Part 2

Today I returned to London.
It felt almost unfamiliar to be back. I knew where I was going, I knew the names of buildings and streets and my feet walked a similar path, but everything feels different. Time is moving forward and I came back to a living city after a month and found that it had grown and changed. It's a lot colder now, and as I write this, it's actually snowing outside. It made my stomach hurt to know that this city will continue to grow and change when I am no longer in it and I will never be able to recreate these experiences and these memories. I wish I could constantly return to these moments over and over. That's why this blog is so important, I can record thoughts and feelings and events that will soon only be a memory. Coming back, I felt like I was coming to a type of home. It's not really home at all, but it certainly feels like it. I was so excited to see all of my classmates and catch up, which is weird for me because I usually stay away from conversing. I moved up to a swanky new flat complete with our own kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and 2 kitchens. I can't breathe it is so incredible and we lucked out big time.
I've been lucking out pretty big over this past semester. Just to recap:
I lived in London for 4 months
I've been to Rome and Greece
I got to room with my life-long friend
I got upgraded into a flat with three other lucky girls
I've learned interactively and more engaged than I have ever been
I saw Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet
I saw almost 20 plays
I've met some of the greatest people
I live in the "posh" part of London
I've got 4 months left.
Really the list of how incredibly lucky I have been could go on and on for years, but I will stop there for now. As I begin my second semester in London, I just wanted to repeat how lucky I am and how thankful I am for everything and everyone.

Cheers,
Sarah

Family Trip

It was an incredible gift at the end of the semester to have my family come out and visit me in London. For the most part, I showed them around my favorite city and we saw all the tourist sites, so to be brief, I'll simply talk about the ones I haven't already posted about. My family got in around noon, so we took an easy day and visited my favorite part of London, and home, South Kensington.


The next day, I wore them out by walking them past some of the most well known sights in London. We say the changing of the guards at Buckingham, and as this was the day that Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, the band played the star wars theme. May the force be with you Queen Elizabeth. Also, this is the day we saw Woman in Black. We sat in the front row and it scared the pants off of me for a second time.




This is the infamous Tower of London, where a lot of executions, torture, and out right murder
took place. It was very cheery place to be. Jokes aside, I really did enjoy visiting this place, because the history was so relevant to what I had learned about the British Monarchy in class. However, I'm not one that enjoys talk about torture, so there were parts of it that were a little harsh for me and there are images that will probably never leave my head.





 To get off of our feet a little, we took a boat right this night and traveled down the Thames River, leaving from right in front of the Tower Bridge. I tried to convince my mom to got to the top of this, but the glass floors that go from each tower were a little to much of deterrent.










It was random luck that the London International Horse Show was in happening while my mom was in town. Of course we went to see it, and it was absolutely amazing. I don't ride English and I don't compete, but growing up around horse means I've seen every horse movie out there and I always tune in for a while when the horse events happen in the Olympics. It was crazy to see all of the Olympic champions compete on incredible horses. What a stroke of luck and an incredible experience.





We almost didn't do this, but in the end we decided it was worth it. We did a short day trip to Paris and saw the brief highlights of what this city had to offer. We saw most of it by bus or by boat, and we only spent a short amount of time seeing the greatest art collection ever, but it was amazing. I'm so excited to return to this city in a few weeks and spend a weekend getting to known the city better.













I had wonderful time with my family in London and Paris, and I had a wonderful semester in what I truly believe to be the greatest city in the world. After spending a few months there, I know I could live there forever and I really hope that I will get to return to London after my abroad experience is over. But for now, the beginning of my second semester in London is a few short days away and I am so excited to continue the adventure. I have some really exciting trips lined up for next semester, and who know what will happen in bewteen those. Maybe I'll see the queen again (unlikely). Maybe I'll see Benedict Cumberbatch again (even more unlikely).  Whatever does happen, I'm ready to be back at my home across the pond. I'm sorry all of this is so late, but no promises that I'll be remotely consistent with these updates and there is every possibility that most of what does happen will appear on this blog long after it happens. If you would like timely updates about my adventures, follow me on Instagram (sarahkiker). Otherwise, thank you for reading and I'll see you next semester!

