A few pictures incase you don't want to read! I cycled over to Kingston-on-Thames and Richmond over the weekend - LOVELY, lovely cycle. South West London...most West London is truly beautiful!
I accidentally knocked over a few phone booths one day...oops!
Hampton Court Palace
Life in the UK, from a Canadia girl
No, it is not a spelling mistake. I truly am a Canadia girl – at least that’s what a few students have mistaken me for. I can locate, on any map, where Ireland, Scotland, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and America are – all places I have been accused of originating from. The illusive country however, remains Canadia.
Living in the UK has been an experience of a lifetime. Besides learning how truly independent, mellow and open I have become as a young adult (I use adult in the loosest form possible), I have learned so much about this culture that seemed so familiar but so far out of reach from a small town girl such as myself. When I think back to my life a year ago – working at a failing Ski Resort, social life non-existent, drowning in student loan debt, looking for my post-grad place in life – if you told me that only 12 months later I would have spent a week in Poland, Budapest, Scotland and called Oxford and London home, I would have said “That’s a nice dream!”...or something like that.
It seems very strange to think that as people, particularly young people, we have the world at our fingertips – more so today than ever before. Yet we feel so incredibly limited.
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Wimbledon (yes, there is more than just tennis courts!) a few days ago and overheard...okay, was COMPLETELY eavesdropping...a middle aged woman telling two friends that she “wasn’t bad with money, just feels a need to seize the day and take in every opportunity because you never know.” It sounds like a reckless excuse to just go anywhere when you want. However, she went on to say that she didn’t think she would make it to see “today” after having battled cancer. It’s easy to think, okay well that is a legit way to look at life because she survived cancer. We have all heard it before, “live like you were dying” (thanks Tim McGraw), “dance like no one’s watching”, “carpe diem”. There is a REASON we cling to quotes (we being the lucky ones to not have life threatening diseases). How many times have you said you will “live like you were dying”? I bet you succeeded about as many times as you said you would start “eating healthier and exercising more” (which by the way, I totally need to start doing!).
It is moments like that that you really stop in your tracks...for me, it made me think of friends who have died untimely deaths – under the age of 24. It also makes me think of the older generation who have since perished – the ones who, unless they immigrated from England or Europe, they never got to see this side of the pond. I have felt a sense of owing it to myself, but also a part of this journey is for those who cannot and will not make this journey.
Living in England has definitely had it’s hard times and stressful times. The hard times, in a country that is strange and foreign and does not have the safety net of your parents close by, really builds strong character – the kind of character that is going to pull you through the challenges and bumps, unscathed.
I have not given it much thought to be honest, but it has been brought to my attention more than once by different people: I moved myself, alone, 4000 miles away from my comfort zone to a foreign land where I did not know anyone. I do feel extremely proud of myself when they put it in those words. I will remain the same unphased girl who landed in London’s Heathrow airport, alone on a Saturday night after having traveled for 20 hours. Okay, I was tired and probably a little smelly...but definitely unphased.
The tough days bring to me a place where I feel like I are behind in life. Friends back home are having babies, getting married, buying houses, settling into careers (not all in that order). I feel like I should be falling into that category – I have had moments, many more than you might think, of “I need to move home, find a man and start my life”. I shake out of that though and remember that there is a word for that: desperation. Not a word that describes me.
The fact remains, I am 24 years old (yes, almost 25, but hanging on to 24), single, 2 degrees in my pocket and the world at my finger tips. Perhaps having children and settling into my career are not in the stars for me just yet. Perhaps, I am one of the few who reach past the quotes, reach past the expectations, reach past what is written and really blaze my own trail of unique tales and once in a lifetime experiences.
The point of being over here is not to rush out and see as much of Europe as I can – initially it may have began as that. No, my point of being over has become so much more personal...intimate, if you will. It has become a personal quest to not just see the world, but to truly experience the world. A lot of people can say they were in France, or they were in Spain or maybe even Greece. That’s cool. When the cool factor passes, what do you remain with? When you are done talking to people about traveling to those places, what are YOU left with.
Poland – I am left with the lasting physical images of humankind at its worst.
Hungary – I am left with the special moments of putting aside language and culture differences to celebrate and simply enjoy...together.
Scotland – Aside from a few hangovers, I am left with the beauty of tens of thousands of people celebrating the end of 2010 and welcoming 2011 as one.
Being in England and traveling to Europe has certainly made this world so much smaller for me. Seeing the world IS attainable. In Canada, and North America in general, we have this stigma that you have to save for years before you can experience Europe. Why? This life is fleeting – before you know it, you have children, you have careers that you cannot just leave at any moment, you have responsibilities. From about the age of 15, we are SO quick to grow up and WANT to grow up. Why? To that I say, experience. Experience 15 and 16 and 17...enjoy those years. One day you will wake up and they will be gone, you WILL have those responsibilities and legitimate excuses to NOT go out and see the world.
Traveling the world and experiencing different cultures is certainly not for everyone. I have met people in the UK who have never left their county (no, not another spelling error, COUNTY!). I think it is important for people to be happy with the choices that they make in life, which is really the bottom line. Am I going to be happy in 5 years, when I am still paying off student loans, about my decision to live, work and travel in Europe? WITHOUT QUESTION. Aside from the traveling opportunities, as I said earlier, the character building alone, this has been worth the lack of money I have paid back on my student loans. Years down the road, I will probably forget who I lived with, who I traveled with, where I traveled, why I traveled, what I was even doing in the UK...but the time I am spending here, I truly believe are shaping my life and shaping who I will be and the direction my life will take. That is what is really important to me.
When I first met my English cousin, Amanda, her two beautiful children were just 2 and almost 1. We saw them on and off until they were school age and moved over to Canada for good. Until I moved over to the UK, I was very much a part of their lives and have even been known as their favorite Canadian cousin. Since being over here, I have mutually adopted a family with two children, almost 2 and 5 months when I met them. The children both know me and I hate being away from them and their parents for more than a week. I have thought about September 2012 when my visa expires and the Queen kicks me back across the ocean. Oscar will be nearly 4 and Jessica 2 ½ . It makes me so entirely sad that I will not be a part of their lives past the age of 4 and 2 ½. I mean there are pictures and maybe a visit here and there, but I just can’t imagine missing out on...(excuse me while I get a tissue) their lives. It has blown my mind how incredibly close I have become with their family. The only solution is finding a bloke to stay in the country...yep, definitely the only way.
The experience of teaching will be written in a chapter of its own, maybe even a book of its own! Those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning (...mom) will remember the....uh...experience (?) I had about writing my specific school experiences out in my blog. I will refrain from doing that now, and save it for the published version of the book, and maybe when I am safely across the pond, instead.
I tend to be very in touch with things that are going on and able to write out how I feel about them – so this is always my most favorite medium to express myself.
I don’t know what sparked today’s entry...probably having the most mellow of panic attacks having not worked in nearly a month. See – I have grown – May 2010 Emily would be in tears thinking the world was coming to an end and seeing no way out. May 2011 Emily...or Emily 2.0 if you will, sees this as a mere challenge – so bring it on world (bring on the work I mean), I will come through this challenge, unscathed and laughing about the time I couldn’t go and stalk Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon at their premiere because I literally had no money for the tube ride.
Note to self: April is not a working month in the UK (noted and noted).
Much love xo.
