settling in

            It’s tradition in the UK for the University’s (Uni’s as the locals call it) to hold a big welcome week for the incoming freshman class. At the University of Kent the week is dubbed Fresher’s week, and as new students we also participated in the festivities. With the drinking age being 18 in the UK, the social culture at the uni’s is very much centered around bars, pubs and clubs. There are six bars and one club on Kent’s campus! Throughout the week the Uni hosted campus pub-crawls, club nights, and themed dance parties. The other UC kids and I all got a kick out of the fact that we were actually going on campus to enjoy a night out. As a matter a fact, one of my lecture halls is directly above the K bar, one of our new favorite hangout spots!

            One of the nights of Freshers week was a back-to-school disco theme and we were all surprised to find we were the only ones not dressed in some sort of school uniform. We forgot that everyone in the UK has to wear uniforms in high school, regardless of whether it’s a public or private school, so they were all well equipped for this theme. Guess we missed that memo, whoops!

             Fresher’s Week was a really great way to get a feel for the campus and meet new people. They had a huge welcome fair in which you could sign up for hundreds of different clubs and societies. In an effort to branch out and try something new while I’m abroad, I signed up for archery, kickboxing, the tea society, and the magic club. So far so good, hopefully I’ll be an expert kickboxing, tea sipping, magical archer by the time I’m home…

            This week we finally started classes! Studying abroad is awesome because I am somehow getting twice as many credits as I would at UCSB but I am only taking 2 classes. This means I only have class Mondays and Thursday (lots of travelling time!) I’m taking an Art History class and a Environmental class, both of which seem really interesting so far! To top it all off, the weather here has been AMAZINGLY warm. I’ve been wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals everyday! It’s great to have a little California sunshine before winter sets in! Because of this “heat wave” as everyone’s calling it, were off to the beach town of Brighton for the weekend…can’t wait!

School Disco night at Mungos Bar 

Waiting in the queue! No open container rules in the UK

Seeing Nero at The Venue

New Hobby...

Beautiful day outside Parkwood, where I live! 

canterbury, england

          The city of Canterbury is straight out of a storybook. Its cobblestone streets are lined with cafes and shops, and whilst it maintains its small-town feel it contains everything I would ever need. Our favorite discovery in Canterbury thus far has been Poundland or as we like to call it, “Pound Palace”, the UK’s version of the 99 cent store. It’s a gold mine in there.

            The town itself is about a 20-minute walk from campus if you follow the oddly named trail, the Crab and Winkle Link. We have already spent a couple of days downtown Canterbury exploring the city and testing out the cafes with their cream tea and scones with clotted cream and jam (my new favorite). We also walked around Canterbury’s Cathedral, which is absolutely stunning. The building itself is huge and is surrounded by beautiful courtyards and gardens. The students who graduate from the University of Kent have their ceremony inside the cathedral! Makes me wish I was staying another year…

The trail from the university into town 

Outside the cathedral 

the cathedral courtyard 

Inside the Cathedral

the streets of Canterbury 

Coffee time! 

Street Bazaar in Canterbury! 

lund→copenhagen→london

         The past two weeks have been utterly chaotic and exciting all at the same time. It began when Lauren and I spontaneously left Sweden to spend a couple of nights in Copenhagen with Erin, who was nice enough to take us in! (Especially me with my excessive amount of luggage…)It was so nice for the three of us to be reunited again and we all got a good laugh out of our trip to Copenhagen’s finest, the “LA Tequila Bar” for tequila Tuesdays. That certainly cured any lingering homesickness I may have had... Overall it was a great trip to Copenhagen I was able to check out some of Erin’s school as well as walk around the infamous free state of Christiania, thanks again for all your help and hospitality Erin! 

