Back home
Nottingham - 52°57'18.26"N 1° 8'57.48"W
I'm sorry that this post has arrived later than I said it would. Things have been a bit busy since I got back, places to go, people to see and stories to tell.
I landed at Heathrow on the morning of Tuesday the 9th January. The flight was fairly rough on the way back so I only caught about 40 minutes kip which meant that by the time I got back to my parents house I was pretty tired. I managed to stay awake though for the rest of the day, catching up in the afernoon with my mate Rob down the Kings Head.
The days since then were spent visiting my grandparents, catching up with other old school friends, getting a filling repaired (in my tooth) and wishing that I was somewhere else about 3 and a half thousand miles west.
On Friday I made the very last and final trip with my bag, by train, from London to Nottingham, and then it really felt like it was all over.
Back at my house I was kind of looking forward to getting used to sleeping back in my own bed again.........but that would have to wait, owing to the all consuming tide of New Orleans flavoured mould that had grown across my wall and onto my duvet, the result of a damp and leaking window that had gone unnoticed during my 3 month absence. I had to sleep on the sofa, in my sleeping bag, one last time.
The weekend gave me a chance to catch up with friends here in Nottingham and the stories about where I'd been gradually became as routine as the answers that I'd been giving in the USA to the people who'd asked me "what brings you here then?".
Sunday's are never a great day as far as I'm concerned, but the latest one was one of the worst, knowing that the very next day the routine day to day stuff that I'd managed to avoid for 3 months was going to have to start again.
So on Monday I was up in time to grab a shower, iron a shirt and eat toast with the accuracy to make sure that I made it into work on time.....just. It's weird actually. I didn't miss a single train, flight or any kind of connection during the entire trip, but the minute I have to be somewhere like work, I'm suddenly not so good a time keeping.
I got to work, sat down, turned on my computer and fired up the E-mails. (I'm fairly sure that somebody's swapped my mouse for a crap one whilst I was away, but it wouldn't be right to point fingers online....... you know who you are) And that's what I've done now for the last two days. I'll keep doing it until the weekend, and then it'll all start over again on the Monday morning coming. It almost feels like nothings changed and I've never been away.......Market Square still isn't finished!
For a while it felt a bit like I don't have much to look forward to now. Over the past 10 weeks I've got used to always having something new to do every few days, travelling to a new place, seeing new sights and meeting new people, but now I'm just back at work.
That doesn't matter though. You can't make trips like the one that I've been on last forever, because if you do, then they're not what you intended them to be in the first place. Doing something different is exciting, but only for as long as it's different. I'll just have to set my mind to thinking about what I might do next.
I've had an amazing time away. The USA is such an awesome country, and there really is no way to ever predict what sort of people you'll meet out there and where you'll meet them. For a country that seems to have so many stereotypes attached to it, I was kept guessing at every turn as to what each place I visited would be like. The people are far more sociable and friendly than we seem to be here in the UK, and when you combine that with thinking about just how big and beautiful the country is, you can be sure that moving around like I did will make for an interesting journey. I can't wait until I can go back.
At lunchtime today, I worked out just how many miles I'd travelled (as the corw flies) around the USA - it comes to 7078 miles. That works out as an average of a fraction under 100 miles a day, which seems like a hell of a lot of travelling. I'd be in great shape, if I hadn't done it all sat on my backside and eating and drinking far too much food that you really shouldn't eat and drink far too much of!
I'm sorry that this post has arrived later than I said it would. Things have been a bit busy since I got back, places to go, people to see and stories to tell.
I landed at Heathrow on the morning of Tuesday the 9th January. The flight was fairly rough on the way back so I only caught about 40 minutes kip which meant that by the time I got back to my parents house I was pretty tired. I managed to stay awake though for the rest of the day, catching up in the afernoon with my mate Rob down the Kings Head.
The days since then were spent visiting my grandparents, catching up with other old school friends, getting a filling repaired (in my tooth) and wishing that I was somewhere else about 3 and a half thousand miles west.
On Friday I made the very last and final trip with my bag, by train, from London to Nottingham, and then it really felt like it was all over.
Back at my house I was kind of looking forward to getting used to sleeping back in my own bed again.........but that would have to wait, owing to the all consuming tide of New Orleans flavoured mould that had grown across my wall and onto my duvet, the result of a damp and leaking window that had gone unnoticed during my 3 month absence. I had to sleep on the sofa, in my sleeping bag, one last time.
The weekend gave me a chance to catch up with friends here in Nottingham and the stories about where I'd been gradually became as routine as the answers that I'd been giving in the USA to the people who'd asked me "what brings you here then?".
Sunday's are never a great day as far as I'm concerned, but the latest one was one of the worst, knowing that the very next day the routine day to day stuff that I'd managed to avoid for 3 months was going to have to start again.
So on Monday I was up in time to grab a shower, iron a shirt and eat toast with the accuracy to make sure that I made it into work on time.....just. It's weird actually. I didn't miss a single train, flight or any kind of connection during the entire trip, but the minute I have to be somewhere like work, I'm suddenly not so good a time keeping.
I got to work, sat down, turned on my computer and fired up the E-mails. (I'm fairly sure that somebody's swapped my mouse for a crap one whilst I was away, but it wouldn't be right to point fingers online....... you know who you are) And that's what I've done now for the last two days. I'll keep doing it until the weekend, and then it'll all start over again on the Monday morning coming. It almost feels like nothings changed and I've never been away.......Market Square still isn't finished!
For a while it felt a bit like I don't have much to look forward to now. Over the past 10 weeks I've got used to always having something new to do every few days, travelling to a new place, seeing new sights and meeting new people, but now I'm just back at work.
That doesn't matter though. You can't make trips like the one that I've been on last forever, because if you do, then they're not what you intended them to be in the first place. Doing something different is exciting, but only for as long as it's different. I'll just have to set my mind to thinking about what I might do next.
I've had an amazing time away. The USA is such an awesome country, and there really is no way to ever predict what sort of people you'll meet out there and where you'll meet them. For a country that seems to have so many stereotypes attached to it, I was kept guessing at every turn as to what each place I visited would be like. The people are far more sociable and friendly than we seem to be here in the UK, and when you combine that with thinking about just how big and beautiful the country is, you can be sure that moving around like I did will make for an interesting journey. I can't wait until I can go back.
At lunchtime today, I worked out just how many miles I'd travelled (as the corw flies) around the USA - it comes to 7078 miles. That works out as an average of a fraction under 100 miles a day, which seems like a hell of a lot of travelling. I'd be in great shape, if I hadn't done it all sat on my backside and eating and drinking far too much food that you really shouldn't eat and drink far too much of!
To all the people that I've met along the way, my new friends and my now more familiar family, thanks for having me and I hope I see you again some time soon. There's an invitation for each of you to visit Nottingham and I hope that one day you will. I'd be glad to show you the hospitality that you all showed to me.
In conclusion then, and because some of you have been patient enough to read this far for this long, I'll sign off here. This blog's racked up a total of over 1600 hits at the time of this last post, so thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed hearing about some of the things I've been up to for the past 10 weeks. It's good to be back in Nottingham, but I don't think the next 10 weeks would make quite as interesting reading, so this is the end.
All the best
Matt Wallace
Nottingham Roosevelt Memorial Travelling Scholar (sounds official doesn't it!)
2006
posted by Wallace at
9:50 PM
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