Reminiscent Summer Mornings

This whole summer seems to be going by in a blur. I'm only weeks away from going back up to Seattle and I honestly can't tell you what I've been doing these last two months. Lots of sleeping I guess? Well, I've finally kind of gotten my life together to start working on the paper I have to write as a reflection on my time in Morocco. So far, I think I've maybe written two paragraphs (of around 15 pages...) but it's something. With only two paragraphs though, I see that everything is slowly but surely fading from my memory. Not as a whole, but the little details I expressly told myself I wanted to hold onto.

Anyway, this all prompted me to break out the journals and sketchbooks and stacks of mementos of my whole year. In that stack I found the letter my friend Josie wrote to me while in London. She typed it out on the old typewriter she had just bought somewhere in town as I lay on her bed, eyes-closed, exhausted, and finding the repetitiveness of the loud typing soothing. I love reading and rereading this letter because it so succinctly sums up my feelings at the end of my time abroad, especially in the last few lines:

"'God willing'- as your favorite Arabic phrase goes, we shall enjoy tomorrow....Today we couldn't believe we were 21, almost done with college and a year away from being responsible for ourselves. We couldn't believe a year abroad was almost over. Here's to another day we can't believe happened...and the future that is impossible to plan and will according to our designs- a future we can only hope for, to reach out across the water towards a future we greet with the words 'God willing.'"

A Second Glimpse of London

Tower Bridge

My second trip to London was to visit Josie. And it turned out to be the absolute perfect way to end my time in Europe. I had such a great time, reminiscing with Josie, waking around sunny London and seeing Shakespeare in the Globe.

Near Brick Lane

I took the train from Grenoble that morning. My host parents brought me all the way to my train platform. Weighed down by absurdly heavy luggage I got kisses goodbye and was told I needed to come back soon. I was only teary eyed on the train for a little as I went over the last ten months in my head. 

Brick Lane

 So I arrived at London St. Pancras station around 2pm and after dropping my luggage off at her apartment, we headed over to Brick Lane. I had never been and wanted to check out the vintage shops and we were thinking Indian for dinner.

Pork belly at Potato Merchants

 Somehow we wound up getting pork belly, 3 kinds of potatoes and cider over at Eyemouth Market instead. It was a little hairy, but delicious nevertheless. After dinner we bussed around town looking at sights and stopped at Picadilly Circus. From there we walked to Trafalgar Square and then down to Parliament and the river Thames. We walked along the river and eventually all the way back up to her apartment in Islington.

The Thames at sunset

 The next morning we came up with a plan, and that plan called for scones. So we went to Maison d'Être, an adorable little cafe where we had a long and tasty breakfast.

Tea and scones at Maison d'Être

Indoor market

 From there, we took a bus down to Burroughs Market and walked around before heading over to the Globe, where we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was so fantastically played and we were laughing hysterically the entire time.

Inside the globe

We stayed in that night. Cooked dinner and watched a movie in anticipation of my very early morning flight the next day.