#also i reunited with my primary school classmate and it went great

[heatsu]

excuse my inactivity, I haven't been feeling real enough to do anything lately

[some-dr-writings]

Fuyuhiko x Reader who won’t confess

·       Of all people you could have fallen for, why did it have t be the YAKUZA BOSS!? He has a bad temper on top of that! What if you tried asking him out and he was insulted by it so he had you killed!? Nope! No! You couldn’t do it! You were way too scared! It would be best you ignore the feelings…

·       …

·       But how could you!? Sure, he was a hot head, but he was a good guy, kind and loyal to his friends. It didn’t help either that you saw each other every day because you were in the same class. It also REALLY didn’t help that your best friend there was Peko, her and Fuyuhiko never spent much time together but the few times they did they seems to be good friends, and Peko seemed to know a lot about Fuyuhiko, so the pair of you would end up talking about him and your crush on him often.

·       “I understand your apprehension, but you can try talking to him more, nothing has happened to our other classmates who have gotten close to him.” “Peko. Gurl. I am the Super High School Level Crime Boss. I may be bold and cunning, but I’m not going to approach the heir of the biggest and greatest crime syndicate in Japan with something like this. I could go with the excuse we are both great powers and should be on amicable terms so we don’t slaughter one another, but that would be a lie, and we don’t lie in my family.” “… Would it be a lie to say you wanted to get to know him because you like him, and he is your classmate?” “… Hmm… perhaps. Even so, I don’t need others on looking, possibly seeing us getting chummy and taking that as a threat.”

·       You didn’t avoid the man per se, but you did try to spend as little time with him as possible, fearful of him asking something in just the right way where you couldn’t dance around it and would have to confess. The few times you did get to spend time together was rather nice.

·       The wind rolled past carrying bright green leaves along with it, a much-needed break from the heat that came pouring down from the cloudless sky. You sighed, taking a sip of your cold drink. With the condensation on the glass, it slipped in your hands for a moment, almost spilling into your lap. You and Peko chatted away at the balcony of the café, loving the summer day. You sighed noticing Fuyuhiko from the corner of your eye. You had figured out long ago that Peko was Fuyuhiko’s secret bodyguard, the man always was near by whenever the pair of you spent time together outside of school. He was even generous and kind to his subordinates letting them live life outside of his syndicate. It truly kind man.

·       “Hmm, oh, Kuzuruyu, hello.” “Huh?” “What?” Clearly both you and the man were caught off guard, it evident on your faces. “What are you doing here?” “Uh… Well, this place just opened but I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I decided to check it out.” “Same with us. Say why don’t you join us?” You spat out your drink, choking on it mid-sip hearing the suggestion, thankfully for the heir who only would have gotten flustered if you had noticed the bright scarlet that had erupted on his cheeks when he approached you and Peko. “Y/N!?” “I’ll get some more napkins.” Peko immediately dashed off, leaving Fuyuhiko with you. You were still coughing, covering your face with napkins, embarrassed by the whole situation and not wanting your crush to see you like this. Nervously Fuyuhiko pat your back, feeling too awkward to do much else. When you settled down you were completely embarrassed but tried to remain calm and let the staff clean the table. “You okay?” “Physically, yes. Emotionally, no, I am a wreak right now.” “Ah.” …

·       …

·       Thankfully for the awkwardness neither of you tried to make idle chit-chat allowing you to notice… something. “Since the staff are taking care of things let’s look for Peko.” “Yeah.” Instead, you both immediately left the premises. Your suspicion was confirmed, you were being followed. At the first opportunity you raced to anything you could use for a quick getaway, a motorcycle this time. Mentally you apologized to the couple and made sure make a note to repay them with a new motorbike later as you slammed a helmet on Fuyuhiko’s head, dashing away on the bike.

