SO SORRY!!!
I am so sorry that I haven’t updated this thing in about a month haha, I have been so busy lately with assignments and traveling that I have forgotten all about this thing… but don’t worry I promise to update this thing soon. just not…. today haha lazy sunday!!!
So I’ve been really busy the past few days with school work but thought I owed it to myself to have a really nice weekend going to different places! This past weekend I went to both Birmingham and Stratford Upon Avon. Great places!
I flew into Birmingham upon coming to England but honestly didn’t see anything of the city, the airport must be on the outskirts of the city. I went with the universities international office. It was only an hour bus ride so really close. we left at 9:30 in the morning and got there just around lunch time. I went with my friend michelle and we automatically tried to find a place to eat we were so hungry. we were dropped off in the middle of the city so we were close to a lot of resteraunts. we decided to check out the bull ring, which is essentially a 3 story mall that is very big! we went to lunch in this really quaint italian place. we got a bunch of good food (salad, cheese, bread etc). we were so stuffed afterwards! we decided to walk around the city and try to find the art museum. We ended up passing by a cathedral (I cannot remember the name) but it was really beautiful! we found the art museum, it was in a big square called Victoria square, it was huge! there was an occupy group outside doing protests against the war and social security, it was kinda cool to see them. but I wasn’t about to bother with it. We spent most of the day in the museum which was AMAZING. I love art, especially paintings. the art museum was filled with rooms of paintings from all different decades. It reminded me of how the MET (metropolitan museum of art) is set up. needless to say, I was so happy we went. they even had a Buddha room with statues of him! amazing. our trip was completed by a trip to starbucks which up until then I haven’t had since I left home. So good!!!
Then today me and a few friends took a train to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. The town was beautiful, every corner had a Tudor house and just reminded me of a small town, although there were a lot of people out and about. We ended up finding the river (don’t know the name) that runs alongside the town and decided to go row boating! I haven’t gone since summer camp when I was like 10 so it was a lot of fun. I didn’t row but my two friends did, we had some difficulty at first but ended up getting the hang of it. It was gorgeous! the sun was on the water and we floated alongside Swans. Basically picture perfect. Afterwards we went to eat a traditional sunday roast, I ended up getting chicken mushroom pie which was pretty good except we had to wait FOREVER for our food… I guess sunday’s are the most popular day to go out and eat! After that we went some sight seeing, saw the theater, shakespeare’s burial ground and Holy trinity church, Shakespeare’s sons house and then finally his house. Of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without going to the Shakespeare souvenir shop!
In all it was a lovely weekend, I’m thinking a lot of weekend trips are in the works since its so cheap to travel by train! but next week is DUBLIN OMG SO EXCITEDDD!!! expect another blog soon!
So since I’m here until January, and practically everyone goes home on the weekends here me and my friends decided to take a little weekend day trip to Warwick to see Warwick castle. Warwick is only about an hour train ride away from Worcester so it wasn’t that long of a journey. Trains typically make me feel sick (I get bad motion sickness) but luckily I was fine. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here! its sunny almost everyday and although its getting cold now I don’t mind it at all! The town of Warwick is really small and very distinctly British. Most of the houses were Tudor style and there were a bunch of tea rooms and pubs on the main street. the town was so peaceful and quiet at one point all I could hear was the chirping of birds in a tree. The castle was about a 5 minute walk away from the train station and you could see it through the trees from the main road.
I’ve only been to one originally castle before, and that was the Cloisters in NYC. But in comparison to that, Warwick Castle was huge!! It was built somewhere around the 15th century and was owned by the same family through many generations only the 1970’s when it was sold to Maadam Tussauds wax museum and now its somewhat of a touristy attraction. It kind of reminded me of a renissance fair.. there was a play area for children, you could get “knighted” or become a princess etc. But it was still really nice. The castle was really big, it was almost unbelievable to be looking at it and knowing that at one point in time people lived here!
we explored the castle ground including a few gardens which were BEAUTIFUL. a few reminded me of Alice in Wonderland! then we went inside the castle walls. we explored the inside of the castle and got a tour from someone who was dressed up as a dutchess of the time period. she was quiet a good tour guide, made me laugh at times because of how dramatic she was but I really quite enjoyed it. After that we just explored on our own, we climed up the ramparts of the castle which was such a workout (530 steps and you couldn’t just leave you had to go the entire way around the castle). we also climbed up an over look of the estate and country side. it was surreal. when you see paintings of the english countryside it REALLY does look like that! We also saw a demonstration of Trebuchet which was interesting. The castle closed at 5 but we were probably the last people to leave because it was so beautiful we didn’t want to leave!
We decided to grab a bite to eat before we left and stopped at this really neat pub called the Roebuck. let me just say this… OMFG IT WAS THE BEST MEAL I’VE ATE SINCE I’VE BEEN HERE. The pub was very trendy and cozy.. all the seats were cushioned and had pillows and candles. It was very relaxing after a day of traveling. I order chicken kiev and it came with pasta and salad. I have barely ate nothing since I’ve been here because of how picky I am but the food here is AMAZING I ate literally everything and even had vanilla toffee cheesecake. we were all so happy we decided to stop by and told ourselves we were def. going to come back to warwick and stop by here again. we ended the night drinking wine, yeah we were pretty classy and headed back home. on the way home we were all a bit delirious from the wine and being tired but it was so much fun.
While at the roebuck I had a revelations that I really really love it here and I don’t even want to think about leaving. England is really a special place and I love everything about it, even if the food is shitty. I am just so blessed to be here experiencing it all.
The main purpose for me getting a tumblr was to constantly update you all on my experiences abroad and lately I have been doing such a shit job! I apologize but I honestly always forget I have one of these and so much goes on on a daily basis its hard to jot it all down. I will update you real quick.
Classes are going well, in a few weeks I have my first assignments due. I am kinda nervous but at the same time can only prepare myself so much. I know I’m a smart girl so I can only give my best and if it isn’t good enough OH WELL. I have 2 papers due and will work on them this coming week so that the directed study week (week I’m going to Dublin) I won’t have to do a thing! yipeee
speaking of Dublin, I AM GOING FOR 5 DAYS 4 NIGHTS! we found a really good deal on airline tickets, only cost 36 quid which is like 60 US. not bad! you can’t fly anywhere for that kind of money. We will be staying in the heart of Dublin at the Times Hostel-College Street.. had a 90% rating on hostel world and is right in the middle of the action in Dublin. I am beyond excited, I am super Irish and have always ALWAYS wanted to go. this will be a dream come true!!!
Still working on going to Amsterdam, it will happen I’m determined.
Other than that I’ve just been going out alot (haha shocker) and meeting new people. I will say its getting rather annoying people constantly saying OMG YOUR FROM AMERICA SAY THIS SAY THAT its like ok I get it!! I’m not from here deal with it!!! the only time I don’t mind is when a cute boy ask me to keep talking cause he loves my accents haha but yeah I’m having a good time. more post to follow!
More trips!
So at the end of this month we have what they call “study week” which is a week off before midterms, or here a week before your assignments are due. Most people take this time to go home and see family and study, but since we can’t do that and this is a once in a lifetime oppertunity for us we are going to travel! next stop, Ireland and Amsterdam. Me and my friend Danielle figured we would go for 3 days each which would give us plenty of time to see everything and still have time to do our school work. we are going to start planning today but I am so excited!! Ireland is where my ancestry roots are from and its a place I have ALWAYS wanted to go to… and well Amsterdam? pretty self explanatory why I want to go there ;) but yeah… SO EXCITED!!!
