Moving to London: The American Expat in London Diaries – Part II

Relocating to London - Image via Wikipedia

Author: Colleen

If you’re relocating to London and didn’t read my post yesterday, I’d initiated the major sucking up of pride and privacy to share my personal journal on first moving to London in 2008….maintained until living in London began to feel more like the everyday than a vacation.

The first entry is a continuation of the one before, and necessary context is as such: adding to the transitions of quitting a job and relocating abroad is the fact that we were just married that June and maintained our long-distance relationship between Chicago and New York until moving to London! That’s right, London is the first city my husband Ryan and I have lived in together since Chicago in 2004, if you can believe it (I still can’t).

21.10.08 [continued]

…See, now in extracting those details I have found myself unexpectedly reliving my first couple weeks at the The Enterprise Hotel, Ryan’s and my first home away from home, where we first arrived on a shockingly sunny, gorgeous day. September 28th, to be exact, as we flew overnight. The lobby and restaurant of the hotel seemed updated and nice enough, yet the rooms evidently retain their English charm…in that they are tiny and cold. Whatever, it suited our needs (even though our luggage consumed half the room, even with 2 pieces stored downstairs), and the location was excellent. Hogarth Road extends directly from the Earl’s CourtTube station and is accessible to pubs, shops, cafes galore. We became so smitten with the area, in fact, that we’ve decided to stay here and, thus, just moved into a flat of our very own (our first together) yesterday.

More details on that later. I actually need to dash right now to catch the Tube to the city for my 2nd religion/science debate at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Last week’s debate centered on the Big Bang, and tonight is Evolution. That being said, gotta go so I get a seat.

23.10.08

The St. Paul’s debate the other night was great – unlike the prior one, there was an atheist in the panel, so that stirred things up. As did the clearly more ornery crowd who kept moaning about the echo – to a good end, though, as they did rectify the sound issue that had likewise been present last time. Next week is Body & Soul, i.e., debating whether there is a place in the human genome for the soul. I admittedly tend to tune out whenever anyone has been talking too long, and focus is even that much more of a challenge when the eye has a massive dome and intricate mosaics, sculptures, and paintings to wander about. A surreal kind of solitude even in a room filled with people. The intellectual, the curious….

A friend has teased me for my crush on Paul—yes, as in the cathedral—because I tend to mention it a lot in my blog posts. Well, this entry here is a clue as to why. I explain it in my “Found Your London Flat? Now Find Your London Deep.” post, but will say again here that, regardless if you’re religious or not, finding a quiet time and place for thought and reflection is invaluable after a London relocation when you may be re-evaluating a whole new personal and professional game plan going forward (prevalent among trailing spouses like me). St. Paul’s was that place for me at that critical time, and I’ll always carry that peace and introspection with me. May you find the same after your London move, and stay tuned tomorrow for another installment of “Relocating to London: The American Expat in London Diaries.”