Letter 186

It has shamefully been almost an entire year since I last posted on this website. I don’t suppose that really requires an explanation as nothing in the last year tends to need answer, but I have one anyway. We’ve now been in some sort of lockdown for almost a year and whilst that might mean I should’ve had bags of time to upload blogs, I haven’t.

I haven’t had the ‘traditional’ lockdown – strange thing to say but I feel like the phrase works as lockdown is just a way of life now. We went into lockdown in the UK on the 23rd March 2020, just a couple of days after I fled Mexico at the end of my trip. I had my birthday on the 9th of April and then started a job the week after. I worked in a convenience store which stayed open throughout all the lockdowns/circuit breakers/tier whatevers. I worked full time until September, during which time I applied and got accepted for a master’s and generally did little else because of said lockdowns. There was that brief respite from July to September when I ate out a bit and visited a few friends and family, but other than that, I remained safe in my flat most days.

I started my master’s course in Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design in September and was busily grafting away at it until the Christmas break, whilst carrying on with my job part time. It was a busy period, but also quite nice. It went super quick, I had enjoyable walks with friends in Edinburgh, and many face times with friends elsewhere. Christmas got cancelled as I wasn’t allowed to travel from Scotland to England so I ended up spending a week with my partners family in the Highlands – I guess it could’ve been worse.

Since coming back to Edinburgh for the New Year, I’ve done 5 weeks of my second semester of university, plus changed jobs. I’m now back working in the company I worked for 18 months before travelling, which is much more chilled and safer in Covid as I’m in an office on my own. I’m doing more hours which can be tricky, but the uni work is less intense this semester so it’s going quite well. I’m on a week break from uni now so I’m taking the time to chill out a bit and catch up with friends.

Basically, I’ve barely stopped since I returned from my travels almost a year ago.

Unfortunately that meant I haven’t kept up with uploading blog posts from my time in Mexico, and still have a good few to document. On one hand, I genuinely haven’t had much time to write them this year, and on the other hand, I don’t think I’ve wanted to. Writing about the amazing trip, beautiful places and fun things I did is so far away from life at the moment that it feels weird to even think about. However I do want to document it, and everything is starting to look a little more positive, so I feel like I can look forward to the future. I’m also really lucky to be doing something productive that I’m enjoying at the moment, and come August, I will have completed my master’s.

So what is still to come? The last couple of weeks of my Mexican trip were in Merida, Campeche, Palenque, San Cristobal and Oaxaca. They were some of my favourite places I have ever visited and I want to share them. I can’t promise it will be soon, but it will come eventually.

Dreaming about future travels still feels like something way out of reach right now, but I have faith that it will happen, and when it does, we’ll appreciate it all the more! Most of all, I am so grateful for the trip I managed to take when I had the chance.

All the best,

From Lou