Studying Abroad: My Advice

After revisiting this blog after a little while, I thought it made sense to write some kind of conclusion, so here it is.

 Having been lucky enough to spend the 2015-2016 academic year in the University of New Mexico, I'd like to think I'm in a position to give at least some relevant advice to somebody thinking about studying abroad. Obviously, somebody else's experience is going to differ wildly from my own, but there's still a sense of reliability between myself and others who have been on this journey. It's always nice to exchange stories, but I think it could be just as nice to exchange tips too. So here are my top five tips to getting the most out of your Study Abroad experience, based on my own.

1. Money. The obvious advice would be to be sensible with your money. Don't blow it all in the first week of having received your loans because "it's cheaper than it would be in the UK" (I used that excuse for many a splurge - it's not wise). Similarly, don't spend it all on food. If your meal plan turns out to be utterly extortionate like mine was, temptation to eat out at restaurants all the time is very very high. It's also quite a bad idea - your money will go down a lot faster than you expect it to. But at the same time, if you've saved up to enjoy this year as you should, don't be afraid to spend it. Which leads me nicely onto...

2. Travel. The best possible use for any spare money is, in my opinion, travelling. There really is nothing quite like a road trip with your friends, and the area I was placed in was the perfect place to grasp these opportunities. I do regret spending money on crap I didn't need, but I don't regret a penny I spent on my various trips throughout the year. Not even the silly amount I spent in 24 hours in Vegas. Not even the drunkenly-bought ticket to Cancún. None of it. Make a bucket list of all the places you want to visit or sights you want to see, and do your damnedest to get it all done.

3. Talk to people. This probably sounds obvious, but more specifically, talk to a variety of people. I could not recommend befriending the other people from your country any more. I found my little group of Brits, and they have become some of my best friends. But don't limit yourself to your immediate group. Talk to the people from the country you're in. Talk to other people studying abroad! I've met a bunch of wonderful people from mainland Europe who will serve as wonderful reasons for future trips. Maybe most importantly, talk to your room mate. I only had a room mate for the first semester, and we never spoke. We just strangely co-existed, and it could get uncomfortable at times. I know I'm not the only one to blame - I put about as much effort into the could-have-been friendship as I got in return, which really wasn't very much at all. But hopefully you will have better luck than I did and if you do, definitely take advantage of it!

4. Say yes. This was something I struggled with sometimes. If my friends went to a party, or somewhere for the day, I didn't always say yes to joining them. I hate blaming things like this on anxiety, but when it comes down to it, I know that was the reason. I wish I'd been able to say yes to some of the things I missed out on. You never know - you could meet a friend for life at a party you decide not to go to. On the other hand, I'm very glad I said yes to all the ridiculous things I actually agreed to. If you're in a position to say yes and put yourself out there, I 100% recommend you do!

5. Promo. If you're on an exchange program, it's likely you'll be asked to talk about your home university at a study abroad fare/talk/event wherever you are. Alternatively, you could do some ground work like I did. After all, you never know who may be interested in studying abroad unless you start the conversation. As it turns out, one of the best friends I made in the U.S. wanted to do a year abroad, and I managed to convince him Swansea was the right place for him. So you never know - maybe you'll end up talking a friend into making one of the best decisions of their life, whilst feeling the benefits of one more year with them yourself. It's a win-win, really!

And that concludes my 5 Study Abroad Commandments. You don't have to listen - I'm not here to tell you how to live your life! Ultimately, you're embarking on this adventure to enrich your academic experience and to have fun. And as long as you do just that, I'll be happy for you!

One Last Adventure!

I can't quite believe I'm in my very last week here in Albuquerque. All my essays have been submitted, I've completed two of my three final exams, and the reality of my year abroad coming to an end has well and truly hit home. 

But before the madness of finals and such kicked in, I managed to squeeze in one more little road trip / weekend of adventure around New Mexico with English Ashleigh, Ben and Michael. Our first stop was White Sands in the south of the state. White Sands is exactly what it says on the tin - it's completely different to the rest of the land in New Mexico, which is more grassy desert (according to Wikipedia, the science behind it is that the sand is composed of gypsum and calcium sulphate unlike most most desert sands which are composed of quarts). It's essentially miles and miles of huge, rolling dunes made of the most beautiful sand that doesn't even burn your feet because it reflects the sun's heat rather than absorbing it. If you can get past the wind and sand blowing in your face, it would be the perfect place to spend the day in a state where a real beach is at least a state away.

