Monday, 1-22-96
11:03 PM London
5:03 PM E-Town
Well, the a-phis would just about be sitting down to dinner, formal dinner that is, as I write this. I wonder if there is a candle-lighting tonight? I received a long letter and a cute picture, from last semester, from Tara Humphrey today! ☺︎ She has gotten a job as a teacher’s aide, that will be over in June. So she can work at camp this summer! Hopefully, I will be working there too! She also had a lot of news of various camp friends! I also got a postcard today from Kristi Anderson, who is doing an internship this semester at Disney World! I got emails from: Cheryl, Deborah, Gwen, Mom, Dad, & Meg!
International Business class wasn’t quite as exciting as last week, but after, I met w/ the tutor, Hugh Peters. He was really enthusiastic, & genuine, to hear about my major, my background, & assured me that not-having a great deal of business background is okay for this course.
This afternoon Lori & I went to the Tate Museum, rather the “Tate Gallery” to be exact. It was awesome! My favorite things were some of the impressionist works, landscape paintings, and 2 modern art works: a bunch of T.V. sets — little ones — playing b & w pictures/videos w/ an entertaining woman’s voice narrating. I also got a real kick out of a glass of water, on a glass plate, that the artist considered to be/or called an oak tree… Near by was an interview w/ the artist in which he was grilled about how the glass could possibly be considered an oak tree! It was hilarious! Lori liked the museum, but was not as easily amused or impressed.
I borrowed a book from Lauren, my U of I friend at Birkbeck, who I met at O’Hare the day we left Chicago, it is by Terry McMillan & is called Waiting to Exhale. I have read the first chapter & was drawn in to the first character’s life real quickly! There was a cool quote, about not settling for just any man, that said, just cuz she was thirsty, doesn’t mean she is dehydrated (i.e. she would like to date a great guy, but she isn’t desperate…). I like her style & her attitude. It’s great to be reading, for fun, again. If I could only read a bit more of my texts for my courses here… I’ll work on it. I just always have trouble reading things for school, no matter how much it interests me…
Tomorrow I am planning to get up early & go see Westminster Cathedral and possibly some of the Victoria & Albert Museum. I will pack a lunch & be at Birkbeck in time for my afternoon class at 2 PM.
Time for some shut-eye, but to wind down I may write a letter or two home. My friends are just rocking my world w/ their correspondence!!! So I want to try to reply to some.
CHEERS! ☺︎
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Note from Present Day Kathy: Another short and sweet entry… For those not familiar with sorority life in college, a “candle-lighting” was a ceremony that our sorority (I was/am in Alpha Phi) would hold on Mondays, after our weekly “formal dinner,” if any women in our house had gotten “lavaliered” or “pearled.” We would stand in a circle and pass around a lit candle, while singing a special song, and the woman (or women) in our sorority would let us know their big news by blowing out the candle, when the it was passed to her. If a woman in our sorority was seriously dating a man in a fraternity, sometimes he would “lavalier” her, by asking that she wear a necklace with his fraternity’s letters on it. For those men who weren’t in a fraternity, they could give their girlfriend a “pearl” on a chain and it would symbolize the same thing.
It was a very exciting event, that many of us looked forward to on a weekly basis, and I certainly daydreamed about experiencing myself. It typically happened if the couple were really serious and considering engagement/marriage down the road. That said, plenty of people didn’t stay together afterwards. Though I never got lavaliered or pearled, I certainly enjoyed celebrating with my friends/sorority sisters who did during our college years, and ended up meeting Bob/my future husband at the beginning of our senior year there.
I’ve always loved going to museums and its fun for me to remember the various ones I visited while living in London, as well as later on that semester, during my European travels. I’ve also been very easily amused over the years, so appreciate why I was entertained by the modern art exhibits at the Tate, as I would likely be today.
I have so many vivid memories, beyond those I recorded in my journals, of my semester abroad and some include books I read for pleasure during that time. As I mention in my entries, I’d gotten out of the habit of reading for fun, as I often felt stress about the reading I had to do for school. To this day I still prefer reading when it isn’t on a deadline and have really gotten into listening to books via Audible. I’ve “read” (technically listened) to so many more books in recent years, as I am able to do so while getting things done around the house or while on the go, especially when I am driving longer distances without company.
It’s also interesting for me to reflect on my early take-a-ways from Waiting to Exhale, during a time when I certainly was hoping to meet a special someone to date and/or share my life with. Re-reading my journal entries, all these years later, reminds me how boy crazy I could get at times, noticing various men in my life, reflecting on those I’d previously dated or had crushes on, and wondering if they could be “the one” for me.
At 43, I believe there isn’t necessarily just one person that we are meant to end up with. Rather, I think there are so many factors and circumstances that play into why our relationships do or don’t last, including timing, and who we decide to love/want to spend our lives and, in some cases, build a family with. I often fantasized about finding my soulmate back then, not fully grasping what it takes to make a long-term relationship work. That said, I am very grateful for Bob and how we have made our relationship of 22 years and marriage of 18 years work for us.
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Reminder: Unless I’ve been given permission to use people’s actual names, in most cases I’ve removed or replaced the names of the real people who were part of my journey/experience there, in effort to protect and respect their identities/privacy in my London Semester Journal entries. I will also not share details that I think and feel are too personal for anyone I interacted with, my loved ones, and me.
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Here’s the back story of My London Semester Journals from 1996, including what prompted me to revisit and decide to share them here in 2018. And here’s a list a list of the entries, which I will update as I share them.
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