Where they are Familiar and yet strange

So I have returned from England, and it was a truly incredible trip. Kate and I spent 3 days in England out in Colchester with a friend of mine from High School and we traveled into London each day. I have been so busy these last days, and so now I'm happy to be able to sit back and just update my blog a bit.

London was incredible. I was really struck by how familiar and yet dissimilar it was. The language was (mostly) the same, which probably had something to do with our enjoyment of the trip. We did some hard sightseeing (Big Ben, Westminster, Tower Bridge, London Tower, Buckingham Palace, etc) which is something we aren't use to doing here in Paris where we have all the time in the world.

Out in Colchester, Kate and I went out for a run in the English country side. It was unreal just following the gentle landscapes up and down, seeing these picture perfect fields complete with older gentlemen on their walks with sheep dogs. We passed the fields and into small towns where older women brought out cups of tea for the men working on their siding for them.

And we found a shipyard. Boats sat in the mud of a low-tide simply standing out against the gray skies overhead. The bay shimmered in the low light and the docks creaked and swayed in the light breezes. Off in the distance the landscape picked up again, probably on its way to the next town, where the sky stood exactly the same but the world was completely different. All around, in a sea of its own, was this wonderful silence that wasn't a silence at all. It was that low noise of life going on as it always does and yet changing with every tide. The march of time and tide continue on and it is here on earth that things change every second.

This trip was perfect in just about every way. I met up with an old friend who had moved to Europe in the 7th grade. It was unreal having a conversation with him in an English pub over a glass of Guiness and some fish and chips. We discussed the differences in politics between our countries and how much a person's home can affect their perspectives on things. Although Stephen was born American, he spent his critical years of self-realization in Europe- and that is what has made all the difference.

Kate and I also went around London with my friend Rebecca, her friend Amy, and Rebecca's Italian flatmate Alessandro. It was fantastic to hear Alessandro's perspectives on things considering that he has traveled so extensively. The open conversations about how we all go through life (Americans, Italians, Englishmen, etc) was truly what traveling is all about. With some people we had to explain how vast our country was- which then left me to reflect how, even in America, people are different in different places. We are a continent country with a universe of difference that I have never really seen until now.

The wonders of this world we live in will never stop. Time progresses, making history in an instant and maintaining it forever. On my run I passed a church from the 12th century and a graveyard to accompany it through eternity- and I was just struck by the peace that surrounded it. Castle walls and rivers older than I can imagine. Here I am, a single man in an enormous world. And all the same, I want to take in the beauty of it all.

Pictures to follow in the next post,
Nick

Week Six Concluded?

Scholastic armageddon has come to a close, and I'm still standing. Yes, this week I had exams in both French and Civilization (the civ exam took 2 hours to complete) but here I am, standing on the other side of forever- and how good it feels.

This week brings a much needed week break in which I will be traveling to London. I'm fairly excited to be headed somewhere I can speak the language with some confidence (ok, so they will make fun of my Yankee accent- whatever).

I, sadly, have not done much in terms of sightseeing this week due to the copious amounts of studying I had to do. But the good news is that I got an A on my first section of Civilization, so I have at least one grade settled away.

This weekend also marks Valentines day, which Kate and I will be spending here in Paris. Roses, food, and walks along the Seine river. Everything a good romantic needs to reflect on. Who would have thought, when I met Kate in my first year of college, that we'd be spending our third Valentine's day together in Paris of all places. To quote Dr. Seuss, "oh the places you will go"

Today, I am sadly a poet without words. Ihave nothing beautiful to give you save a picture or two.

Also, I want to give a Birthday wish out to my Aunt Valarie up in North Dakota!

For anyone with skype, please contact me at a_dangerous_scribe. If I'm on, its fair game to call me up.

Much Love,
Nick

 

Paris, this strange new Egypt

A monumental Noise

Can anyone help me with the name of this thing?

Lights and Rows, Lights and Lines

I apologize for the lack of updates this past week. It has been fairly hectic, but the good news is that I am caught up on all of my course work.

I climbed the Arc de Triumph yesterday. It was an utterly amazing sight. I had climbed through the ancient structure for three minutes along a spiral staircase. Higher and higher, ever pursuing something at the very top that I wasn't quite sure what it was. And then I got there.

The edges of the earth struck me first. Sunset was old by this point and it looked like embers were cooling somewhere in the west leaving behind the slowly radiating pinks and reds. And the winds were brisk and sweet. Somewhere off, beyond the Paris limits, small hills would rise completely covered in houses and churches. Some house lights were beginning to come to life. The air up there was truly something else.

I walked to the very edge where the obtrusive fence kept me from 167 feet of free fall. And there they were- the buzzings lines alight with commuters and visitors. Café lights and headlights all joined these strings of illumination spreading out across the city. There weren't black spaces where there were no lights. Instead, the building façades were just the sweetest shade of blue. And it all just hummed along tot he tune that is Paris.

And in the center of my vision was that tower- i think its called Eiffel or something. Yes all these strings of light seemed to run into it and run up to the top. Its peak was etched against the navy sky. I'll post pictures, but they don't do justice to that pinnacle of sights.



I still see grandma judy every day. The last Christmas I had with her, she had made me a small day planner that I remember thinking "Well damn, I just bought a planner." Since she passed, I turned it into a running log. She always loved what I was doing and supported me. And she always wanted to come and see my meets and my races- and I lament the fact that that's no longer possible. So, every day I write my daily run in that book so that she can be a part of what I'm doing. Every experience I have is shared- this I know. Standing at the top of the Arc yesterday, she was seeing what I was seeing, but not with human eyes. I think she understands things now much more deeply than any human reason could possibly reach. I take comfort in that I am living, and thus so is she.



Sometimes I can't tell the difference
Between the sweetest moments in my life
and the most devastating sorrows.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe the difference
Between the two is actually behind my eyes-
If the difference between being destroyed
By the endless sadness between the stars
And smiling as I fall asleep while looking
Into the eyes of each little point of life
Is all about whether or not I admit to myself
That nothing is really over.