For now, I'm in the lovely town of Bradford...
Today is the first day of December, 2010. The Christmas season is upon on us once again, and as they say, it certainly does feel like it comes faster and faster every year.
This is no issue for me, as I love Christmas. Among other things I love the festivities, family, and food (constant munching, mm!), but probably most of all, I love the romance positively tangible in the air, and with it the thick atmosphere of possibility and adventure.
With that attempt at flowery language and profundity, I approach my point. This Christmas has potential to be my most exciting and fulfilling yet, and I plan to document it every step of the way with this new blog series. Every day I will post my activities and the developments towards this end of capturing everything this holiday has to offer.
Why might this Christmas be so special, you ask? Well, as you may know, I started studying at a uni in England this year, and though I have done a bit of traveling around Yorkshire, I have not yet made it down to the Mecca of my magical notions – London.
This Christmas, I am headed to London to see what I can see, feel what I can feel, and experience everything I’ve heard so much about and imagined to be true. And what better time to do this than the most fantastic season of all?
Here’s where it gets interesting: I don’t yet know where I’ll be staying in London. I don’t have any family in London (though I intend to find a place to be ‘from’), and no friends close enough for me to invite myself over to stay for a few weeks (that I know of). So I and the flatmate I’ll likely be traveling with are looking at the prospect of hopping from hostel to hostel, hopefully with some Couchsurfing hosts thrown in there. (You do know about that website, right?) Throw in the unfortunate reality that, being a poor uni student, my funds are somewhat limited.
It will be an adventure. Possibly the daring-est thing I’ve done, to date, and if you’ve followed me for a while you know that I do do some fairly daring things (at least universal norms have led me to believe so). I have no idea how it will turn out or even what it will look like at any stage, but I intend to make the most of this incredible amount of potential dangled in front of me.
My uni breaks up on the 17th, so the first half of this series will consist mainly of my preparations for the experience, while the second half will be the actual doing of it. My hope is that by holding myself to updating this daily, I’ll be motivated to prepare as much as possible and make it the best time possible. It may even get some people involved that would not have been otherwise. That’d be swell.
I’d love it if you tagged along, shared some insight, and if you’re anywhere near London this Christmas, let’s meet up! If you live in London and have a couch to spare, well, that’d be the awsome-est!
If you can’t tell, I’m more excited about this than I typically get about things. Cannot wait to see what this month will bring.
Hope to see you somewhere along the way!
-Brad
...and the magic has already begun.
Inspiration's Waiting Room 
Very excited to see how this adventure pans out. I’ve always wanted to try out the couchsurfing website haha. Please document your experience with a healthy amount of photos. You’re the man. Definitely living a dream I’ve dreamt.