Spring Break

Well spring break went by much faster than I expected. The fastest week yet. We are on the second half of the trip now, and I have mixed feelings about it. I am sad that I ever have to leave, but at the same time I am excited to go back, especially after seeing all of my friends' snapchat stories about being out in swimsuits while I am still very much wearing jackets and layers. My boyfriend came to Europe for spring break and it was really nice to see him. We went to London for 4 days, Cambridge for a day, and Amsterdam for a day.

In London we did a lot of exploring. We stayed in East London, the very colorful, very culturally diverse part of London. It was completely opposite of everything anyone would picture about London, very different from the areas with the touristy attractions and very different from the nice, clean, beautiful part. We stayed in an Airbnb and our host was awesome and gave great tips and recommendations. It was nice to talk to someone who lived there and get his opinion on things. I enjoyed staying in the different area of London because we were able to see different aspects of the giant city.  We travelled to the center part and do some of the typical London tourist sightseeing things during most of the days. My boyfriend has a friend that has been in England for a few years and he came into London to show us around and brought us to a really cool pub in Nottinghill and to the the Borough Market, which was probably one of my favorite parts of London with all the booths and traders. We also went to Platform 9 3/4. I had to get my picture of me on my way to Hogwarts, of course.

On Wednesday we went to Cambridge to visit said friend at the University of Cambridge. That town is FULL of beautiful buildings, and I enjoyed getting to walk around and see everything. It was a totally different picture of England than London. I also had no idea how many iconic historical people went to school there, and it is a lot. We went punting (standing on a boat and using the long stick to push yourself along) on the river, and I learned two things. Number 1: I have zero upper body strength. Number 2: I am terrible at punting. It was really nice and peaceful when I was just sitting and relaxing while the guys were doing all the work though! That night we went to a pub with some other Cambridge students from a bunch of different parts of the world, and it was fun to talk to them. One of the things I am very thankful for about this whole trip is that I have been able to talk to so many different people from so many different places, it has been a very eye opening experience to get outside of my proud Texan bubble.

Thursday we went to Amsterdam. My boyfriend had to leave very early Friday morning, so after he went to the airport I headed back to Bonn. I was thankful that he was able to make the long trip across the pond to visit me. I got back mid afternoon on Friday and was the only one in town all weekend, so it was very low key. I actually really enjoyed doing nothing but lay in bed for the past two days... although I know there were things I could have been doing, but that is beside the point. I am about ready to start getting back to work and be a productive member of society again. All in all, this was a really great week.