As always, its been a while. Things have seriously gotten so crazy here. Like incredibly crazy. If you could only see my to-do list you would probably pass out on the floor its that long. I guess that is what happens when it is coming close to the end of the semester. I repeat, the end of the semester. Literally. I looked at my calendar this morning and I only have 32 days left in this magical place. A little over a month. Is this a joke? It feels like just yesterday I was frantically running around my house trying to pack up all of my last minute things and organize all of my documents and passport and crying about checking in my flight (yes, I cried because I didn't do it right the first time and I panicked....cut me some slack). But now that I have been here for about 3 months it all seems so crazy.
I have realized how absolutely magical London is. Everywhere you look there is something new. You can walk the same street every day and still find something new every time you walk down it. You can see new people. Hear new sounds. Smell new things. But no matter what changes, it always seems to stay the same. Its nice now because flowers have started to bloom. It looks fairly different than it did when I arrived, but I like it. I like the change and the growth because I feel like it reflects me. It shows the changes that I have felt. I wrote before about how I realized I have gained a lot more independence and I still think it holds true. I've been able to have this experience and while I may be living it with hundreds of other study abroad students, every one's experience is completely different. We all may see the same things but how we interpret it and understand it are all completely different.
i am basically living in a fairy tale.
I am going to be very sad when it comes time to leave London. To leave my friends both from the program and from outside. I'm going to miss this street and getting woken up by construction and screaming school children every morning. I'm going to miss family dinner every Sunday night. I'm going to miss being a hop, skip and a jump away from some of my best friends that I have met over the past couple of summers. But I'm excited to go home and see my family. For some reason, being here doesn't seem real; like a dream. So, yeah, I'm going to miss London because I love London but I also miss my real world.
The next 32 days are going to be absolute madness. There are so many things that I still have to see and do and on top of all that I have to work hard to get all of my school work done. I can do it. I know I can.
Love,
Susanna
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What am I listening too?
So normally I don't write things about the songs that I post, I just kind of post them. But I absolutely had to say something about this song. I am OBSESSED. And not only with this song but all of his. I am telling you, you will not regret listening to his music. Check him out on soundcloud.com/declandonovanmusic
First off, holy goodness, this blog currently has over 16,800 views. Can we just take a moment so have a mini freak out and dance party because never in a million years did I ever think that this many people would ever read what I have to say. So thank you. And now, in typical Susanna fashion, I shall start this post. So......
I know, its been a while. Well, actually, it hasn't been that long. A week maybe? Slowly getting back into the swing of things over here in Kensington. The weather is getting a lot nicer which makes it especially hard to concentrate on school work, but don't worry, I'm getting it all done. I wasn't really sure what to write today, so I figured I would throw it back to one of my favorite types of posts: my favorites. I don't know why I like these so much. I guess I enjoy them because it gives me a chance to talk about things that I like that I wouldn't normally talk about? I'm not really sure, all I know is, I enjoy writing them. So, let's begin!
ONE// Macaroons. I have always loved macaroons. I just think they are absolutely adorable and taste delicious. Since I have been in London, I have constantly been on a hunt for macaroons. Thankfully I am here to announce that I have found some delicious ones. Although they have quite a high price tag (at about£3.50 each) they are absolutely delicious when you are looking for a decadent treat. They are from the William Curley counter in Harrods and my goodness they are delicious.
yum.
TWO// Strolling the park. As I mentioned earlier, the weather is getting really nice here in London. Some days it can even be upwards of 60 degrees which, for a girl that goes to school in the snowy tundra of Vermont, 60 degrees is basically a heat wave. On days when its sunny and warm, Hyde Park is my go to place. It is honestly one of my favorite places in all of London. Each time I go I am able to see something new that I haven't seen before. I love grabbing a coffee before I go and just walking around and looking at all the flowers and (running away from) birds.
so pretty.
THREE// @knightlifevt Instagram! Guess what?! SMC has a new student run instagram account and let me tell ya, its pretty great! Follow the lives of a new SMC student each week to see what goes on. Follow it! I promise you won't be disappointed!
follow follow follow
OUR// Shaytards vlogs. I might be a little slow on this one, but for some reason I have been really been into watching the daily vlogs of the Butler family. They are a family that vlogs every day and they have been doing it for 6 years. They are all just so entertaining and the family is absolutely adorable. But watch out. It will totally suck you in and you will find yourself watching vlogs for like 3 hours.
FIVE// Starbucks. I feel terrible for saying this because I am a die-hard Dunkin Donuts fan forever and always but there are no Dunkin Donuts here in London and when you have a coffee craving you just have to fulfill it. While I will always and forever love Dunks, Starbucks has been my go to while I've been here. What is also great is that we have a Starbucks in our main academic building and all of their drinks are at discounted prices. While I don't get it everyday, it is a nice treat every once in a while. The three things that I typically get are an iced chai latte, a caramel machiato, or just a plain iced passion tea. That's all for now. OH but guess what?! My parents are coming to London this weekend!! EEEK! Can you believe it?! So I am sure next week I will have tons of talk about when the parentals come to town!! Love, Susanna Questions? Comments? Just wanna say hey? Email me HERE Tweet tweet @shigosusanna Instagram @shigosusanna or leave a comment down below!! What am I listening to?
