The end of an era

Can you believe it? This will be my last entry from Leicester. You must be wondering why I’m ending things so early. That’s because my MOM is coming to help me pack up and we are going to Paris, Rome and Florence over one week!!! I am unbelievably excited to see her. It’s really fascinating sometimes how life can bring you full circle. I started this journey 11 months ago, with my mom helping to settle me into my new life, and now upon my return she’s coming back to bring me home! I’m only in Leicester for another 10 days and then I head to London to meet my mom and we’ll be travelling for the next week, catching our flight back to Canada on the 17^th. Which means that I’ve had to finish up my dissertation a few days earlier, and it hasn’t been an issue. I’m actually almost done except for a few minor edits here and there. Everything has been backed up several times, in various places both on and off my computer so hopefully I won’t run into any problems.

On Wednesday morning myself, Z, and our two friends Rob and Bindy went up north to the Lake District for a night. The Lake District is part of England, but just underneath Scotland – and is known for its natural beauty. The area is divided into towns based on (you guessed it) the various lakes. If you’re familiar with the author Beatrix Potter, she was from the Lake District and her birthday passed a couple days ago. The town we stayed in, Windemere, was a picture perfect example of something out of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was an absolutely breathtaking trip. I finally got to see the true rolling hills and lush green countryside of England. We hiked on a couple of trails and even took a rowboat out on one of the lakes – of course we got the boys to do most of the rowing! Below are some of the MANY pictures I took. I loved being up there with nature. It’s so nice sometimes to just turn off your mobile for a couple of days and feel like there is nowhere else you need to be or anyone else you need to be with at that very moment. Eckhart talks about trying to be present in everything you do, and I felt completely present with my surroundings, connected 100%. We have all these little thoughts buzzing around in our heads constantly, I felt so lucky to be able to shut them all off for a couple days of peace and tranquility.

On our way out, we also stopped in this town called Blackpool and it was the craziest place I’ve ever visited in England. It’s kind of like a really dowdy version of Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls. Lots of cheesy lights and (ahem) intriguing people walking around...the only beautiful feature was the shore of the Irish Sea on the opposite side of all the games and theatres. Some people were even swimming, but the water was a bit too cold for us still, we decided to just play in the sand and do some ‘creative’ artwork. We did have exceptionally beautiful weather for both days. This whole week in fact has been the perfect summer temperature – lots of sun, only reaching about 25 degrees. I hope it stays like this for another 10 days (but considering I’m in England that’s highly unlikely).

Last night I went to see the new Batman movie – unfortunately not in Imax because Leicester doesn’t have an Imax cinema. But it was still packed with excitement from beginning to end. I couldn’t believe it was 2.5 hours long because the time just flew by! Even Z, who doesn’t like action movies at all admitted to enjoying The Dark Knight. The only thing that was kind of morbid was watching Heath Ledger as the Joker. He was excellent, but just knowing that he’s no longer alive and yet I’m watching him on screen seemed a little off to me. He deserves the posthumous Oscar nomination though, and I bet he’ll win it too, I mean you can’t really contend with someone who has died.

The rest of this week will be spent tying up loose ends. There are a lot of accounts here to close, suitcases to pack, friends to say goodbye to – oh and of course dissertations to print and submit! It’s a really strange feeling to have the last 11 months come to an end. Sometimes I find myself just sitting in my room, in awe of this whole journey. This is going to sound like such a silly analogy, but the best way I can describe it is like with weight gain or hair growth. You know how when you see someone every day, whether it be a spouse, friend or family member, you don’t really notice if they lose or gain weight or how long their hair has grown because you see the gradual transformation. But then if you haven’t seen someone for months you can tell right away that something has changed. Well I feel like I’m still the same person I was when I first got here, everything I’ve done, all the travelling and studying seems like such a small deal now. But I guess if somehow the ‘me’ from last September could see the ‘me’ now, they wouldn’t believe everything that’s happened in such a short time. It does feel sad in some ways to leave because we’ve created a little nest here for ourselves. The open fruit market in town, and those crazy paternoster lifts on campus and the 24-hour take away place up the street for our late night study cravings. The journey here is definitely done, I know that – but it doesn’t mean that it’s not sad to leave it. Anyways, life gives you what you need most, and that has been my mantra in coping with all this.

And not to worry readers – I will make sure to continue posting blog entries from Canada. After all, I will have my trip with mummy dearest to talk about and some other events and topics along the way I’m sure – which I will probably start a new blog to do (new URL will be posted here). So I guess all that's left to say is thank you for sharing this adventure with me for the last 11 months. I hope you've enjoyed reading about all my experiences, because I certainly enjoyed writing about them! I've been extremely blessed and fortunate to have gone through this journey and come out of it with only positive memories and life lessons, and I'm sure that it has to do with all the encouragement and support everyone has given me.

And because I would prefer to end on a smile and not a tear, I'll leave you with the following image:

I call it: Miss Piggy :)