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.
