Today, on my final stroll around the city, Lara and I decided to go to two pretty popular landmarks in London- Abbey Road and Primrose Hill, with one last wander through Camden somewhere in between there. Abbey Road is pretty much what I had expected it to be- really small and very touristy. The tricky part which is constantly joked about (see: http://thetimeistudiedabroad.tumblr.com/post/22340998981/when-i-walk-across-abbey-road-- it's a hysterical website, even funnier if you've been abroad because 99.9% of everything on there is true/I've experienced) was getting a picture without being hit by a car. It's a pretty traffic heavy street, and even though the "zebra stripes" are technically a yield sign for the cars, there was lots of honking if they hand to come to a complete stop, not just slow down for tourists. Most people were really good about taking a picture as quick as they could and waiting until there was a break in traffic before venturing out, but still busy London locals wanted none of that. My opinion: if you're in a rush, detour around one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. You're just asking to have to stop if you intentionally drive down Abbey Road in daylight. The studio is right next to the crosswalk, and surrounding the area are graffiti'ed Beatles quotes and quirky little memorabilia shops.
From there we walked to Primrose Hill- a beautiful view of the city where the pictures really don't do it justice at all. After smoothies in Camden, I headed back to check in online and get ready for dinner with Emily and Anna at Vapiano- a really trendy, new concept Italian restaurant. Each person gets a digital chip card when they walk in, it's opening seating (really hard to find a seat actually because its lots of long tables with only one or two vacancies- difficult to find a space for our awkward three), and you go up to various stations throughout the place (salad, pasta, pizza, dessert, bar) and scan your card and place your order. Your entire bill is kept on the card, and you simply present the card to the hostess as you leave to pay for everything. It's really nice for groups since you don't need to worry about splitting a bill, each person is in control of their own order. It was delicious and really affordable, and now I'm sitting in my room having just finished packing and cleaning, attempting to fall asleep which I'm pretty sure is not going to happen. The combo of saddness/excitedness/restlessness is what's leading to this post.
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| Random Goodyear blimp that was floating around my building all day today. I didn't even know people over here knew what Goodyear was. |
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| The view from Primrose Hill |
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| It's hard to tell, but nearly every tall/notable building in London can be seen from the hill. The picture above shows the Eye and BT tower, and then this one shows the shard (all pointly one far right), St. Paul's (white dome looking roof left of the Shard), the Gherkin (pickle shaped building to the left) as well as all the buildings in the financial Bank district. |
Assuming
everything goes as planned with my flight, in exactly 25 hours I'll be walking
through Dulles airport attempting to retrieve my baggage, successfully make it
through customs, and find my Mama who will be waiting for me. It's absolutely
crazy to me that this time is finally here, and that nearly 5 months have gone
by as fast as they have. I went around town one last time with Lara today and
we were reminiscing about our first week here, and how it seems like just
yesterday her and I were attempting to get our student visas and find our flats
for the first time. As part of our stroll down memory lane it really hit me-
those first two weeks were probably the most miserable two weeks I've ever had.
Being jet-lagged, complete culture shock, an international breakup, and just
feeling incredibly isolated and lonely- it was not very pleasant. Probably the
only thing here that I wouldn't want to ever
relive. I remember at the time wishing that I had gone with a private
(more expensive) study abroad program, so that way I'd have some built in
friends and some guidance around the city, but in hindsight, I'm so glad that I
didn't. Not only did it slightly lessen the cost of this already extraordinarily
expensive semester (thanks Mom & Dad!), but I'm so proud of myself for
breaking out of the most awkward shell and making it on my own. If one thing
this experience has taught me it's that I'm so much more independent than I
thought I was, and that even though it was really rocky at times, I can survive
being transplanted somewhere new completely solo.
