Exactly one year ago, tomorrow

I took a train to London from Cardiff

I saw real Rembrandts and Van Eycks in the National Museum

I rode the London Tube, and dutifully "minded the gap"

Along with the entire population of Japan, I crowded around the bullet-proof glass protecting the Rosetta Stone for several minutes to catch my one snapshot

I could almost touch Jane Austen’s original manuscript of Persuasion, AND her writing desk, only if I had actually touched them I probably would have been given a round-house kick to the face and pummeled to the ground

I smelled roasted spiced almonds while walking along the Thames

I crossed the Millennium Bridge, which gets blown apart in Harry Potter VI

I stood in the Globe Theater as a groundling and watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream

I breathed the somehow enchanting London smog and felt the wonderful London muck on my face

I recommended that a friend, Bethany Hanks, take the Wales study abroad this summer. Consequently, I am following her every move relentlessly on Facebook and her blog and reminiscing about this time last year quite frequently…