When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life

Here I am, on the precipice of one of life’s great adventures.  I think about the differences between this trip and the previous one, a study abroad experience in 2010, and although it seems like only six years have passed, in reality so much has changed.  I’m about to join my fiancé to work in London for three months – a city where we met while studying abroad in 2010.  That semester abroad brought me so many happy memories, lifelong friendships, and most importantly, my future husband!

Six years ago, I didn’t have a texting plan and I used a blocky slide phone; no one I knew had a smartphone.  Now, I’m charging my iPhone at an airport bar and every single person here is staring at a glowing laptop or mobile phone screen.  I was a college student, living on a very tight budget that semester.  Now, I am a real adult in the working world.  I had barely been away from home, having commuted to NYU.  Since then, I’ve traveled – not too extensively, but enough to have broadened my horizons and to have witnessed the beauty of parts of the world – and moved out of the comfort of home.  I hope I’ve grown into a more level-headed, well-rounded person in the last six years, and I hope London will welcome us back with open arms.

As we were driving to JFK this evening, we were greeted by one of the most stunning sunsets; the sky was first wispy with cotton candy-like pink clouds, then turned fiery and orange red.  I like to think New York wanted to show us a nice last view.

Enough ruminating!

I’m very proud of Alex for all he’s accomplished in his brief career so far, so much so that his company is basically funding this entire stint abroad.  Alex arrived in London in 2010 as an NYU Stern student studying accounting and he wound up in a Big Four firm after graduation.  (Very different story from me, who arrived in NYU London thinking I’d be deep in medical school now.)

We will be staying in an apartment/studio/hotel kind of set up in The City of London, like the OG square mile city of Londoninium.  I’ve been telling people we’re between St. Paul’s Cathedral and The Monument (as in, the monument commemorating the 1666 Great Fire).  The apartment is just over the river from the Borough Market/Southwark scene.

While Alex goes off to work every day in Canary Wharf, I’ll be making myself nice and cozy and working in the apartment.  I am so blessed and grateful to my company for allowing me to work remotely for such a long time.  (Wouldn’t have this opportunity if I were in med school!)  I’ll be working East Coast hours, so I have to get used to something like a 2pm to 11pm schedule…that’ll probably be a little rough at first since I’m not a night person.  Come to think of it, I’m also not a morning person, and I don’t like the afternoon slump, so…what kind of a person am I???  I’m going to push myself to go out and exercise and run errands in the morning, and just get to unwind and enjoy the bustling life surrounding me.

The Move

Packing for this trip was extra hard.  I had just moved in with Alex this past July, but he had been in that same apartment for four years, and had accumulated a lot of…things.  When we come back from London, the goal is to move into Manhattan shortly after, so we also had to move all our things out of the apartment, on top of packing for London.  Let me tell you, I never want to relive those last few days of sweaty schlepping and running up and down stars.  When we move into our next place, I’ll hire movers.

Another big change was that when we studied abroad, for the most part we were able to check two pieces of baggage for free.  I didn’t even pack that many items with me, basically the minimum for living, but I did have a second bag to check, for which I just had to fork over $100.  The business of air travel is a racket.

The Next 103 Days

Yeah, we already calculated the number of days until we have to come home, but this is the case where the countdown is wistful, something that I'm not terribly looking forward to.  I remember the elation when my countdown to departure hit 0 days...imagine my sadness come January 3, 2017.

Before I get too sad thinking about the end, though, I really should just live the next 3 months to the fullest - visit new places, revisit old haunts, meet some new people, find old friends still in London, eat great food, travel around Europe as much as we can....  It's going to be a good 103 days.

Well, peace out America, it's been real.