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