A Word from the Anglophile

Well, vacations have monopolized the blog for long enough, and it's time to get back to real life. But before I do, I wanted to write a bit to wrap up our trip to Cambridge.

As I mentioned before we left, this particular trip was a long time in coming. In addition to our six-year vacation hiatus, we had not been to the UK in nine years and had always agreed that we love it there and would like to go back "soon." Well, "soon" took nearly a decade to take place, but it was worth it. We love so much about England, and Cambridge in particular, and we feel a bit connected to the UK, for some reason.

One interesting thing about us is that Nathan and I are different enough, by and large, to like and prefer and feel affection for different types of places. I loved the New England landscape, but Nathan didn't enjoy or appreciate it as much as I did. Alternatively, when we were in the Texas Hill Country, Nathan just soaked up the rugged beauty and loved every bit of scrubby brush and sand and rock, but I was not nearly as enthralled by it. However, we both feel invigorated by the English countryside. To both of us, it's beautiful and refreshing, and we love spending time in it. In fact, it'd probably be true to say that the only places we could live with mutual satisfaction are the mountains and England.

The highs in Cambridge were about 70F every day we were there. Now, I know that the people who live there year round are probably ready for it to feel more like summer, thank you very much. But as for me, it was sweet relief. In fact, when we returned to Houston, one of the first things I thought--with a great big dose of dismay--was, "I am just not built for this heat!" The hundred-degree temps really do drain me from time to time, so being in a place where I occasionally needed a jacket was wonderful. In fact, on our first day in England, as the train door slid open on our trip across London from the airport towards King's Cross Station, a breeze of cool, gray, rainy air blew inside the train, and I looked at Nathan and said, "Oh, it feels so good!"

We both realized right away that one of the things we liked a lot about Cambridge is that it's a walking city. I realized how much I missed that about Cambridge, Massachusetts. When you live in a city like Houston--which is so very spread out that a car is absolutely necessary, and which is so hot that it would be really, really unpleasant to have to walk everywhere year round, anyway--it feels wonderful to stretch your legs a bit and make walking a part of your day again. We probably walked upwards of four or five miles every day, and I loved it. It also made our daily snacks of scones, clotted cream, and loads of jam a little more justifiable!

At the end of our trip, along the train ride to the airport to come home, I watched the patches of purple flowers near the tracks blur into an impressionist painting and thought about the fact that I would have been happy to stay a while longer. Days after we got home, Nathan said he wished we were still in Cambridge. Now, granted, some of this has to do with the contrast between relaxed vacation mode and full throttle work and parenting mode. But I think we also have a connection to the UK somehow; that we feel a little like we belong there, as if we fit, just a little bit. As Nathan put it, it's just familiar enough to be comfortable and just foreign enough to be an adventure. Perhaps, if the opportunity ever arises, we'll move there for a couple of years; I know I haven't seen enough of the British Isles yet to be satisfied!