Today was a lovely day all around. The sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and we went to an adorable little tea and scone shop. I went to church this morning in the beautiful Our Lady and the English Martyrs. I’m still trying to find out if this church is more of a visitors church or a local parish.
A few weeks ago when I went for my hour run, I came across an orchard that looked a bit like a restaurant, but I was running so I didn’t investigate any further. Apparently, the place was called the Orchard Tea Gardens, and Virginia Woolf and the rest of the Grantchester Group used to hang out there. It took me about 25 minutes to run there, so the walk was an hour long. A group of us walked all the way there and back, which was somewhere between 5.5 and 6 miles total. It was well worth the walk though; we brought packed picnic lunches to eat there and bought scones there. I got a toffee cake instead of a scone, because it was my favorite dessert that I’ve had in the hall at Cambridge thus far. We had a wonderful time hanging out at the same place some of the greatest intellectuals of their day did.
After dinner, I went for a run and now my legs are pretty dead but my mood is happy. Since coming to England, I’ve had a very positive outlook on life. That positivity has just been solidified over the course of the program and now I’m dreading leaving in less than two weeks. I’m happy and at peace here, as opposed to the sometimes suffocating and hectic world of Northwestern. Don’t get me wrong, I love it there, but between midterms every other week, working two jobs, balancing student groups, helping to ensure that the ES house is in a state of peace, and trying to be social, I get a little overwhelmed and the negative energy just creeps in. Here, I have no real obligations and my job is to explore and learn new things.
I’ve had a hard time living in the moment, because I know that it will all be over so soon. I had these grand romantic ideas of what study abroad would be like, and everything is wonderful, but not what I expected. Like today, when we were walking back from the tea garden, there was a nice breeze near the river, weeping willows were swaying in the wind, and everything was just so serene. But still, I couldn’t find myself totally satisfied because it knew it couldn’t last forever. Ideas are often better than reality. I get feelings of melancholy when I’m truly happy, because I know that it won’t last forever. So my goal for the rest of this trip is to live in the moment. I don’t want to think that in two weeks this will be over and I’ll be back in the swing of reality.
I think part of my good mood has to do with the fact that I’m consistently running for the first time since I graduated high school. It’s just a huge mood booster. So, if you are one of the 35 wonderful people I live with at school and you need me to emit more positivity, just tell me to go for a run and I’ll get the message. 🙂
The Charm of Cambridge 