#also. speaking of road trips this reminds me of like my childhood bus who would always take the shady route home and | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tsukki-please-step-on-my-neck · 3 years

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Pairing: Tsukishima x Karasuno manager/ Tadashi's twin sister (OC)

Background: Hiromi (Hero) Yamaguchi is enjoying life as a volleyball manager for Karasuno. Since the girls' volleyball team is officially done for the year after their loss, she is excited to spend more time with her friends on the boys' team. On the road to Shensin, Hero is excited to spend more time with her older twin frother Tadashi and their best childhood friend, Tsukki. The trip starts off fine until Tsukki starts giving Hero dirty looks from across the room, hopefully, she can figure it out before an oppertunity arises.

Genre: Fluff, slowwwww burn baby

So I know you all love a good "y/n" but I just find them so difficult to write personally. Maybe if enough of you actually read this who want me to, then I could possibly do a rewrite if you want but until then this is good <3

WC: 5.5

Part 2

Lonely was the only word I could ever think of to describe him when I watched him play. Surrounded by a room of nothing but his tall figure blocking balls that came from out of nowhere, all I could think was lonely. Tsukishima has been my best friend since elementary school, and every time I see him, no matter how salty he’s being because of an annoying teammate, or how bad of a mood he’s in because I make it impossible for him to study with my annoying giggles, I can't help but find my best friend lonely even when he is truly happy. From his personality and his snide remarks, I wouldn’t trade my best friend for anything in the world but I wish I could help him see how un-alone he really is, hopeful I can help him realize that before I leave.

The sound of my annoying bedroom door opening wakes me from my light nap. Opening my eyes to my darkroom I hear Yams walking in. “Hey Hero, if you don’t hurry up, Tsukki is gonna leave for school without us and we’ll miss the bus to Tokyo.”

Waking up to my brother's voice only to automatically sleepily sit up and rub my sleep-filled eyes. I reach to look at my phone to check the time, but my twin sits at the end of my bed, but landing on my feet, taking my mobile from my hands. “Tsukki’s not here yet,” I whine, reaching for my phone, “ and it's only 11 pm, the bus doesn’t leave for another hour and it’s only a 10-minute drive.” I sleepily complain as I stretch my tired body and pull my blanket over my head.

“Yeah, but Tsukki called and wanted to get there early so we can get the back row of the bus since it’s a long drive. Also, you missed dinner since you decided to wait till the last minute to pack and finish your summer homework.” Yams stand up off my bed and walks over to turn on the light in the room. As his lecture ends a knock from downstairs echoes across the house.

The knock is quickly followed by the door opening and Tsukki yelling up the stairs, “Are we ready to go?” Before even waiting for a response, he slams the door closed and I could hear Tsukki jumping up the stairs every other step.

“In here,” Yams announces to his best friend.

Tsukishima has been coming over for years, to the point that my parents have considered him close enough to the family to have his own house key, and he has his own stuff in the guest room even though the dude lives 12 houses down. I think my parents just like him because Yams and I never fight over him and he is always so helpful rather it be homework or cleaning.

I don't find my parents' comfort level with Tsukki weird since Yams and I have the same experience at Tsukkis’ home. Since Tsukki’s mom is always working, and Akiteru is only home on the weekends, Yams and I will stay there sometimes for studying or movie nights. It's been the 3 of us for so long that both of our families find it perfectly normal.

Tsukki walks into my room and his face instantly goes from content to confused as he sees that I’m still in bed. “Hurry up Hero, we need to get going and Akiteru is waiting in the car.” His words seem motherly stern as he walks over to my bed, grabbing my arm as he tries to playfully yank me out of my bed.

My butt falls onto the floor from the string beans strength, “OwwwwWWww Tsukki that hurt,” I rubbed my butt and look up to my friend who is now kneeling in front of me.

Turning away from me to look at my brother by my door, Tsukki realizes the only way to get me out to the car, “Hey Yams, can you grab this brats bag for me.” He instantly picks me up off the floor and throws me over his shoulder before I can react to his order to Yams.

With no energy in me to fight Tsukki, I give in as my limbs dangle over his body. His shoulder digs into my breasts as he goes down the steps, still taking the steps 2 at a time which causes my hair to fall over my face from the loose bun I slept in.

Once we are out the door, Yams locks up the house behind us. While carrying me off the sidewalk, Akiteru must have seen his brother carrying me because he quickly yelled out the car window at him, “Kei, DROP her right now!”

I feel Tsukkis’ head turn but he doesn't drop me. Instead, he opens the car door and sets me down on the back seat. While still leaning over me, Tsukki turns to his brother, “What's wrong Aki? She was half asleep and we would have been late if she didn’t hurry the fuck up.” his words were flat to his brother as they always were. While speaking to him, Tsukki reached around my body with the seatbelt and buckled me in, surrounding me with his scent of dark roast coffee.

“First off, language Kei,” Akiteru barked at his little brother as Tsukki closed the door and sat in the seat in front of me. “Second, don't put Hero or any girl over your shoulder when she’s wearing shorts.”

Tsukki gives his brother's words a moment to sink in before looking in the car's rearview mirror to look at me sitting in the back seat. “Hey Hero, sorry for showing the world your flat ass. Promise I won’t do it again.” His straight face carried throughout the statement and turned into a joking smile with a wink.

Yams and Tsukki laughed at the joke but Akiteru and I both reached out and slapped the laughing string bean. The 10-minute car ride was full of jokes and laughter as Akiteru and Yams joked about volleyball and I just sat and stared at the boy in front of me as he stared out the window. Tsukki just sat there with a silent smile, as if actually enjoying something for once.

Arriving at the school, Akiteru dropped us and our bags off by the van before waving goodbye and driving away into the night. Still thinking I’m half asleep, Tsukki demands that he carries my bag and that I link arms with him and Yams so that I don't fall while walking. “Dude, that only happened one time,” I argue with Tsukki.

“Yeah one time this week,” Yams mumbles under his breath.

Elbowing my brother, I remind him that I’ll tell everyone about the time he tripped down the stairs and accidentally saw Yatchi’s underwear.

My threat then causes Tsukki to lightly elbow me, and lean-to whisper in my ear, “Tell anyone about that and I’ll tell Ukai that you think he’s hot.” returning to his normal height before looking down at me giving him a stink eye at the partial truth dirt he tries to use as blackmail.

Walking up to the bus we found Ukai and Takeda talking with Daichi and Kiyoko about how different this practice trip is going to be with us.

“In what way coach?” Tsukki asks to hold back his snickers about my clumsiness.

“Well we have been training a lot but now is the time that we actually get to test out the new moves,” Ukai informs us, his tone coming off as hopeful but worried.

Daichi quickly spoke up, “Well it is all thanks to Takeda for reaching out to Nekoma in the first place that we even got an invite to Tokyo so thanks.”

After plenty of thanks towards Takeda, I spoke up about what I’ve only heard a few things about. “What's Nekoma like anyways?”

“Nekoma is amazing, and their setter and captain are so skilled.” Hinitas' voice came out of nowhere causing us to turn and me to pull my arm from Yams so I could see the shortie better. Looking at the shortie we see that the entire team has arrived and is walking up behind us.

