I'll be honest: a few weeks ago I was ready to go home. The charm of England had worn off and I missed everyone and everything in Colorado so much, it felt like the month an a half left to go was too much. But then my good friend Haylee came all the way from Colorado to visit and seeing the country through her fresh eyes made me fall in love with this place all over again. Haylee, originally from Hawaii, seemed to have brought the good weather with her because the majority of the week she was here was unusually hot. We actually had to go buy new outfits one day because of the heat! Her first day in England had blue skies but wasn't terribly hot. We explored the beach and had the classic fish and chips. It reminded me of the first time I went to the beach back in early October with my flatmates. The next day we took an early train to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was my second time in the city, and I was struck both by how much I loved it there and how much I hadn't yet seen. We explored the huge castle and walked the steep hills and found a rock band on the streets that featured a fabulous bagpipe player. On the hottest Saturday I've experienced in the UK, we went to Newcastle and drank (iced) coffee while petting cats at CatPawCino. After an impromptu shopping trip and an outfit change, I showed Haylee the Newcastle Castle. Watching her stare in awe at the imposing building reminded me of how equally stunned I was at seeing it back in January. One thing I love about England is that you can go around and casually touch actual castles: beautiful and intimidating buildings full of history much older than anything we have in the US. On Sunday, I had an all day rehearsal for an upcoming theatre show (which will be featured in an future blog post). Haylee went to York that day and had an adventure of her own. After spending five days in a row visiting five different cities, we were both pretty exhausted and so spent the next day in Sunderland. The weather continued to be beautiful and we ended up at a local park. Because of England's constant rain, their spring is extra beautiful with thousands of flowers blooming everywhere. Walking through this park in Sunderland felt like a fairy tale, and it renewed my love for the city I have been calling home for almost eight months now. Having Haylee here really reminded why I was here in the first place. England has always called to me; deciding to study in this country was less of a choice and more of an automatic reaction. It was something I needed because of the experiences like I had this past week. Visiting castles, wandering cities, riding trains, drinking tea.
Being in England is something I really enjoy and something I'm really going to miss.
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Amy Golden
Amy will be spending the academic year at the University of Sunderland in England studying journalism. Archives
February 2018
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