Sarah in LONDON.
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♥ Welcome

"I met a lot of people in Europe.
I even encountered myself."
-James Baldwin

♥ The Girl

Name: Sarah Elizabeth Ashlock
Birthdate: 02.18.1988
School: UMKC

♥ Oh, the Places You'll Go

Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go. OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

♥ What's Going On

★★★ FALL 2009 ★★★
☆ Studying in London, England! ☆

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

right as rain. ♥ 11:05 PM








hello, hello.

yeah, so clearly i need help in the blogging department. a lot of things have been going on since i arrived here. let's start from the beginning...
the flight was good. it went by a lot quicker than i thought. honestly, i didn't do anything. i didn't read any of my magazine, and i read like two pages from my book. the flight from kc to detroit was super fast and talked with heather the majority of the time. then we had a layover that was delayed by about thirty minutes. so, in detroit heather and i met up with carrie and lisl. we then proceeded to play cards...i'm not a big card player so that was so-so. then nate met up with us and he taught us how to play rook (i don't know if that is how you spell it).

finally, the flight to london came. i sat by another study abroad-er, and we had a lot of fun. we played games on the monitor in front of us and then watched 'the ghosts of girlfriends past.' i don't recommend that film haha. i slept a couple of hours maybe and ate a semi-delicious meal consisting of chicken & rice. we were served breakfast before landing down at 7:40am uk time.

we waited in a long line through customs in which i was asked questions like, do i plan on working, do i have enough money to support myself during my stay, etc. then we met up with our program director named anderson. she is a super sweet girl from mississippi. then we were dropped off about forty minutes later at our flat.
that brings me to the point in time that i saw my room...that i would be sharing with two other girls. oh, and the bathroom that is literally just the size of a closet. and the shower is nice because you can't bend over without smacking your head on the glass door and then it fills up within a few minutes so you have soapy feet all of the time. but honestly, it isn't as bad as i thought it would be. i am very used to the bottom bunk :)

so the day we arrived i had to force myself to stay awake until 3pm for the walking tour. i went around the block a couple of times before then with my flatmates. then during the walking tour, we went around and went to the nearest tube station which is earl's court station. then we saw the nearest grocery place and where we would be going to take our classes.

the next couple of days consisted of meeting for a program orientation where anderson and kieron (program coordinators) discussed what to expect. also, we met in our classes to go over the syllabi and other classroom informations. after that, we went on a panoramic tour of london. we all got into a regular coach bus and drove around the city for three hours. we got off and walked around st. paus cathedral, st. albert's hall (which is within walking distance of my flat) and buckingham palace. the tour guide was practically a london encyclopedia and talked the entire time pointing out anything and everything interesting and historical in this city!

so those were the priliminary events that occured. that sunday i went with heather, lisl, nate and carrie and walked around westminster abbey and parliament. it is crazy how many tourists are there even on a sunday! it is strange how the longer you are here, the more annoyed you get at those pesky tourists with their suitcases and their maps!

anyway, i was so taken back from westminster abbey. since it was a sunday, we could only go on the outside...but that was amazing as well. i found this small wooden door that was just a couple inches taller than me. i felt like it was made for me haha. i think that place really symbolized london for me, and made me realize that i am actually in a city that goes really far back. that is amazing considering that america is so new. i guess that is the real thing i have learned so far...that america is a baby compared to england.

thankfully, we went back to westminster abbey and paid the student admission to get in. WELL WORTH IT. there are so many amazing things about it, that i can't even explain everything. first of all, the magnitude of that structure is shocking. the place is huuuuuge. also, every inch is filled with some sort of creative or artistic thing. you think that the edge of a doorway is just intricate, but it is actually a carving of several men. that kind of thing. not only was the detail incredible, but also the amount of people buried there. isaac newton and charles darwin are buried there. i mean, you name a king or queen and he/she is probably buried there. one weird fact: my school is on cromwell road which is named after oliver cromwell. well, he was buried at westminster abbey but his body was dug up soon after and his corpse was actually hung, decapitating him. weird, huh? also, i lit a candle and said a prayer in the nave and also attended a service there too.

i've been to so many other things so far. i went to the thames festival which was by far my favorite thing so far. i went to the festival on saturday and the parade (they call it a carnival) and fireworks on sunday. the festival itself stretches itself across the thames across five bridges. what was different about this festival compared to others from america is the food. normally at festivals (at least the ones in the midwest) is that they sell basic food like hamburgers, hotdogs, etc. and maybe they have some other kind of food, but it's never very impressive. not at the thames festival! they had everything from free-trade food products, organic, curries, crepes, tarts, and so forth. everything was fresh and something you would order in a nice london restaurant. very impressive! also, i bought a cute hat!

i have done a lot more like going to several musical performances. one of which was at the notting hill arts club. this is definitely my new hangout! it is really hip & elle magazine named it one of the places you must go to in london. very cool!

that's all for now. it's bedtime. :)



The End.