Post 250

I am writing this while on the train from Leeds to London. This summer I have managed to top all my previous traveling hights.

As you already know I stayed in the UK after exams to say a last goodbye to Aston, go to Grad Ball and pack my ever-growing collection of random items and clothes. Then from Birmingham I flew to Bulgaria to spend a month with the family. I had the opportunity to go to Kosovo for the first time (and loved it) and to attend a real Bulgarian music festival. There was finally enough time to see all my mates and spend some quality time with my sister. This was not without a cloud of preparation for the graduation ceremony with my gigantic family attending but you already know all that.

So, on the 12th me, my parents and sister flew to Birmingham to join my cousin, her husband and my niece (with my aunt and uncle, and Nasko coming on the 13th). We all stayed at the Aston Business School hotel that proved great (especially with me and my sister being in the hotel's highest class room :P). The 12th and 13th were quite nice, actually. Then again I have always loved Birmingham. When I look back now the one thing that I remember very clearly is eating all the time, partly because I had booked restaurants for every evening while in brum. (So much food! Yes food!)

The 14th came in a glimpse. I woke up much later than I should have, quickly inhaled several croissants, and wearing torn jeans and t-shirt went to pick up my robe. Just imagine a room filled with dressed up, happy people and me, scrumpy, a bit hangover, probably with some breakfast leftovers on my face. FAIL!

However, instead of ruining my "special day" I ambitiously hurried back to my room and got dressed. This may sound weird but I felt great in my robe and hat. The robe could not have been more polyester and I could not have been sweatier in it BUT I enjoyed every minute of it!

Me and my parents took the coach to town and as they sat to have a "disgusting" espresso at Starbucks (:P) I went to the town hall with Nasko to try and get him a ticket for the ceremony. (Note that I had already received 6 tickets!) There were plenty of tickets for the area next to the massive golden organ (essentially behind the academics). With this settled I went to register. First, a lady from the robe renting company fixed up the robe so that it "follows criteria". I loved how she did that to every single person (note there was no queue) since it definitely gave out a sense of "we-do-care-about-how-you-look-no-matter-the-thousand-other-people-graduating-this-week".

From there I was escorted to my seat. The ceremony started spot on at 11 o'clock. The speeches of all the academics were incredibly inspiring. I have to say they could not have prepared better. That is excluding the name reading. My name was read out incredibly bad. All I heard was Vladimir Za-ga-za-ra-ov! Having in mind how nervous I was, this was a worst nightmare moment. However, the chancellor was incredibly warm and shaking hands calmed me down quite a bit. Call me crazy but I thought he gave me an "i-am-sorry-we-mispronounced-your-name" and "i-do-indeed-care-about-your-graduating" look.

From there I got my diploma and graduation ended quite quickly (I got my diploma in the middle of the ceremony, so the quickness must have been all in my head). I spent the afternoon socializing (:P) in Sachs and then had a bit of a grand dinner (14 guests). Indeed the perfect ending of a great day!

(have to get off the train now, will continue post from the tube)

***

(great my train is full)

So, Graduation Day was really well organized (and the Town Hall looked as glamorous as ever!). We ended it all with an Aston night out at Mechu where I had a chance to catch up with and say goodbye to the rest of my classmates.

(have to get off tube, will have to finish later)

***
It is the 21st July 2011. As incredible as it is I am now a university graduate about to move into my first long-term, self-paid, flatmate-less apartment, and in two weeks time I will go back to Intel to start my "real" job.

This is beyond all my plans from back in 2008. When I was starting this blog, I was a uni fresher that had no idea what to do with his life (or his studies for that matter). So, I think it is just appropriate to close this blog saying that I have absolutely no regrets about the last 4 years. The whole university experience has helped me grow so independent I can barely recognize myself. Also, I cannot stress highly enough how amazing all the people I have met in uni are. When I chose Aston, I did it simply because the student-life environment and Student Guild were ranked among the best and this has proven to indeed be the case. It has been my greatest pleasure writing this blog and sharing my experiences and I hope you have enjoyed reading about them.

Before I press "Post" I want to say thanks to James Rea who named this site "the galablog"; and, most importantly, a massive thanks to the person who got me writing and put up with me for the past four years, Pam Pinski!