But my year abroad gave me another more valuable skill: relationships. Friendships with fellow teachers at the school and kind locals, friendships with fellow American teachers also participating with the exchange, a deep-rooted connection with my exchange partner, and a relationship with the land. Upon leaving, several fellow exchangees decided we would go back, and two years seemed like a good goal. That time has now come.
During that year, I traveled around England and the rest of the UK as much as possible. Although the country is fairly small, it is jam-packed with history and gorgeous scenery. So, although I saw a fair amount of the sheep-dotted, rock-walled landscape, there is so much more to see!
Thankfully, my travel partner extraordinaire, Jessica, a fellow exchangee, had a similar thought. (To see what makes her so extraordinary, scroll back to last summer's blog about Desert Heat.)
We've been in the planning stages for months, starting first with where we especially wanted to go and when we needed to be there. Since the schools in England get out of school a great deal later, we wanted to ensure we were there for the last week of school celebrations. From there, we looked at which airport was the cheapest. Dublin won that prize, so from there we thought of places we wanted to go. Isle of Skye in northern Scotland was at the top of my list, Jessica wanted to visit her aunt in Ireland, I have a friend in Belfast I wanted to visit, we wanted to climb Ben Nevis in Scotland, we wanted to visit a fellow exchangee in Durham, to do some adventuring in Wales and of course to visit to the lovely London.
Slowly, our map of destinations emerged looking more like a figure eight rather than a fluid circle that would of course make more sense, but alas, good travel need not make perfect sense!
I am truly ecstatic about the journey we are about to embark on, despite my anxiety of knowing that this time tomorrow I'll be driving a manual car on the other side of the road!
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