Shrek the musical at Drury Lanes. I literally went and saw Shrek the Musical. And you know what? I bet I felt the entire time like I was the most cultured person ever. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Girl guy lunch engine channel. If you're new here, my name is Kalyn. I'm a dual American and UK citizen. And in this video, I'm doing part two of reacting to my journal from ten years ago when I first moved to the UK. So the only reason I'm doing this video is because a lot of you mentioned that you really enjoyed seeing me look back at my old self. I didn't realize it would be that entertaining or interesting for anybody who wasn't myself, but you guys enjoyed it. So there's quite a few posts that I hadn't gotten to on that video, so I thought we'd just finish it out and basically expose my 19 year old ramblings to the Internet. We're just going to go ahead and get started and I will share my screen. Okay, so the first one that I find was called Music of the Night, which is a very artsy title. I feel like I really worked on those titles. Definitely relating to Phantom, which I think I saw at some point, possibly I talked about in this post that would make sense to I'm still the same person ten years later, so that would make sense to what I was trying to go for. Anyway, so here we go. I know I always start my post with statements like, today I headed out to such and such because it was such a clear day and it's hardly ever clear in London. Already complaining about the weather, which is starting to lose its impact, because if you look through my pictures, it seems as if London has never seen a cloud. On the contrary. Don't be fooled, though. Don't be fooled. Apparently, I wasn't fooled. That's good. Don't be fooled, though. I don't usually take my camera with me or have grand adventures when it's raining or otherwise this blog would be filled with dreary pictures. And then I'd have to write captions about how Big Ben doesn't look as good when it's gray outside and then we'd all be depressed.

19 year old me, the beginning stages of seasonal depression. But I'm too excited here to really care and I'm just making jokes about it. It is true, though. Multiple things don't look as good in the gray. Like, when the light is very flat, it just looks totally different. I remember when we were buying our current house, we saw it in the sun, I think, and the area just felt like, oh, my gosh, I don't live in Buckingham Palace, but it was like, this is nice. Gray day hits and you're like, this is a dump. So Big Ben looks better in the sun. Hot take. But anyway, today I headed out to the River Thames because it was such a clear day. And seriously, it is hardly ever clear in London. I'm like, help me. Somebody helped the Florida girl. Help. As I have mentioned before, the more the sun shines in London in the winter, the colder the temperatures. Did I just make that up as my own weather fact? Is that definitely true. Clearly. I think I'm a meteorologist here. According to weather.com, today felt like 28 degree. Also, why was I saying 28 degrees Fahrenheit? The only people who read this were, like, my mom and maybe a couple of American friends. But I'm so cultured here, so I'm making sure they know I'm not talking in Celsius, which I still don't understand. Celsius tomorrow night. We're supposed to get one to three inches of snow, but we'll see if that happens. Spoiler alert. It did happen. My journey began with a stop at the London Bridge. I hope I didn't mix up the bridges. I took a few pictures, but honestly, the London Bridge was just a regular bridge that Londoners used to get places. Okay, so London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Two different bridges. But oftentimes people will think that Tower what is known as Tower Bridge, they'll call London Bridge. London Bridge is boring. It's just a regular bridge. Tower Bridge is the one that you're thinking of when you're thinking about London bridges, but a lot of people don't know that. Just the way down the river from the London Bridge is Tower Bridge, which I'd seen for a few minutes when we went on a bus tour three weeks ago.

That's where I took that picture of me with the bangs fringe in that purple coat. Oh, look at this picture. Tower Bridge. Look at that blue sky. Nice. Good job. I ate the lunch I packed while sitting on the bank watching the boats and birds and people float down the river. So cute. Then Tower Bridge and I got up close and personal. Girl, don't be getting too up close and personal. RC photo. Fun fact ten years ago, I remember I didn't have did I have a smartphone at the time? If I did have a smartphone, I didn't in the UK. So today, when I worked with study abroad students, everybody just uses their smartphone from America. They changed the SIM card to a UK one, typically while they're here and done that's easy. Back in the day, we used to get what we called burner phones. Like, we were about to embark on some sketchy drug deal, and they would cost, like, £5, and it would have a top up SIM card and a UK SIM card of, like, £10 worth of credit. And that's what we would use when we were in the UK. So I remember I took all of my pictures on an actual digital camera. These are not taken with a phone. They're not good pictures. I'm not claiming that that's any better. Obviously, today's smartphones could take much better pictures. But I remember when I'm talking about going out with a camera. This was before I had my phone as my camera in my pocket. So there you go. Ten years ago. Here is the London skyline from Tower Bridge. That looks nice. After having fulfilled my bridge quota for the day, I continued walking over Tower Bridge and into central London to find St. Paul's Cathedral. Very beautiful cathedral. I'll look at this, we've gone black and white. I think we went black and white before, too. I genuinely edited this to make it black and white for my personal blog that nobody read. That's cute. I didn't go inside because you have to guy a ticket for £12.

