Wow. Have I been a total blogger failure or what. I just said goodbye to my family after their week-long visit to London and decided it would be a good time to blog, and then realized that I haven't blogged in two weeks. It has frankly been indescribably busy here since the spring break Q&A post - professors cramming in papers and assignments before the long Easter weekend, planning a skeletal itinerary for my family's visit, and also doing my best to actively take advantage of London while I'm still here, since I'm only abroad for four more weeks! Since March 24, I've done a ton of great London things - Camden Market, Borough Market, three plays and another tonight, a visit to the Churchill War Rooms, a tour of Westminster Abbey, and much more. For as cool as that stuff is, something that I have realized since my arrival in London is that you really can't beat just going to the pub around the corner, having a pint with the guys, and doing nothing in particular.
For me, when I was back on campus and especially in high school, I always felt like I was going going going and if I wasn't doing something right at that second, I was thinking about the plan for the next thing. I'd have to plan "Me Time" which was scheduled relaxation, basically. But here, even though I'm far busier than I anticipated, without having to go to 3-4 hour rehearsals every night and also having to cook most of my own meals, the dynamic of my routine is much more conducive to socializing and just enjoying the moment. I cook with my friends and then we sit down and eat together, we walk two minutes to Exmouth Arms for a beer afterward, and we just shoot the breeze talking about nothing in particular. Maybe this reflection is prompted by the rapidly approaching May 8, when I know I'll be back in the States looking at a summer full of work and also looking at senior year in which I'll need to make some decisions about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. But if London has taught me nothing else, it's definitely taught me to live in the moment. I know now that when I'm freaking out about not getting an internship that I really wanted or deciding whether or not to apply for jobs or go to grad school or trying to write my senior thesis, I can just take a step back and say that there's plenty of time. I'll call up the boys, find the nearest bar with Guinness on tap, and just remember those nights in London when we really don't do anything - the best nights there are.
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