Goodbye, London!

“By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show” -Samuel Johnson

It feels strange writing this post from my living room in Sharon, but I thought I should wrap up my blog with one last post. My last day in London was spent visiting Abbey Road one last time, roaming around Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden, having afternoon tea at the National Gallery Cafe, wandering through Trafalgar Square, and going out to one last dinner with all my friends. 

Abbey Road Studios :)

Me and Megan at Afternoon Tea

Trafalgar Square

Me and Raquel at our yummy Italian dinner

Alexandra, Becca, Megan, and Yuya taking a break form packing in the middle of the night...

Abby :)

I miss you guys already!

Time flew by so fast...I can't believe I'm already back home in peaceful, quiet Sharon. Who knew that London was so meant to be this entire time? A lot of my friends who are high schools senior are going through the college application process right now, and I can't help and look back at all those rejections and be so thankful that I ended up where I am. Not just because I got to go to London and travel around Europe, but because I met the greatest friends one could ask for in college and I can tell from our friendships that Brandeis is the place to be. And as far as my incredible Arcadia University friends who I will not be with at Brandeis, I know we will keep in touch and visit each other often.  When people are going through an uncertain time, the last thing they want to hear is that what is meant to be will come its way. It’s not an immediately helpful piece of advice, but I think it is ultimately true. I never thought I would go abroad and have such a meaningful experience so soon, but I guess it’s life’s most unexpected surprises that come and knock you off your feet, shaping you into the person you’re meant to be. 
xoxo,
Sarah 

Churchill War Rooms!

Yesterday after my last final exam my friend Jacob and I finally made our way to the Churchill War Rooms, the original underground headquarters where in 1940 Winston Churchill famously declared, "This is the room from which I will direct the war." While London was being bombed during the Blitz, Churchill and his government staff stayed underground, planning Britain's next actions during war. Coming into these rooms is like traveling back in time since every part of the underground shelter and all the documents are so well preserved.

Churchill's office!

Secret document outlining the various fronts and what was happening on a specific day 

Churchill's watch

 

Stuff in the ceiling to protect from bombs

Conference Room 

Map Room

Churchill's bedroom

London Eye :) 

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament :)

After the museum we walked all the way from Westminster/Big Ben to St. Paul's along the Thames River. A nice, long walk along the Thames to see as much of London as possible last minute.
Last night there was a holiday/goodbye get together at the dorm in Notting Hill which was kind of sad. Even though I'll see all of the Brandeis kids in January, it's definitely sad to start saying bye to all my friends that go to Arcadia University (the college through which Brandeis is on this program).

Me and Kira 

Sarah, Malina, Noah, Kevin, Lisa, and Dan

Me and Liz :)

Becca, Laura, me, Emily, Liz, Raquel, and Malina :)

Anyways, today I'm off to enjoy one last day in London! Can't believe I'm flying home tomorrow morning! So excited to finally see everyone!
xoxo,
Sarah

Finals, packing, and random last minute adventures

So I accidentally forgot to blog in over a week...oops. That's probably because all I've done in the past week is mostly study for finals. I had my history and media studies finals yesterday and they went well, now art history tomorrow morning and then I'm done! (The beauty of taking a creative writing class is that there is never a final exam, so I only had three tests instead of four!)
A few days ago my friends and I went down to the South Bank (near the London Eye and National Theater) to walk around the annual chocolate festival which was pretty awesome! Lots of really yummy chocolate samples, beautiful chocolate cakes, and the most incredible hot chocolate ever! Definitely a great study break. :)

Christmas markets at the South Bank

In the past few days I've also had to start packing which is so depressing....my room is so dull and empty now. But I took pictures of how colorful it was before I packed everything away. :)

My textbooks, most of I won't get to bring home cause they
take up so much space :(

My desk :) 

A few nights ago one of the creative writing professors invited his students and their friends to his house for dinner which was really nice.
Last night two friends I went to see a friend sing and play guitar at a pub in our neighborhood. She did a great job and we met a few other American students studying in London which as fun.

