Study Abroad week 3 | Oxford & Harry Potter

Wow....can you believe that I have made it 3 week and I'm still blogging. I'm so proud of myself TBH!!! 

I started my weekened off feeling a little bit under the weather, so I just rested for a few days, but on Sunday our school took us to Oxford, Oxfordshire! 

We left London at about 8am and it was raining and cold, and by the time we got to Oxford it was freezing rain, snowing, and windy....basically the perfect recipe for a disastrous day. My day in Oxford made me realize how much I loved my friends that I have made across the pond, becuase even though we were walking around in windy freezing rain, I still had so much fun. Being the Harry Potter nerd that I am, Oxford was literally like heaven for me. A lot of the scenes filmed in Harry Potter were filmed in Oxford. 

THE HARRY POTTER STAIRS :D 

Me standing where my president, Emma Watson once stood  

Me falling down the famous staircase 

This was also where they filmed some of the Quidditch scenes. Most famously, the scene where Draco called Hermione a "mudblood" and then Ron told Draco to "eat slugs"...anyways it was pretty amazing to be standing in the exact spot where love was invented. 

 

Here is my snapchat story from this fun day in Oxford. I had a little too much fun making Harry Potter refrences. Also idk if that video is going to work I've never done this before but whatever you get the point of this. 

I didn't really do much on Monday and Tuesday because I had classes, but on Wenesday a few of my friends and I ventured off into centralish London and walked along Oxford Street. As you can see, I made an important purchase, a bowl of pasta from the cafe down the street. Anyways I made my friend take a photo of me becuase I was feel very /London/ 

Back to the Topic of Harry Potter......I was on my computer Tuesday evening and I decided to look at tickets for Cursed Child. If you don't know, Cursed Child is the 8th story in the Harry Potter Seris and it's been brought to life as a play! It is basically impossible to get tickets to and every single time I have looked tickets have been about $300 and I ain't no Rockafeller so my ass was convinced I would never see miss cursed child.....that was until I looked at tickets for the next day. When I was looking, I saw a ticket to both parts for $30. I literally didn't even think about it, I just bought it. I had to miss my afternoon class to see it, but honestly it was the best decision I have ever made. 

I read the script for Cursed Child when it came out a year ago and lowkey hated it lmao. I felt like I was reading a really bad fan fic. But let me tell you!!! The play is 4853902394589345823049582xx better than the book. Seeing everything brought to life on stage was so amazing. I really wish I could describe the play to you but the only thing I can think of is magic. The set, cast, special effects, music, everything ...AMAZING. Seeing my favorite characters, characters I have grown up with, on a stage, it really felt like I was right there with them. It was a long ass day. I was at the theatre for about 10 hours, but it was worth every hour and $7 glass of wine I had while I was waiting between parts. 

Okay so basically all I did last week was Harry Potter related things but what else would you expect from me? I am going to Paris this weekend so my proffessor that gave me B- in French 1 last semester is shaking. Je veux du vin! Ou est le metro? Je vais manger du pain! 

Au revoir! 

London week 2 !

Hello friends! I have now been in London for 2 weeks and it seems like I have been here forever! I can already tell that this semester is going to fly by!  We had our first week of classes this week and there are so many differences between American universities and British universities. First of all, instead of having 50 minute classes 3 times a week, we have a 3 hour class once a week. It seems fine, but my ADHD ass cannot sit still for that long so....it might be a struggle. ALSO instead of having projects, tests, finals, midterms, essays, homework, participation, etc. factor your grade, the U.K. literally just has like 1 essay that is your entire grade. In my mind I'm like hellll yea I only have to write one paper and that's it????? But catch me in like 2 months wanting to die because I waited till the last minute to do everything and have to write five 10,000 word essays in a weekend. 

On Monday my class got out early so some friends and I walked around Notting Hill (my fav rom com btw)... I'm in a celebrity PR class and on the very first day of class, my professor started talking about taylor swift and I was like okay, anD THEN,.....he started talking about the secret sessions and how Taylor did that as a way to manipulate fans and I was just sitting there silent and I felt like someone was yelling at me for 3 hours. My prof. asked if anyone went to a secret session and everyone in the class looked at me. I was just sitting there like.....I have literally been in this country for 1 fucking week how does everyone already know that I met taylor at a secret session fjkadsf I was just sitting there like .....literally everywhere I go for the rest of my life I'm going to be the "taylor swift girl" but whatever it could be worse! I could feel it in my bones that my prof. was going to play my golf club video. I already have a plan for when he does that. After the entire class roasts me, I am going to be like "that is me in that video." Anyways I already know that class is going to fucking stress me out because I will just feel like I'm being roasted the entire time. I literally felt like I had run a marathon after 3 hours of sitting in class because i was so stressed over literally nothing. 