Cheers,
Sarah

Castles

Besides the obvious Buckingham Palace and our next door neighbors Will and Kate at Kensington Palace, I've visited a few castles during my semester in England. In this post, I'm going to talk about Hampton Court and Windsor Castles. I do have to make a quick clarification; typically when a building is called a Palace, it is because it's meant for royals to live in. A castle is meant for defense, but these days they are also pretty much for living in.

 This is the first part of Hampton Court, which was built by Henry the VIII. This trip was part of my history of the monarchy class, and we got a two-hour tour of the place, which is massive and confusing. What is really cool about this particular picture is that nothing in the photo (excluding the floor) has been altered since Henry's reign, which means we say the same thing he saw while standing there.

Believe it or not, this picture is still of Hampton Court, but it's the back part of it, which was altered by a later monarch. It is beautiful, but it is much more modern than the front half. It's an interesting sensations to experience to see the huge passage of time in the architecture.










This is the outside of Windsor Castle, which is called the Queen's favorite castle. The Queen refers to Buckingham Palace as her office, and Windsor as her home. We didn't spot the queen while we were here, but I do have to brag a little, because I saw the queen once in London for a breif moment. I was looking out the window of my room, and there was a sudden flash of photography, then the queen came out of the resturant next door and got into her car, and ran down stairs yelling "God save the Queen"

This is the Chapel inside Windsor which the Queen regualrly attends church at. This is the spot where a lot of royalty is buried, including Henry VIII.

Castles and Palaces are a huge part of England and it's been a pleasure to learn about these amazing buidings and the people who have occupided them.


Cheers,
Sarah

Hogwarts

No, I didn't actually go to Hogwarts, but I did come about as close as I could. I went with a big group of our class to The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour, and saw a bunch of sets and props and costumes from the Harry Potter films. I'm definitely part of the Harry Potter generations. I grew up reading it and seeing all of the movies, so it is a major part of my childhood and it has a sentimental attachment for me.

 Let me set the scene for you.
After waiting in line for a good thirty minutes, after we had our ticket, they herded us into a theater to watch a short film about the tour. It ended with a shot of the doors to the great hall, then like magic, the screen rows and behind it was the doors to the great hall. There was genuine shock and excitement in the crowd as we all jumped to our feet and rushed to the doors. They talked for a while, then opened the doors and like nervous first years, we walked into the great hall.




The Great Hall was one of my favorite parts of the tour. I waited until everyone else had left to get this shot. We went sometime after thanksgiving, so it was decorated like Christmas. It's a lot smaller than you would imagine but no less awesome. I only wish we could have sat down at the tables and pretended to eat some of the delicious looking fake food. If you're curious about which house I'm in, it's undoubtedly Ravenclaw.





This is the Gryffindor Boy's Bedroom. There are little clues in the details here that tell you which bed is whose. Details are what makes the world of Harry Potter really incredible.





There's a running joke among some friends and I, that if we were all characters from Harry Potter, I would be Dumbledore. So here I am in my office. This set was particularly cool because you really get to step into the room and you look around and it doesn't look like a movie set, it looks like real life. Fun trivia fact: most of the books in the office are actually rebound phone books. It looks like a pretty killer library, something I would love to have in my office some day. Maybe I am Dumbledore.









Some more sets from the tour, including Potions Class, The Hogwarts Express, The Ministry of Magic Statue, Gryffindor Common Room, and The Weasley's House.

These are from scenes from the more outdoor areas of the tour including The Queen from Wizard Chess, Potter's Cottage, The Dursley's, and what we called the "deep conversations bridge". Also, they were making it fake snow outside, and for a moment we believed magic was real and it could snow without there being a cloud in the sky. 

   

Finally, I present you my favorite, most magical parts of the tour. These two places are Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Castle. I waited for the opportune moment to take this photo and got one that looks like I might actually be shopping for school supplies at Diagon Alley. The castle itself is really breathtaking. We wanted to hang out here for longer, but we were running out of time. It's pretty small, as they only use it for outside shots, but they put it at the very end of the tour because its the epitome of Hogwarts and Harry Potter. This was so cool and I'm so glad that I got to feel like I was really in the storybook world of my childhood.         Cheers,                                                                 Sarah 

 

 Also, I drank Butterbeer and it tastes like magic (which taste a lot like caramel and butterscotch as it turns out, very sweet.)

