Studying Abroad: 2 Month Update

Hello everybody!

February was an absolutely crazy time for me that flew by.  I was able to do a lot of traveling, and my brother came to visit me!  It's hard to believe that I have been in London for a full two months now.  If you haven't read about my first month and would like to click here!

I got to visit Windsor Castle on Saturday, February 3rd, which was beautiful.  It's also where the Royal Wedding is going to take place in May, so I was really excited to get to see where it was all going to be.  Plus, when I'm home and watching the wedding on TV I can say 'I've been there!' approximately 90 times.

On Sunday, February 4th I went to a place called Student Central and watched The Super Bowl!  Unfortunately, I had to stay awake until 4 in the morning only to watch the Patriots lose, but my friend is from Philidelphia, so I guess it was nice to see her excited.  Gotta love a good underdog story.  However, the next day I found the closest Dunkin' Donuts to help with my grief.  Thank goodness they have some here.

The next weekend I traveled to Berlin, Germany.  I already wrote a blog post about this so you can read all about it here.  Both the Windsor Castle and Berlin trips were excursions organized by my study abroad program that I signed up for all the way back in November.

Two days after I got back to London, my brother arrived for a visit over my school break.  Again, I already wrote about this so check it out here.  

The day my brother left, Thursday, February 22nd, I went to a The Vamps concert in Camden.  It was part of BritWeek and proceeds went to an organization called WarChild.  I was really excited to go because I love The Vamps music and the tickets were inexpensive.  Unfortunately, they only played about 9 songs, but at the same time, it was nice because I had to be up early the next morning to get to my internship.  I was also blocked by a photographer for a couple of songs, so he gave me his business card with his email and sent me this photo.  How great is that?  A photographer can block me at any concert if this is the outcome.

Tuesday, February 27th was my roommate's 21st birthday, and so we went to a bar called Ballie Ballerson which is a bar with a giant ball pit!  It was so fun to play in a ball pit for about an hour!

As amazing as the night was, it seemed the universe needed me to have some balance because the morning of February 28th was quite the trip.  There is snow in London, which is apparently not normal because it only snowed about 2 inches and yet everything was crazy.  I almost slipped numerous times on the way to the train station and then when I was crossing the street a bus started coming towards me, and I panicked for half a second.  On the train, after a stop, the doors closed and I immediately felt that my hair was stuck in between them.  Everything was fine, I was able to tug it out, but the fear of being scalped was there for a second.  Once off the train a friend and I stopped at Starbucks.  I got a hot chocolate and as we were walking to school I slipped a little in the snow, but I was so happy I didn't spill any of my drink on me.  However, I did manage to get it all over the sleeve of my friend.  We stood on the side of the sidewalk for a good 3 minutes wiping it off with napkins and laughing.  A woman walked by and said, "Oh no" which just made the situation that much funnier.  All of this happened between 8:00 and 9:00am.  Craziness.

Other than all those fun days, February was full of school and internship.  I've also started to get emails from my school back home talking about next semester which is mind-boggling to think that it's time to start thinking about my senior year of college!

My Brother's Trip to London | February 13th - 22nd

One of the many perks of studying abroad is that it gives your family an excuse to travel to visit you.  Which is exactly what my brother did.  He was here with me for a little longer than a week, and we did a lot of fun stuff.

Tuesday, February 13th:
I was in class when my brother arrived so I met up with him when I could.  He was staying in Camden, so we walked around that area.  We walked through the Camden Market, and then we ate lunch in a pub and then went to another pub...There isn't a whole lot else to do in Camden.  We came back towards my housing and got dinner at Pizza Express.

Wednesday, February 14th:
My Wednesday schedule is a little weird because I have two classes in the morning and then a night class.  So between those, we went to the British History Museum.  This museum is free and ginormous, so we spent a couple hours and still only saw a fraction of the building.  We got lunch at Pret (my favorite) and then went to my school so I could study for my test and my brother could do some work on his laptop.  For dinner, we went to an American diner and then sat at a pub near my housing for a while.

Thursday, February 15th:
I was supposed to have my internship today, but I moved my schedule around so that I would be able to hang out with my brother and we could travel more.  So today we went to The Tower of London for a couple hours.  It was my second time going, but it was fun to see the Crowned Jewels and the museums again.  I also saw some stuff I didn't see the first time.  My favorite thing about The Tower is the Beefeater tours.  Unfortunately, when we got there it was raining so the tour was shorter and inside the chapel, but by the time it was over the sun had come back out.  Once we were finished at The Tower we walked by the water down to Millennium Bridge, which I didn't know but is also across from St. Paul's Cathedral, so we got to see that too.

