With nervous excitement on a grey weather day, The Heiress and I packed up heaps of belongings and made our way to the street outside the Morgan Hotel. With the lift of a finger a cabbie stopped and piling everything in we were on our way to St Pancras station by 8:30 am. Thankfully a couple of the attendants at the gate had us in stitches with their witty repartee and by the time the cosy train left the station any sign of butterflies had disappeared.
The gorgeous countryside whizzed by while we noted the similarities and differences in the landscape. After an hour we pulled into the Canterbury West station and joined groups of other students struggling with their own heaps of belongings. With apologies to yet another cab driver for piling such heft into his car, we were off at last to where The Heiress would call home for the next twelve months. Pictured above is the view from her room of the quadrangle of dorms.
Students dressed in matching t-shirts circled around us bubbling with information about registration, banking, student cards, grocery shopping and bus passes. And lots of smiles! While The Heiress sorted out the details I passed some time chatting and laughing with some local transit employees in a double-decker bus (if you stand still for even a minute, I will make friends with you!) It was brought on site as a location for students signing up for the discounted bus pass and what a deal. Regularly priced at 240 GBP it was on offer for 150 GBP. You needed your student card to register which would have meant more waiting for me so The Heiress said that if I had had enough she would take care of it later. "Do it now and I'll pay, do it later and you pay" I said to her. Guess which one she chose...
With most of the paperwork taken care of we hopped on a bus that took us to the city centre to buy some utensils and see about a bank. Quaint shops, high street shops, streams of people shopping and bewildered students filled the streets and cobbled lane ways. We squealed with delight at the sight of bunting draped across the road! Determined to try a pasty, even if it wasn't an authentic one, we were thrilled to find a West Cornwall Pasty Shop to have lunch in. They were delicious and just what these weary travellers needed. With the details seen to The Heiress desperately wanted to explore the shops and since the train station was around the corner and the day was getting on it was time to part ways. So unceremoniously, in front of Patisserie-Valerie and throngs of people, we hugged and attempted through tears to say a few words. And that was it...she was gone, I didn't dare look back. Then I came upon an Oxfam bookshop and was soon all smiles again!
Crossing a bridge on my way to the train station, dragging an empty suitcase behind me, I knew The Heiress had made the perfect choice. To be challenged by her academic peers surrounded by such a gorgeous landscape in a country we've admired from afar for many years would be a dream come true for The Heiress. And to top it all off she has already landed a job as a student mentor!
With my own sense of accomplishment I boarded the train back to London. And as usual, asking at least one person on the platform and one on the train about its destination to make sure that I didn't end up in Wales. I opened my copy of Jane Austen's
Persuasion and sat back to enjoy the quiet. Once back in London I took myself on a walking tour of Bloomsbury in the mist, it suited my melancholy mood but the next day I'd be meeting
Rachel,
Simon and
Mary and I couldn't wait!