Seriously - it was really, really windy.

So we made it to White Sands just in time to watch the sun set over the dunes, with only one small hiccup on the way. We drove past an immigration check point, who pulled us over to check who was in the car. As three of us were British, they wanted to check our visas, but as we were staying in the state, we didn't realise we'd need them. Plus, their system was down so they couldn't look up our visas manually. Initially, we were told we'd be waiting 1-2 hours for the system to reboot, meaning we'd miss sunset (the whole reason we went), but for whatever reason - maybe the system started working, or maybe they just took pity on our little tourist selves - they let us proceed after around ten minutes. Crisis averted. 

We then faced a little bit of a trek to Carlsbad. Apparently, we drove through some areas with beautiful views, but it was pitch black, so we missed out there. We stayed in Carlsbad overnight, grabbed all we could from the complimentary breakfast (they're never great, are they?) and set off to Carlsbad Caverns the next morning. 

The thing about caverns is that they can be pretty deep underground. In the case of Carlsbad Caverns, the caves stretched 80 stories below ground level. Walking down these 80 stories is a breeze. You can take your time, stop and concentrate to appreciate the wonders around you. At the bottom of the trail down was what they called the Big Room, which was essentially a massive chamber with a looped path around the edge, and the most ridiculous natural formations in every direction you looked. Ben seemed to be particularly enthralled by the stalactites and stalagmites that were nearly touching to form columns (GCSE Geography, anyone?). They were great, don't get me wrong, but I was most intrigued by the formation that looked eerily like the female genitalia. I only took a few photos because, as Ashleigh pointed out, without the context of seeing the entire cave and its wonders in reality, they really are just a couple of photos of some rocks.

The very start of the winding path down.

Oh look, a column.

Vagina rock. Go on, tell me I'm wrong.

At the end of the trail, there is a lift that takes you back up to ground level. However, when we were there, that lift was out of order. That meant the lovely, leisurely 80-story stroll down into the caverns doubled up as a horrendous, torturous 80-story climb back up to the light of day. I nearly died.

Carlsbad Caverns are famous for their bat flights, but they take place in the evenings, so we didn't get the chance to watch that. Honestly, I'm quite glad. The idea of watching thousands of bats zoom out of a cave I'd just spent three hours in actually freaked me out a little.

Starting our drive back to Albuquerque, we stopped in Roswell for dinner. Roswell is famous for it's alleged crash-landed UFO debris discovery in 1947. I wouldn't say I was in town long enough to make an informed decision, but on first impressions, I'd say that's about all it has going for it. There were plenty of memorabilia shops (of questionable quality) full of aliens and conspiracy theory books. There was a museum, but it had closed by the time we got there. But that was the last stop of our weekend tour of New Mexico, getting back Saturday night to prepare for the last week of classes.

There are still a couple of things here I know I won't have time to do that I really should have done by now (I can't actually believe I haven't been up the Sandia mountains - I have failed this city), but I'm still glad I was able to fit in one last trip before I left. I'm so grateful I've been able to have experiences like this, from touring the state, to touring most of the South West. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get home, but I'll be coming home with a new-found desire to get out and see the world.

Semester Two So Far!

What's this? A blog post?

I knew I'd do this. It's been four months since I last posted anything. Oops.

But this leaves me with a lot to catch up on! This semester has felt very different to the last. Last semester, I was in every day of the week with an early start. This semester, I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm sad to say this hasn't done a great deal to help motivate me. As much as I hated the early mornings last year, I could definitely do with a little more structure back in my life.

My classes for this semester are Human Rights in 20th Century Latin America, Race and Class in American Film, Military History of the U.S., and 20th Century Russian History. It's quite naturally a history orientated semester for me with varying levels of enjoyment (military history is on the verge of being the cause of sudden and violent hair loss), but on the whole, they're not too bad at all.

For some reason, I seem to have so much more reading this time around. My poor heart (and bank account) wept when I received the list of books I had to buy at the start of the semester. Much to my dismay, quite a few of them aren't even stocked at the library, so I actually had to buy them. This is something I will not miss on my return to the UK university system. 

With the boring business out of the way, I'll move on to what was undoubtedly the highlight of this semester: Sprink Break in Cancún.

