Was that a cryptic title or what?
Hi Grandma, everything is fine, don’t worry about me. Well, almost everything — I haven’t felt the warmth of the sun in eons. The good news is, turning the clocks back has made waking up early for my internship commute marginally easier. A win is a win.
There are a few factors at play here. The first is that London recently resumed its stereotypical downpour, so even when it’s daytime, the sky is a dreadful shade of gray. It’s so bleak. The second is that London’s latitude is more northern than any of the mainland United States. Compared to Boston and even my family’s homes in northern Washington, it feels like the days are over before they’ve even begun.
The other day at my internship, one of my coworkers looked out the window at about noon and commented that the sky looked nearly dark already. It was a rainy, overcast day. We debated whether the windows were tinted to make it feel less dystopian. I had my chair angled away from the floor-to-ceiling windows while I ate my lunch, so outside felt pretty much nonexistent anyway.
Later, we debated whether the droplets on the glass were from active rain or if the shower had passed. Another coworker was leaving early to catch a train and was worried about the weather conditions. Again, it didn’t really matter to me because I was just sitting there on my computer.
By the time I leave for the day, the sky has already been completely dark for about an hour. As I watch the clock tick by and the sky blacken, I feel I am wasting away my days.Â
It’s even more strange knowing that my time in London is quickly drawing to a close. The internship placement is a fixed schedule, and there’s nothing to be done about it. It feels like a lot of pressure to enjoy London when all I see of the city during the day is the street between the train station and the office on my morning journey.Â
What happened? I was content that during the first week of my internship, I made an effort every day to get outside during my lunch break. I would walk around the local area to find street art, vintage shops, and parks — one even had a swingset. It broke up my day into manageable chunks and kept me feeling sane.Â
But as my endurance improves and the days in the office fly by quicker, I find myself staying at my desk instead. So how do I rationalize this?Â
First, I am really happy that I chose a study abroad semester where I could enjoy the last few weeks of summer while my class schedule was more spaced out. Yes, it’s tough to know the warm-weather potential I am missing out on, but I would rather work during the winter part of the semester than the long-awaited warm weeks of the second half of the spring term. That would be torture.Â
Second, I am finding it more important to spend evenings my way. Often, I cook dinner right when I get home. This has become a time when I can wind down and do things at my own pace, ensuring a quiet and relaxing night for me to catch up on weekly schoolwork.Â
Recently, I have been inviting friends over to share. I am sadly not seeing most of my school friends now that I am working, so this gives me a chance to foster those relationships. Also, I usually pack a sandwich to eat in the office, so my usual plan of eating leftovers for lunch shriveled up and died. I am just one girl, and eating the same thing for dinner every night until I run out of leftovers is getting really boring.
For the remainder of my internship placement, my goal is to get outside more. I want to take more intentional lunch breaks, maybe not eat outside if the weather is bad, but at least take a short walk to remind myself that more world exists between the hours of 9 and 5:30.Â
Usually, I love the time change in the fall because it gets me more in the holiday spirit, so I also have that to look forward to. This will also expose me to more chances to do things in the evenings after work, like exploring light displays and Christmas markets across London. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.
Farewell Daylight Saving Time!
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