My Birthday, Signs of Autum, Meditating, and its off to Durh

Well there it is! My gap year is finished. Its been a rollercoaster last year, good times, bad times, indecisive times, determined times, sunshine, sleet, rain, wind, city centres, villages in the mountains, out in the countryside, in the ‘bubble’ and on the high seas! Its certainly been the most varied and downright surreal and cheeky year of my life! And i’ve come out of it quite well despite initial images of doom I have scrapped through with better confidence, new experiences and no shortage of new people in my phonebook.

I rounded off the ride last week with a trip to a Buddhist Centre in Derbyshire. First seeing the advertisement for volunteers in the gap year book last year I went for a weekend in November and returned there for a weeks volunteering/holiday to recupurate and for something to do before Uni.

Bacially the deal is there’s this guy from Tibet (no, not the elusive Dalai Lama) who has set up a new western tradition of Buddhism. There are centres all over the UK where nuns and monks are ordained and train in gaining ‘enlightenment’. Buddhism is based on finding inner peace in order to gain outer peace and relies on meditation as its main practice. This is what first attarcted me to it.
By helping out in the gardens for 5 days i got to stay at the centre for a week with other volunteers completely free + we got free gorgeous vegitarian food. it was all good, relaxing stuff. far better than being cooped up in a little suburb in Shropshire for a month. The ‘taracentre’ as its called is overwelming relaxing and almost completly detached from the outside. It doesn’t mean its not a hip place to be. the nuns and monks are young and unlike other centres, this place has a distinct sense of humour as well as being beautful with lovely redwoods (big, thick, commanding red trees) coating the side of the driveway into the centre. well worth looking into-www.taracentre.og.uk.

i got to mow the lawns, and trim hedges and stuff-it was simple but nice. and the people are all down to earth. there were two brothers from newcastle (whey hey man) and one monk from liverpool ( ya alright mate) and various other characters. a place to go where no one will judge you and where you can unwind before the stresses of uni life!
Apart from that I finsihed PGL, had my birthday and am now getting ready for uni as well as trying to comeplete an action packed album of all my adventures complete with stories, quotes and pictures. should be groovy when its finished. before the last few words trickle away as my time on the dairies fade away, i’d just like to thank gapyear.com for having me and you, for listening to me yabber on randomly. and who knows i may return in a few years time with new gapyear stories to tell!!!? any questions, comments about my unusually random gap year, drop me a line here at gap year .com or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). gap years can be scary things. but with the aid of gapyear.com and a trusty diary theres not much that will go wrong-and if it does, you can capture it all for the world to see. have nice gap years. this is me signing off. Up to the artic of Durham I go and University….................................................................................................................