I did more studying abroad in law school than was wise, and I don’t quite regret it. After having spent humid summers in Asia, and two weeks of winter in Italy, I took the opportunity to spend a proper semester in London for the Fall.
No entry to Hogwarts due to anti-Muggle prejudice
So, I made it to platform nine and three quarters in King’s Cross, but those wizards and witches refused to bring me through. Jerks. It’s probably ’cause I failed to buy any Harry Potter souvenirs from the nearby store for my siblings.
Stuck in Bloomsbury
For most of my time in London, I stayed in a flat close to King’s Cross in Bloomsbury (Virginia Woolf’s house was nearby). I used a sort of student housing which gave me by own bedroom in a flat I shared with two undergraduate brothers from Venezuela and, later, an undergraduate girl from Sweden. Fun times. That was, until the persistent rain caused streaks of water to run down my bedroom walls and I noticed mold behind the wall hangings. Gross.
When I first notified the landlord of the situation, they responded by putting a dehumidifier in the room. It was better than nothing, but I needed to get out of there. It took several more days, emails, and attached photographs of the mold for them to finally move me to another flat on a lower floor.
My moldy walls indirectly led me to meeting an adorable, blue-eyed girl from the States: she was a friend of my new flatmate on the presumably moldless floor (they were a group of undergrads). Only went out with this girl once between my finals and before I went on my two-week journey around Europe.
Speaking of dating—
I had a handful of romantic interests during my time in London. However, after all the afternoon teas, parades, street fairs, Christmas markets, and horrible attempts at inter-school romance, I found nothing that lasted (I’m Ted Mosby-ing out over here). Of course, some of the memories are nice to have. Notably, I didn’t go out with a single British woman (only women from the Americas or Continental Europe).
Food in England doesn’t suck
Years of American television making fun of English cuisine led me to believe that food across the Pond would be about as appetizing as Soylent Green. Libelous comedy writers!
A few English dishes I’m a big fan of are: the full English breakfast, afternoon tea, and shepherd’s pie. The full English breakfast is a hearty meal with eggs, sausage, beans, and other stuff. It’s the ancestor of the traditional American breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sausages. Afternoon tea generally gives you a pot, finger sandwiches and cakes and, and a scone with jam and clotted cream—but it’s quite a drain on funds unless you’re putting it together yourself (in that case, I imagine it’d take quite some time). As for shepherd’s/cottage pie, how can you go wrong with a pie filled with meat and a cheesy mashed potato “crust?”
Aside from traditional English stuff, there’s also an a fair amount of cuisine from other countries that are easily available (probably not quite as diverse as LA, but it’s considerable). In particular, I thought the Cantonese and Indian food in London was good (sort of a byproduct of British colonization). Like much of Europe, Kebab places were plentiful and that’s always nice (I prefer the wrap over the doner; and I prefer both of those over the shish kebab that Americans think of when they hear “kebab”).
Having been raised on rather unhealthy foods as a kid, I also found the presence of McDonald’s and Burger King to be very comforting.
Not being a foodie blogger, I neglected to take photos of food.
Pubs, pints, and something else English-y that starts with a “P”
From what I observed, the people of the British Isles start drinking earlier than folks in the States. London’s many pubs seem to fill up at around dinner and empty out towards midnight. Personally, I think the Brits are doing it right: eat, drink early, go to bed at a reasonable hour, and then you wake up and work.

Should’ve took the photo before I drank most of the Guinness (and, yeah, Guinness isn’t from England—).
Americans seem to wait until 11 PM or so before they head out for drinks. My guess is that this is a remnant of the adolescent idea of arriving later to a party ’cause there’ll be more people there. This idea works if you’re looking to meet strangers, but it’s absolutely pointless if you’re going to spend most of your time talking to the friends you came with.Why meet at 11 PM when you could just as easily meet at 7 or 8 and spend more time together (and still be able to wake up early enough to work the next day)?
