Study Abroad | Krista, A Wrinkle In Time Premiere & Bath

My best friend from high school, Krista was visiting for her Spring Break and so we met up and grabbed lunch at Farm Girl Cafe! It was so nice to meet her friends from NYC and catch up with her!  

ALSO this was literally the best avocado toast i've ever had in my entire life. 

  

The next night we went for drinks at a place called Tonight Josephines! It's bascially like an instagram heaven and everything is pink. We had some free cocktails and then parted ways :( 

On saturday I met up with my family at the airport and we drove to Bath! I'm so proud of my mom for driving on the wrong side of the road, I really don't think I could've done it. 

We had a cold and snowy day in bath, but we made the most of it by visiting lots of warm pubs. 

We also saw the Roman Baths! I told my dad not to get me a ticket becuase I was in Rome a week ago and saw Roman baths in Rome, but of course nick didn't listen to me and bought me a ticket, but I was so glad that I was able to see them becuase they are so unique to that part of England. 

Also a notable thing happend this week before I left for bath, I met mindy kaling!!! Mindy has literally inspired me so much. She taught me how to be confident, work hard for what I want, and never let anybody tell me that I'm not capable of something. 

I was waiting on the red carpet and Mindy walked by and I asked her for a picture and she said of course and so we took our picture and I told her how much her books have helped me and how much seeing an Indian American in the media meant to me. She then gave me a ug and her assistant came over and said that Mindy wanted us to go into the premiere! It was an amazing film and seeing Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy talk about the film was truly amazing 

Spring break in ITALY!!!!!

IS THIS THING ON???? probably not. Anyways I am FINALLY getting around to writing about my 10 day trip to Italy! It was absolutely magical!! My friends and I decided to book our trip with Weekend Student Adventures. WSA leads tours specifically for students, so they are all very reasonably priced and you get to meet other students from around Europe, primarily American study abroad students! Our tour guide was literally the nicest person ever and she didn't even feel like a tour guide, she just felt like a friend that knew literally everything about Italy. 

Stop 1: Venice! 

We arrived in Venice in the afternoon on a Friday. I don't know what I was expecting, but Venice literally does not have any cars or roads. like they really just wild out and walk everywhere and take boats. After we arrived we went to the grocery store and then went for a stroll to a restaurant where we had our first dinner. This was one of the best parts of having a tour guide. Rhianne our tour guide knew the best places to eat in Venice that weren't too expensive. After my first of many plates of pasta and glasses of wine, we went to a small bar to try a Spritzer. Spritzers were an orange drink that is famous in Venice. 

The next day was our day to explore Venice. We were cursed with the awful weather but definitely tried to make the most of it. We did all the touristy stuff on this day and our gondola ride was cancelled due to the bad weather :( 

Even though it was like 30 degrees and freezing rain, I was still out here eating gelato 

After exploring Venice, we went to dinner at a Pasta to go place. My favorite part about italy is there pasta to go stands. ALSO in italy you can literally bring a huge plastic water bottle to the store and they fill it with wine. So we had some fresh pasta and wine back at the hostel. 

Stop 2: Cinque a Terre

The next day we went from Venice to Cinque a Terre. Cinque a Terre is literally my favorite place in the world I think. It was absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad that I was able to see it. Cinque a Terre means "Five Towns" and there are five towns that make up Cinque a Terre (amazing) They are known for being a hiking destination, but due to landslides the trails were closed, but we were still able to see all of the towns by train! 

We stayed at the town of Riomaggiore, which is famous for their pesto, so I had pesto pasta for dinner and it was amazing. To get to our hostel, we literally had to climb up a mountain (I'm really not being dramatic), but it was on top of a hill that overlooked all the city and it was right next to a lemon farm!  

The next day we explored all 5 towns! Each town was so beautiful and I would love to come back when it's warmer and the hiking trails are opened! 

After the first town, I made it my mission to get a gelato in each town. My master plan was quickly derailed when the 3rd town didn't have a gelato shop opened :( 

Cinque Terre is famous for their Foccacia and IM LITERALLY STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS PESTO MOZZARELLA FOCCACIA. IT WAS GENUINELY THE BEST THING IVE EVER HAD TO EAT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE IM LITERALLY MAD.

Cinque Terre is also famous for their lemons! so obviously I had to try lemon gelato! 

We ended the day sitting on the beach playing jeopardy on Katie's phone and then went back to the same restaurant we went the night before and ate more pesto. 

Stop 3: Pisa! 

On the way from Cinque a Terre to Florence, we stopped in Pisa to take our touristy pictures! We were only there for an hour and it was plenty of time. We also had a classic italian cuisine for lunch....Mcdonalds. 

Stop 4: Florence! 

We arrived in Florence later in the afternoon after visiting Pisa. We went to the Acadamia to see The David and then got gelato. My favorite part of this day was when we were looking at the David and my friend Kelsey looks at me and goes "is this the statue from spongebob?" and we both start dying of laughter. That night we went to a classy place and had dramatic cocktails and dinner!

The next day was our day to explore florence! We visited churches, and walked around. 

My friends Lindsey and Gracie and I went to get heart shaped pizzas during our free time from a place called Gusta Pizza. Also Florence is basically just a city made up of American study abroad students and I learned this at Gusta Pizza when literally everyone in the store was an american study abroad student. 