·       “Sorry for getting you caught up in this. I recognize the bastard, some assassin who’s like a cockroach, won’t just die no matter how much lead I pump into em’!” A bang sounded, a gun having been fired, the bullet landing right beside the tire sending a few sparks flying. “A cockroach. I’ve dealt with the likes before. Focus on driving, I’ll take care of them.” “Alright. Let’s see how good of a shot you are!” A chuckle seeped out of you, the thrill of the chase always something you couldn’t help but enjoy no matter the danger. With a rev of the engine you took a sharp turn, turning around, leaving skid marks on the pavement as you did so before charging head on for the car behind you. Fuyuhiko blew out a tire as you raced past. “Only two in the car, usually has at least ten assistants. Don’t let your guard down!” “Wasn’t going too. This isn’t my first assassination plot.” “Except you’re a bystander who got dragged in this time, so at least you aren’t the primary target.”

·       Fuyuhiko kept up carefully aimed fire, only having so-many bullets, but you though trying to escape and dodge fire you also specifically made opportunities for Fuyuhiko to get good shots in on any attackers.

·       “Fuck! Gun’s jammed!” “OF COURSE!” Fuyuhiko kept muttering swears under his breath desperately trying to get the damn thing to work again. You looked over your shoulder for a moment, finding Fuyuhiko opted the hurl the junk at the car, cracking the windshield right on the driver’s side. “Hah! Nice one.” “Don’t celebrate just yet. We’re out of fire now.” “Hell no! We could die at any moment, so we’ve gotta celebrate when we can!” You laughed, speeding away as the car behind you wavered, almost crashing. Still though it made chase. Now it was completely up to you to keep you both alive. Taking a sharp turn off the street you instead raced down an alleyway in between buildings. You smiled seeing where you were. “Take in that ocean air Kuzuryu! We’re almost home free!” “Home free you say? Alright, show me what you’ve got!”

·       “There’s more assassins!” “Got it.” Unfortunately the streets by the sea side were much narrower than deeper in the city so dodging was near impossible, all you could do was weave between cars and hope for the best.

·       “Kuzu, Hold on tight!” You dashed through traffic, turning into the opposite lane and cutting across it, slipping between spaces in the railing. Unfortunately, the hill beyond the railing was a bit steeper than you remembered, the pair of you being in the air for a while before crashing down, wavering too much you could only keep balance for a few moments before flipping over.

·       “Hey. Hey, Y/N!” You groaned, slowly getting up, your head ringing and the world swirling and spinning. “Y-you alright?” “For now, but we need to go!” Taking your arm he pulled you up and ran along. The motorcycle left deep marks in the ground, signaling where it crashed, pointing out where you were. “Just gotta get to the docks. We’ll be safe there.” “Got it!”

·       Quickly the pair of you ran along, hiding behind anything you could, from shrubbery to beach umbrellas, the gun fire raining down around you. However for a short time it did suddenly come to a stop. “Peko!” Indeed it was the swords woman, putting a stop to the attacks as long as she could.

·       “Young Master!” Finally you had reunited on the docks. Not stopping for even a moment you raced for a building, kicking the door down upon entering. “Get in the seaplane, now!” The moment your companions were in, you started the engine, immediately going not even giving them the opportunity to strap in.

·       You were surrounded by nothing but blue. Blue skys, blue water, not another plane or boat in sight. You let out a shaky breath, shuttering. “Holy hell, I have not had a chase like that in a while! You two okay? If not there’s a first aid kit under my seat. If you have any serious injuries we’ll have to land and do work on the wing of the plane. But if it can wait for an hour or so we can take care of it on the island.” It was a rather small plane, just for personal use so there was little room, only enough for four seats to be squished against to one another. “I’m fine. Peko-” “I am unharmed. However, you have several cuts.” “Y/N, you’ve been shot!” You gritted your teeth, instead focusing on piloting. “Maybe… but it can wait.” “No! You’re landing this thing right now!” “Kuzuryu! The island has much better supplies for this, and though I know there are no other sea planes in the docks they could have them hidden elsewhere and I want minimal risk of them finding us and my private hideaway. So we have to out run them” “… Fine, but we’re using the first aid kit on you.”

