29 June 2014

Goodbyes and heading home

Hallooooo!

The titles says it all. As my previous blog said, this is my 14th week living and working in London, but it has come to an end.

Wednesday was my last day at work, Thursday I began my journey back home and on Friday I was officially back home.

Here is the video with the footage added from my last blogpost, which you can read here. Some bits and pieces from Blackheath, Bromley, etc.


Dreading Wednesday
Who would have thought there would be a moment in my life that I would dread it being Wednesday? Well, Wednesday 25th June 2014 was a day I dreaded. It was my last day at RDP and I had to say goodbye to my host family as well.

We went out for lunch and my colleagues proved that they were the best colleagues in the world. I kept it dry, but is was difficult not to cry. The day carried on like normal and by the time it was 5:30pm we said our goodbyes and I left. It was only when I was walking to Charing Cross that it hit me: my internship had come to an end and I just left RDP and the people I have been working with. I would never be able to go back to that exact moment. I have to admit, a few tears escaped.

As I wasn't completely ready to head back to my host family, I sat on a bench on Leicester square for old time sake and enjoyed just being there. But I couldn't stay there forever, so hop to Charing Cross.

William Shakespear chilling on Leicester square with Odeon on the background
Traveling home
On Thursday I traveled the entire day. Because I suffer from motion sickness, I had to take the proper medication to make sure my lunch would stay down. And because I suffer from hay fever, I had to take the proper medication to make sure I wouldn't sneeze 8 times in a row and wouldn't blow my nose the entire ride home.

As you know, hay fever medication can make you feel very tired. The same for the motion sickness medication. Those two combined, I think you can imagen how I felt. I slept most of the journey on my new travel pillow from Cath Kidston my colleagues gave me!!

Dock 8 or dock 9???
This is a very short blogpost. If I added this post to the previous one, it would have been one very very long blogpost. And as we all know, there are only a few people who actually read them. Huge thanks to you!!!!

So, this leaves me with the good old:
Home sickness: As much I love being back home and see all my friends and family again, I miss London.
London city: Missing it!
New people: None at all, but I saw a whole bunch of my friends and family!!
New words: I have to learn again how to right in Dutch.
Music: the music you hear in the video above, is a cover by Lilly Alhberg, Chocolate by 1975.

As for you, who reads the entire blogpost, here is some exciting news! (except for you, mum and dad, and my sister, and her boyfriend, and to Anne, Sarah, Eline, Jill, Pegie, my grandparents, and a bunch of other people, because you already kinda know:))
I MIGHT BE GOING BACK TO LONDON, sooner than you might think! I am very excited, but it is not a 100% sure. So, if I am going back to the UK, I might blog the entire experience again. Because when I look at all my previous blogpost, it is a beautiful diary of my experience in London and I am happy I have continued it every single week.

Of course I hope you've enjoyed it as well! Only the die hard readers will read this sentence (AWESOME)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

25 June 2014

Chilling with Harry Potter

Hallooooooo!!!!

Yes, my last week here London has arrived! 14weeks I have been living in this wonderful city, but it has come to an end.

Since Molly is already in Belgium, I am literally all by my self. But no troubles in entertaining myself with trips to Blackheath and Bromley.

This week there will be no video for this blog as it is a midweek blogpost. There is quiet a lot going on this week and if I would leave it an entire week, this blogpost would never end :) The video will be included in the next blogpost though :)

But, for next week, you can expect my goodbye experience at RDP, my journey home and a crazy graduation barbecue :)

Saturday chilling with Harry Potter
I tried to sleep in, but as usual that was a hopeless case. My brain just didn't want to go to sleep and kept on going worrying about a 1000 different things. By 5:30 am I finally fell asleep, but as you can imagine, it was already bright outside, so longer than 8:30 am I didn't sleep...

Beautiful weather
Since the weather was exeptionally nice, I didn't want to stay indoors all day, so what to do? My first trip to Blackheath was one to repeat, so that is what I did.

At the bus stop, I only had to wait 12min for the 202. But 12min turned into 20min and 20min turned into 30min. People who know me, know that I hate waiting. I have to say, I don't mind waiting at all since I am here in the UK. Perhaps it is because English people like queueing, I don't know. 

When a lady approached me, I was shocked that a random English women approached me! She infomed me that there was a huuuuge accident and no cars or busses where coming through... Bummer. She walked on and I started debating with myself: do I walk to Blackheath or do I return home?

As I was looking how long the walk would be, tadaaaaa, the 202 bus showed up! Well I was glad I didn't stress out and started walking! So I got on the bus and on the next stop, the lady that warned me got on the bus as well. "You made it!", "Yes, I did, thank you for warning me".

