Everything is going by in a swirl: I'm one third of the way through my time here and I still can't help but feel like it's all very new still.
Each day, I still find myself picking up new vocabulary, trading 'Well, this is how I've done it, how do you?' stories, finding streets I didn't know existed and of course, meeting people.
It's hard at times not to feel a bit like some outside observer to it all—I'm only here for three months, which is long enough to make some connections and friendships, but still safe enough to know my entire life will not be wrenched from me when I pack up and leave before Christmas. And so I can watch, detached and interested.
I like it here—many nights I'm struck by the feeling that this too will be over very soon, except it won't really be—I'll just stop being here for it. I know I'm a bit narcissitic like this, but it's hard to imagine how people go on living and eating and drinking and getting themselves in and out of relationships when I'm not there to be a part of it myself. I've always gotten like this about vacations when it's time to leave: the tides are still coming in and going out on that beach, just like they have been for thousands of years—and they don't really care that I'm not there to see the sun set on them.
But I guess that's the point isn't it? To see what other things are like, realize something beyond yourself, grow from it, etc., etc? Anyway, I'm going to miss it when it's gone.
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Replies: 1
Our colleges in London are bitter rivals, but I thought I'd say hello anyway, and I'm glad you're liking London. One of my favourite places here is Spitalfields Market (Liverpool Street tube station) and the activity that spills out onto the surrounding streets on a Sunday morning. It gets weirder as you go from the main market further into Shoreditch - you get to a stretch where people have just put down sheets of cardboard and arranged all manner of random items which they somehow think people will want to buy. Inner questions like "Why on earth would I want to buy just the one slipper?" abound.
Posted by Michelle @ 10/21/2002 07:02 PM EST