Hi Everyone. This will be my last post from London. It is currently about 8am and we are almost all packed and ready for the airport. This has been the most amazing and incredible three weeks I think I have ever had. I will miss almost everything about London, the ease of transportation, the fun things to do, the people, and just the city itself. I will mostly miss my study abroad family who I have been living, traveling, and getting sick with for the past three weeks. I'm so glad that all of you were able to keep up with me while I'm abroad. I will post one more time later to let you all know that I have landed safely back home. The one thing I ask is that you guys hold off on all calling me all at once when I get home. I will try and give most people a call over the next day or two, but I am definitely going to be jet lagged and I have a lot to do to prepare to go back to school tomorrow! I love you guys very much and I can't wait to see each of you to detail the amazingness that was my study abroad experience! Cheers!

Hi! Today was my last day in London:( Will and I decided to start our day around 9 this morning with a quick breakfast at Starbucks. We then jetted off on our "Wellington" adventure which started in Hyde Park where the Duke of Wellington's house is. We started at a commemorative arch and then moved over to this house. We then took the tube over to the Horse Guards building. We took a short break and walked through St. Jame's Park to Buckingham Palace. It was fantastic and they let you get so close! Getting back on track, we jumped over to St. Paul's and then finished up at a statue of Wellington outside of Bank station. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it snowed the entire time. I only fell once though! We then made our way over to Picidilly Circus to meet Dr. Bell to give in our flip cameras.

Once we all met up, several of us went to lunch. Of course, being with all guys they got super excited to see a Cinnabon and we ended up there for lunch. Not even a lunch...but whatever. After lunch, me, Drew, Ben, and Will went to the Tower of London. It was really pretty architecturally, but it was snowing so it was pretty chilly outside. We got to see lots of really neat royal armor, royal gifts, the crown jewels (BLAHHH), and torture devices (yes the guys dragged me in there). The crown jewels were obviously my favorite and were absolutely incredible. I learned a lot more about coronation and even got to watch Queen Elizabeth II's coronation! I really enjoyed going and am definitely glad I went. Don't worry, I did fall again on the way back too.

I came back and took a very hot shower. Now we are just chilling before our last group meal tonight:( We are going out for Lebanese. Hopefully it is delicious! Am definitely going to miss my study abroad family!

Cheers! Today we finally found out what our final was going to be! We were put into pairs to make a documentary around London about a certain topic. Mine and Will's topic was Wellington's London. We spent the entire day researching in the library, from 9-5pm, where we then left to film the introduction to our documentary on Millennium bridge. After thoroughly freezing our butts off, we went out to dinner in Chinatown. We went to a Malaysian place, but it wasn't my favorite. It was rather bland. We ended our night tonight by going to see One Man, Two Guvnors. All I can say is it was a ridiculous few hours that I thoroughly enjoyed! Tomorrow we will be spending the first part of our day filming our documentaries and then after that we have free time until our last group meal:( I can't believe my time here is almost over!

Hello! I had a magical day today! I meant to go see the changing of the guard this morning, but I was just too exhausted from my long day yesterday to get moving quickly this morning. Instead I went to Sainsbury's (sort of a supermarket chain here) and got some groceries to make lunch. I made some spinach and ricotta tortellini and some yummy bread. After panicking about snow and not being able to get over to the studios, we set out to find out for sure. I took the tube to the Euston station and found out that yes there are delays, but the train would still be running. However, the train we needed was already at the station so we lucked out! We took a short train ride to Walford Junction where we picked up the bus to the studio. It was a very cool looking Harry Potter double decker. 20 minutes later, we arrived at the Warner Brother's studio, the Making of Harry Potter. We walked in to find a lobby covered in pictures of the principle cast.

