Some Family Comes to London | April 13 - April 21

***I would like to preface this by apologizing because this post is long overdue.  When I got back from London, I quickly jumped back into life and started working.  Then I went back to school for a little while for Spring Weekend and then drove to my friend's school to watch her play Lacrosse.  Basically, these two weeks have been busy, but I'm back!  So here we go...

My Study Abroad program officially ended on April 14, but I stayed in London for an extra week because my mom and sister flew over to see the city.  I didn't film this week because I already had a video that I had to wait to upload and I didn't want to deal with two.  I did kinda regret this by about Tuesday, but then it was too late, so you only have the written word for this part.

Friday, April 13
I was able to meet up with my mother and sister on Friday because all of my finals were done by Wednesday night.  It took me three buses to get to them which was very interesting with a giant suitcase, a carry on suitcase, and a backpack.  When I got there and got settled, we decided to go out and get something to eat and then we walked to a Poundland.  When we got back to the Airbnb, we watched Baywatch.

Saturday, April 14
We spent today at Camden Market, walking around, doing a little bit of shopping.  And then we went to Primrose Hill and walked up it to see the city views of London.  We then walked past the London Zoo before grabbing some food and heading back to the Airbnb, where we watched The House.

Sunday, April 15
When I was at my internship someone told me about the Shoreditch Flower Market, so we decided to check it out.  And it was crazy.  There were so many people I don't know how you're supposed to be able to enjoy the flowers.  The ones I did see - through gaps between people's heads - were very pretty and smelt amazing.  We walked through it once, and then I said, "Let's go to this cool place called Borough Market" which we did, only to realize that Borough Market is closed on Sundays.  So we grabbed a late lunch and then made our way back towards our house.  We watched Hidden Figures, which I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Monday, April 16
Can one visit London and not go to high tea?  I'm pretty sure the country immediately deports you if you try.  I'm kidding of course, but my sister wanted to go to tea, and she found a really cool one.  It was by a company called B Bakery, and it took place on a double-decker bus, so you get to be chauffeured around the city while you eat finger sandwiches and mini cakes.  I personally, don't drink tea, but they had hot chocolate so I was good to go.  It was a very cute experience and I was glad we did it.  When we got off of the bus, we walked to Buckingham Palace and after taking pictures, we tried again to go to Borough Market.  This time it was a success, and I bought a meat pie and some fudge.

Tuesday, April 17
Today was exciting as we went down to Brighton and spent time at the beach!  We walked along the pier and then walked around the Lanes.  We got some food and had a nice day in the sun.

Wednesday, April 18
This morning started off slow because we were waiting for my second cousin and her mom flew in and they were making their way to the Airbnb.  Once they got in and had some time to get settled we made our way into Central London.  We walked around Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and then made the journey to Harrods.  By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted from travel and walking.

Thursday, April 19
Today started early...like, 4am early.  We had to be at the train station by 6am because we were headed to Paris for the day.  However, when we got to the station, our train was canceled, which caused some minor panic for a minute, but we were able to get on the next one which was only 50 minutes later.  Once we got to Paris, we walked to Notre Dame before grabbing a bite to eat.  We decided to do a Hop On Hop Off bus tour because we only had a limited amount of time and didn't want to spend all of it walking from one place to another.  I really enjoyed the bus because they had headphone jacks that gave you the history of all of the things we drove past, so we got to see more than we planned.  We got off the bus near the Eiffel Tower and contemplated walking up it before deciding the line was too long, so we went to a park in front of it and took pictures with it instead.  We also went to a perfume factory and a Longchamp bag store.  It was a fun, jam-packed day.

Friday, April 20
This morning we went to Sky Garden, which was one of my favorite places in the city.  The views were amazing, and it's a nice place to sit and have a drink.  From there we went down the street to the Tower of London, where we got a Beefeater Tour and saw the Crowned Jewels.  By the time we did those two things, everyone was ready for lunch.  Personally, I thought we should have stayed a little longer and seen more things, but I was outvoted, and I had already been there twice before, so I've seen pretty much everything there.  We got pizza from Zizzi's before making our way towards St. Paul's Cathedral.  However, we ended up getting sidetracked by a bar because it was such a beautiful day and everyone was out and about.  We also got to meet up with a friend of my cousin's who she met a couple summers ago.  We walked around with her, finally made it to St. Paul's and then went to another bar where we met some people and hung out for a while.

