Homeward Bound

It seems absolutely surreal that I am hopping on a plane tomorrow to go home.

My last 24 hours in London were very relaxed, but a perfect way to end the trip. To celebrate my last day in Parliament Leah and I grabbed tea with Dulcie. I sadly handed in my awesome Parliament security pass, then I came home and got ready to go out for the night with Amanda, Teal, Tom, and Spencer. If you ask me it was the perfect last night in London. We went to Waxy O’Conners, the same place as last weekend, in addition to Tiger Tiger, which ended up exceeding our expectations based on previous visits.


This morning Amanda and I took the morning slow, getting our stuff together in preparation for our flights tomorrow. We made the sad realization that our flights leave from different terminals, so we won’t get to hang out in the airport tomorrow like we originally planned :( After everything was sorted we took the tube down to Southwark and explored the Borough Market, which is an AMAZING food market. It had everything from raw ingredients to full meals and desserts. It was incredible, and we literally had to walk away so we wouldn’t eat our weight in food.


From the market we headed over to the Imperial War Museum; since the beginning of the trip we had been hearing about how amazing it was, so naturally we had to explore and see for ourselves. It definitely lived up to its reputation, and we spent hours there looking at all their exhibits. Our favorites were the ones about British children in WWII, the Holocaust, and International War Crime.


Ever since we got back to the flat we’ve been taking an easy night because our taxi arrives to get us at 6 in the morning, and we need to pack and clean up the flat before we leave. It was sad saying goodbye to Teal and Tory, who were two other girls on our program. It is amazing at how fast time passes when you're having fun.

So looking back on the trip, I made some realizations. Don’t get too excited because they’re not incredibly deep, but I’m sure you all would ask me at some point anyways so I’ll jump the bullet and answer them here:

“Would you ever want to move to London?”: Don’t know. Honestly, I love the city, but this whole being 8 time zones away from everyone I love thing hasn’t been easy for me. And to think this has just been 10 weeks, not a permanent move. I guess I will see where life takes me, but I have definitely loved living in London, and the UK as a whole.

“What did you learn on the trip?”: Well, first and foremost, the UK is a LOT more different than the US than I originally thought. Just because we speak the same language does not mean we have the same culture. It is interesting because most English people are pretty well tuned into American culture, but not vice versa. Having British friends from outside of the program has made this even more evident to me, and I am super thankful to all of them for opening my eyes and letting me into their world.

“Will you miss London?”: Most definitely. I will not miss steaming hot tube commutes, rude people shoving me around, and being called judged based off of my accent (which I will still argue is non-existent, but that is besides the point). On the other hand, I will deeply miss living with Amanda, my awesome internship, and literally living in the center of one of the biggest, liveliest cities in the world. I literally could not have been more lucky.

I am still having a hard time fathoming that at this moment tomorrow, I will most likely be hopping out of the car, hot dog in hand (or stomach), and running into my house in Stockton. You all probably don’t know how much I have missed all of your smiling faces, and how excited I am to see them in person again.

Thank you for following my blog, and making me feel special for the past couple of months! Make sure you shoot me a call or text tomorrow after 1:35pm PST, because I will be dying to talk to you all! Sending lots of last minute love from across the pond, one last time!

Did you know...

...the reason why the London Underground is set up the way it is? Well, I did not until last night. Apparently the reason why the lines do not cross over certain sections of the city is because they are amongst the catacombs from the Plague! Because there is so much fear of the Plauge coming back, and out of respect of course, the Underground was built specifically to avoid these areas. Think about that one next time your train gets stuck between stations...

My past couple of days have been dominated by doing laundry, finishing my research paper, and packing to come home! Seeing my suitcase with all my clothes in it is making it feel so much closer, and real. I am now mentally starting to switch gears to think past London, and am making plans with friends at home and arranging things for Washington DC. For those of you who don't have a Facebook I found out on Tuesday that I got a paid internship for the fall, so I am really excited about that! I also spent a lot of time online shopping for my room in DC while I was procrastinating on my paper (typical), so now all I have to figure out when I get to DC is the whole "school" thing.

