First Time

     There I was, sitting on a train, all by myself, headphones in with Jay-Z blaring. This is something I have never done before. I've honestly never traveled by myself for such a long distance. Sure, I drive up to school occasionally, but that route is ingrained in my mind. I can do it backwards and forwards, in the light and dark, in the snow and rain. But this trek was different. This time it was all me. No friends to keep me company and no parents to tell me which way to go. To say the least, I was a little terrified. To be completely honest, I am the girl at school that can't walk alone to her building at night because it scares me. I can't sit in the dining hall alone because I have a huge fear of being left or forgotten or being alone. My friends back at SMC know this all too well and often joke with me about it. Before I left, many of them said "Suze, I hope you gain some independence while you're abroad." Have I accomplished that? I think so. I am able to go on walks by myself or go get something to eat alone if I want too. 

     A few months ago I wouldn't have been able to do that. Sure, I love having my family or friends with me because what's the point of an adventure if you don't have someone there to enjoy it with. But there is something completely thrilling about being on your own. You can move at your own pace and take in way more things than if you were confined to a certain group of people. 

     Was I scared? Scared isn't even the word I would use. I would use a word like terrified. I was scared I was going to get lost. Get on the wrong train. Lose my ticket. None of those happened, thankfully, but I was still scared. But now I have confidence in myself to make smart choices and I know that my instinct and conscious are strong and correct. I am 20 (21 in 8 days!) and I finally figured it was time to gain a little independence. 

     That is why I am thankful to be abroad. It teaches you that sometimes you have to do things on your own and that there won't always be someone there to hold you hand every step of the way. Sure, traveling is nothing without mishaps, but it is how you take the things that go wrong and move forward. That is all that matters.

But don't worry, I wasn't on my own the whole time! It was all to be reunited with some of my best friends in the entire world. Crazy how summer camp has the ability to bring all these people together!
(l to r: Max, Mary, Sam, Dave, Katie, Nicole, Me, Pip, Morven)

Love,

Susanna

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Things I Love

     So Valentine's Day was yesterday. Yep. Yep it was. What did I do for Valentine's Day? The same thing that I am doing right now....sitting in bed in a cat onesie. I used to do favorites posts a little while ago, but I kind of fell off the band wagon for a while. But now I am back on and all is right with the world! So this is just a random list of things that I have been loving lately!

ONE// London. OBVI. I mean come on, how can you not love London? It has been a little over a month since I got here and I fall more in love with it every day. Can London be my Valentine? Because I would love that. It is honestly just such a magical city, and I haven't even seen all of it yet!

Kensington Palace at sunset.

TWO// Primark. Yeah, that cat onesie that I have? I bought it there. FOR £5. Like seriously. Primark is a magical place and I have to limit my visits because I cannot walk out of Primark without buying anything. 

So we bought cat onesies... and they are fantastic.

THREE// Music. I have been listening to A TON of music lately. And it has basically consisted of every type of music that you can think of. I have a few favorites from the past few weeks, but I will tell you my top 3! First (yeah I know, I am pretty slow on this one...)  Blank Space/ Style mashup by Louisa Wendorff is absolutely amazing. Now I have to admit, I am not the biggest Taylor Swift fan in the world but I am OBSESSED with this song. The next song is Never Be Alone by Shawn Mendes. I don't really know how I stumbled along this song but I have recently been obsessed with it. I think it came up on my spotify for something like that (y'all know how much I love spotify!). It is such a cute song and his voice is amazing! And finally, Boom Clap by Lennon & Maisy. Holy goodness, this song is everything. Their voices are prefect and I think I may like this version better than the original. 

FOUR//  CAMP. Yeah, I know. I talk about camp far too much but IT IS SO SOON AND I AM SO EXCITED. (that is all.)

FIVE// Starbucks Vanilla Spice Latte. Because there is no Dunkin' Donuts here in London, I am left to drink Starbucks when I need my caffeine fix. One day we went to the museum and Starbucks was handing out free sample of this drink and I fell in love. It has been my go to if I am in need of a hot drink!

SIX// This is kind of a double favorite, but it is my two favorite apps currently. Now, it my seem a little boring and kind of dumb but trust me on this, I use both of these almost every single day. They are Google Maps and CityMapper. Both of these apps have basically saved my life while I have been abroad. If I didn't have them, I probably would be very lost right now. 

As you can see, my love for makeup started at an early age. 

