I left for London on a Wednesday.  One week later I was wandering around the city by myself.

Maybe this isn’t a big deal to some of you, but for me it was huge.  I had never been alone in a city as big as London before.  And since my school was in Harlow, I’d only really travelled to London three or four times before that day.  The fact that it had taken me a couple of days to get the courage to go off by myself was a source of pride for me (not that I’m a coward, mind you, I’m just… cautious).

The reason I went off alone was because I really wanted to see Giselle by the Royal Ballet.  I couldn’t find anyone in my class who wanted to go, so I decided that instead of not going I was going to see the show by myself.

So I took the subway from the British Museum to Covent Garden, bought my ticket and then wandered around Covent Garden alone.

I’m always of two minds when I travel – I love having someone else to share the experience with, but I also love being able to do what I want.  You compromise with both options: sharing the experience means doing things that the both of you want to do; being by yourself means you might miss something another person would remember/suggest. 

There were other shows I wanted to see and ended up going to alone, so I was able to hang out with friends on some days and go off by myself on others.  Because even though I’m glad I saw Giselle, I’m also glad that I had my friend with me to act like a complete geek with during Dralion.