Traveling Home

The night before we flew home, Lexi and I slept in the airport. It was quite dead during the night, and awfully freezing! I don't think I got more than 2 hours of sleep all night!

In the morning, we checked in and got our luggage checked. I spent my last English money on an iced coffee while we waited for the plane.

Our first plane ride lasted the length it was supposed to, but when we arrived in Germany, we had a problem. The flight that we had purchased in October had left three hours before we got to Germany. They changed the flight and they never told us. We had a nice long talk with the ticket people in Germany, and luckily they were able to get us a new flight, both from Germany to Canada and from Canada to Chicago. Yay for Air Canada!

Here's Lexi in the Germany airport!

Our first meal on the flight!

And second meal: Hot, Posh Wraps.

When we got to Canada, our flight was delayed for another 3 hours or so, making our arrival in Chicago 6 hours later than initially planned. 

The day was extremely long, and I got almost no sleep at all, but the view over Chicago coming back made it totally worth it! The lights were amazing! We arrived in Chicago, my parents picked us up, and we made the long drive home, finally arriving home around 4 am.

My first day back, I enjoyed a cup of cappuccino, since I hadn't had it for so long! (Notice all my food in the background...)

My time spent in England was one of the greatest times of my life, and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go! I hope to go back some day, but who knows where God will lead me in life!

London (One Last Time)

The day before I flew home, I headed into London one last time. I was hoping to see all of the things I had yet to see, which I have to say, I did pretty well with this goal! I left Jenn's on Monday morning, and enjoyed a long bus ride to London sitting next to a complete stranger (not fun). When I arrived in London, I headed to the Victoria and Albert, a museum. Here are some pictures of my time there:

Asian warrior's dress, or something of the like. The V&A was divided into sections for time periods and countries. After a while, you need to take a break. At least for me, looking at ancient artifacts for hours can get kind of boring.

An amazing sculpture thing they had there.

I just wanted to look at it!

Looking down over one of the sections. I sat by the chapel in the front and listened to a recording of nuns singing. It was lovely!

Mummies!

I remember: this was one of many little pictures showing the use of alabaster in sculpting.

I actually have no idea what this is, but it looked pretty cool.

Crosses.

And my favorite part of the V&A? The Fashion exhibit. Especially the Regency era clothing.

Some of these may have been taken to show to Rachel... ;)

After the Victoria and Albert, I wandered around for a bit, and then headed to Leicester Square to shop. However, I got a little lost and ended up in Chinatown. No big deal, I just went shopping there!

Here's my proof I was there.

I saw a poster for Les Mis, so of course, I had to take a picture. I think this is right after I spent two hours in Costa Coffee, drinking an iced caramel latte and uploading pictures onto facebook.

I ended my time in London in Picadilly Circus (kind of like Times Square). There are a lot of tourist shops in the area, and I think I went into every single one of them. 

As I was not going to meet Lexi for another few hours, I decided to spend my last (well, some of it) money on a Starbucks coffee. Because it was Easter, I also got a nice chocolate coin as well. I sat in Starbucks people watching in the corner, and reminiscing about the term.

All in all, I have to say my favorite part of the day was riding the Underground. I love the system and enjoy figuring out how to get to a place far away. I had a lovely time in London for the last time, and headed to Heathrow immediately afterwards. My last time on the Underground is shown above. There was literally only one other person in the car. Slightly scary, but also kind of fun!

Hanging Out With Jenn

After leaving Oxford, I headed to my friend Jenn's house to spend Easter Weekend with here. Here's the highlights!

We went to Brighton my first full day there, seeing the sites of the town, and spending some time on the beach. 

We went to the Brighton Pier, and I played some game with pennies (I lost all 100 of them in the end). :( I would be a horrible gambler.

The beach is awesome!

We went and got coffee in Brighton also, spending some time people watching.

This was something famous, but I never remember what it is called. The Pavilion, maybe? 

The next day, we went to the town of Lewes. We were planning to go into a castle, but didn't end up doing so. Instead, we wandered. First was this adorable bookshop. I bought two books here: Canterbury Tales and an ancient book about Oxford. Jenn figured it'd make a good souvenir.

We also walked past Anne of Cleves house, one of Henry VIII's wives.

We did walk around the castle, but never went in.

On our drive home, we stopped on the South Downs (we think) and took some photos. It was a great view over the Downs.

We were kind of lost...

Finally, I decided to leave. :( This is what I looked like until I arrived home 48 hours later. I planned to spend the day in London, then sleep in the airport my final night in England.

One last picture with Jenn! It was a great weekend, full of memories!

Final Days In Oxford

Now that it's been a few months, I thought I'd write about my final days in Oxford! 

During the last few days, my friend Jenn visited me! We went to a few places, including the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers Museum. During our visit to Pitt Rivers, we decided to imitate the animals / statues. It provided a fun time for all! 

Jenn imitating an extra large monkey.

Me imitating an extra small monkey.

Me with a lynx (I think). Don't I look like it? 

Jenn being a dinosaur (this one was hard). 

After meeting her in church on Sunday, I met up with my friend Mabel on Tuesday to get tea and cakes at the Nosebag Restaurant. We continued our day by visiting Magdalen and walking around the park.

Here we are!

Later that day, I hung out with my friend Tanja. We got coffee and then also went to Magdalen College and visited the Fellows Garden.

For Olivia's birthday, we went to the Pie Emporium. It was also the day that our final essays were due, so we were all celebrating a late! (Also, all three of these things happened in one day: two hangouts with coffee/tea with friends and dinner with my other friends). A lot of eating out.

Our table! I miss these people!

On the final day of the program, when all my friends were leaving :(  I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens for the first time. I wandered around alone, admiring the flowers (and taking pictures).

Here's one of my favorite pictures I took!

One my way back, I got my first ever Cornish pasty. Not my favorite, but I'm glad I got to try it!

Finally, on my last morning in Oxford (Olivia's actual birthday), we went out for waffles in the morning. I had to rush off in order to get on my bus. It was a nice goodbye to my Oxford friends! Until we meet again!

And finally, the last picture I took of Oxford. It was a sad day, but luckily, there was no one else on the bus, so I had the entire top level to myself, making it okay for me to just sit and take pictures like a crazy tourist. 

Oxford has been good to me, and I was sad to leave, but I was ready to go home!