Wednesday, 2-7-96
10:20 PM London
4:20 PM E-Town
Well, I am in the ULU pool locker room! I just tried “canoe polo” for the first time! It is lots of fun & harder than it looks! ☺︎ I learned how to paddle to move the boat sideways, to keep from tipping over, to turn rt., lft., & in circles! I am going to go out w/ them (the blokes & gals in the club), or really up w/ them to the ULU pub. So I am hanging around till they all finish… The beginners game was over awhile ago & that was fun!
Let’s see, got letters from Gramma Mite & Jacquie on Monday! A sweet valentine from Mom & Dad yesterday! E-mails from Mom, Dad, Meg, Kelly, Deborah, Allison, Cheryl & Ruth! ☺︎ Kelly’s family just got a new dog they are gonna call “Butch” & he is only 8 wks. old!
Yesterday morning I went to an orientation for the ULU workout center “The Works!” I am going to join & try to get in a bit better shape & more toned… Jill & I are going to go & work out tomorrow, after our architecture class trip to St. Paul’s Cathedral!
Last night I went w/ Jill to see a wonderful foreign film, from Italy, w/ sub-titles called “Il Postino!” It was only £3.60 w/ the student rate & well worth it! I was expecting a romance, but it turned out to be more of a friendship story, btw. a postman & a famous poet from Chile, who was exiled & staying in the postman’s small town for a short while…
Well, I’ll finish later, I feel sorta inhibited writing in here, in a locker room! ☺︎
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Note from Present Day Kathy: I have vivid memories of being in the pool at the University of London Union (ULU) and practicing my Canoe Polo skills, as well as playing in some games. I also have some pictures, that I took later on that semester, which I’ll share in a future post.
Love that I was wanting to get in better shape that semester at the ULU workout center too, as back then regular exercise was not a consistent part of/priority in my life. I recall the month or so after I returned home from my being abroad, lying around on the couch a lot, watching TV and eating comfort food, which led to me gaining some weight/lose some of the strides I’d made that semester. After 4 1/2 years of following a daily health and fitness routine that really works for me now, its bizarre for me to think about how between graduating high school (during which I was on the golf team and in the dance company) until around the time I turned 30, I didn’t have a consistent approach to trying to stay fit and healthy.
It wasn’t until soon after our first miscarriage, in December 2004, that I really got into a routine, in my adult life, that involved prioritizing working out and eating healthier. Exercising, eating healthier, and practicing portion control were all things that helped me cope and feel some sense of control over my own body, as I grieved back then. It also led me to get into the best shape I’d been in since high school, which I’ve been able to maintain for the most part, with some ups and downs, ever since.
I have a vague recollection of going to see Il Postino in London, as I haven’t seen many foreign movies with subtitles in my life. It makes me want to look it up and watch it again, all these years later. I am curious what I would think of the story from my perspective at 43.
Also, until I found the movie ticket in one of my photo albums from my semester abroad, I’d forgotten how dates are displayed differently in the U.K. than in the U.S. So instead of 2.6.96, it reads 6.2.96.
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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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