Rediscovering My London...

After living in London for over three months it saddens me to say that after a while I began to slowly spiral down from my original enthusiasm and started to become cynical. Not cynical about London itself, but with the monotony of living here and going to school. I started to take for granted this city. It reached a point where I was becoming more excited about my next trip outside of London, my next chance to leave this island; more-so excited than I was about anything else. I suppose it is similar to living in any place really. Sometimes, you move somewhere and are so enthralled in all that your new city has to offer you: the new neighborhoods, the new people, the new adventures. But after a while, you sink into a routine. Everything becomes ordinary rather then new and exciting. The place you once dreamed of has become redundant. Maybe I started letting the gloomy London weather get to me, but I was coming to a point where I no longer cared about living here and was looking forward to the day I was heading back to New York. 

Luckily for me, Spring Break was quickly approaching me. Two weeks of no work and no rush, just some relaxing free time. My first week was spent in Athens and Rome. I fell in love immediately. Well, maybe not so much with Athens, but definitely with Rome. The second week of Spring Break was dedicated to my family. They were flying up to spend a week in London and of course, to visit with me. This part I wasn't as thrilled about. Don't get me wrong, I was ridiculously excited to see my family, but with my current feelings towards London you can understand that I wasn't thrilled to be spending a week here. 

What could we possibly do with an entire week?! That was the thought running through my mind.

Nana, Mom, and Me infront of Big Ben

Well, the family was here and instead of ruining their trip I put on my happy face like any other daughter and stuck it out. Of course, with none of my family having been here in the last ten years it was evident that ALL the touristy sites would be done. And boy did we see them all! And surprisingly to me, my bitterness actually began to wear off! Getting dragged to every historical site imaginable somehow became exactly what was needed to lift the bitter weight that was resting on my shoulder. It seems that with my families excitement and fresh outlook on the city, I was able to look at London in a different light. I suppose I could be cheesy and call it a revelation, but that was in fact what it seemed to become. With my family there I was re-introduced to the city that I once fell in love with; with the city that I had dreamed about; the city I wanted to study abroad in. Maybe it was a three month slump that I fell into but I'm glad to be out of it! Maybe the trick is, instead of leaving behind the places we once loved, it is our responsibility to revisit the things that made us fall in love in the first place.