The adventure ends… for now.

So I’ve been home for a week now, but I’m just getting to updating this now. I wasn’t as active at this as I would have liked, but I think it will give me a better way at looking at it in years to come.

My summer abroad was definitely one of the greatest experiences of my life. Even if the weather sucked (and it did), I got to experience something I will never forget. I’m looking into a work abroad program for when I graduate, so hopefully I will do at least another four months in London.

To be honest, i think it took me a good four weeks to get used to it. When everyone else said they wanted to move to England, I thought they were crazy. But of course, once I finally started to learn to love it and stopped being homesick, it was time to go home. I miss everything about it so much. (except expenses and the lack of Dunkin Donuts). Mainly, I just loved being able to go out to a pub and meet someone from a different country every time. And the markets. And awesome baguette.

I’ve gotten used to American time and customs again (but I totally had a Post Tramatic Stress Disorder moment when a bird flew by my head and I thought it was going to fly into me or poop on me, like they do in London). Some basic things I figured out about myself I hope to take away from my experience, though. Things I knew I needed to work on anyway, but somehow being a million miles away makes it clearer. I need to spend more time with the people I care about and less time with technology. I also want to get exploring familiar neighborhoods more, and finding new things to discover.

I’ll still be updating this blog sporadically, if I miss London or if I have any other traveling adventures. If I do work abroad once I graduate, I plan to be better at updating this.

 

Cheers!

Seven Days Left in this Amazing City: Olympics and Last Minute Sight-Seeing

It’s been a really fast month, but I’m beginning to pack and get ready to come home. There is still SO MUCH MORE that I want to do.

This weekend I’m spending actually working on homework for my classes abroad and hopefully getting in some last-minute exploring. I’m also going to Brighton Beach for the day on Saturday and I’m really excited about it. Lianna and I are trying to go to a London goth club this weekend because they are supposedly awesome here, but I don’t know if it will happen. I also want to see We Will Rock You, if time permits and I can get tickets. And do some more shopping. before I go home and go completely broke.

I went to the Olympics on Monday, and it was quite possibly one of the coolest experiences of my life.

I did a tour of the Olympic Park a few weeks ago and it was crazy to go from seeing the absolute ghost town to seeing it with about 100,000 people there. We saw women’s handball Brazil vs. Montenegro and then Norway vs. Sweden. I didn’t know a whole lot about handball, other than we played it in gym class and I seriously hated it. But seeing it live was AWESOME. The sport is so violent (which of course I love) and intense.

I’m usually not a big fan when the Olympics come on TV, but seeing it live was a whole other experience. I loved the energy of the crowd and how much people really get into supporting their country.

Other than that, this week has mostly been busy with school and lectures, rather than our field trips.

When I go home, I think I am going to have a different view of the world. I see I’m too dependent on technology and I need to spend less of my time stressing about work and more on things that are actually important to me. It’s strange how just spending a month in a country that isn’t that different from the US is such a growing experience.

Day two in London

Well, it’s officially my first full day in London. I arrived safely yesterday morning, with exception of some issues getting 100 pounds of luggage on the tube to my apartment, and then getting said luggage up four flights of stairs, everything went pretty well. Oh yeah, and somehow managing to break my phone although I’m still not even sure what happened to it. I’m in denial right now though and hid it in the back of my closet so I don’t have to think about having to buy a new one.

No pictures yet though because my computer Is also being stupid and won’t connect to wifi.   The part of London that we’re staying in is very high class, and everyone has all these amazing outfits. Seriously, my nice clothes in the US look like total trash here. As far as girls who wear sweatpants out- that would be unheard of here.

I think I’m having some trouble getting used to everything here. Partly because of some real life issues right before leaving and then entering a totally new country. It has really been a lot to take it and I’m still kind of overwhelmed at it all. I have to keep reminding myself that I felt the same way in El Salvador at first though, and had a great time there after few days. I think I’ll feel better once I have a phone and my computer working too.

We made a trip downtown with the other students and igot out of the subway. I wasn’t positive where we were going. Lianna told me to look up and I realized I was standing next to Big Ben…. Yeah. And that was when where I am really hit me and I suddenly felt about a million times better. Seeing it was seriously a spiritual experience for me… Like, I’ve wanted to come here my entire life and it was finally happening.

We also saw Buckingham And Harrads today. Harrads was seriously overwhelming, but I definitely think I want to come back and spend just a few hours looking around.

I haven’t had much of a culinary experience so far but food is actually rather cheap and has been really really good. I’ve been eating one big meal a day (dinner) and like a granola bar… Which is really not working out… But anyway , I got this great take-out Indian food for six pounds and we got baguettes with chicken on it for literally ONE POUND. They’re only available after 6 PM though but I feel like this will become a daily occurrence.

Anyway, I’m going to relax for a bit. We’re going out for fourt of July tonight … Should be an experience in London lol