Past Plunders

Here's just a few pictures from some of my "past plunders." In other words, these are some of the crappy pictures I took when I didn't have a nice camera and went to nice places.

Santa Monica Pier, California: Went here with Hannah and our friend Jasmine (who also happens to be Mitchell's girlfriend and a fellow blogger: jasminemariematthews.blogspot.com. Ya welcome, Jazzpants.).

 

This little gem of a sunburst is from when I went to Maui, Hawaii with my family and my neighbors. Pretty sweet, eh?

This was taken from the Empire State Building in New York City. I went there with my choral group in high school. I just think it looks kinda pretty, wouldn't you say?

 

I have pictures from when I visited Barcelona, Spain and Paris, France my sophomore year in high school but, obviously, I haven't posted them yet. That trip, too, was with my choral group. (You're like, "What kind of high school choir were you in?!" And I'm like, "We were kind of good, I guess!" But really we just had a choir director with connections and a knockout resume.). Those pictures aren't exactly edited. Let me also reiterate that my camera was crappier than a port-o-potty and the pictures didn't turn out so great. The magic of photo-editing technology helps, however. But, alas, I'm too lazy to scroll through my thousands of pictures, to find one diamond in the rough and take the time to make it shine. At least too lazy as of right now. In due time, maybe.

This concludes my rant.

Ta ta for now, explorers!

 

 

Across the Pond & Then Some

This time is special. Above all other adventures I have had thus far, this one is, I predict, going to be the best yet. I can feel it. T-minus 17 days until we depart on the adventure we have all been looking forward to for the past six months. I'm so friggen excited I could just about fart glitter, gold and rainbows.Yeah. All of that. All of that and then some. I suppose all I have left to do now is introduce you to this dream-to-become-reality. It goes a little something like this...

I always tried to by the flyest kid on the block; the popular one with the rising stock. So that's when I had this bright idea: Throw the party of the month? Nah, the party of the year!

Kidding, kidding. Obviously "Aaron's Party" is not a dream that would cause my bodily functions to spew magical substances. For reals though, here's the low down.

I get to travel to England for the next two and a half months. From March 14th to May 24th, 2013, several other students and I will be embarking on a journey to study abroad at Oxford University with three different professors accompanied by our own professor who is with us now in California. We only have three classes, from Monday to Wednesday each week, in which we will study Humanities, Shakespeare and various novels of literary merit. We also have the freedom to go wherever we please when we are not scheduled for classes or tours. We even have from April 12th to the 21st as our Spring Break, in which my friends and I have decided to stay in France and Italy (more details on that to come later).

Four of the aforementioned comrades are as follows: Hannah and Mitchell - are like siblings to me; I have known them both since pre-kindgarten and Nicole and Alex - I have known since my senior year in high school. They, along with about 27 other kids (er, young adults?), will be telling a story of their own, living out their own dreams all while we share each other's company. I'm excited to indulge in these new friendships. Ever since I was... well... condemned to attend community college, I never made much of an effort at making attachments. I always thought, "Well, I won't be here long. I can't stand the place, anyways. Why make ties?" That didn't work out so much. My friends and I had been confined to each other, never branching out, and grew somewhat... stir crazy? Now we realize the need to let go of all that negative outlook we had harbored and live freely in every moment. Making lemonade out of lemons, if you will. (More details on THIS situation to come)

Now, I wait. In less than three weeks I will be living with a twenty-six year old woman and her two year old daughter in Oxfordshire. I will be studying and exploring a land unknown to myself. I will be laying my eyes upon thousand year old relics and buildings, stepping where Jane Austen, Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Winston Churchill stood, walking the grounds of an ancient university and taking a stroll in the gardens that inspired Lewis Carroll. My childhood dreams are coming true and I'm more than happy to share it with all of you. Whether it be in my words or in my pictures, as a writer, I want people to be able to escape into a journey that is not their own. I'm the character, you're the reader. Now won't you take a walk with me?

"The world is a book, and those who don't travel read only a page" - St. Augustine