Studying Abroad in London: Strikes & A British Thanksgiving

After the whirlwind weekends of Paris and Edinburgh, it was nice to just have a chill week off. Still, there were plenty of things that happened. I visited Isaac's hometown again, I had a British Thanksgiving, and I started getting serious about final assessments.

The reason why we visited Basingstoke and I didn't go to any lectures was because lecturers across the UK were striking from November 25th-December 3rd. There were a variety of reasons as to why, but if you're interested in knowing more, check out this article. 

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Monday

November 25, 2019

After getting into Basingstoke rather late on Sunday, we slept in pretty late before heading to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner and breakfast. On our way back, we stopped and got lunch to take back and eat while we watched some shows.

When we finished lunch, I got started on being productive on blog posts and whatnot while we watched shows on the couch. After a while, we started in on making dinner--steak! I love me some steak and potatoes. Once we finished eating, Isaac headed off to football while I continued being productive on blog and school work. 

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Tuesday

November 26, 2019

Tuesday was another lazy day in. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then we ate them while catching up I'm A Celeb and some more Psych for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, we ate dinner with Isaac's family before we all sat around playing games and eating candy. Not to brag or anything, but I totally kicked ass at Words with Friends. After games, Isaac and I watched a couple episodes of Psych before heading to bed. 

The other exciting thing that happened on Tuesday was that I hit 100,000 blog views! I've been doing this for so long and I can't believe that I finally hit 100k!

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Wednesday

November 27, 2019

On Wednesday, in typical fashion, we slept in late and watched Psych all day before Isaac went off to play racquetball with his dad. After that, we ate dinner and packed up the rest of our stuff to head back to campus. On the way back, we stopped at ASDA to get groceries before finally getting back to Roehampton. 

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Thursday

November 28, 2019

On Thursday we slept in and didn't really  have a productive day. I got jealous over seeing everyone's Thanksgiving meals on Snapchat and Instagram before I went to the one the college hosted with one of my friends.

It was a nice meal. The food was good and you could tell that the college really put a lot of thought into it. As a Thanksgiving meal it wasn't that great, but as a regular old dinner it was fantastic. I got  bacon-wrapped turkey, a bunch of veggies, and even mac n cheese. Afterwards, I went back to my room to watch Psych with Isaac and eat ice cream. 

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Friday

November 29, 2019

We slept in on Friday again before going to lunch and then heading back to be productive. I made a day-by-day schedule of all the assignments and other things I had to get done before the end of the semester since I want to finish them before the 13th.

Isaac had to head to his first day at work so I stayed in the library until almost midnight working on various blog and homework things. It was almost midnight before I got back to the dorm where I continued working on things before I fell asleep waiting for Isaac to get back. 

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Saturday

November 30, 2019

On Saturday we slept in before getting lunch. After that, I worked on homework and hung out with Isaac throughout the day until he had to go to work again. Instead of being productive, though, I watched Christmas movies and then started reading a book for review.

I stayed up reading and to let Isaac in after he got done with work. I ended up finishing the book a bit after Isaac got back. By the time we ended up falling asleep, it was about 5 am. 

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Sunday

December 1, 2019

We obviously slept in on Sunday before spending the day  working on homework and studying. Afterwards, we went and got food for dinner before watching Psych before bed. 

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It wasn't a particularly exciting week but I did enjoy every day of it. I know next week will be a bit stressful with how many assignments I have to do but I'm still going to try to make the most of it before I have to head back home to good ol' Illinois.

For past weekly diaries, check out my study abroad page here.

Thanksgiving Book Tag: 2019 Edition

It's that time of year again! The time where all us Americans gather around with our families and stuff our faces until we can barely move. I'm in London this year so I'm going to be having quite a different Thanksgiving experience from usual. One thing that won't change, though, is me laying around all day eating turkey and also doing this book tag! I'm limiting it to books I've read this year, though, just to make things interesting. Let's go ahead and just dive right in!

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1. Bread - What book is purely fluff, and has no real plot line?

I feel like a lot of books can fall into this category but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not good books. I myself need a fluffy book every once in a while. For this, I'm going to go with Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks. I really enjoyed this graphic novel, but there  wasn't much to it beyond just messing around. It was definitely super cute and fluffy, though.

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2. Turkey - What book made you want to fall asleep?

I have to say, any of the books I read for class this year made me want to fall asleep. Outside of those, Lord of Shadows really bored me for most of the book. There are a few others, but that one came to mind first. I will say that while it bored me, I still enjoyed it a little. It's definitely not my favorite Cassandra Clare book, though. You can find my review here. 

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3. Gravy - What book makes the whole series worth reading?

Going off of the last question, Queen of Air and Darkness was a lot better than Lord of Shadows. I still think that Lady Midnight was the best of the series but this third one definitely restored my faith in the series and characters. From the beginning page it was already better than the second book. Plus, there was plenty of angst but also hope that really kept the book going. You can find my  full review here.

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4. Stuffing - What book is stuffed full of action scenes?

I read a lot of high fantasy and other action-packed scenes. It was actually a bit difficult deciding what book to chose for this prompt. In the end, I've decided to go with The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young. There was action almost from page one and kept going throughout the book. Not only that, but I just really enjoyed this book. You can find my review here.

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5. Mashed Potatoes - What book looked good, and then wasn’t?

I didn't even have very high expectations going into Wicked Saints and yet it still majorly let me down. I thought it would be somewhat good but every time I look back on it I'm just reminded of how disappointing this book really was form me. Before I go off on a tangent, I'll just leave it with this book was not what I expected.

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6. Cranberries - What book has the sweetest romance?

I obviously have to go with one of my favorite books of the year: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I'd been hearing a lot of hype about it leading up to the release and I knew that I had to read it. Everything about these characters was so sweet and pure and amazing. I already can't wait to reread this book in the future! You can find my full review here.

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7. Corn - What’s the corniest book you’ve ever read?

I decided to go with Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey. I don't know if I would say that this is the corniest book I've ever read but it was approaching that feeling. This was kind of a stereotypical fluffy and steamy novel. However, it was really fun and enjoyable nonetheless.

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8. Green beans - What book is too long and needs to be shortened?

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor definitely fits this bill for me. It wasn't necessarily a bad book but it was over 500 pages and I could probably count how many big things happened on a single hand. It's a compelling story idea but the book was so long and unnecessarily so. You can find my review here.

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9. Pumpkin Pie - What book do you read to get out of a reading slump?

The one series that never fails to get me out of a reading slump is The Veil Diaries by B.L. Brunnemer. These characters are some of my favorites and the writing is so easy to just fall into. I could read all 7 of the books that are out so far in a week if I let myself. I just love these books and they never fail to get me into a reading mood.

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10. Dog/Cat - What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food that you would steal from the table?

It would have to be my grandma's stuffing for sure. She has her own secret recipe and it's my favorite food to eat at Thanksgiving meals. I always have about a million scoops of it because I just can't help  myself when it comes to how yummy it is.

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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