Honesty

So remember a few posts back when I tried to define the city of London and all that it entails? Well, that still holds true. No words that man has made can encompass all that the eye can take in, ere it fail to ensnare that which is most fair, most dangerous, most lovely of a city built of stone and time. By the way, I went to Stratford this past weekend, hence I'm writing a little bit old school every now and then. More on that later.

At any rate, while making plans for the end of the semester after classes let out, a conversation came back to me that I had had with a friend of mine a few months back. I jokingly told her that I had fallen in love with a city I had never met, to which she also jokingly replied something about my girlfriend not being too pleased if she ever heard about it. However, that joke has now turned out to be something quite true. I have fallen in love with Europe, more specifically London. Perhaps it's the independence or the lighter class load, or maybe it's the chance to break out of the mold and meet some new people, create new memories in new places and sip wine in a flat while watching a horrendous BBC sitcom. Maybe it goes deeper than that, though. It's something different than what I am used to and I don't envy anyone who has to put up with my restlessness this summer. Or could it simply be that morning runs through Hyde Park, bus rides with laughing friends at 3 a.m. and a kind female voice telling me to mind the gap have crept into my sub-conscious and made me feel at ease or even, dare I say, at home?

The long and short of it is...I don't want to come back. I can't leave this, my first true taste of life outside the busyness of the United States and of international travel. It digs into a certain area of the heart and lies kindred with some ancient desire to roam and see the world that I had forgotten until now. This has little to do with what is in store for me when I return to New York, both with summer plans and with family and friends. I have grown to love the sunsets out the window and the relaxing feeling of strolling down the street past a museum or passing by pubs that are older than the nation I was born in. There is a list of thousands of things that make this place feel, just...right to me and when you've found something right, you shouldn't let it go.