England: The Wrap-Up

It surprised me how sad I was to leave England. I mean, I like pretty much every place I ever travel - I'm easy to please that way - but usually when I leave, I'm also ready for the next adventure. When I left England, I kind of just wanted to go back.

This probably had something to do with the fact that it was sunny and summery and lovely nearly the entire time I was there (because that's not an inaccurate representation of English weather or anything...)

Also, I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but it really does seem like England sits - not just geographically but culturally as well - somewhere halfway between America and what the English simply refer to as "Europe." (And the very fact that they don't think they're part of Europe seems to say a lot).

The fact that they speak the same language and the little cultural things like restaurants actually giving you a glass of water without you having to beg for it, all of that makes England feel a bit like home - while retaining the quirky little differences that make being abroad so much fun. England was one of the few places I've traveled that I could actually almost consider moving to.

Again, I may be misleading myself a bit about the weather.

But I'll just say this: The English have a reputation as reserved, but compared to Germans, they're downright loquacious. I came back from a sunny, happy week in England, where people in customer service actually, you know, help customers and where you're allowed to make small talk with strangers, landing back in Berlin with its brusque long faces just as the weather changed back to winter.

I also came back from la-la-la-happy-famous-people-getting-married land to find out...that the US government had killed Bin Laden. And I really didn't know quite what to think about that.

Here's an interesting cultural note on that, though: It wasn't until that evening that a German friend pointed me to the images of Americans celebrating like crazy in the streets. She found it grotesque, and I did too ("They look like we did at the World Cup," she said), because having a party about a death seems crass, no matter whose death it is.

But then a couple days later, a British friend asked me, "Don't you think it's funny how the Germans are getting all upset about the Americans celebrating?" and I had to stop and ask myself whether my initial reaction was colored by seeing it through the filter of conversation with a German.

Mostly not; but maybe a little bit.