Oh God. I put the pound sign should go on the left. Like the dollar sign goes on the left. Not twelve pound sign, but clearly in my head I'm thinking like £12. So I wrote twelve pound sign. I didn't go inside because you have to buy a ticket for £12. Also, cheap student alert. It's like £16 now for students. So it should have gone when it was twelve. Do you know how many coats I could buy for £12? This was a reference to a coat I bought at Primark for £3, which I think I mentioned somewhere in this blog. Okay. On my search for free things, I found these silver fixtures which can make any person look more artsy than they are in real life. Self awareness. We like it. See, instant hipster. Oh my God, look at me. There's literally a woman over here. Who is this? Oh, well. I was having fun living my best life. Speaking of artsy, my friends and I bought cheap tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. I knew it would probably be that at Her Majesty's Theater tonight. Why did I put that in quotes? So that is how I ended my day. I've seen Phantom once before, but this was 1000 times better than I remembered. Here's a picture of the interior I took before the show started. This is so cute. I just feel like I feel so much affection for my 19 year old self who's going around. Definitely. I snuck this picture in when I felt like I wasn't supposed to before the show started because I thought the theater was so beautiful. You just go in with your just everything seems so amazing. I mean, objectively, everything I'm seeing is amazing. The theater looks beautiful. St. Paul's is a beautiful cathedral. Tower Bridge is beautiful. But I just remember being in such awe of like everything. And I do remember going to see Phantom with her. And I have seen it once since then. So I've seen it three times, but not any time recently. I don't know what my plans are for this weekend. The one day is going to have to include homework because so far I have really only fulfilled the abroad part of study abroad.

Whoops. That was definitely a lie. I was very homework and school conscious. There's no way that I was going to be like, oh, whoops had homework? Didn't realize. Absolutely not. Are you kidding me? I was a cookie two shoes to my American teachers. Not a suck up, though. I hated people who, if you try to get your grades changed, don't do that. But I was very conscientious about my schoolwork, so I think here I'm trying to be a little bit cooler than I actually was. Definitely all your essays were already written. Okay, let's see what else we can find. Here's a nice picture. Holland park mews. I remember being very interested in the mews because they're like beautiful cul de sacs. Okay, this one says, oh, I believe in yesterday, but nobody has ever used a Beatles lyric as the title about something in the UK. I'm happy to report that the past few days have been, as they all are, amazing and unforgettable. Side note, if you are watching this and you are about to embark on expat life or studying abroad, I just want you to know that they're not all going to be amazing and unforgettable days and it's going to be fine because what I'm not writing in here, I may write about homesickness at some point, but I'm sharing, like, beautiful pictures that I'm taking. Loving being abroad, which I did. But also one time I cried on the bathroom floor while calling my best friend, being like, I can't do this. I hate it here. Get me out of here. And I'm sure I didn't write that in this blog, so I don't like when people just share their highlight reels. So just know that you're going to have a great time, but it's okay if not. Every day is like straight out of a movie. But in this post, I guess that's what I'm getting across. Sunday morning, I woke up relatively early and decided to take advantage of the weekend sun. Always with the sun. Nothing has changed. Always mentioning the sun by discovering Holland Park, a scenic area in west London.