The last couple of days at my internship have been really enjoyable as well. Because of the recess there is no more parliamentary TV, so we have been watching "Friends", "Made in Chelsea", and a lot of other random daytime TV as we do our work. I am so glad my coworker Leah is here with me, otherwise I would be so bored! We have also been enjoying mini-adventures during lunchtime, and have been battling each other on sporcle quizes when we have absolutely run out of things to do. I will definitely miss her!

Tomorrow is my last free day in London, and then I will be back home! Can't wait to see you all SO soon!!!

A British Invasion

For those of you who have been religiously following my blog, I'm sure you are all well aware of who my friend Peter is (to jog your memory just in case... British friend I met through Lauren, took me camping the first weekend I arrived and on a pub crawl in his hometown before he moved to Geneva, generally awesome bloak). Anyways this weekend Peter came back to visit London, so we had the honor of hanging out with him and his friends for our last weekend in the UK.

Peter didn't arrive until later on Friday night, so pretty much right after he came we rounded up the troops and headed down to Soho to enjoy the nightlife. We decided to follow Spencer's lead since he has lived in London for a while, which ended up as a slight failure because we ended up in this tiny "club" (that was more like a basement actually) that played medicore music. It was fine though because we were still having fun hanging out with each other. After a bit we ended up leaving in search of finding a better place, but ended up walking home and just crashing instead (although none of us were too upset with that plan).

Saturday morning we woke up relatively early and headed to Notting Hill to check out the Portobello Road market. It was insanely large and had stands full of antiques, food, and everything in between. I had a delicious goat cheese sandwich (nom nom nom), and had a bite of Amanda's nutella crepe. I'm pretty sure we didn't even get to see the entire market, but it was still awesome.


By the time we were done at the market Pete had to run off to meet his parents for tea and Amanda needed to do some work on her papers for class (fail), so Spencer and I were left to figure out what we should do for the afternoon. We decided to go to Oxford Circus to check out some shops and meander around and enjoy the nice weather (it was sunny and nice all weekend, so we definitely wanted to take advantage of it). We had so much fun walking around that we ended up walking all the way back to my flat instead of taking the tube. It was cool seeing what I whiz by underground every day on my way to work.

When Peter returned from tea (with his sister Georgina in tow), we hung out at our flat for a bit, and enjoyed the view from our roof -- it was nice, and definitely made Amanda and I miss our flat 10 friends (since we frequented the roof with them). We quickly got ready and headed out to Waxy O'Conners, a ridiculous bar/dancing place off of Picadilly Circus. I say ridiculous because the music ranged from the Backstreet Boys, to the Macarena, and Irish jig music, and back again. The interior of this bar was very cool as well because it looked like you were in the middle of a tree! Everyone was legitimately disappointed at how early this place closed because we were having so much fun and didn't want to leave! The rest of the night was spent wandering around Leicester Square seeing if we wanted to go anywhere else (which we didn't), grabbing pizza and watching a ridiculous street fight, and running after taxis in order to get home.


We slept for a whole 4 hours before waking up to say goodbye to Georgina and Spencer, and heading to Oxford Circus to do a little shopping, and ultimatly go to Hyde Park. We spent the majority of the day laying in the sun enjoying lemonade and talking. Tom also tried making a "kite", aka a plastic bag tied to string, that quickly turned into his "pet dog" named Nigel Baggins. Needless to say we got some funny looks from passer-bys as the four of us were talking to and playing with a plastic bag.


After we had enough time outside we decided to head over to Liverpool Street to show Peter the Spitalfields Market, and east London in general. It was so funny to Amanda and I the entire weekend because more often than not we were the London experts compared to our British friends. Anyways, our main destination was Brick Lane, because the boys love curry and Amanda and I had been DYING to grab Indian food since arriving here, and we were running out of opportunities to do so. We ended up finding a restaurant that costed £10 for a 4 course meal, including drinks. SCORE. It was delicious, and I was so full I could barely move by the end of the meal.


