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.
Location: London, England
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