The great outdoors.

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking that I wouldn't want to live in London again. Don't get me wrong, I have loved my life here and I can say, with no restrictions, that I love this city. London offers so much - museums, nightlife, cuisine, history, music, shopping, literature, fashion, transportation. However, I don't think I could live here for an extended period of time again. Visiting would suffice in the future.

Something holds me back from embracing London as my home. When I leave London, I won't be able to look back and say, "I lived in London for 4 months." That little verb, "lived," presents a whole load of niggling (one of my British professor's favorite words) thoughts. Perhaps because this is the first time I've been away from family and friends on my own, I've felt the pull of home so strongly while here. At the same time that I haven't allowed myself to think of London as home, London hasn't made itself home for me.

When out and about London or traveling outside of the UK, I have said "It'll be good to be home again," when referring to London. But in retrospect, I realize that I was looking forward to the familiarity of the city and the comfort of my room in my flat. I wasn't calling London "home" in the same way that I can call Gardena or LMU "home."

Anyway, this entry is moving away from what I intended it to be. I can continue this reflection of what is and isn't home some other time. What I really wanted to write about was one of London's offerings that I will miss tons: its parks! I can find museums, nightlife, music, shopping back in LA (though I in no way mean to say that all these things are the same in both cities), but I won't find parks in LA that can even compare to those in London.

There are parks all over London. I think part of the reason is because people don't have yards in London. I live about 5 minutes from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The crocuses started to appear several weeks ago and it is beautiful. Though even when the trees were all bare and the sky gray, the parks, in their starkness, were still beautiful. Kensington Gardens features Kensington Palace (former home of the young Queen Victoria and Princess Diana), the Diana memorial fountain, and the Prince Albert memorial. Hyde Park includes the Serpentine (a body of water used for boating among other things) and lovely gardens.

Regent's Park, about a 20 minute tube ride away, is home of the London Zoo, huge sports pitches, and Primrose Hill. I visited Primrose Hill for the first time on one of the first days that it was consistently warm throughout the day, one of the first days of spring. We climbed the hill to take in the view but ended up joining all the other picnickers lounging around on the grass.

My favorite park so far has been Holland Park, about 10 minutes away by tube. Holland Park features a Dutch garden, a Kyoto garden, lawns, and peacocks. My favorite part of the park, though, is the majority of the park which consists of dense woodsy patches, dirt trails, and wildflowers. Once you walk through the gate on the west side, it's like entering another world. It reminds me of a campground. I made my way there after work on a particularly nice day and just walked around. My office had received a bunch of complimentary boxes of chocolates so I had that with me. I decided to sit down on a bench in front of some flowering trees and try some of the truffles. I bit into a raspberry and white chocolate one and I felt like spring through and through. I know it sounds a little silly, but it was one of those perfect moments. I must've looked a little odd, sitting alone on that bench, in my work get up, thoroughly enjoying my chocolates, but it was so nice. An elderly couple, a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair, passed by and seemed pleasantly amused at the sight of me; they smiled over and the man said, "Hello!"

I do wish I could bring the parks back with me.