Saturday, April 21
After almost four months, today was the day I was heading back to the USA.  We really only had time to get breakfast and then make our way to the airport.  My cousin and her mom were leaving from Gatwick, and me, my sister, and my mom were leaving from Heathrow, but they were in Terminal 5, and I was leaving from Terminal 3.  Somehow I ended up in a priority economy seat, which was amazing.  It's incredible what a little bit of extra leg room will do on a long distance flight.  I have no idea how I got the seat, either.  The girl sitting next to me was my age, also coming back from study abroad, but she said she paid extra and chose the seat.  There is no way I would have paid extra money for a plane ticket, at least not on purpose, so I don't know what happened, but I'm not complaining.  When I landed at the airport, I hung out with my dad as we waited for my mom and sister's flight landed.  I bought myself a Coolatta from Dunkin Donuts to welcome myself back into the country.

And that's that.  Like I said, I'm back working and hanging out with my dog for the summer.  I think that because this last week was with some family and had a more vacation feel to it I was able to adjust back to being home easier.

Studying Abroad: The Last 2 Weeks

I WISH THIS WASN'T THE END! But I am also very excited to head back to Massachusetts, so this is a very bittersweet time for me.
If you're new here and want to read about my time studying abroad, click the names to read about Month 1, Month 2, or Month 3

For the most part, the past two weeks have been full of writing final papers, studying for a final exam, packing, and watching YouTube videos in bed, but I did manage to a have a few eventful days thrown in there as well.

Thursday, April 5: Dickens Day
About a week and a half ago, a friend and I tried to have a Charles Dickens Day, but it was Monday, and the Dickens Museum was closed, so we rescheduled to today.  The day started off normal.  We went to the museum, which was very exciting to see how Charles Dickens lived and where he wrote his novels.  We hung out in the safe for a while before heading to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, which is the Pub that Sydney Carton takes Charles Darnay after he wins his trial.  This is where things got weird.  My friend and I sat for a while, got a drink and some french fries and then decided to walk to Harrods for a sandwich because the food on the pub menu was expensive and not really our taste. As we were walking out, the bartender said something to my friend that I didn't hear as I was so focused on getting to a bathroom.  However, next thing I know we're walking past the bathroom and up to some sectioned off function room.  The bartender disappears as we're left staring at a bunch of stuff that bars collect: old photographs and accounts of funny things that happened there.  It was interesting, but I had zero idea what was going on.  So we're in a room and all of a sudden we hear the bartender say, "Don't jump, there's a story of a girl who jumped from this window because she was being chased by someone with a knife.  Kinda like the knife I was using."
HOW DOES SOMEONE RESPOND TO THAT?!?!?!?! For the record: he meant a paring knife he was using to cut lemons or something.  Awkward laughs ensued, and then we were led to another room downstairs where an eighth edition of A Tale of Two Cities was opened to the page were Carton and Darnay were in the pub.  That was actually really cool since it was the main reason we were there, but the whole situation was just so bizarre.  Finally, he shows us some weird article about a bird, named Polly, who died in a pneumonia epidemic a long time ago.  He went back down to the bar he was originally at, and we got out of there as fast as we could.  Meanwhile, I still had to go the bathroom but didn't want to in the pub, so we went to a McDonalds close by and then headed to Harrods.  One of the funniest parts was that on our way to Harrods we were talking about what just happened and talking about what we would have done if something serious happened.  As we were talking about knives, a man walking in front of us looked back, pretending to be looking down the street but he was definitely looking back to see who we were and why we were talking about being stabbed in a pub.
In the end, we decided that the bartender was probably just trying to be nice and there was no point where either of us was really scared for our safety, but the whole event was ridiculous.  We rewarded ourselves with some Harrods cake so all was well.

Friday, April 6: Golden Tours Trip
The next day was much calmer.  The same friend, a few other friends, and I had booked a Golden Tours trip way back in February to Leeds, Dover, Canterbury, and Greenwich.  We got to explore the Leeds Castle and try Mead, walk onto a beach under the cliffs of Dover, explore a cathedral in Canterbury, and take a boat ride across the river from Greenwich.  The day was so fun and filled with laughs.  The five of us were the only people who were under the age of thirty who weren't with their parents and the tour guide deemed us "The Famous Five" which made me feel like a US Olympic Gymnast.  We also all ate fish and chips while we were in Canterbury, which was a first for me and I have to admit it was pretty good.  I mean who can go wrong with fried food and ketchup?
Once the tour was over, we got ice cream and walked through Hyde Park for a little bit before heading back to our housing.

