The Countdown Begins!

I will officially be home in 10 days and thus the countdown begins!!!

I have a presentation due at 8 AM and an exam next week but then I am outta here. Its time to start packing I suppose. In the spirit of returning to the states in 10 days, here are 10 reasons why I am excited to go home (in no particular order).

(1) No more UCL classes. GW is superior.

(2) I will stop spending my life's savings at a rapid rate

(3) I get to see all of my friends and family again... ah, how much I miss all of you.

(4) Back to my real bed! This cardboard box they call a mattress is not so great for my scoliosis.

(5) Healthy food. I realize if I tried I could do this is London, but its more expensive and I just don't.

(6) A pedicure. My feet look like a barefooted nomad's. Miles and miles of walking and Primarck flats have killed them. They are super embarrassingly ugly.

(7) Driving. This is something I always miss whenever I am at school. I really just want to drive around with my windows down blasting embarrassing music.

(8) Being Busy. I have too much free time here. I don't know what to do with myself. This is not a joke- I like to be busy and no matter what at home I can find ways to keep myself busy.

(9) Sports. Aka summertime tennis and bike riding and trail running and other things that are so much better in a city thats not as huge and crowded as London.

(10) Never dealing with abroad related issues with Bank of America. This is the major one. I am over it.

And here are 10 things I will miss about London...

(1) Euston Tower Starbucks- they know me, they know my order, its like my home away from home

(2) Indian Food- Brick Lane will be greatly missed.

(3) West End shows- I have recently become obsessed with them.

(4) Being able to travel cheaply and go random places.

(5) The Roadhouse- passion fruit cocktails- explanation enough

(6) Camden Town- cyber dog and chin chins

(7) The friends I have made here... its safe to say I doubt people at GW will have a Kawaii party with me :(

(8) Royal Wedding Souvenirs- they are endlessly entertaining

(9) Museums- i guess i just need to take better advantage of all of the ones in DC

(10) Quirky British TV shows

OK, I really need to stop procrastinating. This presentation is due in 6 hours and I still have a lot of work to do.

Brighton is a Time Warp

Ah, I am so anxious to get home! I am 2 weeks and 1 day away, but it is moving so slowly! And these next two weeks I actually need to study (something I have entirely forgotten how to do this semester). I have no more international trips planed (shocking, I know), so my goal for the remainder of my time besides studying is to check everything off of my "things to do around London" list.

The morning I got back from Amman, my friend and I hopped on a train to Brighton. We have been wanting to go forever but have been waiting till it was warm since its a famous beach town and all. Wait we forgot was, the UK is hardly ever warm. So alas, it was cold and windy and gray but what can you expect?

Despite the grayness, Brighton is pretty adorable. It felt like it was stuck in a time warp with a mix of 1956 and 1984. The pier had all of the typical pier-ish roller coasters and games and I played a slot machine for the first time ever (spending a total of 1 pound- high roller). There was also this weird but cool Indian-style Royal Palace that was built by some king that I can't remember. We took the tour and the audio guide was ridiculous as always but the only bad thing was it smelled like a poorly kept nursing home.

The Pier... standing under it made me think of Sandy and Danny from Grease

The Somewhat Ridiculous Royal Palace

The beach was really cute too. There were different colored striped beach chairs along the whole stretch and random carousels and food stands everywhere. And the beach was made of rocks! Not like the big rocks you see in some Northern or California beaches, but little smooth pebbles. This made walking in flats very difficult because every 2 minutes they would flood with pebbles.

The Strange Rock Beach

I wish we could come back at its peak in July or August because I would love to see it in its full glory, when there are people everywhere and the pier is bustling and the shops and restaurants are actually all opened.

The Last Stop: Amman, Jordan

My final travel destination... bittersweet. On the one hand, I never want to get on a plane or take a bus or train ever again or at least for a few months (well except coming home and back to GW). I also never want to call the bank again and inform them that I am indeed in whatever country I already told them I would be in and to stop freezing my account. I also don't want to ever move money from my savings account ever again. On the other hand, I will so much miss being able to find cheap flights and eating weird food and trying to speak languages I don't know and taking pictures in front of every tourist attraction ever. These are things I will not be able to do from Marietta, GA :(

I think that Amman was the perfect final destination though! First of all, it was my only non-european adventure. Secondly, I didn't have to sell my organs to afford to eat. Third, its like the greatest place ever. And lastly yet most importantly, I got to visit one of my favorite people ever.

I went to Amman to visit my friend Dani who was so kind to let me crash in her apartment for a few nights. I have been missing all my wonderful friends, many of whom I won't see until the end of August, so seeing someone who made my first two years of college amazing was definitely what I needed.

