What’s this I see? Can it be?? IT IS!

Hello all!

I apologize for the abysmally long time it’s been since I last wrote—I am clearly the absolute worst. I have this problem where I star thinking about all the things I need to write and then my list gets longer and longer until I’m a little bit terrified of it and generally just chicken out. Because if we think about it, I haven’t written in so long that I have weeks and WEEKS of stuff to cover! But I am finally succumbing to the many notes from family saying “…are you ever planning on writing your blog again…?” and “I miss reading your blog!” AND NOW I AM BACK!

Again, because of that absurd backlog of things to tell you all, I’ve had to come up with a way to make this approachable this late in the game. So I’ve decided to basically work backwards at this point while simultaneously working forwards—like some kind of strange postmodern novel. We’ll have chapters that advance the story and chapters that are essentially flashbacks. Or something. JUST GO WITH IT, FOLKS.

SO! As you should know, from my very last food blog, I AM IN LONDON! Which is pretty great. When I first got here, I was so overwhelmed by how BIG it is, and how busy. After the small-big-city-ish-ness of Florence (and the tiny-city-ness of the Lake District), London is rather overwhelming. Florence is pretty walkable—you can get across most of it in a half an hour—and everything is run on Italian time, which is pretty leisurely and generally runs a bit late. It’s fantastic. But London is in such a hurry! One of our art instructors—George—actually mentioned this. He’s from London (ish? or at least has spent a lot of time in London?) and said that he loves Florence for how much more slow-moving it is. And at the time, I thought that was kind of a crazy thing to say, but now that I’m here I get it completely. London feels much more rushed. But, on the other hand, it’s a really friendly city.

I can’t help but compare London to my very few experiences of NYC. And the thing about NYC is that it’s not very friendly. Everyone in New York is very focused on doing their own thing—there’s a kind of individuality means everyone rather has tunnel vision. They walk fast, weaving past each other, and don’t make eye contact with anyone else. But in London, people smile at each other more and they ALL will help people with their luggage when they’re trying to go up and down the (many) stairs of the tube. There’s just more of a sense of communality—of everyone doing this crazy city thing together. I really like that about this place. Also, way more parks, all of which are gorgeous and sprawling and full of flowers.

I’m still a bit overwhelmed in terms of things to do, but more on that later.

Anyway, this is the end of my third week in London (WHAT). I’ve already seen eight plays, visited three (I think? maybe more) museums, and walked around quite a bit. I’ve also written four (shortish) papers, cooked many meals, and read many things. It’s been a bit busy!

So I shall work to have more updates soon (probably shorter ones than I usually do) and hopefully fill in some of what the last many weeks have been like for me.