Thursday, April 12: Wimbledon & Goodbye
This morning two friends and I went to Wimbledon Tennis Museum, which I was really excited for because I played tennis in high school and I figured if you go to London you have to see Wimbledon - even if you do wait until the last possible day.  We went to the museum which ended up being a lot better than I expected.  There were interactive parts and movies and reading all of the little blurbs were really informative.  We also did a virtual reality exhibit that taught you about the history of Wimbledon and also showed you 360 views of the 2016 matches.  With our museum pass, we were able to go to center court and see where the final matches are played.  We also got to ask the worker who took us into the court a bunch of questions about how to get a ticket, which is a lottery system.  We were out there for a couple hours because Wimbledon is kinda a hike from where we're staying, but I am so glad we decided to make the trip.
Tonight was also a send-off party hosted by the school I've been studying at.  I went with a couple friends for a little while - mostly to get the free food - and it was nice to see some people one last time before leaving.

And that's it!  Friday morning I woke up and headed off to meet my mother and sister at our Airbnb that we'll be staying in for the next week.  Studying abroad has been an amazing experience that I would recommend to everyone, whether you go for a full semester or a couple weeks over the summer.

Studying Abroad: 3 Month Update

How is it possible that it's April?  That by the end of this month I will be back in the USA?  That's absolutely crazy to me!

If you're new here and want to read about the other two months I've been in London, you can read about Month 1 here and Month 2 here!

The beginning of March was spent in Dublin, Ireland which you can read all about here!

Saturday, March 10th was spent doing homework, but I did get outside on Sunday, March 11th.  I decided to go souvenir shopping for some family and friends, which I will have to wait to tell you about in case some of them are reading.

Saturday, March 17th was another homework day, but I did get the chance to go out with some friends at night.  We wanted to go to an Irish Pub, but because it was St. Patrick's Day the lines were out the door and around the corner so we ended up at BrewDog, but we still had a lot of fun.

On Sunday, March 18th I met up with some friends I met when I went to Berlin last month and watched the parade.  The London St. Patrick's Day parade was not like the parades I've seen back home: no one was cheering or clapping or jumping around.  Naturally, the girl I was with and I were doing these things and it resulted in someone next to us asking where we were from.  When we said America he said, "Yeah I figure."  He was Canadian though so he also realized that this parade was a little lacking.  The rest of the day was spent in a bar with a musician taking requests.  We were responsible for some Britney Spears and Stacey's Mom being played.

Friday, March 23rd was the last day of my internship, which I was very sad to walk away from.  I had such a blast being a Publicity Intern at Simon & Schuster UK.  The people were amazing and I learned a lot about the publishing world.  The fact that it ended also reminded me that my time here in London is almost over.  My best friend, who is studying in Italy, was in London too so we were able to get dinner and hang out for a couple hours.  It was great to see her and made me excited for all of my friends to be home over the summer.

Saturday and Sunday I was in Nice, France with my roommate which you can read about here!



Since I no longer have to go to my internship, a friend and I were going to have a Charles Dickens Day on Monday, March 26th, but the Dickens Museum isn't open on Mondays so we ended up rescheduling that and going to Harrods to get lunch and cake instead.  On our way there we also stopped inside a bookstore, which we said would result in no book buying.  But then we started talking to a sales associate and both ended up buying a book.

Thursday, March 29 was really exciting because I met up with a friend I haven't seen since Junior Year of High School.  She was a foreign exchange student and now she's studing in England.  She has some time off so she came down to London and we saw Wicked, which was amazing!  I had chills throughout the entire thing.

Friday we took a bus to Brighton for the day.  We then took another bus to the Seven Sisters and walked around there.  However, it was raining and cold, so we ended being absolutely soaked and pretty miserable.  But we made the most of it and still had a good day.

Saturday, March 31 we slept in and then headed to Chinatown for some food before my friend had to leave.  We actually had to wait until noon for the place we wanted to eat lunch to open so we got ice cream at about 11:30am.  It was great.

