Last Remaining Days in London: Photo Edition

Apart from my surge of day trips, I spent my last few days in London running around.

On Saturday, while this isn't technically London, I took a day-trip up to Lockerbie. I met up with my friend, Claire, to tour the memorials for the Pan Am 103 Bombing as well as see the town and meet her family.

This past Sunday, the Pi Phi Alumnae Club had a brunch at the Bread Street Kitchen. It has stunning views of St. Paul's which we took in post eating!

Delicious

Pi Phi UK Alumnae Club

Executive Board!

The brunch was my last event that I planned as part of my position on the executive club. It will be so strange to leave these sisters, but I recently joined the Pi Phi Alumnae Club for Las Vegas.

From Sunday to mid-day Tuesday, I spent a lot of time packing, cleaning, and shipping. Thank goodness for DVDs and coffee! 

On Monday evening, a few of my friends and I met up for drinks. I needed one more night at a pub to grab some traditional fare and a pint!

And, on Tuesday, I took a leisurely walk through London. I started at Harrods then walked through Hyde Park up into Green Park to Buckingham Palace. From there, I cut through St. James' Park to Trafalger Square.  I popped into the Crypt Cafe at St. Martins' to grab one more cream tea before taking a bus ride through Piccadilly Circus and up Oxford Street. I got to see some of my favorite sites once more before leaving. 

Buckingham Palace

Routemaster

Goodbye, London

Weekly Recap

Before I begin my weekly recap, let's just take a moment and celebrate (again!) Syracuse's victory over Duke last night!! I was at a MPA party and had to withdraw to the corner for the ending of the game. My tension and stress of the game might have scarred my friends that aren't used to the stress of college basketball. (Sorry all!). It was a great way to start the new rivalry! 

This week was much more mellow than the first few weeks of the term. Nothing too major in terms of assignments due. My capstone group met with our client this week to get a grasp of how they perceived out interim report. We got a a lot of great, constructive feedback which will be helpful moving forward for the final due in March. 

On Thursday, I went and met with a Pi Phi at the Sloane Club who is hopefully moving to England. She pledged during the 1960s, and it was awesome to just sit and discuss our college days together. Lifelong friendship, indeed! 

Friday morning, I helped out SU Abroad by assisting chaperoning study abroad students on a tour of Fuller's Brewery (post to come about the tour)! 

Fuller's Brewery

Friday evening, the MPA Student Association elections were held. How has it already been a year since the last ones? Time is just flying by! My dear friend, Alyssa, won the chair position for the next year! Afterwards, we all headed to a pub nearby campus for a few drinks!

With the newly elected MPASA Chair

Yesterday, I felt I was on the go non-stop. 

I started the down wandering the gardens of St. Paul's.

St. Paul's 

From there, I walked to an open air shopping mall to grab brunch with two friends I met through the Local Levo group. We tried out the Bread Kitchen which was amazing food wise and had a great atmosphere.

Inside of the Bread Kitchen

Brunch me, please!

Grabbing cupcakes for later, I headed home to do some laundry and answer emails before going out to Wahaca in Shepard's Bush for dinner! I met up with my friend, Maggie, her wife, and a few of their friends. Maggie is on the Executive Board for the Pi Phi Alumnae Club with me! 

And, last night ended with going to a MPA party. The theme this week? Tropical! 

BG and me 

Tropical goodness

Today, Alyssa and I grabbed brunch before wandering down Portobello Road. After she headed to campus to get some work done, I finally went and walked around Kensal Green Cemetery (more on that to come).

It was a great week of balancing academics, a social life, and being a tourist.

How was your week? 

Walking Tour of the City & St. Paul's

Apologies to the delay in posting! I came down with a combination of the flu and lack of sleep this past weekend.  Not a fun time at all, especially with all of the grad school work piling up. Nevertheless, I'm back to my old self.

Right before I took a turn for the worse, I was able to volunteer as a student guide for one of the Syracuse University's London Center "Love London" Weekend. I was a student guide for a walking tour of the City around St. Paul's as well as the inside tour of St. Paul's. Having done St. Paul's in 2010, I was looking forward to heading back and checking out more of the amazing cathedral. 

The walking tour was around an hour and a half. We were able to see several ruins that were still left the way they were found after the Blitz as well as the old London wall and an old memorial to those Londoners who gave their lives trying to help others. One of the coolest ruins was part of a factory that had been bombed by the Germans in WWII. Underneath the bombed out factory, the remains of a Roman Wall had been found. 

Roman Wall in the bottom left corner

Memorial 

After the walking tour was over, we headed inside St. Paul's. While you still cannot take photos inside, I'll leave you with the shots I snapped outside! 

Let's Recap...

Now that I've survived math camp, real classes begin tomorrow. I just finished reading through the first chapter for class tomorrow, and I must say that I am happy to be back in the world of academia. To be honest, I sometimes dislike not having a busy work schedule, lots of meetings, and homework. My schedule on my iCalendar already looks pretty insane...and that is just for this week...the first week.

After my math test on Friday, we had quite a busy day. Arielle, Jenny, Kaitlyn, and I headed over to Shakespeare's Head for some traditional English breakfast to reward ourselves for surviving math camp. We may have all been tired and still discussing the intense, non-graded test, but we quickly moved away from that subject.  Running over to catch a few seminars on how to sign up for language courses, tips on writing essays, we then attended the MPA course fair. It was helpful to hear about all the courses including the one I've finally decided to take as well as the options for next year.

I also got to meet both my curriculum advisor  and supervisor on Friday. My curriculum advisor moreover helps us decide what classes for options in both years. He's actually going to be teaching one of my courses this year. As for my supervisor, he's in the Department of Economics, and we discussed a lot of different things related to opportunities both internally and externally. And while, it was a meeting unlike one that I would usually have with Coplin, he's given me a lot to think about in terms of future plans already.

Emma, Kaitlyn, and me

View of Tower Bridge from the boat

Friday evening was spent with the entire MPA program including the second years. A bunch of us started off at the George for a drink before heading to the MPA reception. The reception included brief appetizers that allowed everyone in the program to interact with each other before heading over to the MPA Boat Party. Yes, that's right. Our program hosted a boat party on the Thames. An eight pound ticket for four hours of dancing, friends, and the famous sights. Plenty of memories to last for the year and beyond.

Borough Market

Delicious

Yesterday, a big group of us headed to Borough Market to explore all of the food stands. While we ate our way through the stalls, I finally got to check something off my London Bucket List. When I was hear in 2010, I never had a chance to make it to the market. I picked up a bunch of veggies which I used to make dinner tonight as well as indulge myself with a fresh ham, chicken, and leek pie.  From there, we took a walk along the Thames to St. Paul's Cathedral. No re-enactment  of "feeding the birds" as I did in 2010, but I do plan on going back for a tour again!

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Thames

Today was spent making dinner for the week, running a few errands, and getting ready for classes to start tomorrow. Hard to believe that I've been here for three weeks already!