Home Again… Reflecting on London Experience

I believe I have been home for a week now.

What a whirwind experience London was.  The professor kept us very busy every day and we saw so much… I find myself struggling to retain it all.  The art was breathtaking… Leonardo, van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, William Blake, Goya, Auerbach, and countless others…

I find myself looking at the world differently, but it is difficult to put into words.  This was my first time abroad.  The UK is not so very different from the US, and London is not so very different from NYC… But I have to say that somehow, the place seemed more safe and cozy than it does here.  London is a big city, but more intimate, somehow.

There is a funny sort of general coldness about British people, and yet if you are able to see past this, it is merely a facade of propriety that covers very warm and generous hearts.  Even the people working at the train station were especially helpful when my professor was having trouble with her Oyster card (their equivalent of a metro card).  I cannot imagine such care from someone at a NYC train station.

I noticed that when I was walking on the sidewalk to New Paltz the other day, I was walking on the left and annoying some people walking the other direction.  In London, the same happened when it was my instinct to walk on the right hand side.  I smiled at myself to realize I had fallen in sync, only to now have to retrain myself to do this little thing the American way.

All in all, I am happy with the growth in myself from my experience abroad.  I am also pleased to announce that I will be doing it again in the summer, this time in Italy… An exploration in ancient art history… And also, an exploration into my roots as a 4th generation Italian from immigrant ancestors (100%).

Stay Tuned… I hope to be blogging again in the summer.  🙂IMG_1668

Pacione is a native Hudson Valley fine artist and poet who has been writing poetry for nearly two decades, reading her impassioned work throughout New York since 1995, and oil painting since 2010. Her poetry and paintings center around the complexities of the human subconscious and how dreams manifest in life on the surface. She is currently pursuing a MFA in Painting at SUNY New Paltz.

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