Something Old, Something New

Frequently, I think up a phrase or really good word or, I don't know, a whole paragraph's description of something and don't have a pen on me. Or paper. So, into my phone they go.

I try to delete it out of there once it's been used.

Today I found an email that I had kept for reference.
I liked it.
So I'll share it because it's encouraging, especially since lately I've been feeling a little lonely. It's amazing. I have friends all over the world but just not one in my state. Funny how our own words can encourage us more than other people's.

Last year in February, a professor of mine sent me an email asking several questions about how I am. It took me about a month to respond. And this is what I said:

"I have indeed found my rhythm. It turns out, we're all kinda lonely. And when you realize that, it's not so hard to find your boldness. I've deepened two of my four friendships from last semester and befriended three of my four coursemates. We hang out now, get coffee, make plans to have weekend getaways and horseback riding days. I can't tell you how many times (I could, actually. It's five) I've heard another person here say the phrase, 'I've found it really difficult to make friends here and am often alone' in the past month and a half. It's crazy how similar so many of us are without realizing it. And yet, we all assume we're the only ones.
I'm able to enjoy my classes more now, am doing less of the actual homework (wow, what? Prioritizing relationships over tasks? Me?!), am giving some serious thought to sending out a couple papers for publishing, and do a lot of baking. They love my baking and apparently, Americans are known for loving (and rocking at) baking. Who knew?!
The Lord is good. What I have experienced since being back could be described as nothing short of a supernatural miracle in teh social sphere. Could never have anticipated or even asked for hte level of grace and favor and love and even "like" I have been given. Wow.
In the past week, I've had three different people, whose last Jamie sighting was December, see me and kind of wig out about how different I look, how alive I look. One Irish lady shock me hard and told me about my exuding 'vim'. Haha. It was so cute. I blogged about it. And the thing is, I feel alive. I wasn't ready to come back. I was a little better, but I was still rocked to my core. Now, though, I could not feel more separated. There wasn't a sudden moment of change; it was gradual, but I am alive. Very. And very passionately. And very thankfully.
So that's my very long and probably very ungrammatical answer. I am well. Praise Jesus."

Culture shock, man. It really does take about half a year to start feeling at home, at peace, and get some gumption to go get 'em.
And when you forget that, it's easy to be discouraged.

I'm starting to finally feel settled enough to think again.
I'm reading, I'm forcing myself to journal a bit each night, the fog in my head is starting to clear up.

Even things at work seem to be getting better.

The reception I hosted in Texas last week was well attended, and the board of trustees seemed to have a really good time bonding with my wonderful, wonderful Texan students.

And, in a couple weeks, school counselors from all over the states will come to our school for an event, and over half are mine. There are even some new ones that have never come to our event before. I'm so excited.

Finally, I learned yesterday that a chunk of the Trifecta is coming back to me.
My six best friends are scattered across the globe. Just...so far away. Colorado, Oklahoma, Australia, Washington DC, Scotland, Northern Ireland.

And, after a job offer to her husband yesterday, my Caity Ruth is moving back to Tulsa. Still an Oklahoma away, but an hour and a half closer than where she is now, and that's where my family is located.

The past few years have been hard for us. It's just difficult to keep someone your best friend when, I mean, they aren't there in a literal way. You aren't doing life with them on the daily. I feel like I'm getting my best friend back. That is a really good feeling.

Snapshots Sans Snapshots

Family Christmas: 

Joey, Cristin, and their two not-so-wee ones Harrison and Gianna finally, finally made it back to Tulsa from their new home in Georgia to spend a few days. 

Therefore, family Christmas!! That means, tons of children (and Jacob) running about crazy, just so excited to have some cousin time. We ex-kid table-ers were pretty excited about it, too. :) 

I've never been a huge fan of children. They're loud, they have altogether too much energy, they're easy to step on, and they're sticky. HOWEVER, nieces and nephews seem to slip right on past that rule. 

There are few sounds more precious than hearing my nieces or nephew (Sam can't talk yet) yell "Aunt Jamie!", or any form of that. 

And I get the great honor and privilege of filling their heads with complete nonsense. I love them. Even if I don't necessarily spend tons of time with them in town, just knowing that they are near is comforting. When I leave, I always hurt to know that there are whole tracts of their lives I will miss. Shoot, Harrison and Gianna are giants compared to when I saw them last. 

