In Which I Feel a Bit Foolish

As the title says, I feel a little bit foolish.
I went on a hike yesterday around Battle (as in Battle of Hastings) with my Hiking club. As I was saying in previous posts, I was really looking forward to becoming more involved in my club, so that I could start to meet British people and branch out. I've been to some of their social events earlier, and was a little disappointed that a lot of the members were international students.
Yesterday, I got up at 6am, got on the coach at 8am and started talking with some fellow hikers. The first couple I talked to were from outside Philadelphia, and were literally from rivals of my high schools. I've encountered this pretty frequently, I've met people who are friends with some of my best friends back home without even trying. At this point, it's almost unnatural to not meet someone who has an inkling of other people that I know. A bit frustrating, as I'm a quarter of the world away from home and still am surrounded.

2 hours later, we arrive in Battle and being to hike. We cut through the back of a churchyard, and enter the fields. I haven't hiked for a while, and I felt like I was struggling on the hills. After the first 20 minutes, I remembered that hiking is maybe one of my best skills, and subsequently dominated.
We meandered through many fields where unknown plants (tiny grassy shrub things? probably carrots, I don't know) were being grown. Since we were in the countryside, we literally ran into every kind of farm animal. Horses, chicken, geese, donkeys, dogs, the works. It was so relieving to wander through the fields, getting muddy and damp from the rain. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed of the outdoors - London is huge, but it's urban. The only grass I see there is in the manicured lawns of Regents Park.

We ended up walking on a field which was labeled "Airplane Crossing Footpath" much to our amusement. As we continued crossing, we realized that it was a grass runway. Very quaint. For the last 45 minutes of the hike, the rain steadily increased, and conversations diminished. This was my place to shine - I love the rain, and I've hiked through all weather types before. I ended up leading the group up and down muddy hills for a while until we hit the main road back to town.
Total mileage - about 7 miles in 3 hours.

Back in town, we had 3 hours to wander until our coach left. I separated from the group to explore - I love walking around effectively anonymously in an unknown town to observe people. Battle is a tiny town, but is steeped in history. The Abbey in the center of the town is a remnant of the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings. The high altar was placed King Harold was killed during the battle.
After walking around for an hour alone, I met back up with some of the group and had tea in the Pilgrim's Rest. The place was built in 1420, and is an authentic inn/lodging. Incredible.

Resting by the fire, we all got talking about our lives.
Back to my foolishness - This entire time I've been looking for the "real" experience of London and England. Whenever I talk to anyone from America, I feel like I'm wasting my time (not really, everyone has been lovely) by not conversing with the locals. During our discussion, I figured out that of the group of 9, only one was actually from England. Our group was comprised of Canadians, Dutch, French, Finnish, Chinese, and Argentinians - that's when it hit me.

I'm living in London. The city is notoriously international and diverse. I was talking with people who were from all over the world, living in London for school (mostly Masters degrees) and all had their own story to tell. Instead of living in the countryside where the "real" English live, I'm surrounded by a diversity. If I was in a smaller town, the culture may be easier to define, but also much easier to get bored of. With a city as dynamic as London, I can go to different boroughs and encounter completely different styles of life. There isn't a true English feel, because it's not entirely English. New York City is not fully representative of the US, but it does contain Americans.

So upon reflection of the conversation, I began to feel foolish. I didn't know exactly how to define my expectations of this semester excursion, and so I felt pressure that I was doing it incorrectly. But now I know that I'm definitely not.