It's
so cliche of study abroad alums to say this, but I really have learned so much
about myself being here. I'm definitely more confident in my abilities, am very
happy with my street to book smart ratio (learning that you're toast in a
foreign city if you lack the first, toast in school if you lack the latter,)
improved my previously directionally challenged ways, learned that I was not a light packer before, but can now
fit everything needed for 4 days, 3 nights comfortably in a backpack with a
little room to spare, and learned the lengths I'll go through in order to
travel and save a few bucks in the process (hello 80 person,12 hour one-way bus
ride to Amsterdam). Not to mention the humbling feeling of being able to see so
many places, yet know that you have still seen and are only one very small part
of this very large world. More than anything else, I've learned how very
blessed I am to have the life I do- in more ways than one. Obviously to have the socioeconomic status that I do, but more than that to have had my parents bring me up with the right values, have the support of friends and family back home, have the education I've been given, and just in general to be given this opportunity. In the words of my girl Nicki Minaj, "I'm not lucky, I'm blessed, yes."
In my procrastinating last night, I made a list of the things I will/won't miss about London. Things I will miss:
-
Public transportation: especially with the incredible efficiency that
London’s has. Hands down best public transit system in the world. Most likely
the most expensive as well, but it really is a nearly flawless system.
-
Proximity of Everything: I love that I can walk out my front door and
within five minutes of walking be at 5 different banks, 2 grocery stores, 23
restaurants, 4 currency exchange places and a movie theater. There really is no
excuse not to do something in the city cause it’s all literally on your
doorstep. It’s going be really strange going back and having to drive ( that alone in itself) 20
minutes to a movie theater, or go all the way downtown to get to a club when
here within 15 minutes on the tube I can be pretty much anywhere doing
anything. I can literally see a zoo from my kitchen. I’m definitely going to
miss just having access to anything I want to readily.
-
Pubs:
Pubs are great. Its not the food or the drinks, both are just adequate, but
it’s the whole atmosphere. Pubs are where people in London come together for
happy hour drinks, celebrations, and above anything else- football games. Pubs
are such a casual place to be, which makes them even better because there is no
need to get dressed up and there are all sorts of characters there. Hannah and
I met the Queen’s footmen at a pub once near Buckingham Palace. Pubs are just
people from all different walks of life enjoying each others company and a good
pint.
-
Cider:
Speaking of pubs, I can tell I’m going to go through withdraw of cider. I
really don’t even drink it that often, but it’s my go to anytime were out.
Every single bar has at least one, if not multiple ciders on tap, and it’s not
seen as being a gendered drink like a lot of fruity drinks in the US are. While
I have grown a tolerance to it, I’ve never really enjoyed drinking beer, so I
love that I always have delicious cider as a fall back. I’m really not going to
like getting back home to the land of Natty after living off Bulmers, Strongbow
and Aspell this semester.
-
School:
This semester has been far from challenging academically, and it’s been great.
There are practically no readings or homework to do, so it’s the two pieces of
coursework for the semester, and that’s pretty much it. It will definitely be
an awakening going back to UMW from here. Along with school, the grading scale
will be missed. What I wouldn’t give for a 70 to always be an A.
-
The Parks: While London is definitely a cosmopolitan city, there are dozens
of parks and green spaces around the city. Regent’s Park is by far my favorite-
it’s the view I get looking out of my kitchen window, it’s home to the vast
majority of runs I go on, and it’s where every worry in the world seems to
disappear for a while when sitting in the gazebo looking out over the lake.
When you’re in one of London’s Royal Parks, you feel like you’re miles away
from this metropolis.
-
The Ease of Traveling: London specifically, but just Europe in
general. Everything is so very well connected, and London being a huge hub, I
can literally get a flight/train/bus to anywhere else in the world. I also love
that flying to the other side of Europe, Rome for example takes two hours and
around $150. That’s like flying to Boston from Baltimore. Being here and
traveling really made me realize how massive the United States actually is.
-
The Union Jack: I love that flag, and that everywhere you turn you see it,
especially with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee coming up. It’s no stars and
stripes, but it’s pretty close.
-
People:
First and foremost, I’m going to miss the friends I’ve made here. It’s amazing
how quickly you can because so close with a group of people.. Some of the
people I’ve met I’m sure I’ll see again, Hannah is only a few hours north in
Jersey, but others, like Liz, live in other countries, so I really don’t know
the next time I’ll see them (if ever). The weirdest thinking about that is with
the group of 5 that I grew really close to while being here. Between us all
this semester we’ve experienced break ups, family deaths, hospital trips,
stolen wallets/iphones, terrible travel mishaps, and then just the feeling of
being completely uprooted and placed down 3,000 miles from home. It’s crazy how
fast we bonded, but so reassuring when the day wasn’t going your way to know
that there are some people here who care and will do whatever it takes to help
you out. Aside from that, I just like meeting new people in different places,
which was inevitable in this situation. Through our hostels I’ve met some
amazing people and heard their stories, not to mention just talking to people
around town, out eating, anything. I’ve met some quite unforgettable
characters, that’s for sure.