But then we're all back together, and all is well. 

Trifecta Christmas:  

I guess we're officially adults now because no selfies were taken whatsoever.

On the other hand, we did put together a puzzle made from one of our particularly favorite selfies thanks to Hayhay.

The evening was spent as it darn well should. Food, friendship, and ice cream on the kitchen floor. 

We're rather simple in our fun-having with one another, but I think that's how it should be. We don't require diversion to be totally satisfied in the presence of each other. We may require Rocky Road and the occasional cocktail, but those are just perks. 

I'm always pleasantly surprised and thankful at the way our friendship has flexed, adjusted, and grown over the past five years. We've made it through breakdowns, boyfriends, cross-country and cross-cultural moves, and all sorts of in-betweens. 

None of us really understand how or why we work together, but we appreciate the fact that we do. We make for a good team, the three of us (and occasionally the lovely Kira).  

"I'm Just a Girl Who Can't SayNo": 

I personally struggle with boundaries. I say yes to just about everything, so long as it isn't destructive or dangerous. Or a practical joke, because those suckers just escalate, and ain't no way I want to be in that cross-fire. You're on your own. 

If I don't have a really, really good reason (or a superior good reason to their good reason) I can't help but say yes because I know if I were in the other person's position, I would want them to say yes to me. 

That's how I ended up judging a high school debate tournament yesterday, yet again. 

Don't get me wrong at all! I love debate. It’s like fencing: calculated, classy, and intelligent.

I've judged tournaments every year since I graduated, upon request. It's interesting, I learn things, and it gives me an opportunity to provide constructive feedback. 

However, with only a few days left in the country, I wasn't exactly thrilled to be asked. 

Nevertheless, I came. 

THIS TIME, though, I set boundaries! I said I'd stay till 8. I did. Then, when they handed me new judging ballots (for a round to which I had not agreed), I said no politely and went on my merry way to watch Snow White with my niece and nephew. 

Then, (I was on a roll, I tell ya), I said no to suggested Saturday social plans. I didn't have alternative plans, I just didn't want to go. And that is what I said, nicely.

Day Date

I spent the entirety of yesterday with prong two of the Trifecta: Caity Ruth (Kullen) Roberts. Try saying that five times fast.

At long last, we found a slot of time between her married life and busy schedule and my unmarried life and apparent inability to accomplish the one goal which would enable me to go and see her (paper writing...I finished, by the way! Only edits and online submission stand between me and freedom now). 

The day started with coffee, as it should. We sat and chatted for I don't know how long in my living room, Cubby ever watchful. 

Then, after what seemed like an endless struggle against mutual indecisiveness, we headed on down to Brookside. It's this super trendy part of town with restaurants, coffee shops, and shops with stuff that are super cool, but you can't help but wonder who the heck buys from them. 

In Brookside, we split lunch and had high-five one of three for the day. When you share food and end up with the perfect amount, you need to high-five. There's an unspoken law. 

Shades of Lame came next. It's actually called Shades of Brown, but my camp friend Annie Paige always used to refer to it as Shades of Lame, and I've never been able to rewrite it back to the original in my mind. 

Probably because I think it's a definite shade of lame. It's like if a hipster were on hipster steroids. Except that it's so hipster, it's not even hipster anymore. It's just kind of uppity and I feel judged when I go in. Because they are, in fact, judging me. 

But Caity likes it, and anything with Caity is fun. So, we drank an eggnog latte and a brown sugar latte and talked and talked (so sorry to fellow coffee goers). On the list of subjects were people we went to high school with, how everyone we've ever met seems to be getting engaged, Joel Osteen, books we're reading or want to read, and how creepy the guy across from us was. 

Seriously, he was either tripping or had some sort of serious social dysfunction, but this guy across from us just sat there, blatantly staring, grinning, shaking his head, grunting or chuckling in response to our conversation, and giving us thumbs-ups. 

Then he'd leave. 

Then he'd come back. 

In the end, we left and went on a quest to find little HayHay a Christmas present (SHE'S CURRENTLY ON A PLANE HOME TO US OHMYGOSH). 

Mostly it just ended in us feeling really bad for the overly friendly store owners. "Well, she doesn't wear jewelry, she doesn't like trinkets, she doesn't do a whole lot of recreational reading, she lives in China, so it has to be small, no, still no trinkets"...etc. 