After dinner we hopped off the tube at St. Paul's Cathedral, since Peter had never been before, and took a walk around before heading down Fleet Street to meet up with some of Peter's friends from uni. Some of London's oldest pubs are located on that street so I thought it would be a fun place to hang out and grab a drink. Turns out though that no pubs are open on Sundays... who would have thought? (Read: Al fail). So we ended up wandering around looking for open places, realized there were none, and bid Peter's friends adieu and headed home. Of course as soon as we set off to go home we found a pub that was open so Peter, Tom, and I stopped to have a drink before heading back to the flat. It was so much fun getting to see Peter and crew for the weekend, and I am really bummed that he had to go back to Geneva. Stupid work.

Even though it is Monday, it seems like the weekend still hasn't stopped for me. Today at work was very low key, and tonight we saw Chicago! We found an amazing deal online that got us dinner at a nice restaurant in Leicester Square and show tickets for £20 (where tickets usually start at £30 at least... score!) so we were pumped. The show itself was amazing too, and starred Christie Brinkley (who is 57, but still the lead in the show! Amazing!). I'm definitely going to have those songs stuck in my head for quite some time now.


Since it is officially Tuesday in London, I now have less than 5 full days left in the UK. Now the countdown can be reduced to one hand! Who's excited? ;)

PS. Happy Birthday Mom! Love you <3

I think I definitely miss my sister

I mean yeah, she's cute and small and I always miss her, but I had such a typical "Robyn" day today it is a bit out of control.

Of course every Robyn day starts out slow. I had the day off of work (and Amanda didn't, neener neener neenerrrr) so I took my sweet time getting up, and eating breakfast whilst watching "Gilmore Girls". Once I was finally ready I grabbed my book and headed over to the tube to go to Kew Gardens, which is home of the Royal Botanical Gardens and a palace along the southwest bank of the Thames. This is where I spent my morning hours wandering around taking pictures of FLOWERS, mixed in with a bit of chillen in the sun, chasing peacocks, and reading with a Starbucks Chai Latte in hand. Here is a little sample of some of the pictures I took:




Sidenote: a weird happening at Kew Gardens - as some of you may know, today is my Grandmom's birthday (the one who passed away this past October), and when I was sitting on a bench reading this really annoying bird kept chirping at me... but then when i looked at it, it cocked his head, stared at me, and then silently flew away. To make matters even more strange it was a cardinal bird, and my mom has seen cardinal birds in the past and has thought they were signs from my Grandmom. Coincidence, or fate? Who knows. Either way, you were in my thoughts today, Grandmom <3

After a couple of hours I got back on the tube and headed to Kensington to check out the Victoria and Albert Museum of Art and Design, which was awesome. It covered areas such as British theater, the history of British fashion from 1500-1900, jewelry, stained glass, and more (but those were my favorites). I really liked the museum because you didn't have to do a lot of reading to figure out what things were, and it wasn't your usual art museum collection. And now I have retired back to the flat, laying on the couch enjoying an afternoon snack and watching "Glee" and "Friends" on TV. Wish you were here, Lil Robz.


In case you were wondering, yesterday wasn't such a bad day either. Went into work and hung out with Leah, and we took an extended lunch break to enjoy the National Gallery and some Magnum ice cream bars! I ended up recognizing many paintings in the National Gallery, including works by Van Gough, Monet, Renoir, and Rembrandt. I'm guess I'm a little more cultured than I thought I was ;)

Top 10

Because I have only 10 days left in London (!!!), I decided to share with you some of my "top 10" lists that I have been compiling on my laptop. Anyone who has ever seen my computer knows that my desktop is flooded with millions of sticky notes - well, here is a sneak peak to what these stick notes currently say:

10 things I still need to do before I leave London
1. Visit a soccer stadium (most likely Wembly Park)
2. Go to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill
3. Go to the National Gallery
4. Go to the Victoria and Albert Museum
5. Go to the Churchill War Rooms
6. Go to the Imperial War Museum
7. Hang out in Regents Park
8. Visit Kew Gardens (apparently they have beautiful flowers there... so this would be for Robyn)
9. Peruse the Borough Market (apparently known for its fresh food!)
10. See a West End show! But never fear, Amanda and I have tickets to see "Chicago" on August 1st!

