Home is wherever I'm with you..... NOT

There's this song by a wonderful band that has a line that states:
"Home is wherever I'm with you."
I find this false.
Maybe because I'm not in love, and maybe because I've been homesick lately.
I won't lie to you guys, being this far away from home is horrendously hard.
To add insult to serious injury, I can't even call my mom up any time I want and complain to her.
This is true for a couple reasons.

1. Time difference. I have to wait until like.... midnight London time.
2. I can't make international phone calls on my weak little iPhone 4.

This homesickness was made worse when I came back from Paris. 

I was sick as a dog and wanted to die a little. 

My head felt like it was going to explode and my body was just an achey mess. 

No friends to bring me warm Starbucks beverages, no mom to give me meds, no sister to whine at. 

Nothing. 

Just other students trying to have a good time and not worry about me being sick. 

Which is a lie, because I'm here with the best people who constantly asked me if I needed anything. 

I love these people so much. 

They helped me get better quicker. 

Anyway, Tuesday June 25 was my worst day to date. 

I stayed in bed all day and honestly thought that London would be my downfall, or Paris rather as I got sick whilst in Paris. Stupid Paris. (Notice the "whilst" I'm turning European).

Wednesday was a change of scenery for me, for sure. 

I did laundry, made myself a delicious lunch, watched some movies, and enjoyed feeling better. 

Later that night I went to my last Shakespeare play at the Globe which is the saddest thing ever.

I love it there. 

It reminds me of summer so much that whenever we go to a play there I never want it to end. 

Being outside in the perfect London weather, watching Shakespeare plays and remembering how much I love it here and why I'm majoring in English. Ahhh... so perfect.

This play was probably my favorite of the lot. The Tempest. 

Plus it helped that a few famous people were in it. 

Anyone know who Colin Morgan is?

Yeah I didn't either until a few girls in my group were seriously fan-girling over him like 12 year olds! 

It was refreshing, almost.

After that we just headed back to the flat, t-shirts and postcards in tow, ready to pack for the next day. 

Thursday we went to Stratford. 

Holy cow you guys. This place is the prettiest little town I ever did see. 

Reminded me a lot of Stars Hollow. Those of you who are familiar should get this reference and understand where I'm coming from and maybe be a little jealous.

On the way we stopped at Warwick Castle. 

I saw the most majestic bald eagle on the planet and then wondered why England had America's national bird on display. Whatever. America rocks. 

I also climbed like 530 steps.... how ridiculous. 

It was made even harder because I was holding about the largest Diet Coke in one hand and then there's the Canon. I love it, but man you wouldn't believe how much that thing gets in the way. 

And I'm pretty sure I stepped right into a Jane Austen novel.

There was the cutest little boathouse and river with swans swimming around. Then there were humans taking naps under trees, reading their books and whatnot. Probably being in love with each other. Ugh. I'm over it. 

And then there's a giant trebuchet. It was pretty radical but weirdly placed. 

Ok... that's enough of Warwick. I have pics I'll show you.

And maybe when I get home, you can ask me about it if you really care that much.. 

Cool.

Happy 4th guys!  

So we headed over to Stratford and I stayed in the cutest B&B you've ever laid eyes on. 

It was called The Virginia Lodge. I highly recommend it, if you happen to be in Stratford at some point.

They didn't have a book to sign or anything or I would have written "I sat and am forever at work here" (if you don't get that reference, you need to watch Gilmore Girls).

Shortly after arriving at our B&B we went out to dinner at this pub called The Garrick. 

You better believe I ordered nachos. 

I haven't had mexican food in weeks and I'm having withdrawals. 

Their nachos were decent.. not nearly as good as I would make though.

Then I ordered a delightful dessert. It was called Jamaican Ginger Cheesecake. I almost died when I tried it. Best dessert on earth I think. I need to find the recipe and make it. 

We then headed over to the Swan theater to watch Titus Andronicus.

That play is scary and disturbing, and I think it says something about me that I laughed at a lot of it.

When the play finished we went to a famous pub called The Dirty Duck but their blasted hot drink machine was broken so we peaced out of there so fast and headed to a cute little cafe called Cafe Rouge.

Kasee quickly fell in love with the man working there and the hot chocolate he made was delightful so I was kind of in love with him too. 

I went to sleep in the best bed of my European trip so far. Queen to myself and it was so comfy. Too bad I only got to sleep in it for one night. HUGE BUMMER.

I woke up to the best breakfast of my life.

Had some toast with black current jam. Mmmmmmmmm. Yum.

And then we walked through the cutest little neighborhoods to find Anne Hathaway's house. 

It was cute, but cost way too much money to walk through. 13 pounds? YEAH RIGHT.

So we just walked around Stratford for the rest of the day. 

Well... we finished the walk quickly after we began it. That town is not very big at all. 

Then we took a boat tour and our guide was hilarious. I loved him. 

I saw Shakespeare's grave you guys. 

It's not as cool as you think it would be. 

Ok, no, it's cool. I thought it would be much more elaborate. It's just a stone in the cathedral.

The cathedral is called Trinity by the way. It's pretty famous, I guess. 

I bought 5 pounds worth of chocolate. Oops. 

And I saw an actor from Titus and I felt like an idiot... but I just kind of stared at him. He was freaked out I think. 

You better believe I ate another slice of that cheesecake and it was just as good as the first time.

But the day isn't over cause I went to another play. 

This time it was As You Like It. 

To be honest, the only thing I even noticed about this play was that all of the men were very handsome. With the exception of the old ones. Cause they were old. 

And I wanted to rush the stage, but then I thought that it might be frowned upon. 

We didn't leave Stratford until 11:00 p.m. and didn't get back to London until about 2:00 a.m. 

Which sucked cause we would be leaving for Dublin that next morning. 

OOOOOO more on that next post. 

This is way too long already. 

Enjoy those photos and this one... it's the view from my room. Cute huh?

Ok. Go do something with your life. 

Quit reading this. 

XOXO,

Sam