Usually, to find her a present, we just have to wander around stores until the muse reveals the correct gift. It's a serious struggle. Thus, the reason I didn't come up with anything to give her from NI. 

Caity, on the other hand, has a veritable stash in my closet. She's the easiest person for me to find gifts for. 

The rest of the evening was a blur of more chatting, searching, food, and ice cream on the kitchen floor. 

The best purchase (only purchase) of the day was a bowl shaped like a lettuce leaf. Since my freshman year of college, I've kind of been amassing ceramic cups, plates, bowls in the shape of fruits and vegetables. Not like have pictures of fruits or veggies, they actually look like they're made of them. 

I have a plumb cup, an apple cup, an asparagus cup, a lettuce bowl, and I used to have three more cups made of carrots, cabbage, and corn, respectively, but I have since given those away.  Jansie hates them. I think they're great. 

It was great, having Caity back. I'm never worried about our friendship, but it's such a pleasure to interact in-person instead of Skyping. 

I guess we sort of take each other for granted in that way, but it's a good way. We can move apart, make new friends, and alter the make-up of our everyday lives, but I always know she'll answer her phone if I need her to think up a word for me and she knows I'll always edit her writing. 

We'll forever share inside jokes, books, and our life stories. She's my best friend, what can I say? 

The Makings Of

Today is my twenty-second birthday.
Old, but I'm not that old. 
This is also the first birthday that I've actually truly felt ready to be the age I'm turning. I remember driving around Tulsa on the eve of my twentieth in an absolute panic, not ready to leave my teenage years.

For this birthday post, I'm going to drive you on a brief tour through the past six birthdays. Each section heading is the name of a mix CD my best friend Caity made for me on every birthday. Also, it should be noted that since I'm a student, the years are counted by grade.

Dance Like You're 18

It's senior year of high school, characterized by determination.
I was out to stick it to the world. Who I was was what I was involved in or achieved:
-Student Council Chaplain
-Worship team leader
-Debate team
-Winter Guard captain
-Swim team member
-Bowling team captain
-National Honor Society
-National French Honor Society
-French Club vice president
-Salutatorian (co-salutatorian with Fran Brower. Our speech at graduation was absolutely so fun).
Traveled to:
-Colorado with the senior class
-Chicago with AP Biology and AP Art
Notables:
-Acquired the friendship of a Miss Caity Kullen (Roberts) and, with Haley Vogt, formed the Trifecta.
-Gained an entire friend group due to a popular girl deciding I was "hott" one day.
-Niece Gianna Aloisio born to brother Joey and wife Cristin
-Brother Jacob married to now wife Allison
"My People":
Haley Vogt
Caity Kullen
Dehra McGuire
John Brothers
Taylor Pride
Will Watkins
That Summer, I lifeguarded and taught the Naval Art of War (canoeing) at New Life Ranch and got my nose pierced.
19: Eat your feelings. Boyfriend forgot the birthday. 

Welcome to my Freshman year of college!
The first semester was an absolute dream. Everybody's first semester of college should be like mine.
Timeline:
-Tried out for a play for a joke. Scored one of six parts. Annelle in Steel Magnolias. 
-Had a super tight friend group of artsy type folks. Spontaneous dancing, singing in trees, and group adventuring was a must.
-First boyfriend. Fell in love--hard.
-Spontaneously traveled to Chicago with a carfull of friends.
-Eating disorder hit highest point of unhealthy.
-Best friend literally lost her mind. Was thousands of miles separated from her.
-Boyfriend shattered my heart.

-Lost entire friend group. The ex got custody, apparently.
-Fell in love with Jesus--hard--in an absolute, final way.
-Delivered completely and instantly from eating disorder.
-Joined a band with friend Jordan Weeks.
-Presented a paper at a regional academic conference.
-Reconnected with camp best friend Kira.
-Restoration of best friend's sanity. Thank you, Jesus.
Spent the summer in Tulsa with Kira and Haley. Lifeguarded at the Jewish Community Center. Together, we created Monday Game Night. Everybody the three of us collectively knew in Tulsa came. It was a blast.
My People:
Matt Tintera
Abby Fennema
Allison Harper (roommate)
Peter Myers
Adam Howard
[the mass rest of the "granola poser" friendgroup]
Trifecta & Kira

20 Years Young
Made it! Helloooooo junemore year! (I combined sophomore and junior year)

This was a year characterized by dryness and slow growth. Not a good year, not a bad year. Just kind of...existent.
I was an orientation leader with Drew Duffy and also an Honors Orientation Leader of six blonde girls.
That, actually, was truly significant. I continued to mentor one of those girls throughout the remainder of my time at JBU.

