Tomorrow we leave London after three years of life here (really 2 years and 10 months...). It's a really hard thing to understand that starting tomorrow, all of our life here will be gone. Poof. Our house won't be our house. Our friends won't be our everyday friends. School is already over. The people in our life won't be in our life at all. No more crepes on the way home from school. Different groceries. Everything will be different. Right now everything feels the same, other than it's summer break.
We all feel really mixed about leaving. FINALLY Elie said he thinks it's not going to be as bad as he thought, so he must have a small amount of positivity too. Koby is excited to have neighborhood friends and get back to Bowen and have space outside. Elie is looking forward to playing music with friends and selling things to people. Sam is looking forward to horse riding and trying to get involved at Natick Community Farm (I hope we can figure all of that out for her). They are all SUPER sad to leave their friends here. They understand that we have had this amazing privilege of these years exploring London, the UK and Europe. They understand that living in the city has had some major advantages. They get the amazing food. They have really enjoyed the theater. The older two have loved their independence. We have met some really interesting people. We have all grown a LOT.
A camp friend of mine happens to work at Matt's office in a very senior role. When she left London to go back to Boston, she told Matt to talk about it with the kids as if we're going somewhere new. We're not "going home," as that has expectations with it, and everything will have changed when we go back. It's hard, because we are going back to the same house (though it will be renovated...), and we have kept in touch with our really good friends, so some of it we ARE going back to. But I do think that our life there will feel really new and different to all of us for at least the first six months. And the transition through the summer is long, so it probably won't hit us at all until September.
I feel very mixed. I had such a hard and lonely first two years here, and the last year has felt so different for a whole bunch of reasons. There are now people I will miss. There are things I do here that I cannot do back home, or it will take time for me to find it again (pickleball league, tennis group, running group), but I am also going home to people who know me and love me, and I have really missed that over these three years. I am going back to community, which I really don't have here. I feel very mixed.
It's a big deal. It's a big transition. We have to be patient.
And during this transition, after two school promotion ceremonies (more on those below), we spent five days with grandparents and uncle Hildebrandt in Spain. We flew into Madrid, drove to Toledo and had a day and a half exploring there. We had a great tour of the old Jewish quarter and information about life there. Then we took the train to Madrid and spent a few HOT days there. We saw the Royal Palace, we swam, we shopped a bit. We spent a day in Segovia. I got a nice run around central Madrid one morning, and another one to one of the big parks. It happened to be CLOSED (such a bummer!), but I joined the hundreds of people running around it. I also had a few hours alone in the Prado, which was special. It was DAMN hot, but overall, we all really enjoyed it. It was a wonderful celebration of Bubbie and Zaydie's 50th anniversary and 75th birthdays. We enjoyed the time with them and Dan and Spain. I was grateful my Spanish came back, too and excited to use it!
In Toledo
Sam finished 8th grade, middle school. Koby finished 4th grade, lower school. They each had promotion ceremonies, celebrating their accomplishments.
Also since I last wrote, Matt and I saw Giant, which was excellent and I knew nothing about it, and Faygele, which was super well done and intense. Koby went on a camping trip with his grade and had a great time. I read torah and we sponsored kiddush in gratitude to our amazing synagogue we have LOVED these last few years. The synagogue did a big thank you to Sam (and sort of to the other kids), as Sam has really been a leader with the madrichim who help with the Sunday school, and she has loved it. We had a birthday party for Koby (movie, pizza, cake). Koby got to go to Warner Brothers studios for his birthday with his good friend. I ran Seven Sisters (Seaford to Eastbourne) with some runners. We had a lot of last things: ping pong lessons, robotics, riding lessons, runs, etc.
Elie had a concert. He and a group of friends have been playing music everyday at lunch. The band teacher sometimes goes in and gives them music or tips, but mostly they're on their own. They LOVE it. They were invited to play their piece, Stand by Me, during the 5th grade concert. They had put together a light plan (? like stage light plan?) to go with it. It was fantastic.
We went to my cousin, Tessa's wedding in Paris. It was so super fun, and we're so happy for them! I went a day early and got a bonus day with my parents in Paris. Lovely.
I also got to meet up with one of my best friends from middle and high school - definitely high school. I am not sure we have seen each other since college, but we have been in touch the whole time, here and there. It was amazing to see Jamie Love and her super wonderful husband, Tim. I LOVED hanging out with them and catching up.
We also saw Fiddler on the Roof. It was fantastic.
I also had a fun goodbye drinks celebration. It turns out there were lots of people to be in that room that were so wonderful. I was so excited that they all got to meet (those who didn't know each other already). It took a LONG time to build this world here, and I'm grateful I have had it, and it's a bit sad to leave it.
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