Back in the U(ss?)K

And that was a poor Beatles reference.

So, I know it’s been ages since my last post. Blame it on a series/combination of exams, essays and friends being home over break. But, before I continue apologising, I’d like to wish everybody a prosperous and successful new year.

Ok, cool. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s my life. I had a few friends from Vassar come and visit over the winter holidays; Jeremy, Jonathan, John and Max all flew down for some good times and warm temperatures, which we finished off with an epic New Year’s Eve buffet and watching the Junkanoo parade. After seeing them off, one by one, it was time for me to leave my island for another one: England.

It’s been near a year since I first landed in England, and it’s much, much colder. I remember leaving DC and thinking the temperatures in London were quite friendly, but this time around, I guess I brought the snow from New York. Bummer. I moved quickly over to my friend Tommy’s, who lives in a quaint (all of London is quaint when you’re used to New York) area of town called Exmouth Market, near Farringdon station on the Tube. I was hoping to get some research done, but those plans were soon derailed by inefficient tube service, meaning that I probably wouldn’t get to the archives before closing since they were near an hour away. I decided instead to go to the British Library. I waltzed in with my liberal arts swagger, and lo and behold, I was stopped. I didn’t have a reader’s card. I was directed downstairs to register, but I needed some form of ID that had an address listed. I freaked out. My license didn’t have an address on it, and I hadn’t brought my passport (which was good, because if I made it all the way to the archives, I would have been a sad puppy), which also didn’t have my address, so I decided to do what women do when they’re stressed out: shop. Well, not walk around and shop for ages. I had one thing on my mind to help keep me warm, just a nice scarf. I knew of a shop that sold scarves made of Scottish lambswool and cashmere which are quite nice, as well as surprisingly affordable for college students; besides, I was cold.

Pause, and rewind. You may be wondering, how can I get to go to England, like you, Kyle? Well, it’s simple. Apply for an Evalyn Clark fellowship if you’re a history major. It’s a memorial fellowship that can be used to travel abroad for research. Since my thesis topic is rather obscure, not many sources can be easily found in the US, so I’ve come to England, where the Colonial Office and Foreign Office archives are held, along with Sir James Haldane Lockhart’s papers in Scotland. Even though it’s primarily for my thesis, the archives close at 5PM, giving me a good deal of time to re-explore London, check out Edinburgh while I’m up there, and hopefully not freeze in the process. Continuing…

After my epic purchase of all of eight quid, I made my way home, but not before stopping in at SOAS for a walk around. I tried to go in to see if a professor I was looking for was there, but I needed an ID. So much for being intrepid; the North American fails.

From there I trudged home through the ice and slush and a lightly falling snow. The sun had set at 4, and by 4:30PM it looked like 8. Tom decided to stay in from work on account of being ill, so I hung out with him and waited for his friend, Pierre, and his girlfriend, Jess, to come by for dinner.

Flash to the next day: Vassar swag, check; passport and F-1 form with address, check; potential industriousness, check. I go to the National Archives all the way out at Kew Gardens, get my reader’s card and I’m ready to go. I’d elaborate further on what I did, but reading is about all I got up to. Yeah, for reading! Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high, blah blah you know the deal, right? Oh yeah, I forgot there are kids born in 1991 who are in college now. They wouldn’t understand. What a sad world we live in.

As I write, I’m in the archives, waiting for my next batch of documents to come out of the darkness and into my cubbyhole. Then it’s off again into the wintry darkness and historic coldness that this week has produced. Who says you need to leave the Northeast for crazy cold temperatures?

Stay tuned, next post in Scotland!