More than the Insta Shot

Today I want to talk about some of the great places I’ve gotten to travel to while being here in London. I already know this is going to be a long one, so get ready. Okay really quickly I just want to list off some of my favorite excursions thus far: the Harry Potter sets, Bath, Brighton, Greenwich, Primrose Hill, Stonehenge and a Northeastern networking event. I might not get a chance to talk about all of them, so make a mental note to google the one’s I don’t explore in full (It will be worth it!).

Bath is an ancient city that was occupied by the Romans, and home to the Roman Baths, one of the most well preserved Roman ruins in the UK. The site holds the ancient swimming baths which are spring fed and were once used as an elaborate spa and place of worship from people all the Mediterranean, Western Europe, and even the Middle East. The water is this really opaque bright green which is pretty cool aesthetically, but also makes me think the Romans were probably getting out of the baths more dirty than they went in. The water directly from the spring is drinkable and clear, though it tastes exactly like what you would expect from water that’s been sitting around for ten thousand years: stinky sulfur. 5/10 would only recommend to major history buffs or people that are used to the taste of well water. The history embedded in the site is spectacular and the city itself is very cute. It’s home to fun shops and restaurants, a beautiful canal, and gorgeous architecture.

We also went to Stonehenge on the day that we went to Bath. It was a warm and sunny day and we all thoroughly enjoyed the half hour walk through the wildflower fields to the archeological site (from the parking lot, the site was about an hour from Bath via car). The henge itself was wildly impressive. The stones are so much larger than you realize when you just look at pictures, and to think that they came from hundred of miles away and were transported by foot power is unfathomable. The henge was also built and adjusted over literally thousands of years which is crazy to think about.

Coming to Europe and reflecting on the history of so many of the places I have visited has been a very centering experience for me. It’s easy to feel small in Europe, in a good way. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in the intricacies of your life— in the deadlines, the next steps, the constant go, go, go. But on this trip I’ve had several of those moments where it feels like your focus zooms out and for a second you can see how minuscule your reality is in the grand scheme of things. I don’t mean that in a nihilistic, ‘it literally doesn’t even matter, so why bother?’ way, I mean it in a, ‘everything will be fine, no matter what” way.
But then you snap out of it and decide to go to a networking event because that’s a thing successful people seem to do so you should follow suit, right? And that’s fine too! Even though I know that everything will work out no matter what, it’s good to still do my best to steer myself towards some intangible end-goal of “success”, whatever I decide that means to me. Anyway, I decided that a Northeastern networking event in a swanky venue with a view of some of London’s most famous landmarks was somehow on that path.

I have to say that as a girl from a strictly working class family, it was a sociologically weird experience. I don’t know, I feel like I should have gone to some dinner parties to get the hang of it before I ventured off into all the mingling or something. I found myself thinking, “Why is this a thing that we, the educational elite, do? Do I belong here? Am I one of them now? Momma, I made it.” I mean, I get it, sort of. Northeastern’s alumni are a group of some pretty impressive people, many of who have made a lot of money and want to perpetuate the success of the university by making some generous contributions and maybe getting connected with some other awesome people. I want say it was spectacular and inspiring, but to be completely honest, it didn’t really feel right to me. One of my favorite professors this year tells this story where he was at a similar event and another professor from some elite school said to him, in a way that was supposed to be a compliment (maybe), “Well, you’re upwardly mobile, aren’t you?” And I think that sort of sums up my experience too. I just felt like I didn’t belong with these wine drinking, hors d’oeuvre eating, suit and cocktail dress wearing people and everyone somehow knew it. I felt like I was watching it instead of living it. But on the bright side, I now have a fun story about trying to introduce myself to President Aoun while simultaneously trying to conceal the fact that I had a mouth full of raw salmon and caviar.

Now I’ve talked way too much about too few things! I don’t have the space to talk about it at length, but I’ll upload some of my pictures from the Harry Potter sets because that was seriously so cool. My child-self (okay, present-self too) was super excited to see all the props and sets and behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. As someone who’s most valued possessions are her HP hardcopies, it was a big deal. It was amazing. And I also adopted a Canadian while I was there! (Do you like how I always leave you with some crazy, weird thing about my dialogue? It’s on purpose! Read my blogs!)