Living in London

Well the time has finally come. It’s my last night in London. I cannot tell you how weird it will be to be back in America tomorrow. This has been the greatest adventure I’ve ever been on. I throughly enjoyed living alone in a foreign city. It was so refreshing to live a completely different life for a while. In some ways I never want to go back and yet I’m excited to go back to my little world, finish my degree, and start a career. 

I really feel that my education would not be nearly as complete if I had not studied abroad. You learn so much about everything when you move to a different country. I think the most profound experience I will take with me is the knowledge of the profound connection all humans have, even if they speak different languages. 

I leave you all with a clip from the Sound of Music sing-along. 

Follow every rainbow ‘till you find your dream. 

Okay I know it’s corny, but I will always love Sound of Music, and the song gives great advice. Seriously, go out and live the life you want. It worth all the hard work it takes to get there, I promise.

Good luck and good night.

PS I’m moving to Portland, OR for the summer. Look out for my next travel blog (http://pedalinginportland.tumblr.com/).

Westminster Abbey and the London Eye (pictured with epic horse statue). During my last few days in London, I decided to revisit some tourist-y areas. I will miss these grand sites. I miss America so much, but I do love this place too. It’s hard to leave and it would be hard to stay. Ughs. 

Lonely bunny near Spitalfield’s. Thankfully there’s a goat neat by to keep her company. 

This is my favorite bench in Green Park (near Buckingham Palace). I like to come here to sit and breathe “non-city” air. Although solitude doesn’t exactly exist in London, this is the closest you can get. 

Okay I have so much to tell you all still, and I’m only here for two more days! Sorry, but I may be spamming your dashboards. There’s a couple of things you should know about London streets.

First of all whenever you see a “zebra crossing”, you as the pedestrian have the complete right of way. However, you should still look both ways because angry taxi drivers do not like to wait for you to saunter across the way.

If you aren’t at a zebra crossing, there will most likely be this nice little box with a button. It is pretty self explanatory, you know the drill.

Street signs in London are complete anarchy. There is no real set place for them..sometimes they will be on a median, other times they’ll be up on a building (like the one above), and sometimes when you’re really lucky the street isn’t labeled at all! Also, don’t bother asking for directions because chances are the person you ask won’t know what obscure street you’re looking for. Basically, when you’re first finding your way somewhere expect to get a little lost (or use the GPS on your phone if you’re fortunate enough to have one).