ashesgoesabroad - Tumblr blog

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Every Friday evening I live in Shakespeare hell. I have a 3 hour film block for this class I’m taking and honestly it is a seemingly never ending hell

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I've become slightly addicted to a burrito stand on my campus. This may become a problem lol

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Clubbing last night was actually much more fun than I thought it would be. I thought I'd shut down after an hour or so but I'm kind of proud to say I managed to hang in the whole night :) we "pre-gamed' before going out for about 2 hours. It was mostly a bunch of people I didn't really know sitting around in a big room in groups drinking. My little group played never have I ever and truth or dare. We were all exchange students from various countries around the world so I finally got to meet other exchange people which was nice. Alice, the girl who invited me out, and her roommate brought vodka which they very kindly let me share. I found out I'm pretty ok at drinking straight vodka so who knew??? I definitely had a teensy bit too much, but not enough to cause any problems. When I drink I get lightheaded so I was just more dizzy I'd like to have been. Once we were all ready we walked to our university which had a full blown night club in it. Like blasting music, multiple bars, the whole shebang. Can you imagine something like that in the states??! Honestly I'm still wrapping my head around it. Other than it being way to loud, I had a lot of fun. We just basically danced all night and kept an eye on each other to make sure nothing happened to one another. By 2:30am we were all pretty much sobered up and done for the night. We called cabs, got some really yummy hot dogs from a stand outside, and went home. I really had a great time and I wasn't expecting it. I was really nervous at first and I didn't know what I'd gotten myself into but all of the people I was with were really really nice and fun. This is DEFINITELY not something I'm going to do every weekend. But definitely once in a while I'll go out with them for stuff like that. I'm being super conscious about being safe and keeping my friends safe and I'll keep doing that, but I want to have fun too which I did :)

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The first week of classes has come and gone. I would have posted an update sooner but I wanted to experience all my classes first. I think things went pretty well! I'm not sure I love the way classes are but all in all it could be worse. I'm used to the US college classes where you have it 3x a week and that's that. But here you have a seminar one day and a lecture another and maybe something else at a different time. Usually when they're on the same day it's one after another but my Friday's are terrible. I have a class at 10 am for an hour (Renaissance lit) and then we have a film each week but not until 3 pm. I should have gone back to my dorm in between but I wasn't thinking and ended up wandering around for half an hour before settling in a corner for a while. On the bright side I made a new friend today in that class and together we suffered through the horrendous movie in an attempt to keep each other sane. Tonight I'm also going out with another new friend. They going clubbing I'm pretty sure so this will be my first experience with that. I'm gonna be extra careful and I already told her she isn't allowed to leave me along haha I don't want my first experience going out to end in disaster. Hopefully I'll make a post about that afterwards or in the morning. For now I'm gonna go get something to eat and get ready to go out :) Love you all ❤️

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I won my first game of monopoly but at what cost. It's now 2:30 am and I have to catch a 9:00 am bus. I'm gonna die guys

First time playing monopoly and i ain’t doing half bad

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First time playing monopoly and i ain't doing half bad

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Yesterday I finally had a good day. Not to sound all cranky or anything but seriously. It was a fucking great day. The days before I had been so sick and had to drag my butt to campus and back, but yesterday I felt a little better. I was still blowing my nose a lot, but it was every five minutes instead of every one, and the coughing was being suppressed by the meds I’d finally been able to buy. And to top it all off, I went to the Harry Potter Studios. 

I am such a Harry Potter nerd its not even funny. If I could have three genie wishes they would probs all be used on HP related things: for the wizarding world to exist, for me to be a wizard, and probably some third thing I can’t think if right now. When I saw there was a tour during my orientation week I definitely freaked out and my mom and I signed me up right away. Luckily my mom is super nice like that and doesn’t give me too many weird looks when I get too excited about things haha

I got up early Saturday morning (Jan. 21st) and ran down to the travel agency about a 15 min walk from my dorm to finallyyy get some British pounds before medicating myself up and getting over to the meeting point. Lots of other kids were going and it was nice to finally meet more people and have the potential to make a few friends. We all stood out in the freezing cold together, bonding over our frozen limbs when finally the bus arrived and we began the two hour journey to the Studios. 

When we finally arrived, outside my first sight were these beauties:

Already I was becoming overly excited. We walked in and the whole studios were still decorated for winter. In the center of the lobby was a giant Christmas tree all decorated and snow-crusted. 

