The Home Stretch

I leave Britain in one month today. It feels almost impossible for me to come to terms with the fact that my time here is almost over – I have never before found a place that so felt like “home”, and maybe that’s why I’ve never understood until now why some people don’t want to leave that place when they find it. It seems like most of the people I know found home in the place they grew up; or they ended up finding a job somewhere they liked reasonably enough, and that was good enough to call it home for a long time; or maybe for others a home is the place where one’s family is, and that’s the only real requirement. But I have lived many places all over Canada, and not one of them ever felt like home in the same way that the UK has for me. (And yes, I do have to acknowledge the irony of this situation, given that I’ve been so transient and relatively homeless whilst I have been over here!)

So, I have decided to immigrate. I don’t know the details of how it’s all going to come together yet, but there it is. I’m hoping to be back here by this time next year, and for good. I will, of course, keep you posted as to how it all comes together.

I’ve been back in London for 2 weeks since I took off after my fieldwork at the NHM. There were so many times I wanted to get online and blog about what I saw and did during my 7 weeks of travel, but unfortunately there wasn’t any real way of doing that – primarily because I was travelling without my computer, and internet cafes are damned expensive. So I’m going to try to do justice to my wanderings by going back over them now in relatively little detail. I know that’s lame, but since I have so little time left here, and rather a lot of work to do, that’s how it goes. There will be photos too, however, if that’s any consolation. Soon to come: Bath and Paris!

In the meantime, however, I've been busy catching up with friends, and I found a little room to rent in Streatham (SW London). Liz and our mutual friend Caroline invited me to come to Croatia with them this past week, and while I was so very sad to say no, I went to a fantastic summer hat party on Saturday with friends from the museum. My supervisor was also here from Canada for the past two days, en route to Galway where she will be for a couple of months, and it was really fantastic to catch up with her and finally get some feedback on my work! I'm heading to Cambridge this weekend to see the museums there and visit my friend Paul, who I did my MA with in Hamilton. The plan is to stay in London until about July 13, and then I'm going to Liverpool to spend my last week checking out the museums there, since it was the "Culture Capital" in 2008. I'm also hoping to visit the University of Leicester en route, and talk to them about doing a post-doc (which is a pretty exciting thought!). I have a feeling this next few weeks are going to just fly by... I guess all I can do is take some comfort in knowing it won't be too incredibly long (relatively speaking, that is) until I'm back here for good.