Friday, February 16th:
Friday started early, but it wasn't a real busy day.  We left for Brussels via the Eurostar in the morning, but once we got there, we hung out in our Airbnb so that my brother could work.  So I got to get some reading in which was really nice.  For dinner, we found a pizza place nearby and then we watched Finding Dory and a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

Saturday, February 17th:
We spent all of Saturday on a day trip to Ghent and Bruges, which we bought online.  These types of tours can be a little expensive, but I love them because you get to see a part of a country you may not have gotten to see otherwise and there's a tour guide to give you some history.  In these two places, there were mostly churches to see, but it was a fun day.

Sunday, February 18th:
We took our time getting up and out of our Airbnb Sunday morning.  But when we did leave we went and got Belgian Waffles (Because how could we not?) and some homemade Belgian Chocolate (Again, how could we not?).  Then we went to the Atomium which is a massive structure.  We thought about going inside it, but we weren't sure if our backpacks would fit in the lockers and we only had a limited time before having to go to the train station.  So we got to the station early, ate some cake and then made our way back to London.  We were both tired from traveling, so it was an early night.

Monday, February 19th:
Our morning consisted of screen time where I worked on my Blog, and my brother worked on a work project.  However, we did go to Sky Garden and hung out there for a while.  This was my second time at Sky Garden, and I think it's a great place to go with people because on a nice day you can see so much and it's free!  Who doesn't love that?  From there we went to Emirates Stadium to get a scarf for a friend back home.  It was a more chilled out day than the other's, but still fun.

 

Tuesday, February 20th:
From a low key day to a jam-packed one!  Today we went to Warner Brothers Studios and saw all things, Harry Potter.  It is such a cool place!  I know I talked about it in my 1 Month Update post, but I just can't get over how amazing it is!  When we got back, we walked around to see Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben (Kinda, it's currently covered in scaffolding), and Westminster Abbey.  We didn't really do anything at these sights, just looked and then kept walking, but I felt my brother couldn't come all the way to London and not see these things.

 

Wednesday, February 21st:
Back home I babysit for a family that lived in Scotland for eight years, and one of their friends lives outside of London, so he offered to show us around Beaconsfield and Oxford.  Along with the colleges in Oxford, we got to see Blenheim Palace and Cliveden House.  It was really nice to have someone to show us around an area we never would have gone to otherwise.  Kind of like the tour of Ghent and Bruges, but more personal since it was just us and someone who we could also talk about home with.  It was a long, fun day.

Thursday, February 22nd:
I actually had to go to my internship at 9:45am and my brother had to make his way to the airport so we only had time to get a quick breakfast at Costa before splitting up.  It was really nice to get to spend time with him and show him around where I've been for two months.

Studying Abroad: 1 Month Update

Hello everybody!

I cannot believe I left for London a month ago from today.  It feels like I have been here forever and for half a minute at the same time.  This month I have packed in more things than I have ever done before.  

You guys may have read my post about my orientation week, but after that, I started taking classes and partaking in an internship.  My classes are really interesting; I'm taking two English courses and a psychology class.  And my internship is at a publishing company, and I really enjoy it.  I don't do a whole lot more than mailing out press releases, but the people are really nice, and I think as the next couple weeks go on I'll be given more responsibilities. 

   

I've also been doing a lot of fun activities in and around London.  Since orientation, I spent Sunday, January 7th exploring Greenwich for a day.  My program gave us the experience of taking a boat down the Thames River, but then it was all on us to explore the area. 

Saturday, January 13th I spent the morning at Borough Market where I ate a delicious pork sandwich and came home with some great homemade fudge.   

I also went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour on Sunday the 14th which was incredible to see all of the behind the scenes of how Harry Potter came to be the masterpiece that it is.  It's easy to watch a movie and comment on the costumes and the sets, but there is so much more that goes into it and seeing every prop and wig and set designs made out of basically cardboard and popsicle sticks was absolutely mindblowing.    

    

On Wednesday the 17th my class took a Charles Dickens walking tour around London because we read A Tale of Two Cities (one of my absolute favorite books!)  It was really cool to see all of the places that the book references.

I got to spend the weekend of January 19th traveling to Edinburgh, which you may have read about or seen the video I made. Apart from giving myself a black eye, it was a fantastic trip.  (But let's be serious, giving myself a black eye was ridiculous and probably the main part of the trip I'll remember in the years to come) 

     

The day we got back from Edinburgh we also attended Lumiere, which is this cool light and art show type thing that only happens every four years.

Last Saturday (January 17th) I went with my program to the Tower of London.  After going along with an entertaining Beefeater tour guide my friends and I walked around for a while, seeing the crowned jewels and going in and out of the different museums that are inside the tower.  It was a very cool experience and definitely something I would recommend to anyone planning a visit. 

     

And afterward, I went to afternoon tea!  I don't like tea but the food was good, and it was a fun thing to do with friends.

Sunday was a relaxing day.  I spent it mostly doing homework and reading for my internship.  Then my roommate and I watched the Lifetime movie 'Will & Kate' to keep the London theme strong on our day inside. 