I genuinely don't think I've been to Holland Park since I went this time. It is beautiful, but I just haven't been back, so that's a kind of bad picture of it, too. And also, I talk about the sun, but it doesn't look very sunny here. I wouldn't put this on the Holland Park brochure, is all I'm saying. As is typical of London parks, the birds run the show. I guess that's kind of typical, particularly in Hyde Park near the lake. But I don't necessarily know if I'd say that about all London parks. This particular park was home to ten or 15 peacocks who were less afraid of me than I was of them. I was standing behind a fence when I took this picture, but as I later learned, the fence is only a facade. Sat word right there. As the peacocks can roam wherever they please get out of my business birds. That would be a really nice picture if it was in focus. From Holland Park, I took the tube to Peculiar Circus, which looks like New York's Times Square, except it's smaller and classier. I'm fairly sure I hadn't even been to New York at this point in my life. You can see where it says good service and Waterloo and City. Those are the updates on how the Tube is running at the moment. I will hold to what I said, though. Having been to New York more times now and for longer, that Pic Delay Circus is a smaller and classier Times Square. A lot classier and a lot smaller. Let's see what they were advertising at the time. Let's do some bosses. And McDonald's. Okay. Samsung. What? I would say Hyundai, but I think people here say hi and I do. You say hi and day or high end. I comment below. And some sort of maybe a movie ad. I don't expect success, I prepare for it. Or is that an alcohol ad? Unclear. You can also see some very stereotypical British people here in their all dark winter get up. Yesterday, I worked most of the day, which doesn't really make for an interesting blog post, but then I was pleasantly surprised to hear that a London friend I like how I namedrop that I have a friend in London had an extra ticket to a show near Trafalgar Square that night.

Before meeting him, I walked through Trafalgar Square, which is iconic London true and home of the 2012 Olympic Countdown. Yes, I studied abroad in the winter leading up to the summer 2012 Olympic Games in London. I was not there for the Olympics. I went home in April, but I was there for the run up to it. And I specifically remember seeing tons of signs. Was Boris Mayor at the time. I think he was. They were signs from Boris Johnson being like, clean up our city because people are coming and we need to make sure that it's clean to show off to the world. I remember seeing ads like that and I remember them saying that they wanted the shard completed before the 2012 Olympic Games, but there was something about like they were kind of at the top of it, but they weren't entirely sure if they were going to hit that goal. And then there was a 2012 Olympic Countdown, which is terrible picture, but this is in Trafalgar Square counting down. It was such an exciting thing to feel like I was a part of this run up to the Olympics. And I think in a way, it was more of a glimpse into actual London life than if I had visited during the Olympics, because it was like real Londoners thinking, all of these people are coming. What are we going to do? Is everything ready for them? And I just felt like I got an insight, I guess, into the city. Okay, so that's cute trafalgar Square is so close to the River Thames that you can see Big Ben from the center of it. I've been waiting to take pictures of the river at night, so I trekked it over there and spent a few minutes with the 8000 other tourists that also like the view. This is the London we all dream about, people. I'm just so positive and optimistic. And also, as I said in my other video, I wasn't doing this with anybody. I was out there exploring on my own because I wasn't going to wait to see if anybody wanted to go with me. And that's what gave me the feeling that I could come to London again.

I could move here, I could make it more permanent and get around and enjoy myself and not have to wait on other people. Never wait for other people to do stuff that you want to do. If you want to travel, if you want to take a day trip, if you want to do whatever you want to do, it doesn't matter if nobody wants to go with you, just go do it. There's my nighttime picture. Of course, who could forget Big Ben, which is probably the only London landmark that I could have correctly identified before I arrived. Look at that tower. At 07:00, I walked back down the river to the show, which was called Masterclass, about an American opera singer. I vaguely remember this. It was interesting and really well done, and I'm always so thrilled to see friends. So it was a great night all around today. Started with class in the morning, and then one of my roommates, Christina, and I headed off to the British Library. Oh, I love the British Library. I don't have any pictures of the library other than this because you aren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibits, and there are scary guards who watch you to make sure you follow the rules. But it was incredible to stand in a room with original Shakespeare works. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, there were original lyrics by the Beatles, hence the title of this post. See I tie everything together. I know that even a lifetime of exploring, I could never fully discover everything London has to offer. I think they should have just hired me, as they're like mascot. But it is moments like these where it really hits home that I could not be having this experience anywhere else in the world. Yes, you could not be seeing Big Ben anywhere else in the world. Good observation. Just for kicks, here's a picture of Christina and I. We are bundled up because in weather related news, it flurried in London today. I am not actually sure that my three pound coat again, pound sign in the wrong place was built for these kinds of temperatures, but we made it through.

