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Returning to Roma
Ciao again! I was in Rome from Monday, March 5th to Wednesday, March 7th. Although I’ve visited Rome before, in May 2010 (at age 13) with my mom to see my uncle Thad, who was living in Italy at the time, my experience this time around was completely different. Same sites and attractions, but I must’ve forgotten everything in between.…
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Under the Tuscan Sun
Ciao dall’italia! There has been a lot going on so this is post #2 this week! This week is “reading week” at my London university, but more like spring break because no one is actually studying. My friends Sam and Marisol and I have been in Italy since Thursday (March 1st). And ok, I’m not quite “under the tuscan sun”…
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A Very Harry Day
I finally got tickets to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour last week and that day deserves its own post. I’ve been looking for tickets for months but they’re always sold out and my friends and I could never coordinate a good day anyway. So on Monday (Feb 26th) when I saw there were tickets available that Wednesday, I…
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Learning to Live as a London Local
Because it’s midterm week and I’m in the middle of writing like seven papers, today I’m just going to share a post I wrote for AIFS’s student blog. I already shared this on Facebook a couple days ago, but here it is again if you missed it. If you want to learn more about the American Institute for Foreign Study,…
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Dam Good Times in Amsterdam
My relationship with Amsterdam up to this point consisted of pinning endless amounts of canal houses to my Pinterest board. Canal houses at sunrise, canal houses at sunset, canal houses in the rain, shine, and with or without the perfect bicycle in front. I love cozy things and places and people, and in my mind Amsterdam was the epitome of…
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A State of the Nation
“The only times the city can breathe freely is when a wind blows in from a far-off place . . . . this city is a world of its own, a country within a country,” writes Amanda Craig in the novel Hearts and Minds. London may as well not be part of England, for much of its Englishness has been…
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I’ve a Feeling we’re not in Kensington Anymore
I ventured out of my posh little West London bubble yesterday to East London, specifically the Shoreditch neighborhood–not to be confused with “Shortage,” which is what I thought it was when British people say it. While probably not as famous as Camden Town, which I’ve yet to go to, the market on Brick Lane is probably one of my favorite…
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We’ll Always Have Paris
I am exhausted but happy. This weekend my program took the Eurostar to Paris, which is such an easy and sleek (but can be expensive) way to travel. I spent the entire weekend asking “parlez vous anglais?” to everyone because I don’t know a lick of French and was quickly reminded how easy I have it England. Paris reminds me…
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There and Back Again
It’s dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to. But doing so may sweep you into literary heaven, like it did me yesterday. Although it was a chill-to-the-bone, rain-snow-and-hail-drenched kind of day, I managed to spend most of…
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Week One of Becoming British
’Ello from London! It has officially been a week since I left for England. Today is my first day of classes! Ah! Things might actually settle down a bit now, because this week has been completely full of “orientation activities” such as a walking tour of the neighborhood, a bus tour of the city, a river cruise down the Thames,…