Got a job working as a content developer for Creative Content Experts.
During Spring Break, I went to Jackson, Mississippi for a week long missions team thing and dug a trench.
Gained niece Libby Rose, born to brother Jon and wife Emily.
I presented my favorite college paper at a regional academic conference (the sacramental theology of spit)
This was also the year of my...boycott. It's exactly what it sounds like. I didn't do it legalistically or as a rule, there were just a lot of instances which occurred the second half of my Freshman year/summer that really put me off to any form of interaction with guys.
That summer I traveled to Northern Ireland with the Family and Human Services team. Fell in love with the country and culture. The rest of the summer, I interned for Tate Publishing. Among other things, I actually got to be both the ghost editor and "back matter" writer for a whole book. 
My people:
Lauren Ware (roommate)
Laura Parker (first semester)
Abby Chestnut (second semester transfer)
Anna Jackson (a reconnection from camp years)
Tracy Balzer (mentor)
Trifecta and Kira

Young and Wild and 21
Senior year was characterized by deep satisfaction and fountains of happiness and joy.
Sure, there were struggles and anxieties and I was really busy most of the time, but it was very near perfect.

-Orientation leader with Steve Sullivant.
-Class mentor for a Freshman Orientation Harry Potter course
-Spoke in chapel.
-Fell in love again, different than the first time.
 -Began mentoring another girl in addition to my H/O blonde.
-Taught Sunday School
-Played a pink panther and an assassin in another JBU production
-Wrote for the Threefold Advocate student newspaper
-Traveled to Chicago again for a weekend "immersion" trip.
-Lived in an intercultural townhouse. Abby and I found them on the eaglenet classifieds. It was amazing. A vanilla latte dream of latina/gringa goodness.
-Best friend Kira engaged to Tyler, best friend Caity engaged to Greg, niece Ella born to brother Jacob and wife Allison.
-Was accepted to Denver Seminary and Queen's University, Belfast.
-Spring Break Missions in New Orleans. Learned how to insulate a house.
-Wrote two books: WaterWorks and Woodsy
-Presented work at a national academic conference in Wisconsin.
-Placed 4th in a national writing contest for a paper on homelessness. 
-Graduated John Brown  University
-Cut off 9 inches of my hair.
The summer was spent in two parts. The first, I waitressed at Ted's Cafe Escondido. It was great learning experience, but I was unable to continue. The second, I worked with  my father at Iron Cross Automotive. Loved it. On the weekends, though, I trekked up to Siloam Springs and got loved on by my best friends. It was perfect. The best year of my life. No regrets.

My people:
Noah Baslé
Abby Chestnut (roommate)
The Perch (housemates)
Madison Stewart
Becca Ridings (Irish studies roommate)
Leslie Lancaster (Irish studies roommate)
Kristina Grimes Pugatch (cousin)
Steve Sullivant
Daniel Williams
Andrew Layden
Peter Myers
Adam Howard
Trifecta and Kira
Anna
Tracy Balzer (mentor)

I Guess We Made It, or At Least We Made it this far. 22. 

Results inconclusive. 

Forget and Not Slow Down

Relient K really does have a song for every life experience.
I don't care what you say, they're lyric geniuses and I have no intention of growing out of them.

New Years Eve.

Even though the conference still had a full day left, I had a tradition to uphold in Tulsa. And, because I am all about traditions and following-through, I came home to the arms of my beautiful best friend.

Now, we thought that no New Years party could top last year, but we were wrong.

Last year, Kira and I kicked off the night in our Forever Lazies, watching Pitch Perfect with champagne in hand. Then, after 45 minutes of desperate texts, heytells, and phone calls from Haley, we finally took pity on her, got off the couch, prettied up, picked her up, and headed over to Caity's.

Meant to be super creepy of us. This is just to give you a visual idea of the magic that is the Forever Lazy

Craig loves us. 

There, pie.

