Farewell, London

Well, I’ve come to the end. My last exam is tomorrow and I leave London on Thursday.

I prepared for this semester for over a year and I can’t believe it’s actually ending. Everyone said it would go by quickly, but the fact that I’ve lived in London for almost four months without realizing it is mind-boggling.

I could absolutely imagine living in this city again someday, for real. London is its own world: a dynamic, magnet of a place for people all over the globe; to find culture, to love, to escape. London is comforting, magnifying, terrifying, and enveloping to all the lives that exist within it.

Londoners and non-Londoners alike complain about London all the time: the weather, the traffic, the fact that London sucks everyone into its vacuum. “Yet in its depths what treasures!”

Though many come to London for the tea and the royalty and the history, everyone else comes to London for its possibility. History is heavy. Opportunity, and building from that history, is invigorating. King George VI said that it is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of Londoners stands resolute and undismayed. Sadiq Khan tweeted this weekend that London is an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear.

My uncle Thad visited this weekend, and showing him around was a perfect way for me to sum up everything I’ve done and seen here. Though I’ve discussed my experiences through each of my weekly posts, it’s difficult for me to articulate a grander summary of my experience and how much of a lasting impression it will leave. For now, I’ll add some photos below of my favorite London memories. The words will come later.      

I’m not done yet, though! I’ll be spending the next three weeks backpacking through Copenhagen, Berlin, and Munich, then eventually making my way down to Barcelona probably by Eurorail via Austria, Switzerland, and France. It’s a bit up in the air at this point, but I’m looking forward to figuring it out. I’ll be back in the good ol’ KY by the end of May where I don’t have definite summer plans yet. As of now, I’m just looking forward to recharging before the fall semester.

For the next few weeks I’ll still be updating on my travels at least weekly, as I have been. And for the next three days, I’ll be enjoying the remaining time I have left in London. I’m going to miss this town. As a last farewell: God Save the Queen!