That's my coat, everybody. And that awful hair. Kind of an awful color coat, too, but I remember being very excited about it. I'm floored that tomorrow was already Wednesday in the beginning of February. Time is flying, but I'm doing my best to appreciate every second of every minute of every day and already wondering how I can fit London into my future ventures. Well, girl gone, London. Let me tell you, you fit it right. Just slots in so perfectly. Then I sign off. Until next time. Xoxo. I have never written Xoxo in my life. This is the first time I've seen it, I think. Was Gossip Girl big at the time? Maybe I was trying to be like a Gossip Girl. Here's a picture of some child looking at a fountain. That's cute. A quote I thought to include, I'm leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it's not raining. Trying to pump myself up a little bit there. Clearly. No, this is a picture of Shrek the Musical, and it's just come back to me that I saw it. I wonder. Oh, there's me getting ready for the show. Shrek the musical at Drury Lanes. Oh, God. I literally went and saw Shrek the Musical. And you know what? I bet I felt the entire time like I was the most cultured person ever. No shade to shrek the Musical. I love a good musical, but I just love that this was my choice of cultural activity in London. Okay. Hyde park. I don't think I've read this one in my other video. Okay, let's see what we have here. Hyde park. Happy Thursday from London. The morning started with a 09:30, a.m. Class called Advertising and Mannerings in Britain. I am not an advertising or marketing major, but a lot of public relations also has to do with selling. So it fits in nicely, and it's a really interesting class. That's nice. In case you were wondering. In case you were wondering, britain has an anti cell culture, which means that they do not capital. Not like, being sold to. True. This means that advertisements and campaigns over here often do not even focus on the product they are promoting.

Absolutely true. If anybody has seen, like, the Lloyds commercial with the horses, hardly ever mentioned it's about a bank. I'm like, Are they selling pony rides? Yeah. I've seen entire commercials that have nothing to do with anything. And then at the end, it will be a quick flash of whatever the product name is. Anyway, now. I'm actually learning some things besides how to lose my Oyster card, which finally came in the mail. Let's continue. After class, I plan to go straight to High Kensington Street. Is that what it's called, the High Street? Is it called High? Kensington street. I know Kensington has a high street. I don't know. Which is just a street full of European shopping. What is European shopping? There's like, a Tk maxx, which is basically a TJ maxx. What did I think they were selling? But the sun ended up coming out, so I decided to take advantage of the skies and head to Hyde Park. I had yet to see Hyde Park, even though it's probably the most famous. Here we go. Nice picture of the park. See some greenery. Oh, I'm checking out the lake. Bad pictures here. From this vantage point, it was hard to tell what was to come. But after walking further down the oak some nice swans in Hyde Park. I don't just mean one swan, I mean tons and tons of birds. Like, where did all these birds come from? I have a real obsession with birds and parks. But, yeah, this part of High Park can be quite filled with swans. A little bit scary if you're afraid of birds. The following picture was taken right before I fled in terror. Look at that picture. Action shot. Apparently, I'd never seen a swan before because I came home with over 100 pictures of them in various positions. See, I'm getting a self deprecating humor already. Nice swan shots. After starring in my own remake of The Birds never seen the birds, I did head back to High Kensington Street. So far in London. I've seen one television commercial for Walt Disney World.

Orlando. I'm the same person ten years later. All I do is talk about the sun in Disney World. So far, I've seen one television commercial for Walt Disney World Orlando, two Disney stores, MDS, mickey Mouse shirt and H and M. This explains the insane amount of British tourists riding Space Mountain every day. That's true. A lot of British people do like going to Disney on holiday. But I like that. I took this picture in H and M. Oh. That's what I thought was European shopping. I seem to remember in our area in the US for a long time, and I remember when it came to our local malls, everybody was like, oh, the European shopping has come. After walking around Kensington High Street for a little while, yes, Kensington High Street is what it's called. Not High Kensington Street. Moron. I decided to try and go back to Hyde Park to capture the sunset, which ended up far exceeding my expectations. That's a nice picture. Look at that sky. Like in Pittsburgh, the sun is a rare sight here in the winter. I'm just on an auto reel talking about this. The past four or five days have been overcast and rainy. Well, it's like February. So, yes, I'm not really affected by the grayness here. Different times, just because there is so much else going on, like Shrek the Musical. Plus, everyone looks more posh with an umbrella. I feel like Londoners don't even carry umbrellas. They just have a raincoat. Or they just grinned and barrett. But when the skies do clear, london completely transforms into the magical, wonderful place that I always thought it would be. I was so taken in by everything. Nice sunset shot. Okay. Culture shock. We did that one. So I think I see some snow pictures. So let's see what this says. Winter Wonderland. Welcome to this Sunday edition of London Lessons, where we will discuss why you should always carry extra change in your purse and not buy winter boots in Florida. And, oh, how it is the most beautiful city in the world.

