can keep track of your card transactions online, if you sign up for online banking.

But still, it's a pain. Especially when you are buying a lot of things and some of the transactions have nondescript names that do not give you a single clue about what it is for.

Which leads to the inevitable go-fish game through your inbox, facebook messages, text messages, and recall of verbal face-to-face or phone conversations to figure out what exactly that $233.13 purchase bought and who paid for it. Not to mention the pain that comes with trying to figure out currency exchanges on top of tracking down receipts.

Speaking of paying for things: among decisions that you could (and probably should) file under "not the smartest move this bear has ever made," Gooligan and I started to buy things for our trip without taking a look at our bank account to figure out how, exactly, it would make the most sense to organize our accounts.

Currently, Gooligan and I are sharing my bank account. And one debit card.  (That was exciting, let me tell you, when I had to travel to my last residency with a cash-only budget because Gooligan needed to deposit her paycheck into my account while I was away in order to feed herself, pay rent, etc.)

It started with the intention of being a temporary arrangement, but visiting the bank and setting up a new account has been a pain, considering our bank's closest branch is in a town thirty miles away and one or both of us works typical bank hours.

Anyway, it has actually been a really great experience sharing finances with Gooligan. I think it has deepened the trust in our relationship, for starters, not to mention make things easier when it comes time to pay bills.

There has only been one drawback: our credit union caps the number of times you can make withdrawals from your savings account without getting dinged. Gooligan and I each have a savings account. If we had split each bill evenly and paid each other back immediately, we'd drown in $20 fees. Instead, we have taken turns paying for things in chunks, then periodically sorting out who owes who what and squaring our accounts.

Our approach has been a little haphazard, and I definitely do not recommend it for everyone. With another person, there would have been some feathers ruffled undoubtedly, but Gooligan and I have done a great job communicating and checking in and it's worked for us.

Just remember to print those receipts and collect them in a safe spot!

Tuesday + {Traveling & Technology}

I am nervous about traveling to Europe in the middle of my last semester of grad school. On one hand, I know that this is the best time to plan our trip: we're between leases, between jobs, between cities. We are coming off four years in Bellingham and are moving back to Seattle to look for work while Gooligan researches grad school. Intellectually, I know we just have to seize the moment and take advantage of our youth and our good health to take this trip. After all, my program is perfectly set up to work while on the road: the Vermont College of Fine Arts is a low-residency school, which means that I only have to fly to Vermont for ten-day residencies twice a year. In-between those days, I am free to live wherever I want, even if it is out of a backpack for thirty-nine days in Europe. The single caveat, of course, is that my schoolwork will not be put on hold.

Luckily, my adviser this semester has been everything I hoped she would be: she is smart, a wonderful resource for book recommendations, intellectually engaging in an incredibly rich way, and organized. She has given me so much direction and focus that I am sure this is going to be the best semester of my program. I just finished reading her notes on my creative thesis manuscript yesterday and feel so grateful for her insights, which I think will propel my writing forward by great lengths.

As part of my final semester, I have to write and present a lecture on some aspect of the craft of writing, in addition to preparing a creative thesis. I will also be producing new work and reading. In one way, the reading is what I am most nervous about; I have to track down copies of several books and lug them around Europe, since I will not have access to the amazing public libraries that we're blessed with in both Bellingham and Seattle.

Since my adviser recently made the switch to digital correspondence instead of merely relying on the USPS, the rest of my work--writing, revising, editing, question-asking, researching--will be easily accomplished on a laptop.

Which meant that Gooligan and I had to make a decision. I wanted to experience Europe technology-free, in the sense that I didn't want to have to lug around a computer and/or worry about our computers being stolen or damaged. But Gooligan pointed out that I was being impracticable and giving myself undue amounts of stress to insist on trying to rough it with composition notebooks and internet cafes.

It's one of those big decisions on a trip like this, though: how much technology do you want to bring with you? We're bringing one laptop. Since so many of the AirBNB places we're staying at have wifi included in the price, the benefits outweigh the risks, we feel: we can both update our blogs, we can access our emails, I can work on my homework, and we will be able to make changes to our itinerary if anything comes up.

It would definitely be a different experience to go technology-free, but at this point in our traveling lives, at least, having that safety line is worth it.