Hello again! Time is passing by at an incredibly fast pace here and I don’t particularly like it. The past two weeks have been pretty eventful when looking at it as a whole. Two Saturday’s ago, I returned to Parliament Square with some friends. We decided to get off the bus in front of Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey) and decided to start our exploration there. From there, we went to Westminster Abbey. We saw a little pedestrian path through an archway and decided to walk through and see what was on the other side. Apparently, part of it was a school and the other part was a back entrance to the Abbey. We went inside the back entrance and walked through the part that was open for viewing. We got to see where the King’s documents were once stored and very gorgeous views of the architecture. After leaving the Abbey, I wanted to cross the river and walk around on the other side of the Thames. While we were crossing, we saw the classic view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  I can honestly say that at the very moment I was standing along the River Thames looking at Big Ben and Parliament; it hit me that I was in London. I had to stand there for a while just to take it all in and collect my thoughts. It is very incredible to actually think about the fact that I’m living in London, England right now; it continuously blows my mind.  

After staring at this gorgeous view, we walked on without a destination in mind. As we were walking by the Eye, I realized how amazing of a view it must be. I definitely want to take a ride so that I could see the city from that angle. 

Even though museums aren’t really my “cup of tea”, I decided to tag along when people went to the Victoria and Albert Museum the next day. I figured that since it’s free, what do I have to lose? We spent quite some time looking around the museum but I was pleased to find out that it wasn’t only paintings. I did enjoy this museum, mainly because it had a lot of artifacts as opposed to just paintings.

In the beginning of the week, I planned quite a few trips. I was able to book a day trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon and weekends to Paris, Slovakia, and Edinburgh. I spent a lot of time with one of my friends trying to figure out and organize the places we would like to travel. I’m rather excited to travel!

This week was the first real week of classes; for the most part, that is because tutorials began this week. My first of two tutorials was Intro to Criminology followed by Twenty-first century Political Changes. I was not sure what to expect, so I went into the tutorials with an open mind. One thing I learned: it’s true when people say Europeans don’t go to class. In my second tutorial, 25 out of 32 people didn’t show up! I was so shocked that the professor didn’t seem shocked at the small amount of people. Other than the lack of students present, I found the tutorials to be a less formal version of the lectures.

This was also the first week of our tours for my Historic London class. We did a “City Walk” which included half of the original City of London; today, this area is widely known as the Financial District of London. It was a very interesting tour and I was able to learn a lot about the history of the original/Roman London.

Since I don’t have class on Friday’s, I went for a run along the River Thames. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so my run was incredibly enjoyable. Afterwards, I walked around parts of London I’ve never been to and adventured by myself. From my perspective so far, I would say that the parts of London I’ve been to are pretty safe during the day which is why I was okay by myself. I really enjoyed walking everywhere and going where the path took me.  

This past Saturday, a few of us took a day trip to Dover via National Express Coach. It was so much fun! It was rather rainy and foggy but it could have been much worse. We got to Dover around 10am and decided we would head towards the castle. Being that it is a castle, it is of course it is on a hill so we climbed all the way from the town up to the castle. It was really cool and really pretty; especially because we took a small path most of the way up the mountain through wooded areas.  When we got to the castle, we got tickets and headed inside. The views and the secret medieval tunnels we went through were so interesting! We went on a tour of an underground hospital that was used during the Second World War and we walked all around the castle premises. We didn’t go out on the port to look directly at the White Cliffs because we could see parts of them from the top tower of the castle.

In the beginning of the week I went to watch the changing of the guards and found Abbey Road. We walked part of the way to Buckingham Palace and got a pretty good spot to watch them marching from St James’s Palace. We’re definitely going to go back again though because we really didn’t know where to stand. We found that a good area to begin is at St James’s Palace and then walk with them as they march along the street. If we go back a third time, we want to stand near the gates to the Palace to see what goes on behind there. Afterwards, we wanted to go to Abbey Road but didn’t know where it was. We asked the “annoying people” on the streets that were trying to promote gym memberships because no one else would give us the time of day. As it turns out, they were incredibly nice! They told us about places we have to see in Northern England so we could get a taste of the “real” English lifestyle. They were definitely the nicest random people I’ve met since I’ve been here. After about 20 minutes, they told us how to get there. When we got to the street, it was so cool to see the wall where everyone signs and Abbey Road Studios! I didn’t realize that Paul McCartney still lives around there so we want to go back and find his house. We also want to go back because we only had a pen to sign the wall and we have to retrace what we wrote in marker.

I’m now pretty comfortable with my classes and it’s really interesting to think of how different the system is. This week, I sat towards the back in all of my classes (which I NEVER do) just to observe how Europeans act in class. Honestly, it’s a lot like students at home: some people are paying attention and taking notes while others are talking and being rude.

I truly believe that walking around without a clear destination is the best way to really see a place. I found so many really interesting areas while I was walking around that I wouldn’t have otherwise found. Although I’ve spent a lot of time being incredibly touristy, I’ve seen some amazing places that I really enjoyed.

Location: Chelsea, London, England