York and The Return to America

Before I dive into the last blog of our UK adventures, I have to give crazy mad props to the awesome people that helped make my year and a half in London be so awesome.  First off, I have to thank my extended family up in Huddersfield for letting me crash with them until I found a job!  Which luckily for my bank account only took a week.

When I finally moved down to London, I only had two weeks to find a place, and somehow wound up making friends for life through a Gumtree "roommate wanted" ad! I mean who else would have joined me for a spontaneous overnight bus trip to Paris?  Or would constantly feed me and show me around London?  Or secretly try to replace me with another Asian after I moved out (Though I'm not sure she was as pretty, or loved appletinis as much). And it was a ghost dangit, I never cried. Especially after watching Love Actually.  It was definitely a ghost!   Bee and Paolo, you two are legends!

To my travel friends Ginni, Anna, and Sharon for randomly meeting up with me and introducing me to new places and new friends. To Stine for showing me the Little Mermaid statue of Copenhagen and introducing me to Smørrebrød  To my boy Peppe!  From living in hostels, to giggling in Gili T, to playing pool with Thai hookers, to crashing a moped, to having no idea what happened that New Year's Eve or why we were covered in body paint, to both ending up in London... Life is too crazy dude, I wish we could have hung out more whilst I was there.  To Cathy and Bob, for inviting us up for our Rushden weekends!  To James and Jules for joining us on our little camping adventure, complete with S'mores!  And for hosting us when we had to make our final flights back to America... And for being so nice to us all of the time! To John for constantly getting drunk with me and introducing me to Gelupo's Gelato!  And for being so god damn handsome.  To Chloe for introducing us to all the best places to eat in London and demanding I wear 'The Suit' to her wedding!

To the softball team for letting me be part of the group once I started dating Sarah.  Although Sunny was probably a little too friendly... And he was always going on about how much he loved Neal's nuts, I just don't know what all that was about...  To Ian, James and Julin - You guys saved us.  If you didn't let us stay with you for those final two months, I don't know what we would have done. I would have had to re-open GigaLowe Inc. and sell my body in the night again.  Though, to be fair, I did give you my family recipe for Seantonio noodles, so even stevens.  And lastly - to my boys at work: Rambo, Manimal aka Mr. Mantastic aka Mantasia aka the Man of my Mantasies, Abs, Slutty Steve, and Captain Phillips.  I have five brothers in the US, but as far as I'm concerned, you guys are complete ass holes.  I never would have survived without you guys, you're family.  And Man, I'm sorry you ended up in the ED the night I left, for symptoms that could only be attributed to a broken heart... Or a rufie from Ram.  There's really no way to know... Until he confesses.  But anyways, to everyone listed and to those I forgot, thanks for making my UK adventure one to remember :)

And now that my rare bout of thankfulness and gratitude is over...on to York!

One of the coolest parts of York - there is still a castle wall that still surrounds most of the city center.

We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it.  Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it.  On and on and on we are calling out, out again.  Never looking down, I'm just in awe of what's in front of me...

Coming here was the last time we got to use our English Heritage passes!  Well worth the cost if you're into history and/or like to wander.

Technically our trip to Budapest/Lisbon was Sarah's Bday/Our Anniversary gift, but for her last weekend in the country, we figured we might as well take a cheeky last trip.  Ergo, we headed to Kings Cross one last time, so I could hop on a train that, once again, disappointingly I might add, did not leave from Platform 9 3/4... I mean J.K Rolwing literally based a character off of me.  Do you really think she came up with Seanold Weasley on her own?  You think the long, luxurious hair is just a coincidence? The hot girlfriend? The incredible skill at Wizard's Chess ( I mean, I'm Asian people).  And that's not even beginning to mention what I can do with my wand... (Don't worry if you've begun to feel titillated, it's just one of the many side effects of reading my blog).

York is kind of the atypical English city that I always imagined in my head.  It is filled with tons of little shops, big open squares, street performers, aspiring artists, pubs, a huge cathedral, and some random ruins.  I think England gets a lot prettier as you travel North, and once you hit Scotland, it's downright amazing.  If I ever move back to the UK, I would definitely live outside the hustle and bustle of London.  The nice thing about going to a place like York, is that you don't really need a plan and can see everything in a day or two.  So we wandered about, ate Indian food one last time, and randomly stumbled upon a train museum, which was actually really cool!

Fun Fact for HP nerds... This area, with all the buildings jutting out, is called The Shambles.  It is believed to be J.K. Rowling's inspiration for Diagon Alley! Accio Seantonio!

I'm going to miss all the old buildings in Europe.  The oldest building in Kansas City was constructed in 1850... Practically a spring chicken compared to this thing.

This owl does not look like he's having a hoot

Ahhh the good old days, when only rich people could ride the train.  It's good being better than everyone else.