Kagayama jumps from behind Hinata, running up to me with excitement in his eyes, “Hey Hero, would it be possible for me to sit with you on the bus? I wanted to talk about the last practice with you so we could go over your notes on the quick attacks.” His eyes quickly flash with fear at Tsukki behind me, who, knowing him, was probably making a pissed-off face at the annoying setter.

“Kags, why don't you sit with Hinata and talk to him seeing as he actually plays in the game, I just help you practice sometimes and I even gave you the written notes yesterday.” I gave a weak smile, hoping Kagayama would get the clue that I wasn’t going to give into him.

“But I-”

Tsukishima quickly cut the guy off, sending fear into both mine and Kageyama spines, “Well your majesty, have you ever thought that your sets are just never going to get better? Hmm? Also, you already know that Yamaguchi and I have permanent dibs on sitting with Hero on all bus rides.” Tsukishima's salty attitude that got worse later into the night caused Kagayama to go silent, and walk away to most likely talk to someone nicer.

With my arm still wrapped in his, I elbowed the salt shaker, giving him a dirty look that I tried to use to hide my laughter, as he leaned over, finally being eye to eye with me.

Kiyoko gives Tsukki and I a weird look as she walks up, pulling her clipboard out to ask me to check that everyone is here before we start loading up. I start to remove my hooked arm from Tsukki but he takes the clipboard for me, “Go ahead and tell me who you see and I’ll mark them for you.”

Once Tsukki and I mark everyone, we hand the clipboard back to Kiyoko so she can count everyone getting on the bus. “So we are sitting in the back right,” I ask Tsukki and yams while I make my way up the bus stairs.

“Yea-”

“I CALL THE WINDOW” Yams and I squeal at the same time running to the seats, cutting off Tsukki.

Tsukki sits down next to me and pushes his bag under the seat in front of him and takes out his headphones from his bag. An uneasy feeling came over me as I looked at Yams past Tsukki. “Hey, Tsukki, why don’t you sit next to Yams, then you could stretch your legs in the walkway.”

Tsukki looks over at Yams who has already begun rolling up his volleyball jacket to use as a pillow and starts getting into his bus sleeping position. Turning back to me, Tsukki preps his music and looks up with his innocent hurt eyes, “Do you not wanna sit with me, Hero?”

The puppy dog eyes hit me as I try to recover the conversation, “I was only asking because I feel bad that you always sit next to me on the bus, and we have a game as soon as we get there and I don’t want your legs to hurt from the little legroom.”

Taking his time to answer, Tsukki hooks up his wired headphones putting one in his ear and handing me the other. He takes his jacket off to place over both our laps. Finally, his muffled voice decided to answer my question, “Guess you’ll have to help me warm up when we get there.”

With my question now answered and my manager job is done until warm-up time, I put the headphone in and pulled my hands under Tsukkis’ warm jacket, and let them rest on my upper legs.

While falling asleep I ignored the sounds of everyone sitting down and chatting among themselves, I ignored the sounds of Tsukki telling Hinata and Kageyama to shut up and stop arguing from their seats in front of us. I fell asleep, only waking for a moment with Tsukki pulled me closer to place my head on his shoulder.

***

The sound of muffled music awakens my senses and tangos with the smell of dark roast coffee to wake me up. Pulling my head from Tsukkis’ shoulder I look around the bus to find everyone still asleep except for Takeda who is driving while Ukai is talking about his high school days.

I look over at Tsukki, he’s asleep sitting up with one earbud in and his mouth is slightly open with his warm breath blowing on my shoulder. I look down and find his hand is facing up in my lap while the other clutches his phone.

Grabbing his wrist from my lap, I use his hand to slap him awake so I can have someone to talk to while also messing with him. With a worried face, he jumps awake and looks at me as if deciding if he was still asleep or if I actually slapped him.

Before he figured out what happened, I jumped over Tsukkis’ lap leaving him to stretch himself awake and ran up the bus aisle to Ukai to ask how much longer till we are at Shenzin. He informs me that we are only an hour away and asks me to pass out food to wake everyone, but before I can grab the food boxes, Takeda asks for me to sit for a moment. Ukai moved down a seat and pats the now empty seat next to him so that I could talk to both men.

Takeda keeps his eyes on the road and his voice becomes strangely calm, “So I wanted to ask if you heard back from...the school.”

“Well I,” I slightly stand to look around the bus to make sure no one can hear the conversation. With quiet snoozes from everyone and Tsukki wearing both headphones and half asleep, I took it as the coast was clear, “the letter is supposed to arrive while we are gone so I’ll know when I get back, I apologize now if I get nervous.” I sit back down in the chair and put my eyes to the ground hoping to hide my current feelings of confusion.”

“Hey Hero,” coach Ukai’s quiet voice calls my eyes to shift the road ahead, “It’s okay to be nervous, and I know you're scared but you deserve this.” He pats my back as if reminding me that they both are willing to listen to my fears.

“Thank you, both of you for your recommendation letters, I really am excited about it, I just...I haven't told Tadashi or Tsukishima about the whole thing. I'm just scared of how they’ll react but who knows.” I stand to give both men a thankful bow and I quickly pick up the snacks, hoping that they’ll let the conversation end here for now.

As I wake up all the groggy crows, I toss food their way making sure to save all the strawberries and some muffins for Yams, Tsukki, and I. Thankfully Kiyoko and Yachi woke up easily and seemed like morning people but none of the boys seemed to be.

Waking up Tanaka and Noya, I swear my life flashed before my eyes when they jumped from their seats to scream “GOODMORNING to our BeauTiFul Kiyoko.” The rest of the boys luckily woke up calmly and groggy, stretching as I passed out breakfast and Yachi followed me with their waters.

Arriving at the back of the bus, I looked over to Yamaguchi dead asleep drooling on the window. Knowing that Yams is not gonna wake up, I just set his food next to him.

Trying to return to my seat, I start to move my legs over Tsukkis’ long legs when Hinata leans his chair back, causing me to fall onto Tsukki’s lap, and our noses bump slightly. After an awkward moment of looking at each other while I realize that I’m accidentally straddling my best friend while we both rub our bumped noses, Tsukkis large hands encompass my face to make sure I'm okay.

After checking over my face for no bumps or blood, he keeps his grip on my face but moves it over slightly to look at the pipsqueak, “Hinata, be more careful next time pipsqueak, you hurt Hero!” Tsukki torments the ginger but causes half the bus to turn and find me still in Tsukki’s lap with his hands engulfing my face.

Hinata jumps up and starts bowing to apologize while I tare Tsukki’s hands off my face and slide off my best friend's lap and face forward in my seat, showing off my bright red face to the entire bus who just laughs off what happened and I hide under the jacket next to me...Tsukki’s jacket surrounds me with the smell of coffee as it protects me from the laughter around me.

Once the bus settled down, Tsukki bumps my arm to offer me some strawberries. Taking the jacket off my body I realized that my face must still be red cause he starts to laugh at me and hands me the bag and the fork. Once he frees his hands of food, he leans to pick up my legs and puts them over his lap which forces me to have my back to the cool window and face my friend and my groggy twin who decided to finally wake up.