     

Finally, my roommate and I both end our days of classes at 12:30 on Tuesdays, so we have decided to spend those days as Tuesday Adventures and we go out to lunch and/or dessert.  We've been to some really cool places and eaten delicious food.

January felt very long to me, but I did so many amazing things!  I have so much planned for February so keep your eyes out for some update posts and everything else!

   

Orientation Week in a New Country

HELLO!

For anyone who is unaware, I am currently studying abroad and participating in an internship both of which I will be doing until the end of April.  This means that I have zero idea what this blog is going to look like (but honestly when do I ever?) and for that, I apologize.  As of right now, one week in and currently writing a blog post, I am hoping that I will be able to write at least one post a week.  This may be just a recap of the week or a book review if I found time to read or just a funny story that happened to me.  I say hope because it's just not something I can promise.  This week alone has been a whirlwind, and I can't even imagine what the next four months will look like.

Anyway, let's jump right on in.  I flew out on January 1st at 7:20pm and landed in London on the 2nd.  I was picked up from the airport by the school I am studying with and brought to what will be my home for a while.  That day was just a day to unpack and then get dinner with some other people who had already arrived.

This week was our Orientation which included things like learning how to use the Tube to get to school, meeting with my advisor, walking through the British History Museum, seeing Matilda The Musical, and more practicalities type stuff.

Although there has been a scheduled event every day, there has also been a lot of time to do some exploring with friends I've made so far.  This has been great because we've gotten to travel in a smaller group and see things that we really want to look at.

Today was a HUGE exploring day for my friends and me.  The faculty at the school gave us a little scavenger type trip to take earlier in the week, and we did most of it.  We started at Camden Town market which is located in an old stable, and now it's a bunch of little pop-up store type places and food.  Then we went to the Thames River and stood on London Bridge as we took pictures of Tower Bridge.  We also saw the Tower of London from the outside before making our way over to the parliament building.  Unfortunately, Big Ben and part of Parliament are currently under construction for the next couple years, so we couldn't get a great picture.  We went to Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace as well.  The day was full of Tube rides, walks, and architecture.

So that's just a little bit for now!  I'm really excited to be here, and I hope you're eager to read about it!  Don't forget to follow both of my Instagram accounts (@writerjewels for blog stuff and @juliann_guerra for everything else) to see everything I'll be up to!

Everyday Magic by Emily Albright | Book Review

Everyday Magic by Emily Albright

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: From the critically acclaimed author of The Heir and the Spare comes another enchanting tale of love and fame set in England, among the privileges and pressures of the red-carpet life. Maggie's dad is a Hollywood director, and he has her whole life planned: Not only will she grow up to be an entertainment lawyer and work for him, he literally blackmails her to date the boy who's starring in his new movie. But Maggie loves Preston, the British boy who stole her heart, and despite the risk that her dad will make her mother miserable if she doesn't give in, Maggie decides to go for it, designing a red-carpet gown for a young duchess that puts her and the duchess in the limelight. Once there, she turns to Preston and issues a challenge: Can a girl who has given up the glamorous life any other girl would want...be the girl for him?

Cover: The cover of this book shows palm trees and bright lights.  It's very 'Hollywood, ' but no part of this story takes place in Hollywood, so I get it because Maggie's dad is a director, but I wish it were something that had more to do with the story.

My Review: I really liked this book.  I loved The Heir and the Spare, and I still like it a little bit more, but I really loved Maggie and Preston's characters.  I loved that Maggie was a fashion designer because it's just something so interesting and something I don't know how to do so I'm in awe of the people who can sew actual pieces of clothing.  I thought her situation was also a really good story because she's trying to balance school and family and boys, and it really shouldn't have been too difficult for her, but throw in a blackmailing dad and two boys and it becomes a crazy balancing act.  I was really sad when Preston broke up with Maggie, but I couldn't blame him.  It was hard for him to explain why the girl he was seeing was also seeing a movie star, so he cut ties with her.  Of course, once everyone knew what was going on they knew the two of them had to work it out and thankfully they did.  You guys know I love a happy ending!  Also, the fact that Edmond was going to propose to Evie was said in fewer words in the ending, and that just made me all the happier, because like I said, I loved them so much.  This was a great story and a quick read.  I would recommend this to anyone who read The Heir and the Spare, and I would recommend The Heir and the Spare to anyone who loves a sweet love story, or anyone who loves Will and Kate.

Click to stay connected:

Main Twitter: @juliann_guerra

Second Twitter: @writerjewels

Instagram: juliann_guerra

Second Instagram: writerjewels

Tumblr: juliann-guerra

Goodreads: Juliann Guerra

Wattpad: @writerjewels

Pinterest: Juliann Guerra

Spotify: juliann.guerra

Bloglovin: Juliann Guerra