One Truth

Well, folks, one week from today, my teaching post at St. Peter's High School will be finished.

When I had five weeks left, I did "Five Lessons." At four weeks, I did something else. I missed out on three and two (laziness? Too busy?) but today, to honor the fact that I have lesson left with each group, I give you One Truth:

England hasn't seen the last of me.

I love this place too much to stay away. If nothing else, I have learned that this year.

What is it about this place that I love so much? I can't really put my finger on it. There's so many things, I can't even think of all of them. I'll try to do some justice here, but I know I'll read this later and think, "Well, I missed this, and that, and this..."

Anyway, here goes. This is why I love this place.

1. London Where else in the world has a city like London? A city that calls its subways "the Tube," a city with some of the best, yet most inexpensive, theatre in the world. A city where it is possible to get lost and unlost several times in one day, yet never feel too unsafe. The London Eye. Big Ben. St. Paul's Cathedral. Westminster Abbey. The Tower. Tower Bridge. Buckingham Palace. Trafalger Square. British Museum. Covent Garden. Where else in the world will you find the distinctive London cabs and red double-decker buses? Nowhere. There is no place on earth like London.

2. Trains You can get just about anywhere in this country. Even tiny little Burnham-on-Crouch has a rail line and station. One hour west-bound lands you in London, adventure, and promise. Because of rail travel, I've been to York, Bath, Windsor and even to Continental Europe this year.

3. The Countryside Every time I take the train from London back to Burnham, I marvel at how beautiful it is. It actually makes me ache inside to know I will not see the Crouch sparkling in the sun, the sailboats bobbing along. I won't look for lambs running around in the large, marshy fields. I won't the see people in Wellies walking the fieleds with their dogs running ahead of them. Not for a while anyway.

4. The Language I've become accustomed to spelling "behavior" as "behaviour." "Theater" is most definitely better-looking when you spell it "theatre." It doesn't make me giggle anymore when someone says, "Cheers" in place of "thank you." I have picked up more English-isms than I'll ever know. They've merged seamlessly into my vocabulary, so I find myself saying things and laughing at myself. Prat. Blimey. Bloody. Lovely. Alright? Trousers. Bin. Mad (instead of crazy). Well done. I don't see movies, I see films. At the cinema. The theatre is reserved for live plays.

5. So much less STUFF It boggles me how much convenience we have in the States. We have meals in the pasta aisle with congealed-looking pasta in a plastic pouch. Microwave it--ready in just minutes! We've taken the fun out of waiting for the damned pot to boil. We're just too busy to wait the extra five minutes, or too lazy. In England, there's far less of that. One is forced to cook. There's less choice. Pricing pasta sauces at the co-op in Burnham takes me 2 minutes. In your average Safeway in California, it would take 10. Having less choice, less convenience, has made me eat healthier options, and appreciate the food I cook because I couldn't just zap it.

6. Tea Yes, we have tea in the States, and no doubt, now that I've become addicted, I'll be drinking it by the jug. But it's a different experience in America. I went to Border's books at Christmas time with Sarah and Julia. I ordered a tea in the cafe, and the person behind the counter asked, "Chai, darjeeling, raspberry, coconut, lemon with mint, green, tea with a shot of espresso..." I cut the poor kid off mid-stride and said, "Do you have plain ole black tea?" Blank look. "You mean, like Earl Grey?" I sighed and said, "Yeah, that'll do." Actually, I hate Earl Grey, but it's closer to regular black tea than anything else they had. Let's also add the fact that I can only drink my tea like an English person does: piping-hot (iced tea? The horror!) with milk and sugar.

7. Past Lives I often joke that if there is such thing as reincarnation, my last five or six lives were in England. Somehow, in this one, I ended up American, and it's all so very new to me. Those of you who know me must agree with this. England just fits me.

8. English Sense of Humour (notice the "u"!) What are some comedy movies I love? Bridget Jones (both). Love Actually. Bend it Like Beckham. Billy Elliot. Four Weddings and a Funeral. They make me laugh, and often in the places where the rest of the audience (whether I'm at the American cinema or in my own living room) are left looking at me thinking, "What's so funny?" One of the reasons I am so fond of a friend I have at this school is because every time we talk, we're laughing about something, and I consider his style to be extremely British. I'm not saying American's aren't funny. I laugh a lot there, too. I'm just saying that my own sense of humour tends to lean towards the British.

9. Saturdays in Burnham Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, warm, not too hot. I had some pictures being processed in the one-hour lab, so I decided to walk deeper into town and run some errands at stores I don't normally frequent. The sidewalks were full of people out enjoying the day. Neighborhoods are actually active with people walking, stopping to chat, kids on bikes. Boats galore on the river. It's a different world to me. Everyone seems to know everyone. Even I see people I know from work, or people I recognize from the co-op, etc. There's a certain cammeraderie in living in a small town, and it is comforting. There's comfort in knowing that Sarah lives on this little side street, and Stuart right there in that house on the High Street. If I needed anything, I could knock on their doors.

10. History and Tradition Every morning on my way to work, I walk by a cottage that has a thatched roof. I cross a bridge over a small creek that was probably put there by the Saxons. I work at a school that has a picture Queen Elizabeth hanging in a main corridor. I go to the theatre in London and eat ice cream at the interval. I routinely see buildings that are much, much older than the United States. I have read from the pulpit of a medieval church. I love the history an the tradition of this country. They hold on to it, even while they move forward in the 21st century. It boggles me.



And yet, I am leaving this place. I am excited to be near my family again. I am excited to explore Washington and make a life there. I'm thrilled that I'll have my Millie back (thank you, Mom and Dad, for caring for her and being terrific grandparents). It will be nice to watch NASCAR on Sundays, to make Target runs (England has nothing that can compare to Target). I am looking forward to these things. But I know, deep down, that England and I are not finished. I knew it when I left London 6 years ago, and I found the courage to come back once. What's going to stop me from doing it again?

Cheers,

Meg