71. Take a late night bus.

Again, I wanted to do this with my friend Juan with the VIA buses in San Antonio, but I just happened to need a ride back to my flat after my last night out in Kingston with my roommate Spencer and two girls from the program, and the only free option we had was the 24 hour buses. You got to love London and their 24 hour bus service. 

So yeah, this picture was taken on our way to the club, since I didn’t think of taking one on the way home, because I didn’t realized I was crossing this off my list. Apparently it’s legal to drink in public in London, so Spencer and I took advantage of that. I forgot what time we left the club, but I knew it was a bit before 2 AM, because I was starving, and by the time we got back to the Surbiton McDonalds, it closed. Literally, we were about to cross the street and they turned off the lights. It said it was open 24 hours, but we looked at the sign closely and it had some weird fine line about the hours.

So yeah, this pretty much concludes all the things I crossed off my bucket list while I was living in London/Europe. Sad, bittersweet, but thankful for every minute of it. 

22. Visit Paris.

Paris has always been a dream of mine since sixth grade, when I started learning French. Of course I would have loved to visit back then, when I knew more of the language and remembered a lot more about the culture. But regardless, I took advantage of a trip they were offering while I was in London. 

Paris is truly a beautiful city, yet it smells like a sewer. The people are so much friendlier than suggested. The food was amazing!!! That gyro was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I also ate snails, and they tasted really good, but I couldn’t help but gag at the texture of it squishing in my mouth. 

I’m not into churches, but Notre Dame was my favorite place in Paris. It was just so gorgeous and beautiful, especially at night, all lit up. Speaking of lit up, the Eiffel Tower lit up, flashing? No words to describe to it. The Champs-Élysées was a long street of nice stores, although I didn’t really stop in any. Expensive.

I don’t what else to say, but lovely city. I was missing London a lot while I was there, so I didn’t fully enjoy myself, but I still had a great time. My roomie Ashley, a native New Yorker, told me while we were there, that London in many ways was like New York, but Paris was incomparable. And it’s true, even though I’ve never been to NY, it is very similar to what I’ve seen on TV and pictures. While London may be the New York of Europe, Paris has no parallel anywhere on the globe. 

24. See Hard-Fi live. (part 1)

Since this was a huge thing for me, I am going to split this into two parts. Part one will be how I was able to see them and the story behind how lucky I was for it to happen. Part two will be about the actual show itself. 

I found out about Hard-Fi by chance one day. I was watching a countdown show on Fuse way back in high school. It was a two hour episode so they showed about 23 videos. Well I turned to it and they were on number 15 I believe and it happened to be Hard-Fi’s Cash Machine. I only caught the last few seconds of it, but I liked it. Back then, I was really into the British indie rock music explosion that happened back in 2004-2006.

I kept on watching all of the rock countdowns on Fuse from then on, hoping to see the video again, but I never did. So I looked them up at school, since I didn’t have internet at home. I bought their first CD, Stars of CCTV and I saw their second video, Hard to Beat, on Music Choice on Demand. I gave the album a second listen and fell in love.

Well a few years passed, and they released their second album in 2007, Once Upon A Time in the West. My friend Juan bought it for me and I am ever so grateful because I truly loved it. It was different from their first effort, but I was happy. Although, it didn’t do too well, compared to Stars of CCTV, and it kinda flopped. Well, after all the promo, they made an announcement for their third album at the end of 2008, looking for a 2009 release. 

They released a few video podcasts, showing them working on a few songs, doing a lot of touring, but no word on the new album. 2010 came, and they were still releasing podcasts of them working on songs, but nothing else, no word on a release date. I was getting a bit mad, but I still loved them. 

Well, 2011 came, and they finally made an announcement, on my birthday no less, that they were finally finished with their third album and it was going to be released this year. During this time, I was in the process of applying to study abroad in London for the summer, and I just thought to myself, “hmm, wouldn’t it be cool if I happen to see them while they’re doing promo or something?”

Well when I got to London, I happened to see a lot of Hard-Fi stuff. I saw promo stickers for the first album on an ad frame at the Marble Arch Underground station. I saw a current promo poster for their then current single “Good For Nothing” at Brixton Market. And I kept on seeing those CCTV in Operation signs that reminded me of their first album art work. Well I saw all of these things, but heard no news about them doing promo on any radio or TV shows. Then I caught a break. 

The iTunes festival is a free festival that takes place every year in London during the month of July. I requested tickets for Linkin Park, Adele and Kasabian, but they were all out. One day, I saw on their facebook, a contest! They were added last minute to replace Jessie J (who had broken her foot) and they were given 40 pairs of tickets. So, in order to win a pair, all you had to do was reply in email, the name of their new single. I was scared because the status was posted 4 hours ago, but I still replied as quickly as I could with “Fire in the House”. I almost put “Good For Nothing” but forgot FITH was released a few days prior.

Well, it took about a day, but after I got home from my mini field trip to Brentford, I checked my email and sure enough, it was there. I won tickets to see one of my favorite bands perform a set in a small, intimate venue. That moment was srsly one of the best moments of my life. Perfect timing is all I can say. I was supposed to graduate in the spring, if I had gone through college in four years. Also, I had never intended to study abroad until the summer of 2010. Plus, if they originally released their third cd during 2009 like they promised, then who knows if I would have ever seen them? And plus, with all of the signs I had prior to that concert, well, I’m not a man of faith, but I felt like this was somehow meant to happen. 

80. Eat a Cornetto.

To be honest, I only did this because of Shaun of the Dead. I don’t really like ice cream all that much, especially the really frozen kind that you have to wait for a bit to bite into. But I thought it would be a fun thing to cross off my list. Looking back, I should have put “Visit Shaun’s house.” as a thing instead of this, but I really wanted to keep my goals realistic and attainable. But they really tie in together though, since I got this Cornetto and Diet Coke at the same shop by Shaun’s house.