London and the Beginning of the End

I may love Barcelona but apparently my immune system doesn't. I had just recently recovered from a respiratory infection and was healthy for a whole four days when I woke up one day and inexplicably had lost my voice. We all know that the best way to heal laryngitis is to stop talking to people, so I did what any sane person would do and booked a solo trip to remove the temptation of speaking too much over the weekend (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I normally try to avoid going to the typical touristy cities that everyone else goes to while abroad, but I decided to give in to the peer pressure and give London a try.

I arrived in London to cloudy skies and the heavens decided to open up right as I stepped outside, but for once I was actually prepared with an umbrella. Fifteen minutes later the rain was done and that was miraculously the only bad weather of my time in the city. A British friend told me that the parks in London aren't to be missed, so I made a beeline to Hyde Park and it's there that I fell in love with London. Green grass and huge trees every where, I hadn't realized just how much I missed having green space. I wandered around the paths for quite some time before stumbling upon Kensington Palace - who knew? Okay apparently this is common knowledge, but I was quite surprised by the discovery that the palace is in the park.

I was able to track down a free tour to occupy some time on Sunday, where I learned that a drunk Irishman once successfully broke into Buckingham Palace to have a chat with the Queen and that Scotland's national animal is the unicorn. How can an imaginary animal be a national symbol, you ask? I'm not sure, and neither are the Brits, but I was assured by a couple of them that the Scotts are not to be trusted because of this minor detail.

On Monday I went to the Tower Bridge, walked past the London Eye (I was not about to pay $30 for an glorified ferris wheel, thank you very much), saw the Globe Theater (and asked myself "I don't even like Shakespeare, why am I here?"), and attended a choral service in Westminster Abbey. I closed out the day with a quiet evening and a picnic in St James' Park — shout out to the couple that gave me their beach chair rental so I could relax in comfort.

What turned out to be my favorite museum that I've been to in Europe, I went to the Natural History Museum on my last day of vacation. With a wide array of exhibits to keep me occupied, I drooled over the gem collections, gaped at the fossils, and spent plenty of time in the gift shops.

The solo weekend was great in that it gave me the break that I needed - both to heal my laryngitis and to give me time to think. Now that my time in Europe is coming to an end I've been facing an identity crisis of sorts. I know it sounds melodramatic but I've been faced with the fact that I now have two distinct lives and no good way of combining them. There's the comfortable one I lead in the suburbs and a small university town: surrounded by people I've known and loved for years, where my biggest worries revolve around school-work and planning for the future. And there's the independent life I lead in a city of 1.6 million people: in which people come and go with more frequency than I would like; where I'm surrounded by a language I love and have to adapt to the culture; in which my life is less hectic and I'm encouraged to focus on the present.

My life in BCN is quite literally a world away from everything I've ever known, but there's something about it that suits me. Have some less-than-pleasant things happened to me here? Yes. But there have been exponentially more good things than bad, and the culture has taught me to focus on those instead. I'm desperately trying to find any way to extend my stay by just a couple months, but as the deadline is drawing near the chances of living here longer only get bleaker. Walking around London gave me the time to come to terms with the fact that this adventure was only ever meant to be temporary. I know that when I go back to the States it will be great to see everyone I love again and that a part of me will be relieved to be back in my comfort zone, but for now I need a little more time with this life I've come to treasure. ❤️