·       You winced as Peko and Fuyuhiko tried patching the wound as best they could. The bullet didn’t get in too deeply but the longer your flight went on the more that fiery pain seeped into you, it no longer being ignorable as your adrenaline lowered and slowed. You could feel our heart pounding against your rib cage, your breathing getting heavier. “Y/N, you’re pale.” “I-I’m fine.” “Like Hell you are! Don’t pull that bull shit with me!” “I can fly this thing, if I can keep doing that I’m fine. It… it’s not too much farther now.”

·       …

·       You were in the cabin. “A-aunty, Uncle.” You smiled, knowing you had arrived at the island safely seeing the elderly pair. “Wh-where’s my guests? How are they?” The woman simply gestured to the wide open doors leading to your tropical paradise, the sand and ocean waves so close, Fuyuhiko and Peko standing in the frame. Fuyuhiko had a few bandages but seemed fine. Both of them looked relived. “Boss shall we leave you with your guests?” “Yeah, but before you go, how long till I’m healed?” “You may get up now.” You looked questioningly to the older gentleman. “We sedated you with sleeping drugs this time so you would not have to just lie in bed and constantly sneak out instead of resting for your health.” “H-hey! I’m not that reckless!” “Boss, you had three bullet wounds.” You simply shriveled in your bed. “I-I needed to check on everyone else myself. Too many got injured that time. Those basters needed to pay.” “And you can not risk your health when doing so, Boss.” “… Thank you, Uncle. You and Aunty prepare some food for us.” In unison the elderly folk said ‘Yes, boss’ heeding your command and making their leave. “I shall assist.” And Peko left with them. Slowly you sat up, getting out of bed. “Well… care for a walk? I feel rather sluggish from having slept for several days at least apparently.” “Sure.”

·       Even if you would regret it later, you could safely spend time with the man now, knowing none other than Peko where here to protect him and heed his command. Just this once you could get a little closer without fear, and more importantly, learn exactly how bad his injuries were.

·       You took the chance to explain to Fuyuhiko just who exactly your assailants were, how they were actually an organization made by rogue government officials who wanted you dead no matter the consequences. How this island was your personal place you only allowed the most trusted of family members in your organization to go to, or those injured should this place be the most convenient, how you ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’ were individuals who had worked in your organization since you first created it and were like family though not actually being blood related to you or even married to one another. And… you just kept talking like how you found this island and made it your home away from home, about school and your classmates. You both just talked about whatever through the day.

·       And soon there you were sitting on the sandy shore, looking up to the starlit sky. “Really? I don’t believe it.” “No, I really did crash the car there.” “You call the assassins cockroaches, but that more so describes you.” “What!?” Fuyuhiko couldn’t help but chuckle a little seeing your reaction. “Yeah, surviving car crashes, being shot through the chest, poisoning, now a motorcycle crash. Seems you’re unkillable.” “Excuse me, but all of those were calculated risks!” “Exactly. Even in crazy situations you can keep calm and take the less disastrous outcome…” His smile faded, a more serious expression taking on his features. “Y’know… When I step up as the leader of the Kuzuryu clan, I’ll need someone strong, and capable by my side… maybe… someone like you.” “……… Are you… confessing, or am I horribly misreading this.” Fuyuhiko froze, a blush flaring up on his cheeks. “Well, I think we worked rather well together today so… W-wanna go out?” “Yes! Absolutely yes!” “O-oh… alright then.” Clearing his throat he stood up. “Well… it’s getting late, I’m shoving off to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow… maybe you could give me a run of the grounds here?” “Yeah, definitely!” “Good… I’m looking forward to it.”

·       “Oh my god, Peko, I finally asked them out! And they said ‘Yes’!” “Good for you, Young Master.” “I didn’t even hesitate! I know you said they it would be safe since nothing had happened to our other classmates, but… they’re still the Boss of the greatest crime syndicate over seas! This could have gone horribly and I just did it! I didn’t even use the excuse we should be on good terms or allies, so we don’t kill each other. I just asked them out!”

