Hi friends!
On Friday, I said goodbye to London and flew back to California, and now I am home as I put together this final update to cover my final three weeks in London.
In this update, you’ll find…
- A journal snippet from when I realized that I wouldn’t be in London much longer…
- Three new happy places I discovered: Richmond Park, Windsor Castle, and Hampstead Heath. 😀
- Photos of adorable baby Egyptian geese from Richmond Park!
- An early morning touristy city photo session.
- English countryside + Tower of London adventures.
- Two transportation misadventures.
- An account of airport craziness flying back home.
Warning: Typos and chaos ahead. I don’t take as much time to polish up these London update posts as I do with other blog posts!
Previous Posts
This is Post 4 of my London update series! If you’d like to read the other posts, the links are below.
The Cultural Adjustment Rollercoaster (20 June)
I am blown away by how little time I have left… Yesterday, my employer tried to confirm that I had just two weeks of work left, and I was taken aback. How could I be this far through the program already? I suddenly realized that I need to be sure that I make the most out of this little time that’s left and take the initiative to maximize my work experience.
Even with groceries, I have had the mindset “I should think ahead and get anything I will eat in the whole month I have left. I have so much time!” Now, instead of stocking up, I need to think about how to get through all my peas and spaghetti and ice cream. I need to transition from making plans to wrapping up my plans. From getting acquainted with London to saying goodbye.
Last night, I reflected on the different stages I’ve gone through during these past six weeks. This is roughly how I would describe them…
Week 1: I adjust, observe, test the boundaries of my comfort zone, stumble around, and explore, referencing directions constantly.
Week 2-3: I push out of my comfort zone, embarrassing myself, but gaining confidence and independence, and referencing directions less and less. Growing in confidence so quickly that I’m overconfident! I put away the directions and follow my gut instinct, which is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. But I learn from my mistakes and settle into a confidence that accurately reflects my ability. I feel comfortable.
Week 4: This was my low point. Now that I’m through the overwhelming adjustment process, I find that I’m able to think more deeply… This combined with specific events through the week makes me feel more alone than ever.
Week 5: I overcome the low point and find a sense of peace. Hey, I’ve figured this out. Reflecting on my experience, I feel like I’ve gotten so much out of it, and I’m just really happy, content, and grateful. I have a small, realistic bucket list to get through, but I don’t think I’ll have any regrets when I go home.
Week 6: pAniC. Time is up! Ahhh. This trip will be over before I know it. What do I do??
A Saturday at Richmond Park (22 June)
I took a train and spent the day on my own at Richmond Park. Definitely a new happy place. 🙂 Walking around the lake, a little family of Egyptian geese came right up to me! They were adorable! I also spotted herds of deer a couple different times later on, and I found a pretty perfect reading spot.
A Monday at Windsor Castle (24 June)
Often, it takes a little bit of time before you realize that a decision to check something out was incredibly worth it. This was the case with Windsor Castle. I admired it at the beginning, but I was beginning to think that after Edinburgh castle, it wouldn’t be too much different. I’ve had so many incredible experiences on this study abroad trip that some of the glamour is losing its glitter. However, as I explored further, Windsor Castle blew me away. It was beautiful on the outside, yes, but the inside was incredible. It surpassed Edinburgh Castle, the Brighton Pavilion, and Kensington Palace. There were even paintings (horse paintings!) and clocks that might have surpassed what I had seen in the National Gallery, the Science Museum, and other museums. The foreign artifacts on display looked like they could have been highlights in the British Museum. And the tea sets … were unreal. I’ve never seen tea sets like those.
Afterward, I went on The Long Walk. It was not super interesting to look at, but this in itself was really relaxing and refreshing. I wasn’t sure if I would walk the whole thing, but I just kept walking and wanting to walk more, until I could see a statue of a horse in the distance, and I knew I really wanted to finish the walk. A deer jumped over the path! I didn’t expect that. Then there were more deer on the side! Some of the path was cloudy and some of it was sunny. I underestimated the sunny part though—I had a sunburn by the end!
Overall, a wonderful day, and definitely happy place #2 for this post. 🙂
First photo: Sporting my Purdue Windsor Halls shirt. 😁 Pretty crazy to think that there’s almost a 900 year difference between Windsor Castle being built and my residence hall from last year being named after it!
An Early Morning Touristy City Photo Session (27 June)
My flatmates and I got up at 5am one Thursday morning to go to the most touristy parts of the city and take photos! One of them happens to be a film major and a fantastic photographer. I love how these came out. <3
A Few Hours at Hampstead Heath (27 June)
This Thursday was a busy, full day, but between the early-morning-touristy-city photo session with my flatmates and two classes in the afternoon, I found time to find happy place #3. 🙂
Hampstead Heath.
CS Lewis strolled here on one cold, snowy day, and this park inspired him to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I found the park just as inspirational and wonderful, a step out of the city and into Narnia.
The Heath is a place to wander. No signs, no leashes. Just a spiderweb of winding, crisscrossing paths and many sweet dogs with their owners.
It’s a space to pause, to beathe, to think deeply, to enjoy the life displayed in the boughs of trees and rolling fields.
