Bricked

Look,

I knowwwwwww that I should be so grateful and appreciative to have the ability to study abroad in college and experience a different culture for an entire semester, but wow. Not only have I been bored and broke and probably some other ‘b’ words, but come on London! You have so much history and culture but there is no life here on Mile’s End. Come to find out that the location of the college has the worst crime rates in London, which is just so . . . comforting.

I did, however, have reading week this past week. It’s basically a week in the middle of the semester that we have off from school and (most) assignments. I impulsively planned a trip with my friend to France, Monaco, and Italy. For 6 days, we spent our reading week seeing the sun again along the beautiful French Riviera. I have never eaten so well in the past 2 months than I have in the past week. We budgeted really well and walked up to 8 miles each day. We spent time on the beaches and roaming the towns, even climbing the mountains for incredible views. Then. . .

I was on the train to Sanremo, Italy for a day trip. All of a sudden my phone started glitching and then lit up entirely green and shut down. It was on full power and hasn’t been dropped or near water. We went to a phone repair there to see what they could do and they offered to replace my screen since it probably just failed. So we waited for that and came back. Turns out i had to have the whole phone be replaced… all because of some damage on the logic board. Sadly, I couldn’t get it fixed there so I was phoneless in Italy, with no euros left, no access to my train ticket back since it was on my phone, and continuous worry about trying to access my boarding pass to catch my flight home. I luckily found access to all of these things on my friends phone and got in contact with my mom. When I did get in contact with my family I found out that my grandpa has passed the night before and they’re all flying out for the funeral soon.

It breaks my heart that I can’t be there for my family while I’m abroad. My mom has to stay up north for awhile to take care of my grandma and the arrangements for the funeral, etc. My mom really needs me to come home but sadly I’m here until June… at least I think. We end class March 29th and then I have one exam in May. So I have all this free time between those two dates. I really am trying to take my final early so I can be home and grieve with my family. My mom is attempting to fly me back for that month between my exam if not.

I really wish my time here could be more enjoyable, but I feel as if I have exhausted all my options. Not only was it expensive to begin with but I had to cough up 589 pounds just to fix my phone. I’ve been facetiming my family daily but they really want me back and honestly I can say I would rather be home to grieve with them. I feel like I’m just wasting money while I’m existing here. I know I agreed to blog, but I didn’t say it was going to be anything positive. I promise I’m not being intentionally negative, maybe it’s just my luck.

Wish me luck,
Jess