·       Even if Peko’s plan didn’t go quite as she thought it would it still worked out. Her duty is to protect her young master, so it would not do for him to kill himself due to stressing over asking his crush out. She already knew things were going to turn out great for the pair of you. You were so alike and so drastically different you just complimented one another perfectly.

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #7: Chapman Works (Fifi and Roary)

Believe it or not, the Kisekae Project was never just about combining Asian culture with Western culture. As such, anime isn’t the only thing that forms part of my project.

Fifi and the Flowertots is one of the earliest things that I adapted in my personal project, even before Doctor Who. When I was in my Dynasty Warriors phase, assigning warrior names to my friends and classmates, the characters of this series were some of the first fictional characters to be assigned warrior names or implemented in my stories. They had a heavy impact on Hiroki’s story before he came onto Doctor Who.

During the many times this series aired over 2005-2015, I never really got to watch it a lot, either because it never aired at the right time for me to be able to watch it, or because my parents would be watching their Chinese TV shows (I may have missed out on some parts of my childhood because of it). Therefore, watching this series became a bit of a guilty pleasure, especially considering that I was growing out of its target demographic. Luckily, thanks to the internet, that doesn’t matter anymore.

Its sister series, Roary the Racing Car, was also one of the first series to be implemented. Only the human characters were given officer names (because how can cars fight, just saying), but in Gokaiger, the cars were given an important role as well. A couple of characters also became Kamen Riders.

Here’s another thing that may surprise you; Fifi Forget-me-not was Hiroki Ichigo’s wife before Akari. In other words, Fifi was my first waifu. Let’s jump into the explanation.

A Flower out of the Garden: Fifi in the Parallax War

Fifi was the first of the Flowertots to end up in this world before the rest of them came in the Dimensional Merge. Their story differs between the two timelines, but out of the Flowertots, only Fifi lived through and remembered both timelines. During the first timeline, Fifi acted as the counterpart of Rose Tyler from BBC Doctor Who. The timeline splits in January 2007.

In August 2006, Fifi fell into a portal that looked like a puddle and ended up on Earth. Hiroki, who happened to be in the area, finds her and offers to help her get back home. On the way home, Hiroki and Fifi also encounter another girl from his province who fell asleep on the train back home and ended up where they were. Hiroki takes Fifi and the girl, who we’ll call Narutaki (it’ll be important when I cover Decade), back to his city. When they get back, however, Narutaki can’t get back home because her prefecture is being invaded. So, Fifi and Narutaki became Hiroki and Parker’s roommates. Hiroki and Fifi eventually fell in love and became a couple.

In the first timeline, where Hiroki and Fifi left Parker in the second timeline, Fifi met the Third Doctor when the department store she was working was infiltrated by Autons. Things went from there and the three were swept into the Parallax War. Fifi reunited with her friends as well. At one point, Fifi disappeared and the Doctor, with help from Hiroki, Buttercup, Daisy and Flutterby, managed to find her.

At some point, Fifi discovered that her great-grandparents were named Billy Alkanet and Jackie Fiddleneck. While Billy is dead in this universe, he was alive in a parallel one, namely Billy’s World. After the first couple of episodes of the Fourth Doctor’s first series, Narutaki went back home and her role was replaced by Jackie. At the end of that series, Hiroki, Fifi and Jackie were forced to go to Billy’s World because of “Void stuff”.

The Doctor had fallen in love with Fifi during their travels and so did she, to the point where Hiroki started to feel neglected. But after being sent to Billy’s World, Hiroki and Fifi rebuilt their relationship as they managed to leave that world and fight in the Parallax War. They would later get married as well.