One of my favorites. 🙂
A Saturday in the Countryside (29 June)
A beautiful day in the countryside outside London. Adorable old houses, the William Cowper and John Newton Museum, pancakes for lunch, graveyards, stain glass windows, and gardens!
A Sunday at the Tower of London (30 June)
This was my last Sunday at my London church … So bittersweet. I felt a lot of emotions as I left, most of all a big love for this church and the people.
That afternoon, a flatmate and I went to the Tower of London, which was incredible. Until I saw it, I hadn’t realized that it was a full castle, and it was massive. Right in the middle of the city. We enjoyed checking out the towers and taking photos with the guards. The Crown Jewels were really cool.
Bonus: Writerly Meet Up
While I was in England, I got to meet up with my friend, Beth C. from the Young Writers Workshop! My day with her was definitely one of the highlights of my whole study abroad trip. 😁
Two Transportation Misadventures
One of the things I loved about London and the UK was how easy it was to get anywhere I wanted without a car. The Tube was amazing! However, using different forms of transportation definitely came with some misadventures. Here are two of them.
Misadventure #1
I was ready to head home at the end of my daytrip in Windsor. But, when I went to the train station, I was very confused about finding Platform 2, which was supposed to be where my train would be. So I asked someone at the information desk about it and he said that it was a completely different station, pointing vaguely behind him. Ok…
I wandered around and missed my train and came back to the same station, still having no idea where the correct train station was.
Now, the information desk had a sign saying it was closed and there was a homeless guy sitting on the ledge. Very helpful.
I eventually found another worker who did a better job explaining to me that this was the Windsor & Eton station, there was no Platform 2 here, and to get to Waterloo in London I needed to go to Windsor & Eton Riverside station. He took the time to give me instructions to get there, and I didn’t fully understand them, but at least I knew what to put into my GPS now.
On my way to the train station, a small shop was advertising free fudge samples. I took advantage of this, and that bite of fudge was really good in that moment. I was pretty overwhelmed and just trying to hold myself together, but I think God was looking after me. 🙂
Then I finally found the train station and my ticket worked, even though I missed my original train! I got on a later train and made it home safely.
Misadventure #2
One Tuesday in June, I took the 40 minute commute from my academic center to my flat and stretched it out to two hours. Just for fun, y’know.
It was the evening rush hour. I went to the Tube station, swiped in, looked at the train crammed full of standing passengers shoulder to shoulder, and thought to myself, I am not doing this today.
So I swiped out and caught a bus. The bus decided to change its final destination, but I was already going to get off soon anyway, so I got off and walked a few minutes. Apparently I was supposed to get on a 148 bus at a bus stop across the street, but there was a bus stop much closer, and it said 148 would stop there. So I got on a hot and sweaty and full 148 when it came. And I sat on the top deck of the overheating bus for a long time before I realized that I was going in the wrong direction.
Then I got off, gave up on the bus, and took the Tube, Central to Bakerloo. But I missed my stop in between, so I had to backtrack on the Central Line and then make the switch. But eventually I did get home!
Flying Back Home (5 July)
My flight wasn’t until early evening, but we all needed to be out of our flat by 10am, so I ended up at Heathrow Airport at 11am.
However, it was a good thing I was early! At Terminal 2, I found the longest, craziest security line that I had ever experienced.
I had to ask around to make sure I got into the correct line, and thankfully, the folks I asked were very helpful and friendly. Some people in a long line were able to inform me that they were in line to check their bags, and the other line was for security. (So glad I crammed everything into a carry-on!) A worker confirmed this and let me into the security line. At some point the line took me down an escalator and I was pretty lost again, but I asked someone in a line what terminal it was for and he told me that it was the security line for all gates.
The line wound around and around and past someone handing out water bottles and then up an escalator and dragged on and on and it wasn’t until 1:15pm that I was through. Altogether, it was two hours! The photo below is just a small sample of it.
After I was finally through security, I refilled my water bottles and found a spot to sit and have my lunch and snacks as I waited for my flight’s gate information to update. Then I walked to my gate, which was 15 minutes up and down escalators and elevators and moving walkways and normal walkways.
Heathrow is huge. Even one terminal is like a whole airport. But I made it to my gate without an issue and with a little time to spare. Boarding for Canada Air was a mess, just a huge crowd hovering around the area to get in line. I was in Zone 3, but I couldn’t even get to the line until they called for Zone 4 and a bunch of people were pushing past me. “Excuse me! I’m Zone 3!”
Seven hours later, I made it safely to my two-hour layover in Toronto. (Or what was supposed to be a two-hour layover.) For some reason, connections to the US had to go through more security, and have all our larger personal-item-sized bags searched, and then asked a couple questions for customs. I was pretty anxious to get to my gate before boarding started, but my flight was gradually delayed anyway, so it all worked out.
After a five hour trip, and a good nap or two, the plane landed in San Francisco, around 1am local time. I came in through a domestic terminal with no customs to do, probably because I did them in Canada. Dad picked me up and I stayed with my parents and baby Annie in a nearby hotel that night. We got some sleep, some free breakfast (I had a weird urge to make myself some tea too), and then drove home to my siblings. I pulled out a small supply of Digestive biscuits and Jaffa Cakes and we had an impromptu tea party. So happy to be home!
So happy you’re home!! <3