I’m loving England. I know I’ve said that before, said it here, said it to all of you but this is experience is just getting more and more fulfilling as time going further. I’m 3 days shy of being here for a month. I’ve still got 4/5th of my trip remaining but I’m already wishing I could have stayed here for a year.
I just came inside off the roof. It’s a beautiful sunny day. Dominic sent me an IM saying “It feels like summer, mate. How about a cup of tea on the roof?” I pause and think “I really should work on that 3,000 word essay I have due Friday.” Before responding, I look at the assignment sheet again, and I read it wrong. No more than 1,000 words (I can type 125 words per minute. You do the math.) Plenty of time, seeing as I only have 1 hour of class tomorrow, no classes Friday and it’s not due until night time.
Dom was right, it feels like summer out. It feels like a summer in Boston, which meant I was sitting on the roof shivering like a baby, but I refused to put on a sweater. It was too beautiful out for one.
I’m making close friends here. I’m becoming very close with both Dom and Sam. Last night (or, I suppose this morning at 2:30) Dom and I played the best practical joke I have ever even heard of on Sam.
He told me once he sleeps with his window open. Dom and I climbed out on the roof. (parents and parentlike-readers: I promise going on the roof is safe. It’s flat, with a wall at the edge, and there’s about 8 feet of walking space between the windows and the wall). Sure enough, Sam’s window is open. Norwich England has virtually no crime… because they pretend it’s Harlem. There are bars over the window, but they’re wide enough part to pull back the shades and snap a picture. The flash woke Sam who started screaming.
“AHHHH, AHHHH!!!!” then he realized it was us. “JESUS CHRIST, DAVE!!!” He will retaliate eventually, and I will deserve it. I will keep you updated.
I’m still amazed I have a water front view. We sat on the roof, sipping tea, looking at the water, the forest and the big blue sky above us and talked about our lives. We’re both in the same boat of not knowing what we’re doing after college because we have about 200 things we could do that would make us perfectly happy, and we’re both excited about that.
Sitting on the roof, talking about my future was the first time since I’ve been here that I felt like I could enjoy going to graduate school right out of undergrad. This is not a proclamation of intent by any means, but it’s a really strong statement that this month I’ve been here has been what I needed. I need a break from Tucson. The journalism school has a pretty set path for us, and for the last 2 semesters I’ve had to take extra classes so I could afford a semester out of the program. That’s been rough. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve learned that journalism is not what I thought it was, and I do not respect, and do not want to associate with what it IS. (However, this happy blog post is no place for my “What’s wrong with journalism” rant.)
I logged onto my UofA account to look at my credits and transfer units and everything. (Sign language has transferred: so I’m officially a junior, and I’m a half-semester ahead of where I need to be. Boyeah!) I scrolled down to the journalism section and saw something amazing. I am 3 classes away from fulfilling my degree requirement. 3. Not only do I get a semester away from lying and stealing, but when I come back I only have 3 more classes on lying and stealing until I have a degree in lying and stealing!
I went into the city of London for my first time this weekend. It was very cool. I have to say though, cities are cities. They’re very big, they’re very cool. There’s a lot of touristy stuff and famous sites to see but the experience of being in a COMPLETELY different universe hasn’t really hit me, and certainly didn’t in London. To quote my friend Katie “Well, you are in America’s Mom…”
However, this isn’t necessarily bad thing. I haven’t felt a lick of homesickness, which I suspect has a strong correlation to the fact that I don’t feel like I’m on a different planet. (Before anyone calls me sadly… like Rachel… I miss all of you, and have been thinking of you all lots… I just don’t miss Arizona… or North Point… or living with Kinsey, for that matter.)
Anyway, back to London. I didn’t mean to say I didn’t enjoy my trip… I was getting at saying that I’m just becoming more and more aware of how happy I am living in this small England town on the coast.
I’m not going to give a play-by-play of London, but instead link you to pictures! It’s through Facebook but if you follow this link you DO NOT need a login or an account.
This is the link:
http://arizona.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2239258&l=63665&id=10125855
Anyway, it’s 4:50pm and I’m about to leave for the grocery store with Dominic. I’m out of food, except for 2 cans of canned chicken. (By the way: Mom, you told me to try canned chicken so I don’t die of mercury poisoning from eating too many tuna sandwiches. The canned chicken they have in England is one of the most foul, disgusting things I’ve ever seen. It tastes bad enough to give a goat a nightmare. I will just substitute my tuna ration with more peanut butter.)
Yeah, so I’m out of food and hungry! I hope you’re all well!
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