#and deep blue is soooo trustworthy haha

[paterday]

Posting this over here cuz I wanna show friends my wips but I don’t wanna be annoying about it

[sheentravels]

It’s already November

I know what you’re thinking…where have you been!? 

I’m sorry my friends, but after an AMAZING reading week, I’ve just gotten busy with all the “studying abroad,” meaning essays to write, presentations to present, and also preparing myself for next semester’s registration back at UH Manoa. It’s already November and I only have one month left of London :( This makes me sad truthfully because I feel like I started this school year just like any other fresher. I started a life here, I’ve made so many new friends, experienced so many unbelievable things I never would have thought I would, and as the last month here occupies my time with earlier nights and upcoming deadlines, I just can’t believe that this amazing experience is soon reaching its end.

So, READING WEEK. It was amazeballs. The first half of our UH Group had traveled to Barcelona first on Friday, Oct.20 because they didn’t have classes on a Friday. That left me, Chelsie, and Erin to head to Barcelona the following Saturday night. We fit everything we could into ONE BACKPACK, yes, ONE BACKPACK, and made our way to Gatwick Airport and left for Spain. We got there at midnight on Sunday, and it was upon walking out of the terminal did we realize that we were officially in a country that had a foreign language: Spanish. The signs were in Spanish (some had English translations underneath, thank god) but everything was dominantly in Spanish. The weather wasn’t as cold as the cold we left in London, but it was bearable. We had paid for a bus to take us to this plaza near La Ramblas, a 10-minute walk away from our Youth Hostel. When we got dropped off, I’ll admit it was scary. It was dark, there were drunk people roaming the streets trying to talk to us, and we were all just tired and eager to get to our Hostel. After minutes of walking and following the guidance of Google Maps, we had found it. It was called the “Alternative Youth Hostel,” but we didn’t see that much youth LOL. There were mostly men in there and we were the only signs of actual youth. Nevertheless, it was a pretty clean and tidy Hostel. We were given keys to lockers to put our stuff in, and for our sleeping quarters we were in a room with 4 bunk beds and we all had the top bunk. It was already 2am by the time we checked in, put away our stuff, got into our clothes to wear the next day, and fell asleep. We were going to meet up with the others early in the morning, aka 5am. Tired from the journey but excited for being in a new country, we fell asleep.

After roughly 3 hours of sleep, we got up and got ready to head out into the early morning. It was still dark out and it looked the same as it did when we first arrived. We were going to meet the others in front of this market that was supposedly the halfway point between our hostel and their Airbnb, but when we got to the meeting point it seemed as though it was entirely blocked off. We were confused. The meeting point was near the middle of this long strip known as “La Ramblas,”

 which was empty and barren and filled with drunk young adults walking up and down it. It was too early for me to deal with, plus it was cold, so we were all just lost. Eventually, Jenny had sent Chelsie her current location and we spent a good hour walking around alleys and buildings until we actually got to them at a bakery. Serena’s grandpa had flown to Barcelona too to hang with her, so we had him and Serena as our tour guides for the day. We had caught a cab to go to Park Guell, which was featured in Cheetah Girls 2 LOL. It was still dark out by 8am, but the place was beautiful and colorfully decorated nevertheless. There were tile pieces covering the buildings and chairs, and since we were there before they opened we got to go in for free. We actually watched the sunrise there, and it was beautiful. Afterwards, we caught a cab to get to the Sagrada Familia, which was the most beautifully constructed church I’ve ever seen. It was made by the same guy who built Park Guell, so his art definitely spoke everywhere in Barcelona. The church was tall and we even had the chance to tour inside of it. Inside the glass windows were colored a variety of colors, purposefully made that way so that when the sun shined through the window the light would illuminate the inside. I was amazed.

We left on Tuesday, and headed to Rome. Serena stayed back with her grandpa.  I’d been to Rome already back in the Summer of 2015, but it was so nice being back. Rome is the home of my favorite historical landmark: The Colosseum. Rome was colder in the night, but our airbnb was definitely much cuter compared to Barcelona haha! 

We had eaten so much gelato, pasta, and walked over 10 miles every day. We bought tickets to see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, and a new personal favorite: The Orange Garden. Melky had taken us up a huge hill to Orange Garden where we could see the best panoramic view of the city. It was so beautiful to watch the sunset from there, and we had all sang our hearts out walking back to our airbnb one night.

By Friday it was time for us to leave again, but this time the group was split again. Melky, Max, Jenny and Kristel were heading to Venice, whereas me, Chelsie and Erin were off to Santorini! This was the best part. Once we landed, it was even more foreign than ever. The signs looked like hieroglyphics, but of course every sign had at least an English translation right below it. We got picked up at Santorini’s small airport by our AirBnb host, Dima. He drove us to Perissa, the small town our airbnb was in. 

Dima told us all about how chill everything in Santorini was, how everyone’s really nice and trustworthy, how the police is so chill that there’s only one that can be seen around and when he is seen you can only see him drinking coffee, and he even told us how you don’t need a seat belt to drive in Santorini. They were wild! LOL. The place we were staying at was really cute though, and it was only minutes away from Dima’s family restaurant (where we get 10% off), and the Black Beach. We definitely headed there first. It was drop dead gorgeous. To finally see a beach again after having been deprived of it for so many months, we were almost crying. We ate Greek dishes such as deep fried tomatoes with Greek yogurt (Tzatziki) and Moussaka (meat and eggplant lasagna). It was soooo good. I love Greek food. After we ate, we went back to our place to change into our bathing suits and tanned on the beach. We arrived to Santorini at it’s low season, so there were absolutely no tourists ANYWHERE. It was AMAZING.

That night we traveled to the other side of the island known as Oia (Ee-a) to watch their famous sunsets. That’s where we saw all the white houses with blue roofs that people see on Social media. We also got to see the views of the ocean and the volcano the island harbors and let me just tell you, it was unbelievable. Everything we looked at had some glimmer or mist around it, so it felt like we were looking at heaven. The sunset was also amazing to watch alongside everything. We even got our feet eaten by those fish that are supposed to clean the dead skin off your feet haha! It was a weird, tingling, ticklish experience but my feet felt so soft afterwards. I couldn’t believe we were there.

The next day (Saturday) was Chelsie’s 21st birthday! So we arranged a wine tasting tour. It was super fun and very informational. I finally understand why people pair wine with cheeses and such LOL. Also, for Chelsie’s birthday wish, we traveled to Fia (Santorini’s capital) to ride donkeys. It was...an experience LOL. I truly felt bad that the donkeys had to haul us down and up a hill. I feel bad that it was a scary but fun experience. Let’s just say I don’t plan on doing it again ;P

We were there til Monday, which was when it was time to head back to reality. We left Santorini Monday morning and spent the entire day flying until we got to London at midnight. It definitely got way colder while we were away, because we started to see our breath fog whenever we talked. It was the best week of my entire life.

Sorry if you noticed I got less into detail during this blog, I just have to get back to working on my essays if you’d excuse me haha. For example, I have to write five 1000+ word essays for just one of my classes. *le sigh* Well, it’s reasonable. If I am granted the once in a lifetime opportunity to study abroad and travel to other countries, why can’t I work for it through school in return?

Until we speak again my readers :)

Sheena