“Hey Hero, Can I have my jacket back?” I reach behind me to grab the jacket, checking the sleeves for the small cross stitch I put so we knew it was his. Finding the tiny Dino, I hand the blonde his jacket. Instead of putting on the jacket, he automatically places the fabric over my cold legs from only wearing my shorts.

Looking back up at Tsukki, he grabs a muffin and delicately takes the wrapper with his long fingers, taking a bite and then handing it over to me, and we share it like an apple, along with the bag of strawberries. Every now and then I feel his hand on my thigh atop the jersey, bringing my attention to his electrifying touch.

“So what were you talking to Ukai and Takeda about up there,” Tsukki asks, playing with the zipper on his jacket.

Pain hit my stomach as my brain quickly tried to find words that weren't a lie, “they were asking a question about me and volleyball.”

“What was the question?” Tsukki looked up from his hands, turning to me with his honey-colored eyes that made this whole situation even more difficult.

“Just if I wanted to keep playing volleyball for the girl's team and if I was planning on staying as a manager next year.” I offered him a quick smile but his facial expressions told me he was waiting for more like he knew I was hiding something.

“The day you quit being our manager is the day I’ll be friends with Hinata.”

A smile came over his face, causing me to put on a real one as we both laughed at his silly words.

“Is that a bet I hear?” I try to egg him on between laughs.

“If that ever happens, I will frame you for his murder.” Tsukkis laughter and threat causes me to shreak from joy, pulling Yams into the conversation.

The hour passed quickly as Yams scooted into the seat on the other side of Tsukki once he was awake enough to be human. We somehow ended up just talking and eating for the last leg of the trip. Every now and then Hinata and Kageyama who was sitting in front of us would join the conversation, but only for a moment before Tsukki would say something rude or funny that caused them to go quiet for a while.

Once we arrive at Shenzin, everyone is jumping off the bus except for us in the back row. Tsukki and I automatically start cleaning up the bus as Yams stretched, waiting for everyone to get out. Once everyone is off the bus, Yams announces to us as if the bus was full, “I’m gonna leave you 2 alone, i really need to pee.” and he ran like the wind off the bus to join the others.

Tsukki and I brush off my brother's choice of words and finish cleaning up the bus, as is the rule with those who sit in the back row. While picking up trash, I Look out the window to see my crows talking and mingling with some other boys.

“This is your first trip with the team, right Hero?” Tsukki asked while wiping off the seats of Noyias slobber, taring my attention from what's going on outside.

“Yeah, I had that stupid cold last time, but since I finally get to join the team on this trip, I can now hang out with my favorite boys all day...Ennoshita and Suga.”

Until my last words, Tsukki looked very honored by my words until I joked with the names. Tsukki kept mumbling to himself after my little joke until the bus was clean which I couldn't help but watch as his salty attitude set in.

I grabbed the bag of trash and turned to leave the bus when Tsukki grabbed my wrist stopping me in my tracks. I look back at him to find him very quiet with a slightly red face, rubbing his neck.

After a moment of staring at each other in awkward silence, he grows flustered and takes the trash from my hand, rushing past me exiting the bus, “Hurry up Hero, we still need to warm up with the team.” I watch as the tall green bean rushes to the trash can at the bottom of the steps. I giggle to myself and run to catch up to him to head into the gym.

Walking into the gym, I take in how it's big it is with 2 nets set up and still enough room for a third game if needed. Finally getting over the gym, I turn to find Kiyoko calling me over to go around and see if anyone needs help with warming up.

After helping Noya and Asahi stretch, I feel a tap on my shoulder to find a tall, handsome black-haired man behind me with a cat-like boy behind him looking down at his phone. Totally ignoring the tall guy, I ask the gamer what he’s playing. “Oh, it’s just Tetris since my handheld died and Kuroo here stole my charger since I didn't help him warm up.” The gamer shot the other player a death glare but quickly offered me a shy smile and returned his sight to his phone.

I quickly bowed to both of the strangers, introducing myself, “Hello, I’m Hiromi Yamaguchi, one of the managers from Karasuno, but you can both call me Hero.”

My long hair falls in front of my face and when I bring my body up, I start to gather my hair into a ponytail as the boys introduce themselves. “Hello Hero, I’m Kuroo the captain of Nekoma and this is Kenma, our setter.” I offered them a smile, “Hey if you need some help warming up, I’d love to help.” Kuroo automatically agreed and Kenmas eyes bounced up and hesitated before saying yes.

While tossing a few receives to the 2 Nekoma boys, Kuroo tries to hold a conversation with me.

“So how’d the wingless crows end up with such a gorgeous manager?” he asks, sending me a wink, which I choose to ignore.

“Oh, thanks...well I actually am on the girls' team as a middle blocker and backup setter, and my brother and our best friend are actually on the boys' team so it only made sense that if I wanted to still hang out with them.”

“So does that mean that I get to watch you play sometime?” Kuroo stops the ball in the air and stands closer to me to the point I can smell the laundry detergent on his uniform.

“You really don't have to, we aren't really that good anyway, actually we don’t have any games till next season since we lost our last match.” I laughed off the player. A slight pain hit my stomach as it was starting to set in that I wouldn't get to play an actual game anytime soon unless something changed or an opportunity arose.

Kenma jumped into the conversation ignoring my slightly pained face, “Why didn't we see you when we went to Kurasuno for the practice game?”

“Oh, I actually had to practise that day for my team. I was also supposed to go to the last training camp until I ended up with a cold and had to stay home” I could feel my face quickly switched from trying to hide my sadness to growing hotter by the second as I realized that Kuroo was actually standing closer and closer to me, a little too close, but his eyes kept darting between me and where the crows were practicing.

Kenma meekly jumped back in, asking for me to throw the ball again, “Well I hope you're excited to lose to us later.” He sends me a smirk then returns his eyes to Kuroo.

The conversation quickly ends when out of the corner of my eye I see Tsukki walking over. I quickly excuse myself from the cats, but Tsukki who has already made it to my side and grabs my wrist, pulling me over to our side informing me that the game is about to start.

I turn to wave good luck to Nekoma when Kuroo yells offering Tsukki good luck in a slightly sarcastic voice and sends me a flirty smirk.

“What was that for?” Tsukki questions and we walk over to the team. “Oh I helped them warm up since I had nothing else to do, don’t worry, they were really nice,” I assure my best friend. A grumpy face grew across his normally straight emotionless face, “It looked like more than that.” Choosing to shrug off his words, we jump into the team huddle.

Ukai Offered the team a few words and reminded us all to have fun. The entire speech, I stood there wrapping Tsukkis fingers while he listened to the coach. Looking up at his face, I found him to be a little irritated, and I swore I could see his brain working double time on his thoughts. His face seemed stuck like that even as he stepped onto the court.

Watching the game with Kiyoko, she helped with the score and talked me through what was happening while I stood taking notes on players for both teams, trying to get info to update everyone's team sheets. The few times I looked up at Kurasuno on the opposite side of the room facing us, I couldn’t help but watch Tsukki whose eyes would jump to mine for just an instant only to return to the game around him.