At some point, they reunite with Narutaki and the Doctor. After the final battle, Hiroki, Fifi and Narutaki were de-aged a few years due to a gift from the gods or time paradoxes stabilising or something like that. As a result, the three were sent back in time to where the timeline split in order to live the years they missed. Narutaki went back home, leaving Hiroki and Fifi with Parker.

End of Innocence: Flowertots in the Time War

Now, Hiroki and Fifi are living in the second timeline. From Parker’s point of view, he is unaware that they had even gone anywhere. Hiroki and Fifi decide to keep their marriage a secret from everyone else in this timeline until they have a second wedding ceremony with them.

Soon after, the Flowertots come to Earth in the Dimensional Merge and Parker, Hiroki and Fifi go to visit them to the north of their city. Bumble sees Hiroki with Fifi and tries to fight him, but Parker and Fifi stop him. When the Flowertots are attacked by Parker and Hiroki’s comrades, they get scared and the three have to fend them off. Parker, Hiroki and Fifi decide to teach the Flowertots how to fight, eventually recruiting them in their army. Violet becomes enamoured with Parker and they eventually begin a relationship. Like Hiroki and Fifi before them, they get married as well.

On Christmas 2008, Fifi and Violet gift their husbands the swords that would signify their presence on the battlefield. In another universe, the swords were known as the Twin Moon Swords and they had three modes they could switch into by channelling the power of light or darkness into them. I realise that there are negative connotations with gifting swords, but given what happens next, you can say that it could be foreshadowing something as a result of the bad luck associated with it.

A couple of years later, a rebellion forced Parker’s army (and its parent army, their primary school army) to split, just as they were transitioning to secondary school. Parker had been planning to move his army to another province so they could still be together. When Parker and Hiroki were separated during their escape, Hiroki was found by the Flowertots, but they were defeated with only Hiroki managing to escape. They later made their way to where Parker intended to move his army, with their commander seemingly nowhere to be found.

Later, Hiroki officially joined his secondary school’s army while working with Parker to rebuild his army. Hiroki fell in love with Akari and at one point, Fifi saw them together and became heartbroken. When Parker’s army heads to assimilate the Flowertots with help from Hiroki’s new army, Fifi eventually confronts Akari with Parker, Hiroki and Narutaki and goes to fight her, but they stop when they get into a Mexican standoff. The Flowertots surrender and Hiroki and Parker reconcile with Fifi and Violet. However, following Parker’s death in October 2011, the Flowertots decide to go back to Flowertot Garden, at which point they were assimilated by the fairies of Never Land. Hiroki and Fifi never applied for a divorce and Hiroki would later begin a relationship with Akari.

So how do I explain Buttercup, Daisy and Flutterby? Well back then, the birth of new Flowertots was rare and it happened once every four years. Towards the end of Soulbound Series 1 (which I wrote in 2019), it would be revealed that Buttercup and Daisy were growing under the ground (in October 2007) and Flutterby offered to be their guardian. They were born the year after, but they fell through time and space and they didn’t show up in the second timeline until 2010 (before that, they were involved in the first timeline in 2009). Buttercup would idolise Hiroki for his heroism and skill.

Ever After: The Flowertots in Never Land

Some storylines in this section were inspired by two of EmmaKoeni’s crossover stories with the Tinker Bell movies, namely 2 Worlds, 2 Different people, 1 Mind and Bethany. Sadly, the latter one seems to have been abandoned, but I got enough out of it to write about what happened to the Flowertots after they went back.

There weren’t a lot of Flowertots in Flowertot Garden before they were assimilated by Never Land. Since then, Flowertot Garden prospered thanks to the help of the fairies. New Flowertots would arrive on babies’ first laughs at the pollen tree, their counterpart of the pixie dust tree. A Flowertot named Lillyana became the Queen of the Flowertots, but when she was exterminated by the Daleks, Daisy (yes, the same Daisy from the show) became Queen.

