My Tribe Visits, Part 1

These last few months have seen a slew of visitors coming to York to visit me.

In February, Jamison, one of my dearest friends from college, came to York.

We went up to Glasgow with two of my new friends, Aline and Chantal (both au pairs who are originally from Germany and living here for the year). None of us had traveled together before, but somehow we all clicked perfectly! It was a really magical journey - we all got along and had meaningful conversations. Our traveling styles' were in sync.

It was one of those rare weekends that I know I'll look back on and feel deeply blessed to have had. After a day in the city, we took a bus tour up to the Highlands.

We saw a castle!

The last day was spent again in Glasgow. I would highly recommend a visit to this magical city! Especially to Kelvingrove Museum and Park.

The city center

Then we returned to York and while I was working, Jamison got to explore York and took a day trip to Liverpool. We also celebrated his 26th birthday! I was a bad friend and made him a non-vegan dessert because I got frustrated with my various attempts at finding/making a birthday vegan dessert.

Oh well. Luckily Jamison is not militant. He ate the buttery birthday flapjacks, and we had a great time overall catching up and hanging out.

I can't believe it's not fake-butter!

Next to visit me was my godmother, Mrs. Diane! Despite the weather, which was the COLDEST I have ever experienced (and that is saying something in this country), we had a wonderful time exploring York on her first day.

Then over the weekend we took a mini-holiday to Scarborough! Yes, the same Scarborough as in Scarborough Fair.

The best part of this trip was when we made it into Scarborough. Mrs. Diane had booked a place for us to stay and I didn't know anything about it - until, fighting our way against a bitter wind, we rounded the corner and she said, "This is it!"

I looked up and there in front of me was a giant WINDMILL! I have not been so surprised in a long time. It turns out she had found this bed and breakfast online - it's an old disused windmill with a few adjoining guesthouses.

We, however, got to stay INSIDE this beautiful building. It was really magnificent. Mrs. Diane is one of those rare people who is both creative and thoughtful, so while I was astonished that we were staying in a windmill, it actually doesn't surprise me that she thought of this for our weekend away together.

I'm a bit of a baby about the cold, I'll admit it, but I've gotten better since moving here. Even so, this three-day period was terrible. As we stood on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the iron-gray foaming sea beneath us, we had to brace ourselves in order to stay in one place simply because the winds were so heavy. The winds alone would have been kind of fun, but the temperatures were freezing, too, which made me less happy.

Weirdly, this day was the exact same day that winds were so strong back home that the government and schools closed! It was such an odd coincidence.

In addition to exploring Scarborough, we did a few of our other favorite things - sleeping, eating, watching movies, playing ukulele (OK, that's all Mrs. Diane), writing, and reading. It was luxuriously delicious to snuggle up inside where it was cozy and enjoy some time catching up and hanging out.

Mrs. Diane loved the space because it had round walls - as an artist, she has an eye for the small details that make things beautiful. I loved it because it was warm and I felt like I was in a storybook. For all the years we've known each other, we've not gotten to travel much together, so this was a very special weekend for us both.

Just over three weeks later, my family came to visit! My dad, Sue, Krissy, and Tommy all arrived into London, where I met them. I thought it would be SO WEIRD to see them again after not having seen them for seven months - that's the longest I've gone without seeing my family ever - but actually it felt really normal in a very good way. We had a ton of fun.

My crazy fam

We spent five exciting and jam-packed days exploring London. I must admit to being a tiny bit proud of my ability to navigate the city, which only a year and a half ago I'd never even been to. The first time I came I simply followed Shantonu around, and the second time I simply followed my cousin Erin around!

But this time, I guided my family.

On one of those days, we took a bus tour to Bath and Stonehenge! It was excellent, though we all agreed we needed more time in each place. And that our tour guide wasn't very funny, even though he tried to be.

Because no month this year has been complete without me getting sick at least once, I managed to come down with a nasty cold that turned into a sinus infection. That was fun. Pumped full of Strepsils, Airborne, and Tylenol, we continued our travels.

Then we took the train up to York. I was very excited to show them my home. When I first arrived in the city at the tail-end of August, I began my year-long practice of wandering around on aimless, hours-long walks. And even on those extremely early walks, I would plan what I would show my family when they came to visit. So many things reminded me of them and I couldn't wait to share the experience. I've been mapping out their visit since, literally, Day 1.

So it was really magical to show them York. It was hard to live up to my own expectations of how great I wanted it to be. My family were willing explorers and gave all the appropriate reactions - they loved pretty much everything - but the weather did not cooperate. It was rainy and cold.

And I kept having the feeling that they weren't seeing enough - I had so much I wanted to show them. I wanted them to see the city as I did, which is long aimless walks around interspersed with many hours on weekends spent in museums, cathedrals, parks, bookshops, stores, and the library.

I wanted them to see its sunny side, its windy side, its cobbled-streets-filled-with-drunken-revelers-side, its clear-evening-stars-in-the-sky side, not just the rainy-touristy-gross side. I wanted them to wander aimlessly for hours and flit in and out of bookshops and stores. I wanted them to take every tour of York possible at least three times, like I have, and to waste time at M&S and Waterstones, and to wander slowly along the city walls, getting annoyed at tourists and gazing up at the Minster from all sides.

But in just five days, that isn't possible. I had to reckon with that. We hit the York highlights and we did a lot more than that too - I think they saw a lot more than what the average York tourist would see - but when they left, I realized something important.

The best way to have an experience is to appreciate what you have more than what you don't have.

My family certainly embodies this. Despite the crap weather, they loved being in York and made sure to have a fabulous time. They made sure I had a fabulous time. It was an incredible trip together.

That idea can be applied to a lot of things. I thought about it and realized it applies to my YAGM year. Certainly, living in any country this year would have been a valuable time of growth, but I'm so happy I'm here in York. I'm having a great experience, learning and changing, so I don't really know if I'm missing out on any other type of experience. If I am, really, what does it matter? I'm happy. I appreciate what I have here in York. I'm blessed.