In between balls, I would find Kuroo a court overlooking my way, sending a wink or a little handwave and it seemed Tsukki noticed it too because he was sending the upperclassmen death glares by the end of the first set. Even though they were playing different teams, Tsukki sent faces that he saved for the enemy in front of him.

Between sets, I passed out bottles and Tsukki took his from my hand but held onto my wrist once again with his other hand, but it was different from before the game. He didn’t want to say anything but I could tell that he wanted me to stay with him. Knowing he wasn’t willing to say why he wanted me at his side, I started offering him notes I have on the other team. I knew he wasn’t listening because he just sees the sport as a way to waste time, but I know deep down that he loves the game with every bit of his being, no matter how much he says that it’s just for now.

Handing his water bottle back to me, he kept his grasp on my wrist and looked me dead in the eye. With his serious tone, he pulled me closer, sinking to my level, and whispered in my ear “You might want to go put your sweatpants on, I think we both know that you don’t want anyone to see your ass.” His words hit me but his warm breath licking my ear hit me harder.

I felt heat encompass my face as the blocker let go of my wrist, stepping back and turning to go speak with Ukai.

I gave Kiyoko a heads up and ran to the bus to grab my long pants and when I returned I was stopped by Kuroo and Kenma right outside the gym.

“Hey Kenma, hey Kuroo. Why aren't you both in the gym?” I look between the two boys in front of me.

Kuroo looks up from Kenma and laughs to answer my question. “We saw you leave and I wanted to make sure everything is okay, and our game is over anyway. You looked a little flustered in there.”

Before I could respond, another Nekoma boy, as tall as the Tokyo tower called them back in. Kenma walks ahead back into the gym while Kuroo puts his hand on the arch of my back to lead me in.

Once we set foot on the wood floors Kenma called for me, causing me to give him my attention but his face was facing my crows game, “Hero, everything's all right, right?” I send him a sweet smile and turn to offer Kuroo one as well. Though sweet, Kuroo’s smile came off as what I find to be mischievous as before his hand left my body, his face also turned to my team, as if making sure they could see his hand on me.

The 2 cats return to their team and I walk back to mine as they return to the game. Standing behind the score, I pull on my sweats as Kiyoko starts giving me more notes for our boys.

In-between writing the notes, I take a peek to find Tsukki not only giving Kuroo the evil eye but for me as well. He sends me a face to tell me that we need to talk later.

Ukai must have noticed the tension and death glares from Tsukki and called me over to go find the classrooms set aside for Kurasuno.

Walking out into the hallway, realizing that I don't have any idea where I‘m going, I ran over to the far door in hopes of finding Kenma or Kuroo. Seeing both of them looming next to the doorway watching Kurasuno I found it as a good sign.

“Hey, can I bother one of you to tell me who to talk to about where the Kurasuno team is gonna be tonight?"

Kuroo steps forward, but Kenma speaks up and starts leading the way, “Sure Hero, I can show you since we just finished our game.

Following Kenma, I noticed how quiet he was, to the point that his shoes barely even made a noise. His voice suddenly caught me off guard, “Sorry about Kuroo, I might have noticed how number 11 on your teams acts around you and he's using it to test his patience.”

Kenmas statement lingers in my mind, “That's okay, but if I think you read it all wrong, we’re just really good friends.” My voice breaks a little through the statement.

Kenma stops in his tracks and turns to look at me, “I think it’s more than that,” Kenma turns to the wall and points at a paper, “but anyway here are the rooms for Kurasuno, if you need to find another school, all their room numbers are on here. Also, I don't know if anyone told you but the female managers have an option to all stay together or you can stay in the extra room set aside for your team.”

“Thanks, Kenma!” I gleam at the boy, pulling my phone out to take a picture to send to the team.

Kenma takes my phone from my hand and starts typing, “Here's mine and Kuroos’ numbers if you need anything else.” After offering me another quick smile he looks down at his feet as if wanting to say something else. In a quiet voice he speaks the words, “If you want to after you're done for the day, we could play on my handheld.”

“I would love to Kenma.” I send him the biggest smile and link my arm into his as I pull him back towards the gym.

If you catch something I didn't, feel free to tell me!

Part 2

#hq tsukishima #tsukishima kei #tadashi yamaguchi #fanfic #haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#tsukishima fluff #tsukishima fanfiction

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iliketorantandstuff · 6 years

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Wandering in Punjab

I think one of the biggest blunder my parents made was to let me go on that exchange trip back in 2015 to Romania, because since after then it has been almost impossible for them to contain me within the bounds of our house. You see, I got high, I got high on the intoxication of freedom, and solitude and the high got me addicted to it. In the last two and a half years, I have visited three countries, and almost over twenty cities and towns. The adrenaline when the plane takes off, and the train starts moving, and the sound of my own breath that I can feel when I walk for miles with my shades on, it’s fodder to the well-being of my soul.

I haven’t posted about my travels yet, but I believe this recent excursion demands me to write because this was an altogether a very different experience. The first time I traveled internationally on my own, especially that backpacking trip across Turkey where in 15 days, with no prior bookings, or plans which cities I wanted to see, I discovered my potential. I used to go to the bus stand, stand there, see which city seemed more favorable after hitting some Google tabs, I would hop on a night bus, saving my night stay cost of hotels, get off in the morning, explore the city, and hop on another bus by the evening. Convenient, no? Not as much as it sounds, it was quite hard; my parents had no knowledge that I was absolutely alone in a country whose 80% of the population does not even speak English. It was difficult, and I used to take that as one of my achievements. But believe me you, all those very cute “wanderlusts, and travelers”, travelling alone abroad is one thing, and travelling alone in our own country, which has very limited means of infrastructure to support your commute, people are alien to the idea of a non-foreigner travelling alone, and that too a girl. Haw haye!

When 2018 started off, a friend and I decided to maintain journals while having our chai sessions at Roadside Cafe. That journal had my to do list for the year, I thought if I’d write it down, I’d be able to achieve it since the need to check off will keep biting me. Travel to Bahawalpur this year! I saw Bahawalpur’s pictures in some Instagram post some two years back, and I planned it with my bae back then, “chalo jee, kisi din sath chal kar dekeingay”, bae turned out to be bae-wafa and I thought khadday mein jaye Bahawalpur, Akeley kia jaungi.. Adhooray khuwab. Until recently I was like screw it, let’s do it on my own. 23rd march luckily gave us a long weekend, which I noted down earlier this year; because that was the weekend, I decided I’ll go off. However, work came in between, and the plan got delayed. Somehow, I got lucky again. My boss came to me and said I should go for my field visit to Multan. Hain, kia? A little taken aback, but gleaming after a few seconds, it gave me another hope. All said and done and after having communicated with my boss who looked at me astonishingly that why of all places would I choose Bahawalpur for an excursion after my sales visit? I flew to Multan on Tuesday with my return flight on Sunday from Bahawalpur airport. Yay! Also, I’d like to take a moment here to highlight, that ladies and gentlemen, THAT’S how you manage your work life balance. Life doesn’t end once you get into corp life, it’s all about will and smart management. True story.