Only a few weeks left for me here in London.  I look forward sharing with you what I get up to during that time...

A Weekend in Nice, France

A couple of weeks ago my roommate and I decided we wanted to go somewhere warm.  So after a little bit of googling and flight searching, we decided to go to Nice, France.

We had to leave by 2:30am on Saturday morning, and I almost overslept.  But I didn't, and we made it to the bus that took us to the airport.  The first thing we did when we got to Nice was made our way to our hostel.  We were able to drop our bags off, but our beds weren't going to be ready until 3:00pm, so we decided to find some food.  We then walked up Castle Hill and got to see some amazing views of the ocean.  We also walked around Cimetière du Château (Castle Cemetary) for a little while, which has huge gravestones.  At 3:00pm we went back to the hostel and took a nap since both of us only got about an hour of sleep the night before.  When we got up, around, we found some dinner and then sat outside of a bar for a while because we wanted to stay up late enough that we wouldn't wake up too early the next morning.  We went back to the hostel at 11:00pm, and I was surprised to find that we were the last people back to the shared dorm we were in.

The next day we checked out of the hostel around 10:00am and walked around a flower market for a little bit before taking a bus to Monaco.  Once there we walked into the famous Casino (Only the parts we could get into free).  Then we went and sat on the beach for a while.  We walked into the water, which was cold, but we felt we had to since we had gone through so much effort to see the sea.  We looked at all of the Yachts in the harbor and then went up to the Prince's Palace before returning to Nice.  We grabbed dinner and then took a bus back to the airport.

The weekend was fantastic to get away and be somewhere where the sun was shining.  In fact, we both ended up getting sunburnt.  We spent most of our time simply walking around and looking at the ocean.  I am not a beach person, so I was wicked surprised to find how excited I was to see salt water.

Are any of you ready for Spring to fully arrive?  Or do you want to fast forward straight to summer?

Weekend in Dublin, Ireland

Hello everybody!

This past weekend a group of friends and I went to Dublin, Ireland.  Now, if you're anywhere near the UK, you may know that last week there was a 'snow storm' that caused a lot of issues for a lot of people.  I put that in quotes because the total amount of snow that fell was probably somewhere between 2 and 3 inches, in central London at least.  So for a bunch of Americans from the Northeast, we weren't worried about it at all, but then Thursday and Friday flights were being canceled left and right and we started to get nervous that our early morning Saturday flight was going to be next.

Luckily, our flight did not get canceled, but there was a moment when we thought we weren't getting on the plane.  There was a group of five of us that went, and most of us just packed a backpack because we were only going to be gone for one night, but one girl had a carry on size suitcase - still, no one really thought much about it.  However, at security, she's told that she needs to check her bag and is escorted back to the counter.  The rest of us walk to our gate, which of course wicked far away from security and she's texting us saying that she's in a really long line and that she doesn't know if she's going to make the flight.  The four of us start to panic because we have no idea what to do when the plane starts boarding.  Do we get on and hope she makes it in time?  Do we wait for her and all of us miss the flight?  Do we beg and plead with the airport gate worker to keep the gate open for five extra minutes?  We were told that the gate was going to close at 6:20am, but people were still in line, so we stood off to the side.  A couple minutes later our friend rounds the corner, and it was like watching the winner of the Boston Marathon cross the finish line.  The funniest part: we weren't the last people on the plane.

When we all got to Ireland, we had to figure out the best way to get to our hotel, which took some time.  We got in line to buy bus tickets only for them to tell us it was cash only, so we had to go back inside to the ATM and then get back in line.  But we did eventually make it, and we spent the day exploring the Temple Bar area of Dublin.  After a couple of hours relaxing in our rooms since we all had to wake up at about 3am, we spent the night at the actual Temple Bar and listened to a great cover band play a bunch of songs that we knew and sang along too.  The night ended with diner french fries and being back at the hotel before midnight.

  

Sunday we partook in an Airbnb Busking experience.  This was supposed to be on Saturday, but because of the weather, our guide changed it, which we ended up being happy about because we were all so tired on Saturday after everything that we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.  He took us around the Temple Bar area and Grafton Street, explaining what Busking is and who started their careers this way (U2, Ed Sheeran, Hosier, etc.) which we had no idea about.  We also had to Busk for ourselves which was a lot of fun, but also nerve-wracking, since we are not singers.