She also showed me around Amman, partly as a tourist but also as a resident. I am obsessed with the city. I even threatened to move in for 3 months over the summer and do nothing but learn arabic since I still haven't heard back about a summer internship/job. Visiting Amman helped me realize why I would never (well most likely never) live in London. It's just too big. Don't get me wrong, I love the city and I definitely want to visit again in the future but its like you can't make London home. I have always felt the same way about New York. Atlanta and DC are different. You can make them your own. That's what I love so much about them. You have all of the perks of a big city but they are small enough to feel like home. Amman is the same way. Even though it is huge, it still has an "intimate" feel to be cliche. I think that is what I also love about Nairobi.

Anyway, although I was only there for 3.5 days, I really did get to see a lot. I went to the balad and bought scarves and pirated DVDs, I ate falafel at some well known place, went to a couple expat-y bars, got to see the inside of the American Embassy (to pick up a jacket from the marine house), go to a few markets, see the citadel and amphitheater, ride a camel, go to the dead sea, and a lot of other stuff that I am probably forgetting right now.

Al-balad

Me on a camel... not a big deal

Now I am back in London though and I have to do all my finals studying :( But since I only have 2 weeks left in London, I also need to get all my last minute tourist stuff in.

PIctures from Portugal

Since my post about Portugal was a bit short, I'll let you see some pictures of the paradise I got to spend 7 days in.

First, the three different beaches we got to surf:

Amado Beach... Our first, most frequent, and my favorite beach

This was more or less our base beach. This is where the surf shop and equipment rentals were and where we went for the first 3 of the 6 surf days. It was my favorite for many reasons but mostly because it had a cafe that had really good coffee which is really nice after you've been in cold water for a few hours. It also had a lot of white water to surf so its good for begginners (aka me).

Baranco Beach... our 2nd beach, affectionately referred to as "the hippie beach"

This beach was really, really pretty, maybe even prettier than Amado. It had those beautiful orange cliffs that are apparently characteristic of the Algarve region of Portugal we were in. It was pretty small though so it got kind of crowded. Everyone came with campers and RVs to stay there for a few weeks which is (I guess?) why its called the hippie beach. One upside was that it had a ton of dogs everywhere that I played with, of course.

Our third and final beach... don't remember the name.

This beach we only went to for our last day or "free surf day." This place was on the southern coast of portugal so the waves were smaller but still plenty big to surf. It was also the closest to our house. It was a really big, tourist beach with lots of families but we were the only ones really surfing so we didn't have to compete with waves or run over people or any of that.

Now that you got a view of the beautiful beaches I got to spend all day at, here's a little view into Algarve Surf Camp:

The surf rental shop and cafe at Amado Beach

This is where we picked up our boards and wetsuits and where I got that wonderful coffee I mentioned earlier. We also have a cameo appearance of a few of the 17 Norwegians that were at camp the same time as me.

One of our jeeps with the boards being loaded up

First of all, I just have to say that I really want one of these jeeps. Second, you can see two of our surf coaches, Alli and Mo, both of which I loved. Let's just say that if one of them asked me to move to Portugal and leave in a beach town with them it may be hard to refuse, partially because Portugal is that beautiful and partially because they were that great.

And after 7 days, I had to leave :( But, on the way back to london I got to go to Lagos, Portugal and spend one more day on the beach:

The Marina in Lagos

I hope this has convinced you that you should go to Portugal, because you definitely should. And if you do go, please take me back with you!

Sun, Surf, and a Wicked Bruise

Sagres, Portugal!!!

As I've probably bragged to you before, I went to surf camp in portugal for 7 days this week! After months of rain in london and visiting tourists sites everywhere, I was craving some outdoor fun. My first instinct was camping in Switzerland but since all of my camping/hiking gear is back in Georgia, that didn't seem too feasible. Since I've been wanting to go to Portugal, surf camp randomly popped in my head and so I went.

Its been so great! If anyone feels the desire to pack up and fly to Portugal I highly suggest Algarve Surf Camp. The camp is located on the Southwest corner of Europe. Sometimes we drive to the west coast but when the waves were too big we drove to the south coast where they were a bit calmer. Everyday we packed up the jeeps and stayed at the beach all day. We surfed for a couple hours during the morning, took a lunch break, and then another couple hours of surf in the afternoon.

So, I ensure you that I will not pursue surfing as a professional career. Let's just say coordination isn't one of my best qualities. I did improve though. For my first week ever surfing, I think did alright. By the end of the week I was able to catch a few green waves by myself and ride them all the way in, so I'm satisfied. I also have some pretty awesome battle wounds. I have this swollen growth/bruise on my right hand from being run over by another surfer and blue blisters all over my hands. I look pretty official I think.

Anyway, tonight is my last night so I'm off to enjoy but early monday morning I will be back in London and will post pictures.