On Wednesday we went to Wicked !!!!! I am SO excited to be back in a city where I can see a musical whenever I want! It was so cute bc the actors all had british accents! 

We don't have classes on Friday, so Thursdays are our Friday! We went to a club and my introverted ass was shaking 

On friday we went to Lumiere London! It was a light festival all over London! And then I had my first ice cream cone in London! 

I hope all of you are proud of me for doing another blog post because I was like 90% certain I was going to it one week and then never again. Tomorrow I will be going to Oxford with my school and then next weekend I am going to Paris!!!! 

London Week 1!!!!!!

It's hard to believe that only a week ago I was sitting in my bed in Kansas watching Glee. I've been in London for a week now and I can already tell that studying abroad in London was the best decision I've ever made! I love my program and my group so much! Everyone here wants to travel and have an adventure and so hanging out with other people who want those things is so much fun!

Living in Kansas I never had really been on a flight that lasted longer than 3 hours. While I was on my flight from Kansas to Chicago, like 3 people around me drank tomato juice out of a can? I was in complete shock. I didn't know that tomato juice was a thing people just straight up drank. Anyways this was the moment I was excited to leave the country(although British people eat black pudding). Being at an airport without my parents still makes me feel like an adult for some reason. I printed off my boarding pass beforehand and it wouldn't scan so I had to deal with it myself. Yes all I did was leave security and ask the airline to print me a new ticket, but all I could think about was how if that would have happened to me a year or two ago, I would've sat in a corner and cried for no reason other than to be dramatic. I knew that I was ACTUALLY going to London when I stepped on my British Airways flight. The flight attendants had British accents and I was legal to drink. My plan for the flight was to have a few glasses of wine and then fall asleep. So I ordered my glass of wine, I turned on some feminist films (Legally Blonde), and all it made me do was pee 4 times within one hour...so needless to say. My ass was tired after the flight.

When I got off the plane and got in my cab, I was so tripped out that the cars were driving on the wrong side of the road. YEs, I knew this was a thing that they did but it was so weird to actually see! Also crossing the street is very different in London than it is in an American city. I have almost been hit by a car approx. 10 times. I don't know how people study abroad in countries that speak a different language because I can't even f*cking cross the street in a new country.

My first day in London consisted of sleeping and then walking around. I went on a walking tour of Kensington to explore some more of the neighborhood I live in. I live just a few blocks away from Hyde Park and Kensington Palace so yes, Will and Kate and my neighbors. Some friends and I walked to Leicester Square and there happened to be a movie premiere with the queen herself, Ms. Meryl Streep. After that we went to a  British pub and I had my first beer!  I really had never had a beer because I always thought it tasted like you shoved a loaf of bread in a cup of lukewarm water and just left it there for a while. Anyways I don't even know what I ordered but it wasn't that bad! But they gave me a cup to put it in and I accidentally poured it all in really fast and like 4/5 of the glass was foam. Anyways my brother said that he was disappointed in me. The next visit I had to a pub, I ordered ice cream so we're taking baby steps.

I definitely thought that the U.K. would be the same as the U.S. minus saying a few different words and driving on the wrong side of the road, but British people really do have a completely different culture than Americans. For instance, Americans are loud as hell. I didn't notice this until I went out with a group of Americans and a British person yelled at us for being loud Americans and I was like.....damn...we really are loud and annoying. Also, Americans have completely different eating habits than Europeans. Europe doesn't have a bunch of chemicals in their food so all their food tastes different, they also have all their food portioned, like if you bought a bag of chips, there would be 6 small bags of chips inside. They also sell oreos by the sleeve and not the box. Our first dinner in the university dining hall, we noticed that all the British students had completely clear plates, and all the American students took way more food than they were going to eat and had a bunch of food left over. Anyways moral of the story is Americans like eating large portions and are loud.

ALSO.....I WENT TO PLATFORM 9 3/4 AND FREAKED OUT LOWKEY 

Okay ladies that is all for today. Lets see if I actually keep doing this