Appreciating the Little Things

While these past few months have been filled with tons of sightseeing and crossing things off my to do list, this last week has reminded me that sometimes it's the little things that count.

Thursday night I made an American style meal for my flatmates that included hot dogs, french fries, corn on the cob and the all important apple pie. I'm not gonna lie I was a little nervous to make the meal as the extent of my cooking since being here has been using the microwave and mastering the art of the sandwich. I enlisted the help of my flatmate Varala who showed me a thing or two about how to chop an onion and a tomato.
I'm happy to say the dinner was a hit. We all cleared our plates pretty darn fast so maybe I'll have to keep up with this cooking thing...maybe.

The weather in London these past few days has been nothing short of amazing. So Friday I knew I absolutely had to sit outside for my lunch break at work. I stopped in McDonald's to grab something when my day was made when I saw the Cadbury Cream Egg McFlurry added to the menu. I got my McFlurry to go (which was as amazing as it sounds by the way) and found a place by the Thames to sit in the sun. As I looked out at the London Eye and Big Ben I had to pinch myself to remember how lucky I am to be living in London and working in one of the top PR firms in the city.

After work I was was off to the Midlands for the weekend to visit my friend Megan I met last year as my instructor for a 5k training class I took at DePaul. She moved to England this past year as her husband Andy is from Brierley Hill. I really enjoyed getting to meet another local who I could ask all my random questions about England to and meet up with a fellow Chicagoan to swap our crazy culture encounter stories.

Saturday we took a day trip out to the small town of Iron Bridge. We drove through the quintessential countryside with the rolling hills and sheep everywhere in sight.

The town was adorable with little mom and pop shops and a walking path right along the river. We explored the town for the day and made a very necessary stop at the cupcake shop Queenies. And I'll say my banoffee cupcake did not disappoint!

We made it back in Brierley Hill in the afternoon just in time so Megan and I could go to her yoga class she teaches on Saturday afternoons. I was definitely a little rusty as I haven't done yoga in about a year now...but I made it work! 

 Later that night we met up with a few of Andy's friends at THE most unique pub I have seen since being here. It's called the Crooked House where as you can bet everything is crooked. It really makes you feel like you're drunk before you've even had a drink in you...It really is a drunk person's nightmare as you could imagine.

I can't thank Megan and Andrew enough for being so welcoming this last weekend and giving me a taste of a different part of England!

So after this week I'm trying to remind myself that experiencing new things doesn't have to be all about checking things off my to do list but counting the little moments as well.



A Multicultural St. Patty's Day

While I may not have participated in the typical college fashion of St. Patrick's day yesterday I'll have to say I'm pretty sure my festivities of yesterday were just as interesting, entertaining and fun!

My friends and I had quite the multicultural holiday as we went to a local Chinese restaurant where I had Dim Sum for the first time. I tried to be educated on how to properly use chopsticks for about the 10th time but it was still a major fail.

Even though I may not have eaten my dim sum properly it was quite delicious either way....I guess this means I'll just have to wait till I come home for Maxine Loh to teach me how to use chopsticks. (wink wink, nudge nudge).

After dinner we went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients to make our own Shamrock Shakes and butter beer (Harry Potter style). We were able to find almost everything we needed except for the all important ingredient of butterscotch for the butter beer so needless to say that just didn't end up happening.

But the Shamrock Shakes were quite a hit if I do say so myself. They were so much easier to make than I thought they would be as the recipe only required milk, ice-cream and peppermint extract   and of course some green food coloring for a St. Patty's day touch. The whip cream was a bit more of a struggle to make as we didn't have a mixer but we still made it work.

I've also discovered that they don't have Shamrock Shakes here at McDonald's which is just blasphemy to me so it was a nice touch of home for St. Patrick's day.

To continue on with our multicultural theme we had some tasty pie made from Daim chocolate that my friend Vethina and I have become obsessed with since our trip to Stockholm last weekend...needless to say we had to educate Natalie on the amazingness that is Daim chocolate and we we're pleased to find that she agreed :)

It may not have been a Chicago St. Patrick's Day celebration but I will have to say that it was definitely one of the most fun nights I've had since being here.

*Thanks to Natalie Burdett for letting me use her pictures!

Spring Break Plans

As it is now the middle of March  this means I have to say I am starting to get spring break fever!

The way spring break works here is actually pretty different compared to how it's done at home. I officially end classes the first week in April and I then have spring break till the first week in May when final exams take place. As all my finals are papers I'll be pretty much done with classes the first week of April.

While a few of my friends will have to be back in London for finals in May we essentially have an entire month to do some traveling!

My friend Vethina and I are leaving for our spring break trip April 12. All I have to say is 21 days. 4 countries. 7 cities. 1 backpack.
My legit backpacking backpack arrived in the mail the other day and I now getting beyond excited that this is really happening. To give you the lowdown of our trip we will be starting in Germany in Munich, which is a dream come true for me as I'll be able to put my German to good use (finally!!), then off to Vienna, Athens, and Italy where we will visit Rome, Pisa, Florence and Venice.

I'm tired just thinking about it but as my friend and I are huge fans of The Amazing Race so I have no doubt we can handle it.

We will be flying from city to city taking cheap European airlines where you can find flight tickets for as cheap as 10 pounds! But taking these cheaper airlines means that you have to be extra careful with your baggage size as you're only allowed a carry on bag for free.I remember thinking packing for Morocco for three weeks was hard with my one suitcase but this will be a challenge. I've basically had to tell myself that these three weeks are not going to be a fashion show so I am warning you all now for when you see my pictures in the future (ha!).
As we tour around Europe we will be staying at hostels in mostly 6 all girl rooms. I'm sure sharing a room is going to make for some interesting stories to say the least so I am bracing myself for that.

Spring break will be here before I know it so I'm doing my best to focus on all the school work I need to get done now so I can then focus on spring break...which is a lot more fun and exciting to say the least.

About that grading system

So I'll be the first to admit that I can be (a little?) high strung about my grades but I think anyone would react the way I did when I received my first grade on a paper since being here with the number 66 written on it.
Now I knew that the grading system was different here but the number 66 just seemed universally wrong.
I was rushing back to my room after class to google the grade equivalence difference when I luckily ran into my flatmate in the kitchen and pretty much demanded an explanation.
She explained that they don't use the A, B, C etc. system here but rather 1st marks (70-80), 2 -1 mark (69-65), 2-2 mark (64-60) etc....at least I think I got it right here.

So realizing that I most likely got the equivalent to a B+ on my paper I was curious to know how hard it is to get a first mark (or A) here.

My flatmate said that professors don't really hand out 1st marks that easily here and that only a select few students actually get them. I was kinda bummed to hear this because at home I feel like Professors  are a lot more lenient with giving out As even though they would probably hate to admit it.


With only a few weeks left of class (hard to believe!) the stress of school is definitely starting to catch up with me. As most of my classes only have 2 major papers that make up my grade I now feel like I have to put a little more effort into my papers after that last grade.

Time is sure flying by which means one thing...spring break is coming soon!

A Taste of Sweden

I can now say I can cross off visiting a Scandinavian country off my to do list!

This weekend was a whirlwind adventure as my friend and I were up at 5 on Friday to leave for our flight to Stockholm and up this morning at 2:30 to make our flight back to London...yes 2:30AM.

When we arrived to the city we were quick to find out how friendly the Swedes really are. We had tickets for a boat tour at 3 and we left the bus stop pretty clueless as to how to get to the docks and on time at that. We were standing on a street corner looking pretty clueless when a guy realized how lost we were and went out of his way to speak with with a taxi driver to get us a cab to the docks...apparently you need to call ahead of time for a cab in Sweden . Vethina and I were so grateful we wanted to give him a hug but felt that might be a little much...

The boat ride though was really a great way to get oriented with the city and get our barrings for where all the main sites are. I never realized how many islands are a part of Sweden let alone Stockholm as the tour guide told us that the city has 20,000 islands!

After the boat tour we struggled to find our way to our hostel but we managed to do it! The hostel was really in a great spot as it was located right in the heart of Old Town. It was the cutest little hostel that looked like it came out of an Ikea catalogue...I can only hope our hostels for spring break are as cute and clean.  

We spent the rest of Friday night exploring Old Town. We discovered a chocolate shop called Lisa's and the oldest confectionery in Stockholm so needless to say we got our dessert fix that night.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early out to pack in as much sightseeing as we could into the day. Our first stop was the Wasa Museum which features the biggest and best preserved viking ship in the world. The boat was so massive that the masts were sticking outside the ceiling of the museum. The museum was also a really neat spot to learn about the history of vikings as I honestly knew very little about it before this trip.

After the museum we made a stop at McDonald's to grab lunch on the more affordable end of things as we were quick to realize how expensive Stockholm can be...and I mean more expensive than London expensive.

 The menu honestly wasn't as different as I hoped it would be but I will say the McFlurry with Daim chocolate (from Sweden) was delicious!

Afterwards, we then made our way 30 minutes outside of Stockholm to Drotting Slots which is the palace where the King and Queen of Sweden live. The palace reminded me of a mini Versailles in a way with it's expansive gardens and ornate designs inside.

I was however surprised to find at the palace that the guards outside will actually acknowledge your presence and answer your questions...definitely something different from England.



Afterwards we worked on checking off some of the last things we wanted to do which consisted of 1. Getting a traditional Swedish wooden horse 2. Try the traditional Swedish log looking like dessert (actually name still unknown to me) 3. Visit the Royal Palace and 4. Eat some Swedish meatballs!

I'm happy to say we managed to do it all with the last half of our day. The Swedish log like dessert tasted kinda like a Samoa Girl Scout cookie as it was a marshmallow on the inside covered in chocolate and coconut. Need I say yum?

We were lucky to make it to the Royal Palace in time with an hour to spare before closing. The state rooms and appartments inside were absolutely gorgeous. I was bummed we weren't allowed to take pictures but it was still a great experience none the less.

Most importantly though we knew we couldn't go all the way to Sweden and not get Swedish meatballs. We asked the receptionist at our hostel for her recommendation and she directed us to this really quaint restaurant in Old Town called the Kronan (Crown) which served up meatballs better than the ones I've had at Ikea.

The meal made for an exclamation point on the end of a great trip to Sweden!

I'm still curious how I am functioning right now as I've been up since 2:30 this morning so I'm thinking catching some Zs early is rather necessary as I'm sure my boss would prefer me not to be dozing off at work tomorrow.



Me and my mum in London

Where to begin, where to begin...

This last week here in London was definitely one of my favorites by far. It's strange how a mom can make everything so special and exciting but it all just felt like a fantastic vacation.

I stayed down in the city with my mom for the week in the Marylebone neighborhood. It was definitely nice to get out of Harrow for the week and get back to city living.

Last week I may have played hookie for a few classes to spend extra time with my mom but I still had to go to work. So with only so much time we made sure to use our time as best as we could.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early to visit Madame Tussuad's. It pretty much is the epitome of touristy but I'll be the first to admit that it has been one of my favorite sights. It was fun rubbing elbows with the celebrities even if they were made of wax. I left wondering what it would be like to see them in person as I could have used a chill pill a few times just getting excited over the wax versions.

Later that afternoon me and my mom went to the Connaught Hotel for afternoon tea. I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of the week for the both of us as the restaurant was beautiful and everything was  delicious too I might add. From the finger sandwiches to scones to the tiny desserts every bite was way too good. We left so full but I will say it was o so worth it.

Wednesday we then continued our sight seeing adventures and visited the Natural History Museum. There was probably about a bajilion little kindergartners running around everywhere but British 5 year olds here are for some reason so much cuter and well behaved. The building itself was just about as cool as all the artifacts in the museum. There really could have been an exhibit about the building itself it was so beautiful.

After visiting Harrods, the Royal Mews and then the Queen's Gallery we went over to Soho to see the musical Matilda. The show was absolutely adorable and I still can't stop myself from humming the songs. I've recently heard that the show will be making its way to Broadway in New York and I can bet you that it will be a hit.

Thursday I took my mom out to the burbs  to show her where I live. It probably took about all of an hour as there wasn't much to show besides my room and the infamous Sainsbury grocery store. Friday I had work all day but we took advantage of the late night museum hours as we went to both the Tate Britain and Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A had a special exhibit with photos from the Queen's early years including her wedding and coronation. I've come to have a real interest in anything royal related since being here so I'm glad we were able to check it out.

And on our last full day together on Saturday we packed in lots of sights. We went out to Greenwich which has a small town feel even though it is still technically located in Greater London. My mom and I did some market shopping and I was so excited to find a vintage scarf commemorating the Queen's coronation from the 50s. We  enjoyed lunch at the Trafalgar's Tavern where Charles Dickens himself once dined at and visited the Royal Naval College and other spots in the town.

We then went over to the Portobello Road Market and afterwards road the London Eye at night which offered some pretty cool views of the city to top off a great week.

 

I'll admit it was hard to say goodbye to my mom yesterday but I feel so lucky that she was able to come visit me here in London and experience the city with me.