Sunday, 3-24-96
7:19 PM London
1:19 PM E-Town
I should, rather could be, on my way to church right now… but I just don’t feel like it tonight. I believe God will understand… Today I went to a football (soccer) game w/ Garth (he lives here at Pembridge & is on the ISA staff). He drove us to the park in his car! It was so cool to be in a car in London… Garth actually played in the football game! He is in a league here which he compares to twentysomething softball clubs back home.
I really enjoyed watching him & his team play, as well as take in the general atmosphere at the park! There were many families out for Sunday walks w/ their kids & dogs.
Garth’s team won 5-0! It was a great match & reminded me of my days back in high school, senior yr., as a soccer groupie — when E-town placed 2nd in State & I was sorta seeing a guy on the team!
I was the only fan there to cheer his team on. The other team had one supporter as well! I was also the only female! At one point one of his teammates was changing & I was spaced out staring over in his direction & got mooned! Garth & his teammates teased me a bunch after that little encounter… even though I swore I wasn’t peeping!
His team had great comradery & it was amusing to observe how they interacted…. the British take their football very seriously!
I also enjoyed getting to know Garth a bit better. He is an interesting person. Lori & I have made fun of the bloke for so long it was nice to know he has some depth to his personality! He’s pretty cute too… ☺︎
He is studying at King’s College, getting his masters in War Studies. He is the first person I ever met majoring in that. He seems fairly intelligent about international relations & such… He also has had an interesting life, but most people I have met here have… His mother is British & his father Uruguayan! So living here he has British citizenship, (kinda like Sabrina in Italy). He was born in Mexico City, as was his 22 yr. old brother (who just graduated from U of I & was a in a frat). He is 24 & graduated from a north suburban Chicago area high school in `90 (his parents still live in that town). He graduated from Undergrad at a university in New England in ’94.
His maternal grandparents had lived in London for yrs. & his family visited every other yr. when he was growing up. His grandma & he were especially close & she passed away last yr. She left him the funky old yellow car he drove us in today.
Actually the whole reason he invited me to go is that last night Lori, Nick, Ruth, & I were hanging out & were talking w/ him & tried to get him to come w/ & drive us to Scotland! Then when he said his parents were coming & he couldn’t we asked him to drive us anywhere sometime just so we could see the city in motion above ground! Hence the invitation to his football game! But I was the only one who could/wanted to go…
Yesterday morning I slept in from my fabulous night at the Ball! Then I went to Portobello Road in the afternoon & strolled along, people watched, checked out what the antique vendors & fruit sellers were offering, as well as wandering into a few shops. I also took some pics that I felt captured the atmosphere & bought a few postcards of the road & market in they don’t, capture the moment that is! I also bought some Chupa Chup lollipops — since I was down by Tesco… Yum-yum! ☺︎
In the later afternoon I went to campus & checked e-mail & typed in some of my London History paper on “Leisure in Victorian London.” I had e-mail messages from: Dad, Kelly, Gwen, Mitch, Jim, & Jessica Hansen! Earlier in the day I had also gotten a “real” letter from Suzie (who is studying in Avignon, France)! ☺︎ It was great to hear from her, know how she was doing in her semester abroad experience, & what she is up to! ☺︎
When I got home from school/campus, Lori was sitting on the front steps reading — it was a beautiful day & the night was still a mild & comfortable temperature… We hadn’t seen each other all day & were excited to finally meet up & hear about each other’s days! Then I made a box of Kraft Cheese -n- Mac (ate it all ● Yum-Yum! ☺︎) & called Mom and Dad! It was good to hear their voice & as always, I was fine when I got on the phone w/ them, but they had to practically hang up on me to get me off… just talking to them live is so nice & comforting, it is so hard to cut it off!
But it’s weird now, cuz in less than 6 weeks I will be home — or about so. I am excited to see them & my friends back in the States, but am realizing how hard it will be to leave my new friends here, who have in many ways been like my family for the past 3 months!
Lori leaves a week from Tuesday & we have gotten so close & she is such a part of my daily life & routine here… it is hard to fathom my last 2 weeks living here in room 2 alone. Granted most everyone else will still be here & I will be gone visiting Ron in Southampton over Easter… I know I will miss her just the same!
I really hope I get to go to her & Cam’s wedding in July! ☺︎
Oh, I can’t believe the time to begin to say goodbye to my mates here in London is upon me… To quote “Threesome,” which I too often do, but should cuz it is a great movie to quote!:
“Solitude brought out the worst in me. It gave me time to brood over the nature of things…
I wondered how some people can be such a necessary part of one’s life one day, and simply vanish the next. Isn’t it supposed to last?!”
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And on the same note, 2 more great quotes on the subject of life, friends, learning from both, & farewells:
“What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved, we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” ~ Helen Keller
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COMES THE DAWN
(author unknown)After a while you learn the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t mean security,
And you begin to understand that kisses aren’t
contracts and presents aren’t promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats with your
head held high and your eyes open,
With the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child.You learn to build your roads on today because
tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans,
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.After a while you learn that even sunshine
burns if you get too much,
So you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul,
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.And you learn that you really can endure,
that you really are strong
And that you really do have worth
And you learn and learn…
And you learn
With every goodbye you learn.
