How time flies. 

So much has happened since I last updated. 

 I’ve gotten into a routine and I’m finally settling in and feeling comfortable. There are days when I have sudden pangs of homesickness, true. I miss my friends at home, my family, familiar things like the ducks at my college and going to the grocery store down the block, but  I’m powering through it. It’s funny how the little things can trigger homesickness. My flatmates and housemates call me brave for doing this. They say they never could do this,  leave everything familiar for an experience that throws  me into a situation where I have to start completely fresh.  I don’t necessarily think I’m brave though … it’s really hard to explain!! 

SO YES!  

A lot has happened! I love hanging out with my flatmates, and I feel so much more comfortable now than I did 2 weeks ago! 

I got my visa bullshit sorted out. Ha … the UK Border Agency needs to work out that loophole!  

 I went to London and Paris. It felt good to be in a proper metropolitan area again.  Cardiff is a city, true,  but gosh it’s small! London felt familiar, if that makes sense.  Taking  the tube with my friend Veronica ( her study abroad blog is here!) I felt back at home. I mean the tube is different but a train is a train is a train. I literally screamed when I saw parliament and Big Ben. How embarrassing.  I am such a tourist it hurts.  We got dinner and walked around. I went to a free museum.  It was such a whirlwind because  I was in London for less than a day, but I did have a blast. I even made it to Notting Hill. My mom and I have a thing about that movie … so I took a picture of a notting hill sign and tagged her in it on facebook. She literally flipped on the phone when I told her I went to Notting Hill. 

We got up at 4am and took the Eurostar to Paris. 

Wow … Paris was an actual dream. It was so disorienting and beautiful. I thought it would be overrated and like the films,  but  it was actually more beautiful than I could ever imagine. There was a special dark quality to all of it, but it felt right. The fact that I can’t speak a word of French other than basic words like “bonjour” and “merci” didn’t help, but it made it into more of an adventure. I was only in Paris for 2 days because I left the UK just to get my student visitor visa worked out, but I am definitely going back in the spring. 

I’m going to Brighton this weekend to see a concert with some of my American friends, Tanya ( who I met here) and Chelsea ( who goes to New Paltz with me), and I am so pumped! Seeing Sleigh Bells live is going to be unbelievable!!!!! 

I’m going to put up some pics later, and if you’re lucky  the vidoe of me freaking out over the Eifel Tower sparkling~.