Coming Home Again

     And so the end is upon me, at least for now.  At the moment I'm sitting in a coffee shop in London (not ideal for my last day here, but if you could feel how heavy my backpack is you'd understand why I'm being stationary).  Paul's cousin Matt is coming to meet me when he gets off work and then we'll meet up with Chris and Cat at his place so that I can shower and change into an outfit that I HAVEN'T been wearing over and over for the last month.  After that we're meeting up with Paula and some other Wood Greeners for my last supper at Wagamama's in Covent Garden followed, hopefully, by Ben's Cookies and perhaps a bit of dancing at KoKo as long as Chris is up for it.  Otherwise, perhaps we'll just have drinks at Punch and Judy's and watch the street performers from a safe enough distance so as not to feel obligated to give money.  

     This morning I left Kyle in Amsterdam, thus ending my month of backpacking through Europe with him, Darryl and Veronica.  We had a fabulous time, saw so many sights, went so many places, experienced so many languages and met so many new people.  So many things, in fact, that I won't even attempt to explain them all here because you'll get bored about 1/6 of the way through.  Considering that I'll be home tomorrow evening, I suggest asking me about any and everything.  Partly because it's always better to hear it straight from the horses mouth and partly because I'll be dying to talk about it all.  This particular trip was to Edinburgh, Stockholm, Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Zermatt, Cologne, Amsterdam.  I think I met the best people in Edinburgh and Stockholm (excluding, of course, Darryl's lovely friends who played host while we were in Germany).  I'd also have to say that Cinque Terre is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.  We did a lot of climbing this trip, St. Peter's Basilica, the Duomo (or rather, the building next to it), the hills of Cinque Terre, castles and towers in Germany, etc.  Unfortunately we did not have time to climb the Leaning Tower (though we tried), or hike through Zermatt due to rain (instead we sat in a pub with Guinness... lazy!).  As a result I have a renewed love for hiking (and hopefully a good foundation for training hills for the SF marathon).  

     Veronica and I really got to have some lady bonding time, especially when it came to sampling the food, which we were all about (let's be honest, you can't fully experience any culture without experiencing the food).  I'm not sure if I've actually written about it, I'm sure I've talked about it, and I'm sure I'll continue to talk about it, because this little gem of knowledge has become very important to me: Hospitality.  Throughout the last 6 months I have experienced the true meaning of the word.  Everywhere I go, no matter what country I'm in I'm amazed at how gracious people are. and I want to make sure I make an effort to learn from that and try to repay others in kind as best I can.  I won't say anymore about that because then I'll feel like I'm repeating myself too much when I brag about how lucky I am to have met the people I have and been treated as well as I have been.  You can all look forward to meeting many new friends from abroad as I finally get to play home team and show a little American hospitality.

     I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself, I can't play host until I have my own place, and to get my own place I have to come home, which is what I'll be doing tomorrow from 3:10pm London time until 6:45pm California time.  I can't wait to see everyone, I'll be a busy bee next week trying to get back into the swing of things, be responsible and still see everyone so give me some time and we'll all get to eat, drink and be merry!  I'm going to miss London so much, but coming home was inevitable and I have no turned my focus onto how excited I am to see everyone that I've been missing oh so much!