Happy spring! Although the first official day of spring was a week or so ago, I am still super excited about it. This winter in Seattle has been especially dreary and cold, so I’m definitely looking forward to some warmer weather.
Going along with this dreary weather, I have felt so uninspired this year in terms of creativity. I’ve been getting caught up in school (which of course isn’t a bad thing), and I’ve let my creative side get a little lazy. It’s easy to put excuses before giving yourself a break to be creative, and to push things like writing or art to the side because they seem less important to things like homework and tests, which in a sense they are. I am first and foremost a college student, so I of course need to make my grades a priority, but I also need to relax every now and then and spend an evening doing something I love, like watercolor.
When I was writing my last post, How to Succeed in College: Mental Health, it became clear that I needed a break from stressing out so much. I was writing down tips that I myself needed to listen to and apply to my life, especially because I’ve felt like I have hit a creative STOP SIGN lately. Anxiety and panic attacks seem to relish the times of stress and lack of creativeness in my life, so I needed to take a break.
Spring cleaning has always been something I’ve loved. While growing up, my mom would enlist my brother, dad, and me to help her clean the entire house – we’re talking scrubbing the walls, floors, and everything in between. It would be a laborious couple of days, but afterwards everything felt nice and clean, and that a fresh start was much easier to be had. Because I experienced that every year while growing up, I realized that was exactly what I needed this spring.
It was spring break last week for my college, so I took the time at home to do a whole lot of nothing, besides workout, play with my family’s dogs and cats, and our new puppy.
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| Seriously, look how cute he is!! |
I needed to take the week to give myself a mental break from stressing out about school, tests, law schools, finding a summer internship, and taking the LSATs in the fall. Real life can be hard, and I know that it’s just going to get busier and more stressful as I get older. When you’re really stressed out it’s easy to only think about how hard life is and will get, and forget that it’s also going to get more exciting, and more opportunities are going to present themselves to you after a lot of hard work.
Since I’ve been back from studying abroad, it’s been so hard to find motivation for blogging, especially since I’ve been so busy with school and work this quarter. I feel super overwhelmed, but as I’m taking a study break during dead week (ugh), I thought I would sit down and write a blog post. I’m feeling really inspired this month, so I hope that means that I’ll again find my motivation for everything and anything since I’ve been so consumed with school this quarter. I have seriously written ten papers this quarter, and still have two more to go, so needless to say, I’ve been feeling a little burnt out lately.
As most of you probably know, I spent part of my summer studying abroad in London before I did another program in Spain. For that reason, and also the fact that one of my best friends will be heading there in about a week (wowow Rachel!) and has been asking for a travel guide, that’s exactly what I decided to do today! I’ve looked through all of my photos, and while they make me extremely homesick for London (I WANT TO LIVE THERE ONE DAY), I picked my favorite places that I visited, and have some tips for getting around the city!
This one is a bit obvious, since the British Museum is well-known, but even if you aren’t a usual museum junkie, you should definitely stop by! It is a huge museum and has an exhibit that will at least appeal to everyone, so there’s most likely something for you to see there. I split up the museum by spending a day on each floor, because if you try and do it all in one day, you’ll definitely be overwhelmed. There’s a lot of coffeeshops and lunch spots around, though, so if you need a break to re-charge, that’s definitely an option!
This is arguably one of the best places to go shopping in London, especially if you aren’t looking for designer shops. There is a huge Primark (think, giant Forever21 with even cuter clothes) on Oxford Street, as well as Topshop, and all of your other favorite places to shop. My friends and I spent way too much time and money here, but hey, when in London…
I didn’t actually realize just how much I love theater until I studied in London. I had been to plays before and really enjoyed them, but I went to so many in London and enjoyed them all. The West End is honestly just fun to visit in general, since there’s so much going on, and there’s usually a lot of street performers who are all so talented. It’s at least worth it to stroll through on an afternoon!
Piccadilly Circus is actually really close to the West End as well as Trafalgar Square, so you should just generally go to that area. Trafalgar Square is so cool to see – it’s huge in person! – and also a great place to sit outside and have lunch. When I was there a ton of people just hung out in the area, especially since it was summer, and the atmosphere is just a lot of fun to be in. The fountain is also really pretty, and the lions are also really impressive to see, so it’s definitely worth the visit!