Laura and I at the professor's house 

Amanda playing at the pub

Alexandra and Laura :)

But other than that, my time has mostly been spent and studying and packing. Hopefully tomorrow after my exam I can get more touristy stuff in...I still really need to go to the Winston Churchill war rooms!! (No wonder all my friends here tease me for being a history nerd... :))
xoxo,
Saran

The National Portrait Gallery and some baking :)

Yesterday before my creative writing class I ventured into the National Portrait Gallery. I really loved it - it was like a yearbook or a who's who of British history, and there were tons of portraits of important historical figures, many of which I studied about in history classes so it was fun to recognize them, and there were also paintings and photographs of famous British actors and singers. The museum covered every famous British person from the Tudors to the J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately, by the time I got up to the room with the Tudors and wanted to take a photo of Queen Elizabeth I, I was told that no photography was allowed. :( I still got a few some before that though.

Oliver Cromwell

King Charles II

Bach! (Not British but still important!)

George Washington (yeah, also not British,
but definitely still important:) )

Sketch of Queen Victoria

Winston Churchill!

Emmeline Pankhurst

The National Portrait Gallery

Yesterday evening my friends and I took a break from studying and made yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! One of my best friend's mom makes these all the time so I got the recipe and brought it to college so I could make these amazing cookies for my new friends because everyone loves a heavenly batch of fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies. :) 

Me getting ready to bake cooking and Raquel in the middle of making crepes...
it was a good night for the Thoresby 3rd floor kitchen :)

Lots of cooks in this kitchen :]

There was so much cookie dough....this was only the second of four batches!

Me and Ciara :)

Hoping to do some more touristy things soon but there's so much studying to do! It's unbelievable to think I only have two more classes before finals start...it's so sad to think of leaving London, not to mention my friends who I've met here who won't be going to Brandeis. :(

xoxo,

Sarah

From Notting Hill to Oxford Circus and everything in between....again :)

Yesterday my friend Alexandra and I (we were once again left alone since a lot of our friends were at some festival we couldn't get tickets for) spent another Saturday wandering around London. London used to seem like the most overwhelming city in the world, but it seems like it's gotten a lot smaller now that we know how to use the tube/bus or walk from place to place so comfortably. Everything here is becoming so familiar and now I don't ever want to leave!
We started our day in Portobello Market (again...) which is always fun to walk through. I love that neighborhood and the colorful houses! We walked around what seemed like all of Notting Hill and I think I decided I could definitely live there one day...so beautiful!

Street full of colorful houses off of Portobello Road :)

a glimpse of Portolleo

Pretty street in Notting Hill

my future home?

From Notting Hill we ended up on High Street Kensington and took a bus to South Kensington just to explore. The neighborhood we ended up in was really, really nice and quaint. Also, we found the street where the London scenes in The Parent Trap (the scenes of Annie's house) so that was cool because we can all agree that The Parent Trap is a great movie. :)

The street where The Parent Trap was filmed!

And that's the Parent Trap house!

Next we went to Sir John Soane's Museum, which my 10th grade history teacher recommended I go see, otherwise I would have never known it even existed. It reminded me a lot of the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. Sir John Soane and his wife collected all sorts of things - paintings, lots and lots of antique furniture, and just basically tons of really cool stuff from all over the world. Just before he died in 1833 he turned his home into a museum and asked that it be kept just the way he left it. Anyways, it was a very cool place and made me wish I could have gotten a tour led by Sir John Soane himself.

Sir John Soane's Museum

After the museum we went back to Covent Garden for probably the twentieth time on this trip. Last time we were there it was late so not much was going on, but yesterday evening all the Christmas lights were lit up and the place was crowded with tourists and locals doing holiday shopping.

dessert at Covent Garden :) 

Christmas decorations at the market in Covent Garden

I'm not sure how we weren't tired yet, but after Covent Garden we walked to Leicester Square, and then from there to Piccadilly Circus, and then onto our favorite place of all - Regent Street - and onto Oxford Circus. All the Christmas decorations make you never want to stop wandering those streets!
After realizing we had been out of our dorm for over 12 hours, we took the bus back and almost immediately went to bed. I'm never leaving London. :)
Today my friends and I went out to breakfast to a really cute place by our dorm call The Breakfast Club, and now I'm about to spend the rest of the day doing way more homework than anyone should be doing when they're in London and still have so much to see!

our cute breakfast place 

Emily and I

As much fun as it is to go back to favorite familiar places, there's only 13 days left so this week I'm hoping to fit in The National Portrait Gallery, Houses of Parliament, the Churchill War Rooms, and maybe a few other things I'd still love to see.
xoxo,
Sarah