Maybe it’s because everyone speaks English here, I haven’t seen much of England or Europe yet, or because I’m super weird, but it still hasn’t really hit me that I’m living abroad this semester. Most of the differences I’ve noticed are pretty marginal, aside from the obvious ones like accents and weird colorful money with an exchange rate that makes me cry inside. The peanut butter here is scarce and what you can find is subpar (I don’t want no mediocre). Also, most of the sinks here have two faucets—scalding hot or freezing cold. Who thought that was a good idea?
Today I took my first trip outside of London with two friends, Morgan and Courtney. We took a coach to Oxford, where we explored the town all day. We went to our first high tea and drank the best darn tea of all time. After that, we just walked around some more and took a tour of Bodleian Library at the university which was really interesting. The books were all ancient and enormous! I can’t imagine anyone actually reading those things. We ate at the Eagle and Child, a 17th century pub, for dinner. It’s pretty famous, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to hang out there. There were Lord of the Rings and Narnia decorations everywhere. The history of the town and the authors really came alive in that cozy, dark pub.
More than ever, I can’t wait to keep traveling around Europe and the U.K. ☺
letters from london 