Theatre

One of my favorite things about living in London is the opportunity to see theatre productions. I had the great pleasure to see a lot of plays this year, because seeing shows in London is a lot cheaper than seeing shows in America.  I'm going to talk about them in groups, so that I don't go on and on about them.
Plays/Musicals I've Seen in London (excluding Shakespeare)
Hangmen
Ticking
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Women in Black
Our Country's Good
War Horse
Phantom of the Opera
Wicked
Book of Mormon
Jersey Boys
Mousetrap

Theatre 200
                                                                                    

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

These are all plays I saw because they were a part of my THEA 200 class. My favorite among the group is Woman in Black, which is just an incredible show that stars only two people and is extremely terrifying. I actually ended up seeing this one twice because I loved it so much, I took my family to see it.
The worst one was clearly Ticking, but what was cool about it was that I saw one of it's first runs and it was in a really small theater that had only three rows of seats on three sides of the stage. Also, it started Anthony Head, who played Uther Pendragon in Merlin, which is a show I really enjoyed so I was a bit star struck.
Seeing The Importance of Being Earnest was nostalgic because I played Lady Bracknell in One Act Play durning high school. I had to restrain myself from shouting out the lines along with the actor who played her.
Hangmen was really good, but it had a lot of British humor that when right over my head. Also, it had David Morrissey, or the Govenor from The Walking Dead. #starstruck
Our Country's Good was not what I expected it to be and it was very graphic. I was sitting next to a very young girl and I just wanted to lean over and cover her eyes most of the time. This play also really puzzled me, and I still haven't really decided what I think about it.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was really good, but definitly aimed towards a younger audience.

Musicals
               

I've seen both the Phantom and Wicked before, so this was round two for me. Wicked was excellent, but there are a lot of reasons why I didn't like this particular cast for Phantom. To put it simply, they were very flat.
I actually won cheap front row tickets to Book of Mormon. It was really crazy and the first time I've ever gotten to sit in the front row. I made eye contact with the main character (Kevin Price). At one point I looked at him and there was shock in my eyes; he nodded and laughed at me. That's a good word for Book of Mormon: shock.
Jersey Boys was terrible. I don't know why people like it because it was like hearing a news report about them and listing to one minute covers of their songs. No story or characters.

Other Plays
   

War Horse was really really cool, the puppetry was amazing. I love that book, so it was cool to see it adapted for stage.
Mousetrap is the longest running play in London and is a who-dunnit, murder mystery. I called it by the way. We bought day of tickets for this and got to sit in the front row!

Theathre is one of my favorite things, and I'm so glad I've had the oppurtunity to see all of these plays. Can't wait to see more in the future!

Cheers,
Sarah

Rome

Pepperdine gives us about three days and a weekend off called travel break, which most of the students use to travel farther than we normally could. I decided before the year began that the two things on my  "have to" list were Rome and Paris. I decided to spend my travel break in Rome. I really wanted to do more than just Rome, but  we could find plenty to do in Rome. To try and fit in three Italian cities in three days would be to miss a lot of what the cities have to offer.
So I went to Rome with two other people, and we had a great time. I have to say that planning out all of the travel and worrying that I'd forgotten my passport stressed me out quite a bit, but I can happily say that we survived.
We had two full days and two half days to spend in Rome, and we walked our feet off seeing as much as possible. When we got to the city at around noon we spent some time trying to figure out public transportation and I had a panic attack when I couldn't find the Air BandB, but we did eventually find the charming little apartment. We spent the rest of the evening exploring a large part of the city and walking into history around every corner.

