Technical difficulties

Along with a wonderful experience traveling across the world comes some difficulties, to say the least. Wallet stolen, computer fried, and strep throat have all been some pretty significant set backs in school, traveling, and being able to post on this blog. I hate to fill this feed with bad news though! Needless to say London has been amazing these past few weeks. I’ve met some of my best friends, seen the most breathtaking sights, and learned so much about the world and myself. I’m going to cover what happened the second week I was here since that’s when my computer fried (but luckily there’s a computer shop right down the road!!). And see if I can figure out how to post my week 4 blog onto wordpress, it’s already on tumblr…my regular blog!

Week 2:

This is when classes started picking up pace quite a bit. 3 hour class, 1 hour break, 3 hour class, 2 hour break, mandatory film session for my British Film class, homework, field trip the next day, and repeat! It’s a bit of a shock being over here in the first place, but having to go to school was quite the adjustment with everything else going on! During this week my class went to the BBC (a famous news broadcasting company here in London) which absolutly blew my mind! I was in heaven because this industry has been of great interest to me for a long time, and I got to see live news rooms! Amazing! By the way, the two classes I’m taking are World Media Systems and British Popular Films.

Here’s me at BBC! I look like I belong here don’t I! (haha)

 

This same week for my film class we got to visit the british film museum! Now let me tell you, there was no comparison between that and Harry Potter world (our first field trip) but it was definitely a valuable experience.

Here’s me with Darth Vader! Don’t worry, I think he was sleeping 😉

While taking these two classes I’ve been able to zone in on what I want to do after college. I’ve always loved film, but now I feel like a professional! I look forward to taking more classes on film production because I enjoy this class so much. I wish that i would have just taken this class so I could focus on it more. The two classes I’m taking over here after definitely the hardest ones. Many of us are in both of the classes and are stressed out beyond belief pretty much every night. I’ve had to do more school work these last 2 weeks than I did in 1 term in many of my classes back at wou. I understand that theres a lot of information to fit in, but it’s also nice to have a little more time to travel during the week like the rest of the students have. I hope the professors let up a little bit after midterms or they are going to have some wiped out students on their hands!

Most of the material above is from my tumblr blog from week 2, and again I apologize for the time gap. It’s 2am over here, and I’m going to get some rest! I’ll post about my latest activities tomorrow. A little sneak preview: Amsterdam, Dover, Brighton, LOST. 🙂 Until next time! Cheers,

Rachael

 

Adapting

I’ve been sitting here for about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to articulate my time here in London so far. I’m going to post photos (seeing as I’ve taked almost 700 so far) and tell stories through those 🙂

 

For my film studies class, we got to tour the Harry Potter studios. Needless to say I kind of freaked out. It took me 4 hours to get through the whole exhibit. I’m still in shock that I say some of the things I did. I’ve gained so much insight on film since I’ve taken this class and it’s definitely increased my passion to be a part of the film making process, especially production.And Harry Potter is HUGE chunk of my childhood. I actually teared up when I first got in there. It was bittersweet at the end to leave because I was revealed to all the secrets behind Harry Potter. Kind of like finding out that Santa Clause is your parents, I fell in love with the creators behind Harry Potter and not just the fantasy of it. And the class itself… what an amazing course. The Professor, Dr. D is brilliant. I love his teaching style, I’m a visual learner and he uses so many movie clips in his lectures. It’s great.

 

 

This photo was taken right before getting a on a speedboat with some people from CCSA and some new friends I met in the beautiful city of CARDIFF, WALES. I decided that I wanted to move there after college. I totally fell in love with this city. You look one direction and see the bay, the the city mixed with castles and modern buildings, rolling hills in the background, and England just across the ocean. What an amazing experience. The culture was a little different than London, which was nice to experience. I enojyed every second of this trip, even getting lost for 2 hours 🙂

 

 

This is my new best friend Victoria. She’s from Kentucky! We’re already planning a roadtrip to see each other this spring. We go do crazy fun things together after class like getting totally lost on the tube and ending up in places like THIS (see picture above). It’s so nice meeting all these new friends. Everyone is so friendly and open minded here, I don’t know what I would do without the group of people I’ve met so far! We are actually all going to Amsterdam next weekend which will be quite the experience! I hear it’s beautiful there also, can’t wait 🙂

 

Yes, the caption is correct. I went to the Quiddich world cup in Oxford. It was HILARIOUS and intense! Also, Oxford was breathtaking. The history there was so interesting. I went to a pub where C.S Lewis and Tolkien (famous authors…. you know, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and LORD OF THE RINGS…my FAVORITE) used to collaborate on their novels. Amazing.

 

To wrap this up, I’d just like to say that I am so thankful for this experience. I have grown so much as a person since I’ve been here. Talk about life changing. Cheers everyone 🙂

-Rachael

Fernweh: the craving for travel

I am sitting in my new dorm room right now barely able to keep my eyes open. Now is the perfect time to reflect on the last 30+ hours of how I got here. The trek began at 5:30am from Clackamas, Oregon on Thursday July 5th. After a few Italian parent speeches and lots of hugs & kisses, my lovely family waved to me goodbye as I approached airport security. My stomach was in knots and my arms were full of luggage, but got through just fine. I then  proceeded to the gate that would put me in Philly. After a painless, sleep filled 5 hour plane ride I was  all the way across the country. Soon to be, across the world. There was a 5 hour layover in Philly. I did some homework and listened to music as I laid in the cozy spot I set up for myself on the floor of the airport.

I was so jittery and needed some food. After I re-fueled I was SO ready to get on that plane. 4 hours later…..

“Now boarding section 5!” to London Heathrow! It was time. Time to embark on this journey I have wanted to take since I was little, finally… me, in Europe! By that time it was 10:00pm, and it was highly suggested to sleep on the plane. But come on, sleeping on a plane in a aisle seat is difficult enough, on top of being on my way to study abroad in one of the best cities in the world! I watched “Walk the Line” on the plane ride which is one of my favorite movies. I was hoping to have it take my mind off being so nervous so I could get some shut eye. After many failed sleeping position attempts, I finally just gave up and said to myself “You can sleep when you get home, this is London.”

Landing was a piece of cake! As was jumping through all the hoops after a flight abroad. Right away I started hearing accents and seeing a more diverse group of people. Then walking outside to the bus was a shocker because everything was backwards as far as driving goes. There was one familiar thing; The weather. It is just like Oregon, and hearing the east coast kids complain about the rain was quite amusing, I must say. They don’t even know what rain is like! It cleared up though this evening and has been very nice out.

London was weird (in an AWESOME way) at first, the roads are ALL over the place and people honk at each other a lot. There was quite a bit of litter on the side of the roads driving in, but as we got closer and closer to residential area it cleared up. Once arriving to Kings College I fell in love with the neighborhood. So quaint!!! Needless to say, this is going to be an amazing experience. I cannot WAIT to be all caught up on my sleep and take on the town tomorrow with my new friends 🙂 So thankful for this experience.

xo- Rachael

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