After leaving York, we spent one last night in Huddersfield, so I could see my cousin, aunt and uncle one last time before coming home.  And Sarah forced me to get a haircut as a birthday gift, whilst she went out to lunch with her friends!  Uncool.  The missus flew back home a few days after we got back from York, whilst I had to wait another month, but luckily I was able to get back home before Thanksgiving and see some of my siblings!  Moving continents is always crazy, but luckily my mom was able to put us up whilst we house hunted!

We are pretty awful at the whole not traveling thing, so before we knew it we were already off to Connecticut to spend Christmas with Sarah's family.  We even took a trip into New York City on Christmas day!  Sarah's sister, Candice, and her boyfriend Eric, also came to visit us the following weekend to celebrate New Year's, so moving back definitely didn't put a damper on the chaos maelstrom that is our lives...And things were only going to get crazier as we hunted for our first house, but that's a story for another blog....

Random GoPros

York Minster in all it's GoPro glory

Apparently putting a super creepy baby doll in the train makes for a better exhibition.

You might sail across the sea, set up camp beneath this tree. Or climb a mountain, spend your time in heavenly surroundings watching down.  And my heart keeps beating and I'm still dreaming of me and you, me and you.  Well my heart keeps beating and I'm still dreaming of you...

 Sarah and Sean's Sensational Stockpile of Snappy Snaps

I walked accross an empty land, I knew the pathway like the back of my hand.  I felt the earth beneath my feet, sat by the river and it made me complete.  And if you have a minute, why don't we go somewhere only we know. Somewhere only we know...

Go home into your blue jeans, have some chicken and some baked beans.  Pick a backyard football team and not do much of anything.  That's what I love about Sundays...

I miss Costa!  It's completely ruined Starbucks for me.  Don't even get me started on a cheeky Nando's....

And all the things we did still fill me up with butterflies.  Cus I still flatter, I still shine, whenever I remember your sweet smile.  My heart keeps beating and I'm still dreaming of me and you, me and you. Well my heart keeps beating and I'm still dreaming of you...

Maui

My sister Leslee told me that Maui was way cooler than Oahu, so I decided to split up my Hawaii trip by doing five days on each island.  I caught a flight on Island Air for $93 and was there in under 45 minutes, I definitely recommend them, the pilot even acted as a tour guide.  Upon arriving I was reintroduced to American cabs and the tipping process again. $25 for a three mile cab ride.  It's criminal.  I happened to arrive on the first Friday of the month, so there was a mini festival set up on the main drag of the city I stayed in.  Steak and salmon tacos, open faced pork belly buns... Most restaurants have nothing on a good night market. 

The hostel I picked was by far the most expensive of my trip at $40/night, but they did offer free tours, which helped ease the pain.  I arrived just in time for the longest hike that they offer, a 12 trek through an extinct volcano called Haleakala.  The hike ends with a drive to the top of a mountain (10,000 feet) to watch the sun setting above the clouds.  It was pretty easy since 2/3 of it was flat or downhill, with only the final third requiring us to walk at an incline.  I can definitely see why people come to Hawaii from the mainland and never return.  This place is paradise.  

You are young darling.  For now, but not for long....

This place doesn't even seem like Earth, it's like walking around Mars.

I wanna kiss you and knock em down like we used to, you're the marigold.  You're an angel in the pit with her hands in the air and you rock on baby, rock on, you rock on.  You're a summertime hottie with her socks in the air.  You're screaming I don't care, baby I don't care, no!!!

You wonder, oh how do I inspire?  Got the world spinning round inside my palm.  Don't hate me, you know they got you wired.  You better short circuit, be your own program.  Cus we all wanna dance, just wanna dance, dance, we wanna dance.  With me y'all wanna dance.

I have the IQ of a caveman and the voice of Gollum, so this seemed like an ideal spot for me

I will reign from these clouds, for the world is my playground and you are all my minions.  Bwahahaha, puny humans.

The capacity is limited for each day's tour, so by the time we got back, all the spots for Sunday were full.  Thus I ended up having a lazy day, which began with a failed attempt to run a mile, which in all fairness is 64,560 inches.  No human being can run that far.  However, after walking the better part of 50,000 of those inches and spending three hours recovering from the exertion, I found the motivation to hike up to a local waterfall with a French Canadian girl, Josie.  Afterwards we hit up the grocery store so we could make some dinner and then spent the night drinking with the rest of our hostel mates.  There were no bars nearby, so we were confined to getting beer from the closest convenient store and drinking on the patio.  