Day 1
The first thing we went to see were the Spanish Steps and we were a bit dismayed to find them under construction. These steps are normally filled with people and not blocked by fences. A bit of trivia for you, the top window of the yellow building on the right (the one nearest the edge of the picture) is the place where the poet John Keats died. There is a museum there dedicated to Keats, Percy and Shelley that cost about 5 euros to enter, which we didn't want to pay. I came very close to sneaking in and made it to the second floor before getting caught, but for a second I got the same view or Rome Keats did for the last part of his life.
The next thing we went to see was the Trevi Fountain. I didn't know what to expect when I saw this, but I was not expecting it to be as big as it was. The legend of the fountain says that if you throw a coin into the fountainvover your shoulder, you will return to Rome one day. Fingers crossed. We hung out at this fountain for about an hour, watched the sun set and the lights turn on, ate our first Italian gelato, and watched a lot of tourists take thousands of selfies.





Next we went to see the Pantheon. What's cool about Rome is that all of the huge historic sites are only a few steps away from each other and there are Piazzas, huge statues, and monuments on every block. It really is incredible just to walk around this city. The Patheon is a building that has been used as a church or a really long time and is one of the best preserved Ancient Roman buildings. When we visited, there was a guy playing "Hey Jude" on the guitar, which made me extremely happy. The inside of this building is also incredible, but difficult to see in a picture. It's one big, circular room with a huge dome. I'll leave it to your imagination

We spent the rest of the evening exploring the city for as long as our feet would carry us. There are a lot of piazza's in Rom, like this one called Piazza Navona, that are good places for shopping and eating.











Day 2
This is the day we spent in the Vatican City. We started at the Musem and spent most of our day here because it was absolutely the most amazing thing I've seen. I really didn't know what to expect when I walked into that museum. I knew I was going to see the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms, but... Wow. It was all so incredible and I have way too many pictures from that day. There were a lot of incredible paintings and sculptures and I wish I knew more about all the art I saw. I'm just going to share a few pictures of some of my favorites, but it will not include the Sistine Chapel, as we weren't allowed to take photos.        


After that, we were pretty exhausted so we fueled up with some gelato and headed to Saint Peter's Basilica. I'm not Catholic, so really elaborate churches are not something I'm familiar with. However, I can say that after seeing St. Peter's, I think I can understand why these places exist. I walked into just the outside and nearly lost my breath because it was so amazing. The outside was set up with a lot of chairs because, not surprisingly, A LOT of people attend Mass there. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in this place, enjoying the nice day and the beautiful view, then finally went inside.









It's impossible to capture in a picture how awestruck this place made me feel. There was a lot of incredible art, and the place made my stomach sick with how large it was. I have a weird thing where I get nervous when I look up at really high things. I imagine it all coming crashing down and I definitely had that feeling here. I was shocked with how big this church was. It really reflects the immensity of God and makes you think about how powerful he is.

This is Michaelangelo's Pieta, one of my favorite statues, which depicts Mary holding Christ after he has been crucified. It holds a lot of emotion, and it moves me every time I see it. I did not know that this statue was here, and it was a pleasant surprise to see it in Saint Peter's.














The last thing we did that day was to climb to the top of the Dome and watch the sunset. It was amazing and I will let this picture speak for itself.

Day 3

On our last full day, we went to see the Ruins and a few more monuments. We started with the Colosseum, which was very cool, but I have to say that the most exciting part of the Colosseum is the outside of it. It was incredibly nice that day and there were very few people there, so we got to go in almost immediately. Rome is really nice in the fall, as there are not as many people there and the weather is great. 

I took this picture from above the Roman Forum, which is really a fun place to walk around because you get to see what it was like way back in the day. Below are the pictures of the Mouth of Truth and the Altare della Patria. The Legend of the Mouth of Truth is that if you are a lier and put your hand into the mouth, it will be bitten off. I still have my hand if you're wondering. 

Day 4

We didn't have a lot of time on this day, as our bus to the airport left around noon and in light of the Paris attacks, I wanted to give us plenty of time to get through security. So, we went to see this guy. This is Bernini's David, which we talked about in Humanities class that year. He can be found at the Galleria Borghese, and he's just a really cool version of David and seems very Biblical and realistic. After that, we made our way back to Termini Station and headed back London. 

This was a brilliant, stressful, overwhelming, and amazing trip. I hope the legend is true and that because I threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain I will return someday. 

Cheers, 

Sarah