 I wasn't actually supposed to go on this trip because I absolutely couldn't afford it. How I ended up with a plane ticket isn't necessarily a story I'm proud of (don't drink and buy plane tickets online, kids), but I'm so happy it actually happened. I was apprehensive for a long while - I was worried it was all going to be too much and I'd be an anxious, crowd-conscious mess and spoil everybody's fun. It turned out to be a much more chilled out trip than I expected it to be, which I'm glad of. Of course we went out and did the only thing to do of an evening in Cancún, but the days were spent laying by the pool or swimming in the sea in a hungover bubble of bliss. The sea was a little bit fiesty - I'm quite sure English Ashleigh nearly died in those waves a good few times. But once you got over the enormous, human-engulfing waves and took a step back to admire the view, it really was stunning. I'd love to go back - three nights is nowhere near enough to enjoy the full Cancún experience. My only regret is that we couldn't stay longer.

We got back to Albuquerque to be met with a friend of English Ashleigh's from Swansea, Will. While he was with us, I managed a trip to Old Town Albuquerque. It's a short, twenty-minute bus ride away and it really is beautiful. I'm almost annoyed we hadn't ventured down there sooner. 

Since then, life at UNM has been somewhat uneventful for me, but I'm okay with that. With only a few weeks left, I plan on cramming as much as possible into my remaining time here. There is still so much I haven't done, so I'm hoping I'll find the time to fit it all in. The inevitable mix of emotions is also starting to hit with the realisation of how soon I'll be on my way home. On the one hand, I'm so excited to get back to the people I love, but at the same time, I'm going to miss so much here. I wish I could bring everyone and everything I love over to me for another month or two so I can enjoy a little more of New Mexico (especially the weather - I know you're all jealous of the weather). But that's not how it's to be, and the reality of that is hitting hard.

Endnote: I hereby promise to make at least two more posts before the year is out. 

Surprise!

It’s Friday. I have absolute no idea what time it is and I have absolutely no idea why I’m awake. But hey – I’m on a plane! SURPRISE!

Obviously, I’m posting this a day late so I’ve had enough time to surprise all the people I wanted to. But yes – I came home for Christmas. It was never the plan, simply because I didn’t think I could afford it due to my god-awful inability to save. But as it turns out, the Student Finance Wales travel cost assistance also covers an additional trip home at any point in the year, so if you’re a future Study Abroad student, make sure you look into that. But I just had to, really, didn’t I?

To everybody, both friends and family, I have blatantly and explicitly lied to over the past few weeks, I’m so sorry. The mail room doesn’t really close this week, and I didn’t really have elaborate or spontaneous travel plans throughout the entire month of December. I’m also sorry for repeatedly insisting five more months isn’t really that long. Since my flights home have been booked, the realisation of how long five months is when you’re as much of a home bird as I am has hit me hard. I haven’t seen any of the people I love for five months – how depressing is that? Props to anyone sticking it out for the entire academic year including holidays. I couldn’t do it, and was embarrassingly relieved when the possibility of me coming back for Christmas surfaced.

This is just a short little post for future me to remember just how ridiculously excited I was the days leading up to today, and how incredibly hard it was not to flail about my return with every single one of my friends and family. I hope the surprise was worth it my suffering.

So I’m giving myself a month off this blog to spend Christmas the only way I’d ever really want to. The adventure of a year abroad is brilliant and exciting and I’m looking forward to jumping back into it in January, but come on – it’s Christmas!

Have a good one!

Thanksgiving!

Before I start, I should probably admit that I'm currently procrastinating. I have more deadlines than friends at this point and the final two weeks of the semester are well and truly destroying my soul. I have nine more days of sleep deprivation, constant work and irrational stress before I can relax for a month. But obviously, writing a blog post is more important.

So, Thanksgiving. That was a thing!

Sydney Dickens, freshman, and UK enthusiast offered to host me for Thanksgiving right at the start of the year. Who was I to say no to that? She lives in the most suburban suburb imaginable in Fort Collins, Colorado, so that's where we headed on Wednesday morning. The seven hour journey was made considerably easier by obnoxiously loud music and singing, as well as the anticipation of an actual real home-cooked meal. Given my budding and sturdy relationship with ramen that's built up over the last 5 months, I was excited to say the least. 

