Wish You Were Here

Big Ben, one last time. Love the lighting on this one.

I took my last final this afternoon. I am free.

Now I have a few days to enjoy London and see everything one last time before I go home on Saturday. It's soon. I'm excited to go back to the United States, but not nearly as excited as I was to leave.

Last week I was sick. Yeah, it was bad. And I thought I was going to make it through the entire semester without getting sick once. Who did I think I was kidding?

Last week I also made a list of everything I wanted to do before leaving London that I hadn't done yet. I've been doing the things on that list, like going to the Tate Britain museum and visiting the Christmas festival at Hyde Park, and now the only thing left to do is walk across the crosswalk at Abbey Road.

Thursday of last week was when I was sickest. It was also the day of the protests. Thousands of students who are angry over the conservative government's removal of the price cap on public universities stormed Parliament Square, clashing with police and making international headlines. The UK's public universities are now the most expensive in the world. On Friday, when I passed Parliament Square on my way to visit the Tate Britain, the area was a fence graveyard, and mangled metal fences were stacked five feet high all around the square, litter thrown in between them, as a result of the unrest the day before.

Last week was my last day at the SHINE school. The class gave a formal thank you, complete with a card, and the teacher really seemed to appreciate my help. I was sad to see the class go, since, despite the awfully early morning, SHINE has been one of the best parts of this European experience. I've been stocking up on Cadbury chocolate and thinking about how I'm going to pack all this stuff and take it on the plane. It won't be long now.