Thanksgiving, London-Style

I still need to write up posts about my Host UK weekend (with visits to Lacock, Cirencester and Bath) and my weekend in Rome. But unfortunately, not failing out of school this semester might be slightly more important than blogging. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the wonderful Thanksgiving feast my flatmate Stephen cooked up. I was convinced I wasn’t going to have a Thanksgiving celebration this year, but it turns out my British flatmates were more excited to celebrate than I was. We went all out with pilgrim/Indian headbands and hand turkeys. Stephen even managed to cook a pumpkin pie, which was delicious!

Cross Cultural Legal Comparison

With the mounting pile of papers and assignments I’m facing toward the end of the semester, it’s easy to forget why I love being abroad. But then I have a conversation or an experience that wouldn’t be possible back home and it reminds me why I came here. For example, this week I went out for coffee with two girls from my criminology class. One is studying law in Germany, the other in New Zealand. It was really interesting to hear about their university structure and legal systems. Here’s what I learned:

Christmas in November

Last week my friends and I went up to Picadilly Circus for the official Christmas lighting ceremony. The ceremony turned on all the Christmas lights up and down Regent street for the holiday season. I came to London knowing I would have to give up celebrating Thanksgiving…what I didn’t anticipate was the extra twenty days of Christmas I would receive in return. Basically, as soon as the 5th of November passes, the entire city of London starts preparing for Christmas.

Remembering the 5th of November, London-Style

The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day. The holiday originated in Britian so it’s a huge deal over here. We celebrated it London-style by attending one of the many fireworks displays in the city. When I say many I’m not kidding…there were about 20 different displays to choose from in the London area, just on Saturday night.

Leeds

Last week I went up to visit my cousin at Leeds for a night. Leeds is a large city in north England and home to Leeds University where she is studying abroad for the year. My cousin is from Canada, so it’s so crazy that we finally live in the same country after 20 years!

I could not stop staring out the window on the four hour bus ride up. Everything, and I mean everything, was green. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much green grass in my life. I was so happy I got to take a scenic travel route while the weather was sunny.

Everything is Beautiful in Cambridge

Halloween weekend Jose, Matt, Amanda and I decided to take the train to Cambridge for a day. This was one of the few weekends this semester I have free to explore England’s beautiful landscape and ancient buildings.

Appreciating the Little Things

 

This is my walk home from class. On days when it isn’t cloudy, I still can’t get over how incredible this is.

Halloween in London

Is quite different from Halloween in America. Not necessarily in a negative way since I still had a great Halloween weekend here in London, but there were definitely moments where I was homesick. Serious nostalgia for AU’s campus and embassy row trick-or-treating!

Out on the Town: Her Majesty’s Theatre!

I’ve been terrible at blog updates lately. I finally reached the point in my semester where abroad ceases to be a fun, glamourous vacation 24/7. It still is some of the time, but the remainder of my time has been spent working on my first British paper (technicaly called an essay, the terminology is different over here). It was actually a surprise essay, meaning our professor handed out the assignment two weeks before it was due and was like, surprise, this essay is worth half your grade! So I’ve had to focus on becoming a real student again, though I’ve managed to sneak in some time for sightseeing.