Fun fact: Colorado gets COLD. Most of the nights I was there dropped to around -10/12 Celsius. I like it cold, but I don't like it that cold. Even my gums were cold. I didn't realise that was possible. On the upside, there was snow all weekend and it was beautiful. It began to snow just as we reached Fort Collins and we woke up the next morning to a nice, thick blanket of snow, which stuck around all weekend. Perfect timing, really.

Sydney's parents, Cary and Suzanne, were absolute gems. They're such lovely people. They reminded me of people I know back home, which was a big comfort. There was no awkwardness or anxiety when talking to them or asking them for anything - we got on like a house on fire. They are my kind of parent-people. Plus, we didn't want for anything all weekend. I was completely and utterly spoiled. I owe them a big, big thank you for that. Plus, they went through the trouble of making a proper beef roast for me on the Friday night. Yorkshire puddings and everything. What a night to be alive.

On to actual Thanksgiving. We ate dinner at Sydney's aunt and uncle's house. There was a pretty big crowd, around the same size group as a Christmas dinner gathering at my grandma's house. It was homely and welcoming and lovely. I couldn't fault the food, with the exception of 'candied' sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows. What's all that about? It wasn't for me. The rest of it was, though. Needless to say, I stuffed myself.  After eating, everybody spent the afternoon playing games and chatting. It was really enjoyable. It was very much like Christmas day if you took away the fuss of presents. There was also an ongoing joke that I was the 'replacement Ashleigh'. Sydney has a cousin Ashley (incidentally, her name is Ashley Rose, which was a bit weird) who couldn't make it, so I filled in. Apparently, I was a decent enough replacement.

Saturday was spent with Sydney's grandma on the other side of the family. She was adorable. Really. She took an interest in where I came from (she made me point out my exact home town on a map), as well as my views on American politics and other such topics. She was just a really great person to talk to. In the evening, Sydney and her parents took me to a pizza place for some kind of special Colorado pizza. The main difference was the fact that the pizza crust alone was probably big enough for a decent meal. It was big. When we got back, I made Sydney watch Gavin and Stacey with me. I think she enjoyed it. If she didn't, she's a good liar. But who doesn't love Gavin and Stacey?

Before we left on Sunday, we went for breakfast at a place heavily decorated with dead animals. I tucked into my breakfast sandwich being stared at by a stuffed mountain lion and countless wall-mounted fish. It's a good job I'm not easily put off food. It was at this meal I learned that you can add eggs to absolutely any food imaginable, and Americans will call it breakfast. Steak and gravy + eggs = breakfast. Corned beef hash + eggs = breakfast. Fascinating. 

Armed with considerable munch (including British biscuits, much to my delight), Sydney and I left Colorado embarked on the eight-hour drive back to Albuquerque. The drive back took longer because of the dreadful weather. Snow is great to look at when you're not going anywhere, but it's an absolute nightmare to drive through. All in all, a wonderful weekend. Thank you very much to Sydney and her lovely family for putting up with me. It's very much appreciated and I won't forget your generosity in a hurry!

The only picture Sydney managed to successfully take of me all weekend.
It's an alright one, too. Thanks, gal x

Well, that was a nice break. Back to work, I go. December 10th can't come quick enough!

Filling In The Gaps

So let’s talk about how I’m four weeks away from finals.

How the hell did that happen? How could I possibly be drawing to the end of my first term at UNM? Can we all slow down for five minutes please? I’ve hyped this year up since Year 13 and now you’re telling me it’s nearly half-way over?

This means I have four weeks to whack out two response papers, one essay and two final projects, on top of studying for finals. Well, this should be fun.

But it’s not just the current looming work load that’s making me want to slow time down. It’s also the fact that I’m having a bloody good time here. Even when I’m sat in my room doing nothing, I feel like I’m doing something or achieving something, because I’m doing it 4000 miles from home. This is flawed logic, I am aware. But it’s just because I’m enjoying it.

One monumental weekend of enjoyment I never got around to writing a post about was the Fall Break road trip I went on. I’m annoyed that I never got around to it, but all of the photos are on Facebook so family and friends at home could deduct how much of an INCREDIBLE time I had. But for the sake of writing it down and remembering it, here’s the lo-down of the trip.

