Happy Mother's Day! Day 180

I love my mum!

Day 179

This week has gone by so fast...I haven't even blogged once.

I will be posting two new blogs tomorrow! x

Leamington Spa, Day 173

It is the beginning of May (ummm...MAY?!?!)

Suddenly my departure date has appeared along the horizon of my mind and doesn't seem so far away. The thought of coming home is really nerve racking. Though I'm aware that people have changed, I'm still hoping that everything can go back to how it was before I left. And though this sounds dramatic, I'm hoping that I haven't been forgotten, that I will be able to fit back into my friends lives with ease.

This weekend Samantha and I went to visit my aunt Louise and cousin Poppy in Leamington Spa, a town a couple hours away from London. I feel fortunate to have been able to travel to many different parts of England during my time here. I love how each town and village I have visited has been different in its own way.


Leamington Spa reminded me of a bigger version of the fictional town Stars Hollow (from the show The Gilmor Girls). We seemed to be surrounded by people who had been plucked out of a catalogue and everything was just so peachy. We passed this amazing sweet shop that all the small children hung outside of:


Beside it was milkshake place and I actually laughed (rather rudely) as this young couple strolled into it hand in hand. It just seemed like such a stereotypical-small town-place to go for a date.

We walked around the local park (I don't know if the photos do it justice but it really was quite stunning):


I've noticed that towns and villages in England make a lot of effort in preserving their own history and originality. In many cases, all the stores are housed in original buildings and I think this is what gives each town a distinct vibe.


I'd definitely like to move to Leamington Spa...I seem to say that about every single place I visit, I know.

My friend Pona from Canada arrives TOMORROW. And Greece is in eight days! AH.

Day 170

I received this photo of my sister Olivia today...I almost cried when I saw it, she's changed so much since the last time I saw her in December. Judging by the photo, I think she's a full out teenager now (phone in hand DURING SCIENCE CLASS, hair band around her head in that way that I've never been able to pull off, the long hair). It actually seems like yesterday we were small little children running around without a care in the world....how sad.

Day 167

This weekend I went to Lincolnshire to visit my grandparents. They live in a beautiful village surrounded by rolling green hills.

Their backyard looks out to this…

We ventured out to the fields where my grandfather showed me where he keeps his beehives (he keeps bees in the summer):

and then relaxed in the summer home at the bottom of their garden. We talked for a long time about the past-I had this strong desire to ask them all the questions I could about their parents, sisters, the jobs they had, stories from when they were my age, stories of my mum when she was younger. It's funny how growing up has instilled me with this need to know about the past, to ask questions I didn't think twice about asking them before.

On Saturday we went to Stamford, a Medieval town just outside their village. They still have the gallows across the entrance to the town, once used to hang people.

It was a beautiful beautiful town filled with so much history. It is so well preserved which is why I think it felt like I was walking around in a different era. It was filled with lots of intricate and historical architecture and small alley ways.

Stamford is home to the oldest newspaper in England which was founded in 1695:

We took a visit to St. George’s Square which was where scenes from the film Pride and Prejudice were shot:

We then went into Tobi Norris, a restaurant/pub which building dates back to the 13th Century! It had the most amazing bathroom:

Sunday morning we went to a small pub near my grandparent’s house. It was so British! Everyone knew one another, there was a roaring fire going and I was served a huge cup of tea.

After that we went to see the Yew tress in Clipsham-a long path filled with these 200 year old trees that have been trimmed into shapes that represented England (there was one commemorating the Queen’s 80th birthday, another one inscripted with “BBC”). I felt like I was in a scene from Alice and Wonderland...

On our way back from the trees, we stopped at a local convenient store run by a 94 year old woman named Mrs. Bee (that name makes me so happy!) It was SUCH an original old British shop, filled with cans of baked beans and one pence candies.

We then headed off to the Nornanton Reservoir, the largest man made lake in England. The village of Normanton was flooded in the 1970s to build the lake, though St. Mathews Church was saved and is now a museum.

We ended up at the Burghley House, built for Queen Elizabeth I in 1555. The house is surrounded by acres and acres of land and there are deer wandering around the front…

The house itself is huge and the architecture is so beautiful.

We had a lovely weekend! I love British countryside so much- fields just make me happy.

(and so do beautiful trees)