As promised yesterday, I’m ending July and kicking off August with a post featuring my plans for post-exam travel! As is traditional, most law firms have their first-year associates start working at least one month after the exam in late July, and typically closer to two. Everyone needs the time to unwind and relax before diving in to a demanding new job. Most recent grads take some sort of “bar trip” which can mean anything from a six-week-long backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, to three weeks of luxury globetrotting, to a week down the Cape with friends and family. Some people even use it as the perfect time for a wedding and honeymoon. Others choose to go home and do absolutely nothing. I’m planning a bit of a grab bag, beginning with my August adventures.
I’ve known pretty much since the first year of law school that I wanted to use some of this time to return to England to visit my friends from Oxford, most of whom I haven’t seen in the more than three years since we left. And I’m making good on this with a two-week jaunt in mid-August. Unfortunately, there was no way to accommodate everyone’s different schedules, so I will end up missing some dear friends. But on the bright side, I’ll get to see the others! I’m planning to be based in London at one friend’s flat, and another friend and I are heading up north on a five-night adventure to the Lake District, where I’ve always wanted to go, for hiking and sailing and pretty much no technology, which sounds fantastic to me now. I’m also planning to take a few day trips to places near London I never made it to, like the city of Bath and Chatsworth, a stately home (I wanted to visit Highclere Castle, where they film Downton Abbey, but those tickets sell out FAST.)

Outside Brasenose College, Oxford
I’ll head home from Heathrow, and hang out and relax in Ridgefield for a little more than a week. The last weekend in August will feature my best friend’s baby shower as a spot of excitement. And then just before Labor Day I’ll be flying to Los Angeles, for nine days in California kicking off with a long weekend at Disneyland for the Dumbo Double Dare. I’ll be running with my cousin and my good friend from law school, who lives in San Diego, and then heading down to her house there for several days, which I am also very excited to do. She’s planning to convince me that the left coast is the best coast, so we shall see how that goes!

Part 1 of my Coast-to-Coast at the WDW Half Marathon in January
Thereafter, plans are a bit up in the air. I will definitely be visiting one of my close friends who now lives near Nashville toward the end of September, and I can’t wait since I haven’t seen her since she moved there nearly a year ago! I have another high school friend who lives in Dallas and I am trying to make my first trip to Texas as well. I’ll probably also head up to Boston for a weekend to visit several friends from growing up who live in and around Beantown. My job starts in mid-October so I’ve got time to figure it all out. No matter what happens, I have a feeling the next couple of months will be wonderful!
How was your July? Any exciting plans for August?
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Have fun traveling!!! I think we’re delaying our summer vacation until October since we have a crazy August! I can’t wait to get a trip booked though!
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Hope you go somewhere awesome!
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YAY for such fun travels! Visiting friends, especially in new places is the best. My best friend from high school went to college in Dallas and stayed long after. I put off visiting for so long, but when I finally did I fell in love! If she didn’t move back to NYC, I think she would’ve had a pretty convincing argument to get me to move there!
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My August will not be as exciting as yours π But I know being a law student, this break will be well deserved! I hope you have an awesome time everywhere you to!
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Sounds like a great plan! I am finally going to the beach this month…I always wait until August to take a vacation and by the time I gets here I am SO ready!
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hehehe, that’s awesome! I definitely had a tonnnnn of friends who stuffed their weddings into that space between boards and starting 3rd-year rotations last year!! I can’t wait to read about your adventures in Europe! I think my next vacation of sorts gets to be in late December, so I’m hoping I’ll get to use it to hang out with my family/friends again! *-*
P.S. Boards were terrible and I’m convinced that I failed. :'(! I desperately hope that I’m wrong and that it’s just post-boards syndrome, haha.
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I am sure you didn’t – I think it is post-bar/boards status quo to feel like that!
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If anyone deserves a vacay, it’s you- I love travelling and can’t wait to read how yours go- Especially with a brain free from legal jargon…until you return π
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Thank you! I’ll probably end up posting daily when I return from each trip for at least a week since I view the blog as a travel diary of sorts too π
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