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!
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