After the pizza we went for drinks on a rooftop at sunset. 

And for dinner we has classic tuscan food! I had raviolli because apparently it was invented in florence. 

ALSO I was at an italian leather market and saw a one direction tshirt and was like....well I need to buy that. I also got the sales person to lower the price from $15 to $10 so I can now say that I bartered for a one direction tshirt in florence. 

Stop5: Roma! 

Our final stop was Rome! We arrived in the evening and went to a church and then grabbed dinner. Rome is famous for their Cacio e Pepe and it is now my new favorite thing. 

The next day we did the touristy stuff. We went to the Coliseum and ancient roman ruins. 

NOW My favorite part of the trip! Our farewell dinner. Included in our program was our farewell dinner and it was a multi-course meal with bread, fried calamari, bruschetta, Caprese salad, chicken parm, gnocchi, dessert, and of course unlimited wine! It was literally the best thing evevr. 

The next day was the tour of Vatican City. I think this was lowkey my least favorite part of the trip probably because I'm not catholic so I was just like.....alright,,,,but the floors were very pretty! 

After our visit to the Vatican, we grabbed street Pasta! 

We then saw the Trevi Fountain and I had my lizzie mcguire dreams. 

And we ended the night with a classic neopolitain pizza! 

I'm so glad I was able to explore so much of Italy in a short period of time! I definetly want to go back and I miss the food everyday. 

Study Abroad | Cambridge, Snow, & Harry Potter

Hello all! I haven't had a very eventful past week or so, but I wanted to make a quick blogpost before I leave for Italy tomorrow! I am so excited to eat pizza, pasta and gelato.

                           

 

On Friday my friend Olivia and I walked to little Venice, which is a little area of London with canals. We had coffee at a cafe that was on a boat and it was so cute. I love my friends across the pond so much. Olivia is the nicest and easiest person to talk to and I'm so glad that I have a friend like her! 

                          

 

On Saturday, my friend and I took a day trip to Cambridge! It was a lot like our trip to Oxford, but the weather was much nicer! Cambridge is basically a historic university town in England. We left from Kings Cross, and we actually left from the area where they filmed the lasts scene in Deathly Hallows and I was literally about to cry in the Pret a Manger over the golden trio. 

                                

We basically just spent the day walking around. Cambridge is one of those places where it's just a fun place to walk around! We got off the train and went to tea at a Tea Shop and it was so cute. After that we walked around trying to find the river. Fun fact: The river in Cambridge is called the River Cam, and then there is a bridge on the river...hence the name ...cam..bridge...anyways I was like .....y'all really couldn't have come up with a more creative name than that.... 

But after we walked along the canals, we tried to find this art museum but just deadass couldn't find it. so we just walked around some more and had some gelato, as one does on a cold English February day. 

After our day wandering around cambridge, we arrived back in London at around 5:45 and took the tube up to Camden Market. We went to the mac factory...and let me tell you, it was the best thing I have ever had in my entire life. I was shaking. 

lOOK AT HER !!!!!!!1 

                                    

The first week I arrived in London, I was walking by the British Library and saw a sign for a Harry Potter exhibit, as soon as I got home I looked online and saw that it was basically sold out except for one day in February at 11am, so of course, I bought my ticket! I had kinda forgotten about it until the day came and I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I am SO glad that I went! Basically, it was all the inspiration behind Harry Potter's magical world. It had original sketches that J.K. Rowling had drawn of the characters when she first got the idea, the scratch paper that she wrote the idea of Harry Potter down on the train, and it also had the first draft of Chapter 14 of the Half-Blood Prince aka My favourite chapter in the entire series. 

I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit, but I found pictures of some of the things I saw, online! It was so cool to see these things in person and see how small pieces of skratch paper became creative ideas, which then became one of the most loved stories of all time. 

Here is J.k. Rowlings sketch of the Weasleys. 

This was a sketch of Professor Sprout. 

This was a sketch that J.k. rowling drew when she first got the idea in the early 90s. she drew out a sketch of all the characters and how she imagined them in her mind. 

This was a diagram that showed how Diagon alley opened up from the Leaky Cauldron! 

One of the coolest things to see was how detailed J.k. Rowling planned everything. I remember seeing an interview with her and she said she thought it was important to know everything about the characters and the wizarding world, even if it didn't make it into the books, it would still be known by the author. Seeing some of her notes you could really see that. She had lists of everyone in Harry's year, their blood status, house, etc. It was so cool because I had never heard of these characters but she planned everything so thoroughly. Also, she planned the entire storyline before the first book was even published. My favourite part of her notes was a timeline of Order of The Phoenix, a note J.K. Rowling made was "Cho and Harry- back on their ish" 

There was also a diagram of Hogwarts taht I thought was very interesting. 

And here is the original proposal that J.K. Rowling sent to publishers to pitch her idea. 

And lastly, Europe was basically hit with a frozen wave ( I was going to make a frozen joke but then remembered it was the year 2018). But basically, there is snow everywhere. It never snows in London, and when it does, it doesn't usually stick. It has been interesting to see how people react to this. They don't have any snow ploughs or salt for the streets and sidewalks so basically, everything shut down for a little bit. It was also funny to see Londoners get so excited over an inch of snow because they have never really seen snow like this before. Anyways it is also snowing in Italy and so I'm sitting here praying that it all clears up before I make my way down there tomorrow!