Last night a friend told me she’s thinking of moving to
Australia. Since I spent a good deal of my time thinking about and planning to expatriate
myself between 1995 and 2002, I sympathized with her struggle.
I started traveling in 1994 when I first visited the UK. I
had always been an Anglophile and loved all things English, but once I actually
visited, I made it my goal to live there. Initially I got a student work visa
to stay in the country and work for six months. When that expired, I returned to the U.S. and
applied for an internship, taking me back to England for another six months.
After that, I traveled to Australia on three separate occasions, once with a
work visa and two other times in the hopes of living there. In 2002, I returned
home for good.
My husband traveled with me to England and
Scotland this past summer, and it was wonderful to show him my “old stomping
ground” and all the sights I had fallen in love with when I lived there. Just
this past weekend, he asked me where I wanted to go next. “I want to go back to
England and Scotland,” I told him. He
was surprised that I didn’t want to go somewhere new—somewhere I’d never been,
and it made me realize something about the way I travel. In the past, I
traveled to look for a place to live; nowadays, I travel to recreate feelings I
once experienced. My ties to England are strong, and if I could buy a summer
home there and return every year, I would do so. I’m not someone that needs to
see new places all the time; instead, I would prefer to travel to the familiar—to
places where I once experienced strong emotions and lifelong attachments. I guess I'm just a sentimental sojourner.
Oh I love that picture you posted! Makes me want to go back to London! Hunter has recently become fascinated with Big Ben and we've been watching videos about it and how it works. The British gov't has some nice ones. :)
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