I keep postponing working on/publishing this post because for some reason I think if I do then London will really be over and just a fading memory. And that's just silly because a) it is already over and just a memory and b) it will never be truly over because I'm simply too clingy!
I wonder if I'd written this a few months ago and the moments were more fresh how different it'd be. Now that I've had so much time to actually go through the change of leaving and moving and to process thoughts in my head it's bound to be different. As I write this I'm not even sure if I'm going to be sentimental and sweet or depressed and moody. I keep flip-flopping through the emotions. And I don't even know where to start or end.
In the middle?
Some of the British sayings and ways of doing things Collin and I appreciated:
* "I'll tell you for why"
* The use of the word "whilst"
* The yellow light as transition between both changes of traffic light
* The words painted on the street reminding you which way to look for cars
* Being asked, "Alright there, love?"
* Could do
In the fall I missed the conkers from the horse chestnut trees the kids would collect and come home with pockets full. Now I miss the Oxford and Regent's Streets Christmas decorations and the tree at Trafalgar Square. What will I miss in the winter? The free museums to escape the cold. Summer? Every bit of the short, sweet, temperamental, blossoming season.
I miss walking everywhere and it rarely ever feeling like exercise. I miss hopping on and off public transit instead of worrying about driving and parking (I already got in my first accident--totally my fault, grr). I miss that horrible flat because the location was incredible and because it made us be out and about every chance we could. I miss afternoon tea with clotted cream and lemon curd.
It was a marvelous opportunity to live in a different country and be able to visit many other countries. That the city we got to live in was London . . . it still feels a dream. We are so lucky.
Did you know that wild parakeets live in Kensington Gardens? Well, naturally, if the fairies do of course magical birds do too. On our way home from the stake center our last Sunday afternoon we discovered a flock of them coming down from the trees for a snack. We had an apple core and they would come to perch and nibble, then fly back. You had to be brave to let them land on you!
Touching a Ming Dynasty vase in the V&A museum and the best hot chocolate in the city (in our humble opinion, having tried most of it!). I loved having so many visitors at the end of our time because they all wanted to go and treat us to hot chocolate. Yes please and thank you!
Making a quick run to Tesco Express to grab a few groceries took just fifteen minutes round trip. I loved having a grocery around the corner.
Davy would get his football updates from the papers in the tube station.
Our friend Eitan lived next door and the boys loved playing in the garden with him this past spring.
Davy, the little British school boy. I miss those uniforms!
Eliza's adopted grandma, Marguerite, from Poland. She didn't speak much English but she spoilt Eliza rotten at the school pick up.
Spitalfield market treasures. That market was our go-to Thursday morning activity. Sometimes we bought nothing (honestly! Collin won't believe it but sometimes we just looked!) but we often found things I never knew existed. I loved talking to the stall sellers. Quirky people, the lot of them!
I feel a deep pain of loss when I look at these. I know that seems dramatic. But we worked hard to make London our home. Anything you put that much effort and energy and intent into is bound to leave roots.
I got to see the hydrangeas bloom at the courtyard of the V&A one last time.
We did a lot of exploring the last few weeks, re-doing favorites and finding some new spots to someday return.
Of course, saying farewell to friends was the absolute hardest. It really was. One of my friends (Anna) told me in true British form, to keep a stiff upper lip. I did, for the most part, but watching the kids say good bye (for now) to Clara, Oliver, Philipp, football friends, neighbourhood friends, school friends, church friends . . . that was tough. I truly didn't realize how many friendships we had grown.
The last Saturday before we left we dressed up (a little) to go down and try a final time for a good picture with Big Ben. I think it was our fourth or fifth try?). We got a good enough pictures, but mostly we got London. Snog frozen yogurt from a pink double decker, street performers, the toll of the bell, chasing pigeons, rain--the works.
After school runs to the zoo and the Lego store--cramming it all in. If we lived life this intentionally everyday we'd all be so much more accomplished and exhausted.
My hardest goodbye was to the lions of Trafalgar Square. I love those guys.
Tears after the last day of school. We pulled the kids early (the school year runs much later in England) and left for the airport directly after school. It was so hard to leave teachers and friends and a familiar routine. Their friends made books for the boys with a picture and note of each of the classmates. Such special keepsakes.
So here's the thing. It is time to say au revoir to our London of 2014-2017. It really is. We can't go back. And cheesy as it is to say, we will always have London with us. We changed there. We grew individually and as a family and we wouldn't have changed and grown in just the ways we did if we hadn't been experiencing life in London and abroad. We became more ourselves there. It got under our skin and we can never/want to never remove it from ourselves. We move forward and change and grow again with a foundation of all the places we've been before and (more importantly) all the people we've come to know and love. At the risk of being that much more cheesy and dramatic--blame it on the Sherlock wall!--the Lambourne London will rise again! London will never die!
When we visit again someday it will be as if we are going home.
