HC Abroad: Being a Tourist

Hello Collegiettes!

Week 2 in London has just started, and the abnormally sunshiny days have faded into the steady normal London drizzle I have been expecting since arrival.

My days are finally starting to settle into a routine in comparison to the chaotic days with no sleep that I experienced last week. It’s weird in a way, I have only been here a week, but with the start of class and creating a normal routine, I feel like a sudden shift from the “I am a tourist” attitude, to the “I live here” attitude has begun to sink in. 

Classes started on Thursday, and my schedule is rather intensive. It took some time to adjust to having one class for 4 hours Monday-Thursday, but thankfully my professors keep the lectures interesting, and I am taking courses in subject matters I enjoy. During this segment of my study abroad period I am taking two course: British Journalism, Culture, and Society and Britain and Europe: A New Beginning?

While I am trying my best to adjust to the new culture I live in, and which side of the road to look towards first before crossing , I am definitely still enjoying being a tourist and exploring! On Saturday I went to Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Queen. Windsor Castle is also the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world! After touring around the castle a friend and I grabbed lunch at a small café that they have set up within the walls of the castle—so I enjoyed my first royal meal, complete with a hot chocolate displaying a cocoa powder image of a crown on top.

After touring the castle itself we wandered into St. George’s Chapel which is the resting place to a number of Kings and Queens, including Henry VIII and Charles I.

On Sunday I met up with a good friend from Fordham, Chuck, who is studying through King’s College here in London, and we continued to explore our new home away from home. We walked from Piccadilly Circus, which seemed to us to be the Times Square like area of London, through Trafalgar Square, and ended up in Westminster. Trafalgar Square immediately took my breath away, it is a beautiful area complete with lively fountains guarded by enormous lion statues.

From Westminster we decided to take a walking tour. Note to collegiettes looking for cheap ways to explore London: go on a walking tour! There are countless different tours, with themes to please the interest of anyone, from Harry Potter to Haunted London. The best part is you pay the 6 pounds (make sure to bring your Student ID to get the discount price!) when you arrive on site, so you can do them spontaneously or decide to hold off if the weather isn’t the most desirable.  

Chuck and I decide to do the “can’t miss” tour of Old Westminster, which took us to all the typical tourist locations: Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, as well as the historic neighborhood  that surrounds these London icons. It was a great chance to walk around and familiarize myself with the area, as well as learn some of the hundreds of years worth of history.
 

This weekend I am traveling to Brussels for a few days with my politics class to visit European Parliament as well NATO! I am really excited for that experience, and also for the food experience… (Belgian waffles, fries, and chocolates anyone?) I am also still anxiously awaiting my final internship placement which starts the first week in March, so look for updates on that next week!

Until next time,
Emily 

Read all my previous posts from arrival to now: 
Hopping Across the Pond! 

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