Topshop Princess @breakfastwiththebeatles-blog - Tumblr Blog

Home.

5 months, 13 countries, and a whole lot of fish and chips later, I am back in the good ol' US of A. The adventure back to the states began Saturday morning in London, where I ventured out to Borough Market for one last toasted cheese sandwich and nomming on the last free samples of smelly French cheese that I'll have for a while. Back at my flat, I was constantly moving, throwing out the mass of crap I had accumulated in my room which was especially surprising given the very little space I had. I analyzed everything I packed to maximize weight distribution so I didn't have to cry at the airport while repacking everything. That morning was a bit of an emotional mess and all I could feel was the weight of the sadness of leaving not only London but the amazing experience of studying abroad in general.

The car came to pick me up for the airport which turned out to also be a mess. Demonstrations by Big Ben meant that my driver was hopelessly lost, and k-turned about 6 times in the span of one 5-minute phone call with my dad. After arriving a little later than I planned, I was worried that my suitcases would compound the issue and I would miss my flight. Turns out both were underweight (17 and 19 kilos = 37 and 41 lbs, respectively) and the woman working at the desk actually laughed at me when I went on and on about how worried I was. Security took forever so by the time I had made it through, it was already time to board.

Stepping onto the plane was a weird experience of realizing that, yes, I actually was going home and leaving suddenly became the most real it had been. What helped was the fact that the flight was long, because then all I could think about was how much I wanted to get off the plane. I don't hate flying - in fact, this semester has seen me on quite a lot of flights - but I don't love transatlantic flights where I am flying over water for the majority of the trip. Something about it freaks me out. Luckily, United had the best selection of in-flight entertainment I have ever seen. I finally watched Les Mis and they even had episodes of 30 Rock from the last season. I didn't even sleep, which is the first time I haven't slept on a plane in a very, very long time. We landed 40 minutes early which was exciting at first, until that meant that the gate wasn't available so we were stuck on the plane for those 40 minutes.

Customs was easy enough; the guy stamping my passport was very impressed by the long list of countries I put in the "where have you traveled prior to your return to the US" box. I had to load up all my luggage on a cart and got a lot of dirty looks from people judging me for having all of those bags just for myself. Sorry NOT sorry. Walking into the arrivals area and seeing my parents was so exciting, and my mom even got a balloon and a little American flag for me. It was also insanely hot and humid in the terminal, which is a weather combo that I have not experienced in a very long time and did not go well with the fact that I was wearing pants.

Finally making it back to my house was really exciting. It felt like I had been gone for ages but also like I never really left. The excitement really hit me and I didn't feel a bit of jet lag. I went to sleep at 11pm, which would have been 4am in London. My jet lag has mostly been ok so far and I'm hoping I'm just really good at adjusting. Last night Cara and her family came over and I introduced them to the magic of Pimms and lemonade, aka British sangria. It's felt really good to be back with family and friends, but I know I'm going to really miss London and my abroad experience always. I'm really excited to get started at my internship this week and settle into a routine at home. I'm also really looking forward to putting together a Shutterfly photo album (or two...) about my travels. One album may be dedicated entirely to food.

It's kind of a bummer to think that my international travel days are over - for now. This summer I'll be schlepping to and from DC fairly often. Before I graduate, I'm already thinking of trips to visit friends in Boston and New Orleans and hopefully Austin. I think my biggest problem coming out of abroad is that the list of places I want to travel to has only gotten longer... a lot longer. I think next time I want to venture off the beaten path more and go to places that aren't crawling with tourists. Not entirely sure when that will be but hopefully very, very soon.

I think what I learned most from abroad is how to be more independent. I've always considered myself to be more independent than most and not be afraid to do things by myself. My semester has shown me that that quality is incredibly useful and essential to having a good semester. As cliche as this sounds, I legitimately feel that I've become more aware of the world and different cultures. This semester has truly been a learning experience in how to be an adult and I couldn't be happier with the result.

What I will miss about London/abroad

CIDER

Markets everywhere

Being able travel around Europe for the weekend

Fish and chips

Eating chips with malt vinegar and salt

Having my own room

The accents

Walking across the Waterloo bridge on a nice day

British TV, mostly Come Dine with Me

Wahaca

Full English breakfasts

The tube and double-decker buses

My wonderful, amazing friends

What I won't miss about London/abroad

My inability to get dressed in the morning because the weather can't make up its mind

Easyjet and Ryanair

What I love about abroad is how nonchalant travel can be. I'm cramming last minute for an exam and suddenly think to myself: Oh, I'm going to Prague tomorrow, I should pack.

I hope one day I can experience life like this again.

I did it! I wrote a blog post!

I've been a little busy (aka lazy) over the past two months and I'm realizing that when I look back on this blog in the future (for example, with my future kids, who will surely think blogging is some sort of weird outdated technology) I want to have as much written as possible to relive the good times.

So here I am, writing a blog post instead of studying for an exam tomorrow.

I'll start with a VERY brief summary of April. I spent the first 10 days traveling through Italy: Pisa, Florence, Venice, and Rome. The leaning tower was way smaller than I expected. Venice was absolutely stunning but also outrageously touristy. Florence was my favorite in Italy; mainly it was the rigatoni sorrento I ate at Trattoria Zaza that totally changed my life (and Gusta Pizza, and La Carraia....) Seeing the Parthenon in Rome was awesome - freshman year of high school I spent an entire weekend making a tri-board presentation and Model Magic recreation of the Parthenon.

Next up was Budapest, where we stayed at the best hostel ever. There were heated towel racks in the bathroom (unnecessary, but come on) and it only cost like $15 a night. A nice older couple from Michigan bought lunch for Nora and me, which instantly restored my faith in humanity. I wasn't totally thrilled by Vienna but I did enjoy seeing all the beautiful palaces and finding out that Viennese coffeehouses have a wide variety of alcoholic coffee options.

Munich was very cool and we had a great tour guide (thanks again, Zoe!). I fell in love with leberkase - it's kind of like a hot dog sandwich and it was unreal - and drank more beer than I ever have in my entire life. Salzburg had terrible weather but getting to see the Alps was amazing. I loved Berlin, mainly because it was so sunny and there's so much cool history absolutely everywhere in the city.

I returned back from my trip and, within just a few hours, my parents had landed in London. Their flight was supposed to get in at 7:30am and I was planning on surprising them at Heathrow but it didn't really go according to plan. When I realized I would be late, I texted my mom and dad to tell them to not leave without me. They didn't get those texts until they were in the car and on their way into the city. I got off the tube and went in the opposite direction... but there were huge delays. I finally made it to a stop where I could meet them but my Oyster card wasn't letting me swipe out - for the first time ever. My mom was on the other side of the machines but I was stuck since no one was working (and obviously I was crying). Eventually a nice worker showed up, took pity on my bawling mess, and let me through. It was a dramatic start to a great visit from my parents. We went to Copenhagen to see my mom's friend Susan and her family. We got lucky with great weather! I did lots of London tourist things with my parents that I hadn't gotten to - Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms, etc. I highly recommend the Churchill War Rooms for any WW2 history nerds like me.

My parents left (sad) and it was time to write 5,500 words in a week. I holed up in the library (while the weather was so beautiful) and churned out my last 2 papers of the semester. My reward for finishing? A trip to HARRY POTTER STUDIOS. It was the best day ever. They saved so many amazing props and sets from the film, down to all the horcruxes and even Hagrid's motorcycle. I also got to try butterbeer, which literally just tasted like drinking caramel with some buttercream frosting mixed in.

Next up was a week-long trip to Spain. We started in Barcelona, which I was so excited for because I'd only heard good things about the city. I was definitely not disappointed. The Gaudi architecture everywhere was so cool and really fun to explore. There was a beautiful beach, which, of course, was my favorite part. I spent a decent amount of time tanning and relaxing. It got really annoying, however, when dozens of men walked around trying to sell junk and making loud noises. We made sure to go to Opium, the club on the beach that literally everyone who has been to Barcelona has told me about it. It was a huge space and really overwhelming (and overpriced, 9 euro for a glass of wine!!) but it was definitely worth the experience. We also made sure to eat a lot. I'm a huge fan of Spanish food, and trying it with a Catalan twist was great.

We flew to Seville afterwards, where I spent a great few days with Amy. The city is beautiful and old with lots and lots of sun. I ate some of the best food of my life there - everything from pork cheek in a chocolate sauce to little snails to lots of goat cheese. Seville was really laid-back and involved a lot of sitting and relaxing by the river. It was nice to have a part of the trip where we could just chill. It was also pretty amazing to see how cheap everything was there. A tapas dinner for 2, plus 2 glasses of wine each, cost around 7 euro. I couldn't even believe it. It would be at least 20 pounds in London.

Not long after I got back from Spain, Chloe came to visit! We conquered the city of London in just one day - everything from Buckingham Palace to tea at Harrods. We were exhausted, but rallied the next day for a trip to Oxford to see old BBYO friends. We went punting - boating on a flat-bottomed boat - and drank a lot of Pimms. We even went to the pub where Bill Clinton's famous 'I didn't inhale' incident happened when he was studying at Oxford.

Now I'm back to normal for a day or two, studying for an exam tomorrow. Tuesday I leave for Prague, my last abroad travel adventure. It's crazy to think I have less than two weeks left of the best (and longest) semester of my college career. The majority of other abroad programs are over already and it is so weird to see everyone being home. As much as I am ready to return to the US, I'm really going to miss not only my favorite things about London, but the ease with which I am able to travel here. My list of places in the world I want to visit has only increased since I began study abroad. I'll make sure to blog at least once more before leaving! (Hold me to that promise. Please.)

Picture highlights from my April travels!

Oui Oui, Paris

I'm back y'all, and procrastinating my LAST paper..... of this month. It scares me that this is one is 2,500 and I thought myself, 'Oh, only 2,500 words.' Yeah. It's reached that point. Last week was spent cramming in my war & society paper, and now this week is spent cramming in my modern Europe paper. It will all get done (it always does) but feeling this stressed and like there aren't enough hours in the day is so not a fun feeling.

The one thing making it all better though? I went to Paris this past weekend and it was absolutely amazing.

Just for some context, I was feeling pretty stressed when I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight. I had been uptight all week about my papers and everything I have going on, and it had become physically impossible for me to relax. I was determined to let that stress go for the weekend because I didn't want to look back at my brief time in Paris and be sad that I couldn't even enjoy it. I countered these feelings by enjoying the free mini-bottle of wine that comes with a ticket on British Airways.

I didn't get to the apartment Eden, Dani, and I were renting until about midnight that night. It was in a fairly quiet neighborhood right near Montmartre, a cute little artsy section in the north of the city. We were also right near the Moulin Rouge - a fact that had me singing 'Lady Marmalade' too much (and forgetting that singing the line that says 'Voulez vous coucher avec moi?' is highly inappropriate when everyone knows what it means...).

The next morning we got up early for breakfast with Laura and Nicole! Breakfast consisted of a baguette (yum), a croissant (YUM), jam, butter, and coffee. French breakfasts are basically the exact opposite of British ones - no protein, all carbs instead of all protein. It was a nice change but it also left me feeling hungry.... which was fine because then I would just buy cheese. From breakfast, we headed out to Chateau Versailles. As in, 'The Treaty Of,' something that got my international realtions nerdiness going. Versailles was absolutely stunning and unbelievably ornate; each room was covered in more gold than the last. It was very cool to see the bedroom that Marie Antoinette lived in and the door she fled out when protestors came into the chateau. I had this song stuck in my head the entire time. The gardens were beautiful as well, except nothing was green yet because it's still March. Luckily the weather was fairly nice so we were able to walk around and explore the area a little bit. We went back into the city to, of course, find a Longchamp store. I didn't end up getting anything but my addiction to my Longchamp has rubbed off and Eden and Dani both got bags. We had dinner at a small restaurant near our apartment where I had moules frites. I was so excited to get mussels in Paris for a reasonable price; they had been too expensive in Brussels and I had been dying to try them. I definitely wasn't disappointed; they were served with bacon in some sort of beer and cream sauce. SO delicious.

The next day was dedicated to cramming in as much tourist fun as possible, starting with the top of the Eiffel Tower. The view was unbelievable and it was one of those surreal moments where I couldn't really fathom that I was actually at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Seeing the Eiffel Tower up close and personal from the bottom was another surreal moment. I also had my first crepe of the trip, with ham and cheese (so kosher). After taking an absurd amount of pictures, we moved on to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. Typing that is getting this song stuck in my head. (Thank you Dani for introducing it to me; it WILL be stuck in your head for days.) We snacked on a cheese plate and picked up our tickets for the Louvre. The line at the Louvre was surprisingly short but the crowds were insane. Even amongst the ridiculous amount of people, we were able to run into Rebecca and Kelsey in one of the galleries. We wandered around a bit, and, of course, saw the Mona Lisa. I was fully prepared for how small it was going to be so it wasn't a surprise like it is to most people. The Louvre was a great experience but it isn't the type of art that I usually like... more on that in a bit.

After the Louvre we walked along the Seine, crossed the Love Lock bridge (so adorable), and made our way to Notre Dame. As we approached the cathedral, we noticed a giant crowd forming. We were informed that they were having a ceremony to change the bells for the first time in 500 YEARS. We decided to hang around to hear it and even though the whole ceremony was in French, it was still so cool to be there for this literally once-in-a-lifetime event.

Saturday night, we met up with Rebecca, Kelsey, and Sarah for dinner by the Moulin Rouge and a trip to the Eiffel Tower at night. Every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower literally sparkles. I had seen it from my plane on my flight in and it was even cooler to see it in person. It was a really special moment that reminded me of how lucky I am to be able to experience it. Exhausted from the long day, we didn't last much longer after the Eiffel Tower and went home to get a good night's sleep.

Eden left on Sunday after struggling to find somewhere to eat for breakfast. I thought that London was bad about nothing being open on Sundays - literally nothing was open near us in Paris. I think we may have been up too early, but it was still a challenge. Dani and I headed out to the big cemetery in Paris to pay a visit to Jim Morrison, who died in Paris when he was 27. I've wanted to do this since I watched Oliver Stone's The Doors last semester for class so I was really excited. His grave was blocked off by barricades because fans had scribbled lyrics all over the area, mostly on the graves of other people. We also visited Oscar Wilde, who had a very bizarre tombstone. It had a strange Native American looking figure carved into the top that looked like it was flying. Definitely not what I expected.

Next up was the Paris Opera House, which I didn't even realize was something to see and it turned out to be amazing! It was so beautiful and ornate, like Versailles. Afterwards, we stopped to get a cheese plate and a shot of espresso (my new method of caffeine intake) at a cafe in a hotel across the street. Our last stop was the Musee d'Orsay, which I liked much better than the Louvre. It's known for Impressionist art, a style I much prefer to what the Louvre featured. I'd rather look at nature than at paintings of Jesus. It was exciting to see lots of artists I had studied in art class in high school--Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, etc.--in real life. We made a quick pit stop to the Laduree store to pick up some macaroons. I had only hide a bite or two of macaroons before so it was so good to have them in Paris at the best macaroon shop. SO GOOD.

I'm usually a huge fan of airports (best shopping, best restaurants, etc.) but Charles de Gaulle was a huge disappointment. The food options were abysmal and overpriced, and the only shopping was either ridiculously expensive (Louis Vuitton, etc) or the same duty-free store over and over again. The only upside was a Laduree shop, but I refused to let myself by any because I knew I'd buy two dozen. This was especially a problem because my flight was delayed. This delayed pushed back my landing by an hour, which I thought would be manageable even though it was late at night. We landed and the luggage was delayed, so it took me another hour just to get my suitcase. I've always loved British Airways (check a bag for free and free wine on the plane) but now I'm not so sure.

This week has been about this annoying paper which I am so close to being done with and getting ready for my EUROTRIP starting on Friday. It's so crazy that I'll really be gone for nearly 3 weeks, come back to London, and then travel some more with my parents. Wish me luck.... particularly with the packing part of this whole situation.

My trip: London - Pisa - Florence - Venice - Rome - Budapest - Vienna - Munich - Switzerland (maybe?) - Berlin - back to London - Copenhagen

Also, my parents are coming in exactly three weeks YAY.

Friends, Jeff, and Amsterdam

Wow, so I have a lot of ground to cover in this post with the events of the last 2 weeks. I'll start with the beginning of the month post-Brussels, when I was really starting to feel homesick. It hadn't really bothered me before, but all of a sudden it just hit me and then I couldn't shake it. Feeling homesick was pretty terrible mostly because I felt helpless. There was only so much talking on the phone with my mom I could do, but it didn't make the general feeling go away. Luckily I had a lot of exciting things coming up to distract me from the negative feelings.

Arielle came to London and introduced me to the most amazing fish and chips place (if you are visiting me at any point, I will take you). The slice of fish they give you is about the size of my head... and, of course, I finish the entire plate. Ashley also came to London which meant a day at Borough Market (my favorite) and exploring the museums. That day marked my third visit to the National Portrait Gallery, so it's safe to say I can officially retire it from my list of museums. Seeing sorority sisters is always a good thing, especially because I really do miss all my sisters back home. It really is so strange to go from being on eboard to being 3,500 miles away from everything happening on campus.

Bright and early last Saturday I headed to Heathrow to pick up my baby brother! Back in the day at my bat mitzvah, I described my brother as 'never-ending entertainment around the house' and 13-year-old me was really spot on. Jeff is hilarious and it was so nice to see him walk through the arrivals gate. I introduced him to the magic of Pret A Manger and he napped (a common theme of his week here) before heading to Borough Market. That was a pretty poor choice for a Saturday because it was hella crowded. Oh well. I tried the pork belly sandwich from Roast and it felt like I would have a heart attack any second from all the fat, but it was pretty delicious. From there, we headed up to Westminster for some tourist fun, and ended up walking from there all the way back to my flat with a few stops on the way. We even ran into Cameron, a friend of ours from BBYO, super randomly along the Thames (how London is that?!).

Sunday we had breakfast before at a place near me which had the most overpriced English breakfast I've seen. My favorite breakfast place needs to start being open on Sundays. Our big trip of the day was out to Abbey Road, which, surprisingly, I hadn't been to yet. It was fairly anticlimactic at first because it looks like any other crossing around the city... except for the crowds of tourists around it. I can only imagine being a driver on Abbey Road; it must be miserable. Seeing Abbey Road Studios was really cool, especially because there's lots of graffiti on the gate in front. Most of it was just people's names, but there was some nice doodles of Beatles lyrics. Next time I go, I'll have to bring a Sharpie.

That night we headed off to Amsterdam. The flight was really quick - by the time we reached cruising altitude, it was time to descend. I was pleasantly surprised that the airport had a lot of English because Dutch is the weirdest language. We made it to the hostel to discover our 6 person room was empty and even had a TV. We ended up lying in bed watching Seinfeld and Breaking Bad so we would be well-rested for tourist fun the next day.

The next day we went to the Heineken Experience, which was actually really cool. They even have a part at the end where you pour your own beer and they let me do it like 6 times until I got it right. A career in bartending is clearly not in my future. We headed back out in the awful cold to get lunch and walk around Dam Square. I was able to find a frites place (which I had missed so terribly since Brussels) and got some frites with samurai sauce. Not quite the same, but it did the trick. Frites in hand, we walked to go on a canal tour. The canal tour guy yelled at us for eating our frites because 'they smelled bad.' Very rude. The canal tour, however, was very enjoyable and I learned a lot about the history of Amsterdam. The canals are very cool and all the houses along the canals are absolutely beautiful. It was great that the tour was in a covered boat so I didn't freeze while enjoying the view.

Jeff and I arrived back at the hostel to discover a note on our door saying 'Dear Wasserman, Come to reception.' We went into our room to discover that all our stuff was gone. Not a good feeling. The hostel reception told us that we never should have been put in that room so their solution was to take our stuff out (including the loose clothes/toiletries laying around the room that were now in a pile on the floor in the lobby) and leave a note. The staff did not realize that this way of alerting us of the situation was incredibly stressful and unnecessary, when they had my phone number and could easily call me. After being subjected to this poorly handled inconvenience, I was able to get them to upgrade us to a two-person private room plus free breakfast the next day.

We took a long nap afterwards and headed out to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. Indonesian food is huge in Amsterdam because Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony. It's kind of like Indian food but way, way better. It was way too freezing to do much else, so we went back to the hostel (in our fancy private room) and slept.

Tuesday morning started at the Anne Frank House. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures inside but if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Amsterdam, you have to go. Studying the Holocaust has always been really important to me since I went on March of the Living in high school (visiting concentration camps all over Poland, for those of you who don't know). The Anne Frank House was a very well-done memorial to Anne's life and the plight of those hiding in the Secret Annexe. It was so special to actually see Anne's diary in real life and see her handwriting (even though I couldn't understand it because it was in Dutch). She's an important symbol of the innocence and youth that was taken away from millions of people all over Europe as a result of the Holocaust.

We walked to the Red Light District after that, which isn't nearly as exciting during the day. In fact, it's kind of sad during the day. From there, we wandered around the city a bit, found some flower markets (but the tulips, my favorite flower, weren't in bloom yet and I was so sad), and ate lunch. It ended up being way too cold to even keep doing that so we went to the airport early so we had somewhere warm to hang out before leaving.

As I was handing in my ticket to get on the flight, the EasyJet attendant made me try to fit my carry-on bag into their tiny little suitcase measurement device. Keep in mind I had brought my suitcase on 2 EasyJet flights prior to this. It literally didn't fit by like 1 cm and they forced me to check my bag for 50 euro. A nice couple standing near me was offering to help carry things but the attendants wouldn't allow it. Since my natural reaction to everything is to cry, I started tearing up but I garnered no sympathy.... and now I can add Amsterdam Schipol to the list of airports I've cried in (there's quite a few). It was a pretty embarrassing experience, but I also noticed 6 or 7 other bags that had also been nabbed at the gate. Very upsetting.

Jeff and I got settled back in London that night and then Wednesday morning I headed back to class. This class was a field trip where we walked around a housing co-op project on the South Bank and learned about property development in London. Nothing terribly exciting except for finishing the trip on top of the Oxo Tower, which was a great view of the Thames River and all the sights along it. I met Jeff for fish and chips for lunch (obviously so good) and we walked up to the London Eye. It started snowing while we were on the Eye which was a really cool sight. We trekked up to Buckingham Palace for a few pictures and then headed back to get ready for our evening. We took the commuter rail (what appears to be London's equivalent of NJ Transit) out to Kingston to see our camp friend Sam for dinner. Kingston is a very cute little area of greater London.

Jeff left Thursday morning bright and early. It was very sad to see him go but also nice to have most of the space in my room back. My parents are coming in a month anyway so I'll get some more family love then! I spent yesterday catching up some work and generally getting my affairs in order. I have a 3,000 word (thank you Nora for pointing out that I originally wrote page - could you IMAGINE a 3,000 page paper?!) paper due next Friday so that's going to be literally all I think about for a while. Let me tell you - abroad is WORK, people. Sure, there are programs where you don't do anything for 5 months, but most involve lots of homework, essays, and exams. For future abroad students, be prepared for that.

Time to get back to writing about why realism is a viable philosophy in international affairs......

A few of my favorite things

Food markets - I’m guessing this is like London’s version of food trucks. You’ve seen me rant on about how much I love Borough Market. Not only is it great to be able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables (or veg, as they would say here) from real farmers, but the food stands that sell actual meals are pretty damn amazing. Borough isn’t even the only one. Today I was on my way to get lunch at the crepe place in Covent Garden and I discovered that there's a food market there every Thursday. It was such a nice discovery to make today and a nice break from the hours I spent in the library.

The accents - This pretty much goes without saying, but British accents are amazing. Everything sounds smarter when it's said with a British accent and I'm not sure how I'm going to go back to AU where most of my professor are just American.

Cider - I've already started looking up where in America I can get cider because I think that's what I'm going to miss most here. I don't like beer very much so cider is perfect for me. My two favorites are Aspall's and Pipsqueak if you're able to get your hands on some back home to try.

Breakfast - I knew this post would end up being mostly about food. I'm honestly surprised that full English breakfasts aren't really an American breakfast because they incorporate everything Americans love: bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and chips. Throw in some beans and sometimes tomatoes and you've got the best breakfast.

The weather - This one is true about 98% of the time. Here's how I look at it. The weather here is mostly cloudy and on the cold side. When the sun comes out and the weather warms up even a little bit, it's amazing. The London fog makes a beautiful day seem even more beautiful and makes me that much more appreciative. I love it.

Global-ness - Ok, I know that's not a word, but I didn't want to break my one- or two-word streak. London is truly an international city and, as an International Relations major (which sometimes I forget), that is the coolest. I think about 200 languages are spoken here. That's crazy! I also love how classes here focus on European issues as well as British ones. America loves America and that's about it, I've found.

Where I live - At the beginning I found it to be pretty inconvenient, but I actually love that I live in the part of London that I do (by the Borough tube stop, for anyone who knows or cares). It's pretty quiet and out of the bustle of the heart of London, but it's still considered central London. I'm down the street from Borough Market and London Bridge, and it's an (relatively) easy walk to any of the major sights along the Thames. Also, everything's cheaper around here, so that's nice.

King's - I'm going to be that guy right now - King's is one of the best schools in the world. As much as I get really frustrated and stressed with all the readings and essays, I realize that I'm really lucky to be studying here with British students. I'm also really lucky to have the whole month of April off for break and be able to say in London until June, when it will (finally!!) get nice.

British spellings - 'Colour' looks so much classier than 'color.' Also, I much prefer using ' instead of ". I'm also determined to start saying 'zed' instead of 'z'. Just you wait.

Tourist British things - The red telephone booths are everywhere and make me so happy except every single one of them has ads for porn in them and it makes me really uncomfortable. Also, every bus is double-decker and I love it.

What I don't love, however....

The exchange rate - Everyone always says how expensive London is, but if you were to take the pound sign off the price, it would be the same number as it was in DC or NYC, maybe even cheaper. However, that pound sign multiples by the price by 1.54 (ugh) and makes spending 1 pound on coffee (so cheap!) into $1.50 (eh).

Crossing the street - People from New Jersey are terrible drivers, but London drivers are worse in that they do not stop for pedestrians. I've finally gotten in the habit of looking in the right direction when I cross the street, but half the time the walk sign is wrong so I'll be caught crossing while a car is coming and they make no attempt to slow down. We get it, you're important and have somewhere to be, but my life is also important, so please stop when I cross.

Eating Literally Everything in Brussels

I capped off reading week with a long weekend in Brussels. Brussels in often described as 'the capital of Europe' and I discovered this weekend how true that really was. To me, Brussels' distinctive personality is that it doesn't really have one exactly; it's more of a melting pot of lots of European cultures. Even the street names around the city are bilingual - in French and Dutch.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon after a painless train ride from London St. Pancras to Brussels. The train took us through the beautiful countryside of France. We took a cab from the train station to the hostel, which ended up costing twice what it was supposed to because the cab driver, who barely spoke English, took us to the wrong place. We then arrived at the hostel to discover that we could only pay in cash, which depleted all of the cash I had just taken out. The first hour in Brussels did not set the tone very well.

The first night, after dinner, we wandered around the Grand Place area looking for a bar that Ashley had recommended - major shoutout to her for providing me with a great list of things to do - as well as some waffles and fries. We never found the bar (until the next day when we walked right past it and couldn't even believe that we had missed it) but we did find a waffle place and a frites place right next to each other. I had a waffle with nutella and it blew my mind. I'm not normally a waffle person but Belgian waffles are good beyond words. We stopped into a random bar for a drink and I tried peach lambic beer. Lambic beer is distinctly Belgian. It's supposed to have a sour taste but all I could taste was the sweetness of the peach. Besides not being a waffle person, I'm also not a beer person, but Belgian fruit beers are definitely now an exception.

The next day was spent wandering around the Grand Place a little bit more. We toured the chocolate museum... and by that, I mean we ate all the free samples and learned how they make the delicious little Belgian chocolates (called pralines). It was sooo cold outside though so the wandering was kept to a minimum as much as possible. I got to try real Belgian frites with samurai sauce, which is essential southwest sauce from the Tavern, just a whole lot better (thank you Ashley for that perfect comparison). We also saw the Mannekin Pis, a tiny statue of a peeing child. I've heard it's Belgium's way of saying 'screw you!' to the world, and I just find it hilarious. It was also way smaller than we thought it was going to be; we walked right past it without even noticing. We then trekked out to the European Parliament, which is like the Congress of the EU. This is where my International Relations major pride went crazy and I couldn't contain how excited I was to be there. The Parliament had a really cool (FREE!) interactive exhibit where I learned way more than I could in any class about the history of post-WW2, which is a huge area of interest for me. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Brussels.

That night we had dinner at a cute Belgian restaurant in the Grand Place and I tried vol-au-vent, which is a puff pastry with chicken and cream sauce. It was delicious, like everything else in the city. We went to O'Reilly's, an Irish pub, after dinner, where I tried a raspberry beer. If you can't tell, I really like the Belgian fruit beers. After that, we headed to Delirium, which was highly recommended everyone who has ever studied abroad and currently is studying abroad in Brussels. It's a giant bar with over 2,000 types of beer and home to a beer that was voted the best in the world. A beer selection like that is so overwhelming for a beer novice like myself; Belgium really knows their stuff.

We spent Friday in Bruges (or Brugge, as it's known in Dutch), a cute little town on the North Sea known as the 'Venice of the North' because of its canals. It was a high of about 25 degrees that day, which made walking around the city a struggle. The town was beautiful though so, in order to see the most of it, we did a touristy bus tour throughout the city. I would have much preferred to do the canals but there was no way we were going to survive the frigid air on the water. We made it back to Brussels earlier than we expected, had kebabs for dinner (after spending so much money on food in Bruges, we needed something cheap), and went out to a club called Celtica.

We slept in on Saturday, checked out of the hostel, and wandered around the city, trying to find somewhere to keep warm. We visited the maison du roi, a museum in the Grand Place home to many artifacts of Belgian culture and the many costumes that the Mannekin Pis has been dressed in over the years. They dress him in costumes based on countries around the world and one of the USA costumes made him look like Elvis, which I found pretty hilarious. I really got to live out the phrase 'kid in a candy store' at Leonidas, a popular Belgian chocolate shop, where I loaded up on a big box of various Belgian chocolates (that, surprisingly, I haven't finished yet). While we were hanging out in the hostel, we ran into Dani, Jane, and Lori, friends from AU doing a different program in London who had just arrived in Brussels. We all had dinner together and got some waffles for dessert. This time I got mine with speculoos, a Belgian gingerbread (I think?) cookie and it was delicious.

Then the adventure really began. We took an overnight bus from Brussels leaving at 10:15pm. Here's how it went down - there are approximate times because I half-asleep for all of it.

1am: Arrive at customs in Calais. Mumble incoherent things (I assume) to the passport control people in order to cross the border.

1:30am: Get back on bus at the port. Realize we have to take a ferry to cross the channel.

3:30am: Still sitting, waiting for the ferry. There is a small child loudly vomiting.

4am: I finally fall back asleep as the bus pulls onto the ferry and we are forced off the bus into the herds of people also forced off their buses.

4:30am: Sitting on ferry. Got made fun of by 12-year-olds wearing Belieber t-shirts for American accents. Another 12-year-old spent 150 pounds at the duty-free store to buy himself a pair of Beats.

5:30am: After listening to the same three songs on repeat over the loudspeaker and wanting to die, we get back onto the bus.

7am: Finally arrive in London.

8am: Crash into my bed.

Needless to say, I am very happy to be back in London and spent today napping and getting my affairs in order before the week begins. Brussels was a really good time with a lot of good food. Unfortunately the pounds I'm sure I've gained there are not the kind I can use as currency here in the UK.

Tourist Fun

Sorry I've been lacking in my posting, loyal readers!

The past two weeks I've posted has been centered around the 'study' part of study abroad. I have two papers due this Friday and I'm trying to get them done before tonight - so I can enjoy myself tonight and when I leave for Brussels tomorrow!

One is for my Modern European History class about anti-Semitism in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is becoming a very depressing topic because (surprise!) not a lot of Europeans are fans of the Jews. Go figure. For my other in my History & Memory class, I had to visit one of a select group of sites in London and write an analysis on it based on what we've learned in class. I chose to look at statues and paintings that represented British imperialism in India. This was another pretty sad topic because Britain treated the people of India pretty terribly and there are statues around London celebrating that.

The good part about life since I last posted was that Dani came to visit! For those of you that don't know, Dani is one of my pledge sisters from AEPhi and one of my favorite people EVER. She was abroad at AU from Australia and went back last December, and I haven't seen her since. It has been so nice to hang out with her and Rebecca this past weekend. It feels like it's been years since we've been together but also like no time has passed.

Friday, Rebecca and I picked Dani up from the airport and, after a bit of screaming at the arrivals gate -- 'Whenever I feel gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport' -- we made our way into the city and explored the markets at Portobello Road. I've never seen Notting Hill (I know, what's wrong with me) but this market is famous from the movie so I was excited. My favorite part was a stand that had a ton of old vinyl records from their original release date. There was even a copy of Abbey Road from 1969. I was really close to buying it (because HOW COOL IS THAT) but it was 35 pounds... can't have it all. Friday night, we did dinner at Pizza Express and headed to bed early so we can be all rested up for a big day of tourist fun.

We started Saturday at Borough Market, my favorite. A whole section of the market was empty, however, so I missed out on a few of my favorite stands. However, the grilled cheese place was still standing -- thank G-d -- so I got to eat that for the 1000th time. Always so good. From there, we brought brie, a baguette, and a bottle of rosé back to my flat and had a classy picnic before walking like 3 miles to the London Eye. We got to walk along the Thames on a pretty moderate day. It was swarmed with tourists, however, which reminded me that I'm not longer a real 'tourist' in London. The Eye was amazing! The views were incredible and made me fall in love with London all over again. We finished the day with a stop at Big Ben and Westminster. That night we met Rebecca at a pub in Camden called The World's End. Camden is a really interesting part of the city; it feels like London's version of Adams Morgan (for all you Washingtonians). I definitely need to make more trips out there.

Sunday, Dani and I began at Trafalgar Square and by the end of the day, had walked all the way across the city to Harrods. In between we stopped at the Portrait Gallery (to see our BFF Kate Middleton), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. I had done all of these sites already, but my newest discovery was a statue in Trafalgar Square of a little boy on a rockinghorse. It was built to represent the struggles of childhood. The statue was a bit out of place in Trafalgar surrounded by military heroes but it was an interesting idea. Sunday dinner was at a restaurant in an old fire station in Waterloo; I pass it every day on my way to school but never got a chance to eat there.

Monday and Tuesday were spent catching up on work - reading week really kicked my butt. However, I think the papers I wrote were some of my best ever, and I'm hoping my professors agree! Tuesday night was another night at Sports Cafe, except a lot less people were there than usual. It was soooo nice being with Rebecca, Dani, and Emily. I've been having a bit of AEPhi FOMO and spending some time with a few pledge sisters is always a good thing.

I also booked a trip to Amsterdam with my brother this week! Really excited for him to be here in two weeks!!!

Loving Lisbon

Going to Lisbon this weekend was my first adventure outside the UK since going abroad, and it was clear to see that there were a lot of differences that I forgot (or didn't know) I would encounter.

The language - I think what I said to my mom on the phone sums it up best. Me: "No one spoke English!" Mom: "Yeah, because you were in Portugal." Me: "But everyone in London speaks English!" I'm really spoiled that everything in London is in English and I don't have to make weird hand motions to ask the guy at the gelato place a question. Portuguese is a tough language!

Going out - Pubs close in London at 11pm. Dinner in Portugal doesn't even start until around 10-11pm. Going out to party doesn't happen until 2am. I do NOT have the energy for that normally, but I tried to make an exception for this weekend. There also aren't any open-container laws so there were hordes of people crowding the streets with beer and mixed drinks in their hands. Not a thing in the UK, and definitely not a thing in the US.

The weather - OMG THE WEATHER. There was so much glorious sun in Lisbon, something we only have very sparingly in London. I forgot what it was like to walk around in just a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, and Sperry's. It felt amazing.

So, moving on to what I actually did in Lisbon. Nora and I arrived pretty late on Thursday night so, after discovering an Argentinian Jewish guy was staying in my hostel room (seriously, Jews follow me everywhere), we went to bed early so we can be ready for a full day of seeing the city. Friday morning we did a FREE (always a good thing) walking tour of the city. Lisbon is stunning and has a very interesting history. There was a massacre of thousands of Jews in 1506 in the city center all because one converted Jew said that a Christian guy hallucinating was simply hallucinating and not seeing Jesus. There was also an earthquake in 1755 that destroyed the entire city except for a convent so, while everything in the city center is really old, nothing is older than 1755. We ended up making a few friends from the hostel and all went out for lunch. The menu was written in terrible English so I ended up getting some kind of scramble with codfish (they love that here), eggs, and potatoes. It was... interesting. I was trying to make an effort to only eat Portuguese food but sometimes their food is weird.

M.E. and Sydney joined Nora and I in the afternoon (while we were in the middle of a nap...) and we made our first trip to Belem for the famous pastry place, Pasteis de Belem. That trip was SO WORTH IT. Portugal is known for little baked custard tarts (kind of like creme brulee, but way better) and Belem is the place to get them. They were so delicious and addicting. After leaving pastry heaven, we ventured back to the hostel to get ready for dinner and a night out. The hostel hosted a great pub crawl that took us all around Barrio Alto, where all the Lisbon bars are. It requires climbing what felt like endless stairs to a section high on the hill where bars line the streets that are filled with huge crowds of people. I'm glad I went with a pub crawl because otherwise I would not know how to navigate the area.

We spent Saturday morning at the castle, which every European city seems to have. The castle was on top of a mountain (shocking) so it had amazing views of the entire city. Getting to these views required a lot of walking up ridiculously steep stairs - my legs still feel like I was on the Stairmaster for 3 days straight. The view was so worth it though.

After the castle we took the metro out to Oriente, where we ate lunch at a mall food court, which was actually really good and had a lot of good, authentic options. I had codfish... again. Portugal loves codfish. We went to the Lisbon Aquarium after, which is supposed to be one of the best in the world. It was a pretty amazing aquarium and they had sea otters which was really exciting. From the aquarium we found what looked like a ski lift over the ocean. It was really cheap so we rode it and saw some amazing views of the water and some really interesting architecture in the area. The weather was awesome and the sun was setting and it was just a really cool experience.

Not to toot my own horn (ok I totally am right now), but Saturday night we had dinner at the best restaurant ever and it's all thanks to me. Well, really, thanks to my avid use of Foursquare and TripAdvisor for helping me find the place and all the reviews. It was a small, hole-in-the-wall kind of place but the food was outstanding, the sangria was delicious, and the prices were incredibly reasonable. It doesn't get better than that. Sydney and I split an order of duck rice (which tasted like fried rice from the US but better) and pork with goat cheese and berry sauce (no words to describe how good it was). If you ever find yourself in Lisbon, have dinner at Stasha. Trust me.

We woke up on Sunday to find it cloudy and raining - such a bummer. We went back to Belem to go to the Jeronimos Monastery. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, which means it's old and important. It was also stunningly beautiful, and conveniently located down the street from the pastry place. We went back for more tarts and ordered a million other little treats for lunch. At that point it was time to leave, and after the journey to end all journeys back to London (I don't even want to write about it because I don't want to go back to this post in the future and relive the horrible misery that was getting back from Lisbon), we FINALLY got home.

Overall, it was an awesome trip. I absolutely recommend Lisbon for a weekend vacation for anyone that's abroad. Going to Portugal was exciting for me because my parents went here on their honeymoon but I never really knew much about what made Portugal so great. We didn't get to the beach town where they stayed but maybe one day in the future I will!

I spent way too much time in the library today; trying to get ahead on my papers and reading before the excitement of next week happens. DANI IS COMING TO LONDON! I'm so excited. I also finally booked my tickets to Brussels for next weekend. AND I also finally told my brother about my plans to take him to Amsterdam when he's here. I couldn't be more excited about everything I have coming up and I really do feel so lucky. On that cheesy note, I'll stop there. Major kudos to you if you just read that whole thing.

Catching up on my life post-Edinburgh

So here's what I'm realizing about abroad more than ever: it's my life, just in a different city. I've heard this from many people who have gone abroad before but it never really hit me until today. This weekend I traveled and it was a great time. However, when I came back, I remembered that I really do have responsibilities here - doing laundry, going to the grocery store, catching up on reading, applying to internships, and maybe even taking some time to relax. A semester abroad is fun and exciting and all of that, but it's also real life. I have this constant feeling that I should always be out doing tourist things or drinking or being adventurous. But sometimes, just like in real life, I'll sit at home and watch TV online and cook myself some dinner... and that is perfectly fine. Facetiming with my mom tonight (one of my favorite things to do, hi mom!) really brought all of that into perspective for me.

OK, moving on to my weekend in Edinburgh. I flew out Thursday night with Marissa. It was my first EasyJet experience and even though it was a bit of a struggle to only bring one bag on the plane (not even a purse, just a small rolling suitcase), it was, as the name promises, easy. We arrived at the hostel pretty late and went right to sleep so we could be ready to go the next day. The hostel was very clean and was like a well-decorated college dorm.

