I Will Miss British: Style

Today marks one month from the time I fly home to be permanently with Dave.  I am getting very tired of this separated state - as David put it yesterday: "I was good single, I was good married; I am not good married but single."  Dave and I have a webpage that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until we are reunited.  Lest anyone be in doubt, I am very, very excited to be with him again.

But I can't deny that leaving England will be bitter as well as sweet.  I have come to love it here and Cambridge genuinely feels like home.  I was running next to the Cam river the other evening reveling in the golden, honey-sweet air.  I started comparing this experience with that of Jerusalem and I realised that unlike Jerusalem, I came to Cambridge and forged ahead determinedly, not really pausing to soak it all in.  While I studied in Jerusalem, I spent each day in awe and wonder.  I couldn't look out my window without pausing in amazement.  I have experienced a fragile sense of awe here as well, but it comes and goes in the practical engagements of a normal, busy life.  When I first arrived, I was so busy missing Dave and fretting about the high expectations of my Cambridge University degree course that I didn't experience that amazement and wonder.  It has only been the last two weeks or so that I have started feeling those things.  I recognise now as I am leaving that I have been doing something absolutely extraordinary in an extraordinary place.

To mark the passing of the remaining five Sundays (including today), I have decided to post things that I will miss about England.  There are many things I will miss that aren't tangible (the friendships made with people who will now always be dear to me, wherever they are in the world and however long it will be between meetings; the LDS congregation, which has been my surrogate family while I have been here alone; and opportunities to hear from some of the best and brightest scholars in the world, to name a few).  But I thought I would document some of the characteristically British things I will miss, presented in five different categories.  Today's category is style.  

Men in collared shirts and sweaters:  Not just some men.  Every man.  Don't worry, Dave has been wearing this very attractive combo for several years now and it works very well on him :)  I'll just have to wait until we're back in a cooler climate to really enjoy it again...

Primark: where cute shirts sell for 3 pounds, shoes sell for 4 and trousers sell for 7.   Primark now makes up the bulk of my hot-summers-in-Arizona wardrobe, which is helping me feel much better about surviving the 110 degree heat! 

Scarves in the winter, scarves in the spring, scarves in the summer:  Such a fun and easy way to jazz up an outfit!  It's really a shame people look at you strangely when you wear them in the States...

I love the clothing colour palette in England: beiges, creams, sages, roses, steel blues, heathers, browns.  Definitely my style.    

It took me a while to get used to the floral prints: but now I absolutely love them!  Judging from the floral cardigan I picked up at Aeropostale over Christmas, they are making their way West :)

Cath Kidston: A British woman who puts flowers and polka-dots on absolutely everything.  She's most well-known for her trendy bags (I am trying to decide whether I should put down the money on an adorable blue polka-dot apron), but you can find everything from neck pillows to wallpaper in her stores.  

Comments

Tangerine said…
Aaaahh!!! You're reminding me of everything I do miss. I still wear clothes I got at Primark years ago!

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