Tipping Point

So yeah, I'm late on posting another entry, I'm sorry, I suck, yadda yadda, you all know the drill by now. My Midwestern people-pleasing guilt is in full force.

I can.not.believe that it is practically mid-April at this point. If you want time to go super super fast, move abroad and live with 18 college students (it's also a good way to get gray hair fast). We are down to just 4 'normal' weeks left in the house, plus our official Spring Break is NEXT WEEK. I can hardly wait--Carrie arrives on Friday morning to hang out with me here for about 9 days (til Sunday April 25th). I convinced her that I just HAD to get out of town if she came to visit over my break, so she was game enough to go along with my idea to get us to Barcelona, Spain, for four days next week! That's right, it's a trip-within-a-trip for Carrie and a little getaway for me, since break times are the only times I can leave the house overnight. Carrie and I have been talking about going to Spain for years, and so it's very exciting that it's actually happening. During our Grand European Tour of 2001 (something like 9 countries in 4 weeks), Carrie and I didn't quite get to Spain and everyone was always talking about Barcelona and how fun it was. Granted, now we are in our thirties and aren't on the Lush Tour of 2001 anymore, I hope it is still fun. My hunch says it will be, and probably sunnier and warmer too. So, fun stuff ahead.

Looking back on the last couple of weeks, it's been another whirlwind of activity. I got to spend some time with Leslie, a UNI friend-of-a-friend and spent a lovely Sunday up at Hampstead Heath, a HUGE park with a big hill that overlooks the entire city; went to see Macbeth in a weird modern staging but came away impressed overall; went to Tate Modern again and had a lovely guided tour (by students) of the Southbank area, which is way cooler than I expected; and best of all, was visited by my friend Julie for Easter weekend!

Having Julie here was great. London is an entirely different place for me when I have a playmate my own age to go around with (and someone who I don't have to grade at the end of the term), and just as it was when Chris was here, we had a great time. Since Jules had been here before, we skipped a lot of the mega touristy stuff and focused on the mildly touristy things, which often involved shopping. We went to four markets total (Camden, with all the cool punk stuff; Portobello Road--the cool market in Notting Hill that makes me wish I was rich and liked antiques; Spitafields, which just has a great atomosphere and also makes me wish I were rich; and Petticoat Lane, the one place in London where you actually CAN feel rich, because everything there is ridiculously cheap. This is mostly a clothing market, which of course means I love it, and since I've been there twice I've gotten cute jeans for 5 pounds (roughly $7.50) and several shirts for 1 pound each ($1.50...granted, they are plain t-shirts and whatnot, but still, IN PRINCIPLE, I had to buy them). Julie and I were also able to locate a God Save the Queen Sex Pistols t-shirt for me for 5 pounds, and a Clash t-shirt for her for the same. Not that either one of us really listens to those bands, but I freaking love the iconic Sex Pistols image of the queen for the album (if I can figure out a way to attach an image on this post, will do so below) that I don't care. I'm psyched. I can look like a rock 'n roll badass now.



Anywho, Julie and I had a delightful Easter in that we decided that rather than getting some lame-o Easter roast beef or something, that we were going to shell out and do 'Afternoon Tea' British style. Now, one would think that this is no big deal, but I'm here to tell you Americanites, it IS a big freaking deal (with a big freakin' price--our formal tea cost 15 pounds/23 dollars...and it was a cheap one for sure). Getting the damn tea was another story. After stopping by two museums and having drama in each one (let's just say that the museums are NUTSO on Easter Sunday) we thought, screw it, let's shell out and go to do tea at Harrods (for 21 pounds each). We were on a mission. We walk and walk, and get to Harrods only to find a batch of tourists all standing in front of Harrods, perplexed because it was closed. On Easter Sunday. Well, duh. And yet, I was pissed and confused. First of all, surprisingly most tourist sights were open on Easter, so really we could do any number of things, and wouldn't it be to Harrods benefit to be open too? To serve us tea, dammit? As if their employees need a holiday! (j/k, of course). But seriously, Harrods is owned by Mohammad al Fayed (father if Dodi, and apparently the future father-in-law of Diana if things had gone differently in Paris in 1997)...who I am pretty darn sure is MUSLIM. Hello, what are you doing on Easter anyway, Mohammad? Julie and I wanted our tea, sorry. Bitchiness ensues.

So dejected and sad since it was Julie's last day in town/last chance for high tea, we were just about to go to McDonalds or something instead when we practically walked right up to a storefront called 'The Tea Room'. It was red and fancy, and had afternoon tea for 15 pounds. Done! So we went, and even though there were several tables open on the main floor, somehow Julie and I get seated in the empty basement. Well, to be fair, there was a Spanish-speaking family there with some very loud children, but they left soon after...apparently we got the special 'American' room for our tea, which got to be more funny than anything. Anyway, the point is, Afternoon Tea is the bomb (da bomb? is that how you say it?). So it comes with your own teapot (I should hope so, for 23 freaking dollars) and then this lovely little rack of plates with small sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) and little scones and this delicious clotted cream that tastes like whipped butter. We ate and ate and drank and then found out we got to pick out a monster dessert. Julie got some delish cheesecake and I of course went for a slice of chocolate cake the size of Montana. We ate so much I was seriously bloated when we walked out of the crazy Tea Room, but it was worth it. Afternoon tea is no joke, people...don't eat beforehand, and be ready to be there for a couple of hours. I found myself wishing I had been wearing a dress and some gloves to boot.