Ok, guys friendly advice, pls March onwards sochiyega bi mat to go off to Southern Punjab, especially if you’re from Karachi the hawadaar Jannat. MEIN TOU MAR GAI. it was very hot. Like dehydrated kind. Got off at the Multan airport, and woah, it definitely surpassed my expectations because it was a very well maintained airport, with a lot of usage of blue tiles, since blue pottery is big in Multan. The city of Saints, I sighed. I got out of the airport to hail my Careem and proceeded towards my hotel. As soon as I got off the airport premises, on my left side I could see some fields, while on the right side I could see red bricked, short heighted walls. That particular sight is what has always reminded me of where I am; Punjab. Call me stereotypical or throwing a generalization, but be it Lahore, Gojra, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, or Multan in this matter, short heighted red bricked walls is something you’ll commonly find around you. Heading towards the hotel, I see posters of different political parties, I could tell the area was heavily dominated by PTIs supporter, upon asking the driver he tells me that this is the city of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, which made sense. My hotel was at Abdali Road, named after Abdali Mosque, which was also dressed in Blue tiles, and kaashkaari, a contemporary mosque fused with the cultural setting of the city.

Next day, my sales visit was planned for old Multan, near Bohar Gate. My car only took me so far, I had to get off way before the gate, and the walk inside of the old city was all on my own, since the streets were more like arteries, so narrow, with vendors by the side selling all kinds of things. As I went on for my work, from the car I saw Haram Gate, Pak Gate, Delhi Gate, and Dolat Gate. Intrigued as I was, I asked my driver to explain me its significance, and he replied that the city of Multan used to be contained within these gates, with arteries connecting in the middle. It was built like a Qila, a fort, so whenever they’d have the khadshaa of a war, they’d shut it down, and protect the people and the city. Genius, I thought to myself. However, now the city has populated well, and has more territories, and peripheries, which makes the up city.

The next day, after my sales visit, during my break, which was between 3 o clock – 6 o clock, I set out to see what the city is known for; to pay my regards to the saints. Now now, I am not a very religious person, but I am a very spiritual person, so these places were a must, but man, what a wrong timing I chose since jal kar raakh hogaii. Hailed a Careem for Shah Rukn I Alam, the driver dropped me at this gate, asking me to continue the journey on foot now since the car couldn’t go inside. Had to walk about a kilometer, but could spot the Shrine from miles away because of its giant figure. With my crinkle white dupatta wrapped around my face, and my yellow glasses popped in, I wasn’t fitting in well quite frankly, and hence the stares. I entered the shrine, had to take off my shoes, and it felt like my talwaay were rested upon dozakh, aag hi lag gai. Going around it, and inside, I paid my regards, and prayed to Allah. Took a few pictures here and there in the karak dhoop, but an interesting visit altogether.

There I also found out that he was grandson to Bahauddin Zakariya, which was my next station. Like Shah sahib, I said salam to Zakariya sahib too, which was like two kilometers away from Shah Sahib.

Walking all on foot, I felt liberated to a whole new level because a girl doing this on her own in Bucharest was one thing, but in a lesser urban city like Multan, where I knew no one, & vice versa, it was exhilarating. Next, I hopped on in my Careem, and headed to Shah Shams Tabriz, it was about 4.30 and I could still spare some time. Shrine of Shams Tabriz was near this famous bazaar called Hussainagai, which was a miniature version of Saddar, Karachi. Selling everything and anything, you name it and it was there. It was scorching hot, & so while I was ranting about it, my driver went on to say “baaji aurton ko dekhein, itni garmi mein bi inki shaaaping nai rukti,” I lightly chuckled, because it was so true.

Reaching the Shrine, I realized that most of the mureeds over there were Shiites. Said my salaam, and left, and the last stop I had to make was to the blue pottery shop where I bought a couple of small delicacies. Continued my work there, and the next day was the more awaited day where my official tour had ended and my own exploration had to begin.

So from there on, it was all on my own. It took me about two and a half hours reaching Bahawalpur from Multan on a rent a car, because the road is a little bit under construction. My father is an ex-army officer, so I had spoken to him and asked if somehow I could secure a room in the army mess, since first, I absolutely love the Cantonment areas because of the clean and isolated environment, which I can’t experience anymore in Karachi, and second, the army messes are quite cost effective. Driving up to my room, I was suddenly full of nostalgia and homely feeling. I spent most of my childhood in different cantonments around Pakistan, and the previous past ten years of my life, I was situated in Malir Cantt Karachi, until last year. Settling in my almost decent room, I took out my diary and started scribbling all the areas I had to see, and writing down all that I had learnt during Multan. Ali Sethi’s Mahi Mera playing on my JBL speaker, I started to nest in my little room. In the evening, I went out for a walk around the Cantt, covering almost two kilometers on foot while taking several photos of the beautiful vicinity, the sunset, the brown leaves on the ground fallen from the tree.

I popped into one of the shops to buy mosquito repellent, and bottle of juice, I walked some more. There were stares, obviously, a girl with an urban sense of clothing walking all alone in the stranded roads, was not something people there were used to. TGIF, Thank God it was Friday. Idk why, but eh. Saw the moon come up, it was a full moon, short of one day. Went back to my room, ordered some food, and ironed my clothes for next day. Plugged in my Netflix & caught up on the latest episode of Riverdale (DON’T JUDGE) and slept.

Next day, I was ready by 9.30, I had hailed a rent a car earlier for the day, which helped me commute. My first stop was the Bahawalpur Central Library. Entering, & finding a Rolls Royce parked at the front to welcome the visitors was just the beginning. Words will fall short if I even begin to explain what the library was like. I am a book sniffer. I buy books, open them, sniff them as if they’re my drugs, and feel euphoric. Entering that library was my Amsterdam where I could just get high anywhere & everywhere. That old smell of books reminded me of the diary my grandma gave me in which she used to scribble things during her youth days. Hell, I really can’t put in words what that place was like. Since picture is worth thousand words, here are some few hundred thousands of words explaining that I possibly can’t.

History. I am a history person, there was so much there, I couldn’t fathom. I search for spaces in Karachi where I could just go sit, and enjoy my vibe while having a cup of tea and reading some novel thoughts of Ashfaq Ahmad, and here it was. This gigantic place where that’s all people were doing. Upon asking the librarian, I got to know that the books here are either donated, or are funded by the government. It’s the second biggest library in the entire province, and the pillars of it are made of daal maash, chaawal, and doodh, this is precisely why it still stands untouched, undamaged. I spotted students sitting outside, hogging over a book discussing some theorem, nostalgia from IBA days filled my mind, sitting in Tabba block, hogging over kitaabs and notes.

Next to the library was the Bahawalpur Museum, which charged about 10 rupees for entrance and 10 rupees more if I wanted to take pictures. As I entered, I see this very tiny vintage Fiat. Upon inquiring, I got to know that Nawab Sadiq used to take his mummy around the palace in this car since she couldn’t walk much. How adorbz, and insanely royal. Mahal ghumanay ke liye alag gaari, wah.