There is this prejudice that English people are aloof and they are, but not as aloof as people might think!!

So once I arrived in Blackheath 7min later, my first stop was COSTA Coffee. Yep, this was my lunch
This is what I like to call: the good life
For the next 3hours I was at Hogwards, witnessing the Triwizard Tournament on the first row. From time to time I would look up to see this lovely view


Of course, laying down can be very exhausting (and I really needed to go to the toilet) so moving and sitting up straight from time to time was necessary, with me facing this lovely view:


Around 6pm I really really really needed to go to the toilet, so I started making my way over the the bus station. Again, instead of waiting 12min, I had to wait for 30min. No worries, I didn't pee in my pants, I made it home on time. Or maybe that is not what you wanted to hear... Hmm...

Original plan changed
On Sunday I planned to eat the DE LI CIOUS pancakes at Joe's in Bromley. Due to bad communication I didn't eat my dinner on Saturday, but I ate if for breakfast on Sunday. Pasta and fish for breakfast, you can definitely say it was something different. Which meant I wasn't hungry aaaalll day, so why spend money on food when you are not hungry?

What was supposed to be a relaxing "pancake trip" turned a bit into a shopping trip. I needed some cotton wool and dry shampoo anyway. After a little spree at Primark where I bought THE cutest pyjamas, it was another COSTA coffee time.


As you can tell, a not too exciting weekend, but boy I enjoyed every single second of it.

Officially last thing that needed to be done: DONE

My internship report printed and bound. Basically my favorite thing to see. Thanks dad!

I am going to leave it at this for this midweek blogpost.

Expect another blogpost this weekend, with all my adventures I encountered on my way to Belgium!

New word: devious= unwieldy

Thanks for reading
xo - Sara

21 June 2014

Molly's last weekend in London

And we went to GREENWICH!!

Halloooo!

Yes, I made it this weekend!! No uploads on Tuesday or Wednesday, but on a proper Saturday, when it all makes sense.

Like the title already told you, it was Molly's last weekend in London. She took the Eurostar home on Wednesday and left me here all by my self.

So, what do you do when it is your last weekend in London? Exactly, do the one thing you really want to do for the last time. That was Greenwich in our case.

Enjoy the video of what we did in Greenwich ^^ I had to film everything on my phone, because my camera battery died...


Saturday shopping
But before we could enjoy the doing-nothing-and-enjoy, we had some business to do: shopping. Molly had to buy a birthday present for her niece and I wanted to buy some presents for my family + my sister send me two items to buy in Cath Kidston x)

So this was what Saturday looked like. Eating pizza at Pizza Express, a stroll on Trafalgar Square, me losing my mind in Cath Kidston (as usual) and make up shopping in Debenhams.

Not really worth recording so that is why the video starts on Sunday.

Greenwich day!
We started our trip in Nando's, as that is where we had our first Nando's ever. Following with a walk in the Greenwich University campus, as we have done before. And then we wanted to visit the Queen's house. Because, why not?

What a beautiful view
Let me tell you something about the Queen's house.

It was build in 1616–1619 as a royal residence for Anne of Denmark, the queen of King James I of England by the architect Inigo Jones. Of course, Anne didn't live long enough to actually live in the place, so Henrietta Maria, queen of King Charles I, would be the first to live there.

This building is of great importance in the history of English architecture as it is the first consciously classical building to have been constructed in Britain.

There is a beautiful staircase with the name The Tullip Stairs


Some beautiful views of buildings constructed in the same time periode. Obviously not the same year, but with a couple of years in between or so.


Old Royal Naval College that later would become the University of Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, where all our stress of nowadays was created.
Although I doubt that Molly's eye looking through the maquette is an accurate historic fact x) Well, it is now: Molly's eye looking through the Queen's house maquette, Sunday 15th June 2014.


We spent a little over 2hours in the Queen's house as it was huuuuuge. We came to the conclusion that one of the rooms had the same square metres as my living room, kitchen and hall back home combined. And that's a holiday home for the Royal family...

When we left the Royal residence of the Queen it was time for tea. So, off we went to the little cafe we saw the first time, but was too crowded. Today, it was too crowded as well, but there was a table empty outside and we really wanted to eat a scone + the people working there had THE greatest Scottish accent.


 

It was also very adorable that the china didn't match at all as you can see on the picture above.

The last supper: SUSHI 
On Monday we wanted to go for sushi one last time at Yo!Sushi. And man it was delicious! Again, not a lot of footage since my camera battery was still dead... 

Hilarity at the office
Everyday we listen to Eagle Radio at the office and at 11:20 there is a game where you have to guess which song the radio man is playing on his organ. When you guess it right, you can win some stuff like dvd's, etc.