We were then ready to embark on our magical tour. I will detail every single thing I saw, but I will tell you some of my favorites. We started off with a short movie telling us about what we were going to see and about the making of the movies. We then walked through a big set of doors straight into the Great Hall. It was like walking into a movie...LITERALLY! It is was really neat! They even had costumes of all the different professors at the front where they would sit during the movies. Other sets we saw included: the Burrow, Dumbledore's office, Potions room, Umbridge's office, boy's dormitory, Griffyndor common room, etc. One of my favorite moments was walking down Diagon Alley. I really couldn't believe it! I felt just as the cast must have the first time they saw it. We saw other really cool props like the flying car, Hagrid's motorcycle, number 4 Privet Drive, costumes, masks, etc. It was overwhelming and I really learned a lot that I didn't know! We ended the tour with an amazing moment...Hogwarts. Hogwarts is obviously not a real castle, so they built a huge model of one to use to film the movies. Whenever there were sweeping landscape shots of it, they used this model and then put the actors in after. It was incredible and took my breath away. I really came to appreciate all of the behind the scenes people after taking this tour. Of course, like any great place, it dumped us into the gift shop. I bought a few little souvenirs to remember this once in a lifetime experience. I was so glad I did it!

After making our way back to the flats, a few of us went to dinner at a nearby pub. I got some sangria and fish and chips. It redeemed fish and chips for me from the time I ate it in Portsmouth. I can now leave London feeling satisfied that I had good fish and chips! Trying to call it an early night tonight since last night was so crazy late. Tomorrow we start on our final, which has still been kept elusive from us. We are all anxious to know what will go on; we are hoping something fun! Sad that I only have one more weekend left, but getting excited to come home! Missing my family and friends very much!

Bon Soir! Today was a fun-filled, packed day full of things to do in Paris! We left around 4:45am this morning and took a brisk walk over to St. Pancras International Train Station to catch the Eurostar. I'm pretty sure both Briana and I passed out for the full 2 1/2 hour train ride. Before we knew it, we were in Paris! Our first challenge...getting out of the train station. It took us about 45 minutes (and every French word I remember) to get the right tickets to get us over to the Arc de Triomphe. Turns out I remember more direction than I would have thought! I was yet again in awe of the pure size of the Arc, as well as the detail. Though we did not climb it, we did view it from angle and took lots of pictures. Then it was off to the Champs D'Elysees, or what I like to call the 5th Avenue of Paris. We did some shopping until we got hungry. I even found the chocolatier, Jeff de Bruges, that we had gone to two years ago and bought a sampling of some chocolate. I can't wait to eat them! I visited one of my favorite French cafes for lunch, Paul, where I got a chicken baguette sandwich and a chocolate macaroon. YUM! We spent some time indoors eating to warm up. We did a little bit more shopping and then decided to move on.

We walked from the Arc to the Eiffel Tower. I even found the old hotel that my family stayed at the last time! It brought back lots of old fun memories! I took Briana to my family's favorite viewing spot of the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadero. After getting some fabulous views, we decided to get a closer look. My breath was still taken away by how majestic it looked. After many more pictures, we decided to move on to the next part of our day, which required us to navigate the metro yet again! We asked for help and got some and the next thing we knew, we were at Notre Dame! I was struck by how similar the west end of Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame look. We of course went inside to not only get a little warm, but to view the gorgeous stained glass windows. We did a little souvenir shopping in the Latin Quarter and then pulled out our handy dandy map for our last major attraction, the Louvre. Though we did not go inside, we still took the magnitude of the palace itself, as well as the lovely glass triangle sculptures outside. Fully frozen through, we decided to make our way back to the Eiffel Tower to try to catch it at sunset, which we completed successfully! We figured that was a good stopping place for dinner.

We ate dinner at a little cafe right near the Eiffel Tower. I got a glass of wine and Briana and I both got the best steaks of our lives! It was delicious! I also got a Nutella crepe for dessert! I told Briana I had to fit in all of the food I would eat in a week in France into one day. Dinner was not only delicious but it was a great way to warm up since it was about 30 degrees all day today. Very chilly! Our last stop was back one more time at the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night! We even got to see it twinkle! I got a little emotional watching it and thinking that this will be a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. We slowly teared ourselves away from the tower and decided to take a taxi back to the train station instead of trying to figure out the metro again. We arrived in plenty of time for our train, successfully made it through customs, and did a little shopping to spend the rest of the euros we had taken out, since they will do us no good here in London. There were some delays on our train, but we did finally make it back to London around 11pm. It was a very long and busy day, but an amazing one that I will never forget! Good night!

