Ben Murrell

It’s been over a year since I posted to this site…

My life in a nutshell since then:

• I went to LA with Berto Murillo in May 2010. We stumbled upon a Say Anything concert. It rocked. We surfed. It was fun.
• I went to Boulder to see Elliot Kehoe at the end of June / beginning of July. We floated down the creek that runs through Boulder and got torn up by the rocks (but did it two more times!) and managed to lose all but one beer prior to attempting to drink it. Ow. We ran in a 4K on the 4th of July. It ended at the Avery Brewery. I got a time somewhere in the 22:00′s and it was my first competitive run ever.
• I went to Montreal and Quebec to see Audrey in August. We saw waterfalls, ate poutine and Greek, got in the St. Laurent, and went on a whale cruise. You could see beluga whales and dolphins from our campsite. The night sky in middle-of-nowhere Canada was amazing. I lost my passport and missed my flight home, but Audrey came from Quebec to Montreal to see me. Life was good.
• I went to Boulder to see Elliot in September. We biked and hiked a lot. When I left, a big forest fire was getting started on the mountain and the sky was filled with orangeish  gray smoke.
• I went to Bordeaux, Biarritz, and Clermont-Ferrand (France) in November to see Audrey again. I saw a lot of beautiful landscapes and chateaus (let’s not forget the wine in the chateaus!) After listening to me converse in French on a phone, a little old lady gave me a lesson on how to be polite in French. (I’m still not sure why the native French speaker wasn’t making the wine tasting appointments…)
• There’s a gap from November to March where I went into hibernation and gave up French. I moved into a new apartment.
• In March 2011, I flew to London and took a ferry to Dublin with Elliot. We were in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day. I got punched in the head by a leprechaun sized Irishman and consumed copious amounts of Guinness. We got pulled into a random Irish house party on St. Patrick’s day, it was awesome. I drove on the left side of the road. I drove through Killarney about 100 times (don’t believe Elliot if he says otherwise!) Everywhere we stayed, we had roommates from France. In spite of not speaking French for 3 months, my French had improved. This proved to be entertaining when I walked in on a menage a trois at 4am one night. I guess the Budweiser (ok, France, what were you thinking here??) tallboy and a shot of absinthe made up for that experience (it wasn’t pleasant.) Elliot missed his flight back to Spain, so we hung out another day in Dublin before I headed back to London.
• I got a new car. Hello 2005 Accord!

That’s it for now!