Every day, we guess it and more often than not, we guess it right, so why not enter the competition?

On Thursday at 11:20 am we were all sitting on the top of our chairs, waiting for the game to come on. Dan guessed it, Beth called and 10 minutes later we could hear Beth live on the radio as well in our office. It was so funny. She won an I love Eagle Radio window sticker and two 2 dvd's.

That is what I call: proper team building. 

Home sickness: although I am really happy here, right now I am sooo looking forward to going home! Sleeping in my own bed, running up and down our wooden staircase, being able to cook anything I like for myself if I am hungry, etc 
London city: It still has not disappointed me. 
New people: I met a lovely lady from Media Circus, but more details later. 
New word: Lenticular= (I can't find an explanation in English but here is a picture)

Source: wikipedia

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

18 June 2014

Walking all over town with lovely company

Halloooo!

Yet again, this blog post is a few days later than usual. But to be honest, I am just sooo tired that all I want to do when I get home is to get myself into comfy clothes and watch YouTube videos all evening until the internet gets turned off.

So, last weekend, my sister came to visit me! After not seeing her for a little over two months, I was very excited. Sam, her boyfriend, had never been to London before, so it is always fun to show a newby around ;)

Sam, HERE IS THE VIDEO. And the rest of you who know this is a video ;) Enjoy!!



Tourist Saturday
Saturday at 10 a.m. Tine and Sam arrived in St Pancras. We agreed that I would come to the hotel they were staying in. Of course, I was convinced that I knew where the hotel was, so I didn't double check the address... Turns out, I was wrong... -.- Nearly an hour went by before I finally found them. And to top everything up: it was pouring rain! And we were promised it would be raining the entire day. Yay, gotta loooove the UK...

So, what do you do when it is raining? Find something to do that is indoors. What? Exactly: shopping. Tine is, like me and my mum, a fan of Cath Kidston. We have a little shop in Leuven that sells some Cath Kidston articles, but we don't have an actual shop. And since there is a huuuge Cath Kidston store on Piccadilly, we couldn't not go. So on our way we were. Taking the tube from King's Cross to Piccadilly. I have to admit, taking the underground at this point is like a no brainer for me. Seeing Tine and Sam on the tube was kinda funny. Sorry guys, I am not making fun of you or anything, it is just what it is ^^

In the shop, Tine found what she was looking for and thanks to my student discount we got 10% off each item. Too bad you didn't came this weekend though, they are doing a saaale x) (Dangerous)
Cath Kidston all over the place!!!
After we had examined the entire store, the weather had cleared up and even the sun came through. Not ready to risk it, we set off to Hamleys, the biggest toy store. As you can see in the video, it was insane. Kids everywhere, employes playing with toys, music, etc.

Giant lego's

By the time we left Hamleys I was starving. Perfect timing for a picknick at Leicester square. As we were sitting in the sun, Tine and I realized we were not dressed for the lovely weather. Too warm!! Who would have guessed in the UK?

Since we were at Leicester square, it was more than logic to stop by in the M&M store. Tine got to fill her bag of M&M's at the large tubes. She genuinly had a blast :D
 
Discision discision
Nomnomnom

After that it was Trafalgar square time. I showed them the smallest police office ever (credits to mum and dad for this one), the lovely view on the Big Ben and we chilled by the fountains.


From there we walked aaaaall the way to the Big Ben and the London Eye, passing 10 Downing street where the Prime Minister of England lives and there were looots of people standing in front of the gate. Tssss, tourist. And here again a lovely picture of the Big Ben. You know, because I can.
The Big Ben again
After admiring the splendor of the tower, we set off to Buckingham Palace to do some guard watching. You know, you can't go to London without seeing a dude with a giant black furry hat. On our way through St Jame's Park we saw squirrels coming super close! If you had any raisins on you, you could've feed them!
Super cute!

Apparently not too impressed
After that is was time to sit doooown. We did a lot of walking you know. Chilling in Hyde park it was. 

Tourist Sunday
Today, Molly took up the courage of walking all over town and joined us. You had to be really motived x) Camden town was our first stop. As usual, I had my lovely crepe at my favorite stall. Tine and Sam got to see the awesomeness of that part of town.

After that, we took the metro to Harrods. Molly had never been there and since she'd almost leave, we had to cross off that last bullet on her to do list.
Jaws dropped that day
Once we had seen the majority of Harrods (yes Harrods is too big to go through in one day) our feet and backs where hurting. That's what you get when you are.... Oh never mind, as long as you don't complain ;) Chilling in the park it was again as it was lovely weather! Can you blame us? Exactly.

