Homesick (n.) - A feeling I have despite the fact I'm having a good time

I have no classes and I don't have to work on Fridays which means that I am able to explore the city with friends. Despite the fact that I love to work (weird, right?), I'm glad that I have an extra day to just explore because after being here for almost three weeks, I've realized that being here for a semester isn't going to give me as much time as I expected it to and I've started to panic that I'm not going to do everything that I would like to see.

Despite the theory that it always rains in London, we've been having nice days which makes exploring the city that much more enjoyable. The day started with walking through Shepherd's Bush, the neighborhood that I live in. We walked by local shops, bakeries and found restaurant after restaurant that we wanted to try (with the limited money that we had). From there, my friend Billy and I made our way towards Notting Hill where we stumbled upon Holland Park where we found various fountains, a museum, a restaurant and a park for children to play in. Apparently (according to Billy), we didn't even see the best part of the park so we'll have to go back soon!

After we left the park, Rose got off of work and we met up with her to walk around Hammersmith and talk about how we can't believe that Donald Trump was getting sworn in as our president later that day.

We watched the inauguration (still in disbelief) before heading over to one of our local pubs that was throwing an end of the world party in honor of Trump himself. It was here at Brewdogs where I bought a spiked milkshake and discovered that I hate bourbon (yikes). After the failed drink at Brewdogs, we went to our normal pub, the Sindercombe Social, talked for a bit before we returned home, knowing that we were going to have a busy day the next day.

Saturday was an early morning. We woke up and made our way to CAPA (our school) to board the coach buses that would be taking us to Stonehenge and Bath for the day.

The bus ride was about a hour and a half and thankfully I was able to sleep through most of it. We arrived to Stonehenge and I had to listen to Rose explain how the aliens had made Stonehenge. At this point, please acknowledge that aliens made Stonehenge, just for Rose's sake.

Following our time at Stonehenge, we drove another hour and arrived in Bath. The city was full of not only tourists, but locals who came into the city for the rugby game. Sadly, we were unable to attend the rugby game but apparently Bath destroyed their French opponents (go Bath rugby?!)

((Side note: we saw the cutest boy working in a rugby store. @ Pitt where are the cute rugby boys?))

The Roman Baths are basically what they sound like: Baths. The Romans built the bathhouse above natural hot springs. These specific Roman Baths are one of the best preserved ancient Roman spas in the world. On top of that, Bath Abbey located next door to the baths and is absolutely stunning.

After a long day of bus rides and an early morning, we took Sunday as more of a day to relax and get our lives together in the sense that we needed to check our calendars and figure out when projects were do. The weather was bad and it was nice to just sit down and relax before life took over again. This was extremely important due to the fact that we wanted to be able to book our flights/hostels/airbnbs for the quickly approaching spring break.

On top of that, the day trip made me feel more like a tourist on vacation instead of an actual Londoner. I'm glad I went, but I spent the majority of the weekend homesick knowing that the weather in Pittsburgh was nice and my friends are continuing life without me (which is rude by the way! Didn't you guys know that you're supposed to wait for me to come home before you have fun again?)

Monday was back to reality and for some reason having a class at 9:30am where I watch movies in a very dark room doesn't seem so daunting or make me sleepy (@Emily Mason).

In British Contemporary Film, we watched a movie called A Field in London which, despite how awake I was, made borderline no sense to me. To make matters worse, their accents were harder to understand and the use of old English is not something that I would say I enjoy. Here's what I do know for sure: some dude was on shrooms for the last bit of the movie (or the entirety of it... I'm not sure), the death at the end was gory and that someone was a traitor, I think?

Later that day, I had my internship placement class. I believe that this class is a waste of a hour and a half knowing that I'm only getting three credits for 20 hours of work a week, while other schools are getting three credits for 15 hours a week, or 6 credits for 20 hours a week (plus an extra writing assignment or two). To be honest, I dread going to this class every week.

Tuesday was my first day of work and I met my boss on Baker Street (yes, like Sherlock Holmes). We talked about my duties and what would be expected of me. On top of that, we talked through a few projects that I'm working on and I'm still excited about my placement, which is a great thing in my opinion.

My boss, Melissa, seems eager to teach me what she knows.

I only meet with her once a week tho because we work in a "virtual office" which means that we don't have a real, physical office space. As much as I love to be out and about and switching up my environments, I wish that I had an official office that I worked out of everyday so that I could meet coworkers and build a bond with them. However, at the moment I can't see that happening and I am a little saddened by it.

