A Few Days On

Four nights of sleeping through the sirens, shouts, and street lamps of Oxford Street and all engines are running strong.

Highlights so far:

A view from the Fourth floor of the Parliamentary office looking out over Westminister Palace and the constant flow of tourists that pass by down below.

Passing through the belly of the beast—walking through the corridors of the House of Commons directly underneath Big Ben and slipping in to watch sessions in the chamber.

Sharing lunch tables with MPs and Lords...and watching some of them drop their trays in the cafeteria.

Realizing that I've already got a routine (it's incredibly comforting in a big city): two trains to work, the same security process, the commute home, the trip to the grocery store, and back home. Rinse and repeat. This is home for now.

[going to try and transfer pictures from the phone to the computer]

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And just like that I'll be kissing Watertown goodbye for quite some time. Even then, when I return home to Massachusetts in August there will only be a few weeks before classes begin for me this fall. It's a strange thing realizing that this next day might be the last in which I completely "live" here in the house I have spent the last five years.

Visits home from school are just...well, visits, and the longest vacations aren't long at all. Even summers, the one relic of childhood that lingers throughout the college years, are consumed with volunteer work, classes, and jobs, otherwise known as the the things you try and do to prove you're no kid anymore.

But there's one thing I have taken from the past few months: you can teach in the poorest, furthest, land-locked nation, you can learn, love, and contribute while still being a kid at heart.

If taking time off is a crime, I'm guilty. But with my plea I maintain that nothing does the mind and body better than reassessing needs, dreams, and priorities before moving on to the heavy lifting.

The lifting begins next Monday at Westminster Palace in London.

Two Articles

Two opinions on where we might be headed as a country. I'm planning on expanding upon these articles soon, but Peggy Noonan and Rich Karlgaard present some brilliant reading here (Noonan's considerably more immersive, enlightening, and exciting to think about):

Goodbye Bland Affluence by Peggy Noonan

Will Americans Turn Inward? by Rich Karlgaard

The Last Beautiful View

I paused to snap a morning shot of Salt Lake City before boarding my flight back to Boston. The airports don't have backdrops like that back East. To think of it, there aren't many pieces of scenery in this corner of the woods anything like Montana, Utah, and Idaho.

A new adventure soon, but spending some time away from my home turf was such a blessing.

The Long Road Home

I've still got three wake-ups till I kiss Montana and the Rockies goodbye, but the packing has begun and I'm not looking forward to leaving.

Off to find rope to tie up my army surplus pack!

Weir Creek Hot Springs, Idaho

The Week Ahead

Just over a week before I'm back home in the Northeast, driving around, lapping up the sunshine and enjoying weather in the high 50's.