Back at Home!

Yesterday, Jason and I flew back home to Philadelphia! 

We had a seven and half hour long plane ride, but we were so excited to come home, we didn't mind. 

We had a lot of fun on the flight:

We landed safely at 3:30 EST. My whole family came to pick me up at the airport; they even surprised me with my brother being there, he came in especially from Boston to see me! 

 I'll miss London a great deal; this has been a wonderful experience that I'll look back on with very fond memories. However, I'm thrilled to be back in good old PA.

Well, this is my 51st, and last, blog post. It's been a pleasure sharing my study abroad experience with all my readers. 

Thanks for reading, 

Cheers!  

Henry V

On my last night in London, I went to see Shakespeare's Henry V at the Globe Theatre. 

It was a truly wonderful production, and seeing it at the Globe made it all the more amazing.

Opening the show

Henry's St. Crispian's Day Speech 

It was the perfect last night in England! 

Abbey Road

Today, Tarini, Jason, and I met up at Abbey Road. 

We walked across the zebra crossing (i.e.cross walk) that the Beatles made famous with their Abbey Road album cover.  

 Taking these pictures was much more difficult than we anticipated because there were so many cars driving through. (It didn't help that it was raining, either)

Running away from traffic 

 Then we took a look at the actual studio. 

 You can't go in, but here's the building.

Although the crossing obviously no longer really looks anything like the album cover (no old cars, etc.), walking in the footsteps of the Fab Four was pretty amazing. 

Rob in London!

Yesterday Rob Ruggiero was in London town for the day! Rob is doing a summer internship in Italy and stopped for a one night layover in London, which gave us the perfect opportunity for a visit. 
We started the day by meeting up in Hyde Park, where there was a procession for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

 After narrowly escaping getting trampled by a rogue horse (true story) Rob and I decided to take a safer route and walked through the beautiful Rose Garden. 

 After that, we came across the amazing Albert Memorial that Queen Victoria had made for her husband. 

 

 Then we hit the Italian Fountains. 

An Italian at the Italian Fountains.

 Then made our way over to Speaker's Corner. There was a Christian Group speaking on soapboxes. 

After a couple hours of walking through the park we stopped in at Pret A Manger to get sandwiches for lunch. We got our food to take-away (English for take-out) and sat in the park to eat. 

After that took the tube to Tower Hill, we walked past the Tower of London and then crossed Tower Bridge. 

 There were tons of boats docked on the Thames in preparation for the Jubilee Flotilla the next day. Apparently, 1,000 ships are sailing along the Thames in the Queen's honor. The papers predict crowds of over 1 million to attend! 

 London is really getting into the Jubilee! There are Union Jacks flying all over the city, this hotel even put up a Congratulatory banner. 

Rob's dad met up with us at Tower Bridge, and from there we went to Leicester Square. We got a delicious dinner at a corner pub called The White Lion. 


After dinner we headed to the "Cineworld" where we caught a showing of Prometheus, an alien movie Rob was dying to see. 

Rob loved it, it was a little gory and suspenseful for me, so I spent most of the time hiding, but still had fun. 


After that we had to part ways because Rob and Mr. Ruggiero had their flight the next day, but it was really a wonderful day! It was so great to see Rob again after almost 6 months apart! 

Hampstead Heath

On Friday Jason and I headed out to the beautiful Hampstead Heath. 

We thought it was just going to be another park, but it turned out to be a beautiful woods. (For all those at home, it was similar to Valley Green). 

Here's some of what we saw:

Jason was mad cause it wasn't a gazebo.

Stopping to smell the flowers.

We spent several hours wandering around the heath and could have been there even longer, but we headed home once it started to rain. 


Despite the weather, we spent a wonderful day at Hampstead Heath.