Chances are, if you’re in London, you’re probably going to visit Buckingham Palace. I visited the actual palace one day, and then another day my friend and I were walking to class, and we stumbled upon the surrounding garden (probably the most posh sentence I’ve ever said), and got to see little goslings, a ton of other wildlife, and also some beautiful sights of London, like the London Eye in the distance. That’s probably one of my favorite memories of London, since we didn’t mean to go there at all, and just kind of ended up there. We ended up late to class because we were taking so many photos and walking around the garden, but honestly I’m going to remember that garden far longer than what I learned in class that day.
Christopher Wren was an architect who built a lot of churches around England. We saw a lot while we were in London, and they were all so beautiful, and had so many intricate designs on the inside. The architecture in even one of the churches makes everything in America look so bland and boring!
Pro-tip: if you don’t want to pay for a tour, you can always go to a service! You don’t have to pay for them, and you get to see the inside of the cathedral. The only catch is you can’t take any photos, although I definitely snuck a few. I’m sure they get super annoyed by tourists trying to take photos, but it’s definitely worth going to the service! The choir was so amazing, and seeing the inside was honestly breathtaking.
I made a whole post about the studio tour, which you can read here, but I just wanted to reiterate how cool it is! As soon as you know the dates you’re going to be visiting the area, I’d suggest getting tickets for the tour because they go fast! I bought them at the beginning of the program, and had to go at the end of my program (like five weeks later!) because tickets were all sold out until then. It was so amazing to see, especially if you’re a Potterhead like me, and definitely worth the money. Just a warning that you’ll probably end up spending a lot of money at the gift shop afterwards!
If you’re willing to take a train for about an hour to Brighton, it’s definitely worth the visit! It’s an adorable little beach town with some great shopping spots in the Lanes, and also a lot of cool historical places to see around town. The beach is also really nice to sit and just watch the ocean! Just know that the “sand” is little pebbles, which can hurt on bare feet, but with shoes you should be fine! The pier is also so adorable, and will live up to all of the arcade/ride/food dreams you had as a kid.
My favorite places to get drinks with friends is the London Bridge area, Covent Garden, and Camden! All of these places have really cute pubs and bars, especially London Bridge area. The younger crowd is definitely usually in Camden, so the night life there is a lot of fun! There are clubs that have themed nights, and I ended up going to a 90s night with friends, and it was probably one of the most fun nights we went out.
I went to a lot of pubs while in London – I totally fell in love with them – and I definitely had some favorites!
Ye Olde Chesire Cheese – Blackfriars. This pub has a lot of history since it’s one of the oldest pubs in London. Since it’s in Blackfriars there’s a lot around it, too!
The Churchill Arms – Notting Hill. Also a really cute pub because of the interesting look on the outside.
The White Hart – Waterloo. This one has really great food!
Wetherspoons – multiple locations, my favorite is in Victoria!
Honestly, you can find a good pub probably in any part of London you’re in, I just recommend doing a quick search on Yelp and reading the reviews!
It’s actually pretty easy to get around London, since the public transportation there is pretty straightforward. The tube goes all around the city, so it’s super easy to go to all of the districts around the city! It can be really confusing at first since there’s so many lines, and especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with subways (like I did), but after a day or two you can start to get the gist of it. There’s also apps you can download like Tube Map and CityMaps2Go that really help, or you can simply use Google Maps! That’s what I did and never had a problem. There’s also maps everywhere in the tube stations, so you can generally figure out how to get where you need to be.
It’s important to know, though, that the tube stops running at midnight, so if you’re out for a late night you have to take the bus, or use a taxi/Uber/Lyft. I never really had a huge problem with this since there’s so many taxi’s around, and you can always call an Uber, but it could get annoying sometimes since the tube gets you where you need to be pretty quickly, and obviously it costs money to use Uber or call a taxi. If you’re splitting the cost with friends, though, it really isn’t bad!
If you’re going to be doing any travel by train, coach, or plane, book your tickets as soon as possible! Usually the most in advance you can get tickets is the best, so try to plan out all extra travel beforehand, rather than going to the train/bus station, or airport and buying a ticket there.
