Sorry...here's what's up.

Well, I must apologise. I was sitting around minding my own business and being generally unsatisfied with my life when something extraordinary happened: life itself happened. After months of submitting resume after resume without receiving so much as an e-mail in return, I received a phone call in late November; just before Thanksgiving, I found myself sitting in a 12-th story office of a building in Olde City, Philadelphia, being interviewed for an entry-level job in academic publishing. About a week before Christmas, I received a call informing me that I had gotten the job (Marry Christmast to me!!) Since the opening had been posted on CareerBuilder and had generated over 700 applications, I was stunned to find myself in the office for an interview, let alone moving into the cubicle a few weeks later. Really, I still can't believe my luck.

And so, after 18 months of working dead-end, underpaying, largely unfulfilling jobs, the search was over. I, and my degree, had been hired, and in a field I had actually been interested in!

That is the reason for my absence, blogosphere; my life flipped completely upside down just before Christmas and I feel as though I am just now catching my breath.

I commuted from my parents' home for the better part of two months, a 70-mile drive that wreaked havoc on my 14-year-old car, my wallet, and my nerves. I lucked out completely when I met a very nice girl through Roomster.com who needed a roommate to share her two-bedroom townhouse in Roxborough, on the northwest side of the city. I moved in in late February, and I am writing from there at this moment.

So, it is my hope to catch up on some of the places I've visited since i moved in...and there have been a lot of them! I've eaten at a ton of great restaurants and seen some great exhibits and shows in the city. Slowly (very slowly, I'm sure) but surely, I'll get there. And in the meantime, it will be better for me to sit around writing about all of the places I've already been, instead of going out and spending more money, because I have a very big trip coming up that I need to save up for!

In very exciting news, I will be making my triumphant return to The Netherlands in August! I visited nearly four years ago, in November 2008, staying with family friends in Rotterdam, and covering their city as well as Amsterdam, Delft, and The Hague in just over four days. This time I'll be there for over a week! And along the way, I will be stopping off for a 10-hour layover in Iceland! Ten hours is just enough time for a short excursion into Reykjavik and a leisurely swim through the therapeutic, geothermal waters of Blue Lagoon! I am also hoping to make an excursion to Brussels, a mere two-hour journey from Rotterdam by train. All in all, I might be able to visit three countries in under two weeks! I can hardly wait.

In just as exciting news, I won't be travelling alone this time: my wonderful boyfriend of nearly a year shall be accompanying me. We are absolutely giddy with anticipation at the thought of taking our first big trip together, and I can't wait for him to meet my European friends. Then days together any place at all would be wonderful, but the fact that we get to spend 10 days together abroad is fantastic :)

Okay, so now that we've established the current time and place, I'll start brainstorming as to what I want to cover first! I need to flex my blogging muscles and get back into the swing of this thing.

Stay tuned! And in the meantime, please feel free to revisit my posts from this time last year; I can't believe it's already been a year since I returned from Paris!

(And remember children, every time you click on a link on this blog, the Google fairies deposit a few cents into Aidan's paypal account!)