Extremes

I just realised I've almost reached my 8-month mark of living in the UK.

8 MONTHS!!! Wow. It's gone by so quickly!

It's been a hell of an interesting road so far, that's for sure.

So, between the observations, the ranting, the quiet times, the hilarity of it all, what's been the good and what's been the not so good?

Fun:
Setting up home with the mister.
Spending time with his family.
Exploring a new world.
Finding a beautiful flat.
Getting an awesome job.
Walking around everywhere and taking it all in.
Seeing my parents' excitement when they visited.
Celebrating our 2nd anniversary in yet another country.
Settling down and getting a routine.
Learning about myself and facing challenges.
Getting used to different words and phrases and brands and habits.
Drinking more and having more fun.
Observing people and the way they behave here.
Being able to travel to European countries on the cheap.
Meeting people through my work.
Seeing myself be brave.

Not so fun:
Missing the mister when he travels.
Being in a flat that is a bit removed from the village-y parts of London.
Missing my parents.
Missing all the familiar feelings that I had in New York.
Missing my friends (especially the fiercely huggable ones like Sean and Amanda)
Feeling lost. And actually getting lost!
Not having any friends here.
Because of my work hours, not being able to take evening classes for fun.
Not being invited to parties with the mister.
Feeling lonely and a bit sad.
Not having my own world- just having work and home, and that's it.

The good always outweighs the bad, so I just have to take those lemons and make Spanish Fly. Challenges are meant to be just that: NOT easy. But routine is never easy either. The hard part is that it's two extremes now. Nothing in between. And I realised that I'm making that for myself. I'm making it tougher by using my mister as my entire world here. I mean, it's easy to do that since I don't have anything else here, but per my previous post, I have to dig deep. It's not fair to put the onus on one person to keep you entertained. You have to have your own ME place, and so does that other person. THAT's what completes the puzzle. I need to do my own thing, and maybe then the attention that I need and the loneliness I feel will dissipate, because I would have created my own London life. My own London world.

Why have I never learned this? Why does it sound like I am only just now growing up, though I am a woman in my 30s? Because I never had the strange comfort of a semi-anonymous blog to psychoanalyse myself. Plus, I'm a late bloomer.

Go figure.