SEVEN// I have a deep love for makeup. I collect it and have far too much of it. For Christmas I got a gift card for Sephora and I knew just what I was going to spend it on. I had been in the market for a new foundation and read tons of reviews on a few. I finally settled for the Tarte Amazonian Clay Airbrush Powder Foundation. Now this foundation is a little pricey (about $34) but it is truly amazing. It gives you flawless coverage, doesn't feel cakey and looks like you aren't wearing any makeup. Plus it is great for both oily skin and dry skin. It also takes like less than 5 minutes to apply, so it really cuts down on the time I have to spend getting ready in the morning!

(via)

That's all for now loves! Thanks for reading and another post will be up shortly!

Love,
Susanna

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(I'm not putting a what am I listening to in this post because I already put my top songs earlier in the post!)

Weekend in Edinburgh

     One of the lovely things about being abroad in London is that we are fairly close to many other countries. This makes traveling relatively cheap and possible to do for a quick weekend. So my friends and I did just that. There are 6 of us in total and we pretty much do everything together. This weekend was a little different. My roommate Grace and friend Kerryn already had a pre-booked trip to Paris for the weekend, so we knew that they would be away. So, instead of staying in London for the weekend, Meggie, Caitlin, Ashley and I decided to take advantage of the cheap travel and book a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Scotland was on our list of places that we really wanted to go, so we jumped on the chance.
     We booked our flight and accommodations a few weeks ago and were surprised to find the weekend creep up so soon. Other than those two things, we really had nothing else planned.
     Our flight was scheduled to leave at noon on Friday. We woke up at 6:15 to be able to make it out of the dorm by 6:45 to walk to the tube station on Gloucester Rd. We took the Piccadilly line to St. Pancras and then from there got on the train to take up to Luton Airport. Tip #1: when you take the train to Luton airport, you need to buy a ticket because your Oyster card is not your ticket. Also, tickets are exponentially cheaper when you buy them before hand. We arrived at the station to Luton Airport and from there we had to get on a bus. I think it was the lack of sleep but getting onto the shuttle bus proved a bit of a challenge for us.

Scotland!
(l to r: Caitlin, Ashley, Me, Meggie)

     Finally we arrived at the airport and got some caffeine and food into our system. Probably one of the funniest things was when we were sitting waiting for Caitlin to come back with her breakfast of Burger King chicken nuggets and fries. As Meggie, Ashley and I were waiting, a strange (and obviously intoxicated) man walked up behind Meggie and complimented her on her "costume". It was totally creepy and strange and absolutely hilarious all at the same time. Needless to say, as soon as Caitlin got back we picked up our stuff and moved to a different location.
     It was then time to go through security. No one was there which was lovely, so we thought that we would get through quickly. Wrong. Ashley got stopped for a random search where they had to go through ALL of her belongings. It was both very funny and annoying all at the same time. We got through and headed to our gate (sort of). Tip #2: smaller airports don't tell you what gate you are flying out of until a designated time. So we had to sit and wait at a small cafe for about an hour and a half waiting for them to tell us what gate we were at. But, there was a Krispy Kreme right near us so I guess that made up for it. When they told us what gate we were at you practically had to run to it because they only give you about 10 minutes.

Hello Scotland!

A warm greeting by Titus!

     We got to the gate perfectly fine and boarded the plane. The flight was super easy and quick (less than an hour) and we were in Scotland! We walked out of the airport and got a taxi to our Bed & Breakfast. Tip #3: airbnb.com is lovely. We found this amazing B&B for £35 for 2 nights a person. It was basically a steal. It was this old couple's home (kind of odd, but hear me out). It was this massive home with amazing bedrooms and a lovely bathroom. the owner, Marianne, was the nicest lady I have ever met. She welcomed us in and offered us tea and coffee and all the maps that we could possibly need. Her dog, Titus, was such a sweetheart and reminded me so much of my mom's friend's dog, Farley. The bedrooms were very well decorated and very comfortable. 

The lovely house. You can see Titus, the dog, in the doorway.
(Photo creds to Caitlin)

Caitlin and Meggie's room in the B&B.
(photo creds to Caitlin)

     After settling in for a little bit we went to meet up with my friend Max. One of the things I love about being a camp counselor is that you get to meet people from all over the world. Max was currently studying in Edinburgh at a university only a short walk away from where we were staying. After that we caught a bus into the city center so Max could show us around. We had some lunch, walked the streets and then climbed what seemed like a million stairs to the top of the castle. It was a beautiful view and we caught it right at sunset so it was even better. After that we headed to an amazing pub for a drink and to catch up a bit. We then headed back to the B&B with plans of catching back up with him later. But we never made it back out. We were all so tired that we decided not to go back out. Instead, we found the nearest Pizza Hut and made a trip there for dinner. After that we headed back to the B&B and basically passed out asleep.