And even more so when it's blanketed in snow. Last night, my flatmates and I decided to make a trip to Harris, the famous London department store, and then find the original London Hard Rock Cafe. The Hard Rock Cafe is perhaps the most touristy thing I can think of, but I guess I'm just embracing it. To my delight. Delight, everybody. To my delight, we walked out the front door into the beginning of last night's snowstorm. I remember this night. I remember the snowstorm. I have never seen as much snow in London as this ten years ago. This is only my second winter in snow possible climates, and the only snow I saw in Pittsburgh this year was in October. So I have been wishing and dreaming of seeing snow in London for the past month. It's like a Christmas movie. After making our way to Knightsbridge, where all the rich people live yes, they do. We went into Harrods fancy bags. It's hard to explain Harrods because it is unlike anything in the States. But imagine a seven storey department store with a dress code for shoppers. Does Harris have a dress code? It wasn't like I was fancy dressed back then, so I don't know what their dress code would be. No shoes, no shirt, no surface. I was lined with rows and rose of designer brands. Harris claim is that you can buy absolutely anything there, which I'm inclined to believe I meant. After seeing signs for Pet Kingdom, the entire section devoted to treadmills here, you can buy a Prada ski jacket. Wow. I have not been to Harrods probably since then. Going basically as a tourist, why would I go to Harrods these days? To set the scene even further, we actually overheard this conversation. Woman how much is this coat? Harris, Employee £60,000. Woman do you have it in a small cut? To me and my flatmates about to have a heart attack, we were even in the same square mile as a coat that cost £60,000 pound signed in the wrong place. We also stumbled across a toy section where Adam whose job title was Toy Demonstrator showed us how easy snow created a snow like substance that would never melt.

Much appreciated, Adam. But there's real snow outside, so thanks anyway. Getting a little sassy. I see seasonal reductions here, so now it only costs 1695 for fake snow as opposed to 1995. After Harris, we found the London Hard Rock Cafe. Unfortunately, there was a two hour wait. There was a two hour wait at the Hard Rock. Guys, top tip, unless you are like a Hard Rock die hard fan, you don't need to go to the London one. There are lots of other places to eat. It was already 08:00 p.m., so we took our poor people wallets and headed to Pizza Hut for an end to our night. Pizza Hut spans the country's. Everybody loves a Pizza Hut. This morning, I woke up early and threw on my closest jeans and sweatshirt in an effort to make it outside before the snow melted in the rain. That was forecast to start in the early afternoon. The first stop was Hyde Park, which is quickly becoming my favorite spot. Been there twice. Quickly becoming my favorite spot. That's beautiful, though. Look at that. Look how much snow in London, you guys. They must have been a couple of inches. Look at it on the bench. From High Park. I made the easy walk to Green Park, right outside Buckingham Palace. The longer I live here and the more I explore, the easier it is to realize how close all of central London is and how all the major parks and landmarks are connected. That's a good observation. Central London is relatively small if you're talking like central, central, central. And you can walk a lot more than you think because people often jump on the tube. But a lot of places you can walk. Okay. I also stopped to make a snowman, which is where our life lessons come into play. Loans and parks are mostly just grass. What did I expect? So there were a few snowman faced building materials like twigs or rocks. However, the money system here is big on coins. Did you know that? Brick you're big on coins. They do not have an equivalent to the one dollars bill, for instance.