So that was a terrific weekend with Julie, and last week was fun/crazy as well...Last Tuesday I went to see the Cuban National Ballet (uh, put that under the category of 'things not seen in America') which was terrific. Then Thursday we had the trip to Stonehenge and Bath with students--it was cool to go again, mostly because it wasn't so GOD AWFUL COLD like it was when Chris and I were there, and it was fun to see them enjoy it so much.




This last weekend was pretty low key as I'm trying to get my ducks in a row for break, and to get ready for the transition back to Sylvia, our normal cook/house manager, and her return. Today was Chris the Cook's last day and I was sad--in tears even. He was so sweet, bringing me little presents every single day (usually in the form of tasty Greek food, though he brought me a wine key once which was pretty cool). I had a couple pics taken of him and me and printed them out, and plan to send a postcard from Eckerd as soon as I'm back. He was certainly a bright spot and I'm lucky to have gotten to know him while I was here.


And so, that has me waxing philosophic a bit, leading me to the title of this post--the tipping point. It's amazing how the energy and psyche of everyone (students and me) has changed in the last week or so. Two weeks ago, I thought people were going to kill each other--they are sick of each other, of the close quarters, of the food, of the chilly weather. And then...the sun is out longer, the temps warmer, the city is coming to life, and the realization that time is ticking away VERY fast has hit all of us. Suddenly, people have energy again, and folks are more on the go than ever, including me. Considering I've been here a solid 10 weeks, I still have a huge 'bucket list' of things I want to do yet in London that is going to take some serious strategy to complete. And as much as I will be so happy to be back in my normal life, my normal living situation, and back in the land of big pops (sodas, to translate to all you non-Midwestern types) and ice and customer service, I will miss things about London so very much.

I think it was finally in the last week or so that I've truly started to 'feel' like a Londoner. I know my way around, have been to many neighborhoods by now, though it's still amazing to me what surprises I find just when I think I know an area. That's the true joy of getting to live in such a big city, at least for me. Coming from Iowa and only really living in smallish cities (or big-ish ones like Minneapolis and Tampa Bay, which are large but not pedestrian at all), it's so much fun to have so MUCH available, almost all the time, right at your fingertips. I'm already dreading going back to FL where I have to drive miles to the nearest coffee shop, or where I simply have to drive at all and can't take the Tube on the 'Jubilee' or 'Bakerloo' lines (my two favorite subway line names here). I'll miss being asked for directions about 20 times per day from all kinds of people and tourists and being able to answer them easily and well (yep, I'm still the Direction Queen of London). I will miss having awesome museums and theatre at my fingertips, though my pocketbook will be happy for a rest after all the shows I've booked for myself (I think I'll have seen a total of about 20 plays/musicals/performances in my time here, which is more than one per week average...in the week alone after Spring Break, I have three). I'll miss the daily joys of figuring out the bus lines (yes, sadly, this is a joy for me) and listening to charming disembodied voices telling me to Mind the Gap. (As you can see, what it really comes down to is a love affair with public transportation, apparently...)

On the other hand, I think I have had a bit of a tipping point personally as well. My whole life I have been full of wanderlust, wanting to go, go, go all the time, and constantly plotting my next trip in my head while in the middle of another. I definitely will always be a traveler, but I'm also finding that the idea of home, and making a home, and being AT HOME, sounds pretty darn amazing as well. Is this maturity? Growing old? Crap. A lot of this may come from the fact that in the last week or so, there seems to be a rush of bad news circulating about with people in my world--including the sudden loss of a friend's father, to the tragic, tragic suicide of an old friend from Northern Iowa (hadn't talked to her in several years, but this shocking news still makes my head spin and eyes fill with tears to think about it) and various illnesses of other folks as well. I think that while the news is horrible and hard to deal with while I am away from my normal support system, it is a good wake-up call for me: Karen, stop bitching about dishes and loud students. You live in London, for crying out loud, and get to amazing things on a daily basis, and guess what, life is short. Not to sound like an after-school special, but it's true. I think the tipping point has come where I'm really, really walking around the city, milking it for all it's worth, with my eyes wide open (also in part so I can continue to try to not run into people constantly...the human bumper car thing still continues).

Anyway, I'll leave you at this for now. I promise that my randomness and sarcasm will return in my next post, which will also likely be full of stories from Carrie's visit, if not before. Til then, friends...thanks for reading.