10 places I want to eat as soon as I get home
1. In N Out Burger
2. Chipotle
3. Mongolian BBQ
4. Yen Du
5. Casa Flores
6. Costco (for hot dogs...obviously)
7. Grandma's house (spaghetti please!)
8. My house (Mom, you know what to do. I would start shopping now.)
9. Chandni's house (Indian food here doesn't even begin to compare)
10. Bob's at the Marina

10 songs that will forever remind me of this trip
1. Take On Me (A-ha)
2. Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
3. One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
4. Move It Like Bernie (don't know the artist, but look it up on YouTube)
5. Show Goes On (Lupe Fiasco)
6. Wonderwall (Oasis)
7. Graduation (Vitamin C)
8. Kids (MGMT)
9. Black and Yellow (Wiz Khalifa)
10. Who Dat Girl
... and every Jason DeRulo song ever.

10 things I am going to miss about the UK
1. My job, and my coworkers
2. Living/traveling/spending every moment with my partner in crime, the wonderful and hysterical Miss Amanda St. Hilaire
3. British accents and slang
4. British snacks and candy
5. Being able to frolick around Europe on the weekend
6. Having cool pubs to hang out at
7. Having new places to explore every day
8. Fish N Chips. Enough said.
9. Cornish pasties. Yum.
10. Being conveniently located to everything on the Tube

10 things I am NOT going to miss about the UK
1. Conversion rates... I love it when my money means something!
2. My uncomfortable bed
3. Being across the ocean from everyone I love
4. My crappy cell phone
5. Seeing the same "Friends" episode on TV like 5 times a day
6. Having limited Internet usage
7. Not having beef hot dogs... anywhere.
8. People who lack self awareness on the Tube
9. Night buses
10. RAIN.

In case you were wondering, not much has happened since my last post on Sunday evening. Monday was pretty uneventful - went to work and enjoyed a picnic in St. James Park because the weather was a BEAUTIFUL 72 degrees and sunny, and spent the night in watching "P.S. I Love You" with Amanda. Tuesday was even more uneventful than Monday, seeing that I was deathly ill, presumably with food poisoning, so I ended up calling in sick to work and alternated between sleeping and watching some of the DVDs my dad sent me, including the movie I watch everytime I'm sick without fail, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Luckily this morning I felt a bit better so I came back into work, and went with Leah to the National Portrait Gallery during our lunch break! Since I have so much I still want to see and so little time to do it (and since Leah is secretly a nerd and loves museums), we've agreed to eat lunch in the office and use our lunch hour to explore free museums! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Also as we were walking by Trafalgar Square we peeked in to see a big press release about the Olympics, that is apparently officially one year away as of today! Kinda exciting, although if you ask any Londoner they are plotting to leave during those 2 weeks so they can avoid all the chaos the Olympics will bring to the city.

Tonight is my weekly stay-in night, and I am determined to get a lot done on my research paper (that I have not had much time to work on recently...oops) because my friend Peter is coming to visit this weekend (yay!). Because of this we will get to see him along with a bunch of other friends I went camping with in Cornwall the first weekend I was here. I guess it's appropriate that I spent my first weekend in the UK with them, as well as my last :) Until next time!

"No one provokes me without punishment!"

Just to clarify, neither Amanda nor I had violent outbursts this weekend. That is just the translation of Edinburgh Castle's motto, "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit", and we thought it was absolutely brilliant. Anyways...

Thankfully, the overnight bus to Edinburgh was exponentially more pleasant than the overnight bus home from Liverpool. In order to ensure neither Amanda nor I sat by gremlins, we decided to switch off on the window seat (me on the way there, Amanda on the way back) and sit in the same row. Also, the bus to Edinburgh didn’t have other stops to pick up additional passengers, so it was a lot smoother ride than before.

