This England!

Every step of my morning commute today smelled like England. The stairs of our flat building, the intersection of 16th and Guerrero, The Pub on campus (ironically the least English place I know), all of them had that completely unique and lovely smell that I associate with England. I think a little pocket of English air wafted across the Atlantic to prep me for my brief trip to the place I've never lived that feels like home.

This one gives me chills:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.