The Perfect Bookends
May. 14th, 2026 11:17 am Well, I guess it's time to blog about the end of my semester abroad! The end of an era, as Blue called it on his blog.
The rest of my Scotland trip went well! One day I spent shopping whilst Blue was sick, and I went to all the stores I could've gone to in London, or gone to basically the same ones back in Missouri, but it was fun anyhow. I bought some CDs from All Time Low, Paramore and MCR at HMV, channelling my inner scene girl. (I've wondered whether I should try the sideswept bangs, although I agree with Green that my current blunt-ish bangs really suit me. I used to have a subdued version of them, inspired by Dan and Phil, back pre-transition when I had short hair, but when I grew my hair out to be longer that got weighed down and exposed my five-head, and getting bangs was potentially the best fashion choice i've ever made.)
We also spent a day in St. Andrew's and went to the beach, to a museum of St. Andrew's University, and finally to St. Andrew's Castle! It was a nice little ruins, but mostly Blue and I went and lay down in the grass. It was a beautiful day, just the right temperature with a cool breeze, plenty of sun to bask in, a blue sky to gaze up at and nice, soft, green grass to lay in. It was so peaceful and amazing. Until a bird SHAT ON OUR HEADS. That was a rude awakening.
Other Scottish highlights: I tried haggis! Deep-fried, but it was pretty good. Though it basically tasted like a big toasted ravioli. We went to the National Museum of Scotland, which was really cool! And we found a sheep store nearby, where I bought a little magnet of a sheep with a newsboy cap. Also, one night, Blue and I were both tired from a cold we fell ill with on the trip and so we DoorDashed food, and I found what I thought was a reasonably-priced pub burger (everything in Edinburgh is ridiculously priced) but when it got there it turned out to be a "gourmet" burger from Burger King, which was basically just their normal crap burger with very little meat and sauce, and no flavour in what there was, but with some fancy aged cheese and a box about three times the height of the burger that unfolded very dramatically. Anyways, it was a total ripoff and not even a good burger.
When Blue and I got back to London my mum arrived and stayed with me for a few days! Blue left the next day but the one day we spent together we had Korean food in the village, went into Central to see "Oh, Mary!" starring Catherine Tate (quite good) and had some bad bao in Chinatown. Though honestly at this point I was tired and very emotionally overwhelmed. I had a bit of a breakdown and I needed some time to relax the next day.
My mum and I spent a day in Brighton! We went and lay on the beach and dipped our toes in the Channel. it was really nice! Though the Brighton Pier was overrated. It could have been fun as a date, though, or if it weren't only kids on the rides so I didn't feel like I couldn't go on them. I want an adult trampoline in my future house one day. Trampolining is fun, good exercise and therapeutic to me! There was an incidnet where a scary man who was off his rocker or something was trying to fight with the owner of a fish and chips shop by the sea we were eating at, but other than that it was nice! There was also a chip shop called "Belgian Chips" that was the same concept as a place called Brussels Fries I went to in Korea—something I'd never seen anywhere else!
My last day in London was amazing—the perfect bookend. My mum and I went through Waterloo station one last time--the first big station I went to in England and still my favourite. We went to Fleet Street to my favourite charity shop and the owner called me their best customer! He gave me some extra jewelry and candy on the house and gave me the best gift bag, and said that whenever I went into the shop people followed! It was really flattering. Then we went to Big Ben and I tried a new K-pop shop my friend recommended to me. Next we went to Putney (through Putney Bridge station, my other most frequented station) and bought some stuff for the voyage home i.e. a new suitcase. And then I went on one last adventure! I had this goal to go on all the TfL (Transport for London) modes of transport while I was there: I went on all the Tube lines, the DLR, the Elizabeth Line, the Overground (only two of six lines because the Overground is boring) and the Cable Car, and so my last one was the Trams! I got a tram from Wimbledon and ended up at a dying mall in Croydon, with another dying mall across the street.
I couldn't find how to get a tram back since I guess they only go the one way at the station there but then I got on a bus and found one that took me as far as Kingston--another place I visited a lot that I was glad to go to one last time! And then I went back to the uni and packed up all my stuff and left. I'm glad that my last day had one last adventure and took me to so many of my favourite/most frequented places.
We got to the airport hotel, I had an overpriced burger that was trying too hard to be fancy (and was lucky I was starving and inhaled it since otherwise I wouldn't have liked it) and then went to bed. I got to take the Elizabeth Line one last time (my favourite, since it shares my name and my signature colour of purple) to transfer between terminals and then almost missed my flight because I took too long to get to the terminal since I was blogging here! I was the last person to get on the flight—the second to last to get to the gate but I had to consolidate my purse, backpack and carryon into two bags, which was hard since everything was jammed full. But I had a nice flight home and arrived safely. But that's a blog post for another time!