When Amanda and I finally arrived in Edinburgh, we were surprised to see SUN! And no rain! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Edinburgh, apparently it is almost always rainy and foggy there, but we were lucky enough to have good weather for the entire weekend! We were also excited to discover that our hostel was very close to Edinburgh castle, which means it was centrally located and close enough to walk to everything.

Before setting out for the day Amanda and I grabbed a full Scottish breakfast, which is basically a full English breakfast with a slight twist, and headed over to Waverly Bridge, where we decided to embark on city bus tour. Unlike the one we did in Lisbon this wasn’t one of those obnoxious red ones you see in every city with the audio guides – this one was much smaller, and had a live tour guide explaining the history of the new and old city of Edinburgh. However, like the one in Lisbon it was hop on/hop off, so we could easily choose what we wanted to see, get off, and easily get back on again.


First we chose to hop off at Holyrood, which is where the Scottish House of Parliament, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and Arthur’s Seat are located. The Parliament building was extremely strange – the design was extremely modern, and there was almost no security. This is in great contrast to Westminster, where security is extremely strict and the design is very sophisticated and elegant. The Scots currently have a bill going through Westminster petitioning to break away from the UK and have their Parliament be the sole ruling body… I guess only time will tell to see if that actually happens!


Next we wandered across the street to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the royal residence for the Queen’s visits to Scotland, and most famously where Mary, Queen of Scots spent most of her time. The inside of the palace was beautiful, as expected, but even more Amanda and I enjoyed the gardens and abbey ruins outside of the palace. Apparently there used to be an abbey adjoined to the palace that was accidentally burned down, but the remains are still in tact. The gardens are HUGE, and with beautiful flowers and large stretches of grass everywhere. Walking through there you can totally imagine the Queen throwing a spectacular garden party!



From there we crossed over the Holyrood National Park, which is where Arthur’s Seat is located. The tour guide on the bus said that this would be a “gradual walk” to the top – however this was far from the truth. In true form Amanda and I got some soft-serve ice cream at the bottom of the hill, and started the ascent. As we got further up the path got steeper, which proved to be interesting for me especially because I was wearing my flip-flops. Despite the obstacles we made it to the top, which was DEFINITELY worth it because we got to see some beautiful views of the Edinburgh region.

At the end of our hike we were happy to re-board the bus, and head to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Calmly wandering around the museum was the perfect activity after our accidental hike. Plus it was awesome because there was an exhibit of portraits of important Scottish figures, so we got a history lesson along with the art.

When we were done at the Portrait Gallery we took a quick, but much needed nap, and embarked on a ghost tour that we had seen earlier in the day. The man giving the tour was crazy, but awesome – he was dressed in full costume and was acting in character the entire time, and had a good balance of jokes mixed in with his scary stories so we were fully entertained.


At the end of the tour we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at an Italian restaurant near our hostel. Amanda got a gelato meant for at least three people, and finished it herself. Epic win. When we finished dinner we happened across a pub that was playing Scottish folk music, so we decided to hang out and listen for a bit before heading to bed early (I know, we’re lame, but we were really tired from the bus ride and the full day we had!).


The next morning we woke up early to get the most out of our day. Since it was about midnight in California I thought it would be fun to call my sister Robyn and wish her a happy birthday. However, because she didn’t recognize the telephone number she decided to have her friend Frannie answer the phone instead, which thoroughly confused me. We ended up talking in the end though, which was sooo nice.

After a quick breakfast, Amanda and I took the short walk over to the Edinburgh Castle, and immediately hopped on a free tour to look around. Edinburgh Castle is apparently the second most visited castle in the UK (after the Tower of London), and we were quickly able to see why. The castle itself was beautiful, and since it was a clear day you could see all the way out over the city of Edinburgh, which was awesome. Not to mention that it was built on what used to be a volcano, and the mountain blends in with the castle, which looks really intense and intimidating. We also got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Coronation Stone, and the Scottish National War Museum while we were there, which was very cool as well.




