Hey there!
So, I think this may be one of my final posts.
This week is my last week of classes and the following is
finals week. So much of my time is going to be spent studying, packing, and
preparing for the end of the semester. I will do a final, summarizing post upon
my return to the US to address the trip as a whole, but until them, I am going
to be phasing these posts out and shifting my attention to my other blog, registration,
completing the semester, and the things I need to be looking forward to in the
Summer such as employment and possible internships.
On a whole, I think I have done well to keep you all as
updated as I possibly could and it has helped me to be able to write about this
experience for the sake of my memory, a means of processing, as well as to
simply get me in the habit of writing every day without exception. It has been
valuable to me, and I hope that it was for you also.
My mother and sister recently left after having spent a week
visiting me. In general, we spent a lot of time covering the main sights and
introducing them to quintessential London. However, there were a few firsts for
me as well; on Friday we went to Stonehenge and that was really interesting. We
did not get very long to look around, but it was worth it just to say that I
have been to Stonehenge now. Additionally, the day before, we went on a tour of
Westminster Abbey which was really quite incredible. Some of the graves within
included that of Charles Darwin, many of the Monarchs, and the Poet’s Corner
which I found to be the most powerful site in the Abbey. Some 50 writers and
poets are buried or commemorated there; at least half of whom I have read.
Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, Handel, Henry Irving,
Rudyard Kipling, James Macpherson, John Masefield, Edmund Spenser, to name a
few of the names buried there. Other authors and artists are also simply
commemorated there with plaques even though they are not actually buried within
the Abbey; Shakespeare, Jane Austen, William Blake, the Bronte sisters,
Elizabeth Browning, Robert Burns, George Gordon Byron, Lewis Carroll, TS Eliot,
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Henry James, John Keats, CS Lewis, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, Walter Scott, Anthony Trollope,
William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, again, to list some select names that appeared
but not all of them. You can imagine the little heart palpitations I was
getting…
Anyway, this coming Friday Alyssa and I are planning on one
last excursion to Oxford. But other than that, the remaining time I have will
be spent here in London. Frankly, I don’t want to leave. I do not look forward
to returning to the boredom of North Idaho after such an adventure as this. It’s
sad, but true. More than ever I have realized just how much I love the city and
it is going to be hard to return to such a stark contrast when I go back. As a
result, my summer will be devoted wholeheartedly to work and my writing as a
means of keeping myself entertained. This experience has been unforgettable,
and I can only hope of returning one day. It has been a blessing, truly, to be
able to spend so long a time in London and get to know the city so thoroughly.
Certainly, it will have an effect on my education, writing, and self – I do not
yet know to what extent this experience will shape me, but I am curious to find
out.
Thank you for reading!
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