After work, I spent the day doing homework (yes, I have that here) and talking to some friends from back home which is either: A. helping my homesickness or B. making it worse. I'm not sure which one of those it is yet, but seeing my friends and hearing about what they're doing makes it seem normal and helps me fight the fear that I'm going to be forgotten.

Wednesday was another day of work. I work from a Women's Trust organization in London, but Wednesday is a slow day so no one is really in the office for me to meet. Out of the people that are there, none of them are really around my age. The people that I did meet all seemed like wonderful, nice women tho. The work environment is quiet, which is nice because I can put in my headphones and just focus.

I can't wrap my head around why people need hour breaks and need to leave the office. I'd prefer to just eat my lunch at my desk and continue my work because once I'm in the zone, why would I want to leave the zone? I must've been offered tea about 12 times and I'm trying to decide if I should break it to them that I don't like tea or if I should try and pick it up as soon as possible to blend in.

I worked on a few of the social media outlets, some branding aspects for a new kit that they are trying to establish along with doing some research and working on an annotated bibliography for a conference later on in the term.

On top of all the fun of work and classes, we planned our spring break this week. The flights and hotels/airbnbs are all booked. The activities however are still up in the air so if anyone has any suggestions on what to do in any of these cities, PLEASE let me know!

Here's how it's looking in case anyone wants to know/send me money to help fund it:

On Friday, February the 24th, morning we fly to Rome, Italy! We're there for two and a half days before we fly out on 27th to Florence, Italy. The next morning, we wake up to get on a bus to go to a wine tasting in Tuscany (I am living for this. It's time to unleash my inner wine mom). We spend the next full day in Florence before jet setting to Berlin, Germany on March 1st where we'll hopefully be able to take in as much history as possible (I've been dying to go to Berlin so !!!!!!) On March 3rd, we leave in the morning for Amsterdam and yes, we have already booked our tickets for the Anne Frank House, do not worry. On March 5th, we return home early morning, but just in time for all of my friends who will be on spring break to come visit (@Erin @Ryan @Tim). I'll probably cry when they get here due to excitement, but also (mostly) exhaustion.

Thursday was another full day of classes. During my Marketing Communications class we watched more advertisements. But, the most important thing that I learned is that they turned off the lights/television screens in Picadilly Circus until next fall. Although I've already seen Picadilly in all of its glory, I'm annoyed that the country decided that when I'm here was the time that they needed to do this major renovation.

Later I had International Marketing again and despite the teacher's fun personality and excitement about the class, it is still not fun. It's interesting to see different perspectives of advertising and marketing, but sitting there and listening to someone ramble on for upwards of three hours is just as hard as I expected it to be.

Another Friday means another day of exploring and another day of no responsibilities! Billy, my roommate Emilia and I made our way to Selfridges where we made fun of the prices of clothing because we couldn't afford it (I mean, $200 GBP for a shirt?) I legitimately thought that the mall by us was nice until I set foot in here and realized that I am trash (but not trash from Selfridges because I'm sure the trash from that place is still nicer than me).

After, we hopped onto a bus which took us towards the London Zoo where we didn't actually go into the zoo. Instead, we walked in Regent's Park along the canal. The canal was covered in street art and led us to Camden Market where we were overwhelmed with the aroma of food options and despite the lack of money we have after booking spring break, we still decided that we have to come back immediately to try just about every food option there.

After walking through the first small section filled with food, tapestries, "drug rugs", jewelry and bags, Billy announced "I expected the market to be bigger." The market fought back against Billy's assumption, revealing about three more parts, each bigger than the last, but all filled with people drinking fresh squeezed orange juice.

We ended the day at Feathers, a pub closer to the Southbank and ate dinner and enjoyed some drinks before going to see Big Ben and the London Eye lit up with our roommates Colleen and Emilia.

London feels comfortable. I have a life here with a job and school, but something still does feel off. Sure, Big Ben has become something that I'm used to, but it also manages to leave me breathless every time. I'm not scared or uncertain about the tube. I miss my friends back home more than I'd like to admit. I don't think I like the concept of being a tourist in my own city despite the fact that I'm going to continue to do touristy stuff for as long as I'm here because despite what I tell myself, I still am a tourist.