Happy Returns

There's nothing like a new journey, particularly when home base is 90+ degrees with nothing but blazing sun and fried chicken and careless driving in sight.

I visited England in 2016, while I was living in Ankara, Turkey. Before that trip, I was nervous about being in a place where everyone spoke English: I'd been surrounded by languages I only partially understood for nearly 7 years, and my brief trips to the US left me mentally exhausted, overcome by the flood of information exchange in an atmosphere of spoken English. Even so, I was beyond excited to go to London and see where some of my favorite authors had spent their time. Money was not an (overly-huge) issue, and I went to all the sights I could, took trips to Brighton and Portsmouth, and filled a suitcase with books.

It was hard to go back to Turkey after that.

This time, with a grad student's budget and a tight schedule, I'm in England for a month on a Library and Information Sciences course. Technically, I'm here for five weeks: I came a week early to get in some sight-seeing and adjust to inevitable jet lag. Travel is difficult for me now, with a house and two cats, part-time jobs, school work, and just being in the sprawling, travel-hard regions of America. I tacked on an extra week knowing that I wouldn't get the opportunity to travel internationally again for a while, and knowing that even a month in London just isn't enough.

While I'm here, I'll visit at least a dozen museums, archives, and libraries. I'll also try to get in a night at the musical, Matilda. I'll even head to the Roald Dahl museum to see what his life was like in England. Hence, my blog title: I've named it for the little girl who loved the library, who loved learning, and who, about a year ago, saw her 30th birthday. Matilda, my travel muse.

Today is "day one" (though it's more like "tail end of yesterday but somehow the sun never set end of a day that is maybe today and possibly tomorrow somewhere else?"), and I managed to eat a very British (cheese and onion) sandwich for dinner. Oh, and see this beautiful park (Battersea) before heading to bed at 6 pm. Many happy returns!