My next day was even more lazy as I skipped the tour to make sure I could sign up for Tuesday's tour, "The Road to Hana", which is supposedly one of the most beautiful drives in the entire world.  It's pretty awesome to be devoid of any potential, as I can waste away and no one judges me.  When Tuesday finally arrived, I was joined on the tour by my roommates: Francisco from Chile, Tony from Washington D.C., and Sergei from Ukraine.  The road is only 42 miles long, but it contains 54 bridges and over 600 turns.  In other words, though the distance is short, the drive takes a really long time.  Luckily for us, the landscape of Maui is gorgeous, so there were plenty of places to stop along the way.

All by myself, all by myself.  I can lift a car up all by myself.  All by myself, all by myself.  I can lift a car up all by myself!!! Did ya, did ya, did you know that I can lift a car up all by myself?  Well no misunderstanding, I'm not saying that you can't... I can lift a car up all by myself!

I'm so excited I haven't spoke yet.  And she's so pretty and she's so sure, but maybe I'm more clever than a girl like her.  Summer's all in bloom, Summer's ending soon...

The drive is also famous for it's food stops, namely the banana bread stands (There's always money in the banana stand).  However, I must admit that I wasn't impressed.  I mean, where were the walnuts, I don't want plain banana bread.  If I want bland food, I'll go to England...or my mom's house.  Ooooo, that's what's known as a Lowe blow.  IN YOUR FACE MOM! #facepalm.  Whilst the food was average, the scenery was incredible. Maui even has Rainbow Eucalyptus trees, whose bark is quite literally the colors of the rainbow.  Seriously, google it.  Fascinating.  

Our first stop was a cave with an annex that could only be reached by going underwater and squeezing through some rocks....in the dark.  It sounds more extreme than it was, but if you're afraid of the dark (Canadians) or claustrophobic, it's probably not for you.  A French girl kept holding onto me while we were waiting for our guide to help everyone get through the passage.  Of course I think we all know it wasn't because it was dark or because she couldn't stay afloat on her own, I think we all know it's because she wanted me.  I mean have you seen the way I look in a dark cave?  You get all the benefits of my body, without the horror of seeing my face.  I'm not sure if it's my perfectly sculpted latissimus dorsi, my deformed ankles, or the scent of my belly button fungus, but the ladies can't resist me.  Well, I mean once she saw me in daylight she ran off screaming, but let's not focus on that...  

After the cave we ventured out to a few beaches and waterfalls before making our way to a place called the Venus pools to do some cliff jumping! The final adrenaline pumping activity of this trip, it was perfect.  Our last destination was a red sand beach in Hana, marking the end of the road!  I actually don't recall going a red beach before this one...Even after a year of travelling, there's always more to see :).

Now that I'm back in the states  I've been thinking about different businesses to create.  So far my best idea is the Brokini.  I will be the founder, CEO, and runway model.    You haven't lived until you've seen me in a two piece.... or a onesie

You got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere.  Maybe we can make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere.

I've searched for many mystical creatures on this journey, but the smoke monster has proven one of the most elusive... Regardless, I've got this island on Locke down...No idea what I'm talking about?  Then you don't know Jack. You should get LOST.

The next morning, I finally had to say goodbye to the backpacker life, as I made my way back to the mainland.  I decided to spend a few weeks in Los Angeles with my brothers before making the journey back to Kansas City.  And so my adventure comes to an end...for now :).

If you've taken away nothing else from my blog,  I hope you've come away feeling more educated and/or have discovered a new found respect for women.  Those are the two things that this blog has been trying to promote.

I have no idea what the future holds, but to be honest, I don't care.  I don't even know what continent(s) I'll be on next year!  I guess when I figure that out... Well that will be a story for another blog...


Random GoPros

One year of no responsibility, one year without having to be smart or relied upon.  It's pretty selfish, but I loved that about this year... I was free

My hair looks atrocious in this photo, but at least no one is comparing me to Bieber or the dudes from One Direction anymore.  It's not my fault I'm so damn pretty.

When I was seven, Bryn and I completed our first science experiment.  Our hypothesis?  If big bro farted into one end of a hollow tube, with the other end of the tube pressed against my bum, the fart would be sent into my body.  Did it work?  OF COURSE IT WORKED!!!  Can you smell that?  That's what victory smells like.

Swimming with the locals...I might have peed in the pool... I always pee in the pool

You're still thinking about that fart experiment aren't you?  Weirdo.

I tried to get a badass photo of a wave crashing around me, but instead it looks like I'm receiving an enema

I look like an anorexic version of Inspector Gadget....#ScrawnySeanie :'(

There's no better way to enter the ocean than jumping from a cliff

To anyone who is unhappy with their life and is constantly wishing for something better: Go for it.  Maybe you don't need to travel for a year like I did, but you deserve to be happy.  So roll the dice or take a chance on yourself.  Because for all the money you can make, you'll never be able to create more time.  Make the most of it, for time is the coin of the realm and you'll never know if your tollbooth is up ahead