This last year (well, nine months) has been quite the adventure. I moved to a different country, leased a flat, started and (just about) finished my MSc, wrote multiple novels and prepared one of them for publishing (in October!). I have learned a lot about myself and figured out what I’m going to do for the next while.
I have also learned that I really dislike living alone. It’s one thing when you have pets to talk with and a decent social life. But I don’t have pets (not allowed at the Very Yellow Flat) and my social life consists of interacting with academics, who are not so keen on my not-keen-on-academia mindset. So I don’t go out much.
Mostly, though, I have learned that Edinburgh (and the UK in general) is not the place that I am going to spend the rest of my life. Part of it has to do with the food.
I am gluten-free, vegetarian and I don’t eat processed foods. I have a hard time with huge amounts of chemicals and sugars. Many of the “gluten-free” products are basically just processed cardboard and sugar, so I can’t eat a lot of the normal products. Including chocolate, which is often not gluten-free here. (Tragedy!) Also, cooking for one means that any fresh food I buy has to be in small quantities. Between that and the fact that the kitchen really does hate me, I have been eating mostly raw food. Actually, I’ve been eating the same food every week, which gets really, really old.
The other part has to do with the Very Yellow Flat. It is, objectively speaking, a nice flat. Decent size, quiet street, no one bothers me. However, the washing machine has started leaking again, the walls look like radioactive daffodils and the vacuum smells like it’s going to catch fire every time I use it.
All of this sounds very negative. I try not to be a super negative person, because I really do enjoy my life and there are a lot of things going for it. I guess the point is that I am ready to go back home and be out of the Very Yellow Flat.
It has been a journey. I have learned a good deal. I have spent more time alone this year than I have in a very long time, which is saying something because I am an introvert to the nth degree. I have learned to be happy by myself and I have learned that writing is truly my passion and I am going to do my very best to pursue that as a career.
So, thank you, Edinburgh, for being good to me this last year. Thank you for teaching me these valuable lessons. Thank you for your very predictable and yet entirely confusing weather. Thank you for a good deal of beauty and a whole lot of wonderful grey clouds.
Thanks, and goodbye!
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