growing and learning - Back to the Past (just for a minute)

growing and learning

Back to the Past (just for a minute)

02:18 PM, Saturday, November 24, 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

I have been reading page's new blog, re-reading some of her posts and reading for the first time many of her stories. I like her prose, it is deep and contemplative and easily transports me to the scene of which she writes. And for some reason, all this reminds me of my (brief) visit to Britain.
I had always wanted to travel to Britain. ALWAYS. It seems to me that from the time I knew there was a place that was not “here,” it was Britain. And I saw Britain, because it wasn't just England, but Scotland, Wales.... I loved re-tellings of Arthur (although, I never could get into White's versions) and stories of kings and wars (I love history) and daring tales from the highlands of Scotland. I dreamed of walking in Edinburgh and crossing the channel to the White Cliffs. I wanted to go to Cornwall and York and I wanted to be in the ever-present gray and cloudy days. As I got older, I read Barbara Cartland novels (anyone besides me remember those?) and the older (and clean) regency romances. And I wanted to go.
When it came time for my semester abroad (my college encourages EVERYONE to take a semester elsewhere their junior year), I had a choice: Scotland (my forever dream), Avignon, France (as I had studied French for 6 years), or Florence, Italy. My French professor told me I had to take another semester, and I knew I needed to be immersed at that point in my French for me to learn it any better, so I refused. (I was right – a few months in Montreal, and I could speak and understand). Then it was down to my dream of Scotland, or the more practical of fully learning a second language. I choose Florence. And my Italian by the end of my stay with una anziana italiana, I was better at Italian than I had ever been in French! But my dream of Britain remained, and so, on my spring break, I left Florence on a Friday morning....
I reached Dover at 2am Monday morning (after an absolutely awful trip through France – so glad I didn't opt to study there!). I spent the ferry ride with two young Brits who had just hitchhiked to Paris, and they found my anxiety to arrive amusing. As the ferry pulled up to the dock, I was so excited, that I started to cry. Here I was, in the place where all my dreams had been located. One of my new friends commented “And the Yank sheds a tear on British soil.” I near to FLEW off the boat to start my adventure.
I wanted to see EVERYTHING! EVERYWHERE! So I left Dover to Canterbury to Salisbury to see Stonehenge. I missed the first tour that morning, so I wandered around town. Somehow I found myself in the Cathedral and the museum there. And that is where I had my surprise: an original copy of the Magna Carta. Wow! I reverently stared at this forerunner to our own Declaration of Independence and constitution. The caretaker commented that when I had walked in, he had thought I was British, not American at all. At least until I opened my mouth. LOL! But that comment made me feel better – I was not the typical American ~~drunkinst~~ tourist. From Salisbury I went to Bristol and Bath, then to Cardiff and back to Bath, where another museum caretaker shockingly told a colleague that I was trying to see the whole island in a week. They laughingly told me “Good Luck!” I went to from there to Chester (where my feet started to hurt from all the walking) to York. And finally to Edinburgh where I spent a WHOLE day wandering the Castle and the environs. I managed a quick jaunt to Glasgow, but from Edinburgh I took an express train to London and from there to Dover. I knew London would have to be a separate trip, so I did not try to see it. On this final train ride to Dover, I met again two young Brit guys. As we talked, I told them of my quick tour of their homeland, and one said “So, what did you reckon?” “I LOVED it. Except for one small thing.” “The weather, right. All gray and cloudy.” It was march, ya know. “No. That was exactly how I had always pictured it here. If it had been sunny all the time, I may have been disappointed! No, it was the traffic – I would look both ways before crossing a street, see no traffic coming, and start out. Only the traffic was coming from the wrong directions! I almost got hit a number of times!” They laughed and we parted ways soon after. I made it home to Florence (with another horrendous trip through France!)
Thank you page, for the walk down memory lane. I want to return and spend longer than a week. Our plans are once we pay off the house, we will save, take an RV homeschool trip around our country, and then maybe take a few months to live in Europe. Dh can work anywhere there is an internet connection, so the kids and I can field trip around the continent while he works. And Two whole months of that will be in Britain. Maybe during the winter.

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