Please children mind the gap...

Miracle people with marvelous hair
And a knack to do anything better than anyone
I got a home with electrical air
And I live in a world
Smaller than anyone

Two years today since we moved back to the States. March 3oth, got up at around 4am for the taxi from the BnB we were staying at to the airport.


Breakfast at the BnB. Tea! And toast in proper toast racks!

I got a line on a new frontier
I got a line on a new America
All of the people are vanishing here
I could be huge,
If I could just get home

It doesn't actually seem like two years: rather longer, actually. Probably because I've done an awful lot in that time; three-and-a-half semesters of college, meeting so many new people, living in two cities and three residences (some, admittedly, longer than others). It doesn't seem...reasonable that all of that's happened in only a two year span.

I got a friend from the new frontier
And Galen, she says, this is not America
You need a girl with electrical hair
And the words that you wanted was al-u-min-i-um

Revising. Bin. Ground floor. Pants. Holiday. Layby. Sweets. All are differently nuanaced or used in ways I still have to think about. not that big a deal, and amusing more often than annoying. The funniest ones will trip you up, though. My English teacher staring at me when I referenced revising for math. Cilantro/coriander.

I'm entirely in favour of the English practice of saying "sorry" to someone who runs into you, no matter who's fault it is. Automatic apology is totally the way to progress as a culture.


Then there are the things you just can't find. Last caramel slice eaten, March 20th, 2007.

I was in bed with
The girl at the end of the world
She says I'm goin' home.
And you should come home too

Would I move back to Britain right now? No. I love Chico: the weather, my school, my friends, the professors, the atmosphere, my apartment. I like being close to my family, and especially getting to know some of them for the first time. I like being with people who are closer to being my peers than many 20-somethings in Britain would be right now. I'm very happy here

Would I move back to Britain once I've graduated, to work and/or raise a family? Yes. I miss the culture and the attitudes and the way of life. I miss the food, the sense of humor, the people. The tea. The much smaller number of people-with-guns. Agas. The lower bread prices. The more sane news coverage. The public transportation. The BBC. The proximity to Europe.


Mumsy! And an aga!

There are also heaps of US things I'm sure I would miss if I moved back. Goodness knows I love being near family and being able to get a good hamburger. But net, I think Britain wins. I like the culture more there; I think it feels more like home.


Last couple of days in Britain: out to dinner at a pub with good friends.

I'm at the end of a new frontier
Here at the edge of the flat earth ending
I'm getting off to get lost in the air
At the end of the world where the light is bending


Two years ago...


And now