CHEERS! ☺︎
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Note from Present Day Kathy:
I shared a surprising amount of detail about (not his real name) Garth in this journal entry and opted to edit out some of it/make certain things more general, such as where he was from/went to school, as otherwise the alias doesn’t serve its purpose as well. Guessing I did this as we’d spent a lot of time together that day, I’d asked a lot of questions and remembered the answers (which I found interesting), as well as because he was from the Chicago area.
I was curious whatever happened to (not his real name) Garth and decided to do a search on social media, to see if I could find him. I guessed that maybe he would still be living abroad and doing something with his unique masters degree in War Studies, maybe teaching at a university or doing research. I didn’t remember his last name and thus had to get a bit creative to figure it out. I am always amazed what we can find with some help from Dr. Google. I did find him on Facebook and opted not to send him a friend request, since we really didn’t hang out/spend much time together during my semester abroad, other than that one day. However, I was able to determine where he is living now (the Chicago area), that he doesn’t appear to be working in a field related to his masters degree (which isn’t that uncommon) and he is married.
This entry is also another example of how I was always trying to get the most out of my time/experience in London and how much I did/still do enjoy getting to know people and what is special/unique about each person I meet. I don’t recall if I already shared a particular story in a previous entry, from Bob and my trip across the pond a year ago in November (2019). Regardless, during our time in Warsaw, Poland, I spent much of one day at the fascinating POLAN Museum (Museum of the History of Polish Jews), while Bob was at work. During my time at the POLIN Museum (which I highly recommend if and when you are in Warsaw), I took a lunch break from being immersed in the exhibits there. Being a picky eater I didn’t see anything in the museum’s main restaurant, a buffet with lots of authentic Polish and Jewish cuisine, that appealed to me. So I ended up grabbing a croissant, fruit cup and bottle of water from the sandwich shop/counter there.
I was planning to eat quickly and get back to the exhibits, in part because I had intended to still make it to another museum in Warsaw that afternoon. However, an older Polish man overheard my American accent, when I was ordering my food, and starting chatting with me. The next thing I knew the man asked if he could join me for lunch. I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk with him and really enjoyed our time together, which ended up being about 90 minutes. I mostly listened as he told me all about his life growing up in Warsaw, about his family and his experience being a Water Polo coach for Poland’s national team. He was at the POLIN Museum for a Jewish Film Festival and early on in our conversation I realized that I would likely be *stuck* talking with him until close to when the movie he had come to see was starting. Though I am fairly sure our paths won’t cross again, I will never forget our afternoon together and I am grateful that he was bold enough to ask to join me, as I ate and he drank his coffee.
At times throughout my life I have struggled with why some people seem come in and out of our lives so quickly, as I was also pondering in this journal entry. Especially with the advent of social media, in recent years I feel more compelled to try to connect and keep in touch with most people I meet and get to know, even if only briefly. I can only imagine how different my study abroad experience would’ve been if things like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter existed, not to mention blogging. Would I have even bothered to journal?
Early on, after my semester abroad, I did keep in touch with many of those I was close with during my time in London. However, within a few years I had lost contact with most of them. Such is life, at least that is how it was more often before social media. I am glad that I shared the quotes and poems I did, as I was thinking about what it would feel like to leave my new friends and return home 6 weeks later. They are still meaningful to me today.
For some reason I wrote the words in Comes the Dawn in cursive in this journal entry. It looks really nice and I don’t think I could do that so well now if I tried, as I never use cursive anymore (except for my signature, writing checks and signing cards with my name in cursive).
I believe I was able to share these quotes so easily in this entry, as back then I had a small quote book that carried with me most of the time and would add to, whenever I read or heard something that spoke to me. So I likely copied them from there. I know I mentioned my quote book in at least one or more other entries. Many years ago I misplaced it and am always keeping an eye out for it/hoping it will turn up, especially when I am organizing spaces in our home and going through boxes of stuff, including sentimental things that I have accumulated throughout my life.
It was interesting to revisit what I wrote about my visit to Portobello Road and the pictures I took, as well as the postcards I bought, as I am not sure what happened to them. Maybe the photos didn’t turn out, as I don’t have any in my albums from my semester abroad. I can think of a few places the postcards might be and hope to come across them again one of these days.
We are turning our guest room into part bedroom and part family archives, including things that my parents gave me to store for my sister, me, our kids and possibly future generations to see. When they were moving from my childhood home/their house of 40 years, in 2019, I wasn’t in the right place emotionally to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, so there is a lot of stuff stacked up in there that I intend to sort through and arrange in the not too distant future.
Well, this was a long entry, followed by a long reflection from present day, that has taken me awhile to work my way through. I am sure could add more, however I am going to wrap this up, so I can move on to the next one.
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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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