After the experience, we walked to the Guinness Storehouse.  We walked through the self-guided tour and got a free pint in the Gravity Bar.  Personally, I don't like Guinness, but the tour was cool and how could I not have fun hanging out with friends?  From Guinness, we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to the airport.  It was a quick trip, but it was full of fun!

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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.

A Long Weekend in Berlin, Germany

If January moved at the pace of a sloth, then February is like a cheetah.  The month is almost over, and I haven't written anything because my schedule has been absolutely crazy.

The study abroad program I am studying through sent an email way back in November with a list of excursions that I could sign up for at an additional cost to my program.  This isn't uncommon for study abroad programs because it gives you the opportunity to explore new things without having to plan it out yourself.  One of those excursions was to spend a long weekend in Berlin, Germany and not only see the city but also learn more about World War II from Germany's point of view.

Thursday, February 8th:
I worked a half day before taking the tube to Heathrow Airport.  We didn't get to our hostel until about 9:00pm, so we were free to just do our own thing.  My roommate came with me and then we met some other girls in our program who don't live in the same building as we do.  Situations like these are funny because you get close to people really fast and just stick with them for the weekend.  It's like freshman orientation.  That night we stayed in the Hostel bar and ate and got to know each other.

Friday, February 9th:
We spent the entire morning doing a walking tour of Berlin.  We walked to the museums and looked at their architecture, saw memorials for the people affected and killed during the Holocaust, the Berlin Wall, and bullet marks that are still in the buildings.  Berlin (and Germany) is such an interesting place because they've entirely owned up to their atrocious acts and they want people to learn from their mistakes.  Anything that is related to that part of their history is free so that people can educate themselves on it.  But anything that is related to Hitler himself has pretty much been destroyed so that no one can make a shrine to him.
After our tour, we had free time, so my friends and I went to a chocolate shop that had chocolate sculptures of different monuments in Berlin and things like an airplane and the Titanic and a chocolate volcano.  We also walked through the Topography of Terror which was a museum about the  Nazi's and SS Officers.
That night we had a meet & mingle event in the hostel bar to get to know some of the kids on the trip with us, but everyone had kind of done that the night before.  It was still fun though to all sit together.  We thought about going out that night, but the hostel was cheap and didn't involve going out in the cold, so we ended up staying there.

Saturday, February 10th:
For most of the day, we went to Sachsenhausen which was an internment camp for prisoners during the Holocaust.  This camp's largest population was the gypsie people, but there was still Jewish prisoners as well.  This camp was also right next to the headquarters for the supervisor of all of the camps throughout Europe, so it was where they did a lot of testing different ways to efficiently kill people.
We then went to the East Side gallery, which is the longest intact piece of the Berlin Wall.  It's covered in artwork from artists all over the world.  Afterwards, we ate authentic German food for dinner at a really lively restaurant.  I ordered meatballs, but they were closer to two hamburger patties.  Experiencing the culture through its food was nice.
That night we agreed to try and find a club, but we never did.  We ended up walking around Berlin until about 2 in the morning in the freezing cold.  Needless to say, no one was pretty happy towards the end.  We did meet some really kind kids our age from Germany and ended up walking around with them and just talking about the differences between Germany and America.

Sunday, February 11th:  
Before we left for the airport, we were given a couple of hours to explore the Mauerpark Market.  It was a typical market with people trying to sell handmade things, but there was also food and a whole section that was just people trying to have a yard sale.  I bought some postcards that I'm going to frame when I get home in April.

I have always found the Holocaust such a fascinating topic.  The how and the why of it could happen in the modern era.  The Nazi's were smart; they understood psychological effects killing people could have, they were working to be the most efficient as they could be, and they were interested in trying new medical experiments.  However, the way they went about it was absolutely horrendous and if they had only focused all that effort on something else Germany would have such a different history.  It was a little hard to be in the city because it's one thing to learn all these things in a classroom somewhere, but to be in the actual place and to walk around and see memorial after memorial for all that the city has done wrong is a weird, emotional experience.  But I am glad I went on this trip because I don't think you can ever learn too much about a topic and like I said learning about it in the actual place it entirely different.

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!