After our trip to England, Ben and I embarked on a month-long trip to France! Ben had to do research for his post-doc, and I was along for the ride. Happily, I was able to… More
5 Days in London: Part 3
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The British Museum
This morning, we all got up around 8:30am, had some breakfast, and then headed out the door around 9:45am for the British Museum! Entrance to the museum was free, but we had to reserve a time to arrive. We hopped on a bus rather than taking a train, which was a nice change of pace. We all sat on the top floor of the bus and watched the city go by.
When we arrived at the British Museum, we marveled at the fact that there was no line to get in, praising the reservation system’s effectiveness. Little did we know that there was no line because all of the UK it seemed was already inside the museum! The British Museum was filled to the brim with visitors – groups of school children, families with elderly grandparents in wheelchairs, young lovers – everyone was there. It also didn’t help that once we headed inside, we went straight to the most populated exhibit, the Rosetta Stone.
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5 Days in London: Part 2
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Sightseeing in Central London
This morning, we checked out of the hotel around 9am and made our way over to the Overground to catch a train to Camden Town where we found my family (my sister Sarah, my cousin Jacob, and my aunt Annette) all having breakfast together at a bakery. For being sleep deprived and fresh off an international flight, they were in surprisingly high spirits! Ben and I dropped our bags off at the post office next door, and then we joined them for a coffee.
We weren’t able to check into our AirBnb until 3pm, so until then, we wanted to go sightseeing. After finishing our drinks, we grabbed our bags and headed to the tube! Jacob led us to the Green Park Station, where we walked through a lovely tree-lined path to Buckingham Palace.
We walked up to the gates of Buckingham Palace and saw the guards standing at attention in their red uniforms and tall hats. Then, we took a few pictures in front of the palace before moving right along. Visiting the palace was similar to seeing the White House in the United States – it’s a neat view, but there’s not much interaction to be done on site.
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5 Days in London: Part 1
This spring, my partner and I traveled to Europe for a little over a month for a week-long vacation followed by a month-long research trip! Our first stop was England for my cousin Anna’s wedding, and we spent five action-packed days in London before heading north to Rugby. So, without further ado, here’s a recap of our London portion of the trip!
Sunday, April 14, 2024
We’re officially in England! We landed in London about an hour and a half after we were supposed to arrive, so around 1:30pm local time. We very quickly passed through border control and customs, grabbed our checked bag, and were on the metro to downtown London!
Immediately, we had our first moment of culture shock – as we stuck to the right side of the hallway in the metro station, we were confused why people were walking towards us rather than walking on the right … when we realized, maybe just as people drive on the lefthand side of the street, perhaps they also walk on the left side of the sidewalk! When we tried that, we got way fewer confused looks.
Things didn’t feel real until we emerged from the airport and started to see houses and neighborhoods taking shape. And even then, walking through the metro station from one train to the other felt like being in any other urban space (albeit surprisingly cleaner than other large cities). It wasn’t until we emerged at our final destination, the West Hampstead station, that I finally felt like we’d arrived in another country!
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My Bachelorette Party in Chicago
Surprise, I’m getting married! My partner and I got engaged in the summer of 2023, and this spring, we were both able to have our bachelor/bachelorette parties the same weekend in Chicago! Enjoy a quick recap of the trip!
Friday, March 22, 2024
Happy bachelorette party to me! This morning, I got up at the ungodly hour of 2:45am for my Uber pick up at 3:15am. I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I’d already checked in online, and so I was able to quickly go through security. Soon after, I was on the plane for Toronto. It was a smooth, easy ride – I slept pretty much the entire time.
Afterwards, I made my way groggily through the Toronto airport. It was snowing in Toronto, so we had to wait for them to de-snow and de-ice the plane before we could take off, which took extra time and made us late. But the flight once again was relatively smooth (the only turbulence was when I got up to use the bathroom of course).
Finally, finally, finally in Chicago (we landed around 1:45pm), I hightailed it from the airport to downtown on the Blue Line. As I sat there on the train all by myself, well, surrounded by people but traveling alone, I remembered what it felt like to be an independent solo traveler, watching out for myself and navigating a new city.
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Skiing in Banff
This past winter, my partner and I traveled to Banff to go skiing at Sunshine Village Ski Resort! It was my first skiing experience ever … and it just so happened that we booked a lot of nonrefundable reservations on the coldest weekend of the entire winter! (Which is saying something since it gets pretty unbearably cold up here in Canada.) Temperatures got to -40 degrees Fahrenheit but hovered closer to -20 to -30 as we skied. It was definitely a memorable experience, so without further ado, here’s the recap of our ski trip!
Sunday, January 14, 2024
This morning, Ben and I woke up early around 6:45am for my first day of skiing ever! Ben’s been making me watch skiing tutorial videos, and he was nervous about how much I’d enjoy myself today. I, for one, was more worried about the extreme cold than I was about the actual skiing. I worried the resort wouldn’t open and we’d lose our money on my class. So, with anxiety aplenty, we left the hotel around 7:30am ready to see what the day would bring.
Ben and I both layered up heavily for the day out with three layers on the bottom and four on the top. On the cold drive to Sunshine Village Ski Resort, we were still warm and toasty in our layers. There weren’t many other cars on the road, and we wondered if we’d be the only ones at the resort.
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Uprooted Abroad 