Laurie's light travel travel tips

I'm back in the U.S. for Reading Week, a new term to me but a welcome one. I love studying at King's College London, but also love coming "home". I still have a U.S. apartment til the end of the year (lease), and though it pains me financially, it's an emotional balm. Transitioning to a new country and way of life is harder than it seems when we're sitting around doodling pictures of Big Ben and dreaming of handsome Colin Firth-like men whisking us away in their chariots (with the steering wheel on the wrong side.) As I reflect on my three weeks in London , I'm struck more by the stories of the people I've met than anything else. My friend Kelly, who passed in 2008, once told me: "All cities are alike." She was right. New York, Chicago and London share Starbucks, traffic, a cosmopolitan sneer and swagger, and competitive financial climates. Walk into any busy Whole Foods and you'll forget exactly where you are unless you've picked u...

"You live here now, don't you!" said the nice woman at Giraffe, my regular stop for coffee at Heathrow's Terminal 5. When I say "regular" I don't mean it in the way one would if she chose, say, a coffee house down the block. No, this is where I arrive and depart every day as I journey back to my lodge, one bus stop away. Not only have I not found a flat yet, but I haven't even had a bloody moment to set out searching. I started my course almost two weeks late at King's College London, arriving with a health matter that has been tedious to deal with ( thyroid ) while struggling without the love of my life (Wally, my cat), which makes dealing with all manner of stresses more difficult. "I like you guys!" I told the nice lady. "You're very pleasant." She smiled. And it's so true that they're pleasant, a balm at the end of the day when I'm worried that the nodule on my thyroid could be cancer, that my cat is fa...