In August 2012, the Flowertots became aware of Antoni’s plan to detonate the Reality Bomb and Fifi was sent to find the Doctor and help him stop it. The science-talent fairies gave her a prototype Soul Talisman, similar to the item of the same name in Kingdom of Paradise, that would resurrect her if she were to be killed. However, because it was a prototype, the process would be similar to Time Lord regeneration. Another account I wrote, before the Never Land storyline came to be, was that Fifi got the Soul Talisman from the Torchwood Institute while hopping universes. While she did find the Doctor, however, she was shot by a Dalek and proceeded to regenerate, thanks to the power of that Soul Talisman.

However, Fifi’s use of the Soul Talisman did have a side effect. By October 2015, Fifi was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but Fifi being Fifi, she forgot that name at some point. She was gifted a sonic screwdriver from someone who was revealed to be one of Hiroki’s echoes. Fifi met the Doctor and Hiroki for the last time, with the latter staying the night before she died. In my story, I had a plot where the fairies and Flowertots were segregated by a barrier at the border between Pixie Hollow and Flowertot Garden, which Hiroki destroys together with Fifi using their sonic screwdrivers.

Before Hiroki goes home, he realises why his future self gave Fifi a sonic screwdriver; because he saved her consciousness in a neural relay that he installed. With this, he rushes to Dewey’s library in the Winter Woods and uploads Fifi’s consciousness into a supercomputer, with an artificial version of himself and a male child to be with. Sure enough, an echo of Hiroki gives Fifi a sonic screwdriver.

As a result of his deeds during the Time War, Hiroki was revered as a legendary figure throughout Never Land. Soon after Fifi was uploaded to the supercomputer, she and Hiroki were revered as their gods. Hiroki stated that he would never come back to Never Land once he left, but little did he know that things would bring him back there in the future.

In the Series 9 finale, Violet led the Autons and the Never Land Army to Sekigahara, but they were held up by the Sanada Army, led by Ms Mimi, at Ueda Castle. As shown in The Pilot, they were forced to retreat when the Daleks attacked and exterminated their troops.

Protecting Smiles: Flowertots in the Moushouden Series

In Decade, Narutaki was on a mission to defeat Kamen Rider Decade, Hiroki, as she believed him to be “the destroyer of worlds”. She went to Never Land and gave Firerose, a male rose Flowertot, the Arcle with the intent to have him defeat Decade as Kamen Rider Kuuga. Later on, he joined Hiroki and his other companion on their travels.

They would also encounter a male lilac Flowertot, Lilimuro, who had left Never Land to explore the Mainland, but didn’t come back because he discovered a family being targeted by monsters with the father being incapacitated due to a condition. His appearance would be copied by Roidmude 006, who became the Blazer Roidmude and played a part in Narutaki’s plot to trigger the Global Freeze. His confrontation with Firerose would lead to his defeat when the latter unlocked his Ultimate Form and defeated him with the Ultimate Kick.

Violet would also leave Never Land to travel Earth because she got tired of Flowertot Garden no longer being the quiet place she knew before the Time War. She worked as a mechanic at Silverhatch Racetrack in Big Chris’ absence before joining the Kougami Foundation and becoming Kamen Rider Bravo. Later, thanks to her links with the Kougami Foundation, she established an army of Kurokage Troopers on Never Land as the fairies and Flowertots join Hiroki in ransacking the Citadel of Hirokis.

Roary the Racing Car

No, we didn’t forget those guys. It’s just that they didn’t have as much prominence in my project compared to the Flowertots.

During the Time War, Big Chris and the other human/animal characters were all part of Parker’s army. They and the Flowertots were usually grouped together in battles. When the armies were forced to disband by the government in July 2012, Big Chris and the others went back to Silverhatch Racetrack.

