Cheers, mate!

Greetings!

I have officially exhausted the English-speaking countries I want to visit this year, which is exciting but sad because I love that English. Oh well. But that means I went to England!

Last week, I became frustrated with myself for not being spontaneous enough and for not having enough adventures here (which is a little crazy but whatever). So the logical response to these thoughts? Buy a plane ticket to London for 3 days later, obviously. So I basically text my friends in London and Oxford, told them I was coming and that I would love a tour guide! And before I know it, I was lost in London, eventually finding Abby. After making dinner, meeting her friends, and having a fun night in London, I made my way back to my hostel for the night. I mention it because this was the first time I figured out an entire trip myself (host mom still thinks I’m incapable of it but whateve) and stayed somewhere alone. It was successful and I left the next today to embark on a short but thorough tour of the main sites of London. I fell in love. British accents, beautiful buildings, amazing monuments I’ve been seeing FOREVER in books and pictures, finally right in front of my own eyes.  It is such a surreal experience visiting these places. Who am I that I get to see and do all of this? Also, MAJOR shout-out to Mom for making this happen through her support (both emotional and you know, financial. I’ll repay you… soon).

Buckingham Palace! Hello Queen Elizabeth!

Big Ben, big bus, big dreams

Tower Bridge (often misidentified as London Bridge)

After that fabulous day in London and a traditional fish and chips in London with Abby (ahhh my life!), I boarded a train for Oxford! After scaring my friends a little because my train was late, I was finally seeing the place Jackie and Emily have been talking about for months. We ate dinner and got milkshakes (hilarious moment when I just couldn’t comprend what was being said by the guy who worked there because my brain doesn’t understand English apparently (but it was okay because I do speak English and so does he so we could resolve our confusion unlike in France where there’s just confusion til I walk away)), we headed back to the school to see my other friend Piotr! And we finally called it a night after tea and a life talk with Jackie<3

The next day I got my personal tour of Oxford with Jackie and enjoyed walking, marveling, picture-taking, and chatting the whole way through. I was just so happy to see her and the place shes been telling me about for what’s felt forever. Miss her already! That night my amazing friends gathering for dinner in the hall and I got to see Keith! It was such an amazing feeling being surrounded with friends who love me in England, where they have made a home for themselves. That night Emily took me to the best mass I’ve been to in a while, because it was aimed for students and was a Jesuit priest and, best of all, was in English! Emily and I had hot chocolate after before meeting others to share the best late-night food I’ve eaten ever: chips (french fries/frites) with cheese and hummus. As Em said, it doesn’t sound good but it’s amazing. Totally agree. I found myself daydreaming about them the other day, which is weird and kinda concerning.

I boarded a bus back to the airport the next day (after Jackie and Emily both woke up to eat breakfast with me<3) and was back in Strasbourg on Monday in time to miss my classes and surprise my host sisters who didn’t know I went to London…? Haha anyway, it was an amazing amazing weekend and I was so so happy to have gone! Thank you so so much Abby, Jackie, Emily, and Piotr for showing me around your wonderful cities. Miss you all and wish you would come to Strasbourg:)

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2016 at 8:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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