England

Since I was so close to the UK while in France, I decided to check with my good friend to see if the dates I was planning to visit would work for him as well. We worked together and became close friends in Boulder. The answer was a resounding yes, and that became the first step in planning the trip. Next, I called the chief executive of Refugee Support, the NGO I volunteered with in Cyprus, which also has a center in Bournemouth. I was planning to visit since I was going to be in the UK. She was happy I would get to stop by and shared that she would also be visiting, and that we would get to meet in person. That solidified the rest of my plans: I would stay a few days in Bournemouth to meet with them and help with, among other things, some technical assistance. All the organizations I volunteered with needed support in technical and other specialized areas. It goes without saying that there's a lot more work than there are people to help.

The stay with my friend overlapped with a visit from one of his college friends. The three of us had a very fun time together. We had great conversations, ranging from deeper reflections on life and the world to lighter ones about movies, past and present. They also introduced me to cricket. We watched a couple of days of India vs England, and by the end of the game, I was able to follow along. That weekend, we watched more cricket, ate delicious Indian food, relaxed, and took naps. We also watched a few of the Women’s Euro Cup games, some Wimbledon matches, as well as a couple of movies. It was a nice, restful time where I also managed to get some writing and reading done. I truly enjoyed those days with them.

The train to Bournemouth was a pleasant two-hour ride. I arrived around lunchtime and walked to the center. When I got there, the two coordinators and a volunteer were busy helping various members. I helped some members fill out online forms for delivery apps, checked the Wi-Fi status, and later got a nice tour of the building. About an hour after I arrived, the CEO joined us. She and I reviewed some of the tasks I could help with over the next few days, and I learned more about the center and how it differs from the one in Cyprus. At the end of the day, we picked up some takeaway and had dinner at the beach before I headed to my hotel. Over the following two days, I helped register a large number of new members and fixed a few items on the IT list. The coordinators and volunteers do a wonderful job helping the asylum seekers and refugees with the time and resources they have.

Prior to arriving in London, I also reached out and made plans with a few more people. I met a friend from Cyprus for lunch, and we had a lovely walk and chat. We walked by the river, enjoyed a refreshing half pint, and headed to Chinatown. We also talked about her volunteer work and her goal of getting a job with a non-profit. We met again a few days later for dinner and found that we shared similar discoveries over the past year while not in a full-time job. We talked about how that time allowed us to look inward and learn more about ourselves. We exchanged some of our reflections, readings, and practices.

On another day, I went to dinner with two friends I met during different parts of my trip. One was another volunteer from Cyprus. He had reserved a table at his favorite Indian restaurant for us that night. Before dinner, he took us on a walk to Parliament Hill, where we enjoyed a wonderful view of the city. His positive outlook on life reminded me a bit of myself at that age. It felt good to be around that energy. The other friend I met almost a year ago in New Orleans, where we stayed with the same Couchsurfing host. He was living a couple of hours from London and was arriving from Australia that same day. We were both quite excited that we would get to meet again almost a year later, in a completely different part of the world. The three of us had great conversations and enjoyed a delicious meal.

While traveling, I sometimes check LinkedIn to see if anyone in my network is living in the city I’m visiting. That was the case in London, where a former co-worker and her husband now live. I messaged her to see if she was open to meeting for tea or coffee, and she agreed. We had a lovely time enjoying cold beverages on what was an unusually hot day at King’s Cross. Then she suggested we walk down the canal toward Camden. As we chatted, we discovered we shared similar thoughts around work and how much space it should occupy in our lives, as well as similar situations with helping our parents.

The warm days worked out well for me, as I spent many hours walking around London, especially through its large parks. Some are so big you could get lost in them. Within the parks, there were smaller gardens, memorials, and different forms of art. You could easily spend hours exploring. I loved the contrast of being in a busy, dense city and then walking into a park that felt completely removed from the urban energy. On two occasions, I made it to a park early in the morning and did my daily exercises on the grass. It wasn’t something I had done before, but I really enjoyed it.

I decided to check for Roman ruins nearby. It turns out there was a section of Roman wall located underground in a parking structure. Since it was underground, I spent some time trying to figure out how to access it. Eventually, I found a website where someone had posted detailed instructions, and I was able to reach it. It was strange to stand in a modern parking structure, staring at a wall built centuries ago. I was glad they preserved the wall and managed to build around it without destroying it. Looking for this wall reminded me of searching for the Roman bridge with my cousin, and I had a nice chuckle that I was once again searching for Roman ruins.