The characters wouldn’t be prominent again until the Moushouden Series. In Decade, Flash became Kamen Rider Drive thanks to Narutaki, who had used Gold Drive’s power to steal the Tridoron, the Shift Cars and Drive Driver from Shinnosuke Tomari. Mr Carburettor, Flash’s arch-nemesis, becomes Mashin Chaser and attempts to return the Drive Driver to its former owner. Later, when Narutaki has no further use for Flash, she takes the Drive Driver and throws it away, but luckily, Shinnosuke catches it. Seeing Flash’s repentance and wish to become a hero, he is given the means to become Kamen Rider Chaser by Shinnosuke, Hiroki and Mr Carburettor before he joins the other Riders in defeating Narutaki as Gold Drive.

Soon after, in Gokaiger, the Go-Ongers and Gekirangers work to create the former’s Megazord Power, the Turbo Falcon Zord, using the data of the cars. When they attempt to power up the Engine Cast, however, a system overload causes the cars’ consciousnesses to be sent into the Cell Chip loaded in it, leading to them all fighting for dominance in a pocket dimension. When the Gokaigers tame the Zord, Roary comes out as the dominant mind while the other cars decide to act as support.

[hannahnolen]

Time to say goodbye

Our last month here has flown by and I am really not sure where all the time went. This past month was filled to the brim with events that have inspired me and touched my heart.

1) The P7 class from the local Catholic primary school came to church to present on the inspirational women they spent time researching. The kids chose a wide variety of women from Marie Curie to Emma Gonzalez showing that there is no “right” formula to becoming inspiring to others. One of the presenters was a boy who had only been in Scotland for a couple of months and English was not his first language. It showed great bravery that he got up there with his classmate to tell us about Amelia Earhart. It was a reminder that kids are resilient, brave, knowledgeable, and our future and that they need our unending support.

2) For the past couple of months I have helped plan and then helped run a coffee morning fundraiser for Christian Aid. It was a fun morning filled with silly photo-booth photos, face-paint (thanks mainly to Kris), and a lot of tombola prizes.  On the day of church members came together to put on this event for the community. There was a lot of anxiety around the event and how it would go. Though a huge number of people did not show up we still raised over £1000! This shows why you shouldn’t write off small communities because they are filled with a plethora of skills, talents, and big achievements.

4) At the last minute a couple weeks I got to join GK on a residential to Glen-Kin. It was a tiring but rewarding week of kids getting to explore the outdoors, swim, and try new things. We had some very unexpected things happen (no water and nits) but it didn’t stop any of the GK staff or volunteers. No-one panicked, even though it would be reasonable to do so, and everyone just got on with it. It was an inspiring example of not letting barriers stop you and making things work. It was really great to have another week with them seeing all the good work they are doing and how they are empowering kids to be their best selves.

5) Last week P1-P7s from the local community came together to put on play in one week (The Pied Piper!)! It was a long week filled with some stressful moments but the performance on Friday made it all worth it. The kids did so well and the community really came together to make it happen. We saw massive improvement in kids in just one week which shows how drama can transform kids (and adults!) into more confident and self-assured beings.

6) About three weeks ago, I got the really sad news that two of our family friends died unexpectedly in a car accident. I was no way prepared to receive the news and once again it made me feel really far away from home. It also made a hard week of saying goodbye even harder. But the support and love I received from my roommates and co-workers alike made it much more bearable. The flowers, hugs, advice, and love I received made my heart hurt a bit less. It reminded me that you can create a home anywhere you are and that we have managed to make one here filled with wonderful and loving people.

But now we have to leave this home. It’s officially our last week as YAVs here in Scotland and it feels surreal. There is a whirlwind of emotions going on within me.  Excitement for our travels around Europe that we soon will be embarking on, weariness surrounding the future, joy at the fact that I soon will be reunited with family and friends, and a deep sadness that I have to leave this newly formed home. Thank you to everyone who made this year possible. Thank you to everyone who opened their doors, minds, and hearts and allowed us to come in and live life with you. I am leaving with heart that is three times bigger (just like the Grinch) and will forever be grateful for this experience.

Thanks for the memories GlenKin!!

Happy birthday Tracy!!!

Photo-booth fun!! (Bury me with that first photo I love it so much)

Thanks for visiting Serrie!!