Home again, home again, jiggity jog...

Welp, here I am, sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting for a connecting flight to KC. Back in the good ol' US of A.

My last day in London could not have been better. My friend Monica and I went to Camden Market one last time and then walked up to Primrose Hill that overlooks the whole city to say our good-bye. Walking down the hill back to the tube, I realized that I don't know when I'll be back but I have no doubt in my mind I'll be returning the first chance I get.

To conclude, I thought I would make a list of things I will miss from London and things I'm looking forward to now that I'm at home.

Things I will miss:
1. The new friends I made from all over the states. It was such an interesting and eclectic group of students that made the program so fun, interesting and enjoyable. One of the biggest things I learned is that what makes a place special is not where you're at but the people you're with.
2. The best public transportation system in the world. I am going to sorely miss being able to get anywhere I want in the city from a simple tube ride, bus ride or even walking out on the street and throwing my hand in the air for a taxi in a matter of just two seconds. Even though London is one of the most sprawling and biggest cities with over ten underground lines, the organization is incredible and extremely convenient. The way they move people is pretty cool. Going along with that, I'm really going to miss being able to hop over to a completely different country with a completely different culture in a matter of hours. I love the mixture of cities in Europe.
3. Feeling so safe. Before this whole experience I think I pictured the world as a dark and dangerous place full of bad people. The wonderful thing about London is that it is one of the safest cities in the world with an extremely low violent crime rate. The fact that the policemen don't even carry guns shows just how safe it is. I think adding to the feeling of safety is that everyone there seems to have a purpose. It really changed my view of big cities as before I thought of them as full of crime but being in London showed me that it's pretty hard for someone to hurt you when you're always surrounded on the street by a million other people. I actually believe living in a city is much safer than the suburbs simply because you're never really alone in a city. I'm really going to miss being able to walk anywhere by myself and feeling so safe. Along with that, I think I realized that people are the same at heart no matter where you go and I don't view the world as such a scary place anymore.


Things I am looking forward to:
1. Seeing my friends and family. I am so incredibly excited to be an aunt and I cannot wait to get home and see Haylee for the first time. I am so excited for the baby shower tomorrow to see everyone and also to see Aunt Libby!
2. Driving around listening to music in my car. One thing that was somewhat difficult about this semester is that being surrounded by others constantly meant I never really got any alone time to relax and unwind. My favorite thing to do to just relax is drive around and listen to music, so I'm really looking forward to being able to do that again.
3. Studying what I love. As much fun as this semester was, I am antsy to get back to work and school. I can't just have fun for too long or else I feel like I'm missing out on the things I want to learn and understand and I don't like feeling like I'm falling behind in my studies. I think it is just as important to figure out what you don't like as much as what you do like and this semester definately showed me what subjects I don't like. Now I'm ready to get back to what I do enjoy.

It has certainly been an amazing, most wonderful semester. I feel like it went by in the blink of an eye and it seems like all a dream now. London is the most amazing city in the world without a doubt. It's a place you hate and love at the same time; with ten million different types of people trying to coexist in this micro/macro-cosm, there is certainly no place in the world like London. But there is also no place like home.


Yes this picture is cheesy, but I had to. Saying my good-bye to London behind me.

Athens and Paros

So here's what we did in Athens...

My flight left at around 9 a.m. and landed right around 3 p.m. Athens time. Lily had bought us tickets to catch the last ferry to this island, Paros, for the weekend at 5:30. She told me it takes about two hours to get from the airport to the ferry, so I was kind of/really stressed about whether or not we would make the ferry in time. If we didn't make it we wouldn't be able to go to the island at all because strikes were scheduled for Saturday and there were no ferries that day. And if we missed our ferry we would be out the money since we had already bought the tickets. So I was pretty stressed out about that, especially after suddenly realizing that every single flight I've taken over here has all been approximately delayed an hour. Luckily I think with the airline backups from the volcanic ash I think the airport was so stuck on a tight schedule that rushed us onto that plane and got us out of there. It was the fastest I've ever been boarded onto a plane before and actually really great to just get going. So fortunately I landed right on time, Lily met me at the airport, her friend David met us on the metro halfway to the ferry and we made it onto the ferry just five minutes before it took off.

