Xoxo, Paige: Last Night in Europe...

I still have "Rome" posts to update you with... But they'll come later as I:

A) have the time.

B) finally upload the rest of my pictures from my broken camera.

(the sim card should be able to be put in another camera and uploaded)

But just as a little update: Yesterday was my last day in Rome. We had to be checked out by Saturday, the 6th at noon even though some of our finals (mine included) didn't even end until 6 PM on Friday. I woke up in a really strange mood on Friday morning... A combination of stress for my finals to come and knowing that I had to leave in another 24 hours and say goodbye to my friends. I told my roommate, "Brittany, I could cry at any second today, so just don't mind me when it happens." She bluntly and only semi-jokingly said, "Get your life together Paige." Typical Brittany comment. :p

Friday night we all went out... and stayed out... no matter what time we had to leave in the morning. A few of my closer friends had to leave at 4:30 AM, so we came back a few minutes before that and a drunk and emotional Paige had a rough time saying goodbye to a couple of friends that were leaving then. The funny thing is... Brittany was bawling when she was hugging ME goodbye, of all people... She'll see me in like, 2 weeks. However, it in turn, made me cry even more. Gosh. Get your life together, Brittany. :p

I stayed up and reminisced with friends who were still in the dorms that night and finally went to sleep around 6 AM. I was up at 9:30 finishing packing and putting away dishes and whatnot. Still in a weird and emotional mood, I left Rome at noon to get to the airport by about 1:30 and went ahead and checked in/went through security although my flight wasn't until 5:50 PM. (I didn't want any airport drama anymore) I was the first in line to board and looking out the window at my last view of Rome was so cheesily emotional... I cried. Hahahah. Then I fell asleep because I didn't want to keep crying, but I was also pretty tired from my lack of sleep the night before. I woke up basically on the shoulder of my neighbor... Awkward. And we landed soon after. Getting through the UK boarder was again, the joke that my life is. 101 questions and I was finally approved to come on in. Once I got my luggage and took a bus shuttle to Central London, I finally got to my hostel around 11 PM.

And here I am, currently hanging out at the same hostel I stayed in during my first London trip. They're seriously sooo nice here. I crashed fairly soon after getting settled last night and slept in somewhat late... It was pretty much my first time "sleeping in" since I got to Rome. (I still woke up at 9:30, which was 10:30 Roman time.) Today, I met up with one of my friends from JCU, Fola, who is also in London with family who lives here. Here is Fola and I back in Rome... We didn't even get a single picture together today. :[

We were supposed to meet up at 2 at Leicester Square, but because of construction and traffic due to preparation for the Olympics... My bus was literally stopped for 20 minutes straight. I ended up getting off of the bus in the pouring rain, of course, and I didn't arrive until 2:30... I was worried he'd leave because I wasn't there and knowing I had no way of contacting him. Luckily, he was still there, dry. I was drenched. Oh, London.

We talked about our airport adventures amongst other life chats and reminisced about Rome over coffee and warmth inside a local coffee shop. (London was a temperature shock for us, to say the least) We made our way around the Soho/Chinatown and Piccadilly area. I wanted to go to this Lady Gaga costume shop I had seen before in Soho, but they were unfortunately closed. :[ We then took the tube to Camden, which I had heard by several people that I needed to go there the next time I was in London. Suchhh a cool little shopping area. We walked around Camden Town, where I bought British flag printed undies. :P We met up with Fola's cousin who lives in North London and she took us to a really cool and delicious Asian restaurant. Then it came time to say my final goodbye to the last view of my John Cabot University friends while still in Europe.

Again, in a weird mood today... Still feeling like a little piece is missing from my life. I loved Rome and my experience, but I didn't realize just how much it meant to me. How could I become so attached to a new city and to strangers who I only knew for a little over 5 weeks?? I really don't know, but it happened. And I know that I will be visiting Chapel Hill, North Carolina, San Antonio, Texas, Siesta Key, Florida and L.A. all within the next year.

It's storming in London right now. I'm currently inside the lobby of the Hostel, ironically talking with an Italian boy from the Milan area. I'm going to finish up this blog, check all the rest of my email/social networking sites and head up to shower, re-organize my carry-on and suitcase and probably get to sleep.. I leave the hostel at 7:30 AM to make my flight at 11 AM, where I will be traveling "backwards" in time and arriving at 1:50 PM in the good ol' US.

Pictures I snapped on my iPhone either in the bus, or when it wasn't raining too badly inside:

This is my hostel through the window of the bus: