Returning Home

Leaving London was hard, I didn't want to say goodbye to anyone but I had to. Coming home though I realized how much I had missed my family and friends and even just Washington at all. Now I'm just adjusting, everything that used to be so familiar to me looks different, money is just one of those things. As much as I miss London, I love seeing my family and being with friends again. Getting home though was tough, delayed flights, missed flights, and 24+ hours with no sleep, at least I'm not jet lagged now! Being in London seems like a dream, that I was never really there, but it is a dream that I will never regret and that I will remember forever.

England v. Andorra football

I got so distracted by the tube strike and a day of really bad transportation that I forgot to mention the fact that I saw a world cup qualifier today. England slaughtered Andorra 6-nil. Rooney scored a goal within the first 3 minutes of the match. But it was amazing!!! The fans are so into the game and cheering on England. Everyone was really happy and nice and revved up for a match. Also, Beckham played the entire game, which I wasn't really expecting to see. I wish that I had more time here so I could go to more matches, I also need a good reason to wear my new England scarf.

Day One of Strike

So, good news is, the strike is easing up a bit, there are lines running just not with service everywhere and mostly just in the outer parts of the city, but at least now it's possible to catch the tube most of the way to school. However, the lines didn't start opening up until mid afternoon. But remember to always check www.tfl.gov.uk for updates and info, they'll tell you which lines are closed as well as the stations that are closed. Trying to catch the bus today was impossible, in central London the buses were too full to take on more people and the ones that were letting people on got mobbed and only a select, selfish few got on. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier now that some of the lines are open again!!!

Tube Strike

Learn the bus system in your free time. That's the best advice I can give because the tube strike that was sure to be called off because "they never actually go through with it" didn't get called off. So, now we are all trying to figure out ways to get to and from Central London during finals week, YAY!!! not really. The strike shuts down the entire tube system (for the most part) from 7pm tuesday to 7pm thursday but the tubes won't actually be running at full capacity until Friday morning. Until then, it's buses and overground trains. Chiltern Railways is amazing though, so that's a plus.
Tube Strikes are not fun.

Coming to the end

Ten weeks ago seems like yesterday, and yet all those weeks ago this day seemed so far away. I can't believe that my time in London is coming to an end in just 9 days. I still feel like there are so many things to go and see and do and experience. Today I went to the British Museum to walk around for the first time. Tomorrow I'm finally going to the Tower of London. It seems like I'm cramming everything in during my last few weeks, it seemed like I had sooo much time before, not that I regret a single moment of my time here, I just wish I could stay longer!
So, for this last week I've been to three plays, England People Very Nice (about immigration in London, very funny), Oliver!, and Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Globe. I didn't think that I really liked Shakespeare, but seeing it on stage is completely different than reading it. It amazes me in some ways how hundreds of years after Shakespeare wrote his plays he still makes audiences laugh. Going to the Globe is something that anyone going to London must do, just remember to bring a seat cushion and a blanket as the seats are hard and it gets cold once night falls. Also, on Wednesday before the Globe, AHA went to Hampton Court Palace, which was amazing, I have to go back there wasn't enough time to see it all.
I'm really looking forward to next week though. I have front row tickets to Avenue Q and some really bad seats to the England v. Andorra football match, it's not a West Ham game, but it is much cheaper.
One thing that I have been thinking about is how much I would like to keep travelling after the program. So, if you are going to be studying abroad, seriously consider leaving time at the end of the program to travel around more. It's really easy and often cheap to go to places in Europe from London, plus it would just be a great experience.
While, I'm happy to be going home, I can't wait to return to London soon!!!

France and Wales pics

Paris

Notre Dame

Top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset

Versailles

The tower at night

Wales

Tintern Abbey

castle ruins

Liz, Sam and Melissa in Cheltenham

In the hostel: Me, Becca and Sam

Weekend in Paris

One thing that I love about London is that living here gives me the opportunity to travel to other places. Going to Paris for a weekend is feasible. I left Thursday night right after classes and took the Eurostar to Paris and come back yesterday, Sunday. It was amazing. I really enjoyed the city. The only bad thing about the trip was the fact that I speak absolutely no French. There were a few times that my friend and I got lost not being able to read signs. Once I got used to the language gap though, and began to recognize the area that my hostel was in, it got a bit easier. It was great to be able to spend some time in the city though, I went to the Eiffel tower twice, once at night and the other just before sunset. I also got to go to the Arc de Triumph and all the other major attractions in the city (I can't spell any of them so I'm not even going to try). The city was dirty especially compared to London, but not as bad as I was expecting it to be. But the streets make less sense than London. I would love to go back though and see more of the city and some of the things that I missed. I did get to go to Versailles though. The gardens were huge and well maintained. It was nice to get out of the city, it actually felt like a holiday and not just another day of running around the city. Going away for a bit definitely made me happy to get back to London and relax. The city really has become like home and I'm going to be sad to leave it in just a few weeks. Finals are coming up along with the last papers for all my classes and I'm trying to fit in everything that I haven't done yet. Tomorrow I'm going to go see The Phantom of the Opera!!! I'm excited for it, it was the one musical that I had to see while I was here. I've loved every bit of time that I've spent here, even the going to class part because my profs have so much knowledge to share and Martin seems to know everything about the history of England. Which brings me to one thing that I want to share about the program. I know that for me and a few of the other people not from UO didn't really know what to expect about the program going into it, so I wanted to explain some of the things that I know I had questions about. The program is small, there are two groups that make up the program, the kids going for a semster and those going for a quarter. All of them stay with host families unless they decide otherwise. All of the students at the centre are American and you don't take classes with any British students, however the majority of the professors are Britsh (we have a visiting prof teaching two of our courses). Part of the program is going on excursions. Some of these are in the individul courses so for Art History our classes are often at the museum. Other excursions are for the program so for me, all of the quarter students would go together somewhere, like on Friday when we go to Bathe. But there is a lot of free time to do homework, or explore the city or go away on weekend trips to places. It's a great program that lets students learn a lot.