It was soo beautiful taking the ferry to the island because it was evening and we got to watch the sunset on the ocean. I really enjoyed flying into Athens too because I had a window seat and the planes circle out over the water before it lands so you can see the whole city perched on the water's edge with pretty white buildings and surrounded on all sides by mountains.












When we got to the island, a lady from our hotel where we were staying picked us up and took us to the hotel. The island is pretty small and you can circle the whole thing by car on one road in about an hour's time. It only took five minutes to get to our hotel so we put our stuff down and walked to a nearby restaurant that the lady suggested. The food there is SO GOOD! We did family style dining the whole weekend and just ordered a bunch of dishes to share. So for dinner we got tzaziki sauce with bread, fried cheese (saganaki), sausage, mussels, this Greek type of lasagna made with Feta cheese, a greek salad and a few other things. It was amazing. Then they brought us dessert on the house cause I told them it was my first time in Greece. After dinner we met up with Lily's other friends who had come to the island earlier that morning and hung out with them in the hotel before going to bed. The hotel was sooo cute. It wasn't really a hotel in the typical sense but rather consisted of a series of different buildings with several rooms in each building. It also had a huge outdoor patio for everyone and a pool so we ate breakfast on the patio every morning.








The next morning we rented some cars and drove around the island until we found golden beach- it's supposed to be the best beach or something. Since it's not yet tourist season we were the only ones on the beach, so it was kind of eery but at the same time very peaceful. We stayed there all day and then drove the cars to a nearby town called Naussou. Lily's friend Tess had been there before and suggested we go eat dinner along the water in this town. We found a really cute restaurant and had a table about ten feet from the waters edge. We had another family style meal and then headed back to our hotel. That evening we walked to the boardwalk just a ten minute walk from our hotel and went to a couple places around there.
























The next day was pretty much the same- we walked down to the boardwalk and laid on the beach there all day. There are a lot of stray cats and dogs in Athens and the cats are actually really sweet. They are all so thin because they don't get much to eat so I bought this one cat that was following me around a can of cat food I found in a convenience store. It was so precious. We got dinner at another restaurant on the water's edge before heading back to grab our bags and catch the ferry back to Athens.









In Athens I finally got to see Lily's apartment. It is soooo nice. Her apartment sits up on this huge hill and she has a wrap-around balcony that overlooks the whole city. She also has a kitchen and cooks all of her food. I can't imagine having to pay for my own food over here- that would be insanely expensive. I am so lucky that food was included in my program cause I hardly ever spend money on food except for the weekends. Because of that, I can actually get through an entire Monday through Friday without spending a dime. Nevertheless, it would be really nice to be able to cook my own food so that is one thing I am really looking forward to when I get home. Or just having home-cooked food I guess since I'm not really a cook. Anyways, that night we got to skype with our friends Kathleen and Sarah and it made me really excited to come home and see my family and friends this summer.

Monday morning I woke up and Lily had to go to class so she took me to a local bakery for breakfast before we parted ways. I didn't need to leave for my flight until noon so I headed down to Monastiraki Square and from there you can look up and see the Parthenon and Acropolis. I really wanted to go up to the Acropolis but unfortunately it didn't open until 11 on Mondays and that wouldn't be enough time to make it back down by noon. So instead I went to get sandals from this famous man in Athens called The Poet Sandalmaker of Athens. He is the author of The Rubaiyat which is a famous book on a lot of university reading lists in the states. He is also famous for his sandals and personally makes all of them. He has made them for John Lennon and Jackie O among other famous people. You wouldn't think that though from his store which is on this little side road and very quaint. Unfortunately I think the man in the store that day was his son rather than the actual Poet, but his son is a famous author too... so that's cool. I got a picture with him.







The view from Lily's apartment.