A few of us couldn’t leave until late in the day because we had a mid-term that finished at 6:30pm on the day we were leaving. This meant we didn’t arrive at our first stop in Utah until pretty late. Bright and early the next morning, we set off for Monument Valley. Here, I saw some of the coolest natural sights there arguably is to see on Earth. I also obtained the memory of hanging out of a car window with three other people driving around the Valley, sun shining down on us, singing Elton John obnoxiously loudly. I will genuinely (or certainly hope I will) never forget that experience for as long as I live. It’s borderline embarrassing thinking about how cool we felt.

Bryan and Ashleigh feeling a lot cooler than they are

The next stop was the Antelope Canyon in Arizona. Without the tour guide, I’m not sure this sight would have been worth the $40 we paid for it, because without them, we wouldn’t know how to appreciate. It’s essentially a place to take really, really cool photographs, and the guide showed you where and how to take them. It reminded me of the cave in Little Mermaid where she hoards all her human clutter, only this place was clutter-free. From there, we stopped briefly to watch the sun set at the Horseshoe Bend. This sight was delightfully free and slightly overwhelming. We were (very) high up, and it was difficult to tell how far down the water was, let alone how deep it was. The sight itself was so enormous, no camera in our possession really did it justice. Still, we all tried our best.

Horseshoe Bend - maybe the most underrated but brilliant sights of the tip

 The next day, we headed to Zion National Park, Utah. It was beautiful, and what started as us driving through quickly to attempt the hiking trail turned into us stopping so many times along the way to take pictures and admire it, that we didn’t actually have time to hike. We weren’t too disappointed though, because from there, we began the drive to Las Vegas. Poor us.

I say this wholeheartedly: everybody in the world should get the opportunity to experience Vegas at least once. Half of us were under 21, but the group decided to stick together regardless, and we had a brilliant time. Some of the sights to see are incredible. The hotels are stunning. They have this way of making you feel very fancy, but at the same time, remind you of how woefully poor you are. One day, when I’m mysteriously rich, I’m going back and I’m staying at the Mandalay Bay hotel and I’m going to love it. I can hardly complain about the hotel we were at, though, which was Circus Circus. You couldn’t get bored there, that’s for sure. We had to tackle the strip in two halves, experiencing one half in the night with the mania and the lights, and the other in the day. It was no less manic, but everything seemed to make sense, as if we were seeing a behind the scenes of Night Time Las Vegas. We also rode the New York rollercoaster, which was fun, if a little rough (especially with a tiny little hangover).

Leaving Vegas almost a whole day later than planned, we drove to our motel in Flagstaff (two days after the university shooting there – scary stuff, I spoke to a Swansea Uni students there this year, all was okay if a little shaken) ready for the drive to the Grand Canyon the next day. The Grand Canyon was exactly what you’d expect it to be. Really, really, really big. It was so big, it was almost like an optical illusion. You have no idea which layer of rock is the bottom one when looking down. It really was breath-taking.

So all of that, followed by a very long drive back to Albuquerque in a car full of very tired students, concluded my Fall Break trip. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was nothing less than unforgettable.

Flash forward a few weeks. The only real social event that’s happened since the trip is, of course, Halloween. I’d heard a lot of hype about American Halloween, it’s pretty well known that it’s a much bigger deal here than it is at home. Unfortunately, I didn’t really experience too much of it. I know there were plenty of parties and I’m told I missed some pretty good costumes but for a few reasons including lack of motivation/funds to buy an awesome costume, and me being a socially anxious so-and-so, I decided to stay on campus and spend it with the trusty bunch in my building. I’m slightly bothered by the fact I didn’t pull up my socks and go to a big party, but in honesty, I couldn’t have seen it going well for me.

I also attended my first drag show last night, which was an experience. It was basically a drag lip sync battle, but I rolled with it. It was very entertaining, I’ve got to give them that. It won’t be my last.

Okay, so this post essentially turned into a delayed Fall Break post with a few other things thrown in, but I feel like I needed to fill in the gaps. I can't see me having a great deal to share over the next few weeks other than my Thanksgiving experience - that should get its own post. 

Note to self - don't slack on this thing again. You'll want to read all of this back in a few years.

Camping, Cochiti Lake and Swinging from the Bandelier

I always said that I wanted to make the most of my time in the States by travelling as much as I could, both in-state and inter-state. And last weekend, I ventured on the first of what I hope to be several trips out of Albuquerque. 

