Homestretch

My last full weekend in London behind me, I set off for my remaining four days of work. For some reason, my program had us not working on Friday-- we didn't actually have exit interviews. Regardless, I was super excited as a walked/rode to work on Monday. Seriously, this was it! Last Monday I was incredibly antsy the entire day knowing that I was close but not nearly close enough. Now I was close.

The work week passed very quickly, for which I'm thankful. Tuesday night I went to see Pygmalion after work. The musical My Fair Lady was based on Pygmalion, so I've always wanted to see it since I really like the musical (and even have the soundtrack! But not with me, currently, more on that later....). Strangely, the play was much better than the musical at least plot-wise. The characters are more robust and there's a much clearer view of how the plot develops. Comparing the two, the musical seems quite shallow.

For example, in both the play and musical Eliza Doolittle makes clear to Professor Higgins that she intends to have only proper English lessons for she is "good girl she is" and will have nothing damaging her reputation. Although she is obviously lower class and clearly "dirty", she has managed to maintain a rare purity.

However, once she has mastered the art of being a lady, she wonders, while quite, understandably, exasperated, to Professor Higgins what she is good for now. The mannerisms he has taught her make her unfit to work in a flower shop yet because she is a "good girl" she can't sell her body in marriage or otherwise, though that seems all she has left to contribute as a pseudo-member of the upper class. Her realisation can be taken both as a remark on her as an individual and on the role of women in the upper class.

Oh my goodness, even as I write this I'm running through various other occurrences from the play. It was a fantastic commentary on class structure of the early 1900s in London. Its angles just keep going, and going, and going. But anyway, now that I've turned this blog into a discourse on comparative literature and theater, let me steer away a bit. (Though, if expanded, I imagine I could write a decent paper on Eliza's final realisation. C'mon guys, I'm trying to get into school mode again!)

On Wednesday night, I went to church for my final Wednesday night service. We'd been working on Psalm 18 since probably the third week of June and finally tied it all together this past Wednesday. The previous Wednesday, Pastor Jared had given us the divisions for the verses, and we were to find the connections and study the chapter as a whole. It was neat to see the chapter put together when we had just been studying it in chunks for the past 1.5 months. I've got a few pages scribbled with barely intelligible notes that I'll hopefully be able to decipher later on.

And then it came, that glorious final day of work! August 7th, the last day I would work at Pro Capital, Ltd. Finally. I sent a few emails in the morning and piddled around in the afternoon a little, but that was seriously about it. During the last two hours I just wanted to get out of there! I went out to my lunch park for the last time, taking with me my standard lunch of baguette sandwich, carrots, and a banana. But, I did buy a tippin bar (chocolate cookie bar type thing) to celebrate. After work, Oliver took us out for drinks which I thought would be insanely awkward but ended up being not too bad. He got us a plate of nachos to work on, which was nice. I've never had lime in my Coke before, but I couldn't really taste it. I think I might like to have lemon in Coke regularly. Hm, maybe I'll do some experimenting when we get back to the States.

We said our good-byes and Una (Oliver's assistant) and I walked to the Tube station together. I had to top up, so we exchanged our final well-wishes to each other. Suddenly, she was pulling me close to her side. "Uh, what are we doing?" I mentally asked. She pulled me to her other side. "Oh! That's what we're doing. European-style good-bye with a fake kiss to each side. Gotcha." Hm, I'll probably need to practice that a few more times before being comfortable to do it naturally. But, no chance now what with our flight taking off tomorrow afternoon (!!!).

As I rode down the escalator, I was a little sad. Strange, huh? The job I had waited to end was finally over yet there was a very weird part of me wanting it to remain. I think that's mostly because ending the internship meant the end of a certain amount of structure and security. You see, the internship had become normal. As much as it felt incredibly off during my first few weeks, I grew to be comfortable with it. Getting up at 6 AM every morning, eating my breakfast of tea, milk, two pieces of toast (one with cream cheese and raspberry jam, the other with peanut butter), and a clementine, riding the Tube while listening to my Mp3 player, going to the lunch park, coming back to the flat and having a glass of sparkling apple juice every evening. It was normal, it was structured.

But now that's all ending. My bags are packed, my carry on is ready, I'm all set to head out the door tomorrow morning never to return to this flat. Leaving will, however, be the end of a structure I have gotten used to. Some moments I'm sad to leave, some I'm ecstatic. On the culture adjustment cycle I think I'm bobbling between two states.

We all went out for Chinese at the place Katie Beth and I went to weeks ago. It's probably the only place where I've consistently gotten the same thing. Usually I like to try lots of different things, but at this particular place I found an item I liked and stuck with it. That item happened to be roast belly pork with egg fried rice. I've even eaten the entire meal with chopsticks all three times and have upped my skill level from laughably horrible to decently adequate. I found myself rather naturally picking up rice, pork, and cooked cabbage. The next time I have Chinese I want to eat it all with chopsticks.

Tonight, I went and bought a pasty from Baker's Oven and in just a few hours I'll head out and get chocolate ice cream. You see, Melissa, Katie Beth, and I got ice cream at that same place after returning from The Merry Wives of Windsor the night before KB was to leave. I promised myself that the night before I left I would get some more of that very same ice cream.

When Melissa left she had compiled a list of things she liked and disliked about London. A week or so before that, I had the idea to do something similar right before I left too. And my, was it going to be a list. I'd include good things and bad to have some balance, and it would stretch out for a long while. But see, a funny thing happened. I can't tell anymore what I like and dislike. London is...London. I haven't needed to 'escape the city' like I did when Katie Beth was here. I'm used to the whizzing cars, the lights, and the throngs of people. Every day I hear at least four languages and that would be a culturally relatively boring day.

Here's the kicker: I think in pounds, not dollars. It's been quite a while since I converted to dollars all the time. The conversion is ridiculous, always, so I just stopped and tried to spend money relatively well as best I could. I wonder if when going back to the States I'll be amazed at the 'cheap' prices.

It's weird. I don't know what I like and dislike anymore. It's all just there. I live in it. While this has been fantastic to adjusting to living here, I imagine returning might be slightly more difficult that I expect. Ever since early summer I've been watching my progress through the "cultural adjustment cycle." Boy, that thing is surprisingly accurate. We've all gone through the cycle at various times, but it has certainly happened to all of us. Perhaps during my five hours at the airport tomorrow or eight hours on the plane I'll draw up a graph to post on here. Or maybe Excel once I get back, we'll see.

And that's it folks, we leave the flats at 11 AM tomorrow for our flight at 4:10 PM. We land in Chicago at 6:45 PM, and from there my mom and sisters will pick me up. We'll spend the night at my grandparents house and then drive back to Burlington on Monday. I've got more to write, but I'm getting a bit tired (even though it's not even 9...) and a little antsy to be in the plane finally headed home. It's coming, tomorrow, it's coming. Wow, thank You Lord.