Terra Incognita

things i'm going to miss about london
...flat one dance parties.

the end draws nigh
I feel like I should have some eloquent passage about the fabulous experience of being an American student living in London. I ought to reflect on all that I have learned, all that I will take home with me. I should recount how much my outlook on life and the world has changed and how I have morphed into an explorer of many nations and an aficionado of countless cultures. Instead, I feel like I've barely had a glimpse of what this Earth holds. I have changed in my level of confidence and charged up desire to travel, but otherwise I will return home still unsure of my outlook on the War and still set in the American mind-set of bigger, bigger, bigger.

this is just the beginning
I'm hooked. This semester has sparked in me a need to travel. Yesterday, Megan, Ellen, Mary Pat, Seth and I went to the Natural History Museum. Outside they had a display, called something like Earth from Above, which had photographs looking down on spots all over the globe. There were dozens upon dozens of photos and the only one of a place I had been was an aerial shot of Venice. I haven't been to Morocco, to Iceland, to Ecuador. And it's not just exploring the world that I want to do. All the weekend trips I have done have opened to me a craving to explore where I am, wherever I am. I have been to the capitals of five different countries (the U.K., Ireland, France, Italy and Greece) and I've never set foot in Washington DC. I've seen the Vatican and the David and have never seen the Statue of Liberty or the Grand Canyon. Even in Missouri I haven't explored where I could. I've scarcely seen any of St. Louis and I'd love to visit the Ozarks again. This semester has taught me how to travel cheaply and I intend to continue that when I return.

my last day in london
I'm not too sure what to do with my final 24 hours. I have hit all the spots that I really wanted to see but I definitely do not want to sit in my flat, cooped up with packed suitcases and 18 rolls of film. I'm mostly packed. Tonight will be the intense cleaning of the flat (and probably the discovery of a whole suitcase's worth of more items to tote home) and tomorrow will be the carry-on packing. As of now, I haven't even expanded my bags to their full packing potential so it looks like I might be able to make it home with the same number of bags with which I arrived. (Thanks to a stuffed duffel bag of clothes, etc. that my family took with them when they left, of course.)

where to find me
Sunday evening, granted that Air India is not striking, I will fly eight hours across the Pond on the most uncomfortable, curry-filled flight. I will return to Manhattan on Monday evening...unless I can get to KCI on an earlier stand-by. I'll be at home until Friday, May 2, when I go to Columbia for a few days. Ellen's 21st is that day so we're going to go out in Columbia together for the first time. I'll be in Columbia until Tuesday morning. It'll be great to see my friends again. My sister graduates from high school on May 18. I'm super-excited to spend time with my grandparents and cousins. It'll be the first time in my memory to see both sets of grandparents together. I love being with both of them so it'll be an extra blessing to enjoy all four of them at once!

a bit of bryson
Here are some Bill Bryson excerpts I deem appropriate to end my entry:

Do you have any idea, other than in a vague theoretical sense, just how desperately crowded Britain is? Did you know, for instance, that to achieve the same density of population in America you would have to uproot the entire populations of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and Texas and pack them all into Iowa?

...it occurred to me, not for the first time, what a remarkably cherishably small world Britain is. That is its glory, you see - that it manages at once to be intimate and small-scale and at the same time packed to bursting with incident and interest. I am constantly filled with admiration at this - at the way you can wander through a town like Oxford and in the space of a few moments pass the home of Christopher Wren, the buildings where Halley found his comet and Boyle his first law, the track where Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile, the meadow where Lewis Carroll strolled...Can there anywhere on Earth be, in such a modest span, a landscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment?

to sum it up
...in the words of Bryson, of course:

The fact is that this is still the best place in the world for most things - to post a letter, go for a walk, watch television, buy a book, venture out for a drink, go to a museum, use the bank, get lost, seek help, or stand on a hillside and take in a view.
All of this came to me in the space of a lingering moment. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like it here. I like it more than I can tell you. And then I turned from the gate and got in the car and knew without a doubt that I would be back.