Back to Basics in London

I've now been back just over a week. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out where I am mentally right now. There are atoms of me spread out all over the world holding conversations with people from my past and people I have not yet met. I guess this is what you call globalization, or some other form of human kind.

My brother Ryan has just arrived to start his one year masters at LSE on comparative politics. I am slightly jealous of his chance to start afresh this fall, but I also don't miss having the budget of a student or the open cupboard lifestyle that accompanies it. In the meantime, it is just fun to share with him the little I do know of London. He is a quick study and picks up on some of the nuances and contradictions of the stiff-upper lip country. He was picked up at Heathorw by an eastern cabbie who told him there was a difference between the English and Brits, and I couldn't help but smile. His cabbie was quick to point out that he was  Brit, and that is was most of us immigrants can dare to aspire to in this divided patch of the world.

Saturday night we hosted a mix of friends and acquaintances to celebrate Ryan's arrival. Ryan kindly prepared the score for the evening, and I now greedily carry it on my iPod. It is amazing how similar and dissimilar we are, despite coming from the same Canada. Our dreams are somewhat the same and not, misshapen by our own misperceptions of ourselves and what is desireable. Here is to continued dreaming even when it goes awry. It always makes for interesting dinner conversation...