Their £1 denomination is a coin, so I had plenty of resources for the eyes. I also thought to wear gloves, which was a good choice. The only daughter, this girl here has been in the snow. Like one time in her life I'm walking people through cold weather. Basically the only downside was that my $20 why would I put the dollar sign there? My $20 snow boots from the Target aren't actually meant for the snow. It seems I survived just fine, but my feet were a little wet and frozen when I got home. Oh, there's my snowman. Look at all that snow. I mean, yes, it's not feet, but for London, that's a lot. That's so cute. Also, I feel like a little sad that a lot of these posts are about doing stuff by myself, which I know I said earlier in this video I'm proud of myself for. But equally, I'm like, where were your friends? Why were you out building a snowman by yourself? After attempting to supplement my perpetually warm childhood, I waded through the snow a bit more until my ipod was almost dead ten years ago. Everybody, if you're new here, an ipod was what we had before iPhones and smartphones, which was after MP3, which basically all it did was play music. I know if you're new to this world that will confound you, but yeah, it just played music. My feet were mad. I was too cheap to buy real snow boots. The rest of the afternoon has been spent in the warmth of my flat, lounging around and eating far too many chocolate cookies from Sainsbury. That sounds nice. Now I will leave you by sounding philosophical with one of my favorite quotes that sums up how I feel about life in London and making snowmen by myself on cold Sunday mornings in the middle of winter. I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. I do love that quote, but I think it was more about achieving things when everything was bleak in your life. Not so much actual winter, but I appreciate my attempt at inspiration here. Okay, let's see if we can find anything else.

One step behind. Read that before. What about my birthday? We could do a ceiling of the British Museums. Did that one. Science museum. Okay, let's talk about Italy, because that is where I went on spring break, and I call it the one where I go to Italy. Clearly a Friends reference. Didn't even really watch Friends that much back in the day. I have spent the past 20 minutes thinking of how to open this glimpse into the past week of my life. But really, there is no way to talk about your spring break in Italy without sounding pretentious or delusional or both. Yes, to an American audience, talking about your spring break in Italy is absolutely pretentious. Obviously, in the UK, where it's much easier to go to Italy, it's not so much. But I at least was self aware that it was a really crazy experience for somebody who had grown up in the US. Thinking that Italy was someplace that I'd probably never get to. Plus, I don't want to turn into one of those people who come home from their travels with a 2000 picture slideshow and then make their entire social network sit on the couch and marvel at the time they ate a scoop of gelato. And then another. And then another. Suffice it to say that Italy was awesome and beautiful and warm, which made our late February spring break all the better. We started by flying from London to Venice, which included a complimentary view of the Swiss Alps. I've not fact checked this. I don't know if that actually was the Swiss Alps, but it looks very nice. Oh, this was something about the plane after two bus rides, one in a land bus and one in a water bus. So cultured. We were there in the heart of Venice. It is the one place I've always said I wanted to visit. I probably just watched some travel network show, didn't know anything about it, and I wasn't disappointed. Granted, you could probably drop me anywhere in Europe, and I wouldn't be disappointed, but still, this girl has yet to go to Paris. That's a good picture. I'm an exceptionally light packer, which has saved me more times than I can count, including the time we had to make it over the giant Rialto Bridge in search of our hostel.

Oh, hostel life. That's cute. I would never, not these days. Here I am, Sam's luggage, standing at the top of the Rialto Bridge and taking part in the time honored tourist tradition of having your friends take pictures of you in front of various landscapesmonuments, sites that you probably can't name but are probably important. I do have an understanding of maybe how much I don't know, which I appreciate. We didn't get in later in the afternoon, we decided to grab dinner near the canals, wander around the markets. Even if we were ready for a night out, though I'm not a night out kind of person. I wasn't then, I'm not now. I would have never been ready for a night out. Venice shops shuts down at 07:00 p.m.. And that is not an exaggeration. Not an exaggeration because I know Americans tend to exaggerate, but that is not an exaggeration. Maybe it's because the city is filled with more tourists than locals. So most people who run the markets and stores leave the city for the night. But the streets are pretty empty and dark after the sun goes down. Very out of focus, but nice. The next day was spent in San Marco, my favorite place in Venice. Carl, you've been there for like 6 hours. Embarrassing fact. I actually said the words, I feel like I'm an Epcot, so sue me. You spent your entire life traveling by, hanging out in the World Showcase, and all of a sudden, your reality is warped. You win, Walt Disney. You win if you don't understand this reference. There's a theme park in Disney World, in Orlando called Epcot, and there's the World Showcase, where they have different, basically, many theme parks of different countries. And it has everything from China, Japan, Italy is one of them. So I had grown up going to Disney World, so clearly I went to the actual Italy and was like, this looks like the Italy at Disney World.

