Decisions

I've now been here in London for eight months, although it doesn't seem like it's been that long. During those months, my opinions of the city have continued to evolve. As you can tell from a few posts I've had, I'm not impressed with the unreliability of public transit or the ridiculously short days during winter. However, there are many more things that I've been noticing recently that make me like the city more and more.

In talking with a friend back in the US last week, I realized that this eight months is the longest I've actually fully lived in a single place since graduating. Yes, I paid rent on my Jersey City apartment for two years and also rented from Kai for over a year, but it'd be a stretch to say that I genuinely lived in either of those locations. I'd been working in other cities, generally spending at most weekends in New York and sometimes not even that. That was a phenomenal experience that I don't regret in the least, but I think it's going to be a challenge to go back to that type of travel and transient life... I've gone from 54 round-trip flights, mostly for work, in the year before moving to London to now having taken only two work-related flights in the past eight months.

I had no idea how much spending three or four days of the week in a hotel affected me... I'm actually able to go home every night now in London, plan events in the evenings with friends without having to wonder whether or not I'll be in town, and not spend half of the weekend unpacking and repacking for the week's travels. Granted, there were some perks that came along with the travel, but I'm not sure that long term they make up for the instability caused by it.

I'm not saying I necessarily want to stay here long-term, although that's certainly something that's gone from "why would I ever do that?" to "well, it certainly is tempting..." over the past few months. The biggest drawback to doing that would be the distance and time difference between me being here and friends and family being in the States. There are also career decisions related to this... what the different opportunities are in each country, if or how I would consider grad school in either country, and the like.

No, I don't need to make a decision for a while regarding what happens at the end of my currently 18-month commitment, but this does affect what I want to do during the remaining portion of the 18 months. I'm actually settling into living here and am developing a life with friends and colleagues in the area. If I'm going to be here longer term, I'd like to spend more weekends in London and with friends here. If I'm only here through next winter, though, I feel like I need to do as much travel as possible, as it's going to be my best opportunity to see parts of Europe I'd probably never get to while living in the States.

No answers here yet, but I did just book a trip with Chris, who's now living in Zurich, through Turkey. We're meeting each other the Saturday of the May bank holiday weekend in Istanbul and returning our separate ways from Izmir a week later. We have yet to plan much more than that at this point, but will do so over the next week or so, as this trip is quickly approaching!