These four months were one for the book. An amazing though difficult experience. I'm really glad to be back but I also will always love and miss London. Forever a Londoner at heart!
The rest of my Scotland trip went well! One day I spent shopping whilst Blue was sick, and I went to all the stores I could've gone to in London, or gone to basically the same ones back in Missouri, but it was fun anyhow. I bought some CDs from All Time Low, Paramore and MCR at HMV, channelling my inner scene girl. (I've wondered whether I should try the sideswept bangs, although I agree with Green that my current blunt-ish bangs really suit me. I used to have a subdued version of them, inspired by Dan and Phil, back pre-transition when I had short hair, but when I grew my hair out to be longer that got weighed down and exposed my five-head, and getting bangs was potentially the best fashion choice i've ever made.)
We also spent a day in St. Andrew's and went to the beach, to a museum of St. Andrew's University, and finally to St. Andrew's Castle! It was a nice little ruins, but mostly Blue and I went and lay down in the grass. It was a beautiful day, just the right temperature with a cool breeze, plenty of sun to bask in, a blue sky to gaze up at and nice, soft, green grass to lay in. It was so peaceful and amazing. Until a bird SHAT ON OUR HEADS. That was a rude awakening.
Other Scottish highlights: I tried haggis! Deep-fried, but it was pretty good. Though it basically tasted like a big toasted ravioli. We went to the National Museum of Scotland, which was really cool! And we found a sheep store nearby, where I bought a little magnet of a sheep with a newsboy cap. Also, one night, Blue and I were both tired from a cold we fell ill with on the trip and so we DoorDashed food, and I found what I thought was a reasonably-priced pub burger (everything in Edinburgh is ridiculously priced) but when it got there it turned out to be a "gourmet" burger from Burger King, which was basically just their normal crap burger with very little meat and sauce, and no flavour in what there was, but with some fancy aged cheese and a box about three times the height of the burger that unfolded very dramatically. Anyways, it was a total ripoff and not even a good burger.
When Blue and I got back to London my mum arrived and stayed with me for a few days! Blue left the next day but the one day we spent together we had Korean food in the village, went into Central to see "Oh, Mary!" starring Catherine Tate (quite good) and had some bad bao in Chinatown. Though honestly at this point I was tired and very emotionally overwhelmed. I had a bit of a breakdown and I needed some time to relax the next day.
My mum and I spent a day in Brighton! We went and lay on the beach and dipped our toes in the Channel. it was really nice! Though the Brighton Pier was overrated. It could have been fun as a date, though, or if it weren't only kids on the rides so I didn't feel like I couldn't go on them. I want an adult trampoline in my future house one day. Trampolining is fun, good exercise and therapeutic to me! There was an incidnet where a scary man who was off his rocker or something was trying to fight with the owner of a fish and chips shop by the sea we were eating at, but other than that it was nice! There was also a chip shop called "Belgian Chips" that was the same concept as a place called Brussels Fries I went to in Korea—something I'd never seen anywhere else!
My last day in London was amazing—the perfect bookend. My mum and I went through Waterloo station one last time--the first big station I went to in England and still my favourite. We went to Fleet Street to my favourite charity shop and the owner called me their best customer! He gave me some extra jewelry and candy on the house and gave me the best gift bag, and said that whenever I went into the shop people followed! It was really flattering. Then we went to Big Ben and I tried a new K-pop shop my friend recommended to me. Next we went to Putney (through Putney Bridge station, my other most frequented station) and bought some stuff for the voyage home i.e. a new suitcase. And then I went on one last adventure! I had this goal to go on all the TfL (Transport for London) modes of transport while I was there: I went on all the Tube lines, the DLR, the Elizabeth Line, the Overground (only two of six lines because the Overground is boring) and the Cable Car, and so my last one was the Trams! I got a tram from Wimbledon and ended up at a dying mall in Croydon, with another dying mall across the street.
I couldn't find how to get a tram back since I guess they only go the one way at the station there but then I got on a bus and found one that took me as far as Kingston--another place I visited a lot that I was glad to go to one last time! And then I went back to the uni and packed up all my stuff and left. I'm glad that my last day had one last adventure and took me to so many of my favourite/most frequented places.
We got to the airport hotel, I had an overpriced burger that was trying too hard to be fancy (and was lucky I was starving and inhaled it since otherwise I wouldn't have liked it) and then went to bed. I got to take the Elizabeth Line one last time (my favourite, since it shares my name and my signature colour of purple) to transfer between terminals and then almost missed my flight because I took too long to get to the terminal since I was blogging here! I was the last person to get on the flight—the second to last to get to the gate but I had to consolidate my purse, backpack and carryon into two bags, which was hard since everything was jammed full. But I had a nice flight home and arrived safely. But that's a blog post for another time!
These four months were one for the book. An amazing though difficult experience. I'm really glad to be back but I also will always love and miss London. Forever a Londoner at heart!
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