As much as I love the city of London, sometimes I feel like I have seen a lot of the things to see here already. It's time for some trips! Friday I am going to Dover Castle, which is in Kent and was very important to the British and French in WWII. The following Friday I am going to Hampton Court Palace, which is supposed to be one of the best palaces in London. Both these trips are through the school and free with a £10 deposit, though they require meeting at the school at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning...
I also just applied to do Host UK, which is a program that lets international students stay with a family for a weekend in some area of the UK. You fill out information about yourself, three weekends that you're available, and how far you're willing to travel (I said anywhere) and they match you up with a family. The earliest I can go is November, but I am very excited to see what life is like outside the city. I want to be matched up with a family in Scotland, so I can see the country, but you can't really pick your location. The program costs £40, but the school gives SU students £20 towards the cost. The family pays for your meals and you sleep in their house, but you need to pay for your travel to go visit them, though you set a limit for how much you're willing to pay for travel and the program doesn't match you up with an expensive, far away place if you don't want it. I can't wait to hear where they match me up!!
Aside from that, I'm also planning to go to Italy for mid semester break, Ireland near Thanksgiving, and Brussels with my European Union class in mid-November (Brussels isn't somewhere I would ever pick to go, so I thought it would be fun to see a random city, and I'm also interested in getting to see the EU.) I had thought about going to Spain, but the trip to Paris actually wound up being pretty pricey with the cost of travel, dining out, and the hostel- and since I don't actually have anything specific I want to see in Spain, I decided against it. The only other places I really would like to see are Scotland and Greece- so I'm going to work on that.