Next stop, our buddy Lauren's for bunko and silly string. Finally, we packed back into Bess (RIP, car) and took the party to my house. We blasted Ke$ha all the way there (making sure Hayhay kept all body parts in the car. Challenge) and howled at the moon in the street after I parked. More Pitch Perfect, some Barbie Sparkle Kingdom, and champagne, then sleep. Great night.

This year, Haley is in China and Caity is married, leaving Kira and I to our own devices.

Our group involved Kira's parents, her aunt and uncle, her brother and his three friends, her, me, and two other girls. And the dog. Can't forget the dog. Petunia hounded me all night. (HA).

I guess there wasn't anything super dynamic "do" wise, but it was, I think, the best New Years ever.

Her family is loud and brash and really loving and wonderful. We danced in the kitchen, laughed, played Uno, yelled (a lot), ate a lot of food, enjoyed contextual beverages, silly stringed one another, tried to watch a movie (asleep before a quarter over. all of us), got perpetually attacked by Petunia the dog, and ended up asleep, piled on the couch together. The next morning, we slept in till past noon and started the year off right with cookies and coffee.

Like I said, simple.

I've never liked parties. I always feel like I'm supposed to be doing or saying something and not doing it right. Not comfortable and more than usually have somewhere specific I'd really rather be.

I think that's why I liked it so much. Yeah, I kinda wished I could still be with my OneThing group (they actually missed me and FaceTimed me at midnight. So sweet), but where I was where exactly where I wanted to be. And Kira was exactly the person I wanted to be with.

Two Christmas breaks ago, I crawled into bed with my mom (yes, at 19) and cried, with just this weird gut feeling that by the next year, everything was going to be different. It was.

By the end of last Christmas break, Caity was engaged (Craig actually joined us for New Years last year). And Kira, too, was engaged by then.

Caity got married this summer. Kira gets married in six months. Haley is in a serious relationship and living in China.

So, this New Years wasn't like it it, necessarily, but in a way, it kinda was. Technically, last year was our final group of singleness and freedom, but I'm digressing from the point.

Things are changing. 




We're like, to that point where people are expecting us to do things like grow up and get married...or a dog. (Ten points, Cubby!). This time next year, Kira will join Caity's wife club. For that matter, so will Haley probably. And me? Who knows where I'll be or what I'll be up to.

But for one night, none of that stuff mattered. We just let ourselves forget about all it all and everything that's staring us in the face, and we were back to being silly teenage best friends. That made it the very best.

"We're Storming the Big Town"

To Stormont we go!

Stormont is the Belfast version of Parliament.

You can't see it well, but from this vantage point, you can see all of Belfast. Also, in the springtime, that long road down the center is lined on both sides with big, blossomy trees and shrubs and flowers.

Some notables about Stormont itself:

During the second world war, after no one would believe the poor diplomat who claimed that NI would be attacked by Germany and the country was left entirely unguarded and, subsequently, was bombed, Stormont was used as a military base for the Royal Airforce. That was a poorly structured sentence, but you get the point.

However, the airforce was loathe to the idea of a station in the structure for, as you can see, it is high-roofed and bright white.

The solution? Double double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Tar and manure were melded together and spread over the entirety of the immaculate building. Green ash was spread atop the road as well to make it blend into the surrounding grass.

Why  not black paint? Excellent question, young man. Black paint would have seeped into the stone, dying it permanently. After the war, a group of men were hired to restore the building. For 7 years, their whole job was to chip the tar off the white stone and make it beautiful again.

The picture of the ceiling there also has a story. It was painted in the 20s and hasn't required a refresher since. There is a special coating of wax topcoat over it, which can never be duplicated, as its creator died with the recipe.

The chandelier was once gifted by Germany to his brother ruler in England (the reason for the eagle between the branches which you can't see because I tend to be haphazard in my picture taking and it's blurry. But the eagle is the symbol of Germany). After a feud between them, it was sent to Ireland and officially gifted to Stormont within the recent past.

This is the NI cresst. 6 roses. One for each county.

The picture within the picture in the second shot there is a portrait done, which includes faces of current members of the government, including a man named Paddy Roche, who is the students' politics and economy professor here. A unionist man (pro-NI-UK). When we went to Dublin with him, he had to bring Hadden along; Paddy is banned from several political places because of his non-nationalist views. 