If you ever get lost in the city, it’s best to just stay calm, and ask someone for directions. I found the people of London to be really nice (I mean I’m coming from Seattle, so you can only go up from there, right?), and they’d help me out if I just asked. The police officers there are also really nice, and you can easily find one to ask for directions, especially at night. My roommate and I ended up slightly intoxicated and lost one night, and a police officer helped us out by pointing us in the right direction, and we got home just fine, after only a couple of complications of finding the right bus.
Alright well there is my London travel guide, places you gotta see, and tips on getting around the city! If you are going to London, I am so jealous, but also hope that you have the best time! It’s such a beautiful city with so much to see, and I can’t wait to go back one day.
Happy Friday! I can’t believe it’s already time for the weekend again, this week (and spring break!) has flown by insanely fast. I’m sad that my break is coming to an end, but I’m also really excited for my classes next quarter! I’ve enjoyed my time with my puppies and kitties – I can never get enough – and I will definitely miss them when I go back to school. It’s been nice just being able to relax and not worry about school and work!
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| This was part of the ceiling of one of the rooms! |
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| This is the room where we did yoga! |
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| As you can see, the museum is right under the Space Needle. |
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| It ended up being really sunny, so the light looked gorgeous through the glass! |
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| All of these pieces are so intricate and unique. |
What did you do this past weekend?
Thank you so much for reading and have a wonderful day! 🙂
What You Will Need:
-Mason Jars
-Acrylic Craft Paint
-Paint Brush
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Cotton Rounds
-Sand Paper (not pictured)
1. Start off by cleaning the Mason Jars with Rubbing alcohol to make sure all of the oils are off of the glass and the paint will stick.
2. Begin painting the Mason Jars with a thin first coat. Let the first coat dry completely before you put on a second!!
3. Paint on a second coat once the first is completely dry.
4. If using a lighter color, paint on a third coat once the second coat is completely dry. I had to do this with the pink since it was so pale.
5. Let all of the coats dry over night. This is very important!
6. Once they have all dried completely over night, you can start to sand them to create a distressed look. I had a 120 grit sandpaper, which I found to work great! Just go around and sand wherever you want the paint to look old and distressed, and make sure to especially sand the words so they stand out.
The finished products!
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| I used them as vases when my friend got me flowers! |
What You Will Need:
-Cheap plastic cup
-Milk bottles (I got mine from Michael’s)
-Elmer’s glue
-Dawn Dish Soap (any dish soap will work just fine)
-Blue and green food coloring
-Paint brush
1. Add 2 tablespoons of Elmer’s glue to the cup, and 1 tablespoon of water (it’s a 2:1 ratio if you want to change up the amount). Mix until water is incorporated.
2. Add 3 drops of blue food coloring and 1 drop of green, as well as 1 drop of Dawn dish soap. Mix until the “paint” is a nice sea-foam green color.
3. Begin painting one, thin layer onto each milk bottle.
4. Once each milk bottle has a thin layer, you are done! Just let them dry overnight and they will look like the picture below! Don’t worry if they look streaky while drying, they will dry to be a nice opaque color! I was skeptical while I was watching mine dry but they turned out just fine.
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| The finished bottles! I put some fake peonies in them because I thought it looked so adorable. |
What You Will Need:
-Small grapevine wreath
-Little fake flowers on a “vine”
Instead of sitting in your room all alone, go out and spend time with friends! If you don’t have time to leisurely hang out (I have already had so much homework, so I completely understand this!), then do homework together! You can actually get a lot more work done this way because you are all encouraging each other to be productive by getting work done. Study breaks can also be thrown in, and you all can just talk for five minutes! I love doing homework with other people because it allows me to get work done, and be social. A lot of my friends are taking similar classes as well, so we can help each other out!
If you really can’t get spring break out of your head, then just think of how close summer and warmer weather is! There will be more fun adventures to be had over this long break, so keep that in mind. However, don’t wish your time now away! Each day is so precious, and it’s important to have fun now as well, and not to wish whole weeks away. It is a fine balance!
I hope this was helpful to those of you who are missing spring break (let’s be honest, we all are!), and also to those of who are kind of stuck in a rut right now!
Do you have any fun plans for summer yet?
Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful weekend! 🙂
Even though I’m not going on a vacation over Spring Break, I’m still super excited! It’ll be nice just to stay at home and relax for a week and a half, and see my friends from high school. And I have Vidcon and LA to look forward to this summer! I seriously cannot wait.
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