the wonder of other places

today is saturday. or should i say: was.
we, that is me and magnus, and yes, i use the pronoun we, decided to go to durham, which is a 15 minutes train ride away from newcastle. exams are coming up soon, and i am still stuck in an oral exam and essay crisis/stress.
i would say i am in a crisis rather than in stress, for i don't really feel stress until about a week beforehand, and severly stressed i become two nights before.
so we decided to escape that unhealthy environment for a day to go to durham on a trip.

i have been to durham one time, it was bad weather and i only got to see the university and the famous cathedral, which is about a thousand years old, from the outside. actually from a riverbank. it might sound really romantic to you, and i will confirm you, it is really romantic.
durham is a small little old english town. yes, not industrial and vibrant and "big" like newcastle. it is quiet and has little winding streets.

when we arrived, it was quite good weather, if you can call it that in england. i actually have been haunted for such a long time now, by degrees under the number of 20... if we are lucky, we have 17. anyway, i am not here to talk about my winter depression in may.

oh by the way, if you are wondering why i am talking in such a strange way, i have been watching "pride and prejudice" for the last 2 hours. so forgive me! :)

visiting places is an interesting thing. just the simple action of traveling, and even if it's just to the next little village, gives you a different perspective on things. walking through streets, looking into shop windows and looking at local people sitting in a cafe drinking coffee. everything is fresh and looks like a theatre to you, that you have never seen before. everyone is an actor and every scenery is stage setting. you are intrigued, "is this how this place works?"
this freshness brings a special kind of consumerism to you. you drink fancy stuff, you try fancy food and you buy fancy stuff in a shop, which exists everywhere else. but all of it is special to you, because you bought it from a play.
it is the intention of traveling and the freshness of the place, that bring a certain specialness to everything you see, touch and taste.

i have come to get used to life here. if you live somewhere, it doesn't really matter if you like it or not. you are just there. and you do your thing, which is called life.

i am looking forward to this academic year's end. the end of first year, the end of first year at uni. when i look at it now, it doesn't seem that special anymore. yes university, yes england and yes everything else.
what i look forward to again is change. change is finishing my exams and just enjoying whatever i am doing, without thinking about the next exam, the next essay, the next lecture. i look forward to going to paris. i look forward to going to devon to see magnus' home. and then, finally, i am looking forward to go home. it sounds like it is something really boring. but it is not, it is so exciting.
and even if it's still far away, and i hardly think about it, i do look forward to my second year at uni, my second year in england and my second year with my boyfriend.

being at one place, makes you look differently at another one. in a positive or negative way, either way, it is different. and it makes you realise where you have been and what life you are living now.