Life is more fun in the sun

So just to reiterate one more time, England is COLD. I am a firm believer that life is more fun in the sun. Maybe next year they should consider adding a nice side trip to a warm Spanish beach!

Last night was absolutely fantastic. I got 9 hours of sleep in a super comfy Travel Lodge bed. For breakfast they had eggs, muffins, toast, cereal, delicious jams and jellies, and some mandarin oranges. Between me and Liba I think we had around 6 muffins that we walked out with as snacks for the road, we are resourceful. Also, London is insanely expensive!!! I took out 80£ (I think that is the pounds symbol) at the airport and it charged me $136! I don't know how people do whole semesters at Oxford.. The one perk here though is the free water, their existing fee is slightly less than that of Italy and France. 

During the day today we saw two gardens and the rest of the time I was asleep on the bus. The first garden was really pretty and had lots of different levels. A super cute old man explained everything to us and his accent made it more fun to listen to than our other lectures.

 

The next garden didn't have very much variety and looked more like woods than a garden. It had a creek that went around it though and a beautiful swan was swimming back and forth in it. Today was pretty overcast too, no rain, but I think gardens are prettier when you have the bright green against the bright blue. In the second garden our teacher made us walk around by ourselves in silence for 30 minutes to soak in the garden. In theory this is a good idea, but I don't know if this was the garden I would have picked for that. Personally, I like gardens with a view rather than woods. It was pretty walking around in the silence though, that's not something I would have thought of to do on my own. 

On the way to London we watched the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. Liba gets insanely emotional about movies and cried at least 3 times in the first hour. It was pretty hilarious. Looking back the only negative aspects of the trip have been because of the school portion. I have so much fun with all of the people here; everyone is always laughing and being silly. I'm going to miss being with Liba, Janae, and Katie all the time when I get home 😢. But at least Liba and Janae both will be back at UGA in the fall, Katie just graduated and has a real job with Bank of America starting in August. We all think this is hilarious because, in case you forgot, she is the one who basically pees her pants if she laughs too hard. She laughs at everything, it's not that hard to make her laugh "too hard". We all joke that she is going to need to bring an extra pair of pants to work with her, she's not mature enough to be a real person in the real world with a real job. 22 is too soon I'm staying at UGA forever. 

Liba crying because Katniss and Gale have forbidden love and can't be together.  

Also side note- the English country side is surprising beautiful. It's like rolling hills with trees and flowers sprinkled everywhere!

Tomorrow we go see Harry Potter, Buckingham Palace, possibly the London tower if it isn't too expensive, and London bridge. If we get some coffee in the morning it's going to be a great day 😊 I'm sorry, tea. In London they drink tea. I'll keep you updated on how it goes! 

See you in 7 days... 

~emily