So, I'm in my Aunt's garden, considering my first few days "transition" and my next "initial steps". On Monday the lovely Slinn family and my friend Georgina brought me up to Essex to my Aunt's house ("The Cottage"), where I was to meet my sister and niece. My aunt had organised a bit of a "garden party" in honour of various friend's birthdays in May, and Monday was spent in a lovely mix of family and friends, with the kids chasing around the garden and climbing trees! Tears were definitely shed when the time came for departures, but I SO enjoyed having some of the different "chunks" of my life getting to meet and mix and get to know each other more.
Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly quiet days of local sight-seeing and a day out in London, focussing on Camden Market, which I'd never been to. Such a fantastic atmosphere and vibrancy!
On Tuesday evening I heard from both the first two communities I had been planning to stay with, GloGen Church in Margate and the 24-7 Canterbury community, letting me know that unfortunately due to various circumstances, neither of them would be able to host me for the times I'd planned. Now, this wasn't catastrophic to my plans, but it definitely gave me pause, as I had hoped to "break myself in" gently with these two as they are both through direct friendship links and both english speaking, and I had hoped they would be a positive "springboard" for me into France. This also meant that I now had nearly an additional week with which to decide how best to use before I need to arrive in Arras on June 4.
What now looks to be working out is that I will stay my aunt's for a few extra days, which will mean I get to greet my brother and his family when they arrive on Sunday (not to mention getting to enjoy my aunt's company, beautiful garden and cats for a few more days! You NEVER have to convince me to come to The Cottage!!), and then head to Douai in northern France on June 1. I'll have a couple days in Douai, staying with a women from the "Couchsurfing" network, and then head to Arras on Thursday to stay with some friends of a friend, who head up a church there.
I have also just realised that I don't think I've actually communicated the actual purpose/point/reason for this trip, or a general "route" or anything of that sort on this blog yet, so I will be doing that shortly too! (separate post)
All in all, I'm thankful for these extra few days with family while also keen to "get started". I have been having lots of fun loading up my Kindle(THANK YOU FRIENDS!!) with all sorts of goodies, including french language stories(for practice), a 20th century history of Europe, some fantastic Classics(Jane Austen, Anne of Green Gables...) and a lovely little book called "The Idle Traveller", which is about re-engaging with the process of travel as part of the travel experience. The difference between considering the actual journeying(by plane, train or automobile) to be a means to an end or rather as a part of the process. Its basically just a simple little commentary of some of his own travels and discoveries, but I'm finding it wonderfully refreshing as it enunciates many of my unconscious thoughts about why I travel and why I enjoy the awkwardness of trains and ferries and budget hotels, etc, etc!
Anyways, this is getting long, so I'll sign off for now, but will write up a "Trip Overview" shortly!
No comments:
Post a Comment