The wall was covered with historical pre partition pictures starting from Tipu Sultan, War of Independence, Siraj ud Daula, Shaukat brothers, and moving all the way till Shaheed-e-Millat was sworn in as the Prime Minister Pakistan. One of the caption of the pictures was hand-written, and so it got me suddenly. I immediately inquired where did these pictures come in from, and I was told that these are all the original pictures. I was shaken up a bit because all this time I had seen these pictures in my history books, but never knew where the original ones rested. Wow, I moved on and saw the ruins of civilizations, left overs of the lifestyles of people of Cholistan and Bahawalpur, ruins from Harappa, Moen Jo Daro, the stupas of Gautama Buddha, the currency of Bahawalpur when it was a separate state, models of Derawar Fort, and so on. Infinite many little things I learnt, that I probably could not have learned from the books. Spending almost 45 minutes at the museum, I came out and next I visited Darbar Mahal.

For Darbaar Mahal, you need to take permission, the perks of Army allowed me to enjoy this facility. As soon as I entered, I saw this not so tall, but nonetheless very royal looking wide handsome palace. I sighed a little and entered with light steps, because I really didn’t want to infiltrate the beauty I was stepping into. Finding large portraitures of Nawab Sadiq and his ancestors, the tour guide told me all about his family, the palace’s history, what, when, why and how it was built. To say the least it was about 200 years old. The architecture infused with Victorian style, Hindu arches, and Muslim Balconies, synonymous to our generation Z; an influenced mix of cultures.

I took my time to explore the beauty of it, while the guide went on to narrate history of Bahawalpur, its formation, its adjoining with Pakistan, and its facilitation to Pakistan Army back in 1950s. Darbar Mahal, now hosts offices of Generals of the Army of the commanding and stationed unit in Bahawalpur, and sometimes hosts events for Corp Commander and so on. Infront of the mahal were the typical diwaan e khaas and diwaan e aam, baramdah for resting and musical events. The darbaaris would also come in with their faryaads there, and they’ll have a hearing session in those facilities. Near the mahal, there were two more mahals, which were named after the wives of the Nawab. Yahan humein ek kagaz ka phool nai milta, my thoughts to my own miserable self. (Self-deprecating humor is my self-defense mechanism)

I also visited Islamia University, Baghdaad campus which was like the first world version of Karachi University. With a radius of 7 km, the university holds about 52 faculties, with a mini zoo in between, some five girls and seven boys hostel, and numerous facilities. I was amazed to see a designated study area for girls which was an open air park with an artificial pond in between, basketball and tennis courts, and outdoor table and benches with lights fixed, so they are also able to study at night. A replica of the same was available for boys. Now, mind you I couldn’t avail these privileges even at a place like IBA. Feeling deprived of such a rich setting in an urban city like Karachi, I went back to my mess to rest for the remainder of the sunny day.

My evening visit had to conclude with Noor Mahal, which was my last stop for the weekend’s exploration tour. Alluringly illuminated, Noor Mahal was open to public, and was bigger than I had imagined. From what I’ve heard, this mahal was a gift to Nawab Sadiq IV’s wife, however she refused to reside there due to its proximity with a graveyard. She only ever spent a night there. After being severely consumed by the architecture of the grandeur, I left the mahal with a heavy heart because I swear I could have just stayed there.

Adding on to that, the realization of heading back to Karachi was sinking in too. I had my dinner at a local restaurant called Four Seasons, and headed back to my mess.

Next day, I spent working on my presentation and in the evening boarded flight back to Karachi from Bahawalpur airport, which by the way was like a mini hospital in Karachi. Sitting in an ATR plane was my first of experiences since I have usually flown in 777 or 707 Boeings, usual flights of Karachi, but this was like a tiny plane. Being the only woman in the entire plane, and sitting between two uncles adjacent to me, and one on each side, I could not have imagined myself being in a more uncomfortable place ever. Experience, I sighed, for these little things are what makes me bold enough to do all these wild adventures on my own.

I finished off my book on Rumi’s teachings, and just waited to touch down Karachi. Getting on to the Drigh Road from Airport, I got stuck for some 40 minutes because of the traffic. Yup, I was back in my city and its hustle bustle, but this time with a lifetime worth of memories!

#recklesswander #rehnaward #WhenInPunjab #bahawalpur #richpakistan #historyfanatic #travelblack

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corgichemist-blog · 6 years

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Warsaw 36-40/62

The past weekend was full of action and too early mornings. I had three visitors, one of which did not speak any English. So lots of practice on translating. I also felt sorry for my Polish friends who always have to translate everything to me.

On Saturday, we visited the History of Polish Jews museum. I had expected an exhibition mostly about the mid-1900′s but the history of Polish Jews dates back a thousand years. And that is where the exhibition begun. Of course we went through the first parts slowly, reading everything carefully, until our feet and backs started to feel the pain of standing and slow walking. We almost ran through the latter half (read: the more interesting half) of the exhibition. After the first exhibition, we had a coffee break, and since one member of our group was already showing signs of frustration and hunger anger, we decided to skip the second exhibition and find a place for dinner.

We decided to walk, since it was quite close to the old town, and the weather was quite nice. A big mistake. Reminded me of the road trip I made with a few friends in May. Finding places to eat is very difficult when other people are not telling what it is they would like to eat and other people are already so hungry they could eat you alive. Same thing happened on Saturday, and eventually we had walked all the way to Nowy Świat and Dawne Smaki, a restaurant serving traditional Polish cuisine where I had already visited twice. This was now my third time in this restaurant, and I even had the same waiter. I can warmly recommend!

On Sunday morning, I was forced to wake up at 8 a.m. and after breakfast we headed to give the squirrels of Łazienki Królewskie some breakfast, as well. We bought a mix of nuts at a 24-hour Express near our bus stop. But those squirrels are picky. I took a random sample of nuts from the bag containing dried raisins, cashew nuts, peanuts, and hazel nuts. The squirrel spent long time in front of my open palm staring at the nuts. She then took the only hazel nut. I offered the next two squirrels the nuts the first squirrel had left behind, but both of them took a quick look and left without taking anything. For the next ones, I added one hazelnut to the selection, and again they took the hazelnut after taking a while to look at my selection.

After our walk in the park, it was time for the next museum. Maria Salomea Skłodowska was born in Warsaw and she spent her childhood living at ulica Freta 16. This is where a museum dedicated to her life and achievements stands today. This is where we headed. The museum was very small, two rooms were full of the glass ware and special equipment she had used in her work, and two rooms contained texts from her diaries and letters, facts about her life and work, and pictures of her life. I am proud to have been able to do research in the country that produced such an extraordinary woman, although, during my visit to the museum I started wondering: if Maria had never met Pierre Curie and married him, would we have ever heard of her?

I had hoped to avoid going to any shopping malls during the weekend due to Black Friday but next I realised that I am standing inside overcrowded Złote Tarasy.

Yesterday, my visitors headed back to Finland. My fifth visit to Chopin airport. My sixth visit will be in six weeks. 2/3 down, 1/3 to go.

Today was business as usual: language troubles in Hale Banacha.

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pour-echapper-a · 7 years

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Dear Parents, It's Time to Let Go

Written by Deborah J. Cohan, Ph.D.

It defin. touched my heart and it doesn’t just apply to college-bound students. It applied to anyone who is growing up, for me in this case at 21 and trying to figure out if I still want to pursue a medical degree in a new state.