            At 5am the next morning I was up and ready to start my own adventure. It was a bit of a rough morning and I was quite the spectacle at the airport as I attempted to maneuver my bags to the check-in counter. (Word of advice, don’t take the escalator alone with three suitcases…)

            The next two days I had Orientation in London with the other UCEAP participants. We went to the Tate Modern (which I highly recommend), got a boat tour of the River Thames, a walking tour of the city as well as tickets to see 39 steps at the Criterion Theater. I think I was feeling a little too comfortable walking around London, as I didn’t take a single picture of my orientation…guess I was testing out being a local in the UK... Despite my lack of photographic remembrance, I had an amazing time exploring London and getting to know the other UC students. I will definitely be back up there soon! 

            After orientation, the Kent students were finally bussed to Canterbury to move in! The bus ride gave us a true taste of the English countryside, and reminded me why I originally chose the University of Kent. Everything is so green and beautiful, a nice breath of fresh air after nearly a week of craziness. More pictures soon…

 Homemade Swedish pancakes as a farewell lunch!   

Reunited in Denmark!

My elaborately decorated room in Canterbury...I live in a house with people from  Belgium, Poland, Japan and the US! 

gdansk, poland

When Lauren and I booked our trip to Gdansk we knew we’d be in for an adventure, we just had no idea what kind of adventure it would be… As we stepped off the plane we quickly realized how little we knew about our new destination. We wandered aimlessly around the airport trying to find the bus stop under the impression that Poland used the Euro...what we also didn’t realize was that hardly anyone in Poland actually speaks English…this is when the real adventure began. Eventually we were able to scrounge up some Polish money and board a bus that we prayed was headed in the right direction. After a 40 minute ride through some sketchy looking woods and a 10 minute walk in the rain, we finally made it to our hostel…

            Despite our rocky start, Gdansk turned out to be a real hidden gem. While it is very small and could be easily seen in a day, it is absolutely beautiful and has a unique charm to it. We spent the next day walking around seeing the sights and eating half our weight in Polish food…everything there was so cheap and we were able to treat ourselves to some fine dining! Overall the trip was a great experience and we learned that having no idea of what to expect on our little adventure made it that much more exciting!

 The streets were all so beautiful and colorful! Most of them were lined with carts selling Amber because little did we know, Gdansk is the amber capital of the world…

 Lauren and Neptune, the supposed creator of Gdansk’s claim to fame, Goldwasser liquor, also known as “Fire-Water” which contains 23-karot gold flakes in it. We had no choice but to try it because as they say, “No trip to Gdansk is complete without it…”

 The museums in Gdansk were so random, but Lauren and I were able to entertain ourselves by taking pictures and creating our own descriptions for everything, considering only about 20% of it was in English….

Enjoying a classy meal at this traditional Polish restaurant we stumbled upon. I can’t decide what was better the Polish food or the Polish man who started playing piano and singing during the middle of our meal….

all you need is love

At the beginning of my trip we celebrated bjorns 50^th! The party merely confirmed the fact that the Swedes really do know how to party, no matter what age! The party consisted of about 100 Swedes, a full bar, 2 absolutely beautiful cakes, and about 80 jello shots (a little continuation of last summers 50^th celebration…) Despite the rain, the party was so much fun and didn’t end until 6 in the morning. By the time I went to sleep, the sun was already up! Needless to say we all slept in until 2pm the next day…

the set-up! thank god for the tents! 

the cakes were so beautiful! "all you need is love"

teaching the proper jello-shot techniques...our American contribution to the party....

the dance floor complete with a disco ball...

berlin

Visiting Berlin was a truly eye-opening experience. The amount of history packed into one city is absolutely breathtaking and you could spend weeks taking in all that Berlin has to offer. Unfortunately we only had a few days, but we were lucky enough to have Sofia as an excellent tour guide! So we hopped on some bikes and saw a majority of the city as if we were locals, dodging in and out of traffic and stopping off to to see some of the sites!

Brandenburg Gate at night

The Jewish Memorial in Berlin 

Biking over what was once the Berlin Wall