San Francisco

San Francisco, what a city and what good friends to be there with.

Alex, Dickie and I arrived in San Francisco on the evening of the 7th of May, after a rather stressful days travel. We missed our connecting flight in Charlotte by 5 minutes, I repeat, 5 minutes! It was due to fog and so we had to wait 8 hours there for the next flight. Great fun. However, I am glad to say this was the only bad thing that happened on this amazing trip, apart form maybe Alex always checking his ATM or Dickie always eating ice cream!

Everyday we got up at 7am (except Alex who always slept) and left the hostel at 8.30. We did almost everything we could have in the week we spent there. We must've walked about 10 miles every day and covered just about every inch of San Francisco.

Some of the highlights of the trip were cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge;

Visiting Alcatraz with all the GRSP's in San Fran at the time;

Going to The Castro;

Seeing the Japanese Tea Garden;

And ofcourse taking our photograph at all of these places playing with our frisbee!

As the year draws to an end this happened to be one of the last times I would be with a group of GRSP, and what a way it was to finish the year. The times I spent with Christian, Alex and the others in San Fran were some of the best moments of my entire year and I am going to thoroughly miss spending such quality time with them when the year finishes.

I am currently in New Orleans for the Rotary International Convention but the memories of San Francisco are fresh and reminiscing on the year past makes me sad to think it is coming to an end but also it makes me excited to think what the next year will bring! Moving to a new city to study a fantastic course and meet new, amazing friends is just an amazing prospect and I cannot wait! But a bit nearer than that is the thought that my beautiful girlfriend Claire is coming to visit in June and I cannot wait for that either, we are going to have an awesome time (I hope... if the Icelandic volcano doesn't have anything to say).

Anyway I shall keep you updated. Talk soon.

God bless, Andrew x

Loving And Leaving

The District Conference this weekend was amazing. Around 30 GRSP, a pool and no organised activities it really could never go badly. Each day consisted of sunbathing, swimming, frisbee-ing, partying with and without Rotarians, and ofcourse the compulsory GRSP rendition of the Backstreet Boys (video coming soon), it was incredible may I say. The best way to finish a superb year.

This years conference was in a place called Callaway Gardens which was a beautiful 13000 acre area with cabins and hotels dotted around. The GRSP all stayed in the hotel and had an amazing time. Thursday - Sunday doing whatever we wanted and having as much fun as possible, I loved every minute of it. The only down side was that we had to say goodbye at the end which I found particularly difficult, and I wasn't the only one. These people are among the most interesting, fascinating and amazing people I have and will ever meet. I love them all.

To make matters worse the day I got back I had to move all of my stuff (I had SOO much stuff) out of Georgia State and say goodbye to the place I had called home for the past 9 months. Very sad. Great memories will always be remembered when I think of Atlanta and GSU especially.

It has just hit me that the best year of my life is nearly over. I have had my last GRSP official meeting and I am completely moved out of Georgia State University. It is hard to comprehend that it is finishing and my normal life is fast approaching. However, there is nothing to be sad about! I have so much to look forward to and I can almost certainly guarantee that I will be seeing most of the GRSP again in the not too distant future. For example this afternoon I am heading to Piedmont Park to see Anders and Anton and chill, cannot wait. Oh and I am heading to San Francisco on Saturday with Alex Duthie and Christian Dickenson (link to his blog) so no need to be sad at all!

Shall talk soon!

God bless, Andrew x