“Dear Mom and Dad,

What a weird summer this has been. All this crazy anticipation. All the rushing around to buy stuff and pack stuff. All the June celebrations we had. All the fights and struggles since. The apologies and the smiles. And the lists. Oh the lists.

You’ve gotten me this far. For that, I thank you. Now, let me go. Not in a sink or swim way. But in a way that you’ll show me you want to see me try out this thing called life on my own terms and see what happens. Maybe Buddhist philosophy offers us something here—we need to be not too tight and not too loose. As I loosen my grip on everything that is familiar here at home, please loosen your tendency to want to grip on to the new me that is emerging.

This is my launch, my flight. I may crash but I probably won’t. So please don’t try to live it out for me. Let me move to my edge. To that farthest place where I might really grow and stretch and where my life might shift in extraordinary new ways.

You may hear from me less than you would like, and especially when life is going great. But, try to let me set the pace and tone for how often we text and call. And, oh my gosh, please don’t make surprise visits at college! Don’t be offended if I want to go my friend’s or roommate’s house for one of the upcoming school breaks or if I ask to bring people home to our house. Try to be happy that I have new friends and want you to meet them. So, take an interest in them without being overbearing. You don’t need to go too crazy with care packages either. I hear all about these parents, especially moms, who have gone wild on Pinterest to make and send the best care packages. I don’t want to be babied right now, and while I might long for some creature comforts from home, I don’t want to look ridiculous among my new friends. So, try to do this sparingly. Maybe even save some of the money so if I want to travel abroad or do a cool internship one summer, you can visit me in that new place.

I will likely try out a lot of things in the next few years, some of which you might have tried when you were my age. Some of it will be stupid, or just for the moment, and some may be part of who I am becoming.. If you want a relationship with me for the long haul, accept me and love me anyway. Because of all this and not because of all this. Just love me. Oh, and while I am speaking about unconditional love, please don’t threaten me that you will stop helping me pay for school if I earn a C in some of my classes, or god forbid lower than that in a class. A C is still satisfactory; it’s average. And college might be much more challenging. In fact, I hope it is. It needs to be. I will try my best, I promise. I will seek tutoring if I need it. You can remind me if I haven’t. But please just don’t hold the money over my head with my performance or my choices in friends.

If you think I may be hurting myself or that I might hurt others, then try to talk with me with an open, non-judgmental and listening heart. Better yet, offer me the invitation to seek out professional mental health resources and counseling, medical services to get information on safer sex, birth control, etc. And if you can afford it, please offer to pay for them, without criticism or judgment. Remember that I may not want to talk about all this stuff with you yet I still might know I really am floundering and need help. Let me know that I have this chance anytime, even in the absence of any sort of crisis. Remind me to seek out mentors at school—professors, coaches, counselors, and older student leaders—but don’t feel threatened if and when I follow their advice.

Right now, though, try to stay in the present so I can also. All this talk about move-in day, dorm décor, the right-sized linens, the proper hooks, arranging a box of emergency medicines preemptively for when I will inevitably get sick, meeting my roommate’s parents, and securing Thanksgiving airplane tickets before I have even stepped foot in my first class has me super nervous. So, I have wound up lashing out, yelling, sulking, retreating to my room, scrolling my phone, and procrastinating. I want to believe that all I need I already have. But, when you continually obsess over all this stuff, and most of it really is just stuff, I worry about what I might lack on all levels.

I’m also aware that my leaving means our family will feel different soon. The dinner table will look different, maybe a little lopsided. The house might be a little quieter. It will be a little like something or someone died but if things go the way we hope and plan they will, there will be a sort of rebirth, and this whole college thing will help me to come into myself intellectually, socially, emotionally, politically, and creatively. I am sure I do annoying things that make you want to count down to departure time; but I have a bigger hunch that you worry you will be depressed and anxious and will mourn my absence and walk by my room and cry. Trust me, as you do that, I will walk by the lousy cafeteria choices and long for a home-cooked meal and cry.

But, think about the person I am becoming, the one you might enjoy being with much more than the me now, the one you will soon be able to clink a glass of wine with and say cheers at graduation and the one with whom you will relish in all sorts of interesting conversations for years to come. I hear it all happens so fast. You’re my parent so things might resemble that scene in Father of the Bride where Steve Martin has a million flashbacks to his daughter, Annie’s childhood, the night before her wedding. You’re thrust into thinking of driving me home from the hospital after I was born, my first words, the time I dressed up in your heels at age three and stumbled around, walking me to the bus to go to kindergarten, etc. It’s all flashing before your eyes, and it stings. I get that.

Now, just think: We will make new memories. You can come visit me at college and meet my new friends. Maybe you can even join me at my favorite class and sit in with me if my professor says it’s okay. You can bake quadruple the amount of chocolate chip cookies you usually make and send them at midterms, and I will share them with my floor.

Oh and in the meantime, you can have your life back. The one you probably longed for when I was yanking on your dress in the freezer aisle to buy me popsicles and ice cream sandwiches on one of those dreadfully hot summer days. Or the one you achingly wished for the night after you cleaned up throw-up and drove in circles doing carpools to maneuver all the convoluted scheduling that my activities have required. Or the one you yearned for when you had to chaperone a class trip and it would have been way more fun to spontaneously take a road trip with a friend and dance the night away in a great dive bar.

You know that Dr. Seuss book that I got for graduation, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Well, just think, there could be one for you, Oh, The Life You Can Have Now! So, go—do the things that might make you happy.

And just think, there will be a little less laundry, the last square of toilet paper won’t be used without replacing it, and you can have your sleep back. At least until I come back to visit and want to stay out with my friends till 2am.

You’ll worry about me. I’ll worry about you. About your job since we had those problems back in 2009 after the crash. And I will worry about your marriage because I want you to stay together—but you have to focus on each other more now for that to happen. You really do. And I will worry about your health because I want you around for as long as possible. Even when I have not always acted like it.

You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone. Remember, I will miss you, too. And we will both be okay.”

#family lettinggo

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nigelwenttofrance-blog · 7 years

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That Time I Almost Peed Myself on the Bus

Greetings!

So, last we talked (er, you read? I guess?), we were having our first Tartiflette Tuesday (#funfacts: we haven’t had one since), and throwing probably very cherished childhood toys of my landlords children into the pool because they stare into your soul and scare the absolute crap out of you! What a time we had 😄

Well as promised at the end of the last post, there was indeed yet another trip to the Netherlands with, guess who!, Sarah to visit one of her high school friends who’s studying in a town called Leiden. This trip was especially fun because after buying my train and bus tickets to get there, we were informed that, contrary to what had been said before, there wouldn’t be room enough for me to stay at her friends house, unless I wanted to sleep on the couch... that was in the kitchen.

Activate: panic mode.

It was entirely out of budget to rent an Airbnb or find a hostel (and there surprisingly weren’t any in Leiden anyway), so I decided to tryout Couchsurfing after hearing success stories from a few friends here and there. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically free Airbnb, except you could literally be sleeping on someones couch and people usually only stay for a few days—I definitely didn’t know that last part. After many denials—most likely because I was staying for an entire week, and the week before Christmas—someone said they’d let me stay with them. I tried my best to find one that offered a room or at least a pull out couch, but alas alack, I was unsuccessful in this endeavor. That being said, my host, Christiaan, was incredibly sweet and we got along really well!

