Curtain Call

Tomorrow I'll board a big metal pill with wings set to take me back across the Atlantic and away from the convoluted mass of buildings, roads and parks known as London. After spending three months here, I think its important to look back and take stock of what I gained here.

Its hard to believe the time has passed so quickly. But that's one of the easiest things to notice about London: your everyday shuffle becomes a bustling hurry to cross the street before the little green walking man turns red, it becomes a sprint to catch the tube train that is ready to pull out of the station, it becomes a rapid zigzag down a busy street just to walk home.

It takes a lot of energy to live here. Go to school, head home, and you're tired and ready to lie down for awhile. Its nice to spend some time reading a free London Lite or London Paper before summoning up the energy to cook dinner.

So managing energy and time are pretty important skills to develop here. It might sound like an opening speech at orientation by a college dean, but you need to know how to budget when it takes 40 minutes to get to school or 10 minutes to wait in line at the grocery store.

Yet those are skills I could have learned in any busy U.S. city. New York city would have been just as busy, and a lot less expensive. So I have to ask what I've gained specifically from being here in Britain.

The first answer is obvious. Being on another continent and seeing buildings older than European settlement in America gives you a great sense of human civilization. You can read all the history you want in a book, but until you've been at the site where Romans built a wall it just isn't the same. The understanding might be there, but it isn't as real. It gives a better sense of the human struggle -- where we've been and where we're going.

Other answers are obvious too. I've learned to fend for myself in a city, I've learned to find housing, I've managed my money in an environment so fiscally stressful you need to pinch blood from a penny. But I fully expected to become more self-sufficient in coming here.

I've visited lots of illustrious places and formatted memories that will last a long time. But memories only amount to seasoning, like the marinade on a piece of pork, unless you can draw some lesson from them. Then they might act as some sort of substance.

I won't pretend to have sorted all of my experiences into some lesson right now. To do so would be impossible, and to try would be foolish. But I do think there are two important points I've learned while in Europe.

The first is external. I understand how the world works and interacts far better now. It goes back to understanding history and from where the human race comes. Yet it goes further than that. I can better understand the way different countries and people interact. More importantly, I now understand that I'll never fully understand the way different countries and people interact.

The second is internal. I have a theory that if you uproot your life and place yourself in a new environment, you see your own personality, skills and essence in a way you never can in familiar surroundings. When you're at home or somewhere comfortable, its so easy to blend into a routine or the factors around you and lose sight of what makes your person and what are outside factors that influence it. Moving into an alien environment leaves one thing: you, perfect for introspection.

That theory has been reinforced by my time here. So what have I learned about myself?

For starters, I'm a lot more competent with a map than I would have guessed. As for something with a little more meaning ... well ... that might take some sorting.