Faraway Family and Fun

“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.”
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. 

Well now, where have I left off? I’m afraid I have to skip the boring week after spring break – during which I got caught up on school work and then fell woefully behind again – to move the narrative along. Unless you want to want to hear about that kind of stuff…? I’ll decide for you: you don’t. My life is generally filled with little, seemingly uninteresting things. My life is measured in train rides and coffee shops. (T.S. Eliot, anybody?)

Anyway, my family came to visit me a few weeks ago! Not everyone could come, of course, but my mother, father, sister, brother, and sister-in-law all came across the pond for a week. Unfortunately, I still had a fairly full schedule with work and class and I had a whole lot of writing to do, so I only saw them for dinner for the first few days. It was weird knowing that my family was so close and not living with them. For a little while, it made me feel like a grown up. And then I got stressed out and blew my adult cover and proved not to be the changing, maturing person I thought myself to be.

But obviously, I had a lovely time meeting with everyone each night, finding out what they’d been up to, and planning for the weekend ahead. It’s interesting that my family saw things that I haven’t and may never see, like Greenwich, although they were here for just a week and I’ve been here for over a hundred days. That’s the thing about London, though. (How many times have I said this in blog posts? I’m so sorry. If I keep saying this when I come home, just slap me. I give you permission.) Even if you live here your whole life, you’re not going to be able to see absolutely everything. So it’s okay that I’m probably not going to check off the last item on my wish list. Maybe someday when I come back, that will be my first priority.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself there. The next two blogs are for being reflective and sentimental or whatever, so let’s continue on with the actual story. I knew I picked that Macbeth quote for a reason besides the soon-to-be-made-obvious one. Even just thinking about the next two weeks is making me confuse the narrative of this piece. Ah, well. You’ve all learned to deal with my stream of consciousness style by now, right?

On Thursday after my classes had finished, I hurried home to stuff my backpack with a few essentials, and then I was off to King’s Cross Station to meet my family, so we could all take the train to Edinburgh together. King’s Cross isn’t my favourite train station, despite its connection with Harry Potter. Actually, the King’s Cross mentioned in J.K. Rowling’s books is an amalgam of the three main train stations, which are all situated on the same road. King’s Cross is the name that J.K. Rowling went with as her parents met there, but she was visualising Euston’s platforms, and the films used St. Pancras for the exteriors. I’ve taken trains from all three stations now, and I think St. Pancras is my favourite. It’s pretty and it’s the most organised. Anyway, King’s Cross stressed me out a little, because our train’s platform wasn’t announced until two minutes before boarding.

I have to say, the train ride wasn’t at all magical. My family and I didn’t reserve seats with our tickets, and we weren’t aggressive enough to sit down in the unreserved seats before anyone else got there. The result? We were standing for over two hours. Sure, my parents and my sister sat down on their suitcases or on the floor, but it wasn’t a fun adventure. It was nice to look out the window and to read some of my book, but I wasn’t even happy when I finally got to sit down. For some reason I was worried about rules and thought that I couldn’t sit in certain seats so I pretty much refused to sit down until my family members spied two empty seats where my sister could sit with me and protect me. Again, I lost my adult cover there.

Once we got to Scotland, even though it was nearing midnight, things did actually start to feel magical. We may have gone to the wrong hotel at first and the hotel rooms themselves were fairly standard, but for the first time ever, I was with my family in a new country with no responsibilities to speak of. My sister and I were so excited that we could hardly get to sleep. The next morning, we were not bleary-eyed, as expected. We  wandered the streets of Edinburgh, wide-eyed and wondering, and found a nice breakfast place with the loveliest Scottish cook. I had my signature hot chocolate, and my family said they hadn’t seen me that happy in a long time. I guess hot chocolate does that to me.

We started our day at Edinburgh Castle, where we learned about our English and Scottish ancestors and looked out breathlessly over the city. It was there that I realised that Edinburgh might just be an option for my (probably unrealistic) European grad school plans. I also tried my first taste of whisky there. It was honey-flavoured and I don’t really think it was my thing. After exploring the castle, we walked down the Royal Mile and wandered towards Elephant and Castle, the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling famously wrote parts of Harry Potter. (I know, there’s so much Harry Potter here, but can you blame me?) Since I’d already had some hot chocolate, I just got a lemonade. I got a little bit grumpy while inside, so I hope that’s not a bad omen for my future as a writer.

We walked toward the Queen’s Palace after that, and then my siblings and I decided to climb to King Arthur’s Seat. My brother, of course, was far ahead, but my sisters and I managed to plug along. I miss hiking and running and playing sports. But I guess since I’ve been here, I’ve been so focused on my goals and on seeing everything and on taking time to relax that I haven’t really taken time to do any of that kind of stuff. Exercising really can be relaxing for me, strangely, so I think I’m going to try to get back into shape this summer… with all my abundant free time. (I don’t know if you can tell if that’s sarcasm. I know I’m supposed to be subtle in my writing, but this is my blog, so I do what I want, as my sister would say.)

We had a nice dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, and I got a little grumpy again. This time I definitely know why. After seeing my family quite sparingly for a week, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back to my normal, non-homesick routine. After we got to the hotel, I made my mom stay with me while the others found out where to get a shuttle to the airport. We watched British television (which I am now addicted to) and knowing that I had little things like that to look forward to after the next month weirdly helped me through the goodbye process. Everyone woke up and was ready to leave by five, aside from me. I came downstairs to bid everyone farewell and then went back up to the hotel room. I couldn’t sleep for a while, and ended up watching a lot of television until I dozed off. When I woke up, there was no time to go shopping or to go back to Elephant and Castle as I had planned, so I contented myself with visiting Costa – my all-time favourite coffee shop – before I headed back to the train station.

This train ride was much more satisfactory. I had a seat right from the get-go and a really intense book to read. Even before I pulled into King’s Cross once again, I knew that everything was going to be okay. I’d made it this far, hadn’t I? There’s just something about London that almost absolves my homesickness, something that makes me feel optimistic for once in my life. When I’m here, I know somehow that everything is going to be okay. What more could I ask for?