That's what I'm talking about. Not to mention the fact that I found both the Venice and Rome Disney stores and might have accidentally, on purpose bought a Roma themed Mickey pin. No shame. I am the most basic person ever. Before the word basic was even used to describe people like me. After spending the morning in San Marco, we walked around the coast of the islands, stopping for lunch, and then wandered around the smaller bridges and into the residential area, where clothes dried in the afternoon sun and boats sputtered down the waterways. So quaint. I was pretty flexible the whole trip, agreeing to go wherever others wanted to go. That sounds like me. I am pretty flexible. I won an award back in the US. When I was in college. We did, like, superlatives on our floor because it was, like, in our dorm. And I won Best Roommate because I was basically the most chill and flexible, which basically meant that people would do stuff and I would just not say anything about it. So here, probably people wanted to do things and I disagreed, but I didn't say it, which, again, I'm preparing for my life as a Brit. So it's not that I was, like, actually that chill. It's just I would never say anything if anybody was doing something that annoyed me. There we go. Okay, this one night, I was so determined to go back to San Marco and see a Venetian sunset. Luckily, everyone was down for it. And I don't even care if this makes me, like, 90 years old. Just look at it. How would looking at a sunset make you 90 years old? That was a good sunset. I remember that moment. I remember how exciting it was. From Venice, it was off to Rome. Okay, I'm boring myself. Blah, blah. Here's Rome. Good idea. We also made it to the Vatican, where we took a tour of the museum and then sat inside the Sistine Chapel. I don't really remember this. Wait, let me rephrase that. We ended up taking a tour of the museum and then sat inside the Sistine Chapel. What? That is some serious culture right there.

Americans are so obnoxious, including myself. No pictures were allowed inside, and I was tempted to try. But I know enough about life to realize that you don't just roll up in the Pope's house and then break the rules. No, you don't. Here's a picture of one of the ceilings in the Vatican painted in the High Renaissance. I couldn't even tell you what High Renaissance meant. I bet. I just probably saw that online. We didn't go inside St. Peter's Basilica, but we did stand outside and take pictures. The weather was working in our favor, with Rome reaching up to 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I'd like to go back to Italy. Aside from the obvious historical sites, rome is also filled with a lot of markets and side streets that held restaurants and apartments and shops for people to live their daily lives. Yes, Rome is a city where people live and not just where 19 year olds go on spring break from their study abroad. This seems like a good time to mention what I ate the entire week, which was essentially a very combination of pizza, spaghetti, chocolate, cannolis and gelato. I ate a few pieces of fruit in there. Don't think you did, but that was it. Luckily, we spent all week walking, so I didn't come home needing a stint on The Biggest Loser. Italy has some good food, doesn't it? That's a nice picture. Overall, I found Venice to be a better looking city than Rome, but only because it's on the water. On the other hand, I would never choose to live or study in Venice. While I could easily see how someone would choose to spend months or years in Rome, we only spent six days between the two cities. So clearly I'm qualified to make these statements. And it was enough to get a taste of Italy, but you would obviously need much more time to get a real feel for how the city runs. I've spent almost two months in London, and there are still moments where I have no idea where I am. I have spent ten years in London, and there are still moments when I have no idea where I am.

Speaking of London, I am thrilled to be back. We were only gone for a week, but by the last day, I was dying to get back to life here. London may be cloudy and it may be cold and it may be in the midst of tearing apart the city for the Olympics c told you. But I would not go back and choose any other place to call home for these four months. Ten years. Until next time, italia coliseum with the moon behind everybody. Okay, I can't do any more of talking to my 19 year old self, so I'm going to end this video there. I think there are a couple of other posts, but I think I've covered most of them. There's some pictures of me with, like, a pony. You got the gist right. That was me ten years ago. 19. I'm 29 now, almost 30 in less than a month. And that's what I thought and felt enjoyed about London. And a lot hasn't changed, but a lot has. Like, I know where to put the pound sign when I'm talking about currency, so that's positive. Hope you guys enjoyed the second blast from the past. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye.