Catching up

Do you like my new hat??

That was one of my spectacular finds in Camden Town. I took Luke to see the Saturday Portabello Road market and he showed me Camden Town where we ate some much craved Mexican food (held on display here for you to see).

Probably a good time to mention that I'm starting to get slightly homesick. Not really in the sense of wanting to be away from Lee Abbey, but I am more consistently reminded of food or songs or other parts of life from back home and thinking that it will be nice to get back to them in September. Pretty good timing, I'm down to only four and half months left here.

People ask me if time has gone by quickly or slowly. I don't think I have a very satisfactory answer for them; my life at Lee Abbey is so full and I have met so many people, done so many new things that I feel like I've already lived a full lifetime here. And yet, I don't feel like time has gone by slowly, or that life in the US is so distant. Its like life anywhere - some weeks are harder than others, and that makes time seem to go more slowly, some weeks are wonderful and seem to go by more quickly.

The best thing about these last seven months has, of course, been the people I've met. It has been a huge challenge for me to learn just how to be a real and vulnerable friend to someone who I may only know for a few months. How do you give of yourself without giving yourself away? I'm still not great at it, but I've made some baby steps, lessons that I hope will help me with whatever comes next.

Yes, I'm writing this from Germany, but you'll have to wait until I get back next week for the Deutschland post, pictures and all :)

P.S. Congratulations Laura!!! Out of all the amazing universities who were fighting each other for the privelege of having you study with them, I think you made a great choice and I'll start planning my trip to the hinterlands of Minnesota for you're graduation . . .