I never ever wanted to leave this place. They first showed us a short video about the making of the movies where Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint talked to us (and part of me wanted to cry during it, I don’t know why. Maybe is was the sickness talking or the ultra nerd in me.). We were led into the actual Great Hall through the actual doors that they go through in the first movie. From then it was just a world of every piece of magic I had come to adore. There were thousands upon thousands of props and costumes scattered everywhere with so many stories behind them. I’ll include a bunch of pictures at the end. One of my favorite things I learned included that the actors who played Hagrid and Maxime were of course not half giants themselves so they had doubles who played them. Harid’s was hockey player and Maxime’s was a basketball player (or it might be the other way around). They still weren’t quite tall enough so they had lots of padding and then more masks of the actual actors faces on them. So when Mme Maxime and Hagrid dance at the Yule Ball you now know it is a basketball player and a hockey player slow dancing. 

But honestly it was just a magical experience. I grew up reading and watching Harry Potter with my dad and it was a major bonding experience as well as a major part of my childhood. Getting to see so much of the magic just made me so happy (even if some of the movies are terrible). I was able to forget about how shitty I was feeling and just be a little kid again. 

Other great moments include seeing the Hogwarts Express:

And having my first Butterbeer:

Really liked the marshmallow topping, kind of indifferent to the butterscotch soda. 

The part that left me most awestruck though was most definitely the Hogwarts Castle display. This is the giant model they used to create all the sweeping shots of the castle for the movies. 

Honestly this thing is probably bigger than my house back in the US. As soon as I stepped into the room my breath was taken away and if I hadn’t been surrounded by people I definitely would have cried. It was so incredibly beautiful. I walked around it remembering the different areas of the castle and different scenes that took place in different spots. The Owlery, Hargid’s Hut, Gryffindor Tower. Just so many memories. 

And of course, because I’m a weakling, I couldn’t leave without some souvenirs.

I got the new illustrated edition of The Tale of Beedle the Bard   

Aaaaaaaaaand... My first wand!! It wasn’t the one I thought I would get, but I fell in love with Newt Scamander’s wand as soon as I saw it.

So all in all a really good day :) I made some friends and got to spend time surrounded by one of my favorite things ever. And hopefully within a few days I will get better from whatever illness I’ve obtained and everything will look up from there! For now I start classes tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes. 

Oh! And here’s those other pictures. Love you darlings and I’ll talk to ya later. <3

[ashesgoesabroad]

I have a safe and wonderful adventure :)

Thank you love

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Today I moved into uni and, boy has today been a whirlwind of suck. Last night my mind refused to rest, flashing me with vivid and confusing dreams that woke me up every ten mins. When I finally started to get up and ready to leave my whole body felt achy, sore, and exhausted. I was having hot and cold flashed. I'm pretty sure I have a fever because I still feel like that, but what am I gonna do? I don't have a thermometer to be sure and no way to get to a store if I am sick. So for now this is my reality. Ugh When we finally got to the uni I had no idea where to go or what to do. Each place I went left me with more questions that some people tried to answer me but I don't really know still. I guess we'll see when tomorrow comes and I try to get to campus (which is quite far from where I'm living). My aunt and uncle helped me move in to my strangely huge room and we went to the store to get the last of my things as well as something to eat. Some "jacketed potatoes" which would make me laugh if I didn't feel so crappy. I managed to sneak in a nap and I definitely felt better until I got back out in order to go to a social. My legs feel like they've been rubbed raw and that I ran two miles earlier in the day. I'm still shaking and sweating at the same time. Right now I'm sitting in the corner typing this while lots of other international students hang out in a big room. I'm over here, alone, partly because I don't want to get anyone else sick, partly because social events like this make me uncomfortable. I'm a little bit shy about meeting new people and I doubly won't be able to interact well while my whole body is hurting. Everyone is over laughing and drinking, and part of me wants to join but I know the alcohol won't sit well in my empty stomach. I'm thinking I'll stay another 15 mins or so and then leave. Luckily the HUB where this thing is being held is not a far walk from my dorm house. I just want to lay down and go to sleep. I'm not looking fed to getting up early tomorrow to catch the bus. Ugh. Not the best first day. Hopefully this doesn't bode bad things for the rest of the semester. -Ashes

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What is this blog?

I've had this blog sitting around for around a month now and I'm finally gonna start using it. This is going to serve as sort of a journal for me. I'm studying abroad in England for this spring semester and I wanted to document my time abroad. Don't feel the need to follow me, I'm not sure how this content will work but we'll see :)