So I’ve been home for several weeks now and the culture shock has subsided. I no longer look at everything and think it’s strange compared to life in London. I do feel quite lonesome for Europe though. It isn’t as much of an emotional feeling as an intellectual one now. I have been contemplating life in America and my life in the time I spent in London and I have to say that the difference is extreme and London consistently comes out on top. I know a lot of that has to do with the fact that my time there was really very idyllic. I did not have to deal with much real life issues so of course my view of it is considerably more favourable (that’s right, I used the British spelling!). Regardless, I do feel that the overall positive feeling I have for England is based on realistic issues. I love how environmentally aware they are, how everyone walks so much, how the portions are so much smaller than those here (omg, food is so giant here!), etc. I like how they view drinking and how the lifestyle I led there was a healthier and more positive one than mine here. I love that every weekend when I wondered what I could do it included: visiting another country, going to a museum, going to a festival, visiting a religious site, seeing historical sites, viewing a foreign film, going to a nightclub, shopping, etc. Now my options for the weekend are pretty much limited to: shopping.
I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to live in the UK again in my lifetime but I sincerely hope that I do. I would probably appreciate living in the US more if I had to deal with real life issues in another country but I know that living in London with all of the culture and history was the best experience of my life and I’d love to repeat it.
The longer im away from Texas the more id like to study the emotional effect that living abroad for 6 months to a year has on people. Your experiences seem so similar to mine