I, along with a bunch of other internationals, decided to go on a camping trip. We had representatives from Wales, Scotland, England, France, Finland and the Netherlands. Some of us were more up for the outdoors than others, but a great time was had by all regardless.

Photo credit: Emilie Turner

We left in two group - two cars left early Saturday morning and a third car (a 3/5 Welsh majority) stayed behind to watch the Wales v. England game (surprise surprise!). I knew that my level of enjoyment of this trip would massively depend on on the result of said game and fortunately for me, and the company who would have to deal with my mood if we lost, we won (YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS). So it was set up to a top weekend. 

When you get lost at a dead end in the middle of nowhere, the best bet is obviously to stop and take selfies.
Aron, Sam, Maxime, myself and Ben.

The journey to the camp site was absolutely hilarious. Obviously, we got completely lost on multiple occasions, ending up at the dead end of a dirt track at one point. Anybody who saw us gave us a weird look (5 students driving to the back-end of nowhere in the most dad-looking car you could possibly imagine) and we also had a minor police scare. A police car past us, whipped around in the middle of the road and sped up behind us, flashing us like mad. Needless to say in that moment we all thought we were being deported even though we did nothing wrong, but fortunately, he just wanted us to get out of the way so he could chase the car in front of us down and pull them over. Crisis averted.

We got to the camp site just in time for sundown. The trouble was, we had to put the tent up while the sunlight quickly gave up on us. What a task that was. I'm not actually sure who did the majority of it, but pretty much everybody had a little go of holding up a pole or bashing a peg into the (bone-bloody-dry) ground. It fell down at least twice, but we got there in the end.

The camp site right next to a big lake, and it was absolutely beautiful, especially when accompanied by the biggest, brightest moon I've ever seen. We spent a large portion of the night down by the lake. The majority of the girls and one of the boys (good on you, Michael!) decided that YOSAO (you only study abroad once) and jumped in. It was probably one of the coolest/coldest, liberating, European experiences of my life. I'm so glad I decided to - I'd have regretted it forever if I didn't! But god, it was cold.

Taken with a crappy iPhone camera notorious for doing the moon no justice. LOOK AT IT.

Then came the fun part - trying to sleep. Needless to say, that didn't go very well. In fact, I spent most of it wrapped in a duvet (thanks other Ashleigh) lying on the road by the side of the tent with my fellow non-campers. We melodramatically complained for a solid three hours. Maxime was just moments away from 'suiciding himself'. Aron searched desperately for the nearest Uber. All we wanted was crappy La Po food. You had to be there to appreciate the hilarity of this exchange. Just take my word for it and know that we laughed a lot.

The next day, we were up and out pretty early, having things to do and places to see. Before we left, though, we went to get a few pictures of the lake in all its day-time glory. (I forgot my sunglasses so the sun was blaring in my eyes, resulting in pretty rubbish photos. It was pretty, though.)

After jumping in the car and getting lost once again (even when we were following the other cars - we were rather distracted by car-aoke), we then headed to the main attraction, the Bandelier Recreation Park. We took a shuttle up a giant mountain as the park wasn't accessible to the public by any old car. 

I want to swiiiiing from ze Bandelieeeeer

The park was beautiful, full of steep rock faces and caves and other such sites. I'm not a geology expert and we forgot to pick up a guide to explain any of it, so here's some pictures instead. 

We walked all through the mountain/rock range and then onto a dried up river bed which lead to the king of all rocks. You could climb it, but that involved climbing several super-sized ladders. The majority of the group went ahead, but I chickened out. I do not regret sitting out of that one. I'm not about that ladder life. I'll take their word for it when they said it was a nice view.

After Bandelier, we split up again. Those who had gone earlier the day before headed to Santa Fe for lunch, whereas us late-comers went off to do what we had missed out on the day before. We were supposed to go see the Tent Rocks monument, but it didn't quite go to plan. After getting lost AGAIN (are you spotting a pattern here?), we stopped for some food and decided that the blazing heat, hiking and lack of sleep meant that we were too tired to really appreciate another New Mexico wonder. So our trip came to a slightly early end, but I didn't really mind too much. I still have months left to go see what I'd missed out on, plus I really really needed my bed. 

All in all though, a brilliant weekend was had. I'm very much looking forward to my next adventure (which may or may not be very soon, and I'm really excited for this one!) with these people. Top company, top sights, top weekend.