The orginal plan was to go to Notting Hill for an afternoon tea at Charlie's café where Molly had her first scone. Well, it had to be closed, didn't it? So we ended up sitting on the side walk, talking. The only thing missing was a cup of tea. But well, what you gonna do.

Tine and Sam had to be at St Pancras at 19h30, so that is when our ways parted. But not before Tine and I had a proper picture.
Hihi awesome pic sis!
So this was my weekend with my sister, Sam and Molly. I really enjoyed it! It is always nice when people come to visite because then I can show them all the places I love here in London.

As for the rest of the week, it went by so quickly. But more that on Friday, Saturday or Sunday ;) I promise I'll try to upload a lot earlier.

Oh yeah, Sam made it his quest to do as much silly moves as possible for the vlog. In my opinion he succeeded x)

Home sickness: I have to admit, this week I have had some struggles. Not crying or anything, but I think because it is almost the end, I kind of am ready to go home although I am not ready to leave this beautiful city... Struggels!
London city: As I said, not ready to leave...
New people: I got to know some people from the office lots better. People I normally don't see that often because they work on a different floor.
New words: It is not really a word, but apparently Sara and Sarah are not pronounced the same way! Confusion all over the floor!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
See you next week!

xo - Sara

11 June 2014

Come with me on my way to work, yay!

Hallooo!!

Yes yes, this week's blog is actually not this week's blog anymore, but last week's blog. My apology. Last weekend I had very lovely company visiting me from Belgium. But more on that in this weekend's blog post.

For now I am going to talk about the exciting things I've done two weekends ago *cough cough*. I have to admit, it wasn't a fancy one. Just a chill weekend sleeping in, relaxing and enjoy the laid back way of life.

On Saturday I went to Primrose Hill with Molly and on Sunday we went to Westfield, Stratford in an attemped to find a suitable dress for Molly to attend a wedding.

Oh and on Tueday I filmed my lovely route to and from work.

Here's the video:

Primrose Hiiiilll
It is just one of those thing you need to do when you are in London, but only when the weather is nice. I'd planned it a couple of times before, but the weather didn't cooperate... That's what you have when you are living in the UK.

But on Saturday it was supposed to stay dry, so it was now or never. Molly and I took the train into town and the metro to Camden Town. After a lovely lunch at pizza express, we set off to find Primrose hill. As you can see on the picture below, Primrose hill is situated above Regent park. Up North, as you can say.


Now, what make Primrose hill so special that everybody oh's and ah's about it? I wasn't sure what the fuzz was about either. But ones you have seen the view, you'll understand. Indeed, the view on London city is that you'll find up there. I've only seen the city from the South. With the West end on the left and the Est end on the right (duh). Now everything was reversed. I mean, the London Eye on the right!? Didn't make sense!


As you can see, it was a bit cloudy that day, but I was glad it didn't rain! And the weather was more than warm enough! Before Molly and I knew it, we sat there talking for more than an hour.


Our way to the hill was wonderful as well. I only knew Camden from the crazy main street and the cute stalls where they sell cool stuff. But we pasted a number of beautiful houses. Tall, old and full of character. Molly and I started very quickly to imagine what it would be like to life in a place like that. Always a fun thing to do :)


Westfield, Stratford
I have filmed some bits and pieces of our shopping trip to the huuuge mall in Stratford, but it just wasn't interesting enough to share it with you.

The only things I can say about that day and that mall are:
1) Waaaaaay too many people!
2) HUGE mall with waaaay too many shops
3) We didn't find a dress for Molly

So basically the whole point of this trip failed. Ok, I have to admit, we only looked in Primark. Molly needed to bring back some items and whilest we were there we checked the dress section. Notting to impressive... I also like to mention that that Primark was a complete mess. And there were way too many people. So, after that, we were pretty much in a 'meh' mood.  We went to Accessorize and Victoria's Secret to buy scarves and fragrances and to Boots for some toothpaste and deodorant. Important! But those are about on 100 of the amount of stores they have in Westfield!

Come along with me on my way to work!
On Tuesday I filmed my route to and from work, just so you have an idea of what it is like to travel here in London :) It takes me one hour to go into town. 30min by train and about 5min by metro. And a dashing 25min goes to walking (I sort of get some exercise...) On Sunday I started reading my 6th book since I've been here. And I genuily look forward to the train rides because that means I can read without interruption :)

On that note (mentioning work) here are some photos of the office :)
I know I know, you have seen this one before.
Top floor
Ground floor
This one is standing in the boardroom
That's it for this week. As you can see, it wasn't so exciting. "It can't always be a party", as my mum would say. Pity, pity! But next blog will be a party again x) So make sure to keep your eyes open for that one!

New words: Remittance= bank transfer; toe tapper= catchy music

See you next week!
xo - Sara

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