After that I hopped on the metro for the airport. My flight was delayed a half hour- no big. I sat next to this Greek man who talked to me the whole flight home. He was really sweet but he kept talking about soccer players and all the teams and I know nothing about them so all I could do was nod and smile. Oh yeah, and as I was boarding the plane I tried to put my bag under my seat because I like having it near me in case I want to get anything out of it but the flight attendant stopped me and told me I had to put it in the overhead bins. I told him I would prefer to put it under my seat but he said I couldn't do that and then he said, "How old are you? Are you even 14 yet?" He was a sassy fellow. I just smiled and told him I was 20.


I'm talking to Lily on skype right now and she just informed me the riots are starting to get bad. She said three people died yesterday and four got hurt when a bank blew up. The scary part is that it's not on the outskirts of the city but in the middle, not too far from her apartment. She said they're all just staying inside as much as they can. She is dying to go home. I am so glad I studied here in London because it would certainly be ten times more difficult to live in a city where they don't speak English, and especially where the native language doesn't even use the same alphabet we do. There's also so many strikes in Greece that I think it makes it a lot more difficult to get around and that can be frustrating. Also, one thing that did really bother me there is just the way men treat women. They think it's okay to be rude and call after two girls walking down the street. And it's not a rare occurrence, it happens about every two minutes you're walking down the street if you're a girl there. I can handle that for a weekend but dealing with that for four months would drive me insane. When I stepped off the train in London when I got back I made eye contact with one of the train workers and he just smiled and nodded at me in a completely normal, respectable manner and I never appreciated so much living in a country where I will be treated like a respectable human being. I think that's the biggest thing I learned from this weekend and gave me a greater appreciation for the culture I live in.

Finals

Well, I made it back from Athens this weekend! Thank goodness... I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried. But I talked to our director of student affairs before going about whether it was a bad idea and she told me I should take the opportunity to go while I could. I figured if I didn't go now I probably never would/it would cost three times as much to go there in the future than it would cost to go now while I have a cheap flight and a friend to stay with. So off I went.

I'll update more about Athens when I have time to put up pictures. It was so great to see Lily and made me really excited to come home and see my family and friends that I have missed for so long. I have two more finals tomorrow (Modern Art and Psychopathology) and then I'm done for the semester! I cannot wait to be done with these classes. One thing I have definately learned this semester is that I chose the right major and I'm glad I've stuck with the sciences route. I just find it so much more interesting than art and literature and I think my mind works better with concrete subjects than with abstract ones. I would so rather be studying for a biology test right now than an art test and I cannot wait to get back to normal classes next semester. The good thing about all this is that I don't think I will ever look back and think "I should have been an English major or I should have been a Psych major" or anything like that. Nope, nope, nope... I have no regrets about the path I've taken now.

I got to skype with Haylee last week. She was asleep most of the time but every now and then she would stretch her little arms or hiccup and it was so precious! I am supposed to skype again with Jamie, Mom and Haylee today, so just waiting to hear when that should happen. Guess I need to study for art now... in 24 hours I will be done with this nonsense. Yippee!

Wisdom Teeth Do Not Make Me Feel Any Wiser

My wisdom teeth are coming in and they HURT! I freaked out this morning for a few minutes worrying that maybe I had some freak incidence of tetanus resulting in lockjaw or a weird disease/accident/illness like that. And I thought for a moment trying to recall if I had cut myself or stepped on an old nail or anything like that but nothing came to mind. I looked like a slob eating breakfast this morning because it hurt to move my jaw and so all my food was dribbling out of my mouth as I tried to chew it. Good thing I have friends by this point in the program or else no one would have wanted to sit next to me.

I wish I had a higher tolerance for pain. And I wish I wasn't so afraid of everything. I feel like I'm always worried about getting hurt or afraid to try new things. I am terrified of the dentist and really nervous about getting my wisdom teeth out this summer. I also think pain is very much a mental state. If I could just not be afraid of getting my wisdom teeth out then I bet it would probably hurt a lot less and I would heal a lot faster. But just because I'm afraid of it, it will probably seem that much worse. I wonder if there is some way to teach yourself to be a less anxious person. I'm going to look into that.

Hills and Parks and Beaches Oh My!

I feel really stressed out. I need to start working on medical school applications and I don't even know where to begin. And I need to decide if I want to try to go to Athens this weekend or not but I can't decide since I want to go so badly but at the same time I don't want to be stuck anywhere what with the volcano and flights being cancelled. There have been a ridiculous amount of planes in the sky this week. Wednesday night I went with some girls to watch the sun set at Primrose Hill- it overlooks the entire city of London. While we were sitting there for about an hour, every ten seconds two planes would cross at the exact same point in the sky, going in opposite directions. It was obvious the airport was trying to catch up flights after all the delays. The newspapers have been blaming the government for unnecessarily closing down the airports for too long in order to get more votes for the party out of power right now as the election draws near. I should probably know which party is in power right now, but I'm not going to lie- I have no idea. I do know the parties are quite different from the U.S. ones... my friend Monica was explaining to me, for example, that the liberal Democrats here do not align directly with the U.S. Democrats but rather share half their views with the U.S. Democratic party and have their views with the U.S. Republican party. So the parties here do not split in the same way, if that makes sense. Either way, I find politics uninteresting. Here's some pictures from Primrose Hill...









Thursday I went down to Borough market. It's a food market where all the best chefs buy their food for the week. I got a lot of free samples so it was a great free lunch! After that we walked over to the Tower Bridge and went up it to get some pretty views of the city.


That building there, called "The Shard", is supposed to look like a giant piece of broken glass when it's complete.





Friday after breakfast we walked to Hyde Park and laid in the grass for a while. Friday night we went to a Shakespeare play at the globe for my Shakespeare class. It reminded me of Starlight at home because they had all these stands selling drinks and snacks and the globe is open in the middle to the sky so it is pretty much an outside theatre. We saw Macbeth. It was pretty creepy and gory- a lot of people die in Macbeth. Unfortunately we had to stand as our tickets were for the "standing audience" in the front, but luckily we found a wall to lean against. It was nevertheless a long three hours of standing.


Maddie and I in Hyde Park

All the trees are blooming!

The white building with the thatched roof on the other side of the river is the Globe.


At the play they made us stick our heads through this canvas... they did some special effects with the canvas to incorporate the audience. It was supposed to represent the black depths of Hell... yeah, Macbeth is kind of intense. We didn't like standing with our heads through the canvas so we found a back wall to lean against instead. The canvas was kind of dirty.

I love St. Paul's at night. You can see the big dome lit up in the background... that's St. Paul's. It was a beautiful night and so fun to walk over the Millenium bridge on our way back from the play.





Saturday we went to Brighton beach for the day. It was a forty-five minute train ride, so we left at 9 in the morning to catch the 10 am train and made it there by 11. One lady on the train told us we had beautiful accents. I never thought I would hear that. I think she thought it was pretty because my friend from South Carolina has more of a southern accent and the lady said she just loved the way she said "in South Carolina". Once we got there we walked through some markets in the streets towards the beach and when we got to the Pier we spent some time riding the rides... they had a mini-roller coaster and this thing that carried you up really high over the water and then released you so it felt like you were on a rollercoaster and looked as though you would go smashing into the pier until at the last second it would swing you up again to the other side. That was terrifying but great fun. Then we got fish n chips and sat at a table on the beach and then we walked down to the water and laid in the sun all day. Then my friend Bree had some ride tokens left over so she begged me to go on the carousel with her. As in the children's carousel. I felt quite silly but whatever, it was fun. After that we headed home for the evening and ate dinner at the pizza place on our corner that used to be Princess Diana's favorite place to eat. I got the American pizza :)



We put on our sun screen! :)






We like jumping pictures.





Today it is rainy and our internet is down at the dorm so I am at the Wellcome gallery club room using their free internet. I feel extremely stressed out though at the moment and wish I could figure out what to write my medical school essay on. I also need to start studying for finals. I should probably get going.