Friday, we basically accomplished the whole city in one day. Edinburgh is small - only about 700,000 people - so it's really easy to walk around and see the sights. The biggest attraction is Edinburgh Castle, which is a beautiful old castle on top of a giant mountain just chilling in the middle of the city. The view from up there was amazing and it was so cool to explore the mountaintop. The weather was pretty miserable though; whatever everyone says about London weather is 10x worse in Scotland. So cold and so rainy. After the castle we ventured down the Royal Mile and stopped for lunch at a Scottish pub where I got to try haggis. Haggis is a Scottish traditional food that everyone (including me prior to this weekend) thinks is gross - it's basically various sheep organs cooked together. I know. Not appealing. But it actually was really, really good.

Next, we wandered to the National Museum of Scotland. On the way we found The Elephant House, a small coffeeshop where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books. Obviously, I was so excited about encountering the birthplace of my favorite book series. The museum was really nice, especially because it was fairly empty and it was FREE. After that was more aimless wandering around the city and a nap back at the hostel. Dinner was an adventure. After realizing that maybe making a reservation would have been a good choice, we managed to get a table at Under the Stairs, which turns out is a super trendy Edinburgh restaurant. The vibe was awesome and the food was even better. In case you haven't noticed, blogging about food seems to be kind of a theme.

We spent Saturday at the University of St. Andrews out of the east coast of Scotland. The bus was really cheap and, even though we walked all the way to the bus station to get it, even stopped right in front of our hostel. Watching the Scottish countryside pass me by on the drive made the whole trip worth it. Literally, sheep everywhere. It was only about an hour and a half until we reached St. Andrews. William and Kate met here so I was determined to find a future royal husband of my own. While that didn't happen, I really enjoyed my day at this stunningly beautiful university. Marissa's friend from home who goes to St. Andrews showed us around and explained all the interesting history of the campus and town. My favorite was walking out on the pier into the North Sea at sunset. It was one of those moments where I couldn't even believe that my life was real and I got to experience this amazing view for myself.

Any good trip involves shopping, so Sunday we went down Princes Street and I found mint jeans at Zara for £8. By the time our train was set to leave, we were very ready to head back to London. It's a really good feeling to feel like London is home now. I even started missing my bed and my tiny shower here - not having a roommate is starting to become a great lifestyle. The train was comfortable but about 6 hours long. I was so impressed by the efficiency of the train. If it said it was leaving at 6:30pm (or 18:30 as they say here), it left at exactly that time. It said it was arriving at 12:22am (00:22), and it did. Amazing.

Today, I've been playing catch-up on my life and looking forward to heading out again on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal this weekend. Good thing I've been craving paella and sangria all week.

PS I'm keeping my pictures of all these things on my Facebook page. I feel that it's redundant to post them here as well. Check them out!

Sorry I've been kinda bad at posting! I'll have a post up about Edinburgh tomorrow!!!

For example, even something as traditional as the staple fare of English working class culture - fish and chips - is a remarkable demonstration of cultural hybridity...battered fried fish were brought by Russo-European Jews.

Reading for my Cities class. You're welcome, England.

Don't stop me now, cause I'm having a good time

This week I finally got my Barclays account sorted out (a small miracle) and officially have attended all my seminars. I'm still adjusting to the British way of teaching; it mostly bothers me that there is virtually no opportunity during lecture to make comments and often seminars cover slightly different topics. Maybe it's just the AU student in me, but sometimes I just want to raise my hand and disagree.

I also tried out Sports Cafe with Mariah, Rebecca, and Emily. It was so nice to be out with sorority sisters! Tuesday nights are the big American nights at this place which meant Mariah recognized everyone and it was rare to hear a British accent. Getting my little slice of America was really nice, although it was hard to forget I was in London with the loud cheers of the few Brits there who were watching a football match on TV. Brits just love their football.

Thursday night, I went out with my friend Becca and her University of Delaware friends who are here for their winter break study abroad trip. We ate a great little Italian place and went to a club in Camden called Proud. I had read about it online and it definitely didn't disappoint. The music was awesome (they played "I Bet That You Look Good on the Dance Floor" and "Hey Ya" back to back) and the place had a really cool feel - it used to be horse stables so there were different rooms literally set up in old stables.

I've been dying to go shopping so Friday I went up to Oxford Street for all the great shops. I did really well on the sale rack at H&M and Primark (where everything is crazy cheap) and for about 40 pounds I got: 2 tops, tights, leggings, 20 hangers, 2 skirts, and a purse. I'm proud. I even managed to find a top with a giant hamsa - reppin' the Judaism across the pond.

Friday night was Truffle Shuffle, an event put on by the KCL Student Union every semester. It's a 80s themed party for the entire school; everyone dressed ridiculously and we danced all night to great 80s classics. It still doesn't make sense to me that a student organization is putting on a club night at a nightclub on campus but I certainly enjoyed it.

After 3 hours of sleep, I was up bright and early with Rebecca to go on a tour of Leeds Castle, Dover, and Canterbury. It was a really great day. The weather was perfect, because finally there was some sun! My favorite stop was Dover. I can't even explain how nice it was to go to the beach. It was all rocks instead of sand but they were smooth so I got to sit down and look out at the water. SO. GREAT. Canterbury was great because I kept thinking about reading The Canterbury Tales in high school and I would have never dreamed of actually going to the real Canterbury Cathedral. But there I was, and I felt really lucky. Canterbury also had great shopping (which Rebecca and I definitely took advantage of) and some delicious fish and chips.

Today was a stunning sunny day in London with the weather in the high 40s. Amazing. I walked over London Bridge and down by the Thames and really got to enjoy the weather. It's gotten much colder (lame) but the temperature is supposed to be pretty reasonable the rest of the week. So excited for Edinburgh this weekend!!!

The best study abroad grocery list.

busterposeys

at what point in history do you think americans stopped having british accents

libby-on-the-label

lesbian-state-of-mind

Actually, Americans still have the original British accent. We kept it over time and Britain didn’t. What we currently coin as a British accent developed in England during the 19th century among the upper class as a symbol of status. Historians often claim that Shakespeare sounds better in an American accent.

chickennoodleliesanddeceit-deac

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Topshop Princess