I also noticed that many Europeans have little to no dancing ability (aka my dancing ability). I mean, most folks can bounce around to EDM just fine, but the ratio of person to hip hop skill seems rather low compared to the States. Or, maybe I’m just easily tricked into thinking people can dance in the U.S. ’cause they spend all their time on the dance floor grinding. Admittedly, I didn’t go to many dance venues in Europe (maybe three or four).
Getting out of London
Not too long into the semester, I went with some classmates on a road trip to other areas of southern England. The only places of particular note were Stonehenge and Bath. Though Stonehenge has nothing else around it and may get old quickly if you don’t get the audio tour thingy, I’d still recommend it. Aside from the Roman Bath (where the audio tour was somewhat less necessary), Bath is also the location of the Jane Austen Centre (which I personally wasn’t super into, but I figure some literary folks might enjoy).
And, here are a few more photos:

Yeah, went with a friend to this Final Fantasy music concert, Distant Worlds. That’s a woman in a Sephiroth outfit beside our box.
Haven’t posted anything in a while. Kind of had to force myself to do put this together in multiple sessions while in Tokyo. Next A.D.M. Was Here Post’ll probably be about Benelux or something.
Wonderful post! I can’t get enough of beautiful photos that accompany the text.
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Thanks. My photography (and camera) could use a lot of work, though. Haha.
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Wonderful post as always and it made laugh out loud at certain times (couldn’t but expect the “it’s a story for another time” after you mention Mosby-ing…
And reading about you explaination on drinking habits, it made so much sense that I wonder why I never consider it before now.
Can’t wait to read the next installment!
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Just more of my theories on drinking culture based on a ridiculously miniscule amount of observation.
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On a random tangent, this brings to mind something I recently read on the Korea Herald (http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150116001020) , on how the drinking binges associated with Korean workers is becoming a thing of the past due to the changing office culture…
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Interesting~
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After work drinking should still be had, if just for some camaraderie.
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Nice invention well-researched, but you cannot possibly have been there because there is no such thing as a semester at a British university. Less under the thumb of Latin, we call them terms.
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Haha. We didnt have classes at a London Uni. We brought one of our own professors and hired other professors for the term and held classes in our own building.
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I’ve always wanted to live there. A vacation is very high up on my bucket list.
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Do it. I could use a cottage pie and a pint right about now.
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Those cloudy ferris wheel photos are just amazing.
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Thanks in no small part to London weather.
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I so want to visit England; Europe, too. It’s on my bucket list. Enjoyed your pics.
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Europe is pretty fun to go through. Lots of diversity in terms of culture, architecture, and cuisine (though you can find kebabs and McDonald’s everywhere).
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Great fun travel-portfolio! You must have had an awesome time… 😉
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Travel always has good and bad points for me, but usually always worthwhile overall.
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Great post it was nostalgic for me as i too studied in uk… Best times 🙂
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There’s nothing like studying abroad. 🙂
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Thank you for that beautiful trip A.D.Martin… every picture spoke in volumes 🙂
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Especially the one during the video-game music concert, right?
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Love the pictures!
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Thank you.
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Next time you are on this side of the planet, try and visit the Warner Bros Studio and go on the Harry Potter tour…all muggles are allowed 🙂
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Some of my friends went to that; I’ll have to keep it in mind. I want to go to Florida and check out Harry Potter World.
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Lovely post, and so glad that you didn’t think all our English food was awful. We do have lots of tasty meals here, but I like food from most nationalities as far as I know! Not had some so can’t comment on those. The South Coast where I live is beautiful, but maybe you didn’t make it to this area.
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I actually went to Brighton and Bournemouth. If I recall correctly, my friend managed to get his shoes soaked in the ocean (on accident) in both places.
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Okay. You won me over with the comments/photo of afternoon tea. I absolutely love high tea. Thanks for following; ditto backatcha; come to Kansas City. We’ll make a movie.
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PS: re fantasy novels. Have you been reading the Kingkiller series? Patrick Rothfuss. A friend who doesn’t often read fantasy was surprised by the quality and called it “literary fantasy, if there is such a thing.” There is.
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There is such a thing. I havent read that yet, but I may start soon just because you mentioned it.
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Wonderful photos. You definitely have to come back. You should definitely go to the Harry Potter Studios next time.
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