It's a funny thing about the politics in NornIron. Actually, Westminster closed down Stormont for about 30 years during The Troubles. It was like a child in timeout for a tantrum. A 30 year tantrum. 

When it started back up, the people elected into power were who? The heads of the criminal parties responsible for the destruction. They showed us a picture of the major leaders and who they used to be. Things like, "Chef, school teacher, ex-con, ex-con, ex-con, ex-head of paramilitary group..." A bad wrap sheet, a profession-killer in the USA, actually makes you a likely candidate here. 

For now, the country is stable under the direction of the two opposing leaders (a unionist and a nationalist co-rule).I have my own projections, though. There is going to come a time when The Republic and their nationalist followers will be tired of waiting for their wayward bride to come back voluntarily. And I do not want to be here when that happens. 

Going for Adventure on the Big Blue Wet Thing

That Muppet Treasure Island references goes out to my best friend Caity Ruth Roberts, as it is the theme movie of our friendship and her birthday today. Yah, yah, I'll get to Ireland, but this movie. My brother Chon and I used to watch it together on this crappy VHS version we had that was taped off Disney channel.

Then it was the treasured film of my senior year and Caity, Taylor Pride, and I used to quote it all the time with one another. Still do. And I also still snort-laugh just thinking about it. Cait and I even considered doing a song from it for our school's Senior Farewell.

THEN, first day, first class of college (to which I was late and, thus, last to introduce myself), I didn't want to name Pride and Prejudice as my favorite movie like at least three of the other girls did, so I said MTI. There may have been some quoting or singing, I don't recall, but it did jumpkick a beautiful friendship between my Professor Rabbi and me. One that I will always value.

NI: Yes, we went down to the big, blue wet North Coast.

First on the agenda was the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede. This bridge was at one time used for fishermen wanting to catch salmon. However, years passed by, the salmon population diminished, and people loved the thrill of the bridge between the rocks. To get down there is a journey of about a mile, in which you walk down 161 steps (my calves remember perfectly) and some road as well.

Oh a picture? Is that what you want? Okay. If you insist. I don't have one of the bridge itself, but I do have a couple of the locale:

The first two of these pictures are the small islands to the left of the bridge. I think they're called Shepherd's Islands. It's the third picture where the bridge stretches between the first two big cliffs. 

Look at that water. Seriously. Clear, clear, clear. I absolutely love this area. Aside from Newcastle, it's my favorite place to come. 

The bridge itself? Not a fan. I spend the entire time crossing thinking up escape routes from worst case scenarios. Once you're over though, it's soft grass and peace. Just as we were about to recross the bridge...

a huge pod of dolphins! Really. It was hard to count because they were never above water at the same time, but there were more than eight, just hopping about in the water as playful as can be. (insert Finding Nemo shark scene sentiments here).

Next was lunch. We figured we'd sack lunch it right there by Carrick-a-Rede, but Hadden insisted in taking us "somewhere prettier." What. How.

That's how. No words.

Then to Giant's Causeway! Giant's Causeway is a geological phenomenon which looks a bit like this, formed over an extensive time period by volcanic cooling.

I like it because of the folklore surrounding its creation. I wrote a whole piece about it in a collection of creative non-fiction I completed this past year. There were once two feuding giants... That's all I'll tell ya. 

A cool thing I discovered around one of the base of the columns was some odd orange staining which, upon closer inspection, seemed to be caused by corrosion of coins. Like throwing coins into a pond for good luck, people have stuck coins of all currencies into the cracks at the base of these columns. At places, the coins were still quite new. At others, they looked as though they had become part of the rock itself, folded over and porous. 

I love those kinds of things. My roommate would never make wishes with me at 11:11 or on shooting stars because she is very reasonable and also very correct, probably. But not me. It's not as though I believe that making a wish while holding your breath in a tunnel will come to anything, but there's an intoxicating air of...hope in it all and magic and childlike dreaminess. When I see fountains or cracks with coins, I always wonder what wishes they are and if they ever came true. 

We summed up the day with a visit to Dunluce Castle, which was the locale of inspiration for C.S. Lewis' Cair Paravel in his series of Narnia. 

My calf muscles have spent all of today screaming, but it was so worth it. I've missed the smell of the sea. I could have gone, breathed in the salt and seaweed, not seen any of these beautiful places, and been content. There's just something about the ocean.