We grabbed a fast lunch right outside the castle, did a little shopping at the Grassmarket, and then continued on to the Scottish National Museum. Amongst other exhibits this museum basically gave the entire history of Scotland from prehistoric times to the present. While we enjoyed the museum, we were tired of being inside looking at exhibits so we left, grabbed our bags from the hostel, and hung out in Princes Street Gardens to enjoy the beautiful weather. We were lucky to happen upon a guy playing bagpipes in the street so we hung out for a while to listen to him. We also ended up meandering around Charlotte and St. Andrews squares before ending up at a pub, where we got cheap food (yay!) before going to the bus station to hop on the coach home. We were definitely sad to leave Edinburgh, and Amanda and I both agreed that this has been one of our favorite cities that we have seen thus far in the UK.



Today got off to a slow start needless to say since we were so tired. However we got it together by the afternoon, and went to enjoy the rare London sunshine out at the Camden Market! That place was insane, but definitely a good place to explore and people watch. It was also nice to be walking around after sitting in the bus cramped up for so long. We’re also done a fair share of movie-watching today, since my unlimited internet pass runs out tomorrow. Today’s viewings included “Notting Hill”, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, and of course this past week’s episode of “Pretty Little Liars” thus far, but I’m sure there will be more to come by the end of the night.

I absolutely cannot believe that I only have two more weeks left in London – the time has absolutely flown by! Even though I was only in Spain for five weeks last summer that trip has felt eons longer than this one. I still have a lengthy “to do” list of places to see in London before I leave, so I will be sure to keep you all updated as I check those off! Hope you are all staying cool in the heat waves!

Television

Not too many eventful things happened this week, but I figured I would make a quick post before heading off to Edinburgh for my last weekend excursion!

I think after two months of being here, I’ve finally hit a point of exhaustion. I know this is the case because instead of coming home from work and wanting to go out and explore or do something fun, I opt to veg on the couch and watch movies and television on my computer instead. Work has been pretty crazy this week too, which hasn’t helped the whole “tired” thing. I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard about the Murdoch hearings happening in Parliament, so needless to say the building was crazy for the first half of the week. On the up side, apparently I made a brief appearance on Channel 4 news in one of their shots! And I got to see Murdoch in person, as well as several famous BBC reporters.

In case you were wondering, to make my vegetation a little less lame, I did watch British movies and TV to make up for not going out. By British movie I mean “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (necessary throwback because of the premiere last week), and by British television I mean “Geordie Shore” (Britain’s knockoff of “Jersey Shore”) and “The Inbetweeners”. I highly recommend both shows, but for very different reasons as you may have guessed. Also, on Monday night our friend Spencer came over to hang out with us, and I introduced him to American macaroni and cheese, which he loved.

Thankfully today at work was a lot more relaxing, because the hearing was over and the House of Commons is officially on recess. Coincidentally this was also my coworker Grace’s last day in the office, so we had a really chill day in celebration. The four girls in my office shared a box of Krispy Kremes and hung out until lunchtime, where we met up with my friend Terra and her mom to give them a tour around the building. I also enjoyed the tour because I got to see many of the rooms for the first time as well, because we’re not allowed in while the House is in session! When the tour ended we met up with another coworker Dulcie for some tea, and soon after headed to the Sports and Social, one of Parliament’s many pubs on site, to have a quick drink to celebrate Grace.



Grace, by the way, is the lovely intern who takes it upon herself to insult me everyday (since I am American and need to be put in my place, obviously), and randomly gets into “pass wars” with me. Our Parliamentary passes are on retractable lanyards, and we quickly learned that “zinging” each other with said lanyards is quite fun. I am going to miss her terribly, and am trying to convince her to come get a job in DC next year so we can hang out again.



I am proud of how short this post is! But it is probably just as well because my bus leaves in two hours and I’m not quite packed yet. Pro of overnight bus: I will wake up in Scotland! Con of overnight bus: lack of sleep. Here’s to hoping that I don’t sit next to a gremlin this time!

PS. Happy Birthday, Robyn! Last year in Barcelona, this year in Edinburgh… maybe next year I will be home to celebrate with you. Love you, little sissy!