The last few weeks have been extremely 'hectic' for me. If the life of a student trying to maintain grades and a social life, and prepare for a future career, can be described as such. Between exploring Christmas in London with friends, and keeping up with the readings for class, I have somehow managed to complete my FINAL essay for the term!
As of 11:45 am today, December the 9th, I am completely done with all assignments for four whole weeks!!! I have two lectures to go, a weekend of Christmas fun and shopping in London and then Home for the holidays on Monday!
I cannot believe how quickly these past 10 weeks have gone - and they have been quite a ride. Everything from my emotions - loving and hating London, missing home and then not being able to imagine myself anywhere but Europe and my mixed emotions about my decision to return to school for my Masters. But, as always happens with these things, there has definitely been more good than bad. I have had amazing experiences, met amazing people and I am living in one of the biggest and most influential cities in the World. In just 10 weeks here I have met people who I know will be my friends for life and I have had many people come in and out of my life, blessing me in different ways.
I do not want to bore you with detailed descriptions of my adventures of late, so here is a nice and tidy list of my happenings in London these last few weekends!(albeit, amidst my unneccesary, self inflicted stress about school and essays)
The 'DONE IT' list:
~ MASSIVE Christmas Shopping! I did it all, Portobello Road, Regent's Street, Oxford Street, Harrods, High Street Kensington - what a day!
~Winter Festival in Hyde Park. Complete with Bavarian pretzels, ice skating and mulled wine :-)
~Proper English hight tea. We did it all, two pots of tea accompanied by mini sandwhiches and cakes. (This is not a cheap affair my friends, we got the best deal in the city at 16 pounds per person!! Oh well, a tourist must do what a tourist must do...)
~Christmas extravaganza at my dear friend Amy Allender's flat! The activities included Gingerbread house making, homemade Mulled wine, a Christmas Movie and an impromtu sleepover when I realized at 2am that I would no long be able to catch the tube home (and I am not sure i trust the buses that late at night...)
~St. Nicolas Day Celebration! My wonderful Dutch friends, Anouk and Kimmie, brought their delicious dutch cookies and candies and through a St. Nick's Day Party on December 5th! We played a traditional gift exchange game, made mulled wine (are you catching a theme here yet?), watched a Dutch film which was a cross between A Miracle on 34th Street and Love Actually and once again I accidentaly found myself out late, until 3am!
~Exploring the German Market with my German friend Debbie (aka we ate our way through the German market). She introduced me to all the best Christmas German sweets! And, once again, drinking mulled wine. But this time I got a souvenier mug! Its quite cool!
~ A quick afternoon trip to beautiful Greenwhich! The place where the Prime Meridian was discovered, forever changing navigation at sea! I learned quite a lot at the museums there :-)
Looking back, I have surprisingly done quite a lot in the city despite having so much to do at school. It is amazing how easy it is to forget about all of the wonderful things until the mist clears. Kinda like trying to see Big Ben through the London fog in each morning in the city...
More Adventures to come! But for the next four weeks they will be from Spokane!!!
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