I feel like I always start my posts off with "its been a while...I'm sorry." But its so true! I feel like it has been FOREVER (mainly because it has). This past week was Spring Break. Crazy I know. Even crazier that it is basically the exact midpoint of my semester here in London and that totally freaks me out. About a month or so ago, my friends and I decided that we wanted to spend some of our spring break travelling. We all decided that one of the places that we most definitely wanted to go was to Dublin, Ireland. We booked our flights and a hostel and we were all set. Now we just had to wait for the time to come, and believe me, it crept up really fast. We left Atlantic House on Monday at about 2am to head for the airport.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:45, if I can remember correctly, which was early but also great because that meant we got into Dublin a little before 9am. After going through passport check, we hopped in a cab that brought us to our hostel. Our hostel was amazing. We were staying right next to the Jameson Distillery, so it was a pretty great location. In the hostel, we got a 6 person private room with a private bathroom, which was perfect for us. The hostel had a movie theater, restaurant, cafe and bar inside. Because we couldn't get into our room until 2, we decided to do some exploring. We decided that we were going to head to the Guinness Storehouse. Guinness was located on the other side of the river and without having the ability to use Google Maps, we got lost a few times, but no worries, we found it! It was an awesome experience to see how the beer is made and to be able to learn how to pour the perfect pint. Believe me, it is a lot harder than it sounds! After we all learned how to pour the perfect pint, we headed up to the Gravity Bar to enjoy our brew. The views from the bar were incredible. You could see all of Dublin from here. After we were done drinking, we decided that we would head back to the hostel and then grab some lunch. We did a little more exploring that day and called it an early night because we were all exhausted.
The view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar!
My perfect pint!
Tuesday rolled around and it was more of our relaxed day. In the morning we went and grabbed coffee from Starbucks then wandered around O'Connell Street. It is one of the main streets in Dublin and it is really pretty. We ate lunch at Eddie Rocket's, which is basically Johnny Rocket's back in the states. After we had a very filling meal we headed back to our hostel to tour the Jameson Distillery. It was a guided tour that filled us in on all of the history of Jameson. At the end we had a whisky tasting where we tasted three different whiskys. When it was over we got a complimentary drink to enjoy in the bar and a certificate that said we were official whisky tasters! We then headed back to the hostel to relax and eat dinner. That night we decided that we were going to get dressed and go our for a few drinks because it was my 21st birthday the next day. So that's exactly what we did and it was a lot of fun!
So. Good.
Whisky tasting at Jameson!
Strolling by the river on a beautiful day!
Finally, Wednesday. Also, IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!! I am officially 21! This day we were planning on doing a lot of touristy activities. We decided we were going to head to tour the prison, tour Dublin castle and go and explore Trinity. Thankfully, my birthday just so happened to fall on the perfect day because in Dublin, the first Wednesday of every month, these attractions are free to the general public. SCORE. So we got to do all of these things for absolutely free. They were all amazing and beautiful and I loved every second. After our last stop at Trinity, we decided that we were hungry and tired so we headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out for a birthday dinner. We weren't quite sure where we wanted to go exactly, so we decided that we would just head across the river towards Temple Bar. Originally we walked into an Italian place and there was a little bit of a wait, so we wandered back outside. Thankfully, we spotted a place called Mexico to Rome (which was perfect because half of us wanted Mexican food and the other half wanted Italian). We went in and got seated. It was seriously the day of luck. If you were seated before 7pm (which we were) you can get the early bird dinner, which gave you an appetizer and a main course for only 14 euros. INSANE. So obviously all of us got that. I ordered chips and guacamole as my appetizer and a steak as my main course along with a margarita. It was delicious and I still think about that steak all the time! And to top it off, I have some pretty amazing friends who decided that they would buy my dinner for me. I was so happy that I was able to spend a wonderful day with them all. After dinner we basically had to be rolled out of the restaurant because we were so full. But somehow we found ourselves at a gelato store right near our hostel to top off the night. We decided that we were all tired and called it a pretty early night.
Prison
Dublin Castle!
The inside of the castle. It was beautiful!
Trinity was absolutely stunning. Thank goodness for blue skies!
and of course I found the rugby pitch!!
Temple Bar at night is absolutely stunning!
Touring the prison!
The next day we woke up at 3:30 to get our taxi at 4 to take us to the airport. We got through visa check and security very fast and just ended up sleeping until we boarded our flight. We got back into London around 9 and headed back to Atlantic house to basically sleep for the rest of the day.
So now its Tuesday and Spring Break is officially over. It was such an amazing time and I was so happy that I got to spend it in an amazing place with amazing people.
The sunset on our final night.
Love,
Susanna
Questions? Comments? Just wanna say hey?
Email Me HERE
Tweet tweet @shigosusanna
Instagram @shigosusanna
or leave a comment down below!!
