CHEESE!

Its so difficult to take pictures! It was so different when my parents were here and I was taking pictures of all the touristy things that we did, but now that I'm no longer doing touristy things because I'm no longer a tourist, I've stopped taking pictures. I feel like I'm really bad about remembering to take my camera with me when I go out, and when we had people over two weekends ago and I did remember to take out my camera, it wasn't charged! I feel like I'm missing out of the documentation of my first month in London, although... sometimes I feel that pictures aren't the best documentation tool either.

For me, pictures represent a certain moment in time that was captured to display a certain sentiment that was felt at that time. Most pictures are taken of happy moments because no one really wants to remember a time that they were unhappy or in some sort of pain. So... if you're having a terrible time somewhere and you look back on your pictures from that time, it'll be difficult to remember the pain you suffered because all you have to remember are images of the happy moments. For instance, when I studied in Paris for a month and a half, the overall impression that I got from the trip was that I really didn't have the best time. I had a bad experience with my roommate, I did not enjoy the locals since they really did not treat me (Americans in general) very nicely no matter how respectful I tried to be, and I did not particularly like the atmosphere of the city. I felt that it was a bit dark and Gothic for my taste, which creates for somewhat of an unwelcoming vibe that I've never been too fond of. Now, don't get me wrong, there were a lot of aspects of Paris that were very beautiful and that I really did enjoy, and I spent most of my time there with a group of three other girls who I absolutely love, but I just did not have the best time I could have possibly had while studying abroad for the first time. Now, although I definitely had a negative impression of my time there, if I were to have my memory completely erased meaning that I would only have the pictures of Paris to refer back to, I would only see the happy moments that I captured. Obviously, I would then come to the conclusion that I had a fabulous time in Paris, which would clearly be a false representation of what actually happened.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to go around taking pictures of all the bad and stressful situations that I go through here or when I get sick (like today). I am saying that maybe I should think of a way that allows me to remember both the good and the bad sentiments of my experience here. I don't want to be deceived when I'm like 65 years old and this trip is a distant memory. I'd like to remember when I got a migraine while shopping on Oxford Street and how I felt like I was going to vomit the entire train ride home.... uhhh, come to think of it, maybe I should just stick with my happy pictures.