London, Hastings, and Dublin

I guess it seems like a lot to cover in one post, but I'll do my best to be succinct. I did in fact get to go to London twice, Hastings, and Dublin over my fall break as well. Believe it or not, everything you just read about Machynlleth and Barmouth took place in less than two full days so there was plenty of time to venture elsewhere.



London was the scene of my next journal entry:
25/10/10

It's only two months until Christmas, so just over a month until I go back home. Tonight I'm in cold, but utterly bearable London. I got in early after a long day of trying to see things I didn't my first couple of times here, things a bit off the beaten path (but not too far). I've had a lot of time to think then, and with it being so close to the holidays and to my return home I figured I'd reflect a bit on my total experience so far. Going into the whole thing they told us to make sure we patched up any differences with people and that all of our familial and personal relationships be in good standing, because if not, they'd really eat away at us. I, knowing myself better than most people do, knew that everything would eat away at me no matter how it was before I left. And if I'm honest, I'd certainly taken my family for granted (see previous posts) and was unsure of how to approach the then current Katie situation. We hadn't necessarily been doing badly and I wasn't unsure she was the one I wanted to be with, she just hadn't taken care of a few issues I thought needed more attention and effort. They told me it'd change me, the whole experience. And I believed them. As stoic or constantly angry and uncaring of a person I appear to be, little things have a massive impact. Watching a dad hold his child's hand down the street



or a similar group playing soccer in the park, hearing a certain song when I'm in a certain mood (like today walking into Royal Albert Hall



listening to the Led Zeppelin concert at that very place 40 years earlier or walking around London with what emotionally became my soundtrack to the city, making the city make sense and seem to be in a sort of suspended animation. I was blasting my usual Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Clash while walking through crowds of unique people in the English capital!), watching any old stupid movie, anything can really leave its mark on me without me even having to pay much mind to it. I try to take everything in and tend to whether I want to or not anyway. I've definitely been some incredible places along the way, too, places I never thought I'd see, didn't think I'd care about, or didn't even know about beforehand. I remember calling my parents after the class trip to St. Peter's and telling them it was absolutely the best place in the world. At the time there was no doubt in my mind it was. Not long after I was privileged enough to go to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. Standing atop the peaks and gazing out over Europe I consciously decided that St. Peter's was the best man-made place ever and that Mont Blanc was the most incredible natural place I'd ever been to. But then I visited Wales. As I said, right now I'm in London and I never thought I'd be even slightly disappointed to be here, but yesterday I was. This concrete jungle is hollow feeling compared to the completeness I felt in Machynlleth, Snowdonia, and Barmouth. It's really made me think: have I changed that much? I've started to realize to the contrary. Everything around me is changing and all it's done is solidify what I knew of myself, my preferences, opinions, and values. As I mentioned, I had taken my family's love for granted, but that isn't to say I didn't already think they were the best family in the world. They are. And even though I knew it before I REALLY know it now. The situation with Katie has improved immensely like I always knew it would and she's starting to unlock the potential I've seen in her the last 8 years and watch other guys force her to bury under layers of anxiety, fear, and self-consciousness. I won't get into it too much, but I love her with everything I have. My feelings are absolute and encompass a thesaurus worth of synonyms and antonyms, really just all the ways love can be felt are right here. I'm Catholic. Of course I knew that before, but after some good and calm discussions with the classmates I have, my professor, and taking into account internal and external aspects I'm quite happy I was raised the way I was. To avoid even possibly offending someone I'll stop there. I'm more interested in the things or people or places that I was into before. I've had a bit of a revival in my interest in Led Zeppelin since I got to the UK (okay, more than a bit). There was something about the train trip up the Cambrian Coast and through Snowdonia, as well as being back in London, seeing concert venues and Jimmy Page's house that sort of made it all click again. And Wales was just unreal. I talked about that enough in my last entry, so I'll leave it at that. It was astonishing how perfect it was (yeah, I couldn't resist one last comment). Writing really feels like what I want to do now. I've never been that confident in my stuff, but everyone has responded so well to everything. It's been wonderful. The blog has turned into more than I could have hoped (and thanks for that, everyone), my school papers have gone much better than I expected, and my poems seemed well received at the talent show. It's made me a lot more confident in my abilities and my choice of focus in school. And all of the traveling I've done has led to a lot of inspiration and valuable reflection. It's been invaluable as I knew it would be. Even other things have been solidified in me. I love baseball and can't wait for the season to start (and to follow the awesome World Series match-up! I called it!!!), other sports are so much fun to play and watch, I love history and cultures (noting the similarities in people from place to place has been ace), I really like pizza (especially "American style"), etc. It feels like every little bit of my has become more pronounced and definite. So, if the Geneva people and everyone else meant that I'd be a different person by being exactly and wholeheartedly myself then they were right. The peripheral ideas and values have all solidified and become part of a mosaic of personal human characteristics, the coquina of the soul. The only change is more confidence in myself and my choices and more outward forthrightness as to simply being me. I guess that really is a pretty big change...

London was a lot of fun, again. The highlight was sitting in on The House of Commons at Parliament. It sounds rather boring, but it was incredible. The exchanges got rather heated and they were all British. Enough said there. The Tate Modern Museum was neat, being able to watch soccer matches was premium, etc. It was great to be there and sort of feel like I lived there because I wasn't doing the typical tourist stuff. I guess I'm sort of getting used to London now. OH!!! And they speak English there, which is incredible after 2 months of blurting out incorrect Italian phrases.

I felt like visiting Hastings for a few reasons. The main one was that while Katie and I were in Pittsburgh we say the East Hill Lift featured on one of the bulletin boards. I had to go there.



Also, though, I wanted to see the site of the battle and all of that good, historical stuff that I feel like no one remembers but me. Well, the Gauls picked a pretty good place to attack, let me tell you. There wasn't much there and the people felt like they probably would have been too sluggish to resist. It was neat being in a smaller town, though, and seeing a traditional English fishing village was worthwhile. Of course, whilst there I went for a traditional English seafood meal - Domino's Pizza's two-for-Tuesday deal with pepperoni. I'd recommend going in the summer if anyone wants to visit, because it was so cold and windy. Even the jacket I bought in Wales with an entire lamb inside wasn't enough.

Dublin, well not much to say about Dublin. It was probably my least favorite place that I've been to so far...maybe even including before I came to Europe. I loved the weather there and the chorizo and goat cheese pizza I had. That's about it.