London was incredible! It was three days of amazing sights and people. I was having so much fun that I barely felt the exhaustion, both physical and mental, that I should have been feeling. It was not until I got back to Belfast that I updated my step counter and realized I had been walking about 20k steps per day. Keep in mind, it had been barely a week since I twisted my ankle. My foot hurt pretty badly each night, but my dreams were deep and restful as they tend to be after busy days. All good signs of a good trip.
It was wonderful to get to see a couple of my Wellesley friends in London. Belfast is not a common place to study in, so there are (as far as I know) no other Wellesley students in Northern Ireland. Both my friends speak wonders about their schools and their programs, though they both miss Wellesley a lot. Perhaps because they are only abroad for a semester (which ends up being only about 3 months), they described their experience as a sort of break from real life. I cannot relate to that, at least not yet, but perhaps it will when I am a month away from flying back to the States. They both had stories of previous travels and plans for future ones, and had found their place in the city. I got to meet the friend group of the girl I am staying with, and I fell in love with them all. They were incredibly inviting and funny, and gave me enough funny stories and experiences to last me a lifetime.
I did so much in three days that I can’t quite believe it myself. The trip to Stonehenge took up all of Saturday, since it is a few hours from London. On Friday, I went to Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Borough Market, the London Tower, Tower Bridge, and the Shard. On Sunday I went to Buckingham Palace again, SoHo, Picadilly Circus, Chinatown, Covent Garden, Shoreditch, King’s Cross, and back to the London Eye. I ended up spending a lot of money on souvenirs, but I don’t regret buying a single one of them. I also sent a record number of postcards (7), because everything I saw either reminded me of someone or was something I wanted to share.
This week will be pretty busy for me. I have a lot of schoolwork to finish before my trip to Iceland, and I have to finish planning my trip to Iceland (I know, I am really behind on all this). Let’s hope next Wednesday I will be able to tell you how much I got done this week. I also just received my empty ballot, so I have to read through the instructions and send in my vote! Pretty exciting that the first woman president will be a Wellesley sister (fingers crossed).