The town of Leiden is small and mostly a college town, and, like most European towns/cities/everything, was adorable. Sarah, her friend and I walked around the town and absorbed the Dutch culture and were also very abruptly and rudely reminded that we had become incredibly accustomed to the warm weather that graces the south of France, and consequently almost froze to death in the Netherlands.

I have to say, of all my trips to the Netherlands, this was definitely the chillest one I’ve had. Sarah and I were counting our pennies and only went to Amsterdam twice to avoid having to pay the train fare. Looking back, I guess I’m surprised I didn’t try to go more often, but at the same time, it was entirely too cold to be meandering around somewhere that’s also just FULL of tourists. #pass. We of course enjoyed ourselves when we did go, though. She took me to a place called the Foodhallen, which was basically like a food court you find at the mall, except the only shopping to be done was for food of literally any cuisine. French, Italian, tapas, Chinese, Japanese, you name it, they had it. And let me tell y’all, trying to pinch pennies at this place just SO DIFFICULT. Sarah and I wandered around for a while trying to decide what to eat before we realized we would literally eat at any of the places there, and when we did finally get food and sit down to eat it, it was just...so so so so so good. Painfully good, even. But anyway, when we weren’t stuffing our faces full of food in Amsterdam, we spent most of the time either wandering around Leiden, sleeping or just sitting and doing nothing. All things that make up an ideal vacation if I do say so myself.

To shake things up, though, I made a trip to Rotterdam to visit some friends I had made over the summer while I was working with the Experiment Abroad. It was absolutely amazing to see my friends again, and even better, I was asked to be apart of their gay youth center’s—The Hangout010—drag show. It was, of course, a blast! Beyond making Christiaan think some random woman had broken into his apartment and making heads turn left and right as I walked to and from the train stations in full drag face, it was so much fun to be in such a welcoming and accepting community. Not that Nîmes is homophobic or anything of the sort, but to be somewhere where I knew the things I loved were loved by everyone around me was so comforting. For the drag show, I did my own rendition Aretha Franklin’s rendition of “Don’t Play That Song,” and I think it went pretty well! Fingers crossed for more Aevyn appearances in the future!

So after a week or so, I headed back to Nîmes while Sarah stayed with her friend for another week or so. Overall, I’d say it was a fun trip! The only potential downfall was that Christiaan, being Dutch, was much more acclimated to the cold weather, and therefore left his apartment just a little...frigid. But then again, I guess it made it much easier to deal with the cold weather when I went outside. #giveandtake

Also worth noting about this trip to the Netherlands, in true Nigel fashion, I quite literally nearly peed myself on the bus from Paris to Amsterdam as I was daydreaming while looking out the window. Somehow, I was so lost in my thoughts that I failed to notice we had been driving along side the TGV line for about 20 minutes. So, when the TGV went flying by, I just had not mentally prepared at all and very audibly gasped, much to the surprise of the person sitting in front of me... oops. But of course that memory will be forever burned into my memory 😍 #triphighlights

Anyway, after spending about 10 hours at home, I got on another train to meet the family in Nice! I was really excited for this trip because it was the first time a lot of my family had ever been to France, and for a couple, their first time to Europe! What I hadn’t thought of, however, was the fact that not one of them speaks French (not including you, Mom, you’re a francophone in training), so my translation services were constantly being called upon. While mildly irritating, it did feel nice to show my family a part of my life that they’ve never really seen before and to show them a new culture!

When I got there on Christmas day, I was met by my brother, his fiancée, my sister and her husband, and all SEVEN of their bags. Yes, they literally had 7 bags between the 4 of them. 3 of which belonged to my sister and brother-in-law alone, and took up all the space in the trunk. As well as being hilarious, it was also very comforting to see that my sister and I are still very much alike even as we get older 😂 .

Anyway, the first day of my family’s arrival was of course burden by jet lag, so Justin and Jess—the “Js” who had been living in Ireland—and I went into to town and ended up having an absolutely perfect day. There was not a cloud in the sky and the French Riviera blessed us with almost 70º weather. I was not mad about it, y’all. We walked around Vieux Nice (Old Nice) and saw the gorgeous views and parks on top of Castle Hill, sat on the rocky beach and soaked up the sunshine and perfectness, sat on a balcony at a restaurant along the Promenade des Anglais and had tapas for lunch and then rode bikes along the promenade to see the sunset, which, lemme tell ya, the French Riviera is just killing the game in terms of sunsets. Does that just not sound like the most absolutely perfect day?! It was just so ideal.

Otherwise, day trips included going to Monaco for my sisters bday which was a lot of fun and then Toulon for my bday the next day, which was kind of a bust because there’s nothing to do in Toulon, specially during the off season! But upon reflection, I decided I’d count my day with the Js (cute nickname, right?!) as my actual birthday for 2016 😂 . We ended up having a chill New Years since we couldn’t really find anywhere/be bothered to leave. We made a scrumptious dinner, drank heartily and brought in the new year with lots of love, happiness and wine! Overall, it was a very successful trip!

Fun things worth noting about Nice: my family is apparently not the best at determining how much food we need for a week, and so when it was time to leave, the fridge in the Airbnb was literally packed with food. It seemed like a problem, but it actually ended up being great for me because it meant I wouldn’t have to go grocery shopping when I got back! Woo! And even better, my parents had to drive me back to Nîmes so I didn’t look like an absolute fool trying to take all this food on the train, and they got to see my place and the town. That was surprisingly especially nice because my dad loved to see a French town that wasn’t infiltrated with tourists and tourist traps, but rather just French culture.

Also worth noting about the Nice trip (ha, see what I did there? 🙃 ) was its roads, and how the cars we rented were just entirely too big for the extremely narrow, two-way French streets. It may not seem like too big of a deal, but put it to you this way: my dad taught all three of his kids to drive (including others peoples kids, apparently!) and he learned to drive in Jamaica, on a stick shift, where they drive on the right side of the road. So like, he’s a pro, and even he was freaking out about it, with hands firmly planted at ten and two at all times. Even funnier was when both of our GPSs took us to a road that was supposed to take us into town, but instead took us to a dirt road that went off a cliff, multiple times.😂

Well that’s it for this years Christmas and bday vacation! All in all, I’d call it a very successful two weeks! Life has already gotten back to the usual flow here in Nîmes with teaching, tutoring and, of course, the everlasting search for post-TAPIF employment 🙄 . This past weekend, my housemates and I celebrated my and our friend Alec’s birthdays! That ended up being, aside from some *drama*, very successful! A lot of people ended up coming and we danced and drank the night away! #happybdaytome

As always, I love sharing these stories with y’all and am so thankful to those who make it to the end! Next up is a trip to Berlin and Hamburg (TO SEE THE WORLDS LARGEST MODEL RAILROAD *hyperventilates*) on my first solo travel trip, and probably some other fun stuff if I can afford it! Woo!

Until next time, and thanks for reading! :)

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