Top of the castle at sunset.

Hey look! I found Max!

     The next day we all woke up. On the door to the bathroom Marianne had posted a lovely note saying how there were scones and tea waiting for us downstairs. It was so delicious. Like, absolutely amazing. After a lovely breakfast we got dressed and started to make our way back into town to meet up with Max again and also my friends Morven, Nicole and Rachael. It was so nice to see them again as I haven't seen them since August. We walked around a little bit then Ashley, Meggie and Caitlin went to explore. As they explored, I had lunch with Max, Morven, Nicole and Rachael at this small Italian Restaurant. I had a delicious panini. After lunch, we wandered a bit more and eventually found ourselves at the castle again along with an art museum. We met back up with my friends for drinks at a pub before we headed to a quick dinner.

I was so beyond happy to get to see my friends from camp again!
(l to r: Morven, Max, Nicole, Me, Rachael)

Delicious scones and jam with tea. YUM YUM YUM.

     We ended up back at the B&B around 8pm (I believe) and we all just passed out asleep. At around 6:30am a taxi arrived to take us all to the airport. Our flight left at 8:50 and we were back in London by 9:40. We ventured back to Kensington and arrived around noon. When we got back we dropped off our bags and went to grab lunch. After lunch we all headed back to the dorm and I took about a 4 hour nap because I was so tired. Annnnnnnnnnnnd that was my weekend. Crazy, right?
Oh! And I also got to Skype my puppy (and my mom).

Zoey didn't quite understand the concept of Skype. 

Love,
Susanna

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Almost a Month

     Wow its been a while since I have written last. Apologies! But OMG ITS ALMOST BEEN A MONTH CANT YOU BELIEVE IT?! Yeah, no, I can't believe it either. It seems like just yesterday I was at home for the last time, running around frantically to pack all of my last minute items into my suitcases. Where the heck has the time gone?!
     In the past couple of weeks so much has happened that I do not even know where to begin! Because I am completely all over the place currently, I will just share some of my favorite moments through pictures because, well, everyone loves pictures!

This car is from the Science Museum. We went on a Friday (?) I believe and it was pretty awesome. There are a bunch of different exhibits to explore. I think my favorite part of the museum was the part where you could touch everything. You could make a bubble wall, look through magnifying glasses and even set off your own rocket. The great things about the museums are that they are all free (!!!) and they are only a short 15 minute walk from where I live! 

Harrods!

Another day by friends and I decided to go and explore Harrods. Oh my goodness, it is basically heaven if heaven was in the form of a magical department store. Many of the things are super expensive (like a $4000 pair of pants) but they also have many food shops along with a gift shop that are more reasonably priced. Plus, if you go when it starts to get dark out, you can see it all lit up!

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain 

some new friends!

I probably have said it far too many times but I absolutely adore Hyde Park. I think it is on my list of favorite things about London. I go there way too often and every time I go I am still amazed. There is always something to see whether its a landmark you may have missed before, people playing with their adorable puppies or meeting new friends like the ducks in the above picture! I cannot wait for it to get a little warmer outside so that I can explore the park even more!

Colorful houses on Portobello Road. 

Antiques galore!

OLIVES! These reminded me of my Uncle Tad. He LOVES olives!

Another thing that I also love about London are the markets. There are tons of markets all over and each one is different. Last weekend my friends and I ventured to the Portobello Market which is only about one tube stop away. We were not really sure what to expect, but we had a great time. Lining this street are all different vendors, selling everything from fresh produce, to olives, to fish to antiques. It was really cool to see all kinds of different products bringing in all different people to this market. Its one of the places that I will definitely be returning too! 

Friends

Finally, I am super happy that I have found some amazing friends here in London. Although at times we all may be a little odd, they have surely helped me through this experience and it would not be the same without them! 

Well, that's all for now! I will definitely post next week because this weekend I am venturing to Edinburgh for the weekend! I will be sure to take tons of pictures and fill you in on my travels when I get back to London!

Love,

Susanna

Questions? Comments? Just wanna say hey?

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What am I listening to?