Thing I Won’t Miss:
-
My living nightmare of a dorm: It’s small, it’s cramped, it’s smelly, it’s
overheated, the beds are rocks….I’m not going to miss it in the least. I think
for me the worst part was the hall management more than my actual room. The
dorm is new which is really nice, but it is very poorly run. The heat is
cranked 24/7 to the point where there was a warm spell in London when I’d just
sit in the kitchen for hours every day because the three windows in there
provided an immediately noticeable relief from the sauna that was my room. The
other really annoying thing was the elevator system. There are 21 floors in the
building and two elevators. One goes to the even numbers, one to the odd. The
even elevator has only been functional 3 ½ weeks of my stay here. There are 276
people living in my hall- one elevator just doesn’t cut it. It would literally
add 5-10 minutes onto your journey waiting for it because it stopped at every
single floor. I live on the 11th floor too, so I’ll take the stairs
going down, but coming up all 11 floors is practically a workout in itself. The
other thing about the stairs, they only go to the ground floor, not to the
basement where the laundry facilities are, so even if you wanted to walk
up/down the stairs, if you are going to the basement, you have to take the
elevator. My dorm is actually on one of the school’s campuses, which is very
unusual here. It has its perks like a library with printing and coffee shop
just a minute away, but there are definitely minuses too. The biggest is the
construction. This campus is undergoing a remodel, which is lovely, but
construction crews wake me up every day at 8 am as a result. 7 days a week. By
the end I started giving up even attempting to sleep through it and just woke
up.
-
The Pound Sterling: It weighs down my wallet with all the coins
that actually have value, and the conversion rate kind of puts me into a
depression some days. It sucks. End of story.
-
Paying to get places: I love the tube system, I’ve already made that
clear, but it’s so expensive to use. I really miss being able to just hop in my
car and go where ever for just the cost of gas, here, especially in the past
few days when I didn’t have my unlimited monthly pass, I found myself
questioning how bad I wanted to go places in order to save some money. It’s 2
pounds a ride on the tube without a monthly pass, so round-trip somewhere ends
up being like 6 US Dollars. You don't even want to know the cost of my monthly pass, which even with the hefty price tag is actually a "good deal." Yep, I toss $160 down the drain every month just to get around town. NOT okay.
-
Cockey: It’s
like nails on a chalkboard hearing someone speak it. Good riddance.If you don't know what it is, you're lucky
-
My crappy pay-as-you-go phone
-
The rain: I was surprised when I first got here that it barely rained. I was
so shocked cause that’s immediately what my brain goes to when I think of
London. Then April happened. There was a good three weeks where it was raining
every single day. Now that it’s May, it’s a bit better, every other day is
rainy while the off days are normally sunny and pretty, but man those rainy
days are just straight depressing.
-
The rush of the city: Everyone is in such a hurry to get where ever
they’re going, and as a result politeness seems to get tossed aside.
Unfortunately I know I’ve become one of those people from my time here, but I
can’t wait to get back home where people say “excuse me,” “sorry,” walk on the
right side of the street, not down the middle, and open doors without thinking
anything of it. And then there is the awkwardness of the tube system. So many
people cramped into a tiny space all trying not to touch another or make eye
contact. It’s a thoroughly uncomfortable experience the first few times. I’m
excited to get back home where it’s not strange at all to wave, talk to make
eye contact with people.
As I was going through all of my stuff this afternoon, I stumbled upon the packet the Center for International Education gave us as a guidebook at our pre-departure meeting. At the end of it, there was a quote that I think perfectly describes exactly what I'm feeling:
We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot
Boy oh boy, I can't wait for my next adventure. I'm already starting to save up those dollhairs in hopes that maybe the summer after I graduate I'll be able to go on another trip to somewhere different and new. If nothing else, I've learned from this trip how much I love traveling, and how much more of the world I'm dying to see.