Hey Everyone! If you haven't deduced, it is about 4:30am here and Briana and I are excitedly awaiting our departure for Paris! Since I didn't blog about yesterday, I figured I should do it now. We started the morning off by watching a documentary in the flats called "I for India" which was about an Indian family who moved to England, with the intention of returning back home. They never went back to India. This idea is called the Myth of Return. It was a very emotional movie and there really wasn't a dry eye in the room when it was over (except the guys because they are too "manly" to cry.) After the movie, we all returned to our own flats and Briana and I made a rough plan for Paris. We then jetted off to Paddington station where we met Dr. Bell and grabbed a quick lunch. We then took a train out to an Indian district and had a lovely tour showing us the Indian culture that still survives in England today. Some of us tried the sweet corn being sold on the street, others bought some sweets at the sweet shop, and still more bought Indian scarves. I just enjoyed being there as none of these really appealed to me.

After our tour was over, I decided that I wanted to go over and tour Westminster Abbey, since this was going to be my only chance to do it. Wednesdays are the only day that the Abbey is open late, instead of closing at 4:30. Unfortunately, no one wanted to go with me, so I received explicit directions from Dr. Bell and made my way over. I found it easily, as we had been there once before at night towards the beginning of our trip. IT WAS AMAZINGGG! It was completely overwhelming to be a church that dates back to the 13th century, as well as the place where royals are married and coronated. I also saw many of the tombs of past Kings and Queens, such as King Henry VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I. I saw the coronation chair on my way out. As I walked down the center of the Abbey (or as Dr. Bell has decided it should be called, the Wabby) I had flashbacks to watching Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding day, and I myself felt like a princess. The decoration and detail were incredible. I was so glad that I was able to do it. Although I didn't get a formal tour, there were free audio guides that I was able to use throughout the abbey. Overall, it was definitely a bit overwhelming, but fantastic!

After grabbing a quick postcard of the abbey (since you are not allowed to take pictures inside), I made my way over to Picadilly Circus to where the rest of my class was eating a group meal at a place called Zedels. It was French food and since I was going to Paris the next day, I wasn't upset at missing it. After they finished up dinner, most of us made our way over to the SoHo Theatre to see a comedy stand-up show. It was pretty good, he picked on a few of my classmates as well as Dr. Bell so that was a lot of fun. When the show was done, my classmates and I made our way back to Regent's Park (the stop where we live) where I met my friend from high school, Caty, who goes to school here in London. We weren't able to spend an incredible amount of time together since I had to get up so early this morning, but we did spend a lovely two hours at a pub close by. I really enjoyed catching up and seeing her and if I had had more time I probably would have made my way out to Kingston to see her. Well that is about it for yesterday, hopefully I will be able to stay awake for today! As the French say, "Au Revoir!"

Hi! So after a pretty awful day yesterday, I woke up with a fresh smile on my face! Although not perfectly back to myself today, I was at least able to leave my bed. We started the morning with all 16 of us, the first time in just about a week. Hopefully it will stay this way for the remainder of the trip! Apparently there were four of us down yesterday. Our first stop this morning was the British Library, the second largest library in the world. I bet you can't guess what the largest one is, so I will just tell you. It's the Library of Congress. As Dr. Bell would say, "Go Team USA." We got a lovely tour of a special Mughal exhibit in the library that proved to be very interesting. I especially liked learning about the art and religion. We broke for lunch and Briana and I made the best discovery! Platform 9 3/4 has a trolley out during the day, so of course we took a whole new round of pictures! We met up with a few classmates at Pret for lunch. When we met back up with Dr. Bell, we headed over to the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, a part of London University, for a lecture about how India gained it's independence. I learned a lot more about Ghandi, as well as partition, which I never really had learned about before. That was where our formal day ended.

I came back to the flat to do some reading and prepared for my evening activity, going to see Wicked! It was incredible! The lighting, the singing, the dancing, everything was fantastic! I wish I was here longer so I could see more shows! The best part about the whole thing was that since it was a Tuesday, the theatre was virtually empty and we were moved up about 10 rows! Our seats were great and we were able to see everything, for only 25 pounds! Tonight was one of my favorite things that I have done in London thus far! Apparently West End theatre is as good as Broadway, if not better! Missing you all terribly!