Bucket List: UK Edition

The last month of my semester abroad was absolutely crazy. In addition to traveling out of the country three times and writing five papers, I also tackled a long bucket list of things I needed to do and see in London before I left.

1. The Natural History Museum. Visited the weekend my cousin Versailles came to visit. The most impressive thing about this museum isn’t the exhibits themselves, but the architecture in the main hallway. But the dinosaur exhibit was also good for a few laughs.

Main hallway in the Natural History Museum

Christmas with London is the best

From November through the middle of December, London was transformed into a magical Christmas paradise. I have never loved Christmas more than I did this semester. Earlier I wrote about the Piccadilly Christmas lighting…well, Christmas in London only got better from there. My favorite Christmas attractions in London included:

1. Somerset House Ice Rink. There were ice rinks everywhere in London: outside the Natural History museum, next to the Tower of London, in front of the London Eye, but Somerset House was my favorite one. I might be a little biased because it was literally right next door to King’s Strand campus.

Somerset ice rink and tree

Roaming Around Rome

Back in November I went to Rome for a weekend. I loved Rome almost as much as I love Madrid (I say almost because no one spoke Spanish in Rome). Rome had numerous large plazas, amazing ancient architecture, and yummy Italian food. If I wasn’t obsessed with ancient Rome before, I am now. Here’s a re-cap of everything I saw/ate:

Four rivers fountain with Egyptian obelisk at the center

Host UK Weekend: Day 3

Sunday morning Jenny took me for a walk around the outskirts of Malmesbury. The view of the city from the surrounding countryside was very pretty.

Scenic view of Malmesbury

Host UK Weekend: Day 2

I started off the morning with a quick walk around Malmesbury with Jenny. The town looked much different in the daylight and I finally had a chance to check out my surroundings.  On average, the homes in Malmesbury are about 300 years old, which completely blows my mind. The only 300 year old buildings we have in the US are preserved in historic villages. England just has layer upon layer upon layer of history.

Host UK Weekend: Day 1

Last month I spent a weekend staying with a host in an old historic town south of London.

I should probably start by explaining the Host UK program. It is affiliated with several colleges in London (and probably the rest of England although I’m not certain about that) and students can apply to spend a weekend with a host family somewhere in the UK. We learned about the program at one of the King’s abroad orientations at the beginning of the semester and I decided to apply because it sounded like a great opportunity. Plus King’s covers the first visit so not having to pay for food/lodging for the weekend was an added bonus.

Story of My Abroad Problems…

#AbroadMotivation (because yes, it has come to this)